HAMR time

Magic-man say:

Does carrying the HAMR give the same penalties to movement that a SAW
does? (SG book enroute to CT, me stuck in PR). I would assume it does
being an oversized weapon.

[Tomb] Why yes. The penalties are identical. None. 

[Tomb] Now, you could, if you were inclined, consider the guy lugging
the HAMR (if by himself) to be encumbered. That wouldn't be what one
would do for the average SAW (think Minimi/M249 - not _that_
encumbering!). But the HAMR is monsterous enough to make a one-person
lug rather unwieldy (and hence merit a reduction in movement). 

[Tomb] Although in retrospect I agree with KH that your comment on belt
buckles and webgear was a little on the callous side (when looked at
dispassionately the next day), I also admit to having laughed heartily
at it. Part of what we do when we play war games is make all sorts of
light hearted remarks about very heavy subjects in the real world.
Joking about nuking things from orbit ought to be magnitudes more
disturbing than your little comment, yet they predominate at
conventions. Black humor is something fundamental to this type of gaming
I suspect. If we all really sat and thought about the families of these
little lead guys, their orphaned children, their widows, the effects of
dropping artillery on the Nuns, whatever.... we'd probably stop playing
and start heavily drinking. I think we crack jokes about it because it
is in the nature of man to trivialize and weaken truly ugly items so as
to be able to cope with them. So let us try to keep some perspective
collectively - it was a joke and on one level, it was funny (in that it
poked fun at the artificial distinction of men and materiel which has
often been ignored during real conflict). 

CineGrunt at ECC:
[Tomb] I was there. My SAS watched the PBRs and Monitors serve as
excellent RPG targets repeatedly. Now, for the record: They were
beautiful Stuart models.... though I don't know what company produced
them. 

Sonic shattering attacks:

[Tomb] If your question was meant as how could you directly protect the
material, there are compounds which you could coat the shield in which
would make affixing this device problematic and which would break the
sonic coupling to the object. Good sonic coupling actually probably
requires specific gels etc (I've used expensive sonic transducers
before). Putting up something with poor sonic propagation capabilities
and high resistance to adhesion on your shield ought to be feasible. 

[Tomb] Personally, if it was violent pinheads in body armour, gas masks,
and with metal bars, smoke bombs, and incendiaries (obviously geared for
a fight), I'd defend them using an active microwave barrier,
sharpshooters, and claymores. If these types show up and want to do