Talk to me about... The Simurgh Omnifighter

[Thunder]

Oh, and regarding armour:
If a reflec bird is hit with, say, a Long Tom, will that be 8x 5 dmg, or will the clusters be doubled to 4x 10 dmg?

4x10.  With odd points of extra damage not transferring between locations.

[mbear]

Oh, and regarding armour:
If a reflec bird is hit with, say, a Long Tom, will that be 8x 5 dmg, or will the clusters be doubled to 4x 10 dmg?

I assume you mean a reflec bird that's on the ground, e.g. taking off or landing at a field. Doesn't artillery mounted on ASF lose the AoE effect?

[UnLimiTeD]

If this thread is still valid, then they are possibly just as painful in the air.
And painful they would be, 4x10 would potentially crit out a fighter.

[Colt Ward]

 . . . which would make Reactive Armor the armor of choice for CAS and planetary bombers?

[Atarlost]

Ten hits is better than having to score fifty. And if you're doing 2 Capital when another fighter would only do 1, then by definition you're cutting the time needed to grind through that armor in half. It's not about quick solutions, it's about every little bit counting.

Another comparable weight and tech fighter would not be doing only 1 capital, though.  Against warships, why does it matter if you're using the Simurgh's 47 tons of podspace for 2 iHGRs totalling 4 capital damage or 5 ERLLs totalling 4 capital damage?

[Colt Ward]

5 scattered hits . . . need for 30 DHS so . . . 20t for DHS (maybe less b/c engine size), 25t for weapons . . .

[Weirdo]

Because those two iHGRs are going to concentrate their damage on two armor facings max, and stand a real  chance of putting all that hurt into one spot, bringing you that much closer to punching through. While doing the same with the five ERLLs is possible, it's also possible you'll see their damage spread out across three or four armor facings, depending on the hit chart your angle of attack forces you to use. Concentration is key if you don't want that WarShip to simply outlast you or want to keep the number of chances it gets to actually hit you with a NAC to a minimum.

[Jellico]

. . . which would make Reactive Armor the armor of choice for CAS and planetary bombers?

Artillery is still big, hot and heavy.

[Colt Ward]

Sure, but Reactive Armor will decrease its damage and thus likely threshold ability . . . same for any ACs pressed into duty.

[UnLimiTeD]

Well, at that point, you run into regular flak.
I think for a planetary bomber, HFA is a pretty solid choice. It might even cover the crash.  xp

To get back to anti-shipping duty, so the Simurgh B Squadron will deal 2x 13 Capital, with 2 Capital for the purpose of thresholding.
Then the Prime would deal once 6-15 and 2x ...   how do Cluster weapons even work.
Anyways, assuming a limited amount of attacks, wouldn't it also make sense to have a single strong hit, followed by a multitude of smaller ones to increase the chance of stacking up damage on the same facing the big hit landed on?
Though I suppose that is getting off topic - the Simurgh even offers those options.

[mbear]

Sure, but Reactive Armor will decrease its damage and thus likely threshold ability . . . same for any ACs pressed into duty.

Until you get the one roll that causes the reactive armor to ignite and destroy itself, at which point you'll go down in BT history as you've invented the self-thresholding fighter. Congratulations!  ;)

[Thunder]

I for one welcome our new 1 in 1296 (Or less if its a mech) chance of fireworks overlords.

Wait...  Even less for mechs again.  have to roll for possible criticals.

Higher for fighters if you can get threshold hits in,  But again, have to roll for possible criticals first.

[UnLimiTeD]

Just get HFA. It's probably easier to source, and the 24% extra protection also works against thresholds. Including against Flak AC ammo and pulse lasers, which are probably Anti-Air weapons.
And ADAs, which apparently aren't even AE?

I think we can just agree that we wouldn't use a Simurgh for the task. For all it's fluff of anti-ship operations, I think it mostly makes a superb heavy dogfighter.
Question is if that still applies in atmosphere.