BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Fan Designs and Rules => Topic started by: cray on 12 January 2014, 11:26:47
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The "Tesla Corps" of NAIS, an advanced electronics research group, noted the value of ECM in fighting the advanced Clan weapons. Unfortunately, ECM systems remain fairly rare and limited to specially designed or modified mechs. The dash of genius the Tesla Corps provided was to make ECM available to ANY Inner Sphere vehicle, assuming they could spare a little room and mass.
Introduced in 3064, the Cherub ECM Suite is smaller than the Guardian or Angel, and much cheaper. The use of low cost, off the shelf parts made it considerably larger than it might've been - despite only covering a few percent of the area a Guardian manages, it is fully 1/3 the size of a Guardian ECM Suite.
It only protects the vehicle mounting it and a surrounding area for 15 meters radius [same hex], making the Cherub of little use for blocking the line of sight for various hostile communication systems or protecting nearby friendlies. It is quite capable of blocking all the normal threats a Guardian covers and counts as a single Guardian for purposes of fighting ECCM. Its simple design, while making the Cherub bulky, eases and reduces maintenance considerably.
The Cherub ECM Suite is 0.5 tons, 1 crit (or slot, as appropriate), and costs 50,000 C-bills.
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Does it function with Stealth armor? That'd be the biggest draw for me, especially if it were still useful for 'Mech scale usage.
That said, vehicles don't have 'crits' they have 'slots'. :P
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Does it function with Stealth armor? That'd be the biggest draw for me, especially if it were still useful for 'Mech scale usage.
Now that's an interesting question. What does the voting public think? Would it be appropriate for the Cherub to work with stealth armor?
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Now that's an interesting question. What does the voting public think? Would it be appropriate for the Cherub to work with stealth armor?
I would say no...that's it's just not powerful enough to be used with Stealth Armor.
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I'd say no. Likewise, I wouldn't see Cherubs capable of ECCM, ghost targets, or other advanced trickery. As I read it, the Cherub is basically a handy-dandy noise generator.
Although were I doing it, I'd have gone for a one-ton version with a 45m range (eg. current & adjacent hexes), made to be plug-compatible with the Magna, Martell, and other medium lasers. Half a ton seems almost harder to find a straight swap for than a full ton, particularly if the box is made with field expedient fitting in mind. But then the difference between it and the Guardian is less marked.
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Yep. The idea is a cheap-as-snot little ECM unit that protects a unit from modern threats like Artemis and NARC, and gives a chance to hide better. It can play ECCM games, but only in its own hex.
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Non-functionality with Stealth makes sense.
Likewise, I can easily imagine a Seraph ECM that replicates Angel ECM in the user's hex and the user's hex only for a single ton.
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Non-functionality with Stealth makes sense.
Likewise, I can easily imagine a Seraph ECM that replicates Angel ECM in the user's hex and the user's hex only for a single ton.
Hm...I don't know, if it went up to a ton, I'd just try to find a way to squeeze a Guardian into it...
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Guardian doesn't nullify Streaks, Artemis V, MRM Apollo, or Boosted C3 in that hex.
Honestly I'd take a one ton, own-hex ECM bubble exclusively for Streak-null, but the rest would be bonus.
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Cray, what "time" era are you thinking for the Cherub ECM Suite ?, I do like what you are proposing btw.
Dave.
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Cray, what "time" era are you thinking for the Cherub ECM Suite ?, I do like what you are proposing btw.
Updated original post, second paragraph. The idea was to provide a common ECM unit by the time the Clan invasion resumed in 3067, if the Great Refusal didn't happen.
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...I really like the idea, and it's something I considered for my AU, but wrote off the idea as too overpowering, whether it only blocks Artemis, Streak, C3, and other systems like Narc.
Depending on the setting, I don't have a problem with it. It's one of those little things that force big changes when introduced.
I may ask if I can borrow the concept for my AU later, though.
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I may ask if I can borrow the concept for my AU later, though.
You don't have to ask. If it's here and in public, then it's free to use.
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Updated original post, second paragraph. The idea was to provide a common ECM unit by the time the Clan invasion resumed in 3067, if the Great Refusal didn't happen.
Thank you, you just made a Great idea even better ! IMHO O0 .
Dave.
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You don't have to ask. If it's here and in public, then it's free to use.
...I like to be polite. Who was it that said, "I got it where I gt all my best ideas - I stole it from somebody else."?
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To be honest, the requirement of an ECM for stealth armor doesn't really make sense to begin with. The point is not to be noticed, firing a bunch of electronic noise out isn't compatible with that on any level.
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To be honest, the requirement of an ECM for stealth armor doesn't really make sense to begin with. The point is not to be noticed, firing a bunch of electronic noise out isn't compatible with that on any level.
Well, stealth is never invisibility. You will be seen. You just won't be seen as well as a non-stealthy equivalent.
With that in mind, note that electronic warfare involves more than loud, screaming jammers like something from WW2. Deceptive ECM involves everything from creating ghosts, spoofing ranging signals into misreading the range to a target, and breaking tracking locks via tricks like range gate pull-offs.
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To be honest, the requirement of an ECM for stealth armor doesn't really make sense to begin with. The point is not to be noticed, firing a bunch of electronic noise out isn't compatible with that on any level.
Which is why with the errata if stealth armor is turned on, you don't generate an ECM bubble. (except for yourself)
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Okay, pardon a slight side-track, but can you have GECM in a hand-held, self-powered unit ? Now that would be handy ...
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Okay, pardon a slight side-track, but can you have GECM in a hand-held, self-powered unit ? Now that would be handy ...
That would be cool. Guardians for everyone.
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I'm picturing units going into combat with WoB laden with self-powered GECM "briefcases". Drop and benefit from a sea of ECM!
THat, and the RL-10 hand-held "organ", is why I don't like hand-helds ;
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Which is why with the errata if stealth armor is turned on, you don't generate an ECM bubble. (except for yourself)
Which makes it even more odd. What the heck is the ECM required for?
I'm picturing units going into combat with WoB laden with self-powered GECM "briefcases". Drop and benefit from a sea of ECM!
THat, and the RL-10 hand-held "organ", is why I don't like hand-helds ;
At that point, you just don't like light vees. Which is pretty much what hand-helds are.
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Which makes it even more odd. What the heck is the ECM required for?
Stealth armor doesn't make you invisible, it makes you more difficult to target at range. Stealth armor, when engaged, generates false targets, minimizes radio/targeting cross-sections, and throws lots of 'noise' at whatever happens to be looking right at it. That sort of requires an ECM suite.
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Stealth armor doesn't make you invisible, it makes you more difficult to target at range. Stealth armor, when engaged, generates false targets, minimizes radio/targeting cross-sections, and throws lots of 'noise' at whatever happens to be looking right at it. That sort of requires an ECM suite.
Stealth armor doesn't make you invisible? I could have sworn it did. Huh.
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The Guardian, as with most ECM units, can throw a lot of electromagnetic energy downrange. It's not unreasonable to expect it to be able to pull off active-cancellation or ghosting of targets, to reduce the carrier's probability of detection.
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Stealth armor doesn't make you invisible? I could have sworn it did. Huh.
Check the stealth armor rules. It adds +1 to-hit at medium range and +2 to-hit at long range. That's not invisibility.
Even BT's invisibility systems, like the Chameleon Light Polarization System, only impose a targeting penalty.
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Stealth armor doesn't make you invisible? I could have sworn it did. Huh.
It doesn't affect PBI with their Mark I Eyeballs, so it's not invisibility.
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Even BT's invisibility systems, like the Chameleon Light Polarization System, only impose a targeting penalty.
No, there are detection rules that clarify that invisible is invisible.
I don't have them on me right now though, so I can't check.
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Okay, pardon a slight side-track, but can you have GECM in a hand-held, self-powered unit ? Now that would be handy ...
or backpack with or without quick release :)
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Clay, after all is said & done, this Cherub ECM suite will / would fit very nicely in a Enforcer refit replacing the small laser, going up against the Clans ( or any one else to that matter) as what it seems to me @ any rate, some form of cheap ECM self protection. Pity it's not available in the 3049 / 3050 era :'( , my 2 cents worth.
Dave.
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Stealth armor reduces the heat signature of a mech as well as reducing the radar return and spoofing enemy sensors.