Author Topic: Velocity when entering or leaving the low altitude map  (Read 148 times)

Burzmali

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Velocity when entering or leaving the low altitude map
« on: 14 March 2024, 07:31:00 »
I did a couple searches and didn't turn anything up, so my apologies if this is a common topic.

Using the Total Warfare rules, what happens to an aerospace unit's velocity when it transitions between the high altitude map and low altitude map? From the rules as I read them, it appears to remain the same, but this creates odd situations. On the high altitude map, a unit can only enter the ground row safely at velocity 2, which is reduced to 1 at the end phase,, then halved and rounded down to zero at the beginning of its first turn on the low altitude map. Likewise, if a Corax at its max safe velocity of 18 on the low altitude map were to be at altitude 10 and pull up, it could easily take enough damage to destroy it from entering atmospheric row 1 at 15 over the maximum safe velocity, maybe, depending on the timing of "operating in atmosphere hexes" on pg 79.


Intuitively, it doesn't really make sense that an aerospace unit should burst into flames because it was traveling too fast to enter a higher altitude. My assumption would be that velocity should be scaled by a factor of 6 when moving between those maps, but I don't see any hint of that in TW like there is when moving from low altitude to ground maps.

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Re: Velocity when entering or leaving the low altitude map
« Reply #1 on: 14 March 2024, 16:16:01 »
There is a question currently active in the rules forum asking exactly this. Hopefully the answer to that question will also answer yours.
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Burzmali

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Re: Velocity when entering or leaving the low altitude map
« Reply #2 on: 19 March 2024, 05:46:36 »
There is a question currently active in the rules forum asking exactly this. Hopefully the answer to that question will also answer yours.
Given the age of that question, I doubt an answer will be forthcoming soon. However. I think I stumbled over the answer myself. The text in Total War for aerospace is largely copied from AeroTech 2, with some modest changes, but there is an example in Aerotech 2 where it discusses maximum safe speeds in the atmospheric layers of the high altitude map. In that example it states that a velocity of 2 would correspond to 72 hexes on the low altitude map, 72 hexes divided into 6 turns from the scale change, converts to 12 on the low altitude map. Ergo, a factor of 6 should be applied when a unit moves up or down between the maps.