Re: mines and sensors

We recently overhauled mines for our group, since we thought they were
pretty
useless for the mass and cost etc....  we basically made two types of
mine
layers; large and small.  The large mine layer carries only three shots,
but
the mine is a 6d6 beam weapon.	The small minelayer carried an
effectively
unlimited number of mines (may launch one per turn) each of which is a
2d6
beam weapon.  In keeping with the original game mechaincs of mines (i.e.
drop
them visible onto table during movement), we made the justification that
mines are not large enough to carry a passive sensor array with the
resolution for targeting the beam.  Therefore all mines carry small
active
sensor units to provide firing solutions for the warhead, which makes
the
mine visible on the board as long as it is active (I would allow static
defensive minefields to be invivble until command activated).  Following
this
line of thought, all you need for a mine decoy is an active emitter
which
mimics the active sensor output, a very cheap piece of hardware.  So
each
minelayer may lay one actual mine and one decoy each turn.  This system
worked pretty well in the game in which it was used.  A line of ships
abreast
dropped large mines and decoys in front of an onrushing destroyer which
veered to avoid as many as possible , but guessed wrong and was
destroyed by
a 6d6 beam hit.  Another ship flew perfectly through a line of mines
such
that only a decoy was activated.  The minelayer ships had about
two-three
small minelayers, so that when moving at speed 4-6 was able to place a
marker
(mine or decoy) about every 3/4" - 1".	Beware.  This system needs a LOT
of
mine markers.

P.S.  For mine miniatures, I take some of the sewing pins with the 1/8"
round
ball heads, mount them on little bases, prime black, then paint the
"mine"
silver, white, grey, etc.  Label the bottoms as decoy, large, or small.
and
you have great looking mines.

Later

Brian