[FT] Heavy Beams - 4321

I've done some more experimentation with a concept I had for
minimalist "Heavy Beams". I've boiled it down to the following:
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Mechanics:

Heavy Beams cost and mass the same as normal beams.

A Heavy beam rolls 1 less die than a normal beam at every range.
So a class 3 heavy beam rolls 2 dice at 12MU, and 1 die at up to 24 MU.

Hits by a heavy beam do 4,3,2,1,0,0 points of damage, rather than
2,1,1,0,0,0.
That is, a roll of a 6 does 4 pts, and a re-roll, a roll of 5 does 3
points,
and so on.
Re-rolls also do 4,3,2,1,0,0 points, not counting screens, with scores
of 6
causing
further re-rolls as do normal beams.

Screens are particularly effective vs Heavy beams, so just subtract the
screen
rating from the damage of each die. So a Heavy Beam that scored a 4,
which
would normally be 2 hits, would only do 1 against a target with screen
1,
and
would do no damage against a target with screen 2.

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PSB:
These fire far fewer bursts, so have a smaller chance of hitting, and
thus
have a
lesser effective range. However, they have much larger capacitors, so
when
they
hit, they really hit. They are no more effective than normal beams vs
screened
ships, less so vs heavily screened ones, but against unscreened ships
they
are
rather more deadly.

Usually Heavy beams are found as limited-arc "Spinal Mounts". Those
mounted
on
UN vessels came as a nasty surprise to the KraVak during the Siege of
Earth,
matching the firepower of the larger K-guns.

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Playbalance, Game aspects.

The most cost-effective Heavy Beams are those of Class 4 and above,
though
some
Class 3s are sometimes found. Class 2s are even rarer, and Class 1s
cannot
be
constructed.

This is a solution to the following problems/requirements:

* It gives an incentive to have screens as opposed to nothing but lots
of
armour.
But not such a huge one as to disadvantage the NSL or KV unduly.

* It gives us a spinal mount - just try making a Heavy Beam that can hit
at
range 48 with anything more than a single arc!

* It prevents "small boys" , the ones that won't have screens anyway,
from
carrying them vs their normal opponents, other small boys. So the
current
Frigate and destroyer designs still make sense.

* We don't need another mass/cost chart - a Heavy Beam costs the same as
a
normal one with the same arc, it's just shorter ranged.

* Finally, the same principle could be extended to a "Super Heavy Beam",
which does 5,4,3,2,1,0 but rolls 2 less dice, and so on. But these would
have to
be at least of Class 6 to match the effectiveness of conventional beams.