[SF] Definition of Weapons System

[cylence]

I've seen conflicting uses of the term Weapons System, and the forum search system thinks the term is too generic, so it's time to ask: What is a Weapons System?

Power Drain limits firing to a single weapons system, and I was initially lead to believe this mean Phasers, or Drones, or whatever heavy weapon suite a ship was equipped with. Page 8's description of Weapons Systems in Star Fleet provides strength to this.

Weapon criticals disable one random weapons system, and I've seen it stated that this means each row defined under Weapon on the ship listing, and this is also why the Fed CA has two single 1AD entries for the Turreted P3. On one hand this gives ships with differing arcs for each weapon point more resilience, but are much more limited under power drain.

So is the latter correct? Can a Fed CA under power drain only fire one of it's 2AD P1 banks if it chooses the 3rd consequence for the option? Or can a weapons critical disable all Phasers on the ship?

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

I believe the "only phasers" means all phasers on the ship, while "single weapon system" is more for firing a single non-phaser weapons.

An Example would be a Federation Ship wanting to overload torpedoes, but it needs to move over 6", so it chooses he one weapon system penalty, moving 12" and only firing its Torpedoes (no phasers or drones) in the attack phase.

 

[cylence]

I'm not referring to the "only phasers" option, but the "only one weapons system option". Maybe a better example would be a C7 - Using the second definition of a weapons system, a C7 under power drain could move only 6 inches, fire only phasers, or fire one weapons system, meaning only 2 AD of disruptors instead of 4. Likewise any of the Romulans or Gorn could only fire one of the Plasma weapons the ship has listed.

This seems to be right, but I've seen several postings across various boards, including here, suggesting otherwise. And it is never explicitly defined in the rule book as far as I can tell.

 

[GalagaGalaxian]

As I understand it, Each separate line/entry in the stats is a different weapon system yes, even if they have the same name and firing arc.

The advantage to this is that a weapon crit that knocks out a random weapon system might not take out all your heavy weapons. As an example, a Romulan King Eagle might only lose a Plasma-F and still retain use of its other Plasma F and the Plasma R. A Federation Constitution however, is at risk of losing all its Photons from a single critical result.


The disadvantage is, as you've noticed, much more limited firepower under that power drain penalty. It becomes an interesting trade-off.

 

[locarno24]

Agreed. Certainly, in previous versions, each line item on a ship's stats was a seperate weapon and could be disabled seperately by criticals and so forth, and 'only fire one weapon' special actions meant literally only fire one line item, so only the port phaser-1's or whatever.

 

[Greg Smith]

As I understand it, Each separate line/entry in the stats is a different weapon system .

That is correct.