[Colreb]

Hey guys,
I was just wondering, are there separate rules for artillery pieces such as howitzers, AT-guns, and mortars? If so, what are they? I've been looking all over Viper's website for rules regarding these and only LAWs and Tanks are talked about. These weapons are kind of a grey area. Since these weapons are not easily carried due to their size, there also should be some rules regarding transport safety.

[dorsai]

Colreb,

Funny you bring this up because there's a move afoot
to clarify the rules for heavy weapons over on the D-Day
forum. Understand that's not Viper, but others also use
them in their events as well.

Sincerely,

[r_clarke]

How WE do it is:

Bunker buster-any bunker/structure (some places say man made only, some do ALL) hit with 1 nerf will cause all players inside/behind to be "killed"

Tanks-(some games)-1 nerf hit and the tank is out.
or

1st hit emoblizes the tank for x amount of min, (but can still shoot), 2nd hit kills tank

1-nerf hit to any SHIELDS will cause the shield and player holding the shield to be "killed"


Most games limit the laws to 3-4 "LAW CARDS" must be on hand for the player bringing the LAW on to the field
Some Games limit the amount of NERFs each player can hold, some don't

[Colreb]

I understand the basic rules for LAWs, but AT guns and Artillery are slightly different in the sense that they are not easily movable and carried. Also, they can provide cover from paintballs. A basic LAW rule is any player within a building is dead except if there is a huge multi sided structure. In that case, I've been told that only the side hit would be cleared. Also, the range is very limited to LAWs. What are the rules regarding the bigger weapons? Since range is a lot farther than a regular LAW it should also have a much bigger kill zone. I've also heard some rules like 10ft left and right only for LAWs. What about the heavy artillery? Surely it should be doubled or even tripled in kill zone. Also, C4 is the only thing that can completely destroy a building, I think that if a AT or ART gun hit a building it should be destroyed as well. There also might be a time limit on how long a ART/AT gun has to wait once its destroyed. Finally, because of their size, there should be some rules regarding transport from one location to the next.

[Boom Master]

Well, this sport doesn't really have artillery. The insurance companies rightly have a safety issue with any projectile that has enough mass and velocity to travel over 100 yards. I'm working ever so slowly on an artillery project that will use grenade / flame thrower splatter / schapnel rules to eliminate player. That way, the honor system will work and not require any extra reffing staff. Hopefully in the 100 yard range. It will basically be an oversized squirt gun shooting drywall mud at god knows how many psi up to 3000. It would certainly take a mask off a player at close range so it would have to be a configured as an artillery piece where the muzzle could not be lowered below a safe angle and height. My plans are to put it in a motorized tank and make it mobile. With all the open topped bunkers on the fields, they would pretty much have to come out and kill my tank. I love being the center of attention. If anyone would like to move ahead of me in this project, feel free to e mail or PM me. I'll share my R&D to date.

In the meantime, whatever the configuration of the cannon, it is still a Nerf round and Tank/AT Nerf rules apply the same for artillery.

So if the rules don't address your toy, just ask the producer for clarification BEFORE the game. Well before. Viper is pretty flexible and willing to try things. He allowed a personal alarm /screamer to be used as an Electro Magnetic Pulse Grenade to kill cyborgs. Limited it to being used 2 times per day so it would have no real impact on the game. Still, we used it to eliminate all the players in the base where they were holding our general hostage. Mission points for our side. They were unsuccessful retrieving their general. Net points.

The noted above rules apply and vary somewhat.

I played one game where anyone within 20-25 feet of a structure was killed as well as in the structure. The HQ was "hardened" and couldn't be blown up but I hit it anyway just to kill their insertion standing next to it. Debate ensued but the Head Ref called the players outside the HQ out. Just doing my job creating as much chaos as possible.

Played another game with same 20-25 foot rule but the nerf could drop anywhere and players within that radius were killed. Problem with that is you pretty much have to hollar at a ref, hope he listens that you are about to drop a Nerf up there, and calls the appropriate players out. That didn't work too well. The refs didn't hear you or didn't see the Nerf float down onto the ground 70 yards away.

[Haz-Mat]

Each game producer will have their own rules for those item when it shows up on the field. I've seen artillery that had a shield and wheels use tank rules where only a nerf or demo can destroy it.

It's one of those items that needs to be looked at before any rules are made and explained to the players during the pre-game briefing.

[ShepsTank]

The artillery operator would have to work with scenario producers to decide whether to handle them more like tanks or more like individual LAW users as far as chrono, how close other players can approach, and if there is any difference in rocket hits against tanks whether they come from a tank or a LAW. Artillery would be eliminated with a rocket or grenade hit. If the artillery is eliminated so are any players operating it or hiding behind it. The artillery operators could be eliminated by paintball hits but they could leave the artillery in place for a teammate to take over. For example if it takes 2 people to move it and one of them is hit, the other can still fire and could try to find another player to help move it.

[Winger CT]

I will offer an approach I've worked on for a few years. But since any paintball artillery idea requires lots of open space overhead, it is of limited use here in the NE, so I will liberate this team secret.

Paintball ballistics can be generally calculated using some nifty on line resources. Here is the general idea (280fps, distance to impact):



So if you know the distance to a target, and it isn't too windy, you can rain paintballs on opponents vertically with not awful accuracy using paintball markers and something like this:



Getting a valid break is of course tricky, but at least this way you can calculate a target area in open ground. GIS mapping can often provide decent ranging info, if you don't have the $ for laser rangefinders. I originally built this for an EMR Castle defense game we played, but there wasn't time to deploy it.

Food for thought.

[Colreb]

Hey guys,
So I understand the basic LAW rules, however, I have a tank cannon that I want to use in the meantime as an artillery piece since it's so hard to move and carry. Eventfully, I will mount it on my future tank. So I was thinking some basic LAW rules would work, but with a few exceptions.....

1. When transporting it is neutral and or only can be taken out by a C4 and or a LAW.
2. It can be captured
3. One shot would completely clean out a building regardless of size unless like a major structure like a multi story castle, etc.
4. It could work like a satchel charge and destroy the building.
5. Once destroyed, the ART/AT gun must wait 1hr+ to be used again.
6. The gun must be completely deployed before firing.
7. The regular LAW crono speed does not apply as long as it's below the standard 220-250fps.
8. Anyone within a 30-50ft radius is out.

These are just ideas, but there does need to be some clarification in transporting.

[Boom Master]

Well, run your ideas past Viper and other producers you play at. Send him a sketch of your artillery. See what they say. Cut a deal.

I'm don't seem to be intrepreting the graph correctly. So help please.

An angle of 50 degrees get a paintball 50 feet. or is the angle 50 degrees from vertical which would be 40 degrees from horizontal which still seems off.

What is the increment on the graph for angle. 20 lines on the x axis. Each line is how many degrees? 90/20 is 4.5 degrees per increment.

Using that at 150 feet-30yards the elevation would be 4.5 x 5 or 22.5 degrees elevation. That seems close.

[Winger CT]

Boom, the angle is "angle of elevation", or inclination. So a firing angle of 50 degrees lands the ball at 267 feet.

The mortar effect is cool, though probably less precise due to the ball going higher and being more sensitive to windage. A ball fired upwards at a a steep angle of 75 degree would only land 127 feet away, but it arrives almost vertically.

The general idea is that if I can fire 100 balls between those two markers within a minute or so, (not too fast to maintain consistent FPS), I can get pretty good coverage of a smallish target area. At least if it isn't too windy. As usual, the rest is luck.

This was all based on a cool online Java PB ballistics calculator I found a while back. Lemme see if I can find the link.