Space Combat - Did I miss something?

[shirgall]

I take this to mean that the systems installed in turret can only perform one thing in a round. If multiple types of systems are present in a turret, pick one for the round.

The Gunner is limited to operating only one thing--the turret and its contents--each Space Combat Round, and can only bring that turret to bear on a target and manage one type of firing solution, and therefore type of weapon that same round, so your interpretation is correct.

The way I handle dogfights is that while changing position is a minor action, anything significantly more than that is a Significant Action. Changing the type of weapon and selecting a new firing solution method is a Significant Action in my interpretation and therefore between firing that laser and firing that sandcaster is one round of switching.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I take this to mean that the systems installed in turret can only perform one thing in a round. If multiple types of systems are present in a turret, pick one for the round.

Am I misunderstanding this? Thank you

I believe you are correct.

I missed that change from Core'20, already in Core'22:

Core'20, p158:
Double and Triple Turrets
Some spacecraft are fitted with double or triple turrets, which allow two or three weapons to be mounted in the same turret. If these weapons are different (a pulse laser, missile rack and sandcaster in the same triple turret, for example), then only one type may be used to attack an enemy in a combat round.

Core'22, p168:
DOUBLE AND TRIPLE TURRETS
Some spacecraft are fitted with double or triple turrets, which allow two or three weapons to be mounted in the same turret. If these weapons are different (a pulse laser, missile rack and sandcaster in the same triple turret, for example), then only one type may be used in a single combat round.

So, this is wrong:

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).

You can only use one of the mounted weapons, so either attack, PD, or Disperse Sand.
Disperse Sand can still be made several times, against both lasers and boarders, as long as ammunition lasts.

Thank you for catching my mistake.

 

[Endie]

The discussion on sandcasters strikes me that I've never considered this, but that it will arise in one of my games in the coming weeks: when a ship has multiple turrets with a sandcaster present, can multiple turrets disperse sand against a single hostile attack?

So our heroic players in the HMS Angelic confront the wicked heavy corvette Deathskull. Deathskull has a small pulse laser bay, as per JTAS and elsewhere. The Deathskull attacks, and hits, doing 14 points of damage. Given the ten times multiplier, and the fact that the HMS Angelic has only 4 points of armour and 88 hull points, things look bad. The pilot squandered all her thrust points on closing range so no help avoiding the attack.

However, the HMS Angelic has two ace gunners with a sandcaster in each turret.

One gunner launches sand, rolls a 7 plus skill and stat of 3, for an effect of two. They then roll four for the sandcaster and so add six in total to the armour, making a total of ten armour. Now the laser bay is "only" doing 4x10 = forty points of damage after armour.

Can the second gunner also react to the same attack, further increasing the armour? I checked the Core rulebook and expected to find "only one turret gunner can use the disperse sand action against any attack" but didn't. So can they double down? It seems kinda reasonable to do so, narratively, especially as you are cutting your own attacks by at least two, but I can't find a specific ruling.

More controversially, three good gunners with sand probably negate a 30MCr Large Pulse Laser Bay weapon (JTAS 7 p.16), for instance.

 

[Arkathan]

The discussion on sandcasters strikes me that I've never considered this, but that it will arise in one of my games in the coming weeks: when a ship has multiple turrets with a sandcaster present, can multiple turrets disperse sand against a single hostile attack?

So our heroic players in the HMS Angelic confront the wicked heavy corvette Deathskull. Deathskull has a small pulse laser bay, as per JTAS and elsewhere. The Deathskull attacks, and hits, doing 14 points of damage. Given the ten times multiplier, and the fact that the HMS Angelic has only 4 points of armour and 88 hull points, things look bad. The pilot squandered all her thrust points on closing range so no help avoiding the attack.

However, the HMS Angelic has two ace gunners with a sandcaster in each turret.

One gunner launches sand, rolls a 7 plus skill and stat of 3, for an effect of two. They then roll four for the sandcaster and so add six in total to the armour, making a total of ten armour. Now the laser bay is "only" doing 4x10 = forty points of damage after armour.

Can the second gunner also react to the same attack, further increasing the armour? I checked the Core rulebook and expected to find "only one turret gunner can use the disperse sand action against any attack" but didn't. So can they double down? It seems kinda reasonable to do so, narratively, especially as you are cutting your own attacks by at least two, but I can't find a specific ruling.

More controversially, three good gunners with sand probably negate a 30MCr Large Pulse Laser Bay weapon (JTAS 7 p.16), for instance.

Screens can double up, so until a PTB squashes it, there is no good reason that two gunners cannot block the same attack with sandcasters.
Stacking meson shields is the only way to defeat an attack from meson weapons. For balance purposes, the laser bay is not going to run out of photons before the sandcasters are going to run out of sand.

 

[hopsnbaer]

The discussion on sandcasters strikes me that I've never considered this, but that it will arise in one of my games in the coming weeks: when a ship has multiple turrets with a sandcaster present, can multiple turrets disperse sand against a single hostile attack?

So our heroic players in the HMS Angelic confront the wicked heavy corvette Deathskull. Deathskull has a small pulse laser bay, as per JTAS and elsewhere. The Deathskull attacks, and hits, doing 14 points of damage. Given the ten times multiplier, and the fact that the HMS Angelic has only 4 points of armour and 88 hull points, things look bad. The pilot squandered all her thrust points on closing range so no help avoiding the attack.

However, the HMS Angelic has two ace gunners with a sandcaster in each turret.

One gunner launches sand, rolls a 7 plus skill and stat of 3, for an effect of two. They then roll four for the sandcaster and so add six in total to the armour, making a total of ten armour. Now the laser bay is "only" doing 4x10 = forty points of damage after armour.

Can the second gunner also react to the same attack, further increasing the armour? I checked the Core rulebook and expected to find "only one turret gunner can use the disperse sand action against any attack" but didn't. So can they double down? It seems kinda reasonable to do so, narratively, especially as you are cutting your own attacks by at least two, but I can't find a specific ruling.

More controversially, three good gunners with sand probably negate a 30MCr Large Pulse Laser Bay weapon (JTAS 7 p.16), for instance.

I don't see a reason why not. It would work both ways for players and opposition.

 

[Condottiere]

We used to link turrets into batteries.

Technically, it would be a salvo.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

The discussion on sandcasters strikes me that I've never considered this, but that it will arise in one of my games in the coming weeks: when a ship has multiple turrets with a sandcaster present, can multiple turrets disperse sand against a single hostile attack?

I agree with the previous posts: there is no such limitation in the rules.
Several laser turrets can PD the same salvo, and the limitations are clearly explained in the PD reaction.
The Disperse Sand reaction has no such limitation, it is only limited by available ammo.

Core'22, p171:
DISPERSE SAND (GUNNER)
While cheap and versatile, laser weapons are easily foiled by dispersed particles or sand as it is often called. Sandcasters are designed to create temporary defences against incoming laser attacks.

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.

Compare with:

Core'22, 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.

HG'22, p41:
ANGLE SCREENS (GUNNER)
Using a screen, a gunner can attempt to deflect or reduce damage from incoming attacks. The gunner must succeed at a Gunner (screen) check against an attack and, if successful, reduces the damage of the attack – after armour has been accounted for – by the number of dice rolled by the screen (as noted in its description), multiplied by the Effect of the gunner’s check.

A gunner may use any number of screens against a single attack, combining their dice (but only multiplying the result by the Effect once). A gunner may only attempt to Angle Screens once per round and each screen can only be used once.

The limitations are clearly spelled out.
Disperse Sand has no such limitations.

Can the second gunner also react to the same attack, further increasing the armour? I checked the Core rulebook and expected to find "only one turret gunner can use the disperse sand action against any attack" but didn't. So can they double down? It seems kinda reasonable to do so, narratively, especially as you are cutting your own attacks by at least two, but I can't find a specific ruling.

I believe that not only can they double down, they can disperse sand several times per round.
You can disperse sand against the attack four times, six times, or as many times as needed...
The limitation is the ammo.

Even worse, Disperse Sand does not require the attack to be against the reacting ship, it might be another ship that is attacked.

Some house-ruling might be called for...

More controversially, three good gunners with sand probably negate a 30MCr Large Pulse Laser Bay weapon (JTAS 7 p.16), for instance.

Yes, until they run out of ammo...
Enough laser attacks will overwhelm any sandcasters.