Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
I feel that one of the often neglected gems of TL9 weaponry is the 25mm Payload Rifle.
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It's a neat gun, but way too heavy for what it does, given the alternative. The 25mm UBGL does the same job as well or close to as well out to almost two miles while being so light (1.5 pounds) that multiple soldiers in a squad can carry them. The only advantages the 25mm payload rifle has is more kinetic damage (Basically useless), higher velocity on viper rounds (Which is nice, but hardly a deal-breaker; the 25mm UBGL viper round is somehow high trans-sonic), and the longer range is only going to matter if your infantry team decides it absolutely has to engage battlesuits or light-skinned vehicles at 2+ miles. It's not much of an answer to armored hovercraft; a 25mm shape-charge does a meager 5dx3(10), for an average of 52.5 damage, meaning you'll need to hit that armored hovercraft an average of four times to even force a HT roll to disable it. It could be a decent last-ditch option against them, but "last-ditch" and "two mile range" seems like two situations that will rarely intersect. If you absolutely have to engage such a vehicle at long range, the TML seems like a far better option, and at shorter ranges, the UBGL does as well as the payload rifle while the MLAWS or even IML (At a mere six pounds) do better (Generally being one-hit knockouts, and having higher hit rates if you make them multi-spectrum).
I could maybe see some use as a niche specialist weapon in a military force with power-armor soldiers who can spare the extra weight, or by specialist teams organized around that specific weapon in order to support the regular ground forces. At best, it fills a role similar to the automatic grenade launchers we have now, like the Mk 19 (Though at that point you might as well use the Assault Cannon). For most PC use, though, the UBGL probably does everything they'll need about as well and for a fraction of the cost and weight. The only time I see it being very useful for a PCs outside of a full-on military campaign is if they need to do some high-explosive sniper work from two-plus miles away, which doesn't seem like it would be that common of a thing.