Re: [FT] Weapon of the Week - AM-SM

D'OH!

I wrote:

>>A ship with, oh (leafs through FB1), say 4 PDS, escorted by a CE
>>with 3 PDS is attacked by two salvos -
>> 
>>All PDS are used (4 vs. 1, 3 vs. other), killing an average of 5.6
>>missiles, (3.2 on first, 2.4 on second).
... 
>The real average damage from 1 SM salvo opposed by 4 PDSs + 1 >SM
salvo opposed by 3 PDSs is 4.39 + 3.24 = 7.63 points of damage.

No, of course not. Those are the values for SM salvoes opposed by 4 and
*5* PDSs respectively. The *correct* correct values are 5.85 + 4.39 =
10.24 points of damage from the two SM salvoes.

Yes, Charles, you may hit me now... <sigh>

The AM-SM still inflicts on average 5.83 pts on these two ships, so it
only does slightly more damage than 1 normal SM salvo in this example.
Charles's various underestimates more or less canceled out ;-)

I'd still put the AM-SM at Mass 3 though. It is far too easy to create
other examples where it is rather more powerful - eg., replace the
4-PDS ship with two smaller ones, or surround it with a bunch of BJs.
Or use it to force a bunch of enemy fighters to burn endurance, or to
destroy an enemy missile alpha strike (or at least force the enemy to
risk fighters to prevent this), or... 

Besides, if it is any smaller than Mass 3 it'd start outgunning the
PBL-2 it is based on by a fair margin - the average number of shots an
individual PBL has managed to fire in my battles to date is just over 2
:-/

Later,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

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