(Wet) Blanket Barrage: I don't see any indication that successes on the Gunnery roll increase the damage that this does. In effect, most hits with laser cannons do 3 (with two Threat) or 5/6 (with a Despair) damage - which isn't enough to really bother many small craft once Armor is considered. If successes on the Gunnery roll add to damage (as with a normal attack), then this might be useful, but if they do not then this is a poor joke. There is also the issue that this action works just as well with two guns as it does with twenty (or more), which makes you wonder why anybody would bother installing more than a few point defense weapons per arc.

I certainly plan on house ruling the damage increase based on successes - which currently appear to do nothing for this action if they do not add to damage.

I have also considered increasing the upgrade to attackers' combat checks to 1 plus 1 per X full guns used. I could use an X of 10 as was done with Overwhelming Barrage. As another option, perhaps more weapons could simply do more damage on a hit as per Concentrated Barrage. I tend to prefer the latter.

Using the second of those options would mean that a Lancer using the four dorsal quad lasers would roll Gunnery (difficulty 2). For every 2 Advantages scored, all vessels below Silhouette 5 within Close range would suffer one upgrade to their Difficulty. If a vessel under the barrage scores two Threat it suffers a hit for 3 (half of the base Damage 5) plus 4 (number of guns) plus successes on the Blanket Barrage roll.

Opinions?

I'm now considering having the halving of the damage (scored with two Threats) be for the total after applying modifiers for number of guns and successes.

This would mean that the Lancer firing all of its quad lasers--up to eight in any given arc--with Blanket Barrage and getting one successes would inflict (5 + 8 + 1)/2 = 7 damage to a target that gets two Threats. With the same one success, it would inflict 14 damage to a target that gets a Despair. Powerful, but appropriate for the point defense of a dedicated anti-starfighter platform.

At a less extreme level, a Gozanti using its two quad laser turrets and getting the minimal one success would inflict (5 + 2 + 1)/2 = 4 damage to a target that gets two Threats or 8 damage to a target that gets a Despair.

I think your missing the point of this Maneuver.

Have you ever watched old WW2 footage? The damage of the shots is not proportional to the volume. Its the volume that causes incremental damage. to in effect make the enemy aircraft unable to continue their attack or in some cases knock them out.

Increasing the damage simply for the sake of making it deadlier is not what a Blanket Barrage is.about. A blanket barrage is volume fire into a broad area to cause disruption of an attack. I linked some footage to show what i am talking about. Massive volume to fill a broad area. THe hit planes were not shot down by single hits but by the sheer volume of small strikes , shrapnel and general system failures that would accompany a attrition style damage on the plane.

Yes, some did get one shotted and taken out but the vast majority came down due to the pilots being incapacitated being the softest part of the plane.

This maneuver as implemented reflects that in a narrative. Any craft making an attack may be subject to some form of damage. This maneuver does not work on small craft like a YT and such as there is insufficient volume to make a difference. Now apply this to a ISD.. Thats enough to pop or crit some smaller craft easy.

You didn't address that the number of guns currently make no difference as long as you have at least two. Per RAW, the two quad laser cannons on a Gozanti can perform this action with the same effectiveness as the twenty (eight in any arc except aft where it's four) on the Lancer. That simply does not make sense.

It also does not make sense that the hits are insufficient to damage many fighters. Somehow the laser blasts really are turning into a smokescreen since they are largely incapable of hurting many fighters.This combines with the fact that a Gunnery roll is made for this ability and only Advantages seem to have any effect. What do successes on the Gunnery roll do?

Something like a double post... Nothing to see here. Move along.

I clearly see your point, but...

Your looking at it from a purely mechanical perspective. When in fact it is a narrative tool.

Successes don't mean a thing as there may not be a target available when the blanket barrage starts. The person doing the shooting is not actually pulling a trigger. All they are doing is directing the systems to fire in a predefined direction to receive an attack. The Advantages represent the effectiveness of the barrage and instructions provided.

The damaged is caused by how unlucky the attacker is! I am not sure why you are trying to tie in the firing skill level of an individual to a massive fusillade from many different individuals or systems into one singular roll.

Think about what i said.

The skill level apparently matters--it provides the Advantages--but successes do nothing? That's not the way the mechanics of this game are meant to work. And this is a mechanical issue, not one of using a narrative tool.

Carrier Fire control director to - AA Batteries...

All guns fire Starboard, Incomiing craft... (Advantages)

"AA batteries open up laying out a wall of steel"

What does NOT happen.. Now wheres my trigger to control all those guns.. (Sucesses..not used)

EDIT; The successes are used..!!! to determine if he got the order off or programmed the computer properly. It has noting to do with actually shooting the guns.

This barrage is intended for certain types of weapons. You are correct, with light guns, it doesn't make sense. However a capital ship with turbolasers suddenly does 4 or 5 damage with breach 2 or 3, which may not one shot a fighter, but will hurt it, and even damages the freighters. It helps defend the capital ship, and offsets their difficulty in hitting a small target.

If your guns are very numerous and are unable to hurt the attackers significantly with a Blanket Barrage then you are most likely better off simply firing each gun normally. But, if the attackers are more numerous than your guns it may still be worth it just to give them penalties on their attacks. The fact that it isn't always the best thing to do is what makes it an interesting action.

Eh. This is a scale issue that they didn't resolve. We asked for rules on how to resolve capital ships and they were still thinking EotE when they made AoR. They at least gave these rules to use in the Beta and everyone pretty much said "Wow, we got something we asked for!" and didn't really nitpick them too much. It's easy to point out that firing each gun would be better but that will kill the game. I had thought these rules for only large silhouette ships and they probably would have better weapons than just laser cannons. If the ship is just has laser cannons than it really shouldn't be as big of a deal as say Star Destroyer turbolasers.

Bigger ships with more guns have to cover a larger area to provide the same protection. So, it makes sense that the Talent doesn't care about the number of guns as long as it is 2 or more.

My only issue is that it should just be successes that up difficulty to hit rather than advantage. Problem solved.

Agree with Doc 100%. If successes upped the difficulty instead of advantage, that would leave advantage to be spent on other, cooler stuff. Like black dice from the wall of laser fire upgrading the combat / piloting difficulties on those incoming ships. Or maybe the hail of fire vaporises enough asteroids in the immediate vicinity that the firing ship gains a blue dice on it's next piloting roll. That would actually make successes useful and advantage more (potentially) cool.

Question: RAW suggests that only base damage of the firing weapons counts, not any special weapon traits such as ion or breach. Should those apply given that the weapons are probably being fired in some sort of "flak-mode"?

Now, how to spend triumph on this action? A free hit at the weapon systems full damage maybe?

As for the number of guns being fired, don't forget black and blue dice. Lets take the Gozanti vs Lancer mentioned by Happy above. Gozanti: "yes you can try, but your firepower with only a pair of quads is really a bit lack-luster to protect all avenues of attack. Have a black dice on the check". Lancer: "Your ship is built to do this, massive amounts of firepower swathe through every arc that enemy ships could possibly attack from. Have a blue dice".

Don't mind me while i butt in with my two cents on the matter, But..

The point of blanket barrage is to put up a screen against swarms of fighters, right? And half damage applied -per ship- to attackers trying to shoot at the ship firing the barrage seems weak, right?

What does that same rule do when applied to minion groups of fighters, who all have to attack together? Half damage per ship to a group of ships numbering four strong, might be enough damage to drop two ships without making a roll. If the minion group attacking has even more than that, it's a VERY devastating thing to barrage them.

It's meant to deal with swarms. Meaning minion groups. A gozanti with its two quads can only cover one firing arc. A lancer can cover them all. It's like grenades. Less useful against nemesis or rivals, but **** near invaluable against minions.

At least, that's my take on it. Plus, it frees the crew up to do other things in the bake to give them an edge.

I've also remembered that the barrage also deals damage to every ship that tries to attack the firing ship. So if multiple minion groups or rival/nemesis fighters attack in the same turn, it can still deal damage to all ships, whereas simply firing the guns yourselves does deal more damage in a single shot, you can still only hit one target at a time.

There's another cool thing about the barrage; the ships receive their damage before they get to fire. Meaning with minion groups, before they get to shoot, there's a chance that the group gunnery skill will be reduced by them losing members of the group before they even get to shoot. That, on top of pilot skills, and destiny point usage can severely cut down on an enemy groups ability to actually deal combat damage, and can prevent the chance for then to get a triumph.

So.. you're trading off raw damage, for "splash" damage that acts as a constant AOE effect. It's not useless. It's just best when dealing with mass numbers of enemy ships.

Damage is not applied per ship, but per target that gets two threats or a despair. A minion group is one target, so it can only take one hit. Also, 3 damage per target doesn't amount to anything against most fighters and light transports which typically have armor in the 3-4 range.

I think individual ships to hits still apply. In my group, we have 10+ rotating players and three of them, including myself act as gm on rotation for different story arcs/ campaigns, and the way each of us saw the rules, it made the most sense to apply it in that fashion.

That way it fits the idea of skilled pilots with talents that offset black die, add blue die and have a respectable green/yellow mix can skirt in under fire without getting pegged. Similar to Luke running into the trench, or anakin and obi flying through the orbital battle against the separatist fleet. While that same barrage holds back less skilled pilots and minions and punishes swarms of fighters without access to the same skills.

But if the idea of those rules doesn't sit right for the feel you're looking for, Im sure you can convince your gm to use the other barrages rules, in that for every gun firing beyond the first or second (i would use beyond the second, myself) adds +1 damage. I think that's fair enough without being broken. it certainly adds teeth to a lancer and makes that gozanti less effective than a ship dedicated to anti-fighter roles. What do you think?

And the barrage is supposed to deal with fighter craft. Not so much transports. The most common fighter, the tie, has what.. 2 armor, right? And an x wing has 3? So it's more 2-3 range, i believe.

And the barrage is supposed to deal with fighter craft. Not so much transports. The most common fighter, the tie, has what.. 2 armor, right? And an x wing has 3? So it's more 2-3 range, i believe.

By transports I am meaning things like assault shuttles and gunboats (Skipray), not just freighters. Blanket Barrage is intended to target craft Sil4 and smaller, so those need to be considered as well, and other than the TIE, 3+ armor seems very common.

You have a point. But, I have the book in front of me right now, and it actually states "all vehicles" in its wording.

"Until the end of the characters next turn, -all vehicles- with silhouette 4 or smaller upgrade the difficulty of any combat checks made against the ship once, plus one additional time per (two advantage) scored on the blanket barrage gunnery check. If their combat check generates (two threat), -they- (meaning every vehicle attacking, which means minion groups of fighter craft they hosed) suffer one automatic hit, which deals half the base damage (rounding up) of the type of weapon used in the blanket barrage action. If their combat check generates (despair), they suffer one automatic hit hit dealing the base damage of the weapon route used in the blanket barrage action."

Because of the wording, and it quite clearly saying all vehicles, the blanket barrage totally hits each ship in a minion group of the group skill generates enough threat or despair. It targets each ship individually, but the damage is shared with the minion group.

So.. a single roll from a skilled gunner, generating a lot of advantage, or triumphs, as well as spending destiny points to upgrade the enemy difficulty even more means a high chance of not only getting a hit by the barrage, but also potentially failing the attack roll itself and protecting the barrage ship from even getting hit.

Seeing as it's also an easy way of upgrading a combat check at least two times, three to four with a skilled gunner, and possibly five times with destiny point usage.. blanket barrage might just be the best way to buff up a ships defensesyou can get. Wow. I just realised that as I typed it up.

That's cool.