Vehicle of the Week: Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun

[SteelRaven]

Why it exist in the first place, cheap mobile gun.

[Colt Ward]

With the scramble for equipment in the 3130s?  No, Quikscell should have been booming . . . and a Hetzer could actually have been a main combatant against some of the converted IndiMechs we saw in action (or still seeing . . . ).  Just with everything that happened in the LyrCom, who controls where it is made?  Does the League have anywhere that actually built it?

[SteelRaven]

With the scramble for equipment in the 3130s?  No, Quikscell should have been booming . . . and a Hetzer could actually have been a main combatant against some of the converted IndiMechs we saw in action (or still seeing . . . ).  Just with everything that happened in the LyrCom, who controls where it is made?  Does the League have anywhere that actually built it?

Considering it's so cheap and been made for so long, I'm sure you can find the little tank everywhere.

[Colt Ward]

Not asking if it is still in inventories, more about where it is made . . . and is it still being pumped out there to the open market.

[SteelRaven]

The Quickscell Company produces them on two planets: Kalidasa, Layover. Layover was hit hard during the Jihad but it only seemed to slow down production. Kalidasa has changed hands multiple times (FWL->WoB->RotS->independent->Wolf Empire) It hasn't seem to slow down production at all though I'm not sure what the Wolfs Empire trade policies.   

[glitterboy2098]

Hetzer is basically an IKEA tank. comes in a kit, assemble it yourself, always have parts left over. i'd be real surprised if you could mess up production enough to stop it being made.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Hetzers come in boxes that say "some assembly required, batteries not included."

[A. Lurker]

Honestly, given how cheaply the Hetzer is generally acknowledged to be built in the fiction (dubious leftover parts after assembly and all), even if Quikscell went out of business tomorrow I'm positive there'd still be other firms churning out unlicensed knockoffs and original just-about-copies (how hard can "put armored box on wheels, stick big gun out front" get for anyone already manufacturing military vehicles, anyway?) that would work out to basically identical vehicles for tabletop purposes.

Until the BT battlefield itself changes thoroughly enough to make the concept of tanks (and probably 'Mechs) itself obsolete, I'm not too worried about the basic design's future.

[ArkRoyalRavager]

The Quickscell Company produces them on two planets: Kalidasa, Layover. Layover was hit hard during the Jihad but it only seemed to slow down production. Kalidasa has changed hands multiple times (FWL->WoB->RotS->independent->Wolf Empire) It hasn't seem to slow down production at all though I'm not sure what the Wolfs Empire trade policies.   

I don't think the Empire trades military hardware. They need everything with the rate they are aggressively expanding their Touman.

[Nikas_Zekeval]

I'm going to need make a unit based on Girls and Panzers after this.

Drakensis started a fanfic based on that.  It's over on Spacebattles.  Hasn't been updated in a while unfortunately.  :'(

[BrokenMnemonic]

The Hetzer is one of those designs I think we should see lots of tinkering with, we have several L1 versions that IMO should be updated . . . LB-10X for the AC/10, maybe some MMLs for the SRM version.  Especially with a FCE swap.

Do we know if they are really still being produced into the 3140s?  The only thing I can think of is the Mansu-ra FWL story bit where a single plain Hetzer tackled a Andurien lance, scoring I think two mission kills before it was wrecked.

The Colonial Tractors plant in the Fronc Reaches was churning out Hetzers after the Jihad, and with the Interstellar Arms plant in the Fronc Reaches continuing to produce Vedettes in the 3140s, I'd be surprised if Colonial Tractors wasn't also still producing Hetzers.

[glitterboy2098]

given it's quikcell, do you think the plant on Broken Wheel in the filtvelt coalition has the ability to put out Hetzers?during the Jihad it was upgraded to produce Pegasus hovertanks and Light Thunderbolt carriers, with post-jihad upgrades to also make LRM and SRM carriers, and manticores.

given how Filtvelt became a big financial center, Quikcell further expanding their broken wheel plant by 3145 might make sense.

[tomaddamz]

Don't  forget that the Taurian Light SRM Carrier is essentially a Hetzer with a turret, I'd say getting one or a clone should be downright easy.

[glitterboy2098]

Don't  forget that the Taurian Light SRM Carrier is essentially a Hetzer with a turret, I'd say getting one or a clone should be downright easy.

given that quikcell also builds the Light Thunderbolt Carrier (a light SRm carrier mounting Tbolt-5's instead of SRM's) i'd not be surprised if the light carrier uses a hetzer chassis.

[truetanker]

Does the League have anywhere that actually built it?

The Kalidasa facility wasn't affected by the Jihad.

TT

[Colt Ward]

given that quikcell also builds the Light Thunderbolt Carrier (a light SRm carrier mounting Tbolt-5's instead of SRM's) i'd not be surprised if the light carrier uses a hetzer chassis.

Well, the Light SRM Carrier was a Canopian invention . . .

[Maelwys]

The Light SRM Carrier is a Taurian invention.

TR3060's writeup on the heavy LRM carrier states "When Pinard Protectorates Limited of the Taurian Concordat announces its plans to create a new "lighter" SRM carrier...."

Also the Light SRM Carrier page in the same book has Pinard as the same manufacturer.

Periphery 2nd Edition doesn't state exactly who designed the new vehicles, but TR3060 does.

[Colt Ward]

Sorry, yeah it was the MoC's Periphery co-op program that started the actions.

[DoctorMonkey]

Look - at Bovington Tank Museum they have a funky 1:1 scale Hetzer model