RE: do GMS/P troopers carry ARs?

On Thu, 24 Feb 2000, Glover, Owen wrote:

> Exchanging kit especially if you have to grab extra ammo or specialist
> equipment can actually take a considerable amount of time....if an
> Activation is approx 5 minutes then an Action is reasonably argued to
be 2
> and a half minutes...that isn't really very long at all..ever tried
clearing
> a double feed on a machine gun? It can take a minute of two in
> itself...getting kit off a body that has been blasted can be a very
messy
> thing, clearing the weapon, checking ammo feeds etc WILL take time....

  We don't know if the weapon is self-cleaning and it expects to be able
to be switched over to a new user quickly, or if the user has a
smartlink
bioware in their body that is required to use it so the weaponisn't even
transferable anyway.
  I think any arguments that should be made should be kept strictly at
the
game balance level.  Although it's fun to bash around our assumptions
like
this, we all know it isn't going to get anywhere.  :)

> The time thing is something I'm always uncomfortable with too. Jon 
states in
> his rules that he doesn't like to put a fixed time limit on a game
turn and
> mentions 1 minute and a few minutes. Then we say it can take up to 5
minutes
> and then we all start quoting 5 minutes. I really think Jon T didn't
really
> want to get pigeon holed with a SET 5 minutes turn yet now we all
argue it
> is a gospel fixed time span.....

  Which is why we should leave the philosophising up to him.  :)

  I think the question should be, should a support weapon be
transferable,
and if so, how hard should it be to transfer so it doesn't make the
support weapon so useful to have that a squad 'must' have one or two.
  Hehe, maybe I'm just lazy but I don't want to have to do the math to
figure out the optimum number of squad members to have with support
weapons to maximize firepower vs longevity should support weapons be
trivially transferable.  :D