16 March 2023

And In The End It Doesn't Even Matter

When you distill things down, there's not a whit of difference between any of the various 155mm HE rounds in GURPS terms.

Though...

The M107 HE round has 15.4 lb. of COMP-B or 14.6 lb. of TNT as a filler.

The M795 HE round has 23.8 lb. of TNT.

The newer round should do more than the older one.

The table says 6dx22(0.5) pi++ for getting hit with the projectile.  The linked explosion does 6dx8 [6d] cr ex.

According to the formula in High Tech 4e p.415:

14.6 lb. of TNT should do 6dx7.64 cr ex.  <-- This is the round in the table.

15.4 lb. of Comp-B should do 6dx9.29 cr ex

23.8 lb. of TNT should do 6dx9.75 cr ex.

Those get rounded to 6dx8, 6dx9 and 6dx10 respectively.  The steel case is good for 6d cut fragments from both.

The M107 is a TL7 round and the M795 is TL8, so they'll get marked as TL7 HE and TL8 HE and I'll make the newer round more expensive.

7 comments:

  1. 155 HE Fused quick a red smear is a red smear. No player character will survive it. An airburst depends on distance from center of explosion, any cover between and pure luck to survive. No current body armor would make a lot of difference given how little of the human body is covered by a torso hard plate and a Kevlar helmet.

    Otherwise, you're playing Monty Python's world and "It's just a flesh wound" as they lop off each of the Black Knights limbs.

    155mm quick hit against armored vehicles might be a little different but even if the tank is repairable (where in Twilight 2000?) the crew is pretty much broken bones and guacamole.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 155mm vs M1's frontal armor is mostly a non-event for the crew. They showed us videos.

      There is, however, a perfect hit from an HE shell that can crush the top of the driver's compartment. But it relies on the shot being, basically, direct fire.

      A direct hit on the roof, which is the more normal angle for arty to come from, is a bad damn day for the tank.

      Unguided HE is not very likely to score that hit.

      But we're in a world of guided stuff nowadays... Glad I'm out.

      Delete
    2. Also, I doubt that a person, armored to the max TL8 has to offer, can provide enough deceleration to activate even a super-quick fuse. The DR 37 of the OTV plus E-SAPI plate probably wont trigger it.

      But 6dx22(0.5) pi++ will certainly do a number on the hapless individual struck with the round. Even with the effective doubling of the DR to 74, the average hit still delivers 776 points to the torso. The average 10 HP grunt will be auto-deathed, nay, total bodily destructed seven times over!

      Thin pink mist rather than a red smear.

      Delete
  2. Oddly I was part of the medical team that responded to a old school 152 mm HE that mission killed an Abrams. Tank needed minor repairs (not everything is protected by Chobham) but the crew needed medivac. Mk1 Humans do poorly in a concussive wave.

    Sorry the video crew failed to show up for that event.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did specify "frontal" to make it a non-event.

      Every place else depended on not getting hit to stay alive and chipper.

      Delete
  3. Most tankers don't run buttoned up except when expecting fire. When I was driving a M60 you'd be amazed just how poor the ability to see through the vision blocks. But a buttoned up M1 direct frontal hit would still see some damage, the crew should be reasonably functional.

    The crew I hauled away were not lucky. One died cut in half, the rest including the gunner fully inside the tank was medevac'd to Ramstein and finally Walter Reed. Damage to the tank was from my viewpoint, loss of the 50 caliber and it looked like the coax as well as loss of sidetrack armor, antennas and such.

    ReplyDelete

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