• Registered: 2006-02-10
  • Posts: 13

Topic: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

Howdy All!

New to Starmada (although got a first game in last week - two on two)  smile

I'm having some trouble getting the variable penetration weapon ability.

Specifically, do you roll a number of dice equal to the Pen value for each successful to hit die, or roll ta number of dice equal to Pen (once) regardless of the number of hits?

Short hand / example is it:

A Pen 2 weapon gets two (2) hits on an opponent.  Does it:

Roll two (2) dice (for being Pen 2) on the variable chart and roll the corresponding number of penetration dice in total.

Roll two (2) dice (for being Pen 2) on the variable chart for each of two successful hits - a total of four dice against the chart, and roll the totaled number of penetration dice.

Similarly, does variable damage work the same way?

I didn't see this addressed previously - my bad if in fact it's been raised before.

Thanks!

  • Registered: 2005-10-24
  • Posts: 4

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

The Variable table is rolled according to how many successes you have. Take the number of to-hit successes, multiply them by the PEN rating. Roll the result against the Variable table. Then roll the final result against the enemy's shields.

This is all AFAIK, of course.

Best of luck!

  • Registered: 2006-02-10
  • Posts: 13

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

TyrantSabre wrote:

The Variable table is rolled according to how many successes you have. Take the number of to-hit successes, multiply them by the PEN rating. Roll the result against the Variable table. Then roll the final result against the enemy's shields.

This is all AFAIK, of course.

Best of luck!

Cool - thanks for that.  I wasn't sure based on the examples (didn't seem explict), and it can certainly result in a lot of penetration dice.  wink

  • Registered: 2005-03-29
  • Posts: 330

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

Molotov wrote:

Cool - thanks for that.  I wasn't sure based on the examples (didn't seem explict), and it can certainly result in a lot of penetration dice.  wink

Oh yes.  A weapon that is ROF:3,PEN:3,DMG:3 is going to be expensive, but can roll a grand total 27 damage dice if everything hits! 

-Bren

  • Registered: 2005-10-24
  • Posts: 4

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

That's an impressive example, yeah - but I recall that one of Cold Navy's ships has a ROF 1/PEN 3/DMG 3 weapon with Variable PEN and Variable DMG. If it hits, it gets three rolls on the VPEN table for a max of 9 PEN dice. If all those hit, they get 27 rolls on the VDMG table for a theoretical maximum of 81 damage dice! Pass the duct tape! :shock:

Of course, the odds of rolling all sixes on your Variable tables is astronomically small, so don't count on busting ships with every missile hit... still, you've got a 50% chance on every Variable die to put a little extra oomph into your hits.

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 287

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

I have fielded ships with 1/2/3 Variable damage that were expendable.

While the load was gone really fast, the opponent that had been sitting right *there* when I started rolling dice ended up right *where?* after I was done.  :twisted:

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

TyrantSabre wrote:

The Variable table is rolled according to how many successes you have. Take the number of to-hit successes, multiply them by the PEN rating. Roll the result against the Variable table. Then roll the final result against the enemy's shields.

This is correct. Example:

PEN-2, DMG-2 weapon scores 3 hits. Therefore, 6 dice are rolled on the Variable PEN table. These come up 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6, resulting in 10 x 2 = 20 total points of damage. If the weapon also had Variable DMG, then 20 dice would be rolled on that table, potentially causing a total of 60 hits! smile

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2005-03-31
  • Posts: 54

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

Wouldn't that be 10 x 2 = 20 pts of DMG ?

1-3 = 1 pen roll
4-5 = 2
6 = 3

so 1 (1) 2 (1) 2(1) 4(2) 5(2) 6(3) = (10)

unless I missed something  :?

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Variable Penetration / Variable Damage Question

Cartman wrote:

Wouldn't that be 10 x 2 = 20 pts of DMG ?

1-3 = 1 pen roll
4-5 = 2
6 = 3

so 1 (1) 2 (1) 2(1) 4(2) 5(2) 6(3) = (10)

unless I missed something  :?

Yeah, that's what it says... 10 x 2 = 20.

smile

The magic of the "edit" button on the forum...

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website