[Ultra Tech] Antimatter Rounds Seem Bad

[Anthony]

The most likely 'antimatter' warhead is actually more along the lines of antimatter-catalyzed microfission. I would probably use the rules for mininukes and note something like:
Micronukes (TL 10+)
A micronuke is equivalent to a mininuke with a smaller amount of fuel, possibly also using exotic nuclear materials; they use the mininuke rules but have a smaller maximum yield.
A micronuke with a 0.1 kT maximum yield is 40mm at TL 10, 25mm at TL 11, 15mm at TL 12.
A micronuke with a 0.01 kT maximum yield is 15mm at TL 11, 10mm at TL 12.

[PTTG]

It sounds to me like the antimatter rounds are remarkably effective at killing things, it's just it takes some time.

With a bit of rapid fire, you could easily cook all the enemies in a building like it was a giant microwave oven.

[Jasonft]

How worried are you about collateral damage? Also, what are you wearing for personal armor?

Personal forcefields and force shields are also an option. Radiation is not (usually) a problem if those things are on the field.

Is subtlety desired? Not if you are using AM charges. Likewise any desire to recover evidence or survivors to question.

What are your mission parameters and support budget like?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Jasonft

How worried are you about collateral damage? Also, what are you wearing for personal armor?

Personal forcefields and force shields are also an option. Radiation is not (usually) a problem if those things are on the field.

Not entirely accurate when dealing with antimatter.

A human in a TL12 Warsuit with a DR150 Force screen might think that his PF100 suit multiplied by another PF 150 for the screen or PF 15,000 total might think that he was fully protected but if an antimatter charge goes off at his feet doing 21,000,000 toxic rad he's pretty well fried at a dose of 1400.

If he'd taken his TL10 Antirad he might at least have avoided immediate blindness.

Antimatter warheads will produce such grotesque amounts of gamma rays that it would mostly force humans off the battlefield.

[Anthony]

Antimatter warheads at small yields are like the neutron bombs we used to hear about, only better; they kill people and electronics and leave most large stuff intact.

[VariousRen]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Not entirely accurate when dealing with antimatter.

A human in a TL12 Warsuit with a DR150 Force screen might think that his PF100 suit multiplied by another PF 150 for the screen or PF 15,000 total might think that he was fully protected but if an antimatter charge goes off at his feet doing 21,000,000 toxic rad he's pretty well fried at a dose of 1400.

If he'd taken his TL10 Antirad he might at least have avoided immediate blindness.

Antimatter warheads will produce such grotesque amounts of gamma rays that it would mostly force humans off the battlefield.

This is exactly the problem I'm running into if I wanted to use them, and that's only for one round. At the 10mm scale you could be firing a lot more than one round at your target. The radiation damage is so much higher than the physical damage I'm better off firing it way past my target to dose them with more rads than me, then fly off for a week and wait for that to kill them. Long term even that much radiation also doesn't seem like a good idea either.

I've decided that as attractive as antimatter rounds sound (A 1mg antimatter warhead is $5. The bullet itself costs more than that) they just don't make much sense for a person vs person firefight at any range. Instead, I've taken a payload rifle and have a few mininukes in my back pocket for when I really need to destroy something (preferably something far away).