ACTA - Beam Weapons

[thunderchilds]

i was involved in a b5 game yesterday and my apponant was using beam weapons, the weapon spec says that it is BEAM, DOUBLE DAMAGE, SUPER AP. using the second edition rules, that means that each AD only has to score a 2 or more to make a hit, this does seem a bit stacked in favour of the beam weapon because it will nearly always make a hit. using the second edition rules as stated, i had an Octurion Battleship aqnd my opponant had a Narm battlecruiser, my battleship was destroyed in the first gameturn with a total attack dice score greater than 40 at double damage. please could you verify that the beam rules are correct because the first edition rules say that a successful hit roles again but the amount needed to make a hit is increased by 1 but the second edition rules state that you only need a 4 to make a hit and with super ap that means that you only need a 2 to score a hit making it (as already stated) nearly impossible to miss.

many thank in advance for looking into this for me

 

[Da Boss]

When the beam rules changed in 2nd edition, all beams lost their AP and or SAP traits - these are no longer used with beams. All states for 2nd ed ships with beams should have had these removed.

So a Narn G'Quon would have Beam, Double Damage and an Octurion now has Beam, Precise (and half the range )

so a beam (using the standard) rules hits all targets on a 4+ regardless of its hull score.

check out the stats on one of the ship viewers on the Resources thread here:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=27048

hope this helps

 

[Burger]

You can't use 1st edition ships with 2nd edition rules

 

[AdrianH]

Correct - other things were changed as well, not just beams.

You should also look at Signs & Portents issue 64, which contains several optional different beam systems. They should all produce the same number of hits on average as the original 2nd edition system, but they're more likely to produce that average and less likely to score flat misses or ludicrous runaway expansions.

As well as being published in Signs & Portents, these optional beam systems were included in the final update Powers & Principalities, meaning they're official - or at least, as official as you can get given that ACTA is no longer officially supported.