From:	Nilo Nolasco <nilo@*******.com>
Subject:	Assault Cannons
Date:	Sat, 11 May 1996 11:55:40 -0600 (MDT)

Assault cannons are described in the SRII book as a heavy weapon
that "fires shells equivalent to explosive bullets, but without the
inherent instability." The generic autocannon and the Panther are listed
with a base damage of 18D and their vehicular cousins such as the Victory
and the Vigilant Rotary Autocannons which are able to be STAGED UP from
20D (I do not use SR's unrealistic rules on staging damge on autofire, I
have my own).

What weapons in today's military are classified as autocannons?
There are portable type autocannons carried around by specialized
infantry or attached to field mounts. More likely, they are mounted on
vehicles or on planes such as the A-10 Thunderbolt - the tank-buster with
is 20mm Vulcan cannon with its explosive armor-piercing rounds (correct me
if I'm wrong, but isn't that a rotary autocannon?). As many documentaries
and films I've seen on modern war, I have never really seen one in action.

Should autocannons have SOME kind of area effect? I've never had
a PC take an autocannon into a campaign (SERIOUSLY - see them try), but I
would imagine one autocannon round smack center into someone's torso would
be instant death due to the explosion upon impact. Since they are really
made to pierce vehicular armor (beig able to burn and punch through the
thick stuff), I would figure that if the unfortunate victim would be would
turn the vitim to nothing but chunky (bloody) bits from where he was
standing. I would imagine some kind of collateral damage would occur much
like the blast effects of min-grenades from a grenade launcher, but much
smaller and more centered. I could not imagine one of the rotary
autocannons firing at minigun rates, if this is so at some PC's car or a
PC for that matter (heh, heh)! Suggestions, comments, advice, life
stories are welcome.

Nilo