Part 3
Date: September 10, 3026
Title: Technical Readout: 3026 (Vehicles and Personal Equipment)
Authors: Kevin Stein and Sam Lewis (writing), Duane Loose and Steve Venters (art)
Type: Sourcebook (FASA)
Synopsis:
Condor Heavy Hover Tank: The Condor is used by armies throughout the Inner Sphere, serving as the tip of the spear for second line units. They played a key role on Loric in 2978, when the 34th Provisional Dixie Armored Regiment’s 3rd Battalion supported the 12th Star Guards’ advance against Digger Pass to relieve the Eridani Light Horse (the same battle mentioned in the Engineering Vehicle entry). It took four months to break through Digger Pass, and the Condor battalion penetrated only 10 kilometers before running into Marik reserves at the Duren River. Undaunted by the destruction of the bridge, the Condors crossed the river and smashed the Marik reserves, establishing and holding a bridgehead for the three days the Engineering Vehicles needed to build a bridge. The Notable Crew is the Dobson family (Michael, Michelle, Jonathan, and Dysan), which owns and operates one of the Condors that fought on Loric.
Drillson Heavy Hover Tank: The Drillson was introduced in 3025 for the LCAF to supplement regular ‘Mech forces. The Battle History tells the story of Davion forces on Almach which trapped Liao raiders in a swamp using their Drillsons. When the Capellans set the swamp on fire, the Drillsons were still able to navigate through the smoke and take out the Liao ‘Mechs by ramming them blindly, then converging on the crash site, a tactic developed by Bernard “Banzai” Simon.
Maxim Heavy Hover Transport: The Maxim transport can carry a full platoon of infantry and their support weapons, while providing covering fire at a variety of ranges. It is present in all armies, but predominates in the LCAF. On Dixie, the planetary garrison once used 27 Maxims to transport an entire infantry regiment to defend the city of Indruston. The infantry and their support weapons inflicted damage, but they were overrun, and only support fire from the Maxims forced the ‘Mechs to retreat. On New Wessex, a Maxim codenamed “Trojan” was used as a decoy to convince the DCMS that the city of Hallanan had been abandoned by the infantry regiment there, which was actually lying in wait for the Combine.
Planetlifter Air Transport: The Planetlifter is a heavy transport aircraft with VSTOL capability generally assigned to planetary garrisons to aid in shifting combat assets as needed for population control, countering raids, and concentrating forces. The Planetlifter can carry 70 tons of cargo, with a modular bay that can accommodate even a prone BattleMech. On Autumn Wind, in 3002, Lyran raiders under the command of a social general attempted to execute an orbital drop against three industrial complexes. The garrison commander, Colonel Joseph Yetti, used his three Planetlifters to ferry the 751st jump infantry regiment to hit each of the thee Lyran lances in sequence, using several battalions of planetary militia to slow the second and third. They managed to cripple the raiders’ DropShip as well, forcing the surviving Lyrans to surrender.
Vedette Medium Tank: The Vedette is a product of New Earth Trading Company, and is considered a “typical” tank. It mounts an AC/5 and a machine gun, and boasts exceptional speed for a medium tracked vehicle, and uses ComStar-made communications and tracking systems, developed for NETC in exchange for food. On Merak, in the FWL, a civil war pitted several companies of Vedettes (and some other vehicles) against an equal number of ‘Mechs (mostly 50-tonners) in a heavy urban environment. The tanks were completely wiped out due to the ‘Mechs’ superior mobility and firepower. Notable Vehicles include Ronald Harrison III and Rich Watson, Davion tankers who made a suicidal lone attack against an enemy Overlord on the Marik world of Castor, and Walter Leba and William Sirjamers, who penetrated enemy lines during a battle on Holt and were promoted to become academy instructors thereafter.
Bulldog Medium Tank: The Bulldog mounts a large laser, along with short-range missile racks and a machine gun. A “standard” tank like the Vedette, it hasn’t distinguished itself from its competitors, leading to lackluster sales. On Rio, a Davion Bulldog battalion stumbled into the bivouac for the invading Liao armor regiment, and vaporized the command post. Liao forces pursued the Bulldogs in a disorganized mob, and the Davion tanks were able to destroy the light pursuit units that caught up to them. The Liao forces were able to herd the Davion tanks into a box canyon, destroying the AFFS battalion when it ran out of SRM ammunition. Notables include “Spot,” a Bulldog commanded by Kurita General Franz Hamlin that has survived 200 engagements without serious damage, and Major Cameron Burke, the commander of the Bulldog battalion on Rio.
Hi-Scout Drone Carrier: The Hi-Scout is a lower-cost alternative intended to replace increasingly scarce Light ‘Mechs as scouts. Nearly all the Successor States use Hi-Scout Drone Carriers to patrol for raiders and provide battlefield communications and detection. The command unit has sensors that can detect enemies in a 60 kilometer radius itself, and can extend its scanning range via its hover and tracked drones, which have 10km and 20 km scanning radii respectively. The command unit can carry six drones, and mounts an SRM-2 for defense against infantry. House Kurita used a Hi-Scout during a raid on an unspecified Davion planet to determine that they had landed on the wrong hemisphere. Brandon X, a pirate in Redjack Ryan’s band, supposedly destroyed twelve infantry platoons with his SRM-2 rack during two weeks behind enemy lines.
LRM/SRM Carrier: Designed to provide cheap and effective fire support, the LRM Carrier and SRM Carrier are found in every army of the Inner Sphere. Cheap and effective, their thin skins result in battlefield lifespans measured in seconds. House Liao is a heavy user of missile carriers. When House Davion raided St. Ives, CCAF infantry baited an entire Davion armor regiment into a pass where emplaced SRM carriers wiped out the entire column in three salvoes. During a raid on the Marik world of Harsefeld, CCAF LRM-Carriers bombarded Marik emplacements and forced the commander to surrender. Notable pilot John Hunt commands a mixed battalion of SRM and LRM carriers, while Commander “Good Times” Orlonzo commands a missile carrier battery in the mercenary Kenski’s Raiders.
Manticore Heavy Tank: The Manticore is a tank design commonly fielded by the LCAF and DCMS, but also appears with the other three Successor States. It mounts a variety of weapon systems, thanks to its fusion power plant, including a PPC, a Medium Laser, an LRM-10, and an SRM-6, protected by an impressive 11 tons of armor. On Morningside, LCAF Manticores engaged invading DCMS BattleMechs, leading to heavy losses on both sides before DCMS forces overran the Lyran positions. However, due to the damage sustained, the Kuritan commander ordered a withdrawal offworld. The tank known as “Lone Star” is used as a “super heavy recon unit.” The tank called “Lady Jane” is on display in the NAIS War Museum as the first Manticore confirmed to have killed an Atlas.
Pike Support Vehicle: The Pike is one of the few military exports of the Magistracy of Canopus. It was commissioned by the Magestrix in 2987 to earn hard currency for her impoverished realm. It is billed as a cheaper alternative to Sniper or Long Tom artillery. Three AC/2s in the turret are backed by two short-range missile racks for close-in protection. ComStar was the first customer, using them to garrison HPG stations on worlds at risk from bandit raids. Helmar Valasek kept running across the ComStar hyperpulse generator during water and parts raids, forcing ComStar to recapture it from him over and over. They eventually stationed Pikes there, which succeeded in fending off Valasek’s raid. Kenski’s Raiders used a Pike during a defensive action on Holt, taking out a medium ‘Mech.
Monitor Naval Vessel: The Monitor Naval Vessel is intended as a river patrol vessel to combat smugglers and insurgents. NavHull makes the Monitor as a kit, and exports them to customers, who then mount it on a locally produced engine and power system. It has two AC/20s in a turret and three SRM-2s, as well as a berth for a squad of jump infantry. In mid-3025, on Verthandi, a Kurita Monitor named Vengeance docked at Port Gaspin was seized by rebels led by Frances Marrion, a former art student from Regis University and used to attack Kurita troops for the next three months, driving the Kurita forces out of the riverlands. They were killed in late 3025 when the Combine brought in four fresh ‘Mech regiments and twelve regiments of support troops to put down the rebellion. They set up a supply depot as bait and used ‘Mechs hidden under water to destroy the Swamp Fox when it came to attack the supplies.
Notes:
Condor Heavy Hover Tank: The “Variants” section of the Condor entry notes that many commanders feel the tank is under-gunned, and I have to agree. With three 5-point guns and a machine gun, it doesn’t have the hitting power I’d want from a 50-ton vehicle. Granted, most other 50 ton vehicles don’t move 8/12, but the Condor’s armament is outclassed by many of the lighter hovercraft, because puts too much tonnage into its engine and not enough into its payload.
Dixie has come down a long ways in terms of martial prowess. In the 2900s, it was apparently sending out tank regiments to support LCAF task forces on the FWL border. In 3016, it was a major military supply depot and staging ground that was hit hard by Wolf’s Dragoons, but the garrison gave them a good fight of it. By 3025, however, Dixie was barely able to cobble together a scratch militia to delay a Free Worlds League force seeking a LosTech cache, and succeeded primarily based on deception and maneuver, rather than brute force.
The author was having a bit of fun with the Communications System, naming it the “TharHes Kr-A P/comm”. Presumably, Red Devil Industries didn’t put the best unit into their budget hovertank design.
Drillson Heavy Hover Tank: The Drillson is all-around a better tank than the Condor. They’re both 50 tons, but the Drillson manages to be faster (9/14 instead of 8/12), better armored (7 tons instead of 6), and better armed. This is achieved by using a fusion engine, saving weight by putting the heat sinks inside the engine and not needing a power amplifier.
Machine guns are a staple on many of the 3026 designs, including on hovercraft. Hovercraft would be good anti-infantry units – being able to sweep in, blast apart a straggling platoon, then zip back behind cover as other platoons struggle to respond.
I suppose it’s an artifact of the strengthening FedCom alliance that after touting the Drillson as the latest development for the Lyran military, the Battle History focuses on Davion forces using it.
Maxim Heavy Hover Transport: Since Ral Partha never made APC miniatures, the Maxim got the most play in any scenario involving transported infantry, at least in my neck of the woods. Its 3-ton infantry bay means that it is unaffected by the “full platoon” rule, and continues to serve under the modern ruleset.
The entry introduced the concept of infantry having support weapons. The support weapons were given stats at the end of the TRO – but didn’t do a significant amount of damage. Most have maximum ranges between 3 and 7 hexes (with some reaching out to 10 hexes), and do 1 or 2 points of damage. These are a far cry from modern ruleset equipment like the AC/10 field gun and other support weapons that can give an infantry platoon some real teeth.
It has an eclectic hodge podge of weaponry, some turret mounted, some pointed in all directions. It’s clearly intended for self-defense, rather than to be used offensively. It might have made more sense to turret-mount the LRMs and have the machine guns cover the sides and back, since then the support fire could be more intense, and you’d still have adequate anti-infantry coverage on the flanks.
Its speed is sufficient to keep pace with other hovercraft, and outrun most ‘Mechs. It has sufficient armor to take a major hit on any facing and keep running.
The engagement on Dixie must have taken place prior to 3016, when the LCAF still had a major garrison on the world, using it as a depot and staging ground. There certainly weren’t any fleets of Maxims or infantry regiments around to oppose the Marik task force that came calling in 3025.
New Wessex was a Lyran world during the Star League era, but it ended up in Combine hands at the end of the First Succession War. Thus, the Maxim action with “Trojan” was probably during the First Succession War, during the Combine conquest. (The MUL introduction date is 2689, so this fits the timeline.) I’m somewhat confused, though, how the sight of one platoon-level transport leaving Hallanan convinced the Combine forces that the entire LCAF infantry regiment had departed.
Planetlifter Air Transport: The Planetlifter is interesting for introducing the idea that a 50 ton plane can carry 70 tons of cargo. Thus, perhaps the Karnovs could be used, as described, to haul ‘Mechs in slings – just lowering the speed to recalculate the movement rate based on the new total weight vs. the engine rating. That would imply that, when fully loaded, a 4/6 Planetlifter could only fly 2/3.
The story of the Autumn Wind raid indicates the kind of foolishness typical of Lyran social generals. Splitting his forces in the face of superior enemy strength, for example. It’s unclear what the status of Cassion’s Commandos was in 3002. It’s not listed as being a sub-element of a front-line LCAF command, but would a mercenary company consent to having a Lyran noble placed in operational command on a raid? It may have been an independent company within the LCAF – not unlike Carlyle’s Commandos. The naming similarity suggests that perhaps there was a larger pool of independent commands, all with the moniker “Commandos,” used for minor raids, garrisoning backwater worlds, and otherwise handling jobs that are too small to bother a major unit with, and too unimportant to waste money hiring a mercenary to handle.
Vedette Medium Tank: The Vedette entry includes a number of oddities. First off, we have the AFFS attack on the FWL world of Castor – a rare event during the Succession Wars, due to the Capellan Confederation lying between them. The Vedette was only introduced in 2943, so it can’t have taken place during the ComStar interdiction of the 2nd Succession War (the last time the AFFS entered League space in force). Since Castor is so close to the Lyran border, perhaps the Davion Vedette was part of a force sent to support Lyran efforts as part of the FedCom treaty.
There was a major fracas on Holt in December 3014, involving the Stewart Dragoons’ Home Guard, the Headhunters, the 2nd Ducal Guard, and the 5th Regulan Hussars. The “somehow getting behind the lines” escapade must have taken place here, with the Vedette crew being on the loyalist side, since I doubt any rebels (even clever ones) would get academy postings.
Unfortunately, looking at Historical: Brush Wars, there isn’t any Anton/Janos Civil War battle recorded for Merak, despite that civil war being the only one in the FWL post-dating the Vedette’s introduction. The 23rd Marik Militia sat the war out there quietly, per the deployment tables. It is possible, though, that elements of the Merak Static Defense Unit (which would have had vehicles, but not ‘Mechs) declared for Anton and went up against the 23rd Militia. Since the Merak SDU wasn’t a frontline force, it wouldn’t have been listed on the deployment table.
Looking at the RAT in Brush Wars for the FWL during Anton’s revolt, the primary FWLM 50-tonners would have been Hunchbacks and Trebuchets. In close-quarter urban combat, the Trebuchets would be at something of a disadvantage, due to the minimum range modifiers on their main guns, but if paired with the [i Hunchbacks[/i], they could use indirect fire quite effectively. The Hunchback, on the other hand, would dominate the streets in an urban slugfest. In a one-on-one battle, the Hunchback could take a large number of hits from the Vedette’s AC/5 without even risking armor penetration, while one hit from the Hunchback’s main gun would completely strip away the armor on any facing of the Vedette, and the follow-up with the lasers would finish the job, granting the Hunchback the ability to one-shot the Vedette that the tank certainly cannot match. No wonder the battle was a curbstomp for the ‘Mechs. If they tried to keep their distance from the Hunchbacks, they got pounded by the Trebuchets. Try to close, and the Hunchback has them for lunch.
I recall a battle I ran in college pitting a company of Vedettes against a lone Awesome. The Vedettes approached in a column as the Awesome backed through concealing terrain. The one-two-three punch of the Awesome’s PPCs kept killing Vedettes every time they came into range, and their return fire did little more than mar the Assault ‘Mech’s paint job. If you want a fast 50-ton tank, get a Drillson or a Condor. The Vedette is fundamentally trying to be something it’s not suited to be (it’s the Charger of the vehicle world), and would be a much stronger design if it slowed down and added some more firepower.
Finally, we get to the bizarre statement that ComStar provided the NETC with top-of-the-line targeting/tracking and communications system designs in exchange for…”food and supplies.” I realize that, at the time, ComStar was being portrayed as cloistered techno-monks, and that the medieval European monasteries had, historically, provided their preserved knowledge to local rulers in exchange for food and supplies. But ComStar controls Terra. Farming is not LosTech to them. They are fantastically rich, thanks to their provision of exclusive communications services, and can afford to buy their own supplies with C-Bills, rather than resorting to barter. The story of this barter may have been a cover for something under the table, such as providing the then secret ComGuards with production runs of Vedettes to supplement the cached LosTech vehicles stored on Terra.
Bulldog Medium Tank: Looking at Rio’s battle history, the battle in question could have happened at any point from the Second Succession War onwards. The world itself was heavily nuked in 2806 during fighting between the Combine and Confederation, forcing much of the population to flee. Most likely, the battle took place during the Confederation’s 2980 offensive, when they sent a large Aerospace fleet to conquer the world, but were driven off by AFFS aerospace forces. The tank regiment was probably slipped in to secure the LZ, and when the Liao fleet was defeated, the AFFS was able to bring in reinforcements and crush the Liao ground forces.
I’m rather surprised that a DCMS general (Tai-sho) commands a Bulldog as his personal ride, given the disdain felt by the ‘Mech-centric DCMS against conventional armor. Tai-shos command armies above the regimental level. Perhaps, given the tank’s survival of 200 engagements, General Hamlin feels it brings luck, and uses it as a personal talisman when going into battle.
Compared to the Vedette, the Bulldog has slightly more armor and significantly more firepower than the Vedette. With greater speed and slightly longer range, a Vedette (given adequate room to maneuver) could hang out in the 16-18-hex “sweet spot” and blast an enemy Bulldog to rubble without risking return fire, but in any circumstances that allow a Bulldog to engage the Vedette at effective range, the more popular tank will be defeated every time.
Hi-Scout Drone Carrier: The Hi-Scout is an interesting support vehicle that, when TRO:3026 was released, lacked both a miniature and any rules that made its capabilities useful on the tactical scale. In my experience, people really wanted to use this machine, but couldn’t figure out how, except as a capture/kill/protect objective for a scenario. The drones, of course, could race around and discover hidden units by moving over them. When advanced electronics were developed, we wanted to mount these on the drones and go to town, but the drones’ minimal payload space made it impossible to put Guardian ECM (which would prevent remote operation in any event), Active Probes, or C3 slaves on them. The NapFind had some utility as an 8-point buzz-bomb when executing charges, but you’d have better returns from a Large Laser.
It is only when playing BattleForce or a similarly large-scale strategic game that the Hi-Scout comes into its own. The Hi-Scout can only carry six drones itself, but the writeup implies that it can hook into a planetwide network of drones . With enough drones scattered around key portions of the world, a commander could have real-time knowledge of enemy movements, even in a campaign that uses double-blind/fog of war rules, and a swarm of unobtrusive drones would be more robust than an orbital satellite or orbiting DropShip, which could be spotted and shot down. The Hi-Scout is definitely more able to blend into the ground clutter.
This raises the question – why in the world didn’t Duke Ricol provide his troops on Verthandi with one of these babies to find the rebel base? A few weeks of sweeping the sylvan jungle basin with PathTracks, and they’d have Grayson and company pinpointed.
The entry provides the caveat that “nearly all” the Successor States use the Hi-Scout, which was introduced in 3000 by a Lyran defense contractor on Inarcs. I would take it as a given that the Lyrans use them, and we have the Battle History account to confirm their use by the Combine. Redjack Ryan probably stole his from the Lyrans. The FWL is a prime candidate to be the “odd man out” of not using the Hi-Scout, since League merchants are reportedly reluctant to buy Lyran merchandise. The FedCom alliance would certainly result in the FedSuns having access. The CapCon is another candidate for not getting to use these, again because of the FedCom alliance, and the Lyrans being reluctant to sell to the enemy of their new ally. (That, of course, begs the question to how House Kurita got them, but…)
LRM/SRM Carrier: The LRM carrier is an excellent support unit. It can deliver heavy firepower against enemy forces while, ideally, front-line combatants (‘Mechs or tanks) give the enemy something else to worry about while missiles rain on their heads. The SRM Carrier, on the other hand, is only useful if you want your crews to die. Just as thin-skinned as the LRM-carrier, the SRM-carrier by design needs to be at knife-fighting distances with the enemy. Sure, it can do a lot of damage with that first hit, but unless it is enjoying an ambush setup or concealing terrain allowing it to get into range, it will be targeted and blown apart well before it can get close enough to fire. Even in ambush scenarios, unless it kills or cripples its foe in the first volley, it will almost certainly be made a priority target and eliminated before it can get off a second shot. It has four tons of ammunition and can, theoretically, fire six full volleys, but it’s unlikely to get off more than one. Thus, it would make a lot more sense to make the SRM-carrier into a Rocket Launcher carrier – with one-shot and better range. It fires its load and then withdraws to reload. With no remaining guns, it’s not a high priority target, and can live to fight in another battle.
My guess is that the St. Ives raid described here took place between 3015 and 3020, during a particularly intense bout of raiding by Davion forces against the Confederation. The 2861 attack that trapped Dainmar Liao in his palace didn’t feature any such Capellan victories.
The attack on Harsefeld was described as using Capellan LRM-5 Carriers. While the stats given show an LRM-Carrier with three LRM-20s, this one would presumably have 12 LRM-5s. The LRM carrier pictured in the entry, just by counting the holes and dividing lines, seems to have an LRM-10, LRM-5, two LRM-2s, an LRM-13, an LRM-14, an LRM-11, and an LRM-3. It adds up to 60, but it clearly doesn’t mount three discrete LRM-20 units.
Manticore Heavy Tank: The Manticore is just all-around a great tank. It can put some serious hurt on enemies at long range with the PPC and LRM-10, but can still defend itself at close range, with the SRMs and Medium Laser. There just isn’t any truly “safe” range at which you can engage one of these, and with 42 armor on the front glacis, it can shrug off a number of major hits before having to fall back. The SRMs are great against vehicles as well.
I’m not surprised that a Manticore managed to take out an Atlas. If the tank stayed at long range, the Assault ‘Mech would actually be outgunned by the PPC/LRM-10 combo, vs its LRM-20, and the PPC could have kept firing long after the Atlas’ LRM ammo was depleted. I would seriously question the assertion that a Manticore cannot engage a Demolisher or Behemoth. The Demolisher has twin AC/20s. If the Manticore can stay at range, it can turn the Demolisher into Swiss cheese with its PPC and not risk return fire. Likewise, the Manticore is always going to be able to dictate the range of the engagement with the 2/3 Behemoth. Sure, the Behemoth has four LRM-5 racks, but if the Manticore can stay at 16-18 hexes, it can weather those hits and respond with LRM-10 and PPC shots. Four rounds of combat, assuming solid hits each round, will blow through the Behemoth’s 46 points of front armor (where the LRMs are mounted), while the Manticore will be able to use its turret to give the Behemoth fresh armor to look at the whole time.
The Manticore was featured in my first Chronological Review, though that turned out to be an anachronism, since it was introduced in 2668, and the scenario was set in 2366 (well, they got the number of 6’s right, at least…)
Pike Support Vehicle: Kenski’s Raiders were also mentioned in the LRM/SRM Carrier entry. Here, they’re noted as “one of the largest vehicle users in the Inner Sphere.” It sounds like they’re more or less equivalent to Halsten’s Brigade, but fielding Pikes and Missile Carriers, rather than Demolishers and Schreks. The last major fight on Holt was in December 3014, during the Anton/Janos civil war. Holt was also raided in 3018, when Cranston Snord came in force to get his collection back from the League forces that had raided his museum on Clinton. They aren’t mentioned in that battle description, but may have been present to support the 27th Marik Militia.
The proposal that the Pike could stand in for a Thumper or Long Tom isn’t too credible – those have many times greater range and deal area-of-effect damage. Like the artillery, however, the Pike is useful in taking out fixed fortifications from beyond their effective firing range…as long as the defending forces don’t have artillery or their own AC/2s, at which point this poorly armed support tank just has to give up and go home. With modern rulesets, flak rounds and other specialty munitions make it more useful, but it’s all too likely that an enemy will have sufficient armor to weather the pellet storm this vehicle throws down-range and close the distance before suffering significant damage. Pikes need to be deployed in at least Lance numbers, with a dedicated screening force out front to keep the enemies at distance.
The description of the HPG being “moved” around the planet to keep it safe from raiders seems unlikely, when you consider the size of these things. Not only the dish, but the equipment (valued at roughly a billion C-bills) is a massive piece of machinery. I would hazard to guess that, on this unnamed Kurita world near the Periphery (Valasek’s stomping grounds), ComStar hadn’t built a full HPG station, but was instead sending and receiving messages with a LosTech portable HPG unit they’d broken out of storage. Those could, reportedly, be put on the back of a truck and used for interstellar communications while units were out in the field. The world isn’t named, but Jarett, Thule, and Damian are all within one jump of Santander V. We have a Black Widow scenario noting an attack on Thule by Valasek’s forces, so that’s probably the strongest candidate for the Pike action. (You’ll recall that, given the location and timing, the “Black Widow” company that fought Valasek’s forces on Thule was probably impostors, since the actual Widows were down on the Davion border around that time – too far to redeploy unless a command circuit was set up expressly for that purpose.)
Monitor Naval Vessel: The “Notable Vehicle” section is an extended homage to Francis Marion, who was referred to as “The Swamp Fox” for his guerrilla tactics in South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War.
This is one of the few sourcebook references to tie into the events of the Gray Death Legion novels. It places the start of the rebellion in mid-3025, and claims the DCMS sent 16 fresh regiments to crush the rebels at the end of 3025. In actuality, the fighting had been ongoing at a low level since 3015, and was escalated in October 3025 with the arrival of the Gray Death Legion. Far from bringing in fresh troops at the end of 3025, Ricol came alone on an inspection tour and then left, taking the best troops with him to preserve them as assets in case the rebels won. In this case, the reporters at Fasan Press seem to have bought into the legend, rather than the actual events.
Alternatively, since this supposedly took place in the early months of the rebellion, Frances Marrion and her Swamp Fox may have been active between September and December 3015, instead of 3025, making it a typo instead of a canon discontinuity. I could see a larger Combine contingent coming in back then, and the rebellion going into a less active mode with the arrival of heavy Combine reinforcements.
The name and turret design are clear homages to the first U.S. ironclad warship, the USS Monitor. The illustration only shows one cannon, however, rather than the two listed in the entry.
The miniature from Iron Wind Metals and the dock/spaceport mapset have allowed me to field these in play. They’re somewhat thin-skinned for a 75-tonner, and rather slow. The Sea Skimmers in the engagement had to keep their distance (their own armament similarly short-ranged, putting them in harm’s way), but the Neptunes had a field day sinking these guys with torpedoes. They are unable to respond when enemies hit from beyond 9 hexes, and can’t come ashore to close the distance. As such, they’re best used on rivers where heavy trees near the waterline prevent long range attacks, or for attacking fortified harbors where the enemy turrets and emplacements aren’t going to be running away.
