Small Ship Missiles Re: [FT] Re: Small vessels and the Line...

To address the issue of dividing an SML/SMR system out lets take a 
look at the FB rules. Each SM* can deliver up to 6 missiles doing 1d6 
damage points(no reroll, no screens, half armor). An SMR rack has a 
mass of 4, which is half of most destroyers' armament. So half of one 
of those would be 2 mass and 6 points , call it an MMR (medium 
missile rack) or just an MR (missle rack). Fire from an MR works just 
as an SMR, but it rolls a D3 for number of missile hits.

Similarly for the SML we just need a smaller launcher, and keep the 
missile magazines the same (at 6 missiles per salvo). I'm going to 
assume that the ML will be a single magazine fed launch tube, and 
give it an ROF of 1.

System		Mass	Points
MR		2	6	Rolls 1D3 for number of missile hits
ML		1	4	Fires 1 missile per turn from magazine
Mag		1	3	Capacity: 3 missiles or 2 ER missiles

An ML could be mass 2, 6 points and fire 1d3 missiles per salvo, but 
since I really want one of these to be mass 1.5, I decided to leave 
it out. An advantage of this system is that missiles are no longer 
the scary-monster-shipkillers that result with SMLs (1-36 points of 
damage is a bit wild). Point defense is going to be very important 
with the low salvo densities, and steady 4 missiles instead of 1-6 
with an SML will make missiles a more quantifiable tactical factor.

Note that ships in the Honor Harrington books appear to be using MLs, 
with MRs on LACs. In that spirit lets make missiles play a little 
more vectorish. [1]

Give missiles a thrust of 18 and 3 turns fuel endurance, if using a 
vector system they start with the vector of the launching ship [2]. 
Move them just like MT missiles, adjusted to your house rules. Allow 
missiles to coast without expending fuel. Missiles that have expended 
their fuel may attack ships within 3", but PD fires at +1 and the 
missiles do -3 damage (min 0); see the 3rd Battle of Yeltsin in 
"Honor of the Queen" by Weber for an example of this.

This system will make missiles slightly more powerful than MT 
missiles, but will dole them out in smaller parcels. The coasting 
rule will give missiles a tremendous potential range, so your sensor 
rules will become vital. We'll leave that for another (dozen) 
thread(s).

Who wants to host a pbem game to test both a set of sensor rules and 
these missile rules ?

[1] Mmmmm, vectorish.... hmmmmmmmm <drool>

[2] A strict interpretation of the missile movement rules allowed for 
some amazing 'over the shoulder' shots in Mark Kochte's Dilgar War 
pbem. It wasn't Newton, but we sorely needed those hits. And it 
certainly was cinematic, so I'll allow it for games using cinematic 
movement.
Michael Carter Llaneza
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1991-1950
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