Topic: Vehicle Combat

[Togaras]

I had a recent one-shot-event with a small air fight. Now I have different issues, where I am unsure if I have checked everything.

As ships I take the Wolverine Light Fighter from the Vehicle Manual page 37.
The ship has a DB of 90, the Blaster have an OB of 90.
To the OB I add the HEP skill of the gunner, which is about 50.

When I now add a 1D100 to make the attack, I have a 50 percent chance to hit with maximum damage, because damage is capped at 100. So 2 of this hits (64B) and the ship goes down. The ship has 2 of these blaster, so theoretical 2 shots each round, or?
Ok, now I try to add EW bonus of 25 to DB. This might happen, but might fail. It is still easy to crush the ship. A next thing is the combat pilot maneuver. Being defensive might be good when there are more enemies than friends. But in all of my latest tactical RP fights, I found for myself, that being offensive is better. The earlier you get them down, the more chances you have to survive. And in addition, the combat pilot maneuver might fail to for the enemy.

So anyhow I believe I have forgotten something. What? Or is it just missing experience with that? There are also some range modificators, but I do not understand them. How would you handle some atmospheric fight, where group a is flying from south to north and group B is comming from the north. We played on a squared X-Y map and ignored the Z position.

Another issue with that is the speed. In athmospheric area, how should I move them on my map? Staying at the Wolverine Light Fighter: 16G acceleration is one thing, 6.000 kph (kilometers per hour?) sounds to much and on the bottom of the sheet, there is a drive with 2G. So how many fields should it move each round?

How are you handling athmospheric or space fights.

[David Johansen]

The sad truth is that the Spacemaster Vehicle Manual is extremely lacking in details on these things, going instead for a mapless "chase" mechanic.  6000kph is totally reasonable for a a 16g fighter with extremely high tech materials.  (whether 16 g is reasonable is another matter)

Silent Death doesn't really port over all that well, or rather Silent Death isn't in any way a realistic movement simulation.  Helluva blast starfighter game but not much on the hard movement simulation front.  There's some notes in Future Law that are helpful, but still nothing on ranges.  Star Strike might help, but I've never gotten it.

The real problem is that Star Strike was used as the basis for the Vehicle Manual and Star Strike is primarily a capital ship game, so we're stuck with 2 hp motorcycles that can't suffer criticals and some problems with AT XX.

I don't say this often, but small vehicle combat is something SM2 actually did better.  Much better.  I keep meaning to write up some crit tables and rules for it because it drives me nuts.

[markc]

Tor,
 Your second method is correct with the ecm, cbt pilot ect. Also be sure you download the errata for the vehicles as it can make a difference.

David,
 SS and AA almost use the same method for hits as SMP:VM. But they on the other hand have rules for vehicle movement, terrain ect. I think ICE was going to put out a SS like product but it did not happen. I would recomend getting the PDF and adapting the rules for SM:P.

Another option that I have not looked into would be to look at the rules for vehicle cbt in HARP SCi Fi.

MDC

[David Johansen]

The SM2 core box handles small vehicles better than SPAM.  It's really very sad that a couple page system that just reduces crits to extra hits and uses a little hit location table does a better job than a whole book.  On the other hand, Vehicle Manual is the weakest of the SPAM supplements and I've always suspected it's because it's the one that got hit worst by the bankrupcy mess.

On the other hand SPAM has the very best in game implentation of robots I've ever seen.

[Togaras]

I have checked the VM errata. You are right, this might change the fight a little bit. But I still think range is very significant resource to deal with. What PDF exactly do you suggest me to get? The Star Strike Vessels Compendium?

Regards
Togaras

[Dax]

No, the Star Strike Vessel Compeniums just contain ships (space station etc),
no rules, but some mini adventures (aren't mentioned in the description).

You need the Star Strike Rules for Space Combat.

And Armored Assault (AA) for Planetary Action, this rule set covers atmospheric fights
aka "dog-fights". (Why dogs ? Was "dog" a nickname for pilots ?)

BTW: The attack charts were updated, the printed AA contains the newer ones,
but I suppose, they are also included in the new Star Strike PDF.

I never played AA but there might be need to change rules
concerning SPACs in dog-fights.

[markc]

I have checked the VM errata. You are right, this might change the fight a little bit. But I still think range is very significant resource to deal with. What PDF exactly do you suggest me to get? The Star Strike Vessels Compendium?

Regards
Togaras

Yes like Dax said above the SS and AA are the main rule books and SS:VC are just ships and stuff. I like the SS for just space battles because that is what is was designed for. You can adapt it to SM:P or adapt SM:P to SS either way I think you will enjoy the rules better than those presented in SM:P basic book or those in SM:P VM.
 I like you like range and other more complex rules in my vehicles combat systems and was lucky enough to get a copy in a large lot of RM books I bought. I also bought a copy of the PDF as soon as it can out and I consider it a core part of my game. BTW if you do not like the mech rules you can drop them or change them to fit you own universe.

MDC