(Answered) Are LB-X Clusters almost useles against airspace units?

[Alfaryn]

A while ago I run into a following problem with resolving damage to locations of airspace units with no armor left - according to p. 238 all damage to structural integrity of an airspace unit is halved an rounded down, making 1-point damage groupings (such as LB-X cluster pellets fired by non-airspace units or light machine guns fired by airspace units) harmless to airspace unit locations which no longer have any armor left. Such hits not only don't cause damage to SI, but as a consequence also don't cause crits (barring a natural 12 on a to-hit roll, which according to "Lucky Hit" paragraph on p. 239 may cause a critical roll), or even control rolls (see pp. 92-93), which would be required if an aerospace unit suffered a hit that actually damaged it in atmosphere (including a 1-point damage grouping which struck a location that was still protected by armor and as a consequence was not halved and rounded down to zero per SI Damage rules on p. 238).

In other words it looks like it is actually worse for an airspace unit to have armor than not when taking 1-point damage hits.

Do I interpret the rules-as-written correctly? If so, is this situation intended? I doesn't feel like that to me, especially since LB-X autocannons firing cluster munitions are supposed to be some of the best short range anti-aircraft weapons in the setting, and the rules as written seem to make them almost completely impotent against unarmored airspace units. Not to mention that the same rules make putting light machine guns on fighters a... questionable choice. Though that may be less of a problem, considering that as far as I'm aware LMGs aren't exactly common on canon aerospace units.

[Alfaryn]

Bump.

[Sartris]

Errata pg. 238

Change

"All damage to a unit’s SI value is halved (round down)."

to

"All damage to a unit’s SI value is halved (minimum 1)."

[Alfaryn]

Thanks for the answer. Two issues with it though:

1. If I understand your intent correctly, I believe that the corrected text should be something like "All damage to a unit’s SI value is halved (round down, minimum 1)." to cover situations when an odd number of points of damage other than 1 (3, 5, 7 etc.) gets through aerospace unit's armor.

2. Am I correct to assume that a weapon that deals no actual damage (like Plasma Cannon striking an Aerospace Fighter or a Small Craft) strikes a location with no armor, than SI will take 0, not 1 point of damage?

[Sartris]

I have communed with the Aero Gurus™ on an asteroid in low obrit

1) The default rounding when none is explicitly mandated is Round Normally

2) Text reads "All damage to a unit’s SI value is halved." Zero damage is not damage.

[Alfaryn]

So, considering that damage to SI is always halved, any fractions would be .5s, and therefore rounded up? Maybe change the text to "All damage to a unit’s SI value is halved (round up)." then? This way the players won't need to remember the default rounding rules, and you will also adequately cover both cases of 0 and 1 points of incoming damage (the former stays at 0, the later gets divided to 0.5, and then rounded back to 1). For higher damage values "rounding up" would obviously also produce the same results as "rounding normally". In other words the rule would effectively be the same as in your original answer, but it would be phrased in a way that I think would be easier to understand.