New Skill

Weapons: Dropped Ordinance

Type: Military PSA/Enforcer

Success Rate: ½ DEX or LOG + 10% per level

PR: None

Also known as a bombardier or “bomb aimer,” characters with this skill are proficient at aiming dropped munitions – or even supplies – from an aerial craft by using bomb sights or advanced targeting systems. It does not help a character throwing grenades or other explosives from an aircraft but it can include dropping munitions/supplies from a low-orbiting space vehicle.

For each level of this skill, the bombardier also increases his range brackets. For example, the point blank range for a level 1 bombardier is 10 meters, but it increases to 20 meters for a level 2 bombardier and progressively improves.

Falling Off Target

The distance by which the bomb misses its target is dependent upon the altitude of the bomber, as shown on Bomb Miss Chart.[1]

Then again, there's the option of skip bombing - which is a skill in itself ;)

Then again, there's the option of skip bombing - which is a skill in itself ;)

Vehicle weapons including bombs were first introduced in the story “Tanks a Lot!” by Alex Curylo in issue 99 of Dragon Magazine.

While Star Frontiersis not a war game, say like BattleTech or Dawn Patrol, there were certainly efforts by the folks at TSR to create some sort of game mechanics for dealing with vehicle combat. The module “Mission to Alcazzar” featured explorers with weapons while the player characters could toy around with an alien hovertank in “Sundown on Starmist.”

While Curylo’s storydealt with modifying civilian vehicles to carry weapons. This idea was expanded upon in the April 1987 issue of Dragon with an article by Matt Bandy called “Here Comes the Cavalry!” Brandy expanded upon the universe of SF vehicles with hover vehicles including a hovertank, an armored personnel carrier (APC), and a heavily armored vehicle called a “battlewagon.” Other vehicles in that story included a ground tank and ground APC, an attack helicopter plus a VTOL fighter-bomber.

Looking at Aerial Bombardment and Supplies

While the first bomb was not dropped from an airplane until little more than a century ago, balloons were first used to rain down death from the skies.

The first practical hot air balloon was invented by the brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques- Étienne Montgolfier of France. They took the first non-tethered flight in November 1783. A little more than six decades after the Mongolfiers' 25 minute flight, a military force attempted to use balloons in an offensive manner.

In 1849, Austrian imperial forces outfitted about 200 paper hot air balloons with bombs that weighed 11-14 kilograms. Their target was the city of Venice, which had revolted against their rule. Previously, the Austrians had conducted a test flight with smaller balloons and bombs to determine the correct timing for the fuses. But, when the actual attack was launched, the winds shifted.

Most of the Austrian balloon bombs missed the city while a few of the balloons even drifted back over the attacker’s forces! Although the assault failed, the Venetians did surrender twodays later, though this was probably due to starvation and exhaustion from the long siege.

The Wright Brothers took flight with the first heavier-than-air aircraft on Dec. 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. While this was the fulfilment of a human dream to be able to fly like a bird, early aircraft were soon used for military purposes.

During a war between the Ottoman Empire and Italy, an Italian reconnaissance pilot dropped the first bombs from a plane on Nov. 1, 1911. As he flew over a Turkish camp, the pilot took four grenades, each weighing about 2 kilograms, and dropped them one at a time. Although no casualties occurred in this attack, it proved that aircraft could be used in an offensive manner.

By the time of World War I, German Zepplins were some of the first bombers, dropping explosives on Allied cities. In the Star Frontiers universe, alien races could have figured out the use of aerial bombardment far earlier in their development. With their gliding ability, Yazarians are prime candidates for having done this. And, the Kurabanda of Volturnus, with their gliders, were used for air attacks on theinvading Sathar forces!

Along with dropping bombs, aircraft have been used to airdrop supplies.

Along with dropping bombs, aircraft have been used to airdrop supplies. The first—and ultimately unsuccessful—use of airplanes to deliver relief to troops on the ground occurred in the Middle East during World War I.

The Ottomans laid siege to the city of Kut in Mesopotamia, which is modern day Iraq. There, some 8,000 British and Indian troops had taken refuge after a failed attempt to conquer Bagdad. The siege lasted for almost five months, from Dec. 7, 1915, until April 29, 1916. Unable to resupply the troops by ground, the British turned to using planes to ferry in provisions to the “beleaguered and starving forces of British soldiers at Kut-el-Amara,” noted a story from 1916.

Aircraft loaded with sacks of flour, lentils and other provisions, such an 80-pound millstone to grind grains into flour, were flown over the town were the besieged troops were encamped.  Turkish gunners kept the planes from being able to fly low, so they released their supplies from 5,000 feet. Unfortunately for the Allies, some of these supplies either fell behind Turkish lines or dropped into the Tigris River.

By the end, only 16,8000 pounds of supplies were successfully delivered—roughly two pounds of food per person for several weeks—which was unable to feed the troops plus the civilian population, wrote Dan Schelnoff, an editor for Scientific American.[i] The starving British force ended up surrendering.

By contrast, Schelnoff noted in his story that the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 “brought in 5 pounds of supplies per person every single day for almost a year (almost all of it carried in by cargo aircraft with a capacity of several tons per flight).”

The Bombs of Star Frontiers

Only two bombs are mentioned in the “Tanks a lot!” story and a follow-up story -- “Tanks again!” -- that appeared in the November 1985 issue of Dragon. They are the “light bomb” and the “heavy bomb.” Both cause fragmentation explosive damage. The small bomb weighs in at 15 kilograms. Costing 500 Credits, it does 25d10 points of damage. The medium bomb weighs 30 kilograms and costs 1,000 Credits. It does 50d10 points of damage.

The original chart in "Tanks a lot!" listed the light bomb as costing 50 Credits and the heavy bomb was 100 Credits. The follow-up article corrected the prices for these weapons.

No blast radius is provided for either bomb. They both need to be mounted on bomb racks and have the same range brackets: PB 10, S 30, M 60, L 120, E 121+. The light bomb takes up one “space” – called a hardpoint here, for purposes of determining how many weapons a vehicle can carry – while the heavy bomb uses up 2 hardpoints.

It wasn’t until the April1987 issue of Dragon magazine when someone addressed some of the shortcomings of bombs. Bandy looked at them in his “Here Comes the Cavalry!” article.

“Bombs do damage of varying severity according to the distance an object is from them when they explode,” Bandy wrote. “The chance of a bomb hitting its target is equal to one-half of the bomber’s dexterity score, modified. In the event of a miss, use the Grenade Bounce Diagrams… The asterisk represents the target and the arrow represents the direction the bomber is travelling. The distance by which the bomb misses its target is dependent upon the altitude of the bomber…”

Bandy further noted that bombs explode “one turn after being dropped, giving the bomber that amount of time to vacate the blast radius. Failure to vacate the blast area results in damage to the bomber.”

In Bandy’s story, the light bomb has five different blast damage rings – extending out to 300 meters! While the heavy bomb has six blast rings, out to 400 meters.

How do the statistics for these bombs stack up with the effort to explore real-world explosives? This was examined in parts 2 and 3 of the "Things that go boom!" series. 

Bandy’s chart certainly shows how the amount of damage decreases the farther away an object is from the center of the explosion, though the decline in damage should be far steeper at the end. Also, doubling the size of the bomb does not necessarily mean that the amount of damage doubles.

Even assuming that the blast power of Frontier explosives is greater than TNT, the “light” and “heavy” bombs are not of the caliber of the blockbuster bombs of World War II, let alone having the destructive capabilities of modern military bombs. So, are the blast rings provided by Bandy even reasonable?

For example, if the immediate blast area of a bomb has a radius of 10 meters, the secondary blast radius extends out another 5 meters to 15 meters from the blast point.

Anyone within the secondary blast area will take half-damage and be stunned for 2d10 turns. Characters in the secondary blast area can make a Reaction Speed check to dive for cover/go prone on the ground. If they pass their check, they will take one-fourth (25 percent) damage and be stunned for 1-2 turns.

For bombs weighing 10 kilograms or more, add a third and fourth blast area.

The third blast ring extends out to 2 times the immediate blast area. Any characters or objects within  this zone take one-fourth (25 percent) damage. Characters and animals would be stunned for 1d10 turns.

The fourth blast radius extends out 4 times the immediate blast area. Any character or object takes one-tenth (10 percent) damage. Characters and animals would be stunned for 1d5 turns. 

A character in the third or fourth blast areas can make a Reaction Speed check to dive for cover to take no damage. Or, the referee could use the Revised Blast Area Resolution Table. This table is to be used for characters that make a successful RS check.

One of the earliest dropped bombs was the 25 pound British Cooper bomb, which was used during World War I. The bomb actually weighed 24 pounds (10.8 kilograms), out of which 20 pounds was the cast iron casing while it only had 4 pounds of explosive. The after body of the Cooper bomb was made out of wood while the fins were constructed out of steel.

Some of America’s bombs are the Mark 80 series which include:

·        Mark 81– nominal weight 250 pounds (113 kg)

·        Mark 82– nominal weight 500 pounds (227 kg)

·        Mark 83– nominal weight 1,000 pounds (454 kg)

·        Mark 84– nominal weight 2,000 pounds (907 kg)

A nominal weight is provided because the actual weight of the weapon can vary, noted Wikipedia, “depending upon its retardation, fusing, carriage and guidance systems. For example, the actual weight of a U.S. M117 bomb, nominally 750 lb. (340 kg), is typically around 820 lb. (372 kg).”

Retardation refers to the small parachutes or pop-out fins that are often outfitted to bombs. Called “retarders,” these devices slow the bomb’s descent to permit the bombing aircraft to escape the blast area.

CalculatingBlast Areas

Introduced in Part 4 of this series, which looked at the Demolitions Skill, the “Blast Range to Effects” chart is based upon one created by the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency. At a glance it shows the severity of damage that, say, a 20 kilogram TNT equivalent explosive will have at a certain range and approximately how far out a blast shockwave will extend.

Damage to Characters andStructures

Stamina (STA) points are used to record wounds to characters and animals plus damage to robots and other small equipment. Structure points (SP) represent the damage sustained to various walls, doors, computers, and vehicles. Approximately two Stamina points equals one structure point.

The Structural Damage Capacity Table is based on the chart originally provided on pages 24 and 25 of the Alpha Dawn Expanded Game rules. It has been altered to cover a wider selection of structures.

Game referees need to use their judgment as to the exact effects listed with the structural damage capacity table. For example, a bomb might blow a hole in a wall, but will it cause the whole wall to collapse? Will blowing up a single bridge support or a major structural support column could cause a bridge or building to collapse? Maybe, but perhaps it might not fall right away. But, destroying several supports/columns could cause an immediate collapse.

Structure points for vehicles have been a part of theStar Frontiers game since the beginning. but they are not incorporated in the normal vehicle combat rules. In order to use them, when there is a "No Effect" result on the Vehicle Damage or the Control tables, but the referee could decide that the vehicle's structure is damaged. Once a vehicle reaches zero structure points, it is unusable.

From Peter Hibbs’ blog:

Crater shapes and types

Let's first get an idea of the mechanics behind bomb crater creation.

In a nutshell - bomb hits ground- possibly leaves some impression of impact or detonation, or both.

The diagram ... shows a basic crater shape, and this is the type that we'll be looking at in detail.

The diagram below, however, shows the variety of craters that were encountered during the war. The illustrations date to 1940 and were reproduced and expanded in various manuals as the war progressed.

These craters and the notes I've summarised are from September 1940 and were based on data collected from two bombed aerodromes.

Crater size and depth

As you can imagine, craters may vary in all sorts of ways; BombReconnaissance and Protection Against Unexploded Bombs (1942) gives us the following information:

The depth to which bombs penetrate depends on:
1. The height from which dropped (up to about 15,000 ft, after which there is no added penetration.)
2. To some extent, the weight of the bomb. (Heavier bombs go deeper.)
3. What the bomb hits before reaching the ground.
4. The nature of the ground surface (concrete etc., or soft ground).
5. The nature of the soil.

An issue for us here is that we have all this wonderful data about the sorts of craters and camouflets that were potentially hazardous, harbouring unexploded ordnance or a nasty pit full of carbon monoxide. But what we really need, however, is data about the harmless sort of crater - one in which the bomb is known to have exploded on or near the surface as shown in the top diagram or in Figure 5 above.

The problem is that these were of practically no concern to Bomb Disposal teams once they had been reconnoitered and declared safe, so the Manual ofBomb Disposal doesn't include the sort of dimensions to help usidentify bomb craters 70 years on.

However, we do have some very useful data in reports and surveys conducted by the Home Office's Research and Experiments Departmentto assess the effectiveness of German bombs and measures to defend against them.