First things first. Between a recent wedding (NOT my own, as a few amusing pranksters have tried to claim!) and busy times at work... it's been rough. That's no excuse per se, but my schedule has been a bit jumbled. If I have another weekend where I need to hand this off, I'll gladly do so, but I'm hoping this is something I can keep up on from here on out. Apologies for the delay!
Now then. Recently a request was made for what at a glance looked like a pretty vanilla vehicle that ended up really capturing my attention- in good and bad ways. The more I looked at it, the more my perceptions became muddied by its highs and lows. A closer look at the Hasek is definitely warranted for everyone here, because it was certainly warranted for me. Let's see what we have here.
Johnston Industries has a really interesting vehicle here. It looks like a pretty basic unit- and it really is, at the end of the day. Enough so that it wasn't even really a welcome addition to the military, or at least not a needed one. But, when opportunity knocks, one finds a way to answer, and when one names their new vehicle after a major noble house... well, imagine the furor if New Avalon had rejected the Hasek? The Capellan March has had a history of being out of tune with the throne to begin with, this would have been a PR disaster. Fortunately, where the AFFS could have ended up with a Magi-level boondoggle of a unit, they got a pretty solid customer. These vehicles, thanks to their durability and effectiveness (to say nothing of a pretty modest price, at a glance) have spread like wildfire across the Inner Sphere to serve in many armed forces in every forest fire on the map, and it's not hard to see why.
The new era has made engine types once solely the territory of the Battlemech available to the armor corps, and the light fusion engine is no exception. We find one of these nestled in the core of the 40-ton MCV, propelling it to a 5/8 profile. This fits the mobile warfare-oriented mindset of the AFFS nicely, quickly moving battle armor to where they need to go across even bad terrain thanks to its tracks. The heat sinks included here are key to the armament, but this saves a bit of money on an XL at least (though that would have allowed for a 6/9 curve with a little tinkering, admittedly). Quite handy.
Haseks are armored like the proverbial brick outhouse- at 40 tons, most APCs are protected against small arms fire and a couple of solid Mech-scale hits maybe. Not this thing- killing a Hasek takes some work for a heavy Mech. Another formerly Mech-only trick, heavy ferro-fibrous armor- nine tons of it!- turns the Hasek into a slab of nigh-unkillable angry tank. 48 points protect the Hasek up front, with a solid 35 more to each side- enough to hold out a couple of Gauss rifles with ease, on the flanks! Thirty points give the rear and turret each a solid shell as well. You don't kill a Hasek by just blasting it apart unless you commit plenty of assets to do the job- and that's something one should consider doing...
...because the Hasek gives the old APC a new look. Most APC type vehicles have firepower to deal with infantry and light vehicles- MGs, maybe an SRM rack, at most maybe a medium laser or small LRM rack- their job is to be a battle taxi, and once the infantry in the back is out they need to hightail it to safety. Not so, here- the Hasek is just as deadly AFTER the kids get dropped off. The low, flat turret on top of the slab-sided chassis contains an old but still deadly Johnston PPC, the kind of weapon that even in 3145 should give a Mech driver pause. Mounted coaxially is a small pulse laser to deal with enemy infantry- and here we find one of the few flaws to the Hasek. A small pulse laser is a fine weapon to tell infantry to stuff it... IF you have the heat sinks for it. The Hasek didn't- all of those engine-mounted heat sinks went to the cannon. So this laser costs a sad three tons rather than, say, several MGs and a ton of ammo-one in the front, sides, and turret with one ton to share would have been a far better setup, but I suppose they had to follow the artwork from Wizkids' figures. Still, it feels like a flawed setup... or as flawed as a huge cannon backing your infantry can really get, at least.
That infantry is likely going to be battle armor, a full platoon in the four-ton bay. With FedSun battle armor usually being of the Infiltrator Mk.II or Grenadier variety at this point (the Cavalier is likely mostly in second-line units), along with some of the newer varieties in the FedSuns TRO, a Hasek can be a real menace. Think of that PPC opening holes in enemy units, then following up with a squad's worth of Grenadier-launched SRMs. Madness! Other nations can of course make for their own interesting combinations- one of my test runs featured Rottweilers, though I admit it went poorly (the BA and their transport met an unexpected end at the hands of a very annoyed Executioner)).
No variants of the Hasek exist, and with the assembly line now captured by House Liao it's unlikely that any factory versions will be built. Basic changes, such as my MG suggestion, bumping the laser to add an SRM-2, a ton of ammo, and another ton to the infantry bay (hello, Clan trade customers!), or even going to an XL motor to get the vehicle's speed up more all come to mind. Tinkering with the PPC seems like a bad idea- while that minimum range is a bit disappointing, switching to a large pulse laser (for example) ruins the ranged firing ability, and a re-engineered laser is such a niche weapon that I can't recommend it either here.
Anyway. Hasek. Give it a try-preferably in a group so you can really spam battle armor onto the field, and get a good feel for one of the FedSuns' real hidden gems... then report here and tell us about your experiences. We'll be back next week (probably) with a look at a somewhat less-useful but still intriguing vehicle...
