Re: [Epic] Shields

From: Stephen Sheldon <stephes_at_...>
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 11:31:36 -0800 (PST)

>
> I was thinking about the Imperial and Orky void shields and power fields
> today....
>
> How do they actually work? Rather than actually 'shunting' the hits off
> to the side, in my mind they simply disperse the energy over such a wide
> area that it can do no appreciable damage to the titan or gargant
> itself. So why are an Imperator titan's shields easier to drop than a
> Warlord titan's? It has more of them, but this shouldn't decrease their
> efficiency. So what I came up with is this:

If I remember correctly, the shields are set up in an 'onion skin'
design, that is, there are successive layers of shielding. When a
projectile of a certain energy passes the shield, the shield absorbs the
enrgy and overloads the generator. In the case of void shields, these
generators are repairable, whereas powerfields are not. Because there is
an energy threshold, the shields can be tuned to allow different energies
to pass the shields (In heavy anti titan fire, the shields could allow
lighter fire to pass to minimize critical damage), therefore vehicles and
other slow moving low kinetic energy obstacles can pass. The ball rounds
in 2nd ed were so massive, and fired at such a large muzzle velocity that
they overloaded many shields before their energy was absorbed. Defense
lasers and the like do not take down multiple shields because they cannot
sustain an attack because of the massive amounts of energy required.
In addition, in 1st ed SM, any vehicles that were in base contact with a
shielded titan were shielded because the shields operated in a manner
similar to a water drop.

From everything I have read on shields this is how I have always viewed
their operation. I have always missed the ability to shield vehicles, I
felt it was a very valuable ability of Titans.

> Each titan or gargant has a 'Shield Strength' value instead of normal
> shields. Let's take the Warlord titan as an example.
>
> The Warlord has a Shield Strength of 30. This means that 30 FP must be
> expended to knock the shields down (15 on Overwatch?), and then the
> titan starts to take damage. AT shots count as 1 hit, Death Ray shots
> count as D6 hits. At the end phase, roll 2D6-2 and multiply by 10. This
> is the percentage of lost shields that the titan regains.
>
> Comments?

It seems to add unnecessary complexity to an otherwise unflawed rule.

Steve

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
When you dream there are no rules, people can fly, anything can happen.
Sometimes, there's a moment as you're waking, that you become aware of
the real world around you, but you're still dreaming. 
You may think you can fly, but you better not try it
-------------------------------------------------stephes_at_...--------
Received on Wed Nov 12 1997 - 19:31:36 UTC

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