Doing defense on the cheap.

[aramis]

Not until you start having rules for increased maintenance of 40 year old vessels, anyway. Not to mention greater downtime due to breakdowns.


Hans

TNE had rules for that - drove many people nutty using them, tho'.

 

[rancke]

TNE had rules for that - drove many people nutty using them, tho'.

That's why game rules often simplify reality in major ways. Reality is often far to complex to make for good gaming.


Hans

 

[BlackBat242]

A turret displaces 1dT and holds three missiles plus two reloads (Traveller Book 2, Space Combat, Ordnance Launch). The missiles are considered to be 50kg homing missiles (Traveller Book 2, Design and Construction, Weaponry). Even accounting for space for a gunner, that leaves quite a bit of room for stuff other than three 50kg missiles and their reload assembly.

I've no idea what all that extra space is for, but for whatever reason, there is a decided limit to the number of missiles that can be launched - one per launcher, with no more than 3 launchers in a 1dT turret - even though there appears to be no limit to the number of missiles in flight at any given time. Why, I don't know - Traveller rules very often give more weight to play balance than to technological possibilities.

Special Supplement 3 (written by Marc Miller) (Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #21, 1984) says (on page 7):

Each standard missile rack can hold one missile ready to fire and two additional missiles ready for future game turns. The role of the gunner is to aim and fire the weaponry in the turret; once the missile racks and ready missiles are exhausted, the gunner must reload them with new missiles. A gunner can reload new missiles into the racks and still operate the weaponry in a game turn.

The standard turret has room to store an additional 12 missiles in it. Once these missiles have been used, the turret must be restocked with missiles carried elsewhere in the ship (usually in the cargo hold).

Restocking a turret with missiles is accomplished during the game turn interphase. If the gunner participates in restocking, he may not operate weaponry in the turret in the next game turn. It is possible for non-gunner crewmembers who are not otherwise engaged to perform restocking instead. One person can restock a turret in one game turn.

So a turret with 3 missile launchers has 3 missiles in the launchers & 6 in the ready racks*... and 12 additional missiles (4 per launcher) that can be loaded into the ready racks... 21 missiles total in the turret (7 per launcher)!


* Which matches Book 2 page 32, which states

This means that a triple turret with three missile launchers has 9 missiles in ready position.

 

[Carlobrand]

Special Supplement 3 (written by Marc Miller) (Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society #21, 1984) says (on page 7):


So a turret with 3 missile launchers has 3 missiles in the launchers & 6 in the ready racks*... and 12 additional missiles (4 per launcher) that can be loaded into the ready racks... 21 missiles total in the turret (7 per launcher)!...

I pay inadequate attention to that supplement, I think. I keep getting surprised by it. For one thing, this means my little Broadsword fighter has seven battery rounds instead of three.

However, we're still left with a turret with now 21 missiles that could as easily be salvoed simultaneously by use of a Katyusha-like cage to overwhelm the target defense, but which is unambiguously limited to three missiles per turn. One can manufacture rationales based on this or that - just as one crafts rationales for why lasers aren't more effective or why sand even works against lasers - but the bottom line is play balance: a universe in which even small craft could salvo a score of missiles in a turn would be pretty bloody and short-lived for players unless some method of defending against that onslaught was also introduced. At that point, we're deeply into the IMTU realm.

 

[Khan Trav]

This is from a thread back in April of 2011: This played out well for our campaign.

I am starting to get a better feel for what you are referring to. My campaign is very simplified with the players only encountering standard ships such as those we can easily share deckplans for. The campaign is pbem and they see ships like 100 ton scouts, free traders, far traders and the like. They are currently using a 400 ton subsidized merchant with launch rails welded in the front and rear cargo areas. A two place rampart is parked on each position. One at the front and one aft. They have essentially converted the vessel into a pocket carrier. The fighters will not likely go up against anything meaner than a Gazelle Class C/E.