Beams and size classes

'Lo, folks,
	    here's a modification of an idea I (and I'm sure lots of
others,
eg Allan Goodall) have had concerning ship classes and beam weapons. 
The
basic idea is that Cs are "appropriate" for Escorts, Bs are
"appropriate"
for Cruisers, As are "appropriate" for Capitals, and AAs are appropriate
for
Capitals and Superships, especially the latter.  An "appropriate" beam
weapon requires the usual number of Mass points.  An "inappropriate"
single-arc weapon requires double Mass allowance, a 2- or 3-arc weapon
needs
triple.  It is therefore just possible to shoehorn a 3-arc A-Battery
into a
superdestroyer FTL hull, perhaps as a monitor, but only just.

All points costs remain as FT/MT;  some Mass requirements are 
modified as follows:
Beam/Arcs     Escort	  Cruiser      Capital	   Supership

C/1		1	     1		  1	       1
C/2 or 3	1	     1		  1	       1

B/1		4	     2		  2	       2
B/2 or 3	6	     2		  2	       2

A/1		6	     6		  3	       3
A/2 or 3	9	     9		  3	       3

AA/1	       n/a	    10		  5	       5
AA/2 or 3      n/a	    15		 10	       5

I would also suggest a triple points cost (or more) for non-burnout AA
batteries.

	This lets designers fit heavy stuff in a small hull if they
really
want to (eg Chinese "Ping Yuen" (sp) class protected cruisers), but
emphasizes the differences between size classes.

Cheers,
Rob

Rob Paul
NERC Institute of Virology 
Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3SR	  Tel. (01865) 512361
rkp@mail.nerc-oxford.ac.uk
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