[Spaceships] Don't die with smartbombs: using SS4 X-ray laser warheads

[Ulzgoroth]

Spaceships 4 gives us nuke-pumped X-ray laser standoff warheads for missiles. But these aren't Honor Harrington's X-ray lasers...

The warhead generates a number of short-ranged laser strikes. But each one is quite low-powered. Even assuming that the numbers given are in dDamage, the 10d(5) beams pose very little threat to any well-protected ship over SM+10. So bombing a superdreadnought with these laser heads is right out.

So instead, use them on targets that can be impressed by 35 points of damage: fighters. A single hit will badly damage even the hardiest of SM+6 heavy fighters, and the shotgun design can provide multiple strikes from one warhead. The standoff range of the lasers is moderate, but matches that of most fighter-borne particle beams.

This is a useful option for any unit wanting to engage fighter swarms at a standoff range, where KK warheads may be exposed to unacceptable amounts of point defense. But for fighter craft it offers another possibility, especially when mated to the missile-tube launched bomb option. A single 16cm launcher can house up to 15 X-ray laser bombs. Such a bomb fired into space and detonated immediately provides a direct multi-beam attack far more powerful than any that the ship could mount directly, capable of striking in any direction. One 202k bomb is likely to cripple or kill an enemy fighter instantly out to 300 miles, and doesn't even require missile-operation skills as it is fired with Gunner (beam). (Being a missile-based weapon, it may also be eligible for a low -1 per target spread fire penalty.)