(NOTE: VotW is early this week on account of needing something to do while dealing with rampant insomnia. Benefit to you, woe to me.)
We've covered weapon carriers the past couple of weeks- vehicles that tend to eschew the finer things in life like engines and protection in favor of ungodly amounts of weaponry. So let's swing back to a more even keel this week and look at a vehicle that... you know what, I'm not even going to try to contain myself here. Three different people requested this vehicle over the last couple of weeks, all without knowing (they claim) that the others had done so. And as I tested it, I began to realize more and more what they saw in it. This was a lot of fun to play with, and it's yet another reason why I hate fighting House Liao.
Pixius are post-Jihad monsters that appear to be intended to work as a long-range combination with the short-range oriented Po II, but work just fine on their own as an MBT. A feared element of a Capellan force (and rightly so!), they tend to serve in the cream of the Liao military (and some in the Magistracy Armed Forces), such as Warrior Houses. A prestigious unit, to be sure- but why?
Let's look in and find out. First, the engine is a pretty handy- if pricey- 350XL. That moves 70 tons of angry tank at a very respectable cavalry-esque 5/8, plenty enough to keep up with all but the fastest-moving battlefield. Of note is the power-reverse feature, a handy thing to have for a number of reasons- as we shall review later. Liao was apparently happy to drop a chunk of change to make this a truly impressive tank in every way, and it worked.
The armor is an impressive eleven tons to begin with, but it's stealth. That's right, we have us a stealth MBT. Smexy. This armor is arrayed in a pretty typical fashion- heavy up front, thinner in the back, with a respectable 50 points on the front. 35 points cover the sides and turret, and a still-decent 21 points can keep an AC-20 from going through the rear- once. (During tests, a Demolisher learned this the hard way in a tough city fight, pegging the enemy with an AC but missing with the other- it promptly turned around and took the treads off the older tank and scuttled away.) That armor being stealth, it requires ten heat sinks- oh look at that engine!- and obviously it's good to hold your distance. That power-reverse just became handy, allowing us to keep backing away from most enemies as fast or faster than they can advance to keep up!
With that in mind, the weapons are a perfect match. A Gauss rifle in the turret is everything tankers love, with power and range in spades (and with a typical two-ton ammo loadout). It means the Pixiu can keep at a range where its armor helps it most, hold that range thanks to its mobility, and make life miserable with the rifle. Interestingly, a Thunderbolt-5 is mounted in the turret as well, with one ton of ammo. For most armies this wouldn't bat an eye, but with the Capellan love of Thunder mines the T-bolt in place of a standard LRM is surprising- then again, with no shortage of units to do that (including the Po II this was designed to support), I suppose it's good to have other options. A vehicle flamer (so as not to require heat sinks the armor already needed) with one ton of ammo is mounted in the nose of the tank in case of infantry ambushes, but should usually be used only in emergencies- your real weapon against infantry is speed.
As noted above, the combination of long-ranged weaponry, excellent mobility, and stealth armor makes this a unit that wants to hold the range at all costs- and is quite able to do so. Pixius are a nightmare to deal with, and the more of them on the field the worse it gets. Needing tens or elevens to hit one sucks bad enough, but it's throwing back hefty firepower of its own at far lower numbers- so even sticking your head out for that pot-shot is a bad idea. Advancing quickly to short range is the best bet, but it's fast enough- even in reverse!- that it's not always easy to do that. Fast units with SRMs like the classic Pegasus are best for the role, hopefully getting close and disabling its (curiously exposed) treads... but with the intended pairing with the close-range monster Po II, even that's not going to be much fun to do.
No variants exist of the Pixiu at this time, which means this is a short article, but don't mistake my brevity for lack of interest. This was a fascinating tank to put through its paces- it looked good on paper, but in use it was even better than expected. If you get a chance to use one, do so- think nothing of it, just do it. It's a marvel- quite possibly the best MBT of the Dark Age era, and that's putting it in high company. It's not easy to use to its maximum effect- it needs room to maneuver to hold the range, so its' not the blunt instrument that the Po II or Marksman can be. But in the right hands and the right battlefield, this was just perfection on treads.
Go. Use this. And if you're an enemy of the Chancellor, fear this above almost all else in his army. I know I do now.
