Solomani Confederation (Military)

[Condottiere]

The AK-103 is an assault rifle designed by Russian small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1994. It is an AK-100 derivative of the AK-74M that is chambered for the 7.62x39mm M43 cartridge, similar to the AKM. The AK-103 can be fitted with a variety of sights, including night vision and telescopic sights, plus a knife-bayonet or a grenade launcher like the GP-34. Newer versions can fit Picatinny rails, allowing more accessories to be mounted. It uses plastic components where possible instead of wood or metal, with such components being the pistol grip, handguards, folding stock and depending on the type, the magazine.


I hear the current version that they are introducing is crap.


Protective coatings for corrosion resistance of metal parts. Forearm, magazine, butt stock and pistol grip are made of high strength shatterproof plastic.[3]

The AK-104 is a compact version of the AK-103. It has a muzzle brake derived from the older AKS-74U combined with a shorter barrel. It is chambered for 7.62×39mm ammunition.[4]


Carbine or assault barrel, which at four dice minus two or three dice, doesn't seem worth it, unless you're reconfiguring the squad for close combat.


The current issue steel-reinforced matte true black nonreflective surface finished 7.62×39mm 30-round magazines, fabricated from ABS plastic weigh 0.25 kg (0.55 lb) empty.[5] Early steel AK-47 magazines are 9.75 in (248 mm) long, and the later ribbed steel AKM and newer plastic 7.62×39mm magazines are about 1 in (25 mm) shorter.[6][7]

The transition from steel to mainly plastic magazines yielded a significant weight reduction and allow a soldier to carry more rounds for the same weight.


I think the way you calculate the cost for magazines and feeding devices needs to be rejigged, not just one percent of the cost of the rest of the basic weapon system, since the idea could be designing the cheapest platform, and then just borrowing their magazines.


Specifications

Mass 3.6 kg (7.9 lb) empty[2]
Length 943 mm (37.1 in) stock extended / 705 mm (27.8 in) stock folded[2]
Barrel length 415 mm (16.3 in)[2]
Cartridge 7.62×39mm
Caliber 7.62mm
Action Gas operated, rotating bolt
Rate of fire 600 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity 715 m/s (2,346 ft/s)
Effective firing range 350 m (380 yd) at point-blank range[2]
500 m (550 yd)
Feed system 30-round detachable box magazine
Sights Iron sights, with a dove tail side rail for mounting optical and night sights


And we'll use that as the basis for the Clash Nine, that that I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

In theory, we should be moving towards battle rifle, but you need to make it competitive, somewhat, with at least early gauss rifle, and the need to punch through personal armour.

I don't recall at this moment, is Field Catalogue weight with or without ammunition (and magazine)?

 

[Condottiere]

As has been admitted by Mongoose editorial staff, if you can reverse engineer a personal or supporting weapon system, it's accidental.

Outside of some rudimentary poking around of the gaussified variants, I couldn't comment on those, yet, and you can't beat the advanced combat rifle for value, nor figure out how it got there.

However, the heavy variant does have enough substance to try it.

 

[Condottiere]

CLASH NINE


Weapon
. Clash Nine
Type
. longarm
Component
. receiver type
.. longarm
... base cost
.... four hundred starbux
... feature
.... advanced projectile weapon
..... cost
...... plus twenty five percent
..... weight
...... minus ten percent
..... physical signature
...... minus one level
..... range
...... plus twenty five percent
... actual cost
.... 550.00 starbux
... base weight
.... twenty five hundred grammes
... actual weight
.... twenty two hundred fifty grammes
... quickdraw
.... none
.. ammunition type
... heavy rifle: heavy advanced combat rifle
.... base damage:
..... four dice
.... ammunition cost
..... thirty round magazine for twenty starbux
.... base range
..... four hundred metres
.... base ammunition capacity
..... thirty rounds
.... actual ammunition capacity
.... thirty rounds
.... signature
..... physical
...... high
.. mechanism
... burst capable
.... cost
..... plus ten percent
.. totals
. barrel
.. rifle
... quickdraw
.... zero
... cost
.... 165.00 starbux
... weight
.... eleven hundred twenty five grammes
. furniture
.. stock
... cost
.... 55.00 starbux
... weight
..... two hundred twenty five grammes
Totals
. quickdraw
.. none
. cost
.. 770.00 starbux
. weight
.. 3'600 grammes
Accessories
. scope
.. cost
... fifty starbux
.. weight
... two hundred grammes
. gyrostabilizer
.. technological level
... nine
.. cost
... three hundred starbux
.. weight
... five hundred grammes
.. effects
... removes bulky
... aiming
.... movement
..... removes upto minus two

Notes
. ammunition capacity based on receiver capacity
. with gyrostabilizer
.. cost
... one thousand seventy starbux
.. weight
... four and one tenth kilogrammes
. standard magazine cost based on receiver, barrel and furniture total cost

 

[Condottiere]

Probably don't actually need the gyrostabilizer.

 

[Condottiere]

... heavy rifle: heavy advanced combat rifle

Probably not compatible with guns chambered for heavy rifle bullets, and it could be that they are a tad underpowered, having an effective range of four hundred fifty metres, compared the adjusted five hundred.

 

[Condottiere]

Interesting, we've hit the target of three and three fifths kilogrammes, though if that includes the thirty round magazine, I couldn't say.

Seven hundred seventy starbux doesn't make it Sten disposable, cost being halfway between an assault rifle and the advanced combat rifle, no electronics but a third more effective bullet; in a way, a lighter and more advanced Browning Automatic Rifle.

Modularization rule is still in effect, so you could either have a quick barrel change, or drop the stock in lieu of folding it.

If you pop the (rifle) barrel, it becomes minimal, which drops damage to four halved dice, but you get plus eight to quickdraw, though capped at five metres effective range; physical signature plus two, penetration minus two, and high velocity effects are cancelled.

 

[Condottiere]

It's quite possible to upgrade the Clash Nine, but the question would be, in a universe where either the advanced combat rifle or the gauss rifle is available, would that be a worthwhile exercise?

This wouldn't be the dawn of the age of interstellar exploration for the Terrans, who would at technological level nine consider the Clash Nine as cutting edge, and be quite prepared to add any number of features.

Once they meet the Vilani, who at technological level eleven are likely to have their variant of the advanced combat rifle, and also likely being reverse engineered by the Terrans, once they get hold of a copy.

 

[Condottiere]

You could compactize the Clash Nine, but that just makes it lighter, more expensive, and cuts down ammunition capacity by a quarter or half.

Bullpupizing it would give you a plus two on quickdraw, but increases cost by a quarter, and necessitates a full stock (in theory).

Quickdraw would seem to be useful in close combat, and folding a (full) stock might be a cheaper way to collapse the size and have more leeway in that situation.

 

[Condottiere]

For close combat, you could upgrade burst capable to full automatic.

For a longarm, that would be seven points of recoil, one more than could be absorbed.

On the other hand, you're not likely to care about that, if you need to hit as many targets as possible that are invading your personal space.

 

[Condottiere]

That would be ten percent over the ten percent by burst capable, which means twenty percent.

 

[Condottiere]

Okay, I think I now figured it out.

When the Terrans started started interstellar exploration, the Armalite pretty much dominated the assault rifle market, whether military or civilian. Expiring patents, optimization(s) and genericization, resulted in the AssLite.

Contact with the Vilani came as somewhat of a cultural shock, including that they had a superior sidearm, the advanced combat rifle, though I'm sure they had another technical term for it. To summarize, the advanced combat rifle is alien tech.

Since the Terrans were still stuck on technological level nine, reversing engineering the technological level ten advanced combat rifle resulted in expensive prototypes; however. there were aspects, such as the bullets (and magazines) that turned out to be native to technological level nine.

A new iteration of the AssLite was developed, based on the advanced combat rifle ammunition.

The Terrans had also gotten their hands on the harder hitting version, the heavy advanced combat rifle, and came to the conclusion, that unlike the advanced combat rifle, it was rather inefficient, but decided to revive an old Terran design around it's ammunition, and update it, specifically as a relatively cheap military design, that they could mass produce for their troops.

Hence the Clash Nine.

 

[Condottiere]

If we moved up to Clash Twelve, the concept would remain the same, full folding stock, full automatic receiver, rifle barrel, but you'd be ripping out the guts to replace it with a powered gauss mechanism.

Also, no recoil.

You could probably push it to Clash Fourteen, with five dice, back with one point of recoil.

 

[Condottiere]

Clash Five would be a parallel development with the Clash Nine, in the sense the Terrans would be trying to arm their civilian population with a gun that had more or less the same performance as the military version, rather than being the gun that further Clashes evolved from.

The primary difference would be manufacturing at a much lower technological level, meaning the advanced projectile weapon feature would be removed, which removes lessened weight and the longer range.

The question would be if you could replace the propellant in the advanced combat rifle bullet with ordinary gun powder, and retain four dice and default cost, less twenty percent range.

 

[Condottiere]

CLASH NINE


Weapon
. Clash Nine
Type
. longarm
Component
. receiver type
.. longarm
... base cost
.... four hundred starbux
... feature
.... advanced projectile weapon
..... cost
...... plus twenty five percent
..... weight
...... minus ten percent
..... physical signature
...... minus one level
..... range
...... plus twenty five percent
... actual cost
.... 600.00 starbux
... base weight
.... twenty five hundred grammes
... actual weight
.... twenty two hundred fifty grammes
... quickdraw
.... none
.. ammunition type
... heavy rifle: heavy advanced combat rifle
.... base damage:
..... four dice
.... ammunition cost
..... thirty round magazine for twenty starbux
.... base range
..... four hundred metres
.... base ammunition capacity
..... thirty rounds
.... actual ammunition capacity
.... thirty rounds
.... signature
..... physical
...... high
.. mechanism
... full automatic
.... cost
..... plus twenty percent
.. totals
. barrel
.. rifle
... quickdraw
.... zero
... cost
.... 180.00 starbux
... weight
.... eleven hundred twenty five grammes
. furniture
.. stock
... full
.... cost
..... 60.00 starbux
... folding
.... cost
..... 60.00 starbux
.... cost
..... 120.00 starbux
... weight
..... two hundred twenty five grammes
Totals
. quickdraw
.. none
. cost
.. 900.00 starbux
. weight
.. 3'600 grammes
Accessories
. scope
.. cost
... fifty starbux
.. weight
... two hundred grammes
. gyrostabilizer
.. technological level
... nine
.. cost
... three hundred starbux
.. weight
... five hundred grammes
.. effects
... removes bulky
... aiming
.... movement
..... removes upto minus two

Notes
. ammunition capacity based on receiver capacity
. ammunition and magazine borrowed from heavy advanced combat rifle
. with gyrostabilizer
.. cost
... twelve hundred starbux
.. weight
... four and one tenth kilogrammes
. standard magazine cost based on receiver, barrel and furniture total cost, in theory
. you can attach any scope available to the rifle, from any technological level
. should come with sling, no idea of the cost, but the odds are five to ten starbux
. since military, presumably bayonette lug
. modularization rule means one item is easily exchangeable, and I pick barrel
.. you pop it out for either quickchange or minimalization
.. very long for sniper option
. between assault and handgun option, probably handgun, since reaction is improved, which at short range is probably more important than penetration
. you could carry the two extra barrels, very long and handgun, but I think only designated marksmen will, and the rest handgun only
. of course, if you go full automatic, you're going to have to compensate for that extra point of recoil the longarm receiver can't soak up

 

[Condottiere]

I think I'm done with the Clash Nine; you could, of course, add more features or options, like a flash suppressor, but according to the new rules, even a basic one penalizes performance.

Begging the question, why isn't the advanced combat rifle so penalized?

Alientech, of course.

The Clash Nine is a technological level nine answer that the Terrans came up with to equip their troops with a Vilani stopper, at an economical cost.

There may be ruggedized and/or vacuumized variants, but likely that becomes cost prohibitive, compared with other available options, in the sixth millenium.

 

[Condottiere]

ASSAULT RIFLE


Assault rifles fire lighter projectiles than rifles, but are capable of a higher rate of fire and are more suitable to short-range encounters.


Weapon
. assault rifle
Technological level
. seven
Range
. two hundred metres
Damage
. three dice
Weight
. four kilogrammes
Cost
. five hundred starbux
Magazine
. thirty
Magazine cost
. fifteen starbux
Traits
. automatic two

 

[Condottiere]

The AssLite would have two prominent features:

1. Modularization, plus ten percent weight, plus twenty percent cost

2. Lightweight, minus twenty percent weight, plus fifty percent cost

Knockoffs could switch the fifty percent cost increase with hazardous trait, minus one.

 

[Condottiere]

Interesting question whether we should go with the obvious longarm receiver with six recoil points, or the assault one, with four.

Six allows three dice plus full automatic, whereas assault would be semi automatic, plus burst capable but at one point recoil penalty, with a half kilogramme and hundred starbux difference.

 

[Condottiere]

Since we're going for quality, mostly, lightweight modularization of the longarm receiver would be two and one fifth kilogrammes at seven hundred twenty starbux, as opposed to seventeen hundred sixty grammes at five hundred forty starbux.

I tend to think lightweight would be the result of later technological level developments. The next stage basically doubles the cost at forty percent weight savings, and that may be only something a professional sniper or assassin would need.

 

[Condottiere]

Full Modularisation allows multiple parts to be swapped around quickly and easily with only basic tools. For example, a Traveller expecting close combat might remove the barrel and stock of their rifle, swapping the barrel for an assault-length one.

My interpretation would include the receiver, which means you'd need strictly adhered to standards to permit interconnectivity, and that means the costs, and possibly the weights, won't tally with the book canon designed ones, only actual dimensions would matter.

Maybe an assault receiver that we could upscale to two and a half kilogrammes might qualify.