[Credit goes to Kang for actually making me think of this with his point about disruptor burn through]
Generally, when firing at Galactic Powers ships with shields, it's not a good idea to fire lots of small (10+ point) volleys in the hopes of scoring burn-through. Separate volleys give the target more opportunities to use shield reinforcement, and if the volleys must be scored over more than one impulse, an opportunity to spread the damage over several shields. Plus Galactic ships usually have a lot of redundancy and stuffing, making it hard to really hurt them with pinpricks. It's usually better to just blast the shield down in one big wallop.
When the target is an Andromedan, it's a totally different ball game. Andromedan PA panels cannot be reinforced, so the Andromedan can't spend power to just make some of your damage go away. Power absorber panels cover 180-degree arcs, so he can't easily turn a fresh PA Bank to the incoming fire. On top of that, PA panels regenerate their damage-absorbing capacity at incredible speed, so you would rather not have your fire go into the PA panel. Here's a (rather artificial) example:
A Mamba with empty panels and batteries is hit by a 60-point volley of damage coming from the front. 59 points go into the forward PA panel bank and one is scored as burn-through. Later in the turn, the Mamba deactivates the forward panel bank and the energy is transferred into the rear panels, putting 40 points into the rear panels, and 19 into the batteries. Two impulses later, the Mamba reactivates the forward panels and deactivates the rear, putting 40 points into the forward panels and clearing the rear. At the end of the turn, the Mamba fixes whatever was damaged (it has 4 repair points and can fix any one box with that). 6 points of power are dissipated from the forward panels, 6 are moved to the batteries, and 6 moved to the rear for more efficient dissipation next turn. Net result: 28 points of power in forward panel bank, 6 in rear, no other damage and 25 points in batteries (which it can pretty easily burn off next turn).
Another Mamba is hit by six ten-point volleys, each scoring one point of burn-through. The attacker rolls 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 for the DAC, disabling one right warp, one transporter, two impulse boxes and two phasers. Also, 54 points in the panel bank. Same shenanigans as above with the panels. Net result: 20 points in batteries, 22 points in forward panel, 6 in rear. Damage is one right warp, one trans, one phaser and two impulse. It'll take 4 more turns to fix that lot. On top of that, you've hurt the Andro's power curve: he has less in batteries and less generated power.
Make the Andromedan Feel The Burn
Moderators: mjwest, Albiegamer
Make the Andromedan Feel The Burn
"Captain" Terry O'Carroll, fourteen papers published including six best of issue
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West
"Man, Terry, you are like a loophole seeking missle!" - Mike West
