Taurian Special Weapons Development division

[Vehrec]

You know what's special about the weapons, and so do I.  But I'm not familiar with the rules for using them, and thus have no idea if these concepts would work.  So I'm floating the concept to you guys, to see if anyone can make it work.

Idea 1: AC/20 ammunition, .05kt.  The 'screw you in particular' or "Taurian Magnum" special weapon.
Idea 2: Thunderbolt ammunition, .1kt.
Idea 3: Arrow IV AA type, 1 kt, low-altitude anti-shipping and anti-squadron air defense.
Idea 4: Kraken MITV, 10 individual 1 megaton warheads, decoys and pen-aids, anti-capital.
Idea 5: Anti-RCT missile, Cruiser-missile 50 body, Peacemaker warhead.  "You have officially crossed the red line" alert system.
Idea 6: Advanced special weapons types; pumped-laser antiship weapons, shaped charge or Casaba-Howitzer anti-castle munitions, all the fancy futuretech like nuclear formed projectiles derived from mini-mag orion.

[AlphaMirage]

I'd go with Idea 3, genie nukes to clear out Invading fleets with conventional air power

[Daryk]

I could get behind either 2 or 3... Idea 2 needs to be for the Thunderbolt/20. :)

[Vehrec]

I could get behind either 2 or 3... Idea 2 needs to be for the Thunderbolt/20. :)

If you are making idea 2, you need to make idea 1 to not make the hunchback drivers sad.  Come on, it's only 50 tons of tnt equivalent, that's hardly anything.  I'm sure you can safely set that off at 200 meters in a Battlemech.  With the right radiation shielding, maybe 100 meters.

[Daryk]

ACs are fluffed as high rate of fire cannon... not something that would support a unitary nuclear warhead...

That said, Artillery Cannons exist... ;D

[FastConcentrate8]

ACs are fluffed as high rate of fire cannon... not something that would support a unitary nuclear warhead...

That said, Artillery Cannons exist... ;D

True, but some of the recent books and the games have been pointing towards unitary shell ACs existing in universe and being a considerable chunk of the AC stockpile.

Honestly, I've always thought it was a mix of both.

Also yes, nuclear shells for all arty systems and also some nuclear Sub-Caps would be great.

Edit: Also, I had an idea. If we can't have a unified shell AC-20 round, why not Machine Gun Elliases at the enemy.

[Grand_dm]

Idea 1: AC/20 ammunition, .05kt.  The 'screw you in particular' or "Taurian Magnum" special weapon.

Maybe it adds a +1 to the Piloting Skill Roll for taking 20+ points of damage in a single phase. Represents the extra knockdown power.

[Maingunnery]

Why not use the LBX/20 as basis for idea 1? It has slug ammo.

[Vehrec]

Hmmm, well unitary slug with a 50 ton warhead or a multi-Elias rapid-fire weapon, either way, we're aiming for some of the smallest nuclear weapons ever here.  That said, I think that it's enough firepower to get a +1 to PSR rolls to keep your footing, because even 50 tons is still enough to fireball a whole hex.  At least, according to Nukemap, which I used to estimate destructive power.  Heavy blast damage radius is about 90 meters, high radiation levels (depending on exact device construction) out to about 500 meters so it doubles as an anti-infantry device to.

[FastConcentrate8]

I'd argue the Ellias Machine Gun is funnier as it would require rolling on the Cluster Hit table for multiple 10 point nuclear devices with AOE effects on a single unsuspecting enemy.