Now that GZG has thoughtfully put out Hammer's Slammers vehicles, does anyone
have any thoughts on how infantry small arms powerguns translate into
Stargrunt?
I assume any data for DS vehicles
(http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/3565/slammin-the-dirt.html)
may be taken as canonical?
The major complication, as I see it, is that (according to the books), the
powergun discharges ALL its energy on the first thing it hits (eg, a leaf).
Would infantry carried powerguns have difficulty penetrating any sort of
cover?
Always questions...
> Now that GZG has thoughtfully put out Hammer's Slammers vehicles,
As you've said, the powerguns discharge all their energy on the first thing
they hit. But they discharge a *LOT* of energy. Yes, a single shot might
not "penetrate" cover (say, a sandbag emplacement) - penetrate as in the
projectile going in one side and going out the other... But because of the
huge amound of energy released, they'd
slag/burn/vapourize/explode/otherwise-punch-a-big-hole-in most cover.
Remember the Slammer's tanks' main guns were used as anti-starship
weapons
- powerguns do *heaps* of damage. I seem to remember the infantry
weapons
firing in bursts - in a three round burst against a target hiding behind
a tree, you'd have the first and second hits obliterating the tree and the
third taking out the target.
The problem I see with the Slammer's weapons in the GZG world (particularly in
SGII) is that a single hit with an infantier's powergun (rifle) would
totally slag most of the common types of personal armour - maybe not PA,
and if stretching maybe not the full-suit hardshell armour like the NSL
heavy infantry wear - but with any of the others, the armour won't
protect
the wearer. You'd end up with a very high Impact - at least d12, but it
should probably be higher if the "dramatic value" of powergun hits from the
books is translated into game mechanics...
Is there anything in the GZG world like the "iridium" (I think??)
super-armour from the Slammer's books?
Adrian spake thusly upon matters weighty:
> The problem I see with the Slammer's weapons in the GZG world
would
> totally slag most of the common types of personal armour - maybe not
The slammers wore clamshell armour that slowed down powerguns, so I think
hardened armour would slow them down.
How about this: Powergun (Pistol): FP 1 Impact d8 (or d10 if you have a nasty
bent) Powergun (SMG): FP 3 Impact d8 (or d10 if you are evilly inclined)
Powergun (Rifle): FP 2 Impact d12 Powergun (Tribarrel): Support Weapon FP d12
Impact D12
Powerguns versus armour: Partial powered armour (like say the israelis wear or
hardshell like some of the german troops) is treated as one level worse (ie if
the armour was D8 versus normal weapons, its D6 versus powerguns).
Other soft or non-reflective armours are USELESS. Defender rolls D4
for armour checks. PA is unaffected.
> Is there anything in the GZG world like the "iridium" (I think??)
Yeah, how about Armour 3+ vehicles? I think an Armour 5 MBT could
well be conceived of as having such wicked armour.
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> The slammers wore clamshell armour that slowed down powerguns, so I
Sounds good, though if I remember correctly, the tribarrel support weapons
were a larger calibre than the rifles. I'd make them FPd12, Impact d12x2
> Powerguns versus armour:
I like it, though my Israelis don't and my NAC Marines really don't...
If we are going to assume the extreme energy transfer that the fiction
suggests powerguns are capable of, I think this is fair. Troops without at
least a full hardsuit (even if unpowered) would at the very least be cooked by
the energy discharge. I think I remember descriptions of targets hit with
powerguns being engulfed in flame 'cause of the heat, as well as the explosive
damage. With the German armour and the partial powered stuff, this would be
greatly reduced.
Question though? A powergun is a directed plasma discharge (there was a
description in the back of one of the books of powergun technology) - if
this is some kind of fusion reaction (??????), would there possibly be
residual radiation effects as well as the impact/heat energy? What
would that do to a battlefield? Would there be spillover effects as a battle
progressed where communications (at least for unhardened systems) would be
affected?
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