Latest Travails

SPACE COMBAT

     I had the opportunity (misfortune?) of having space combat in my weekly
Traveller game last Monday night.  I was going to sit down immediately after
the game and write a lengthy diatribe on the flaws in that system, but sense
prevailed.  I woke up the next morning and realized that I had done my
modifiers backwards, and that the enemy ship with armor-52 (-4 die modifier)
was not, in fact, nearly invincible.  However, the question of discontinuity
between the space and vehicle combat systems remained.  The problem that I
was experiencing was that two small ships (1 200 tons, the other 400 tons)
could not do any damage to each other except Fuel-1, Weapons-1, and, I
think, Maneuver-1 (I'm not sure about that because of the modifier screw
up).  Using the vehicle combat system, we quickly see that a 250 MW laser
has a pretty useful penetration versus an armor-40 hull, and that the
250 damage points done in a typical 'low penetration' hit will pretty well
trash any part of the ship that has separate damage points.  As I described
the combat, our heroes fired numerous missiles at the enemy until all turrets
were knocked out, and then closed to visual range to deliver the coup de grace
to the enemy with their single laser...regrettably the enemy vessel had
repaired one laser in a triple turret and fired one shot which nearly destroyed
the player's ship's power plant.  I'm satisfied with that result, but not
with the method used to generate it.  (I know, I have a copy of Bertil's
system, but I haven't read it enough to use it yet...).  I found that in the
heat of the game that it was not worthwhile to worry about sensor rolls, and
that the -1 per hex sensor penalty seems too severe given that weapons are
supposed to have a 500,000km range. We also used a Mayday set for combat
resolution, which took a few minutes to explain about vectors...but not so
many minutes that it seemed prohibitive.

THE AFTERMATH

     Now they have a slight problem...the privateers were able to jump, and
their base was only one jump away.  Our heroes would have been cooked had they
not been carrying two 1kl portable fusion plants which they jury-rigged for
some power to the thruster plates.  With maneuver power (of sorts) they
docked with one of the demolished enemy fighters, which fortunately had not
taken a power plant critical hit, and salvaged its power plant.  However, they
managed to ram it in the docking process, and I ruled that their hull was in
such need of repair that they were not capable of a gas giant refueling. I
also ruled that jumping was out because of massive damage to the jump grids.

     From a gas giant to a main world is usually a considerable distance (I
had often ignored this, but you shouldn't).  By the time they were patched up
and in transit, two new privateers <?> had jumped into the system.  Now they
have landed on the planet (Pagaton, TL4, in an ice age) in a spot that you
could consider to be equivalent to southern Greenland (in the equivalent of
the 1850s--a steam press to bend the hull members back into shape might be
available, but not in 'Greenland').  The enemy is expected to orbit in 24-48
hours.  Should they be easy to find with a densitometer?  Obviously if their
fusion plant is running, they'll show up like a bonfire on the neutrino
sensors.  If they elect to abandon their ship, how often should a free trader
call on this world?  Would a world with refueling (water) available only a
jump-1 from a class A starport be unfrequented?  This all gets back into the
"How many ships in the Imperium?" discussion. Is there a "Distressed Spacemen"
law that says that a free trader has to pick them up?  Just how many TL13
novelty type 'relics' would their be?

     I realize that all of these questions are "Add salt to taste", but I'm
curious.  Also, does anyone think it would be fair to impose corrosion problems
on the fuel purifying system for working with saturated (21% by weight) sodium
chloride brine as a feedstock?  (Maybe that's why people _buy_ unrefined fuel
rather than ocean dipping...)

     Anyway...I'm still here, although I've been pretty quiet the last few
weeks.  The final two Horde installments should be along soon.

Good Gaming,

Rob Dean