The Admiralty Trilogy 2012 Standard Damage Point Summary by Larry Bond and Andy Doty The Admiralty Trilogy 2012 Standard Damage Point Summary by Larry Bond and Andy Doty discovered a way to more correctly describe Shattered Armada, published this year, the damage a ship can suffer. It increases will be the first supplement published using Many of us are familiar with the story the damage points a ships has, with small the 2012 Standard for damage points, of USS Laffey (DD-724), a Sumner-class ships getting more of an increase than larger because all the naval vessels needed for the destroyer that withstood multiple kamikaze vessels. scenarios are included in Annex A of that attacks during the battle of Okinawa and The result is that WW II destroyers supplement. Player who compare the British kept on fighting. By rights, and in our game won’t simply evaporate from a single turn or German ships in Shattered Armada with Command at Sea, she would have been sunk. of heavy cruiser fire (it will still make a the listings in Home Fleet or Gruppe Nord A more recent example is the SINKEX respectable divot). Small craft (Size classes E, will immediately see the difference. of the decommissioned USS Buchanan F, and G) now have more of a chance of not For the ships that have already been (DDG-14), which we covered in the article dying instantly. published, we have created this damage “Proving the Rule” in issue #20 of The Case studies (including USS Buchanan) point summary. It lists all the ships ever Naval SITREP (April 2001). According to validate the new method. It’s a tremendous published in the Admiralty Trilogy - their the damage point formula then in use, she accomplishment for Chris, and also a huge displacements, any damage modifiers, and should have sunk. She didn’t. problem. their new damage point breakdowns using Smaller ships could take more damage All the Admiralty Trilogy games and the 2012 Standard formula. than our game allowed. We acknowledged supplements published by Clash of Arms There are no new rules associated with that we didn’t understand why, and for all three games (FG&DN, CaS, and this change, just new numbers, which is why promised to keep working on it. Harpoon) have ship data annexes using the we’re taking the time to tell you about the And we did. We refined the 2006 formula. If we immediately start using changes. As far as the players are concerned, mathematical model used to calculate the 2012 formula in The Naval SITREP and they’re just different numbers. But we want damage points for naval vessels and the games and supplements, it would create the players to see what’s going on “behind published the new formula in “Smoothing tremendous confusion. the curtain,” so they’ll understand the the Curve,” which appeared in issue #31 For example, in 2012 we were in the reasons for this major change. (October 2006). It still didn’t answer the middle of publishing the Fleet series, which We apologize in advance for any small-ship issue, but it was better. provided statistics for all the WW II ships confusion or problems this may cause, but In the April 2012 issue of The Naval in CaS in 4th edition standard. What if we believe the change will improve the SITREP (issue #42), Chris Carlson Mediterranean Fleets (2013) used different accuracy of the game and the quality of play. presented a new formula. He hadn’t been damage formulas than Home Fleet (2009)? As always, if you have any questions or looking for one. He was researching After some discussion, we decided to comments about this or any Trilogy product, the “ship life equation,” a naval concept keep on using the 2006 formula (“2006 please contact us at [email protected]. describing how long a ship could resist Standard”) until the Fleet series was Thanks to Andy Doty for compiling the damage. In the course of that work, he completed. Arctic Fleets, the last supplement information on the thousands of ship classes in the series, will be published soon. listed in all the Trilogy publications. BT This document introduces a new damage modifier of -25% for ships laid down before 1895. Cover: Ex-USS Towers (DDG-9), a Charles It is NOT used in addition to the modifier for ships laid down before 1925. The modifier F. Adams class DDG, was decommissioned on for wooden ships is increased from -25% to -35%. These changes are included in the Annex 1 October 1990 and was guest of honor at a Z extract on page 9. SINKEX on 9 October 2002. Table of Contents Proving The Rule, from NSITREP #20 (Apr 2001) 3 Smoothing the Curve, from NSITREP #31 (October 2006) 4 Giving the Small Boys a Chance, from NSITREP #42 (April 2012) 5 Calculating a Ship’s Damage Points (taken from Annex Z) 9 Damage Point Listings Fear God & Dread Nought (up to 1925) 10 Command at Sea (1925 - 1960) 40 Harpoon (1960 and on) 102 Issue #20 April 2001 Proving the Rule On June 14, 2000, the former USS has the same warhead and inflicts the same Those criticals would have a differ- Buchanan (DDG-14) had a starring role in damage points. ent effect than in a true combat situation. RIMPAC 2000, as a target in a SINKEX. We can make some assumptions about First, the ships is not in a fight, and is not According to Navy accounts, she was the exercise. First, it’s safe to assume the moving. Thus, sensor, weapon, bridge, struck by three Hellfire missiles, three Har- weapons were all standard warshots. Second, rudder, and engineering critical effect can be poon missiles, and a 2400 lb-laser-guided they probably started with the smaller weap- ignored. bomb, but did not sink. She was eventually ons, and saved the GBU for dessert, since Also, all ordnance had been removed, scuttled with explosive charges. if they did use the big guy first, there might and for environmental reasons, the ship The question is, as one of my friends not be a target left for anyone else. was defuelled. A lot of flammable material asked me, “Why didn’t she sink? Is there The total damge inflicted was (3 * 2) + would have been removed during the de- something wrong with the damage model in (3 * 20) + 72 points = 132 damage points. commissioning process as well. This means the Trilogy games?” This is enough to put her under, regardless no secondaries, and the risk of fire is much It’s time to crunch some numbers. of criticals. reduced. Buchanan (DDG-14) was an Ad- Anther safe assumption is that the Thus, only flooding casualties would ams-class DDG, commissioned in 1962, weapons did not strike the ship simultane- have any real effect, and depending on the and decommissioned in 1991. According to ously. While the Harpoons could have been roll of the “die,” Buchanan’s hull might still Harpoon’s Annex A, an Adams-class DDG, launched in a TOT strike from different be intact. with a standard displacement of 3350 tons, platforms, a simultaneous strike complicates The big question is the GBU. It packed has 103 damage points. data collection, like whose weapons worked enough damage to cripple the ship all by The three weapons used were the and whose didn’t. The others were certainly itself, and at this point Buchanan only had AGM-114 Hellfire (9 kg warhead, 2 damage launched singly. 37 points left. points), the AGM-84 Harpoon (227 kg The Hellfires were pinpricks, simply Looking for solutions inside the model, warhead, 20 damage points), and (probably) inflicting their damage and generating a the bomb might have inflicted enough dam- the GBU-24 Paveway III (429 kg warhead, critical hit roll of less than .01. age to sink Buchanan, but the “sinking roll,” 72 damage points). The Harpoons would generate critical the time taken to actually disappear after The Paveway is the only uncertainy, hit rolls on the .2, the .3, and the .8 line. inflicting fatal damage, might have been since the Navy simply described the weapon While she might escape criticals on the first too long. The die roll is 3D6 Tactical Turns, as a “2400 lb laser-guided bomb.” The other two strikes, she would suffer 4 - 9 criticals or a maximum of 54 minutes. Were they most likely candidate is the GBU-15. It on the third hit. just impatient to finish the event? Almost certainly not. Ex-USS Buchanan finally goes down U.S. Navy photo by Nick Galante Naval SITREP Page 15 Issue #31 October 2006 Smoothing the Curve: A New Damage Point Formula by Chris Carlson and Brooks Rowlett Damage Point Modifiers Example 2: These modifiers are applied to the dam- The German Raider Thor, ex-MS Santa In the April 2006 issue of The Naval age points of a vessel after they have been Cruz. Displacement is 3862 grt. She was SITREP, there was a brief note in the article calculated. Where more than one modifier laid down after 1925. The Germans took on page 19 (Above-Water Damage in the applies, add them together, then apply her into service in 1938 and modified her as Admiralty Trilogy). It mentioned a new them to the damage value to get the final a raider but they did not change or improve single damage point equation that was going value. The modifiers are broken up into two her damage resistance, so she has a special to replace the four-part equation currently categories: ship type or construction and damage modifier of -50% for merchant used in the Admiralty Trilogy.