Thumper Nuclear Munitions

[Natasha Kerensky]

Per the discussion in the XTRO: Phantoms thread on the General Discussion board, what are the official stats (e.g., yield, blast radius, range, mass) for the three types of nuclear munitions for Thumper artillery described in the fluff for the Grand Titan Vengeance battlemech?

Thanks much.

[cray]

They have the damage values of the Crockett, Alamo, and Santa Ana listed in JHS:3070, with the range and attack rules for the Thumper artillery piece described in Tactical Operations.

[HABeas2]

Hello,

They have the damage values of the Crockett, Alamo, and Santa Ana listed in JHS:3070, with the range and attack rules for the Thumper artillery piece described in Tactical Operations.

Give or take corrections when we finally do publish them in an official source. You know, considering the fact that, as described, they would otherwise be the single most potent tac-nukes in the entire game...

Thank you,

- Herbert Beas
  BattleTech
  Catalyst Game Labs

[cray]

Give or take corrections when we finally do publish them in an official source. You know, considering the fact that, as described, they would otherwise be the single most potent tac-nukes in the entire game...

Well, the Thumper does offer the chance for the nukes to land back on the Thumper's head, which sort of weakens its effectiveness. And the secondary radius of the Santa Ana is a large part of the Thumper's maximum range....

[HABeas2]

Hello,

Well, the Thumper does offer the chance for the nukes to land back on the Thumper's head, which sort of weakens its effectiveness. And the secondary radius of the Santa Ana is a large part of the Thumper's maximum range....

To say nothing of the fact that your stats imply that you can carry 20 nuclear shells, each more powerful than a Davy Crockett-M, in the same tonnage as a single Davy Crockett-Ms carried by an Arrow IV or Long Tom...

Yeah.


Thank you,

- Herbert Beas
  BattleTech
  Catalyst Game Labs

[Natasha Kerensky]

Thanks to both of you.  That's what I thought/was worried about.  I'll put the Grand Titan Vengeance aside for now and stick with Davy Crockett-Ms on canon or homegrown designs mounting Arrow IV and Long Tom artillery.

Thanks again for your trouble.

[cray]

To say nothing of the fact that your stats imply that you can carry 20 nuclear shells, each more powerful than a Davy Crockett-M, in the same tonnage as a single Davy Crockett-Ms carried by an Arrow IV or Long Tom...

Well, yes. Whether you make them 50kg or 5 tons, nukes are always going to do outsize damage for their mass. The Davy Crockett-M is hardly balanced by its full-up weight. After all, except for the risk of killing its launch unit, a Davy Crockett-M is far more dangerous than any other weapon on the battlefield. If you replace the Crockett physics package with an Alamo or Santa Ana, the major difference is how much further the ashes fly.

And BT's spacecraft really make the Thumper a silly weapon. 10.5km/6 miles range of a Thumper? An aerospace fighter or other spacecraft should be able to drop a nuke anywhere on the planet ("The bomber always gets through"). Even the Cold War US and USSR knew to ban fractional orbital bombardment systems because they were so effective.

In the end, the Grand Titan's Thumper is just a short-ranged, slow-firing imitation of the Swedish Bandkanon (15 nuclear shells in 45 seconds): a giant kick-me sign for the other guy's nukes.