Rockets and Launched Explosives vs Vehicles

[Funky Weasel]

My friends and I had our first relatively large Brikwars recently - 300 points each with four players on a roughly 4x5 baseplate area.  I loaded a few Size 3" BlackTRONium Rockets onto the BlackTRON Battlebus and launched one at a Size 69" Jupetron Rampant Rover Vehicle (pics when I nick a digital camera off a mate).  

Due to the BTBb having an onboard AI (basic, D6 skill) and some good luck I managed to drop it in the lap of the driver.  Firstly we discovered that crotch-aimed rockets were really funny when used against open-topped vehicles.  Secondly there was some concern that rockets were really good for their CPs (yeah, we're new, we still care about some pretense to game balance ).

There was some confusion at the penalties for aiming a rocket generally at a vehicle for structural damage (as opposed to component damage), and how the expanding damage would be applied.  Does it get applied from center of mass, or do you need to aim for an area of a vehicle with a rocket even when going for structural damage?

[IVhorseman]

When hitting for structural damage, the shot lands anywhere the defender wants it to land, as long as it's somewhere on the structure. Generally though, you're not supposed to really care, but sometimes it does in fact make a difference.

[Funky Weasel]

It does make a difference when you are dealing with larger than Size 1" heavy explosives:

For a multiple-d10 Explosion, after handling Damage for all the objects within the first two inches, remove the lowest die in the roll, and count the new total result on the dice that remain. All objects within the next two inches of radius take this new result in damage, and loose objects are Knocked Back a number of inches according to the number of dice remaining. Continue removing one die for every two inches and distributing damage and KnockBack accordingly, until no dice remain in the Explosion Damage.

Does the explosion ripple keep doing structural damage for each ring in the ripple?  If you aim a Size 3" rocket at the center of a Size 69" vehicle you could do up to 3 structural damage.  Hmm, now that I type it that seems reasonable - the ripple weakens further out lessening the likelihood of structural damage.  Now a Size 69" rocket...

This is going to become interesting when I finish off my Size ~15" mobile command center my friends have asked me to build for an upcoming game of BrikWars: Ogre.

[tahthing]

crotch mounted weapon slots should be reserved for sticky cream guns(fires a stream of sticky cream that sticks minifigure to the spot).

[Almighty Benny]

Crotch Mounted Weapon

Anyway, when a building gets attacked, I let the defender decide where the attack hits unless the attacker's skill roll was a critical success. That way, someone who makes a very skilled shot has the benefit of being more accurate. A critical failure is just a complete miss.

I don't bother calculating ripple, although it seems reasonable the way Funky Weasel put it.

The more awesome the explosion, the more blown-to-hell the vehicle/building gets. After a while you get pretty good at eyeballing how much destruction to cause. For example, I've watched enough action movies to know that shooting the front end of a jeep with an RPG would of course cause the thing to do a monster flip and then explode in midair (Regardless of how much you actually rolled for damage).

[IVhorseman]

I occasionally calculate ripple, but only really if there's a chance that a fuel tank or an engine was caught in the blast.

[OneEye589]

Like IVHorseman said, it would be applied anywhere the defender wanted it to hit and the damage would be from there.

You could do this if you wanted the attacker to decide where it hits though:

Say you want the explosion to hit everyone in the middle of an open topped convertible straight on and expand the damage from that. Then you would target the central minifig (size 1) or a central element (like a seat, which you would then have to measure). Then you would adjust the use rating accordingly. It's explained somewhere in the ranged rules.

[Almighty Benny]

that sounds like it would take way too much time to be worth it

For me, a lot of what makes BrikWars fun is the pacing. Battles that take 20 minutes per turn get reaaaaalllly boring for everyone else involved. I know that some of you guys would have just as much fun measuring distances and calculating trajectories, though.

[tahthing]

a 20 minute turn can be fun if 19 minutes of that are used for messing around

[OneEye589]

It really doesn't take that long if you have the rules open already. You just measure two things, distance and the size, then subtract or add a few numbers, roll a few dice, and then measure some more.

I like the mechanic side of things though, you're right.

[pesgores]

Like IVHorseman said, it would be applied anywhere the defender wanted it to hit and the damage would be from there.

Pretty hard to decide when you're playing Solo without rooting for anybody. Go for the funnyist thing that could explode, if there is any.

[Funky Weasel]

Pretty hard to decide when you're playing Solo without rooting for anybody. Go for the funnyist thing that could explode, if there is any.

Brikstubation?

[pesgores]

Pretty hard to decide when you're playing Solo without rooting for anybody. Go for the funnyist thing that could explode, if there is any.

Brikstubation?

Lolwut?

[Strana]

generally i reverse the table in the brikwars 2005 edition and apply it to the use rating of the weapon so that you nknow the number you have to get. to hit what you want compared to just hitting the vehicle.

[Fulizer]

how about dead in the middle of the side your aiming at? (can also be top (artiller) or underneath (landhark) in some circumstances)