Dogfighting Calculations for tonnage

PsiTraveller

Cosmic Mongoose
So assuming the Highburn Thruster boost from the other thread has allowed a fighter ship to get into Close range the dogfighting rules take over.

For the sake of an example let's say there is a 35 ton fighter with 2 firmpoints used as a Tachyon Barbette and it has got into Close range with a 800 ton Mercenary ship with 8 triple turrets of Beam lasers.
The fighter is M-9, HB 6 fir s combined thrust of 15

For the Pilot check the 800 ton ship has

Pilot skill: 2
over 100 tons: -2 (chart)
700 tons over 100 tons: -7 (chart)
Thrust for dogfight: 3
for a -6 to the pilot check

The fighter will have
Pilot 2
Thrust for dogfighting: 15
Roll is +17

Fighter wins and places his fighter behind the mercenary cruiser, but it has turrets so it does not matter much. Fighter gets +2 to attacks


The 600 ton ship has for its attacking numbers
Gunner Skill 2
Pilot Check: 1
Range: 0
Software: 5 (for first turret only)
Beam Laser bonus: 4
Negative modifiers: -6 for being a ship not a knife fighter (pg 162)
Losing Pilot Check: -2
Evasive Action : -2
Evade 1 on fighter: -1
Turret 1: +1
Turret 2-8: -4 to roll

So Turret 1 will hit on an average roll (7 +1 bonus). Damage will be 1D + 2(2 more lasers) +0 for Effect for 6 points on average (5.5 actually)
Assuming the fighter has armour exceeding that, no damage, no Critical.
The other 7 turrets would miss on average rolls, only hitting if the Mercenary rolled an 11 12. And still do no damage to a fighter with armour.


The fighter attack
Dogfight Check win: +2
Gunner skill: 2
Pilot check: +1
Range; 0
Fire Control: 5
Evade 1: -1
Evasive Action: -2
Result: +7

Average attack roll is 7 + 7 = 14. That is a 6 Effect hit. If the fighter does damage it will cause a critical.

Does this add up? am I doing this correctly or have I missed something?
 
35 Ton Tachyon Firmpoint attack fighter

Tonnage 35, 14 Hull points
TL 15 Stealth, Emissions Contol (.7 tons)
13 points Bonded Superdense armour (3.92 tons)
M-9: 3.15 tons
High Burn Thruster: Thrust 6 (4.2 tons)
Fuel: M Drive 1 ton
Fuel HBT: 1 hour, 60 points (5.25 tons)
Power Plant: TL 15 : 3 tons
Bridge 3 tons, Holographic controls
TL 15 computer: rating 35: Fire control 5 Evade 1 software
Advanced TL 15 Sensors
Weapon: 2 Firmpoints Tachyon Barbette: 5 tons in ship Close range AP 10

34.2 tons, 111 MCr
 
For your fighter swap out bridge for cockpit 1.5 tons
Look to your advanced options for your thruster.

Sorry have to run :)
 
Yup - Chas, I think you're right.

Looking forward to:

a) Fight Screening rules from High Guard - so if fighters ignore interceptors and still attack the large ship, the interceptors get a significant bonus.
b) The crit rules for large ships. For the mercenary cruiser example, it's fine - the cruiser is going to be dead pretty quick if a TL14 tachyon armour fighter(s) is/are on it. But as.. someone ( I think it was you?) pointed out, large ships are gonna be "crit-killed" way too fast :)
 
Well I am actually not wanting to swap out for a cockpit, I want to get a bridge and a cabin in the ship. It can act as a stealth fighter, and act as an independent raider if need be. At least that is one thought. As a long term guerrilla fighter hiding out in the out reaches of a system.
I was also trying to figure out how many people I can fit in it, because I want a gunner, pilot and sensor operator to handle missiles on the approach to a ship.

Still knocking ideas around it.
It's a pricey ship, the computer and software is over a third of the cost.

I took the tachyon weapon for the AP value. It lets me hit and Crit every six seconds. In a dogfight a larger ship will be critted into oblivion (assuming it does not wipe out the fighters inbound) in under a spaceship combat round. 10 Crits from a fighter in one minute, 60 criticals in a spaceship round will leave the defender a smoking hulk. At least that is my fervent hope.
 
And again, this is a one on one situation, so no screening ships, interceptors etc to throw the cold light of logic and tactics into the mix.

To counter this make the mercenary ship have 4 laser turrets and 4 missile turrets. Send a dozen missiles at the fighter on the way in from Very Long range. +12 to hit in the salvo overcomes a lot of defence bonuses.

But as a concept of getting in a swarm of smaller ships to chew holes in bigger ships it is something to play around with.
 
PsiTraveller said:
Well I am actually not wanting to swap out for a cockpit, I want to get a bridge and a cabin in the ship. It can act as a stealth fighter, and act as an independent raider if need be. At least that is one thought. As a long term guerrilla fighter hiding out in the out reaches of a system.
Nice. This is the part I like the best, actually making the system work into interesting designs :D

I've got a 50 ton covert intruder concept I'd like to see how that scrubs up now, but have other priorities for the moment.

The Self Aware drone brain will get you a +4 on skills for 1MCr. Might be well worth a look if you are still crimped for space and cost effective in the total design. But your sensor suites will want a polish I think and they'll burn tonnage.
 
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