Vehicle of the Week Update: Athena Combat Vehicle(The original article is no longer available.)In his original article, GWA started out commenting on the square barrels of the Gauss rifles, and I can't say I have any better idea what the hell's going on there, either, even two years on from the last time I looked over this article. In any case, the Athena is named for the goddess of strategic, thoughtful war and the patron of Athens, and is far as I know is unrelated to the
Zeus. Introduced in 3008 by everyone's favorite (and probably the only) combined arms Clan, the Hell's Horses, who are also apparently the ones behind the upgraded model from RS3060U. They use these mobile guns heavily, with them found in most if not all of their heavy and assault vehicle Stars in their front-line units, so if you're dealing with the Horses, expect to deal with the Athena.
Both versions use a 75 ton chassis and a 225-rated fusion engine (albeit not the same type) to go at 3/5, comparable to the ICE-powered Zhukov from TRO3058. Also like the Zhukov, both use the twin big gun paradigm, but the similarities end there. The original Athena is definitely aimed at being a sniper, using two Gauss rifles and an LRM 10 for long range fire, with two machine guns and two ERMLs covering the machine's flanks in a turret. That's right, the main guns aren't in a turret, but rather face forward all the time. On the other hand, the 38 points of armor, vs. 26 on the sides and 24 on the rear, mean the Horses want this thing pointed at the enemy, and at range, that makes a certain amount of theoretical sense. On a positive note, those Gauss rifles (and the ERMLs, which bump the computer size) are linked into a targeting computer, making this tank dangerously accurate, especially since the Horses have better vehicle crews than the other Clans do, generally. Unfortunately, the LRM 10 isn't similarly enhanced, and to be honest, given the lack of accuracy support, I think they would have done better to spend those 3.5 tons on mounting the Gauss rifles in the turret and thickening the armor plate on the sides. On the other hand, as GWA mentioned, I can easily see thirty of these things wrecking two full binaries of 'Mechs. They'd get hurt, but that much fire pouring into you is going to make even assault 'Mechs wince. Plus it's 15 point hits. Leaving aside the off chance of a head hit, once locations start taking multiple Gauss rifle impacts, smaller 'Mechs are going to melt and even assaults are going to be going internal.
The upgrade bumps the standard fusion engine to an extra-light and, as GWA and I both recommend, removed the LRM 10 for even more working mass. What it didn't do was move the Gauss rifles to the turret. Instead, the Horses apparently decided, probably based on the fact that people kept surviving the frontal barrage and circling the tank, that the answer was "MOAR DAKKA!" on the theory that if it's dead, it can't circle you. Well, I can't argue with that logic, now can I? (Actually, I can and will, but we'll get to that part.) Our infernal equine friends removed the Gauss rifles and LRM 10 in favor of a pair of their new hyper-assault Gauss rifles, the HAG/30 model, and gave it enough ammo for twelve shots each - about what I'd expect of a Clan vehicle. The targeting computer is still there, as well, meaning these things are still taking a -1 to the targeting roll. The machine guns were replaced with a pair of APGRs for even more magnetically-accelerated happy fun time. Where they really went nuts was the Demolisher II-esque armoring on this variant, though, with a prodigious 72/48/32/40 spread. This is one tank that is definitely going to have to be critted out, although the thoughtful opponent will note that the armor is still heavily canted toward the front. Combined with the heavy firepower up there, this makes it clear that once again, you want to circle the tank and get out of the forward arc, although leave Artemis IV at home, since they also added ECM. All of this is paid for with an 11.16 million C-Bill price tag and a 2444 BV2 - yes, you read that right. There are plenty of heavy 'Mechs out there that are comparable to the Athena HAG, and all of them are faster. The Horses certainly built one hell of an assault gun, I'll give them that, but I remain unconvinced that it's worth the price. (I won't bother pointing out the XLFE being odd - the Horses traditionally don't care that much anyway, and besides, if they'll do it on their new Toadmobile, I doubt they're worried about doing it on a rolling gun.)
At approximately the same time, the Horses were also experimenting with a very different sort of Athena remake, one that defied analysis for some time. The first unit to use the Horses' chemical lasers to see production from what's been revealed to date, the Athena-XR starts from the ground up. The engine was swapped for a fuel cell while the weapons load was completely swapped around. In the forward space the Gauss rifles freed up, a short turret was mounted with four machine guns and a pair of medium chemical lasers to act as a close defense; while it can't shoot straight back, that's not a huge issue. You're slow enough that a lot of the time, Elementals can keep in shouting distance to deal with infantry that manages to get behind you. As for bigger units, well, that's even less of a problem. The main turret can still fire back there, after all, and it has four large chemical lasers. While matching conventional IS larges for power, these chem-fueled weapons are still reasonably powerful, and four of them isn't exactly a minor amount of damage to get slapped by. Each brace of lasers has 60 shots to split. Very interestingly, the Horses also opted to keep a targeting computer on here. 12 tons of ferro-fibrous is arranged 46/40/39/30/35; the extra number from my usual arrangement covers the extra turret. Overall, the effect reminds me a lot of the Zhukov. As Clan tanks go, this isn't really a powerhouse and the range is low, but it's a very interesting departure from the norm. In the XTRO series, the Athena-XR might actually be the single most practical out of the box design in the whole lot. To date, the design hasn't been followed up on by anything more substantial, but it's broken some ground.
To use the long range variants, find some nice, long, clear LOS, pick a target, and shoot it until it dies. You may want to consider rolling backward if possible as someone approaches to stretch out the time they're under your main guns, especially if you can do it and get a +1 TMM in the process. The variant, thanks to the HAG clustering rules (+2 at short, -2 at long) will want to conserve ammo for medium and short range shots, but careful maneuvering and use of terrain, combined with the long reach of a HAG, means that this isn't as much of an issue as it might be with something like an LB 20-X facing similar rules. The variant also has a secondary role - HAGs are truly awesome anti-air weapons, and any fighter that blunders into an Athena HAG's forward arc is going to regret it. If someone does close and they're alone, turn and put your guns on them, and back up a bit to minimize the range minimum penalty if possible. Also, pay attention to initiative and try to make sure the Athena moves
after anyone near it does, given your arc restrictions. They have some tactical limitations (especially the fact that these things are pretty slow when dealing with Clan 'Mechs, which are generally faster), but thoughtful use, especially if your opponent gets sloppy, will let an Athena pay for its BV.
To deal with them, you need to do three things. First, don't linger in that forward arc - Gauss rifles are well known for their potential to collect scalps and the sheer pain having 15 point chunks knocked off causes, and the HAGs make up for the lack of headcapping by throwing RAC/5-esque numbers of 5 point clusters around. I'll repeat that, because it's important:
do not linger in that forward arc. Any model will quite handily rip into you, and even a heavy can't stand up to having a pair of HAG/30s tearing into it for a sustained period. Second, if possible, move after the Athena to keep it from turning and putting its guns on you. (This doesn't work so well against the Athena-XR for obvious reasons.) Third, bring enough firepower to do some damage, and do it on a platform with enough armor to survive if you can't evade the main guns (and odds are decent you'll take at least one turn of fire from them). The HAG variant's armor is going to take a lot of work to bore through (although crippling its motive systems will happen considerably faster and make your life a lot easier), and even the main one has enough armor to require a bit of work. Remember, you're more likely to neuter it than kill it. If you can cripple the tank by blowing out the treads with it in a non-useful direction or get lucky and crit out the guns, move on and deal with more important targets,
especially if the turret is also crippled. Crit-seekers are a necessity!
References: The
Master Unit List has the availability information, Battle Value, and artwork. (Data on the Athena-XR will be forthcoming sometime in August 2012.) Reconnaissance imagery from the Homeworlds is
available from CamoSpecs.
