Very Long Range and the High Tech Advantage

[PsiTraveller]

I am playing around with the Space Combat section, and ship design. My feeling is that the advantage in higher tech levels is in the ability to push the range to Very Long and then hit the target without getting hit in return.

The way to do that is thorugh Accuracy, Armour Penetration, and Fire Control bandwidth to give bonuses to hit. This overcomes the -4 range penalty of the Very Long range band.

The cost is high, but buying a computer with a lot of bandwidth and putting in a Fire Control program higher than the number of turrets allows a bonus to be given to weapon systems. A TL 13 computer allows a Fire Control 5 system, this can give a single attack +5 to hit, or split the attack between two turrets and go +3, +1.

Since the bonuses, Skill points, Stat DM's and Accuracy all add to increase the Effect, and the Effect is added to damage this can result in a very long range hit doing respectable damage.

Let's take the Drinaxian Harrier from the Pirates of Drinax. I reworked it completely to make a Stealthy 200 ton ship that is designed to hammer trading ships into submission with one or two hits, or strip the armour off of heavier patrol ships while being able to outrun and outreach these ships.

I admit a weakness in my design is in the Pulse Lasers of TL 12 ships in the book. Nothing has been advanced technologically, and since Pulse Lasers are TL9, then the ships in the book could have Very Long range Pulse Lasers.

Harrier
Hull: 200 tons Streamlined, Stealth 80 Hull
Armour: CrystalIron, Armour 4 : Tons 10
M-Drive: Thrust 5 : Tons 10
J-Drive: Stealth, Jump 2 : Tons 15
Power Plant: TL 15 Fusion Power 240 : Tons 12
Fuel Tanks: 2 tons 4 weeks power Jump 2 40: Tons 42
Bridge: Tons 20
Holographic Controls: +2 DM to Init
Computer: TL 15 Rating 35
Software: Evade 1 (Rating 10), Fire Control 5 (Rating 25)
Sensors: Advanced: +2 Sensor DM Tons 5
Enhanced Signal Processing: +6 to Sensor Checks: Tons 2
Weapons: 2 Triple Turrets Tons 2
Weapons: Turret 1: 3X Accurate, High Yield Particle Beams
Weapons Turret 2: 3X Accurate, Long Range Pulse Lasers
8 Staterooms 32 tons
Common Areas: 8 tons
Cargo Scoop 2 tons
8 Low Berths 4 tons
Fuel Bladder 40 tons 0.4 tons
Cargo 43 tons


So this gives me a ship that has -4 to Sensor lock, + 8 to Sensor Checks for Sensors, -1 to hit for enemy attacks, and I can use the Fire control to split the bonuses between the two hardpoints from +1 to +5 to help increase my Effect/damage.

 

[PsiTraveller]

So here is my example of space combat, and if I mess up anywhere please point it out.

Assumptions: All positions filled with a Skill 2 +1 DM for Stat person. +3 bonus total for the person.
All rolls of 2D will be assumed to be a 7 result, average outcome. Just to make my life easy.

Combat is between a Patrol Corvette from the Core book, and the Harrier. First round the Harrier is in stealth and will get a shot off at the Corvette from Very Long Range. This is an example of a Stealth ship fighting on its terms.

Missile speed is from High Guard, 6. This may change to 10 I know, but I am going with 6 for now, not that it matters once I get to the Action phase and use Electronic Warfare on the missiles.

Round 1: Harrier wins Initiative, Higher Thrust score, plus Holographic Controls, plus Stealth attack in this example.
Thrust 4 AWAY from enemy ship to increase range, 1 Thrust is used to do Pilot Check to aid firing.
Roll 7 + 2 Skill, + 1 Stat. Success, +1 to Firing Roll
Particle Beam attack
Attack Bonuses: 2 Gunner, +1 Stat, +1 Accuracy, +3 Fire Control, +1 Aid -4 Very Long Range+ +4 to Roll
Roll: 7 +4 = 11, 3 Effect
Damage 3D= 10.5 + 4 (triple Turret firing) + 3 Effect: =17 - 4 for Armour, 13 damage
Plus a crew hit for 700 rads: 6D unless the person is in armour (pg 77)

Pulse Laser Attack: 2 Gunner, +1 Stat, +1 Accuracy,+ 1 Fire Control, +2 Pulse Laser, +1 Pilot Aid -4 very Long Range = +4 to roll
Roll: 7+ 3 = 11, Effect 3
Damage: 2D, 7+ 4 (Triple Turret)+3 = 14 -4 Armour = 10 damage
23 total damage, critical damage due to Sustained Damage (pg 158)


Action Phase: Electronic Warfare to get a Sensor Lock on enemy ship. (pg 161) Won't affect us here for the average outcome, but it would in regular combat.


Second Round: Same as the first: Thrust 4 away from ship, Thrust score now 33. Assume Enemy pursues, so Thrust 3 Corvette drops Thrust count to 28. 1 Thrust from each ship for Aid in Gunnery. The Corvette needs to get the count down to 0 to change range band from Very Long to Long. (pg 156), while the Harrier has to get to 75 (50 above the range he is in now) to get to Distant.

Another 23 points of damage, and a second Critical on the Corvette.
Corvetter fires missiles. Thrust 6, or 10 if you are using Core Book. Pulse Lasers of Corvette cannot fire, they do not reach this range band.

So 6 missiles are inbound to the Harrier.
Action Phase: Sensors Difficult (10+) Check (pg 162).
Skill 2 Stat +1, Advanced Sensors +2, Enhanced Signal Processing +4: Total: 9

2D each round, cumulative -1 per attempt.
Assume 7 for the 2D roll and 4 missiles are destroyed in the round they are launched. If the Sensor lock was shaken by the Corvette the Sensor operator cannot regain the lock since they did something different. (That is correct isn't it? One Electronic Warfare action per phase.)

Question: Did I count up the bonuses correctly? Even if the points are a few low, the missiles will be destroyed before the third round.

Round 3: Same as Round 2
23 more points damage and another Critical.

69 points of damage in 3 rounds of combat. That is 4 Critical hits from Sustained damage. The Corvette has not hit the Harrier yet and cannot do so given the Stealth, and Sensor suite advantage of the Harrier. I would assume the Corvette may try and flee and the Harrier could allow them to, keep shooting or leave. Let's assume the raid ends there.


Economics of the battle.

69 points of Hull damage is 69 000 Credits of damage
4 Critical hits is expensive to repair, depending on what got hit.
18 missiles cost the Corvette 187 500 Credits to buy the standard missile.
3 radiation hits to crew, costing 7000 credits per crewman for ani radiation meds after the battle, or costing the replacement cost of the crewman if killed.

Zero ammo cost for the Harrier, energy weapons only.

Now the Harrier costs more than the Corvette, by about 40 Million Credits. but if the Harrier had pursued the Corvette it could have easily destroyed the ship and cost the enemy 170 million credits.

That's my rough draft of a space combat from Stealth. I am looking at the economics of it (because I am running the Drinax campaign, and am dealing with players who are using economics as a weapon). So a ship that can inflict damage, capture, destroy, ransom from Very Long range is an economic weapon. That is the concept I came up with to build a new Harrier.

 

[Nerhesi]

Very nice analysis and I think we agree on most things here.. or at least we will be.

Range is king, not only to make sure you can hit the target, but being able to do so effectively.

Yes, you can only attempt to lock-on and break-lock-on once a turn (or at least to the same target once a turn).

I dont see the Pilot-Aid/stabilize firing platform action existing anymore.. do you?

 

[PsiTraveller]

Aid Gunners: pg 156 under Combat Manoeuvring
Aid Gunners: A pilot may attempt to aid his gunners by providing a more stable firing platform along the optimum attack vector. The pilot makes a Pilot check to start a task chain with his gunners, as described on page 60.

So will likely give a +1 check to the Gunners, possibly a +2 if the Pilot makes a good roll. And it applies to Gunners plural which is nice.

 

[Nerhesi]

Thanks.. Ive been looking for it for a couple of version now, thinking it disappeared from the orders/actions area

 

[Chas]

Good job and interesting, was wanting to do this full lay out and pleased to see it.

Question though: Where are you getting your

"Weapons: Turret 1: 3X Accurate, High Yield Particle Beams"

from? Particle beams are a single barbette, right?

 

[Old timer]

He is getting the triple particle turret from the Hi tech chapter (8) of high guard. Particle turret weapons existed in mongoose 1st ed, but have become a hi tech, non cannon weapon now.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Old timer has it right, I went with the Chapter 8 turret mount to match the Harrier of the Drinax campaign. I changed out the missile turret because I wanted a fast long range punch of a laser, that can go into point defense mode at the last second if I sacrifice an attack that round.

 

[Nerhesi]

I think the Particle turrets may still be only 1 per triple turret as they were in MGT1 though (with some errors here and there). Or will the High Tech chapter change that? Because the last few posts here and from Matt had indicated it was still one particle beam per triple turret.

Perhaps we need clarity here and also how Fusion and Plasma work? It used to be 1 Plasma per double turret, or two per triple turret. Fusion is new and needs a better fit too.

 

[PsiTraveller]

I had not seen that little piece of information. That would be unfortunate, but not world ending. You would lose the +6 of the extra beams damage bonus and damge would drop to 3D plus the radiation effect on crew.

Battles will take longer now, and crew attrition may become more of a factor.