Vehicle of the Week: Regulator II

[Moonsword]

Vehicle of the Week: Regulator II Hover Tank

As those of you who have been following coverage of the TRO3085 units have probably already guessed, this is another one of those Dark Age units that Catalyst Game Labs was handed and forced to make sense of while somehow keeping a fan base that's notoriously touchy about the whole subject from exploding into even more dramatic gesticulations and fiery rhetoric than usual.  Overall, they did a very good job of it, I think.  The original Dark Age variant was somewhat randomly ballooned up five tons for much heavier armor and a light Gauss rifle... despite the fact that another three tons of armor would have solved that problem magnificently without the speed loss you don't want when your weapon now relies on range for a large part of its effectiveness.  It comes off as odd and somewhat random.  Instead, we get a very clear path to that same model that makes the whole situation much clearer.

Like a lot of things in the Jihad, the Word of Blake's fingerprints are all over this mess.  Basically, they saw the original Regulator in all its 9/14 Gauss rifle glory and decided they needed to get in on that action, regardless of minor niceties such as licenses.  Aldis Industries of Terra was handed the full package of specifications, likely stolen from their branch on Betelgeuse, and given a directive to not only copy it but make it better in a conversation that hopefully involved the line, "Gentlemen, we can rebuild this.  We have the technology.  We have the capability to make a really great hovertank.  The Regulator II will be that hovertank.  Better than it was before.  Bigger... tougher... faster."  With full access to Terra's resources and production, Aldis had the first model ready for Christmas Day of 3076 complete with a red bow on top.  A popular item of salvage from Word formations, the Capellans were justifiably annoyed at seeing their premier hovertank subverted and David Lear managed to twist enough arms to get them handed over to the Republic, then sold half of them to the Capellans along with providing them the specifications for the Regulator II.  The Republic has the Regulator II deployed in all three brigades of the Republic Armed Forces but most heavily in the Principes; Aldis is also shipping the original Regulator to planetary defense units.  The Confederation's major shipments of Regulator IIs are concentrated with the Reserve Cavalry and McCarron's Armored Cavalry, although there's room for one to turn up just about anywhere.

The main version of the Regulator II from TRO3085 is more or less what I described above - a bigger, faster, tougher Regulator.  The design is still basically the same, a big fusion-powered hovercraft with a Gauss rifle on top, but it's now 50 tons, uses a GM 265-rated extra-light fusion engine for a flank speed of 162 kph, and has another 2.5 tons of armor which is now heavy ferro-fibrous laid out 38/33/30/34, a major improvement over the original on the sides and rear. The Gauss rifle is still in the turret and it still has 2 tons of ammunition.  The only difference between the two is the brand of the rifle - Inokuma in the Confederation or the M-7 for the Republic's units.  The looks are somewhat different but honestly, I really prefer the somewhat cleaner lines of the Regulator II.  The cost jump from the engine change is unpleasant but if you can afford it, the Regulator II is a very worthy successor to the original.  If you can't, Aldis Industries is still shipping the original model.

So far, there are two variants.  The first comes from Aldis of Terra and is a production model of the popular field refit of the Regulator from TRO3058U, utilizing a rotary autocannon and a targeting computer licensed from the Federated Suns.  The Regulator II variant loses a ton of ammo and CASE in favor of a Guardian ECM suite.  The possibility of jamming your one and only weapon is a little nerve-wracking but at least it's not an Ultra, so you actually can unjam it.  The other model was put together by Aldis of Betelgeuse by direction of the Strategios and is more complicated.  Rejecting production use of rotary autocannons (due to being against the tenets of Xin Sheng), the range band instead jumped out with a light Gauss rifle, apparently a nod to the Dark Age model.  The fun doesn't stop there, though!  A targeting computer is still installed (so accuracy is, in fact, consistent with Xin Sheng).  The real big difference is that ECM was also added to 'power' the stealth armor it was wrapped in.  The armor level dropped to 30/25/22/26 but considering the gain in range, evasiveness, and accuracy, I'm willing to accept that.

Using the Regulator II is basically just what GreyWolfActual Rage said about using Regulators when he wrote the article on them a few years back - hang off a bit and sling 15 point bricks at someone or engage in slashing attacks to make high-speed passes.  The RAC version will want to emphasize the in-your-face aspect while the stealth model wants to keep at range where the stealth armor and reach of that LGR will be put to the best use.  Try to avoid giving too many shots at your sides since that's where a vehicle is most vulnerable to movement criticals, which are the first step to shutting a Regulator II down for good.

Stopping Regulator IIs is a thornier problem than dealing with their smaller, less heavily armored predecessor.  All of them are tougher and faster.  It basically comes back down to the old standby of hitting them to generate movement crits (LB-Xs are your best bet but the accuracy of pulse lasers and precision ammo can be an excellent stand-in), then smashing it flat once it stops going zoom-zoom around the battlefield.  Once again, the LB 10-X distinguishes itself as a great jack of all trades weapon to do both jobs.

Image Reference: The Master Unit List the usual information, including the artwork.  No current miniature is available but one of the old Liao Incursion Dark Age miniatures is here.

[Istal_Devalis]

Vehicle of the Week: Regulator II Hover Tank
. . . a targeting computer licensed from the Federated Suns.  The Po II loses a ton of ammo and CASE in favor of a Guardian ECM suite. 

You're gonna want to correct that, I think.

[Iron Mongoose]

The old Regulator was one of the units, of all the units in the game, that gave me the most trouble.  For years, over many battle, I could never defeat a force with Regulators in it, though I've since broken my curse and I have defeated Regulators a few times now.  So I felt like the Regulator II would be rubbish.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I was wrong.  The Regulator II, in all three of its veriants, is terrifying.  Its harder to hit, and harder to kill once you do hit it.  Honestly, the only reasonable way to take one out of action is to outlast its ammo (did that once); it helps if you can keep him on his own toes and running flank speed at range, to keep his TNs up.  The LGR is in some ways even better: with a 17 hex medium range, a TC, and a lot of speed, it can get into its optomum range and take shots at a +1 TN against opponents trying to hit its stealth hide at +6, neglecting movement.  I'll play that game all day, given a chance.  And the RAC model hits like a hammer.

I'd love a force that mixed them in together.  Send in the GR and LGR models to start working on the enemy, break up his formations, and get him to chase you about, then once you've isolated a pocket or two, send in your RAC veriants you've been holding in reserve to cut them down before the other elements can come to their rescue.

[Moonsword]

You're gonna want to correct that, I think.

The difference and similarity between the two was on my mind while I was writing this.  That's not the only time I typed that, just the only time I didn't manage to catch it.

The old Regulator was one of the units, of all the units in the game, that gave me the most trouble.  For years, over many battle, I could never defeat a force with Regulators in it, though I've since broken my curse and I have defeated Regulators a few times now.  So I felt like the Regulator II would be rubbish.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I was wrong.  The Regulator II, in all three of its veriants, is terrifying.  Its harder to hit, and harder to kill once you do hit it.  Honestly, the only reasonable way to take one out of action is to outlast its ammo (did that once); it helps if you can keep him on his own toes and running flank speed at range, to keep his TNs up.  The LGR is in some ways even better: with a 17 hex medium range, a TC, and a lot of speed, it can get into its optomum range and take shots at a +1 TN against opponents trying to hit its stealth hide at +6, neglecting movement.  I'll play that game all day, given a chance.  And the RAC model hits like a hammer.

I'd love a force that mixed them in together.  Send in the GR and LGR models to start working on the enemy, break up his formations, and get him to chase you about, then once you've isolated a pocket or two, send in your RAC veriants you've been holding in reserve to cut them down before the other elements can come to their rescue.

That's exactly what I was getting at with the Bionic Man references.  Regulator IIs are just tougher and faster Regulators, fixing the type's major vulnerability (low flank armor) and jacking the speed up another notch.  They don't do anything weird and they don't sideline the unit into a different role, they just pull all the stops out and the result is an even more horrifying fast attack hovertank than we had to deal with before.

[Johnny 'NKH' Leyland]

I've been reading good things about mech mortar airburst ammo as a way to deal with fast vehicles like this one.

[Iron Mongoose]

What's the range on that?  The joy of a Regulator is that it can outrange things like the LB10, and even play at the edge of LB5 range (more so in the LGR model, less so in the RAC veriant), taking some of the key tank killing weapons out of play. 

[Moonsword]

What's the range on that?  The joy of a Regulator is that it can outrange things like the LB10, and even play at the edge of LB5 range (more so in the LGR model, less so in the RAC veriant), taking some of the key tank killing weapons out of play. 

Same as an LRM.  Keep in mind that one reason it's so useful is that it doesn't have to deal with little things like target movement modifiers, instead getting to target hexes (and thus getting the -4 bonus for targeting an immobile target).  It doesn't have to deal with the cluster hits table, either, just deals full damage in 1 point hits to everything in the hex.  Or 1d6 per shell to infantry, so a mortar/8 is basically having eight light machine guns open up on everything in the hex.  Including every individual suit of battle armor because this is AE damage.

This is one of those optional rules I personally refuse to play with.