I'm a day late. Don't like it, there's the door. ;) I'll also note that this vehicle was covered in a previous article, but several years back- and before we had the now-standard model. Seems like a good time to come back and give it another well-deserved look.
Anyway. We spent last week talking about how House Liao makes life miserable on its enemies with their latest- and, arguably greatest- feat of armored engineering. Let's keep that trend going this week and look at yet another way Liao causes people pain with the Behemoth II. (Full disclosure, I had two ideas for this week, and all the way until I got home from work I wasn't sure which to go with. Putting my music program on 'random', I got Static-X "Behemoth". If that's not a sign, I don't know what is.)
So, your Pixius, Po IIs, and all that jazz didn't do the job, and the FedRats or Republicans are just making your life a living hell. Liao looks around and sees big nasties like the Ontos, the Ajax, the Challenger, the Marksman, and... well, historically there hasn't been a big response to make. Sure, there's things like the Demolisher that everyone has some of, but not really a home-grown "THIS is how I will make you regret coming here" assault tank... other than the Behemoth. For those unfamiliar, first, welcome to Battletech. Second, the Behemoth was notable for having guns sticking out of every orifice, surprisingly thin armor for its 100-ton size, and being slower than Stalkers mating. So a fine vehicle for guarding a location against multiple attack angles, but not so great at... well, moving. Or surviving, for that matter. Still, it's all Aldis Industries was supplying back then, and you made do. Now, Aldis had a chance to build an 'Ajax Killer', so to speak, a beast that could take on any other assault-weight tank and just flat WIN. They succeeded... or did they? You be the judge of this widely exported but troubled vehicle.
Deep in the heart of this 100 ton... well, behemoth... is a 300XL motor, giving this Behemoth a big boost in speed over its grandfather design- not that that's saying much. That boost still means the tank now makes a stately- but average- pace of 3/5, enough to move to defensive positions where needed and take part in slow-moving attacks alongside similar-weight assault forces, at least. Amusingly, looking back 100 years, the idea of putting a fusion engine on a tank, let alone an XL, was unheard of- now it feels almost like a given.
Sheathing this monster are 15 tons of ferro-fibrous armor, the kind of shell that makes an enemy groan with frustration. Granted, the real threat is having the treads knocked out, but if this becomes a pillbox it's going to be a very tough to kill pillbox at least. The armor, as usual, is heaviest up front- to the tune of an impressive 65 points. That's going to take work to get through- a full blast from the vaunted Hellstar won't crack that forward plating, no small feat. The turret and sides get 55 points each as well, surprisingly well-rounded all things considered. Even the rear gets 38 points, plenty enough to feel secure even after a couple of Gauss shots to the derriere. These don't die easy- trust me, testing it last week was a lesson in frustration.
So can it do anything in reply? Sit down and listen, son. It's not uncommon to start a big nasty assault tank with a Gauss rifle as the main focus- the Marksman, Mars, Gurteltier, Challenger, and others have done that trick before. That doesn't make it any less of an impressive idea, of course- one might argue that the Gauss rifle is a bigger revelation and improvement to a tank than to a Battlemech, really, with the energy weapon rules and more difficult critical hit situation for the vehicle. Your opinion might vary, but either way that's a Poland Main Model C sticking out the front of the turret here, fed with the usual two tons of ammo. Not to be trifled with.
Here things take a turn for the 'huh?'. The Pixiu discussion last week brought up the Thunderbolt-5's usefulness as a weapon- is it a good thing to have, or is a regular LRM rack better? On the Pixiu I'd have rather had the LRM. Here... oh my. EIGHT Thunderbolt-5s sit atop the turret in a pair of box launchers. The array weighs just shy of what a Commando does, and is fed by four tons of ammo- enough for most engagements, anyway. That's quite the barrage, combined with the rifle! But wait- it gets better. See, the quirks for the Behemoth II are 'long range' and 'improved targeting'. This thing sits back and makes life a living hell for its enemies, hitting with a flurry of big missiles and a nickel slug with alarming accuracy while proving a match for whatever gets thrown back at it. As a final option, in case someone gets closer, a quartet of RL-10 racks are in a unique 'hanging' configuration on the sides of the turret as a little extra one-shot punch.
Nice, right? Well, here things get weird. This is the most recent version we Battletech fans have- and it's the STANDARD model. The support model, we've had for a good ten years now... the variant is what we saw first. Unusual, right? Showing up in the old MWDA record sheet book, this version keeps the rifle, but drops the rest. The hanging rocket racks become LRM-20s, the T-bolt launchers are replaced with Streak SRM-4 systems, and an ER large laser (and the two heat sinks it needed) get stapled alongside the Gauss. Predating much of the new technology in the Total Warfare era, this has a very old-school feel- not in a bad way, of course. This works just fine as an assault unit, keeping much of the long range punch of the other model. Consider using both and see which you prefer.
Behemoth IIs are built in the Republic on Terra and Betelgeuse, but made their name with House Liao- however, its early years saw limited sales, and many of these tanks were literally gifted to high-profile commands to try to get sales. This tactic worked well for the Tarantula Battlemech, and eventually seems to have done well here as well-while Liao forces may have made the Behemoth II famous, it's not hard to find Behemoth IIs serving in nearly every military out there in at least some number or other, and in many of the Republic breakaway factions from the early days of the Blackout- making the best defense against a Behemoth II another of its brethren.
So yeah. Liao might still not be building a home-grown assault tank, but they sure have a good one in their ranks these days. Ever used one? Fought one? Thoughts on the two versions? You know how this works.
