Vehicle of the Week: Von Luckner Heavy TankDesigned in the wake of the Reunification War, the frequently brutal conflict to bring the Periphery to heel and join the rest of humanity in the glories of the Star League, whether they liked it or not, the Von Luckner's name is a curious, almost inappropriate appellation. While
Felix von Luckner was indeed the commerce raider that TRO3039 suggests he was, he did so at the helm of
SMS Seeadler, one of the last wind-powered fighting vessels - an odd choice for a ground-bound tank that's much more apt to be defending convoys than raiding them. Originally deployed as a mainstay of the SLDF and the Terran Hegemony's defensive forces, the loss of the Hartford Co. factory on Bryant led to a decline in the Von Luckner's fortunes. Considering the tank's most prolific users, it would also have been seen on both sides of the Amaris Civil War, thrown right into the grinders, and may have been a participant in the conflicts in the Pentagon Worlds. Many were cannibalized for parts to repair 'Mechs on top of battlefield attrition, leading to only a few remaining by 3030, with only the AFFS, DCMS, FWLM, and LCAF fielding significant numbers of the design. Since we've never had any indication of renewed production, just refits, it seems likely that the Von Luckner is dwindling away. The MUL reflects that - only the most recent variant is still available in any significant numbers, with even the original, long-lived VNL-K65N either extinct or nearly so.
The original, baseline VNL-K65N (covered most recently in TRO3039) was intended to be a BattleMech on treads. I'm not really sure of that description but the tank is very, very dangerous in close quarters. At 75 tons, it's on the line between heavy and assault vehicles, A VOX 225 makes it slower than most 'Mechs this size but is adequate to roll alongside LRM and SRM carriers, Alacorns, or Pumas with a 54 kph flank speed. 11 tons of StarSlab/4 armor plate is arranged 41/30/30/45, somewhat heavier than the Demolisher and pretty adequate to the design's needs. The turret is the most dangerous thing about the design with an Armstrong AC/20, two Holly SRM 6s, a Dannel SRM 4, and a Ramsey MG. With three tons of AC/20 ammo and just one ton for each type of SRM launcher, you're short on SRM 6 rounds, but while they last, they make the Von Luckner a buzzsaw on treads. I might have opted for a couple of MLs to use the fusion engine and get another ton of ammo for the SRM 6 but overall, you just don't want to get close to a Von Luckner. The front bumper has a Firestorm flamer to further discourage infantry but in the tight quarters a Von Luckner wants to fight in, it's not useless against heavier foes. Another odd decision is the placement of a Holly LRM 10 high on the tank's stern - you can fire past 9 hexes, but only if you turn your rear to the enemy. Hartford engineers thought of it as a way to cover the retreat of other units. Personally, I'm not sure I buy that and I don't think the SLDF did, either.
HartfordCo built two advanced models, both described in Historical: Operation KLONDIKE. Although we don't have a record sheet for the first variant put into production (the sheet in RS Klondike is a duplicate of the Royal's), the Von Luckner (Star League) is easy enough to figure out from the description. (It's listed as the LRM variant in the PDF.) Errata has been reported but no further information is available at this time. The missiles, flamer, and machine gun are all removed. A larger LRM 15 was installed facing forward and linked to an Artemis IV fire control system while a rear-mounted SL and forward SPL handle supplementary close-in weapons duties. The SRMs were replaced by four Streak SRM 2s sharing a single ton of ammo. 11 tons of ferro-fibrous was mounted in the same configuration as the Royal, so we know what it should be - 41/40/31/45.
The Royal (listed as the LB-X) is something we do have hard numbers on. The overall result is something like an early Zhukov, honestly. A 225 XLFE shaves tonnage for a major improvement in weaponry, although you wind up losing some raw brute force single-hit power. The LRM rack went back down to a 10 tube model with only a single ton of ammunition and the SPL was moved to the turret. The real change, though, is the replacement of the Armstrong with a pair of LB 10-Xs fed by four tons of ammunition that by default is evenly split between cluster and slug. If you can justify it, I'd seriously consider pairing some of these with an Alacorn Mk. VI lance, letting the Gauss rifles punch holes in the armor as the Von Luckners close and start peppering the enemy with cluster rounds and SRMs.
During the late Succession Wars, Houses Davion and Kurita both experimented with variant models. Kuita's K70 is the more practical of the two. The turret weapons other than the machine gun are replaced by a PPC, an AC/10, and an SRM 4, providing a more balanced weapons loadout that lets it fight at medium to long range for the time period. With two tons of AC/10 ammo and a ton of SRMs, you've got an acceptable combat endurance, too. The Davion K100 is a btute-force bruiser, plain and simple. The armor was reduced to a lighter, more heavily front-canted load arranged 43/29/24/19. The turret has two AC/20s fed by four tons of ammunition while an SRM 6 with one ton adds crit-seeking like some sort of forerunner to the Zhukov.
At the dawn of the FedCom Civil War, another variant emerged, one incorporating some of the technological developments in the wake of the discovery of the Helm Memory Core and the return of the children of Kerensky. The armor was improved very slightly to 43/30/30/46 using ferro-fibrous. The forward flamer was discarded in favor of a pair of machine guns while a forward missile rack holds a 20 tube MRM launcher with two tons of ammunition. The turret contains an Ultra/20 autocannon, theoretically matching the K100's loadout, along with an SRM 6 and two medium lasers. The autocannon has 25 rounds, enough for 12 rounds of double-tap fire if you're willing to run that risk, with a single ton of SRMs. Overall, it's in about the same role doing the same job, an acceptable but not spectacular improvement, although the increase in range from the MRMs can be useful sometimes.
With most of the Von Luckners, your one and only goal is to get the enemy into the phone booth and then beat him to death. The K65N, K75N, K100, and Star League models are all eminently well suited to the task of being a close-range brawler so suck 'em in and pound them. Use tight terrain to keep the enemy from being able to evade you. The Royal and K70N are a little different. While neither one is defenseless up close, they're both capable of and in the K70N's case sometimes prefer a bit of standoff room. Since certain variants lack forward-mounted long-range weapons (or long-range weapons at all), you may want to use that same terrain to cover the Von Luckners until they can bring their heavy weapons to bear. One nasty trick that occurred to me was deploying Thunders from the rear-facing launcher to help shape the battlefield more to your liking and narrow the enemy's movement options. If you have the opportunity to mix them (unlikely given normal SLDF deployment patterns but not impossible), the Royal's crit-seeking capabilities make a good complement to the others' hole-punching power.
When fighting Von Luckners, do the opposite - fight in open terrain or other conditions where you can outmaneuver them and keep out of reach of the SRMs and class 20s most of them like to bring to bear. If you can avoid it, don't let two or more pin you at short range. That's going to hurt and taking the K65N, with two AC/20s and 28 SRM tubes between them, a pair can shred most medium 'Mechs in short order and seriously trash a heavy. They're decently tough although not unreasonably so, so pack in some hole-punchers, and at 3/5, they're easy to immobilize. Other than that, there aren't really any surprises here.
References: The
Master Unt List has the details on availability during the Jihad and Republic Eras as well as BatleForce stats. CamoSpecs has a
couple of pictures of the miniature to look at.
