Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've seen a lot of planes with bombs mounted on the wings in the same place as the missiles on the stormraven model and I figured if the missile has a contact warhead, then why not drop a missile in the same manner as a bomb? Thus, I propose that flyers with missiles mounted under the wings, should be able to use them as bombs and preform bombing runs with them. I understand that using the missile in this manner isn't a typical delivery, so the missile would use it's normal profile with minus 1 strength. If it did not have the blast rule it wold gain the blast rule and have minus 2 strength, this will compensate for the force with which the missile would normally hit. What does dakka think of this? Any thoughts on further balance?

"In a modern military usage, a missile, or guided missile, is a self-propelled guided weapon system, as opposed to an unguided self-propelled munition, referred to as just a rocket."

Well, why not just add the option to purchase a Rocket or a Bomb?

The added versatility isn't really possible with missiles. Shrug

Yeah, I understand thats not how their typically used, but if you drop a warhead it still tends to go boom, I also planned on running this by my local players to see if they'd like to try it, just wanted some other opinions first

dsmith10 wrote:
I figured if the missile has a contact warhead, then why not drop a missile in the same manner as a bomb?

Because missiles don't work like that?

If it did not have the blast rule it wold gain the blast rule and have minus 2 strength, this will compensate for the force with which the missile would normally hit.

Missiles aren't bullets. The force of a missile hitting the target is pretty much irrelevant, and most guided missiles have either proximity fuses (for AA use) or a shaped charge that explodes before it hits the target. If you could somehow drop a missile like a bomb the damage would be exactly the same as firing it normally.

In order for a missile to be dropped like a bomb, it would need some adjustment before hand, I would suggest creating a jury rigged weapon profile that could be purchased separately and then be fired as either a missile or a bomb.

dsmith10 wrote:
but if you drop a warhead it still tends to go boom

Only if the engineers who designed your warhead were really stupid and/or want you to die in a weapons-handling accident. The explosives used in weapons do NOT explode just by dropping them, you need the fuse to set off an initial charge that delivers enough energy to explode the main charge. And the fuse is only going to do that if it's a simple contact fuse set to explode when it hits the ground and the fuse has been properly armed. A radar-guided AA missile, for example, will do absolutely nothing (besides breaking an expensive missile) if you drop it on the ground because it has a radar proximity fuse that only activates if it sees a target within the effective kill radius. A GPS-guided cruise missile is only going to explode when it reaches its designated target. Etc.

It isn't a gak idea OP. Come up with a special rule that allows you to switch the firing modes at the start of the game or something. Take it as an upgrade or something along those lines.

Ah, ok.... so I may have been mislead as to how missile fuses work. Looks like its back to the drawing board. Thanks, I learned much tonight

Yep, the missiles don't just explode when dropped. And most bombs also need activasion since WW2. There's even one legend coming from the USSR times when there were military trainings and one plain's bomb-holding gear went malfunction so that a nuclear bomb fell on the ground and started rolling across the plane-loan. It didn't explode though, cause it actually needs triggering which is not activated with a simple hit - it's not TNT or simple gunpowder, you know. The main idea of the legend was that everyone except for very few people went to ground and the ones that didn't just told: "What's the use of dusting the uniform? You, guyz, have gone to ground to save from a...nuclear blast?..". It's irrelevant but still

I think that high-tech missiles mounted on flyers don't explode if just dropped too.

Probably, if you were playing orkses, that'd work. Otherwise, certainly, you can drop missiles on your opponent and probably kill someone with it's pure mass. For this occasions i can suggest theese rules:

Missile Drop - STR 3+X, AP -, Barrage, Concussive, *Inaccurate, **Effective Destruction Radius Equals The Radius Of A Missile

Inaccurate- the missiles are not designed as aviation bombs thus are very inaccurate if dropped like this. Always scatter 2d6 even if a hit is rolled. BS of the shooter doesn't matter.
Effective Destruction Radius Equals The Radius Of A Missile - uses 1' blast. The blast can only be placed upon the models that your flyer moved over. To determine Missile's strength measure the hight from the top of the models hit by it to the bottom of the flyer that dropped the missile. For every 3' add one STR.

Why don't you just create new weapons for your flyer in question to take? That are, you know, bombs. Peregrine pretty much summed up the main differences, missiles and bombs often have very different purposes.