The Medium Pulse … For Shooting Low-Flying Undesirables

[Goose]

I keep thinking `there are no small, handy weapons for getting choppers and Jump Bombers to fly elsewhere.'

Can a medium pulse, or three, be taken seriously as air defense?

[Charistoph]

Depends on how close you get.  It gets even better if you can use the Anti-Aircraft Quirk with it, too.  Of course, Inner Sphere Pulse needs to get REALLY close, while Clan ER Pulse will have the best advantage out the set.

Still, LB-X is considered the master due to the number of hits it can create, as well as having a range advantage (in most cases).  Those hits can tear Combat Vehicles apart with Crits (barring having Ferro-Lamellor Armor, of course).

[Col Toda]

Sadley the best AA weapons are big. LB-10 x shooting in flack mode . I LIKE TURRETED GUN EMPLACEMENTS.  With Silver Bullet Gauss and anti-air fire control . -2 Flack -2 anti air fire contol . Gunnery 4 living gunners or Gunnery  5 cheap automated ones . CLAN'S USE HAG . Inner Sphere also has Anti Air Arrow IV as an option . Medium pulse just has way too short a range to be ideal .

[Sir Chaos]

Sadley the best AA weapons are big. LB-10 x shooting in flack mode . I LIKE TURRETED GUN EMPLACEMENTS.  With Silver Bullet Gauss and anti-air fire control . -2 Flack -2 anti air fire contol . Gunnery 4 living gunners or Gunnery  5 cheap automated ones . CLAN'S USE HAG . Inner Sphere also has Anti Air Arrow IV as an option . Medium pulse just has way too short a range to be ideal .

Choppers and jump bombers aren´t particularly tough. You might get away with using LB-5X or LB-2X, which is a lot more manageable weight-wise.

[AlphaMirage]

Or regular flak ammo in light AC/5s

[Coldstone]

LB5X, HAG 20. That would be my aproach. I would favor the LB5 though. More chances to hit the vulnerable rotor.

[Goose]

  I said "choppers," so everyone is only thinking of VTOLs.

Are medium pulses useful on the low altitude map, to make fixed-wing craft regret their life choices?

Are medium pulses useful, up on the low altitude map, to make buzzing conventional fighter craft regret their full life consequences?

[monbvol]

I said "choppers," so everyone is only thinking of VTOLs.

Are medium pulses useful on the low altitude map, to make fixed-wing craft regret their life choices?

Are medium pulses useful, up on the low altitude map, to make buzzing conventional fighter craft regret their full life consequences?

The Inner Spher standard MPL?  Not so much.  Each Altitude counts as 2 extra hexes of range so all it takes for them to be completely out of range of the Inner Sphere model is Altitude 4(5 if Extreme Range Rules are in play).

X-Pulse or Clan models?  These do better to keep them away for sure.  With Extreme Range Rules you can even threaten up to Altitude 8 with the Clam MPL and that's the highest altitude that allows for LOS between ground and air(vice versa too).

[Charistoph]

I said "choppers," so everyone is only thinking of VTOLs.

Are medium pulses useful on the low altitude map, to make fixed-wing craft regret their life choices?

Are medium pulses useful, up on the low altitude map, to make buzzing conventional fighter craft regret their full life consequences?

That's because a lot of the same factors, aside from the vertical range, are the same.  Hits against Altitude units cause Piloting Rolls, which can lead to lawn-darting, just like taking out the engine/rotors of VTOLs.

ISMPLs can work against VTOLs a lot easier than the Altitude units because of that vertical range you have to take in to account.

[Daryk]

I'll paraphrase Weirdo since he hasn't weighed in yet: the first 99 rules of AA fire are RANGE, repeated over and over again.

The 100th rule?  It's also RANGE!

IS MPLs are completely hopeless on that score.

[maxcarrion]

The IS MPL is a terrible AA weapon, range is very important and an IS MPL doesn't have any.
An ERML is better, not good but better
An LRM5 is light and is probably the best AA you can get for the weight
A LAC2 firing flak is pretty light and not bad
An LPPC has enough range to make it OK
An ERLL or ERPPC is definately respectable and doesn't weigh much if you are fitting one to a mech and have spare heat capacity.
But flak ammo and LBX ammo are the kings of IS AA (at least until you get up to ADA Arrow IV)

Clan tech?  MPL will do a good job, LPL is even better, ERPPC wrecks ASF if it hits due to the big punch Flak and LBX are still great but clantech AC are an even worse trade.

Almost any weapon with a 6/12/18 range will do OK at AA
Things with to hit bonus/flak bonus are even better
Add anti-air quirks and fire computers to really bust stuff
Actual amounts of damage are nice but secondary to landing that first hit and forcing a lawn dart check/motive crit check/rotor location roll

[Iceweb]

Clan tech?  MPL will do a good job, LPL is even better, ERPPC wrecks ASF if it hits due to the big punch Flak and LBX are still great but clantech AC are an even worse trade.

If you are going Clan tech and want dakka to shoot down planes the HAG is about top of the line. 

Also for IS there is the silver bullet gauss though that needs to be weighed against the IS LBX

[Kovax]

The only time you'd want an IS MPL for AA work is as a last-ditch point defense weapon if the flyer is attacking you or your hex directly.  On an AA overwatch unit, the lack of range makes it seriously unsuitable.

[Goose]

Oh-hey: No-one, not even me, has mentioned the medium x-pulse! 

[monbvol]

The Inner Spher standard MPL?  Not so much.  Each Altitude counts as 2 extra hexes of range so all it takes for them to be completely out of range of the Inner Sphere model is Altitude 4(5 if Extreme Range Rules are in play).

X-Pulse or Clan models?  These do better to keep them away for sure.  With Extreme Range Rules you can even threaten up to Altitude 8 with the Clam MPL and that's the highest altitude that allows for LOS between ground and air(vice versa too).

Oh-hey: No-one, not even me, has mentioned the medium x-pulse! 

I mean this as tongue in cheek as possible but you sure about that? 

[Sir Chaos]

If you are going Clan tech and want dakka to shoot down planes the HAG is about top of the line. 

Or if the HAG hasn´t been invented yet, a Clan large pulse laser will do the trick quite well, especially with a targeting computer added to it.

[Goose]

I mean this as tongue in cheek as possible but you sure about that? 

Sorry: It was lost in all the LBX-Flac …

[monbvol]

Like I said I was trying to be as tongue in cheek as possible so no worries.