The Conjurer – Aka Hellhound aka
REDACTED The Conjurer is basically the Wolverine IIC and as such it…*sounds of the door breaking down* THIS IS THE WATCH! GET ON YOUR KNEES! ON YOUR KNEES! *Muffled thud, the sound of sirens and a body being dragged away.*
That writer has been dismissed and I am his replacement. The Conjurer or to give it it’s Spheroid name of Hellhound is a
COMPLETELY AUTHENTIC DESIGN AND NOT BASED ON ANY PREVIOUS DESIGN OR MACHINE that was developed after the formation of the Clans and was first seen in 2829 after being produced by Clan Nova Cat.
Whilst
NOT a IIC design the Hellhound is generally lumped with them and was first seen in the Inner Sphere as a Garrison and second line machine. When first introduced it was of course a front line combat machine but was rapidly eclipsed by the introduction of Omni-Mech’s and like many standard Battlemech’s the Hellhound was consigned to Garrison and Solhama units.
At 50 tonnes its rather large for a
NOT IIC like design and unlike its
REDACTED and other IIC type designs it loses weight. Like many Clan second line machines it features an endo-steel skeleton and Ferro-fibrous armour for weight saving but has a standard engine (this does change in variants and will be mentioned where needed) to keep costs down as well as be easier to maintain in the field. The engine can still propel the machine to 96kph making it as fast as the much feared Stormcrow.
Despite this, like many Clan Garrison machines the Hellhound is a fearsome foe for an Inner Sphere MechWarrior to face due to the advantages of Clan weaponry on an agile and mobile platform.
DesignAs mentioned the Hellhound uses Endo-steel and Ferro-fibrous compounds to save weight whilst protecting it with 8.5 tonnes of plate, the standard engine also makes the machine irritatingly difficult to disable. The only fitted equipment are 6 jump jets which can throw the 50 tonne machine into 180-meter-long leaps and when combined with its high speed makes the Hellhound quite capable of running down any of the Inner Sphere’s 55 tonne machines that are in common service across the Clan front.
The 8.5 tonnes or armour gives it a protection profile as follows
9/19/23/19 (5/7/5)
14/14/24/24
The combination of protection, mobility and firepower all make the Hellhound a nasty hunter killer and has made a Mech that has stood the test of time and has seen a surprising number of variants, although the future of the Hellhound does look bleak.
With its main builders, Clan Nova Cat now all but extinct and it no doubt being viewed as a tainted design by the Homeworld’s Clans I doubt there are any manufacturing plants that can produce this Mech in existence. If this is true then the dwindling number of Hellhounds are the last of their kind unless the Shark’s got their hands on the plans when helping the Nova Cat’s out or the plants to produce it were captured by the DCMS.
VariantsStandard – The original killer that was based in part on the
REDACTED a popular machine before the Exodus. Designed to be easy to maintain and with a decent heat curve that does not punish its pilots the Standard’s main armament is a Large Pulse Laser mounted in a rifle like assembly on the right arm. This gives the Mech an unlimited supply of long range and accurate fire as the Clan Large Pulse Laser is a brutally efficient weapon for dismembering other machines and is useful on a second line machine who’s pilots are often inferior to the front line Star’s and Clusters.
Supporting the big cannon are a pair of ER Medium lasers, simple but effective firepower which allow the Hellhound to dance around at longer ranges than equivalent Inner Sphere weapons whilst finally a pair of Streak SRM-2’s drawing from a shared tonne of ammo. The paired Streaks might seem a bit odd but I’d say they are useful, if you fired a SSRM-4 and it didn’t lock then you fire nothing, firing two smaller launchers give you a higher chance of causing some damage. The ten double heatsinks fitted can be overwhelmed but not enough to discourage extensive weapons use.
2 – A MASSIVE rebuild by the Nova Cats who were in dire straits (no not the band) after the first Ghost Bear-Combine War. Built in part with assistance from Clan Diamond Shark the Hellhound 2 turns the second line machine into a front line Battlemech that became a common sight in Nova Cat service. The design has been so extensively re-worked you could call it a brand new machine. Out goes the 300 rated engine and in goes a far more potent 350 rated XL engine to kick the speed up to 119kph whilst the jump jets were increased to allow for 210 meter leaps. (7/11/7 in game terms).
The weapons were also remodelled and an additional half tonne of armour saw the Hellhound 2’s profile also get completely re-worked to look nothing like the Standard variant whilst also giving it the most protection a Mech its size can carry.
For its main punch the 2 relies on a meaty ATM-9 which is fed by an ample 3 tonne ammo bin allowing for full use of the warhead types used by the flexible launcher. A pair of medium pulse lasers replace the ER Mediums and SRM’s whilst the electronics suite has been reworked to fit a targeting computer to tie all three weapons together. As with the standard the 2 is fitted with 10 double heatsinks and is very hard to overheat.
The mobile hunter killer has now become even more mobile and is quite capable of running down many light Mech’s in Inner Sphere service whilst the threat of 9 HE ATM rounds into the back make the 2 a fearsome backstabber with the speed to do just that. Still 3 tonnes of ammo is rather limited and you will probably have to pick and choose what you want rather than load up with a tonne each of HE, ER and Standard rounds.
3 – More a reworking of the Standard the 3 is a generalist machine and seems more like a weapons swap to try new toys more than anything. An ER Large Laser provides the main punch, letting it reach out and slap someone at long range whilst also being useful up close. But that’s what the secondary weapons are for. A pair of Heavy Medium Lasers give a nice armour/face melting punch and the 3 retains the targeting computer of the 2 making this thing surprisingly accurate. Three extra heatsinks are added but even so this is a cool running machine and it can happily fire a full alpha and not generate a blip on the heat scale as long as you don’t move.
4 – THE city fighting/garrison version of the Hellhound 2 the 4 retains an XL engine but its downgraded to a 300 engine rate dropping speed to 96kph whilst reducing the jump jets by one as well for a 6/9/6 movement curve. The 4 is built seemingly with combined arms and infantry opponents in mind. The main anti-Mech and battle armour punch comes from a quartet of Heavy Medium lasers which the machines 14 double heatsinks struggle to cool. Backing up the laser battery is a pair of Streak SRM-6’s which can be effective against Mech’s, Battle armour and tanks whilst a pair of Light machine guns can reduce infantry to chopped meat. To tie it all off and put a pretty pink bow on it a targeting computer links all the weapons together for maximum squishy caramelisation whilst both ballistic weapon systems also share a tonne of ammo between them. Whilst not great against Mech’s the 4 can still be a serious threat thanks to its close in firepower but its real job is turning battle armour and infantry into smears.
5 – The last variant and a kissing cousin of the 2 yet is far inferior a machine and is actually based on the Standard. A pair of ATM-6’s gives it formidable firepower but this is firepower it simply can’t use. Each launcher is fed by a single tonne of ammo, which means that the flexibility of the ammo types gets thrown out the window as a pair of launchers will chew through a tonne of ammo in 5 shots meaning you have to double up on ammo which then renders the flexibility of the system moot and pointless. Supporting the launchers are a pair of ER Medium Lasers which are great weapons but they can’t carry this variant and its woefully limited ammo supply. A 300 rated standard engine move this variant at 96kph.
ThoughtsThe Hellhound is a potent and dangerous machine in the right hands, the Standard version is still a lethal killer of lights and mediums whilst its guns can also let it take a chunk out of bigger machines. The 2 is a rock solid sand blaster and because of the more dispersed nature of its punch it can take some time to wear a foe down but 9 ATM’s are still a weapon you’d not want to get slapped too often by, especially if you’re a smaller machine that does not have the armour to spare or as happened more and more, in cases where Zell is long gone and the 2 can use its sandblasting ATM to fill holes ripped by other Mech’s.
The 3 is a good solid upgrade take on the I, trading versatility for close in punch so with those two its six of one, half a dozen of the other. 4 is built for close quarters fights and can do fearsome damage in a close in brawl whilst the 5 is really the only egg of the chassis. Its limited ammo supplies make it have very little effect in all but the shortest of battles and its remaining armament simply does not make up for the shortfall.
Variant 5 aside the Hellhound is a darn good remake of the Wolverine and.. oh Kerensky I didn’t mean it WAI… *TAZER SOUNDS*
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/f/fa/Hellhound.jpg - Nothing to see here Citizen. (The Unseen artwork for the Hellhound)
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/images/e/e8/3055U_Conjurer.jpg - A Hellhound II - Image not shown due to the HUGE size of it.
A Hellhound II as you can see its quite different from the original look.
As always thoughts are most welcome.
And the Watch is watching you Citizen.
