What is it with The Morrow Project and Incendiaries?

[ChalkLine]

They seem to have a hang up with incendiaries.

Most Loads carry M34 WP grenades it seems, and the first two Heavy Weapon loads are dedicated to incendiary use.

This jars when you think that the whole concept of their use is against their fellow countrymen by default.

Like it or not, flame weapons are extremely limited in use by various conventions. Not because they are out to spoil anyone's fun but because they are horrible and barbaric things. There is a whole different from having the horror of having a bullet pass through your body to burning alive. If I have to explain this further then there is a problem here. Flamethrowers have not been in the U.S. arsenal since 1978, when the Department of Defense unilaterally stopped using them.

Did Bruce Morrow really think there'd be no blow-back from using flame weapons so liberally?

Say our team is in a settlement. One of the team, out of ordinary fragmentation grenades, deploys a white phosphorus M34 grenade. Now there is a fire that cannot be suppressed. Non-combatants; children, sick and wounded, cannot escape the flames. So they burn to death or asphyxiate in the inferno. We have 'won'.

Sorting through the ruins is going to be hard on the team members. They have already lost their world and now they're burning the new one*.

But blow-back has yet to happen. Survivors will escape and spread the news. Allies will see the event and tell others. Next time we say 'we come in peace' to a settlement they might well know the truth; that we use the same weapons that even the Old World burned for being too barbaric.

Can you imagine what would happen if you were caught be members of a settlement that a flamethrower was used on? I shudder to think, but 'an eye for an eye' seems to be a common human trope.

Do flame weapons have a use?
I'd say 'yes'. There are some times that even the dreaded flamethrower should be deployed. Note that even with a flamethrower it's possible to give a warning shot (a 'dry shot' where you only shoot fuel without using the igniter. The enemy, now soaked with fuel, are given one last chance to surrender).

I think my main beef is that these things use up precious room and take up precious weight allotments. WP grenades, only useful in rare situations, take up space fragmentation grenades could use. Flame cartridges use up space ammunition could use. A flamethrower takes up room anything could use.
Really, they shouldn't be part of a 'load'. Instead the engineer should have a basic load and then a toolbox of specialist weapons available to them.

They just don't make sense, and especially in what is was meant to be a police action in the original Project mission.

(*We never think what the PTSD would be like for TMP team members.)

[mmartin798]

WP weapons are most commonly used for their smoke generating effect. They generate dense smoke that obscure vision that is also hot defeating thermal imaging from penetrating the screen.

Additionally, according to The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the fire fighting information lists these methods:

*The agent may re-ignite after a fire is extinguished.

*For small fires, use cold water spray, wet sand, or wet earth.

*For large fires, use cold water spray or fog. Do not scatter spilled material with high-pressure cold water streams. Move containers from the fire area if it is possible to do so without risk to personnel.

*For fire involving tanks or car/trailer loads, fight the fire from maximum distance or use unmanned hose holders or monitor nozzles. Cool containers with flooding quantities of cold water until well after the fire is out. Withdraw immediately in case of rising sound from venting safety devices or discoloration of tanks. Always stay away from tanks engulfed in fire.

So the overall effect from their use are not as dire as you describe, but still not good if used against people.