Arrow IV

From Invasion3042 Wiki

Arrow IV is an artillery, indirect fire weapon. This weapon deals 20 points of damage to a single location. It ignores intervening terrain and line of sight rules. You are required to hit a target with a TAG in the same Fire phase before you fire the Arrow. The to-hit for the shot is always 5 + Range Bracket Modifier + Target Movement Modifier.

Arrow IV shares many similarities with the normal CBT counterpart, but there are also significant differences.

[edit] Main Differences

In Classic BattleTech, there is an Indirect Fire Phase, where you can launch Arrow IV. The round would then travel for a given number of rounds based on range before striking at its target.

In Invasion 3042, Arrow IV comes down in the same phase you fired it.

In Clasic BattleTech, there were several types of ammunition:

• Normal Arrow IV, which had a chance to hit the targeted hex of 7+Gunnery Skill, and it could not target mechs. It did 30 points of damage on a direct hit, 10 damage one hex away, and 5 damage two hexes away, always in 5-point clusters. (Please note: MegaMek reports the 30 points of damage, please confirm this is accurate.) This ammo scatters if (when) it misses.
• FASCAM, which had the same chance to hit targeted hex, could not target mechs, this ammo laid a 20-point minefield in the hex it struck. This ammo also scattered.
• Inferno Arrow IV, same targeting rules as the above, this one dealt heat damage to an area instead of actual damage. This ammo scattered.
• Homing Arrow IV, this used different rules than the three ammo types above. This ammo, instead of being fired at a hex, was fired at a mapsheet. On the turn it was to come down on, a 'Mech friendly to the Arrow would need to hit a target with a TAG in order for the round to hit at all. Once a 'Mech on the appropriate mapsheet was TAG'd, the Arrow IV needed a roll of 4 or higher on 2d6 in order to strike the target. If it hit, it would deal 20 points of damage to the location hit by the TAG. If the TAG missed, the round was wasted. If the Arrow rolled 2 or 3, everything in the hex would take 5 damage instead. If the opponent is within 17 hexes and you have a direct LoS, you can fire Homing rounds at targets that were TAG'd in the same turn, hitting on 4 or more.
• There are Smoke and Cluster Arrow IV rounds, but I have not used them.

In Invasion3042, there is only one type of ammunition:

• Homing Arrow IV. This requires a unit be TAG'd before you can even fire the launcher. This means that in a 120 second fire phase, you must fire a TAG at a unit and have it hit, and then fire the Arrow IV. The to-hit number is 6, modified by target movement and range. On April 1st, 2009, Reload stated in the main chat room the ranges for this weapon were changed to 17-18 Short, 19-34 Medium, 35-51 Long, a 25% reduction in range. Previously, these numbers had been 17-34 Short, 35-51 Medium, 52-68 Long. This cannot be direct-fired in Invasion3042. (Although the AI has been known to direct-fire it.)

[edit] Controversy

Arrow IV is one of the main points of controversy within the Invasion 3042 forums. The two camps are effectively the Arrow IV Users and the Assault Users. This is because the only modifiers for it are target movement and range, which makes it very effective at striking at Assaults. Those using Arrow argue that trying to use Light 'Mechs to counter 'Mechs using copious amounts of Clan Large Pulse Lasers is folly. Those using Assaults argue that Arrow IV is essentially a long-ranged AC20 shot. The A4 users say that all that is needed to defeat Arrow is a group of faster 'Mechs, as they would be much harder for Arrow to hit, much less the preliminary TAG. This has yet to be conclusively proven, as Arrow users tend to deploy Arrow IV only against Assaults.

Arrow IV has it tough partially because of the way Indirect Fire was implemented in Neveron, making IDF in that game a "Win Button". This has caused ReLoad to carefully implement this weapon in Invasion.

On March 23rd, 2010, Arrow IV had its +2 "to hit" modifier reduced to a +1, allowing Arrow IV to be a marginally more effective weapon. This was adjusted given that Arrow IV equipped mechs and spotters must be piloting/gunnery balanced (within one point of each other) (i.e. removing the possiblity of 5/2 OBKs etc.)

[edit] Common Tactics

It is common for Arrow IV users to park the Arrow mechs at around 40 hexes of range, preferring to let dedicated TAG 'Mechs get in close. Part of the balancing of Arrow is the fact that an Arrow IV launcher is completely useless by itself, you absolutely must field TAG units along with it. If you kill the TAG, the Arrow is useless as well.

There are two axes when it comes to TAG, Amount of TAG Used and Non-TAG Usefulness. The four extremes are:

• Large numbers of dedicated TAG,
• small numbers of dedicated TAG,
• large numbers of 'Mechs with TAG as an afterthought,
• a few 'Mechs that have TAG as well as normal weapons.

Illustrating these concepts are the following units:

• Battle Armor Fa Shih - TAG Variant, a large amount of units that ONLY TAG.
• Ostscout-7J, a 'Mech whose only purpose is TAG'ing. (You can field several of these, but not as many as the BAFS)
• Firestarter-B Variant A fully combat capable 'Mech even if you overlook the TAG.
• Timber Wolf-E Variant A fearsome 'Mech that also happens to mount TAG.

Naturally there are several other units that fall into grey areas between those extremes.

For the most part, 'Mechs that mount Arrow IV tend to have few, if any, other weapons. The one very notable exception to this rule is the Thunder Hawk-7KMA which mounts two Gauss Rifles and one Arrow IV launcher with 10 rounds.