Gauss Rifle

Gauss Rifles are among the most deadly ballistic weapons any unit can carry. Capable of dealing heavy damage at long range they are well suited for both assault and long range fire support roles.

Overview

A Fafnir variant A fires one of its twin iHGauss

The Gauss Rifle works by propelling a projectile through the barrel using a series of powerful magnets rather than chemical propellants. This process enables the round to reach astonishing velocities while producing very little waste heat, giving the weapon its impressive maximum range and high burst damage. Currently there are four Gauss weapons deployed by the Inner Sphere: the LtGauss (light), the Gauss, the HGauss (heavy) and the IHGauss (improved heavy). In contrast the Clan only field one version, the CGauss (clan).

Similar to Standard AutoCannons and Ultra AutoCannons, Gauss Rifles can reach targets slightly beyond their listed range. Because of the high speed of the fired round it is actually easier to strike targets at long range with a Gauss Rifle than similarly ranged AutoCannons, both because of the shorter delay between firing and the round striking the target and also because there is little noticeable drop in the round trajectory.

Weapon Stats

Weapon	Max Range	Dmg Drop Range	Dmg Drop /m	Hit Damage/Shot	Damage Type	Shots /min	Charge Time	Sustained DPS	Speed (m/s)	Heat /Shot	Ammo /ton	Ammo cost /ton
LtGauss	1255m	1250m	200	700	Heavy Kinetic	11	---	149	3300	11	16	1000
Gauss	900m	900m	977	1230		8.5		202	2500	14	12	1850
CGauss			1092							18
HGauss	705m	450m	4.3	2125				349	2200	32	6	2000
iHGauss	800m	800m	977	1932				318	2400	29
Air LtGauss	1255m	---	---	700	Heavy Kinetic	13	---	176	3300	11	16	1000
Air Gauss	900m	900m	1092	1230		7.9	0.5s	189	2500	18	12	1850
Air HGauss	705m	450m	4.3	2125		7	1.5s	288	2200	32	6	2000
Air iHGauss	800m	---	---	1932		7.4	1s	278	2400	29

	All stats are current as of release 0.14.10

Gameplay & Hints

All Gauss rifle projectiles deal Heavy Kinetic damage, which does extra damage against Air units, making the Gauss rifles very potent anti-aircraft weapons in spite of their slow rate-of-fire and high skill-cap since a single hit will heavily damage most aircraft.

LtGauss

A smaller version of the Gauss, the Light Gauss Rifle is portable enough that even light units, such as the Osiris E can carry one. It maintains the longest range of any Gauss Rifle, though this comes at a significant reduction to its damage potential. Despite a loss of hitting power, the Light Gauss can fire its smaller rounds faster, farther and with greater accuracy than a standard Gauss Rifle — factors that combine for a much-improved effective range.

A note on the Air Light Gauss Rifle: It does not require the short spin up time that other Air Gauss weapons do. Despite this, pilots are still advised to give their targets a significant lead when shooting at long range as even Light Gauss slugs have travel time.

(C)Gauss

The "basic" Gauss Rifle. It combines good burst damage and high range with almost no heat production into a weapon that is solid in every regard. The Clan version differs little from the Inner Sphere counterpart, having only slightly increased heat production.

A note on both the Inner Sphere and Clan Air Gauss Rifles: They require a short spin up time before the Gauss slug actually leaves the barrel. Pilots are advised to give their targets a significant lead.

HGauss

The Heavy Gauss is one of the most powerful weapons capable of being mounted upon a BattleMech, dealing almost double the damage of the normal Gauss on close range. Of all the Gauss Rifles, its projectile travels the slowest. In addition the weapon's damage falls off significantly outside of 450 meters, making the HGauss most effective in close quarters. The main drawback of the HGauss is its ammunition limitations, being able to carry only 6 rounds per ton.

iHGauss

The Improved Heavy Gauss Rifle took the Heavy Gauss Rifle, and altered the ballistic properties of the projectile, resulting in a lower maximum damage, but removed the damage falloff associated with the original model, allowing it to inflict consistent damage at all ranges.

A note on the Air Improved Heavy Gauss Rifle: It requires a short spin up time before the Gauss slug actually leaves the barrel. Pilots are advised to give their targets a significant lead.

Canon

Standard Gauss Rifle

The first Gauss Rifle was introduced in 2590 by the Terran Hegemony, and despite its age has remained the standard all other weapons are measured against. While the Inner Sphere lost the technology in 2865 during the Succession Wars, the Clans were only able to make moderate improvements upon the weapon; reducing both bulk and weight. The Inner Sphere was only able to place the Gauss Rifle back in general deployment in 3040, just in time for the Clan Invasion.

The LtGauss was developed by the Free Worlds League in an effort to duplicate the lighter, more compact Clan Gauss Rifle. Although they succeeded in producing a weapon equal in mass to the CGauss it was only able to fire shells half as large, resulting in roughly half the damage. The up side, however, was that these rounds were fired at very high speeds, enabling accurate targeting at longer ranges.

It wasn't until 3061 that the HGauss was developed by the Lyran Alliance. With their love of powerful guns the Lyrans sought to not only close the technology gap with the Clans, but to surpass them. Although the final weapon was quite bulky and creates too much structural strain when fired to be mounted outside of the torso, the HGauss succeeded in this goal. Unfortunately the velocity of the round dropped off significantly after being fired, requiring short range for maximum effectiveness. In addition the weapon was powerful enough that when fired from an unbraced bipedal 'Mech the whole unit was destabilized and risked making it fall down.

Work on the Improved Heavy Gauss Rifle began in 3061 after the Heavy Gauss Rifle entered production. Though the Heavy Gauss Rifle was mostly effective, engineers thought they could improve the ballistic performance of the projectile. This would lead to a more consistent damage profile, making the Improved Heavy Gauss Rifle effective at all ranges. After four years of work, the engineers had created a weapon that occupied the same amount of space as the Heavy Gauss Rifle but was able to inflict consistent damage at all ranges.

BattleTech reference

Usage

The following assets equip Gauss Rifles:

Asset	Type	Faction	Tons	LtGauss	(c)Gauss	HGauss	iHGauss	Air LtGauss	Air Gauss	Air HGauss	Air iHGauss
Osiris E	Mech	IS	30	1
Uller A	Mech	CL	30		1
HollanderII Prime	Mech	IS	45		1
HollanderII A	Mech	IS	45			1
HollanderII D	Mech	IS	45	1
Shadowcat Prime	Mech	CL	45		1
Shadowcat C	Mech	CL	45		1
Uziel A	Mech	IS	50	2
Stormcrow G	Mech	CL	55		1
Argus A	Mech	IS	60		1
Rifleman C	Mech	IS	60	2
Vulture A	Mech	CL	60		2
Cauldronborn Prime	Mech	CL	65		1
Loki B	Mech	CL	65		1
Avatar A	Mech	IS	70		1
Avatar C	Mech	IS	70			1
Novacat A	Mech	CL	70		1
Thor C	Mech	CL	70		1
Thor E	Mech	CL	70		1
Madcat B	Mech	CL	75		1
Marauder E	Mech	IS	75				1
Marauder F	Mech	IS	75		1
Thanatos A	Mech	IS	75			1
Thanatos G	Mech	IS	75		1
Awesome A	Mech	IS	80	1
Awesome E	Mech	IS	80	2
Bloodasp Prime	Mech	CL	90		2
Bloodasp E	Mech	CL	90		2
MadCatMKII Prime	Mech	CL	90		2
Mauler A	Mech	IS	90		1
Mauler E	Mech	IS	90	1
Sunder E	Mech	IS	90			1
Sunder G	Mech	IS	90		1
Archangel A	Mech	IS	100		1
Atlas Prime	Mech	IS	100		1
Atlas B	Mech	IS	100				1
Daishi A	Mech	CL	100		1
Daishi B	Mech	CL	100		1
Daishi G	Mech	CL	100		1
Fafnir Prime	Mech	IS	100			2
Fafnir A	Mech	IS	100				2
Fafnir E	Mech	IS	100	2	2
Kodiak C	Mech	CL	100		1
Chevalier D	Vehicle	IS	35	1
Oro A	Vehicle	CL	60		1
Rommel F	Vehicle	IS	65			1
Shoden D	Vehicle	CL	70		1
Demolisher A	Vehicle	IS	80		2
Demolisher E	Vehicle	IS	80				1
Huitzilopochtli B	Vehicle	CL	85		1
Huitzilopochtli G	Vehicle	CL	85		2
Behemoth G	Vehicle	IS	100				1
Mars Prime	Vehicle	CL	100		1
Hawkmoth Prime	VTOL	IS	25					1
SparrowHawk F	ASF	IS	30					1
Corsair H	ASF	IS	50					2
Visigoth A	ASF	CL	60		1
Rusalka B	ASF	IS	65		1
Rusalka F	ASF	IS	65							1
Shiva C	ASF	IS	85								1
Shiva D	ASF	IS	85					2
Shiva F	ASF	IS	85						2
Xerxes D	ASF	CL	85						2

	All stats are current as of release 0.14.10

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