Design Sydney's Sniper Laser

How about sniper laser. Anyone got a cool sci fi Iron Empires appropriate name for that? A general designation rather than something specific is best. Anyone want to design it?

How about “Laser Lance”

H6/H12/H16 Capacitor, Heavy(5), Long Range, Heater, Requires Aiming

Requires Aiming (Ob limitation) +1 Ob for weapons fire in close combat or for shot opportunities gained via suppresive fire actions

too knightly. I’m going to break this off into its own thread.

I like the Aiming TT!

That’s a nice Tech Trait, indeed. It probably shouldn’t be that Heavy, though – at least as I imagine the TO&E, Scout-Snipers are mostly regular Anvil troops, not powered armor goons in Iron.

Agreed. It also doesn’t need an additional modifier in CC. It’s an “assault” weapon so it’s already penalized. But hey, what’s another +1 Ob?!

Damage is good – it’s brootal!. Capacitor’s kosher. Needs more/better tech traits.

Laser Lance - Not wed to the name - if anyone else has a better name go for it. I was trying to remember what the name of some of the weapons from the lensman series were; I’ll have to check my books tonight.

The reason for the heavy trait is beacuse I used the Assault Laser from the BE book as the baseline, which already had that trait.

In addition to a sniper weapon we should also burn up a “Sniper Scope”, this is where a +2D advantage to called shots vrs vehicles could be defined, or +1D advantage to Direct Fire firefight actions.

I felt the +1 ob in close combat was justified, since it made using this in CC just as difficult as using a squad support weapon. I could have made it a SS weapon, but many of those had damage in the Vehicle range even for incidental hits, and I didn’t want to make the damage that Brutal; the Mark and Superior as they stand are bad enough for most troops (and some light vehicles)

What about calling it the RILR Sniper Rifle (Real Impulse Long Range) - pronounced the “riller”?

Kinetic Impulse Laser Rifle (“killer”).

Rail Impulse Projectile Rifle or ‘RIP Rifle’ or RIP-R ‘Ripper

Oh Bleh. Does it have to be a Laser Rifle?

Overburn Pattern - ‘Rail Impulse Power Rifle’ - RIP-R
Gamma Pattern - ‘Ray Impulse Penetator Rifle’ - RIP-R

Great names - but Lasers don’t have projectiles, nor generate damage from kinetic energy, so I’m not quite convinced.

CEBW = Coherent Energy Beam Weapon

so how about CETR (pronounced setter) = Coherent Energy Target Rifle

Some re-working based on Luke’s and Syd’s feedback

H5/H10/H15 Capacitor, Heavy(5), Long Range, Heater, Requires Aiming, Bipod

Requires Aiming (Ob limitation) +1 Ob for shot opportunities gained via suppresive fire actions

Bipod (Adv, Cat limx2) +1D STR for firing attached weapon, only if previous firefight action was not Advance, Flank, Withdraw, or Close Combat


Design notes - I lowered the damage to match the Kerrn sword, as I reduced the severity of the Aiming TT and added the Bipod TT (don’t get something for nothing in my worlds). This still matches my expectation that it shouldn’t be used as a CC weapon (although is useful in the first CC action against forces advancing against a defenders positon), whist meeting Syd’s desire (I hope) that it be a weapon usable by ordinary troops.

Photon.Accelerator.Railed.Magnetizer Rifle - ‘HaRM Rifle’

Coherent.Plasma.Sequencer Gun - ‘Corpse Gun’
or /Photon

Magnetic Accelerator Gun - ‘MAG’

I like these! hARM gun and CorPSe gun would be in keeping with Chris’s convention. And I’d say hARM and CorPSe, without the gun, play better (Like ‘screm’ and ‘nail.’)

CP-SeP, aka Corpse Gun

“Cip-Sep” sounds good. “Get up in that bell tower with the CP-Sep, lieutenant!”

or even “See-Cep”…

…ok, whatever…but “Corpse Gun” sounds great!

I am not a fan of the corpse, harm or other “too literal” names. SCrEW pistol being the exception!

I’d be tempted to make it a Gauss rifle/coilgun.

How about: Multistage Magnetic Accelerator Rifle with Telescopic Optical Array (MMAR-TOA)?

I think the acronym acrobatics are gettin’ a wee bit silly…

I do like the coilgun/railgun idea. Energy beams scatter slightly in atmosphere and leave an ionization trail, making a big, glowing marker of where you just fired from (even if the actual beam is invisible, the ionized air molecules won’t be). That makes a solid slug preferable for snipers.

So how about “magnetically accelerated projectile rifle” for the fancy name, and for short: mag gun.

Or “mag rifle,” or even just “railgun.”

I imagine it as a big, blocky beast of a weapon, kind of like a contemporary .50 cal sniper rifle crossed with an industrial stapler. Does “ugly as hell” count for a -1 tech trait? Probably not…

how about a penalty for taking time to set it up (either physically or electronically—needs to sync up with an overhead satillite? or reload? uses some sort of ammo that is dangerous to handle (super cold or hot)?

or the one shot is so hot the barrel has to cool down (or even be changed out)?


just seeing a two man sniper team…one guy shoots and the other guy assists (as well as spots)…maybe he assists in ways other than spotting

Oh, and kinda like the Barrett, this gun going to be able to punch through a light APC or something?

just throwing some crazy shit out of my butt