Author Topic: (Answered) Swarm Missiles VS AMS target  (Read 449 times)

Iceweb

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(Answered) Swarm Missiles VS AMS target
« on: 02 January 2024, 19:12:03 »
I was rereading my PDF of TO and reading the swarm missile information about it interacting with a target with AMS. 

On TO page 183 the last bullet point says if the target of a swarm missile attack has AMS to roll on the appropriate cluster table and use that to calculate that for the number of missiles that "hit" the target, and use the remaining missiles to continue on for the special swarm rules.  Then the target with AMS takes damage from the attack as if an 8 had been rolled on the cluster table. 

My math ran into a quick issue on the chance an LRM 20 rack with swarm ammo is fired and hits a target with AMS and rolls a 2 on the cluster table.   

On TW page 116 the cluster table for an 20 is a result of 6 if a 2 is rolled.  Which means that 6 missiles are targeting the mech and 14 missiles go on to swarm other targets. 
However on the same table the result of an 8 is a 12.   
 
So if I understand how things work if the target had turned it's AMS off it would have taken 6 damage but because it used AMS to shoot down some of the flight it takes 12 damage.  A bit of a head scratcher but sometimes your fancy defensive tech leads you to taking more devastating results every once in a while nothing is guaranteed on the battlefield.  Some times it just isn't your day.   

But then 14 swarm missiles go off hunting other targets... And 12 + 14 = 26.  The idea on a perfect set of rolls that my LRM 20 with swarm ammo can do 130% damage effectiveness! 

Now we talking about a futuristic weapons system that is designed to punish tightly packed formations, so maybe it is intended that an LRM 20 with swarm ammo could do 26 damage to a tight enough cluster of targets every once in a while under optimal conditions (why optimal conditions requires assistance from someone trying to shoot down the missiles is an exercise left to the reader), but I did want to check if what appears to be 6 LRMs appearing from seemingly nowhere is the intended effect.

Thank you
« Last Edit: 21 January 2024, 11:09:07 by Hammer »

Iceweb

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Ok I figured out what I was reading wrong.  The last sentence was worded slightly confusingly and my reading comprehension failed.  The unit with AMS takes the 8 line of the cluster table of the number of missiles that are hitting from the roll on the cluster table, not from the originally launched number. 

So if the cluster roll on a LRM 20 is a 2,  then you take the 8 from the 6 column not the 20 column.  Meaning 14 move on, 6 target the unit, and AMS shoots down 2 of the 6 missiles, and the unit takes 4 damage. 

14+2+4 = 20 no missiles magically appearing out of nowhere. 

Again my reading comprehension failed, sorry about that; and you can close this question.  Thank you.