Macross Missile Massacre: Difference between revisions
Replaced imported file with free alternative from wikimedia commons. (per discussion)
m (update links) |
(Replaced imported file with free alternative from wikimedia commons. (per discussion)) |
||
(13 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
[[File:
A tactic wherein a military vehicle or
Expect the target to try a [[Beehive Barrier]] to block the incoming ballistic barrage. A [[High-Speed Missile Dodge|high speed missile dodge]] is usually an effective counter as well. A slightly more proactive solution is to launch your own missiles or, if you have the option of [[More Dakka]], shooting them down. Trying to [[Misguided Missile|lead them away and crashing into an enemy]] is usually reserved for [[Ace Pilot
▲A tactic wherein a military vehicle or craft -- often a [[Humongous Mecha]] -- launches a massive salvo of missiles at a target, often more missiles than the craft should be able to hold. The missiles often follow [[Roboteching|artistic curving trajectories]] for no apparent reason, though strategically it may simply make them more difficult to dodge (or intercept, if there's any [[Point Defenseless|usable]] point defence). Occasionally, this is explained in [[Space Opera]] as the effect a ship's energy/force/gravity field has on the missiles. In some cases, this is justified by having the missile silos oriented up (or down) to allow for more surface area-and, in turn, more missiles.
▲Expect the target to try a [[Beehive Barrier]] to block the incoming ballistic barrage. A [[High-Speed Missile Dodge|high speed missile dodge]] is usually an effective counter as well. A slightly more proactive solution is to launch your own missiles or, if you have the option of [[More Dakka]], shooting them down. Trying to [[Misguided Missile|lead them away and crashing into an enemy]] is usually reserved for [[Ace Pilot|Ace Pilots]].
Named after the [[Humongous Mecha]] in the ''[[Macross]]'' metaseries who fire swarms of missiles (specifically, 'micromissiles') that behave in precisely this way. It has also been called [http://macross.anime.net//memories/09/index.html "Itano Circus"], after animation director Ichiro Itano, who pioneered the most common aesthetic look of the MMM.
Line 43 ⟶ 42:
** It does become useful later on {{spoiler|when the Missile Massacre simultaneously hits every point at every time in the universe, annihilating the entire enemy force throughout all times}}, until that point [[The Worf Barrage|it never really does much]].
** Simon did something similar to this a couple of times with projectile drills.
*** Not to mention Rossiu had a small [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for himself as he takes over while Simon rests after that projectile drill
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSJbYEKn6EI DAKKA. COMPLETE WITH RAINBOW TRAILS.]
** In the second movie, {{spoiler|Yoko pulls off one of these ''by herself'' right after Kittan's death. The camera has to pull back a few times to show the sheer number of Anti-Spiral mechs she destroyed in one salvo.}}
Line 52 ⟶ 51:
* Something of a ''[[Digimon]]'' tradition: the highest digivolved form of [[The Lancer]]'s partner tends to be (but isn't always) an insanely weapon-laden cyborg. ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' offers the most badass: the [[Humongous Mecha]]-sized MegaGargomon has literally hundreds of missiles of all sizes that come from various hidden compartments all over his body. (However, this attack, while cool-looking, seldom finishes a fight. They just soften the bad guy up for the two hugely oversized (and oddly happy) shoulder missiles which are [[Finishing Move|the finisher]].)
* ''In [[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', Homura uses her time-stopping power to do this manually with thousands of bazookas.
* A sequence in ''[[School Rumble]]'' had Harima racing to deliver his finished manga manuscript to the publisher while riding a giant curry dish as a sled. A truck carrying frozen tuna
* The final battle of [[Voices of a Distant Star]] ends with a
* The ''Nirvana'' from ''[[Vandread]]'' shoots lasers this way, with the bonus that they can circumvent friendly troops while streaking toward their target.
** Not only ''Nirvana'', Rabat's pet Orangutan is also intelligent enough to pilot a robot. "Intelligent" meaning, getting strapped in and firing 3M's at anything that moves 'til it runs out of ammo. When she used it the last time, she got lucky since ''Nirvana'''s crews are actually more than ready to resupply her.
Line 59 ⟶ 58:
* While not technically a complete Macross Missile Massacre, the ending battle in OVA 5 of the air combat series ''[[Sentou Yousei Yukikaze]]'' resembles a pseudo 3M, as every surviving aircraft is remotely taken over by the Yukikaze AI and salvo fires all of their remaining missiles simultaneously. The result is several hundred to several thousand full-sized Air to Air missiles blanketing the horizon. Called a pseudo 3M because all those missiles really were needed and because all of the aircraft carried a finite and generally realistic number of missiles individually.
* Kaoruko from ''[[Akahori Gedou Hour Rabuge]]'' often does this with her [[Powered Armor]], which has four missile launchers (two on her legs, two on her arms) that fire like this.
* Spells from ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (anime)|Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'', such as Axel Shooter and Plasma Lancer, invokes this image, only using balls or blades of energy. A straighter example can also be found in the [[Mecha-Mooks|Type-2 Gadget Drones]] of the third season, which launches salvos of small missiles as one of its attacks.
** In ''Nanoha'', if any character (particularly shown: Fate and Chrono) using an attack with "... Shift", you can expect massive missile rain.
** We thought Fate had reached the epitome of this with Photon Lancer, Phalanx Shift. Then Reinforce turned it against her: Photon Lancer, ''Genocide'' Shift.
** Reinforce (that {{spoiler|now dead}} Reinforce, mind you) also used [[Flechette Storm|a similar move called Bloody Dagger]]. It probably can be used by Hayate too, but.
* A variation, Mashiro Rima accomplishes this using six juggling pins, hitting a target as small as an (highly manoeuvrable) egg in ''[[Shugo Chara]]''.
* In ''[[Kirameki Project]]'' a giant fighting mecha called "The Perfect" fires a ridiculously large salvo of missiles at a magical girl, Nene.
* In ''[[Samurai Pizza Cats]]'', Lucille has this occur when she's upset, and the projectiles are stored within her hair.
* ''[[Crest of the Stars]]'' and its sequels made their battleships purely missile platforms that take
** Well as [[David Weber]] pointed out many times, that is the trait of a low quality military or of pirates. The professional, high quality military, prefer adequately point defended ships, with fewer missiles. I mean what's the point in delivering 10000 missiles in a salvo if the enemy squats them all and blows you up, with his 1000 missile salvo, that gets through because you were [[Too Dumb to Live]].
** In the Abhverse the opening stages of battle consist entirely of missile volleys and counter-missile volleys across huge distances, most of the missiles carried by the battleships are counter-missiles. Patrol ships, which only carry offensive missiles carry about twenty missiles. Also both Abh ships and Alliance ships are anything but point defenseless.
Line 74 ⟶ 73:
* Gokudera's Rocket Bombs in ''[[Katekyo Hitman Reborn]]'' tend to be used like this.
* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'': In Johto's "The Big Balloon Blow-Up," the Team Rocket trio fires miniature missiles at a chasing Noctowl and Pikachu. At least six rounds of at least six missiles in two small rocket launchers were fired in the episode, and the launchers couldn't possibly hold more than one round.
* Kouji Kabuto pulls this off in the final episode of ''[[Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen]]'', with ''[[Rocket Punch
** And in the original ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' series, several Mechanical Beasts (such like Brighton J2, Jinray S1 and Daima U5) used that strategy to attack Mazinger Z with sundry results. The mobile fortresses of [[Co-Dragons|Baron Ashura and Count Brocken]] also deployed an unholy amount of missiles -or torpedoes- when they engaged in combat against Mazinger Z.
** And in the sequel, ''[[Great Mazinger]]'', one of the most used tactis of Jun Hono was showering her enemy with [[FemBot|Venus A's]] [[Torpedo Tits|OppaiMissiles]].
Line 94 ⟶ 93:
* Anansi, the [[Spider Tank]] boss in [[The Legend of Zelda]] fan fic ''[[Exoria]]'', can launch multiple top-attack missiles at once.
* In ''[[An Entry With a Bang]]'', Clancy-Earth aircraft throw a lot of missiles around. Then again, given how tough ''[[BattleTech]]'' armour is, this is rather necessary.
* [[Fan Vid
Line 106 ⟶ 105:
** "[[Hypocritical Humor|To]] [[Peace Through Superior Firepower|Peace!]]"
* The new ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' movie has a Romulan [[Cool Ship]] called the ''Narada'' that seems to have missile tubes coming out the yin-yang, and those missiles themselves are fragmenting. It gets more interesting when you learn that the ''Narada'' is a {{spoiler|mining vessel that has been hastily converted into a warship}} and that the missiles it fires are developed by the Romulans from {{spoiler|reverse-engineered Borg technology.}} Repeat after me, [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill]].
** {{spoiler|Yet in the end, the ''Narada's''
*** Well, {{spoiler|the missiles aren't. The ''Narada'' itself is no match for Spock's [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|ship of doom.]] Interestingly one of the few genuine examples of [[Ramming Always Works]].}}
*** I don't know if that really counts as ramming, since {{spoiler|Spock's [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|ship of doom]] is more like a guided missile itself, with singularity-creating red matter as the warhead}}
Line 123 ⟶ 122:
* This is standard military operating procedure in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' [[Space Opera]] series by David Weber. The in-story [[Justified Trope|justification]] is to overwhelm the computerized defensive systems of enemy vessels. (A.K.A. the '''M'''anticore '''M'''issile '''M'''assacre.)
** To add to the awe-inspiring slaughter, given that the missiles are for delivering bomb-pumped lasers, with the tens of thousands (or ''much'' more) missiles launched, even accounting for countermeasures to defend against that, it also makes your average fleet engagement in the Honorverse an exercise in [[Beam Spam]] as well. Add the tribarrel for [[More Dakka]] goodness, and you have the Hat Trick of [[Spam Attack|spam attacks]].
*** Count that a Grand Slam at
**** Alfredo Yu's [[Flechette Storm|full-auto flechette gun]] from ''The Honor Of The Queen'' is feeling left out. ''Honor Harrington'' basically embodies every [[Spam Attack]] trope known to man, and then some.
** Also the trope is played straight in the later part of the series with medium combatants (cruisers, destroyers, battlecruisers) that get the opportunity, through off bore targeting missiles, to fire all their on board launchers at a single target. Considering that the launchers are fixed in position, for all the missiles to hit some of them will have to [[Roboteching]] to hit their targets. Also it's standard practice to have the missiles spreading so as not to kill one another with their drives, which begets, you guessed it, more [[Roboteching]].
Line 138 ⟶ 137:
*** {{spoiler|USS Ticonderoga fires all her 96 missiles in less then 3 minutes while trying to defend the Nimitz Battle Group}}
*** {{spoiler|Also the F-14 Tomcats in the naval air battles described fire these at the squadron level}}
** This is actually a well-known tactic in naval anti-ship
* In the ''[[Antares]]'' novels, an attack carrier is a converted freighter carrying about ten thousand nuclear missiles each. In the first novel, the Ryall send ''three'' of these against Sandar. The purpose is to overwhelm planetary defense
* Generator's arm bracers in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Her friends said she'd been watching too much ''[[Project A-ko|Project: A-Ko]]''.
* In the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], the ''[[X Wing Series]]'', Booster Terrik's station from ''[[X Wing Series|The Bacta War]]'' - three ''hundred'' torpedo and missile launchers. {{spoiler|It was all a ruse, with only the sensors in place, but the weapons themselves were loaded onto freighters and put to use against ''Lusankya'' later. The actual first salvo clocked in at eighty missiles (still enough to disable a small Star Destroyer, ''per shot'').}}
* UNSC warships in the ''[[Halo]]'' novels are capable of firing very large numbers of Archer missiles. The typical Archer pod contains 30 missiles, and even small ships like a frigate have over two-dozen pods, resulting in total payload of hundreds of missiles (perhaps thousands for larger ships). Unfortunately for the UNSC, all those missiles are useless against a Covenant warship if its shields are up, and even if its shields are down, its point defense lasers can shoot down a large portion of even a large volley of Archer missiles.
** It is also mentioned a single Archer missile is capable of disabling or outright destroying smaller human ships, so either warships were severely overpowered in engagements or the Human-Covenant war prompted the upgrade.
** In addition, the typical tactic against covenant warships was to launch a
* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Plan of Attack'', {{spoiler|the Air Battle Force}} takes severe casualties after Russians lob many, many missiles at them. Including [[Nuke'Em|nuclear ones]].
* The [[Bolo]] tanks often carry a VLS battery or two capable of unleashing the MMM. Their excellent point defenses and armour allow them to survive multiple MMMs.
Line 163 ⟶ 162:
** ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]'': Boistous Shot, [[All Your Powers Combined|Climax Form's]] Gun Form-based [[Gratuitous English|'Charge And Up']] finisher is this.
** ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'': LunaTrigger's finisher, "Trigger Full Burst", is this. A rather neat trick considering it's laser bullets and not missiles that are doing the trajectory curving, but the Luna form combinations regularly break the laws of physics anyways.
* GrandLiner, the [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] [[Humongous Mecha]] in ''[[Rescue Sentai Go Go Five]]'', essentially a giant walking fortress [[Combining Mecha|formed by]] [[Cool Train|train cars]], combines a
** Oh, but that's not its ''real'' finisher, no... When its time for the endgame move, "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpcqVFt1Z2s#t=4m34s Grand Storm]", it equips the Gatling and Missile engines onto its ''fists'' and lets out two solid punches with them ''while firing them at full power''. Overkill...
* Happens routinely on the new ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''. Cylon basestars are especially prone to firing gigantic salvos of missiles (with cool vapor trails) that home in on the ''Galactica''. If ''Galactica'' is on top of its game, the missiles get shot down by Vipers and the battlestar's [[More Dakka|anti-aircraft guns]]. If not, expect some [[Explosive Instrumentation|breakage]].
Line 177 ⟶ 176:
** The primary purpose of the ''[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Siege Perilous]]''-class assault ships built during the Commonwealth's final days. With their 180 missile tubes, they can launch more missiles than an entire fleet, making them perfect ship-killers.
*** Of the four built, three were shown on screen and played important roles: the ''Balance of Judgment'' survived the Nietzscheans rebellion, but its AI went insane; the ''Balance Wrath of Achilles'' was captured in battle and kept in the "starship prison" system; the ''Resolution of Hector'' was built by the New Commonwealth but hijacked by the ''Judgments'''s AI. The unnamed fourth ship was destroyed in port by the Nietzscheans.
* Done several times on ''[[
* ''[[Space: Above and Beyond]]'' has a very memorable use of it in {{spoiler|1=the duel between [[Colonel Badass|Lt. Col. T.C. McQueen]] and [[Ace Custom|Chiggy von Richthofen]], ended when McQueen sends all six of his missiles into Chiggy at once.}}
* In the season one finale of ''[[Terra Nova]]'' the bad guys spot Col. Taylor and his soldiers trying to get away in a vehicle. The vehicle is hidden by a dense tree canopy so they cannot target it directly. Instead Lucas fires off a missile that splits into multiple smaller missiles that then rain down on the forest in a wide spread.
Line 185 ⟶ 184:
* ''[[Rifts]]'' has several mecha who can do this, being mounted with Mini Missile launchers that carry obscene loads of small missiles almost designed to be used in this way. Not unsurprising as Palladium Books also published an RPG based on the Robotech franchise that used the same system.
** The Robotech RPG was released prior to Rifts, and was the first instance of the name "Mini Missile" actually being used.
* Both Eldar Dark Reaper Reaper Launchers and Space Marine Heavy Bolters are described in the ''[[Warhammer
** By the way, those Exorcists? They're fired by Sisters who play the keys of the pipe organ that serves as the launcher for the rockets.
*** So you could say that when it comes to missiles, the Sisters of Battle pull out all the stops?
* ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'', [[Homage]]-storm that it is, features rocket-pods that use exactly this method as heavy weapons for their [[Humongous Mecha]]. The big winner is the Cherub-class Engel, a middling-sized support mech that can hit a target with up to a dozen rockets at once.
* ''[[Dungeons
** Not quite, the Force Missile Mage just adds an additional two missiles, making a total of seven for a high level caster. However, if you combine this with creative use of Metamagic (namely Quicken Spell and Twin Spell) one can easily fire off as many as 28 in a single turn, if you use Delay Spell you can end up with over fifty Magic Missiles going off at once.
** The "Magic Missile [[Shotguns Are Just Better|Shotgun]]": a Rod of Wands (holds up to three wands and allows you to use those wands simultaneously) and three Wands of Magic Missile (high level crafter = five Missiles per use each). Pull the trigger and it fires fifteen unerring bolts of magical force. Upgrade those wands to Maximized Magic Missile (automatically does greatest possible damage) and that's 75 points of damage per turn '''that [[Always Accurate Attack|cannot]] [[Armor-Piercing Attack|miss]]'''.
** And like everything in DnD tactics like this can be optimized to insane extremes, as can be seen in [http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5242.msg174850#msg174850 this] set up which launches well over a hundred orbs of force and does just a hair under 4000 damage on average.
* ''[[BattleTech]]'', for a long time ''only'' used their missiles this way. The individual missiles themselves were rather weak though, and could only do damage in numbers or through a [[Critical Hit|lucky hit]]. With the exception of artillery and warship-mounted missiles (which soon became extinct in the main setting), it was ''centuries'' before somebody revisited the concept of a powerful missile. Some mechs that are practically made of this trope. Gaze upon the ''[http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Image:Yeoman.jpg Yeoman]'', ye mighty, and despair!
** The Yeoman's nothing. Check out the mighty [https://web.archive.org/web/20120329144156/http://www.camospecs.com/Miniature.asp?ID=4858 Kraken 3]. No other mech epitomizes the Macross Missile Massacre to the same extent- this mech mounts ''8'' LRM 15 pods. That means it has 8 different launchers that each fire 15 missiles, giving it the capacity to launch a staggering 120 missiles simultaneously.
** The vehicular 'SRM Carrier' has ''18'' 6-packs of short range missiles (thats 108 missiles per shot, thank you). One * will* sand all the armor of the biggest mech in the game. The tricky part is living to take the * second* shot.
** Also worth noting: standard ''[[BattleTech]]'' missiles are individually actually very small. One metric ton of long-range missile ammo for example consists of 120 individual missiles (launchable in salvos of 5, 10, 15, or 20), which works out to each of them weighing 8 1/3
* In ''[[GURPS]]'', firing a sufficient number of projectiles at an enemy gives a free increase in accuracy because it's harder to get out of the way. Unfortunately the rules don't allow for a successful MMM (more than a fraction hitting) except on a critical success. Though there are rules for firing 20 round salvos for weapons with very high rates of fire which produce a dozen or so hits even with an unsuccessful attack.
** Unless the projectiles are guided or homing, then they kinda just hit stuff, pretty much regardless.
Line 209 ⟶ 208:
* Any game based on [[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Macross]], of course. There's a whole bunch of 'em.
** The best one has to be ''Macross Ace/Ultimate Frontier''. Not in the sheer number fired, but there's a title that's awards when you've killed one '''million''' enemies with missiles. The use of missiles is so ubiquitous in the game that the developers anticipated that a lot of enemies would be killed using missiles. There's even a counter for how many missiles you've fired, which goes up to the '''hundreds of millions'''.
* The ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] Lonesome Road gives the Red Glare: A scoped, fully-automatic missile launcher that can fire up to 13 rockets in less than 5 seconds.
* ''[[Mushihime-sama]]'' - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQZuidKexBQ Missiles like the world has never seen before]. And probably never will again.
* At least one type of weapon/plane/bombs in almost every [[Shoot'Em Up]] game.
* The giant mecha in ''[[Armored Core]]'' can be designed with massive missile supplies, in some cases firing dozens of light missiles at a time. Given the agility of some opposing mecha, and the cost of replacing missile stores, this isn't a popular option, but it certainly has a place.
** Kisaragi in Armored Core Last Raven developed Micromissiles, missile launchers that fired up to 9 missiles in one salvo (13 if you have the extension part), this was perhaps the best weapon a non OP-I Core can have on his back. Unless he faces off against mechs with good anti missile weapons. The Nymph series compensates instant missile salvos with more stopping power and better firing trajectory, the Taurus also provides a spectacular display of an insane barrage of missiles. The best way to stop the Nymph and Taurus is to equip a lock canceller which resets the lock.
** In the fourth installment, combining Macross Missile Massacres with hit-and-run tactics is arguably the safest, and [[Game Breaker|cheapest]], way of disposing of enemy
*** To elaborate, earlier games has missile barrages about 12, or maximum 16 missiles at a time. In for Answer, a dedicated missileboat can launch a whopping '''128''' missiles continously (WHEELING01/03 back launcher(s) launches 32 missiles per shot, the MUSKINGUM02 shoulder weapon fires 64), at a single target, with fire-and-forget capability (meaning that once a lock-on is ensured and the trigger is pulled, each missiles launched will track the locked on target even when it's no longer on the lock-on arc). This makes missile dodging paramount to survival itself. Hope you're packing flares, buddy.
*** Of course, you could just shoot the missiles, causing them to [[Rule of Funny|blow up]] [[Awesome Yet Practical|in their face]].
Line 221 ⟶ 220:
** But if you have the reflect EX attack on, you reflect more than 800 missiles at your enemies, in addition to the 100 you can already launch.
** Note: this is a main feature of the game and some parts of the game REQUIRE you to do this to have a fighting chance. And THEN there's the bosses that will do this to YOU as well, which results in a 3M being used to COUNTER another 3M (each launching 400 missiles). This is as awesome as it sounds.
*** How it works is the EX attack is charged by danger. The more enemies and bullets the are near you, the more awesome the
*** Also, doing this can cause the number at the top-center of the screen (a counter for the number of simultaneous on-screen explosions) to max out at 999. At that point, even the
* The ''[[BattleTech]]'' series has two main missile types: Short Range Missiles and Long Range Missiles. SRMs are shot, according to the launcher type, in salvos of two, four and six. LRMs, in contrast, are shot in salvos of five, ten, and rather more ridiculously fifteen and twenty. Super-heavy Mechs can be armed with as many launchers as their weight allows, one can mount, say, six LRM20s on a single mech. Shooting them all at once causes a barrage of 120 guided missiles that will overpower any anti-missile system and very probably destroy any Mech in one shot.
** That's assuming the missiles hit, of course, depending on how lucky you are with the dice. However, two more missile types do exist: Medium Range Missiles and Clan-only Advanced Tactical Missiles. ATMs come in launcher sizes of three, six, nine and twelve missiles, but MRMs are loaded in salvos of ten, twenty, thirty, or forty. Good luck hitting something with it,
*** Then there's XRMs, which are practically cruise missiles. Sidenote: always turn off your night vision mode (even during night missions!) in ''Mechwarrior 4'' before launching a missile volley, or you'll get blind.
*** Such tactics are the origin of the term Missile Boat, whose ''modus operandi'' is ''nothing'' but missiles, missiles, missiles.
Line 242 ⟶ 241:
** You can also equip the other fighters in your squad and up to three additional squads with swarm missiles and then order them to get into formation with you. When you then command all of them to attack the capital ship in front of you, they will all fire their missiles at the same distance from the target, for a possible total of 128 missiles. Unless they send a second wave three seconds after that.
** One of the very first missiles you have access to not only takes up a lot of space in your fighter, but also has poor tracking capability (tail-chase only) and mediocre damage to boot. However, it is a staple of multiplayer partly because it requires no lock-on to track targets but also because the firing intervals for the weapon are lower than just about any other missile weapon. This allows you to "ripple-fire" them in salvos in order to make them harder to shake off and in order to ensure a kill.
** ''Freespace'' mods also cop to this on occasion. ''[[Wings of Dawn (video game)|Wings of Dawn]]'' contains a frigate that fires several dozen missiles per salvo, and ''[[Blue Planet]]'' has this as one of the UEF's main tactics: since they lack the [[Wave Motion Gun
* In ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] Prophecy'' and it's sequel, ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] Secret Ops'', the player on occasion has access to the Wasp interceptor. One of it's weapons is the Swarmer, a launcher that with each shot fires eight missiles that track your locked
** To a lesser degree than a full
* The military chopper fought in ''[[Half Life|Half-Life 2]]'' that can inexplicably spew out a gigantic swarm of several times its own vehicular mass in antipersonnel mines, and will do so repeatedly just to show you it can.
** Interestingly, the most memorable version of this attack actually spawned from a glitch. When you nearly have the chopper taken down, it will start spamming mines in a gigantic three-line stream, covering wherever you are with explosives. This used to be a glitch, but when Valve discovered how effective it was and the lasting memories it impressed upon players, they turned it into a tactic.
Line 260 ⟶ 259:
*** The Imperial Giga-fortress from ''Uprising'' is a floating battleship that mounts ''four'' photon rocket launchers, each equivalent to a Rocket Angel in firepower, plus [[Beam Spam|four beam-cannon batteries]].
** And also in ''Red Alert 3'', we have Soviet Dreadnoughts that can utterly spam targets with missiles--''really, really huge missiles'' (these are full battleships after all), but at the expense of the unit's health. Allied IFVs and missile turrets can spam nearly as bad as a Rocket Angel, however, if you put a Javelin soldier in there, and the Soviet Twinblade attacks targets simply by unloading a ton of rockets onto it.
*** Oh, not ''simply''
*** In the final Rising Sun mission, the Soviets use increasingly improbable uses of this trope, spamming first [[Death From Above|their satellite-drop power]] and then [[Nuke'Em|their superweapons]] at certain [[Cutscene Power to the Max|predefined points]]. It doesn't save them.
** The GDI MLRS (yes, ''the'' an American M270) is this in ''[[Video Game/Command And Renegade|Renegade]]'', ''Tiberian Dawn'''s spinoff. Six rockets per salvo, compared to the original's two.
** The Nod [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|Multi-Missile superweapon]] from ''Tiberian Sun'' is, put simply,
** The mode of attack of the Nod [[Invisibility Cloak|Stealth Tank]] from ''[[Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars|Tiberium Wars]]''
*** Also in the same game, but at a lesser extent is the Orca Gunship, firing 6 air-to-ground missiles each. but since you usually have 4 of them, it ends up barraging 24 missiles on your enemies. The Kane's Wrath expansion even has a +2 missiles upgrade to these aircrafts, bringing up to 32 missiles in one quick run! Stack it up with a cheap Orca Strike Craft, and you get a full-fledged missile massacre.
* Samus Aran of ''[[Metroid]]'' fame generally ends up with a veritable [[Hyperspace Arsenal]] of missiles. In ''Metroid Prime 2'' she gains the ability to lock on and fire five of them simultaneously.
Line 276 ⟶ 275:
* In ''[[Fable]]'', the spell "Multi Shot" lets you do this with ''a bow and arrow''. Keep in mind that the arrows will [[Robotech]] en-route to their target, so using this in an enclosed space will result in only one or two arrows hitting the target, while the walls around you will resemble a feathery pincushion.
* The two expansion sets for ''[[Star Wars]]: [[TIE Fighter]]'' featured a new Imperial prototype fighter known as the Missile Boat, which was armed with ''four'' Missile Launchers capable of holding different types of missiles pending on the mission objectives, a Tractor Beam, Shields, a Hyper Drive and a SLAM System which doubled the Missile Boat's speed momentarily while draining laser energy (to compensate, the Missile Boat had only a single laser). Admittedly it was specifically designed to counter the threat of {{spoiler|the renegade Admiral Zaarin's new TIE Defenders (two Advanced Concussion Missiles dual-fired will destroy a TIE Defender outright even with full shields)}}, but the two launchers that usually held Advanced Concussion Missiles had 20 ''each''. That's a maximum of ''80'' Advanced Concussion Missiles which you can fire with a few second cooldown, two after another, without limit until you run out of missiles... Not only did this allow the Missile Boat to smash any other starfighter with relative ease, it could also singlehandedly take down large warships with little difficulty. It makes you wonder why the Empire didn't cut back on warships and make more Missile Boats.
** Unsurprisingly, the multiplayer-oriented sequel ''[[
* In ''[[Warhawk (1995 video game)]]'', there is a weapon for the titular aircraft to use known as the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Swarm Missile]], which can lock on as many times as you want before firing, with the only limit being how many you have. Naturally, this can get extreme.
* In ''[[Ace Combat|Ace Combat 6]]'' there's the special weapon of the [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic|CFA-44 Nosferatu]] called the ADMM which includes 3 body-mounted dispenser units (one on top of each wing and one on the bottom-middle section) that fire off the rounds in a manner akin to countermeasure flares; these are retracted into the body and covered by doors when the special weapon is not selected. Unlike all the other "Multi-Tgt" missiles, each
* [[Naval Ops|''Warship Gunner 2'']] can have this depending on what missile systems you've installed on your warship, ''especially'' if you've mounted a Vertical Launch System (VLS) and the Aegis (allowing multiple simultaneous targets, up to nine at Level 3). Since anti-aircraft missiles (and their VLS version) are autofire-capable, you'll get this when you hold L2 for manual
** Unfortunately unless you have the two special "systems" that give infinite ammo and the other which has all of your weapons firing pretty much constantly and aimed by the AI, missiles and lasers are worthless at higher settings because of all the counter measures. The solution? [[Rock Beats Laser]] aka a large battleship load with large turrets(not to large or you wont fire fast enough) and maybe a [[Wave Motion Gun]] for bosses. Ironically a large battleship with turrets for most ships, LOTS of anti air measures, thick armor and maybe that one so-so anti submarine counter you can equip on your battleship is a [[Game Breaker]]
* ''[[Golden Sun]]: The Lost Age'' has the Daedalus summon, which has the immediate effect of summoning a
* In ''[[Sonic Adventure 2]]'', the Tails/Eggman mechs can produce one of these in the second boss battle and in 2P battle mode. Eggman also has one of these on his "Egg Dealer" robot in ''[[Shadow the Hedgehog (video game)|Shadow the Hedgehog]]''.
** A better example is in the ''beginning'' of [[Sonic Unleashed]], where Sonic crashes onto Eggman's flagship. The doctor targets every turret and robot, in the dozens and hundreds respectively, onto him and fires. The target being ''[[Super Speed|Sonic]]'' and ''[[Worf Barrage|all...]]''
Line 289 ⟶ 288:
** The Vasari are no slouch in this department either, with the Kanrak Assailant and [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Vulkoras Desolator]] being their equivalents to the Javelis and Marza respectively. The volume of missiles they shoot is lower than that of the TEC fleet, but then, they shoot phase missiles, which can fly through enemy shields and hit their hull directly for deadly effect.
* The [[First-Person Shooter]] ''[[Rise of the Triad]]'' had the Drunk Missile, which fired five missiles which flew in a wild pattern and tracked enemies. Firing "drunks" into a crowd of enemies resulted in a [[Ludicrous Gibs|huge, gibletty mess]].
* The Skyray Missile Gunship of the Tau in ''[[Dawn of War]]'' pretty much does the same as its counterpart in the ''[[Warhammer
** This is how Ork Tank Bustaz work in ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'', they even come with a the ability "barrage" which lets them fire their roketz all at once in da air to rain death upon their foes.
** Once you unlock the Fragmentation Missile Pod for the Tau Commander in ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'' Retribution's Last Stand mode, equipping it allows you to fire off a triple-M at a target area, damaging everything in it. The Anti-Armor Missile Pod, while less trope-obedient, still fires a cluster of missiles at a single target.
* The Terran Valkyrie of ''[[
* The Vulture gunship from ''[[Halo]] Wars'' has the Barrage ability wherein it launches a salvo of missiles at a ground target. It's also equipped with two air-to-air missile launchers.
** Pelican dropships can also be equipped for a missile massacre. This is most visible at the end of the Halo 3 campaign level ''Sierra 117'' in which a single Pelican blows '''two''' Covenant Phantoms to hell with a relentless bombardment of missiles. It will also shoot at any surviving Covenant infantry, often to comedic effect.
Line 306 ⟶ 305:
* The titular [[Limit Break]] of ''[[After Burner]] Climax'' allows the player's fighter to lock onto all visible targets and launch missiles at all of them. That number does go over ten often. Of course, the player ends up [[Hoist by His Own Petard|on the receiving end of this often too]], not just from the numerous enemy planes launching at once, but in late-game also from [[Evil Counterpart|lone planes as well.]].
* In ''[[Air Rivals]]'', most missiles are usually fired two or four at a time. However, if using certain skills in conjunction with a certain weapon, it is possible to fire 42 missiles per salvo (which can be fired every few seconds or so). Using specialized weapons with increased rate-of-fire might achieve an even greater amount of missiles over time.
* Cid Highwind from ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' can call a minor
** The Al-Bhed leader Cid in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' takes his airship and releases a considerable amount of missiles upon the Al-Bhed Home, once it has been [[All Your Base Are Belong to Us|overrun by Fiends and enemy forces]].
*** He also uses it in the Evrae boss battle if you use the trigger command and wait for his turn.
** The enemy skill ''Matra Magic'' also takes this form in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''.
*** So I suppose it's a Matra Magic Massacre.
** While Matra Magic is also usable in ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'', a better example is the Ark summon: a large warship that descends from space, transforms into a [[Humongous Mecha]], and releases a laser-targeted
** Quistis' Blue Magic 'Micro Missiles' in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' is a
* The most obvious example of this is Kuja - he uses an attack which launches hundreds of magic missiles, similar to Matra Magic, TWICE in two separate cutscenes.
** Boss fight Havoc Skytank, [[Final Fantasy XIII]] has an ability called 'Missile Barrage', [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|guess what it does to you]]?
Line 324 ⟶ 323:
** Also included is the fighter sized M8 Bomber class, launching extremely powerful Tomahawk missiles. Used to provide fighter squadrons with Anti-capital punch, some versions are able to launch up to 792 missiles at once. Missiles which reach the target late will lock on to any enemy target around.
** In ''Albion Prelude'' missile frigates now automatically use small countermissiles for point defense. Given that some of these ships have up to 16 launch tubes, they launch huge waves of missiles in second intervals to intercept incoming missiles, resulting in a Macross Missile Defense.
** While ''Albion Prelude'' made point defense (through lasers and missiles) far more viable, AI
** Even outside of M7Ms, triple-M is a really effective tactic. A couple of [[Proud Merchant Race|Teladi]] fighters (the Falcon Hauler and Falcon Sentinel) have ''enormous'' cargo bays. Some players arm them with [[Recursive Ammo|Tornado missiles]], making them pretty effective as missile boats against capital ships.
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'''s ''Wrath of the Lich King'' [[Expansion Pack]], Mages who spec deeply into Arcane can get a Talent called Missile Barrage, which, on proc, turns their next casting of Arcane Missiles into this.
** A mission in Northrend has your character riding a gnomish helicopter defending a dig site from incoming gargoyles. There is a missile attack that is ''exactly'' this, including the randomly spiraling missile paths, smoke trails and [[More Dakka]]. Given the number of other [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] in WoW it would be no surprise if this were a direct [[Shout-Out]] to the original MMM.
* ''[[Fraxy]]'' gives you the missile part, which fires 5 missiles before reloading at rank 100. What if someone added an event to loop the missile launching?
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', the
** In the Dual Pistols set, the Bullet Rain power is a miniature version of the trope, with the character waving their guns around in a cone firing rapidly, after which the bullets [[Roboteching]] to their target (and the enemies in an area around the target).
* While ships in ''[[
** The upcoming Dominion expansion introduces the [[Attack Drone|fighter bombers]], which pelt the enemy capital ship from all angles with torpedoes.
** While the fighter bombers have been delayed the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Jxv4lJSzk Titan Superweapons] of the Caldari and Minmatar are a shining example of this trope. The Caldari Titan in particular, known as the Leviathan, launches a literal barrage of anti-ship missiles that deal a whopping 3,000,000 damage before resistances. Anything smaller than a supercarrier or another Titan is going to die in one shot unless purpose-tanked against the attack.
Line 337 ⟶ 336:
** Caldari being the missile favouring race of the bunch has plenty of ships that deal carnage via different sized missiles. Whilst in-game the Drake Battlecruiser can fit "only" 7 launchers (although State Issue Raven, a very rare battleship is the only ship that can fit 8 launchers), it's in-game model has no less than 16 launchers (eight on each side) with three missile tubes each. Canonically, it looks very capable of performing MMM, even if it's game version can't.
** As of the latest expansion (Inferno), missile graphics have been updated to add both trails and missile separation, so it appears much closer to MMM than before.
* Artix Entertainment's game ''[[Mechquest]]'' has MULTIPLE weapons that can pull off the
* ''[[Duke Nukem 3D]]'' has the aptly-named Devastator weapon. It fires small missiles very fast. In fact, it's so effective that you can easily beat the third boss in the game in a few seconds with it.
* In ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] II'', the Missile weapon type turns into this rather fast. Culminating in [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|Black Hole Eruptors]].
Line 347 ⟶ 346:
* War Machine's War Destroyer super move in the ''[[Capcom vs. Whatever]]'' games is a barrage of missiles (the main difference between him and Iron Man is that the former's weapons are mostly ballistic while the latter's are energy-based).
* Maxima in ''[[The King of Fighters|The King of Fighters 2002]] [[Updated Rerelease|Unlimited Match]]'' plays this trope nice and straight with his newly altered [[Limit Break|MAX2/HSDM]], wherein he blasts the opponent senseless with a barrage of missiles from his own body (He's a cyborg). You would think that would be enough to put the opponent away permanently, but oh no, Maxima wants to be sure of his opponent's demise and proceeds to fry them with a [[Wave Motion Gun|fricking huge laser beam]] from his own chest cavity.
* Jehuty, the [[Humongous Mecha]] piloted by the protagonist in both ''[[Zone of the Enders]]'' games, has a "Homing Laser", which targets as many as 40 on-screen targets and launches beams
** Jehuty gains the Homing Missile program in the sequel, ''Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner'' which enables Jehuty to generate up to 16 homing missiles (each one of them half as tall as Jehuty itself) from its [[Hyperspace Arsenal|Vector Trap]] as long as the sub-weapon energy gauge is still available (which can also be replenished by obtaining [[Green Rocks|Metatron]] crates either scattered in various locations or dropped by destroyed enemies.) The entire game is essentially a grand and glorious exercise of [[Beam Spam|beam spamming]] [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|overkill]].
* In ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'', missiles are one of the three weapons you are guaranteed to get at the start. They can be placed in medium or large turret mounts, and most combat-oriented cruiser or dreadnought designs can hold at least four. Add in the fact that point-defense weapons are murder on missiles, and the 3M is about the only way to use missiles in this game.
Line 360 ⟶ 359:
** Let's just say that each medium or larger battle turns into a missile massacre whether you want to avoid it or not. But why would you want to avoid a MMM in the first place anyway?
* ''[[Machines]]'' has the gorilla, which fires lots of small missiles at long distance, which kind of compensates for it's slow speed and it's other attack being very short range.
* The undeservedly little-known flight-based FPS ''[[Flying Heroes]]'' has two
* ''[[Master of Orion]]'' series allow to pack lots and lots of missiles on a ship, especially if you don't care about having many shots. In the second, two strategies are to have the last missile you can outfit with MIRV ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120624041639/http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Master_of_Orion_II/Warship_technologies 4x damage, needs 2 more TechLevels]) and other improvements that make them hard to kill or jam at the cost of bulk and thus total number of missiles ''or'' hurling unholy amounts of spam with plain (at best one minor mod weakening some antimissile measure) missiles in an attempt to overwhelm point defences and have enough left after other anti-missile measures to inflict great damage. Dauntless Guidance allows the remains of the swarm killing a target to lock on the next one. In the first game, "Scatter Packs" are a separate tech, and may be a better early investment than the relatively weak guns available at lower tech levels.
* The Dark Magician class in the free-to-play MMORPG [[Rappelz]] gets a spell called "Darkness Arrow" that is more accurately described as a
* ''[[Champions Online]]'': The [[Power Armor]] Framework includes "Micromunitions". Several salvos of missiles are fired from the shoulders: Both, left, then right. It's a ranged Area Attack ability.
* ''[[Shadow Hearts]]: From The New World'' gives us Ricardo's "Fated Day's End". He plays a few notes, [[Flung Clothing|throws his hat]], swings his [[Swiss Army Weapon|guitar]] onto his shoulder and releases about twenty missiles, which rain down on the enemy.
* The ''[[Twisted Metal]]'' series has many weapons like this, including the MIRV, Rain Missile 2, Satellite, Reticle, Zoomy, etc.
* [[Humongous Mecha|Krakens]] in ''[[Razing Storm]]'' love to use this on you. The third boss of the game, a [[Spider Tank]], does this when defeated in a [[Taking You with Me]] move. If you don't destroy enough of his missiles in time, it will [[Downer Ending|destroy the walkway connecting two skyscrapers, of which your squad is on]], leading to a [[Nonstandard Game Over]].
* On a much smaller scale, we have ''[[
* ''Soldiers: Heroes of World War II'' featured the Katushya, the T34, and a German equivalent (see the real-life examples), who could shower any area on the map with missiles. Almost every multiplayer [[PvP]] game had [[Game Breaker|No Rockets]] (or even No Artillery) as the game name, since they could kill just about anything by sending a single scout forward to find the enemy tanks, and shower it with nearly pinpoint accuracy.
* ''[[Supreme Commander]]'' featured not only the Cybran T2 gunship, but also the Cybran Hoplite, which launched a volley of rockets. Not a massacre on it's own, it's very effective in groups.
* The Flash tower-defense game ''Desktop Defender'' has the Dart Tower, which can be upgraded to the Advanced Dart Tower. Level 6 Dart Towers have massive range and do a lot of damage; however, level 6 Advanced Dart Towers gain the special ability "
* This is the basic principle of [[Ray Series]]. :) Players can accomplish this by firing multiple rays at the enemy crafts once they finish aiming. Many bosses and some minibosses do it as well.
* [[Alien Swarm]] has the "Hornet Barrage" and "Smartbomb" weapons, which fill the screen with guided missiles. Hornets come with three salvos while the smartbomb has only one, but more missiles total. Some clever folks have been using the console commands to modify them, it's possible to spew out twenty missiles a second for the whole level this way.
Line 377 ⟶ 376:
* ''[[Mercenaries]] 2'' has the Venezuelan Cortez RA. A military truck with a rocket launcher on top, which fires 11 rockets in rapid succession.
{{quote|If you ever need to fire eleven missiles in just over a second, the Cortez Rocket Artillery Vehicles is the easiest way to do it. }}
* This is one of the game mechanics you can find in the [[Doujinshi|Japanese indy]] [[Shoot'Em Up|shmup]], ''[[Ether Vapor]]''. The [[Attack Drone
* You are can really be sure that at least one of Morrigan's Specials in [[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]], and [[
* In the Psygnosis-made strategy game ''[[Metal Fatigue]],'' [[The Mario|Rimtech]] has access to this from the get-go. Build a [[Humongous Mecha|Combot]] with dual heavy missile arms, a drunk missile torso, and drunk missile legs, and you have a recipe for bombardment. Salvage homing missile arms from Neuropa and the resultant missile-spam Combot will have no shortage of explosives to dole out. For bonus points, the 'drunk' missiles will bob back and forth in the spirit of this trope and [[Roboteching]].
* [[Jak and Daxter|Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier]] features the Judgment missile, which splits in to three independently targeting missiles. Which then split into another three. Each. Then you can buy an Unlimited Ammo cheat. [[More Dakka|Yeah]].
Line 401 ⟶ 400:
* ''Fester's Quest'' has a [[Roboteching]] quad missile launcher.
* ''[[Vega Strike]]'' treats rocket pods as power-saving [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better|autocannons]] that need a special mount, so due to limited reactor size lighter fighters tend to pack rockets. One of them is called Hail (see [[Real Life]] section). Proper missiles are used by almost everyone and many heavy fighters have 4 launchers or so, but with default parameters AI doesn't launch much.
* ''[[Warzone 2100]]'' has this for most of the higher-tier artillery units, such as Ripple Rockets, which fire about 20 missiles in an arc to a target up to half a map (even further for some others) away, and take about
* In ''[[Company of Heroes]]'', choosing the tank specialisation on the allied side allows you to call in the Sherman Calliope, an M4 Sherman with sixty missiles strapped on top of it. It can be fired as often as you want, if you have the resources. Gets better if you have several of them, as you can fire them all simultaneously, resulting in huge missile strikes. Again, if you have the resources.
* [[Team Fortress 2]]: A level 3 Sentry fires missiles at a target in a spiraling-inward fashion.
Line 417 ⟶ 416:
* ''[[The Whiteboard]]'': In the 2010 [[Zombie Apocalypse]] story arc, the [[Awesome Personnel Carrier|APC]] from ''[[Alien]]'' included, as part of its armament, an ungodly amount of guided missiles, which it spent liberally. Considering Doc and Roger are worshipers at the Church of [[Spam Attack]], this is probably not surprising.
* ''[[Bob and George]]'': while Protoman doesn't normally have this, a common tactic of his is to merge with Nate, producing a rocket-heavy combined form known as Protean. While normally fitted with eight missiles, Nate being a ''shapeshifting goo monster'', they can easily go up to [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/050213 this]. And Nate can regenerate them {{spoiler|when he's not building up a large coating of goo on his target to produce a massive crushing fist around them}}.
* ''[[The B-Movie Comic]]'' during [https://bmoviecomic.com/another-notch-in-the-finger-chap-6-act-4-strip-72/ mecha action]:
{{quote|Not[e] that these are neither guided missiles nor unguided missiles. They’re the third kind – anime missiles.}}
== Western Animation ==
Line 430:
** Episode "Live And Let [[Pun-Based Title|Dy]]namo" goes differently. [[High-Speed Missile Dodge|No matter how hard the Girls try]], the missiles won't miss. It's a good thing that the Girls are [[Made of Iron]], though.
* Meatwad does this to Shake in one episode of ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force]]''. Frylock has just built a humongous mecha as a body replacement for Carl, who had been reduced to a disembodied head. Meatwad takes control of the robot, grabs Shake, throws him up into the air and blows him up with a barrage of missiles.
* Used in an episode of ''[[
** His gun also has a "Death Blossom" mode that is a [[Shout-Out]] to the [[Last Starfighter]] entry above.
* In ''[[Swat Kats]]'', the Turbokat performs this attack twice. The first time with buzzsaw missiles while under the control of Hard Drive in "Night of Dark Kat", the second time in "When Strikes Mutilor", to destroy the fighter Mutilor was intending to use to destroy the drive and crash the mothership into the planet's surface.
* Deliberately homaged in ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', with one hero in a [[Powered Armor]] using this against the near-unstoppable android Amazo.
** {{spoiler|It didn't work. Didn't even slow him down.}}
* In [[Star Wars: Clone Wars]], a
* The ''[[Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (animation)|Big Guy and Rusty The Boy Robot]]'' intro shows the Big Guy being able to do this with dozens of spiraling missiles. Sadly he prefers using the machine guns in his armpits rather than falling for the rule of cool and spamming missiles.
* The [[Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!]] Super Robot has this one. [[Troperiffic|As well as about every other Super Robot trope...]] In fact [[Up to Eleven|it can deploy this attack from the fingertips, the arms, or the feet.]]
Line 442:
== Real Life ==
* The concept of Multiple Launch Rocket System / Free Rocket Over Ground: see a concentration of enemy troops, quickly unload a lot of cheap unguided rockets to scour the whole area.
** Surprisingly, this is [[Older Than Steam]]: The historical Korean [[wikipedia:Hwacha|hwacha]]
** Soviet MLRS, starting from BM-13-16 and BM-8-48 (132mm / 82mm, second is the number of rails) "Katyusha"
** Its descendants the 9K51 (or BM-21) "Grad" ("Hail")
** The Katyusha was outdone by the American [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqfyz_Nc6NI T34 Calliope], basically a Sherman tank with ''sixty'' rocket tubes strapped onto it. Developed a year after the 48-tube Katyusha variant, one wonders if the designers were thinking "those Russians are onto something, but it needs [[More Dakka]]". USSR had a few experimental rocket tanks, but chose to stick with more mobile truck "artillery".
** The modern American equivalent is the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System. Each MLRS vehicle can launch 12 277mm rockets within sixty seconds. Each rocket can contain up to 644 submunitions. Total throw is therefore 7,728 bombs launched in under a minute per vehicle. MLRS batteries are colloquially known as 'grid square erasers.'
Line 453:
** Not so surprising, as the 'Aegis' was designed to counter massive waves of Soviet naval cruise missiles from Backfire bombers and Oscar-class SSGNs targeted on carrier battle groups. It was essentially one Macross Missile Massacre versus another.
** The Navy antimissile people seem aware of this, as they have introduced point-defense [[Gatling Good|Phalanx 20mm Gatling guns]] to the Aegis antimissile defenses. Designed to be able to take out a low-flying antiship missile before it hits the ship, this system can be overwhelmed as well (there's only a few guns per ship) - it's strictly a last resort weapon.
*** Which is why the Phalanx has been (partially) replaced by the [[wikipedia:Rolling Airframe Missile|RIM-116 Rolling Airframe (anti-missile) Missile]]. They are fitted in 21-cell launchers with full 360° rotation and 90° elevation. Unlike gun-based close in weapons systems the missile system can engage many target simultaneously via a
*** They're also in the very early stages of working on a version of this system that, instead of a [[More Dakka|rapid-fire autocannon]], uses a [[Frickin' Laser Beams|laser beam]]: the '''T'''actical '''H'''igh-'''E'''nergy '''L'''aser. This would provide greater accuracy, and possibly be harder to swamp. In ten or twenty years, we may have a [[Truth in Television]] example of [[Beam Spam]]. A more compact mobile version, the M-THEL is also in development for the ground forces, designed to shoot down mortar and howitzer shells as well as missiles. The THEL prototype has already successfully been demonstrated in defense against mortar rounds.
** It is unclear whether the Russian Orlan/"''[[Reporting Names|Kirov]]''" class can do the same. The nuclear-powered cruiser has a greater SAM capacity than most other vessels on the planet, with four different types carried.
*** It can. Its main SAM battery consists basically of navalized version of the venerable S-300 system, with eight vertical revolver-type launchers, each holding eight missiles. This gives us 64 large long-range missiles, but each cell in those launcher could accept from ''four'' to '''''eight''''' smaller, shorter range missiles, driving the number up to ''512'' missiles. These could be fired in salvos limited only by the fire control ability, which is, admittedly, somewhat lacking, but given that Aegis-analogue is already coming online
* The U.S Navy also uses a
** New Russian UKSK VLS is built around the same idea, but, as it uses a cold-launch approach, it's much cheaper and lighter on a per cell basis, so even a 2000-ton corvette is able to carry a couple of 8-cell modules.
** However, the plan for future ships like the Zumwalt-Class stealth destroyer see the VLS-Tomahawk land-attack combo being replaced by the 155mm howitzer-based Advanced Gun System, and later, by electromagnetic railguns. [[
** There's also the Ohio-class SSGN submarine, which can carry up to 154 cruise missiles in it's VLS tubes.
* A very large number of real-life weapon systems or tactics can be considered real-life versions of this, from multiple rocket launchers which can fire a large number of either "dumb" or "smart" munitions, to simply clustering a bunch of weapon launchers together or coordinating a large number of missile launches (works doubly best when paired with previous described weapon) or large bombers like the B-52 whose primary mission is to saturate a target area with missiles (back in the Cold War days, ''nuclear-tipped'' missiles. It's no exaggeration to say that a single B-52 with a full load of cruise missiles could effectively annihilate the Soviet Union by itself barring countermeasures or interception, and an equivalent Soviet bomber, the Tu-95 "Bear" for example, would likewise be capable of doing the same to the United States), let alone ballistic-missile launching submarines like the Soviet "Typhoon"-class (if you've ever seen ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'' this is the real-life submarine the titular vessel is based on) which can carry 20 missiles with ten warheads each, or an American ''Ohio''-class submarine converted to launch 156 land attack cruise missiles, also cluster-munition capable. A reason why the Macross Missile Massacre is such a popular trope, after all, is because it happens to be a very useful and devastating real-life tactic, especially when target destruction must be guaranteed, probability of missile evasion or interception is high, and when collateral damage isn't given an afterthought or when the missiles have sufficiently "smart" enough guidance to prevent such.
Line 469:
** A first three-missile salvo destroyed the U-2. Other batteries were unsure about the success and thirteen more missiles were fired, hitting the MiG-19.
* The term MIRV stands for "Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle" and is used to describe short-range to ICBM class nuclear-tipped missiles that contain a single first stage with multiple warheads that will detach after launch, shortly before impact. (Reportedly the Trident II is capable of carrying at least 12 warheads per missile.) The contrails in [[Missile Command]] that would split up to hit multiple targets? This is the real life weapon on which they were based.
* The British [http://www.army-technology.com/projects/starstreak/ Starstreak Close Air Defense Missile] is designed to kill low flying aircraft by launching three smaller guided sub-munitions that then home into its target mid flight. Think about it, it's a missile that launches a small
* Though not exactly missiles, multiple-launched aerial rockets were the primary armament of US Air Force interceptors in the 1950's. See [[wikipedia:Mk 4/Mk 40 Folding-Fin Aerial Rocket|article on other Wiki]] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP7Oxx8AY2c this vid].
** The German [[R 4 M]] rocket was intended as a way to destroy a B-17/B-24-sized target in one salvo. One 55-millimeter rocket may not have been much, but shotgun 24 of them at once and you've got something going.
Line 485:
[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
|