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 |
Damage |
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* |