Meson Artillery

["Mark A. Siefert" <siefertma@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm playing around with some Traveller conversions for DSII, and working on
artillery rules for meson guns.  For the uninitiated, meson cannons project
particle beams that pass through solid matter until they reach their
intended target where the particles decay with explosive results.  Although
it's technically a direct fire weapon, it's used as artillery because of
it's ability for it's beam to pass through hills, mountains, forests,
structures, etc..

Meson guns are nasty and the last thing I want is for this to descend into
munchkinism!  They ignore armor and attack their target directly.  In
Striker/Striker II any unit unfortunate enough to fall under bombardment are
instantly destroyed no matter what.  For my conversion, I was thinking that
everything under the two inch beaten zone is KO just like a nuke round only
without the morale effects.

The trouble is, since meson guns are energy weapons, they don't need
ammunition.  However, I was thinking using ammunition markers anyway.  These
markers don't represent actual shells, but the time and resources needed to
charge, target, and fire the weapon.  Also, in lieu of their destructive
capability, I'm making each marker somewhere around 500 points.

On the other hand, it seems rather arbitrary and unrealistic to put these
sort of limits on the gun even for play balance sake.  Any comments or
suggestions?

Later,
Mark A. Siefert