Overview:
The mid-3050s brought with it numerous technological changes, as the secrets of the Grey Death Memory Core went from decoding to production. In addition to the Star League technology making its way to the Solaris games, and riding the wave of popularity of physical weapons such as hatchets, other forms of physical weapons slowly came into being in the Solaris arenas, all aimed at restoring the popularity of the games, which had taken a beating during the Clan War. Amongst the new items debuting was the spear.
First noticed in the lower end arenas, the spear gives a new concept to the idea of mech physical weapons. While the hatchet (and conversely, the sword) deals damage with a slicing attack, the idea behind the spear was more one of a piercing weapon, one that could penetrate mech armor to the internal systems below. Cast of a rigid steel alloy with a diamond-studded ceramic tip, the spear is attached to the mech's forearm and is used in a jutting motion to pierce the opponents armor in hopes of damaging the internals underneath.
The spear has become moderately popular in the Solaris arenas, but has only been sparingly seen in the Inner Sphere. Only a few FedCom and mercenary units are known to use the spear.
Game Notes:
The spear follows standard rules for hatchets, except for the following:
A mech may only mount one spear.
A spear attack has a Base To-Hit Number of 5, plus modifiers.
Spear attacks do 1 point of damage per 10 tons (or fraction thereof) of mech weight.
Spear attacks pierce the armor of the target. To reflect this, for every successful attack, roll once on the Determining Critical Hits Table with the following modifiers: (if the attacker is a Light mech, -4 to the die roll; if the attacker is a Medium mech, -3 to the die roll; if the attacker is a Heavy mech, -2 to the die roll; if the attacker is an Assault mech, -1 to the die roll). If the attack damages the internal structure of a location, this critical hit roll is in addition to the standard roll.
Weapon Statistics:
Heat Damage Min Short
Med. Long Tons Crit Ammo
0......*.....-.....-.....--....--.....*.....*....--
* - See game rules for this equipment.
Cost: 5,000
C-bills per ton
Battle Value: (damage * 1.8)
Availability: All Inner Sphere
Return to the rec.games.mecha page
Return to the Battletech Page.
Or go back to the Main Page.
Page last modified 31 December, 2003