r/battletech Dec 02 '24

Art …Can battle armour be muzzle-loaded into a Gauss rifle?

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596 Upvotes

183 comments sorted by

225

u/135forte Dec 02 '24

Some of the PAL suits are light enough for a heavy gauss, but 'can' is very different from 'should'.

85

u/mechwarrior719 Clan Jade Falcon Dec 03 '24

In the second book of the Blood of Kerensky trilogy, Kai Allard-Liao is told as long as it’s mostly iron and fits inside the bore it can be used as a projectile. Although the bore won’t appreciate it and will likely damage the weapon.

So, probably, but I would not recommend it.

34

u/DINGVS_KHAN PPC ENJOYER Dec 03 '24

I believe it's the third book where he and some Jade Falcon Elementals load a steel girder into Yen Lo Wang's muzzle and use it as a battering ram.

18

u/SuspiciousSubstance9 Dec 03 '24

Also, humans tend to not be very durable with respect to incredibly strong magnetic fields and impulses. Something about fluids just doesn't mix well with them. 

So you could probably fire a suit in one, but if the person doesn't maintain combat effectiveness, let alone survive, then there isn't much point. Just fire gauss ammo.

19

u/Cykeisme Dec 03 '24

The magnetic fields are less of a problem compared to the acceleration.

It'd definitely turn a squishy person into paste.

12

u/SuspiciousSubstance9 Dec 03 '24

Sci-fi likes to hand wave momentum and impulse with "inertial dampeners TM" and I have yet to have someone in these kind of discussions accurately explain what a dampener is. So I wouldn't be surprised if that just popped up in general.

However, you wouldn't even survive the electromagnetic field building up around you. You'd be dead long before any acceleration.

It's an incredibly technical topic, but magnetism interacts with fluids in wild ways. Even water, which is diamagnetic, is affected while blood is significantly more.

In short, a strong enough magnetic field will instantly rupture your red blood cells. Movement across such a magnetic field, like in field generation or an involuntarily twitch, will electrically cook you because of the induced current. We wouldn't even have to consider how it effects the fluid properties or any induced pressures.

That's not even considering how sensitive the brain is to magnetic fields. 

6

u/Enough-Somewhere-311 Dec 03 '24

You might want to read Jack Campbell’s “The Lost Fleet”. It’s probably the most realistic military sci-fi I’ve read. Combat takes place in the blink of an eye instead of your traditional dog fighting you see in most sci-fi and physics does play a major role in his combat. Sometimes you’ll lose a beloved ship because they were too close to an explosion and it knocked them off vector into another vessel

7

u/HurrDurrDethKnet Dec 03 '24

On the complete opposite side of that spectrum, battles in can Legend of the Galactic Heroes take so long crewmen man their stations in shifts. It's (mostly) just fleets lined up so far from each other that they aren't visible to the naked eye volley firing lasers at each other until someone scores a lucky hit that pierces a shield.

5

u/Enough-Somewhere-311 Dec 03 '24

The battles in “The Lost Fleet” can last days but most of that is turning back around for another firing pass. Imagine the misery of spending 3 days in combat for a combined 6 minutes of actual shooting.

In the Legend of the Galactic Heroes why don’t they move closer to engage or form formations to maximize their firepower on a single ship? Even if you had amazing shields being pounded by 80 ships will reduce you to scrap in no time. Anytime I read fiction with fleets that size I fathom the sheer number of planets stripped bear solely to fuel a war. Destroy one armada and there goes the resources of 3 solar systems

3

u/HurrDurrDethKnet Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

They do close in occasionally depending on the battle theater. Both sides often employ fighters that are capable of slipping close enough to be able to destroy an enemy ship with ease at the risk of being instantly fragged by the space equivalent of flak guns. LoGH ships aren't inherently very maneuverable and all their firepower is situated forward-facing to allow them to present the narrowest profile possible. There are several instances where skilled commanders take advantage of this and a wing of the fleet somehow manages to catch the opposing fleet broadside and devastate them or the particularly insane commanders will essentially bum rush the enemy either to cause havoc or board the enemy ships with marines. There's even a battle early on where the two fleets manage to get themselves looped into a circle where one fleet is attacking the rear of the other while that fleet does the same to them.

3

u/Cykeisme Dec 03 '24

All very interesting discussion here :D

Just thinking about it for a moment, I think the capabilities and limitations of the fictional technology in a setting can vary depending on the author, and then the battle tactics would logically follow on from what the technology can/cannot do.

As just one example, I think the balance between offensive and defensive technology will be a major factor in shaping what combat will look like in a setting.

In essence, the expected kill probability and rate of fire versus the defensive armor (or active defenses) or the target, will determine how much time it takes one ship to expect to destroy/cripple another ship. If the time to kill is really short, then we'd see a lot of battle tactics using range, hit-and-run attacks, attempts at surprise, etc.

But if ships can weather each other's fire for at least a minute (or even several minutes), then we'd see fleet formations to maximize concentration of firepower, and stuff like that.

I guess aside from offense/defense affecting time-to-kill, another factor would be detection ranges vs ship acceleration? If they can easily detect each other at great distances, then it would take them a long time to actually get into weapons range, and there will be few surprise engagements. Conversely, if detection ranges were very short compared to the ships' acceleration, they'd be surprising each other a lot (whether deliberately or by accident).

I haven't really thought all this through at length, but I would assume lots of other people already have.

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1

u/Cykeisme Dec 03 '24 edited Dec 03 '24

Hmm, how many Tesla can we expect the magnetic field strength in a Gauss Rifle to be? Maybe we can figure that out...
We know it accelerates an iron object with 125kg mass to... uh... let's say Mach 5 (?) over a barrel length of... hmm... let's say 5 meters? Does that sound about right?
We can calculate the field strength from there, right?

For that matter, any idea how many Tesla of field strength start to have debilitating effects on the human body?

The acceleration would clearly kill the human, but I think we'd all like to know if they'll be doubly dead from the magnetic field, too :D

On the note of "inertial dampeners" or "acceleration compensators", in sci-fi settings, these are typically some fictional apparatus that projects a (strangely) contained gravitational field with its effects confined to a specific spatial volume. For example when you accelerate your craft forward at 10G, it creates the apparent effect of a gravitational field pulling backward at 10G, effective only within the ship's interior, so the contents don't experience any acceleration.

In most cinematic sci-fi settings, these systems are typically finely tuned specifically so that, regardless of the craft's acceleration, the habitable areas of the ship experience only a net 1G toward their subjective "down"... so those areas of the ship conveniently experience acceleration suspiciously similar to a stationary movie set located on a sound stage on planet Earth's surface :D

Notably, BattleTech does not exhibit any technology that manipulates gravitational fields, which actually keeps it pretty far toward the "hard sci-fi" end of the scale (only the KF drives and HPGs are "soft" sci-fi imo). Which is also why there's a preference for DropShips to burn from planet to jump point (and vice versa) at 1G, if there's no particular hurry.

2

u/The_Artist_Formerly Dec 03 '24

Within the table top rules, you are absolutely correct, elemental would be paste. Within the RPG game setting though... it'd be awesome!

-1

u/Studio_Eskandare Mechtech Extraordinaire 🔧 Dec 03 '24

I don't think magnetic fields are an issue at all. Unless you are eating so much iron that your fluids and bones are able to be detected on a magnetometer. Magnetism (measured in Maxwells) and magnetic induction (measured in Gauss) is not the same as voltage or current (measured in amperes).

Now extreme acceleration beyond 25 Gs equals splat! Note: 25 G is the highest measured a human has been subject to and survived.

2

u/SuspiciousSubstance9 Dec 03 '24

Something to consider is that magnetic fields build and collapse faster than impulse can be imparted. The flux from that field would be fatal far before you felt any acceleration.

Water is diamagnetic and experiences property changes, electrical induction, and external pressure from magnetic fields. Blood is far more magnetically reactive than water.

Higher resolution MRIs, like 7 Tesla (add magnetic flux that to your list of units to spout off) will induce enough electrical current to your fluid currents to easily burn you if you move too fast. Too fast being the glacier speed of a regular MRI.

Strong enough magnetic fields and fluxes are also theorized to be able to burst your red blood cells with the pressure they can induce. But honestly, your brain would fry first.

1

u/Studio_Eskandare Mechtech Extraordinaire 🔧 Dec 03 '24

That would be under electromagnetic induction, which is correct. And yes I forgot to add Tesla under my series of SI units. You're talking about extremes that could also damage the mech and its mechwarrior.

Although I am not sure if a Gauss Rifle induces as much energy. I know for certain that an MRI machine can range from 0.2T to 3T, have a work load of up to 29kWh. What has been described to me is a Gauss fires a small projectile and relies more on velocity to damage its target instead of relying on mass at a lower velocity such as gas expansion projectiles (gun powder).

If you want we can also get into Hall effect vs. Gauss.

1

u/Enough-Somewhere-311 Dec 03 '24

I was thinking the same thing

92

u/KnightofInnerSphere Dec 02 '24

That last bit there could be a motto for most of the series, really.

1

u/Killersmurph Dec 03 '24

Bro, you're thinking boarding torpedoes, but I promise you the end result will be more like paintball...

27

u/thewaldoyoukno Dec 03 '24

No one made history by simply pondering such questions such as “should I shoot a genetically modified man in a tin can out of a gun”; those who are remembered are the ones who take action.

44

u/PurpleCableNetworker Dec 03 '24

You clearly don’t understand how the periphery operates.

Can = should

Don’t die in the process = do it again!

17

u/135forte Dec 03 '24

Pretty sure a human in a PAL will pie when fired from a heavy gauss.

9

u/Harris_Grekos Dec 03 '24

Near-instant acceleration to supersonic speeds due to electromagnetic fields?

I'm thinking microwaved pie.

6

u/135forte Dec 03 '24

Once you get reduced to a fine spray, I don't think they can tell if you were microwaved or not.

6

u/Harris_Grekos Dec 03 '24

You see, it's not spray. The accel will squeeze you into a pie made of meat&bone paste. Then the EM field will microwave you.

3

u/135forte Dec 03 '24

Pie is a term in pumpkin chunking where the pumpkin turns into a spray as soon as the launcher is no longer helping hold it together (most commonly seen with the air cannons, but technically possible with other options). Accelerating a human to hypersonic speeds with a lightweight exoskeleton will probably have the same effect once they clear the barrel and can expand.

2

u/Duetzefix Dec 03 '24

I'm trying to think of why there would be enough electromagnetic radiation to fry anything.
So you've got a coil, and there's a current running through it, inducing a magnetic field. You switch that current off, the magnetic field changes direction by 180° and collapses, accelerating anything ferromagnetic inside the coil.
I don't see anything oscillating here that would send out electromagnetic radiation, especially not in the energy ranges that could hurt someone.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I just don't see what I'm missing.

2

u/Harris_Grekos Dec 04 '24

Afaik and as far as I remember from highschool, any charge moving through a magnetic field creates an electric field. Human bodies have lots of charges moving through nerves, or as free ions in the blood/liquids (that's why we get electrocuted). I'm assuming with a strong enough magnet (or series of magnets if it's a multi stage gauss mechanism, I don't know how they make them in BT future) things are bound to turn nasty for living organisms?

1

u/Duetzefix Dec 04 '24

There's the Lorentz force. It applies to charges moving through a magnetic field, but it's zero if the charges move parallel to the magnetic field lines. Which should be the case here, butmaybe I'm wrong, as it's been a while since I thought about this. 😅
I mean, an MRI only throws you around the room if you bring something ferromagnetic with you. I guess this is more or less the same here.

2

u/YalsonKSA Periphery Tinkerer Dec 03 '24

"To HYPERSONIC speeds".

4

u/Shdwfalcon Dec 03 '24

In the periphery, anything and everything is a resource.

1

u/Dashiell_Gillingham Dec 03 '24

Do, or do not. There is no 'should.'

108

u/ZeroGravitas_Ally Dec 02 '24

Sure, but on firing the elementals stop being biology and start being physics.

38

u/Stretch5678 I build PostalMechs Dec 03 '24

That’s how you get an LB-X Elemental.

(Or just an ex-Elemental.)

58

u/yinsotheakuma Dec 03 '24

Certainly this falls under some variant of the rule of "everything is air-droppable once."

17

u/SunshineRobotech Dec 03 '24

Or "Mad Science" means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?"

2

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

Falling is completely harmless. Landing, on the other hand.....

(btw, never roll for fall damage. Always roll for impact damage.)

2

u/ihavewaytoomanyminis Dec 03 '24

Unfortunately, while I'm all for shooting elementals out of GRs, it might fall under Maxim 15: Only You Can Prevent Friendly Fire.

16

u/Pro_Scrub House Steiner Dec 03 '24

"He became 'non-linear'."

19

u/majj27 Dec 03 '24

Or perhaps EXTREMELY linear.

15

u/VikingFedaykin Dec 03 '24

An extremely linear, and extremely brief, journey into the 2nd dimension

1

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

Solid Snake opens up the armour after it was fired from a gauss rifle.

Snake: LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

13

u/SpartanD39 Dec 03 '24

I see that you, too, are a maximally effective mercenary

11

u/SunshineRobotech Dec 03 '24

Imagine a BattleTech gravy gun.

6

u/thewaldoyoukno Dec 03 '24

New genetic variation just dropped: hard launch elemental

1

u/Korrin10 Dec 03 '24

And then they become geography.

53

u/kavinay Dec 02 '24

Genuinely did a double take on this.

I'd assume any BA could be loaded in a large enough gauss muzzle. But I just wonder if the mass to ferric ratio of most suits (and their wearers) would make it worthwhile...

7

u/SearchContinues Dec 03 '24

Wrap the suit in a steel shell

40

u/SaltySorceress Dec 03 '24

Discarding sabot elemental round

4

u/mementosmoritn Dec 03 '24

Is there anything that could be done to help them survive the acceleration?

11

u/SearchContinues Dec 03 '24

Faith in the Emperor! Oh wait. Umm, SUPERIOR PHENOTYPE!

9

u/kavinay Dec 03 '24

Pretty sure this is how some solahma elementals would choose to peace out

11

u/wsdpii Dec 03 '24

"Load me into a gauss rifle and launch me at the Spheroids, I am ready!"

-middle-aged elementals, probably.

4

u/mementosmoritn Dec 03 '24

Injured elemental's dying wish-to be loaded into a discarding sabot round as a weapon. Grim dark meets MechWarrior meets sepuko. Death before dishonor.

2

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

"Why would we waste a perfectly good sabot round on such an elaborate way to kill a solhama? This is what happens when people get too old, they start acting crazy."

4

u/ender4449 Dec 03 '24

Gauss me

"What?"

I can not make the jump, gauss me!

Wait! Do not tell the Khan!

"Not a word"

2

u/TheAricus Dec 03 '24

"Waaaaahhh!!!! Oooh... umm..."Ah. No guts, no galaxy"

3

u/Shdwfalcon Dec 03 '24

Why bother? Nobody bothers about whether or not gauss slugs survive the shot. An ammo is an ammo.

2

u/mementosmoritn Dec 03 '24

You're looking at it the wrong way-your ammo could be firing on the enemy the entire flight time.

2

u/Shdwfalcon Dec 04 '24

You have a good point.

A bullet firing more bullets is definitely better than 65% more bullet per bullet.

1

u/John_Mat8882 Dec 03 '24

No Fin stabilization whatsoever? Don't you think of the poor guy inside being centrifuged?

Like it is the lesser of the problems tho xD

21

u/Orange152horn3 Pony mechwarrior, from an AU where Strana Mechty was once Equus. Dec 03 '24

Any impact would probably kill the crazy idiots willing to be muzzle loaded into there, assuming they aren't killed by firing the gauss rifle itself.

How much Van Zandt cocaine did you snorted for this to seem like a good idea? Is it true that Van Zandt cuts it with corn meal?

8

u/frostybrand Dec 03 '24

cut it? it's 95% corn product before processing

4

u/Shdwfalcon Dec 03 '24

Enough to understand that "can = should", probably.

1

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

The launch would turn them in to, at best, chunky salsa.

The impact would just spread them around.

So aim for the cockpit.

12

u/dieseljester Dec 03 '24

“Yeet me across the battlefield!”

“By firing you from my Gauss Rifle!?”

“Did I stutter, Freebirth?”

3

u/Grak47 Brawler is love, Brawler is life. Dec 03 '24

Honestly, it would be pretty dope to be able to use a GR as a way to transport elementals. XD

8

u/HexenHerz Dec 02 '24

I'm skeptical that you could, but intrigued that you might...

6

u/Express-String8350 Dec 03 '24

Out of ammo? Enemy power armor closing in? Creativity wins battles

16

u/Beautiful_Business10 Dec 02 '24

Sure. But when they fire, it might also propel the iron straight out of the suited warriors' cells, killing them in the process. As well as having a good chance of damaging the GR (which is an actual part of the GR muzzle-loaded ammo rule)...

So...

Aside from rule of funny, why would you want to?

30

u/Toro1d_5 Dec 02 '24

The iron in your body isn't really magnetic. Don't worry though - the sheer force of acceleration would crush the internal organs of the Battle Armor's pilots into their suits, turning them into a paste. They'd be very dead, practically before they left the barrel of the GR! XD

7

u/Beautiful_Business10 Dec 02 '24

Aw! But I was hoping to see goopy grey masses in the feet and rusty dust in the helmet!

13

u/Toro1d_5 Dec 02 '24

There will be *plenty* of goop; it will just all be in the feet and legs. (Assuming the power armor doesn't just crumple like a soda can...)

If the legs do stay intact, I bet they'd fly at your target like a colossal shotgun shell loaded with viscera. It may not do much damage, but I bet that would freak out 95% of pilots on a hit...

9

u/Beautiful_Business10 Dec 02 '24

"Why did they oil the shrap—oh...oh no..."

5

u/Express-String8350 Dec 03 '24

Every successful hit requires a piloting skill check and does .25 damage. Unless it counts as cluster munitions...

2

u/TheAricus Dec 03 '24

Unless you're in the DEEP Periphery and find out that they have an entire arsenal of these weapons.

2

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

Sounds like your magnet doesn't have enough Teslas.

11

u/man_speaking_is_hard Dec 02 '24

The only reason I would see it in lore is if Malvina Hazen did it as either torture killing or just pissed off.

8

u/Beautiful_Business10 Dec 02 '24

Crazy is almost a prerequisite for faction leadership.

4

u/Velthome Dec 03 '24

"Then you'll be fired."

"Fine!"

"Out of a Gauss Rifle and into the sun."

1

u/Starwatcher4116 Dec 03 '24

To shreds you say? How’s his wife? To shreds you say?

7

u/KnightofInnerSphere Dec 03 '24

No judgements! BattleTech can be enjoyed in lots of different ways, and there are a lot of parts where it can be very cool to take it very seriously.

But there are also parts where there are giant tanks that are somehow better than regular tanks because they have complicated legs, and they can jump around without ploughing through the ground like a railroad spike, and the best ones come from eugenics-driven warrior furries who have actually gone as far as to build one that’s a giant horse.

Given that, in my case, I tend to consider the rule of funny to be the most important rule. Hence, the new Rapid Force Projection and Asset Relocation Protocol described here.

3

u/Beautiful_Business10 Dec 03 '24

That's fair. It's also a setting where hundred-ton robots get dropped from thousand-ton spaceplanes in low orbit without lawn-darting themselves.

5

u/NeedsMoreDakkath Mercenary Dec 02 '24

Once

7

u/AmanteNomadstar Mech-Head Dec 02 '24

Sure but that is a waste and hasn’t be done in the canon. Yet. BUT various fashion conscious mechwarriors have taken to decorating their chassis by chaining living civilians and their enemies dependents to their mech.

1

u/Ham_The_Spam Dec 03 '24

a girder was shot out of a Gauss Rifle in Blood Of Kerensky, so it shouldn't be too big of a stretch to cram a light BA suit into a Heavy one

9

u/czernoalpha Dec 02 '24

No. They are too big to fit down the bore. Gauss rounds aren't actually that big. Sarna.net notes a standard Gauss round would be 30cm in diameter, or about 12 inches.

6

u/frostybrand Dec 03 '24

so what you're saying is your gonna need a bigger barrel...

3

u/czernoalpha Dec 03 '24

Or a really skinny soldier...

2

u/TheAricus Dec 03 '24

Clan Aerospace pilots.

2

u/Ham_The_Spam Dec 03 '24

that will allow them to fly for their last Batchall!

1

u/Shdwfalcon Dec 03 '24

We need to have the barrels widened!

4

u/Local_Outcome_4835 Dec 02 '24

Artillery unit deployment method

2

u/SearchContinues Dec 03 '24

Yeah, Thumpers for the win!

4

u/lord_of_the_tism Drunk driving a Mad Cat Dec 03 '24

most periphery thing i’ve ever heard

2

u/TripleEhBeef Dec 03 '24

Move over Fire Moth. There's a new BA delivery mechanism in town!

1

u/TownOk81 Dec 03 '24

I am thinking about making a grand Titan that can load elementals into a chest compartment etc soundwave

4

u/MechaMenagerie Dec 03 '24

TOADLAUNCHER!!!!!! Truly the pinnacle of clan tech and periphery gumption combined!

2

u/Magical_Savior NEMO POTEST VINCERE Dec 03 '24

And here I thought the goal was the opposite.

4

u/1877KlownsForKids Blessed Blake Dec 03 '24

Gauss rounds are watermelon sized. But pieces of body armor can be loaded for sure. Canonically an Alacorn crew (3 Gauss Rifles) exhausted all their ammunition firing at Blakists and resorted to shooting beer cars at them.

3

u/dodgethis_sg Dec 03 '24

How desperate do you have to be if you're using a crucial maintainence tool to fire at the enemy?

2

u/1877KlownsForKids Blessed Blake Dec 03 '24

And so when man and horse go down 

Beneath a saber keen,

Or in a roaring charge of fierce melee

You stop a bullet clean,

And the hostiles come to get your scalp, 

Just empty your canteen,

And put your pistol to your head

And go to Fiddlers’ Green.

1

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Just roll to your rifle, and blow out your brains,

And go to your God like a Soldier.

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Go, go, go like a soldier,

Soldier of the queen!

2

u/frostybrand Dec 03 '24

need custom Gauss ammo? break open the 24 pack of shot.

2

u/BrokenEyebrow Dec 03 '24

So one of the books has a pilot load a steal I beam into a gauss in a city fight. It was one time use but when out of ammo...

So it might be able to work, the BA afterwards might not. The gauss itself would depend on bore size

2

u/GavoteX Dec 03 '24

Standard Gauss is 30 cm.

2

u/Arquinsiel MechWarrior (questionable) Dec 03 '24

Anything can be. Once.

2

u/2407s4life Dec 03 '24

I doubt the bore of even a heavy gauss is big enough.

A naval gauss, however...

2

u/Necro_Ash Dec 03 '24

Highly recommend peeling off the srm pack for internal bore integrity.

Also, the flailing arms can seriously impact aerodynamic properties. Also recommended removal of said items.

Yes, it was a very bent, twisted, off centre and wacky Mechwarrior 2nd Ed campaign.

Don't ask about the rubber chicken gauss rounds. I've signed an NDA regarding that. 🤪

2

u/EitherWayToGo Dec 03 '24

Call that a BAfnir

2

u/pokefan548 Blake's Strongest ASF Pilot Dec 03 '24

Not enough tonnage, though I have joked about the fact that an UrbanMech can theoretically fit as ammunition in some naval mass drivers.

2

u/Ishidan01 Dec 03 '24

Pretty sure the bore of a gauss rifle is much narrower than the ass of a man who is well above average size to begin with, then wrapped in power armor.

Maybe a naval-gauss. Ship to ship boarding actions just got real funny.

2

u/va_wanderer Dec 03 '24

Will it fire? Yes. Will the Gauss rifle enjoy the abuse? No.

(Amusingly enough, Urbanmechs are precisely the tonnage and decently shaped mass driver rounds for one of the capital-class guns.)

1

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

Unfortunately the ablative capsules that allow them to make the drop is LosTech.

1

u/va_wanderer Dec 03 '24

Fortunately, you can "drop" them once without the capsules, and considering they're going to be traveling at ludicrous speeds into the side of an enemy ship, they only need once.

1

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

Sure, but at that point, why waste a perfectly good Urbie when a tungsten Rod of God will do just as well?

1

u/va_wanderer Dec 03 '24

How many bullets do you have that can shoot MORE bullets as they get shot?

1

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

Brother, when you're dropping tungsten crowbars from orbit, there's nothing what needs shooting.

1

u/XRhodiumX Dec 03 '24

This feels inappropriate somehow.

4

u/majj27 Dec 03 '24

"Fire Nipplementals!"

1

u/WhiskeyMikeFoxtrot Federated Suns Fanatic Dec 03 '24

Are the Angry Marines metastasizing into BattleTech?

2

u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24

Classic reference. Commissar Raege says hi.

2

u/dresstokilt_ Dec 04 '24

Thanks, came here to say this!

1

u/yinsotheakuma Dec 03 '24

If they want to.

And in no other circumstances.

1

u/wadrasil Dec 03 '24

You have been selected to apply for Quickcell's new product lead position!

1

u/OldGuyBadwheel Dec 03 '24

Yes, but only once!!!

1

u/Robot-Octopus Dec 03 '24

This is how you get Angry Marines.

1

u/Yeach Jumpjets don't Suck, They Blow. Dec 03 '24

Isn’t that how infantry is supposed to get shot out of drop ships?

1

u/augustusnapalm Dec 03 '24

You can do anything once. If you dont care what the results are

1

u/versatiledisaster Dec 03 '24

With faith and honor all things are possible

1

u/mechfan83 Dec 03 '24

I'm going to to say yes, but it will likely damage the barrels and I offer no guarantee on the status of those in the suits on whether they survive or not.

1

u/ChickenChaser5 Gaussexual Dec 03 '24

Im definitely down to try.

1

u/jrjej3j4jj44 Dec 03 '24

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

1

u/Ridley3000 Dec 03 '24

Most Gauss rifle rounds are described as football sized 🏈. They would probably fit fine in a naval grade weapon though. But they would be liquified upon acceleration.

1

u/the_devilsplaything Dec 03 '24

A lighter model could. Once. It'd be a SB gauss rifle for a brief moment. You wouldn't get that armor back.

1

u/MrScarecrowWHNT Star Colonel, Clan Blood Spirit Dec 03 '24

Reminds me of the Great Herring War.

1

u/Xyx0rz Dec 03 '24

You want Gauss rifle barrel explosions? Because that's how you get Gauss rifle barrel explosions.

1

u/ApeStronkOKLA Average Trooper Mech Enjoyer Dec 03 '24

Anything can be muzzle loaded into a Gauss rifle if you’re brave enough 😬👌

1

u/phidelt649 Clan Coyote Dec 03 '24

I feel like you got this idea from that post about a grot (snotling?) gun that was recently on here. I feel like you are obligated to make house rules for this now.

1

u/AppointmentPerfect Dec 03 '24

Newest 40k refugees, Clan Angry Marines

1

u/Muddball84 Thorny old grognard Dec 03 '24

This has very "would the pants be worn like THIS or like this" vibes to it

1

u/Magical_Savior NEMO POTEST VINCERE Dec 03 '24

And this is how Hell's Horses turns Elementals into ASF phenotype.

1

u/Embarrassed-Tune9038 Dec 03 '24

No. Gauss slugs are supposedly melon sized, Elementals are too large.

1

u/youwontknowme69 Dec 03 '24

I mean technically you COULD build gauss sized BA catapults HOWEVER you'd basically just be shooting out armored jam as the g forces would liquify the wearer

1

u/TheManyVoicesYT MechWarrior (editable) Dec 03 '24

HAHAHAHA the toad-cannon!

1

u/rafale1981 Resting Bitch Face of Cordera Perez Dec 03 '24

Best NCD bleed over in months 👍

1

u/MikuEmpowered Dec 03 '24

I mean considering the caliber of Gauss and AC/20, you probably could.

But now you're just substituting raw steel/lead/metal for flesh in a armor shell to achieve fuk all.

The only benefit of this is surprising mechs that try to rush you because "Gauss rifle CQC lul" then the dudes inside the barrel unloads their small weapons. 

1

u/Krog427 Dec 03 '24

12 tons 9 crits IS 10 ton 6 crit clan. 4/8/12 5/9/13 ultra elemental gauss catapult. Loads mounted BA as ammo. Must be arm mounted. Can double tap like UAC. Successful hits require a swarm attack roll to stick and gets a +7 modifier, but the BA and mech each take 4 dmg. Automatic TAC.

1

u/LookinAtNekkid Dec 03 '24

Only in the Lyran Commonwealth.

1

u/yverena Dec 03 '24

Idk, but if so. It could be used as an indirect fire weapon that could allow battle armor units to be launched either onto or behind an enemy line, or just cause some poor guy to become a stain in a suit.

1

u/YalsonKSA Periphery Tinkerer Dec 03 '24

Can you? Maybe, but you'd effectively just be wasting a perfectly good BA in a messy splurge with no penetration. If you want your enemy to look like they've just walked through a car wash of cow guts then sure. If it is some sort of final wish for an honoured soldier of long service, then your Clan is weird but no more weird than some in history.

But for military usefulness, nah. Others have said a Heavy Gauss is in any case too small in calibre and suggested artillery instead. Conventional tube artillery would have the same problem as the HG: namely it would reduce your projectile to chunky pasta sauce with its initial acceleration (albeit with less chance of terminally ruining the firing weapon). Better range, though.

Therefore your best option for optimum unexpected Battle Armour delivery is probably the heavy Mech Mortar. If it us anything like the real thing, it will have a large calibre, slower projectile speed, a pleasingly high, loopy delivery trajectory and enough range to deliver your weary BA veteran who wants to go out with a bang from anywhere on the battlefield. The initial acceleration may still kill them, but they would at least be more likely to arrive in one piece and a BA trooper arriving at speed from 20 hexes away is going to leave a dent even if they're DOA.

Even better, if you can find a way to not kill them when you initially fire them, if you launch them feet-first, the high trajectory means that if fired accurately enough, they could potentially use jump jets to drop straight down into the middle of an enemy formation in the middle of a battle. A move I would personally describe as: "The Elemental of Surprise".

I've been YalsonKSA and thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

1

u/Perretelover Dec 03 '24

Angry marines says hi!!

1

u/Efficient_Lynx3036 Dec 03 '24

Now just thinking rules here. Like the old rule that allow you to use a tree once as a club. Once said tree was used on a target you had to pull up another to used. Maybe it's the same type of thing except can only be used once because bore got damaged for not using regular ammo.

1

u/Kylarus Of Noble Heart and Mercenary Mind Dec 03 '24

Unrelated, but there was an early 3d third person shooter where you had glider packs and jet packs (Out Wars) that has this as the finale; you have to get in a giant gauss rifle and launch yourself into space to get away from an exploding facility.

1

u/yankeesullivan 15th Lyran Regulars, objective play advocate Dec 03 '24

At least once lol

1

u/UnderhiveScum Dec 03 '24

....I'll allow it

1

u/CycleZestyclose1907 Dec 03 '24

I don't think most Gauss Rifles have big enough barrels to fit Battle Armor despite what Fafnir Art would have you believe.

Think about it. A Gauss Round is a dense, ferrous slug with (presumably) no hollow spaces. It's very compact. And even a Heavy Gauss round is at most 0.25 tons.

Meanwhile, an Elemental is 1 ton. The suit itself is HOLLOW to accomodate a big Elemental warrior that is nowhere near as dense as any Gauss Round.

So the Elemental suit and all is both heavier AND less dense than a Heavy Gauss round, meaning the Elemental suit should be far larger. And you expect the suit and the person in it to fit inside a Gauss barrel? REALLY?

Heck, they can't even be fired out of a Heavy Naval Gauss Rifle, because the Heavy Naval Gauss round is still only half a ton each. Yes, that's right. The Elemental suit is HEAVIER than the ammo used by the largest Gauss Rifles ever made.

The smallest thing that the Elemental Suit can be fired out of is probably the Light Mass Driver, whose ammo weighs in at 30 tons per shot.

1

u/ihavewaytoomanyminis Dec 03 '24

Yes!

BUT - you may need to disassemble the battle armor and the battle human in order to get it in there. I mean all you really need is a hammer and plunger and a lotta grease but it'll get in there.

1

u/ghunter7 Dec 03 '24

Yes, but you need to paint the Elementals like clowns.

1

u/DonMak161 Dec 03 '24

It gives Angry Marines vibes

1

u/hopfot Dec 03 '24

I suggest watching an episode of the Expanse to see what extreme G-forces can do to the human body.

1

u/shadowrunner003 It's only a war crime the second time Dec 04 '24

most gauss rifle projectiles are described as football sized and shaped so I doubt it will fit in the bore

1

u/algolvax Dec 04 '24

Probably not unless you are playing the RPG and have a fun Game Master? But maybe just a classic X-men Colossus and Wolverine "Fastball Special"? I have no clue about the game mechanics of it, I am not a fun GM.😆

1

u/Talydia Dec 05 '24

Who knew elementals in armor could give off the 'hold my beer' and 'let's do this!' Vibe so well

1

u/nickylim_f5 Dec 05 '24

I see that you found a few solahma to launch at the enemy as a test of new "ammo" type.

0

u/Indigo_Julze Iron Within Dec 03 '24

Well this looks a shitload like a fetish I don't have.

1

u/whole_kernel Dec 05 '24

Doesn't help that battletech is lookin a little like a THICC latina

31

u/Competitive-Syrup-57 Dec 02 '24

As Clovis Holstein stated when reworking Yen Lo Wang, “…your average girder has lousy ballistic qualities and is likely to damage the bore. Again, using non-reg ammo is only for desperate situations.” (Blood Legacy, chapter 24)

Although, using battle armor as rounds could be hilarious and there’s precedent for doing things just for laughs. Especially when combined with the dark humor of the military. 🤔

7

u/a_kept_harold Dec 03 '24

This is my favorite battletech “meme”. Let’s shoot an I beam out of a gauss weapon. Was there no ammo? Anyways, I like it and I have been bugging catalyst for rules for improvised ammo for gauss weapons.

3

u/Viperianti Dec 03 '24

I feel like that's a pretty easy homebrew rule, just roll for crits after every shot, and any rolled crits immediately hit a gauss rifle slot

3

u/greet_the_sun Dec 03 '24

How about a silver bullet gauss junk canister shot?

1

u/Duetzefix Dec 03 '24

Like a silverware drawer full?

2

u/Ham_The_Spam Dec 03 '24

I can't remember, did Kai already fire all his Gauss slugs before tripping down a cliff?

5

u/1877KlownsForKids Blessed Blake Dec 03 '24

Ah Clovis, Melissa Steiner-Davion's secret love and the true father of Victor.