Multiple Tactical Officer firing Multiple Torpedos

Steve,

I have just finished a major fleet action in which the USS Vengence, an Akira Class Heavy Cruiser, was a major part. Anyway, in the Spacedock rules it basicly states that when you fire a full spread of torpedos you have to wait a turn to reload them. But, my players got sneaky on me & brought in 15 Tactical Officers to man the 15 Torpedo Tubes on the USS Vengence. They fired half spreads & then while they didn't fire a whole spread argued that they could fire another half spread while the tubes were being reloaded. Since I gave them the benifit of the doubt, was this legal?

I would say no, have you ever tried loading a gun while it's being fired...(OK, certain exceptions are to be made, a WWII navel anti-air-craft gun was designed to be top loaded by one person while a second person was firing the gun)

As a future idea, try firing a full spread with the odd numbered launchers, then when their reloading, use the even numbered launchers. Sisko used that tactic when DS9 was being attacked by the Klingons. I guess it's a SBF thing, alternate your weapons, you might need one of them next turn.

Phoenix...

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But, my players got sneaky on me & brought in 15 Tactical Officers to man the 15 Torpedo Tubes on the USS Vengence. They fired half spreads & then while they didn't fire a whole spread argued that they could fire another half spread while the tubes were being reloaded. Since I gave them the benifit of the doubt, was this legal?

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No (though you were right to give 'em the benefit of the doubt). Check out page 141 of Spacedock, where it says, "Reloading a partial load also requires one round, during which the launcher may not fire." As Phoenix notes, it's a bit hard to reload something while you're still using it. ;)

A rules-legal way to accomplish more or less the same thing would be to man all the torpedo launchers, but only use half of them in a given round. The next round, the launchers that didn't fire the first round fire, while the launchers that did fire reload. You're still firing approx. half your torpedoes.

Steve Long

In addtion to the reloading difficulties, I'd suspect that if the ship tried to track and fire bunch of different targets there would probably be some addtional problems.

I think limited the number of targets fired at based on the sensor STR makes some sense. Propbably a lot of interfence in the middle of a big space battle with anitmatter explosions all around.

A just a small thing:

How photon torpedoes are quidede...are they
a:Dumbfires
b:Heat seekers
c: Fried-or-foe
d:radar/sensor guided
e:visual lock on target/TV-guidede

Considering how advanced Federation technology is, I'd allow them to use any or all of those guidance systems. The officer at the weapons station would program the torpedoes for any maneuvers or guidance system he chooses before he launches, and he might even be able to reprogram a torpedo after it is launched (I'd make him roll Comm Systems to pull that off).

I was just thinking how interfere a torpedo. If tehy are heet seekers, the target needs flares and so on.

I have to think this....

Since we've never seen flares or chaff or decoys working against torpedos on screen, I think the guidance systems are pretty much foolproof against those tactics. That's part of the reason why I think there are multiple guidance systems in each torpedo. If the targetting sensors get confused, it will switch to another mode.

Oh, I forgot to include the home-on-jamming targetting system.

I doubt that torp guidance systems are foolproof. Just very good, and with a decent STR. I suspect that there are ways of jamming them, but in most situations they just aren't worth it. Better off putting the power into the shields.