Dealing with Mercs ?

[karadoc]

One of my favourite ways to kill a merc is a point-blank blunderbuss auto-fire with chem rounds. There's always a sense of tension when they survive the third shot, then relief when they die to the forth.

[Meridian]

[legionof1]

Shotgun style weapons are actually pretty good thinking about it. Because of high dmg per TU and lowish armor on mercs the multiple pellet approach has value. To bad there are so few non pierce pellet weapons.

[ivandogovich]

One of my favourite ways to kill a merc is a point-blank blunderbuss auto-fire with chem rounds. There's always a sense of tension when they survive the third shot, then relief when they die to the forth.

Thats interesting.  I discounted the blunderbuss rounds as too weak to get through the armor.  From Dioxine I got the sense that *some* acid/chem rounds damage armor, but a lot do not.  Though the mercs take average damage on chem (100%), each of the pellets is at or less than their armor value (25 pwer) when merc armor starts in the thirties and goes up.

[Dioxine]

All chem rounds damage armor (10%), just like all Plasma (5%). Some acids are just better than others

[ivandogovich]

All chem rounds damage armor (10%), just like all Plasma (5%). Some acids are just better than others

Let me see if I understand how this all works:

10%
Chem Rounds for blunderbuss: 26X6 pellets.
Lets skip random damage and say everyone hits their average damage of 26.
So each pellet that hits would reduce 2.6 armor?
X6 = 15.6 reduced from an entire shell (all pellets hitting)?

If that is right, I can see that we would almost have halved Merc Engineer's armor (36) in one shot, and the next three would definitely start putting damage on him. 

If my calcs are wrong, please help me understand it better.


Edit: Also: @legionof1

Longbows also deserve a mention, 97 base damage is possible and is not reduced by resistances for most mercs.

Funny thing is.... I'm so lazy (and forgetful) that even though the change happened a couple versions ago, I've still never remembered to make quivers for my Bows!!

[Dioxine]

Well, you need to floor the fractions to integers, so 2.6=2, BUT in general, yes, you can expect about -15 armor when all pellets hit; even more since extra armor loss might be caused by penetrations.
Oh yes and the armor damage is directly dependant on the damage roll, so each pellet can put 0-5 damage on armor (as max. damage possible is 200%*26=52).

Also in-game text:
STR_PINUP_023_UFOPEDIA: "Chem can melt your opponent right out of their armor. All chem weapons cause armor damage equal to 0-20% of their Power, before armor's defense is even considered, unless otherwise stated in the Pedia. This makes subsequent shots more effective. The effect stacks with armor damage caused by any penetrating hits, if applicable. Chem also causes moderate Morale damage."

[Cristao]

Note to self - research chemical weapons.