I think many of those who bought the Civilian ships set have tankers sitting on the shelf unused. This is very sad indeed and to rectify this situation somewhat I think there ought to be a Raider Tanker version.
Rules proposal:
The Raider tanker could be rigged to explode on purpose. This would require a Crew Quality Check of 6. A properly blown up tanker should probably not give the opponent any victory points.
A regular failure or a roll of 1 would however always indicate there had been a mistake in handling the explosives. Should this happen, roll again to determine the effect. Another failure would indicate that the ship explodes immediately, before it can execute its movement. Which might damage surrounding friendlies and would give the opponent Victory Points for the ship.
Note that for example a crew with a quality of two would result in an immediate explosion nearly half of the time. The lesson to be learned from this is that you should not place explosives in the hands of noobs.
If the second crew quality check is a success, then there have just been a minor mistake. The ship may or may not explode at any time. Each subsequent turn a Crew Quality Check would have to be done. Any result of 9+ or a roll of 6 means the explosives would go off. This crew quality check would reflect the fact that a higher quality crew would on average have made a lesser mistake.
The Crew itself is however presumed to have left the ship. The Troop and Crew score would be reduced to zero and the ship would continue to move as adrift every turn. A daring opponent could of course attempt to board this easy target. On the other hand, they might not want to do that.
I suppose the actual damage of the explosion would be a balance issue. Though since the power of the explosion would depend on what's in the tanks it seems reasonable to assume that the damage of the explosion would not be degraded by hull attrition. If damage was reduced to zero it would blow up instantly as usual however.
Rules proposal:
The Raider tanker could be rigged to explode on purpose. This would require a Crew Quality Check of 6. A properly blown up tanker should probably not give the opponent any victory points.
A regular failure or a roll of 1 would however always indicate there had been a mistake in handling the explosives. Should this happen, roll again to determine the effect. Another failure would indicate that the ship explodes immediately, before it can execute its movement. Which might damage surrounding friendlies and would give the opponent Victory Points for the ship.
Note that for example a crew with a quality of two would result in an immediate explosion nearly half of the time. The lesson to be learned from this is that you should not place explosives in the hands of noobs.
If the second crew quality check is a success, then there have just been a minor mistake. The ship may or may not explode at any time. Each subsequent turn a Crew Quality Check would have to be done. Any result of 9+ or a roll of 6 means the explosives would go off. This crew quality check would reflect the fact that a higher quality crew would on average have made a lesser mistake.
The Crew itself is however presumed to have left the ship. The Troop and Crew score would be reduced to zero and the ship would continue to move as adrift every turn. A daring opponent could of course attempt to board this easy target. On the other hand, they might not want to do that.
I suppose the actual damage of the explosion would be a balance issue. Though since the power of the explosion would depend on what's in the tanks it seems reasonable to assume that the damage of the explosion would not be degraded by hull attrition. If damage was reduced to zero it would blow up instantly as usual however.
