Shield Points Confusion

[Dry_Erase]

Hello,

First post here... and I'm starting with a dull technical question.

I'm confused. I'm playing about with designing a company and I'm struggling to work out the points cost for 'additive' armour like shields.

The book states that you pay the points for the total Armour Rating as listed on the Armour costs table. That works well for the ordinary armour, where points correspond perfectly to the Armour costs table.

But the extraordinary armour has points costs which reflect the additional benefits e.g. a Faraday Coat has an Armour Rating of 8, but a cost of 5 points rather than 1. So far so good. But if I add a shield, the Armour Rating increases to 9, which (going strictly by the rules) would cost 2 points - a discount of 3 points with the additional benefit of arc weapon protection.

Clearly this isn't the intention, but there's no proper way to work out the incremental cost of a shield, Faraday shield or Magneto-static umbrella when combined with extraordinary armour.

Or maybe I'm being dim and missing something obvious!?

[Smith]

The way I've always understood it, it's a simple bit of maths.

As per the rules on page 24: A basic shield gives +1 to armour, so that's +1 point if supplementing clothing or jack/lined coat; 2 points to add to brigandine; 5 points to add to chain shirt etc. – simply purchase the next highest level of armour and rationalise that armour 9 (2 points) is provided by a combination of jack and shield. The rules don't distinguish against what exactly blocks a strike – if in-game effects cause the loss of the shield, simply revert to an armour rating 1 point lower – otherwise 9 points of armour in total costs the same regardless of the combination that achieves it. A Magneto-static umbrella is the same – except it's more powerful, and adds +2 to the armour (so umbrella plus brigandine costs 9 points.

A Faraday coat is armour – it merely grants an additional bonus against arc weapons. To add a shield to it is simple: the Arc coat gives 8 armour (the 11 vs arc is already in its 5-point cost), so a shield which offers +1 against physical should cost the same as any other shield added to 8-point armour – +1 point. Page 34 offers a guide to building armour – so if you want to stack, say, a Faraday coat on top of a breastplate (illogical, but a good example for the purposes of illustration), just decide what total armour rating and how much arc protection you want. Then follow the formula. Say you want to keep the 11 armour rating of the breastplate and add it to the 11 arc protection of a Faraday coat – the cost would be 13 points.

A Vulcan coat is easy – it's the top layer, so 8 points of armour (9 with a shield) until you lose it to ignore a fire attack, and thus costs a little more than regular 8-point armour. Once it's gone, you're back down to unarmoured.

Faraday shield are a little more complex to work out, but I'd work them out in the same way as a Faraday coat – they add +1 to the physical armour, then +3 (I'd use the lower measure as the +6 is balanced by the not moving drawback) to the arc defense. Run it through the same formula for armour on page 34 and Bob's your uncle. As an example, giving an arc shield to a chap in brigandine would cost X point (Brigandine 2pts + Shield bonus 2pts + arc protection 12pts = 16pts). Note that arc protection really does skyrocket, and I've calculated for a cost of 13 points of arc protection as the Faraday shield entry specifies a modifier, not a base number as the coat does.

I'm a little hinky on the Faraday shield, but it does seem suitably powerful, and in keeping with the way the arc protection points costs scale up.

[Craig]

Yep. What he said... 

[Dry_Erase]

OK - I think I'm a little clearer.

As per the rules on page 24.. (snip) ... (so umbrella plus brigandine costs 9 points.

Yep, that all made sense to me.

A Faraday coat is armour – it merely grants an additional bonus against arc weapons. To add a shield to it is simple: the Arc coat gives 8 armour (the 11 vs arc is already in its 5-point cost), so a shield which offers +1 against physical should cost the same as any other shield added to 8-point armour – +1 point. Page 34 offers a guide to building armour

OK, get that. So the incremental cost of additive armour is what matters here.

But then...

– so if you want to stack, say, a Faraday coat on top of a breastplate (illogical, but a good example for the purposes of illustration), just decide what total armour rating and how much arc protection you want. Then follow the formula. Say you want to keep the 11 armour rating of the breastplate and add it to the 11 arc protection of a Faraday coat – the cost would be 13 points.

I didn't realise coats could be stacked - the rules suggest otherwise, in that it's only supposed to be the armour with a weight of '-' that can be added. Sorry if I'm getting something wrong here!

Faraday shield are a little more complex to work out, but I'd work them out in the same way as a Faraday coat

Fairly clear - thank you! Just one thing I don't get... assuming that all armour (except Faraday Coat) has an Arc Armour Rating of 7 as its base (i.e. no protection from Arc weapons), presumably a Faraday Shield will only ever increase to an Arc Armour Rating of 10 - which should be +2 points only. The exception is the Faraday Coat + Faraday Shield combination, which would give you an Arc Armour Rating of 14, which costs an additional +18 points.

I'm trying to wrestle this stuff into a spreadsheet, so sorry if this reads like an interrogation!

[Smith]

I didn't realise coats could be stacked - the rules suggest otherwise, in that it's only supposed to be the armour with a weight of '-' that can be added. Sorry if I'm getting something wrong here!

Fairly clear - thank you! Just one thing I don't get... assuming that all armour (except Faraday Coat) has an Arc Armour Rating of 7 as its base (i.e. no protection from Arc weapons), presumably a Faraday Shield will only ever increase to an Arc Armour Rating of 10 - which should be +2 points only. The exception is the Faraday Coat + Faraday Shield combination, which would give you an Arc Armour Rating of 14, which costs an additional +18 points.

You're not stacking them per se – rather, you're combining the effects you want to create a new type of armour. Feel free to call it a Faraday Breastplate or interpret it as a Faraday coat over a breastplate – the rationale isn't important in game terms – only the effect.

Yes – I was off in my maths (late night posting – apologies) – I added the arc on top of the physical armour instead of to base 7. Base armour against arc is 7, shield gives +3, so 10 total. So, a Faraday shield costs 2 (cost of the arc defence) plus the cost of the +1 physical armour. Your Faraday coat + Faraday shield calculation is correct.

Here's everything laid out:

plus shield
Armour 7 + shield = Armour 8 = 1 point
Armour 8 + shield = Armour 9 = 2 points
Armour 9 + shield = Armour 10 = 4 points
Armour 10 + shield = Armour 11 = 9 points
Armour 11 + shield = Armour 12 = 16 points
Armour 12 + shield = Armour 13 = 25 points
Armour 13 + shield = Armour 14 = 36 points

plus MS Umbrella
Armour 7 + MS Umbrella = Armour 9 = 2 points
Armour 8 + MS Umbrella = Armour 10 = 4 points
Armour 9 + MS Umbrella = Armour 11 = 9 points
Armour 10 + MS Umbrella = Armour 12 = 16 points
Armour 11 + MS Umbrella = Armour 13 = 25 points
Armour 12 + MS Umbrella = Armour 14 = 36 points
Armour 13 + MS Umbrella = Armour 15 = 49 points

plus Faraday shield
Armour 7 + Faraday Shield = Armour 8 / Arc 10 = 3 points
Armour 8 + Faraday Shield = Armour 9 / Arc 10 = 4 points
Armour 9 + Faraday Shield = Armour 10 / Arc 10 = 6 points
Armour 10 + Faraday Shield = Armour 11 / Arc 10 = 11 points
Armour 11 + Faraday Shield = Armour 12 / Arc 10 = 18 points
Armour 12 + Faraday Shield = Armour 13 / Arc 10 = 27 points
Armour 13 + Faraday Shield = Armour 14 / Arc 10 = 38 points

armour with arc protection
= Cost 1 + Cost 2

Cost 1 – physical armour
Armour 8 = 1 point
Armour 9 = 2 points
Armour 10 = 4 points
Armour 11 = 9 points
Armour 12 = 16 points
Armour 13 = 25 points

Cost 2 – arc protection
Arc protection 9 = 1 point
Arc protection 10 = 2 points
Arc protection 11 = 4 points
Arc protection 12 = 8 points
Arc protection 13 = 12 points

Hope that helps with the spreadsheet.

[Craig]

I must admit that it seemed much simpler when we wrote it 

Thank you Smith for your fine elucidation of the rules. The next set of rules we write will have no damned shields in it

[Dry_Erase]

Thanks! I did the same calculations myself and got the same place, so that's reassuring!

When I'm done on the spreadsheet I'll stick it somewhere for people to download - it's a simple tool to design new rosters with the standard equipment.