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A Question of Combat

MoonMan

MoonMan

Inactive Member
Hey folks.

Been reading up on some descriptions for starships and mecha (terrific detail), and something started bugging me...how exactly does one damage these things?

With Starships, I can understand how something that big is going to receive a lot of incoming fire, putting stress on shields to the point where they could fail, leaving just the armor to be chipped away...but I am more so asking the question about the mecha we use. How exactly do you damage a power armor that has shields against several types of projectiles, missle-jamming equipment, resilience to EMP, and so on? Shoot at each other until something gives, all the while waiting for heavier-weapon assistance to arrive? Granted that that's basically how most wars are fought anyway, I could understand it...but it would give me a little more peace of mind to hear someone else confirm it.
 
Even with inpenetrable armor, heavier solid-ammo weapons will put enough force through an armor to kill its occupant. That's the main way. There's also going for the joints in the armor, using aether weapons, and frying off enemy sensors for melee mauling action.
 
As a game master, I go for a 'this part of the armor can take this much cumulative abuse' kind of approach rather than act on more realistic penetration values mainly for enjoyment-for-the-player reasons. It's very anti-climatic for a player to be taken in just one attack, even though it's perhaps more realistic.

Typically, in armor combat, most rapid-fire weapons will score more hits - simply because it fires faster so you have more chances of actually hitting. However, rapid fire mode seldom manage to land all hits at the same place (so, damage can't be concentrated as easily) and doesn't hurt as much as single shot settings. I do consider melee-ranged energy weaponry as the aether saber-rifle's sword mode to deliver terrific damage if the character risks getting closer to deliver an attack (considering the battlefield is filled with opponent bearing ranged weapons).

Starship vs. Mecha battle tend to be unfair simply because the starship have more numerous, better weapons which can splatter a power armor in just a couple of good hits (if the armor pilot is lucky). Generally, it's best to have many power armors attack a starship and try concentrating their attacks in surgical strikes to try and disable the said ship (taking out power systems, engine elements or weapons - most often the point-defense ones first).
 
At least this idea isn't based on Warhammer 40k logic. My friend made an Imperial Guard Apocalypse army that needed THOUSANDS of dice because he had so many units. He would essentially aim a bunch of "Flashlights" at the enemy and ask them if they wanted him to roll the dice. A Round for him would last an hour when he actualy did roll, and he almost always killed what he was aiming at because he just shot it so much XD
 
RPG-D RPGfix
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