Vampire's and Nukes

[Elliot]

IIRC in HG and MT the main effectiveness of (lots of) nuclear missles is that they seriously reduce the weapons effectiveness of capital ships, thus rendering unable to fight big battles.

I vaguely remember seeing the opening of a HG combat at a Games Day which consisted of pawn like missle corvettes with as much electronic masking as possible flying into range to hit the big ships whilst escorts and fighter from the other side tried to take them out. I dont think the game even got to the capital ship mid-game as the bar opened and the battle was abandoned as a stalemate (or more likely I left to drink ale).

 

[mike wightman]

I just wondered if it is possible to rate the contact nuclear explosion for Brilliant Lances combat using FF&S.
All I can find is a not so helpful table for the effects of a ground strike

 

[Badbru]

Sigg,

By definition a "Contact" hit would put the target within the destruction radius of the warhead. Thus I would suppose there'd be little need to determine exactly how much destruction
"destruction" means

The nearest actual refference I can find other than the table you mentioned is on page 157 of the R.C.EquipGuide where they discuss effects of nuclear warheads in atmosphere. Since they talk here of various degrees of proximity hits, it would seem to me the target would simply be classed as "Destroyed" if you had an actual "hull contact hit" hit. Though based on the paragraph above, EMS Designation, it would appear possible to get hull contact hits if the nuke also had an EMS Designation targeting package fitted. To my mind that would even further upset the balence of play, but it appears feasable.

 

[mike wightman]

OK, lets look at it from a different direction, what effect does 100tons of TNT have on a starship hull.
Is there a way of doing this with FF&S or the demolition rules in TNE?

 

[Badbru]

DED,
The starship grade laser ROF's go 10, 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800. Each level above ROF 10 grants you a -1 Diff Mod used to offset + Task difficulty modifiers like the missiles small size +2 Diff Mod for example. To reduce the task difficulty back to one solely based on range to target (assuming no +DM range mods) you would want to be shooting a ROF 100 Laser at it. Under the base rules though you still only get "one" roll of the dice to see "if" you hit.

I have read someplace on the net a modified point defense home rule however that proposed a formulae including ROF, number of laser focal arrays on the mount, and MFD Factor, and from memory a TL factor too that determined an increased number of targets that could be shot at.
Their examples had a dual focal array laser with an in turret (or Barbette) MFD with normal ROF 10.
By their formulae this mount could engage something like 4 seperate targets per turn.
Their other example had seven very small focal arrays each at ROF 400 or 800 but no MFD. This mount could engage about 8 seperate targets. As I recall. I liked it as it wasn't too giving, however I found it a bit math heavy.
In the same vein a Homebrew rule we use is left over - Diff mods either count as "points of aim" allowing the target location to be moved up or down. Eg firing lasers under a -4 diff mod MFD but you only use -2 DM's to hit the target at location 10. Gunner could move hit location up to target 12 or down to target 8 under this mod.
Or, excess - DM's count as additional engagable targets, such as 5 missiles at point blank. Run through a -4 MFD (assuming prior turn hand off)you could engage 4 instead of just one.
Some of the mods IMTU.

 

[Badbru]

Sigg,

I guess you could look at the "Breaching barriers" section of the demo rules. A lot would depend on the size of the target and the thickness of the armor etc. I'd be guessing but I think 100 tonnes of TNT would split a AV 10 Jayhawk/Empress Mahrava in half, or worse, but some of the AV 500+ monsters on the BARD pages might just get a new entrance to the hangar bay.

 

[mike wightman]

Ahh, now we're getting somewhere.
Thanks Badbru

Where can I find the "Breaching barriers" demolitons rules. I don't know the TNE rulebook as well as other versions

 

[Badbru]

ahhh crap, now you're asking

It's in the combat section, somewhere after direct fire proceedures before the starship combat section.
In my first Ed version its pg 303

 

[mike wightman]

Found it

Now if I've done my maths right a 0.1kt nuke will have a concussion effect of 70 and a penetration of 35. A 1kt nuke will be 224 concussion, penetration 112.
A 10kt nuke (the largest listed in the Missiles Special Supplement) would be a concussion of 707 and a penetration of 353.

Compares favourably with the effectiveness of nuclear missiles in the aforesaid supplement.

Thanks again Badbru.

 

[mike wightman]

And not to forget the 5 major hits rolled against electronics from a nearby airburst (from the RCES Equipment Guide), although it could be argued there should be a few more since it is contact detonating.