Combat Test: Sun Dog vs. Contessa Liner (Third Space Combat)

You’ll remember that I decided to give the players a ship with a terrible gun and a single missile launcher. Then to teach myself about the GURPS Spaceships basic space combat system I tested the ship against an unarmed opponent and one single missile blew their opponent to hell in the first turn. Since they are space pirates, that isn’t what they want to happen. I’m asking myself: What if I handled the excessive legality of missiles by not giving them any?

In this short test I do the math to see what happens if they have to plink away at an unarmed cruise liner opponent with their peashooter point-defense laser. I’m going to forbid the player ship from using the missile launcher in this engagement. In my last test I really liked how the combat system handled damage to a ship the players are sitting inside. Maybe there is some scenario where the player ship attacks the liner while some of the PCs are onboard as part of a boarding action?

Basically I just want to calculate how long it takes to damage the liner with such a crappy gun. And what are the casualties? I might use these figures as “pre-rolls” during the game session to save time. I’m going to put the takeaways at the bottom of the post.

Combat Test

Test combat Sun Dog vs. Contessa Liner.

Standard Combat Scale, 20-second turns       

Vessels begin in Neutral situation, at long range

Both vessels are in open space (e.g., at a jump point) and begin with no velocity.  They detect each at long range and turn hostile after communicating.

For simplicity, I assume everyone has a skill of 12 at everything.

Turn #1

• Sun Dog
  • Captain has no tactics/leadership skills.
  • Engineer increases power: success: +1 power, all systems powered.
  • Engineer allocates power: powers up force shields to full
  • Navigator rolls Tactical Navigation: success: +1 piloting
  • Sensor operator rolls Engineering Analysis (at -6 for turn length): fails
  • Pilot accelerates at 100G (+2 acceleration bonus)
  • Pilot Holds Course. (Closing maneuver illegal on first turn). No roll required.
  • UV Laser not in range: Gunner Waits (Point Defense)
• Contessa
  • Captain has no tactics/leadership skills
  • Engineer can’t increase thrust because there is insufficient power. All high-energy systems are already powered (engines).
  • Navigator rolls Tactical Navigation: success: +1 piloting
  • Sensor operator rolls Engineering Analysis (at -6 for turn length): fails
  • Pilot accelerates at 50G (+1 acceleration bonus)
  • Pilot takes Evasive Action
  • Rear faces Sun Dog

Turn #2

• Sun Dog
  • Engineer increases power: success: +1 power, all systems powered.
  • Engineer allocates power: powers up force shields to full
  • Navigator rolls Tactical Navigation: success: +1 piloting
  • Sensor operator rolls Engineering Analysis (at -6 for turn length): fails
  • Pilot accelerates at 100G (+2 acceleration bonus)
  • Pilot rolls for Dedicated Closing maneuver: (skill contest) Sun Dog: +3 dedicated (dodging will be forbidden), -1 handling, +2 acceleration (+4 total). Contessa: +1 acceleration, +1 evasive action, -2 handling (0 total). Sun Dog succeeds and is engaged with target. Sun Dug has achieved Attack Vector. Range of engagement changes to Short.
  • VRF UV Laser Gunner X-Ray Laser gunner rolls for Aim and Attack
    • Modifiers: size +11, sAcc 0, range -8, attacking streamlined rear hull -1, RoF +8 (total +10): success by 13 = 13 hits.
    • Richardson pilot dodges: 12/2 = 6, +1 evasive action, +1 tactical navigation, -2 handling (total 6): fails
    • Sun Dog hits with 3 dDamage.  Contessa’s dHP is reduced from 200 to 197.
    • Lasers hit passenger cabins [2]. No armor.

Well this is easy enough. I’m just going to stop here and extrapolate a little.

Takeaways

It was relatively easy for the Sun Dog to close on the Contessa quickly and successfully hit it. At this rate, this Contessa will reach 0 dHP after about 30 minutes, and a multiple of dHP every additional 30 minutes.

After every 12 minutes, if fire continues to be directed to the same hull facing (e.g., rear), a system will become disabled. This results in 50% casualties for the people in the disabled system.