Talk:Heavy Cannon

To be frank, Bobucles, I think you're overselling the HC-HE. It's not in fact true that "most aliens have softer underside armour". That's only true (true enough to matter, anyway) for Mutons, non-Leader Snakemen, Reapers and Silacoids (Sectoids are on average 1 point weaker on their underside, less than the difference in damage ratings, and Sectopods have a marked weakness on their underside but due to resistances and damage ranges are immune to the HC-HE and only almost-immune to the HC-AP). Ethereals have identical under armour to the rest of their plates, as do Chryssalids, Celatids, and Cyberdiscs; most Floaters actually have more under armour (Cyberdiscs are large units, but damage ranges and resistances mean they still take more from AP, at 17.1 vs. 3.1 average damage). The main advantages of HE are in the ability to turn near misses into glancing hits and in killing very tight groups of weak aliens (I'm thinking here about Abductors and their infamous kill rooms; basically nowhere else (except in a Medium Scout, where there are immense drawbacks to using HE) are aliens clustered close enough for the HC-HE to be worthwhile), with specialised advantages being the higher kill rate on Sectoids (89% vs. 70%) thanks to the narrower damage range, and obviously the stupid amounts of damage to Reapers (though Reapers are not exactly high-priority targets). The idea about higher minimum damage reducing accuracy of reaction fire is okay in theory, but in practice when you're shooting at aliens you're usually either sniping from beyond visual range (in which case reaction fire can't happen anyway) or you're up close and personal (which means that their accuracy is less relevant, and also means that in the timeframe you're going to be using Heavy Cannons (i.e. January) using HE at that close range is going to wound or kill your own soldier as well as the alien).

Anyone else want to weigh in on this before I tone down the praise? Magic9mushroom (talk) 01:40, 9 May 2015 (EDT)

There's something important missing from this page, IMHO, which is the utility of HC-HE to clear obstacles (walls, vegetation, etc.) and give line of fire to other soldiers carrying pistols/rifles/etc. HC-HE may not be a must have weapons for terrains clear of those obstacles and inside UFOs but in Terror Sites and Farm missions they can be very useful. I'm a major fan of HC-HE for this reason and I always bring 1-2 of them for every mission, the clustered aliens argument isn't too relevant due to the HC-HE's lower blast radius. But after you get laser/plasma they become obsolete when dealing with Mutons and Ethereals. Hobbes (talk) 21:56, 9 May 2015 (EDT)

It's no Gas Cannon, but it's a pretty decent weapon. As for the issue at hand - I think I see the keys points that are trying to be conveyed in the text, but I also see the generalisation that's causing all the fuss. Easily fixed. However I think the point on reducing reaction fire is quite incorrect. Its the accuracy that gets hurt, not the ability to react. NKF (talk) 03:50, 11 May 2015 (EDT)