"Savannah in Dirtside" Topic

I've done my first vehicle design, let's see if I've done it right.

This is the 1:285 scale Savannah GEV from Battletech, which I'm counting as Class 1 (Very Small). Armed with a Direct Fire Fusion Gun (DFFG) of size 1 in a fixed mount, plus the "free" Anti-Personnel Support Weapon (APSW). (Leaves me with 3 unused capacity points, but I can't see anything useful to do with them.)

I'm putting a Fusion Generation Plant (FGP) in, not that it's needed, but it matches the rest of my intended force. Speed: Fast GEV.

Matching its fellow (planned) vehicles, I'm also looking at Fire Control: Enhanced and ECM: basic.

Points-wise: VSP 5, BVP 6, +4 FGP, +4 fast GEV, +15 DFFG1, +8 enhanced firecon, +15 basic ECM, total = 52

Sounds reasonable but I didn't double check the points values. I always use Andy Cowell's page and it works for me.

According to Aaron Clarke/Andreas Uday and their Xcel verison, you cost out at 48 points, but that counts with a BVP of 5 and VSP of 5. Not sure where the discrepancy is.

But the 3 points capacity spare is correct; My suggestion in this situation is to add extra APSW as infantry can be ahrd to hit and firing multiple APSW is advisable.

Make the fusion gun size class 2 ? Add apfc ?

Assume that's with Armor 1? The FireCon cost should be 4, not 8, for a total of 48 points as written. I'd advise adding an APFC system to use one of your unspent capacity – it only adds 5 to the cost, and helps enormously when dealing with infantry at close range, which is where you're going to be with the myopic range of a DFFG-1.

Note that you can't add a second APSW – you can only have one weapon system (plus the freebie APSW) on a Class 1 vehicle. Upgrading to a DFFG-2 would greatly improve your anti-vehicular firepower and slightly improve your range, but it would also cost another 15 points (63 total, or 68 with APFC) which is pretty steep for what I assume is intended as a cheap scout/fast attack vehicle.

Note that the point system in DS2 is not one of of its best features, and can be abused pretty easily, especially with missile systems. You're better off using point costs as a rough guideline for balancing games and making scenario-driven victory conditions rather than just totting up "points killed" at the end of a match.

I believe the intention behind the DS2 points system was really just to give you a way of statting up a vehicle and it's weapon systems in a "believable" manner.

Right – it's a starting point good for broad comparisons, not a 100% accurate evaluation of actual combat effectiveness. People tend to ignore that sometimes, hence my cautionary note.

And, seriously, it undervalues missiles quite a bit. Be careful about going overboard on them.

According to Aaron Clarke/Andreas Uday and their Xcel verison, you cost out at 48 points, but that counts with a BVP of 5 and VSP of 5. Not sure where the discrepancy is.

With Armour 1, the BVP should be 1.2 x VSP.

The FireCon cost should be 4, not 8, for a total of 48 points as written.

Corrected.

Make the fusion gun size class 2?

Good point. That leaves 1 capacity point to spare, and the cost goes up by +15 (bigger gun) and +4 (firecon), to 67.

Add apfc ?

Hmmm… would only cost 5 points, and would take up the last capacity point. 72 points.

Upgrading to a DFFG-2 would greatly improve your anti-vehicular firepower and slightly improve your range, but… is pretty steep for what I assume is intended as a cheap scout/fast attack vehicle.

I'll probably try out both designs, see which I like more.

Thanks for all the input!

"Note that the point system in DS2 is not one of of its best features, and can be abused pretty easily, especially with missile systems."

There's a way around the missile thing that I've used as a house rule – using a tiny marker die, a GMS/L has a maximum load of 6 shots, and a GMS/H a maximum load of 4.

G'Day

I've done something similar, opting for 3 shots for both heavy and light GMS systems, further shots are treated as reloads much the same as artillery reloads. a full explanation can be found here – link

Cheers

Derek

It's not necessary to use all the capacity. If it's a cheaper vehicle, or not full-sized, just leave capacity unused.