Author Topic: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn  (Read 28549 times)

Liam's Ghost

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #90 on: 01 May 2018, 16:31:21 »
Technically, if you wanted your mech to haul infantry around, you could give the mech a lift hoist, stuff the infantry into a trailer (or, I suppose, an APC, but that kinda defeats the purpose) and have the mech carry the trailer with the lift hoist.  :P
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Caedis Animus

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #91 on: 01 May 2018, 23:42:23 »
I just got the image of a frustrated Star Commander facepalming, while watching a FireMoth or Viper with a Lift Hoist carrying around an APC full of Ghost Bear Solohma troops and careening around corners in an Urban Cityscape.

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glitterboy2098

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #92 on: 02 May 2018, 00:10:15 »
IIRC that was actually the original intended use of the Firemoth.. those odd high held arms being meant to carry infantry in modules slung under them. it never worked out, but the fast mech was useful for other roles so they kept it.

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #93 on: 07 June 2018, 06:40:03 »
While re-reading this article, I think I've finally got it figured out. Unlike most 'Mechs, which are MBT equivalents, the Gun is an IFV equivalent. It's got some decent firepower, but putting it up against a front-line combatant is a Bad Idea. (Not as bad as a cardboard warrior like a Patron PatrolMech, but still.)

So to my mind, when planning tactics, the Gun is a CV90 equivalent. Strolls in, drops off the battle armor, sticks around to provide anti-tank firepower, but when other 'Mechs start arriving it grabs it's battle armor and leaves.

And if this thing is used with Augmented Lances, like was suggested up-thread, four of them* could be supported by Behemoth II or Pixiu heavy tanks.

*Assuming that these are deployed to CCAF Home Guard and militia units in large numbers.
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Wrangler

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #94 on: 08 June 2018, 10:04:23 »
With this brought up again. I like idea of adding more configurations to the Mech as things have progressed for the Capellan Confederation has learned lessons.  It's Garrison OmniMech, done cheap, suppose to support the dirt eaters, not fighting toe-to-toe with frontline Mechs or even heavy weight Main Battle Tanks aka Combat Vehicles. 

I think it be good since she has moderate speed (5/8) using her with Extended LRM-10 with two tons ammo (i can't tell how many critics are left)
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nova_dew

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #95 on: 08 June 2018, 15:24:00 »
For all your custom Gun's

Wrangler's idea is first on the list

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=61831.0
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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #96 on: 25 June 2018, 23:38:14 »
Had one of these on the field recently.

It was mostly just used to transport some Battle Armor to the field & left the fighting to bigger mechs.

That said, it did an impressive job of watching our rear area.

The player used the Plasma+2ERML configuration & kept a speedy Locust-3M & Hermes-4S occupied so that we didn't get completely harassed from behind.

Which proved to be very useful as our mediums slammed into the enemy line & dropped off more BA into the enemy HQ base.


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Caedis Animus

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #97 on: 25 June 2018, 23:49:48 »
The player used the Plasma+2ERML configuration & kept a speedy Locust-3M & Hermes-4S occupied so that we didn't get completely harassed from behind.
The Prime and A have soft spots in my heart as my favorite two 20-ton designs in Battletech. 685 BV2 for a 19-hex Headcapper, or 775 for a decent-nay, good-infantry support platform? Yes please. Only thing that sucks about the Gun, to me, is that it's just a Cappie design.

First time I ever used one was in a 4-Lance battle (Two lances per side, one controller of each lance), and despite taking it for the express purpose of rounding out my BV, the A was responsible for scaring off the majority of enemy light spammers-even damaging the Spider 7M that came to take care of it well enough to get the Spider to bugger off. In a really stupid way, it was more effective than the Cougar C my compatriot insisted on taking-which died literally the first round it entered combat thanks to the HPPC of an enemy Warlord. That match also taught me that if you really must bring a headcapping light to the field, it's best to ensure it doesn't consume an entire third of your allotted BV.

Seriously, we could've used a second assault, not a damn light. Why would you ever choose a light over a freaking Atlas AS7-D. He even had the spare BV2.
« Last Edit: 25 June 2018, 23:53:40 by Caedis Animus »

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #98 on: 26 June 2018, 22:15:14 »
Agreed on the Cappie thing.

The mech itself I would have preferred to have 2 tons less pod space & use more basic tech for the Cockpit & Gyro w/ a full 4 tons of Armor.


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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #99 on: 25 December 2021, 06:50:39 »
*casts the circle, lights the candles, and offers up the sacrifice* Arise, dead thread, arise!

Re-reading this, I kind of thought of a couple extra points:
First, the Gun pilot should absolutely never, ever tell the mechanized battle armor (s)he is carrying that they are ablative armor.
Second, did the MW:AoD Advanced AMS that screened nearby units get into print somewhere? The Gun practically screams for those.
Third, I really need to do a scenario for my players where they are fighting 100 Capellan Nobles with carbon reinforced fingernails, and Daos as "support" weapons
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Kerfuffin(925)

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #100 on: 25 December 2021, 10:51:46 »
*casts the circle, lights the candles, and offers up the sacrifice* Arise, dead thread, arise!

Re-reading this, I kind of thought of a couple extra points:
First, the Gun pilot should absolutely never, ever tell the mechanized battle armor (s)he is carrying that they are ablative armor.
Second, did the MW:AoD Advanced AMS that screened nearby units get into print somewhere? The Gun practically screams for those.
Third, I really need to do a scenario for my players where they are fighting 100 Capellan Nobles with carbon reinforced fingernails, and Daos as "support" weapons

The AMS is in IO, it’s the RISC: APDS, but while the capellans probably have the most Republic salvage outside of IlClan (now) they’d be hard pressed to have enough of those systems to utilize them
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glitterboy2098

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #101 on: 25 December 2021, 13:28:37 »
It occurs to me that the Gun is what the SLDF's Jackrabbit was trying to be. Lightweight, cheap, infantry and armor support. They just lacked the weapons technology to actually make it effective at that mass.

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #102 on: 27 December 2021, 08:03:14 »
It occurs to me that the Gun is what the SLDF's Jackrabbit was trying to be. Lightweight, cheap, infantry and armor support. They just lacked the weapons technology to actually make it effective at that mass.
Don't tell the Clan boys & girls in Scorpion Empire that.  The Star Python (aka Nexus aka was once called the Jackrabbit) may beg to differ with it's Clan tech.
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glitterboy2098

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #103 on: 27 December 2021, 13:57:27 »
The Nexus is trying to do a very different mission than infantry support, though. Which separates it out from it's jackrabbit predecessor.

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #104 on: 27 December 2021, 18:25:49 »
It's also very worth mentioning that infantry and armor support is not being good at engaging infantry and armor, it's supposed to be augmenting your infantry and armor by doing things they're not capable of or have difficulty going.

In the Guns case that's usually EW, dedicated any-fortification (HPPC to outright destroy buildings, Plasma rifle to do enough damage to infantry through damage reduction) action, battle armor transport, and in very limited fashion engaging enemy mech forces.
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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #105 on: 27 December 2021, 19:36:28 »
It's also very worth mentioning that infantry and armor support is not being good at engaging infantry and armor, it's supposed to be augmenting your infantry and armor by doing things they're not capable of or have difficulty going.

This cannot be emphasized enough.
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #106 on: 27 December 2021, 20:31:14 »
*casts the circle, lights the candles, and offers up the sacrifice* Arise, dead thread, arise!

Re-reading this, I kind of thought of a couple extra points:
First, the Gun pilot should absolutely never, ever tell the mechanized battle armor (s)he is carrying that they are ablative armor.

Any battle armor assigned to work with a Gun ought to know that already.
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Scotty

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #107 on: 27 December 2021, 22:06:39 »
See that's the thing.  It's the other way around.  The Gun is supposed to be drawing the suit-killing firepower so that the suits don't get killed, then working with the infantry to draw the threat into over-extending and being picked apart.

In that sense, the Guns should be deploying their charges, and then seeking places where their guns do things that small arms are wholly insufficient in tackling.  If an enemy mech shows up, they should engage it and keep its attention while infantry and armor keep doing their thing.  Ideally you keep the mech guns trained on your Guns, which maneuver to drag the opposing mech over as many dug in infantry positions and armor ambushes as possible.
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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #108 on: 27 December 2021, 22:48:01 »
I'm pretty sure that a squad of Battle Armor is about the same durability as a Gun.
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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #109 on: 27 December 2021, 23:10:36 »
Not even close.  One of the most common suits that you'd likely see deployed with a Gun is the Fa Shih, which has 7 points of armor.  Every location on the Gun has at least 6, and it can lose several of those locations without being disabled.

This isn't to say the Gun is particularly durable; it certainly isn't.  But you don't shouldn't be deploying Guns in situations where you value them more than the units they're supporting.
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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #110 on: 28 December 2021, 01:51:14 »
That's the whole point of infantry support units. Their raison d'etre is to make the infantry force more effective, not the other way around. Using BA to make a Gun more durable is literally the exact opposite of what these things are built for.
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Wrangler

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #111 on: 28 December 2021, 07:26:15 »
It's too bad Thumper cannon, that would have been great weapon to be put on, but there only 10 tons of omnipod room fit stuff in. Weapons is 10 tons never mind the ammo.
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Sabelkatten

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #112 on: 28 December 2021, 09:52:06 »
It's too bad Thumper cannon, that would have been great weapon to be put on, but there only 10 tons of omnipod room fit stuff in. Weapons is 10 tons never mind the ammo.
Somebody mentioned a MM/4. An LRM battery would be pretty nice too.

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #113 on: 28 December 2021, 10:57:33 »
Not even close.  One of the most common suits that you'd likely see deployed with a Gun is the Fa Shih . . .

I would think the tactical doctrine has the Fa Shih as the absolutely last BA the Omni is assigned to carry.  IMO this is to carry the CC's Trinity version to offset their lack of JJ & Mag Clamps the Fa Shih uses- though they make up for that lack in armor & weapons.  Captured Purfiers would also be ranked above Fa Shih on assignments IMO.  It is too bad the Cappies' heavy BA is a quad.  You have to wonder how many heavy suits they have salvaged (Taranis & Phalanx) or purchased like Ogre & the heavy GDL suits- since the CCAF would be well served by the Gun deploying any of them.  In fact, the Cappies were already buying some material from the Regulans (Tufana), a trade of Asterions or Theseus they still built for Ogres would make sense.

Either way, with the heavier weapons and armor of the Capellan's non-jumping/Mag clamp suits it would make sense if this was how they were deployed.  After a mech, the next closest for mobility would be a VTOL.  A plasma weapon is a great way to clear a place to drop the battle armor.
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glitterboy2098

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #114 on: 28 December 2021, 15:29:55 »
i agree, with the magclamps the Fa Shih don't really need an omni to deliver them, plus with their minelaying gear i'd expect they'd be used more with fast mech or vehicle units so they can be forward deployed to prepare minefields and help funnel enemy units into positions where following capcon units can pound them flat. especially since post-jihad the capcon has plenty of other BA options. the Trinity Ying Long, the Purifier, even the Amazon suits would all benefit from the Gun in different ways (and i wouldn't be surprised if the capcon didn't develop the configs with intent to work in concert with specific suit types)

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Re: 'Mech of the Week: GN-20* Gùn
« Reply #115 on: 28 December 2021, 17:37:27 »
I love these minimalist, specialty-made designs. It's dirt cheap for the amount of resources involved (1.8MM C-Bills; comparable to the Intro Tech COM-1B) and does exactly its job and absolutely nothing more. That forces some really creative builds, which I like! What a great 'Mech. :)
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