Centaur Battle Armor - Technical Readout 3145 Republic Of The Sphere page 9
The 3145 Technical Readout series was a time of firsts in the battle armor world. We got our first Clan quad in the form of the Buraq, but, perhaps more significantly, we also got the
Centaur, the first artillery-armed battlesuit.
The Centaur was one of two RAF battlesuits to appear in Technical Readout 3145 Republic of the Sphere that originated in the MechWarrior Dark Age game, with a quite detailed mention also found in the Dark Age 3136 LinkNet document, which can be located in the Downloads section of the BattleTech website. Within clickytech, the Centaur was available across four factions, being playable by the Steiners, Davions, Republic and even the Jade Falcons, with the first two factions overlapping with the distribution of the Simian, which was apparently of the same origin according to LinkNet. From the face of it, that might have made it appear that both suits had a Davion or Steiner source, but it was revealed that the LinkNet document actually described the false flag missions being sent out by the Republic.
LinkNet and MWDA pretty much dictated the appearance and stats of the Total War version of the Centaur, and it's all because of the Centaur that we got Battle Armor Artillery as one of the new systems introduced in Tactical Operations 2nd Ed. For those that haven't seen the stats of the Centaur previously, it might be a surprise to some to hear that it’s built on a heavy chassis. Given that artillery weapons tend to be big and heavy themselves, I know that some anticipated that the Centaur in its Total War form would be built as an assault suit. Thanks to the use of advanced technology from Tactical Operations, the Centaur could be built lighter, and thus is capable of Mechanized Battle Armor operations.
jymset: The elephant in the room is the simple fact that I made sure that the BA Artillery was tailored towards the Centaur, while also tailoring the Centaur to the BA Arty. The heart of the Centaur is its BA Artillery Tube. This is a short ranged weapon by the standards of other artillery, being capable of firing a mere two map boards, but that's a great improvement on the Hauberk, which was still the gold standard for indirect fire support among Inner Sphere battle armor before the Centaur arrived. Individually, each shell doesn't do a lot of damage either, at just three points for the target hex and one point for the surrounding hexes, but it is area effect and when you have four suits firing together, then that makes for a twelve point smack down.
Enemy medium and light battlesuits should take note of the damage output of a Centaur squad. Sure, they still have to hit your hex, but if they do, then your entire squad is dead unless you happen to be equipped with Reactive armor. Some heavier battle armor has to fear such a fate as well, while a follow-up shot will even wipe out bricks such as the Ravager. It's worth mentioning here that, unlike direct fire weapons, BA Artillery fire doesn't have to roll on the Cluster Hit table to see how many suits hit. Either all suits hit the target hex, or they equally suffer scatter, with all shells landing in the resulting hex.
Like their larger brethren, BA Artillery Tubes can also be loaded with alternative ammunition, although the selection is poor to say the least. In addition to the basic HE shell, the only other option is a smoke round. As disappointing as that might be for some, a well-placed smoke round can sometimes mean the difference between survival or destruction for a friendly unit, although given the small ammo supply of the Centaur, smoke shells are likely to be a luxury for most scenarios.
While we're talking about BA Artillery Tubes and their ammo, it's perhaps worthwhile clarifying the construction rules, as there's been some confusion in the past. First, the shells are treated somewhat like missiles, in that they require slot space and there's no free shots provided with the weapon itself, instead every single shell has to be allocated mass. BA Artillery shells have to be added in pairs, with each pair sharing the same ammunition type and requiring 30kg. For every four pairs, or fraction thereof, you have to allocate one slot, so a suit with ten shots would have to assign 150kg and two slots to ammo, in addition to the 500kg and four slots for the gun itself. The ammo must also be installed in the same location as the gun, which does present some issues for bipedal battle armor in particular.
In the case of the Centaur, the weight and space issue is addressed by the use of the Detachable Weapon Pack from Tactical Operations. This is a handy piece of kit that shrinks the mass requirement to just 75% and reduces the slots needed to just one. Just to be tricky, BA Artillery does slightly depart from this model: the mass saving is the same for both gun and ammo, but only the weapon gets the slot reduction, with the ammo requiring the same space as if no Detachable Weapon Pack was being used.
In addition to being able to fire indirectly into other map boards, BA Artillery has another ability that's unique among the heavier ’Mech-scale weapons that can be mounted on battlesuits. Similar to the Field Guns and Field Artillery available to conventional infantry, BA Artillery is capable of engaging airborne aerospace units, with the added advantage of the artillery flak rules found in Tactical Operations making them even more dangerous for the flyboys. Such units can provide you with extra air defense at an ultra-cheap cost compared to ’Mech or vehicle based alternatives.
Now that we've gone over BA Artillery in general, let's look at the Centaur in particular. With only eight shots, thus requiring a single slot for ammunition, the weapon could have been mounted in either arm due to its use of a Detachable Weapon Pack, but thanks to the clickytech original, the backpack mounting had already been established. The Centaur is fluffed as having to lock its legs and deploy additional foldout struts to be able to fire, but that's just flavor that originated in the LinkNet document. Obviously those eight rounds aren't going to last long in a big battle, so you need to think about every shot, but equally the suit is so slow and the range so short by artillery standards, that you can't afford to waste opportunities.
Backing up the BA Artillery Tube is a Small Laser with an extended magazine. This is a questionable choice, but one dictated by clickytech. I really would have preferred something like a Recoilless Rifle mounted on a Detachable Weapon Pack of its own, with the lighter version even freeing up enough space to add an extra point of armor. The Small Laser is simply too short ranged for such a slow suit and its lack of anti-infantry capability means that even PBIs are a major threat.
For protection, the Centaur comes with seven points of Reactive armor, which is a frustrating amount. Adding the point that represents the trooper, it means that a Centaur requires fifteen points of damage to destroy by counter-battery fire, which neatly matches the damage of a direct hit by a Thumper, the lightest full-sized artillery piece. Of course, there is the possibility of splash damage from near misses, and it's likely that other militaries may one day field their own BA Artillery, but right now the Centaur would have probably been better served with eight points of mere Standard armor.
The Centaur's mobility is understandably low, with the suit able to move a single hex per Turn, increasing to two hexes if the BA Artillery Tube is dropped. Thanks to its Basic Manipulators it is Mechanized Battle Armor capable, which is enhanced further by the installation of Magnetic Clamps, allowing it to ride any ’Mech or tank, and not just Omnis. This is a superb feature that will greatly increase the usability of the design, allowing any RAF mechanized force to have its own artillery support, and one which is also no slouch at air defense.
Using a Centaur will be very much like using the Hauberk, as you ideally want to keep the foe at a distance, and thus prevent return fire from anything other than other artillery. Thanks to the Magnetic Clamps, fast and cheap vehicles like the Savannah Master would be an ideal way to rapid transport the Centaur between firing positions. Swift attackers will still be able to overrun your Centaurs given the opportunity, so a guard or two might be a good idea, but I wouldn't invest too much, as they are cheap units.
Being the first of a new breed of battle armor, the Centaur understandably leaves room for improvement. That's not to say that it's a bad design, as it handles its main role of getting a BA Artillery Tube to the battlefield quite well. There's also the issue that the stats were driven by the prior clickytech version, which dictated a lot of the design choices, and within that context the Centaur is a good suit. Given that mixed technology is now common, there are a lot of directions that future artillery battlesuits could take, but even without mixed tech or changing chassis type and size, a simple change of secondary weapon would help.
In time, as we (hopefully) see other artillery battlesuits, the Centaur will no doubt fall by the wayside. For now, it's a shiny new toy with unique capabilities and a useful battlefield presence, so you really owe it to yourself to give the Centaur a try.