Wimpy Gauss Weapons

I just fired up my Mega-Traveller campaign last Friday night and really got
the players moving.  However, as a result of a narrowly-avoided firefight,
one of my more experienced players voiced a loud objection to the numbers
given by GDW for weapon penetration in the Players manual.  When the player
in question discovered that the Gauss Rifles (TL 13) aboard their starship
couldn't penetrate Battle Dress or Combat Armor from the same tech. level,
he pointed out that this would be like sending soldiers into battle with
flak jackets, and arming them with weapons that couldn't kill an enemy
wearing the SAME flak jackets.

He has a point.

I would like to think that GDW gave more than just passing thought to the
numbers they picked for armor values and penetration values for the armor
and weapons used in MT.  I have consolidated the relevant information into
the 2 tables shown below (taken from Players' Manual, pp. 74,76, and the
Imperial Encyclopedia, pp. 75):

Armor              TL   Armor Value
- ----------------   --   -----------
Combat Env. Suit   10        6
Combat Armor-11    11        8
Combat Armor-12    12       10
Combat Armor-14    14       18
Battle Dress-13    13       10
Battle Dress-14    14       18

Weapon                    TL    Pen. Value*
- ------                    --    ----------
ACR 7mm                   10        4
ACR 9mm                   10        6
ARL 10mm------------------10       10
Gauss Rifle 4mm           12        7
Gauss Pistol 4mm          13        4
Laser Pistol-13-----------13        6
Laser Carbine-13          13       12
Laser Rifle-13            13       20
Integral Laser Pistol-14--14        6**

NOTES:
    *  - In most cases, these weapons have a variety of penetration values,
         base on their ammo type.  The number shown is the highest penetration
         available.
    ** - This penetration value is assumed to be the same a that of the
         Laser Pistol-13, since none is given in the Player Manual.

Plasma and Fusion weapons are deliberately being ignored as no sane referee
would let his players romp around with those things in tow during the majority
of a typical campaign. (My apologies to those Refs. among you who do, in fact,
allow this.  Please don't shoot me :-).)

Given these numbers, and the description of 'Zero Penetration' on pg. 70 of
the Players' Manual, the Combat Environment Suit, Combat Armor-11, Combat
Armor-12, and Battle Dress-13 can only be penetrated by the ARL, the Laser
Carbine and the Laser Rifle.  Further, the Combat Armor-14 and Battle Dress-14
can only be penetrated by the Laser Rifle!  Now, all of this is mitigated by
the fact that you can penetrate these types of armor if you achieve exceptional
success on your attack round, but that doesn't seem like something you should
be relying on.  The gauss rifle in particular has been significantly watered
down from it's original descriptions in Classic Traveller (Mercenary) and
Azhanti High Lightning.  Does this mean that gauss rifles are passe as battle-
field weapons?

Since the 4mm Gauss Rifle and Combat Armor-12 both evolved at the same Tech.
level (TL 12), and since the Gauss Rifle was obviously intended to be a
combat weapon, you would think it would be designed to routinely penetrate
the standard personal body armor of the period.  This strikes me as a
major oversight in the combat mechanics.

This brings us to the next topic: AUTOMATIC WEAPON FIRE.  Page 73 of the
Players' Manual describes auto-weapon fire as delivering 5 rounds per
trigger pull instead of 1.  While this may be used to hit multiple targets
adjacent to the primary target, the rules neglect some important points.

First, some weapons (i.e. Gauss Rifle and Pistol) have specific auto-fire
numbers given in the Imperial Encyclopedia (4 for the pistol, 4 or 10 for
the rifle).  Should these be used instead of the standard 5 listed in the
Players' Manual.

Second, if multiple targets are available, and you hit the primary target,
are the adjacent targets hit automatically or must you reroll for each?

Third, if you are in auto-fire mode and there is only a single target,
is he hit by all the auto-fire rounds?  If not, how many hit?  Do you
roll a separate attack for each round?  Are there any die modifiers
(positive or negative) for successive rounds?

None of these things are covered in the combat rules and they seem to
represent a major oversight, considering how many of the weapons have
auto-fire capability.

My initial reaction to these omissions is as follows:

First, have 2 different versions of the Gauss Rifle, a TL-11 and a TL-12.
The TL-11 version has a PV of 8, and the TL-12 version has a PV of 10.
All other stats. remain unchanged.

Regarding auto-fire: if a weapon has a specified fire rate, use it.
Otherwise, use the 5/rnd. rule.  Also, roll a separate attack for each
round, but if the first round hits, add +4 to the subsequent rolls to
reflect that the initial aimpoint was 'on target'.  Apply this bonus
only to Low Recoil weapons.  Medium Recoil weapons are not as controllable.

How do you deal with this sort of thing?

Later,

        Mark F. Cook

USMail: User Interface Technical Support
        Hewlett-Packard - Interface Technology Operation
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