So between 2,000 and 10,000 tons, it takes a small bay weapon to i flict a critical hit. I’ve never run combat with ships this size, and don’t really want to, but if I did I’d likely house rule it that torpedos but not missiles can critical hit a ship in this range, based on the amount of damage a torpedo does. Maybe i coude nuclear missles as well as they pack a whallop.
Similarly, I’d rule that ships over 10,000 tons don’t receive critical hits (other than the acumulated damage rule) from torpedos or missles, as no one missle does enough damage. Even if you get hit by 50 of them, they are all individual strikes that are each small, therefore not critical.
You could just as easily rule that any missile or torpedo hit that acheives a +6 effect (virtually certain with largo enough salvos) gets one critical hit, regardless of the size of the ship.
Rule might be better considered based on the damage dice of the weapon rather than its launching mechanism.
Capital ships are more of a background item in a traveller campaign, however, so while they are fun to consider, how often do they actually engage individual ship scale combat in your campaigns? Never have in mine. Of course, the new naval campaigns book, which I bought but havent read yet, might change that.
