TGMC:Guide to fire support

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LCDR Lou Tennant says: "This is your Lieutenant speaking, confirming good hits?"

PFC Terry "Bad Hits" Mortar says: "GOOD HITS!!!!"

Overview

Fire support is a complicated, yet important part of the marines' arsenal. In case you haven't noticed, the Xenos don't have a massive ship, dropship, ground assault jet, and mortar equipment, and you do (the closest they get is the boiler). What stifles marine use of these seemingly impressive tools is their lack of knowledge on how to effectively operate, and coordinate the use of these weapons. Hopefully this guide will help you better make use of the tools entrusted to you and not single handedly cause an entire squad to be wiped.

"Good Hits" and how to avoid

You may occasionally hear marines talk about "Good Hits" after firing any form of Support, generally speaking this is not a moment of praise but rather a sign you fucked up and hit Marines. Try to avoid hitting friendlies at all times as its generally not good to turn half a squad into a fire red paste on the floor in the first 10 minutes of the operation.

To make sure you do your job without casualties, try the following:

• Announce over radio on the common channel what you are firing and where; your headset should display it in big bold text so the marines might see it.
• Use your announcements to repeat the same message; this will also come with a big loud notification sound that plays even if they are deaf that you have announced something.
• Firing the OB also plays a unique sound and displays the information like an announcement; but this one displays during the firing sequence which can be very short. Try not to rely on it for warning marines.
• Co-ordinate your strikes with squad leaders, If everyone is aware of what you are doing BEFORE YOU DO IT there is an increased chance that they might actually listen to your pleas. Once that support is used you need the marines to follow through and push their advantage before the Xeno's can retaliate.
• Always double check what it is your firing before you fire. Someone might have said they wanted Tanglefoot loaded but instead there is High Explosive in the chamber. Always double check BEFORE firing with the shipside crew/AI.
• Just because you brought a mortar doesnt mean you just plop it down and start sending shells; You will want either another marine or a squad leader to take a pair of tac binos to link to your mortar so they can accurately drop shells away from fellow marines. The Webmap can be used if you want to solo Mortar but just keep an eye on the Minimap so you don't end up hitting friendlies.
• The Condor creates a nice holographic "DONT STAND HERE" pattern to Marines when you fire it; the Xeno's will only see your targeting laser. Even so its still good practice to yell over Comm's/Announcement's when your doing attack runs that your engaging so they are aware your about to lay down the hate.

Repeated and intentional hits on Marines likely will result in action by the gods for your incompetence. You have been warned.

Fire Support Radio

Your radio prefix is .s or :s.

Obviously, screaming over the general channel asking for mortar coords can either get drowned out or drown other things out, which can lead to some lost information which may or may not be crucial. Fortunately, fire support has its own radio channel! You can call for OB, CAS, mortar coords, and the like if your headset allows you to speak on that channel anyway. Most Command and Engineering staff have access to this channel, and encryption keys can be vended at the Surplus Armor Vendors or taken from the mortar supplies crate that combat engineers lug around.

Tactical Binoculars

colloqually known as tac binos

The Tactical Binoculars are going to be the primary way of calling down holy hellfire upon the xenos scum. There are other ways(to be mentioned later), but none as versatile. It has the ability to find the coordinates of a given tile, mark and fire the shipside railgun, mark an area for CAS attack, and mark and fire the Orbital Bombardment cannon. You can switch between these modes by alt-clicking it. Not to mention that it has night vision as well, so you can see what you're going to delete, even in pitch black darkness! Use it in hand to activate the zoom, and ctrl-click to mark a target. Examine it to see what mode it's currently set to.

Range Finding

This is what you use to get the coordinates of a tile, which you can then communicate to whatever schmuck is operating the mortar back at base, if webmaps lag you out too much. Shift-click a tile while zoomed in to get the coordinates for that tile, while on any mode. Coordinates are also useful for drop podding marines, though it would be wise to not tell them to drop directly into the entire hive with no support.

Note: you can bind RF to a mortar, immediately giving the mortar target coords.

Railgun Targeting mode

The shipside railgun is arguably the simplest of the fire support weapons, because it needs only one operator: you, with your tac binos! The Railgun can be fired by simply ctrl-clicking a tile while zoomed in, after a short wind-up period. After firing, it needs a moment to cool down before it can be used again.

CAS Marking mode

The Tactical Binoculars can be used to mark an area to be hit by CAS. This will alert the condor pilot if they are currently in the cockpit and extend their vision around the marked area. Ctrl-click to start lasing.

Orbital Bombardment Targeting mode

Beware, for you now hold in your hands the power to consign an entire area to oblivion. While the primary firing technique for the OB is having the CIC staff fire it, you too have the ability to fire it from groundside. For the CIC staff to fire the OB, you'll need to mark an area by ctrl-clicking like usual. The Ones Above can then fire the OB at that mark after a short wind-up period. However, say that the CIC staff are ERPing in the showers still asleep or otherwise occupied, you'll have to fire it yourself. after the wind-up period, there is an extra 15 seconds or so of wait time. after that has elapsed, a beep and a message will appear:

TARGET ACQUIRED. ORBITAL CANNON IS READY TO FIRE.

After this message appears, you will be able to fire the OB by ctrl+shift-clicking your laser mark. Do know that you are expected to be able to see the target area, so if you end up "accidentally" hitting friendly marines, The Gods might not let you off the hook too easily...

Mortar Fire

The M402 mortar

The humble mortar is the TGMC's indirect firing method of choice, because someone left all the Self-Propelled Guns(SPGs) back at Terra. While it might not be the most powerful piece of artillery, it is portable, effective, and very versatile. to deploy it, simply use it in-hand, and click-and-drag onto your sprite to undeploy it. The mortar operates using coordinates, which can be obtained either through one of the many webmaps available(acessible via the main page), or by using the range finders which come with the mortar kit, as well as using tactical binoculars.

ha ha mortar go brrr

Simply input the coordinates, and click the mortar with a shell to load and fire it. Once set, the coordinates can be saved in case you need to fire at that position again. The mortar can save 3 positions to target. Do note that the mortar has a slight randomized offset for every target, and can be dialed in using the offset options(negative longitude= left, negative latitude= down) for more pinpoint accuracy. Accessing the UI and firing a shell requires Engineering skill to perform quickly, otherwise you will have to fumble around first.

Note: you can bind Range Finder to a mortar, immediately giving the mortar target coords.

Shell Types

Read Marine Mechanics for info on explosions.

Color	Shell	Description
	80mm High Explosive mortar shell	80mm shell loaded with a high explosive charge, for big explosions. A direct hit can even gib some xenos! good luck doing that, though. Radius of explosion - 1, 4, 7 for Devastating, Heavy and Light explosions.
	80mm Incendiary mortar shell	80mm shell loaded with napalm, to set stuff on fire, preferably not your fellow marines. Radius of explosion - 0, 2, 5 for Devastating, Heavy and Light explosions. Radius of fire - 3
	80mm Tangle mortar shell	80mm shell loaded with tanglefoot gas, which drains xenomorph plasma. Mostly safe to shoot at marines, though the impact does have a small explosion.
	80mm Smoke mortar shell	80mm shell loaded with smoke dispersing chemicals. Mostly safe to shoot at marines, though the impact does have a small explosion.
	80mm Flare mortar shell	80mm shell loaded with an illuminating flare, so marines can actually see shit. Has a nice Parachute on it so it never actually hits the ground and thus cannot hurt marines (Unless you count going blind from staring at it)

AT-36

An ancient weapon, the AT-36 is a light dual purpose anti tank and anti personnel weapon used by the TGMC. Used for light vehicle or bunker busting on a short notice. Best used by two people. It can move around with wheels, and has a ammo rack integrated into the weapon. CANNOT BE UNDEPLOYED ONCE DEPLOYED! Still can be pushed/pulled. Has Aim and Long-range sight mode, both takes approx. 4 seconds to be activated.

AT-36 is availiable roundstart from Weapons vendor, Specials tab (includes ammo). From requisitions its 60 points and shells are 3 for 2. 3 Type of shells are available:

Shell	Description	Speed	Damage	Pen	Sunder
AP-HE	"A 37mm shell for light anti tank guns. Will penetrate walls and fortifications, before hitting a target and exploding, has less payload and punch than usual rounds." Will penetrate mobs and walls. Explodes.	3	90	30	10
APCR	"A 37mm tungsten shell for light anti tank guns made to penetrate through just about everything, but it won't leave a big hole." Will penetrate mobs and walls. Does not explode.	4	150	100	55
HE	"A 37mm shell for light anti tank guns made to destroy fortifications, the high amount of payload gives it a slow speed. But it leaves quite a hole." Big Boom. Beware, Direct hit upon full health/heavy armored marine means will kill him instantly.	2	50	50	25

TA-100Y Howitzer

A manual, crew-operated and towable howitzer, will rain down 150mm laser-guided and accurate shells on any of your foes. Right click to anchor to the ground.

The TA-100Y Howitzer is available roundstart from Weapons vendor, Specials tab (includes ammo). From requisitions its 60 points and shells are 2 for 1 point. 5 types of shells are available:

Shell	Description	Explosion Radius	Effect Radius
HE shell	An 150mm artillery shell, loaded with a high explosive charge, whatever is hit by this will have, A really, REALLY bad day.	Devastation: 1 Heavy: 6 Light: 7	N/A
Incendiary shell	An 150mm artillery shell, loaded with explosives to punch through light structures then burn out whatever is on the other side. Will ruin their day and skin.	Devastation: 0 Heavy: 3 Light: 0	Flame: 5
White Phosphorus shell	An 150mm artillery shell, loaded with a 'spotting' gas that sets anything it hits aflame, whatever is hit by this will have their day, skin and future ruined, with a demand for a warcrime tribunal.	Devastation: 0 Heavy: 0 Light: 1	Smoke: 7 Flame: 4
Tanglefoot shell	An 150mm artillery shell, loaded with a toxic intoxicating gas, whatever is hit by this will have their abilities sapped slowly. Accompanied by a small explosion.	Devastation: 0 Heavy: 0 Light: 5	Smoke: 10
Flare shell	An 80mm mortar shell, loaded with an illumination flare, far slimmer than your typical 80mm shell. Can be fired out of larger cannons.	N/A	Light: 12

The Railgun

The Gun of Ra'il

When fighting against an existential threat such as the xenomorph horde, you're going to need to use everything you have at your disposal to eliminate the enemy, up to and including a weapon made for the express purpose of ship-to-ship combat. A weapon such as the shipside railgun. While not particularly as effective against planetary targets as it is against spaceships, it has its uses. When fired, the projectile burns up in the planet's atmosphere, melting and splitting apart into a hail of molten metal. It is much better at being used for area denial rather than dealing actual damage due to its spread.
There are 2 primary ways to target the railgun: using tactical binoculars, or the AI.

• with tactical binoculars, alt-click or press unique action until you switch to railgun targeting mode, then use the binoculars and ctrl-click the area you wish to hit, as described above. Keeping the laze on the target will cause the railgun to keep firing until the laze is removed, usually by a braindead marine moving you by bumping into you.
• The AI has a unique railgun seperate from the normal one. It has a 30 second windup and fires a faster volley of 10 shots before being on cooldown for 6 minutes(separate cooldown from the normal railgun). Do note that you cannot cancel any lases. Ctrl+Shift-Click to lase.
• The railgun can be fired from an overwatch console(not the main one, the other ones). Simply set the overwatch to whichever squad deployed the beacon, and check the area by clicking the target beacon's button on the display(image coming soon maybe probably hopefully). If this pops up when you try to fire:

Your busy doing something else, and press the wrong button!

try clicking the End Camera View action button, then clicking on the target beacon button again. This should allow you to fire the railgun. Though most times this method is never used, it never hurts to know.

Orbital Bombardment

Big boy cannon

The Orbital Bombardment cannon, the biggest and baddest piece of rock throwing equipment the TGMC has. Capable of launching a large payload from orbit at hypersonic speeds. The large payload size also allows a variety of warhead types to be used.

Loading

The Orbital Cannon must be manually loaded and chambered by a skilled technician(though an unskilled person could do it, but with a lot of fumbling about). Here is how to do it:

• get in a powerloader , and grab a warhead
• put it in the loading tray
• check the fuel requirement for that specific warhead using the loading console (this is randomized each round, and an improper amount of propellant will cause the warhead to veer off course, possibly hitting friendlies)
• load the correct amount of solid fuel blocks into the tray
• press the load tray button
• press the chamber tray payload button

Using the powerloader and the loading console is much faster if you have Engineering skill(you can check your skills through the IC tab). At the moment, the Close button on the loading console does nothing, and shouldn't be pressed if you don't have Engineering skill, as it will only slow you down.

Incorrect fuel amounts

Each warhead type has an optimal amount of fuel required, however any amount of fuel can be used, with some drawbacks.

As mentioned above, incorrect fuel loading will result in a less accurate OB, but some OB types have specific and fairly severe drawbacks when used with the incorrect fuel load.

High Explosive Warhead: Every incorrect unit of fuel reduces the radius of the explosion by one. Even a modestly incorrect level of fuel can result in an OB that hits hundreds of turfs less then the correct fuel amount.

Cluster Warhead: Every incorrect unit of fuel reduces the number of secondary explosions by one, and increases the radius in which those secondary explosions can land. This results in a weaker, and significantly less accurate effect.

Firing

Targeting the OB can be done by using the tactical binoculars on Orbital Bombardment mode(alt click or unique aciton to cycle through modes).The cannon can then be fired from the main overwatch console once the lase has been set, or by a tac bino operator groundside after a 15 second wait. Ctrl-Click to start lasing, Ctrl+Shift-Click to fire manually(you must also have visual on the lase itself to do so). It's recommended to lase a good distance away from your own lines to prevent reigning down hell on your own marines.

Lest this happens:
this sucks

Warhead Types

Currently, the TGMC fields 4 warhead types which can be loaded as needed depending on the situation at hand.

Colour	Warhead	Description
	HE Warhead	An extremely high yield warhead capable of devastating targets and structures within a moderately sized area. Use it to clear walls and make space for the marines to operate in.
	Cluster Warhead	A warhead filled with multiple small yield mini-warheads that detonates some distance from the surface, spreading the mini-warheads across a large area. Despite being lower yield projectiles, they are many, and still pack quite the punch. Use it when you run out of HE to clear walls. Be warned that its scatter type delivery may result in "Good Hits" on Marines so make sure everyone is clear before firing.
	Incendiary Warhead	Filled to the brim with X-type incendiary fuel, this warhead splashes and ignites the fuel over a large area, turning the target zone into a sea of scorching hot blue flame. Use this when you really wanna get the Boiler to stop gassing your cades. Its massive radius has the biggest potential to cause "Good Hits" on fellow marines so use caution and be ready to book it when you fire these.
	Plasma Drain Warhead	Loaded with codename:TANGLEFOOT, an experimental substance that drains the plasma of any xenomorph it comes in contact with when in aerosol form. The warhead disperses this substance upon impact, covering a large target area with plasma draining purple mist. Preliminary tests show tanglefoot to be mildly toxic to humans though, but surely it'll be fine, right? This should be your bread and butter OB; it doesn't have any "Good Hits" potential but renders all Xeno special abilities useless without any plasma reserves. Great for when you need to push through the horde. Due to the rather large cloud this OB can produce it is generally acceptable to load with a reduced fuel charge, but walls and other obstructions may limit its reach.