"M41 Pulse Rifles/M16 203 Combos in FUBAR" Topic

How would you do Aliens style Colonial Marines who are armed with M41 Pulse Rifles? The M41 has a grenade launcher and has a pretty decent rate of fire and that's in addition to the M56 Smart Gun. I would assume that you would use the rules for both weapons- the assault rifle and the grenade launcher and that the player would need to say what weapons are being used.

For example, I have two CMs in a fire team getting ready to engage a Rebel rifle squad. The range is 22" which is out of range for the grenade launcher, but it's in range for the rifle so the team would throw two attack dice.

Now lets say that the enemy moves to within 12". At that point I could either use the rifle at two FP or I could use the grenade launchers for 6 FP. That's an easy one there! Six dice over four any day. But that could get really stupid…

Lets have the same scenario at 12" with a full four man USCM rifle squad. That's three M41s and one M56. If I treat the M56 as a light MG then I would have 11FP for a total of 11 attack dice! Ouch… and that's for just 4 guys?

Now, in the Aliens Universe the Marines do have some serious firepower, but does this seem right to you? I'm going to try it out and see what happens in my game. But I'm wondering, how would you treat the M41 Pulse Rifle and others of its type. That includes the M16 with M203 launchers and weapons like it too.

How would you run them in a game of FUBAR?

shouldn't be that big a deal as long as your not allowed to fire more then one part of the combo weapon at a time.

Just be sure to adjust the weight of each combo weapon and keep stats for each function.

and actually the 10MM caseless armor piercing ammo might bring both weapons damage stats up a notch or two towards the light SMG anyway.

That's what I was thinking. I'm assuming that you can't use both weapons at the same time. It's either the GL or the AR.

I'm not sure about what you mean by "weight"?

As for the SMG… I really want to keep it seperate from the AR. I'm calling the 10mm part of the M41 an AR because I'm assuming that it has the basic range and abilities of an AR. Yes, the prop M41s were heavily modified Thompsons but we're talking sci-fi. I'm assuming that the M41 has optics and electronics that feed into the marine's combat helmet/heads-up display. This allows a small weapon like the M41 to have the range of a modern AR while staying very small size wise.

So at long ranges the weapon would go for a lower rate of fire in exchange for accuracy. Whereas the ROF goes up to to 2FP for ranges under 12" because it can go "rock 'n roll". The GL portion of the M41 only has a range of 16" which explains, mechanics wise, why there's an AR attached to the gun. I go with the AR at range and then switch to the GL as the range closes in. I might include a minimum range (say thrown GL range" and say at that point the M41 has to go to the lower FP of the AR to "be safe" (hey, who wants to be in the blast radius of their own grenade???). My only grip is that this feels a little too fiddly for FUBAR. Any easy alternatives?

This is what I did for Grenade Launchers, RPGs, and Man-portable missile launchers in my own version of Fubar-I they require ammo points to fire, and the ammo points come from a generic point pool for each force determined at the start of the game. The points are not tied to specific figures-anyone with the right weapon can use a point to fire a grenade, rpg, ect. The point pool is determined at the start of the game with a random die roll.

I like this system because it means those special/ heavy weapons/combos can only be used sparingly and when it seems they will be most effective. Also, since there is only one point pool per side, the booking is really easy and straightforward.

Just my take…

I agree with only permitting one, or the other weapon to be fired at a time. Need to limit the GL ammo too, as well.

6 FP for the GL seems a bit high.

Haven't looked at the stats lately, but a light mortar FP rating is only 3 FP. Granted, perhaps the rating for it is low, due to indirect firing, but the spread between the two needs to be looked at, since GLs are usually 40mm, and light mortars are 60mms in diameter.

I was looking for stats for medium and heavy mortars too, but don't recall seeing them. My guess is one, or the other would be in the 5 FP – 6 FP range.

I was confusing Mako. What I meant was my choice at 12" was to either use two riflemen firing ARs with 4FP or have them go to GLs with 6FP (3 FP per soldier).

I like your rule Saxon Dog. Limiting ammo will keep my USCMs from being too powerful. That's especially true because they also have a qualitative advantage over the LRL (mostly seasoned troops vs. mainly green ones). The LRL will have numbers and more heavy weapons.

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

Just remember, no matter how much firepower you have, when fighting hordes of aliens, which are hard to hit, and even more difficult to kill, there's never enough ammo to go around.

Don't forget, half of the "riflemen" have flame throwers. Seems like a silly ratio to me, but apparently there are a lot of bunkers that need clearing out in the future.

Billy Yank

Maybe on LV 426…

I treat them as special weapons that are issued if the mission requires it. Otherwise its pulse rifles and smart guns. I just wish I had RPGs and plasma infantry guns (PIGs). Sadly, QRF doesn't do them.

link

<shrugs>

You could try Khurasan Miniatures, they do some sort of Colonial Marines includng heavy weapons.

link

Look for the 15mm Federal Defence Force "Exterminators"

Jeff

Hey Jeffbird-

I have them. I use them as US Army. QRF are my Colonial Marines.