PPD vs. PA Panel question

Kang · Post by **Kang** » Mon May 16, 2011 7:09 am

If a PPD strikes an Andromedan ship on the boundary between its PA panels, do we use the Alternate damage line on the PPD firing table?

terryoc · Post by **terryoc** » Mon May 16, 2011 7:50 am

Edit: wrong answer because I didn't read the question.

Yes, boundary between panels works same as boundary between shields.

Kang · Post by **Kang** » Mon May 16, 2011 11:29 am

Hi Terry, thanks for that but that was what I meant - if it's on a PA panel boundary (as opposed to shields) - do you mean that it's different for PA panels?

If the PPD-firing ship is at 6 hexes' range, directly on the Andro's 9 o'clock, is the damage per pulse 4+1 for one PA panel and 1 for the other, or is it 3 each? One way uses the rule for special targets, which include Andromedans, and one does not but uses the 'split shield boundary' rule.

So which one do we use?

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Mon May 16, 2011 12:51 pm

Let's do a concrete example.

Andromedan ship is in hex 0505 heading A. ISC ship is in hex 0905 heading E.

The ISC ship fires a PPD which hits for all four pulses. That means it will do 12 points to the forward PA bank and do 12 points to the rear PA bank. (This is the perfect border boundary shot that forces the use of the alternative damage line. Even though (4M3e) might imply otherwise, the perfect border boundary takes precedence.)

Andromedan ship is in hex 0505 heading A. ISC ship in hex 0904 heading E.

The ISC ship fires a PPD which hits for all four pulses. That means it will do 20 points to the forward PA bank and do 4 points to the rear PA bank. (The forward bank covers the "shield facing" of the main damage and one splash; the rear bank covers the other splash.)

Andromedan ship is in hex 0505 heading B. ISC ship is in hex 0904 heading E.

The ISC fires a PPD which hits for all four pulses. That means it will do 20 points of damage to the forward PA bank and do 4 points to the rear PA bank. (Even though the forward bank covers the "shield facing" of all three damage elements one splash element always wraps around.)

Andromedan ship is in hex 0505 heading B. ISC ship is in hex 0905 heading E.

The ISC fires a PPD which hits for all four pulses. That means it will do 20 points of damage to the forward PA bank and do 4 points to the rear PA bank. (This is another perfect border boundary shot, but since both sides of this border are on the same PA bank, damage is applied normally, with the one splash element wrapping around.)

EDIT: Updated to reflect my missing of (4M3e).

storeylf · Post by **storeylf** » Mon May 16, 2011 1:02 pm

MWest - Your examples do not mesh with the way the rule is written. According to the rule an andro will always take the main + 1 splash to the facing panel and 1 splash to the far side panel.

There may be an issue when it is down a boundary like Kang asked (possible conflict between boundary rule and 2 shield target rule), but the non-boundary case is clearly written as main + splash to one panel and 1 splash to the other.

Terry is quoting the rule for targets with 2 shields - which never take all PPD damage to just 1 shield, as a couple of your examples have.

mjwest · Post by **mjwest** » Mon May 16, 2011 3:48 pm

Yup, I missed (4M3e). Notice, however, if you still hit the PA banks perfectly on the border, there is no 'facing bank', so the (4M3d) alternative line would come into effect.

I modified my prior message to fix that screwup.

Kang · Post by **Kang** » Mon May 16, 2011 7:41 pm

Which answers the question nicely - because, as Lee said, that was what my question was intended to resolve: the apparent tension between those two rules.

Thank you all, gentlemen, for your input