Lesson 5: Weapons & Shields

Excerpts from "A Primer on Starship Tactical Systems, Third Edition - Revised and Expanded" by Admiral Westend

Weapons

Warships in the Imperial Navy carry devastating weapons with which to destroy their enemies.  Weapons come in three main types, turbolasers, ion cannons, and projectiles. 

Stats

A warship's stats contain a list of its armament and the capabilities of those weapons in an easy to understand format.  The first line in a weapon's stats tells how many weapons are mounted and what type of weapons they are.

50 Heavy Turbolaser Cannons
    Fire Arc: 20 front, 10 left, 10 right, 10 back
    Scale: Capital
    Crew: 3
    Skill: Capital ship gunnery
    Fire control: 1D
    Space range: 3-15/35/75
    Atmosphere range: 6-30/70/150 km
    Damage: 7D

Fire Arcs

Fire arcs simply mean the direction (or directions) that a ships weapons may fire and how many guns can fire in that particular direction.  Fire arcs on most vessels are 90 degree wedges centered about the ship.  Some ships have special fire arcs that are on different angles and that is usually noted somewhere in the weapon or ship description.  While all weapons are technically mounted on a turret that allows them to traverse within their fire arc, some weapons are mounted on turrets that cover multiple or all fire arcs.  These weapons are listed as turret.  The diagram below shows the typical fire arc arrangement most warships.

Scale

To avoid exceptionally high dice rolls and also to decrease the number of dice required the game uses scales to show the difference between different sizes and types of objects.  You add or subtract dice to attack rolls, dodge rolls, and damage rolls to show these differences.  When targets of the same scale shoot at each other with the same scale weapons these modifiers are ignored.  It is only when there is a difference in scale that the modifiers come into play.  Apply the difference between the two scales to get the adjusted modifier.  Also if a particular weapon does not list the scale, it is assumed to be the same scale as the ship it is mounted on.

When a lower scale attacker is shooting at a higher scale defender the lower scale attacker adds the modifier to the attack roll.  The target would dodge with its normal ability.  The higher scale defender adds the modifier to its roll to resist damage while the lower scale attacker rolls damage normally.

When a higher scale attacker is shooting at a lower scale defender the higher scale attacker rolls its attack normally but the lower scale defender adds the modifier to its dodge roll.  The higher scale attacker adds the modifier to weapon damage but the lower scale defender must resist damage with its normal roll.

Crew

Quite simply, this stat tells how many crewmen are needed to operate the weapon.  Occasionally there will be a listing such as 1 (20), 2 (30).  This indicates that the number of weapons in parentheses require a number of crewmen listed to the left.  For this example, 20 weapons would require one crewman each while 30 weapons require two crewmen for a total of 80 crewmen.

Skill

This describes which skill is required to operate the weapon (starship gunnery, capital ship gunnery, missile weapons, vehicle weapons, etc.).

Fire Control

When firing the weapon, this modifier is added to the skill code of the gunner.  The total die code is rolled to hit the target.  For example, a ship with 4D+2 in capital ship gunnery and 2D fire control would roll 6D+2 to hit.

Space Range

The range of the weapon in space units is listed here.  The first two numbers (3-15 in the example) is considered short range.  Anything below short range (1-2 in this case) is considered point-blank.  The next number is the furthest distance for medium range (35 in this case, meaning 16-35 is medium range).  The last number is the maximum range for the weapon (75 in this case, meaning 36-75 is long range).  If the target does not dodge, or if its dodge is lower than the range, the range determines the difficulty to hit per standard rules.

It is very easy to calculate ranges on a square grid tactical map.  Multiply the horizontal distance in units by itself and add it to the vertical distance multiplied by itself and then take the square root.  It sounds complicated, but it really is simple geometry.  The equation is: √ (X² + Y²).  In the following diagram, the horizontal distance between the two ships is 4 and the vertical distance is 6.  4 squared is 16 and 6 squared is 36.  16+36=52 and the square root of 52 is 7.2. 

Atmosphere Range

If a ship is capable of entering atmosphere or firing from orbit to a planets surface, the range of the weapon through the atmosphere is listed here.  It uses the same rules as space range to calculate difficulty levels.

Damage

Finally, the damage code of a weapon is listed here.  This is the number of dice rolled against a targets hull or combined hull and shields code to determine damage levels.  See the sections below for better explanation of each weapon system.

Turbolasers

Turbolasers are the primary weapon system used by the Imperial Navy and weapons of this type are mounted on most warships in one size or another.  Turbolasers are basically huge powerful versions of blaster cannons and really have little to do with an actual laser.  Lasers are merely coherent beams of light that can rapidly heat and cut through matter; Turbolasers take this to the next level.

Turbolasers use tibanna gas which stores photon energy for transfer to the target.  Tibanna gas is found in the layers of various gas giants and its unique molecular structure allows it to absorb photon energy at 52%, the greatest energy to particle interaction of any molecule..  Within some gas giants, immense pressure and gravitational rotation naturally refine the gas in a process called spin-stabilization.  This further enhances the ability of the tibanna molecule, increasing the rate of interaction to an amazing 79.6%.  Synthetic spin-stabilization only marginally increases the ratio, making naturally refined tibanna an extremely valuable commodity.

When a turbolaser is fired, a packet of tibanna gas is injected into the firing chamber and contained within a magnetic field while a series of powerful lasers (the only link to light energy the weapon has) heats the gas to 10,000 Kelvin and simultaneously excites the tibanna molecules with photon energy.  When the particles are charged, the magnetic field is spun axially down the barrel and compressed by galven coils until the charge leaves the muzzle.  The turbolaser bolt is then essentially a cylinder of tibanna gas, heated to a plasma state and incased in a magnetic field.  The magnetic field helps the spinning particles maintain their cohesion and dramatically increases the range of the weapons.  The magnetic field can be altered as it travels through the galven coils to produce instability, which would cause the bolt to rupture prematurely, resulting in "flak" bursts that make the weapon effective against starfighters as well.

The color of the turbolaser bolt is determined by the wavelength of the charging lasers and has no effect on weapon power.  Turbolasers can be any color except black.  Also, because the bolt has mass it causes recoil within the weapon itself and causes the target to feel impact when the weapon hits.  The bolt travels slightly slower than light-speed and can be affected by gravity, especially in close proximity to a planet.  Because a turbolaser has both physical and energy properties, it is affected by both particle and energy shields.

Turbolasers are extremely power intensive and require banks of capacitors to store energy in addition to a direct connection to a large power generator (usually the warship's reactor.)  They also require cryogenic components to keep the weapon from overheating.

Other Energy Weapons

It is useful to note that almost all energy weapons function in the same manner as a turbolaser, except they can only heat the tibanna gas to 4,500 Kelvin and they do not have nearly as much galven circuitry.  Other common starship weapons that use this technology are as follows:

Turbolaser Attacks

A typical turbolaser attack is very simple.  Add the crew's gunnery skill to the fire control and roll that to hit.  The target rolls its piloting plus its maneuverability code to dodge.  If the hit roll is higher, the ship is struck by the turbolaser bolt and damage must be calculated.  Roll the weapon's damage code against the hull (and shield code if the shields were up) and consult the following chart.

Criticals

Turbolasers, missiles and torpedoes can wreck havoc on a ship's systems and cause additional damage in the form of Criticals.  Criticals are specific systems that fail or are otherwise damaged in an attack.  These are determined using the following chart with a roll of 1D.

Concussion Missiles

Before the Clone Wars, concussion missiles and other projectile weapons were often the most powerful weapons carried aboard a warship, but with recent increases in the power of turbolasers these weapons have been forced into a secondary role.  They are slower and less accurate than turbolasers and in the case of heavy turbolasers they are less powerful, but for all their disadvantages they have one tremendous strength; missiles are not affected by energy shields.

Concussion missiles are cylindrical tubes equipped with a tiny ion engine for propulsion and microthrusters for maneuverability.  They have an internal guidance system and can be locked on target before launch.  They also have a small shield generator to provide minimal protection against debris.  The warhead is armor piercing and designed to explode inside the superstructure of a ship.  The warhead consists of a series of high yield explosives which detonate in a precise series in less than a millisecond.  The shockwaves of the explosions build off one another to produce an effect many times greater than a single large warhead.  The shockwaves travel through the superstructure to break the ship's skeleton apart.

Concussion missiles are best used against slow warships or stationary targets because they have less capability to evade.  Missiles can also be set to prematurely detonate in space and can make effective anti-starfighter weapons if the fighters are grouped close together in squadrons.

Concussion missiles often appear to glow orange as they travel through space due to misalignment in the shield generator or because of a particle dense environment.

Missile & Torpedo Attacks

Traditionally, a missile attack can take many rounds, during which time the missile's position must be recorded and rolls must be made to determine how successfully the missile tracks its target.  This makes for good suspense, but it is also cumbersome and difficult to roll.  These rules will simplify die rolling for missile attacks in large-scale engagements but bring back an interesting aspect to the use of these weapons.

Upon entering combat, the vessel would make a roll to "lock" the target into the missile's guidance system.  Simply roll the crewman's skill plus the fire control modifier.  Do not use the target speed modifier at this time.  Do not roll for each missile launcher, since the targeting computer is for the missile system as a whole.  Up to four targets may be locked into the computer, but each additional target adds the standard multiple-action penalty of -1D.  Since the target lock can be "kept up", sequential rolls are only required if you wish to change or add targets or if the target breaks the lock or passes out of range.  Once the amount of dice has been calculated, roll them against the range difficulty or dodge (whichever is greater) of the target.  If the roll is successful, the target is locked into the computer and all missiles fired at the target will receive a +2D bonus to hit.  Record this roll for later use.

The target can try to break the lock in following rounds by dodging or by moving out of range.  If on any following round, the target's dodge (crew skill plus ships maneuverability) exceeds the original locking roll, the lock is broken and the target must be reacquired.  Record the target's dodge roll.

Once a target is locked into the computer, the vessel may fire its missiles with the +2D bonus.  Add the crew skill, fire control, and bonus together.  The missiles can still be coordinated to achieve a hit or to maximize damage, if desired apply this modifier as well.  The target speed adversely effects the ability for a missile to accurately track its target.  This number is added to the target's dodge roll.  Roll the weapons against the modified target difficulty.  If you succeed the missiles have struck their target in this round, roll damage normally.

Proton Torpedoes

Like concussion missiles, proton torpedoes are projectile weapons with enormous damage potential because they are not affected by shields.  Proton torpedoes are less commonly used aboard Imperial warships than their New Republic counterparts, though their capabilities are roughly identical.

Proton torpedoes are conical devices that are larger in diameter than a concussion missile of similar yield, but much shorter.  Instead of an engine they contain an inertial sustaining field generator that allows them to maintain the velocity generated by the launching system.  They still contain a guidance computer and maneuvering thrusters, but they are usually slower and less agile than missiles.  Their warheads are not armor piercing and contain proximity detonators that explode a few meters from contact with the target.  This scatters the high energy protons across a wider area of the hull and heats the target area to its point of vaporization.

The interaction between the inertial sustaining field and the warhead's shielding causes the projectile to glow between light-orange and blue.

Ion Cannons

When you wish to disable a target for capture without seriously damaging it, ion cannons are the weapon of choice.  While most particles are neutral and have no charge, ions have either a positive or negative charge (most weapons used negative ions.)  The weapon itself is a particle accelerator, which fires out bolts of ionized particles at high velocities.  These particles scatter when they strike the hull of their target and the ionized particles leach electrons from electronic systems in the surrounding area, passing the ionization effect into the target.  The affected electronic systems are temporarily rendered useless until they have time to depolarize.  This is called Controls Ionized and results in a 1D penalty to all control systems on the ship.  Additional attacks can further hamper the ship's controls and possibly result in Controls Dead.  The only physical damage caused by ion cannons is the overload and subsequent explosion of control panels, duty stations, etc. which happens often and can injure nearby crewmen.

Ships suffering from Controls Dead is not actually disabled.  The crew are simply no longer able to control it.  The ship is unable to change course and speed and it cannot evade attacks or resist tractor beams. It is unable to launch or recover fighters.  It is unable to fire weapons or use it shields and it cannot use sensors.  Controls Ionized is similar in that the ship's speed is not affected; only control systems are affected by ion cannons.

Because ion cannons are strictly particle weapons, they are not hindered by ray shielding. The bolts must scatter across the hull for maximum effect and tend to loose coherence as they travel through space; this severely limits the range of the weapon.  Ion cannon bolts are typically blue or bluish-white in color, but some of them can be orange.  Bluish lightning will often arc across the surface of a ship that has been ionized as a result of static electricity generated by the interaction of the ion particles with the hull.

Ion Cannon Attacks

Because ion cannons do not cause physical damage, they use a different damage chart than the previous weapons.  Each controls ionized results in a penalty of -1D from maneuverability, shields and weapon fire control and damage for the rest of the round and the next round.  If the ship suffers from as many controls ionized results as it has maneuverability dice, controls dead for two rounds.  The ship maintains same speed and direction; it cannot turn, fire weapons, use shields, or take any other actions.

Tractor Beams

While not technically a weapon system, tractor beams are a very useful in combat.  They can be used to hold a target ship steady so that gunners can hit it more easily and they can reel enemy ships close enough for boarding operations.  Tractor beams are also not affected by ray shielding, but they cannot cause damage to any system except the engines.  However, should the enemy ship resist it is possible for the tractor beam to destroy the vessel by causing catastrophic engine overload.

Tractor beams are created by a focused gravimetric field generator which alters the effect of gravity between the ship and the target object.  This field typically draws the target closer, but can also hold it stable or push it away.  The major disadvantage is that the generator's range is quite limited.  Tractor beams are invisible, but most starship captains know when one has taken hold of their vessel.

Tractor Beam Attacks

Tractor beams have the dual effect of moving a ship a certain number of units and also damaging the target's drive systems.

Lost moves add together to limit ship speed as damage to the sublight drives accumulates.  For example, a ship with a space code of 6 that has lost two moves would be limited to its cruising speed of 12.  This applies to moves lost in any fashion, both from tractor beams and weapon damage.

Gravity Well Projectors

Mounted in spherical hull bulges on Interdictor-class Heavy Cruisers, gravity well projectors are essential in almost every tactical operation.  Interdictor cruisers are normally used to force ships from hyperspace to realspace, or to prevent any ship from escaping into hyperspace.  The cruisers are normally positioned along the perimeter of the battle, and flood the battle zone with gravity wells to prevent any ships from escaping.  Interdictor cruisers can also be used as "cosmic roadblocks": when placed along popular trade routes, they simply block the route with their gravity well projectors.  All ships passing along the route are forced to realspace, at which point the other ships may inspect cargoes, capture, or destroy them.

Gravity well projectors send out waves of energy that disrupt mass lines in space -in hyperspace, this simulates the "mass shadow" of a large stellar body, such as an asteroid or planet.  Ships cannot enter hyperspace in the presence of such a large mass, and when a ship in hyperspace encounters a mass shadow, it is forced to realspace.  Preventing a ship from escape into hyperspace is relatively easy.  All of the targets are readily detectable, and it is a matter of simply placing the gravity wells close enough to a target ship to disrupt its hyperdrive.  However, forcing ships from hyperspace can be more difficult.  First, the Interdictor must know where and when the ship will be passing.  This is often an educated guess since it isn't possible to detect chips in hyperspace.  Normally, the escape ships hyperspace vector is tracked by another Imperial ship, and that information is passed on to the Interdictor.  The ship's astrogators then predict what hyperspace routes the ship may be following, and the gravity well projector operators then have to place the wells so as to disrupt the most likely flight paths.

Placing Gravity Wells

Gravity wells are placed in the same manner as firing weapons.  The gunner picks a specific location where the gravity well will be centered.  The difficulty is based on the range of the gravity well projectors (Very Easy at point blank range, Easy at short range, Moderate at medium range and Difficult at long range).  There are no scale modifiers.  If the roll is successful, the gravity well is placed exactly where the gunner wanted it.  If the roll misses, the center of the well is placed according to the Grenade Scatter Diagram using the following chart for distance.

Effects of Gravity Wells

The effect of the gravity well depends upon how far it is from an enemy starship.  First, determine the distance from the ship to the center of the gravity well.  Then add the number below to the astrogation difficulty for the jump into hyperspace.  Note that this only affects a ship jumping to hyperspace; a ship already traveling through hyperspace are immediately forced to realspace even if they are at maximum range from the center of the well.

Gravity Well Projector Limitations

While gravity well projectors are impressive weapons under the correct circumstances, they have their limitations.  Powering up a gravity well projector takes 6 rounds (30 seconds).  A gravity well projector can be turned off with no delay, but the capacitors take 8 rounds to shunt the power and completely recycle, meaning that the gravity well projector operator must wait 8 rounds before placing another gravity well without risking damage to the generator.  If the gravity well projector operator wants to risk blowing up the generator, he can attempt to reactivate the projector sooner.  To do so, add the following difficulty modifier, depending upon how many rounds the operator waits.  If the roll to place the new gravity well is missed by more than five points, the gravity well generator blows up.

Moving Gravity Wells

Gravity wells, once placed, are difficult to move.  To move a gravity well, the operator must make a Capital ship gunnery roll, with the difficulty based on how far he wants to move the gravity well.

Affecting the Interdictor Cruiser

The great energy output of the gravity well projectors also affects the movement and handling of the ship carrying the projectors.  For every gravity well projector being operated, apply the following modifiers: -1D to maneuverability, -1 to move.  These modifiers are cumulative, so an Interdictor-cruiser with all four gravity well projectors deployed would have -4D to its maneuverability and -4 to its move.

Shields

Protecting a ship from damage, whether it be from an enemy or from natural hazards, is a paramount concern.  Starships use two completely different shielding systems, particle and deflector shielding.

Particle Shields

Also known as concussion or physical shields, particle shields protect vessels from physical damage such as asteroid impacts and projectile weapons.  They also provide minor protection against ion cannons and turbolaser blasts.  Particle shields are always on; they make up 2D of a capital ships hull code.  Older starships may have to drop their particle shields while launching starfighters or missiles, but recent advances allows most ships to open weapon ports in the shields to minimize unprotected hull exposure.

Particle shield generators form a double-acting molecular field along the surface of the hull.  The inner half of the field penetrates into the hulls outer layers and provides strength to the armor on a molecular level.  The outer half of the field sits above the hull and provides an opposite effect by reducing the molecular strength of physical objects that come in contact with it.  The net affect of the shield is that objects are weakened as they pass through the outer layer and then impact a hull that has been strengthened by the inner layer.  This causes asteroids to shatter against the hull and missiles to explode prematurely and disperse a large portion of their damage into space instead of within the ship.

Particle shields are exceptionally resilient and usually remain up even if a vessel is severely damaged.  The shields only go down if the ship experiences complete power failure or if the generators themselves are destroyed.  However, the field does not completely block all physical damage.  Large asteroids and missiles usually still have enough energy to damage the hull even through the particle shields.  Also particle shields can also be cancelled out by interaction with other particle shields, making it possible for ships to dock with one another with their shields still up.  The ships must be moving relatively slowly to give the field a few seconds to adjust to the presence of another shield.

Deflector Shields

Also known as ray shielding or energy shields, energy shields protect against direct energy weapons as well as intense radiation from cosmic sources.  Deflector shields require a great deal of power to maintain and therefore are usually deactivated unless the ship is in combat.  A capital ship's deflector system provides a specific shield capacity that is directly affected by the area that the shield is covering.  A shield covering a single fire arc will be much stronger than a shield that covers more than one arc.

Deflector shield generators produce a thin electrostatic layer slightly above the surface of the hull.  The primary purpose of the shield is to interact with the magnetic field around a turbolaser bolt to  deflect or bounce it away from the hull and back into space.  If the turbolaser blast is not deflected then the shield helps to break down the magnetic field that contains the turbolaser's high-energy photons so that the blast is dispersed and easier for the particle shields and hull to absorb.

Deflector shields are not quite as tough as particle shields.  Although shields that are significantly stronger than the incoming fire are quite capable of deflecting an infinite number of blasts, while a single heavier blast could overload the generators and cause them to fail.

Deploying Deflector Shields

As mentioned above, the strength of the deflectors depends largely on how the ship distributes the available protection.  A starship's shield code is the total number available and if protection in more than one fire arc is needed, the shields must be distributed to the other arcs.  For example, an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer has 2D+2 in shields.  This may be put all in one arc (front, right, left, back) to provide 2D+2 above the hull code in that single arc.  An ISD2 has 7D+1 in hull code (2D of which is particle shields) so the total defense against turbolasers in the protected arc would be 10D.  If the warship is faced with opponents in multiple arcs may be wise to split the shields to provide some protection in both arcs.  The shield code dice can be split up in virtually any combination, such as 1D+2 to the front arc and 1D to the right arc or 1D to the front, 1D to the left, and +2 to the back.  Note that 1D of shield dice can be broken into 3 pips (i.e. 1D+3 = 2D)

Warships have advanced shielding systems that allow them better control over deflector placement than civilian vessels.  The shielding system automatically adjusts for power fluctuations, damaged components, etc. to provide optimum distribution of the shields to the arcs that the captain has ordered them to be deployed.  However, should the shield controls become ionized by ion cannon fire or otherwise loose functionality, the shield operators must route the deflector power without the assistance of the computer.  The difficulty is directly related to the number of arcs that the shields are to be deployed to.

Backup Shields

Some larger warships (particularly Mon-Calamari designs) are equipped with backup deflector shield generators.  Should one generator become damaged, a backup can be brought online the following round with an Easy capital ship shields roll.  Increase the difficulty by one level for each additional backup generator that is brought online throughout the combat.  Backup generators cannot be used to raise the total shield code of a ship and when all backup generators have been used and destroyed, the ships shields are completely gone.

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