MGT2 High Guard P40 allows ships to mount ground scale weapons on ships.
Pros:
They use no power.
They don't take up hard points or firmpoints.
Cons:
They take up DTons equal to their weight in tons with a 1/4D Ton minimum.
Weapons over 1 Ton must are on fixed mounts.
The primary purpose seems to be ground attack, but there is nothing saying they cannot be used in space combat.
This does raise some questions for weapons that do not do DD damage:
Since ground damage is divided by 10 against space ships, in theory a body pistol has a small chance of doing 10 points of damage which would be 1 point damage to a ship. On a small craft this might equal 10% of the hull points and automatically result in a critical on the accumulated damage rule. This seems pants.
The Companion has rules for vehicle damage which could be usefully implemented to remove this anomaly. Weapons doing less than 4D (plus some others) are considered anti-personnel and only affect vehicles on an effect 6+ in which case damage is reduced by 2D. In addition vehicles are tough and can take their TL off the damage rolled (as though additional armour).
Using the above rule a 3d+3 weapon even if it effect 6 could only do 1D+3 damage. As most ships are at least TL10 it means such small weapons cannot affect them (which is good). A 5D weapon that hit could do 30 points damage (as this is not adjusted downwards). A TL10 ship would reduce this to 20 points because of its toughness which translates to 2 points of ship damage. This requires a very lucky hit on a fairly low tech ship. If the ship had armour then the 2 points would be further reduced. This seems reasonable. A weapon with AP would reduce the effect of the "toughness armour" rather than ship armour (which requires a DD weapon with AP).
The next consideration is what skills are used. I believe that Heavy Weapon (Vehicle) is the only sensible option 250 Kg or less weapons in pop up turrets . Gunner is needed for 250-1000 Kg weapons mounted in a conventional ships turrets. Also any fixed mount required Gunner.
Finally there is range. Space Weapons don't have range bands, but that is because their range is often vast. I am inclined to keep the normal range and rules for ground weapons when they are used in space combat. Even at extreme range most small weapons will not get beyond Adjacent, but many will achieve close and some can reach into short range.
Since no firm points are required you can add as many small weapons as you wish. This makes some weapons attractive.
e.g.
The VRF Gauss Gun(CSC). This can reach 3 Km at its Extreme Range (Close Space Combat Range). It is 4d so is not reduced for anti-ship attacks. The AP5 means the ship toughness is less effective and it only rolls a little above average damage it will do a point of damage to an unarmoured ship. It is also Auto 8 for short bursts. That could mean 8 attacks. Against an unarmoured small craft this could be decisive. It takes up 1/4 DTon and costs only KCr25 on a fixed mount. A pair of these on the front of a launch could be a reasonable for a two seat low cost fighter with the pilot operating one gun and the gunner operating the other (allowing 8 shots per turn or 16 with cooldown).
The Medium Gauss Cannon (CSC). This easily reaches into close range is a 1DD weapon (so it threatens even armoured ships). It is AP10 (which should probably be AP1 vs ships but that is not the way the rule is written). It is also Auto 3 which means it is either +3 damage or can roll 3 to hit rolls. It takes up 1 ton and so needs to be mounted in a conventional turret or fixed point (and requires a hard or firm point). It is MCr0.1 (plus the mount cost).
The rail gun needs a fixed mount in a firm point. It can just reach into Short range, is again a 1DD damage but has AP20. RAW means that it can blast through Molecular Bonded Armour (which can be max 20 at TL 16). It is 3 DTons but costs a mere MCr0.075 (plus mount)
For Close Space range engagements this seems pretty good.
Am I reading this right?
Pros:
They use no power.
They don't take up hard points or firmpoints.
Cons:
They take up DTons equal to their weight in tons with a 1/4D Ton minimum.
Weapons over 1 Ton must are on fixed mounts.
The primary purpose seems to be ground attack, but there is nothing saying they cannot be used in space combat.
This does raise some questions for weapons that do not do DD damage:
Since ground damage is divided by 10 against space ships, in theory a body pistol has a small chance of doing 10 points of damage which would be 1 point damage to a ship. On a small craft this might equal 10% of the hull points and automatically result in a critical on the accumulated damage rule. This seems pants.
The Companion has rules for vehicle damage which could be usefully implemented to remove this anomaly. Weapons doing less than 4D (plus some others) are considered anti-personnel and only affect vehicles on an effect 6+ in which case damage is reduced by 2D. In addition vehicles are tough and can take their TL off the damage rolled (as though additional armour).
Using the above rule a 3d+3 weapon even if it effect 6 could only do 1D+3 damage. As most ships are at least TL10 it means such small weapons cannot affect them (which is good). A 5D weapon that hit could do 30 points damage (as this is not adjusted downwards). A TL10 ship would reduce this to 20 points because of its toughness which translates to 2 points of ship damage. This requires a very lucky hit on a fairly low tech ship. If the ship had armour then the 2 points would be further reduced. This seems reasonable. A weapon with AP would reduce the effect of the "toughness armour" rather than ship armour (which requires a DD weapon with AP).
The next consideration is what skills are used. I believe that Heavy Weapon (Vehicle) is the only sensible option 250 Kg or less weapons in pop up turrets . Gunner is needed for 250-1000 Kg weapons mounted in a conventional ships turrets. Also any fixed mount required Gunner.
Finally there is range. Space Weapons don't have range bands, but that is because their range is often vast. I am inclined to keep the normal range and rules for ground weapons when they are used in space combat. Even at extreme range most small weapons will not get beyond Adjacent, but many will achieve close and some can reach into short range.
Since no firm points are required you can add as many small weapons as you wish. This makes some weapons attractive.
e.g.
The VRF Gauss Gun(CSC). This can reach 3 Km at its Extreme Range (Close Space Combat Range). It is 4d so is not reduced for anti-ship attacks. The AP5 means the ship toughness is less effective and it only rolls a little above average damage it will do a point of damage to an unarmoured ship. It is also Auto 8 for short bursts. That could mean 8 attacks. Against an unarmoured small craft this could be decisive. It takes up 1/4 DTon and costs only KCr25 on a fixed mount. A pair of these on the front of a launch could be a reasonable for a two seat low cost fighter with the pilot operating one gun and the gunner operating the other (allowing 8 shots per turn or 16 with cooldown).
The Medium Gauss Cannon (CSC). This easily reaches into close range is a 1DD weapon (so it threatens even armoured ships). It is AP10 (which should probably be AP1 vs ships but that is not the way the rule is written). It is also Auto 3 which means it is either +3 damage or can roll 3 to hit rolls. It takes up 1 ton and so needs to be mounted in a conventional turret or fixed point (and requires a hard or firm point). It is MCr0.1 (plus the mount cost).
The rail gun needs a fixed mount in a firm point. It can just reach into Short range, is again a 1DD damage but has AP20. RAW means that it can blast through Molecular Bonded Armour (which can be max 20 at TL 16). It is 3 DTons but costs a mere MCr0.075 (plus mount)
For Close Space range engagements this seems pretty good.
Am I reading this right?
but I think that is because there were no DD ground weapons with AP in the core book at the time. I am inclined to agree with the reduce AP to 10% for ground DD weapons as that seems to be the intent.
