Weapons and Battle Devices

More Battle Details

More Guts

Read this section with the section on Armor, Shields and Damage for a fuller understanding of how armor, shields and specific weapon types interact in Stars!.

Weapons and Starbases

All weapons mounted on Starbases get +1 added to their range.

Beam Weapons

Beam weapons always hit their target, but decay in strength at a rate of 10% pro-rated over their maximum range. For example, a weapon that will do 100 dp to a target in the same square and has a maximum range of 3 will only do 94 dp to a target two squares away. All damage from beam weapons is applied to shields first. Any damage not absorbed by the shields is applied to armor.

If an attacking token has more than one ship and its beam weapon strike destroys the target token, then the remaining damage is applied to other tokens in the same square. The maximum number of tokens targeted is the number of ships in the attacking token.

The following beam weapon information is provided for comparison purposes. See the Beam Weapons section of the Technology browser for the exact statistics of a specific weapon.

Normal Beam Weapons

Damage: From 10 to 430 damage points
Range:  From 1 to 3 squares
Initiative: From 5 to 9

Range 0 Weapons

   Damage: From 90 to 600 damage points
   Range:  Same square only
   Initiative: 12

Gattling Weapons

Damage: From 13 to 200 damage points
Range:  2 squares
Initiative: 12 to 13

These are extremely powerful weapons that hit every enemy token in their range each time they fire. They also sweep minefields as if they were range 4.

Shield Sappers

Damage: From 82 to 541 damage points
Range:  3
Initiative: 14

These medium range weapons are very powerful but are only useful against shields. They have no effect on armor. They do have a higher initiative than any other weapon. This means that they will take out the enemy shields before your other weapons fire.

Shield Sappers cannot perform minesweeping.

Minesweeping

Each beam weapon automatically sweep up to (Damage x Range x Range) mines per year.

Torpedoes

Each torpedo fired has a chance of missing. For example: If a token has two ships, each with a weapon slot holding 2 normal torpedoes, then a single shot fires all 4 torpedoes. Each torpedo has a chance to hit or miss according to its accuracy value. Normal torpedoes have an accuracy of 75%, which means that it is likely that 3 of the 4 torpedoes would hit.

Torpedoes that hit their primary target apply half of their damage directly to the armor of the target token. The other half of the damage is applied to the shields. Any damage that isn't absorbed by the shields is applied to the armor.

The maximum number of ships that can be killed by a torpedo strike is the number of torpedoes that hit. So in the preceding example the strike can kill up to 3 ships. If the target token has one ship in it and the hits caused more damage than was necessary to destroy it, then the damage is applied to other tokens in the same square. This type of damage is applied first to the shields; any damage not absorbed by the shields is applied to the armor. In no case can the number of ships destroyed exceed the number of torpedoes that hit.

Torpedoes that miss do collateral damage to the target token only. Collateral damage is 1/8th of the normal damage of the torpedo and works much like a Shield Buster beam weapon. In other words it only affects shields.

Torpedo accuracy can be improved using Battle Computers. Jammers can decrease the accuracy of enemy torpedoes.

The following torpedo information is provided for comparison purposes. See the Torpedoes section of the Technology Browser for the exact statistics of a specific weapon.

Normal Torpedoes

Damage: From 5 to 300 damage points
Range: From 4 to 5 squares
Initiative: from 0 to 4
Accuracy: 35% to 80%

Capital Ship Missiles

Damage: From 85 to 525 damage points
Range: From 5 to 6 squares
Initiative: From 0 to 3
Accuracy: 20% to 30%

These powerful torpedoes do more damage than normal torpedoes and have a longer range than any other weapon. Due to the poor accuracy and the fact that a single torpedo can take out at most one enemy ship, these missiles are best mounted on starbases and battleships with a lot of Battle Computers. Their ideal use is against large ships and starbases.

Capital ship missiles do twice the stated damage if the enemy ship has no remaining shields.

Jammers

Jammers decrease torpedo accuracy. The Jammer 10 and 50 are available to Inner Strength players only. Jammer strength is additive. For example, a ship with three 20% Jammers reduces a normal torpedo's 75% accuracy by 20% three times:

75 x .8 x .8 x .8 = 38% torpedo accuracy

See the Electrical section of the Technology Browser for a descriptions of each Jammer.

Battle Computers

These devices increase the initiative of all weapons on the ship. The three different devices range from +1 to +3 initiative. They also decrease torpedo inaccuracy by 20 to 50%.

Decreasing the inaccuracy of a torpedo by a percentage is not the same as increasing the accuracy by that percentage. As torpedo accuracy becomes higher it becomes harder to improve it.

Computing the effect of a battle computer:

Example 1: A normal 75% accurate torpedo fired using a  50% battle computer.

Incorrect calculation: 75% x 1.5 = 112% accuracy.

Correct calculation: 100 - ((100 - 75) x .5) = 88% accuracy.

Example 2: A normal torpedo's 75% accuracy is modified by two 30% battle computers by decreasing its inaccuracy 30% twice. 100 - ((100 - 75) x .7 x .7) = %88 torpedo accuracy.

If the attacking token has battle computers and the target has jammers the devices cancel each other out on a 1% to 1% basis.

Further examples:

♦        Target token has Jammers totaling a 50% decrease in accuracy. Attacker's battle computers add up to a 45% decrease in inaccuracy. Result: 5% decrease in accuracy.

♦        Target token has Jammers totaling a 30% decrease in accuracy. Attacker's battle computers add up to a 40% decrease in inaccuracy. Result: 10% decrease in inaccuracy.

Energy Dampener

This device slows down ALL ships in the entire battle board by 1 square of movement per round, for the duration of the battle. This is true even if the ship carrying the Dampener is destroyed before the end of the battle (the device has a lasting affect). The effect is not additive, so there is no advantage or penalty for having more than one Dampener in a battle.

Capacitors

Increase the damage caused by all beam weapons on board by a percentage. Capacitor values run from 10% to 20%. The maximum additional percentage increase in damage caused by multiple capacitors is 250%.

Example:

A ship has a beam weapon capable of 100 damage and three 10% capacitors.

100dp x 1.1 x 1.1 x 1.1 = 133dp