			    TRAVELLER Digest 265

Topics covered in this issue include:

  1) Error in World Tamer's guide
	by Steven Gott <sgott@u.washington.edu>
  2) Paschendale Class Transport
	by pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)
  3) TL15 PAWS Bays
	by bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
  4) TL15 Meson Gun Bays
	by bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
  5) 10cm Anti-Armour Rocket
	by pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 09:39:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Steven Gott <sgott@u.washington.edu>
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Error in World Tamer's guide
Message-ID: <Pine.A32.3.91i.950424092852.31550A-100000@homer18.u.washington.edu>

on page 20 the values for Hex Area and # of hexes in the Planetary 
Hex Survey Table should be multiplied by .75 to get correct values.

When calculating the area of a hexagon it is important to know whether it 
is measured edge to edge or point to point.

Area = (sin(60))^3 * (Diameter {point to point} )^2

		OR

Area = sin(60) * (Diameter {edge to edge} )^2

GDW just used the wrong formula for this table

SG

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 01:27:49 +0800
From: pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: Paschendale Class Transport
Message-ID: <9504241727.AA15706@phq1002.wapol.gov.au>

600T TL-11 Transport ("Paschendale" Class)

General Data

Displacement:   600 tons                Hull Armour:    28
Length:         50  m                   Volume:         8400 m^3
Price:          MCr 307.42              Target Size:    S
Configuration:  Cylinder AF             Tech Level:     11
Mass:           8432.26/3297.26 (without drop tanks)
                8695.78/3560.78 (with drop tanks)

Engineering Data

Power Plant:    600 MW Fusion Power Plant (50 MW/hit), 1 year duration
                (63.34 MW excess power)
Jump Perf.:     Jump-2 without drop tanks (630 m^3 fuel)
                Jump-1 with drop tanks (341 m^3 fuel)
G-Rating:       1-G (300 MW/G), Contra-grav lifters (120 MW)
G-Turns:        20 (39 with jump fuel), 75 m^3 each (without tanks)
                36 (54 with jump fuel), 81.25 m^3 each (with drop tanks)
Maint:          406

Electronics

Computer:       3 x TL-11 Mod Fb Computers (0.7 MW each)
Commo:          300,000km radio (10 hexes, 10 MW), 1000 AU maser
                (infinite, 0.6 MW)
Sensors:        Passive EMS fixed array 90,000km (3 hexes, 0.15 MW),
                Active EMS 60,000km (2 hexes, 30 MW)
Controls:       Bridge with 4 workstations)

Armament

2 x turret hardpoint sockets installed (Loc 10,11; 2,3,4)

Accomodations

Life Support:   Extended (1.68 MW)
Crew:           14 (8 x Engineering, 1 x Electronics, 2 x Maneuver, 
                2 x Maintenance, 1 x Command)
Crew Accom.:    8 x Large Stateroom (0.001 MW ea.), double occupied 
                where necessary
Passenger Acc.: 2 x Large Staterooms (0.001 MW ea)
Cargo:          5135 m^3, 12 large cargo hatches (see notes)
Air Locks:      6

Notes

The large cargo space can accomodate a large variety of payloads.  Power
couplings are available, and the area receives full life support.  See
beclow for details of various cargo palettes.  The cargo hatches at the rear
of the ship fold open to allow roll on-roll off (RO-RO) operations, making
vehicle disembarkation a simple procedure ( The entire bottom rear of the
ship opens up).

The "Paschendale" Class Transport has it's origins in the mists of
antiquity. The original design was produced by the Terran Confederation from
AD 2110 (-2411 Imperial).  The "Paschendale" was the first of a series of
transport starships designed and built by the Starbus-Lockheed Consortium
for the Terran Confederation Navy and commercial interests.  A relict
"Paschendale" (the "Meekatharra") was discovered in an underground storage
facility in 1179 by Medoci archeologists.  The facility is believed to part
of the orignal naval base established by the Terran Confederation during the
Interstellar Wars.  The "Meekatharra", although lacking jump drives, served
as the pattern craft for the "Paschendale".

The class has been built in considerable numbers in the Commonwealth.  It's
drop tanks allow two jumps totalling three parsecs between refuelling stops,
giving the transport enough 'legs' to venture outside the Commonwealth,
making it a viable Free Trader in this part of the Solomani Rim.









                

Michael Bailey (pd82495@wapol.gov.au)

"...you mad-dog, shaven head, bottle boy freaks..."
                                      Marillion, "Berlin"



------------------------------

Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 15:06:40 -0500
From: bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: TL15 PAWS Bays
Message-ID: <199504242006.PAA00580@starfish.itlabs.umn.edu>


TL15 100-ton PAWS bay (26-barrel)
---------------------------------
Volume: 1400 kL     Mass:  2476 tons
Power:   184.9 MW   Crew:     1
Cargo:   32.9 kL    Surface Area: 150.4 sq. meters
Price:  MCr 31.18
1:408  2:102  4:25  8:6


TL15  50-ton PAWS bay (21-barrel)
---------------------------------
Volume: 700 kL      Mass:  1177 tons
Power:   84 MW      Crew:     1
Cargo:    6 kL      Surface Area: 91.2 sq. meters
Price:  MCr 21.07 
1:275  2:68  4:17  8:4


Volume marked as "Cargo" is available for customization of the bay.

If you follow the design sequence in FFS for PAWS bay weapons, they 
seem fairly pointless; they're incredibly weak.  However, I recently
tumbled to something interesting that I understand John Bogan figured
out a while back.  The PAWS bay-length systems are small enough that
you could theoretically fit several into the same bay!  The theory
is that several PAWS barrels could get linked into one weapon with
just one beam pointer, and combine their delivered energy but keep
their range performance.  If you allow this, then to find out DV:
  DV == 5 * SQRT(Barrel DE * Number of PAWS barrels).
FFS doesn't explicitly say that this technique is okay to use, but
it's reasonable and doesn't seem to break anything.

This isn't very competitive with lasers yet.  But if you also reduce
PAWS lens diameter to reduce effective range to 30000 km, then you
end up with something interesting; a very short-range weapon with
a higher DV than the comparable laser bay, but which drops off in
power very fast.

So what are they good for?  PAWS weapons have lousy penetration in
comparison to lasers, so against a well-armored foe, the short-range
power advantage is reduced.  Depends on the rule system.  In Battle
Rider, these weapons are still dangerous to escort vessels, but in
Brilliant Lances, these are useful in another way.

The Brilliant Lances rules state that any hit by a PAWS on any part
of a ship causes *all* non-fiber optic computers to undergo a System
Reset.  This is a bit misleading.  According to the rules, if the 
computer resets, and no backup computers are available, *every system
on the ship* resets.  In other words, for the next turn the ship will
have "no functioning maneuver drive, and no weapons which can fire".

You may recognize that last phrase.  It's the conditions in BL under
which a ship is disabled, and vulnerable to a boarding action.

Now, of course, the boarding ship also needs to have matched vectors,
but it probably won't be too hard to do that *and* hit the ship with
the PAWS again, causing another ship-wide System Reset, giving the
boarders enough time to board.

I think that this is going to be the weapon of choice for commerce 
raiders.  The weapon has the potential to disable most civilian 
ships, with less risk of turning the target into a hulk to do it.  
It might be possible to take the target as a prize ship and make
a getaway with it, using its' own drives, once the prize crew has
taken control!  Military ships need to have fiber optic computers
to avoid this danger.

UP NEXT:  TL15 Meson Gun Bays.

  Steve Bonneville
  <bonn0015@gold.tc.umn.edu>


------------------------------

Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 15:20:08 -0500
From: bonn0015@flipper.itlabs.umn.edu (STEVEN M BONNEVILLE)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: TL15 Meson Gun Bays
Message-ID: <199504242020.PAA00601@starfish.itlabs.umn.edu>


TL15 100-ton Meson Gun bay
--------------------------
Volume:  1400 kL     Mass: 1852 metric tons 
Power:    115.3 MW   Crew:    1
Surface Area: 150.4 sq. meters
Price:   MCr 73.7
1:132  2:33  4:8  8:2


TL15 50-ton Meson Gun bay
-------------------------
Volume:  700 kL     Mass: 991.4 metric tons 
Power:    65.2 MW   Crew:   1
Surface Area: 91.2 sq. meters
Price:    MCr 32.3
1:56  2:14  4:3  8:1


Meson gun design is similar to PAWS design.  For a PAWS, range depends on
both length and diameter, and power depends on length.  For a meson gun,
range depends on length, and power depends on cross-section ("diameter", 
in a sense).  A bay-mounted meson gun tends to have poor range; neither 
one of these bays has an effective range of even a hex, even with 
tech-level bonuses.

Worse, I think that any of the meson screen equipped ships in Battle Rider
could stop a hit from one of these bays, even on a failed screen attempt
and an Outstanding Success on the attack roll.  However, unscreened ships
are in more trouble, since sandcasters and armor protection can't be used 
to stop meson gun attacks, as they can for PAWS and laser attacks.

In order to speed up design for these, I made a formula similar to the
one I used in laser design to get a rough estimate of what the DE could
be.  I then fine-tuned the design from there.  Coming up with an exact
formula to design a meson gun isn't as easy as it is for starship laser
design, because the crew requirement changes in 7 kL chunks, but you can
get a figure that is close.

  Steve Bonneville
  <bonn0015@gold.tc.umn.edu>

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 03:47:26 +0800
From: pd82495@wapol.gov.au (Michael Bailey)
To: traveller@MPGN.COM
Subject: 10cm Anti-Armour Rocket
Message-ID: <9504241947.AA16215@phq1002.wapol.gov.au>

DRS-10 "Venome" TL-9 10cm Anti Armour Rocket Launcher

Mass:           32.4 kg
Fire Control:   Optic Sights
Short Range:    0.78 km
Rocket Range:   5.5 km
Price:          Cr 275
Volume:         0.08 m^3
Damage:         13
Burst Radius:   36 m
Penetration:    113C
Agility:        6

A single-shot disposable rocket launcher.  The launcher doubles as the
carrying container for the 10cm HEAP rocket, the two components cannot be
used seperately.  The DRS (Disposable Rocket System) 10 is simple to
manufacture and simple to use, yet packs a considerable punch against
armoured vehicles and buildings.  Note that the effective short range will
be greatly affected by terrain.

A number of these rockets have found their way into the hands of terrorist
groups fighting the administration on Saxe.  How the Solomani guerillas
obtained the launchers is presently unknown, but they have used them to
deadly effect against army and Interior Ministry militia units.
Michael Bailey (pd82495@wapol.gov.au)

"...you mad-dog, shaven head, bottle boy freaks..."
                                      Marillion, "Berlin"



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End of TRAVELLER Digest 265
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