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Would a far/free trader ever use missiles?
- Thread starter k0k0pelli
- Start date
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Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
1. The way I see it, you have options.
2. It tends to come down to availability, space and cost.
3. The point being, with a decoy, to fool the opposition.
4. With a mobile sensor platform, to get close enough to have a good look, and report back.
5. Either side can take active or passive measures.
6. Usually, navies have enough money and space to have enough probes onboard, as well as decoys.
7. Merchantmen usually don't need decoys, unless they know combat is likely.
8. Likely, cheap sensor probes.
9. And, if you think about it, a missile doesn't count as operating expense, until it's expended.
2. It tends to come down to availability, space and cost.
3. The point being, with a decoy, to fool the opposition.
4. With a mobile sensor platform, to get close enough to have a good look, and report back.
5. Either side can take active or passive measures.
6. Usually, navies have enough money and space to have enough probes onboard, as well as decoys.
7. Merchantmen usually don't need decoys, unless they know combat is likely.
8. Likely, cheap sensor probes.
9. And, if you think about it, a missile doesn't count as operating expense, until it's expended.
Another defensive possibility is anti-missile missile. It would probably be a cluster munition to provide a broad spread and maximise takedown. Each submunition could be self-guiding. They needn't be that large and could simply be dumb kinetic fragments (like a beehive round) given the speed they would be going. A massive cone of steel fragments appearing on a missiles sensor could trigger it's end game protocols, it will certainly affect its RADAR/LIDAR picture. Getting hit with even a single fragment could be catastrophic.
Missiles launched at distant range suffer -2 because they don't have enough fuel to conduct counter evasive manoeuvre. If missiles fired at closer range had to evade an anti-missile missile they may suffer the same penalty.
Not sure off hand how you would make one mind you. Some sort of robot in a missile body?
Missiles launched at distant range suffer -2 because they don't have enough fuel to conduct counter evasive manoeuvre. If missiles fired at closer range had to evade an anti-missile missile they may suffer the same penalty.
Not sure off hand how you would make one mind you. Some sort of robot in a missile body?
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
Sandcasters are giant shotguns in some versions of Traveller, so put a sand cannister as the payload on the anti-missile missile.
it is still a lot cheaper to use a laser in the antimissile role, which is why so many militaries have inversted so much money in developing lasers as anti-missile and anti-drone weapons
considerable effort has been put into radiofrequency laser weapons also.
it is still a lot cheaper to use a laser in the antimissile role, which is why so many militaries have inversted so much money in developing lasers as anti-missile and anti-drone weapons
considerable effort has been put into radiofrequency laser weapons also.
Ironically one of the issues of testing LASER based SHORAD is that you need to deconflict with space before firing
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Lasers have two benefits.
You're not likely to run out of ammunition.
Operating costs are minimal.
You're not likely to run out of ammunition.
Operating costs are minimal.
It says
“Electronic Warfare may be performed upon a salvo
multiple times over several rounds, with the effects
being cumulative. However, a salvo may only be
subjected to Electronic Warfare once per round, no
matter how many sensor operators are available.”.
Like you said it’s all in the context this only says that each round a Salvo can only affected by one EW attempt per round. Remember a ship combat round is 6 minutes so there’s no reason that a ship can’t do a EW attempt even if they are in close range.
Did you not see the original post?
If you notice the bold text and the underlined text this thread is not about ship class. Maybe you should quit trying to start a fight .
Actually they have more than that they also can be use to defend against missiles. That’s three benefits and three more than missiles.
Here the thing
1) we are talking about merchants not navy’s that’s a completely different thing
2) if your probe is launch from a missile rack anyone seeing it is going to see a missile not a probe. With a merchant you just attacked first which will be considered piracy
3) lasers never count as operating expense even if fired.
4) generally speaking a Merchant has better things to use space for.
It really comes down to rule interpretations I think. If missile turrets and fixed mounts can only fire a single missile per turn per rack (which seems to be implied rather than specifically stated), then yes, lasers every time. If on the other hand one can fire ALL the missiles in a fixed mount or turret (which probably makes more sense), they become a much better deterrent to piracy.
But then as free trader captain, you'd probably be better off tossing some high value cargo out the hatch than blasting off KCr250-500 worth of missiles. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But then as free trader captain, you'd probably be better off tossing some high value cargo out the hatch than blasting off KCr250-500 worth of missiles. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The CRB strongly implies this is not the case
“Missiles are launched in salvos. A salvo is all the missiles launched by a ship against a single target in the same combat round. This could be a single missile from a single turret, three from a triple turret with three missile racks or dozens from multiple turrets or bays (see High Guard for more information on weapon bays).”
And in Highguard 2022
MISSILE BARBETTE
“Equipped with multilaunchers, a missile barbette can unleash a flurry of warheads at a target. A missile barbette fires five missiles at a time and holds enough missiles for five full salvos (a total of 25 missiles). Missile barbettes on Firmpoints consume an additional two tons of space.”
“MISSILE BAY
Packed full of launchers, a missile bay can unleash salvos of warheads at a target, overwhelming its active defences. A small bay fires 12 missiles at a time, a medium bay fires 24, and a large bay can fire 120 missiles in a single round. Each bay holds enough missiles for 12 full salvos (so, 144 missiles in a small bay, 288 in a medium bay and 1,440 in a large bay).”
In each of these cases it specifically states the number of missile that can be launch per round and the number of missiles that the Barbette/Bay holds. I believe this is pretty conclusive evidence that each rack can only fire once each round this is also supported by the fact that a laser can be fired once each round either offensively or defensively not both.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
Rate of fire is an unresolved issue.
Since, in theory, you could ripple off a lot of missiles, and bullets, in a six minute window.
There have been, and suppose currently are, some spacecraft design options that would allow multiple missile launch from one launcher in one round.
With energy expenditure, you could argue overheating.
Since, in theory, you could ripple off a lot of missiles, and bullets, in a six minute window.
There have been, and suppose currently are, some spacecraft design options that would allow multiple missile launch from one launcher in one round.
With energy expenditure, you could argue overheating.
I guess it's another of those things were game balance overcame logic.
A gunner in a beam turret has to spend an entire 6 minute round concentrating on his target, while with missiles it's more a case of identify target, and release the hounds. I'll stick with 'rule zeroing' this one. We have weapons today that behave in this way, so I have a hard time believing we would somehow lose that ability 3602 years later.
A small craft in a dogfight (with unlimited ammo), will get to fire off a salvo every 6 seconds despite flying erratically and trying to stay alive, while a ship outside the dogfight with nothing else to do, will have 1/60th of the fire rate.
I always viewed a 6 minute ship combat round, like the rounds in some other games, were you are actually making several attempted attacks each round, and just rolling once to determine if something got hit. This makes plenty of sense in a beam on beam fight, but loses it's logic when guided missiles come into play.
Actually all our missile systems that fire multiple missiles at a time have multiple tubs/racks, once the ready missiles have been launched you have a short cool down before you can reload, I actually can’t find a single case where a single tube can rapidly fire multiple missiles. So no we don’t have weapons that behave this way.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Missile barbettes can.
MISSILE BARBETTE
Equipped with multilaunchers, a missile barbette can unleash a flurry of warheads at a target. A missile barbette fires five missiles at a time and holds enough missiles for five full salvos (a total of 25 missiles).
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If you notice it can only fire 5 one for each rack a turn just like a turret can only fire 1 missile per rack per turn. And this was exactly my point it can fire 1 missile per rack/tube per round.
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
It's a case of figuring out which platform is closest to the performance you want for your missiles, balanced by the baggage each brings with it.
Terry Mixon
Emperor Mongoose
Actually, it doesn't say how many launchers/racks it has. In fact, it calls them multi-launchers, implying that they can in fact fire more than one missile at a time. Perhaps it only has a rack of five for the multi-launcher and flushes them all at once. The number of reloads doesn't necessarily equate to the number of launchers.
