PsiTraveller
Cosmic Mongoose
I have been thinking about missile combat and what higher tech missiles can do to a combat. Am I missing something in the math or does it pay pretty well to buy really altered missiles whenever you can?
Suppose a TL 14 planet was producing missiles for combat. The Altering Tech levels on pg 48 of Highguard shows a TL 14 planet could produce TL 17 (+ 3 TL's) weapons for +50% of the cost. This would give 3 Advantages. Taking Very High Yield for the missiles means the missiles would do 5D and the average per dice would be 4, or 20 points of damage for a missile.
Another option is to take Accurate and get a +1 Dm to all attacks. This also takes 2 Advantages.
The 3rd advantage as it applies to missiles (and not the missile launcher) is a little difficult to choose. Not much makes sense for a missile advantage. The TL 17 gives an additional advanage of a +1 TL bonus against all lower tech enemies. Otherwise you could go for a TL 16 missile with only 2 Advantages and a +25% cost.
The benefit for a high tech missile is the way the salvos attack a target. As page 162 in the Core book points out, missiles do not use the Gunner skill, they roll a base 2D and add +1 DM for every missile in the Salvo. In addition, since the missile is smart it gains a +1 Dm for every tech level higher than the target ship. So assuming a TL 12 target this would mean a +5DM for the TL 17 missile. A 3 missile salvo from a triple turret would add +3 to that for a +8 DM.
An average attack roll of 7 plus the +8 Dm is 15 for a Effect of 7. This would be maxed at Effect 3 as per the rules under "Impact" on pg 162. An average damage roll for the Salvo would be 20 times Effect of 3 for 60 points of damage minus the armour of the ship. This is pretty expensive for a Salvo of three since each missile costs almost 44 thousand credits, but the 130 thousand credits spent should do more damage than the cost of the missiles, unless the ship is extremely well armoured.
A salvo of 6 missiles would do 120 points of damage and devastate most ships.
One question though. A salvo of TL 17 smart missiles is still as vulnerable to the Electronic Warfare check of 10+ Sensors from a TL 12 tramp trader? there is no bonus or opposed roll check due to the higher TL of the missiles? That strikes me as a little odd, but I am not sure of a good mechanic to give missiles a chance of surviving a really good Sensor operator.
Suppose a TL 14 planet was producing missiles for combat. The Altering Tech levels on pg 48 of Highguard shows a TL 14 planet could produce TL 17 (+ 3 TL's) weapons for +50% of the cost. This would give 3 Advantages. Taking Very High Yield for the missiles means the missiles would do 5D and the average per dice would be 4, or 20 points of damage for a missile.
Another option is to take Accurate and get a +1 Dm to all attacks. This also takes 2 Advantages.
The 3rd advantage as it applies to missiles (and not the missile launcher) is a little difficult to choose. Not much makes sense for a missile advantage. The TL 17 gives an additional advanage of a +1 TL bonus against all lower tech enemies. Otherwise you could go for a TL 16 missile with only 2 Advantages and a +25% cost.
The benefit for a high tech missile is the way the salvos attack a target. As page 162 in the Core book points out, missiles do not use the Gunner skill, they roll a base 2D and add +1 DM for every missile in the Salvo. In addition, since the missile is smart it gains a +1 Dm for every tech level higher than the target ship. So assuming a TL 12 target this would mean a +5DM for the TL 17 missile. A 3 missile salvo from a triple turret would add +3 to that for a +8 DM.
An average attack roll of 7 plus the +8 Dm is 15 for a Effect of 7. This would be maxed at Effect 3 as per the rules under "Impact" on pg 162. An average damage roll for the Salvo would be 20 times Effect of 3 for 60 points of damage minus the armour of the ship. This is pretty expensive for a Salvo of three since each missile costs almost 44 thousand credits, but the 130 thousand credits spent should do more damage than the cost of the missiles, unless the ship is extremely well armoured.
A salvo of 6 missiles would do 120 points of damage and devastate most ships.
One question though. A salvo of TL 17 smart missiles is still as vulnerable to the Electronic Warfare check of 10+ Sensors from a TL 12 tramp trader? there is no bonus or opposed roll check due to the higher TL of the missiles? That strikes me as a little odd, but I am not sure of a good mechanic to give missiles a chance of surviving a really good Sensor operator.