Federation Commander

Hello All,
Rule 3G2b seems to differentiate between 'burn through' caused by disruptors and power that is 'not absorbed'.
I understand the rule but I don't understand why damage caused by disruptors is mentioned separately here. Damage is damage right? And power 'not absorbed' is the same as 'burn through' isn't it?
Regards,
Sebastian

Because of the lighter damage disrupters do, it was set up as a special case, which has a secondary affect on PAs.

Thank you. I had misread 3C8, Shield Burn Through and was under the impression that EVERY 10 points of damage included one internal damage point.

Sebastian380 wrote:Thank you. I had misread 3C8, Shield Burn Through and was under the impression that EVERY 10 points of damage included one internal damage point.

It does - almost. You score one burnthrough for every 10 points of damage scored, if the volley includes disruptor damage.

Example 1: 32 points of damage, of which 4 points are from a disruptor, are scored on an Intruder with empty panels. 3 points are scored as burnthrough damage, the remaining 29 points are absorbed by the panels.

Example 2: 32 points of damage, with no disruptor hits in the volley, are scored on an Intruder with empty panels. One point of damage is scored as burnthrough; the remaining 31 points are absorbed by the panels.

The difference is that for non-disruptor damage - on ships with or without PA panels - only one burnthrough per volley can be scored, no matter how much total damage is in the volley (up to the point at which the shields/PA panels fail, at which burnthrough doesn't happen anyway).

For damage which includes disruptor damage, against PA panels, you get one burnthrough for each complete group of 10 points in the volley.

Note that the total amount of damage caused by the disruptors is irrelevant; there just has to be some damage (even one point will do) from disruptors in the volley.

This also means that if you include disruptors in a voley, and they miss, no disruptor damage is scored and so you will get only one burnthrough point maximum, if you score at least 10 points of damage on your target.

Thank you for taking the time to explain this. Now it's clear. But, I hadn't considered the implications. Isn't this a very heavy bias in favour of disruptors?
I'm a new player so I haven't got the experience to tell.

I think that the problem with disruptors vs. PA panels was always that they lacked a credible threat against PA panels because they didn't have sufficient 'crunch' power to cause enough damage in one go. The PA panels would have time to recover between disruptor volleys such that the disruptors would be largely ineffective.

This special disruptor ability was included in order to try to redress that somewhat.

I think that's the reason, anyway. Disruptors are not all that powerful against PA panels unless they have the burnthrough rule to help them.

No doubt if I am incorrect, someone will come along quite soon and let us know

Tony is correct.
Disruptors by the,selves lack the "crunch power" of Photons, Plasmas, or PPDs. They can average the same damage as the other heavies over time... but not in a single turn.

The 1 burnthough point per 10 points of disruptor damage was a "kludge" to give disruptor armed ships a chance versus Andromedans.

SO if I understand it right...

1) 32 damage with no disrupter = 1 burn through
2) 32 damage with disrupte = 3 burn throughs

Is that right?

DNordeen wrote:SO if I understand it right...

1) 32 damage with no disrupter = 1 burn through
2) 32 damage with disrupte = 3 burn throughs

Is that right?

That's correct. But only with PA panels; against shields it would still be only 1 burnthrough.