Gunners

[Nico_Davout]

Can anyone tell me how should I read this:

12 Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc:6 front, 3 left, 3 right
Crew:1 (2), 2 (8), 4 (2)

How many gunners are in each battery?

If I add numbers in the brackets I have 12 what is equal to the numbers of batteries, but that is not logical for me, as it would mean that batteries are different.

This is from the Nebulon-B frigate.
_________________
Nico,

Han Solo shot first, midichlosomething do not exist, Rebel Alliance was created as in the WEG books and indoctrination theory is the true ending of ME3.

[vanir]

2 of the batteries require a total of 4 crew each, 8 of the batteries require a total of 2 crew each and 2 of the batteries require a total of 1 crew each, for a total of 26 gunners.

Here is the way I've interpreted this type of listing:

As a capital warship, there are bridge crew stations, auxiliary crew stations, systems control stations and engineering support stations involved in a single weapons bank, consisting of several batteries. But you might only need a couple of bridge stations, a couple of engineering stations and an auxiliary station for the entire weapons bank. Direct battery fire control itself is largely automated for each individual battery, so individual battery fire probably only requires a single designated crew member to actually fire that particular weapon, on any arc. You just need the full complement for the weapons bank to be fully operational, without things like shorting out the shields or engines with power fluctuations during broadsides and that sort of thing.

So when breaking down a crew listing the requirements per battery can vary. You really need all the gunners for a weapons bank to be operational in a capital vessel, but the reason the specific crew per battery are itemised is for damage purposes. If a single battery is taken out by enemy action, you can roll randomly to see how many gunners/crew were taken out with that particular battery.

Think of it this way. Look at a conventional Battleship with triple gun turrets. You have a loader, crew chief and a fire director in each turret. 3 crew for each turret. But you also have a crew member at engineering to regulate the power to the turrets, just one for all three turrets. Plus you have the weapons officer on the bridge, just one for all three. Plus you have a secondary fire control and weapons officer in the Battle Bridge (auxiliary), one for all three. So the gunners listing would really be 5 gunners for 1 turret (front centre), 4 for 1 turret (rear) and 3 for 1 turret (forward), but that's deceiving, you really need all 12 gunners/crew on station to operate with full functionality and reliability.

[Nico_Davout]

Thank you for such a deep and interesting analysis .
_________________
Nico,

Han Solo shot first, midichlosomething do not exist, Rebel Alliance was created as in the WEG books and indoctrination theory is the true ending of ME3.