Space Combat - Did I miss something?

[Galen]

Hello dearest Travellers!

My Group and I (Gamemaster) played another Session yesterday and we had a nice little Space Combat. A TL-9 700t piece of spacejunk attacked the groups hard modded 200t Free/Far Trader.

After firing a few Salvos of Missiles they reached the medium range band and with that given the Gunner of our group fired with the double Beamlaser Turret at the Enemy ship and ... just one-hitted it! I've read in the rules again but found nothing. And now I'm asking myself: did I miss something in the rules?

To be clear: I don't want to talk about "How bad the rules are" or "How we can alter them in a good manner". I really just want to know if I did everything right or if I missed something in the rules.

So that's what happend in numbers:

Pilot did a "Aid Gunner" manoeuver. With an effect of 7 so it gave them a +3 from the task chain table. -> +3
The Gunner used Beam Lasers -> +4
Gunner Dex + Skill -> +3

So he had a DM +10 and rolled a 5 and a 6 -> 11+10 = 21
The Enemy Pilot tried to evade -> -1

So we had a roll of 20, what means an effect of 12 and he rolled a 3 for damage +1 because of the second beam laser. Makes 3+1+12 = 16
The enemy ship had 4 armor. They failed their Sandcaster (bad luck, but even with Sand they would not necessary have reduced the damage below 1)
As far as I understand as long as we do 1 point of damage it is only the effect of the attack roll that determine if it is a critical hit or not.

Well with an effect of 12 it would be clearly a critical hit with a Serverity of 12-5 = 7. And the dices diced that it went straight to the Powerplant (rolled a 3)

From Severity 4+ it says Power is 0. What means: Lights out it's over.

I mean: Yes they did very good dice rolls. But I'm still not sure if I did everything right.

Even if I missed someting I will not retcon anything because it was a really cool scene

 

[wintertraveller]

I don't feel like an expert, but this all seems correct to me.

I wonder if a sensor target lock could have boosted the beam attack further (+2).

I am curious to read what others contribute. Cheers

 

[Hootenheimer]

I think the only thing that pops out at me is since the ship received a Severity "7" critical hit, the following would apply:

Once a location has reached Severity 6, it cannot suffer any more critical hits. Instead, the spacecraft will receive 6D extra damage every time the location suffers another critical hit.

Since sev 5 and 6 critical hits to the power plant are hull sev hits, that's also an added 3D of damage, which is 9D for an average of 30 damage. Is that more than 10 percent the hull of the TL 7 space junk for another critical hit for the sustained damage rule?

If anything, I think there's a real risk here that the poor space junk got Death Star Exhaust Ported and has major hull damage if not complete hull failure.

Awesome.

Edit: since we're being fussy, the damage rolls are discrete. 1D and 2D and 6D. If any of them crossed a 10 percent of hull threshold you'd have another critical and any relevant effects, including another pp or hull critical hit. That's a subtle difference in order of operations but could make the math work differently depending on when the critical hit lands.

Second edit: I re-read the final effect for power plant and....

Hull Severity increased by +1D

Yeah that ship is in bad shape.

 

[Endie]

If you get into beam laser territory and stack a few more bonuses then only extremely heavy armour can save the target from losing a system to a sev 6 crit.

Get into called-shot territory and you can choose which system to hit (sensors if you think they have no backup, power if you think there’s no emergency battery: either is game over; weapons if they have only a small number is also a safe bet).

If you want to boost things further then leadership*, basic fire control (up to +5 for guaranteed instant win at a surprisingly low price!), skill augment, dex bonus, skill bonus,, dex enhancements (bridging and direct dex augments), sensor lock, accurate weapon mod, pilot bonus etc can all push for a ridiculous result.

*leadership is mentioned for group actions in combat, not space combat, but it seems a stretch to deny it when the gun is a different shape. The horse has bolted by now, anyway.

 

[Grognardia]

I've seen some arguments for using just pure Pilot skill in space combat and not add the DEX DM or other augments.

Still debating with myself if that's a good rule interpretation or not.

 

[NOLATrav]

Also not an expert but your process seems legit and with such killer rolls the PCs deserve the victory. Just like that episode of The Expanse when the Roci takes out a ship’s power plant with a single rail gun shot. Awesome

Mongoose has said out loud they wanted space combat to be quick and deadly and you have shown that it can indeed be so. As deadly as personal combat lol.

 

[Galen]

If you get into beam laser territory and stack a few more bonuses then only extremely heavy armour can save the target from losing a system to a sev 6 crit.

Especially when you are using a Beamlaser-Barbette

But that brings me to a question about Sandcasters. In Core we have:

The gunner must succeed
at a Gunner (turret) check against a laser weapon and,
if successful, will add 1D plus the Effect of the check to
the ship’s armour against that laser attack only. Each
Disperse Sand reaction uses one canister of sand.

Does that mean:
We can only use one Sandcaster at a time, even if we have a triple Sandcaster Turret?
Or if we can have triple Sandcasters, how do they work? Are they giving 3D Armour? Or 1D+2 (like improved Damage when having the same weapon multiple times)?

 

[Condottiere]

I always saw it as the number of sandcasters under the effective control of one gunner, which fired a canister.

 

[Sigtrygg]

It looks legit by the rules as written I just wonder why their adversary didn't get similar results firing on them?

Imagine if the NPC ships started stacking the bonuses when firing at PC ships...

 

[Galen]

It looks legit by the rules as written I just wonder why their adversary didn't get similar results firing on them?

Imagine if the NPC ships started stacking the bonuses when firing at PC ships...

Oh they did! They landed some hits with their Pulselaser Turrets while rushing for a boarding manoeuver. And tried to punch with some Missiles. But they did "just" Damage. No critical hits. Even with "Aid Gunners" or a Sensor Lock (which they got from a critical failures of the players SensOp )

I do normal rolls for the NPCs, too. And they have (and use) all the options that players have.

All I did above was to describe the one Action-Chain when the PC ship was in Range to attack. That was not the whole Battle. Before the one-hit the players tried to fend off the enemy ship with some missiles but they had just four left from a previous battle.

 

[Galen]

I always saw it as the number of sandcasters under the effective control of one gunner, which fired a canister.

What means? 1D per Sandcaster in the turret? Or 1D+X (X = Number of Sandcaster after the first)?

 

[Condottiere]

Standard rules/formula, variable plus number of additional launched sand canisters.

At some point, the density would be the equivalent to a brick wall, at that particular grid point, angle of attack, and point of time.

Speaking of which, that's for a six minute turn; I'm not quite sure how long the sand cloud remains coalesced during a dogfight.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Does that mean:
We can only use one Sandcaster at a time, even if we have a triple Sandcaster Turret?

There are very few limitations on sandcasters.

Core'22, p75:
REACTIONS
A Traveller who is about to be attacked can react, either dodging a shot or parrying a blow. This is called a Reaction and a Traveller can perform an unlimited amount of Reactions in every combat round. However, every time a Traveller performs a Reaction, they will suffer DM-1 on their next set of actions.

Core'22, p171:
REACTIONS
Just as in other forms of combat, those on board a spacecraft can perform reactions in response to the enemy they are fighting. Reactions can only be performed by Travellers assigned to specific duties, as described below.

Core'22, p171:
DISPERSE SAND (GUNNER)
...
Using a turret-mounted sandcaster, a gunner can attempt to block laser attacks. The gunner must succeed at a Gunner (turret) check against a laser weapon and, if successful, will add 1D plus the Effect of the check to the ship’s armour against that laser attack only. Each Disperse Sand reaction uses one canister of sand.

Contrast that with:

Core, p171:
POINT DEFENCE (GUNNER)
Using a turret-mounted laser (beam or pulse), a gunner can destroy incoming missiles. Note that a weapon used for point defence cannot be used to make attacks in the same combat round and vice versa. Point Defence may only be performed against missile salvos (see page 172) as they are about to make their attack roll against a target – missiles are too small and too fast to be targeted at greater ranges. A gunner may only attempt Point Defence once every round.

Disperse Sand does not have any such limitations.


As far as I can see you can Disperse Sand as many times, against as many attacks, and as many times against the same attack as you want.

The sole limitation is that after 20 Disperse Sand reactions (each costing a canister) you have to reload the turret.

If you also have other weapons in the turret and want to use them to attack, you will have a negative DM equal to the number of reactions (Disperse Sand) since last turn.


So, if you have a triple turret with a Particle beam, a laser, and a sandcaster, you can attack with the particle (once), PD with the laser (once), and Disperse Sand with the sandcaster (up to 20 times).

Or if we can have triple Sandcasters, how do they work? Are they giving 3D Armour? Or 1D+2 (like improved Damage when having the same weapon multiple times)?

Core'22, p168:
DOUBLE AND TRIPLE TURRETS
...
Sandcasters can also be linked in this way, granting +1 to the damage negated by laser attacks for each additional sandcaster beyond the first.

A triple sandcaster turret used to Disperse Sand will prevent more damage, but still only use one canister.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Yes that can happen, but is rather unlikely.

So he had a DM +10 and rolled a 5 and a 6 -> 11+10 = 21
The Enemy Pilot tried to evade -> -1

So we had a roll of 20, what means an effect of 12 and he rolled a 3 for damage +1 because of the second beam laser. Makes 3+1+12 = 16
The enemy ship had 4 armor. They failed their Sandcaster (bad luck, but even with Sand they would not necessary have reduced the damage below 1)

The target could have used as many sandcaster turrets as they wished, as many times as they wished.

As far as I understand as long as we do 1 point of damage it is only the effect of the attack roll that determine if it is a critical hit or not.

Yes.

Well with an effect of 12 it would be clearly a critical hit with a Serverity of 12-5 = 7. And the dices diced that it went straight to the Powerplant (rolled a 3)

Very lucky shot. I suspect the players were rather pleased?

 

[AnotherDilbert]

From Severity 4+ it says Power is 0. What means: Lights out it's over.

The target could have repaired the hit in the action step at the end of the round:

Core'22, p172:
REPAIR SYSTEM (ENGINEER)
A Traveller on engineer duty can attempt to affect a quick repair to the effects of a critical hit. This requires an Average (8+) Engineer check (1 round, INT or EDU) with a negative DM equal to the Severity of the critical hit. A cumulative DM+1 is gained every round the Traveller works on repairing the same critical hit. If the spacecraft receives a critical hit to the same location during this time, the Traveller must start again from the beginning with no positive DM.

Note that only the effects of the critical hit can be repaired and these quick repairs will only last for 1D hours. Any Hull damage or destroyed equipment and weapons cannot be repaired this way and will require the spacecraft to leave combat.

Even with a high Severity crit, the power plant isn't "destroyed", unlike e.g. the fuel tanks (Core'22, p170):