'Mech of the Week: HD-2F HoundOkay, let's get
the music going...
Introduced in the 3090s, Coalition Armory Inc.'s HD-2F
Hound is one of the lesser joys of TRO3145's Mercenary volume. (You know, as opposed to the
Mad Cat Mk. IV 'Mech of the Week won't be covering until the moratorium is up.) Marketed primarily to mercenaries and small nations, the design marks the transition of Flitvelt's Coalition Armory from RetroTech into (mostly) modern hardware. Used as one of Flitvelt's primary 'Mechs and well suited to the role of line combatant, the
Hound has served well in offensive and defensive deployments for several decades. Two notable battles are mentioned in the TRO - a defensive battle on Flitvelt's Broken Wheel in 3101 against the Border Lords as they attempted to raid the Quikscell plant in Conestoga and a valiant offensive effort that saw multiple MechWarriors killed disabling five DropShips in a pirate hunting expedition on Carvajal in 3117 by the Green Machine. Like the rest of TRO3145 Mercenaries, the
Hound's artwork is superbly done by Plog.
As you might have expected, this is not a highly advanced design. In fact, there's exactly three weapons on here that aren't intro tech. It is, however, sturdy, reliable, and pretty solid even if the damage is relatively low, a heavy trooper in the mold of the classic ON1-K
Orion, although at 70 tons, the
Hound is a little more svelte. The classic, timeless VOX 280 known to veterans from the
Archer and
Warhammer is doing its usual workman's job of moving the
Hound downrange at 64 kph when the 'Mech comes to a run. 15 single heat sinks - I told you the design was low-tech! - means the
Hound is somewhat oversinked, something that takes a bit of doing on an SHS design. On the other hand, not having to worry about overheating in an age of DHS opponents isn't a bad thing. 13 tons of Valiant Chainmail standard armor provides a solid shell that's all of 11 points from max, with 30 points on the centerline forward, 20 on each side, 22 on the arms, and 26 on the legs. The usual 9 points protect the cockpit while the rear plates are arranged 10/13/10, arguably a little too heavily slanted toward the rear but definitely protective. Unfortunately, if I had to pick the single biggest problem with the design, it's the lack of CASE; historically a major manufacturing headache, it's understandable that CASE isn't there on a Flitvelt design, but it's noticeable if your left torso gets breached. The weapons load is solid but a bit of a mixed bag, able to fight competently at any range but spectacular at none of them. The centerpiece of the armament is the Mydron Excel LB 10-X, one of the best multirole weapons in the game and a long time favorite of the Federated Suns, fed by two tons of ammunition. The left arm's Holly SRM 4 provides additional, possibly needless crit-seeking up close; personally, I might have opted for a true anti-personnel weapon or two and shifted tonnage to beef up other capabilities but the SRMs are useful and can fill the anti-infantry role with appropriate ammo choices. With only one ton of ammo, though, you can't carry frag or Infernos without sacrificing your anti-armor punch. The energy mounts include a pair of Johnston Lite LPPCs on the right arm and ChrisComp 39 ML in the right torso. Like I said, capable of fighting at most battlefield ranges but not really great at any of them. However, most of the Coalition's prospective opponents aren't shining beacons of high technology and their relations with the Suns are normally quite cordial, so the
Hound is fairly well suited to its environs, much as the wise owner chooses a hound whose temperament is matched to the home.
Using a
Hound requires patience. Unlike the
Warhammer they're compared to,
Hounds aren't always the greatest holepunchers in the world and doing it trades away the LB 10-X's cluster capability, so weight your options. Overall, they remind me a little more strongly of an ON1-K
Orion, with LPPCs instead of the LRMs. Get the enemy to medium range and start working on the armor against other heavy 'Mechs and recalibrate your instincts back to the Succession Wars hardware the
Hound isn't far removed from. Some combined arms help won't go amiss to help the
Hound at long range. Against vehicles, the
Hound's ability to generate criticals and motive hits is going to make it extremely annoying with VTOLs and WiGEs in a particularly bad spot.
If the
Hound's offensive options are just a touch lacking in the “oomph” department, the armor is nicely thick. The lack of CASE makes going for the left torso a good idea if you have the ability to focus fire from that direction. How important they are depends on how thin your armor's getting - other heavies can probably find more threatening dance partners early on but once your armor starts buckling, the SRMs, cluster ammo, and dispersed nature of the LPPC hits becomes a bigger and bigger problem. Vehicle-heavy forces probably want to burn them down faster thanks to the way LB-X cluster ammo is attracted to the motive hit table.
References: None, nada, zip, zilch, zero. We're out on the edge this week, 'Mech fans. In lieu of anything else, I've uploaded the picture elsewhere.
