THE ART OF WARFARE

BY: Assem Masri

Ship Damage
Capital ships are obviously larger and far more compartmentalized than starfighters. There are a lot more pieces to chip away before the ship is completely destroyed. Therefore, capital ship damage is recorded in pips, except for ionization damage which is still allocated in whole dice.Damage is recorded by indicating the number of pips of damage a ship has endured. Along with this it also must be recorded the damages accumulated by the vessel. If the optional system of targeting rules are used than the specific portions of the ship that have taken damage must also be recorded.Again due to their large sizes capital ships have many more systems to damage compared to starships thus each time a pip of damage is taken it must be cross referenced with the appropriate pip damage to indicate the chart under which damage is rolled. The pip damage rolls are cumulative thus with 5 pips of damage endured 3 lightly damaged rolls and 2 heavily damaged rolls must be made. The same would be true if 3 pips of damage where endured in 1 round and in the next 2 additional pips of damage are suffered.
Example: Jed is commanding an Imperial Star Destroyer and is dueling with John who is commanding a Mon Calamari Star Cruiser. In the first turn Jed fires upon John and Damage is cross referenced indicating that John takes 2 pips of damage. Then John would make 2 lightly damaged rolls to discover the damage done. John returns fire upon the Jed and rolls well doing 4 pips of damage to Jed. Jed would roll 3 lightly damaged rolls and 1 heavily damaged roll. After both have suffered there damages the next turn commences. Now Jed retaliates with a volley of blasts 3 pips damage. John adds this to the 1st rounds 2 pips which results in 5 pips of damage. John already rolled the 2 lightly damaged rolls when he sustained the 2 pips of damage now he must roll 1 more lightly damaged roll and 2 heavily damaged rolls. John is in bad shape but still manages to blast at Jed. John again rolls unbelievably well dishing out 4 pips of damaging. Adding this to the previous 4 gives us 8 pips of total damage. Thus, Jed must make 2 more heavily damaged rolls and 2 severely damaged rolls. This is pretty much the end of Jed.

TABLE 1:Capital Ship Combat

Damage Roll
>Hull Roll by:

Effect

0-3 Shields Blown/Controls Ionized
4-7 1 pip of damage (lightly damaged)
8-11 2 pips " "
12-15 3 pips " "
16-19 4 pips " (Heavily damaged)
20-23 5 pips " "
24-27 6 pips " "
28-31 7 pips " (Severely damaged)
32-35 8 pips " "
36-39 9 pips " (Destroyed)


Remember the damage sustained by the rolls are cumulative with previously rolled damages. Once 9 pips of damage is sustained the ship is destroyed and unrepairable.
Targeting (Optional)
Instead of pounding each other into slag a shrewd captain may want to target a specific system of the target ship. Such system can include the command center, the engines, or a particular weapon system. In some instances it may be difficult to tell where to fire upon these systems; such as is the case with firing upon a weapon system unless the precise location where the centralized gunnery link is known than this would be a near impossible task. Even if this location is known it won't be an easy target as they are most often situated deep in the engineering section of the ship. However, in cases such as firing upon the command center or Engines it's obvious where the fire must be directed.The most difficult target is the Command Center which in most capital ships may well occupy a mere 1,000th of its total volume. In addition in many capital ships the Command Center is situated deep within the interior pretty much away from direct harm of laser fire.The easiest target, which is often fired upon to disable a crafts, are the Ion Drives/Engines. However in most ships they are situated to the rear so good luck firing upon them when your flying head on into your opponent. At the very least an oblique angle of attack is required which may increase the difficulty of the target (GM's Decision; +5 difficulty is suggested).Instead of attacking the central gunnery link counter battery fire may be attempted. However, this is more difficult than it sounds because on most large capital ships the weapon batteries are usually concealed within the hull of the ship. This only gives the attacker a window of attack that is not as obvious as a weapon turret out in the open and unprotected. However, on some ships this is precisely the case (e.g. the Lancer-Class Frigate). This will determine the difficulty of targetting enemy batteries. When attacking turreted weapons the to-hit modifier is only -2D rather than -3D (see Table 2). Furthermore, the bonus for concerted fire is not received when attempting counter battery fire as the individual batteries on the attacking ship must attack the individual batteries on the target ship. Thus, to determine the actual bonus dice for a concerted counter battery attack one divides the number of attacking batteries by the number of targeted defender batteries. The maximum number of enemy weapon batteries that may be fired upon is the ascertained by the number of attacking batteries. Damage is determined normally as for Starship Damage, However a lightly damaged result to a weapon reduces fire control by -2D and damage by -2D, a heavily damaged result disables all weapons targeted until repaired, and a severely damaged result completely destroys all weapon batteries targeted and a Controls Ionized result leads to fire control reduction by -1D.
Example: Jed instead of attacking John directly instead opts for counter battery fire upon 10 forward firing lasers of Johns Mon Calamari Cruiser. Since Jed has 20 forward aimed turbolasers he divides this 20 by the 10 targeted lasers on John's ship and receives 2. He cross-references this on the Combined Action Bonus Table and see's that he recieves a +1D bonus on attack and damage. Now, looking at the advance targeting chart Jed discovers that he receives a -3D to attack. Jed rolls and John defends with Hull + Shields as usuall but Jed rolls 5 above John and notices that the 10 targeted batteries are all lightly damaged and thus now fire at -2D to fire control and -2D to damage
Finally structural weak points can be targeted if somehow the location of these weak-points can be determined otherwise you have the same problem as with targeting the weapon systems. Thus, your unstoppable capital ship may not be so unstoppable if it has an Achilles heal.

TABLE 2:Advanced Targetting Chart

Target

Hit
Modifier

Damage
Modifier

DAMAGE RESULTS
Controls Ionized Lightly Damaged Heavily Damaged Severely Damaged
Hull

0

0

All Codes -1D For this round + next See above See above See above
Ion Drives

-2D

0

-1 to space code for this rnd + next -2 to space until repaired -1/2 space code (rnd up) Space code reduced to 0 (Dead in space)
Lateral Thrusters

-4D

-2D

-1D to maneverability for this rnd + next -2D to maneuverability until repaired -4D maneuverability until repaired Maneuverability is reduced to 0D + pilot suffers -1D to piloting
Central Gunnery Link

-5D**

-2D**

An entire system of weapons cannot be used for this rnd + next Entire weapon system down for 5 rnds (power surge) Entire weapon system down until repaired Link destroyed and must be replaced
Counter Battery Fire

-3D

+2D

-1D to fire control for this rnd + next -2D to fire control and damage Weapon incapacitated until repaired Weapon destroyed
Counter Missile Fire

-2D

+1D

-1D to fire control for this rnd + next -2D to fire control and damage Weapon incapacitated until repaired Weapon destroyed
Command Center

-6D

0

-1D to initiative on next rnd -1D to initiative and to Command skill -2D to initiative and to Command skill -4D to initiative and Command skill. On a Destroyed result Command center is knocked-out
Vital Location

-2D*

+1D*

*These are minimum Modifiers greater ones can be achieved depending upon the vitality of the location
**Central Gunnery Links cannot be fired upon unless special circumstances have provided the location of such links and that such links can be targeted.



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