The whole Armor vs. Offence thing

[apoc527]

Did anyone ever come to a sort of conclusion about how ships with really high armor are supposed to be damaged? Do you just wait for the Natural 20? Did Bryan Steele ever mention if this was entirely intentional? thanks!

 

[Greg Smith]

We use: every hit where the attacker rolls a skill check of 5 or more above the target degrades the armour by one.

 

[tneva82]

Frankly I gave up and decided if I get around playing B5 I either find myself new ruleset(future coming traveller B5 sounds promising) or design ship combat rules myself.

Current rules just don't feel right. Greg's system sounds otherwise good but how many hits say delta-V has to do to starfury before starfury is taken out? Unrealisticly many HITS I would say. B5 space combat is supposed to be deadly and fighter soaking up hit after hit just ain't right.

 

[Valarian]

I use the following House Rules for Starship combat. Be warned though, it makes starship combat extremely deadly.

Armour Value
Halve armour values noted in the rulebooks (rounded up)
Armour Degradation
Armour degrades by 1 point per weapon hit. This means that over the combat, the armour becomes less effective and remains so until repaired. If three weapons hit, then armour is reduced by 3 points. The total offence of the hits is still calculated and compared against the armour value as normal. The reduction to the armour comes in to effect after the offence damage has been resolved.
Beam Weapons
Beam weapons cause the beam armour damage even if the hit doesn't cause damage to the ship itself. This is to simulate the beam cutting in to the ship's armour, but not penetrating the hull. The reduction to the armour comes in to effect after the offence damage has been resolved.