Anyone Remember Much About Squad Support Weapon Choice?

[Goose]

I can tell it's real popular, put what did it do? Was it officially bending the weight rules?

[AlphaMirage]

It is bending weight rules. More of less each squad member will carry a percentage of a larger weapon that they couldn't carry alone.

[DevianID]

Its sadly a poorly implemented rule.  It would have been cool to see better squad heavy weapon teams on trooper 1, but I cant say what battle armor even uses it beyond a Tag battle armor team.  Later Tag teams have tag on every trooper, so even for Tag they stopped using it.

[Sabelkatten]

SSWMs are still completely legal for custom BA. TAG, NARC, ECM, sensors; all viable choices. OS-LRM to psych people out? Only really works if record sheets are secret, thought.

[Hellraiser]

IIRC the rules were this.

Take Tonnage of Weapon & divide by 2.
Apply that 50% tonnage to all 4 troopers.
Then add the weapon itself to Trooper #1

So you paid 200% of the weapon's total weight to get 1 of them for the squad.
But, each single suit only had to have 1/2 the weapon's weight available.

It was basically useful for one thing.
Getting 1 special effect gun for the squad even if short on tonnage.  Like a single MG for some burst damage or something.
The most effective option was BA TAG, because TAGs don't get to shoot 4x at the targets anyway so only 1 mattered, and because TAG was the lightest option so the 200% total tonnage didn't penalize you much overall.

The downside besides 200% weight was that if Trooper #1 died you had no back up guns.

[Demiurge]

IIRC the rules were this.

Take Tonnage of Weapon & divide by 2.
Apply that 50% tonnage to all 4 troopers.
Then add the weapon itself to Trooper #1

So you paid 200% of the weapon's total weight to get 1 of them for the squad.
But, each single suit only had to have 1/2 the weapon's weight available.

It was basically useful for one thing.
Getting 1 special effect gun for the squad even if short on tonnage.  Like a single MG for some burst damage or something.
The most effective option was BA TAG, because TAGs don't get to shoot 4x at the targets anyway so only 1 mattered, and because TAG was the lightest option so the 200% total tonnage didn't penalize you much overall.

The downside besides 200% weight was that if Trooper #1 died you had no back up guns.

In theory the rule could be used to cram a really big mean gun into the squad leader, but I don't think the weight breaks really allowed for anything noteworthy.  If, say, the squad leader of a squad of medium-weight battle armor had a medium laser, that would turn some heads, but I don't think it's particularly practical.

The weird thing about the construction rules here is that they imply that WOB and Clan engineers are significantly less efficient at designing SSWs than their IS counterparts.

[Sabelkatten]

IIRC it's not 50% to each trooper, it's (200 / size of squad)% per trooper. So 40% each for clanners, 34% each for C*/WoB. But it's probably ten years since I checked...

[Natasha Kerensky]

SSWMs are also good for Active Probes and Improved Sensors, which, like TAG, a point or squad only needs one of to get the effect. 

I’ve also used them for ECM Suites, but I think that’s me house ruling, and not supported by official errata.

The new Callisto Clan Medium BA sorta shows what SSWMs can do to mount large weapons, specifically an ER Medium Laser, LRR, or SRM-4.  But with the possible exception of the ER Medium’s range and damage concentration, it’s pretty underwhelming compared to the five SRM-2s carried by a standard point of Elemental suits.  You’re probably off designing around, say, a Spheroid Standard Medium Laser on each suit or using DWPs if you want heavy, concentrated firepower.

[Goose]

… Is there a book and page number for any of this?

[Daryk]

Well, I came up with:
Integrated Electronics and Sensor Suites for BA
and the
BA SATCOM Suite

But those are fan rules...

[ravensword]

… Is there a book and page number for any of this?

TechManual, p. 270.