Armageddon 2089 n00b help

El Flint

Mongoose
hey, i just started playing 2089 and my GM isn't too great at it yet, so a bunch of stuff has been pretty controversial. one of the biggest probs we've had is infantry attacking warmeks. In the Personal Equipment section, there are things such as the HEAM 20mm grenades and the antimek missle launcher with damages of 4d6 an 8d10 respectively. Now i'm assuming these are the damages they would deal to soft armored targets. How would you calculate the damage they could deal to hard armor/ meks?

any help is much appreciated

thx,
flint
 
I think the simple answer is that personal weapons will not do any damage at all to WarMeks.

If your GM really wants to have infantry do damage to a WarMek or other hard armoured target with personal weapons, then the conversion rate for damage is 1 point of WarMek scale damage = 10 points of personal scale hit point damage. This is mainly included for when WarMeks fire at soft targets, but I suppose it could work the other way. Remember, though, that hardness still applies, and that the damage reduction is 1/10th of your WarMek's armour for WarMek scale damage- so the full armour is applied against personal weapons.

Therefore, while a WarMek with an armour of 21 on a location is hit by a WarMek scale weapon, it reduces the damage by 2- but against infantry fire, it will use the full score of 21 as damage reduction. After this reduction is applied, the hit will still need to do at least 10 points of damage to reduce the armour by one. A miniumum damage of 31 would be needed. This is why you can generally rule that a WarMek is immune to Infantry fire.

The AntiMek Missile is the one exception to this. With an average damage of 44, it could chip away at the 21-point armour plate in the example above. Personally, I'd save dice rolling and rule it does 1d4 or 1d6 WarMek scale damage, depending on how much of a threat your GM wants Infantry to be.

However, not every Infantryman, or even every Infantry Squad, is going to have an AntiMek Missile. I'd say that an average Infantry Platoon would have one, thus there would be an AntiMek Missile for every 3-4 Squads of Infantry. A Heavy Weapons Squad, trained and equipped for AntiMek operations, would have more- at least one per squad, perhaps even two.

As you can see, WarMeks are not meant to be brought down with hordes of infantry. They could certainly threaten a lone Scout WarMek if it was caught alone by sufficient numbers, but otherwise, Infantry are just something to waste ammo on.

A better use for Infantry in WarMek combat is in a support role. Infantry on foot are very hard to detect, but can still carry comms gear- a cheaper and more effective alternative to recon drones. A Scout WarMek may be invisible to other WarMeks and their sensors, but to infantry it's still fifteen feet tall and ten tons in weight. And while WarMeks may be immune to infantry fire, their support vehicles are not.

So, whilst WarMeks will not fall to a swarm of Infantry, the foot soldier can still be a threat. Instead of using AntiMek missiles to openly attack a WarMek company, they ambush the lone scout that is operating several kilometres ahead of the main group, or lie low as they go past then pick off the robotic followers. And as this is happening, they are using spotters hidden in the woods nearby to call in artillery strikes and report on their movements to their allied WarMeks or Tanks.

And all this is without my having read the Infantry sourcebook for A:2089 (the name escapes me- the Soldier's Guide?), which could well elaborate on everything I've said here. Your GM probably needs to buy this if he wants to use Infantry a lot.
 
LBH is right.

I disagree with Darren K on how common the Antimek missile is.
The weapon is based on modern systems like the RPG 7, the SMAW and a few others. While not every soldier will have one any squad expected to fight Meks will, plus many reloads (at $500 and 3kg each).

I would also suggest using Mines. Base them off of artillery rounds but reduce weight by 25% and cost by 50%


--
Lane
 
Lane Shutt said:
While not every soldier will have one any squad expected to fight Meks will, plus many reloads (at $500 and 3kg each).
--
Lane

This was why I said that whilst the average Infantry squad wouldn't have them, specialist Heavy Weapons squads would have two or three per squad. After all, I can't see any other type of squad being sent up against any form of Armour, be it Tanks or WarMeks, as anything other than a desperation measure.
 
lastbesthope said:
You'd be amazed hopw often people resort to desperation measures in warfare, both fictional and real world.

LBH

True, but that doesn't change the fact that these desperately deployed troops will be low on effective anti-armour weapons and thus unlikely to do any significant damage.
 
Yes to your first point, not necessarily to the second:

"The Mek may be king of the battlefield, but the infantryman is a sneaky b*****d and doesn't fight fair"

LBH
 
Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on how exactly a group of Infantrymen is going to take out a Heavy WarMek?

Apart from the few points I've raised above, any effective tactic for non-specialist Infantry fighting a WarMek is essentially going to rely on any other situation where one side completely outclasses another. They are going to hope that the WarMek pilot makes a stupid mistake which they can then exploit, because barring such a mistake the WarMek is immune to anything they can do.

So they might give a nasty surprise to a company of rookie pilots in cheap WarMeks, but to an established company the Infantry will be nothing but target practice, assuming they bother to waste the ammo.
 
DarrenK said:
Perhaps you'd care to elaborate on how exactly a group of Infantrymen is going to take out a Heavy WarMek?

Very carefully, any way they can.

Terrain is important, you can snipe at their supply lines and stores depots before confronting them head on, etc.

The line I quoted above is from the, as yet only, A:2089 novel "Standing Alone", by Michael J Dougherty (MJD on these forums) and is well worth a read.

LBH
 
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