Re: [DS2] Air superiority revisited

Tony Christney <acc@questercorp.com> wrote:
>The recent talks about air superiority (or the lack of it) in
>Dirtside inspired me to try my hand at representing fighters
>opposing enemy ground attack missions. These are rough draft
>rules only, and I won't get a chance to playtest until after
>Xmas. I'm posting them so that I can get some input from the list
>while I revise them. Please keep in mind that these are still
>very abstract, and are not intended to be a detailed air combat
>simulator (after all, there is always Air Superiority...).
>The concept of maneouvrability has been ruthlessly lifted from
>the ideas of 'Ndege "vectored thrust" Diamond'. ;-)
>
>Any criticism (good or bad) is appreciated, so long as you remain
>civil...
    I try to be civil most of the time... :-)

>Air Superiority in Dirtside II
>==============================
>
>Dirtside II has no rules for air-to-air combat. This implies that
>at the time of the battle, one side has already obtained air
superiority.
    Actually, I would say that both sides are disputing air superiority.
After all, both sides can have aerospace vehicles! If one side has
aerospace
vehicles and the other side doesn't, the first side has air superiority.
If both sides have aerospace vehicles, and one side doesn't want to use
them
for fear of losing them, then the second side has air superiority.

>On the modern (and presumably the future) battlefield, sometimes it
>is necessary to attempt air mission even when there are enemy
>fighters in the vicinity. These rules add another level on top of the
>existing aerospace operations rules.
>
>Several factors will affect the effectiveness of air-to-air combat.
>In Dirtside terms, we will simplify all of these factors into four.
>These are: pilot quality/training, electronics suite quality,
    Or the quality/leadership marker, the ECM suite (GMS defence),
>aircraft maneouvrability, and weapons quality.
    Vehicle size class and signature, and weapon Fire control.

>In order to execute air superiority missions, the player must
>specifically task one or more of his/her aerospace fighters with
>an air superiority mission. The player does this when activating the
>craft.
    What's an air superiority mission? Do you mean attempting to destroy
an enemy aerospace vehicle before the enemy aerospace vehicle activates?
In other words, an off-board enemy aerospace vehicle?
    The rules I posted and that are available on my web site
cover on table interception quite well. They are also simple and easy to
use.

>Conducting Air Superiority Missions
>===================================
>
>For game purposes, air superiority missions are divided into three
>distinct stages: spotting, interception and engagement. After declaring
>an air superiority mission, the player may attempt to spot unengaged
>targets. For each of the enemy's unspotted aerospace units, an
>opposed roll is made. The spotting player rolls a die based on his
>command chit: D6 for GREEN, D8 for REG, D10 for VET, shifted up
>for a grade 1 pilot and down for a grade 3 pilot. In addition, he
>rolls a secondary die for his electronics suite: D6 for
NONE(rudimentary),
>D8 for BASIC, D10 for ENH and d12 for SUP.
    Actually, in reality and the several books I've got, modern aircraft
pilots
usually know where their opponent/target/victim is already from ground
or
airborne radar.

>The aerospace unit being
>spotted rolls its signature die. If either of the spotter's dice
>beats the unit being spotted's die, then that unit has been spotted.
>The spotting player may then choose to "lock-on" to _one_ of
>the spotted units. Units locked onto the previous turn do not
>need to be spotted again, and the player may choose to ignore the
>spotting stage if he has a unit locked-on from the previous turn.
    Can't my off-board aerospace vehicle land or go behind a mountain
range
or hill? :-)

>Once a unit has been locked-on, the spotter may attempt to
>intercept the unit that it has locked-on. At this point, the target
>may attempt to disengage. An opposed die roll is made, with the
>attacker rolling his quality die, shifted up or down for pilot quality
>as above. The defender wishing to disengage has a primary die
>figured exactly as for the attacker, as well as a secondary die
>based on his aerospace vehicle's maneouvrability rating. If the
>defender's roll is higher, then he has successfully disengaged, and
>both aerospace fighters are considered activated for the turn.
>Otherwise, the defender is considered to have been successfully
>intercepted.
    Wouldn't the enemy off board aerospace vehicles be flying in such
a way as to assist each other? AWACs and fuel tankers flying race
tracks,
escort fighters for defence, other fighters and bombers in- and out-
bound?
All of them in the right place to counter attack an intruding enemy
fighter
which
has to move from its own side, over the battle field, and into the
opposing
rear?

>Once the target has been successfully intercepted, the two
>aircraft are considered to be within GMS range. At this point,
>the intercepting aerospace craft may fire any air-to-air
>GMS that he has. This is resolved exactly as for ground-to-ground
>or air-to-ground GMS fire except the target gets a secondary die
>based on its maneouvrability rating, provided that the target elects
>to perform evasive maneouvres. If the target does not elect to perform
>evasive maneouvres, then it may attempt to return fire with its own
>air-to-air missiles.
    Couldn't the other enemy friendlies that are close by help the
target
out
by counter firing their missiles at the attacker? If you've attacked
with a
pair
of aerospace fighters at a formation comprising the whole of the
opponent's
aerospace fleet, wouldn't this be suicidal? Surely, any unactivated
fighters
would
be moved to intercept the approaching fighters? After all, the defender
have
lots
more time to react than the attacker!

>Instead of (after?) firing missles, the attacking fighter may elect to
>engage his target. This represents the pilot engaging the enemy with
>cannons and other direct fire weapons, i.e. dogfighting. At these
>ranges, pilot quality plays a critical role in success. An opposed roll
>is made to determine which of the two pilots managed to maneouvre his
>aircraft into position for the critical shot. Both pilots roll their
>quality die, shifted up or down for pilot quality as above. In
addition,
>the die type is also shifted for maneouvrability ratings. SUP
>maneouvrability shifts the die up by one, BASIC maneouvrability shifts
>the die type down by one. These shifts are _open_ shifts, so
>a VET 1 pilot in an aircraft with SUP maneourvability will get a
>D12, but his opponent will also have his die type shifted down by
>one. The winner of this roll gets an automatic hit against the loser
>with one of his weapon systems. The hit counts as close range for chit
>validities.
    This sounds like WWII where you had to see your target to shoot it
down.
In the modern and future battlefield, this is unlikely to occur. But,
using
pilot quality to help defend against GMS and direct fire weapons sounds
romantic/good/cool
to me.
    How about this system? For direct fire weapons, as well as rolling
the
fire
control die, roll the pilot's leadership number expressed as a die:
(0: D12, 1: D10, 2: D8, 3: D6, 4: D4). The defender rolls the vehicle's
signature
die as normal along with a die corresponding to the defender's quality:
(Red/Elite: D12, Orange/Veteran: D10, Blue/Regular: D8, Green/Green: D6,
Yellow/unskilled: D4)
In summary, use the leadership rating to attack with, the quality rating
to
defend with.
    If both sides all roll "1" on all their dice, both vehicles collide
and
are destroyed.
    If the defender's highest die rolls higher than the attacker, the
tables
are turned,
now the defender is the attacker, and the former attacker is now
defending.
Roll again.
    If the attacker's highest die rolls higher than the defender, draw
chits
on
the defender and apply damage. Make morale checks as appropriate for the
defender.
The attacker can make another attack immediately or depart back to base.
    Equal rolls mean roll again.
    Those pilots using the Force, can roll a D20 instead of their fire
control or signature.
    (Luke, use the Force! - Obi Wan Kenobi)(The Force is strong in this
one. - Vader)

    Using GMS, the attacker rolls the GMS guidance die, the defender
rolls
their ECM die and their quality dice as above. Those pilots using the
the
Force can roll D20 instead of their aerospace vehicle's ECM die.
    These rules will also work with my on-table aerospace vehicle
interception rules on my site.

>Weapon/Systems Costs
>====================
>
>Maneouvrability
>---------------
>Maneouvrability is simply another gradation of mobility type.
>BASIC maneouvrability costs 1000% of the BVP; ENH maneouvrability
>costs 1500% of the BVP; SUP maneouvrability cost 2000% of the BVP.
    I think using Vehicle Size Class (VSC) and stealth might be more
appropriate.

>Electronics Suite
>-----------------
>A BASIC electronics suite costs 30 points; an ENH suite costs 60
points;
>a SUP suite cost 90 points.
    I don't think this is necessary,
    as battlefield reconaissance is near god-like already.

>Air-to-air Missiles
>-------------------
>Air-to-air missiles are identical in cost to their air-to-ground
>and ground-to-ground counterparts, except that they cannot be used
>against ground targets. Similarly, air-to-ground and ground-to-ground
>missiles cannot be used against aerospace vehicles.
    I would nearly agree with this. Optionally, give a fire control die
type
reduction.

Andrew Martin
-------------
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