Re: Wimpy Gauss Weapons

In "(1196) Wimpy Gauss Weapons" "Mark F. Cook" [email removed] writes:

> 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.

   A TL-12 gaussrifle will penetrate (low penetration) TL 10 to 13 combat armor
and TL 13 battledress if pinpoint location is used.
   This is somewhat like the situation before the advent of automatic weapons
where a soldier have to take careful aim in order to accomplish anything.
   Even versus TL-14+ armours it will do the minimum damage based on the degree
of exceptional success. (But that would be true even of a sawed-off shotgun vs
TL-15 battledress :-/

   By this numbers, it would seem that the the Gauss-rifle is only used as a
frontline standard infantry weapon at level 13 (Ye olde 'Mercenary' says that
at TL-12 it's only used as a sniper-rifle). And that it is superceeded by
energyweapons at higher techlevels.

> 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?

   I think that the greatest bugs in the data for the Gaussrifle in the MegaT is
the fact that it's difficulty profile is listed as 'Rifle' when, according to
the description in the Imperial Encyclopedia it should have a diff as 'Rifle**'
(ie Gyrostabilized Rifle with Scope). With this modification, it is a ok
weapon if one takes advantage of pinpoint and remembers that the vast majority
of users of a gaussrifle has +2 to the task (+1 for Skill-1 & +1 for Dex 5+).
(Yes, I know about the major bug in the pinpoint-rules :-(


   For military applications, however, there is a nice solution to the problem.
(But it is probably to heavy for players to run around with). The RAM auto
grenade launcers (high TL) have a pentetration of around 36 for HEAP, thats
high penetration against battledress-15!
   Since weapons like this (The russian 'Plamya' 30mm auto-GL) can be used for
direct fire today (Terra TL-8 :-), I see no reason for restricting any of the
weapons on the 'Grenade Launcher' list of the Players Manual to Indirect fire.
Especially since RAM grenades are rocket assisted and thus have a much flatter
trajectory than 'ordinary' grenade-launchers grenades (that are more like the
ones that are used in the M203 (the big black tube under the barrel on some
M16's))
   But indirect fire gives a longer range, so the method that I have used is
allowing direct fire as 'Rifle' whith a maximum range *one range less* than the
indirect fire's max range.
   And sooner or later, someone is bound to get the idea to mount grav-
compensators on a RAM Auto GL to be able to run around and play rambo with the
piece...
   The automatic fire feature of a RAM Auto GL will give it an advantage, even
over a plasma or fusion weapon, at least as long as it has ammo...

And, best of all:
   The weight if it will keep the players from using it :-)

> 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.

I use the Encyclopedia figures.

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

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?

Probably not, especially since the firer don't controll where these rounds will
hit. They are just extra rounds that flies 'in the general direction' of the
primary target.

> 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.

Short Discussion on Armor Penetration:
[Oh no! He's gonna apply pseudo-real-life physics on Traveller! Stop him! ]

   By using several pieces of data in a way that they not were intended to be
used :-) I arrive at the conclution that Penetration 7 is equivalent of being
able to penetrate 1.75 cm of armor plate steel. Penetration 8 and 10 are
equivalent of 2 and 2.5 cm ditto. (I got here by using rule 5B in TD#15,
'Radiation Exposure and Treatment' that is about thickness of armour)
   A gaussrifle fires it's ammo at (i think) 1km/s. Maximum possible penetration
from a kinetic round is achieved when the speed of the round exceeds the speed
if sound in the material that the round is made of (4km/s to 6km/s, I think)
   As a quick rule of thumb, I'd say that the penetration (in cm) goes up by
1.5 every time the speed of the round is doubled (up to max 6km/s).
(I got this figure from a guy who have worked with tank weapons, but he
 warned that it was very approximate.)
   This would give a 2.63 cm penetration if the round was fired with 2km/s
instead of with 1km/s. 2.63 cm equals penetration 10.
   The kinetic energy of the round, and the energy needed to accelerated, would
double twice, to 4 times the original amount.

   Summary: having a gaussrifle with a penetration of 10 is Ok, but it would
probably be heavier that a standard gaussrifle.

   (I checked this against the VRF Gauss Gun  (that fires ordinary gauss-rounds
but with 4km/s, and has penetration 20 (5.95 cm armor plate steel) and that
gives a factor of 1.85 every time the speed of the round is doubled. The
'true' value is probably somewhere around 1.7 - 1.9 instead of 1.5)

Disclaimer: The author is not responsible for characters killed as a result
of the application of, or errors in, the suggestions above :-)

- -bertil-
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Bertil K K Jonell @ Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg
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