Micronauts game, some micro ideas

[hussar62]

The group I game with have been using Micronauts for our naval actions since they became available earlier in the year. We really enjoy the rules as they strike a good balance between detail and playability. As I am the groups "serious" naval gamer, I provide the ships and come up with the scenarios for our game sessions. After playing several times I've come up with several ideas that we've incorporated into our games. With respect to the original designers, who did a great job with this game, I submit some of my ideas for anyone else who may want to try them.

Gunnery Table
On the Gunnery Straddle Table, some major caliber guns are unable to penetrate deck armor at extreme ranges. This is contrary to physics as horizontal (deck) penetration would increase with range.
An idea I had to account for this is to adjust the penetration number up by one in the extreme range bands for medium to heavy guns. In cases where you hit the 1st range band that a deck or belt hit is possible consider the penetration to be one less for a deck hit at this range. For very light to light, I'm not sure their low mass would make a big difference in their ability to penetrate at extreme ranges (although I do admit it would increase some).

So for example in the 13-14" gun the penetration at range would be:

2k = 5
4k = 5
6k = 5
8k = 5
10k = 5
12k = 4
14k = 4
16k = 4
18k = 4
20k = 3
25k = 3 belt, 2 deck (1st range band with possibility of a deck or belt hit)
30k = 2 belt and deck
35k = 2 belt, 3 deck (extreme range band)

This may not be a perfect solution but it does give you the increased deck penetration that the shells should have. It also fixes the problem of having some battleships decks as currently rated being 100% immune to heavy caliber shells at extreme range.

Torpedo Damage:
Torpedo damage as detailed in chart C-12, does not reflect the true damage potential of torpedoes. As an example the table as is, would allow for a US heavy cruiser to be struck by multiple Long Lance torpedoes and still be capable combat operations. This certainly does not reflect history. Modified C-13 below gives more "historic" results:

Die Roll Effect
1-8 Hull-Devastating Hit 3 x Dmg + Fire + Flood
9-12 Hull-Multiple Compartments 2 x Dmg + Flood
13-14 Hull-1 x Dmg + Flood
15-16 Hull-1 x Dmg + Critical (ignore results 1-6) + Flood on PUSD
17 Hull+MA (1/2 each) + Fire + Flood on PUSD
18 Hull+SA (1/2 each) + Fire + Flood on PUSD
19 Partial Dud 1/2 Dmg to Hull
20+ Dud-No Dmg

Size Class 0-1 Survivability:
Historically these little ships appeared a bit more survivable than the game portrays. To increase the ability to survive any excess hits on MA or SA will not be carried over to Hull hits. This also applies if the ship is hit in a MA/SA location that has previously been destroyed (no additional damage will be applied). For Example:

DD#1 is hit by an 8" shell on the forward gun mount. The shell would normally do 3pts of damage, however in this case the 1st damage point would be applied to the gun and the remaining 2 would do no additional damage. If DD#1 were hit again in the forward mount, in this turn or any subsequent turns, the ship would take no additional damage.

Note that this modification applies to shell hits & fires only (does not apply to torpedo hits).

Skill level Adjustments:
Skill level adjustments (Vet, Trained, Raw) should be applied to the following tables in addition to C-14.
C-10, Sonar Detection Table, Asw Attack Table.

PUSD
Modify existing rule. Only flooding damage is doubled, hull hits are not doubled. When rolling for flooding repair treat the damage control level as one level worse than normal. For example: exceptional DC would become normal DC, normal DC would become poor. Poor DC adds 2 to the die roll. There is only so much the crew can do if the ships structure was not designed to contain flooding.

Not at GQ/Action Stations
Use PUSD rule for ships not at GQ/Action Stations. This simulates the additional flooding that would be caused due to a ship’s crew not being ready to control damage and the poor water tight integrity of the ship at this level of readiness. When rolling for all other damage repair treat the damage control level as one level worse than normal. For example: exceptional DC would become normal DC, normal DC would become poor. Poor DC adds 2 to the die roll. (this simulates condition of ships at Pearl Harbor, or Taranto

[cbovill]

Tom,

Those are some interesting modifications, I'll have to give some of them a whirl, especially with the long range plunging fire.

How have the air rules been working out for you? The more I get into them, the more questions I have. Especially around carrier operations. So I'm working on some modifications to help clear up some of the unknown.

Chris

[hussar62]

Chris,

I have not had the opportunity to give the air rules a try yet. Reading through them they seem fairly simple. The one thing that I wonder about is why the designers grouped the aircraft in factors of 6. Seems to me that 3 or 4 would be more logical as bombers and fighters typically operated as "elements" in these numbers.

Once I get a chance to give the air rules a go I'll post a more informed opinion. I'd be interested to see what you have come up with for air ops rules if your inclined to share.

Tom

[ed*b]

I admit to complete ignorance as to how the Micronaut rules work, but the naval rules I use have a table for major types of guns (4" and under, 5", 6", 8", 11", old 12", new 12" and 12.6", 13", 14", 15", old 16", new 16", 18") showing penetration of vertical armour out to medium ranges (typically 10K yds for smaller guns and 15K yds for large guns) and thereafter both vertical and horizontal armour. As you mention, the penetration of vertical armour decreases with range and the penetration of horizonal armour increases.

The ship stats give belt, deck and turret armour to the 1/4" as does the gun penetration table. Somewhat simplistic, particularly for the older ships with many different thicknesses of armour belt, but to get a playable game some simplications need to be made.

Without accounting for both vertical and horizontal penetration, you are missing one of the most important features of naval combat - immunity zones for certain types of ships versus certain types of guns.