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Old 03-27-2020, 10:30 PM   #1
Aman
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Default Triplanetary Combat Question

Let's say I have a dreadnought, combat 15.
It attacks 3 Corsairs together, combat 4 so 12 Total.
This is a 1:1 attack. I roll a '6' [yay!] for D4 Damage.
How do I allocate damage to the Corsairs?

Is it D4 to each one?
Is it D1 to each plus one randomly gets D2?
Something else?

I can think of plenty of ways to do it that are fair, but is there a rule?
Thanks!
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Old 03-28-2020, 04:03 AM   #2
RogerBW
 
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Location: near London, UK
Default Re: Triplanetary Combat Question

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aman View Post
Let's say I have a dreadnought, combat 15.
It attacks 3 Corsairs together, combat 4 so 12 Total.
This is a 1:1 attack. I roll a '6' [yay!] for D4 Damage.
How do I allocate damage to the Corsairs?

Is it D4 to each one?
Is it D1 to each plus one randomly gets D2?
Something else?

I can think of plenty of ways to do it that are fair, but is there a rule?
Thanks!
I can't see anything in either the 2018 or the 1981 rules that makes this explicit, but I think it would probably be D4 to each.
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Old 03-30-2020, 06:44 PM   #3
penneyft
 
Join Date: Jul 2019
Default Re: Triplanetary Combat Question

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Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
I can't see anything in either the 2018 or the 1981 rules that makes this explicit, but I think it would probably be D4 to each.
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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Old 03-31-2020, 11:44 AM   #4
Aman
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Default Re: Triplanetary Combat Question

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 View Post
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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Old 03-31-2020, 04:57 PM   #5
RogerBW
 
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Default Re: Triplanetary Combat Question

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Originally Posted by Aman View Post
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.
As penneyft points out, though, it renders the rule useless - there would be no point in attacking multiple targets simultaneously.

I think it's an error to assume much sophistication in the combat system, which is after all a fairly typical late-1970s ratio-d6-CRT that shouldn't be asked to do a great deal.
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Old 03-31-2020, 06:18 PM   #6
Aman
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Default Re: Triplanetary Combat Question

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Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
As penneyft points out, though, it renders the rule useless - there would be no point in attacking multiple targets simultaneously.
Actually, there's an excellent point to attacking 3 ships at 1:1 instead of 1 ship at 3:1. If you get a D3 result, and all three ships are D1, that means they can't fight for a full turn, and next turn you can hit them again singly and possibly destroy one, or collectively and keep pounding them into submission with multiple Dx's. Even rendering 2 of the 3 ships D1 is still beneficial - they are out of the fight for a turn, so next turn you hit the lone fighter at 3:1, then return to the other ships.

The reverse logic doesn't apply, btw, there's no problem with multiple ships shooting at one ship - ganging up when you can only attack a target once a turn is obviously the best thing to do.

In any event, I was hoping there was a rule, but there's lots of ways to do it that are fair and make sense, so no big deal.
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