Vehicle of the Week: Hephaestus Hover TankFor those of you who live in the United States, I'm going to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. Those of you who don't, enjoy your Thursday. This week's offering to the harvest of carnage is the Hephaestus Hover Tank, a Hell's Horses design whose origins lie with their efforts to resurrect the Kanga, a Star League Defense Force tank renowned as the only jumping tank in history. (Not that I'd be entirely surprised if it turns out the SLDF had a few other surprises of their own.) The problem they ran into was not that it was impossible to duplicate the technology. It wasn't and they demonstrated as much with the Kanga-X in
XTRO: Mercenaries. It's not impossible to do a lot of things in military R&D that no one ever does. One of the usual reasons why is that it's impractical, which is the problem the Horses ran right into at full gallop, particularly when they tried to mix in Omni capabilities. (Although
TRO: Prototypes says it's impossible, nothing to that effect is in the construction rules. Remember that
TRO: Prototypes represents the Republic's own guesstimates on what the Horses' reasoning was in not going down that route, and beyond that, rules trump fluff. That said, it's probably going to be a while before we see a canon design breaking that particular engineering barrier.) After the program was initially shelved, James Cobb ordered another look at it to createa a more flexibible infantry transport. (Exactly why that was necessary involves getting some questions answered about the Bandit; we know it
is from the Golden Century based on the MUL but at the same time, by the Jihad only the Dragoons are using a vehicle that would be a natural fit for Horse tactics.) Even after a production, non-jumping version was introduced, the Horses kept pursuing the issue, finally managing to build a true jump tank after the Jihad with the help of the Nova Cats, who turned over recovered information on an experimental turreted variant of the Kanga. Included was a new version of the Kanga's revolutionary targeting and jump management system, although as I noted above, they weren't able to tackle the problems of an OmniVehicle without including something akin to a 'Mech's gyro to manage the whole mess. While the original Hephaestus was deployed initially to the 21st Mechanized Cluster and Alpha Keshik, formations heavily chewed up in Khan Fletcher's conflict with the Bears, and has a good chance of still being in service with the Stone Lions back in the Homeworlds, the Hephaestus Jump Tank has gone to Cavalry Clusters as a scout and is a frequent member of Striker Clusters.
The original Hephaestus Scout Tank is both a reasonably useful unit and an effective demonstration of the old saw about being a jack of all trades and a master of none. At 30 tons, it's inarguably a light vehicle, smaller than the classic Scarborough hovers, and its 110-rated fusion engine is cheap (comparatively) but provides both a 130 kph flank speed and 10 free heat sinks for using potent Clan energy weapons, a good idea on anything this size. Five tons of Clan ferro-fibrous armor gives you an armor layout of 20/20/18/18, not great but not bad. It's going to take an HGR or IHGR for a single-hit kill. The fixed turret is a half-ton, giving you the ability to put most of the available podspsace in there. The reason I said “most” is the fact that Cobb's direction produced a tank with four tons of infantry space. That's a very normal tonnage for a battle armor transport in the Inner Sphere; here, it's a ton short for moving Elementals, although you can move jump infantry points without much trouble and you can still hang Elementals off the side, so things could be a lot worse. An active probe was also provided. The impact of that limits you to only 6 tons of podspace. Overall, the chassis reminds me a bit of the
Owens - a good dedicated scout and transport but the fixed equipment gets in the way of doing anything else; in this case, that probe is getting in the way of the fixed equipment! The configurations are generally a lot more sensible overall, though. The Prime is an electronics boat with TAG and ECM supported by a pair of Clan MPLs, a decently punchy armament to go along with what the TAG can do to someone. The A goes for Clan LRMs in the form of a 15 tube launcher supported by an ERSL; personally, I'm not sure I wouldn't have traded Artemis for another ton of ammo or another laser but it's there too. The B goes the other direction, with two ERMLs and a Streak SRM 6 fed by a ton of ammunition. The only offbeat model is the Hephaestus C, with two ATM 3s fed by three tons of ammunition. (I'm sure some of you are already planning to substitute IATMs.) Notably, the C is also cheapest in BV terms. (Since the MUL hasn't gotten TRO3067 loaded, here are the BVs per HMV: Prime 777, A 768, B 957, C 577.)
The Hephaestus Jump Tank is a somewhat different animal.
TRO Prototypes notes that it gained five tons but is generally an improvement. The fun starts with the 140-rated fusion engine, providing the power to go 151 kph, and the jump jets give you 240 meters of reach, a number that's rather high for 'Mechs, let alone a tank. Unlike the usual “fun” of motive hits, the obligatory roll on hovers gets a -1 this time. To blunt the impact of those rolls, Horses engineers put an armored motive system on in place of the infantry bay. Another half-ton of armor went on, too, oddly arranged 20/24/19/18. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that since a hover, especially one that can jump and is frequently going to have more flexibility about here it's pointed than usual, does not want to expose its sides when it can do anything about it. The armament is only a pair of Clan ERMLs - light for Clan units but compared to a lot of vehicles, a nasty punch. Supplementing that is an active probe, ECM, and TAG, more or less duplicating the main jobs of the Hephaestus Prime.
If you're planning to use the Hephaestus, you need to first determine the variant. The Prime and the Jump Tank operate more or less the same way, both them as fast-moving scouts and electronic warfare boats with enough punch to keep the small fry honest. (Probably mercifully for the Wolves, the Clans don't have semi-guided LRMs, keeping the number of potential abuses of the
Svartalfa down to a relatively sane level.) The A is a more general combatant but with the limited ammo, I'm not sure the Prime isn't going to do just as well in a lot of situations. The B is probably my pick for the best generalist - ERMLs have a decent range when you've got this much speed and the Streaks will make taking on opponents who have had their armor breached a much easier proposition. Those of you using the Jump Tank, keep the PSR it has to make in mind. You may have a reduced chance of botching it but reduced is not none. If you're acting as a transport, as ever, mind the need to get your passengers where they need to be before you start going into combat.
To stop a Hephaestus is relatively simple, especially against the slower, less heavily armored original. LB-Xs are the usual tool of choice, with a shout out to the reach and hitting power of the SB Gauss, followed by other highly accurate weapons like pulse lasers to deal with it. The Clans are going to have an easier time of it overall. The Jump Tank, with its armored motive system, is a more difficult nut to crack but like the Prime, if you think that TAG is connected to something (generally Arrow IVs, a system the Horses are known to use fairly often), you need to put it down posthaste. The others may be less important unless you've got reason to suspect something you won't like (like Ebon Keshik members) are riding around.
References: While the MUL is still waiting on data for both TROs the Hephaestus has appeared in, the
wiki has imagery for you. The only imagery on CamoSpecs is from
Zeta Galaxy.
