Ship Combat Question: What kind of DM- is there for Shooting at a Small and/or Fast-Moving Target?

[Terry Mixon]

I'm having a discussion with someone in another forum about my Skeeter Heavy Fighters (battle riders, really) and as I'm not up to speed on ship-to-ship combat, I don't know the answer. It seems to me that swarms of 125-ton craft moving at thrust 9 would be harder to hit that something bigger/slower. Am I wrong? High Guard didn't seem to address this.

 

[Vormaerin]

Pilots can take an Evasion reaction to use any Thrust not committed to movement or lining up their shots to provide a negative DRM to being shot at. Each available point of Thrust allows one attack to be evaded at a penalty equal to the pilot's skill.

So if your Thrust 9 fighter is closing as fast as it can, not hard to hit. If they are saving Thrust, the pilot's skill can be used to not get shot.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Pilots can take an Evasion reaction to use any Thrust not committed to movement or lining up their shots to provide a negative DRM to being shot at. Each available point of Thrust allows one attack to be evaded at a penalty equal to the pilot's skill.

So if your Thrust 9 fighter is closing as fast as it can, not hard to hit. If they are saving Thrust, the pilot's skill can be used to not get shot.

Perfect. Even only against a single attack, that's useful. Thanks.

 

[Limpin Legin]

Are any of these HG citations helpful?:

INTRODUCTION
With more options and more powerful weapons, High Guard returns to space combat and provides a rules framework to use in epic space battles, from spiralling dogfights involving a handful of lightweight fighters to the clash of heavily armed battleships across a front stretching through an entire star system.
[PG, 3]
... All bay weapons suffer DM-2 when attacking targets of 2,000 tons or less and DM-4 when attacking targets of 100 tons or less. Missile and torpedo salvoes do not use these modifiers.
[pg, 32]
SPINAL WEAPONS
Consequently, they are extremely inaccurate when attacking small targets. It goes without saying that spinal-mount weapons are strictly used by the military.
[pg 34]
FRAGMENTATION MISSILE
This missile is designed to target small craft. It explodes shortly before interception, throwing out a wall of high-velocity shrapnel. When fired in mass barrages, ...
[pg, 36]
GUNNERS
Over the immense distances involved in space combat, it is extremely challenging to hit a target – especially one that is actively evading and moving at a rate of hundreds of kilometres per second – and it requires more than just technology to do so. The successful targeting and hitting of enemy ships, thousands of kilometres distant, is made possible by advanced sensors and computers, which aid in the detection and selection of targets and prediction of where they might be but it also requires an understanding of psychology and a talent for reviewing analytics quickly and efficiently.
[pg, 90]
THE GUNNERS CONTROL PANEL
Once the ship is in dogfight range, the display goes wild, showing more data than the typical gunner can handle. Gunners with neural links might be more accustomed to the rapid flow of targeting data and dangers that the ship faces during this phase. However, many veteran gunners eschew such technology, preferring instead to rely upon instincts and fast reflexes.
[pg, 92]
FIRING INTO DOGFIGHTS
Picking out individual targets without accidentally hitting a fast-moving friendly craft can be extremely difficult. ...
[pg, 102]
MANOEUVRE STEP
For most fleet combat encounters, calculating the relative positions of two opposing fleets is all that is needed. However, for more complex encounters, vector-based movement rules may be included, as described on page 116.
[PG, 115]

 

[Terry Mixon]

Are any of these HG citations helpful?:

Thanks!

 

[collins355]

In Fleet Combat your thrust is of no advantage in combat (as all weapons except spinal mounts hit automatically unless shot down or otherwise deflected).

 

[ChrisJ]

Also dogfighting occurs at close and adjacent ranges. Spacecraft of over 100DT suffer an automatic -6 at these ranges, and then there is the dogfight test itself at which the thrust applied to dogfighting test is a positive DM - wining the dogfight test allows firing forward mounted fixed weapons, and grants +ve DM on winner and -Ve dm on looser. This is where small fast ships have a distinct advantage over larger slower ships. But you do need to survive to get to close range (in which having a High G drive will be an advantage).

 

[Terry Mixon]

The more I consider it, the 125-ton Skeeter isn't a good dogfighter, but they would terrorize smaller ships in the 100-10,000 range.

 

[agentwigggles]

For what its worth, all spaceships in Traveller are fast. There are faster spaceship, but none of them are slow.

 

[Condottiere]

Likely doctrine would be that the enemy will only be shooting at you with turrets and missiles, and screen their major units with smallcraft and escorts.

So one variable will be range.

 

[Terry Mixon]

Likely doctrine would be that the enemy will only be shooting at you with turrets and missiles, and screen their major units with smallcraft and escorts.

So one variable will be range.

The small bay weapons do heave better range but there will be negative DMs at smaller ships at those ranges.

 

[Condottiere]

Since I'm wading around in the micro scale, I'm getting a better feel of what seems to work there.

Fighters are there to neutralize other small and attack craft, cheaply.

If they're busy buzzing around each other, they're not going for a bombing run.