What Good Are Fusion Bays?

[Solomani666]

A 50 Ton Bay:

Weapon TL Range Damage Cost (MCr.)
Particle Beam 8 Long 6d6 + crew hit 20
Fusion Gun 12 Medium 5d6 8 (I assume "+ crew hit" was omitted)

Given:
Nuclear dampers defend against fusion weapons but not against particle weapons.
Particle bays do more damage and have a longer range.
Particle weapons appear 4 TL's before fusion guns.

Granted particle bays are more expensive, but why would any civilization switch from using particle bays to fusion bays?
Why would a Tigress Class mount fusion bays at all?
Am I overlooking something?

 

[rust]

Fusion weapons are less expensive (you can get 2+ for the price of one
particle weapon), they are more efficient at medium range (+0 compa-
red to the -1 of particle weapons), and they still do 5d6-2d6 damage even
if the target ship has nuclear dampers - and nuclear dampers require a
volume of 50 dtons and cost 60 Mio. Credits, so many small ships will not
have them (and almost no civilian ship will have them).

So, if a navy intends to construct, for example, a series of small commer-
ce raiders, fusion bays will do the job nicely, and the money saved by not
using particle bays can be used elsewhere.

 

[AndrewW]

and nuclear dampers require a
volume of 50 dtons and cost 60 Mio. Credits, so many small ships will not
have them (and almost no civilian ship will have them).

Nuclear dampers where updated to 20 tons and 30 MCr.

 

[rust]

Nuclear dampers where updated to 20 tons and 30 MCr.

Thank you - still a lot of space and money for a small ship, and beyond
what a normal civilian ship is likely to have.

 

[far-trader]

Well, one more thing MgT seems to have done away with that changes things significantly, and specific to this case is an energy cost. Previously Fusion Bays used a good deal less power so they were even cheaper and smaller in that respect (less power plant to buy and feed) adding to the trade offs to consider. Or more to the point, yes, one less thing to make them different and wonder why one would choose.

 

[phavoc]

Would a fusion bay attack be defendable via a nuclear damper? I was under the impression a fusion bay (like a fusion weapon) simply was a self-contained plasma form of energy that released its energy upon impact or it dissipated. So I would not think that a nuclear damper would be effective against it since there is no nuclear reaction going on.

 

[Bense]

Well, one more thing MgT seems to have done away with that changes things significantly, and specific to this case is an energy cost. Previously Fusion Bays used a good deal less power so they were even cheaper and smaller in that respect (less power plant to buy and feed) adding to the trade offs to consider. Or more to the point, yes, one less thing to make them different and wonder why one would choose.

There are still some energy limiting rules, but Particle and Fusion bays are treated as equivelent. Particle and Fusion turrets, on the other hand...

 

[rust]

Would a fusion bay attack be defendable via a nuclear damper?

Not really, but the rules say so ... :?

 

[far-trader]

Would a fusion bay attack be defendable via a nuclear damper?

Not really, but the rules say so ... :?

Interesting. Coupled with being more on par energy wise with PAWS perhaps it should be taken as a different kind of Fusion gun? What would work to make it N-Damper defensible?

Perhaps more to the point just how do N-Dampers work in MgT? Are they still a long ranged area effect device? Allowing one to squelch a Nuke missile at range before it explodes?

I've long figured the only way to deliver the plasma of fusion and plasma weapons was in a magnetic shell. And at the desired range from the target the magnetic shell is shut off and the plasma or fusing plasma bursts and splashes the target. Imagine more a ST photon torpedo than a laser type beam. Otherwise it seems it'd just explode right out of the barrel and cook the firing gun and area.

I also don't see a lot of high level radiation from them, nor an application for N-Dampers to counter them.

Where did plasma and/or fusion guns first gain the radiation effect (anyone?). I seem to recall it being TNE and/or maybe GT but not anywhere else (until MgT from what I hear).

 

[rust]

If I do not misread it, according to the descriptions in the Central Supply
Catalogue the fusion weapons leak some radioactivity into their immedi-
ate surroundings, endangering the ones firing these weapons, but the bolt
of superheated plasma itself is not radioactive, and the damage stats for
fusion weapons do not include any radioactivity damage.

If starship fusion weapons work the same way (and I see no reason why
a starship fusion gun should be fundamentally different from a Type Z fu-
sion artillery gun, which is described as a kind of short range starship ty-
pe weapon), a nuclear damper could prevent the weapon from firing (if it
were within the damper's range), but it could not affect the bolt of super-
heated plasma in any meaningful way.

 

[Solomani666]

Are they still a long ranged area effect device? Allowing one to squelch a Nuke missile at range before it explodes?

According to Mercenary page 92 they are.


.

 

[AndrewW]

As a side note radiation shielding defends against nuclear weapons, particle beams and fusion weapons.

 

[locarno24]

Fusion weapons are less expensive (you can get 2+ for the price of one particle weapon)

Which also proportionally reduces the vessel's maintenance costs.

 

[AlphaWhelp]

Nuclear dampers where updated to 20 tons and 30 MCr.

what book can I locate this information in?

 

[AndrewW]

what book can I locate this information in?

LBB2: High Guard page: 47

Or the High Guard errata:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/travhighguarderrata.pdf

 

[DFW]

Would a fusion bay attack be defendable via a nuclear damper? I was under the impression a fusion bay (like a fusion weapon) simply was a self-contained plasma form of energy that released its energy upon impact or it dissipated. So I would not think that a nuclear damper would be effective against it since there is no nuclear reaction going on.

In my game dampers are useless against fusion or plasma weapons.