Do 2 Separate Missile Barrages Require 2 Separate Reactions?

[Solomani666]

Do two separate missile barrages from two different ships require two different reactions from the targeted ship to defend against them?

This is the case with beam attacks, but what about missiles arriving on the same turn?

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[barnest2]

I think they would count separately, for one really good reason. A traveller ship combat turn is 6 minutes, so two ships firing missiles at your ship could be firing 3 minutes apart or even more.
So those two barrages come in with a very big time gap.
This would be for both normal combat and for barrage combat.

Of course in barrage combat, your PD would act against both anyway. It doesn't give any negative modifiers because of how barrage combat works. But yeah, separate launches= separate attacks.

 

[billclo]

Or say that defensive fire is done automatically by the ship's computer, and you only have to use reactions for offensive fire.

 

[smiths121]

My view is "yes" as well.

If you make a dodge roll, you do not get to carry the result over to the next attack.

The tactics in the combat situation is to fire enough at a ship to overwhelm its defences and do some damage.

There have been a couple of BCS (billion credit squadron) rounds played in various thread, think these are good learning threads for the ship combat.

 

[Solomani666]

Given the answers above and following the rules as stated:

Entire barrages of missiles or torpedoes can go unchecked by point defense!

Anyone care to comment on this?

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[locarno24]

Entire barrages of missiles or torpedoes can go unchecked by point defense!

My response would be this:

Barrage combat is not intended to be something magic that has properties all of its own. It is a shorthand mechanic for working out volleys of fire from dozens or even hundreds of weapon mounts with a single dice roll.

The end result for a 4800-torpedo-long-6 barrage should therefore more or less resemble the results if I could be arsed to work out the point defence and attack rolls for eight hundred nuclear torpedoes longhand.

In 'standard' combat, point defence is a reaction against all incoming missiles in a turn - you keep shooting until you miss. So I'm fine with a 'point defence' reaction giving you coverage against each barrage.



One thing I would say - although this is less solid - is that if dodging and firing lasers takes two reactions, then as far as I'm concerned, firing sandcasters takes a third - "fire sand" is a seperate reaction type. I know you're using the sand for point defence, but what you're doing to achieve this hasn't changed. Different gunners and different fire control doctrines will be required.

The other response - which requires a very strict reading of the rules - is the opinion of a couple of former players I know:

A target may react to incoming missiles by dodging or point defence. This reaction does not take place until the turn the missiles arrive at their destination, so any manoeuvring or shooting must wait until then.

Refers to a single reaction, and explicitely says or, implying you do not have the option of and.