Heplar Missiles

Date: Thu, 7 Sep 1995 19:15:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: John ---- ---------- <-------@uclink.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Heplar Missiles

Roger Myrhe said:
>I haven't tried with Heplar missiles, but don't expect much more success.

Funny you should mention that....  I've been working on Heplar and Fusion 
drive missiles and have been quite impressed:

The Agincourt class Cruise Missile
TL 15		Vol. 	Mass	MCr
Warhead	500 Kt	0.4	0.4	1.2	
Fusion 	6 MW	1	2	0.2	
HEPLaR 		0.6	0.6	0.006	
Fuel		4.79	0.3353		
1 hex PEMS	0.21	0.41	0.41	
Total		7	3.75	1.816
	
FC		1.5	0.105		
G's	33.54				
G-Turns	214				

	With this design, a missile cruiser can launch from the max range
of its sensors and have missiles engaging the target in the next few turns.  
This particular missile must be designated by another ships AEMS or 
ladar.  But since the firing ship can stay out beyond 35 hexes where
absolute range diff mods make it almost impossible to hit, it has little to
fear from a conventional gunship.
	I modified a standard Missile Corvette with 16 hex AEMS and gave 
it autoloaders for its missile barbettes.  Then I put it up against a 
Midu Agashaam class Destroyer.  Make the range 48 hexes (long range bogey 
detection for the Corvette by Merrickrules) and give both ships bogey 
detection.  First turn, the Corvette lights up the AEMS and locks the 
Destroyer.  The Corvette is beyond max range of the Destroyers weapons and 
it has +9 diff mods (or more) for range beyond 27 hexes,  -6 for the MFD 
and -1 for the size of the Corvette, gives a net of  Impossibile +1.  The 
Destroyer misses.  When range hits 27 the Corvette empties its missile 
barbettes of Agincourt(tm) missiles and runs away.  Four barbettes, five 
missiles each, thats  20 missiles.  The missiles burn max Gs toward the 
Destroyer and reach it in _1_ turn.  Lets be nice to the Destroyer and say 
it hits a missile with every one of its weapons, including the spinal 
mount, and kills 9 missiles.  Lets say 6 of these missiles lose lock and 
fly off into space.  The remaining 5 fire on the Destroyer.  Three hit.  A 
total of 10 det-laser beams hit the Destroyer and trash it.  The Corvette 
still has another salvo left.
	The 400-ton Corvette just did severe damage to the 
3000ton Destroyer without ever exposing itself to effective return fire.  
This is with det-lasers.  Imagine what a KKM with a closing velocity of 
30+ Gs could achieve.  It gets worse.  Agincourt missiles have 214 
G-turns.  With another ship designating for it, the corvette could launch 
from 150+ hexes away, leaving the missiles 64 G-turns to correct, and 
still get a closing velocity which would punch those KKMs through one 
side of the Destroyer and out the other without even noticing.  Lets  
line up a bunch of em and see how many we can punch through with one 
missile.  Okay, so the Midu Agashaam is a wimpy ship, but its still 
almost an order of magniture larger than the Corvette which just trashed it.

	Hey Merrick, would you mail me the rules for KKM damage you 
have?  I'd like to see how vicious these get.

Merrick said:
>Using KKMs can really throw this out of whack, but FFS has provided us
>with Electrostatic Armor (ESA).

	I thought ESA (Electro-Static Armor) worked against HEAP 
and plasma weapons but not KEAPs.  Am I missing something?  I suppose at 
the impact energy we're taking about the KKM might _become_ a plasma....  
Of course anything that can be invoked to reign in 150 hex Hail Mary KKM 
Battleship killers would be welcome. :)

	--M

From: merrick@Rt66.com (Merrick Burkhardt)
Subject: sample HEPlaR missiles
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 17:42:48 -0700 (MST)


Here are a bunch of HEPlaR missiles to play with.  All have 500kt det-laser 
warheads.  The maximum gs are listed in a slightly different format than
you're used to.  Any gs number in () is the "real" value calculated
using the actual mass of the missile.  If the design also has a number
out of the parenthesis, that is the max gs of a straight FFS design (you
can tell this by the fact that the mass is less than 7.5 which is the
15*disp maximum) using the slop rule.  The designs are only valid for
the figure in parenthesis, however due to the internal structure.  Done
in the FFS way the gs would be between the two figures given if the
bracing were done for the intermediate value.

All missiles have an armor value of 3, and are fully braced for the gs
in the parenthesis.


				gs			
TL/type		Mass	Cost	ffs(real)	gturns	Sensor	sigs
----------	------	-----	----------	------	------	--------------
16 S/FIM	8.046	2.225	(30)		96	2P	+4/+3/+4/+3/+1
16 S/FIM	7.456	2.178	42 (28)		109	2P	" "
16 Cont.	10.202	1.833	(39)		46	-	" "
15 S/FIM	7.488	2.318	31 (20)		126	2P	" "
15 Cont.	8.576	1.671	(25)		112	-	" "
15 S/FIM	7.079	1.902	29 (21)		135	1P	" "	
14 S/FIM	7.221	1.916	16 (11)		142	1P	" "
13-14Cont.	12.277	1.887	(14)		82	-	" "
13 S/FIM	7.348	2.161	16 (10)		137	1P	" "
12 S/FIM	7.446	2.11	13 (8)		147	1P	" "	
12 S/FIM 	10.487	2.246	(10)		119	1P	" "


SIM = Semi-Independant Missile
FIM = Fully Indepenant Missile
Cont. = Controlled

Controlled missiles were optimized to have the biggest gmax possible.
Tactically they are used almost as direct fire weapons.  S/FIMs are used
for longer range aplications, and by small craft.  If there is a missile
at the TL with a lower mass, it is more likely to be used on a fighter
since they are also performance limited by their total mass.  

Most S/FIMs are actually used in a target-designated role within sensor
range of the firing craft.  If the launcher has a Lock-On on the target
with an active sensor, use the active sensors short range for the
missile's attempt to lock the target.  They are also used in a
Anti-Radiation Missile role (ARM).  If the target is active, use *twice*
the short range of the target's active sensor, TL differences are treated as
the jamming task is.


-Merrick