Trepida Grav Tank

[AnotherDilbert]

Being distracted by the NASA launch I later realized it was a silly suggestion as it’s not like a “fifty caliber laser machine gun” as I initially thought.

Well, I basically agree that a tank should have some lighter secondary armament to combat infantry. Even if don't need to conserve ammunition, we might not always want to use the big sledgehammer with the high signature and massive collateral damage.

A "laser fifty cal" (or two) able to defeat battle dress would be ideal.


MT has rapid fire Pulse Lasers, but they are not all that cheap and less capable than plasma or fusion guns. Light auto-cannon offer far superior rate of fire.

[Annatar Giftbringer]

True, light autocannons or VRF Gauss guns are perfect addons to just about any vehicle for those situations where you don’t wanna waste an entire city block just to hit one guy. Lightweight, decent damage and good RoF.

As a bonus they can both use variant ammo to increase their versatility.

[paltrysum]

Resurrects thread from the dead.

Using a giant loophole in the rules, we can specify a fusion power plant and 75% reduced fuel capacity, still leaving us with years of mission range. This actually gains us two Spaces at a cost of MCr 8:

I don't think we can do that. Taking a look at the battle tanks Mongoose has published, I believe we're supposed to ignore the loophole. Take for example, the Qiknavra on p. 291 of Aliens of Charted Space, Vol. 1 or the Aslan Khtachwel on p. 118 of Pirates of Drinax Book 2. Looks like I'll have to settle on a larger Trepida. Still, I believe it can be kept at 30 tons, much like the Aslan tank. It can be 25 at TL 15.

How does this look for the rapid-fire fusion guns? Too overpowered?

[AnotherDilbert]

I don't think we can do that.

The loophole is not supposed to exist, someone just forgot to check... Banning it as a Referee is obvious, but it is still RAW, sadly.

How does this look for the rapid-fire fusion guns? Too overpowered?

Looks reasonable. Trading a bit of AP, Burst, and cost for Auto.

The lower AP will be keenly felt if deployed as an anti-tank weapon, but is no handicap against spacecraft. Hmm.

An open-minded Referee might even allow using them as extra point defence weapons aboard spacecraft.

[collins355]

I like the designs, but I have to pipe up and say you're twisting canon if you introduce these weapons at the TL's you suggest. There is no Rapid Pulse Fusion Z Gun in canon at TL15. Canon is that rapid pulse weapons trail their single pulse predecessors by a TL or so.

So in previous Traveller editions it has been established that at TL15 there is a Rapid Pulse Fusion Y Gun. At TL14 there is a Rapid Pulse Fusion X Gun. Etc.

You take the lower performance in terms of range/penetration in order to get the rapid pulse autofire bonus. As a vehicle designer you decide if you want to take that option.

Just on the Trepida, it was a vehicle introduced in MegaTrav. There was no Trepida in Classic, instead the Imperium used what came to be known as the "Imperial Heavy Grav Tank" which was a bigger and more powerful vehicle. For unknown reasons DGP decided to introduce the Trepida/Astrin combo. Originally the artist (Rob Caswell) designed it at TL15. DGP decided to publish it at TL14, again for unknown reasons (maybe so it could be produced on more worlds?). They also put its introduction into service as being in the latter years of the 5FW. I see it really as a mass-produced "mobilisation" tank adopted during wartime - it isn't particularly good but was produced in the Marches to meet wartime needs.

In TNE's Regency Combat Vehicle Guide, Dave Nillsen tried to make sense of the Trepida and introduced some better variants, including one at TL15 (called the Norris IIRC). If you're really into Imperial combat vehicles I highly recommend obtaining that book, as it is detailed, well-thought out and useful to start designing equivalents in MGT2e.

[paltrysum]

So the Z would appear at TL16 then. I hadn't looked at the TNE books. MgT2 vehicle construction rules are quite different from both MT and TNE, so it's impossible to fully mimic their designs, but at least I can get the names of the weapons right. Thanks for the note.