[DS2] TD Design

> "Alex Shvarts, Andrew & Brian Martin" <Al.Bri@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

A turret mount weapon occupies size class * 3 capacity. A hull mount weapon
occupies size class * 2 capacity. Therefore you can put more things into a
vehicle with a hull mount, or a bigger main gun. A points cost differential
isn't really required, as the capacity difference makes the difference.

In most designs you have spare "useless" space anyway so it is seldom a big
benefit. Additionally it does not address the issue that the points required
to field a fixed MDC4 are the same as those required for a Turreted MDC4. The
points are suppose to allow us to quantify the effectiveness of the AFVs we
create. Clearly a fixed weapon is not as effective as a turreted one. Stuffing
more gear into the hull just makes a more expensive target.

Take a size 3 MBT with an MDC4 Turreted costing 142 points. A discount of 20%
on the MDC for a similar TD model would be 134 points. If you exercised the
proposed option of upgunning the chassis maybe you should pay full price for
the new gun and remember to increase the fire con price as well. As for the
extra vehicle space I came up the idea of dedicating space to

armour to limit the chances that people would design size 4 TDs with twin
MDC5s and get additional armour! Then I thought if you are using vehicle

space then maybe you should increase armour on all sides by one.

Hey, who shrunk the tank! You switched hull sizes! The TD variant should stay
the same vehicle size class as the MBT! That's what it's based on after all!
You're making a different vehicle with similar stats!

My apologies I did not make myself clear. I based the examples on models I
have, it is not the same vehicle with the turret knocked off. I was just

trying to extrapolate the classic TD principles into generic terms. Most of us
do not have turreted and hull mounted versions of the same sci fi tanks. I
think I wish I did though. As an aside if you did remove the fairly large
turrets from my MBTs you would likely want to call them size 2. My examples
were to compare a smaller chassis (size) TD and a larger MBT with similar
weapons and armour.

Murray Baines (250)356-9668