Jovian Wars has a great number of different ships with different weapons systems. Rather than model each individual type of weapon system from different in-universe manufacturers, we will lump weapon systems into general Weapon Classes and tune their performance by changing the Weapon Attributes and Traits.
Each Weapon has an Anti-Capital Ship (AC) and an Anti-Squadron (AS) attribute. These attributes define how many base dice are rolled when the weapon attacks a target. Note that a weapon may only fire once each round unless it is being used in a Dogfight or on a Bombing Run.
Example: A Kinetic Cannon weapon has attributes AC:3 and AS:2. If attacking a capital ship rolls 3d6 base dice. If attacking an exo-armor or fighter it rolls 2d6 base dice.
Weapons also may have a Macro attribute, which means they roll dice in the Macro Pool equal to their Macro attribute, adjusted for the target's armor.
Each Class of weapon have rules that give them advantages under certain conditions.
Beam Projector weapons may re-roll attacks.
Beam projectors represent lasers, masers, and any other weapon that uses concentrated radiation in the EM spectrum to ignite, melt, or explode targets. These weapons can cycle quickly and attack at the speed of light making them very accurate.
The largest beam weapons, the spinal lasers of the Jovian Confederation, have the capacity to cause major structural damage to a target as large as an orbital colony. The downside of Beam Projectors is their delicate mechanisms means that minor damage cannot be repaired easily.
A Drone Bay represents a storage, maintenance, and launch system for small, semi-autonomous swarms of spacecraft.
Each weapon instance of a Drone Bay has a bay count, i.e. "Drone Bays: 2," which defines how many Squadrons of drones the weapon can launch in an activation. When launching drones, you may launch up to the bay count per usage of the weapon, marking off available Drone stock for that weapon as appropriate.
Each Drone Bay weapon will have a stock of the various types of Drones, with the number in the rating box defining the type of drone. Once a Drone Bay's stock of drones is depleted, it must replenished via Resupply from a Tender or Fleet Tender before being able to launch more drones.
To launch a Drone Squadron, simply mark off the available stock as appropriate, up to the Bay count, and place a Drone marker up to 12" away from the launching model in the listed Arc of the Drone Bay.
If there are multiple Drone Squadrons to choose from, you may select whichever Squadron of the class desired at launch time. For example, when launching a Class II drone, you may choose either Sentry or Observer Drone Squadrons, as they are Class II drone types. In this example, since you are launching a Class II drone, you may not select Class I or III drone types. You would have to expend a stock of Class III drones in order to do that.
There are three main classes of Drones, all of which are considered Squadrons.
Drones may:
While they are classified as Squadrons, Drones do not activate during the normal game turn sequence. Only Class III drones may resolve an activation, and only under the effects of a Drone Command action.
Class I drones are essentially missiles with a little additional reaction mass and a slightly more sophisticated sensor and guidance package. When they detect an enemy Capital Ship or Squadron in their sensor range, they engage and attempt to impact the enemy craft.
Note that Drone I missiles have the [Self Destruct] trait, which means the Squadron token is removed after resolving the attack. The drones themselves are the missiles and crash into the target, detonating their warheads.
Class II drones are utility drones and include options such as Sentry drones which attack nearby enemies or Observer drones which have TD.
Armed Class II drones, i.e. Sentry Drones, will make an attack with their weapon against nearby targets.
Class III drones are the most advanced drones and are essentially semi-autonomous Exo-Armor Squadrons.
Class III drones may declare a Reactive Interception, as they are Squadrons.
When attacking with a Kinetic Cannon, choose a legal target. This target is the Primary Target. Draw a line from the attacking model to the Primary Target that is the shortest distance between their bases. This line is 1" wide.
Any model aside from the attacking model and Primary Target contacted by this 1" wide line is considered a Secondary Target, friendly or enemy. After resolving the Kinetic Cannon attack on the Primary Target, resolve an Attack on each Secondary Target with a -1d6 penalty to the Base Pool.
Attacks on the Secondary Targets are resolved from farthest to nearest from the perspective of the attacking model.
Example: A Javelin has Kinetic Cannon: AC:3, AS:3. It attacks a target Uller Capital Ship with a 3d6 attack. One Syreen Squadron Model's base is touched by the line and is attacked with a 2d6 attack. The Base Pool would normally be 3d6, but due to the penalty for being a Secondary Target it is reduced to 2d6.
Example: A Godsfire has Kinetic Cannon: AC:3, AS:4. It attacks a target Uller Capital Ship with a 3d6 attack. One Syreen Squadron Model's base is touched by the line and is attacked with a 3d6 attack. The Base Pool for attacking a Squadron would ordinarily be 4d6, is reduced to 3d6.
Kinetic Cannons cover a spectrum of autocannons, macro-cannons, gatling style chainguns and other types of projectile weapons with a high rate of fire and a variety of ammunition types. These weapons are easy to maintain and use and are ubiquitous in all militaries. The only downside is the vast quantities and mass of the ammunition that they require.
Plasma Lances represent an offshoot of the technology of the fusion reactors that power all modern spacecraft. Siphoning a small amount of highly energized plasma into the lance and then containing it within a powerful magnetic field allows a powerful blowtorch effect that can cut advanced poly-alloy armor like tissue.
While only effective for short periods and difficult to use in combat the plasma lance is a weapon that is favored by holo-dramas of all nations as the premier honorable weapon of a true hero. Pilots are known to mount rings of rare elements at the nozzle of the lance to change the color of the flare to a pilot’s signature color.
Mass Driver hit results of [D] cause a Critical Hit to Capital Ships. In the event of multiple [D] results, the attacker chooses which Critical Hit to apply.
Example: A target is hit with a [D2, D6] result. In addition to damaging the Defense and Thrusters ratings of the target, the attacker may choose to apply a Critical Hit with either a Value of 2 or 6, but not both
Mass Drivers is a catch all term for a variety of weapons that used directed electrical potential and its interaction with ferrous metals to launch heavy projectiles at high velocity, far exceeding the damage potential of a standard warhead.
These weapons are temperamental but reliable and require precision targeting to be effective. Their major advantage is that their ammunition is very stable and does not require specialized magazines and chambered loading mechanisms.
Missiles are a form of simple single use drones that come in a bewildering variety of sizes and profiles. The most common varieties are grouped into ship killers and hunter killers, for attacking targets in squadrons or single large ship targets.
Unlike other attacks, missiles can be defended against by using point defense systems.
Example: A target is hit with a missile attack of [D2]. The attacker may chooses to apply the damage to any system or system trait.
Mounting the capacity for payloads that include conventional, plasma based, and atomic payloads, the missile is a highly accurate weapon that is capable of making course corrections even at extreme ranges. Due to the self-propelled nature of the weapon it is relatively easy for most ships to target and destroy them and ships are protected by anti-missile/squadron point defense batteries for this purpose.
The Particle cannon uses a concentrated stream of highly charged particles to lash a target causing explosive thermal and electrical damage to targets. Particle cannons cause a heavy drain on power reserves and can be difficult to maintain.
Example: A CEGA Appalachian is hit with a [T3] Result from a Particle Cannon. In addition to taking 1 Structure Damage and resolving a Critical Hit, the Appalachian also takes one damage to its Sensors, as the result has a Value of three. Should the damaging player desire, they may resolve the Critical Damage as an additional damage to the Appalachian's Sensors (or any other Rating).
If the Appalachian was instead hit with a [D3] Result, that would be a Sensors hit only. However, since the Appalachian has two 1's in its Rating block, i.e. it has redundant Sensors, mark both Sensors Ratings as damaged.
Conversely, if the Result was [D6], that would result in a hit to the Thrusters Rating. If the Appalachian's Thrusters were undamaged, this would mean only the "2" box would be marked off. A subsequent hit with a Particle Cannon with a [D5] or [D6] Result would hit the redundant "1" Thrusters rating, and mark off both boxes.