Confed weaponry after the truce

S

Shrike

Spaceman
Now, we all know that during the Kilrathi war, the main heavy weapon onboard Confed warships was the AMG, right? But after the war, they use plasma and particle beam weapons as their standard heavy cannons. (The Plunkett springs to mind)

Antimatter weapons would be undoubtedly extremely powerful, mainly due to the rather unpleasant effects an antimatter bolt hitting a hull would have. However, creating and supplying the AM must not be cheap, even with Confed tech.

Now, the Prophecy manual calls plasma weapons nearly perfect - they only need hydrogen for fuel, ie, they're cheap to operate. Now, in games where we do see AMGs, plasma weapons are comparable to other fighter-scale weapons. Fast forward to Prophecy.

Lo and behold, Confed is on some kind of economy kick, and they're using plasma weapons instead of antimatter ones.

Now, that begs the question: Are plasma weapons used as the main Confed heavy weapon because, for a peacetime force, they deliver adequate firepower and more importantly for Confed, are extremely cheap to operate and maintain OR has there been a tech advance that renders AMGs inferior to warship-mounted plasma and particle beam weapons?

Thoughts?
 
I always thought the main heavy cannon for Confed was the Particle Cannon, the battleships in Action Stations carried them. The Anti-Matter gun sounds more like a medium sized cannon rather than a heavy as it was used on destroyers and cruisers. Of course it could also bypass shields, but that only happened in WC2. So both are probably becoming outdated with the newer plasma cannons coming out. That's my guess.
 
I'm not familiar with novels, but I'm sure there are clear differences between fighter and capship variants of weapons, eg the humble laser.

AMGs were the primary capship to capship weapon of engagement in WC2 (aside from Connie's PTC, of course), and performed a similar role in WC3.

Since carriers are generally not used for capship engagements, they usually only mount laser turrets (and a few others) for point defence against fighters, whereas the Plunkett is dedicated to capship assaults and so, carries those nice heavy triple particle and plasma turrets.
 
The plasma cannons used by the Devastators in WCP and SO are from around 50% to 100% more powerful, damage-wise, than the AMGs of WC3. The cannons also take quite a bit of energy to fire (around 70% more than what the AMGs required) and so are certainly not “cheap” in that sense. The Plunkett-class and Hades-class cruisers mount the Mk4 variety.
 
Where did you get those figures from? In any case, the Devastator's plasma gun is just a scaled down version of the capship variant.
 
The stats are in the manuals (or from the gun chart compiled by LOAF and TyeDyeBoy). As for damage, AMGs are rated at 300, the plasma cannons at 460 and 600. As for energy, AMGs use 130nJ, the cannons 220nJ. The capship variants are at least as if not more powerful (and energy-hungry).
 
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