Possibly dumb idea: Tribulus leg ripper

[ritingon]

This is ridiculously specialized and probably not worth the effort, but I give you battle armor designed to hamstring mechs and not much else: the Tribulus.

Code: [Select]

Tribulus
Type: Tribulus
Manufacturer: Unknown
    Primary Factory: Unknown

Tech Base: Mixed (Experimental)
Chassis Type:  Biped
Weight Class: Medium
Maximum Weight: 1,000 kg
Battle Value: 260
Swarm/Leg Attack/Mechanized/AP: Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes

Equipment                                     Slots      Mass
Chassis:                                               250 kg
Motive System:                                               
     Ground MP:          5                              80 kg
     Jump MP:            0                               0 kg
Manipulators:                                                 
    Left Arm:            Vibro-Claw                     50 kg
    Right Arm:           Vibro-Claw                     50 kg
Armor:                   Standard (Basic)       0      250 kg
    Armor Value:         11 (Trooper)                         

                                             Slots           
Weapons and Equipment             Location (Capacity)   Mass 
BA Myomer Booster                   Body       3      83.333 kg
BA Myomer Booster                 Right Arm     3      83.333 kg
BA Myomer Booster                 Left Arm     3      83.333 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount       Right Arm     1        5 kg 
Improved Sensors                    Body       1       45 kg 
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount       Left Arm     1        5 kg 
Mission Equipment Storage (15 kg)   Body       1       15 kg 
Leg attacks start at 4 damage then add 1 per vibro-claw, so we're up to 6.  We then add 2 for each myomer booster, getting us up into the "rip the leg off a light mech" territory of 16 (plus, of course, the guaranteed crit).

Moreover, these buggers are fast, especially in an urban environment.  The ability to move 5 hexes straight through buildings and pop up underneath a victim is quite something.

Granted: that's all they're good at.  The sensors are there because why not; it's not like they could fit anything more than a Firedrake in there.  I suppose you could make the case for an SRM 1 or some such, but there's a certain purity of purpose this way.

Anyhow.  Probably too specialized but kind of fun.

[Natasha Kerensky]

I’ve designed similar ankle-biter specialist BA, so you’re not the only crazy one.  Leg attacks are better than swarm attacks, so it makes sense that a suit or two would be designed around them.  I used the same combination of BA Myomer Booster and Vibroclaws on a non-jumping medium suit.

That said, you only get the damage bonus from the BA myomer booster once.  Spreading the booster across different sections doesn’t double or triple the bonus.

I’m also not sure whether adding a second vibrio-claw doubles that damage bonus or whether you can only get it once, too.  Someone more familiar with the vibroclaws rules should chime in.  If I’m right, then you definitely only want one vibro-claw.

So I don’t think there’s any way to reach 16 points of damage for a leg attack.  That said, leg attacks are really about the chance of inflicting actuator critical hits (not raw damage), which I think a vibrio-claw helps with.  (Again, someone who knows for sure on the rules should chime in.)

It’s min-maxing, but you can make these knee-capper designs more flexible by using a Spheroid chassis, which saves 75kg.  Dropping one of the vibroclaws frees up another 50kg. And you have another 70kg tied up in fixed Improved Sensors, APWMs, and Mission Equipment, or something approaching 200kg total to work with.   I usually add an MWM and an SSWM and use combos like Micro Pulse Lasers and a Light TAG, Flamers and an Improved Sensors, Heavy Machine Guns and an ECM, or Light Recoiless Rifles and a Searchlight.

Hope this helps.

[ritingon]

I'm not saying you're wrong about myomer booster only adding damage once, but TacOps is super specific:

All Leg and Swarm Attacks performed by battle armor with Myomer Boosters add 2 points (per active trooper) to the total damage inflicted by a
successful assault.

Emphasis mine.

Compare to the wording in TW on vibro-claws:

Battle armor units equipped with a single vibro-claw inflict 1 additional point of damage (for a total of 5 points) during a leg attack. Units equipped with two vibro-claws inflict 2 additional points of damage, for a total of 6 points.

Now, would it make sense that myomer and vibro-claws either both add per trooper or both add per unit?  Yes.

But as written, I don't think that's what the rules say.

(Again, I could be wrong.)


Also, fair point on building with an inner sphere chassis.  I was trying to be just a little munchkiny on this one.  I'm curious to see how far I could push it though.

[Natasha Kerensky]

May bad — I crossed the numbers in your earlier post and attributed it to a misinterpretation of the rules.  That’s what I get for late-night posting.

Like I wrote, I’ve done very similar designs in a very similar knee-capping role.  In combination with savings from a Spheroid chassis, I traded the extra point of damage from the second vibroclaw for a 150+kg weapon in a modular mount and support equipment in a squad support mount.  Mixing the tech bases is min-maxing, but that’s a way to make these ankle-biters more generally useful while still preserving a 15-point hit to legs with a chance for actuator damage.

Good stuff.

[Dragon Cat]

That thing is actually quite scary in an urban environment or a crazy melee of open battle catching an unaware MechWarrior

[Retry]

This sounds very much like a good question for the Rules forum.  A subsystem whose main draw is increased movement speed also happening to triple leg damage sounds like one of those things that I'd have done for fun if I knew about it, only to get the proverbial rug pulled out from under me via errata.

[ritingon]

I went ahead and asked in the rules forum, because this does seem a bit too good to be true: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,82785.0.html

And yes indeed, you can do silly things if you go with an IS chassis.

Since most of your damage boost comes from the myomer booster anyway, you can squeeze in an AP Gauss.  Note that the armored glove is still empty, almost begging for an infantry TAG:

Code: [Select]

Tribulus 3
Type: Tribulus
Manufacturer: Unknown
    Primary Factory: Unknown

Tech Base: Mixed (Experimental)
Chassis Type:  Biped
Weight Class: Medium
Maximum Weight: 1,000 kg
Battle Value: 394
Swarm/Leg Attack/Mechanized/AP: Yes/Yes/Yes/Yes

Equipment                                     Slots      Mass
Chassis:                                               175 kg
Motive System:                                               
     Ground MP:          5                              80 kg
     Jump MP:            0                               0 kg
Manipulators:                                                 
    Left Arm:            Battle Claw                    15 kg
    Right Arm:           Armored Gloves                  0 kg
Armor:                   Standard (Basic)       0      250 kg
    Armor Value:         11 (Trooper)                         

                                             Slots           
Weapons and Equipment             Location (Capacity)   Mass 
BA Myomer Booster                   Body       3      83.333 kg
BA Myomer Booster                 Right Arm     3      83.333 kg
BA Myomer Booster                 Left Arm     3      83.333 kg
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount       Left Arm     1        5 kg 
Gauss Rifle                       Right Arm     1       200 kg
Mission Equipment Storage (25 kg)   Body       1       25 kg 

Or you can keep closer to the original concept, maintain 15 damage on a leg attack, keep the improved sensors, get TAG the "right" way, and still end up with a 21 point swarm attack:

Code: [Select]

Tribulus 4
Type: Tribulus
Manufacturer: Unknown
    Primary Factory: Unknown

Tech Base: Mixed (Experimental)
Chassis Type:  Biped
Weight Class: Medium
Maximum Weight: 1,000 kg
Battle Value: 240
Swarm/Leg Attack/Mechanized/AP: Yes/Yes/Yes/No

Equipment                                     Slots      Mass
Chassis:                                               175 kg
Motive System:                                               
     Ground MP:          5                              80 kg
     Jump MP:            0                               0 kg
Manipulators:                                                 
    Left Arm:            Vibro-Claw                     50 kg
    Right Arm:           Battle Claw                    15 kg
Armor:                   Standard (Basic)       0      250 kg
    Armor Value:         11 (Trooper)                         

                                         Slots           
Weapons and Equipment         Location (Capacity)   Mass 
BA Myomer Booster               Body       3      83.333 kg
BA Myomer Booster             Right Arm     3      83.333 kg
BA Myomer Booster             Left Arm     3      83.333 kg
TAG                           Left Arm     1       35 kg 
Machine Gun                   Right Arm     1       100 kg
Improved Sensors                Body       1       45 kg 


[Kerfuffin(925)]

Do magnetic claws have a hit bonus on leg attacks or just swarm? Idr.

That seems like it might be worth it over 1/2 damage.