Battletech: Why Do We Love The GaussRifle?
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- Опубліковано 24 лис 2022
- In today's video we dive into the GaussRifle and talk about some of the reasons why it's so feared, respected, and loved in the Battletech universe.
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#Battletech #CataylstGameLab #Tabletop #Gaming - Ігри
We love it for the same reason its loved in every other series railguns show up in but aren't just "everywhere"; its the most human of pleasures. Using technology to make something very hard and thick go very very fast right into the face of someone we dont like.
There is just something so visceral... Maybe it's a Cain & Abel thing...
Hey Orca, how yah doing? 👋😄
And by the way... Heavy Naval Gauss Rifle! 😚
@@CrazyGecko TRUE
Like, the natural evolution of the spear.
@@CaptScrotes Reaching out and... influencing others...
It's really interesting how the Gauss Rifle's properties give it a reputation for being a gap-closer with Clan tech in a way that most other Inner Sphere weapons don't. It has range, precision, and power to match its Clan counterpart. While it's lacking in weight and size comparatively, those aren't really disadvantages when you're able to field many, many, more mechs at the same price. Usually range favors Clanners (like the concentrated hatred that is their missile and PPC tech, to say the least of their ER-Large Laser being a 'medium range' weapon), and that lets them use their superior gunnery and armaments to trim down the numbers advantage. Can't do that to Gauss Rifles though, any time a Clan mech is in range to shoot, they're in range to get shot.
Think it really boils down to the Clan version really not being that much better, and the Gauss having the range to match them.
@@MechanicalFrog : The Inner Sphere, NOT being stupid, or tradition encumbered, hopped onto the Gauss bandwagon big time, just because it gave them 'near parity' with Clan weaponry. What has plagued the Clans, though they didn't know it at first, is numbers. The Clans can only field a few hundred Mechwarriors for each Clan... the Inner Sphere can field thousands, or even tens of thousands, if given some time to train and move them and their machines to the front lines.
This fact is why I believe the Clan's invasion is doomed, in the end. They are so vastly outnumbered by their foes that even having a Tech Advantage, and a slight advantage in training, they will be eventually swamped and killed off before they can take and hold most of the Sphere.
And all the Inner Sphere has to do to prevent a Clan 'win', is to perform the old Soviet maneuver... fall back, while making the Enemy pay heavily for every planet they advance. Eventually, you have major Mech factories in the Periphery, building massive numbers of Mechs, to throw at the slowly advancing Clans... until they can't advance anymore... and then the shoe's on the other foot!
A simile of this would be to imagine the Soviet Union of WW-II having the manufacturing ability of the USA, and still 'falling back' until it could outnumber its foes significantly to the point where the Germany army's 'quality' was totally swamped by the Soviet's 'quantity'.
Ridiculous numbers... like 30 tanks attacking a single German tank. This WILL happen to the Clans, if they do not find another solution other than frontal attacks to 'take territory'.
As 'screwed up' as Inner Sphere politics are, they are more 'liberal' than the average Clan way of doing things. Clan Ghost Bear being a major exception, of course. I do not see the Inner Sphere in any way willing to live under the boot heels of the Clans, and the Clans can never field enough Warriors to solve the problem, without losing for themselves what the Clans were founded to be.
I know... not really a 'Gauss' issue, but I felt it had to be said.
"Why Do We Love The Gauss Rifle?"
for me:
Because my Start into Battletech was Mechwarrior 4.
MadCat MK.2 with dual Gauss for the win.
Then came the MW4 Mercenaries and with it: Light Gauss and Fafnir-Mech, together: 4xLight Gauss on a single Mech.
I still get warm feelings whenever I remember that setup
Never a dull moment with the MadCat Mk2
@@MechanicalFrog to qoute professor Tex of the Black Pants Legion: "If the Madcat is a wrestler, then the Mk2 is Macho Man Randy Savage. Oh Yeah!"
Bushwacker with light gauss and lrms
Re. the YLW, Justin replaced the AC10 with an AC20. It was Kai's YLW that received a number of upgrades courtesy of Victor and the FedCom, including exchanging the AC20 for a Gauss Rifle.
Good call.
A Gauss Rifle and 2 Medium Pulse Lasers. Beautiful arsenal.
The Gauss rifle's a fearsome weapon, and don't worry about the math, they've said in fluff that its hypersonic, but 'only' goes at Mach 2 which isn't even in the ballpark of hypersonic, but regardless the kinetic impact of a Gauss slug would cause a 'significant emotional event' for the pilot of a 'Mech hit by one :D Great video!
Like in so many other sci fi games from the 1980s-90s, the science is a bit fuzzy.
The Black Watch's favorite Assault Mech, the Royal HGN-732b Highlander almost stopped the Amaris Coup in its tracks when the last stand of the Black Watch saw them cut a swathe through the Amaris 4th Dragoons with repeated Gauss Rifle headshots combined with the other firepower of that mech (and not to forget the Highlander Burial as well). It's a mech and a weapon to fear and respect in equal measure.
The Inner Sphere went nutty for the Gauss because while being slightly heavier and bulkier, in all other respects the IS gauss was identical to the Clan version. It was the one place they could get parity. Also, the Hollander is an amazing mech. It's kinda crap on the table top, but in universe its cheap, easy to build and maintain, and you can easily set up firing lines of them.
Agreed.
I adore the Hollander. It's the dumbest 'mech that still functions as intended. They could've armed it with a Heavy PPC, or even just an ER PPC, and been just fine. Would've had plenty of weight for the heatsinks and a few backup weapons. But they went all in on the silver bullet, and bless them for it.
Edit: It should be mentioned that I'm not referring to the actual Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle, which I don't particularly like.
Yeah, the gauss rifle is a great weapon. I was still actively playing Battletech when they were introduced into the game, and they were an instant fave. Though I'm pretty sure that the gun exploding when hit is half 'it's always been that way' and half game balance these days. (Newer capacitor technology shouldn't explode when damaged).
Gauss rifles. When you need to reach out and frag someone waaay over there.
The buck always stops way...way...way... over there, with 15 damage.
It's always been like that. Gauss blowing up its capacitor on getting crit was essentially the tradeoff for the ammo bins being non-explosive. They chose that risk in-universe (and it's still way weaker than most ammo detonations) to get more power out of a smaller/lighter package, I presume.
I play MW5 and my command Mech is the Nightstar and it goes without saying that my preferred role is that of a sniper. On warzone missions I can get get anywhere from 14-18 Mechs. I've gotten good enough that sometimes I don't even really aim and get one shot head kills. And the ragdoll Mechs do can be pretty comical.
An early scenario I used to run for my MechWarrior RPG/BattleTech game revolved around the theft of plans that resulted in the design of a monster called the "Gausshammer" - a Warhammer derivative that uses Gauss for its arms in place of the PPCs. On the borders of the FRR and the FC(LC) it involved espionage, intrigue and as the campaign reached its height, the Clan Invasion when the first Mechs rolled off the production line just in time for the players to face off against them. Happy days.
PS - outcome was the Clans took the planet, the factory was destroyed and the only surviving examples were the ones the players got to steal/salvage ... and then spend a ridiculous amount of C-Bills trying to keep them running.
Sounds like a fun scenario!
Now while the ft lbs of energy at the muzzle of a gauss rifle is impressive to say the least let's remember the drop of the round & energy would be substantial even for a ther fast & flat shooting round especially at long range, but I'm rather busy, but I'm sure someone has done the math. Anyone that has fired a large caliber rifle like a 308 or even a 50 BMG understands this. Love tge series & it's a great help for those of us new to the universe.
Yeah it'd be something to see in the real world. Thanks for giving the video a shot.
Fafnir-5X is an awesome mech to put up on the tallest hill. Though I recently found out about the Maximus, and would like to try it out someday.
Oh nice!
I am very much here for this. That opening pledge was great I could feel the era's of BT within. Subbed and +1 :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
6:37 balistics correction: heaver shots lead to lower velocities at the muzzle because more weight takes more energy to move. Those heavy projectiles maintain velocity a lot better because more weight also takes more effort to stop. The loss of velocity likely has more to do with surface area then weight. A good example of this is comparing 5.56mm m855 and m193. M193 uses a lighter 54 grain bullet and thus has a velocity aroubd 300 fps faster out of a 20" barrel. If you compare the velocity of distance of the 2 though you find there is a distance where m855 is actually faster. This is because both bullets have the same surface area but m855 uses a heaver bullet thst takes more effort to slow down and thus gives up velocity at a slower rate.
This is also part of why a 400 grain arrow flying at 300 fps with 80 foot pounds of energy hits harder then a 40 grain 22lr bullet moving at 1100 fps with 107 foot pounds of energy. Im not trying to pick any pro or anti 22lr fights here but lets be real. One of these 2 we all agree is gonna penetrate and the other we argue about online.
No worries. I'm no ballistics expert and am eager to learn new things. Thank you for the clarifying info.
Big. Beeeeg. Beeg Badaboom. Oh, wow. I never thought to take the tonnage of ammo and do the math like this. This. This is why I love this game. Perfecto.[chef's kiss]
Someone had to do it...
The Standard Gauss Rifle may be my favourite weapon in the game. If you want to reach out and touch someone from over the other side of the battlefield and have them know they've been 'touched', it's with few equals. And despite the weapon's raw weight, the low heat generation makes it surprisingly efficient, even on medium 'mechs. It's potential to explode is a serious flaw, but it can be accounted for, particularly if we're talking Clantech with it's auto CASE on all locations.
It's a prince of a weapon, and what it does, it does with few equals. Sure, it can't do everything, but when it comes to tearing tons of armour off of your foes at extreme ranges turn after turn, there's few that can rival it.
Outstanding calculations, especially the conversion of lbs to kg.
I only make math mistakes on days that end in y.
@@MechanicalFrog Classic.
I was never a great mech pilot in MechWarrior Living Legends so the Uller with the Gauss rifle was a fav for me, let me stay at the edge of enemy ranges and still support my team.
Reaching out and making an impact...
"This machine kills Clanners."
'nuff said. That's all you need to know why we love the Gauss Rifle.
I'd imagine that any infantry would have to have some pretty hefty sound proofing in their helmets, because a gauss rifle firing or going over you will cause some serious wash behind it and will be LOUD, depending on how fast it is (even if its like Mach 2) thats still going to be unpleasant for anyone in the flight path.
"Will it hurt my ears?"
>Oh it'll destroy your ears.
I mean, they also need some serious eyepro anyway, with how much of a high-energy laser lightshow the average fight involving Mechs and vees is.
Nothing ruins a clanner day faster than a surprise metal slug slamming to the cockpit at supersonic speed.
Who would win?
The result of ~300 years of careful breeding of lab-grown infants raised in a fanatic warrior culture to strife for perfection on the battlefield
_or_
One spicy nickel-iron boi?
Oh yeh the squared part of energy is the killer .......... such a nice weapon in game is especially nice for Inner sphere forces
A great equalizer.
Why do we LOVE the gauss riffle?
A-10 goes BRRRRRRRRRT!
Good ol' depleated uranium...
I'll admit it, I prefer PPCs. You can keep your AC-20s and your Gauss Rifles, so long as I can have me some of them there lightning guns!
A flavor for every taste.
Comes down to heat vs ammo management
Cerberus, I love that mech. I commonly used it in my TT lances. Usually flanked by 2 hollanders and something good up close like an axman or hunchback.
It's an underappreciated mech.
the nightstar is my favorite gauss equipped mech
In Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, my favorite mech was always the Fafnir. Two Heavy Gauss rifles. You don't need missiles when you've got those.
Because what's more fun than a portable point and shoot meteor gun?
It's nice to have the option, anyway.
So there's a mod collection on MW5 called Yet Another, focused around Yet Another Mechlab, and there's a series of upgrades that increases the reload speed of ballistic weapons. You can guess where this is going. Long story short I have a mech with equivalent gauss rifle fire rate as a UAC-5, and it's got 2 of them, with 136 shots. You can guess how battles tend to go.
Good times had by all.
I spent some time just crunching numbers for various hypothetical weapons at different velocities.
I am saddened that the Gauss weapon is catastrophically nerfed.
Lets use a 120mm cannon as a comparison
53.3 pounds @ 3280 FPS (1.0 km/s). The kinetic energy is 8,916,840 foot-pounds of energy
A comparable round going 9840 FPS / 3.0 KM/s weighs around 5.9 pounds, and according to the numbers I used that is close to a 60mm bullet (railgun slug).
Now using Battletech comparisons, Lets say the 120mm is comparable to an AC10. Lets give the advantage to the AC10 in weight efficiency and have the 60mm gauss rifle weight of shells being 1000 pounds per ton of ammo (50%), that is nearly 170 rounds (while the AC10 is 10).
Long story short, The gauss rifle should be the ballistic weapon of choice because the ammo should be hundreds of shots per ton and can compare to an AC20 in damage.
Play with the velocity as theoretically, the gauss round could travel much faster than 3000m/s if you had a near infinite energy source (like a mech does) and sufficient batteries and containment. What if the round was traveling at 20,000m/s?
I'd assume they're using a disposable capacitor that's part of the ammo - it's the only way I could justify the volume and explosiveness of gauss ammo in game.
@@muninrob
According to the rules I know, AC ammo, missiles, and the energy weapons are explosive. Gauss Ammo is not explosive, while the gauss cannon is.
@@johnsmithfakename8422 Damn, I want some of their capacitors/batteries now.
Mea culpa, I'm working off of 30 year old memories (FASA era player)
An AC/10 unloads a cool 100kg (~220 pounds) of ammo per "shot". Gauss Rifle unloads 125kg. It's less of a traditional slug, and more of a giant nickle-iron football that crumps up the target through sheer brute force.
Watching more reruns, still for the chancellor!
Joy!
We love it because when it shows up, we can use it to immediately replace the AC20
Fair.
Long range, high damage, 1 heat
What's not to love?
@@MechanicalFrog Damn right
Its the only IS weapon that can compete with the clans, the first true headcapper available to the IS (the ac20 was such short range that was hard to call it a true headcapper) and in an era when double heatsinks were scarce a gauss rifle was crazy good.
My first experience with the Gauss Rifle was getting one of my mechs head shot by the one of the damned things in tabletop play in the opening round. Wonderful weapon. Negligible heat. Great range. Very heavy, but worth it.
It sure makes an impact.
In MWOS7, got a Roughneck and a Thanatos with twin GRs. Not too shabby. Also a Marauder II with two light GRs in the overhead slots with two ERPPCs in the arms for snipe trading.
The Marauder II is a beast.
The Pillager PLG-3Z is what I consider the greatest mech that uses gauss weapons.
One gauss rifle in each side torso, 4 medium lasers and a large laser.
A 300 XL engine and jump jets giving it a respectable 3/5/3 movement profile for a 100 ton mech.
It has 14 double heat sinks making heat a non issue and it's 19.5 tons of armor mean it can take a disgusting amount of punishment, combined with the fact that only 2 MLs and the LL are in the arms it's somewhat of a zombie mech.
And if all that wasn't enough it also has battlefists for that sweet bonus to hit on punches.
I've used that mech once in MekHQ to try it out.
In the first battle, which was a large one, it achieved six(6), six goddamn kills. 3 of those were head shots with the gauss rifle and a fourth was a punch trough another poor sods cockpit.
That mech is straight up disgusting.
Dual Gauss is just a monster.
Man the Pillager was OP af. Probably why it made such a great villain mech in one of the Mechwarrior novels.
Maybe it's because my taste in eras skews pre-3061 but most later Gauss weapons feel like a military fever dream to me; they look impressive until I check the shots/ton and I'm like "that's a lot of tonnage to achieve bigger numbers and less staying power than an Urbie."
That said the original Gauss rifle is a thing of beauty. Not always the right weapon for the job, but it's peerless when it is.
It can sure settle an argument quickly.
JagerMech DG variant, my beloved
For when you need to reach out and obliterate someone.
I think part of the fascination lies in the fact that the weapon itself is mankind's ultimate rock thrower. Until we started using explosive charges, all of humanity's ranged war gear opporated on chucking something against, into, or through something. Even once we had gunpowder, we liked it best when used to propel a little lead rock. What is surprising is that the glorious Plasma Rifle isn't more popular. We like fire almost as much as we like throwing rocks. Having a fire weapon comparable to an ac10 with added heat damage is... compelling.
Maybe in time, as more players move into the IlClan era, the Plasma Rifle will see its day in the sun. It is on my agenda for a future video.
My favorite Battletech weapon.
Gaus’s kills love it Thanks APGauss is really cool to
Good times had by all.
I always liked the gauss rifle, it is a weapon with a truly magnetic personality.
...
I'll show myself out.
It is a strong field.
We use it for reach and pin point damage with minimal heat generation. That's why.
I love the Gauss Rifle. I remember playing a big Clan vs IS tabletop match, I was RPing pretty hard, so built a FedCom force that included a Hollander in every lance. My opponent didn't love them that day, those little dudes headcapped a Loki and a Stormcrow and we held on the defense. My heavy FedCom company held against the Jade Falcon binary in large part thanks to the Hollander.
If not handled, they can be nasty.
I like the Battletech gauss rifle because it is an actual gauss weapon that is named that, unlike the 40k gauss and the railgun in Halo 5 (which you can see is a gauss/coil gun with one of the skulls)
Yeah there seems to be quite a bit of overlap in the terms Gauss vs. Railgun in many sources. I try not to get too upset as it's all just playing pretend with big stompy mechs.
@@MechanicalFrog Halo only bothers me because of how deliberately they made it wrong. At least the 40k stuff was just them throwing random sci-fi/science terms at the wall.
+1 for also having a BA in History
It has been useful.
Is this a trick question? It's an amour piercing sniper rifle! One of the longest range direct fire weapons in the game!
Good times had by all.
I think my GR story would be head cap the big mech on the first turn... so we restarted the game 🙂.
Nightstar was always my favorite gauss welding mech. Just wish you showed the original Nightstar or even the MWO Style. Not that catalyst abomination that looks like it's from Project Phoenix TRO. Who ever came up with that concept and green lighted it should have his or her hand cut off .
At least you're handling it well. :)
Yeup as soon as I figure out what unit I want to put it in plan to do some kitt bashing to it. My issue with it is
1. The cockpit looks it has a foreskin. Going to use green stuff in an attempt to give it a classic or MWO look.
2. The hands are 100% unless in the position they are in. Going to cut the hands off and make them look like laser barrel.
3. The back looks well boring. Going to try to make it look a little more like the classics I'm guessing cooling intakes what they maybe. Maybe some 1950s fins.
I like it thematically but it's really the start of why I kinda don't like later time periods.
It's the first big break to the grand balancing of tabletop. It makes sense in the context of combatting the clans, and I love that narrative aspect, but in terms of actual tabletop, while it's among the least offensive balance shifters, it's still a big push away from the delightful struggling balance act of making functional, not entirely horrific Mechs that is my personal nirvana.
Back in MAAAH day, we had no gauss, Endo Steel was a lie, and a pirate king's mech would have a single double heat sink for fluff.
AND WE LIKED IT
Hehe
We had to march our Marauder uphill to battle both ways!
@@MechanicalFrog
And it probably fell over!
1 heat, 15 damage. 'Nuff Said. 😆
Gauss rifles and lbx20s for all!!!
It's Black Friday at Crazy Pete's Mech Equipment Emporium.
I wish they carved whistles into the rounds that make a sound similar to that screaming beaver looking thing you'd see in sniper elite nut shot memes.
Even though you can, the warranty will be voided if you fire beavers out of your gauss rifles.
@@MechanicalFrog The pros and cons of voiding warranties just to humanely dispatch screaming beavers at hyper velocity for the inhumane affect downrange.
In the words of Paul Harrell- "You be the judge."
@@GUNMOFO5 You make a fair point.
@@MechanicalFrog They don't call me "The Point Man" for nothing. 😏 Lol
long snipy boi go fwoom
Reaching out and ruining some poor mechwarrior's day
*loads Gauss Rifle* What's that? Make the world something something magnets and ferro-slugs?
XD
Cheers!
We love the holy gauss rifle because the clanners fear it
Seyla...
Love railguns because magnets fun
Can't refute that argument.
gauss rifle : creates a terrifying sound, and a very recognizable effect on impact (atleast in MWO) to make your foe think twice about pushing out of cover
me : so i put almost a 3rd of my KGC's tonnage into 2 guass rifles with 4 tons of ammo for each and half a ton in the head because they let me do that...
One way you can accurately (or near accurately) measure damages in Battletech is base the lasers. The lasers are color coded not because they're cool, but that's now much heat they generate when passing through a near earth like atmosphere.
Blue For large lasers
Green for medium lasers
Red For small lasers
8, 5, 3 damage respectively based on the grade of laser.
A gauss rifle does 15 damage per shot. So clear its producing nearly double the joules of energy as needed for a large laser to be a bright, blue in ionized atmosphere.
Someone far more versed in math and science should be able to figure out how hot a laser would need to be, and how many joules of energy would be required in order to get a laser to that heat, and then times it by the difference in power to that of a gauss rifle.
When I paint mechs, the laser color is whatever contrasts well with the mech's paint scheme. :) #RuleofCool
@@MechanicalFrog Oh absolutely! Paint however you like! Not here to tell ya that XD
But if any of the crazy mathmeticians out there wanna know the joules of energy and damage potential of these weapons, we got at least one strong indicator :3
Simply put Gauss Rifle are the overall most solid Ballistic Weapons.
#1 The (Medium) Gauss Rifle came out at at a time where Autocannons were either too weak or too short ranged. They replaced Autocannon-20s on most mechs in 3039 and beyond.
#2 Light Gauss Rifles while not perfect as a solid replacement for Autocannon-10s as well. Their range is so long generally only artillery can counter them.
#3 Improved Heavy Gauss Rifles if you can afford to mount them are terror-causing.
#4 AP Gauss Rifles as much better than Machine Guns, three times as much range in fact, while still being very light.
#5 Hyper Assault Gauss Rifles are lighter than average for gauss rifle, long range, and split their shots into clusters for higher potential critical hits.
I'm still wrapping my brain around the HAG as a BT fan who dropped out of the scene with the J-word and Dark Age. It's very cool.
@@MechanicalFrog Eh same as Im mostly a Battletech Videogame fan. LBX Autocannons can fire Slugs or Cluster shots, but most gauss rifles cannot, and dont even carry multiple ammunition types.
The Inner Sphere developed Silver Bullet Gauss Rifles that could only fire in clusters, no slugs.
HAGs are either Multibarrel MiniGuns or Shotguns depending on how you look. Theyre an interesting alternative to standard Slug Gauss Rifles. An HAG-20 is a pretty interesting find. HAG-40s are so overpowered you only get 3 shots per ton of ammunition and will probaby miss. HAGs as a whole as inefficient in ammuniton and Heat. So theyre "Anti-Gauss Rifles"
Well, that's an easy question: Because a 125kg nickle-iron football at Mach 2 solves sooooo many problems. 🤪
I can't think of a problem it doesn't solve.
@@MechanicalFrog Not having enough 125kg balls to throw at Mach 2 is that one problem that it does not solve.
Humans just love throwing things as far and fast as possible.
Fact Check: True.
Eyyo, you hit a series!! 3,000 before the end of the year? :)
It's surreal because my original goal was to hit 2,000 by the end of the year...
@@MechanicalFrog Yeyeye, seems like a snowball as long as you keep making good content. I think it's doable for sure! If not by Jan/Feb at the latest!
Its a rock thrower it's a very human thing to throw a rock at someone
You forgot the Falconer. 75tn 5/8/5 good armor GR ERPPC and 4 Med Lsr
How could I forget? ...the travesty...
I am surprised you didn't mention the Fafnir. Granted, it uses two HEAVY Gauss Rifles instead of normal ones, but...
Honestly, it slipped my mind. Most of my in depth mech knowledge is focused around the 3050 era, though I'm slowly working on the newer Dark Age ones.
@@MechanicalFrog if I recall correctly, Fafnir is 3055-ish
@@ranekeisenkralle8265 Yeah that's just about where I stopped paying attention back in the day.
Oi ! You mentioned some pretty good mechs for the gauss rifles but you didnt talk about the fafnir!! Dual heavy gauss for maximum pinpoint effectiveness! If you did mention it but i didnt hear it my apologies!
I have brought shame onto my house with this oversight.
So my question is, when a gauss round strikes does it convert to plasma? It seems to me that striking an object at Mach speeds would transfer enough friction heat to turn the round into plasma.
I'm not sure as I'm not a physics person but it would be a very impressive sight.
What game are you playing in the vid? Thanks
BattleTech, by Hairbrained Schemes. It's on Steam.
I know this is a video about the gauss rifle, but I can’t remember which gun was bad because it has a bad heat to damage to range ratio. Was it the large laser or the re large laser
The ER Large Laser is not great concerning heat.
@@MechanicalFrog ah thank you
Because headchopping a non-SLDF Atlas outside their engagement envelope with something nearly a third or less it's weight will never not be hilarious.
Fair point.
Demolisher II with two Heavy Gauss Rifles?
All the Heavy Gauss Rifles...
autocannons - are simple cannons from 2-20 and are simply fun to use
LBX autocannons - its an autocannon, but buckshot
gauss rifles - well, we've got shotguns, we've got normal autocannons, now we just need to make the ammo not go boom and make it a sniper rifle
Good times had by all.
Because its sadly the best balistic weapon, as any other tends to get screwed over by weight, heat, and range…. Its basically a clan tech weapon, in ideology…. All bonuses with no downside.
Though unlike clanners it does wieght more then a ac20, which is un-clan like balance
Math checks out as far as i can tell. You got sneaky and converted the mass to metric behind the scenes didnt you? If you had used the 225 lbs your number would have come out over a billion 'joules'. Well played.
I am continually plagued by math.
Because a head shot is an instant kill, and ClanTech can't stop that.
I know I'm late, but weights are not measured in freedom units. So, 1/8 of 2200 lbs. is 275 lbs, but you subtracted for casings, so I'll let it slide.
Gauss Rifle. A weapon that younger me did love, but as ive gotten older and continue to play some of these Mech games, its fallen out of favor. Ive grown to love the PPC and its derivatives.
Gauss is to big, heavy and no enough ammo. THen many games give it a rather long reload. Just like the Autocannon 20, I find they are to much investment for not enough pay off for a single weapon.
Happiness is stuffing a gauss rifle into an HBK 4G. 😁
Gauss rounds first, preferably at high speed.
*tink*
*tink*
*tin-pop*
O_o
good question, in practice it's not worth the tonnage.
Rule of cool?
@@MechanicalFrog likely, lets face it the concept of gauss weaponry is awesome. 40k and Perfect Dark dial that to a thousand.
Wouldn't that amount of energy sheer a mech arm right off?
Or at least cause the mech to be proned?
Possibly... but maybe 1k years of science has sorted out equal/opposite force.
@@MechanicalFrog space magic is a powerful force indeed.
Within the lore (not so much the table top) there are examples of Gauss Rifles and AC-20s knocking the mech that fired them over backwards, whilst the Heavy Gauss Rifle can only be torso mounted for exactly the reason you described. As for space magic, the Myomers that hold mechs together and move their limbs have a tensile strength dozens of times higher than anything we can build today. They're the pseudo-science behind mechs being able to move and fire without shaking themselves apart.
@@fix0the0spade
That’s so stupid. Gauss rifles don’t use propellant, so they shouldn’t have recoil.
@@combativeThinker ...Isaac Newton wept reading your comment. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It doesn't matter if you kick the projectile down the barrel with a chemical explosion or a fancy magnet, recoil energy stays the same. The only change is that a magnetic accellerator can draw the energy discharge out over a slightly longer timeframe and keep it smoother by continously accellerating the projectile down the barrel.
Gauss Vult
Gauss wills it.
Still waiting for actual gauss rifles
Some day... some day...
Technically man portable gauss rifles do exist and are in limited production (The proof of concept stage).
I have videos of some in action. UNFORTUNATELY they have less KE than a .22 LR
I hate and love the fact that you use Imperial. Hate because I'm just unable to understand what the numbers means. Love because that means that when I do the math and solve it using metric units I'll be complementing the info for other people (and geckos) that was just as lost as I am... XD
Did you hear about the 12 inch rulers? Apparently they're not making them any longer.
@@MechanicalFrog I have no blood idea of what a pound is, or better saying, I do, it just beyond the ability of my brain to convert it in something that I can compare in my everyday life.
@@CrazyGecko It's roughly the weight of 3 widgets.
What is this game I want it turn based rules
BattleTech?
Hello Frog.
The Gauss Rifle. Well, it really should not be called a 'rifle', but 'cannon' instead. Gauss weaponry is not 'rifled'. There are NO spiral grooves in the 'barrel' of the weapon. Any 'spin' of the exiting round is usually provided by fold-out stabilizing fins attached to the round that is fired.
'Rifling' the barrel of a Gauss weapon would merely slow the round as it made its way down the barrel, AND would cause massive heating of the round due to friction. What would end up exiting the barrel would no longer be a solid metal slug, or 'dart', but instead, be a simi-molten blob that would rapidly fragment and slow VERY rapidly due to air resistance.
In the game, Gauss weapons are highly prized, and rightly so. Even though they are massively heavy, and prone to explode if damaged, they output massive damage at very long ranges.
So far as I know, there is no reason not to increase the 'caliber' of Gauss weaponry. A slightly larger Gauss rifle, could fire the same sized rounds, further, faster, and do more damage... just by being able to fire the same 225 lb round at around 7+ Km/s.
Indeed, there is no reason to stop there, either. One can easily imagine a Gauss 'rifle' of really large size, firing the same sized rounds, at upwards of 20+ Km/s or more! Round speeds that might even reach 'escape velocity'. But, such a weapon would be immense, and probably could not fit on any Mech known, even the super heavy Mech types.
And then there is the 'Rod from God'. Consider a mini telephone pole, fired like a Gauss rifle, from a Drop Ship in orbit (300+ Km above ground). Enough mass and velocity (augmented by Gravity) to have most of the effects of a Nuclear Weapon (minus radiation).
Something similar to this was used during the 2nd Gulf War against Saddam Hussain. Barrels from old 105 mm recoilless rifles were milled down into elongated 'teardrop' shapes, fitted with GPS targeting systems, and fin stabilization, then filled with explosive, and dropped from high-flying bombers onto their targets. They were designed to penetrate deeply to explode inside Enemy bunkers.
All the 'Rod from God' is, is that same type of projectile, but dropped from considerably higher up, solid instead of hollow, and using kinetic energy conversion to create the 'explosive' effect, instead of using 'conventional' explosives.
When you're right, you're right.
TW-B. about as balanced as it gets?
It has the pew pew.
@@MechanicalFrog i hate to say this, because i am a slave to efficiency and hate waste: i find the timberwolf platform over-sinked, and therefore (IMO) beholden to energy heavy load outs. my standard timberwolf kit starts as a B and drops the gauss in favor of an ER PPC then uses the leftover weight for jump jets, an ECM, and extra ammo for the LRM. why am i like this. the gauss pew is so sexy.
The Goose rifle is still nastier
HONK!
Its an autocannon with fewer drawbacks!
Works for me.
@@MechanicalFrog They work for everything. My King Crab is the version with two Gauss rifles on it - and that extra range makes it deadlier than the two AC-20s!
@@Silverlightlive Clan Buster.
@@MechanicalFrog You know, now that you mention it, I've played this game since the late 80s, and I don't believe I've ever piloted a Clan Mech. I respect them, don't get me wrong. You'd be a fool not to respect their capability and firepower. I'd still rather trust my life to a Grand Dragon, a Crab, or a Phoenix Hawk than a Timberwolf. (Although a TImberwolf easily can go toe to toe with any 100 tonner in the Inner Sphere)
I don't mind when my friends play Clan mechs at all, but I just shy away from them. I guess I just love the old reliable mechs.
@@Silverlightlive Maybe some day...
Nooooo you mixed your imperial and SI units my dude! The actual muzzle energy is 306300 joules. Still impressive
I blame my public school education.
@@MechanicalFrog that’s fair. Americans will use literally any other unit of measurement instead of SI
@@decorumarmsllc257 Fair.
What mass and velocity did you use to get 306300? I tried values between 100 kg and 125 kg using 3000m/s for the velocity and got between 450,000,000 and 562,000,000 joules which lines up with what mechfrog got.
Because you can decapitate an Atlas at over 20 Hexes
MWO/PGI really messed up the gauss rifle. Adding a charge up to fire it while still keeping the capacitor explosion if critted despite having no real reason to do so anymore.
Sloppy "balancing", just disgraceful.
Just one of many design decisions that were baffling.
I'm sure it's been said, but it's not 250 pounds, it's 250 kilograms, per shot. or 551 pounds.
Depends on if you're using ton or tonne.
@@MechanicalFrog Well the entirety of Battletech uses the metric system, so I'd say that's pretty cut and dried?
@@randomnetsurfer ok. Do you want me to take the video down?
@@MechanicalFrog NO, no no!!?? Why would I want that!? It's full of good information, just one quibble with units!
@@randomnetsurfer k
I find it amusing that the "lost" the technoledgy to build something simple enough that some people in 2023 build primitive low power versions of it in their living room.....
Seriously, the limiting factor in the coil guns people make on youtube is inability to store/generate high enough levels of electricity to reach lethal velocities. Mechs have that problem solved with fusion reactors.
Yeah sometimes the tech is just silly... Like the light and heavy mortar being "re-discovered."
It is extremely unlikely that mankind will ever forget how effective it is to fire explosives out of a tube.
Wait, did you just say "250 pounds per shot"?
Doesn't BattleTech use, you know, the metric system?
An imperial ton is 2000lbs. A Metric tonne is 2205lbs. Close enough?
@@MechanicalFrog...no.
The game, and all of the products based from it, use the metric system. Sorry.