Updated 2002.7.20

AA

Anti-Aircraft.

AAA

Anti-Aircraft Artillery (also Tripple A).

AAGM

Anti-Aircraft Guided Missile

AAR

After Action Report. In regard to wargames it is a short synopsis of what happened in the game.

AAR

Advanced Assault Rifle. An advanced version of the assault rifle. Usually more accurate and/or higher rate of fire.

AC

Anglian Confederation. A precursor of the NAC

AC

Auto Cannon. A large machinegun.

AC

Alternating Current. An eletric current that reverses directions at regular intervals.

ADS

Area Defense System. Similar to the PDS, it is an offensive weapon (or system of weapons) designed to target and destroy missiles and/or aircraft within a given area or Zone of Control.

AE

Alarishi Empire. An unofficial GZG nation. It is a confederation of a variety of sovereign colonies, corporations, families, and social experiments, united under a libertarian monarchy and a free-market economy, occupying three star systems, none of which have habitable planets.

AFV

Armored Fighting Vehicle.

AI

Artificial Intelegence.

AIFV

Armored Infantry Fighting Vehicle. See IFV.

AP

Anti-Personel. Usually weaponry used against infantry.

APC

Armored Personnel Carrier. Vehicle for transportation of troops that provides some armor protection.

APD

Anti-Persuit Device. A generic term for any number of self-contained devices designed to negate or dissuade enemy personnel from following.

APFSDS

Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot. A type of munition

APSW

Anti-Personnel Support Weapon. This is usually a machine gun, but may also be a grenade launcher, small laser, small plasma gun, etc.

AR

Assault Rifle.

Artillery

Weapon that uses large shells. This type of weaon is ususally larger than tank based weapons. These weapons are generally fired indirectly (with a pronounced arc).

Arty

Short for Artillery

ARV

Armored Reconnaisance Vehicle.

ARV

Armored Recovery Vehcile. An Engineering vehicle to extract damaged vehicles from a battlefield.

Assault Rifle

This is a cross between a submachine gun, a rifle, and a full machine gun. An AR usually more accurate than either a machine gun or submachine gun. And unlike a rifle, may fire either bursts (small groups of rounds) of fire, single shots, or use full automatic fire.

AT

Anti-Tank

ATG

Anti-tank Gun.

ATGM

Anti-Tank Guided Missile

Battle-Taxi

APC

BB

Battleship. A military warship larger than a Battlecruiser, but smaller than a Battledreadnought. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

BC

Battlecruiser. The smallest of the Capital ships, the Battlecruiser is larger than a Heavy Cruiser, but smaller than a Battleship. A small Battleship. The original Battlecruiser idea was to mount Battleship class weapons on a light and lightly armored hull, allowing the Battlecruiser to have a speed advantage over the Battleships. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

BDN

Battledreadnought. A military warship larger than a Battleship, but smaller than a Dreadnought. A small Dreadnought or Heavy Battleship. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

BEM

Bug Eyed Monster.

Bio-Chem

Biological or Chemical in nature.

C³

Command, Control, and Communications.

CCW

Close Combat Weapon.

CDM

Command Detonated Mine. A mine that detonated by enemy forces usually by wire or radio.

CE

Escort Cruiser or Patrol Cruiser. A warship larger than a Light Cruiser, and smaller than a Heavy Cruiser. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

CFV

Cavalry Fighting Vehicle. An infantry support/transport vehicle designed to assist/support small infantry units on scouting, disruption of C³ and logistics, etc. Some are specialized for this role (smaller, quieter, etc.) and some are IFVs with minor changes.

CH

Heavy Cruiser. A military warship larger than a Escort or Patrol Cruiser, but smaller than a Battlecruiser. A Heavy Cruiser is usually considered the largest non-capital ship. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

CL

Light Cruiser. A military warship larger than a Destroyer, but smaller than an Escort Cruiser. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

CO

Commanding Officer.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets. A method of extending control over the style content of HTML pages. For specifics see The World Wide Web Consortium at http://www.w3c.org.

CT

Corvette. A military ship smaller than a Frigate. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

CVH

Heavy Carrier. A military warship designed to be a mobile airfied. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

CVL

Light Carrier. A military warship designed to be a mobile airfield. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

DD

Destroyer. A militry warship larger than a Frigate, but smaller than a Light Cruiser. A Destroyer is usually considered the largest "Esocrt" ship (the next size up being Cruisers). Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

DFFG

Direct Fire Fusion Gun. A weapon that uses fusing plasma to inflict damage.

DN

Dreadnought. A military warship larger than a Battledreadnought, but smaller than a Superdreadnought. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

Dropship

A craft capible of fight into and out of an atmosphere, but not usually capible of interstellar flight.

DS

Dirtside II. A game by GZG, emphasizing armord vechicle combat.

DS2

See DS

ESU

Eurasian Solar Union. A political body encompasing the former Soviet Union, China, most of sub-asia, and extra-solar colonies.

EU

European Union. A political body consisting of the states of Europe. Also see FSE

FB

Fleet Book. A suplement to Full Thrust providing official designs of ships. As of the time of this writing that have been two fleet books published. Often writen as FB1 or FB2.

FF

Frigate. A military warships larger than a Corvette, but smaller than a Destroyer. Also see here for a list of ship abbreviations.

FIBUA

Fighting in Built Up Areas

FMA

Full Metal Anorak. FMA stands for "Full Metal Anorak", a term coined I believe by Mary Gentle. A game mechanics used in the GZG family of games (DSII, SGII and others). DSII was effectively the first in the FMA series of games. The mechanic is to shift die types (d4 to d6), rather than adding numbers to a roll result, to modify a roll. This term is tradmarked by Ground Zero Games.

FMA (Full-Metal Atkinson)

FMA normally refers to a series of common game mechanics to which a copyright could be attached and with which a trademark could be associated. The rights to FMA (short for Full Metal Anorak) are owned by Ground Zero Games and Jon Tuffley. Full-Metal Atkinson is a "play on words" and makes specific references to a GZG gamer (a Combat Engineer) who is known for his somewhat inflammatory rhetorical style.

FMA Skimrish

See FMASk.

FMASk

FMA Skirmish. A beta release of a skirmish level game by Ground Zero GAmes using the FMA system.

FSE

Federated State of Europe. A political body originated from the EU. Consists of France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and a number of smaller nations and colonies.

FT

Full Thrust. A game by GZG, dealing with starship combat

FT2

See FT

FTL

Faster Than Light. Transposition of an object in space such that the object travels or appears to travel faster that the speed of light. Also see "jump".

GAC

Gauss Autocannon. An autocannon propelled by a magnetic or gravitic field.

Gauss

The centimeter-gram-second unit of magnetic flux density that is equal to 1 x 10^-4. A unit of magnetic measurement, named for Karl F. Gauss. Often applied as an adjective to describe projecting somthing by means of magnetic fields (example: GAC).

GEV

Ground Effect Vehicle. Traditionally a vehicle that is supported by trapping a pressurized volume of air under the vehicle. In the GZG universe GEVs are more properly Ground Effect VTOLs designed to operate less than 3 meters off the ground and increase thier efficiency by use of ground-effect.

GL

Grenade Launcher.

GMS

Guided Missile System. Often seen as GMS/H (Heavy), GMS/L (Light), and GMS/P (Personal or (man) Portable).

Grav

Short for Gravity. Usage: often used as an adjective to describe the motive method of a unit. i.e. Grav Tank.

GZG

Ground Zero Games. Producer of Full Thrust, Dirtside II, and Stargrunt II miniatures war games.

HALO

High Altitude, Low Open. A style of (parachute) drop where the jumpers exit the vehicle at a high altitude and do not deploy the parachute until at very low altitude. It is performed to attempt to avoid detection by opposing forces or reduce the time the opposing forces have to respond to the drop.

HAMR

Heavy Anti-Material Rifle

HEF

High Explosive Fragmentation. Usually refers to an explosive device or artillery shell that explodes and is designed to breatk apart in such a manner that an area is saturated by sharpnel. Such weapons are designed primarilly as an anti-infantry device.

HEL

High Energy Laser

HK

See Hyper Kinetic

HKP

Hyper Kinetic Penetrators. This type of weapon uses long rod penetrators fired at very high velocities to inflict damage. The shells are usually too small to contain effective explosives, but the high density and velocity of the shell delivers an enormous kinetic force to the target. HKPs are usually fired using a chemical reation or plasma reaction.

Hover Tank

A tank that hovers or floats, usually by means of anti-gravity, magnetic repultion, or ground effect (see GEV).

HtH

Hand to Hand.

HTML

Hypertext Mark-up Language. A method of displaying information that can enbed links to other pages of information. Usually used in the creation and displaying of World Wide Web pages. For specifics see The World Wide Web Consortium at http://www.w3c.org

HUD

Heads Up Display. Any unit that displays information in a way that the viewer need not turn his/her head to view additional information.

HVC

High Velocity Cannon. This weapon is a conventional tank gun. The shell is usually fired by a chemical reaction. The shell fired often contains high explosives to augment the kinetic damage.

Hyper Kinetic

Usually refers to a weapon or process that delivers an extreme amount of kinetic energy by use of extreme velocity of a projectile.

Hypersonic

Five times the speed of sound or faster.

Hyperspace

A set of dimentions that intersects with our universe (but not on a one to one basis). Traveling through hyperspace allows, in some instances, for FTL travel.

Hypertext

A method of linking text files. Usually seen as part of HTML

IAVR

Infantry Anti-Vehicle Rocket. A disposable anti-armor weapon.

IC

Indonesian Commonwealth. A government in the GZG universe. It consists of Indonesia, the Philippines, micronesia, and several other south sea islands as well as off-Earth holdings.

IF

Islamic Federation. A government in the GZG universe. It is a consolidation of many arabic and north african states that are primarilly muslim and off-Earth colonies.

IFV

Infantry Fighting Vehicle. Often similar in appearance to an APC, but with more space dedicated to multiple antipersonnel weapons.

IP

In Possition. Soldiers making use of available cover.

ITTT

Interstellar Trade, Transport and Telecommunications. An interstellar corporation in the GZG universe.

Jump

A method of creating a hole in space. This hole has an opening in one part of normal space and an exit in another part of normal space. Jumps have been described as having no width (and thus instant travel between the entrance and exit). Others have described a jump as a transition to Hyperspace. In either case it allows for FTL travel.

Kra'Vak

Alien species in the GZG universe. Little is known about this species. What is known is that they prefer railguns as primary ship weapons.

KV

See Kra'Vak

LAM

Land-Air Mech. A Mech that is a blending of an aircraft and a Mech, or a Mech that can change between aircraft and Mech form/mode.

Laser

L.A.S.E.R. Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission fo Radiation. A device that emits a coherent beam of light or other electromagnetic radiation.

LAV

Light Armor Vehicle

LEO

Low Earth Orbit

LIPPC

Light Interface Portable Personnel Carrier. An APC that can be loaded on an interface craft (Dropship).

LOS

Line of Sight

Maglev

Magnetic Levitation. 20th century use: sequential electromagnets on a track used to levitate the train slightly off the tracsk then pull/push the train at great speeds. SciFi use: Use of magnetics to levitate objects. Often used in conjunction with hover tanks.

MAK

Multiple Armor Killer. Usually referes to a type of artillery shell that drops anti-armor submunitions throughout a target area.

MBT

Main Battle Tank.

MDC

Mass Driver Cannon. A type of Railgun. It uses magnetic or gravatic forces to propel the shell at very high velocities. Such shells usually do not contain explosiveds. The MDC also has an extreemly rapid rate of fire.

Mech

See Walker. Derivative of mechanical or machine.

MICV

Mobile Infantry Combat Vehicle. Also see APC and IFV.

MICV

Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle. An enhanced APC, ie better fire support.

MLP

Multiple Launcher Pack. Similar to SLAM, this is a pack of small unguided missiles. Unlike SLAM, these packs are small enough to mount on a tripod or on Power Armor

MMRAV

Modular Multi-Role Armored Vehicle.

MOUT

Military Operations in Urban Terrain

MRLS

Multiple Rocket Launch System. Often heard pronounced as 'merls'.

NAC

New Anglian Confederation. A political body in the GZG universe. The NAC consists of the former states of Great Britan, Canada, and the United States of America. The Anglian Confederation was formed in after the colapse of the USA, martial law and peace-keeping forces sent in by Great Britan. It was renamed the New Angilan Confederation in 2156, after it moved its capital to the planet Albion.

Narns (Narn Bat Squad)

Narns are a race of intemperate and excitable aliens from the Babylon-5 universe. The Narn Bat Squad is a group of blunt-instrument wielding Narns who specialize in close combat on starships and other places and are used as a disciplinary instrument on the GZG mailing list to punish those guilty of terrible puns or other humorous (in the loosest sense) comments that make the majority of the list members groan in pain. Currently, their Earth Headquarters are in a parking lot outside of the home of Laserlight.

NBC

Nuclear, Biologic, and/or Chemical. NBC is a term applied to a set of threats that are considered "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and/or would require protective suits in order to safely enter an area where one of these weapons was used.

NI

New Israel. A government in the GZG universe. After Isarel was destroyed by nuclear terrorism by IF forces, the remanents of Israel sought a new planet to colonize. This colonization was the start of New Israel.

NOD

Night Optical Device. A device used to see in low-light situations. Often increases available (visual) light, uses infer-red (heat), or uses ultra-violet light sensors.

NOE

Nape of the Earth. Flying an aircraft at extreemly low altitudes. Usually executed inorder to avoid radar or other sensors.

NSL

Neu Swabian League. A political body in the GZG universe. The NSL was formed in 2101, when Germany and other Eastern European states left the EU due to French attempts at dominance.

OIC

Officer in Charge/Officer in Command

OU

Oceanic Union. A governmental body in the GZG universe. The Oceanic Union is a federation of states, covering Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and a number of South Sea Islands, with some off-world colonies.

Overwatch

A procedure where a unit observes an area, for expected enemy action. This is done to allow the unit first-fire opprotunity if/when the enemy crosses the observed area.

PA

See Power Armor.

PBI

Poor B***** Infantry. The guys who do the dirty work.

PDS

Point Defense System. Usually a weapon system designed to target and intercept missiles and/or aircraft at very close range to the vehicle on which it is mounted.

PIG

See PPG(I).

Power Armor

A suit of armor, worn by a soldier, that offers protection and provides assisted lifting and/or mobility. Power Armor often are used as "Shock Troops" as they are difficult to disable and dangerous to encounter.

PPC

Particle Projecting Cannon

PPG(I)

Portable Plasma Gun Infantry. A man-portable plasma weapon. This weapon is also known as a 'PIG'.

Railguns

A projectial weapon. Also called HK or Hyper-Kinetic weapon. It expels a solid projectile at hypersonic speeds. They usually do not carry explosives. All (or the vast majority) of the damage they cause if from transfer of the kinetic energy from the projectile to the target. Usually the kinetic force of the projectile is generated using magnetic forces.

RFAC

Rapid Fire Auto Cannon. A weapon system that fires shells. This type of system usually fires solid shells (as the calibre of the gun is small enough to make explosive shells ineffective) using a chemical propellant. A large machine or gattling gun.

ROE

Rules of Engagement.

Sa'Vasku

An alien species in the GZG universe. The Sa'Vasku are an enigmatic species and almost nothing is known of them or their motives. What is evident is that they rely on organic technology, sending out organic constructs when interatction with other species is required.

SAW

Squad Assault Weapon. A man-portible machine gun. This weapon is larger tha an AssaultRifle but smaller than a RFAC

SDN

Superdreadnought. A military warship larger than a Dreadnought. This is the common term for the largest Capital ships that do not primarily rely on fighters for offense.

SG

Stargrunt II. A game by GZG emphasizing infantry squad combat.

SG2

See SG

SLAM

Salvo LAunched Missiles. Packs of unguided missiles fired in quick succession to blanket an area with fire.

SML

Salvo Missile Launcher. Starship based weapon.

SMS

Salvo Missile System.

SOP

Standard Operating Procedure.

SPA

Self propelled artillery.

SPW

Self Propelled Weapon.

SRAAW

Short Ranged Anti-Armor Weapon.

Stargrunt II

See SG.

Suppressed

Being under Suppression.

Suppression

The act of firing at a unit to pin the unit in place (as they drop to the ground, take advantage of cover, etc.). This allows other units to maneuver for betting firing possitions, disengage, or perform other actions.

SV

See Sa'Vasku

System Ship

A space ship that does not have the ability to travel outside the star system in which it is deployed.

Tank

A self-propelled, armored, direct-fire gun platform on tracks. Often it is used as a descriptor in conjunction with another type movement (i.e. Grav Tank; Hover Tank).

Tank Killer

Usually a vehicle with an oversized gun designed specifically to target enemy armored vehicles. Often these vehicles have fixed or limited traverse turrets and are underarmored (when compared to tanks).

UO

Urban Operations. Fighting in urban areas.

Walker

An armored fighting vehicle that uses legs for motility. Walkers are usually bipedal, but also include 3, 4, 6 and other numbers of legs. Sometimes refered to as "Giant Robots", but Walkers are normally piloted from within.

ZOC

Zone of Control. The area under the influence of persons or devices.

ZOE

Zone of Effect. The area effected by a condition, event, or device.