Re: SG2 questions, mostly shooting from vehicles

shogakusha wrote:

>Ok, yes, but from what I read in the rule book, an MDC is a rail gun,
>yes?

Yes.

>Now, I've been told that it uses a high rate of fire with smaller
shells,

Shot are far more likely than shell. Lots of smaller shot against
infantry and other soft targets; against hard targets you need fewer
large shot instead.

>instead of the single large anti tank shell I was picturing, so my
>arguments doesn't have as much merit, but a sizable rail gun shell,
>impacting the earth, should produce a rather sizable explosion.
>Real world rail guns (such as those pioneered for use for SDI) depend
>upon a PLASTIC (Lexan) projectile with a ferrous-metal 'skirt' -
during >initial tests a 5 GRAM projectile made a 6-7 inch wide by 4
inch deep >crater in a solid block of aluminum. 

And if you fire it at the ground, it makes a somewhat bigger crater in
the earth or stone. It still doesn't compete with HE when it comes to
causing shrapnel.

>Now if you assume, as I did, that an MDC fires a larger heavier metal
>projectile, the release of energy upon impact with the ground should
be >similar to a modern HE shell. Just my thoughts.

The problem is that the much of the energy is released down into the
ground instead of being transferred to flying splinters. The difference
is similar as the one between HE ground bursts and airbursts - the
ground burst is good if you're shooting at bunkers, but against
infantry in the open the airburst is vastly more effective. 

Regards,

Oerjan Ohlson
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
- Hen3ry