Zaku Sub-Weapons

[Gelgoog Jager]

After watching the first "The Origin" OVA I also begin reading the manga, and among the many differences in the design of the MS is the addition of secondary machine guns and/or vulcans to the Zakus and other MS. In fact, in the brief section on the Battle of Loum, Char demonstrated the advantages of having such extra weapons, initially carrying two heavy handheld weapons for dealing with warships and using his Vulcans against minor fighters (instead of wasting valuable bazooka rounds on them).

While Gundams, GMs and even Goufs already had similar sub-weapons in their original incarnations, other units such as the Zaku, Dom and Gelgoog stood out for not having secondary weapons to complement their powerful, but ammo restricted, bazookas and beam rifle respectively, therefore being forced to waste their limited firepower on soft targets. Some games that try to be quite realistic take this to extremes, as in the case of Gundam Battle Operation (PS3) in which it is a terrible ordeal for a Gelgoog equipped only with a beam rifle to deal with infantry, while any GM or Zaku can easily deal with them using vulcans or crackers.

Despite the above mentioned situation, we do have seen what may seem as steps in the right direction for some such MS. For example, the Gouf Customs arm-mounted Vulcan seems like something that could be used by any Zaku type MS. More recently we got confirmation that MS-08TX could use it to. And MS such as the MS-09K and MS-14BR have been observed in some images to be able to equip the arm-mounted 3-tube missile launcher from the MS-06D (the Zaku Desert Type itself is usually depicted equipped with its 120mm machine gun, so the missile launcher does seem like a good complement for it). Even the much later developed AMX-101K is seen borrowing this weapon.

I guess the point I want to reach is: could we expect in the future to see more depictions of the OYW where MS such as the Zaku are seen normally carrying such optional weapons to better complement their loadouts. If you think about it, weapons like the Gouf Customs Vulcan could be considered similar to the Gundam Mk II's and Barzam's head Vulcan, being an optional piece of equipment but with these MS rarely being depicted without it.

[Wingnut]

I wonder about the Doms. Black Tri-Stars aside, have we ever seen them operate alone? That is in a Dom only group without Zakus or Goufs? I know we have for Rick Doms, but I'm not so sure about their ground originators. If not, then it's possible that the Dom was by the time it was actually deployed, intended to be a GM killer as opposed to being a MS that is more of a jack-of-all-trades type like the Zaku II. This would free up the Zakus and Goufs to arm with machine guns and deal with the many tanks and planes that the EFF is still fielding alongside their new GMs while the Doms skate up and blast the GMs in the face with their bazookas for a one-shot kill then move on to the next MS and do the same.

This could also apply for Gelgoogs in space to go out and one-shot GMs with their beam weapons and leave the Balls and such for other MS.

[mcred23]

I wonder about the Doms. Black Tri-Stars aside, have we ever seen them operate alone? That is in a Dom only group without Zakus or Goufs? I know we have for Rick Doms, but I'm not so sure about their ground originators. If not, then it's possible that the Dom was by the time it was actually deployed, intended to be a GM killer as opposed to being a MS that is more of a jack-of-all-trades type like the Zaku II. This would free up the Zakus and Goufs to arm with machine guns and deal with the many tanks and planes that the EFF is still fielding alongside their new GMs while the Doms skate up and blast the GMs in the face with their bazookas for a one-shot kill then move on to the next MS and do the same.

The flaw I'd see with that is that, based on MSG, we see Zeon deploying the Dom into combat before they knew about the GM, and even into areas where they didn't expect to engage GMs, such as during the Jaburo operation. Of course, you could argue it was a hastily thrown together operation, and other works/sources/whatever now have the GMs being around well before that, so they had some expectation of encountering GMs and thus Doms were mixed in.

I'd chalk up Doms rarely being seen on their own more to the circumstances they were deployed in. They're not deployed until the Federation is basically in full on counterattack mode across the world, and more readily deploying GMs (And hordes of tanks, and have air control), so mixed units of Zeon MS probably just materialized out of availability and necessity, which is basically what we see in the animation at Jaburo (Hastily mounted), in their appearance in 08th (Kind of a last ditch defense of Ginias' mountain base), and obviously out of the circumstances of the Zekes we see in 0083...

[Gelgoog Jager]

My personal take on the Dom is that it was meant to improve over the Zaku in three areas: mobility, armor and firepower. While it's easy to see the reasoning behind the first two, the increase of firepower in the form of the 360mm Giant Bazooka gives the impression that the Dom was meant to engage EF warships, which were probably the main threat to the slower Zakus. This might not be limited to land battleships like the Big Tray and Heavy Fork, but also to naval ships, if we are to give credit to some depcitions of Doms in videogames, such as in Gundam Crossfire (PS3).

By the way, Mark's timeline sets the completition of the Dom on July, definitely ahead of Zeon getting any data on EF MS, so we can safely rule out it being developed with a focus on anti-MS combat. Rather, I think it's meant to help Zeon keep a better control over large areas as well as break through EF lines, thus ease the situation of Zeon's expanded fronlines and put an end to the stalemate.

As for their use in mixed units, the fact that Doms can outrun any other MS on the ground also means that during an assault they would most likely end up leaving behind any allies unable to keep up with them, and therefore have to engage all kinds of enemy units on their own. In the Lost War Chronicles manga, two Goufs end up boarding Dodai II units in order to keep up with a Dom. I also want to point out that the MS-09G Dwadge (the sucessor to the Dom) ends up addressing this issue by adding head vulcans, so perhaps Doms did run into trouble.

Actually, I recall a couple of cases that could exemplify this situation:

-The MS-06D is supposedly given a well rounded weapon loadout due to the fact that it may end up engaging the enemy without any support. Ambushing the enemy after remaining hidden in the sand could be one such scenario.

-The Acguy is an MS that can be used for infiltrations and also happens to have a well rounded loadout to deal with any kind of enemy it rusn into. To compare, the Z'gok's loadout of missiles and beam guns make it suitable for ground combat, but not so much for underwater combat (the MSM-07E addresses thsi issue by replacing the missiles with torpedoes).

Anyway, the Dom certainly seems like a prime case of a unit that could benefit from a more well-rounded loadout, for dealing with a variety of enemies on its own. And contrary to what the first series shows (most Doms carrying Giant Bazookas), I want to think that Doms were generally meant to carry 120mm machine guns, unless they were heading to fight battleships, and later on MS (after learning about them).

[domtropen]

For Dom is the chest beam gun usable against missiles, personal, and small vehicle?

As for anti-personal weapon for MS Zaku I in 08th MS team was shown to have the type that rain down with deadly result, and IIRC in MS encyclopedia there are tiny b/w lineart showing that they are equipped on Zaku's various parts. I guess other Zeon MS should be able to equip them as well?

[Gelgoog Jager]

My take on the Dom's chest beam gun is that it was supposed to be a miniature version of a scattering/deflection type beam cannon. The best example is the Zanzibar's beam cannons, which Ramba Ral's forces use for producing a light screen that allows him to retreat safely.

Working under that assumption, we could assume that such weapons have 3 modes: a single focused beam, a scattering beam and blinding flash. What we can assume from the Dom given the official context is that it can only power a blinding flash, or that perhaps using the weapon in another mode results in overheating problems, both known issues that amphibious MS and later MS such as the Gelgoog had to deal with in order to use beam weapons.

If the Dom could properly operate its chest beam guns and all 3 modes mentioned above, then the scattering beam would seem like a prime choice for dealing with numerous but minor threats.

Still, we do know that in the original TV series one of the Black Tri Stars Dom is seen firing a proper beam shot from its chest beam gun. Also, Many video games seem to have taken a liking for giving the MS-10 Dwadge a functional chest beam gun, most likely as a way to differentiate it from the standard Dom/Rick Dom series.

In the end, the MS-09G did incoporate head vulcans in order to deal with minor threats.

As for the Zaku's anti-personal weapons, MS Igloo 2 shows that some MS-06J units are also equipped with them.