Rocket launcher

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Name	rocket launcher
Appearance	rocket launcher
Damage vs. small	1d2
Damage vs. large	1d2
To-hit bonus	-4
Weapon skill	firearms
Size	two-handed
Base price	3500 zm (+10/positive enchant)
Weight	750
Material	iron

A rocket launcher is a type of two-handed firearm that appears in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. It is a launcher that fires rockets, and is made of iron.

A rocket launcher can fire multiple rockets per round, with the chance based on skill level and the launcher's enchantment.

Generation

Captains in the Yendorian Army have a ¹⁄₂ chance of generating with a rocket launcher.

Strategy

Rockets fired from a rocket launcher deal the most base damage of any projectile in the game, dealing d45 against small monsters and d60 against large ones - the rockets also explode for 3d8 fire damage when they hit a target. Unfortunately, the rocket launcher's extreme weight of 750 aum, along with the 200 aum weight of its projectiles, renders the weapon almost completely useless.

In SLASH'EM, the launcher alone takes up the mass majority of a strong character's carrying capacity - this is before accounting for rockets themselves, even with no other inventory. In SlashTHEM, the increases to carrying capacity do not stop the launcher and rockets from being incredibly cumbersome for most characters, short of those polymorphed into nymphs: assuming the maximum carrying capacity of 4000 aum, a rocket launcher on its own takes up just under ¹⁄₅ of that weight, with a set of six rockets bumping that weight to nearly half of that total.

Additionally, in order to fire more than one rocket in a round, a rocket launcher would have to be enchanted far beyond a level that is probable for players to obtain: even with Expert skill in firearms, a +15 rocket launcher would fire two rockets with a ¹⁄₈ probability. Furthermore, the rocket launcher is hampered by its -4 to-hit penalty and inability to wear a shield while operating one, and its damage per turn is considerably lower than much lighter rapid-fire weapons such as assault rifles and submachine guns.

Origin

A rocket launcher is a weapon that launches an unguided, rocket-propelled projectile. The earliest documented rocket launchers originated in imperial China as propulsion systems for arrows, and may have existed as early as the 10th century in the Song dynasty China, with solid documentary evidence occurring as early as the 13th century. Early Chinese rocket launchers consisted of arrows modified by the attachment of a rocket motor to the shaft a few inches behind the arrowhead - the launchers themselves were constructed of wood, basketry, and bamboo tubes that separated the rockets using frames, and propelled them by burning the black powder in the motor, allowing multiple rockets to be fired at once. This is distinct from early Chinese fire arrows, which carried small tubes of black powder that ignited once the arrow hit its target.

Rockets were introduced to the West during the Napoleonic Wars, with one of the first rockets being the Congreve: a British weapon devised by Sir William Congreve in 1804 after he experienced Indian rockets at the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799. Congreve rockets were launched from an iron trough, or chamber, that was about 18 inches (45 centimetres) in length, and could be fixed to the ground for horizontal launching, secured to a folding copper tripod for high angle fire, or mounted on frames on carts or the decks of warships.

The rocket launcher in SLASH'EM appears to be a multiple rocket launcher system based on its tile, which may explain its weight: such devices are usually vehicle-mounted, and are not made to be man-portable. A typical shoulder-mounted rocket launcher such as the iconic bazooka weighs around 13lb/6kg, which is roughly twice the weight of an assault rifle.

In modern military terminology, the term rocket generally refers to unguided projectiles, while the term missile is used to describe rocket-propelled projectiles equipped with a guidance system. However, there is some ambiguity: early guided missiles were sometimes called "guided rockets", while originally unguided systems that are later fitted with a guidance system often retain the "rocket" designation; many multiple rocket launcher systems fall into the latter category.