phavoc: has that scaling due to higher tech been kept in 2nd edition? I see it in 1st edition Highguard on pg 53. It would really free up space in 2nd edition.
And why would the missiles count as a single salvo? They are from four different ships. They could be coming in from four different directions.
If they do count as 1 salvo, then bonus! 48 missiles launched at long range ,1 EW attempt at them, say 6 destroyed, PD the following round, say 4 turrets killing 6 each, so 18 missiles left giving +18 to the attack roll and damage multiplier after armour reduction. At 8 armour and 6 damage getting through (assuming average roll of 14 for 4D) that is 6 points times 17 for 102 Hull damage in a salvo. I will gladly take that.
I realized I had been making the same assumption about EW all along because my practice sessions were always one on one ship to ship combat when I statted up and tried out ship designs. So each round I was launching a single salvo against a single ship. But reading the description of EW Countermeasures again got me thinking.
"Electronic Warfare: A Traveller performing sensor operator duties on a spacecraft can use the Electronic Warfare action to destroy or misdirect incoming missiles before they impact his vessel or another ship within Close range.
The sensor operator must succeed at a Difficult (10+) Electronics (sensors) check (1 round, INT) in order to destroy or render inert incoming missiles within a single salvo. The Effect of this check will immediately remove that many missiles from the salvo.
Electronic Warfare may be performed upon a salvo multiple times over several rounds, with the effects being cumulative. However, a salvo may only be subjected to Electronic Warfare once per round, no
matter how many sensor operators are available." pg 162
The EW check takes a round to do, so only one salvo can be targeted by a single operator. There can be more than one operator as per the last paragraph, but the second operator can only target different salvos. So the next question is, how many operators can be used per ship? How many consoles can be fit into the bridge? I do not see a number given anywhere, and it is an important number to know. If you only have a single EW operator on a ship then four bombers can swamp the defences if launched at long range. I would expect military ships to have as many Operators as they can get to go after individual salvos.
Example. 1 EW operator
Salvos launched at Long range from 4 different ships. 1 round flight time, so only one Reaction step for EW. Operator targets salvo 1
At that point Point Defence could be taken against each salvo. A gunner could attack a single salvo and get a +1 or +2 to the attack roll. So lets say there are 4 turrets left and each shoots at a different salvo to reduce the attack bonus. The first salvo would almost be wiped out but the rest would still have several missiles left in it. Assuming 6 missiles wiped out per turret that leaves 3 salvos left with 6 missiles in each salvo. That is a +6 bonus towards the attack roll and subsequent damage multiplier. Effect would be 5 so damage would be 30 points per salvo times 3 salvos or 90 damage. That is 12 points less than the 48 missile salvo, so a win for the defence, even at only 1 turret per salvo. If you have a bigger ship with more turrets you might be destroying more missiles in the salvo and getting smaller multipliers.
Another question. Can a ship NOT being targeted by a salvo use its EW defence to target a salvo heading for another ship? This would allow 2 EW rolls against a single salvo, reducing the number of effective missiles. It would allow for the creation of the Jammer ship, heavily outfitted with Operator consoles and countermeasure suites and massive broadcast capability to fit into a line of battle and act as the safety net targeted and spoofing as many salvos per round that it can.
My question is how many jamming attempts can be made by a sensor operator in a combat round? Is it once per salvo, so if there are four salvos the operator can make four different rolls? Or is it once per round and the operator picks which salvo he is working against? (which is likely to be the salvo with the most missiles to reduce the attack bonus for the missiles when they do attack.)
