Spaceship combat example - please critique.

[cunningrat]

I wrote this up to get a handle on how spaceship combat is actually supposed to work. Please critique it and let me know if there's anything I got wrong.

The Far Trader Voortrekker (Hull points 80, Armor 2, Thrust 1, 2 turrets with double pulse lasers) is confronted by the Type-S Scout CardBoard Villain (Hull points 40, Armor 4, Thrust 2, triple turret with a double pulse laser and a missile launcher).

The Voortrekker is crewed by Lazer (DEX 1, Pilot 2), Pierce (EDU 0, Sensors 2), Flora (EDU 1, Engineer 2), and Shay (DEX 1, Gunner 1). There's also an NPC gunner (DEX 1, Gunner 0).
The CardBoard Villain is crewed by pirates with Stat 1, Skill 1.
Encounter starts at Long range.

ROUND 1
The Voortrekker's initiative is 2D + 1 (thrust) +2 (Lazer's Pilot skill). (Lazer's DEX does not figure into the equation, correct?)
The CBV rolls 2D + 2 +1.
Voortrekker wins initiative.
Maneuver step
Lazer, realizing she's not going to outrun the Scout, elects to use the 1 Thrust for the Aid Gunners maneuver. The CBV allocates 2 Thrust to attempt to close the range.
Lazer rolls 2D + 3, and gets 11. Her Effect to pass to the gunners is +3. (That's a Routine task, right?)

Attack Step
Shay and the NPC gunner roll Dex + Gunner +3 (Lazer's roll) +2 (Pulse Lasers) -2 (Long Range). Shay rolls an 11, NPC rolls a 10.
Pirate gunner chooses to attack with lasers and rolls Dex + Gunner +2 (Pulse Lasers) -2 (Long Range). He rolls an 8.

Shay's hit inflicts 2D + 2 (Pulse lasers) + 3 (Effect). Shay rolls 14 points of damage. 4 points is soaked by the CBV's Armor, 10 points of damage gets through. CBV's Hull is now 30, and (since 10 damage is more than 10% of the starting Hull) it suffers a Severity 1 Critical hit. (Since it actually lost more than 20% of starting Hull, does the ship suffer 2 Critical hits instead?) Critical hit is on the M-Drive.
NPC's hit inflicts 9 points of damage. 4 points are soaked by armor. CBV's Hull is now 27. CBV suffers a second Sev 1 Critical hit, since it's now lost 30% of its starting Hull. Critical hit is on Crew: J. Random Pirate takes 1D damage.

Pirate rolls 2D + 2 (Pulse lasers). Pirate rolls 11 damage. The Voortrekker's Hull is now 71 and it suffers a Sev 1 Critical hit. Critical hit is to Hull: spacecraft suffers another 4 damage, dropping Hull to 67.

Action Step
Flora attempts to overload the Maneuver drive, to give Lazer more Thrust for next round. She rolls an 11, succeeding.
Pierce attempts to gain a Sensor lock on the CBV. 2D +2 (Sensors skill) -2 (Civilian grade sensors). He rolls a 7, and does not succeed.
Pirate engineer attempts to fix the M-Drive crit, at 2D + 2 (stat and skill) -1 (crit severity). With a roll of 4, he fails miserably.
Pirate sensor operator attempts a Sensor lock. 2D + 2 (stat and skill) +0 (Military grade sensors). Success.

ROUND 2
Voortrekker wins initiative again.
Maneuver step
Lazer uses 1 Thrust to aid gunners, and reserves 1 Thrust for dodging. The CBV allocates 1 Thrust to close the range, and reserves 1 for dodging. Lazer rolls 10, for a +2 bonus to gunners.
Attack Step
Shay rolls a 9. Pirate pilot attempts to dodge Shay's attack, inflicting a -1 DM to Shay's fire. (The damage to the pirate's Maneuver drive, or the pirate's Dex, apparently don't figure into this equation?) NPC gunner rolls an 11.
Pirate (with his Boon from the sensor lock) chooses to fire lasers again rather than launch a missile. (Do missiles get bonuses from a sensor lock? It seems like they should but there's nothing in the rules.) He manages to miss with a whopping 7, Boon notwithstanding. Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, here.

Shay inflicts 5 points of damage. CBV's Hull is now 26.
NPC gunner inflicts 14 points of damage. CBV's Hull is now 16, and it takes another Sev 1 Critical. Crit hits Armor, which is reduced by 1.
Action Step
Flora decides to push her luck and overload the M-drive again. She manages to hit an 11 even with the -2 DM.
Pierce attempts to break the Pirate's sensor lock. 2D + 2 (sensors skill) -2 (civilian sensors). (Does he get any bonuses or penalties because the other ship has a better Sensor suite? Is that an opposed roll with the Pirate's original roll to acquire the lock?) In either case, with a roll of 3 he ain't breaking any locks any time soon.
Pirate engineer attempts to overload the M-drive, and fails.

ROUND 3
Voortrekker wins initiative yet again.
Maneuver step
Lazer uses 1 Thrust to aid gunners, and reserves 1 Thrust for dodging. The CBV reserves 2 Thrust for dodging. Lazer rolls 8. A marginal success but gunners don't get a bonus?
Attack Step
Taking all dodges into account, Shay rolls an 11. NPC gunner rolls a 13. Pirate rolls an 11.
Shay rolls a grand total of 5 points of damage. CBV's hull is now 14.
NPC gunner rolls 12 points of damage. CBV's hull is now 5, and it takes another Sev 1 Crit. The crit is to fuel, adding insult to injury.
Pirate rolls 12 points of damage. Voortrekker's hull is now 57, and it takes another Sev 1 Crit, which is a cargo hit.
Action Step
Pirates decide "bag this noise" and offer to surrender.

Comments? Suggestions? (Aside from "don't try to close the range", I realize now that was a boneheaded decision on the pirates' part.)

 

[DickTurpin]

It generally looks correct although the Voortrekker gunners had some awesome luck on their shots. I will offer my opinions but I am not an expert on ship combat.
Round 1: Lazer’s DEX does not affect the Initiative roll, you are correct.
The Task Chain table on page 60 shows that a success with an effect of +3 passes along a +1 DM, not the full effect. Therefore, the attack rolls for Shay and NPC are 9 and 8, reducing their effect to 1 and 0, respectively.
Even the reduced damage of 10 points takes 20% of the CBV’s Hull, so it suffers TWO critical hits, each Severity 1 (Severity = Damage/10). I assume that each Critical is rolled for separately. NPC’s hit caused 7 points od damage, causing a third Critical hit.
Round 2: Again, the DM from Aid Gunners is actually only +1 per the table.
Pierce would attempt an Electronic Warfare check to break the Pirate’s Sensor Lock. Unlike the original Sensor Lock roll, that is an Opposed Roll. I would add the Sensor DM for each sensor suite to those rolls, along with any other DMs from a Countermeasures Suite, Improved or Enhanced Signal Processing, etc.
Round 3: Yes, success with an effect of 0 grants a +0 DM, per the Task Chain table.

General notes: The CBV mostly wasted the money putting a triple turret with two lasers and a single missile rack on it. Since you can only attack with one or the other, the missile only gets used if combat is at Very Long range or Distant range. Since the number of missiles in a salvo is halved every 5 full rounds of flight (Missile Flight Times, p.30, High Guard), a single missile launched from Distant range probably won’t survive to make an attack. A lone missile is also very vulnerable to ECM or point defense.
Missiles do not use the Gunner’s skill in their attack, they get a +1 for the Smart trait (if they have it) and are fired from beyond Adjacent or Close Range (Launching Missiles, p. 161 CRB), and a DM of +1 for each missile in the salvo. I think that there is also a +/- DM based on the relative TL of the firing ship or missile and the target ship, but I could not find that reference while tying this up.

 

[cunningrat]

Thank you for your feedback, sir. I did misread the Task Chain table.

I think that there is also a +/- DM based on the relative TL of the firing ship or missile and the target ship, but I could not find that reference while tying this up.

Found it. That's the "Smart" trait: CRB p. 75.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

I'll have a go at it...

ROUND 1
The Voortrekker's initiative is 2D + 1 (thrust) +2 (Lazer's Pilot skill). (Lazer's DEX does not figure into the equation, correct?)

I would say the DEX DM does add to the pilot's skill.

In the combat chapter 'skill' is your task DM, so includes a characteristic DM. AndrewW clarified this for Evasive Action on this forum a few years ago IIRC.

Maneuver step
Lazer, realizing she's not going to outrun the Scout, elects to use the 1 Thrust for the Aid Gunners maneuver. The CBV allocates 2 Thrust to attempt to close the range.
Lazer rolls 2D + 3, and gets 11. Her Effect to pass to the gunners is +3. (That's a Routine task, right?)

Everything that is not stated otherwise is a 8+ roll, yes.

But Effect is not passed on in a task chain, see Tack Chain Table, Core p60. With an effect of +3, the gunners get a DM +1.

Shay's hit inflicts 2D + 2 (Pulse lasers) + 3 (Effect). Shay rolls 14 points of damage. 4 points is soaked by the CBV's Armor, 10 points of damage gets through. CBV's Hull is now 30, and (since 10 damage is more than 10% of the starting Hull) it suffers a Severity 1 Critical hit. (Since it actually lost more than 20% of starting Hull, does the ship suffer 2 Critical hits instead?) Critical hit is on the M-Drive.

The pirate ship suffers 10 Hull (25%) and two Crit severity 1 from the first hit. One crit for each 10% suffered, regardless how.

NPC's hit inflicts 9 points of damage. 4 points are soaked by armor. CBV's Hull is now 27. CBV suffers a second Sev 1 Critical hit, since it's now lost 30% of its starting Hull. Critical hit is on Crew: J. Random Pirate takes 1D damage.

I think remaining Hull should be 25 ( 30 - ( 9-4 ) = 30 - 5 = 25 )?

Since the CBV now has taken over 30% Hull damage, it suffers another crit.

ROUND 2
Voortrekker wins initiative again.

Initiative is rolled once, before the first round.

Maneuver step
Lazer uses 1 Thrust to aid gunners, and reserves 1 Thrust for dodging. The CBV allocates 1 Thrust to close the range, and reserves 1 for dodging. Lazer rolls 10, for a +2 bonus to gunners.

DM +1 to gunnery according to the table on p60.

Attack Step
Shay rolls a 9. Pirate pilot attempts to dodge Shay's attack, inflicting a -1 DM to Shay's fire. (The damage to the pirate's Maneuver drive, or the pirate's Dex, apparently don't figure into this equation?) NPC gunner rolls an 11.

Shay suffers a DM -2 (skill+stat), see above.

Pirate (with his Boon from the sensor lock) chooses to fire lasers again rather than launch a missile. (Do missiles get bonuses from a sensor lock? It seems like they should but there's nothing in the rules.) He manages to miss with a whopping 7, Boon notwithstanding. Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy, here.

No, missile salvoes do not benefit from the launching ship's Sensor Lock. Missile salvoes attack themselves, without any gunner action. Sensor Lock boon only applies to attack rolls by the ship.

Shay inflicts 5 points of damage. CBV's Hull is now 26.
NPC gunner inflicts 14 points of damage. CBV's Hull is now 16, and it takes another Sev 1 Critical. Crit hits Armor, which is reduced by 1.

The CBV has taken 60% Hull damage and should have suffered a total of six crits, one for each 10% damage suffered, regardless how.

Action Step
Pierce attempts to break the Pirate's sensor lock. 2D + 2 (sensors skill) -2 (civilian sensors). (Does he get any bonuses or penalties because the other ship has a better Sensor suite? Is that an opposed roll with the Pirate's original roll to acquire the lock?) In either case, with a roll of 3 he ain't breaking any locks any time soon.

It's just an opposed roll, so a new roll from the CBV's sensor operator. Both add their own sensor DM to their own roll.

ROUND 3
Maneuver step
Lazer uses 1 Thrust to aid gunners, and reserves 1 Thrust for dodging. The CBV reserves 2 Thrust for dodging. Lazer rolls 8. A marginal success but gunners don't get a bonus?

No bonus, but you avoid a malus.

 

[OrdosMalleus]

Thanks for this post and the comments. I am also in the process of wrapping my head around ship combat.