Firing Weapons in Squadron Strike

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To fire a weapon, find the range to the target in the first column (RNG or Range) on a weapon table and read across. Shading on the range column means it takes action points to fire the weapon. The second column (ACC or Accuracy) is target number you need to equal or exceed to hit the target on a 10-sided die (d10).

The third column (DMG or Damage) shows how much basic damage the weapon does every time it hits. The fourth column (PEN or Penetration), gives the maximum damage from a special die roll called 2d10-. A fourth d10 tells the target what part of the ship you hit, and all of these dice can be rolled at once to save time, calling out “Hit, 8 points to location 7.” (The two penetration dice need to be the same color, and the other two dice need to be different colors from each other and from the penetration device, so that you can tell which dice are which! For example, a red die to his, a pair of blue dice for penetration, and a white die for hit location.)

 

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Armor and Hit Locations

The total damage that each weapon does is reduced by the armor value of the facing that's being hit. Armor values are shown on the pictures of the ship on top of shield icons. The icons make up a track because you can lose armor as a damage result (usually from really bad damage).

If you take a look at the Kinunir sheet, you'll that the column just to the right of the picture of the Kinunir has the "big rows" numbered 1 through 10. Those are the hit locations.

 

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Missiles

Missiles work just a little bit differently than beam weapons. First, they take one turn to reach their targets*, so you have to aim that where the target will be at the end of its move! This also means that the range when they hit isn't always the same as the range when the were fired, which can change their Accuracy and other factors. Second, you can use lasers and energy cannon to shoot down missiles on their way in ...

*There's an abstraction here--we don't try to figure exactly how long it would take the missiles to reach their targets. In theory, it could round down to hitting on the same turn, or it could take several turns. Since this is affected by the relative vectors of the firing and target ships, it's a lot of work. We decided use the semi-direct fire missile model from Squadron Strike for Traveller missiles simply because trying to fly hundreds of missile volleys around the map in 3D would make the game grind to a halt. Some concessions were made to sanity and fun.

 

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You can find out about the AVID Assistant App, which automates a lot of the navigation and firing arc functions for new players. It makes it a lot easier to convince people to try Traveller Squadron Strike and for them to really enjoy it instead of worrying about the 3D rules. If the Kickstarter makes the stretch goals, we'll be able to add full-scale movement plotting to it, which will make things even easier for new players. Only 3 days left, so go show your support.

 

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Folks, please see the TAS News Feed section for our new announcement.