Reposted from the last forum:
What hit location chart does a large naval vessel use, or does it use one at all?
The only time I've used a large naval vessel, I used the super-heavy vehicle hit location chart to apply damage, but in retrospect, this makes little sense. Even the superheavy hit chart allows for weapons fire to strike a location other than the one facing the attacker(for example, weapons fire from the front striking a side hit location), but large naval vessels are big enough that aiming at the side of a ship and hitting the bow would require a pretty substantial change in weapons fire direction, hitting something possibly several full hexes away from the hex the attacker aimed at. Moreover, the weapons fire example on page 158 of Tactical Operations makes no mention of a hit location chart, with the damage that struck the Meabh in that example simply being applied directly to the armor of the turreted hex. To me, this implies that naval vessels do not actually use a hit location chart, with damage always being applied to the struck hex, and also that there are no chances for critical or motive hits until the armor is destroyed entirely, unless the attacker uses some form of armor-piercing ammo, such as AP ammo for ACs, tandem-charge SRMs, or any form of capital missile(or similar). (I personally have no objection to this state of affairs, as I think it would accurately reflect the ability of such a massive unit to absorb vast amounts of damage without being destroyed or crippled.)
The minimum distance to the Meabh is 6 hexes, but in
an attempt to knock out some of the unit's turret-mounted
weapons, the Pegasus launches an attack against the hex
where the first turret position (T2) is located, giving a range to
target of 7 hexes. The medium laser in the front cannot be fired,
but the Pegasus can fire both SRM-6 launchers mounted in the
turret. Fortunately, the Meabh is a big (Template C) target,
and so the Pegasus receives a –2 to-hit modifier, for a final
modified To-Hit Number of 10 [4 (Gunnery Skill] + 2 (attacker
movement modifier) + 4 (long range) +2 (target movement
modifier) – 2 (Template C Large Naval Vessel) = 10]. The
Pegasus’ controlling player rolls a 7 and 10, meaning 1 missile
launcher hit. A result of 8 on the Cluster Hits Table means that
4 missiles struck the target; 8 points of damage are assigned to
the turret in the T2 location.
The bold emphasis is mine, to point out the only real mention of the ship taking damage.
The only other description of a ship taking damage I could find is on the previous page:
Weapon Attacks
A Large Naval Vessel is far easier to hit than something as
small as a 12-meter tall BattleMech. Any attack against a Large
Naval Vessel receives an additional to-hit modifier from the
Airship and Large Vessel Template Table (see p. 241).
Attacks against a Large Naval Vessel are otherwise conducted
as normal, except the attacker chooses the hex; if a
Turret hit location is rolled on a hex without a turret, the
damage strikes the appropriate side instead.
It does mention rolling a turret location, but we aren't told what chart to use(and the Pegasus in the example didn't have to roll - the missiles simply struck the targeted turret). I'm also mystified as to what else could be hit on such a chart, since most of the targetable hexes on a large naval vessel are pretty clearly belonging to one side or another, and hitting a different armor facing would require hitting a completely different hex in many cases.
In addition, when an area on a large naval vessel is flooded, does the entire hit location flood, or just the targeted hex? The rules state that a ship does not sink until half of its length in hexes are flooded, but on larger vessels multiple hexes may be contained within one hit location, and also have several core hexes that aren't clearly part of any hit location. How do we determine how many (and which) hexes are affected by a single flood roll?
Thanks!
