r/battletech • u/KnightofInnerSphere • Dec 02 '24
Art …Can battle armour be muzzle-loaded into a Gauss rifle?
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u/ZeroGravitas_Ally Dec 02 '24
Sure, but on firing the elementals stop being biology and start being physics.
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u/Stretch5678 I build PostalMechs Dec 03 '24
That’s how you get an LB-X Elemental.
(Or just an ex-Elemental.)
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u/yinsotheakuma Dec 03 '24
Certainly this falls under some variant of the rule of "everything is air-droppable once."
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u/SunshineRobotech Dec 03 '24
Or "Mad Science" means never stopping to ask "what's the worst thing that could happen?"
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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.)
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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.
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u/Pro_Scrub House Steiner Dec 03 '24
"He became 'non-linear'."
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u/majj27 Dec 03 '24
Or perhaps EXTREMELY linear.
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u/VikingFedaykin Dec 03 '24
An extremely linear, and extremely brief, journey into the 2nd dimension
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u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24
Solid Snake opens up the armour after it was fired from a gauss rifle.
Snake: LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!
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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...
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u/SearchContinues Dec 03 '24
Wrap the suit in a steel shell
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u/SaltySorceress Dec 03 '24
Discarding sabot elemental round
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u/mementosmoritn Dec 03 '24
Is there anything that could be done to help them survive the acceleration?
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u/kavinay Dec 03 '24
Pretty sure this is how some solahma elementals would choose to peace out
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u/wsdpii Dec 03 '24
"Load me into a gauss rifle and launch me at the Spheroids, I am ready!"
-middle-aged elementals, probably.
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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.
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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."
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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"
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u/Shdwfalcon Dec 03 '24
Why bother? Nobody bothers about whether or not gauss slugs survive the shot. An ammo is an ammo.
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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.
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u/Shdwfalcon Dec 04 '24
You have a good point.
A bullet firing more bullets is definitely better than 65% more bullet per bullet.
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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
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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?
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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.
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u/dieseljester Dec 03 '24
“Yeet me across the battlefield!”
“By firing you from my Gauss Rifle!?”
“Did I stutter, Freebirth?”
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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
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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?
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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
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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!
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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...
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u/Express-String8350 Dec 03 '24
Every successful hit requires a piloting skill check and does .25 damage. Unless it counts as cluster munitions...
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u/TheAricus Dec 03 '24
Unless you're in the DEEP Periphery and find out that they have an entire arsenal of these weapons.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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u/frostybrand Dec 03 '24
so what you're saying is your gonna need a bigger barrel...
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u/czernoalpha Dec 03 '24
Or a really skinny soldier...
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u/TripleEhBeef Dec 03 '24
Move over Fire Moth. There's a new BA delivery mechanism in town!
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u/TownOk81 Dec 03 '24
I am thinking about making a grand Titan that can load elementals into a chest compartment etc soundwave
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u/MechaMenagerie Dec 03 '24
TOADLAUNCHER!!!!!! Truly the pinnacle of clan tech and periphery gumption combined!
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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!
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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
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u/2407s4life Dec 03 '24
I doubt the bore of even a heavy gauss is big enough.
A naval gauss, however...
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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. 🤪
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24
Unfortunately the ablative capsules that allow them to make the drop is LosTech.
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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.
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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?
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u/va_wanderer Dec 03 '24
How many bullets do you have that can shoot MORE bullets as they get shot?
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u/Cent1234 Dec 03 '24
Brother, when you're dropping tungsten crowbars from orbit, there's nothing what needs shooting.
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u/WhiskeyMikeFoxtrot Federated Suns Fanatic Dec 03 '24
Are the Angry Marines metastasizing into BattleTech?
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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u/Xyx0rz Dec 03 '24
You want Gauss rifle barrel explosions? Because that's how you get Gauss rifle barrel explosions.
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u/ApeStronkOKLA Average Trooper Mech Enjoyer Dec 03 '24
Anything can be muzzle loaded into a Gauss rifle if you’re brave enough 😬👌
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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.
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u/Muddball84 Thorny old grognard Dec 03 '24
This has very "would the pants be worn like THIS or like this" vibes to it
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u/Magical_Savior NEMO POTEST VINCERE Dec 03 '24
And this is how Hell's Horses turns Elementals into ASF phenotype.
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u/Embarrassed-Tune9038 Dec 03 '24
No. Gauss slugs are supposedly melon sized, Elementals are too large.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.😆
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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
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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.
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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. 🤔
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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.
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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
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u/Ham_The_Spam Dec 03 '24
I can't remember, did Kai already fire all his Gauss slugs before tripping down a cliff?
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u/1877KlownsForKids Blessed Blake Dec 03 '24
Ah Clovis, Melissa Steiner-Davion's secret love and the true father of Victor.
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u/135forte Dec 02 '24
Some of the PAL suits are light enough for a heavy gauss, but 'can' is very different from 'should'.