Geir
Emperor Mongoose
High Guard is a little fuzzy (at least in my mind) about the effects and limitations of weapons on small craft. Below is how I’ve interpreted it, but I would be interested in some feedback, since it has some rather large effects on the combat capabilities of small craft.
By default, small craft use Firmpoints, 1-3 depending on size, but these “can be upgraded to a single (not double or triple) turret”.
This leads to several questions:
1. A large small craft, say 80 tons, could have three Firmpoints. Can they all be upgraded to single turrets? That seems silly. The logical answer would be to allow two Firmpoints to upgrade to a double turret and three to a triple. Reasonable?
2. Weapons on Firmpoints also have range limitations. “A weapon on a Firmpoint may not have its range increased beyond Close by any means.” Okay. Fine for lasers, but what about missiles? My assumption is that this does not apply to missiles and their “special” ranges. Missiles do what missiles do regardless of platform.
3. I also assume that the “Close Range Rule” is strictly for Firmpoints. A turret on a small craft would revert to turret rules, and a pulse laser would be good to long range, very long if you paid extra to have it upgraded in range potential. This suddenly makes a fighter with a pulse laser turret deadly at far greater range, but it is logical, right? A turret is a turret and not some fixed mount that you need to aim the entire ship to fire.
4. Turret capacity: And this applies to all turrets, not just small craft. Missile racks hold 12 missiles; sandcasters hold 20 (the text says 12 at one point, but the table and the Core rules clearly show 20, so I’m sticking to that). What about a mixed turret, say a triple turret with one missile rack and two sandcasters? You could read the rules to say it could hold 12 missiles and 20 sand canisters (or 40?), but given their storage requirements, its seems more logical to limit the total ammunition in a turret to 1 ton, so in the example above, 6 missiles and 10 sand canisters would make the most sense. Right?
What do you think? Am I out of line or out of my mind in my reasoning? Can I put a double turret with extra-long-range pulse lasers on a pinnace? Nine power points might cut into its acceleration, but it could handle it.
By default, small craft use Firmpoints, 1-3 depending on size, but these “can be upgraded to a single (not double or triple) turret”.
This leads to several questions:
1. A large small craft, say 80 tons, could have three Firmpoints. Can they all be upgraded to single turrets? That seems silly. The logical answer would be to allow two Firmpoints to upgrade to a double turret and three to a triple. Reasonable?
2. Weapons on Firmpoints also have range limitations. “A weapon on a Firmpoint may not have its range increased beyond Close by any means.” Okay. Fine for lasers, but what about missiles? My assumption is that this does not apply to missiles and their “special” ranges. Missiles do what missiles do regardless of platform.
3. I also assume that the “Close Range Rule” is strictly for Firmpoints. A turret on a small craft would revert to turret rules, and a pulse laser would be good to long range, very long if you paid extra to have it upgraded in range potential. This suddenly makes a fighter with a pulse laser turret deadly at far greater range, but it is logical, right? A turret is a turret and not some fixed mount that you need to aim the entire ship to fire.
4. Turret capacity: And this applies to all turrets, not just small craft. Missile racks hold 12 missiles; sandcasters hold 20 (the text says 12 at one point, but the table and the Core rules clearly show 20, so I’m sticking to that). What about a mixed turret, say a triple turret with one missile rack and two sandcasters? You could read the rules to say it could hold 12 missiles and 20 sand canisters (or 40?), but given their storage requirements, its seems more logical to limit the total ammunition in a turret to 1 ton, so in the example above, 6 missiles and 10 sand canisters would make the most sense. Right?
What do you think? Am I out of line or out of my mind in my reasoning? Can I put a double turret with extra-long-range pulse lasers on a pinnace? Nine power points might cut into its acceleration, but it could handle it.