Ideal Field Gun?

[ravensword]

Ideal for what? Light gauss for long range, ultra 5 for midrange, rac/5 for short range, and ultra 20 for ambush hole-punching

General-purpose use.  The jack-of-all-trades rather than a specialist.

[Greatclub]

They all have disadvantages - Light gauss have a horrible minimum; Ultra 5 lose a gun at the second hit & have a minimum; RAC 5 don't have much range and chew through their ammo stupid quick, while the Ultra 20 have worse range and less ammo than that (But oh, those glorious holes punched...)

Best JOAT I'd say the Ultra 5. If the minimum is an issue, switch to ultra 10, which don't average more damage or have the ammo depth, (2 column sucks) but digs deeper holes.

[pheonixstorm]

Best to give em an AC/2 with special ammo and put them on a hill near your deployment zone, preferably in woods and dug in. Long range sniping even with an AC 2 can be dangerous to your enemies health lol.

[kaliban]

They all have disadvantages - Light gauss have a horrible minimum; Ultra 5 lose a gun at the second hit & have a minimum; RAC 5 don't have much range and chew through their ammo stupid quick, while the Ultra 20 have worse range and less ammo than that (But oh, those glorious holes punched...)

Best JOAT I'd say the Ultra 5. If the minimum is an issue, switch to ultra 10, which don't average more damage or have the ammo depth, (2 column sucks) but digs deeper holes.

UACs and RACs when used as field guns don't jam as far as I remember

[Sartris]

That’s correct

[pheonixstorm]

UACs and RACs when used as field guns don't jam as far as I remember

Dont explode either.

That is the nice thing about Field Guns. They can take any ammo, don't jam, and don't explode.

[SCC]

Field guns can also fire normal AC's in double tap mode without risk of jamming, so if you're prepared to get only one shot off from a pair of AC/20's you can have a platoon put up to 4 AP rounds into a 'Mech

[RifleMech]

Wish we could use missiles and mortars and infantry field weapons. They exist in real life, why not in BattleTech?

[Lord Cameron]

IMO you aren't missing much with cluster only. Unless you find yourself beset by enemies wearing ferro-lamellor armor, the combination of multiple location rolls and to-hit bonus make the larger LBX sizes rude customers.

Especially if you're picking off damaged mechs with open torsos.  >:D

[MarauderD]

That’s correct

I've never used field guns.  If that is the case, wouldn't RAC/5 or Ultra/10 be a good choice for urban traps?

[Colt Ward]

I've never used field guns.  If that is the case, wouldn't RAC/5 or Ultra/10 be a good choice for urban traps?

Yes, infantry going berrrrrrrrrt is fun.

IMO, field guns with rapid fire gives militias a huge advantage when fighting from fixed positions.  Nice concrete bunker, well sited, and with overlapping lanes of fire can make AC/5 and UAC/5s painful for attackers- then again I like to use the optional rule in MM for each shot rolling the original THN instead of 8+ required for the 2nd shot.

[Greatclub]

Be aware of the ammo load. RAC5 gets 3.2 rounds, ultra 10 gets 5 of going all out.

[Sartris]

3.2 rounds of sustained fire is probably longer than a rac/5 platoon is going to last once it starts shooting so that's ok in most cases.

[Colt Ward]

3.2 rounds of sustained fire is probably longer than a rac/5 platoon is going to last once it starts shooting so that's ok in most cases.

Yup . . . and then that ton of ammo for a gun that can no longer be crewed feeds other guns.

[Weirdo]

Yup . . . and then that ton of ammo for a gun that can no longer be crewed feeds other guns.

Can it? I don't recall anything saying that.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I was just about to ask that myself.

[Sartris]

the rules actually are definite about the ammo issue

The platoon receives 1 ton of ammunition per field gun it possesses; each ton may be of a varying type. Ammunition expenditure must be tracked, but only at the platoon level; ammunition is not assigned to any specific gun or squad, and isn’t reduced by personnel loss.

[pheonixstorm]

I still think having a platoon in heavy or ultra heavy woods some of the TacOps rules works best.

+2 for Hvy Woods and +2 for Digging In. +3 if they are sitting in Ultra Hvy Woods.

Add in DEST Infiltration Suit or Sneak CAMO suit (+1 or +3 not moving respectively) and you have a nasty platoon you will have to be point blank to kill.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Time to load up the infernos and prevent forests!

[Greatclub]

Field guns can't move while firing. Assuming you aren't building an ambush platoon (That's been described above) I again suggest ultra/5 or light gauss. The ultra has decent range, while the lGauss has one of the best in the game. They can park in the backline and still have decent to-hits, and both deal acceptable damage.

If you're going for critseeking there is the LB 2 and five, or the ultra 2. Learn to love that parked vehicle small.

[Hellraiser]

The ideal Field Gun is the one's I've ripped off all my other units because they suck & now I have a pile of them sitting around.

IE....  AC5  & UAC5

Though really, they do make fine guns for infantry platoons.

At 24/27 tons respectively they can be pulled around by a "standard" 28 man platoon & take a hit or 2 from range w/o immediately loosing a gun.

And shooting 3 guns from 18-21 hexes tends to not attract the immediate "KILL IT" attention that will happen when the canon, 6x LAC5, platoon opens up from 15 hexes.

Sure, you'll get 1 nice round off w/ those guys, maybe 2, before something is close enough to SRM, Inferno, MG/Flamer, etc etc & wipe out the whole platoon.

[Maingunnery]

What about Clan RAC/2s, a lot of plinking at range?

[Sartris]

I still think having a platoon in heavy or ultra heavy woods some of the TacOps rules works best.

+2 for Hvy Woods and +2 for Digging In. +3 if they are sitting in Ultra Hvy Woods.

Add in DEST Infiltration Suit or Sneak CAMO suit (+1 or +3 not moving respectively) and you have a nasty platoon you will have to be point blank to kill.

this is why i hold objective hexes with purifier squads ;D

Field guns can't move while firing. Assuming you aren't building an ambush platoon (That's been described above) I again suggest ultra/5 or light gauss. The ultra has decent range, while the lGauss has one of the best in the game. They can park in the backline and still have decent to-hits, and both deal acceptable damage.

If you're going for critseeking there is the LB 2 and five, or the ultra 2. Learn to love that parked vehicle small.

yup, light gauss is great as a field gun. though that twin ultra/10 platoon i hid at the base of a bridge was really entertaining (they even got two shots off because everyone was freaking out about the SRM carrier with the missiles swapped out for twin AC/20s). in a DA campaign i had opfor dezgra star of conventional clan infantry with triple LB-5s that was just obnoxious. they showed up in like five different missions until finally getting ground into the mud.

[Greatclub]

What about Clan RAC/2s, a lot of plinking at range?

Sure, if you're running at the leading edge of the dark age I suspect they're great. Since I avoid that era, I don't care.

Edit - They've got a range of WHAT? Even for the clans, that's pushing broken in a field gun.

[Maingunnery]

Sure, if you're running at the leading edge of the dark age I suspect they're great. Since I avoid that era, I don't care.

Edit - They've got a range of WHAT? Even for the clans, that's pushing broken in a field gun.

Yep 25 hexes, and with such extreme range one can park them nearly anywhere.

[SCC]

*Double checks dates* It's theoretically possible the WoB had access to Clan RAC's, so does a platoon of those sound with iC3?

Further more with the way field guns work taking Ultra's is never a good idea as you lose access to special munitions (Which you can double tap without problems for field guns), which include caseless, which doubles the number of rounds.

[Daryk]

Now that's a combination I'm pretty sure TPTB didn't consider when freeing Field Guns from jams...

[Retry]

Sure, if you're running at the leading edge of the dark age I suspect they're great. Since I avoid that era, I don't care.

Edit - They've got a range of WHAT? Even for the clans, that's pushing broken in a field gun.

Literally just one hex more than an IS AC/2, and the same range as the Light Gauss Rifle or Clan ER Large Laser.  It's one of the best field guns but not brokenly so.

[SCC]

Magshot and AP Gauss Rifles are also pretty nasty, short ranged, but at one gun per 2 troopers losses are never really an issue and the damage is huge.

[Sartris]

that's funny

Hey, guess what?

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRAP