Re: Alternate History Trooper Loadout?
Ok, here's a twist on anti-armor weapons and armor design. Tank armor progresses with anti-tank weaponry. Basic anti-tank weapons are the HEAT (shaped charge) round and the APFSDS (sabot) round. There's another one though that is often overlooked: the HESH (High Explosive Squash Head) round. If tank armor progressed more rapidly at the early stages of HEAT round development, incorporating honeycombing and ceramics to dissipate the HEAT round's explosive jet then sabot rounds would have developed earlier as well. Anti sabot armor might not have to be thicker or stronger, but more capable of deflection, possibly via an inherent brittleness, designed to flake off chucks with an impact, turning the penetrator to decrease its straight-line effectiveness (which is why they work in smooth bore weapons - they require a flat trajectory with no spin; rifling makes them lose energy on impact). So, now you have a layered and brittle armor, PERFECT for a HESH round to cause significant damage. The HESH round pancakes on an armored surface and then explodes, causing structural damage to and THROUGH the armor plate. The interior of the armor flakes off due to the shock sent through it. This spalling is what kills the crew and ignites ammunition, destroying the tank. So, an earlier development of certain armor systems/technology could make a different round the go-to anti-tank weapon. So loaders would be yelling "HESH UP!" instead of "SABOT UP!" as they do now.
Of course in game play, there's no real difference. But it's good fluff.