defensive options

[jatay3]

In the books it is often assumed that traders will carry weapons for their security. But they don't really need to fight, only to get away; and they are less likly to have skilled gunners then a pirate.
Perhaps things like stealth, sandcasters, etc, might be preferred. Or fake weapons; they would be cheaper then real ones and a merchant would probably not be able to fight if his bluff is called unless he had a large ship. Therefore fakes might serve the same purpose.

 

[jappel]

Paraphrashing: "A triple beam turret isn't something you need - until you need it badly."

But the intrepid PCs can certainly try the other approach. Being only a slightly Evil GM(tm), I'd probably let them slide for a few jumps before springing something on them...

John

 

[Ben W Bell]

The problem with escape for a merchant ship is that their drives are rarely as fast as the pirates. The pirate vessel should be able to outrun and out maneouvre the merchant, which leaves the options of fight or surrender.

 

[jfwking]

If flight is out (and it often is) then either surrender or fight. If you want to fight buy a twin plasma/fusion turret. Point defence if the pirates don't fall for the "we surrender, come and take the cargo" ruse and a tin opener if they do fall for it.
Or spend your money on personel armour and decent weapons shipboard plus some internal bulkheads. Build bunkers around the bridge and engineering, add some fixed weapons (whatever rapid fire the law allows).
Once you arrive in port with your decks covered in dead pirates and the customs guys begin to gossip about the fact that your ship is suicide to board then pirates will begin to hear.
Go for the fierce face paint job, act like a Qship but blow your own cover somehow. Buy fake turrets (tripple missile and twin hi-energy) then put a cheap plastic cover over them to hide them and have the cover fall off while in port. Rush around to put it back on but it will be noticed that your poor defenceless trader is packing and hiding some serious firepower. Have guys in very heavy personal armour lurk just inside the cargo bay on guard when you have guests in the dock, invite the merchant you are taking on high risk cargo for to inspect the ship with his lackeys and have everyone on board in uniform and armed/armoured. Put a few bulkhead doors/iris valves in place of normal doors. If no one ever goes into the room marked "main magazine, restricted access" they will never see its just a normal cabin.
Piracy works because the cost of getting the goods is less than the value of the goods. Once you get the rep for being able to inflict massive damage to a pirate ship you become too costly to attack. The same applies with getting the reputation of being a starmerc or goverment Qship. Pirates tend to move to systems that don't have you in them.
One very big downside to doing this comes from the major pirate clans and vargr. They may well decide to hunt you down with something realy big to make the sector safer for the rest of the pirates and a good reputation doesn't help when that happens.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Captain Jonah, I love it. Only problem is that Merchants tend to be under powered as well as slow. In the T20 "standard designs you don't have enough power in a Far Trader to run up a double Fusion. Missiles definitely cut into your profit margin. And unfortunately in T20 Energy mounts don't act as point defense, unlike High Guard it specifically says Lasers. However any competent gunner can shoot down a salvo of missiles with a factor 1 pulse laser. An average Naval Gunner (The kind supposed to be used as Merchie gunners) an 11 shoots down a factor 9 missile barrage and will cause damage to a typical pirate. So a pair of single Pulse Laser turrets is a great way to arm a Merchie. Now you just have to upgrade your powerplant to handle the extra 2 EP.

After all the "Standard Corsair" can only have 3 lasers and all the rest have to be non energy weapons. And since you both have 0 agility, and no real sensor range, run. A slightly better choice would be to add 3 ep go with a single Pulse laser and a single Fusion gun. (Might as well make the powerplant TL15 to go with your Fusion gun.) As soon as you are actually in detection range that fusion gun will be in range of the Pirate. And under the sensor rules in T20 he gets to detect you only in Fusion range anyway.

Granted at extreme Fusion gun range but the way the combat system works for starship combat you are still likely to hit him. (13+5+5+D20 to get 28 (9 range bands beyone the first, AC10, vs. gunner skill 11 gunnery skill focus factor 5 Fusion gun on Strategic scale.)) You hit on a 5+ for 5D20 damage (average 52.5) and a 28.5% chance for a crit (average 262.5). A 400T ship has SI of 160. Fire the factor 2 Pulse Laser after the crit and you might just get lucky enough to vaporize it.

Or of course just leave it there as an air bleeding hulk and let them fix it after you get away so they can warn the other Pirates about you.

On the flip side though a Factor 5 Fusion gun hit on a 200T ship will kill it with just over 2 average hits 105 and you have SI 115. (Or one hit using the extra 5 dice on Strategic scale and since most merchies only have level one sensors and Corsairs have level 2 sensors you might find out he is there by taking 105 SI damage. If the Corsair goes with two trip missile mounts finds one more EP and goes with two single fusion mounts on the other two hard points then it will rip up merchies but be easy prey to a Patrol Cruiser. I guess it better take one fusion, 2 single pulse lasers and a Trip Missile Rack.

Makes the Old Lucifer Class Destroyer Escort (FASA) a nasty customer for chasing Pirates, Factor 5FIB computer, Two Trip Lasers, Two Dual Fusion (One Battery) Jump 4, 6G, Agility 6 and Armor. (Of course if you give it the armor that FASA did then you can't design it under HG second edition or T20.

 

[Tanuki]

An alternative to upgrading the power plant is to put in a ton or two of capacitors and then charge them up before heading out or breaking out of jump.

At 36 EP per ton, you can get quite a few shots off before needing to recharge, and if any conflict lasts longer than that you're in big trouble anyway.

 

[mike wightman]

Kind of asks the question, why can't you charge the jump capacitors to be ready for combat? A black globed ship can freely use the EP from its jump capacitors to power weapons, agility etc., so why not charge them deliberately to gain a few shots in case of emergency?

 

[far-trader]

Well the Starship Operators Manual says the crystals (capacitors) will begin to decompose and breakdown after 2-3 hours if not discharged. In exterme cases quite explosively. I also recall another place (MT or TNE?) putting a two turn (iirc) limit on the ability to safely hold a charge.

I think that for a system (the jump drive, of which the capacitors are a big part) that is described as delicate and requiring an hour minimum between jumps and usually 16 hours for checks and recharging using such capacitors for other uses would dramatically affect the usable lifespan.

Of course for CT (which bore T20) there is no such specific problem and there was that solar charged jump capacitor deal.

Just off the top of my head I'd say make it an Engineering check (DC20?) each turn to monitor such use. Success and its fine, failure and you must abort that charging turn, spectacular failure and you have a capacitor failure and lose that many EP's of capacitor (destroyed) and take an internal hit of 1 point per EP (?).

At the very least I'd say each charge/discharge cycle should count as one month of use for purposes of maintenance, or require a successful Engineering check of Routine Maintenance to cancel the extra usage.

I don't know, its late, my brain went to sleep a couple hours ago and I probably shouldn't be typing

 

[Straybow]

Eh? Solar charged jump capacitor??? Sure, if you've got an acre-sized collector and year or so to wait.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Eh? Solar charged jump capacitor???

Annic Nova.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Since the higher TL Fusion plants are so much more effecient why would you add capacitors? If you manage to get half the cost of a TL 9-12 Fusion plant you will save space and can buy a TL-15 plant and not spend a dime. You will also get half again as much power. (For example a TL-12 powerplant that produces 4 EP is 6 tons, requires 4 tons of fuel and costs MCr 18. A TL-15 Fusion Plant that produces 6 EP weighs only 3 tons uses 3 tons of fuel and costs MCr9. Why would you take space and spend money on capacitors?

 

[far-trader]

I think the better idea was to use what you had rather than add some. For example a basic Free-Trader will have 0.5dT of capacitors for 18EP storage in the jump drive capacitors. Presumably the capacitors are idle during jump so you could charge them prior to emerging if you had the power.

Now as long as there is no time pressure on holding the charge (which seems to be the case in CT) you have some 450 turns to charge them during jump so you'd only need something like 0.04EP of powerplant dedicated to trickle charging them. So an investment of 0.1dT (and Mcr 0.18) gets you a trickle charge power plant at TL9 (including 4weeks fuel) and when you come out of jump you have 18EP for emergency agility (18 turns worth at +1 for the type A) or weapons (you could have both turrets loaded with triple lasers and get 3 turns worth of fire. I'd probably opt for 3 turns of agility (-3 EP) and 3 turns of fire with a dual beam (-6EP) for point defense and 3 turns of fire with a triple pulse (-9EP) for offensive fire and slide a missile launcher or sandcaster into the other slot on the beam turret for 3 turns worth of fire there.

Given how cheap and useful this would be I think there must be some kind of game balance effect introduced to offset it. I think this may have been the idea behind the time limit on holding the charge.

 

[jfwking]

True but even with a time limit of a few hours on holding the charge you are covered for the critical risk period. On the run out as you leave the area of fast navy/high guard response and head for the jump limit and the reverse on the way in.
This only realy causes a problem on the J1 tight designs like free traders, anything with more J than G (far trader/liner etc) has plenty of excess power for weapons and agility in normal space.
Or if you are planning on packing and using heavy firepower on your ships either spend some money and upgrade your power plant or put a ton aside and pack in a small generator. A Dton of fuel cells with a few hours fuel should cover an energy gap in emergencies, (What is the vehicle to starship scale up anyway?). There was an article for MT/TNE in a fold out with one of the hard times modules which covered building ships with twin power plant operating levels. Fuel for weeks at normal use and for a day at combat ops.
What you have to do is take a risk/cost assessment of the problems you have. If the risk is high enough and the cost is manageable you can always drift over the line to starmerc. If the risk does not justify the cost then fake turrets cost a few thousand creds at most.
Of course when you get caught in a fire fight with a big plastic triple beam you are in a lot of trouble but those are the risks you take flying underarmed into harms way.

 

[BetterThanLife]

I think I might not have been quite clear. The TL 15 Powerplant costs half as much as the TL9-12 powerplant to produce twice the power. If you get 1/2 price on trading in your old powerplant for a new one you get more power for less space and the same cost. Or building a new ship the TL-15 version is actually several MCr cheaper than the TL9-12 version. (Because a powerplant costs 3MCr per ton of plant, regardless of tech level.) So eating up space for capacitors or secondary powerplants and special energy management systems or whatever is actually handled cheaper and simpler by a Tech Level upgrade. Even switching to TL13 is the same price and half againas many EP. (IE. 4 EP becomes 6 EP for the same size and fuel consumption.)

 

[Straybow]

New PP cost is 3M/ton and salvage value of an old unit is 50% at a shipyard of that same TL. But a TL9-12 PP salvage value at a TL15 shipyard is far less than 50% of the new TL9-12 cost. They'd give 10% max. You'd get more money paying the yard for the removal cost and hauling the old unit back where it was built, assuming they remanufacture.

 

[jatay3]

My main argument is to repeat:

A. No merchant ship below a certain size can afford the armament, or trained personal to actually fight the pirates
B. Most merchants(except Aslan or Sword-worlders) would prefer to have their cargo lifted, than to have their ship damaged severely even in a victorious fight
C. It therefore follows that the priority is to avoid being preyed upon, rather than being able to resist predators.
D. Therefore equipment should reflect this.

The fake gun suggestion has one problem. It assumes enough other merchants are carrying real arms, to make the strategem believable. If everybody takes my advice, it becomes worthless-in this area. On the other hand these fake systems are cheap: a great argument.
More good can be gotten out of stealth coating, etc, for it will remain effective even when the pirates know about it.
Someone mentioned Q-ships. These are a good idea. They have to be common to be effective. One success will be ineffective and will warn the pirates. However if there are lots of Q-ships the warning to the pirates will be beneficial.A pirate has to attack; a fearful one is as good as a dead one.

 

[BetterThanLife]

Originally posted by Straybow:
New PP cost is 3M/ton and salvage value of an old unit is 50% at a shipyard of that same TL. But a TL9-12 PP salvage value at a TL15 shipyard is far less than 50% of the new TL9-12 cost. They'd give 10% max. You'd get more money paying the yard for the removal cost and hauling the old unit back where it was built, assuming they remanufacture.

Yeah well even getting back 10% is a good piece of the cost of the upgrade. Or pay for the new one move the old one to cargo and sell it elsewhere. (Perhaps on a TL7-8 planet?)

 

[BetterThanLife]

One problem with your argument. It assumes the Pirates are after the cargo. What is a cargo hold full of Air/Rafts or ATVs vs the price of the ship carrying them? Assuming that your pirate has enough cargo tonnage to take your cargo and time to transfer your cargo in space in the first place. The major goal of Piracy is the multi-million credit starship. If you hit a Far Trader with Cargo worth a million per ton. (Good luck on that one.) The MCr65 is icing on the cake considering the ship itself is worth MCr68. (Well that does depend on what version of Traveller you are playing. T20 MCr68, CT MCr 61, MT (Where you really get the bargains) MCr41.) You take the whole ship, cargo and all you save yourself lots of headaches. If the Ship fights back, no matter how feebly, it costs you lots of profit. It also causes damage to both your shipand your prize. A fight also alerts local system defenses that something is going on. (If any.) Pirates have much more to lose in combat than a Merchant does. After allif the Merchant just surrenders what are the chances that he will be allowed to leave with his ship or even alive? After all if he gets to leave alive he can identify the Pirate to the authorities. Not good. (For the Pirate.) If the Crew is allowed to live then they can report things stolen and make them harder to fence. If the crew is dead there is nobody to report the ship stolen or even the cargo stolen and that buys the Pirate time.

Originally posted by jatay3:
My main argument is to repeat:

A. No merchant ship below a certain size can afford the armament, or trained personal to actually fight the pirates
B. Most merchants(except Aslan or Sword-worlders) would prefer to have their cargo lifted, than to have their ship damaged severely even in a victorious fight
C. It therefore follows that the priority is to avoid being preyed upon, rather than being able to resist predators.
D. Therefore equipment should reflect this.

The fake gun suggestion has one problem. It assumes enough other merchants are carrying real arms, to make the strategem believable. If everybody takes my advice, it becomes worthless-in this area. On the other hand these fake systems are cheap: a great argument.
More good can be gotten out of stealth coating, etc, for it will remain effective even when the pirates know about it.
Someone mentioned Q-ships. These are a good idea. They have to be common to be effective. One success will be ineffective and will warn the pirates. However if there are lots of Q-ships the warning to the pirates will be beneficial.A pirate has to attack; a fearful one is as good as a dead one.

 

[aramis]

Best Q-Ship action I've seen was a player group deciding to acquire some battlefield meson guns... as in, dirstide type. Roll up, let the pirates think she's cooperating, then target their PP... most PP's on pirate craft will fit inside the 10m destruction sphere....

 

[BetterThanLife]

My Favorite Q-Ship was a 600T liner with only Jump-2, more staterooms, to carry a Platoon of Marines, bigger powerplant, 4G Maneuver drive two triple lasers, and a triple sandcaster (So it looks like a nice quiet Liner) and three concealed single Fusion gun turrets. By the time the pirate gets in close enough to get good sensor reads it is too late. If your Marines look like passengers dirtside and you actually carry cargo you can look just like a Liner. (Oh and if you want you can always put a fighter or two in the cargo hold.

Or a Pinace for boarding actions is also a good idea.