space combat question

[warbringer]

I did not see this in older posts so if this is a repeat question I apologize in advance.

I read through space combat a couple times and I can't figure out how multi weapon turrets work

example:
3 beam lasers in one turret.....is damage calculated as three individual 2d6 rolls or one 6d6 roll or one 2d6X3 roll?

Also for a triple missile turret do you have to make 3 missile to-hit rolls or just one to cover all three? And then who is damage worked out? 1d6 for each or do they stack as well?

Thanks

 

[JP42]

While I can't quote you chapter and verse, the lack of anything saying that weapons are lumped together for to-hit or damage rolls forces me to say that the default method is one roll per weapon, even if you're firing a whole turret or bay worth of weapons, and separate damage rolls per weapon as well.

 

[CosmicGamer]

Each turn in space combat lasts six minutes. Not all of the weapons in a turret need be the same. Not all of the weapons need to be fired at the same target. A ships armor is subtracted from each weapons damage. This could imply each is calculated separately even if a turret is loaded with identical weapons all fired at the same time at the same target.

That being said, to me the rules are a general guideline for GMs. If a different interpretation makes sense to you, or simplifies or speeds things up - go for it.

From a logical (to me) perspective: If a turret is loaded with identical weapons all fired at the same time at the same ship wouldn't they all have the same chance to hit, do similar damage and even hit the same location on the target? This thinking could lead one to roll damage for one weapon and multiply it by the number of weapons (don't forget to subtract armor before multiplying) to increase the likelihood of double and triple hits to the same location.

 

[locarno24]

Damage for each weapon is worked out seperately.

The reason a particle beam (3D6 damage) is worth more than 3 beam lasers (D6 damage each) is that is a target has a single layer of titanium steel armour, the armour counts each time against the multiple hits.

So the particle beam rolls 3D6-2, whilst the beam lasers rolls D6-2, three times, to figure out the damage done. Feel free to sum all the damage from the attack together when working out how many hits that translates into, though, as shots from a single turret should land in about the same place so working out damage once seems fine to me.

A single roll to hit if firing at the same target is fine, though.


Missiles are the same; you make one Gunner check for a single 'spread' of missiles - for everything controlled by a single gunner, be that a bay launch, a turret launch or whatever. The effect of that roll tells you what 'to hit' roll you'll need once the missiles arrive.

Again, damage doesn't stack. And yes, this makes 'conventional' missiles pretty useless against even lightly armoured targets. This is why proper military forces use nukes and/or torpedoes.