The Riot Shield (p. 312 EP) is a fairly common and standard piece of equipment, offering additional protection to the body and in case of mob suppression is rigged with an electrical shock system as a deterrent. The use of the hand means it is not favored by many combatants however. While useful, and doubling as a weapon, this can make using it awkward - though most modern shields have notches or other holders to also utilize a longarm with it. But materials science is very advanced in AF10, able to produce very impressive, light materials which can aid in armoring, and the "shield" concept can be used a number of different ways...
Ballistic Shield: This small shield is made out of armored glass and plastic and is one-way, allowing the user to see through it (and even display information on it via smartlink) but the other person cannot. This shield provides +2/+1 AV and a -10 penalty to be targeted as if from cover when mounted on a rifle sized weapon and in use, often giving additional protection to the head and upper torso which are vital areas. However, the shield can take a moment to place on a weapon, and weapons with it on can be hard to maneuver and store. While hardened, the shields tend to break under sustained fire, and may need to be replaced. [Trivial]
Used occasionally by security teams or special forces, the BS is an inexpensive alternative to full use of riot shields which may make more sense for lighter forces utilizing longarms and who engage at a distance, as the shield can help obscure vision of the enemy. Alternatively, if one-handed or even melee weapons are more your style, a variation on this shield can be clipped to the forearm to provide the AV bonus and cover when utilized properly, as one braces a weapon hand with the shielded off-hand.
(Author's Note: I've had a bit of a busy week, which is why content has been sporadic and in some cases shorter - but I'll be hopefully posting some longer and more detailed entries soon over the weekend. We're now at over 150 entries of content on H-Rep!)
What an excellent idea! One of my players (a bot jammer) regularly attaches articulated riot shields on his combat drones; he'll get a ton of use out of these.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to take full credit - I've been playing a lot of Rainbow Six Siege, and a shield mounted on a gun (in addition to conventional ballistic shielding) is the special ability of one of the characters. Since I was on a bit of an armor kick, it struck me as a great idea to import to EP for a cheap way to squeak out a little more armor on something which might not be as obvious (or take it's own hand) as the full blown Riot Shield.
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