Help: I'm either confused or found two condractory quotes, not sure which.

[BiggRigg42]

These quotes appear contradictory, are they? If so, which quote takes precedence?

"All other unit types must employ them [fuel air munitions] as an alternate ammo type for the appropriate weapon system (including Long Tom, Sniper, Thumper, artillery weapons, as well as the Arrow IV missile battery). Artillery Cannons (see tactical operations page 285) can also fire fuel air munitions.": Interstellar Operations, page 165.

"Artillery cannons may only use standard artillery munitions.": Tactical Operations, page 285.

The quotes appear contradictory, because we get the upcoming sentence when we put parts of them together: (artillery cannons can fire fuel air munitions) & (artillery cannons can only fire standard munitions {where fuel air munitions are not standard munitions}); therefore, artillery cannons both can and cannot fire fuel air munitions.

[Obvious]

IO did not exist when TacOps was written.  The IO rules here supplement the rules from TacOps.

Meaning "Artillery Cannons can also fire fuel air munitions" takes precedence.

This topic probably belongs in the "Rules Questions" subforum if that doesn't answer things.
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?board=99.0

[BiggRigg42]

Thank you so much. I think that does answer things.

[Col Toda]

Full artillery long tom 30 tons , shoots on and off board uses all munition types . Long Tom Cannon 20 tons shoots on board only so it would likely be in the area effect of a fuel air ammo . So it makes sense to exclude it

[assaultdoor]

Full artillery long tom 30 tons , shoots on and off board uses all munition types . Long Tom Cannon 20 tons shoots on board only so it would likely be in the area effect of a fuel air ammo . So it makes sense to exclude it

An artillery cannon has half the usual scatter radius, so maybe 2 or 3 hexes A Long Tom Cannon fuel-air round has a radius of 3 hexes. You wouldn't want to shoot a targets that can hit you with a medium pulse laser, but the cannon itself has a range of 20. You can still shoot lots of things without worrying about the blast radius.

[Col Toda]

Sorry I thought it was a much  bigger explosion like a nuclear round without radiation .

[Weirdo]

IO is full of cool goodies like that. I recommend reading it sometime.

[mbear]

Generally rules in newer products overrule rules in older products.

[Daryk]

Sorry I thought it was a much  bigger explosion like a nuclear round without radiation .

They can built that big in real life, but I'm not sure about BattleTech.  Practical deployment is another matter entirely.

[idea weenie]

Sorry I thought it was a much  bigger explosion like a nuclear round without radiation .

Technically you could make a fuel-air explosion using a can of hair spray.  Just spray a bunch of it into the open air, then toss a lit match through the cloud.

Then wait for your eyebrows to grow back.

Or for the bakery version of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYKk7-5QnC0

[BiggRigg42]

It turns out that my question came up and was answered (on this forum site) long ago when these books came out. My fellow battletech buddy found it, but it took him some digging.

As always, I appreciate the help.

[glitterboy2098]

They can built that big in real life, but I'm not sure about BattleTech.  Practical deployment is another matter entirely.

no kidding. a GBU-42/B MOAB is about 10 tons and nearly the size of a light mech. its blast yield is roughly on par with a W54 Davy Crockett.

a Long Tom's shells are around 200kg. even if there are some materials improvements in the explosives, you'd still struggle to match MOAB levels.