Possible errata: vehicle weapons

[jec10]

Here I am mainly referring to the vehicle/heavy weapons listed on pages 75-79 of MT/Referee's Manual as corrected by Don's errata document for MT.

My question (or perhaps it is just an observation) relates to the various game ratings of the rounds fired by weapons. Especially, the comparison between the performance in game terms of the Hivel gun ammunition on page 77 and the Howitzer ammunition and Mortar ammunition on the two preceding pages.

The ratings for penetration of HEAP rounds fired by Hivel guns are substantially less than the the identical bore-size HEAP rounds fired by Howitzers/Mortars. So, for example, the 12cm Hivel HEAP ammunition has a game penetration of 32. The 12cm Howitzer HEAP ammunition has a game penetration of 38.

Because in game terms a Hivel gun is the same as a Howitzer when attempting to hit something with a HEAP round using direct fire (i.e. you look up the weapon TL on the chart on page 72 of the MT/Player's Manual and cross-reference it with the correct column for the range to target and read off the required base difficulty to hit) it strikes me that a tank designer (or anti-tank gun designer) has no reason to use a Hivel gun. In fact, because a Hivel gun costs more and takes up more room than a Howitzer, you're actually even more crazy to fit your MT Abrams with a 12cm Hivel gun that has worse anti-armour performance than a Howitzer!

Now, the 12cm Hivel KEAP round has better performance than the 12cm Howitzer KEAP round - as you would expect. But it is still a poorer performer than the 12cm Howitzer HEAP round (12cm Howitzer HEAP is a better anti-tank round than 16cm Hivel KEAP!). Again, no weapon designer would fit a Hivel gun firing KEAP ammunition ahead of the better performing, smaller, cheaper Howitzer firing HEAP.

Also, autocannons and mass drivers have to use Hivel ammunition (see the notes accompanying tables 23 and 24 in MT/Referee's Manual). So they are forced to use the poorer performing ammunition.

Interestingly, the Hivel weapons have far better indirect fire ranges than the howitzers.

In the wacky world encouraged by these various rules, TL5-10 armies in the Imperium would be outfitted with direct fire anti-tank howitzers and indirect fire Hivel guns - the exact opposite of the real world.

 

[Piper]

The KEAP and HEAP penetration modifiers for Striker are more detailed and more accurate.

There were some strange choices (errors?) made in the MT weapon design rules. Referencing back to Striker (or forward to FF&S) can usually clear up the confusion.

 

[Carlobrand]

The MT rules for guns were drawn from Striker. The Striker rules included a penalty for medium, high and hyper-velocity weapons firing HEAP rounds: you counted up two rows for mediums, up three for highs, up four for hypers, making their HEAP rounds less effective.

I think it intended to reflect a real-life problem encountered with early shaped charge rounds fired from high velocity tank guns. The impact would deform the round as the explosive charge was triggering, with the result that the explosive charge was imperfectly focused. That problem was resolved later, as reflected by the fact in Striker that hypervelocity guns of TL7 or better did not get the penalty.

Striker incorrectly removed the penalty from only the hypervelocity gun, with the result that high tech medium and high velocity guns still had the penalty - but no one puts a medium or high velocity gun on a tank after TL6, so it really wasn't an issue. Unfortunately, and for reasons I will never understand, the hypervelocity gun never made it into MegaTraveller, so when the high velocity guns went over to MT, they went over with that penalty.

One possible fix is to use the Howitzer HEAP penetration for the High Velocity gun at TL7 or above, using the High Velocity HEAP penetration figures only for TL5 and TL 6 guns.

 

[jec10]

Yes, I wondered about a similar fix to make Hivel weapons attractive again. I wondered about tinkering with the TL penetration adjustments under the Hivel ammunition table on page 77.

For example, make the HEAP adjustment for TL 7-8 +11, etc.

You could play around with what are the right adjustments, +X or +Y.

As you say, Carlobrand, the real answer is to replace the Hivel weapons wholesale with the Hypervel weapons from CT/Striker.