The following is my attempt at converting the source material given in the
Aliens Colonial Marines Technical Manual into vehicles with Full Thrust and
Dirtside Statistics. I dont have Stargrunt II, which these would probably work
best with, so Ill leave it to someone else to work out those stats.
ALIENS COLONIAL MARINES FOR FULL THRUST AND DIRTSIDE II
M577A Armored Personel Carrier "We came outta that APC spitting sweat and
blood. Up ahead we
heard screaming as the twenty-mike-mike chopped the bugboys into salad.
Sarge screamed Split Orange, an we broke into a four-by-four formation,
charging the hill with the smarts in support and the APC on overwatch.
The bugboys saw us coming and launched a buzz-bomb. Theyd have had us
cold if it werent for the Loot in the APC - he caught their launch flash
and iced the suckers with the peebees before their bomb had even left the
tube! Sdamndest thing I ever saw!"
MEDIUM vehicle (class 3), HI-MOB
WHEELED mobility, CFE power, Armour 3A 1 x HKP/1 in Turret with ENHANCED
FireCon, 1 x APSW ENHANCED ECM, STEALTH-1, capacity for 3 Infantry
Teams. Basic Signature 3, Effective Signature 2 (D10) POINTS: 142
Logic: Ive made it size 3 so it can hold three infantry teams (the book says
it holds up to twelve passengers). Ive given it ablative armor because it
supposedly is surfaced with 2mm polymer resin that provides ablative
protection against pulsed lasers. Ive given it armor 3 because thats the best
for this size vehicle, but that might be too much
since it is described as unable to stop dedicated tank-killing weapons.
The book describes pretty bitching sensors, though the M40 Rideway tank is
supposed to have better sensors, so I gave the APC only Enhanced FireCon. The
APC is supposed to have radar absorbent materials, which
justifies the Stealth-1, though this too could be too much since it says
the radar-absorbant materials are only a partial success.
The book describes all sorts of fire control jammers and
decoy-dispensors which account for the ECM.
The A version of the APC is armed with a turret- mounted phased
plasma gun, which sounds a little bit like David Drakes powerguns. Cadmium
Telluride pellets of five grams mass are fed into a laser where it is
vaporized to plasma and accelerated by the magnetic coil to high
velocities, around 5000 m/s. Even though its a plasma weapon, its low
rate of fire and high penetration and range (4,000 meters on a good day)
led me to classify it as a Hyper-Kinetic Penetrator. I really dont see
how this weapon can be used to good effect against infantry. However, the
gun is double-barrelled, and fires in sequence, so you might be able to
justify this as a Mass Driver Cannon instead.
M577A2 Armored Personell Carrier "Yeah, right. What are these ideal
conditions? I never goet to see them. If the weather is even slightly crappy
the beam is screwed. As a rule of thumb I never pulse at anything over a
thousand meters cause of
atmospheric scattering-that and the giveaway DEW line."
MEDIUM vehicle
(class 3), HI-MOB. WHEELED mobility, CFE power, Armour 3A 1 x Enhanced
ADS, 1 x APSW ENHANCED ECM, STEALTH-1 Basic Signature 3, Effective
Signature 2 (D10) POINTS: 428
Logic: This is the anti-aircraft version of the APC. I just
decided its 40mW free-electron lasers were an area defense system,
usable against ground targets with the same effectiveness as a RFAC.
M577A3 Armored Personel Carrier MEDIUM vehicle (class 3), HI-MOB.
WHEELED
mobility, HMT Power, Armour 3A 1 x MDC/2 in Turret with ENHANCED
FireCon,
1 x APSW ENHANCED ECM, STEALTH-1, capacity for 2 Infantry Teams. Basic
Signature 3, Efffective Signature 2 (D10) COST: 158
Logic: This is supposed to be the most radical new design of APC, with two 20
MeV turboalternator powered charged particle beam cannon
powered by the introduction of a Martin-Continental micro
magnetohydrodynamic turbine. I translated that techno- babble into just
the most bitching, super-advanced weaponry I could fit into the hull and
by changing the power plant from CFE to HMT. I managed to retain some infantry
capacity, although I cheated it out of 1 of its infantry teams.
If you make the normal M577A mounted with a MDC instead of an HKP, give this
one an HEL instead of an MDC.
M22A3 Jackson Medium Tank MEDIUM vehicle (class 3), FAST TRACKED
MOBILITY, CFE power, Armour 3A 1 x HKP/4 in Turret with ENHANCED
FireCon,
1 x APSW ENHACED ECM, STEALTH-1, ENHANCED
PDS Basic Signature 3, Effective Signature 2 (D10) POINTS:232
Logic: They dont really describe this tank at all, so I just made
it an anti-tank version of the APC with the PDS thrown in to fill out
its capacity.
M40 Ridgeway Heavy Tank LARGE vehicle (class 4), FAST TRACKED
mobility, CFE power, Armour 4A 1 x HVC/4 in Turret with SUPERIOR
FireCon,
1 x RAM Mortar (Light Artillery), 1 x APSW SUPERIOR ECM, STEALTH-2, LAD
Basic Signature 4, Effective Signature 2 (D10) POINTS: 461 plus cost of Mortar
ammunition
Logic: This is an weird tank, bitching in every way except for its main gun.
But its described as a fairly conventional 115mm cannon with the exception
that it can fire 60 rounds per minute. Maybe this warrants an upgrade to a
MDC, but I didnt think so. Its supposed to have stealth, mobility, firepower
and air defenses better than the M22, as well as 60mm mortars.
UD-4L Cheyenne Utility Dropship
"Fact: the Cheyenne handles like a cow. If its carrying a load, make that a
drunken cow. Listen up kiddies; these are righteous words I speak. Do no, I
repeat do NOT get into a dogfight with one of these babies, cuz you will BURN!
You are not Cool Jo or Panda from No Guts, No Glory and unlike the teevee
shows you watched as little boys and girls, popping the airbrakes and throwing
the nozzles forward NEVER EVER causes the enemy fighter to overshoot into your
guns! If an enemy air threat appears, there are two sensible reactions: Run,
which is good; or Hide, which is almost as good. Anyone who tries to fight
back is a dumb conehead who will burn in Marine Hell for wasting a perfectly
good dropship. Any questions?"
OVERSIZED vehicle (class 6), VTOL mobility, FGP
power, Armour 2 1 x SLAM/3 in Fixed-Mount with SUPERIOR FireCon, 1 x
GMS/L
w/ SUPERIOR Guidance SUPERIOR ECM, 2 x FireCon, STEALTH-1, capacity for
1 Size 3 Vehicle or 6 Infantry Fire Teams. Basic Signature 6, Effective
Signature 5 (D4) POINTS: 554
Logic: This is a hulking beast of a VTOL that serves in Full Thrust as a
dropship. Even at Size 6, I had to get rid of its
chin-mounted auto-cannon and degrade its air-to-ground missiles to
GMS/Ls
in order to account for the unguided rockets--the SLAM system. Its
supposed to make an attempt at stealth, though how could you really hide this
monster?
USS Sulaco, Conestoga Class Light Assault Battleship
"Good captains should have an assassin mentality - prepared to
sneak up on an enemy and stab him in the back before he can react. Almost
90 percent of space battles are settled this way - without even an
exchange of fire."
MASS 40, 20 damage points, thrust rating 4. Fitted with SUPERIOR sensors, ECM
Systems, Planetary Bombardment System, 2 x Missiles, 6 x Class 1 Railguns (2 x
forward, 2 x port, 2 x starboard),
Size 3 Hangar Bay (containing 2 x UD-4L Dropships) 350 POINTS COST
160 CS for its MARINE DETACHMENT, Usually the Following: 2 x M577A Armored
Personel Carriers (24 CS) Command Team (Lieutenant, Android) (2 CS) 2 x
Dropship Crew (2 Pilots, 2 WO) (4 CS) 2 x APC Crew (2 Drivers, 2 Serge)
(4
CS) 4 x Infantry Teams (12 Rifle,4 MG) (16 CS) 2 x UD-4L Dropships (in
Hangar Bay) (Hangar Bay) TOTAL: 50 Cargo Space Capacity Note that all these
personel are stored in Cyrogenic chambers (due to the technology of the
Sulacos FTL drive all crew members have to travel in Cyrogenic
chambers to avoid pre-mature aging). As such, up to 110 more Cargo
Space can be filled for combat missions. These might include 2 more APCs, 4
more Infantry Teams, a Platoon (4) of M22 Light Tanks, and the personel to go
with them.
Logic: The book describes the lasers and particle beams as merely
sensor-destroying systems, so I gave it ECM. Though its supposed to
have 8 missiles, to cut down mass constraints I assumed these were fired in
4-
missile salvos (the book /does/ describe missiles launched from dirtside
at space targets in salvos), so its only got 2 salvos. Its got two
turret-mounted
railguns, which are a no-no in Full Thrust, so to account for the
turrets I gave it two railguns into each arc. Its definitely a military ship
rather than a merchant one, so although it has a hangar with
drop-capable
interface craft, it is only able to drop its marine contingent. Considering
its personel are all transported in cyrosleep, however, it can
transport a lot of troops--pretty close to the 90 described in the book
plus some vehicles. I costed it at 18 points extra to account for the cyro
chambers. I hope the Micro Machines of the Sulaco are a decent scale for a
battleship. It sure would be cool to send in a few of these to try and
assault a poorly- defended planet.
Excellent post on the Aliens conversions for FT/DS2/SG2! I was
wondering when someone would get around to converting the data from the
EXCELLENT sourcebook.
I do have some comments about your Sulaco stats.
> USS Sulaco, Conestoga Class Light Assault Battleship
Almost
> 90 percent of space battles are settled this way - without even an
I agree on the basic size and thrust rating. The railguns, however, should be
shown as 2 turreted mounts (remember, this isn't the official FT universe)
bearing port and starboard each. This would leave you some room to show the
Particle beams (B bttys x2 Fwd) and Laser turrets (PDAF x2
capable of intercepting railgun rounds - on a roll of 4-5 reduce dmg by
1,
on a roll of 6 reduce dmg by 2). I would recommend showing all of the 8
missiles and agree with your suggestion of minelaying capability. The Sulaco
is further equipped with decoys that mimic its sensor signature.
As far as the Sensors/ECM are concerned, we may need to get creative.
The tech manual gives one the strong impression that space combat in this
universe is much closer to modern submarine combat than WW2 surface naval
combat as in "normal" FT. As such, the electronic or sensor battle assumes
much greater importance. This could be reflected by rating the sensors as a
beam battery in their own right with fire results (damage) applying to a
firing solution for the other, real weapons (ie. missiles or railguns). What
do you think?
Adam Delafield has done some Aliens conversions for SFSFW and so may have some
excellent ideas on this subject...
Other suggestions? I like the setting and the different technological
challenge of near-term "hard science" sci-fi. Let's see how we can
represent it in FT. More from me later.
> Someone wrote:
> UD-4L Cheyenne Utility Dropship
> USS Sulaco, Conestoga Class Light Assault Battleship
(4
> CS) 4 x Infantry Teams (12 Rifle,4 MG) (16 CS) 2 x UD-4L Dropships (in
> plus some vehicles. I costed it at 18 points extra to account for the
I've seen the Sulaco listed as everything from a frigate to a cruiser, now a
battleship?;) Here's some specs on the Sulaco and Cheyenne from sources that I
found more closely related to the Aliens film:
Listing codes:
Each weapon system is listed with the following codes to identify the number
of weapons and their respective firing arcs:
(<Firing_Arc>:<Number_of_Emplacements>)
where,
Firing arcs: F=forward arc 180 degrees P=port arc 180 degrees S=starboard arc
180 degrees R=rear arc 180 degrees
Other abbreviations:
MeV=Million electron volt(s) Mw=Megawatt(s) Tw=Terrawatt(s)
************************************************************************
********
SHIP: U.S.S Sulaco TYPE: Light Assault Transport CLASS: Conestoga
-BUILT: 36
-IN SERVICE: 27
MASS: 78,000 tons
POWERPLANT: Westinghouse A-59 Fusion Reactor generating 3.6Tw.
AUX. POWER: Four General Electric AS-4B and AV-5 series MHD Turbines
generating between 120Mw and 500Mw each.
MANEUVER DRIVE: Four Gates-Heidmann GF-240 rocket motors generating
thrust in excess of 35,100 tons each.
FTL DRIVE: Romberg-Rockwell Cygnus 5 Tachyon Shunt capable of sustaining
a high cruising speed of over 3.28 parsecs per side real day. ARMOR: Bonded
alloy and composite structure with single armored skin consisting of a
laminated shell of insulators, alloy micrometereorite shielding, composite
armor protection and aerogel layers. CARGO CAPACITY: 1.26 million cubic
meters. CARRIED CRAFT:
-EMERGENCY ESCAPE VEHICLES(EEV): 20
WEAPONS:
-MAIN: Two 800 MeV turboalternator powered neutral particle beam
accelerators; (F:2); Range: 100,000km
-SECONDARY: Dorsal and ventral turret railgun launchers firing kinetic
rounds at velocities of 10km/sec. The railguns are inaccurate at long
range, but are considered the most powerful close defense weapon on the ship;
(FPSR:2); Range:?
-POINT DEFENSE: Port and starboard turrets mounting 87 Mw free-electron
lasers; (FPR:1, FSR:1); Range:?
-ORDNANCE:
*Eight ASAT missiles in dorsal launch bay; Range:? *Ventral dispenser with 60
orbital fragmentation mines; Range:?
*Main forward magazine storing 80 free-fall guided re-entry vehicles
(RVs)
for orbital bombardment. RVs are capable of carrying warheads from
bunker-busting to HE and nuclear as well as decoys.; Range:?
-COUNTERMEASURES: Aft bay housing 20 decoy ballutes and two maneuvering
decoy drones.; Range:? SENSORS:
-PASSIVE: Two optical and two infra-red telescopes; 60m planar radio
telescope array and backup 20m array.
-ACTIVE: Two main radomes mounting centrimetric wave radar for
navigation and search; Five millimetric wave radar antennae mounted along the
length of the ship for target tracking; Dorsal antenna mounting a mass counter
for FTL travel and a 64m hyperstate antenna for FTL communications; Secondary
16m
antenna and a battery of microwave relays for in-system communications;
Low-band transmission receivers for monitoring/interception of surface
communications.
NOTES: Conestogas are designed with a high degree of autonomy to operate
effectively when far from friendly ships. This class has been in existence for
nearly 20 years.
************************************************************************
********
CRAFT: UD-4L Cheyenne
TYPE: Utility Dropship MASS:
-LIGHT: 18,620kg
-LOADED: 34,628kg
POWERPLANT: 2 General Dynamics TF-900 Turbines rated each at 310kN
thrust. PERFORMANCE:
-MAX ACCEL: 3.33g (loaded); 1.79g (fully loaded)
PAYLOAD:
-PAYLOAD CAPACITY: 324 cubic meters
-LIFTING CAPACITY: 16,000kg
CREW: 2 SENSORS: Radar, optical, thermal, laser sensing arrays, and a
communications datalink. WEAPONS:
-20mm Gatling cannon (caseless) with 2,000 rounds.
-Two main folding weapons bays carrying 16 150mm unguided rockets each.
-Two secondary weapons bays with 12 hardpoints each capable of carrying
air-to-air/air-to-surface missiles
COUNTERMEASURES:
-ECM: ALQ-2004V multimode deception/barrage jammer.
-DECOYS: Stern mounted dispensers for chaff, flares, and mini-jammers.
************************************************************************
********
> Excellent post on the Aliens conversions for FT/DS2/SG2! I was
Thanks =)
> I do have some comments about your Sulaco stats.
Yeah, did you get this all to fit in a 40 mass hull? If so, I'd love to
see the stats.
> As far as the Sensors/ECM are concerned, we may need to get creative.
The
> tech manual gives one the strong impression that space combat in this
Funny you should mention this...I've been mulling over exactly the same thing
in my mind. I seem to remember a blurb on the back of the box of Traveller's
Brilliant Lances talk about the same thing, and I've always loved the concept.
Here's the idea I've been toying with (un-play-tested of course). Full
Thrust already /sort of/ follows this line of thinking if you consider
the fire action as active sensor "blips". After all, you never actually
see the ships move, and you can't fire in the middle of a move even if two
ships pass right next to each other. You only get to fire after the
moves, when you send out an active blip to light up where the enemy fleet is
and hope it's where you thought it was going to be. The only strange
thing is everyone lights up their active sensors at exactly the same time as
the current Full Thrust rules are written (thus the simultaneous fire phase).
So what if you activated ships one at a time, back and forth, the way you
activate Dirstide II units, and you give each ship a move action and a
"sensor" or "fire" action. Let the fire action occur before or after movement,
just like in Dirtside II. Also, let ships that haven't used their sensor
action remain on "overwatch". Since sending out an active sensor "blip" would
light up your own ship as well as the opposition, this is how I think it would
work:
Let's say we've got 2 ships fighting eachother, ship "A" and "B". Say ship "A"
goes first. Ship "A"'s Captain writes down his movement orders, and decides to
"run silent" and not use his active sensors. So he doesn't actually move his
ship's model. Then ship "B" activates. Ship "B" decides to use it's sensor
action first. It lights up the current position of ship "A". Ship "A"'s
captain now moves the model of ship
"A"
according to the orders he's given it. He places the model.
Ship "B"'s Captain launches a missile and the now known position of ship
"A". He moves it 18" straight toward the now known position of ship "A". Since
Ship "B" used its active sensors, Ship "A" also knows Ship
"B"
s current position. And since Ship "A" didn't use its sensors yet, it can fire
"overwatch" at ship "B" if ship "B" is within range. But ship "B" isn't in
range, so the overwatch is wasted.
Now Ship "B"'s Captain plots his movement, but doesn't actually move his
model.
Now the turn reverts back to ship "A". Ship "A" decides to move first, and
then use his sensors. So Ship "A"'s captain plots his movement, then, when
using his sensors, places his model (he lights himself up as well as his
opponent with active sensors) and tries to fire at ship "B".
Now Ship "B"'s Captain must place his model according to his plotted move from
the previous turn. If it is within range of ship "A", ship "A" may
fire at it. Ship "B" may /not/ return fire because ship "B" already
used its sensor action last turn (homing in the missile before moving).
Now the turn reverts back to "B". Captain B knows where Ship A is thanks to
Ship A's use of active sensors last turn. So he homes the missile in
another 18" without having to use a sensor action. Then Captain B plots
the movement for ship B but doesn't use his sensors, leaving his ship's guns
on "overwatch". So he doesn't actually move the model.
The turn reverts back to captain A, etc.
This is obviously a /lot/ more complicated then the full thrust rules as
they stand. And it's probably too complicated for more then one or two
ships per player. But for such small-scale engagements it might prover
pretty interesting, especially for smaller ships. Mike Elliot mentioned
the problem of Player Characters in Traveller trying to "run the gauntlet"
past big naval vessels in their little scout ships, and this sort of system
might make clever smugglers live a little longer.
If you really want to get crazy you could make ships have to roll to penetrate
enemy ECM when their sensor turn comes up with modifiers according to enhanced
or superior sensors or whatever.
> Adam Delafield has done some Aliens conversions for SFSFW and so may