Background
Whilst the Hell's Horses were happy with their Aithon Assault Transport the vehicle still had some flaws. Once in built up terrain it could not support its infantry compliment well due to the risk of catching them in the blast of its Long Tom Cannon and the big cannon whilst useful in destroying fortifications and dug in positions (as well as anyone in them) the inaccurate nature of the cannon meant it was less useful against hostile Vehicles and Mechs which it so often encountered in city fighting.
Whilst successful and popular with its crews the Aithon was then used to design a very large IVF or general purpose unit that wasn't quite so specialised as the Aithon.
Design.
Keeping its pregenetor's 12.5 tons of Ferro-lamellor armour, 300 rated XL engine and the armoured motive system that made the Aithon such a hit the Hell's Horses Scientists completely re-worked the weapons fit whilst also altering the vehicles hull shape. Despite these structural changes though, under the armour the new tank was very much the Aithon, with 90% commonality in parts and systems between the two, making it easier to maintain in the field.
Replacing the quartet of Medium pulse lasers with a pair of ER Medium pulse lasers and a pair of AP Gauss rifles in their place in the turret gave a somewhat longer ranged anti-battle armour punch whilst also delivering anti-infantry firepower. The vehicles flanks were covered by a vehicle flamer, both drawing from a sealed off and well insulated two tons of fuel whilst an ECM and Active probe were also installed.
The big change came with the removal of the Long Tom and replacing it with a HAG-40. Instead of being fitted in the limited traverse but high elevation mount the Long Tom had it was fitted in a casemate like mounting to allow for a greater firing arc. This was partially possible thanks to the reduced stress on the gun mounting as well as the limited recoil of the HAG system.
Finally a pair of SRM-6's are mounted in the bow to provide barrage fire at short ranges Each launcher has its own ton of ammunition, allowing the crew to mix warheads as they see fit.. Most importantly the HAG was given a deep ammo supply, 6 tons of ammo all fed in by an autoloader give the vehicle the endurance needed for the longer battles the Horses were facing.
As a final defence the new vehicle mounted a pair of 'killer headlights' as the crews called them, a pair of A-Pods mounted on the bow could obliterate most infantry forces foolish enough to brave assaulting the tank.
Finally in a nod to the Aithon, the new vehicle had enough room onboard to carry 5 Elementals, but their infantry bay was a far cry from the almost palatial room of the Aithon infantry bay. Indeed it was only meant to carry troops loaded up before the battle, not serve as a transport between battle zones like the Aithon. Most Elementals hated the cramped infantry space of the new tank as it had no room to service the armour or even get out of it once the doors shut.
There was also considerable issues with the fire control systems. The FCS struggled at times to coordinate the fire of so many weapon systems and the gunner and vehicle commander where somewhat overworked and this slightly reduced efficiency and increased crew fatigue.
These relatively small issues aside the vehicle now called the Phaeton Assault tank was seen as a replacement for the Mars HAG and XL in front line service as well as replacing the obsolete Oro as a gun tank in Hells Horses service. Unfortunately it was expensive to produce thanks to the combination of XL engine and Ferro-Lamellor armour and this did reduce its production rate.
Phaeton Assault Tank
Mass: 100 tons
Tech Base: Clan
Motive Type: Tracked
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Dark Ages
Tech Rating/Era Availability: X/X-X-X-A
Production Year: 0
Cost: 21,314,000 C-Bills
Battle Value: 2,048
Power Plant: 300 Fusion XL Engine
Cruise Speed: 32.4 km/h
Flanking Speed: 54.0 km/h
Armor: Ferro-Lamellor
Armament:
1 HAG-40
2 ER Medium Pulse Lasers
2 SRM-6s
2 AP Gauss Rifles
2 Vehicle Flamers
2 A-Pods
1 ECM Suite
1 Active Probe
1 Unknown CASE
1 Infantry Bay (5.0 tons)
Manufacturer:
Primary Factory:
Communications System:
Targeting and Tracking System:
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Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard 50 points 10.00
Engine: XL Fusion Engine 300 14.50
Cruise MP: 3
Flank MP: 5
Heat Sinks: Single Heat Sink 12 2.00
Control Equipment: 5.00
Lift Equipment: 0.00
Turret: 1.00
Armor: Ferro-Lamellor AV - 175 12.50
Armor
Factor
Front 37
Left/Right 37/37
Turret 30
Rear 34
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Equipment Location Heat Spaces Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HAG-40 FR 8 1 16.00
2 SRM-6s FR 8 2 3.00
2 A-Pods FR 0 2 1.00
Vehicle Flamer LS 3 1 0.50
(R) ECM Suite RR 0 1 1.00
Vehicle Flamer RS 3 1 0.50
2 AP Gauss Rifles T 2 2 1.00
2 ER Medium Pulse Lasers T 12 2 4.00
Active Probe T 0 1 1.00
CASE BD - 0 0.00
Infantry Bay (5.0 tons) BD 0 1 5.00
@HAG-40 (18) BD - 0 6.00
@Vehicle Flamer (40) BD - 0 2.00
@AP Gauss Rifle (80) BD - 0 2.00
@SRM-6 (30) BD - 0 2.00
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 7 Points: 20
3t 7 7 3 0 4 0 Structure: 5
Special Abilities: ECM, PRB, RCN, CASE, TUR(3/3/0), SRM 2/2/0, FLK 3/2/2
Yes I know its 10 tons under weight but for some reason Solaris Armour Werks won't let me add an armoured motive system to it. Thats how heavy it is on the Aithon so I saved 10 tons of weight spare for it.
the kind of idea I had for this things looks was more akin to
http://giganaut.deviantart.com/art/AT-16-orthographic-379266969Where as I had Plog draw this version of the Aithon as I HATED how the canon artwork for it looked, the damn thing looks like it should be bright yellow and have JCB on the side. Whilst the Long-tom looks like a sewer pipe. So instead of that Plog did this.
So the Phaeton is based off that version, NOT the god aweful canon art.
Any thoughts on the Phaeton are most welcome :)
