The Iron Cheetah and its two tons of AMS ammo (meaning 48 shots under modern rules) made me wonder how to enhance AMS ammo consumption without adding dice rolling or stuff that slows down the game overtly.
Figured a rule i think is pretty simple (need to work on phrasing):
-When using ammo-based AMS, the player can declare they're using the AMS at enhanced rate. In this case, instead of the usual -4 to cluster table roll, the AMS inflicts -6 to the roll.
-Treat Streak missiles as though they had rolled 5 on the cluster missile table [11-6=5].
-Against single missiles such as Narcs or Thunderbolts, roll one die: result of 1-4 destroys the incoming missile while 5-6 mean the missile hits.
-As usual, cluster table rolls cannot be reduced below 2, unless Enhanced AMS optional rule is also in play (recommend choosing only one or the other.)
-However, using AMS at enhanced rate increases ammo consumption and heat generation: the AMS uses 3 shots and generate thrice as much heat as normally.
Three times the heat and ammo is because merely 2x would make the -6 to cluster rolls a complete no-brainer. But 3 heat, on top of your weapons fire, requires more consideration IMO, not to mention this means single ton of IS ammo lasts only 4 overdrive AMS shots (8 for a ton of Clan ammo).
Though i do wonder if this should be even higher? I'm inclined to keep ammo use and heat generation equal for sake of simplicity.
As with all optional rules, this doesn't affect BV. Not certain if this is OK, though generally speaking greater heat generation lowers BV so perhaps this cancels out?
Uncertain if the Laser AMS should have similar effect. As it is, the Laser AMS can destroy an entire missile flight unlike normal AMS and works underwater against torpedoes, so there'd be some interesting trade-off in deciding which one to equip a 'Mech with.
