[DS] New Weapon

1 posts ยท Jul 16 1999

From: Don Greenfield <gryphon@a...>

Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 09:37:37 -0600

Subject: [DS] New Weapon

I've been mulling over my Free State background lately, working up some TOE's
and designing vehicles, and it seems that there is something of a gap in the
weapons provided in the rules. They all seem to be optimized for putting holes
in thick chunks of metal. While this may be all well and good for those Great
Powers that have the industrial and financial wherewithall to build, deploy,
and replace the heavy metal, those of us out on the frontiers don't have those
luxuries, or those kinds of enemies. We spend most of our time trying to deal
with the scads of infantry running around
with the Twenty Second century versions of AK-47's and RPG's. Hence the
following weapon:

Low Velocity Cannons (LVC): The LVC operates on the same principles as the
HVC, however, the LVC is optimized for firing chemical energy warheads at
moderate velocities. The
emphasis on a good Anti-Personel capability, with secondary Anti-Armour
performance. A useful twentieth century comparision would be the 76 to 90
mm low pressure cannon, or the 81 mm gun-mortars primarily found in
Third World militaries. The LVC comes only in size classes 3 and 4.

Range Table: Close Range Medium Range Long Range
LVC/3                     12 "                     20"
28"
LVC/4                     14"                      23"
32"

Damage LVC: Against Reactive Armour: Yellow Chits Against all other armours:
Red Chits Against Infantry:: Red Chits

Costs: 6 x Size of weapon.

Rationale: As a lower velocity version of the HVC, the LVC would seem to have
less inherent accuracy and range, so I knocked 4 inches off the equivelent
sized HVC range. Since the antiarmour effect comes from a chemical warhead
like those on the GMS systems, but since the warhead is lighter than on those
systems, I reduced the effects. Since the whole point
of the weapon was to have an effective anit- infantry effect, I gave it
the best AP capability I could find on the DF weapons chart. This was the
DFFG, and I can justify this by saying the LVC has a special AP shell that
only a low velocity weapon can fire (sensitive fuzing, greater HE load,
whatever). I'm not real sure about the points, just looking at it it seems
less useful than a standard HVC, but somewhat more than RFAC's. I gave it 6 x
the size, but I'm open to discussion.

Any thoughts?