A combat example using FACE
The encounter
The Scandalous is returning from a routine patrol, headed in-system to Magash. She spots a Beowulf-class (the Eddo’s Indulgence) with her sensor systems. Records indicate the Indulgence is a suspected smuggler. They decide to inspect the ship, and check the cargo. They hail the Indulgence, and close to range-2.
As they approach, the Indulgence arms her defenses, and bolts toward the nearest jump point. The skipper of the Scandalous wants to capture the ship, so they decide to fire only the lasers this round, and then attempt to disable the maneuver drive if the Indulgence continues to run.
Here are the calculations for the first round of combat. The size/range (SRM) modifier is size-7 – range-2, or 5. Both ships will be using the average C+S values for the battle. The Indulgence is using her sandcasters, so she will be using one of her four available rounds of defensive fire. I'm using the ships from the appendices in FACE, including the defenses I added to the Beowulf.
Code:
Scandalous vs Indulgence Scandalous vs Indulgence
Wep/def Laser PD Sandcaster Missile PD Laser
Tech level 12 12 12 12
C+S 13 12 13 12
Mods +8 +6 +4 +6
Agility - 1 - 1
====== ====== ====== ======
Total 33 31 29 31
Using the numbers above, at range 2 the roll is on 2d6.
The missile target number is calculated as 2d6 < attack number (29) – defense number (31) + SRM (5)
The attacker needs to roll 2d6 < 3 -- that is a pretty poor chance for the missiles to hit.
The laser target number is calculated as 2d6 < attack number (33) – defense number (31) + SRM (5)
The attacker needs to roll 2d6 < 7 -- that is a pretty good chance for the lasers to hit.
The Scandalous fires her lasers, rolling 5 and 1, for a total of 6 – a hit!
Rolling on the d66 table, the first shot hits the Indulgence in the (row-4) (column-5) Cargo Space. Damage is 10d6, and the Indulgence has reflec AV=12 and blast plate AV=12. The reflec absorbed all 10d6, reducing it to AV=2. The blast plate was not affected, and is still AV=12.
For the second round, the Scandalous realizes that they may need to try harder – their first round had no apparent effect. She decides to target the Indulgence’s maneuver drive with her missiles, and fire lasers at the ship in general. The Scandalous is faster, so range is decreasing, but still at range-2.
We’ll fire the lasers first, with no specific target. The exact same calculations apply, so we need 2d6 < 7. The result is 9 – the lasers missed! Another round of canisters is expended, leaving the Indulgence with two more rounds of laser defense.
The missiles are targeted at the maneuver drive, so a mod of -4 applies for firing at a specific hit location. We need to roll 2d6 < 3 – 4, or 2d6 < -1. There is no chance to hit. The captain fires anyway, and the roll is 8 for another miss – the missiles sensors lost lock as the Indulgence maneuvered. The Scandalous has plenty of missiles, so they aren’t too worried. One round of missiles (6 total) is expended.
Center mass is hereafter used to indicate the target in general, not a specific hit location!
In round three, the Scandalous decides to fire missiles at the Indulgence rather that targeting a specific hit location, so no penalty will apply. Lasers will also fire at center mass. The laser roll is 2d6 < 7 = 5, a hit. The hit location is row 4 col 5, hitting the cargo bay again. Relec is AV=2, so 10d6 damage will reduce reflec to AV=0 on the cargo compartment, and the remaining 8d6 reduces the blast armor to AV=4. The crew cheers as they see chunks fly off the Indulgence.
The missiles have no penalty this round, so they need to roll 2d6 < 3. The roll is 2, a hit! The missiles strike row 3, column 5, which is passenger space. The blast plate AV=12 is destroyed, and the reflec is destroyed as well. 18d6 of damage is done to passenger space. The damage roll totals 45 points, and passenger space only takes up 28 tons. It is exposed to vacuum, so passengers better get suited, or already be in suits! Passenger space is in a shambles, essentially mostly scrap metal.
The Indulgence’s engineer rolls damage control, needing to roll 2d6 < 15. He succeeds, and manages to seal the breach. The passenger compartment is in vacuum, but no longer leaking – it’ll hold air for now, even if it is a total mess. If it gets hit again, the damage control roll will be on 3d6.
The Indulgence continues to run, so the Scandalous fires another volley in round four. Her lasers hit the bridge, reducing the reflec there to AV=2. Her missiles miraculously hit the power plant with another roll of snake eyes. 18d6 gets through the armor, and 54 points of damage is done. Since the plant only displaces 4 tons, that is more than enough damage to totally destroy the power plant. Damage control won’t help – the plant has been obliterated. The Indulgence is reduced to battery and local power for their systems.
The captain of the Indulgence has had enough – he cuts his drives, and broadcasts his surrender.
At this point, the Indulgence has expended all four rounds of the sandcaster canisters. She has no spares, and would need to buy replacement canisters if possible.
Her reflec coating is gone on the cargo compartment, passenger space and the power compartment.
The blast plate is badly buckled on the cargo compartment, and destroyed on the power and passenger compartments.
Her passenger space wasn’t destroyed, since damage would have to be double the tonnage, and damage control was successful, but it is badly damaged, and barely habitable at best.
The power plant is totally destroyed – it would need to be replaced in its entirety.
The Scandalous expended 3 rounds of missiles. She still has one round in the tubes, and hasn’t used her magazines yet. A full reload will pull 9 missiles from each magazine, since she expended 9 missiles per turret. (Three shots, times three barrels, per turret)
The battle would have taken a lot longer had the Scandalous limited herself solely to lasers. Her chance to hit would increase dramatically once the sand canisters were expended, but that reflec coating worked pretty well. The Indulgence might have been able to reach the jump point and escape, assuming the Scandalous wasn’t within her jump bubble radius.
Hopefully this gives you a pretty good idea how the system works. It really didn’t take long at all to run this combat.
It would have been a LOT longer process under the current T5.09 rules – that reflec coating would have been 1200 points worth of defense – those lasers would barely be making a dent. Even the missiles would take longer, since blast armor has AV*10 against penetration damage.
As an option, I could have chosen to fire only one missile turret per round. Another option might be to fire each missile turret individually, getting the benefit of both in the round, but at different hit locations. Combat would take longer, but the damage would end to be spread out more.
Firing each turret individually would affect the attack number – the base attack number is the same, but the mods would drop to +2, and the damage to 15d6 for each turret. The target number would be
2d6 < 27 – 31 + SRM 5, or 2d6 < 1. It would be ludicrous to try against the defenses of the Indulgence.
On the other hand, if the Indulgence had NO missile defense, the defense number would be TL-12 + agility-1 plus half of pilot-13, or 12 + 1 + 7 = 20. That makes the attack roll 2d6 < 27 – 20 + 5, or
2d6 < 12, an automatic hit. That makes firing smaller groups of turrets, or even individual turrets, more viable. Combat would take longer, but it is still pretty darn quick.
