Re: [DS3] What weapons do you think DS2 needs added?

Andreas Udby wrote:

>I wrote my own set of 6mm sci-fi rules a long time ago, before I ever
heard of
>DS2, Iron Cow, or any of the other rule sets available.  One of my 
>thoughts was
>to give railguns the option of firing directly, as a normal tank gun,
or
>indirectly.

DS2 artillery already use mass-driver (ie., railgun) howitzers, but they

can't perform as MDCs at will since the calibre is too different - MDCs 
fire small-caliber slugs, whereas artillery rounds need to be large to 
carry any worthwhile payload.

There are a couple of other practical problems with using MDCs as 
indirect-fire weapons:

1) The reason why today's SPGs are taller than today's MBTs is that a
gun 
fired at high elevation will recoil downwards, and since you usually
don't 
want the gun breech to slam through the turret floor the SPGs are taller
to 
provide the necessary recoil space. Railguns have only marginally less 
recoil momentum to take care of than propellant-powered guns - no escape

from Mr. Newton, unfortunately - so an MDC capable of indirect fire will

also need to be taller (in DS terms, cause the vehicle to have a larger 
Signature unless it spends Stealth on reducing it again) than an MDC
which 
can only fire directly.

2) A modern APFSDS (aka "long rod") tank projectile fired at the tank's 
maximum elevation (depends on the exact tank used, but somewhere in 
the10-20 degrees ballpark) will travel an outrageously long distance -
I've 
seen figures from 70 km to 130 km. In order for an MDC to fire
indirectly 
at *short* range it either needs to fire its projectiles almost straight
up 
(which makes the accuracy questionable) or turn the muzzle velocity WAY 
down (which reduces its damage potential quite a lot), or both.

>"Microwave Projector:	A vicious weapon that cooks things from the
inside. It
>is incredibly heavy because of the generator and capacitors necessary
to 
>power it,

Single-shot (explosively-powered) microwave projectors needn't be larger

than a small bag, but they're not all that difficult to protect yourself

against... particularly not if you're already sitting inside a metal
box.

>Gel Flamer:

Sounds mostly like your basic thermobaric projectile. The Russians have 
used them for twenty years at least; now the West wants them too.

>The gel bursts into flame just seconds after exposure to oxygen,

Make that "milliseconds or less"

>However, its life cycle is short,

Also measured in milliseconds

>Furthermore, the gel is smokeless;

Doesn't sound all that likely with the composition you describe, but 
warhead design isn't my main subject.

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ohlson@telia.com

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