Lance Question

By sinkarna, in Rogue Trader Rules Questions

ok, so I was wondering something about the Titanforge Lance Battery (the only lance weapon with 2 Strength) does it means its the only lance able to achieve 3 hits? (since the other ones got 1 Strength). Does it only score another hit on 3 success ? (so which would need a total of 6 success to achieve 3 hits?)

I don't have my rulebook in front of me, but I'm pretty sure that Strength is the total number of hits, not additional hits. Thus, a S1 can only achieve 1 hit total. S2 weapons can only get a max of 2 hits.

thats what i thought, but reading the example they give (page 221), the guy rolls two degree of success and gets a total of 3 hits.

but in a way, I guess the strenght for lance could be the total max of hits, which would make that Lance battery the only lance weapon able to achieve more than one hit.

1 hit for just passing the check (0 degrees of sucess) and an additional 1 per degree of success up to a total number of hits equaling the weapons strength. For example roling 2 degrees of success would get 3 hits with a str 3 weapon but only 2 with a str 2 weapon. It's exactly the same as Autofire as I read it.

mcneils5 said:

1 hit for just passing the check (0 degrees of sucess) and an additional 1 per degree of success up to a total number of hits equaling the weapons strength. For example roling 2 degrees of success would get 3 hits with a str 3 weapon but only 2 with a str 2 weapon. It's exactly the same as Autofire as I read it.

sounds good, my mistake

sinkarna said:

thats what i thought, but reading the example they give (page 221), the guy rolls two degree of success and gets a total of 3 hits.

but in a way, I guess the strenght for lance could be the total max of hits, which would make that Lance battery the only lance weapon able to achieve more than one hit.

The 3 hits in that example is from the macrobattery, not the lance.

BS of 48 +10 (close range) = 58. Roll of 29. 58 - 29 = 29. 2 degrees of success. Macrobatteries score 1 hit, plus 1 hit for each degree of success, to a maximum of the macrobattery's strength. Thus, 1+ 2(degrees) = 3 hits.

The lance needed a 58 as well, and rolled an 11. That's 4 degrees of success. It only scores a single hit (Strength of 1), but 3+ degrees of success for a lance means a critical hit.

Lances score 1 hit, plus 1 hit for every 3 degrees of success. In the example, he scored 4 degrees. Note that the Sabre (pg 211) only has a Titanforge Lance Weapon (S1), so despite 4 degrees of success the weapon's maximum Strength is 1 so maximum of 1 hit can be caused. Now, if the Sabre had a Titanforge Lance Battery (S2), it would have caused 2 hits. So, there would have been 2 hits plus a critical inflicted.

its all cleared up now, thanks guys

but how likely would it be for someone to be able to hit twice with a lance battery? i mean 3 degree of success for it is a bit much i think, is it really worth its cost?

sinkarna said:

but how likely would it be for someone to be able to hit twice with a lance battery? i mean 3 degree of success for it is a bit much i think, is it really worth its cost?

Depends on how accurate you are in the first place - using various high-grade items of equipment, special orders and things like that, you can push your chances to hit up a fair way. If you're not a particularly good shot, then a lance battery is unlikely to be worth the power or space compared to a single Titanforge lance, but if you've got a decent BS to start with, then it can make a noteworthy difference.

They also work best in conjunction with a macrocannon battery. The battery takes down the shields (and possibly gets multiple hits to do some damage too), then the lance (hopefully) hits and ignores armor. Multiple lance strikes are just a bonus.