Missiles in T20

[legate_legion]

Hello fellow Travellers;

I have been thinking about Missiles & Missile Launchers in Traveller in general & T20 in detail.

Now what about some form of solid shot for them or KK Missiles?

Just a few random thoughts from a random human...

 

[Vladimir]

Abso-Fragin-Lutely!!

T20 lacks a lot missile launchers that other editions have had, and a hypervelocity missile would make a lot of sense.

Such a missile would practically ignore a vehicles armor. The bad side to this is that HVM's are very powerful weapons, and a good GM would be wise not to let player characters have them.

 

[snrdg082102]

Lo all,

I am not sure what is met by the other Traveller versions, but after CT: Book 5 High Guard missiles, at least from my experience, lost a lot of effectiveness. This includes the kk or nuclear types, since point defense knocks most, if not all, of them out before they can cause damage.

 

[far-trader]

Off the top of my scattered brain I recall a snooper drone, missile sized (the old big ones, one per launcher) and launched. Great for surveys and less scientific uses. It might have been in a Scouts supplement or article, or a fabrication of our game. TNE has spawned a whole host of toys to slip into a launcher, mines (realistic or not) for one. Most of those can be found on the BARD pages in the VERA section under Satellites.

For T20 I'm toying with the idea of the described missiles (9 per launcher if I recall) being a standard civilian rack load (single box cartridge of 9 missiles that loads into the launcher as a unit) of simple kinetic kills. The idea being to swarm (small swarm if its just one launcher) the target and hope some get through. The military (i.e. Nukes and Det Las) missiles would be single missiles of the same volume as the civilian cartridge and include sophisticated electronics. Game effect, no change. The standard missile magazine would carry (per dT) 10 civ missiles (as per the book) or 3 loaded cartridges (more convient but a bit bulkier) or 3 mil spec missiles. Individual civ missiles could be easily toted by hand to reload but the big ones or full cartridges would require a block and tackle on a track or gravitics for loading. This vision was inspired in part by the graphic on page 245 of the book showing to my mind a double launcher turret firing two mil missiles. To me Traveller missiles have always been more akin to torpedoes.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Far Trader has the right of it, them TNE variety missiles were verra nice. My fav is the Seeker Mine dispenser missile.(barbette/ torpedo sized) launched. Each one holds 5 of the nasty critters..
Then again, the Solomani made some TL-8 mass driven mines real cheap too fer the war..KK kills at 3km per second velocity, and no signature.
all of these are on the Vera/ BARD site.

Web mining, its not just fun, its educational!

 

[manley_t]

In my exisiting T20 campaign I have modifed things has follows.

Standard missiles are civilian models and their true acceleration is equal to 6 * the TL of the missile. They are about the size of a modern TOW missile. Military version have an acceleration equal to 1.5X the civilians. So, a TL 10 missile has an acceleration of 60G and a military version has an accelertation of 90G. The damage for each missile is equal to the warhead 1D6 + 1D6 per 10G (so a civilian missile has a total of 7D6 if it hits -- military has 10D6). Note--nuke warheads still do 5d6 -- so a TL10 nuke military missile does 14D6.

I also have heavy versions of standard weapons. One such weapon will fit into a single turret (ala barbetted). Heavy version have 5x cost require 4x power, do 3x damage and have 2x range.

I have also included a torpedo launcher. The launcher is a barbette -- takes a hard-point and is a one torpedo loaded at a time thing.

Each torpedo is 1ton and has an acceleration of 3G times the TL. So a TL10 has 30G acceleration. and do a base 10d12. I've got rules for different warheads and proximity or impact, but none of them handy just now. The base (for easiness) is just 10d12.

Since I'm running my own universe all the ship designs are unique to the 7 governments in it. I'm also using the T20 1/2 fuel consumption for refined fuel for jumps.

I've added battery rules for storing energy...basically I've taken the vehicle battery rules and have expanded the numbers to match ship sizes.

All of this has given interesting things. Some ships are 'heavy' weapons designs -- high power-plant heavy weapon's long range punchers. Others are low power missile-boats.

Also, since refined fuel is so important, deep space depots exist set in strategic locations. There is reason now for deep space combat, fighting for a parsec of space in order to set up a refueling depot there.

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Big Tim:
In my exisiting T20 campaign I have modifed things has follows.

<snip interesting stuff>

I'm also using the T20 1/2 fuel consumption for refined fuel for jumps.

I started a thread up In My Traveller Universe about this rule if you want some more potential inspiration.

Originally posted by Big Tim:
"I only have 3 stars cuz I'm an
arsehole that disagrees with folks"

That .sig itself deserves a few stars

I'll try not to be so generous as to invalidate it

edit addendum: Blast

I'd have thought that'd have had an effect on your stars and you'd have to edit your .sig

I guess you have made some enemies

 

[legate_legion]

Hello fellow Travellers,

I like the idea about the torpedos, but how does the USP work out? I mean if they are say 3 times as massive as a normal missile does it mean that they are three times as effective?

 

[Liam Devlin]

Hmm USP Missile effectiveness vs PD defense lasers. I seem to recall this on another thread.
I'm "meat and potatoes" man with roleplayin' being chief in my mind so speed of play becomes paramount.

example, two 800dtn ships. One has 4 missile barbettes/ and and mixed laser/ sandacster turets;
the other has sandcasters/ lasers only):


Fast N' Loose: Yer defense subtracts from the USP.
Say Sandcaster Def +4 vs USP 9 bay/ torpedoe missiles, means 5 gets in of the possible hits (screen reduction damage/ or 4 dice off the damage per missile); yer PD gets its one "phase/ turn" shot at em, ye have say 20 missiles in bound (4x mass launched barbettes, i.e),As GM ye have the TL of the missile vs the TL of yer yer lasers to consider (1), the sensor operator skill vs the gunner's skill (2).

OPFOR Missiles roll hits/ but these are dependent on what defending ship shoots down.
Defending ship doesn't know what the enemy's rolls are, must attempt to stop them all, defender rolls (his PD laser shots).

If mass combat, and the sensors are not jammed by hi tech missile warhead mixes (another evil tactic/ or have TL-11+ Home in on Jamming sensors!-hahaha) eight of those missiles will probably get thru to detonation range.


(remember missiles are the low tech navy's way of equalizing the field in forces of TL-9 thru 12.
Spinal mounts come in at TL-12-thru-16, so smaller/ lower tech Navies rely heavily on missile doctrines- and swamping the enemy's defenses is one of em(tactics).)
If ye have triple turrets (lasers), and four turrets, ye stand a chance to knock out 12 of those 20 missiles & reduce the damage on the remaining eight. bigger warheads mean more damage dice, so the non missile ship is gonna get some damage (unless the msl gunners are really asleep at the MFD sensors).

Warning, these are my house rules/ interpretations of the rules for speed of play and to avoid long dice rolling sessions that bog down the "battle"/ & players sense of the drama.

NB: Big Tim (arsehole with three stars cuz I disagree with folks) now has 4 stars! GMTA (yes, I voted fer ye too)!
Like yer style, lad!

 

[bryan gibson]

In My traveller universe, which was an alternate universe to boot, there were a variety of missile types, all useful in different roles...

Shadowlance-Bethlehem/Antares MM175-5 Stealthed Missile.

Strictlty Praesidium Military issue and a closely held secret until its entry in the Border Wars, Shadowlance was a stealthed missile that used a combination of selective ECM and EM jamming and stealthed materials to make a missile nearly invisible to sensors. It relies heavily on sheilded and selective fired propulsion system, travelling in a passive mode as long as possibe to close range until target aquistion, at which time it fires a very fast burn and proximity detonated mid yield nuclear warhead.
It was specifically designed as a shipkiller, and had no atmospheric capability.

Hephaestus Areodyne Industries MM 98-1
A satndard anti ship missile,it delivers a bomb pumped neutron bombardment,generating both high radiation damage and potentionlly overloading a ships powerplant,assuming it is using fissionables. Generally provided quick crew kills, leaving the ship intact.

Brighteye Rockwell/Raetheon Industries MM 663
Eletro magnetic pulse missile

the weapon generates a high yield EMP by means of a non nuclear high yield generator, which destroys intself in the process. The weapon is capable of downing and often destroying the electronic systems of the attacked vessel,and multiple missiles will render shieding moot(a common tactic as the weapon is both inexpensive ands easy to deploy)with sometimes unanticipated results: the missile's pulse has the unfortunate habit of sometimes disrupting the magnetic bottles in the containment systems of the attacked vessels fusion plant with catastrophic results.

Hin Quin Yao Lotus Petal Kinetic Delivery / Muliple Warhead Missile MM ANW-8

This weapon launches and pursues the target, and upon aquiring the target, opens its fore end into a lotus shaped configuration (hence the name)and launches a horde of ten hypervelocity penetrators, all designed to hole the targeted ships hull....and to produce structural damage rendering it incapable of further operation.

 

[far-trader]

Originally posted by Legate Legion:
Hello fellow Travellers,

I like the idea about the torpedos, but how does the USP work out? I mean if they are say 3 times as massive as a normal missile does it mean that they are three times as effective?

Hmm, not sure how I missed this, assuming its at least partly in question of my solution above, sorry for the delay in reply Legate Legion. I thought I was pretty clear above but perhaps not. My version of the T20 torpedo is that it is identical in USP and every other respect (i.e. one torpedo exactly equals one missile rack). This is just to make game play easier and because I still haven't found the time or inclination to do any gearheading on missiles, and likely won't. Like Liam I prefer the role-play to the roll play.