What's your favorite BattleDress?

[Hyphen]

I think I'm a little late to this thread, but...

"When Only The Best Will Do!"
http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/tavspecs/menelvag/impmarbd.pdf

 

[Hyphen]

,,,but Bryan Gibson's were pretty sweet too...

 

[Hyphen]

And the primary reference pic Bryan drew , that was used by everybody:

 

[Hyphen]

I'm pretty sure that Gauss Rifles are meant to be coil guns. The description in Book 4 pretty strongly implies it anyway.

You're after this insane bad boy.
http://members.tip.net.au/~davidjw/tavspecs/maint/combat/wpnsheet/lrf_gaus.pdf

 

[Spartan159]

Nice stuff Hyphen, I had to raid your site for what equipment sheets I could find. I had not seen Bryan Gibson's Marines in color either, that will rotate onto my desktop at some point. Thanks for the pics and links.

 

[maksimsmelchak]

I prefer the DGP writeup of Battledress per MTJ-1. Though I would love to see Traveller stats for Halo's Mjolnir Armor... I'm thinking TL 15 recon BD

[http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/MegaTraveller_Journal_1 ]

Travellers' Cache: Dressed to Kill: An Intimate Look at Battle Dress by Thomas R. Peters 46
Equipment Sheet Commando/Cavalry Battledress 51
Equipment Sheet Imperial Assault Battledress 52
Equipment Sheet IISS Walkabout Suit 53

Great article!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

 

[Hyphen]

[http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/MegaTraveller_Journal_1 ]

Travellers' Cache: Dressed to Kill: An Intimate Look at Battle Dress by Thomas R. Peters 46
Equipment Sheet Commando/Cavalry Battledress 51
Equipment Sheet Imperial Assault Battledress 52
Equipment Sheet IISS Walkabout Suit 53

Great article!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Agreed! I don't have an equipment sheet for the Scout suit, but the others are specialties available at Beowulf Down. Just look for the goods that Menelvagor Ltd imports. ;-)

 

[Meteoric Assault]

Battledress...

I think atheistically the Zho Battledress is eye catching. And from all the depictions I have seen it is the most iconic. Where I am curious is weight/vs lethality t as the Tech level increases from D-F Battle Dress.

The Heinlein BD concept included a built in Grenade Launcher (Y-Rack) which shouldn't be to hard to implement Traveller Universe, or the Rocket Launcher (Tac-Missile Launcher)...

"I want to be the cosmic catastrophe with pee-wee less than critical yield atomic rockets" paraphrasing Heinlein... from SST chapter 1.

 

[maksimsmelchak]

Battledress...
Where I am curious is weight/vs lethality as the Tech level increases from D-F Battle Dress.

I can follow your line of thinking...

It's always seemed to me that as weapons become more lethal, it would be near-impossible, or at least very difficult, for defensive technologies to keep pace or parity. At higher tech levels, I would think that effective defenses really don't exist. What is hit, is killed. Not much in-between.

Still, the mobility and firepower advantages of Battledress/Powered Armor over non-equipped troops would be substantial... So, the real question in that case comes down to sustainability... Does it makes sense cost-wise and logistically?

Mongoose Zho battledress and many of the GURPS depictions of battledress seem more like fancy padded clothing than mechanical suits with heavy armor. Of course, that could be me with iconic sci-fi tropes and ideas of power armor as large, mechanical, and somewhat bulky...

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

 

[aramis]

I'm pretty sure that Gauss Rifles are meant to be coil guns. The description in Book 4 pretty strongly implies it anyway.

THe performance and mass make it look more like a railgun.

 

[kilemall]

Now there is the OTHER way to go with high tech inf, and that is the conception from StarSoldier, part of the original SPI StarForce universe.

http://www.spigames.net/MovesScans/Moves32/Moves32STSS.pdf

To wit, a 2500mph high-alt EW-masked fusion-powered mini gravtank with a robot brained suit.

Active Battle Dress indeed!

 

[Sir Brad]

gm'ing a character who proved BD ain't all that, Optical, EM & Thermal Camouflage and packing a Gauss Rifle with under-slung RAM-GL firing on full-auto from a concealed position at range, or a Support ARL on full auto from a hardened concealed position.

Personally I like the look of 3I Batledress, that or the Aslan Battledress.

 

[Kaeto]

How about the armor from Dorvack? Here's a sample one, they have various weapon loadouts.

 

[kilemall]

I prefer having everyone with a few rifle grenades, but use your designation approach; the beams are coded, though, otherwise fire distribution gets spotty.

That being said, the time of flight of a high arc rifle grenade allows the shooter to lase his target, for a ballistic solution, launch the grenade to get into the necessary footprint, then designate in time for a dead-on hit of a moving target.

But why anyone prefers an ACR to a gauss rifle escapes me....

Budget cuts.

Remember, a big part of Striker is buying a superior but profitable force good enough to overwhelm, cheap enough to earn and be hired.

So for squishing TL7- targets, ACR as main line weapon, gauss for snipers/squad support and PGMP/FGMP equipped BD suits for light tanik work could be a good mix.

 

[kilemall]

How about the armor from Dorvack? Here's a sample one, they have various weapon loadouts.

Depending on the scaling I would think this is more like the 2300 tank walkers, a lower tech early version of BD that is far slower and clunkier like the MgT1e power suits, or an armored up higher armor/carrying capacity squad support role version.

I guess the line for me is whether it is a suit or a vehicle with two legs.

The original LBB1 BD was clearly a suit, with the most unusual feature being the major surprise/initiative DM. Later more explicit versions don't seem to model that.

That surprise DM could be because the suits are particularly silent/EM controlled/grav-assisted, because of sensor/awareness superiority, or a bit of both.

 

[Kaeto]

Depending on the scaling I would think this is more like the 2300 tank walkers, a lower tech early version of BD that is far slower and clunkier like the MgT1e power suits, or an armored up higher armor/carrying capacity squad support role version.

I guess the line for me is whether it is a suit or a vehicle with two legs.

The original LBB1 BD was clearly a suit, with the most unusual feature being the major surprise/initiative DM. Later more explicit versions don't seem to model that.

That surprise DM could be because the suits are particularly silent/EM controlled/grav-assisted, because of sensor/awareness superiority, or a bit of both.

It's a suit. The person wearing it's hands are in the forearms of the suit and that camera dome is covering his head.

Here's a pic of one of the model boxes showing how big a suit is on the wearer.

 

[infojunky]

Honestly on the topic of Battledress I always see it as a power enhanced Hardsuit, not that different from Combat Armor.

With powered armor specifically being the heavier suits as pictured above.

 

[Ulsyus]

It's a suit. The person wearing it's hands are in the forearms of the suit and that camera dome is covering his head.

Here's a pic of one of the model boxes...

I like The T4 Emperor's Arsenal is a great guide to what's available when. Given that TL10 Augmented Battle Dress only has power for the wearer's legs, it's not that advanced (though definitely better than what's available before it).

In the vein of 2300, this suit could be a piece of TL9 kit, or even a TL10 heavy unit. It's utility would still come down to its capabilities though: why use this instead of a section of cheaper but well-trained infantry who, armed with some decent AT weaponry, could defeat it and continue fighting? A lot of their value would come out of mission-fit.

 

[Kaeto]

I like The T4 Emperor's Arsenal is a great guide to what's available when. Given that TL10 Augmented Battle Dress only has power for the wearer's legs, it's not that advanced (though definitely better than what's available before it).

In the vein of 2300, this suit could be a piece of TL9 kit, or even a TL10 heavy unit. It's utility would still come down to its capabilities though: why use this instead of a section of cheaper but well-trained infantry who, armed with some decent AT weaponry, could defeat it and continue fighting? A lot of their value would come out of mission-fit.

Here is the loadouts of the suits.

Top row left to right

Heavy Laser Rifle , Ram Grenade Launcher , Laser Carbine , LAG

Second Row left to right

Missiles (lots of missiles) , Scout camera and missiles , FGMP , VRF Gauss Gun

 

[Ulsyus]

Here is the loadouts of the suits...

Top row left to right
Heavy Laser Rifle , Ram Grenade Launcher , Laser Carbine , LAG
Second Row left to right
Missiles (lots of missiles) , Scout camera and missiles , FGMP , VRF Gauss Gun

Looking at these through the lens of the The Emperor's Arsenal and the T5 TL stages...

If these were TL9 primary battlesuits, some of those weapon fit-outs would be a little too advanced (the FGMP would be more rightly an experimental PGMP, and the gauss and laser systems prototype) while missiles and other heavy weapons would make a lot of sense.

If they were TL10 heavy systems, the more advanced systems would be right into the arc of having early, bulky weapons available. Or, alternatively, it could just be that not all areas of tech development happened concurrently where these things were from and they could be another level along while the weapons were more advanced.

It all comes down to where you see them fitting into YTU and how they add flavour there.

I personally don't see anything wrong with adding a bit of power armour to a scenario. If it was TL14 or 15 stuff, fair enough that the PC's would have a bit of a dilemma on their hands in how to deal with it, but it also presents a challenge. If it was TL10-12 stuff, it's still pretty nasty but far less so and dealing with it could be a climactic encounter towards the end of a scenario.