Mines (was Re: [OFFICIAL] Missile Ideas)

At 04:03 PM 4/3/97 +0000, Rob Paul wrote:

>Absolutely!  As they're expensive and fairly massive, I think hitting
one
>should be a serious matter for a capital, and disastrous for an escort.
 As
>is, the mean damage is 1.33 points, with a maximum of 4 and a good
chance
>(i.e. I can't be fashed working it out!) of none.  I think Phil
Pournelle
>suggested 1d6 damage per mine, and that feels right to me.

That's pretty much what I discovered in my PBEM game. Even when a ship
accidentally detonated a mine it was no big deal, and that was with me
giving the Nipponese players a dense minefield! Mines just aren't that
important in the game, particularly if you have to rely on laying them
during the game.

One thing, though. If you are going to up the damage of mines, you
should
lower the chance of a minesweeper accidentally detonating the mine. It's
not
realistic to cripple a minesweeping ship 1/6 of the time. Otherwise
every
ship in the fleet will need a minesweeping system, which will become a
de
facto mine armour system.

Allan Goodall:	agoodall@sympatico.ca 
"You'll want to hear about my new obsession.
 I'm riding high upon a deep depression. 
 I'm only happy when it rains."    - Garbage