The Hound - Something old in something new.A product of the tiny Filvelt Coalition the Hound is a product of pride for the small nation and a much-needed boost to its outdated and small military. Whereas Coalition factories had only produced RetroTech Mech’s and equipment to quickly and cheaply bulk out their military the new Mech was a completely new design and featured more modern equipment.
The Hound came along at the right time, entering service during a serious upswing in Pirate activity and raids and the new design helped stave off Pirate attacks whilst also potentially being a useful source of income by selling the Mechs to the beleaguered Federated Suns as it came under attack from the Combine and Confederation.
DesignWhen I say there’s new technology in the Hound, its still incredibly limited and by modern standards the Hound is comparatively basic. But this definitely has its plusses. The Hound is easy to repair and maintain and parts are easy to come by because the only advanced equipment in its construction are some of its weapons.
Yep, that’s right, in the 3145 era this thing is startlingly basic and could easily be used in a REVIVAL era line up, or even a 3025 one if you swapped some weapons around. It uses a standard engine, normal skeleton and basic armour, and even uses standard single heatsinks. At 70 tons the Mech’s quite a big one and moves at a very familiar 64kph and lacks jump jets.
Shielded by a nice, solid 13-tons of standard plate armour the Hound has near max protection with all sections at their fullest save some armour saved on the legs and a tiny bit on the chest. One thing of note, the Hound has thick back armour, probably a nod to its slow speed and concerns about backstabbing. Even the side rear torso’s can take a PPC blast, whilst frontally being able to repel an AC-20 shot.
The armament mix is also a combination of new (ish) and old whilst fifteen standard heatsinks keep it all working quite well although you will overheat with full alpha’s, its nothing a player who’s more use to older designs won’t be troubled with and isn’t too brutal.
Pride of place is a LB-10 autocannon, which is blessed by the accurate weapon quirk, so if you’re using quirks in a battle, that’s a nice -1 to hit. The LB-10 is a damn good weapon and with 2 tons of ammunition you don’t have to worry about being forced to choose between ammo types, allowing you to deliver solid punches or clusters of shots looking for holes you’ve already made.
The Mech’s main long range armament comes from a pair of light PPCs, which by the standards of the time are not that modern but are modern enough. The PPC’s whilst not the hardest hitting weapons, give the Mech a useful long range weapon without too great a cost in heat, bulk or weight, and you can easily drop one of the light PPCs at shorter ranges and still fire everything else and move without any heat build-up.
Close in weapons are also classic standbys, an SRM-4 with 1-ton of ammunition and a standard Medium laser. The weapon mix is almost like someone took a Warhammer and a Orion and bashed them together until it worked as it’s a real multi-tool of a Mech.
Sadly though the ammunition isn’t protected by CASE, probably the biggest drawback of the whole design, as a single ammo hit WILL kill the Mech as somewhat worryingly, all 3 tons of ammo are all safely housed together in the same spot, making quite the ammo bomb (so 3025 players will again feel right at home).
ThoughtsTough, well-armed and DIRT cheap the Hound is a very good first touch by the Filvelt Coalition and should the Coalition survive the coming years and keep producing more Mechs like this I won’t complain. Did I say this thing’s cheap? Its CHEAP! BV wise you’re looking at a BV of a mere 1389 points compared to say, a Black Knight 5H which costs a ball numbing 2423 points, and if given the opportunity, I’d take two hounds over a single Mech of equivalent cost.
With its standard engine the Hound either needs an ammo hit or coring to fully put down and its solid enough and well-armed enough that fighting one is not just a case of waving your hand at it and it falls over. The Hound also has another thing going for it, it’s, in my opinion a very handsome Mech, the art for it depicts it as a solid yet fairly sleek design its weapons all happily on display, giving it a solid 3025 era kind of look. And hell, just replace that LB with an AC-10 and the paired light PPCs with a large laser and you’d have a perfectly fine 3025 design!
The only major criticism I have is that 3-ton ammo bomb with it all stored together under the LB, made worse by the lack of CASE, but this aside, this is an all-round solid Mech.
As always, thoughts, comments etc are most welcome! Sorry its not a big article, but there's only one base design for the Hound and its a solidly good Mech and one that don't have too many flaws or bad design decisions to hoot about.