Fixed Forward-Facing Weapon: Difference between revisions

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': The [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens|Ori]] mother ships have a massive slow-firing weapon that frequently decimates any ship it hits. There are smaller pulsed weapons on the sides that can still take out a Ha'tak with a single triple-volley.

** In all the incarnations of ''[[Star Trek]]'', Klingon ships have a [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090525062206/memoryalpha/en/images/a/a4/IKS_Amar_firing_forward_torpedo.jpg big honkin' torpedo launcher on their nose].

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'', the Vorlon Cruiser, pictured above. Also the Narn G'Quan cruisers are equipped with those.

** All Vorlon ships appear to have only forward-facing weapons. The crown jewel is the ''[[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Eclipse]]''-class Planetkiller, a 45 kilometer monster whose forward-facing beam can [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy a planet]] with a single shot [[Star Wars|Death Star]]-style. They had a number of those (at least 2) and weren't shy about using them during the end of the Second Shadow War.

** Many of the smaller warships in the B5 setting are equipped this way, such as the White Stars, the smaller of the Centauri's two depicted warships, Earth's cruisers, and even the Star Furies.

* In the series finale of the original ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'', the ''Galactica'' uses a pair of such weapons, massive laser cannons mounted in the nose of the ship, to wail on a disabled Cylon Base Star.

== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==

* ''[[Star Fleet Battles]]'' (And it's PC implementation the ''[[Star Trek Starfleet Command]]'' series) has the Romulan Mauler, essentially a ship built around a massive beam weapon and it's supporting batteries/capacitors designed to break starbase or planetary defense shields in one shot. Not typically a stand alone vessel though - it depends on its sisterships to defend it while it get's into position.

** Other races have Maulers as well, notably the [[Joke Character|Canadi'en]] Maple Leaf mauler, which has Mauler weapons facing in [[Lethal Joke Character|three different hex directions]].

* ''[[Traveller]]'': most starship weapons did incremental damage and could wear down an opponent over time. Spinal mount weapons (either a particle accelerator or a meson gun) ran the length of the ship and could [[Wave Motion Gun|blow opposing ships to atoms with a single shot]].

** Self-propelled artillery vehicles proper include Minotaur (with a pair of Basilisk artillery weapons mounted forward and level) and the Shadowsword (a Titan-scale gun on superheavy tank chassis).

** Human and Ork [[Humongous Mecha|Titans]] seem to make great use of this, with Ork Gargants and Stompas mounting a forward firing cannon in their "belly" and the current Epic model of the Imperial Warlord Titan has a pair of shoulder mounted Turbolasers that don't seem to be able to pivot in any way.

** ''Wing Commander III'' gives us TCS Behemoth, a one-of-a-kind planet-killing cannon with a ship built around it, in a desperate attempt to end the war in one shot. {{spoiler|It failed.}}

** In ''Prophecy'', the [[Imported Alien Phlebotinum|Nephilim]] Kraken-class ship had a [[Wave Motion Gun|fleet-killer plasma cannon]] that could only face in on direction... but could wipe out a fleet in battle formation with one shot. After being captured, it was given a new fixed mount between the Midway's split forward arms.<ref>The game's designers weren't aware of the plot plan for the plasma cannon when they made the ship design, it was just a happy coincidence.</ref>

* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'': Spinal mounts for destroyers, strafe sections (although these are a batter of smaller weapons) and impactors all point forward. Heavy beams usually do, but certain dreadnought specifications have the option of using them as broadsides and the Zuul have them turreted. The [[Colony Drop|Siege Driver]] is probably the crown example, insofar adding one does not so much add the weapon to the ship as add engines and a cockpit to the weapon.

** The human variant of the Siege Driver is especially prominent, as it is, essentially, a battleship-sized revolver that fires asteroids.

* Scaling down the concept to a giant shotgun mounted on a rowboat gets you the "punt gun", which was used for duck hunting in the 1800s. To a lesser extreme, gunboats with powerful chaser guns fixed in the bow were a staple of coastal defense in the days of [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]]. Individual gunboats were not at all survivable, but they could be built and deployed en-masse, with the added advantages of shallow drafts, fiendish maneuverability in the confines of a harbour no matter which direction the wind is blowing, and a disproportionately heavy armament for their small size.

* The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stridsvagn_103|Swedish S-Tank]. Doing away with a turret makes for a tank with a very low profile.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]

[[Category:For Massive Damage]]