LTAC Zeus

[Daryk]

The culmination of research and development into Artillery Cannons in 3012 of course saw the largest of those weapons delegated to Hesperus II for production.  Defiance Industries predictably attempted to cram them into a Zeus chassis, with somewhat unexpected resutls.  The massive weight of the Long Tom Artillery Cannon forced the removal of almost all other weapons to make room for the huge cannon and requisite heat sinks.  Even with that, however, there simply wasn't enough tonnage available to cool the huge cannon.  Oddly, the redesign effort did find enough space to install somethg the Zeus had lacked since its inception: hands.  No one was more shocked than the chief engineer, but even they were intrigued enough to let the effort continue.  Ultimately, only the single Medium Laser in the Center Torse survived the redesign effort, and the design, while interesting, never reached full rate production.

Code: [Select]

LTAC Zeus ZEU-6L

Mass: 80 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Succession Wars
Tech Rating/Era Availability: D/X-F-E-D
Production Year: 3025
Dry Cost: 7,956,840 C-Bills
Total Cost: 8,016,840 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,413

Chassis: Unknown Standard
Power Plant: Unknown 320 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h
Jump Jets: None
    Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Unknown Standard Armor
Armament:
    1  Long Tom Art. Cannon
    1  Medium Laser
Manufacturer: Unknown
    Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown

================================================================================
Equipment           Type                         Rating                   Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard                     122 points                8.00
Engine:             Fusion Engine                320                      22.50
    Walking MP: 4
    Running MP: 6
    Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks:         Single Heat Sink             17                        7.00
    Heat Sink Locations: 1 CT, 2 LT, 1 RT, 1 LL
Gyro:               Standard                                               4.00
Cockpit:            Standard                                               3.00
    Actuators:      L: SH+UA+LA+H    R: SH+UA+LA+H
Armor:              Standard Armor               AV - 184                 11.50

                                                      Internal       Armor     
                                                      Structure      Factor     
                                                Head     3            9         
                                        Center Torso     25           26       
                                 Center Torso (rear)                  9         
                                           L/R Torso     17           18       
                                    L/R Torso (rear)                  6         
                                             L/R Arm     13           22       
                                             L/R Leg     17           24       

================================================================================
Equipment                                 Location    Heat    Critical    Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long Tom Art. Cannon                         LT/LA     20        7/8      20.00
Medium Laser                                 CT        3         1         1.00
@Long Tom Cannon (15)                        LT        -         3         3.00
                                            Free Critical Slots: 23

BattleForce Statistics
MV      S (+0)  M (+2)  L (+4)  E (+6)   Wt.   Ov   Armor:      6    Points: 14
4          2       3       2       0      4     0   Structure:  6
Special Abilities: ARTLTC, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA

[garhkal]

OUCH.  A Long tom Cannon..  Now that can reach out and TOUCH someone!

[Daryk]

It actually works better on an Orion (one of the players in our campaign game has one... the mini is GLORIOUS).  I went with the Zeus, because, well... LYRAN!  :D

[CVB]

Have you tried the Atlas? Also Defiance/Lyran, can mount more secondaries and provides even more overcompensation for social generals.

[Daryk]

I figured Defiance was trying to off ramp the LTAC, but oh yeah... they're SWEET on an Atlas:

Code: [Select]

LTAC Atlas ATL-LTAC

Mass: 100 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Succession Wars
Tech Rating/Era Availability: D/X-F-E-D
Production Year: 3025
Dry Cost: 9,628,000 C-Bills
Total Cost: 9,735,000 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,953

Chassis: Unknown Standard
Power Plant: Unknown 300 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 32.4 km/h
Maximum Speed: 54.0 km/h
Jump Jets: None
    Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Unknown Standard Armor
Armament:
    1  Long Tom Art. Cannon
    1  SRM-6
    4  Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
    Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown

================================================================================
Equipment           Type                         Rating                   Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard                     152 points               10.00
Engine:             Fusion Engine                300                      19.00
    Walking MP: 3
    Running MP: 5
    Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks:         Single Heat Sink             24                       14.00
    Heat Sink Locations: 8 RT, 2 LL, 2 RL
Gyro:               Standard                                               3.00
Cockpit:            Standard                                               3.00
    Actuators:      L: SH+UA+LA+H    R: SH+UA+LA+H
Armor:              Standard Armor               AV - 304                 19.00

                                                      Internal       Armor     
                                                      Structure      Factor     
                                                Head     3            9         
                                        Center Torso     31           48       
                                 Center Torso (rear)                  13       
                                           L/R Torso     21           31       
                                    L/R Torso (rear)                  11       
                                             L/R Arm     17           33       
                                             L/R Leg     21           42       

================================================================================
Equipment                                 Location    Heat    Critical    Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Laser                                 RA        3         1         1.00
Medium Laser                                 LA        3         1         1.00
SRM-6                                        RT        4         2         3.00
Long Tom Art. Cannon                         LT/LA     20        8/7      20.00
2 Medium Lasers                              CT        6         2         2.00
@SRM-6 (15)                                  RT        -         1         1.00
@Long Tom Cannon (20)                        LT        -         4         4.00
                                            Free Critical Slots: 9

BattleForce Statistics
MV      S (+0)  M (+2)  L (+4)  E (+6)   Wt.   Ov   Armor:     10    Points: 20
3          3       4       2       0      4     1   Structure:  8
Special Abilities: ARTLTC, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA

[CVB]

Sweet, indeed :thumbsup:

[garhkal]

Looking at it, its rather costly both ton and crit, for a 20 point damage, 20 hex range reach...

[Daryk]

Consider that it doesn't have to roll on Missile Hits table... it ALWAYS does 20 damage to all units in the target hex AND 10 more in the hexes around it.  In our campaign, our LTAC Orion immobilized a hover tank he couldn't see with that splash damage...  ^-^

[Retry]

Also keep in mind that 20 point hit is nearly a guaranteed hit, since you can aim at a hex instead of the unit.

Years ago when my group still played BT, we had a series of matches where we just kinda threw whatever we felt like at each other for fun, BV "balanced".  Amusingly, it degenerated towards the end to mostly Assault 'Mech boats with stuff like Long Tom Arty Cannons blasting each other on each side; Anything under 60 tons simply could not exist in that type of environment.

Anyways Arty Cannons in general are just brutally efficient.  We actually ended up having to sort of ban them, since having just one or two on the field essentially negated the impact of non-artillery Infantry, BA, and any Battlemech that relied primarily on mobility to survive.

[Daryk]

Yep, that's AOE damage for you...  8)

[garhkal]

Also keep in mind that 20 point hit is nearly a guaranteed hit, since you can aim at a hex instead of the unit.

Egads. Guess i need to re-read up on the rules for artillery...

[Daryk]

Artillery Cannons have their own rules.  They don't get the -4 to hit for immoblie targets like hexes, but also don't have to worry about TMMs...  ^-^

[Tyler Jorgensson]

Artillery Cannons have their own rules.  They don't get the -4 to hit for immoblie targets like hexes, but also don't have to worry about TMMs...  ^-^

Where are these rules because I’ve thought of a couple stupidly crazy ideas now.

[CVB]

TacOps

[Daryk]

TO: AU&E these days.