CliffBates
SOC-12
When I look at the use of fighters/assault craft (<100), is that all too often there is a tendency to operate them when they attack as individually and in that case , yes they are less effective against larger ships at higher tech levels. But recall that in high guard you could pool weapon turret/point/and perhaps even bay weapons together til they hit 9. Well when fighter/assault craft operate they operate as a squadron--and in this kind of combat environment such team work is a must if such units will be effectively deployed.
So small craft fighter/assault squadrons ought to be grouped and counted together for the purpose of attack--but for the purpose of being attacked they must be individually targeted. And when units of the squ are hit--the squadrons effect is reduced by the amount lost. So a fighter squ of 10 armed with 3 lasers would have 30 lasers and that is a count of 1 battery of laser factor 9.
On the other side: Given the size of an unarmored fighter is so that a weapon with a factor 1 would give it a critical hit. Now often there was a tendency to try to create larger batteries of higher power weapons.. so 10 triples beam lasers would be 1 battery factor 9 laser. Now yes doing that often reduced the number of gunners needed to 1... but if your ship is really protecting capital ships or cruisers as an Escort your job is mostly to kill/ko-ing missiles and small craft attacking them not taking attacking the big ships. So is it a good move 4kt Escort two go give it two factor 9 50 ton missile bays and 20 3x turrets of lasers with 2 batteries of factor 9 missiles? Why not pay attention to the mission of the ship in your creation of batteries so each battery can take out the max number of craft possible.
And with T5 design quads being possible--one turret can reach a quad... although 1 with 3 or 4 really don't make a effect a change both are 1 battery of factor 4-so such combining won't effect that. The only issue is you'd need more gunners and crew on such escort ships but you radically up their ability to target and kill a larger number of fighters. As for missiles and sandcasters I think the same rule ought to apply. Here T5 slug throwers are very very useful to give close flack protection and thus provide effective anti-missile abilities.
I wonder what you all think? I think the ability to merge weapons into effective batteries that high guard offered was rather good. Also it was good with the problem of diminishing marginal returns of such pooling by limiting such combinations to factor 9.
My next post here will address the use of remote controlled drones as additional weapons units for a ship. Thus giving to high guard something of the role of missiles had in Traveller 2300.
Also what about Mongoose's High guard comment about Torpedos--a bigger ship killer missile. I always thought that was something missing in High Guard.. but this would require a trade off-- you launch less from a turret or rack but it would have much more punch when it hit because it was bigger and thus could have more powerful thrusters and larger fuel for distance and bigger nukes or charges.
So small craft fighter/assault squadrons ought to be grouped and counted together for the purpose of attack--but for the purpose of being attacked they must be individually targeted. And when units of the squ are hit--the squadrons effect is reduced by the amount lost. So a fighter squ of 10 armed with 3 lasers would have 30 lasers and that is a count of 1 battery of laser factor 9.
On the other side: Given the size of an unarmored fighter is so that a weapon with a factor 1 would give it a critical hit. Now often there was a tendency to try to create larger batteries of higher power weapons.. so 10 triples beam lasers would be 1 battery factor 9 laser. Now yes doing that often reduced the number of gunners needed to 1... but if your ship is really protecting capital ships or cruisers as an Escort your job is mostly to kill/ko-ing missiles and small craft attacking them not taking attacking the big ships. So is it a good move 4kt Escort two go give it two factor 9 50 ton missile bays and 20 3x turrets of lasers with 2 batteries of factor 9 missiles? Why not pay attention to the mission of the ship in your creation of batteries so each battery can take out the max number of craft possible.
And with T5 design quads being possible--one turret can reach a quad... although 1 with 3 or 4 really don't make a effect a change both are 1 battery of factor 4-so such combining won't effect that. The only issue is you'd need more gunners and crew on such escort ships but you radically up their ability to target and kill a larger number of fighters. As for missiles and sandcasters I think the same rule ought to apply. Here T5 slug throwers are very very useful to give close flack protection and thus provide effective anti-missile abilities.
I wonder what you all think? I think the ability to merge weapons into effective batteries that high guard offered was rather good. Also it was good with the problem of diminishing marginal returns of such pooling by limiting such combinations to factor 9.
My next post here will address the use of remote controlled drones as additional weapons units for a ship. Thus giving to high guard something of the role of missiles had in Traveller 2300.
Also what about Mongoose's High guard comment about Torpedos--a bigger ship killer missile. I always thought that was something missing in High Guard.. but this would require a trade off-- you launch less from a turret or rack but it would have much more punch when it hit because it was bigger and thus could have more powerful thrusters and larger fuel for distance and bigger nukes or charges.
