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The AC5 is a great gun | |||||||
I've seen so many people on so many boards always diss the AC5 and then others are always nodding in agreement, as if a great concensus had been reached that the AC5 is sucktastic. And that this should be obvious.
I'm sorry, I don't see it. And I sure missed the be-all end-all discussion about it. Hence... When I look at the AC5, I see it in the context of 3025. And there is one comparable weapon: the PPC. Which, similar to the ERPPC in Clan space, is possibly the king of 3025 battlefields. Now, as opposed to the LL and AC10 match-up, the AC5 is only one ton heaver and one crit larger than the PPC. "Hang on" I hear you cry out, "why compare the AC5 to the PPC and the AC10 to the LL - shouldn't it be the other way around?!" - well, I chose to always view them like that because of one big factor: range. The AC10 and LL are solid medium-range weapons. So are the AC5 and PPC...on 3050+ battlefields. In 3025, they are low-end long-range weapons to me. Hence I lump them together. And the fact is, I like my range. I need my range. In 3025, a lot of the high-damage weapons are ranged up to 9. With "weapons" I not only mean the the ubiquitous AC20, but some of the usual suspects that excel at causing a hell of a lot of damage: SRM clusters and, more fearsome than *anything* else, banks of medium lasers. Not uncommon, either. And beyond 15 hexes, the above pair (and the lackluster AC2) are the only non-LRM weapons to be in range. I'm not overly fond of LRMs, they aren't as powerful as those short-ranged monsters, yet are just as inflexible. Hence, we return to the match. The AC5 not only is heavier (by about 14%) and bulkier (33%), but actually only does 50% of the PPC's damage. But once again, that weight and bulk are just increases of the smallest increment. The damage remains a problem. It does, however, only cause 10% of the heat. Now in 3025 days, that is huge. Let's do the maths, a PPC + 10 HS = 17 tons. AC5 + 1 HS + 1 ton of ammo (sufficient by any standard) = 10 tons. Suddenly the equation changes. I'll cut some other arguments short, we know what they're going to revolve around: there are always 10 fixed heat sinks for free. Heat sinks are multi-purpose, you can always use them for other weaponry as well. Bracket-firing is the bomb! I'll grant you that. But there are two problems with that: the PPC effect is cumulative. As soon as you mount more than one.... Put it this way: 2 PPCs, still only 10 HS = 24 tons. 2 AC5s, 2 tons ammo and, following the engine-mounted HS rationale 0 HS = 18 tons. And so on. And it actually gives the design to really play with heat in various circumstances. There will be many occasions where you just can't fire that extra PPC unless you're going for do AND die thing. Which really does make the Rifleman a much cooler (yes, in terms of heat, but pun fully intended :-P ) design than one would think. Yes, I will concede that the PPC is a better primary weapon. But the AC5 is definitely the better secondary weapon. It is, in fact, more versatile. IMO, the one additional Marauder variant that I would really, really like to see in 3025 would actually DROP 2 HS to swap its PPCs for AC5s and its AC5 for a PPC. Suddenly, the mech that had a beautiful PPC-PPC-AC5, PPC-AC5 fire pattern, without taking movement into account, has an AC5-AC5-PPC + running all day long possibility! I know I'd prefer that. The damage remains the same (40 over the course of two turns), it's spread out a little more, but the machine has become a lot more flexible. Anyways, the above is just a collection of thoughts I had over the years. I hope they explain why I do actually have quite a fierce liking of the good old autocannon. Allow me to summarise it all in two short phrases, remembering that this weapon really does belong into the "lvl1" era: - the AC5 has wonderful range brackets - the AC5 has the single best damage to heat ratio Yes, that last point wasn't spelled out before, but to my knowledge is true of all 3025 weapons. Really puts things into perspective, eh? On top of that, the AC5 earns a lot of hate when compared to the AC10. I ask you: why compare different ACs in the first place? Don't they form a single family of different intended alternatives? Face it: most of us regard the AC class as something like niche weaponry in the first place. And then, suddenly all ACs apart from the AC10 have their niches on a 3025 battlefield: - AC2: best range in the game - AC5: best heat-damage ratio for the AC5 (together with a great range and reasonable weight at 10 tons - won't ever quit advertising my liking of this weapon) - the doomsday device aka AC20: it's a doomsday device! = best damage in the game The AC10? As soon as you're not comparing it to other ACs you have it being inferior to its two competitors, the PPC (same grand weight but better range brackts and no ammo liability [though with 20 shots the AC isn't exactly in trouble] as well as less crit vulnerability, with its small size and plethora of HS) and the LL (where the damage discrepancy and range parity is offset by the LL's lower weight, while it further decreases the factor of vulnerability). See? I'm not just defending the AC5 because I feel like being a . I am perfectly capable of criticising a weapon of the ballistic family! It's just not the one that everyone else would pick! return to The Holo-Tank return to LosTech Cache |