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Fusion guns & critical hits--am I missing something?

G

graden1

SOC-12
I hope I've got this wrong, actually.

On a critical hit, armor is bypassed. And fusion guns add x5 damage on a critical. So it appears my TL-14 fighter with its single fusion gun (base dmg 5d20) does an additional 25d20 on a critical, applied directly to the target's SI. This is sufficient to "one-shot" a destroyer--ouch! But how likely is that to actually happen in play?

It gets even better with a 50-ton bay fusion gun (9d20); a critical from that weapon could possibly take out a cruiser! The same logic applies to a squadron of fighters with dual fusion guns, firing as a USP-factor 9 battery.

If that's a correct interpretation of the T20 rules, then fighters have suddenly become far more potent than in previous versions of Traveller. But, like I said, I might be missing something here. Any comments?

Thanx heaps,

Digital Golem v2.0
 
I think you've got it right. Do bear in mind the incredibly short range of those Fusion weapons (4500km). Basically the capital ships should be trying to blast them away before they get clsoe enough to use those weapons, otherwise they WILL hurt!
 
Originally posted by Falkayn:
I think you've got it right. Do bear in mind the incredibly short range of those Fusion weapons (4500km). Basically the capital ships should be trying to blast them away before they get clsoe enough to use those weapons, otherwise they WILL hurt!
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Yes, that's one drawback, and for that reason I posed the question in terms of fighter/gunship weapons, because those types have the acceleration to close the range quickly. (6g's)

The thing is, I've got this really nasty TL-15 fighter with 6g accel, agility 6, armor 15, and of course, the fusion gun. It looks like a legal design, but it also looks like it could un-balance the game in ship-to-ship combat. So I'm trying very hard to figure out the best counter-measures to use against this beast.

Anyone up for "Billion Credit Squadron" T20-style?

Thanx heaps,

DGv2.0
 
Originally posted by Digital Golem v2.0:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Falkayn:
I think you've got it right. Do bear in mind the incredibly short range of those Fusion weapons (4500km). Basically the capital ships should be trying to blast them away before they get clsoe enough to use those weapons, otherwise they WILL hurt!
Click to expand...
Yes, that's one drawback, and for that reason I posed the question in terms of fighter/gunship weapons, because those types have the acceleration to close the range quickly. (6g's)

The thing is, I've got this really nasty TL-15 fighter with 6g accel, agility 6, armor 15, and of course, the fusion gun. It looks like a legal design, but it also looks like it could un-balance the game in ship-to-ship combat. So I'm trying very hard to figure out the best counter-measures to use against this beast.

Anyone up for "Billion Credit Squadron" T20-style?

Thanx heaps,

DGv2.0</font>[/QUOTE]I haven't played gearhead with the T20 ship design rules yet, but in High Guard a friend of mine had the concept of the "Fighter Destroyer", he basically took a destroyer sized ship and put a large number of lasers on it, but put each turret in it's own battery. So, he had a lot of UPP 3 laser batteries on the ship, as opposed to a few UPP 9, since the idea was to make a point defence escort for a larger capital ship, not a destroyer designed to take out another destroyer.

Anyway, he never tested this, so I don't know if his "fighter destroyer" is flawed, or if the idea even translates well to T20, but I'm just throwing this idea out, i.e. a lot of small laser batteries on a smaller capital ship, ad a possible idea.
 
Originally posted by Cleon the Mad:
I haven't played gearhead with the T20 ship design rules yet, but in High Guard a friend of mine had the concept of the "Fighter Destroyer", he basically took a destroyer sized ship and put a large number of lasers on it, but put each turret in it's own battery. So, he had a lot of UPP 3 laser batteries on the ship, as opposed to a few UPP 9, since the idea was to make a point defence escort for a larger capital ship, not a destroyer designed to take out another destroyer.

Anyway, he never tested this, so I don't know if his "fighter destroyer" is flawed, or if the idea even translates well to T20, but I'm just throwing this idea out, i.e. a lot of small laser batteries on a smaller capital ship, ad a possible idea.
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That might work. Firing turret weapons individually rather than in batteries would require either a larger crew, or computer fire control. But that may be a viable option for a ship with a model 9 computer.

This could turn into a very interesting arms race!

DGv2.9
 
Originally posted by Digital Golem v2.0:
The thing is, I've got this really nasty TL-15 fighter with 6g accel, agility 6, armor 15, and of course, the fusion gun. It looks like a legal design, but it also looks like it could un-balance the game in ship-to-ship combat. So I'm trying very hard to figure out the best counter-measures to use against this beast.

Anyone up for "Billion Credit Squadron" T20-style?
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DG, I'd be up for it, I've managed to get a reasonably nice spreadsheet together for starship design, so churning out 100 ships is easy (of course wargaming that many might take a while!).

You can contact me at:
angus_at_falkayn.com

With the _at_ changed to @ of course.
 
Fusion Gun/Missile Cruiser, anyone? Perhaps a cruiser with primarily missile bays and fusion guns, high accel and a few lasers for point defense.
 
Evening and Happy Holidays to all,

T20 standard rules for bay weapons state, from THB p271 that:
1 bay removes 10 hardpoints from the ship.

1 bay, regardless of bay size, can be installed per 1000 ship tons, rounded down.

However there is an optional rule that allows bays to be used on ships less than 1000 tons.

So most craft in the "fighter" class would not be able to carry a weapons bay. The 50 ton bay needs a power plant to provide power for the bay and then for all the other important thing coputer, manever drive, etc. However, the idea of mounting a bay on ship smaller than 1000 tons would be a nasty surprise.
 
Originally posted by Digital Golem v2.0:
If that's a correct interpretation of the T20 rules, then fighters have suddenly become far more potent than in previous versions of Traveller. But, like I said, I might be missing something here.
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lol - near-suicidal attacks on moon-sized battle platforms anybody?
file_21.gif


Seriously: that interpretation of the rules looks right to me. Fusion guns should be deadly, you're basically throwing a chunk from the core of a star at the target. If you hit something vital (as represented by a Critical Hit) then it is gonna HURT!!!
The short range means that the weapon might have problems dealing out any damage to the target, if it's carrying anything with a decent range.
 
I have followed your design through the rulez and I think your right - which is good as the old laser based rampart class fighters were never much cop. I was always surprised that in the age of Star Wars the design system made fighters so poor. In my view the T20 fiddles make the fighter more of what Sci Fi RPG players want. Horah!
 
Originally posted by BigBadRon:
The short range means that the weapon might have problems dealing out any damage to the target, if it's carrying anything with a decent range.
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That's what pop up turrets are for.
 
Originally posted by Thomas Rux:
Evening and Happy Holidays to all,

T20 standard rules for bay weapons state, from THB p271 that:
1 bay removes 10 hardpoints from the ship.

1 bay, regardless of bay size, can be installed per 1000 ship tons, rounded down.

However there is an optional rule that allows bays to be used on ships less than 1000 tons.

So most craft in the "fighter" class would not be able to carry a weapons bay. The 50 ton bay needs a power plant to provide power for the bay and then for all the other important thing coputer, manever drive, etc. However, the idea of mounting a bay on ship smaller than 1000 tons would be a nasty surprise.
Click to expand...
Yes, this is where it gets interesting; that under-1000t ship gives up *half* of its hardpoints to mount the 50-ton bay. So for example, a 400t gunboat with a meson bay can still tack on a couple of missile turrets, which make it nuclear-capable. (Yes, I designed this, but I washed my hands afterwards!)

My only real "hang-up" with this is that it really changes the optimum mix of ship types with respect to previous versions of Traveller. So, given all these new developments, do the old dreadnaught types (Plankwell, Tigress, etc.) still have a useful place in the OTU? Or are they just another artifact that simply worked better with the old rules and not with the new?

thanx heaps,

DGv2.0
 
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