Brilliant lances duel

[warwizard]

Greetings fellow travellers, this thread is for a forces description, and combat report for a brilliant lances based game.

Synopsys:
Three people will each design up a single TL 14 200 Dt J1 starship for use in a duel.
The budget is 100MCr and 1 sophant. (Expert robots may be used to fill additional needed job functions)
No more than 6 drones or small craft or missiles may be in play for each player at the end of any turn, though any number of short duration missiles may be deployed as long as they make their attack and are removed from play the same turn.
Designs are to be produced using T4 FF&S II, Book 8 Robots. All craft, drones, and missiles will be designed by each player.

Rules: Brilliant Lances, Complete sensor rules, T4 FF&S II, Book 8 Robots.

1. House rules concerning CEP of beam weapons and evasive maneurving.
2. Ships and craft do not have a "hard point" limitation, and may exceed 6 g's if only robot brains are aboard.
3. Launched craft and missiles from a detected and or target locked craft are not automatically detected and target locked, but do get a free detection attempt at a +1 to the item's signature. Failure results in a bogey marker, critical failure or <0 adjusted signature results in no marker, so a sensor drone may be deployed without the other player detecting it.
4. Kenetic kill missiles are added with their DV generated by the missile's mass and combined closing vector.
5. Craft and missiles attempting to collide with an unwilling target must devote 4X the target's evasive maneuvering to interception maneuvering, and interception maneuvering does NOT count as evasive maneuvering when it is engaged by point defenses.
6. Interception and evasive maneuvering do not make any change to the vector, but do allow facing changes.
7. Each duel is between two players with the third acting as the referee. At a player's request, a given turn may be played out at a smaller time scale, allowing scales as low as 6 seconds per impulse as missiles are engaged by point defenses.

No items may be at higher than TL 14, no experimental equipment, no imports. Planetoid configurations ARE available. Battle is over when the Sophont is killed, all robots must maintain telemetry links to their Sophont, and surrender when their telemetry indicates the Sophont has died, or 2 turns after the telemetry links are severed and are unable to be reestablished.


Commentary. Inventiveness is encouraged, I expect to see somebody sneak a drone close to a target and then swamp the target with dozens of short duration attack missiles. ECM, ECCM, chaff, and nuclear detonations and all other sorts of other tactics are encouraged to mislead or prevent the attacker from shooting.

Good luck and shoot straight.

 

[mike wightman]

Couple of things:

ships constructed using FF&S1 or 2 don't use CT hardpoint limits ever

ships in FF&S1 and 2 can stack g compensation so that performances well in excess of 6g are possible anyway, in T4 there is a 14g fighter IIRC

 

[warwizard]

Thanks Mike, I included the bit about the no hardpoint limit mostly to inform the readers here, as many of the readers on this board are CT, Bk2, BK5, TCS only.
I was under the impression that the g-compensation had a upper limit by tech level + one additional g with an acceleration couch, so yes you could exceed 6 g's but beyond G-comp + acceleration couch +1 normal g, the Sophont crew would be under increasing limitations. The 6g limit is intended to be the walking around and doing stuff limit at TL 14.
I placed the 6g limit into the scenario rules, so that the players upon observing a craft pulling 10 g's, will know they do not have to "kill" that craft to win.

 

[aramis]

Warwizard: you can usually buy double system for x1.5G compensated. I did it enough to remember that. Plus, in a fighter, you can get fluid tanks for an extra (IIRC) 3G's above that. I remember building a 12G fighter with no GILOC issues at TL15... at TL16, it's G-suit... 10.5G IC, + couch and G-suit, 12.5 G comp. The issue was getting sufficient ∆V to make it useful.

 

[warwizard]

Aramis,
That appears to be a house rule, I've reviewed the FF&S II section on environmental gravity and the erratta, and can find no such ruling. I do see where the life support endurance may be extended by including more volume and mass to the life support equipment.

 

[aramis]

Warwizard: I've never used FF&S2... only BL & FF&S1.

 

[Starviking]

ships in FF&S1 and 2 can stack g compensation so that performances well in excess of 6g are possible anyway, in T4 there is a 14g fighter IIRC

I think that was a T4 thing - IIRC FF&S1 didn't mention stacking g-comp.

 

[whartung]

I like how this presentation requires people to own portions of 3 completely different versions of Traveller...

 

[warwizard]

Ok no response yet on the erratta question posted in the shipyard forum concerning peneratation rating on the lasers and the nuclear bomb pumped laser table in FF&S II, so my players have adopted the following house rule for the lasers:
IPR =.4 * SQR(intensity) this is half of the IPR seen in FF&S , and is intended to make it possiable to actually stop the lower power or out of range laser strikes.
DV =3.6 * sqrt(intensity) as per the erratta
Warhead table DV's changed by 3.6/2.5, and the penetration values recalculated per the new DV's and the above formula.

Now that the rules are more firmed up we are proceeding with the design phase of the hardware. Hope to have the designs posted by July 5.

 

[warwizard]

House rule: Effects of jump exit
Besides the signature +1 VIS Blue flash, there is excess heat that has built up while in jump.
The IR Signature will have a mod applied as follows: +1.5 for the first three hours, +1 for six more hours and +.5 for twelve hours after that.
Emm levels reduce this by 1/2, 1/10, and 1/20 depending on the level of EMM mounted. Immersion in atmosphere will reduce the time by 1/2, 1/10/ 1/20, depending on density (Thin or better) and in water by 1/100, but steam clouds might be visable from orbit .

 

[warwizard]

The first ship is nearing completion:
200 Dt dome, armour 20 (this is minimum armour)
J1 6 G's 5 1/2 hours of maneuver at 6 g's 1 4 ton stateroom, G comp to 5 G's
Life support Class IV extended, full water and air recycling
50 Dt weapon bay mounting a meson gun
25 Dt weapon bay loaded with missiles
several point defense lasers 14-1/2 78 hex short range ROF 100
Short, medium and long range 14-1/2, extreme range 8-1
beam pointer range bands are: 16 33 66 133
Meson Gun ROF 10 DV 27 short range 68,000 KM
range 2 4 9 18
DV 27 13 6 3

three 1000 AU laser comms are carried, as well as 1 MFD and 2 500,000 KM range beam pointers

The ship has 2 levels of stealth and one level of EMM giving the signatures of -.5 in all three ratings.

one nuclear damper projector is carried with a range of 35,000 KM

The ship mounts 3 computers and has several robot brains installed, with slave units as needed for the gunnery and screens positions.

Offensive Missiles no larger than 2.25 M3 each, mix of long range nuclear det laser heads, Kenetic kill, jammer and short range nuclear det. All missiles mount a LIDAR system and are simi autonomious the missile bay is equipped with autoloaders and ready racks, extra rounds are carried in the meson gun bay utilizing the nearly 450 m3 of unused space in that bay
There is provision for 4 docking rings for drones and a 4Dt hangar, one docking ring for a 2Dt small craft
Drones mount a passive EMS sensor , a 50000 KM range MFD and a lidar system, for close in defense they carry 5 point defense missiles in box launchers and 1 point defense laser.

Drones are intended to be as stealthy as possiable, they mount a 1.01 M/W Fusion power plant and a Heplar drive, 12.5 sens PEMS, 14.0 Sens Lidar, 1 1000 AU Laser comm. a battery is carried sufficient to run the electronics for several hours, allowing the fusion drive to be shut down. A PV panel is provided as an auxilarry power sourse (not usefull in this engagement, no star nearby) a MFD is mounted, but may not have much in the way of range.

The 2 Dt small craft is the player's escape vehicle 6 G's , and a goodly supply of fuel /armour, mounting a PEMS 12.5 , LIDAR 14 and 1000 Au Laser Comm point defense laser with short range beam pointer.

 

[warwizard]

The Drones for players 2 and 3 have been built, one guy built a cadalac, and the other built a VW
The "cadalac" model:
2 drones 11.24 Mcr mounting sensitivity 13 PEMS, 1000 Au Laser comm command guidance, EMM advanced, 2 levels of stealth and military black coatings for signatures of Active -2 , IR -2.5 and Vis -3. Drone volume is 2.5 kl and they mass 1.91 mt, and do 10.7g for 19.75 hours. Hull is sphere with 20 AV. .018 Dt, 1.68m Dia

VW version
10 drones for 11.84Mcr mounting sensitivity 12.5 PEMS, 1000AU Km Laser comm, target memory and command guidance. Advanced EMM, three levels of stealth and military black is installed for signatures Active -2, EMM -2 and Vis -2.5. Hull is 2.5 kl 1.87 mt sphere armoured to armour 20 and is able to vector 10.7 G's for 25 1/2 hours. Designer specified that this drone will be used as a kenetic kill missile to finish off targets as well as being able to scout around and find and return target lock handoffs. .18 Dt 1.68m Dia


Two missiles are ready:

Semi autonomious KK missile sporting a Sens 13.5 Lidar system 500,000 KM laser comm Heplar, small Fusion plant and command and target memory in a .71 cubic meter hull armoured to AV = 10 Cr 275,225 in quantity 18.5 g's for 1.5 hours. No stealth, hull coatings or EMM is installed. Acceprs a target lock handoff and attacks that target Or can operate as a standard command guided missile. Signatures Active -.5, IR -1, and Vis -1.5 .05Dt 1.1 m Dia

And a basic command guided KK missile, 500,000 Km laser comm and command guidance module 19.5 G's for 1 1/2 hours. AV=10 .6 kl 50,000 Cr, no stealth, EMM or hull coatings applied. This is the overwhelm his point defenses missile, cheap and small. Signatures Active -.5, IR -1, and Vis -1.5 0.04 tons needle 6.12 long, and 0.62 m Dia

 

[longshot393]

‘ello I am one of the 3 duelist that has been selected today my ship is a
200tn ship slab 48.3m by 12.075m by 4.9m
Armored to 3000 on 1 facing (more than biggest laser can penetrate)
J1 5.1g’s for 12 h (5 jumps capable if maneuver fuel is used for jump)
2 spare drives to be able to evade and still keep the same facing.
1 meson gun ROF of 179 every ½ hour
Range 17, 34, 68, 136
Dam 95, 48, 23, 12
2 drones as noted above
1 active and pas sensor min size
1 lidar 15
I hope to close upon my target and just pop hem with a mason while ignoring his direct fire weapons and using evasion to avoid kinetic kill missiles until I get to a range where it won’t matter if they hit me. (Not enough run time to get to impact damage over 3k)

 

[warwizard]

Referee note: the Meson gun noted above has a beam pointer that has range bands 16, 33, 66, 133. The bands Longshot noted were derived from the weapon's performance over range, which will be used for the damage step, but the beam pointer range bands are used for the to hit step.

 

[warwizard]

Ok another drone design is completed.
4 for Mcr 23.21068 including 1 box launcher carried KK cmd guided missile
size 7m3
mass 7.92mt
cost 5.66 Mil Std before calculating for design fees or bulk discounts.
configuration 0.5 tons sphere 2.37 m Dia armoured to level 40
Streamlining streamlining unstreamlined
Power plant fusion power
powerplant fuel 2 weeks endurance
Maneuver drive HePLAR
maneuver drive fuel 21.38 hours Fuel Lhyd
Electronics Master Fire director 50,000km
Robot Brain pilot gunner
Sensors passive scanner PEMS 13
Communicators Laser 1000 AU
Box launcher for missile
1 KK cmd guided missile
stealth level 3
Military Ultra black
Advanced EMM
Signatures Vis IR Active
-2.5 -2 -1.5
acceleration 5.150455037

Notes: Acceleration increases to 6g's when the carried missile is fired or jettisoned. Two minimal sized HePlar units are fitted, drone may throttle down to 2.5 g's to reduce the signature of maneuvering.
Robot Brain is int 7 EDU 10, has Pilot 2 and Gunnery 2, and costs approximately Cr180,000.

Yes sports fans this 1/2 ton standard sized missile/drone does indeed carry a MFD AND another missile. It is intended to stealthilly preposition close to the enemy and use it's MFD to provide terminal guidance for missiles launched by other ships and or drones. End game tatics are to wait till the enemy has exhausted their maneuver fuel, and deliver KK missile strikes to put the targets down hard.

 

[warwizard]

Given to me by GreenDragonKing, his ship appears below:

"OKAY i have been buged to post my ship i am the 3rd combatent
21 m sphere
100 mcr
200 ton
6 g of thrust
64 hrs of fuel
jump 1
1 damage value 86 laser with a short range of 80 hexs and
a beam pointer of 16.6 short range

25 lasers dv 16 short range of 3 hexs
set up in batterys of 5 each
to be used in point defence

10 senser drones
20 point def missles in box launchers
detetion value of
0 vis
-.5 IR
.5 active

and a senser with a senitivity of 13
18 crew

the ship has 800 cubic meters of equipment and about 2000 cubic meters of fuel."

 

[warwizard]

ok 1 long range 500Kt nuclear bomb pumped laser missile...
18.01 Mcr Std price first one is 19.808Mcr follow on are 14.406Mcr
Volume 2.5 spherical hull armour 75 1.684m dia
mass 4.92mt
2.3Mw, 400Kn thrust for 1 1/2 hours at 8.3g's
1 long range bomb pumpped nuclear warhead
(FF&S I from TNE specifies these include a tracker and a laser recieve only communicator, so the tracker and communicator do not need to be added again. the FF&S II warheads have same volumes, so am assumming the same internal components) (I am assumming the mass of the warhead is that of a standard nuclear weapon plus that of the tracker and communicator, so I am leaving in the mass of the communicator and tracker but deleting the volume and price, the battery is not needed as these have an electrical power sourse to power the electronics)
Installed tracker is 13.5 sens Lidar
installed communicator is 500,000 Km Laser
has laser communications, target memory and command guidance packages
All signatures have been fully stealthed for IR Active and visable signatures of -2.5, -2, and -3 respectively

unaffordatanium at that price, I'm not buying any of these, the warhead alone is 12 Mcr.

Short range det missiles tomorrow, finish my load out and publish the 2 Dt small craft. Good night

 

[warwizard]

on the subject of the bomb pumped X-Ray laser warheads, I've reversed engineered the DE needed for the published values in table 93 and 94... then did a linear extrapolation into the smaller warheads listed in table 91, The last two entries in table 93 and 94 were not linear with the rest, so here are the DE and DV values for all the listed warheads:


Yield Nuke laser DE values DV
__0.1 ____2 _______________5
__0.5 ___10 ______________11
__1 _____20 ______________16
__2 _____40 ______________23
__5 ____100 ______________36
_10 ____200 ______________51
_20 ____400 ______________72
_50 ___1000 _____________114
100 ___2000 _____________161
200 ___4000 _____________228
500 __10000 _____________360

Additional warheads can be extrapolated from this progression, with the 1000kt and larger warheads being fusion with fission starters at TL below 11, and gravetic induced fusion at TL 11 and above.
At much higher tech levels you get the gravity bombs where some the of the mass of the missile is dropped into a gravetic induced micro-blackhole, with the rest of the mass ejected carrying away the energy released, destroying the gravetic modules, and allowing the micro blackhole to evaporate. The net effect is to transmute part of the missile mass into 1 large unstable nuclear element, which undergoes rapid decay eventually resulting in iron.

The standard nuclear warhead table 91 does not have prices listed.
For use as a X-ray laser use the costs from Table 93 and extrapolate, reducing cost by .1mcr for each warhead size smaller. halve this price if using as a standard nuclear warhead instead of an X-Ray bomb pumpped laser:
price Yield
0.1 ___ 0.1
0.2 ___ 0.5
0.3 ___ 1
0.4 ___ 2
0.5 ___ 5
0.6 __ 10
0.7 __ 20
0.8 __ 50
0.9 _ 100
1.1 _ 200
1.2 _ 500

Table 93 and 94 do not have a mass listed.
Extrapolate from table 91 for the size in cm for the yields:

size __ Yield
17 _____ 0.1
18 _____ 0.5
19 _____ 1
20 _____ 2
21 _____ 5
22 ____ 10
23 ____ 20
24 ____ 50
25 ___ 100
26 ___ 200
27 ___ 500

then use table 84 for the mass of just the nuclear device,
add in the mass of the communicator and tracker you select
add in the mass of a battery sufficient to power the electronics for the duration of the maneuver sections endurance, may delete the battery if a power plant is installed and has the same or greater endurance. add 10kg for a short range lazing array, or 80kg for a long range lazing array.

The 1d6 hits rule does not have allowances for larger or smaller targets.
Assign the 1d6 to be to used when hitting a standard 100 Dt Spherical target at the warhead's designed short range of 15,000, 30,000 or 60,000 Km as shown in the discussion in the text for the nuclear bomb pumped X-Ray lasers. Assume the lasing array for the 15,000 Km array has 10,000 lazing rods and covers a 30 arc seconds CEP, the 30,000 Km array has 80,000 lazing rods to cover the same 30 arc seconds, and the 60,000 KM array uses 80,000 lazing rods to cover a 15 arc second CEP.calculate the ratio of standard target facing area to the target's effective facing area, and multiply by 1d6 round to closest integer, with a 0 or less result generating only one beam impact on a successfull hit.

The above assumptions allows the following usages:
Non maneuvering undefended target... missile is allowed to approach to the point that the CEP exactly covers the area of the hull before detonation, generating 1000 to 80,000 hits depending on the accuracy of the shot and the type of lazing array.

Missiles may be detonated at longer than standard ranges reducing the number of possiable hits by the ratio of the effective target size compared to the standard target, and the power of the hits, the DV calculated exactly like that of any other laser firing at beyond short range.

Example Std target is 13.9m diameter and a Tigress is 237 m diameter. At 8X the standard range the effective target size of the tigress is still twice the diameter of the 100 Dt std target, generating 4D6 hits, each hit has only 1/8 the standard intensity before calculating SQRT(i)*3.6. so that big 500kt LR nuke set off at 8 hexes would have SQRT(10000*30000/240000)*3.6 DV= 127 DV, still quite capable of damaging surface features, delivering up to 7 major hits.

 

[warwizard]

ok a nice cheap nuclear missile design, Short Range bomb pumped X-Ray Laser DV18
Command and target memory guidance
Hull 0.07 tons displacement hull (.942 m3) armour factor 10
configuration 0.07 tons cylinder 2.43 m long, and 0.69 m Dia
mass 1.27 mt 16.11 G's for 1 1/2 hours
1.13 Mw Fusion power, 2 weeks endurance
200 kN HePLAR maneuver drive, 48 gturns
warhead 1 Kt nuclear Det laser
500,000 Km Laser comm
12.5 Sens Lidar
stealth level 3
military black
Advanced EMM
Signatures Vis IR Active
-2.5 -2 -2
Std cost .67mcr
with design fee .7417mcr
in serial production .5394mcr


Per house rules this has penetration value 2 putting 8 DV through a standard unarmoured hull, which is enough for 1 major hit.

 

[warwizard]

and a slightly more powerfull warhead , but with a sphere configuration, and less armoured hull.
10Kt bomb pumped X-Ray Laser DV = 35 (House rule PV = 4)

0.07 tons displacement hull Armoured to level 5 rated for 18 g's
0.07 tons sphere 1.2m long, and 1.2 m Dia 1.15 mt
1.13Mw Fusion power, 2 weeks endurance
200 kN HePLAR maneuver drive, 53 Gturns 17.69 G's
command Guidance, Target memory guidance
Laser comm module
10kt Nuclear warhead
500,000 Km Laser comm
sens 12.5 Lidar
short range X-Ray lasing array
stealth level 3
military black
Advanced EMM
Signatures
Vis IR Active
-2.5 -2 -2
Std price .84 Mcr
price with design fee .9287 Mcr
serial production price .6754 Mcr