Vehicle of the Week: Winston Combat VehicleAfter the Jihad, Pandora 'Mech Works of Terra found itself in a bit of a bind. Producing only the Puma, a 95 ton tank originally built for the Star League Defense Force but now unfortunately associated with the Word of Blake despite centuries of service with the SLDF and later the ComGuards. To avoid the economic consequences, Pandora began work on the new Stone Main Battle Tank, but nearly blundered into disaster anyway with Devlin Stone's refusal to have a military machine named for him. Fortunately, Paladin Steiner-Davion was impressed with the design and interceded, suggesting that Pandora change the name and try again. After renaming it after Winston Churchill, a famous war leader and statesman of the British Empire, the company submitted it. As of 3085, the Procurement Office of the Republic Armed Forces had not issued any purchase orders but it was expected to fare well. I'd note that the combat trials described aren't really talking about 'Mechs of similar firepower when you look at the details - at range, a single standard Winston has perhaps a touch more firepower than both of the 'Mechs described put together, and it has AMS to blunt at least one of the
Dervish's launchers. The LAC variant alongside it was just gravy. Combine that with the Winstons' heavy armor and you have a situation where trying to play around at range is the exact last thing that
Dervish should have been doing.
The Winston was originally categorized as a main battle tank but honestly, that's not really a designation I'd be happy hanging off of it. It's more of a fire platform, closer to an assault design despite being only 70 tons. A Pitban 210 light fusion engine powers the tank, leaving it with the top speed of only 54 kph. The armor is, to be honest, overkill. 14.5 tons of heavy ferro-fibrous was layered on in a 65/58/50/54 arrangement that's heavier than the armor on a Demolisher II, which frankly needs the protection significantly more than a Winston does. CASE is here, too. The phrase rolling bunker may never have been more appropriate. You're going to get disabled long before you're blown up under most circumstances, so get used to the idea of being a stationary target. The weapons load is a bit of a grab bag on first glance but there's a certain method to madness - this is a direct fire-support platform intended as the anvil for more mobile units to slam enemies against, such as using Kinnols as hunting hounds. The turret houses a pair of Donal light particle cannons, trading sheer penetration for a ton of space and a smaller turret along with the TRO's argument of redundancy and they're mated to a targeting computer for additional accuracy. A pair of Holly LRM 15 launchers are fed by three tons of ammunition. The forward end of the tank has a Streak SRM 6 for close-in fighting and a Buzzsaw Anti-Missile System for additional defense, each with their own ton of ammunition. I'm still really not quite sure what the overall intention behind the design really was but the Winston's firepower is reasonable on paper and the armor is very likely going to outlast the LRM ammo in a lot of situations.
A variant was supplied and mentioned above. It removes the particle cannons and LRMs along with the targeting computer for a pair of LAC/5s and MML 7s, each supplied by three tons of ammunition that are more than adequate for the LACs (even with specialty ammo) and run a bit short sometimes on the MMLs. Explicitly intended as an urban brawler, this unit is quite well supplied for the job and is extremely well protected against anything
other than infantry, so attach some infantry-killing battle armor or a machine gun platoon to keep them clear, although you could use a couple of Demon Medium Tanks as roving manpower disposals. You might want to pair them with Demolishers, though, for additional close-in firepower to open someone's armor up. In slightly less in-your-face situations, Zhukovs can do a good job.
The Winston, in operational terms, heavily depends on the type. The primary model is a mid- to long-range attacker, while the secondary model is intended for closer ranges, apparently under heavy fire. In testing, I have to say that there's a real problem with lacking heavy, concentrated punch, so against 'Mechs with plenty of armor, you're well suited to ablating it, but punching into it quickly is going to be problematic. Something with some heavier weapons (Schreks and Manticores both come to mind in addition to the units suggested above) can be helpful. Move into whatever firing positions are advantageous early if you're facing significant fire - a Winston simply doesn't have enough MPs to deal with even minor MP loss gracefully and tanks are going to suffer it sooner or later. Special ammo (especially for the LAC model's autocannons) can be enormously helpful.
While you certainly can take on a Winston with firepower alone and do the job - I did just that with a couple of
Catapults in a test match, and the LAC model wasn't disabled - it works better if you disable it first. The usual range of crit-seekers is useful, and as usual, they're led by the LB 10-X. Once that's done, concentrate fire if you want to punch the armor out quickly. Against the primary model, charging in at it can work, but you're mainly defending against the LRMs unless it's already in a constrained position - the LPPCs' minimums are more workable and the Streaks are just getting in to range. Do
not try that against the LAC variant unless you're trying to give the other guy an excuse to spray you down with every weapon on the tank. Given the option, stand off and poke it at range rather than closing into a storm of SRMs and the LACs.
Image Reference: The artwork can be
viewed at the MUL along with BV and availability. I'm not aware of any painted miniatures, but the basic design can be
seen at Iron Wind Metals' website.
