Space Combat in Traveller #1: Weapons vs Armor
- Thread starter robject
- Start date
I would up the stakes, and since you plan the thing to be a one-shot, instead of sending a 5dt drone with a battlefield M-gun, just send a fat strategic nuke along; there's room in there for a battlefield N-damper to counteract damping from the enemy (and indeed, I played around with using N-dampers -- which damp at the nodes but enhance at the antinodes -- to logarithmically boost atomic warhead yields; the results of the modelling were promising, for nightmare values of "promising").
The idea of throwing a gigaton -- or even a damper-boosted teraton -- nuke at a capital ship if you can only manage to get one of them close enough makes carrier fleets launching entire squadrons of killer drones start to look like a very attractive option.
The EMP alone might be sufficient.
Bonus: no environmental impact issues to worry about, generally.
Fair enough, that's a reasonable way to read it. So you cna put a single PB in a fighter.... for a hefty Price tag
that gives the fighter enough punch to worry an adventure class star ship...
kilemall
SOC-14 5K
I'm dealing with these issues in several ways in the upcoming scary IMTU CT/HG merge, among just a few-
1) Can go with those cheaper battle computers which makes sense for something as expendable as a fighter.
2) Energy allocation effectively means most fighter's main armament would be the missiles with lasers and energy weapons being normally used as anti-missile, also you can use agility or the laser(s) but not likely both.
3) Go with a CT mod, the missiles ALWAYS hit unless they are jammed off, eliminating the agility/computer issue in the first place. This would make for some very large fighter swarm mutual annihilations, followed by potential large ship discomfort if the enemy's strike fighters are able to get through.
4) Accel has an effect as per the Missile Supplement, normal HG is very Imperium, line em up and shoot, but if you are tracking motion as per traditional CT miniature moves, you can derive an impact differential and potentially add value to their USP HG attack value- so a Missile 1 attack might become a 2, 3, 4 etc.
5) So an attack/maneuver profile might involve using fighter speed to gain a significant G, go to agility maneuver on closing, fire the missiles at an optimal 'can't avoid/up attack value' range then continue in closer for energy fights, or take the hits to turn around and reload.
6) You can already see one difference in my damage table, there is ALWAYS a chance for critical hits which will crack the armor eventually, even if it's 'low-caliber' weapons. For a more purist HG fix, go ahead and use armor adjust for actual damage resolution, but apply natural critical surface hits to lower armor value.
1) Can go with those cheaper battle computers which makes sense for something as expendable as a fighter.
2) Energy allocation effectively means most fighter's main armament would be the missiles with lasers and energy weapons being normally used as anti-missile, also you can use agility or the laser(s) but not likely both.
3) Go with a CT mod, the missiles ALWAYS hit unless they are jammed off, eliminating the agility/computer issue in the first place. This would make for some very large fighter swarm mutual annihilations, followed by potential large ship discomfort if the enemy's strike fighters are able to get through.
4) Accel has an effect as per the Missile Supplement, normal HG is very Imperium, line em up and shoot, but if you are tracking motion as per traditional CT miniature moves, you can derive an impact differential and potentially add value to their USP HG attack value- so a Missile 1 attack might become a 2, 3, 4 etc.
5) So an attack/maneuver profile might involve using fighter speed to gain a significant G, go to agility maneuver on closing, fire the missiles at an optimal 'can't avoid/up attack value' range then continue in closer for energy fights, or take the hits to turn around and reload.
6) You can already see one difference in my damage table, there is ALWAYS a chance for critical hits which will crack the armor eventually, even if it's 'low-caliber' weapons. For a more purist HG fix, go ahead and use armor adjust for actual damage resolution, but apply natural critical surface hits to lower armor value.
Not being able to hit one another is pretty much the norm for fighters...usually it's really good aim, luck, or total surprise, that gets the kill shot....
if you listen to most interviews unless one side had the other one cold, and had lock on before the other guy knew he was in combat, the fights tend to be long sessions of maneuver, counter-maneuver, then one guy makes a mistake and dies spectacularly.
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Regarding energy usage in smallcraft, I figure you could fire off a laser on a sE power plant, considering the power output would be the same as factor one on a hundred tonne ship.
unfortunately they have the smallest reactor that can power an energy weapon as Type sG. The sE powerplant and drive are the smaller of the three systems that can generate a rating 1 n a 100 ton craft...so I imagine they set G as the smallest energy weapon capable power plant since theoretically it would have just a little extra juice to spare for weapons...
Condottiere
SOC-14 5K
Going by pre-allocation of bays and screen capacities per factor, Mongoose power plants are all in one energy sources.
They are indeed, and this is a nice abstraction that goes all the way back to Classic Traveller. Many of the rulesets run things this way.
It simplifies operations, in that your power plant is the weak link in your ship systems. Thus the power plant is to be guarded at all costs.
