[SG] Another pass through heavy weapons

Let's briefly think about what weapons there 
are, and how effective they would be against 
infantry and point targets. 

We have the HEL. Now, how does it gain its 
effect? One big powerful blast? Good for 
armour penetration, not so good for getting 
hits on infantry. Accuracy would go up with 
more shots, but it is a speed of light weapon, 
so you aren't gonna miss often with that one 
shot. (Note that HEL in DS are phenomenally 
more accurate than other weapons at any 
significant range....). Can the weapon be 
switched to a low-power-per-pulse, rapid-pulse 
mode for engagement of infantry? Or is this just 
a distinction between the HEL/1 and HEL/2-5? 

Then we have HVC. You've got everything from 
the 57mm AT gun, the 76mm LPG, to the 130 
mm Smoothbore, etc. covered here. Some of 
these have good HE rounds. Some have (gasp) 
Cannister. Cannister from a HVC/4 ought to be 
a real bad day (or Flechette) for infantry. As 
might various submunition carrying rounds or 
something like a huge ass Dragonsbreath 
round. 

Then we have the HKP. Don't see much of an 
anti-infantry option for this weapon. Seems to 
be a dedicated armour killer. If you get a 
contact hit on an infantry walker or PA (or god 
forbid, a poor soldier doggie) then they're 
gonna be goo. But it isn't a good anti-infantry 
weapon. 

Then we have the RFAC. This covers the slower 
firing anti-armour chain guns, the faster firing 
multi barrel gatling cannons, etc. So we have 
some that are anti-armour weapons (slower 
RoF) and some that are anti-air or anti-infantry 
weapons or even PDS weapons (I remember 
seeing a PIVAD firing on infantry and vehicle 
cutouts in training.... and I recall thinking "Note 
to self, never attack an ADA unit"). But even the 
slower firing versions probably have 
fragmenting rounds. And the ROF on the 
gatlings is gonna be enough that they don't 
even need fragmentation. They're gonna kill 
what they get solid hits on, soldierwise. 

We have the SLAM, but that is best considered 
as artillery. 

We have the MDC. Small version are like big 
gauss SAWs. (Traveller VRF Gauss Gun). Very 
very very bad for infantry, I'd think. Probably 
the best anti-infantry weapon out there. Larger 
versions can be viewed as firing large 
projectiles slower or more smaller ones faster. 
But I'm betting you could load them with some 
type of explosive or cannister round if they 
were big enough. So they strike me as deadly 
to infantry in any size. 

Then we have the DFFG. The "sun gun". 
Assuming that when this thing hits, there is a 
fusion reaction, probably that means that it 
vaporizes stuff. Land one in the middle of an 
infantry squad and its crispy critter city. The 
small DFFG/1 would be deployed (as on the 
NAC Phalanx) in a tribarrell rapid-fire version 
and would make up for smaller radius effects by 
rapid fire. Again, a very deadly weapon against 
infantry. 

GMS? People always want to use these against 
infantry and I don't see why it isn't possible. 
Just give the infantry D4 ECM. And treat the 
weapon as having D12 impact (for GMS/P). Not 
terribly effective, but it might kill someone and it 
will probably place a suppression. Waste of 
missiles if armour shows up later, though. 

APSW and HMG - not quite an RFAC. RFAC one 
is supposed to be 20-30mm. These are 10-
20mm weapons (if HMG) or 30-40mm GLs. 
They can execute autofire and have a variety of 
ammunition available, including possibly AP, HE, 
incendiary,  and in the case of the GLs, HEDP, 
cannister, and lots of other loads. These aren't 
going to make infantry very happy. 

I think what we can see here is that most vehicle 
weapons should have an effective anti infantry 
attack mode. I think the least effectual would be 
the HKP and the GMS. The question then 
becomes how to make these weapons 
appropriately potent. And in doing so, what 
would the implications be? What balance would 
need to exist for the vehicles to not dominate 
the board? 

(I can supply some guesses: Appropriately 
strong anti-vehicle weapons, spotting (infantry 
often live by being below the radar of more 
obnoxious unit types), and a bias to be more 
concerned about other vehicular threats). 

I think this is an interesting discussion. I'm not 
suggesting "official" changes to things, I'm just 
trying to create an IMU solution that will make a 
vehicle feel a little more like a threat to the 
"insects" (infantry). ;) 
---------------------------------------------
Thomas Barclay
Co-Creator of http://www.stargrunt.ca 
Stargrunt II and Dirtside II game site

No Battle Plan Survives Contact With Dice.
-- Mark 'Indy' Kochte