Expanded EW suggestion (was MT Missile Questions)

(This originally started as a comment on what we used to do about
expanded
ECM in MT and eventually became a fully expanded EW suggestion that
someone
might actually find interesting, so I re-subjected the post.)

> Yeah, I had wondered at what point Wild Weasels and Bogeys became
useful.
> Has anyone experimented with expanded ECM rules or C&C squadron rules
ala
> BABYLON 5 WARS FLEET ACTION?

We used some expanded ECM rules to make ECM more effective against
missiles
back in MT.  We haven't adapted it for SMLs, but the general gyst of it
was
that we added a "to hit" roll for missiles, that got less likely as your
range increased.  I believe the to-hit table went about like this:

	Missile would hit on immediate launch (i.e. 6" range) - 2+
	Hits in first turn - 3+
	Hits in second turn - 4+
	Hits in third turn - 5+
	Against an ECM-protected ship, regardless of turn - 6 only

This made the missiles a lot more balanced and discouraged us from just
stuffing ships to the gills with them as our primary tactic -- which,
with
only 6's from PDS fire being effective against them _without_ the ECM
expansion and fighters not being allowed to shoot at them at all, saved
the custom game (IMO) from degenerating quickly into a "nuclear
exchange"
scenario.  Area ECM became a fairly common fixture of ship design in
those
days and no one overloaded on missiles in any gambles as a result -- but
by the same token, missiles didn't become completely useless and were
still
used in more reasonable numbers.

If I were to adapt it for FB-based games, I'd probably keep the above
for
MT missiles and make SML's roll against an extra d6 _before_ PDS is
accounted for in order to hit (i.e. missiles are probably not going to
meaningfully hit a well-PDS'ed, ECM-protected ship at all).

However, I'd probably also scale the ECM system size to the size of a
ship
being protected.  I'd also probably eliminate the distinction between
"individual" and "area" ECM, with the MASS of a given ECM system
dictating
how well it can protect ships around it.  An ECM system would cost 5x
the
system mass, and would protect the ship carrying it if at least 5% of
the
ship's MASS is dedicated to the system.  In addition, it would serve as
an
"area ECM" to any ship within 12 MU if the system is 10% or more of the
MASS
of those other ships.  The system's effectiveness would be halved on one
threshold or needle hit and eliminated altogether on two, similar to
drives.
Any ship larger than what the ECM system can cover simply _isn't_
covered --
there is no "partial coverage".

While I'm at it, the ECM would also double as a "weasel suite" if the
ship
equipped with it had enough extra ECM power and wished to do so.  The EW
ship could project a sensor signature of a ship equivalent to what its
ECM
suite could cover over an area -- i.e. 10x the MASS of the system.  This
obviously would do no good for a large ship, as it could no longer cover
its
sisters any more and wouldn't show up on a radar screen as any larger
than
it actually was.  But an EW ship designed as an escort for larger
friends
has the option of either covering them in an ECM web or, if it doesn't
think
that'll be as useful at a given moment, it may pose _as_ one of those
friends.
Its ECM will still be considered as covering itself, but since it's
projecting
instead of interfering, it will no longer cover any other ships in the
area.
Missiles and scans will still screw up trying to get lock on the EW ship
(since they're trying to fix on something that's a lot smaller than it
really
is) but unless they get a detailed read on it the deception will hold. 
IOW,
just getting a MASS reading on a ship won't work -- the MASS reading
that's
returned will be whatever the ECM tells you it is.  If you get a
successful,
detailed scan on a ship, however, the deception will be exposed.

A larger ship cannot use an ECM suite to pose as a smaller one.

This creates a large number of tradeoffs.  The weasel function is
slightly
more powerful than it was before under this idea (i.e. people can't bust
you
for free any more) but it carries a price -- if you are within missile
range
and you're posing as a larger ship, you're essentially gambling that
your
enemies will shoot at you rather than your now-uncovered buddies.  If
they
take the time to scan your ships one by one, they can potentially deduce
pretty quickly as to who's fooling with them and who's really a target
simply
by determining which "SDNs" are returning ECM interference.  Thus, at
closer
ranges, "weaseling" rather than ECM covering is probably not a very good
idea.

Examples of all this in action:

 - A mass 240 superdreadnought is the dedicated EW ship for its fleet. 
It
 carries an ECM system of MASS 24 -- thus, not only can it cover itself,
but
 its sister SDN's of similar MASS will also be covered if they remain
within
 12 MU.  If the EW SDN takes a threshold or a needle to the ECM, its
system
 will then only be able to cover itself and escorts of 120 MASS or
below,
 and would no longer be able to cover the other SDN's.	The ECM system
 costs 120 points.

 - The same mass 240 SDN has an ECM system of only MASS 12 (costs 60
points).
 Now, it can still cover itself, but even at full strength only
battleships
 and other escorts around it (MASS 120 or less) will be covered -- its
sister
 SDN's won't be protected by it.  If the system takes a
threshold/needle,
 the SDN itself will no longer be covered, but light cruisers (MASS 60
or
 less) still could enjoy its protection, so it still wouldn't be
completely
 useless.

 - My monster MASS 1200 "Dreadplanet Roberts" (DPR), for obvious
reasons,
 would probably only bother to carry a MASS 60 ECM (300 points) for
itself,
 because this would cover a MASS 600 cohort or even a MASS 300 one if
the
 system was damaged -- i.e. unless the thing's ECM was completely taken
out
 it could _still_ cover any conventional sized ship.

 - A MASS 60 EW cruiser sports a MASS 30 ECM system (150 points).  This
could
 also protect any conventional sized ship in area ECM, but it wouldn't
have
 a prayer of protecting the DPR, because the monstrous thing is simply
too
 dratted _big_.  Also, if it's trying to spook an enemy, it has the
option
 of posing as anything up to a MASS 300 megadreadnought if it decides to
shift
 into "weasel mode".  This will be pretty quickly exposed if the enemy
blows
 the thing out of the stars without any effective response once fleets
close
 to weapons range, but having a number of EW cruisers posing as DNs at
long
 range to fool an enemy into bugging out is not without its usefulness
in
 certain situations.

How, exactly, advanced sensors fit into all of this would be anyone's
guess.
Presumably, a more powerful ECM or weasel system could theoretically
confuse
any sensor suite that didn't put in equal power -- but OTOH, I could as
easily
see the argument that the larger a ship being protected by ECM, the less
room
for error there'd be in covering it as well.  Given the power of ECM
against
missiles, I think the latter argument probably holds more weight, so I'd
say
that advanced sensor suites should probably be left alone from MT. 
They'd
allow you to get better at penetrating ECM and weasel attempts for
scanning
purposes as before, but wouldn't help your missile attacks.

It's possible that my NPV's need some adjusting (I have my suspicions
that the
system might be a little too cheap) but I like the general idea behind
this.
With a combination of weasel systems and ECM under this outline, EW
could
suddenly become a very meaningful part of the game, not to mention that
overloading on SMLs would no longer be a viable tactic even against slow
ships if they were protected by stiff (but expensive) ECM.
-- 
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