18 replies to this topic

[Warenwolf]

I hope some kind soul will take some time to explain to me the following:


Below I am looking at stats for Trebuchet. I can see that he has two LRM-15 launchers. At same time I see that he has 8 LRM ammo (?) in left and right torso at 1 ton each. Does that mean that Trebuchet has 8 stacks of LRM ammo in CT and LT (16 in total)? Or something else entirely? Basically what I want to know is how many full salvos can a TBT-5N Trebuchet fire.





I am interested in this info because I am writing a short story for my own (and few others) amusement and would like it to be consistent with the canon as much as I can make it. I kind of figured out that people that are able to answer this would hang out at this part of forum.

[Jost]

Nope, sorry, that's 8 *rounds* of ammunition for each launcher. 8 firings of both launchers together.

Sounds odd to me too, but it's per canon.

[Arctic Fox]

The number next to the ammunition type is the amount of shots it contains. The Trebuchet has one ton of ammo in each side torso, each of which contains 8 LRM-15 shots (or a total of 120 missiles). So, if by full salvos you mean firing both launchers, it can do so a total of 8 times.

Edited by Arctic Fox, 22 August 2012 - 09:50 AM.

[Zut]

LRM 15 is the type of missile, the ammo 8 is the quantity of the ammo, you will have 16 missiles divided into 2 slots. I cant recall correctly, but this can change depending on the missile size, there are smaller missiles so those silos may hold more ammo for the missiles if used with an LRM 5 or LRM 10.

Arctic Fox, on 22 August 2012 - 09:49 AM, said:

The number next to the ammunition type is the amount of shots it contains. The Trebuchet has one ton of ammo in each side torso, each of which contains 8 LRM-15 shots (or a total of 120 missiles). So, if by full salvos you mean firing both launchers, it can do so a total of 8 times.

Artic Fox is right with the quantities.

[dashukta]

It is not a stupid question, but it is one that can be answered by checking out the BattleTech rules (an abbreviated version of the rules can be found via Catalyst themselves here: http://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=27)

Missile launchers in BattleTech--including LRMs, SRM, streak SRMs, ATM, and MRMs--fire swarms of missiles. An LRM 15 fires 15 missiles in a single salvo. Each missile does a small amount of damage (1 per missile in the case of LRMs), not all missiles in a salvo might hit, and those that do will be scattered all over the target.
To make bookkeeping easier, the ammo count on the record sheet does not count the total number of missiles, but the number of salvos. Ammunition in BattleTech is allocated by ton (with only minor exceptions), with one ton of ammo occupying one critical slot.

So: the Trebuchet carries 2 tons of ammunition. Each ton consists of 8 "salvos", for a grand total of 16 salvos of 15 missiles each. Each time a weapon fires, it expends one round--or salvo--of ammunition. As the Trebuchet has two LRM-15s, it can expend one shot per launcher fired. If it were to fire both launchers in a turn, it would expend a grand total of 2 rounds of ammo (one for each launcher) and send a total of 30 missiles down range.

All ammunition weapons in BattleTech consume ammo this way--the number on the sheet is how many rounds in that ton, each shot expends one round. Some weapons (ultra autocannons, rotary autocannons) can fire multiple shots in a single game turn, but they are the exception.

Edited by dashukta, 22 August 2012 - 10:49 AM.

[Kaziganthi]

dashukta, on 22 August 2012 - 10:46 AM, said:

It is not a stupid question, but it is one that can be answered by checking out the BattleTech rules (an abbreviated version of the rules can be found via Catalyst themselves here: http://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=27)

Missile launchers in BattleTech--including LRMs, SRM, streak SRMs, ATM, and MRMs--fire swarms of missiles. An LRM 15 fires 15 missiles in a single salvo. Each missile does a small amount of damage (1 per missile in the case of LRMs), not all missiles in a salvo might hit, and those that do will be scattered all over the target.
To make bookkeeping easier, the ammo count on the record sheet does not count the total number of missiles, but the number of salvos. Ammunition in BattleTech is allocated by ton (with only minor exceptions), with one ton of ammo occupying one critical slot.

So: the Trebuchet carries 2 tons of ammunition. Each ton consists of 8 "salvos", for a grand total of 16 salvos of 15 missiles each. Each time a weapon fires, it expends one round--or salvo--of ammunition. As the Trebuchet has two LRM-15s, it can expend one shot per launcher fired. If it were to fire both launchers in a turn, it would expend a grand total of 2 rounds of ammo (one for each launcher) and send a total of 30 missiles down range.

All ammunition weapons in BattleTech consume ammo this way--the number on the sheet is how many rounds in that ton, each shot expends one round. Some weapons (ultra autocannons, rotary autocannons) can fire multiple shots in a single game turn, but they are the exception.

Its also used to help calculate ammo explsions. The number of salvos left multiplied by the damage of the weapon using it (in this case LRM15) is how much explosive damge the mech would take if the ammo took a critical hit. So its very important to always mark off fired ammo otherwise you may take 8 * 15 = 120 points of damage when you may only have 1 salvo left for that launcher which is 15 damage.

[Cannibal Cat]

A little late for this thread but 8 is the number of volleys of missiles it fires. So an LRM-15 with an ammo of 8 has 120 (15*8=120) missiles in it's ammo bay. Each volley from an LRM-15 can fire 15 missiles (LRM-5 fires 5 missiles/volley, LRM-10 fires 10missiles/volley, SRM-6 fires 6 missiles/volley, et.al.)

[dal10]

the funny thing is that by doing that machine gun ammo is the most devastating ammo explosion in the game. 200 salvos at 2 damage a piece. so 400 damage per full ton of mg ammo.

[Kaziganthi]

dal10, on 10 December 2012 - 01:21 PM, said:

the funny thing is that by doing that machine gun ammo is the most devastating ammo explosion in the game. 200 salvos at 2 damage a piece. so 400 damage per full ton of mg ammo.

Yep, which is why in TT rules no matter how many machine guns you had most carried no more than 1 tonne.

example

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Piranha

If memory serves me, only carried 1 maybe 2 tonnes of ammo tops.

[dal10]

Kaziganthi, on 10 December 2012 - 09:35 PM, said:

Yep, which is why in TT rules no matter how many machine guns you had most carried no more than 1 tonne.

example

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Piranha

If memory serves me, only carried 1 maybe 2 tonnes of ammo tops.

machine gun ammo could kill an atlas... as it only has 300 some armor. only thing that might be able to survive it would be a great turtle.

[Kobold]

dal10, on 10 December 2012 - 09:51 PM, said:

machine gun ammo could kill an atlas... as it only has 300 some armor. only thing that might be able to survive it would be a great turtle.

One of the many reasons I rarely equip MGs on mechs. Just give me a flamer and call it a day.

(MGs on vees with the rapid fire option though, totally different story)

[Darkaiser]

My Warhammer had the MGs stripped out in favor of more armor after I saw a buddy's Warhammer die to MG ammo explosion. Never again...

[Karl Streiger]

Darkaiser, on 10 January 2013 - 11:31 PM, said:

My Warhammer had the MGs stripped out in favor of more armor after I saw a buddy's Warhammer die to MG ammo explosion. Never again...

So you never have faced conventional infantry haven't you?

[SteelWarrior]

A wise man only brings the munitions he needs for the job. Any mech i field with mgs enters the gsme board with only 15 rounds in the bins. Same with any other mech that in my opinion has too much ammo. Its entirely legit to field units with incomplete ammo storages as long as you declare it before the game starts!

[Atlas3060]

*Shudders*
Machine guns set to rapid fire are annoying little squirts.
The damage is just enough to poke around in your armor to find crits, a poor man's LBX if you will.

Infantry are deadly if you ignore them with the new rules. Long ago a PPC could kill 10 troopers (1 point of damage to a trooper), but now you'll be lucky to do 1 damage and kill a guy while they plink you incessantly.
Though with the new rules, I LOVE my Firestarter!
We actually have people cursing at my table when that beast is near PBI.

Edited by Atlas3060, 11 January 2013 - 06:40 PM.

[Kobold]

Karl Streiger, on 11 January 2013 - 01:36 AM, said:

So you never have faced conventional infantry haven't you?

Rip out the MGs and MG ammo for a ton of inferno ammo for the SRM 6, and another heat sink. There is no way I ever plan to get close enough to infantry to use MGs on them. Makes way more sense to fry them from range.

If my WHM is ever within 3 hexes of enemy infantry, something has already gone horribly wrong.

Edited by Kobold, 11 January 2013 - 07:07 PM.

[Escef]

Karl Streiger, on 11 January 2013 - 01:36 AM, said:

So you never have faced conventional infantry haven't you?

My preferred custom Whammie drops the MGs and support lasers for 2 SHS, 2 tons of armor, and a second ton of SRM6 ammo, SInce I usually load that extra ammo as infernos, it works out ok.

[KalebFenoir]

dal10, on 10 December 2012 - 09:51 PM, said:

machine gun ammo could kill an atlas... as it only has 300 some armor. only thing that might be able to survive it would be a great turtle.

The tricky thing about Ammo explosions is that it happens INTERNALLY. So basically, when you cook-off, the damage is all strictly internal. The armour on the outside will probably be equally damaged by the explosion, but it's the fact that the MG ammo just rippled up your arm and through your torso, makes that external damage kinda moot.

An Atlas might have a grand total of 300 armour, but its internal is what, half that? 400 damage from machineguns tends to total any mech that doesn't have CASE in that location. (it's why it's designed. Blowout panels force the explosion away from the rest of the mech, sacrificing its section for the rest).

I got lucky in one of my recent matches. Was running around in my Centie AL, and someone sniped my left torso off completely. All I heard from Betty was "Left Torso destroyed. SRM ammo destroyed", and thought to myself 'Good thing it happened in THAT order. If that SRM ammo cooked off inside, I'd be a twitching pile of scrap right now!'

[Karl Streiger]

Kobold, on 11 January 2013 - 07:06 PM, said:

If my WHM is ever within 3 hexes of enemy infantry, something has already gone horribly wrong.

Well the best advantage for infantry is that you can hide them. I usually use them to set traps. When your Whammi walked into such a trap...you have dozen of infantry squads right arround your actuall position, hammering with SRM, Flammer, Machine Guns and Infernos at you Mech.

While the armor and mobility of a Mech is usually enough - i was once able to slew a Victor - only mech i ever killed with infantry however.

With all the new weapon improvements however it is really hard to use infantry in times of AP-Gauss, flechette SRM and similar weapons.