I dunno - firepower is a fixed asset. If you spread it around and take on several targets, you should get dispersed results. All modern warfare orients around firepower superiority, which is only gained by a concentration of firepower [based upon our physics - which Triplanetary seems to use] on one target instead of spreading it around several.
This is also a classic naval theory problem - is it better to spread our your gunnery on multiple targets, or concentrate it on one target in hopes of devastating it, rendering it combat ineffective, then move on to the next target and repeat the process.
So I'd say that the logical result if you combine against defenders [and disperse your firepower effectiveness] would be to spread out the damage evenly - after all, you are trying to bite a bigger apple.
Quote:
Originally Posted by penneyft
Applying logic, this is the only approach that makes sense. If you only apply D4 collectively to the entire group (e.g. D1 to each + 1, or D4 to a single ship), then you would have been better off attacking each corsair individually at much better combat odds (15:4 instead of 15:12), instead of lowering your odds, but still applying the damage to a single ship. And given that 15:4 odds would allow a 1-in-6 chance of eliminating the target outright, that would be a better approach. Instead, the dreadnaught has a 50:50 chance of disabling the corsairs for at least 2 turns, which gives it additional time to try to destroy them.
Since the rules allow attacking multiple ships, this would be logical way to make use of the combat table.
Conversely, since an attacker can combine multiple attacking ships, the same approach would apply -- the damage obtained would be applied once as the collective damage from all attackers, not as the damage per attacking ship. (e.g. 3 corsairs attacking the dreadnaught at 12:15 and rolling a 6 would result in D3 being applied to the dreadnaught, not D9 (D3 + D3 + D3).)
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