The Official Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans Mecha Thread Mk II

[Amion]

I cannot help but be reminded of Cpl. Giroro from Sgt. Frog every time I see Flauros, oh I'm sorry, the new Ryusei-go.

Oh god, now I can't unsee it either. It fits well with the Gundam fanservice on that anime in general too.

Have we not been down this road before? It was mentioned way back in Season 1.

[SonicSP]

Yeah but this time he has an actual Gundam to back it up in Giro colors.

[E08]

Leaked Gundam Flauros' manual scans: 1, 2

The only section with notable omissions in the english translation is the Rail Guns' profile. I will skip the first and last sentence since they are quite ok. Here's the rest with the omission in bold:

in shelling mode, the output of the two reactors are concentrated on the rail guns, allowing them to fire bullets at explosive speed. They can shoot special bullets made from the rare alloy used on frames due to the use of superior mechanism (or something like that, the last kanji is not really clear), and during the Calamity War, they were heavily used as weapons that could even pierce nano-laminate armor. Such rail guns that shoot special bullets are known as 'Dainsleif', and under Gjallarhorn after the war, they were considered an inhumane weapon, and their use was prohibited.

[Amion]

It can actually transform into a frog. With guns. Wow. I don't know quite I should say.

[Zeonista]

The MA is called Hashmal (ハシュマル).

In other words, an actual celestial being.

The naming symbology for this show has been excellent. Not just in a "cool name" sense, but in a way that explains form, function, and role. It is a thng I would expect from a show like Tokyo Ravens or Index, not a Gundam series.

And the MS now to forever known as Keroro Gundam... I cannot unsee it!

[SonicSP]

And the MS now to forever known as Keroro Gundam... I cannot unsee it!

You mean Giroro Gundam because Giroro is not only the same color as Flauros, he is also the military assault frog with many guns, which fits Flauros' multi gun setup nicely (especially in this type of universe where this setup is extremely rare). Hell this even looks like something he could pilot in one of their countless harebrained schemes!

Since the Sergeant Frog anime is in fact made by Sunrise, it wouldn't surprise me if someone just got an idea for a subtle homage. Even the cartooneyes look like they could be Giroro's.

[Shinji_Shinigami]

You mean Giroro Gundam because Giroro is not only the same color as Flauros, he is also the military assault frog with many guns, which fits Flauros' multi gun setup nicely (especially in this type of universe where this setup is extremely rare)

Well if you look beside the four gun set up of the gusion, then the flauros is the first Artillery or at least long range support mobile suit in that regard. And that makes me wonder too, why guns have fallen so much out of favor. Sure some Machine guns and larger rifles were used, but they go up and personal very fast, which from a strategic standpoint, would be my last resort.

Though i wonder, if mobile suits were purposed that way, after the war, and were in generall equipped with other gear. I mean, everything for a Mobile suit gear is extremly exchangable and i wonder if the suits we see in the show (with the exception of the post war suits) are in the same configuration as they were intended to be. The only reason what i could think of, why shell based weapons were not as much used in the war, would be, that they were practically useless against te armor of the big MA and you had to defend yourself close quarter combat style against the mobile worker drones.

[Kuruni]

You mean Giroro Gundam because Giroro is not only the same color as Flauros, he is also the military assault frog with many guns, which fits Flauros' multi gun setup nicely (especially in this type of universe where this setup is extremely rare). Hell this even looks like something he could pilot in one of their countless harebrained schemes!

Since the Sergeant Frog anime is in fact made by Sunrise, it wouldn't surprise me if someone just got an idea for a subtle homage. Even the cartooneyes look like they could be Giroro's.

Sadly it's Shino's, so the homage won't include Natsumi.

[YokozunaBulldozer]

Dang I did not expect the Giroro talk to extend this far.
Amion you are right, I believe I have said the OG Ryusei-Go equals Giroro a while back.
It's those shark eyes.

[Dark Duel]

And that makes me wonder too, why guns have fallen so much out of favor. Sure some Machine guns and larger rifles were used, but they go up and personal very fast, which from a strategic standpoint, would be my last resort.

I think I read somewhere that Nanolaminate armor is much more effective at protecting against the kind of damage inflicted by most ranged weapons(except for the heaviest, such as Barbatos/Gusion's smoothbore cannon) than it is against attacks from close-range weapons, which is why close-range combat is so much more prevalent.

[SonicSP]

Well if you look beside the four gun set up of the gusion, then the flauros is the first Artillery or at least long range support mobile suit in that regard. And that makes me wonder too, why guns have fallen so much out of favor. Sure some Machine guns and larger rifles were used, but they go up and personal very fast, which from a strategic standpoint, would be my last resort.

Though i wonder, if mobile suits were purposed that way, after the war, and were in generall equipped with other gear. I mean, everything for a Mobile suit gear is extremly exchangable and i wonder if the suits we see in the show (with the exception of the post war suits) are in the same configuration as they were intended to be. The only reason what i could think of, why shell based weapons were not as much used in the war, would be, that they were practically useless against te armor of the big MA and you had to defend yourself close quarter combat style against the mobile worker drones.

Guns aren't used more because they don't do much damage against Nanolaminated Armor. It would be better to finish things off quickly with melee weapons than risk prolonged engagement if you are on the side that's outnumbered. Nanolaminate Armor also give mobile suits license to go at it with melee.

Nanolaminate Armor is quoted in text to be weak against "striking" weapons, which I guess refers to blunt heavy objects. Nanolaminate Armor is literally just paint anyways, that becomes strong when they are given Ahab Particles from the Ahab Reactor, so it's possible that these type of strikes are good at disrupting the process.

Within atmosphere, your attack weakens with range while Ahab Wave jamming also limits how far they can attack in space presumably because of sensor issues, which discourages super long range attacks.

Tekkadan also does this because they typically have an Alayashiki advantage over their opponents, so they get to make use of their mobile suits' mobility more while also making sure the enemy shots don't hit their weak points in between the gaps.

On that note, Alayashiki also allows Tekkadan to score more gun kills because they can aim for weak points better. So it's sort of like some video games where guns do damage but melee does more.

Large melee weapons like Barbatos' Mace can also wreck havoc against entire mobile suit bodies very easily, because mobile suit bodies don't explode in IBO during combat (save two exceptions, one of them being a user-initiated one). It's a good way to do certain kills quickly when taken into account their maneuverability advantage since you can just thrash and do good structural damage to the mobile suit.

Guns like Barbatos and Rebake's 300mm Smoothbore have better damage output but it comes at the cost of accuracy because of the lack of rifling, and needs Alayashiki implants or more skill to help counteract that problem. It is also ridiculously difficult to use in space I believe according to its Option Set manual profile.

Powerful railguns that use the special ammunition/technique that pierce Nanolaminate Armor are banned by Gjallahorn's post war treaty, so it's likely that more existed in the past. Even Ryusei-Go Flauros' barely gets away with it via a technicality. So I think it's likely that more railguns - and depending on how things work going forward, maybe even beam weapons - were used by mobile suits during the actual war. We might get a clearer picture on some aspect on the gun thing once Flauros debuts.

Personally, I wouldn't say guns are out of favor though long range artilery is. Most if not all mobile suits in the show have some setup where they carry them. They still do damage to Nanolaminate Armor, just that it takes awhile and because of that are still useful for surpressive and support fire. They are also still good against non-Nanolaminated Armor units like naval ships and mobile workers.

They can also be used to hit objects equipped on mobile suits that aren't protected by the armor. We have seen guns and bazookas explode because of this which can do extra damage to the user mobile suit. In Episode 17, we saw a Graze fire a few shots at a Dort hijacked Spinner Rodi's huge rocket backpack which caused the backpack to explode in a big flashy explosion, damaging the mobile suit. In Episode 34, Vidar used two handguns to eliminate the missiles coming at it.

Getting in close with guns also allows you to target the armor gaps much easier. In Episode 19, Lafter took out an enemy unit in the disguised Hyakuren by outmaneuvering it and went for point blank range at a gap and just firing her submachinegun into it though presumably this tactic has its fair share of risks and is hard to do.

[Kuruni]

(never mind, wrong thread)

[E08]

Option set 7 box text here.

The Gundam Flauros' 120mm machine guns can be handheld

While browsing the japanese wiki, i found some info for the MW used by Abrau and SAU.

*Mobile Worker Abrau Configuration/Abrau-use Mobile Worker (or something similar…): Variant of the Union Mobile Worker with the turret enlarged. The machine has poor balance as its lower body is light. Source: Kenji Teraoka's twitter 1

*SAU Mobile Worker: Close range type, armed with a short-barreled high caliber cannon. Designed for urban/forest battle.Source: Kenji Teraoka 's twitter 2

I had always thought the Abrau's MW is the same as the green MW used by Tekkadan in the battle of edmonton...

[Shinji_Shinigami]

Wait, the whole thing states that the Flauros is the 4th ryusei-go unit. He had the graze, the Shiden and now the Gundam. makes three to me, unless you count the Mobile worker from episode 1, that also had a magenta color paint job.

makes me wonder

[Kuruni]

unless you count the Mobile worker from episode 1,

You answer yourself. Ryusei-go is nickname anyway.

[SonicSP]

It's likely that his CGS Mobile Worker from Season 1 is the first Ryusei-Go. Knowing him, wouldn't surprise me if he named it retroactively even.

[yazi88]

No wonder there are no beam weapons in this show for mobile suits... the nano laminate armor on all mobile suits is called that for a reason... beam weapons do no damage.... hence why only bullet and melee weapons damage the armor....

[Kuruni]

And as someone point out, there's also perfectly good reason why only killing machine like MA use it. Beam may be useless against MS, but work incredible well at massacring civilian.

[Amion]

And as someone point out, there's also perfectly good reason why only killing machine like MA use it. Beam may be useless against MS, but work incredible well at massacring civilian.

Indeed. I had a sneaking suspicion that beam was meant for something other than combat. Now we know it's true purpose.

I assume ships are resistant to the beam cannon, though, so it appears Hashmal will have to strike against them as it does mobile suits, directly. Perhaps orbital bombardment will take place? I doubt it.

Now, let's see how long Hashmal can hold its own against a Mobile Armor-slayer. Here's to hoping that, should it go down soon, there will be others to awaken in its place. In fact, it could even now be searching for its lost brethren...

[yazi88]

Hasmal is still very very deadly in close combat given how incredibly agile and fast it is, those claws and tail can slash and pierce a MS into shreds.... and that's not even counting the near infinite sub unit mobile armors it commands that not only it builds, but also repairs it....