Playtest Game 2

[alanwebber (OP)]

The background to this scenario is that pirates have been attacking shipping, both civilian and small military ships The Terran Confederation have decided to send one of their newest destroyers to deal with the problem. This is the Tribal class destroyer "Alexander" and has the following specification:-

Engine :- Improved Plasma Torch - Thrust 8
Sensors :- Sensor 3 / Channel 3 / Signature 3 / Resolution 3 - Range 20 / Acq 60% / Det Rng 40 / Channels 20 / Pass Sig 15 Std Res 20m / Stealth Res 60m
Zeta Shields :- Regen 5 / EM 0 / Thermal 40 / Kinetic 20 / Collapse 65 / Mitigation 7
Zeta Armor :- EM 35 / Thermal 15 / Kinetic 5 / Collapse 55 / Mitigation 0
Damage Control Crew :- 5
Weapons :- 6x30cm Near UV Lasers. Full damage 16 / Half damage 24 / HTK 2 / Damage EM 4/Th8/Kin2 / 3 per broadside
               10x10cm Near UV Lasers PD. Full damage 6 / Half damage 8 / HTK 1 / Damage EM4 / Th8/Kin2 / 5 per broadside
1202 tons  Cost 43420 MCr

It's orders are to proceed slowly through the area at speed 2 on passive sensors, draw the pirates to close range and batter them before they can withdraw. This probably means letting them get to range 6 so that the PD lasers can be added to the attack.

The pirates have 2 Barbarossa class destroyers, "Blackbeard" (DD1) and "Long John Silver" (DD2).

Engine :- Basic Nuclear Torch - 3 Thrust
Sensors :- Sensor 1 / Channel 1 / Signature 1 / Resolution 1 - Range 10 / Acq 40% / Det Rng 20 / Channels 10 / Pass Sig 5 / Std Res 40m / Stealth Res 1200m
Alpha Shields :- Regen 2 / EM 0 / Thermal 15 / Kinetic 10 / Collapse 25 / Mitigation 2
Alpha Armor :- EM 10 / Thermal 5 / Kinetic 0 / Collapse 5 / Mitigation 0
Damage Control Crew :- 2
Weapons :- 6x25cm Far IR Lasers. Full damage 14 / HTK 1 / Damage EM 2/Th4/Kin0 / 3 per broadside

Tonnage = 1371 tons   Cost = 31574 MCr

They will come in on opposite sides of the target at speed 5, broadside on, aiming to hit the port and broadside shields, pass by the target and attack from the opposite sides. Normally this will take down the shields and cause enough damage to either disable the ship or cause it to surrender.

Turn 1 coming up shortly.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Turn 1

Pirate close at speed 4, Terrans move forward 2.

Turn 2

Ditto

Turn 3

Ditto

Terran ship detects Pirate active emissions

Turn 4

Roll for initiative Terran / Pirate1/ Pirate 2 4/8/9. Pirates move first. No thrust.

Terrans +1 thrust - Vectors 3/0/0/0/0/0

Pirates detect Terrans and are within firing range but no weapons bear.

As previously, all ships can detect each other and automatically acquire targets.

Turn 5

Initiative

Terran / Pirate1 / Pirate2 = 6/1/2. Terrans move first. Sensors are active.

Pirates

DD1 rotates 2 hexsides anticlockwise. DD2 rotates 2 hexsides clockwise.

Range = 3 - Hit on 72 or less

DD1 fires first. 3 starboard lasers. 3xd100 = 93 / 96 /62. 1 hit.
DD1 then rolls (1 thrust) and fires 3 port lasers. 3xd100 = 35 / 42 / 73. 2 hits
Each hit does EM2 Thermal 4 damage. Shield mitigation is 7. Volley 1 does no damage as mitigation is taken off each type of damage. Volley 2 does EM4 and 8 Thermal. After mitigation this reduces to 1 thermal. The port shield drops to 39 thermal protection and 64 collapse. (Question Should shield mitigation apply against damage for which it has no protection)? Shield regeneration will cope with both losses in the bookkeeping phase.

DD2 then fires. 3 port lasers. 3xd100 = 93 / 92 / 17. 1 hit.
DD2 then rolls and fires 3 starboard lasers. 3xd100 = 89 / 64 / 53 2 hits. Results as above.

The Terrans then fire.

5 port PD lasers. 5xd100 = 25/54/91/28/76. 3 hits. 12EM / 24 Thermal / 6 kinetic
3 port 30 cm lasers. 3xd100 = 85/28/43 = 2 hits. 8EM / 16 Thermal / 4 kinetic

5 starboard PD lasers. 5xd100 = 74/44/67/22/99. 3 hits as above
3 port 30 cm lasers. 3xd100 = 76/33/51. 2 hits as above.

DD1 takes damage on its starboard shield (rolled in the combat phase).

I'm assuming the 2 laser volleys arrive at slightly different times. It makes sense that the PD lasers would have a different fire control system to the main batteries.

12 EM / 24 Th / 6 Kin reduces to 10 EM / 22 Th / 4 Kin by mitigation. The shields protect for 0 EM / 15 Th / 10 Ki / 25 Coll / 2 Mit.
The armor is 10 EM / 5 Th / 0 Ki / 5 Coll.

The 10 EM passes through the shields, is stopped by the armor but the armor is now breached to later volleys. The 22 thermal is reduced to 7 by the shields, to 2 by the armor and there are 2 internal hits. The collapse value of the shields is now 10. The 4 kinetic is stopped by the shields reducing the kinetic protection to 6 and the collapse value to 6. Damage die roll is 15 which is 1 structure hit added to the automatic structure hit reducing the structure from 685 to 683.

The 2nd volley then arrives causing 8 EM / 16 Th / 4 Ki which is reduced by mitigation to 6 EM / 14 Th / and 2 Ki. The 6 EM passes through the shields and the armor (already down) for 6 hits. The 14 thermal is not stopped by the shields (already overloaded the thermal protection) for 14 hits. The 2 Kinetic is stopped by the shields but the kinetic protection drops to 4 and the collapse value also drops to 4. A total of 20 hits have been done of which 10 are on the structure (673). The remaining 10 roll on the damage table as follows:-
12/6/13/4/13/10/10/8/14/17 This results in 5 more stucture hits (668), 3 standard hard point hits (damage extent rolls are 8/10/3 which means 1 disabled laser, 1 damaged and 1 destroyed) and 2 power plant hits (damage rolls are 3 and 6 which is one damaged and one disabled). The captain decides to jettison the power plants rather than risk meltdown and this reduces the power generation to 560.

The hit profile is identical for DD2. 2 damage points hit from the 1st volley giving 1 structure + 1 internal (dr = 8 = structure) thus structure drops to 683.

The 2nd volley causes 20 internal hit giving 10 structure (673) + 10 internals (dr = 5/7/9/10/11/11/13/13/17/20 = 4 standard hardpoint hits - 1 hit twice - damage rolls = 6/3/2 giving 1 damaged and 2 disabled. Randomly the damaged one is hit again and is thus destroyed. 3 structure hits (total drops to 670). 2 power plant hits - jettisoned as above. 1 bridge hit (dr roll = 5  = damaged).

The bookkeeping phase allows the Terran ship to regenerate his shields completely.

DD1 port shield has thermal protection of 0, kinetic protection of 4 and collapse of 4. The thermal shields regenerate to 15/2/15/15 and rebalance to 12/11/12/12. The kinetic protection is 10/4/10/10 which regnerates to 10/6/10/10 and rebalances to 9/9/9/9. The collapse value regenerates to 6. The armor is permanently down.

DD2 has the same shield situation after regeneration although its thermal rebalance gives 12/12/12/11 (Forward / Port / Aft / Starboard).

End of turn 5.

At the moment I feel it is too easy to escape (although this might be a misunderstanding on my part) as you can just start the FTL engines and get out of Dodge. I am going to use a house rule that the decision to go to FTL is made 1 turn ahead. This means if the Pirates want to get away, they will decide to go to FTL on turn 6 and will disengage on the movement phase of turn 7. Erik, please let me know if this is a problem.

There are a lot of interpretations by me in this move, especially for damage allocation and I will wait for Erik's comments before proceeding.

Alan

[Erik L]

I probably would have classed the PD and normal weapons as one volley, but I can see with your reasoning. Two volleys works for me and I'll write it up that way.

For the shield mitigation, if it provides no protection in that type, either by design or penetrated shields, it provides no mitigation.

For FTL, they are currently instant. However, the campaign rules have more on FTL travel. Nothing about lead up to jump, but more of the actual jump time itself. I'm leaning towards a basic (6 - FTL Gen) in turns to lead up to the jump. This puts Class 1 at 5 turns, and Class 5 at 1 turn.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Turn 6

NOTE I'm going to use Erik's suggestion on FTL activation so the Pirates will not be able to escape before turn 11.

Pre-turn

DD1 tries to repair a port side laser. dr required 8+. dr=7 No repair

DD2 would like to repair the bridge but with -2 for a poor crew (grade loss due to bridge loss) and -3 for damaged system, no dr will result in repair. He therefore tries to repair the disabled laser. dr required 10 (bridge loss). dr = 10. Laser repaired at the end of this turn.

Initiative:-  Terran / Pirate 1 / Pirate 2 + 1 (for bridge loss). 7 / 5 / 9. Pirate 2 moves first, then Terran and lastly Pirate 1.

Movement - Pirate 2 - rotate 1 hexside counter clockwise. Move as before 0/0/0/0/4/0

Terran - Rotate 180 degrees (3 thrust) - Fire 3 thrust - Vectors 3/0/0/3/0/0 resulting in 0/0/0/0/0/0

Pirate 1 - Fire 2 thrust - Vectors 2/0/4/0/0/0 resulting in 0/2/2/0/0/0. Rotate 1 hexside counterclockwise.

Pirate 1 to fire first on Terran rear shield. Range = 2. To hit roll = 86.
3 lasers dr = 34 / 14 / 50. Damage  = 6EM / 12 Thermal / 0 Kinetic.
6EM is not mitigated (see Erik's post) but is stopped by the armor. EM protection drops to 31 and collapse to 51. The 12 thermal is reduced to 5 by mitigation which is then stopped by the shields. Thermal protection to 35 and collapse to 60.
He then rolls to protect the hardpoints on the starboard side. (Not sure if you can hit a hardpoint not within your weapons arc)

The Terran then fires his starboard broadside into DD2 before rolling and repeating with the port one. He cannot fire at Pirate 1 as he is not within a weapon firing arc.

At range 1, to hit dr is 85+.
5x10 cm PD lasers. dr = 41/59/71/32/00 (Critical Hit). Damage = 20EM / 40 Thermal / 10 Kinetic
3x30 cm lasers. dr = 26/35/31. Damage = 12EM / 24 Thermal / 6 Kinetic.
Hit on port side. 20 EM passes through the shields without mitigation giving 20 internal hits. The 40 Thermal is reduced to 38 by mitigation and to 26 by the thermal protection. This reduces the thermal protection to 0 and collapses the shields. The 10 kinetic are reduced to 8 which is then stopped by the shields reducing the kinetic protection to 1.
Critical hit roll = 8 = EM flare = 5 EM hits. There are, therefore 51 internal hits - 26 on the structure. Structure from 670 to 644.
25 internal hits - Sensors hit 3 times and destroyed. 3 Std Hardpoints (destroys remaining lasers - not in arc - does this matter? 3 shield generator hits (shields destroyed). 3 power plants hit and jettisoned. 1 DCC hit (damage roll = 5 = damaged) 1 N-space engine hit (damage roll = 1 = disabled). 10 structure hits (634). Question - what happens if you get to the end of a damage line and still have damage to allocate - restart from the beginning, hit structure, or reroll? Also, should a ship surrender when it has no engines, no weapons, no shields or armor?
2nd volley - all pass to internal hits. Total 40 hits. 20 on structure (614). Internal hits - Life support (damage roll = 5 = damaged). 3 hits on DCC (damage roll = 3 = disabled + 2 hits = destroyed). 14 structure (allocating hits where no systems are available) = 600. 2 power plant hit and jettisoned. This makes 7 power plants in total so power generated drops to 460.

The Terran Ship then rolls and fires a 2nd broadside.

5x10cm PD lasers = dr = 45 / 31 / 21 / 00 / 59 - another critical hit. CH die roll = 6 = Drive erratic - no effect as drive down. 70 hits. 35 to structure (565). Internal results - 3 hits on FTL engines (destroyed), 1 hit on damaged DCC (destroyed). 1 hit on repaired HP (destroyed). 2 power plants hit (jettisoned) (9 in total, power = 420) 28 structure (537).
3x30 cm lasers dr = 94 / 79 /12. 2 hits. 8EM / 16 Th / 4 Ki. 28 internal hits. Assume all on structure as there's not much left to hit. (509).

I'm going to call the game at this point. The Long John Silver surrenders (my decision) as it's bridge has gone / no engines / no life support / no shields or armor /no DCC /  no Sensors / no Weapons and no way of repairing them. With 8 thrust, the Alexander can run down the other destroyer and gut it before it can get away.

The main question from this game is damage allocation when you start running out of systems. What happens if either you roll a damage line with no eligible systems or you get to the end of a damage line? Also, should there come a point where a ship would surrender?

I'll have a think about game 3, probably using missile ships. However, I'll have to design them first.

Alan

[Erik L]

One thing I noticed, the TCN PD lasers should be turreted as all PD mounts are turrets by default. So there is no reason not to fire all 10 PD lasers in one volley. There is no real need to jettison disabled power plants. Only damaged plants are in danger of meltdown.

For the damage allocation rolls, if you reach the end of the line, apply to structure. I'll make a note of that in the rules.

As for surrender, each race has four stats, all percentile based. These are Xenophobia, Aggressiveness, Willpower and Arrogance. Willpower is used in cases of morale, Arrogance is how the race deals with other races, Aggressiveness is how likely a race is to start hostile actions, and Xenophobia is much the race fears other races. These stats are generated with a straight d100 roll.

There was, at some point something about surrendering in the rules, but no longer. If I recall, it was the average of Willpower and Aggressiveness. The roll would need to exceed the average. Reasoning on this is a low Willpower might be offset by a high Aggressiveness, and a low Aggressiveness by a high Willpower.

That battle went about how I expected it to go. For the missile battle, might I suggest putting the missiles on the lower tech ships as it might equalize things a bit. The higher tech side with missiles I think would end the battle with a single broadside to each target.

[Erik L]

The background to this scenario is that pirates have been attacking shipping, both civilian and small military ships The Terran Confederation have decided to send one of their newest destroyers to deal with the problem. This is the Tribal class destroyer "Alexander" and has the following specification:-

Engine :- Improved Plasma Torch - Thrust 8
Sensors :- Sensor 3 / Channel 3 / Signature 3 / Resolution 3 - Range 20 / Acq 60% / Det Rng 40 / Channels 20 / Pass Sig 15 Std Res 20m / Stealth Res 60m
Zeta Shields :- Regen 5 / EM 0 / Thermal 40 / Kinetic 20 / Collapse 65 / Mitigation 7
Zeta Armor :- EM 35 / Thermal 15 / Kinetic 5 / Collapse 55 / Mitigation 0
Damage Control Crew :- 5
Weapons :- 6x30cm Near UV Lasers. Full damage 16 / Half damage 24 / HTK 2 / Damage EM 4/Th8/Kin2 / 3 per broadside
               10x10cm Near UV Lasers PD. Full damage 6 / Half damage 8 / HTK 1 / Damage EM4 / Th8/Kin2 / 5 per broadside
1202 tons  Cost 43420 MCr

It's orders are to proceed slowly through the area at speed 2 on passive sensors, draw the pirates to close range and batter them before they can withdraw. This probably means letting them get to range 6 so that the PD lasers can be added to the attack.

The pirates have 2 Barbarossa class destroyers, "Blackbeard" (DD1) and "Long John Silver" (DD2).

Engine :- Basic Nuclear Torch - 3 Thrust
Sensors :- Sensor 1 / Channel 1 / Signature 1 / Resolution 1 - Range 10 / Acq 40% / Det Rng 20 / Channels 10 / Pass Sig 5 / Std Res 40m / Stealth Res 1200m
Alpha Shields :- Regen 2 / EM 0 / Thermal 15 / Kinetic 10 / Collapse 25 / Mitigation 2
Alpha Armor :- EM 10 / Thermal 5 / Kinetic 0 / Collapse 5 / Mitigation 0
Damage Control Crew :- 2
Weapons :- 6x25cm Far IR Lasers. Full damage 14 / HTK 1 / Damage EM 2/Th4/Kin0 / 3 per broadside

Tonnage = 1371 tons   Cost = 31574 MCr

They will come in on opposite sides of the target at speed 5, broadside on, aiming to hit the port and broadside shields, pass by the target and attack from the opposite sides. Normally this will take down the shields and cause enough damage to either disable the ship or cause it to surrender.

Turn 1 coming up shortly.

The Alexander's PD weapons should have a full damage range of 8. 10cm lasers are 8/12/16 for ranges. So it would do its full damage at all PD ranges.

[alanwebber (OP)]

Erik

Oops - type error on the PD laser. That's the problem with writing everything as you play through the game.

Alan