Proto-High Guard 5

[robject]

Don McKinney told me that the first thing is to design the combat system, and only THEN can you effectively design the ship design system.

So first thing is a quick overview of Traveller5's small ship combat system. This is pulled from several pages in the Traveller5 Core Rules: Combat tasks and phases are from pp406-408; Battery fire is from p408. Weapon attack ranges are on p413.


Theory

Combat theory in High Guard 2 and Traveller5 have some abstract similarities, though the way they work differ: defensive weapons and passive defenses must be overcome, while armor soaks up certain hits. In both systems, the combat round is about 20 minutes. There are also similar aspects to the combat order and actions, but there are also plenty of differences.


Phases

In Traveller5, the combat round has five phases. The phases are simultaneous for all participants, and is completed by everyone involved before proceeding to the next phase.

The first phase is for sensor tasks, boarding, and jump.

Phase two is missile launch/move. Anti-missile defenses may stop missiles at this phase, before the missiles attack, and in this respect T5 combat is backwards from HG combat. Anti-Missile tasks are "easy", but have heavy DMs:

1D < Missile Size.

Typical missiles are Size 5, but range from 2 to 6. Mods range from -2 to +high values (when launched at uncomfortably close ranges and operator guided). I believe this is potentially the "Death Star" scenario.


Phase three is for non-missile attacks. Similar to phase two, anti-beam attacks attempt to neutralize these attacks in this phase. Anti-Beam attacks are "easy", but the Devil's in the DMs:

1D < TL Delta

TL Delta is, of course, defender's TL minus the attacker's TL. This is modified by the mount for the defense, which typically ranges from -2 to +2 but can range further.


Beams that are not blocked then make their attacks:

nD < Target Number

n = range bands to target.
Target number = TL + [characteristic + skill] + [target size - range to target].

Battery Fire. Any number of weapons of the same type may share an attack roll. One weapon is the lead weapon; if it hits, the others hit as well. Total hit is the sum of the weapons. Batteries can span multiple ships by establishing a Commcaster connection during phase one.

Phase four is the ship movement phase.

Phase five is where all weapons which were not blocked, hit. Damage and damage control is done here.

 

[robject]

IMPLICATIONS

These thoughts are mine, inferred from the Traveller5 Core Rules.

1. Tech level affects everything. Attacks succeed less often, and defenses are at a distinct disadvantage, when your opponent has a better TL. The High Guard equivalent is probably the computer model, although the use of the ship's computer as an attack DM is retained in Traveller5 for when the computer is acting as gunner.

2. Missiles can penetrate defenses. Especially true for ships equipped to take a lot of damage themselves when getting extremely close to their targets. Suicide squadrons might be possible.

3. Particle Accelerators may have validity after the meson gun, due to two things:
(a) The meson gun cannot attack at short range, while the PA can.
(b) A nuclear damper requires two mounts, which means the largest damper possible on a ship will not be as effective as the largest meson screen possible on that ship -- all else being equal (caveat emptor).

4. Massed fire means incredible amounts of energy can be bought to bear in a single attack. Any armor rating can be overcome.

Example. Range = 7 (attack range). Eight TL28 Assathpardsava Frigates attack a single TL26 Uyudod Defender. They amass a single attack of 8 x Main Particle Accelerator-28, 8 x Large Bay Particle Accelerator-28, and 8 x Dual Barbette Particle Accelerator-28. All ships are Size=7.

The defender has four pair x Bay Nuclear Damper-26. To successfully block this incoming attack, at least one pair has to roll:

1D < [TL Difference] + [Mount Modifier]
1D < [26 - 28] + [5]
1D < 3

The Defender has a good chance of surviving a few rounds before being hit. However, once all four dampers miss, the attacker would roll one task for all to hit together. It needs the controlling weapon's TL and the computer's model number (assuming the computer is the gunner):

To hit: [Range] D < [Controlling Weapon TL] + [Gunner Characteristic + Skill] + [Size - Range] + [mods]

7D < 28 + 20 (Model/20) + [7-7]
7D < 48

Assume a hit. Damage is:

8 x Main = 800D
+ 8 x LBay = 240D
+ 8 x B2 = 80 D
= 1120 Dice of damage. Assume the average = 3920 points of damage.

That's a lot of damage. Suppose the Defender is designed against particle accelerators, and it has an Armor Value 312, but x10 against blast damage, for a Blast AV of 3120. This means 800 points penetrate and utterly, irreparably destroy one location of the ship. A critical hit, if you will. Half of that damage then spreads to adjacent hit locations; fortunately the armor absorbs all of that.

If the Defender did not have Anti-Blast armor, then it would have only absorbed 312 points, leaving the remaining 3608 points to vaporize a hit location, then half of that damage (1804 points) would attack the two adjacent slots. Reduced by a further 312 points, the remaining 1492 points would annihilate those hit locations, and half again (746) would attack the next adjacent spots. Soaked again by armor, the remaining 434 points would destroy those hit locations, and half again would attack (217 points) but be completely absorbed by armor, finally stopping the collateral destruction.

 

[atpollard]

Beams that are not blocked then make their attacks

How are beams blocked?
If this is sand casters, these have been an area of rules vs logic contention for some time.
Has this been resolved, or is it still based on 'elfin magic'?

 

[robject]

How are beams blocked?
If this is sand casters, these have been an area of rules vs logic contention for some time.
Has this been resolved, or is it still based on 'elfin magic'?

It looks to me that sandcasters are treated in T5 as screens. Magic dust.

 

[Hemdian]

Is this for BCS combat? If so, have you looked at Power Projection? It's a mash up of HG and Full Thrust, and already fairly abstracted. I would look at taking PP and replace the movement system with T5's range bands. That would get you most of the way to a working BCS combat system.

I really like the way PP merges all the multiple 2D rolls needed per battery from HG into a single 1D roll ... meaning whereas before cruiser level combat was impractical without computer aid, a bucket-o-dice solution can now be used. And the massed battery table in Power Projection Fleet (which I created) makes dreadnaught level combat without computer aid feasible too.

Just a thought.

 

[JFGarber]

IMPLICATIONS

The defender has four pair x Bay Nuclear Damper-26. To successfully block this incoming attack, at least one pair has to roll:

Each defense can roll only once to simultaneously block all attacks of a single type, with no restrictions as to multiple sources? I missed that in my reading.

 

[aramis]

Is this for BCS combat? If so, have you looked at Power Projection? It's a mash up of HG and Full Thrust, and already fairly abstracted. I would look at taking PP and replace the movement system with T5's range bands. That would get you most of the way to a working BCS combat system.

I really like the way PP merges all the multiple 2D rolls needed per battery from HG into a single 1D roll ... meaning whereas before cruiser level combat was impractical without computer aid, a bucket-o-dice solution can now be used. And the massed battery table in Power Projection Fleet (which I created) makes dreadnaught level combat without computer aid feasible too.

Just a thought.

Much as I dislike PP as an adaptation (since it makes anything under 1KTd pretty bland - worse than CT HG2 did), it really is the way to go. It just needs a rewrite to be compatible with T5 instead of HG2.

(I dislike PP not because it's bad, but because it's useless to me as a GM. I wanted ACS scaling, they went with BCS scaling.)

 

[robject]

Fleet combat comes later. For this thread, I'm thinking about what High Guard will look like for Traveller5. Some concepts have changed, so the construction rules will similarly change. Some concepts are the same, so some rules should be similar.

 

[Orionruse]

If they are looking for play testers, I have a group that may be willing to give it a go. They are not grognards, but enjoy a big-badda-boom!

 

[robject]

Each defense can roll only once to simultaneously block all attacks of a single type, with no restrictions as to multiple sources? I missed that in my reading.

Sorry, I missed your post, there. No, only in the case of a massed attack, which is when several mounts are treated as one attack. In the case of a massed attack, one attack is made, and therefore one defense may block it. The attack is virtual battery, if you will.