RFACs - the bruhaha continues

Adrian said:

Hang on a second.  Remember that under the current rules, there is a
significant difference between an RFAC/1 with it's impact of d10 hitting
an
armoured vehicle than a infantry rifle with impact d10 hitting the same
vehicle.  Infantry small arms can not penetrate anything other than
armour
class 1, and only ever have a SMALL chance of doing serious damage.
They
are treated completely differently by the rules than the RFAC, even
though
they have the same impact.  I draw your attention to the different
sections
on pages 37 and 38 of the rulebook which explain the differences between

small arms vs. point targets and heavy weapons vs. point targets.

** Strange Adrian, I recall it was your FSE troops that punched the
living daylights out of a bunch of OU APCs with your ARs.... :)

** I agree that there is a distinction between small arms rolls and
large arms rolls. I don't think RFAC/1s were meant to tackle heavy
armour - soft skinned vehicles and armour 1 vehicles are their likely
targets + PBI and PA. Therefore, to loosely paraphrase a point Oerjan (I
think) made about more arcs not being linearly more effective, I'd say
the fact that the RFAC rolls d10 against its intended targets isn't that
much more lethal than the d10 or d12 that a SAW could be rolling against
the same targets if they are armour 1 or armour 0. Given you have the
opportunity to effect a higher armour value, but with d10 vs at least
d12x2, you're reaching. The RFAC is a bit better, just not a lot better.
And the SAW is definitely better vs. Infantry.

** Your point about technology I have to take (minor) issue with. The
kitchen knife of today is not unreckognizable from the one many years
ago, but it may well not be the same knife. It may have a blade that
never dulls, never tarnishes, and cost a tenth as much to produce and is
razor sharp and has an edge that cuts far better than one of decades or
centuries before. But that's a minor point - I guess even if we assume a
basic level of technology (I don't believe that necessarily.... colonies
are going to be a tech-intensive venture period even with garden worlds
and you don't send one to fail unless you're trying to breed another
Oz...*wink*), your argument about the quality of the guidance is taken.
If BASIC really is, then okay a d6 is fair. But then a d10 for advanced
should imply something at least as good as today and almost every
military vehicle should have that level of guidance (for line
militaries). If we put them in our vehicles today, I sure hope we can do
as well tomorrow and a lot cheaper. And even so, it is still max d10 vs.
the SAW FP of up to d12 I believe.

** I liked your suggestion of giving RFAC/1, 2 and GAC/1,2 (MDCs for DS2
crowd) have d12 FP (at least...) and impact of d10 (x size) for RFACs
and d12 x class for MDCs. Only for the small rapid fire variants, but
that would nicely make them capable vs. infantry.

** I guess my other thought to your tech argument is if you are right
and basic is basic (ie WW2 equivalent FC), are three grades enough? Is
d10 enough of an advantage over d6 for the difference between sighting
through an optical sight on an unstabilized platform (a la WW2) vs some
ridiculously advanced (relative to today) top of the line tech? I
assumed all three levels were relative to 2183 because otherwise the
range didn't seem wide enough. A WW2 tank's fire stabilization and
sighting system, even if mated to a modern gun, would probably lose
almost always to a modern vehicle (call it an ehanced FC by your
definition) and you'd think always to a superior d10 FC and yet the
distinction in the game really isn't that large (max roll +2/+4, mean
shifts by +1/+2). This goes doubly in anything other than a static sit
and shoot situation.

** I don't have a solution, I just always assumed that even basic 2183
tech embodied a certain level of tech that we'd call advanced today. You
have the other theory, which is equally viable and does diffuse my
argument somewhat, thought it does raise the spectre of the small range
across which FC is then distributed given it covers everything from
earliest gun mountings to those 200 years hence.

** I guess the answer, as always, is pick something that flavours your
battles the way you want. If you want to fight battle 200 years hence
with WW2 technology because you think that is what the settlers will
have, I'm no one to argue... (much).... ! :)

Tom

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