[GZG] HDC madness

I was looking at the IJN playtest rules for the HDC and realised that
there was some room for abuse.	Not that I seriously consider the HDC
to be broken, only that you should be careful of accepting challenges
for 20,000 point fleets (strict NPV).

What you get for your 20,000 points is a 5600 mass, thrust2,
ftl-capable battlestation with enough HDC-3's around its periphery to
cover the entire 360 degrees by only firing half of them.  Simply
because I like round numbers, there is an extra pair so that the
spacing is every 2.25 degrees.	Each turn only half are intended to
fire, so the centerline of firing weapons are 4.5 degrees apart.  The
hull has 1024 damage points and 256 points of armor.  The first
threshold check is unlikely to cause the catastrophic chain reaction
of enough HDC's going up to cause the next threshold check.  Lots of
armor is pointless against Kra'Vak heavies, but Kra'Vak score few hits
at 24-30 and take gobs of damage closer in.

I assume that both the intention to fire and the direction must be
recorded in the orders phase, or the HDC is obscenely deadly in the
0-24 range band, as it adjusts the firing angle of weapons for maximum
effect.  Every line of bearing can be swept by six HDC's (for 3
degrees out of every 4.5, a seventh can also fire), at the cost of two
15 degree gaps in coverage (one on each side of the concentration zone
[not necessarily adjacent], or a single thirty degree gap).  Opening a
15 degree gap will allow another 15 degree sector to be doubled up.
Opening two 15 degree gaps will allow a 15 degree sector between them
to be tripled up.  With some good guesses, even pre-plotted firing
angles will deliver a world of hurt to an incoming attack fleet.
Surprise! Surprise! This vessel will often spend alot of its time with
its MD not in use to allow for firing in the aft arc.  I just realised
that the overlap is actually better than predicted, as the
battlestation has 80 HDC's for complete coverage, but only 76 (not the
79 I initially thought) are needed to  form a complete circle--  the
angle covered by a single HDC is 2*ArcTan(1/24), my first, incorrect,
approximation of the angle was 2*ArcSin(1/24).

Although a tough nut to crack, it is hardly invulnerable-- especially
if the HDC, as implied by its description, has no effect on PB's
(unless they are netted by the "damages every target" catch-all
phrase).

I suppose my question is really "Can you take this out without
building another one?"
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