How big a crater?

[Colt Ward]

How big a crater would a NGauss, NPPC, or other naval weapon, even the centerline mass drivers, make as ortillery?

Depth and width, thinking of a new map and what results of 1&2 SW bombardments

[Daryk]

Given that crashing DropShips only reduce the crash hex and the six surrounding it by two levels (TW, page 82 refers), I can't imagine it's much (if at all).  They'll pretty much clear any woods, though.  A Heavy NPPC would clear Heavy Woods out to a two-hex radius.

[glitterboy2098]

For Ngauss, What's the minimum velocity needed for it to cross the range it has on a single aerospace turn, and what's the mass per projectile?

If you have those you can run them through asteroid impact simulator programs like
https://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/
https://www.education.down2earth.eu/impact_calculator


Though you'll have to guess a bit for composition

[Colt Ward]

Given that crashing DropShips only reduce the crash hex and the six surrounding it by two levels (TW, page 82 refers), I can't imagine it's much (if at all).  They'll pretty much clear any woods, though.  A Heavy NPPC would clear Heavy Woods out to a two-hex radius.

Yet a crashing dropship put the Arano capital into a nuclear winter . . .

[Daryk]

If you want a fluff answer, whatever works for your table is the answer.  RAW don't seem to give weapons cratering ability.

[Colt Ward]

If you want a fluff answer, whatever works for your table is the answer.  RAW don't seem to give weapons cratering ability.

But you are also using TW which says no matter what a dropship has a 3? 4? hex footprint, even IF the spheriod design is wider than that width- or smaller.  The rules are abstract simplifications, I am not trying to make this happen during the game but rather asking what sort of impact would happen to model it on creating a map.

Heck, by the rules a NUKE creates a crater and rods from God has the same effect just w/o radiation.

[Paul]

How big a crater would a NGauss, NPPC, or other naval weapon, even the centerline mass drivers, make as ortillery?

Depth and width, thinking of a new map and what results of 1&2 SW bombardments

If you use Terrain Factor (p.62 TO AR) then every 200 damage drops the level by 1 and adds Rough if it doesn't have it already.
A Heavy N-Gauss does 300 damage to its center hex, so will drop terrain by 1 hex there.
One hex away, the damage is 0.8 x 300, so 240, still enough.
Two hexes away, the damage is 0.6 x 300, so 180, no longer enough to drop, but close.
So a Heavy N-Gauss creates a crater 3 hexes wide.

A Heavy Mass Driver is 1400 damage. It will make a crater that's 11 hexes wide, and 7 levels deep at the center.

[DevianID]

I came to say what paul said.  With tac ops, in addition to being able to destroy woods and the like, you can destroy the very ground.  Usually it comes up after the (also tac ops) ammo explosion rules or engine explosion rules that deal a bunch of area damage.  Its quite fun actually, to dig your own trenches.

The 'ground' only has 1 type though, but we know some terrain digs better then others like dirt versus rock, so I take 200 damage as a quick off the cuff number the same way all heavy forests have 90 health, despite some trees being way denser/tougher then others.

[Daryk]

Dang it, I looked in TO:AR for those rules and couldn't find them.  Thanks for the page reference, Paul!

[Paul]

Dang it, I looked in TO:AR for those rules and couldn't find them.  Thanks for the page reference, Paul!

You got it!

One thing I didn't mention in the above:
Normal damage has to degrade the features in a hex before you start counting against that '200'. So if it has Light Woods, you have to reduce those to Rough first; effectively needing 200+50 damage to drop it. *but* AE damage is the exception to that; they do damage to both features at once. Which can create some interesting utility for bombing or artillery attacks, collapsing hexes if you also keep an eye on the kind of landslide you can cause.

One thing I have done many moons ago: deal with a high mobility opponent by attacking the hex using TAG and homing. 10 missiles = 200 damage, 50 splash on the unit (itself pretty damning) followed by some terrain collapsing shenanigans which took it out of the game. It lost too much MP due to having to get up and got wiped out the following turn.

I see artillery as area denial; being able to actually blow up the hill the opponent is using for direct cover is rather nice, but a TON of paperwork. You're signing up for a lot if you use those rules. Also note that just starting the process of significantly degrade both cover and the CF of the hex itself should cause the opponent to make decisions early even if they want to stand the damage.

[Daryk]

BTW Paul, I sent you an e-mail just before Christmas if haven't had a chance to check... :)