Author Topic: Arrow X Missile System: Reach out and touch someone  (Read 1382 times)

The_Caveman

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Arrow X Missile System: Reach out and touch someone
« on: 08 June 2019, 17:35:20 »
Background:
After re-introducing the long-lost Arrow IV Missile System to the battlefields of the Inner Sphere, Capellan Confederation weapons labs continued their attempts to perfect the technology. A breakthrough came after analyzing recovered examples of Clan-built Arrow IVs. These weapons were substantially more compact than their Star League predecessors, though the Clans' disinterest in artillery had kept the basic missile airframes more or less unchanged.

After years of reverse-engineering, Capellan scientists unlocked the secrets of the advanced composites and construction techniques that enabled the Clan launcher to be 20% lighter, while at the same time introducing a new lightweight missile chassis. Through the use of a smaller warhead and miniaturized guidance system, the project created a launcher weighing the same as an LRM-20, yet with almost twice the range of an Arrow IV.

Dubbed the Arrow X, this advanced missile system promised to bridge the gap between the powerful-but-short-ranged Arrow IV and conventional artillery pieces.

Unfortunately, the result was an imperfect weapon. The lighter launcher has difficulty venting heat. Worse, the miniaturized inertial guidance system also proved susceptible to accumulating drift errors: the more distant the shot, the less likely the missile was to guide itself to the target. Attempts to resolve these guidance problems took years and prevented the system from entering full-rate production. Spread throughout the Inner Sphere by the fires of the Jihad, the experimental Arrow X has become less a revolution and more a niche weapon.

Even the Word of Blake had difficulty resolving the guidance issues, though in its desperate last days it leveraged the Arrow X's lighter weight to pack artillery weapons onto as many 'Mechs and vehicles as possible.

Rules:
The Arrow X may use all ammunition types available to the Inner Sphere Arrow IV launcher and follows all rules for the Arrow IV, with the following exceptions:
  • The Arrow X has a maximum range of 15 mapsheets.
  • Apply a +1 modifier to the attack roll for every third mapsheet that the missile travels before reaching the target hex (including the mapsheet on which the target hex is located). A target hex 2 mapsheets or less from the launcher does not impose a modifier.
  • When firing an Arrow X Homing Missile, do not apply the above modifier if a target was successfully designated using TAG.
  • Arrow X missiles fired from airborne units on the low or high altitude maps have the same altitude restrictions as Arrow IV missiles, but Arrow X missiles travel 15 mapsheets before range penalties are applied (note that the range modifier listed above still applies to airborne attacks, in addition to penalties for exceeding the maximum range).
  • Arrow X missiles have a base damage of 15; the effects of all special munitions (such as FASCAM mines) are reduced to 75% of the Arrow IV.

Stats:
Name          Heat          Tons          Crit          Range         Shots         Damage        Cost          Research Start     Prototype        Production
Arrow X        14             10             10         15 maps           5                15A          600,000          3058 (CC)        3065 (CC)      3070 (WOB)
Half the fun of BattleTech is the mental gymnastics required to scientifically rationalize design choices made decades ago entirely based on the Rule of Cool.

The other half is a first-turn AC/2 shot TAC to your gyro that causes your Atlas to fall and smash its own cockpit... wait, I said fun didn't I?

beachhead1985

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Re: Arrow X Missile System: Reach out and touch someone
« Reply #1 on: 09 June 2019, 21:45:09 »
This seems pretty cool!

What is the Radius of the blast? R1 I assume?
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These, in the day when heaven was falling,      Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
The hour when earth's foundations fled,         They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
Followed their mercenary calling,               What God abandoned, these defended,
And took their wages, and are dead.             And saved the sum of things for pay.
     
A.E. Housman

The_Caveman

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Re: Arrow X Missile System: Reach out and touch someone
« Reply #2 on: 09 June 2019, 23:00:51 »
Arrow IV is 20/10 so I would figure Arrow X should be 15/5 like the Thumper.
Half the fun of BattleTech is the mental gymnastics required to scientifically rationalize design choices made decades ago entirely based on the Rule of Cool.

The other half is a first-turn AC/2 shot TAC to your gyro that causes your Atlas to fall and smash its own cockpit... wait, I said fun didn't I?

Red Pins

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Re: Arrow X Missile System: Reach out and touch someone
« Reply #3 on: 10 June 2019, 01:02:37 »
Hmm.  I may borrow this for my AU if I ever get back to work on it.  I came up with TAG-guided tandem-charge warheads (10 armor damage/10 internal damage) for the missiles to help fight the homebrew super-heavy mechs I came up with, but a smaller launcher would make up for the lack of such a massive blow by making the launchers more common among fixed-equipment second-line units.

I guess 7A/7IS might be a good number.
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I am Belch II

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Re: Arrow X Missile System: Reach out and touch someone
« Reply #4 on: 10 June 2019, 09:30:13 »
Nice upgrade
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