A couple of Spatial Disruption Torpedo questions

[unclejoe]

Hi again,

Ok, I'm designing a few new races and I want to try out the Spatial Disruption Torpedo.

A few things aren't 100% clear:

1) How many can hit a target hex in a single turn? Is it just one since it is an area of effect weapon or can you hit the same hex multiple times and totally shred the poor schmucks caught in it? If it's the latter, it seems mighty powerful since there is no roll to-hit and no roll to penetrate. It seems like all you really have to do is KO the shields on a ship and then fire the SD Torps for automatic crits and heavy damage...yikes!

2) Fighters - Do fighters in the entire blast pattern have to check for destruction or only in the impact hex? It appears to be the former, but I want to be 100% sure

3) It mentions that the SD torpedo destroys all Missiles, Mines, Asteroids, Grape Shots and Torpedoes in the blast hex. That's the 2nd place in the rules where it mention torpedoes in a hex. However my reading of the rules doesn't show any torpedeos that are not Direct Fire. So what are are the torpedoes that this impact could destroy?

4) Does firing SD Torps cost you firecontrol? If so, is it per hex you hit? Can multiple Torps in the same Battery hit multiple hexes or do they all mass up and flatten one poor hex?

Thanks in advance for any info!

[warchariot]

Great questions, haven't used these yet, so not sure. The destory torps is most likely to be for not yet released torps. We've had a discussion about this for Trek type games on another thread. Sorry I can't be more help.

[TheDreadnought]

1. Yes, spatial disruption torps are really powerful. You should have seen them when they did 20/10/5!! You can hit a hex with as many as you can put on the target in a single turn. They're expensive though. A couple SDTs and a launcher will cost you as much tonnage as a rail gun, which can be used the whole game. They were inspired by the null-field generators in The Lost Fleet. . . but as you can see they evolved considerably.

2. Looks like we landed on "entire blast pattern".

3. That's a legacy of torps that used to be on the table. But as mentioned, they might appear that way again someday, so its either errata or brilliant foresight on my part!

4. Yes. No. It's 1 FC per hard point, just like any other weapon system. SDTs on a single hard point can target multiple hexes, but the rules don't call that out clearly enough. Most people opt for the "hammer of god" approach anyway. More fodder for the FAQ I guess.

[kashre]

Good questions... I've wondered somewhat about it too cause the "main" fleet Im using right now has SD torps.... my assumption has been that they are all additive in the same hex... otherwise they'd be pretty weak since per the rules if they're all in the same hardpoint they have to be fired at the same target.

Edit: Dreadnought's a SNIPAH!

[unclejoe]

OK, thanks for the answers.

I guess it just sucks to be the target of these things. Instant Criticals...just add water!

[bubbacleese]

More about question #2. Fighters and SDTs. If I fire more than one SDT and both of these SDTs affect the same hex with fighters do the fighters have to check against both SDT blasts? Or just once?

[warchariot]

We've played it as both because if they landed on two different hexes fighter in each would check. Also you fired twice and spend the points for each, not your fault they went the same place.

[TheDreadnought]

Fighters have to check for each blast.

[bubbacleese]

Yes, that makes the most sense. SDT are expensive and shot limited, so that is good.

[stu]

Just came here looking at these weapons...
They seem to be very, very good (my immediate reaction is to consider banning them..)
I know it's min-maxing but you can build a BC that can one-shot anything with these things, without rolling any dice.

[TheDreadnought]

Give it a shot and try a few games with them against human opponents. Not "on paper." Be very curious if it pays off in context of winning the whole game or not.

I have a feeling that, assuming you play them correctly, your mega-torp BC would fall victim to the rule of "no plan ever survives contact with the enemy" ... But you never know.

[captainquirk]

We only ever used SDTs as part of the Scourge-like fleet - an alien weapon system that IS quite unbalanced. In fact, the Scourge designs that I came up with are so powerful that the main aim of a game involving them is just to see how long you can survive as an opponent. Death is virtually inevitable if you remain in engagement. And I haven't yet found a workable strategy to deal with a Scourge flotilla as a human task force.

I went with Dreadnought's idea of a race dedicated to extinguishing others, and then designed the nastiest ships that I possibly could. Probably the most vicious is a light battlecruiser with a speed of 10 and the capacity to lay down six SDTs (2 x 3). Comes in fast, hits like a hammer, and is gone. Like in all of CBF, there is no individual genuine super ship design. But two or three of these can do a lot of damage in a single turn that quite outweighs their class.

I wouldn't regard them as balanced designs in the slightest. I'm not sure the SDTs are a balanced weapon for normal play. We treat them as a terror weapon.