Including Defense Against Missiles
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Anime is full of mechs loaded down with missiles which fire huge salvos at one another... almost always with little or no effect. Why? I have no idea, but I had to include it in the game to be true to the genre.
An important fact about missiles - they are the only weapons in the game capable of indirect fire. This means that even if you cannot trace a Line of Sight to your opponent, you can still fire missiles at him/her/it as long as a) he/she/it is in range and b) he/she/it is not inside a building, surrounded by a forcefield, or in some other situation that makes it impossible for the missiles to reach their target. Missiles fired without Line of Sight suffer the -5 "Target in Partial Cover" modifier.
Another important fact about missiles - they cannot target individuals who are not in Powersuits or Mechs. People running around on foot are immune to them.
For purposes of discussing missile fire, the individual who fires missiles is considered the attacker, and the individual receiving the missile attack is the defender.
When an attacker declares a missile attack the defender may immediately take an action out of turn to respond to the incoming missiles, either by launching a smoke/chaff pod (if available), or by firing at the incoming missiles either with a weapon capable of antimissile fire, or with his or her own missiles. Doing this uses the Defender's next action. It is possible to fire at an incoming missile even if the defender has used all of his or her actions for the turn - doing so uses one action from the defender's next turn. It is not possible to both fire at incoming missile and launch a smoke/chaff pod.
When firing with a weapon capable of antimissile fire, the defender immediately makes an attack roll against the attackers missile attack roll. If the Defender exceeds the Attacker's original roll, one missile is shot down for every point by which the Defender exceeded the Attacker's roll, up to the burst value of the weapon. Linked weapons make separate attacks.
When firing missiles at the Attacker's missiles, things work differently. For every two missiles (round up) that the Defender fires, the Defender's defense roll is increased by 1 point. If the missiles have any positive or negative WA modifiers, these are also added to the Defender's defense roll. The Defender must decide how many missiles he or she is firing before any attack or defense rolls are made. Note that since linked missile pods require separate attack rolls, they also require separate defense rolls. Therefore a given defensive salvo only counts against one attack. But the Defender may salvo any number of linked missile pods as one action.
Example: Player A decides to let rip with 2 missile pods of 6 missiles each at Player B. Player B is equipped with Defensive Missile Pods, and decides to launch a salvo of 6 at each of the incoming missile salvos. Player B will receive +3 to his defense roll for each attack (6 missiles/2 =3) and an additional +2 for the WA modifier for the defensive missile pods.Later, Player A decides to fire off a salvo of 6 missiles at Player C, who is equipped with two linked Wasp Stings. Player A rolls his attack roll (a 23) and Player C rolls his defense roll (a 21) so two missiles hit Player C. Player C declares that he is firing his Wasp Stings at the incoming salvo. If he rolls a 24 he will shoot down one missile; if he rolls a 25 he will shoot down both.
In addition to aborting actions, it is possible to reserve one
or more actions during your move for the declared purpose of defending
yourself against missile fire. In this case, during your move, you
may specify that you are reserving one or more actions to take defensive
action against incoming missile fire. These actions may only be used
to defend yourself against missiles. If the actions are not used
by the end of the turn they are lost.
Detonation Zones - a cool additional effect happens when missiles are used against missiles: a detonation zone is created. Detonation Zones are the locations where the two packs of missiles meet and explode in an orgy of destructive fury.
To simulate this effect, whenever missiles are used in an antimissile roll, an area of damage is created that lasts until the end of the turn. For every four missiles launched defensively as part of a missile attack, a 1k Detonation Zone is created. This zone is placed either a) at the midpoint between the Attacker and the Defender, or b) at the maximum range of the Defender's missiles from the Defender's powersuit or mech, whichever is less. Any powersuit or mech entering the hex of the Detonation Zone will take damage automatically to a random location. Detonation Zones last until the end of the turn.
Detonation Zones block line-of-sight for most sensors (gravitic pipes
being an exception)
Example (continued from above): Player B launches 12 defensive missiles from defensive missile pods against Player A's attack. The range from Player A to Player B is 10 hexes, and the maximum range of a defensive missile pod is 3 hexes, so a Detonation Zone will be placed 3 hexes from Player B in the direction of Player A. Twelve missiles were launched, so the Detonation Zone will have a damage value of 3k, so if Player C's powersuit enters the hex later in the turn he will take a 3k attack to a random location.
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