For a list of weapon statistics according to type, see:
One of the most important characteristic of a weapon system is its size class, and this is denoted by how it is mounted.
| Size | Description |
|---|---|
| 5 | Tiny. Man portable weapons, not used in space combat. |
| 10 | Small. Vehicle mounted weapons, small point defence systems. |
| 15 | Medium. Heavy turrets, useful against most small ships, up to about 1000t. |
| 20 | Large. A barbette mounted weapon. Very heavy turrets. |
| 25 | Huge. Bay mounted weapons, used against heavy combat vessels. |
| 30+ | Gigantic. Spinal mount weapons found on ships of the line. |
A weapon's size class is a measure of its power output, not its physical size (though the two are related). For example, Fusion weapons tend to be +5 Size compared to equivalent weapons of other types, and fixed mount weapons (which don't need complex turret hardware) also get a +3 size bonus.
For purposes of hitting targets, a weapon always uses its physical size class (so a fixed fusion mount, which counts as size 18 for damaging targets, is only size 10 for hitting them).
A ship has room to mount a number of weapons relative to its size. It is limited by both volume (tonnage), and surface area available. For large craft, the surface area limit is the most important.
A ship has a volume capacity equal to its tonnage. It has a surface area capacity equal to square of the cube root of its tonnage (tonnage^(2/3)). Some example ship sizes and surface availability are as follows:
| Tonnage | Surface |
|---|---|
| 10 | 5 |
| 50 | 14 |
| 250 | 40 |
| 1,000 | 100 |
| 5,000 | 292 |
| 25,000 | 855 |
| 100,000 | 2154 |
| 500,000 | 6300 |
Modifications to available surface are as follows:
Tonnage, surface requirements and physical size of weapon mounts are as follows.
| Mounting | Size | Tonnage | Surface |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed mount | 10 | 1t | 1 |
| Light turret | 10 | 1t | 3 |
| Heavy turret | 15 | 3t | 5 |
| Barbette | 20 | 10t | 10 |
| Small bay | 25 | 50t | 20 |
| Large bay | 25 | 100t | 30 |
| Spinal mount | 30+ | 10% | sqrt(t) |
Turrets may be modified to be Double or Triple variants. These modify requirements as follows:
Weapons on a fixed mount, or sharing a turret, can optionally be fired linked. These all fire as a single attack, doing increased damage if they hit.
Only beam weapons can be fire linked in this way. Fire linked weapons have to be identical.
Give bonus to soak, based on Perception x Spaceship Gunnery (Sandcaster).
Stops nukes, within certain radius.
Give soak against meson guns, based on Intelligence x Screen operation.
Meson guns ignore armour, but not soak.
Give extra wound levels against everything, based on Intelligence x Screen operation.
Wounds soaked up are regenerated over time (a few per turn).
Can push physical attacks out of the way, giving a bonus to dodge. Generally only useful against missiles.