Mini-gun on a Humvee?

[pmulcahy11b]

It takes an hard-top or armored HMMWV to mount a weapon. The mount itself (assuming it doesn't have one of the newer turret-type mounts or a CROWS station) is sort of a universal mount -- what weapon you can put on it depends on that type of pintle is attached to the mount.

[Legbreaker]

The M134 was trialled in the Vietnam war mounted on an M113. Although extremely effective, it was quickly decided not to use it in this manner due to the extreme wastage of ammunition.
It was like firing 10 M60's all at the one target point - nothing left, but it only takes one bullet to do the job, not hundreds....

I'd say let your players mount it but don't tell them just how much ammo they're about to chew through with little real result. You might also want to pay attention to the feed system - if they don't have one, then they're likely to run into problems with snagged belts, stretched links (when the belts snag), the need to reload every second action, etc, etc, etc

Mounted on a tripod in a stationary role should eliminate most of the feed issues (provided they've had time to lay out a few thousand rounds and don't need to swing the weapon around too much), but they'll still be firing way more ammo than they need to to get the job done.

[sglancy12]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

but they'll still be firing way more ammo than they need to to get the job done.

That really depends on the job, doesn't it?

It occurs to me that during the battle of Mogadishu, the Rangers in those Humvees roaring through the streets probably could have used miniguns to suppress all the snipers and gunmen blazing away at them from every window, doorway, rooftop, and alley way. Maybe the ranges were too close for the MK-19 and maybe the M2HB fired too slow... of course, with the M2HB "cover" stopped being an issue. That thing pretty much shoots through schools.

But still, the objective may be more about suppressing the enemy's fire than necessarily killing them. And yes, I realize that killing them sure as shit suppresses their fire. I'm just saying that when fighting guys whose total experience with miniguns may only be watching Terminator 2 and Predator, perhaps the weapon will be effective as suppressing them just because they are intimidated by the volume of fire and the sound it makes.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing

[Frank Frey]

I'd like to elaborate a bit on what Scott has posted. I've actually been inside one of those M113 Minigun Tracks. This one was an M113 ACAV that had been upgunned with the M134 sitting where the 50 used to be and with a 50 cal on a pintle mount where the M60's used to be. The trak belonged to a combat MP unit that specialized in convoy escort. The trak commander told me that while they could put out the firepower, the ammo usage was tremendous.
I saw what he meant when I looked inside and saw nothing but ammo boxes stacked all over the place. The M113 was a rolling ammo bunker with none of the real protection.
That's the real downside of one of these mothers. I guarantee you that once the enemy becomes aware of what you got, they will throw everything at you from ATGM's to flaming monkey poo.

Out Here,
Frank Frey

[boogiedowndonovan]

Originally Posted by Frank Frey

I guarantee you that once the enemy becomes aware of what you got, they will throw everything at you from ATGM's to flaming monkey poo.

hey if antenna's got stats for a cow flinging trebuchet, how about stats for flaming monkey poo?

[TiggerCCW UK]

@ Legbreaker - The Barley Pickers as NPC's? They could be mechanics in a village somewhere, spending all their time making homemade siege engines of death!

[Legbreaker]

Oh god no! :O

Can you imagine the carnage!?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by sglancy12

Maybe the ranges were too close for the MK-19 and maybe the M2HB fired too slow... of course, with the M2HB "cover" stopped being an issue. That thing pretty much shoots through schools.

That's something not really well-covered by the rules -- overpenetration. The last game I ever GMed, I did this to players taking shelter in a building made of cinder blocks with the spaces inside filled with concrete -- I managed to figure out that the KPV they were sheltering against penetrated the wall, a shelf on the wall, and a desk before it hit them (their players still took 4d6 damage each), but that slowed game play. Maybe I was being overrealistic or should had just made an educated guess...

Another thing not covered is overpenetrating a human body, something that becomes very important in CQB when there are civilians mixed in with the bad guys or if police are fighting bad guys in the same situation. I'll admit I have no good ideas about how to handle that one.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I hope your players have lots of ammunition and don't mind lots of recoil throwing their shots off target
http://shock.military.com/Shock/vide...=3&ESRC=dod.nl

[Legbreaker]

I think that video adequately shows the problem with mounting the weapon on a flexible platform....
At least with a tracked vehicle such as the M113, you're barely going to see that effect. Of course the ammo wastage is still going to be a big issue...

[cavtroop]

Keep in mind, that second video (from military.com) is a FIFTY CAL. Holy crap! It's the GAU-19/A - here is wikipedias page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-19

Never knew we had a .50 gatling gun, wow!

The 7.62 doesn't have much recoil, but it will go through an INSANE amount of ammo. Can't imaging anyone in the Twilight world having access to that amount of ammo, realistically.