Re: MT Heavy Missiles and Ship Defenses

Does anyone else than me get irritated by Shawn's constant "heh heh
heh"? To me it looks like a transcript of someone panting over the
telephone :-(

Shawn M Mininger wrote:

>I was re-reading the More Thrust book and I came up
>with a few questions about MT heavy missiles.
> 
> Here's my question....
> 
>A fighter group is hit on a 4,5,6 with PDS, and a 5,6
>with Class-1 beams.
> 
>A heavy missile is hit on a 6 with PDS, 

Incorrect. An MT missile is hit on a 6 with an *PDAF* or *ADAF*,
neither of which exist in FBx.

>but there is no note in FB1 as to how Class-1 beams would fair
>against MT heavy misses.

If you read the FB1 "Point Defence Systems" and "Class-1 Beam Batteries
as Point-Defence" sections carefully, you'll find that they both only
say "missile". Not "missile (MT type)" or "salvo missile", only
"missile" - because "missile" refers to *all* types of missiles, ie.
currently both the FB1 Salvo Missiles *and* the MT-style "capital"
missiles.

MT missiles are however individual targets, so a single PDS (or B1)
can't kill more than 1 MT missile per turn (ie., any re-rolls or PDS
rolls of "6" only score overkills). This means that a single PDS (or
Interceptor fighter) kills 1 MT missile on a roll of 4, 5 or 6, while a
B1 battery (or Standard fighter) kills 1 MT missile on a roll of 5 or
6.

Sounds like high interception rates? If you use Cinematic movement for
your ships and the missile movement rules from MT, it is - because in
this case the missiles' hit rate is going to be  pretty low if your
opponent knows what he is doing.

If OTOH you use Vector movement for your ships but don't change the
missile movement, or you use Cinematic but change the MT missile
movement to something more fighter-ish (several such conversions are
available around the net), they balance fairly closely against SMRs.
The SMRs get slightly more damage through for the same Mass of missiles
which hit the target, but the MT missiles tend to score more hits (and
have longer range, and aren't fooled by BJs, etc.). (In fact, with the
fighter-ish MT-missiles-in-FB conversions I've seen and tested the MT
missile hit rates have been so high that the MT missiles completely
outclass SMRs!)
 
Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."