PPC Tank on a budget?

[RevenVrake]

Build for the Republic of the Sphere during the Dark Age, the Myrmidon II is intended as the successor to the very popular medium PPC tank NETC put into production in the 3060s. Rather than continue the tracked chassis, the new tank is a hover model, using a smaller fusion engine to propel itself to almost a 130 kph. It still maintains the Parti-Kill PPC and SRM-6 rack of the original model. CASE protects the lone ammo bin. The biggest change is the armor. New Wall Type 10 Heavy Ferro protects the tank, nine and a half tons of it. Both the front and sides can each take two AC-20 shots without suffering internal damage, while the turret can handle a couple of Gauss hits with some armor left over. The rear armor is only 26 points, so it can handle an AC-20 hit but not much more.

Since the whole tank comes in at under 2 million c-bills it is considered a cheap and cheerful machine.

Code: [Select]

Myrmidon II

Mass: 40 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Motive Type: Hovercraft
Rules Level: Tournament Legal
Era: Dark Ages
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/X-X-E-A
Production Year: 3145
Cost: 1,978,500 C-Bills
Battle Value: 966

Power Plant: Nissan 145 Fusion Engine
Cruise Speed: 86.4 km/h
Flanking Speed: 129.6 km/h
Armor: Wall Type 10 Heavy Ferro-Fibrous w/CASE
Armament:
    1 Parti-Kill Heavy Cannon PPC
    1 SureShot Mk VI SRM-6
Manufacturer: New Earth Trading Company
    Primary Factory: New Earth
Communications System: O/P R Janixiir
Targeting and Tracking System: TargiTrack 717

================================================================================
Equipment           Type                         Rating                   Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard                      20 points                4.00
Engine:             Fusion Engine                145                       7.50
    Cruise MP:  8
    Flank MP:   12
Heat Sinks:         Single Heat Sink             10                        0.00
Control Equipment:                                                         2.00
Lift Equipment:                                                            4.00
Turret:                                                                    1.00
Armor:              Heavy Ferro-Fibrous          AV - 180                  9.50

                                                      Armor     
                                                      Factor     
                                               Front     40       
                                          Left/Right   40/40       
                                              Turret     34       
                                                Rear     26       

================================================================================
Equipment                                 Location    Heat     Spaces     Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PPC                                          T         10        1         7.00
SRM-6                                        T         4         1         3.00
CASE                                         BD        -         1         0.50
@SRM-6 (15)                                  BD        -         0         1.00

BattleForce Statistics
MV      S (+0)  M (+2)  L (+4)  E (+6)   Wt.   Ov   Armor:      6    Points: 10
8h         2       2       1       0      2     0   Structure:  2
Special Abilities: CASE, TUR(2/2/1)


[Ursus Maior]

In my opinion this is a valid design idea with but one flaw: Tank turrets should always have the highest armor, given that they do not have a facing and can get hit from any angle. I would reduce the side armor to 35 each and add 10 points to the turret.

Also: Did you think about adding an MG? I'm a huge fan of adding a turret or front mounted MG to every vehicle. Just because it's really likely one will encounter hostile people long before one encounters anything with armor plates.

[Sabelkatten]

In my opinion this is a valid design idea with but one flaw: Tank turrets should always have the highest armor, given that they do not have a facing and can get hit from any angle. I would reduce the side armor to 35 each and add 10 points to the turret.

Also: Did you think about adding an MG? I'm a huge fan of adding a turret or front mounted MG to every vehicle. Just because it's really likely one will encounter hostile people long before one encounters anything with armor plates.

Actually the hit location tables are such that (unless playing with hull-down rules) putting 1/6th of the total armor is really over-armoring the turret...

As for MGs, while I approve for fluff reasons ending up inside MG range of hostile PBIs with a hovercraft generally means you're already mission-killed due to being immobile!

[Ursus Maior]

Yeah, MGs are really a fluff thing for me.

You're right about the 1/6 of the armor, but armoring it less than the front OR the sides is under-armoring it, since every turret hit will eat away from the same pool. You cannot escape turret hits, but you can escape hits into a weakened side armor by presenting your unscathed / less damaged side.

[Sabelkatten]

(Getting rather off topic here, sorry...)

1/6th of all hits you take, on average. If someone shoots 6 MLs at the front of a vehicle *1* of them usually hits the turret. If the OP vehicle was hit by a "perfectly average" series of hits - and we ignore TACs - by the time the front, sides, AND rear has been stripped the turret has taken 29 damage (5 armor left).

Given that vehicles (IME) usually lose about 50-60% of their hull armor before they die 20 points turret armor would be plenty on the OP. But I like some margin so I say 30.

[Daryk]

The rear armor really needs one more point... at 27, the tank could survive two Gauss Rifles to the rear with one point of internal left...

[Retry]

Yeah, MGs are really a fluff thing for me.

You're right about the 1/6 of the armor, but armoring it less than the front OR the sides is under-armoring it, since every turret hit will eat away from the same pool. You cannot escape turret hits, but you can escape hits into a weakened side armor by presenting your unscathed / less damaged side.

Vehicles with turrets only have 5 location slots to begin with.  You can't agree with the 1/6 armor point while still maintaining that armoring it less than the front or sides is too little.  It's physically impossible to manage both unless your rear armor is ridiculously thick.

[Tinyozora]

I love Myrmidons and I love Manticores, and now I love this thing. 

[kaliban]

As a general rule, the faster unit will define the engagement range. Mymidon is a slower tracked vehicle and the combination of PPC + SRM6 is used to cover the minimum range of the PPC. With a faster hovercraft, you have better chances to engage targets at 5-6 hexes and avoid the enemies short range weapons.

It deviates from your concept of a "Myrmidon in skirts" but you can have a much smaller and faster hovercraft with only the PPC or even smaller with a Large Laser.

And I see no reason to install a MG - it is not reasonable to engage conventional infantry at MG range, you can be much more effective with Inferno SRMs

[RevenVrake]

I had always found that my front and side armor took the most damage whenever I was in combat, the rolls just making it so the turret always took the least number of hits, along with the back.

Since I figured the Myrmidon was a very popular vehicle, a hover version able to do 12 hexes in a straight line had to be somewhat popular to some people. And the Republic did own the factory (or the ruins of the factory) that had built it in the first place.

Next on my list to try, a Schrek IIC 

[truetanker]

Next on my list to try, a Schrek IIC 

Wouldn't that be a Morrigu Laser?

I've taken the standard Schrek and added clantech LPLs on it!

TT