Odanan, on 11 January 2017 - 11:00 AM, said:
I'm talking about the "classic" cluster rounds. When you shoot with a LB 20-X, you roll the amount of pellets that hit the target (missile hits table), much like a LRM-20. So, you don't do 20 damage (unless you roll 11 or 12 in the dice), but 6-20 damage, split in groups of 5 damage. Tell me how a LB 20X doing a scattered ~12 damage is better than a full 20 damage of the AC/20?
Or am I playing the cluster ammo wrong?
Sort of, last time I used a LB-20X on TT, the cluster shot did 6-20 one point hits, every pellet has the same chance to crit (8+). One crit is all that is needed to destory weapons/ equipment, that's not a gyro or engine. So even getting 6 pellets to hit the target with a minimal roll on the missile table, still nets you 6 chances at landing a crit hit against an unarmoured component, provided all 6 hit the same location... also cluster rounds give you a -1 to hit as well, not fantastic, but hey it's one of the few negative to hit modifiers available.
Due to how the cluster rounds do their damage, it's why FL armour is such a giant F-U to cluster rounds, as FL armour out right ignores 1 point of damage per 5 taken (1 to 5= -1 damage, 6-10 = -2 damage taken, ect...). So firing cluster shot at FL will do no damage, unless that location is lacking any armour.