Sand Casters

[Richard Saunders]

Hello.
Silly question.
How do sandcasters work, not as in they stop incoming fire by defracting laser beams or ablating the skin of missiles or scattering the particules in a paws. No what i'm after is if you have two or more turrets of sandcasters and you get in a fight with more than one ship do you get one big shield against both ships or must you have two or more shields (one against each ship).
The below figures are out of my head.
If you have 3 turrets of sandcasters (9 sandcasters) and you group them as 1*3 sandcasters and 1*6 sandcasters do you get one shield of 2usp and one of 3usp or do you get 1 shield of 4usp verses everything.
I guess the real question here is do sandcasters work against everything or only against one enemy.
Also they give better AC but do they give AR to?.
I await the arguments with interest.
Bye.

 

[snrdg082102]

Evening Lionel,

I don't think your sandcaster question is silly, I would however think it silly not to ask. With that said here is my interpretation of the rules base on CT, MT, TNE, and T4. CT, MT, and T4 indicate that a sandcaster is effective only against an attack from a single direction and as long as the ship being attacked can keep the sand cloud between itself and the attacker. If all attackers are on one side then the all the sandcasters can be added together to form a single Defensive USP. However, if the attackers are at different angles or on different sides then the USP would change by the number of sandcasters popping out canisters. In TNE the early Tech Levels the sand cloud drifts along at the course and speed the canister was launched on, similar to CT, MT, and T4. In the Mid to High TL ranges the sandcaster is also equipped with either powerful magnetic or gravitics that allow the cloud to be manipluated once launched.

Originally posted by Lionel Deffries:
Hello.
Silly question.
How do sandcasters work, not as in they stop incoming fire by defracting laser beams or ablating the skin of missiles or scattering the particules in a paws. No what i'm after is if you have two or more turrets of sandcasters and you get in a fight with more than one ship do you get one big shield against both ships or must you have two or more shields (one against each ship).
The below figures are out of my head.
If you have 3 turrets of sandcasters (9 sandcasters) and you group them as 1*3 sandcasters and 1*6 sandcasters do you get one shield of 2usp and one of 3usp or do you get 1 shield of 4usp verses everything.
I guess the real question here is do sandcasters work against everything or only against one enemy.
Also they give better AC but do they give AR to?.
I await the arguments with interest.
Bye.

 

[DElrick]

I've always viewed sandcasters as similar in general operation to the antimissile chaff rockets currently mounted on warships.

Basically, you have a launcher assembly that fires a rocket out to a preset point between the ship and the incoming missile. When the rocket gets to that point, the warhead splits/explodes/whatever, deploying a large cloud of chaff which blocks the radar signal from the missile (or launch platform if the missile is guided) and looks like a large target, thus decoying the missile away from the ship.

In Traveller terms, the chaff is sand which blocks radar/ladar homing signals, or refracts laser beams to a greater or lesser extent. Otherwise, the operation is about the same. The sand 'bloom' represents a false target for guided weapons and a 'shield' to hide behind against lasers.

The way I envisage it, the only way a missile could be shredded by a sandcaster load was if it was hit by the sand as the sandcaster missile exploded. Once the sand 'bloom' has deployed, you have a big expanding cloud of sand, but you wouldn't have the density for more than a short while. This also explains why sand clouds degrade over time.

I hope this helps.

David

 

[Richard Saunders]

Hello.
Thomas Rux - So you agree if there is one enemy you only need one shield but if there are more then you need to split you sandcasters up between them for defence (two enemys you need two shields).
David Elrick - Yes sand disapates over time (you need to launch a new load each turn for it to be efective). But does it degrade damage.
Bye.

 

[flykiller]

HG2 rules say that a battery that achieves a hit must then penetrates any defensive fire directed against it - one defensive fire battery per attacking battery that hits. the number of ships involved is irrelevant.

other rule sets will of course have other approaches. but given the distances involved, unless the attackers are very far apart from each other then the defending ship should be able to screen itself from both with a single launch.