Trutzburg
The Trutzburg has its genesis in a simple observation. The Lyran Commonwealth had no DropShips. With Skye joining the Republic of the Sphere the only ship built in the Commonwealth capable of carrying a ‘Mech was the Exile built Broadsword. Feel free to take a moment to be horrified by the idea of a nation state being reliant on Wolf in Exile. It gets worse. The only Commonwealth built ship with fighter bays was the Intruder. No tank transport exists, though they could be carried in Mules and Monarchs. The Avengers and Isegrims would not be useful for transporting much.
So what is the quickest, easiest, least TRO space occupying way to get the Commonwealth some transport capacity? One of those multipurpose heavy lift DropShips like and Excalibur? Too big, too limiting. Base it around a ‘Mech company. A Union is too small for the multipurpose part, but a Fortress fits like a glove. Built by Semier Data Tron on Tharkad. Sweet. No. Destroyed. Hmm. Wait. Tharkad Aerospace Group was building the Fortress with SDT but doesn’t in 3080. We can fix that…
Much like the Draconis Combine’s Bara no Ryu, the Fortress is a ship we keep coming back to as can be seen with the Hell’s Horses’ Outpost. At 6,000 tons it has the bulk the Union lacks that can be used to have useful defensive systems and an adequate cargo bay. At its heart the Trutzburg is simply a reconfigured Fortress. Fractionally smaller dimensions, the same engines (though apparently not Seeker engines now), fuel and structure. A fortification based name. Even the guns match up. PPC, Gauss Rifle, Laser. PPC, Missile, Laser. PPC, Gauss Rifle, Missile, Laser. You get the idea. It has all just been updated for the fashionable new kids.
The secret difference between the Fortress and the Trutzburg is the vehicle bays. The Trutzburg gives up 1,200 tons of vehicles in favour of 900 tons of aerospace fighters (more on that later). You can do a lot with 300 tons and the Trutzburg does so. Firstly there is a lot more armour. 53 tons of Heavy Ferro-aluminum compared to 46 tons of standard plate. This makes the Truzburg one of the best protected transports that we have seen. 12 AMS are a fairly standard feature of post 3067 DropShips.
The spare tonnage allowed a splurge on more Long Toms. I am not a big fan of artillery on DropShips. DropShips should be in orbit, not grounded. But the rule of cool applies here. The big advantage here is that three tubes are just enough to counter the artillery’s scatter effect. And they make useful standoff AA. Something a landing site can’t get enough of.
Closer in the Trutzburg makes gleeful use of improved heavy gauss rifles. These are not nice weapons. When Bayed the ability to core an assault ‘Mech with a single shot gives attackers pause. We see some interesting weapon choices here. The nose bay is a classic anti aerospace rig. The fore arcs employ ELRMs, an unusual choice in aerospace given their weak firepower and the pointlessness of fighting at “extreme” ranges. This makes me think that they are for use as AA when grounded, in addition to keeping ground based attackers at arm’s reach. The aft quarter bays are unusually heavy, you don’t usually fight in space with your rear end to the enemy. This again suggests they are inner defensive weapons against surface units. Note the use of LRMs here. Fighting on the surface might not be the best idea for a DropShip, but the Trutzburg makes a red hot go of it.
But the main point of a Trutzburg isn’t to fight but to deliver troops. The Trutzburg sacrifices the Fortress’ vehicles for aerospace fighters. Hard to fault the logic here. You can’t combat drop a tank so you can always transport them as general cargo. On the other hand aerospace fighters need specialist bays and need to lead an attack. The ability to carry six is a huge improvement over the Union and comparable to the battalion scale Overlord. Again the logic seems fairly simple. Three Trutzburgs will bring a battalion of ‘Mechs and a wing of fighters. With Leopard CVs no longer a reliable option fighters need to be brought in numbers. The only problem is the cargo bay is better suited to a ‘Mech transport. Six fighters are going to suck it dry in a hurry. Fuel stowage is a bit better. And that doesn’t begin to get into the schizophrenic demands of maintaining a fighter squadron on a ground bound artillery platform.
Otherwise the Trutzburg is pretty much by the numbers. Twelve ‘Mechs. A Steiner platoon of battle armor replaces the company of infantry. True it is undersized, but the lack of organic transport means the BA would be tactically limited anyway. Looks like infantry will be coming in as first class passengers on Monarchs. Ironically a good use of available resources and the Commonwealth has the assault DropShips to keep the third wave transports well away from combat. Anyway as noted above the Trutzburg’s cargo bay is enough for a few days’ combat. It will get the troops on the ground and keep them fighting. Much longer and a retreat would probably be necessary anyway.
So how does one use a Trutzburg? Taking all we have above we can get a real idea of how a Lyran invasion might work. Bear in mind DropShips in this universe don’t die so many of the old standbys will be in operation for years to come. A screen of Isegrims, Intruders, and Avengers escorted by aerospace fighters from the Trutzburgs will lead the attacking force in and establish space control. Trutzburgs and any other combat worthy platforms like Broadswords, and Auroras will form the second wave and secure the drop zone. On the ground any Trutzburgs will form the centre of the fire base. With their staying power and defensive arrangements they form a defensive hard point. Once local superiority is achieved third wave ships like Mules and Monarchs can land with the bulk support units like tanks and infantry as well as munitions and supplies.
Actual tactical uses for the Trutzburg are another thing again. Battle should be avoided on general principles, but the Trutzburg has enough firepower to ruin most fighters’ day. For those keeping score firepower is divided fairly equally between energy and physical. Reflective armour won’t help you here. As the Trutzburg name suggests the DropShip can be used offensively against fortified positions. It is not ideal. But against targets lacking similarly long ranged weapons Trutzburgs have the deep ammunition bays to reduce just about anything.
Defeating a Trutzburg is pretty standard. It’s unusually tough, but that doesn’t mean much. On the ground a lance of assault ‘Mechs will make a good attempt of it. 1,111 points of immobile armour doesn’t sound that much when divided by 304. Get past the ‘Mechs and battle armor, concentrate on a single side and go to town.
In the air, again it is not that special. Thrust ratings are low. Sad to say the Clans were armouring DropShips like this in TRO3057 and that hasn’t stopped us shooting them down for years. Charging the aft isn’t advised. Unlike most ships there are no really weak arcs. In general this won’t be a quick or easy kill, but it is still just a matter of being patient and wearing it down with numbers.
