Author Topic: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur  (Read 12517 times)

sillybrit

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Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« on: 24 August 2014, 03:25:07 »
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.


jh316

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #1 on: 24 August 2014, 05:05:12 »
BA artillery seems weird to me. Can't think of a lot of situations where I wouldn't just take field gunners carrying thumpers, though the BA is easier to transport. I'd rather stick with heavy mortars.

sillybrit

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #2 on: 24 August 2014, 11:33:12 »
Mortars don't have the area effect damage, range or AA ability of BA Artillery.

Although we don't see it in the Centaur, it's possible to design BA Artillery suits with much greater mobility than field artillery infantry, which are always limited to 1 MP, have to spend that MP to change facing, and cannot fire and move in the same Turn. By comparison, you could field a BA Artillery unit with 5 ground MP or 2 jump MP, that could fire on the move and has a 360 field of fire at no MP cost.

EDIT: typo
« Last Edit: 24 August 2014, 13:12:04 by sillybrit »

jh316

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #3 on: 24 August 2014, 15:04:56 »
Yeah, the BA is certainly better if you don't have the the means to deploy field artillery a few kilometers off the battlefield and instead need a presence on the field. But on the field, I'd rather be using a tank with an Arrow IV on it, especially with ADA missiles.  It just feels like a waste of the chassis and trooper. The squad costs more to train and equip than it does to buy a Chaparral (not to mention needing more sophisticated manufacturing), but you can get a platoon of them for the BV of a chaparral which is nice.  The BA has some use in that it can be shoved into an 8/12 hover transport (or light mech) or can slowly stomp through a jungle to get where it's needed which slow artillery tanks can't, and that's really what I'd use them for, in a role that would be able to leverage those facts. On most open battlefields attacking a position the tanks would be better, but there are some niches where the BA can get around better. A pretty narrow niche, but it's there.

I would say that if I were to ever field a design with BA artillery, it should be a quad. I'd rather use mechanized BA for something more aggressive that the mechs can drop off closer to the fight, and instead make use of a high ground MP quad for maneuverability in environments that artillery tanks can't go.
« Last Edit: 24 August 2014, 15:23:23 by jh316 »

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #4 on: 24 August 2014, 16:19:10 »
infantry with artillery would also be tougher to load into transports for more rapid relocation.. plenty of transports can handle a squad of heavy BA, not as many have the massive bays needed for artillery field gun platoons.

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #5 on: 24 August 2014, 16:19:50 »
infantry with artillery would also be tougher to load into transports for more rapid relocation.. plenty of transports can handle a squad of heavy BA, not as many have the massive bays needed for artillery field gun platoons.

I directly said that, yes.

sillybrit

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #6 on: 24 August 2014, 16:23:39 »
It's a real pity that Mag Clamps don't allow suits to hitch a ride on VTOLs, as something like a Ferret (Cargo) would be an awesome cheap transport. What we really need is an OmniVTOL, which doesn't have the same restriction.

In a custom campaign, I would be tempted to design a number of 5t OmniVehicles armed with no more than an MG to keep PBIs honest and a honking big ICE or fuel cell engine to keep CBill costs down. Keeping to canon, the Swift Wind (ICE-Speed) and 10t APC (Hover Sensor) would also make for great, low BV transports.

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #7 on: 24 August 2014, 16:29:12 »
I like the suit, and the BA Artillery.  Sure, Centaur isn't perfect. But it wouldn't be interesting either!

I tried using these guys in battle, found though the BA Arty isn't powerful, its useful as heck to distract enemy forces and ping guys who would be too close to artillery to really be useful.  Regular Infantry won't like this thing once you have couple squads narrowing down their positions and nailing them from above.  These guys mobility being handled by anything thanks to the Mag Clamps helps a lot too, and you can reposition them with speed of whatever you have handy.  A lot artillery units aside from Mech based and unique Ground Aerospace units (Hi Yellowjacket Arrow IV Variant), seldom have the mobility reposition and start all over again.

I do wonder if they have rules to rearming these suits in the field, it would be handy.
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jh316

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #8 on: 24 August 2014, 16:29:47 »
Really, that's probably for the best. Hanging 2 to 8 tons of moving metal off the side of a helicopter isn't going to work out that great.
« Last Edit: 24 August 2014, 16:31:42 by jh316 »

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #9 on: 24 August 2014, 17:03:08 »
How about using these as body guards for your artillery batteries?

Say you have an artillery battery protected by a platoon of whatever BA for close in work and a platoon of Centaurs to help soften up any forces that come in to destroy your artillery. Thoughts?

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jh316

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #10 on: 24 August 2014, 17:04:16 »
How about using these as body guards for your artillery batteries?

Say you have an artillery battery protected by a platoon of whatever BA for close in work and a platoon of Centaurs to help soften up any forces that come in to destroy your artillery. Thoughts?

I'd probably use Hauberks for that, or something similar.

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #11 on: 24 August 2014, 19:22:44 »
How about using these as body guards for your artillery batteries?

I wouldn't use Centaur squads as bodyguards for artillery.  BA artillery lacks enough punch to serve as a deterrent and enough accuracy to reliably threaten fast movers.

But if my artillery is already well-guarded, I would have Centaur squads ride those artillery tanks or mechs into close artillery support positions/roles.  It's a relatively cheap way to enhance artillery in particularly annoying and dangerous ways.  Assuming your tank or mech is carrying only one artillery piece, the Centaur squad doubles the number of hexes or units you can target.  Or you can hit the same hex or unit with a one-two punch from your Arrow IV/large tube artillery and the BA artillery.  This gets especially interesting with homing Arrow IV and BA artillery.  I've actually deployed and used these artillery "novas" before, but it was with a homegrown BA design, not the Centaur.

Centaur squads are also a good "nova" complement to indirect LRM fire units for the same reasons.

Personally, I'm waiting for a Davy Crockett warhead to get mated to the BA artillery...

« Last Edit: 25 August 2014, 13:03:43 by Natasha Kerensky »
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sillybrit

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #12 on: 24 August 2014, 19:53:56 »
BA artillery lacks enough punch to serve as a deterrent and enough accuracy to reliably threaten fast movers.

If you're using direct fire, then the accuracy will be acceptable. BA don't have an attacker movement modifier, so a regular gunner is going to be needing just 8+ to hit, modified higher only by intervening woods, etc. A twelve point hit in four clusters of three might not be that powerful, but there's more than a few fast movers that'll not want to get hit by that level of firepower.

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #13 on: 24 August 2014, 21:43:27 »
If you're using direct fire, then the accuracy will be acceptable. BA don't have an attacker movement modifier, so a regular gunner is going to be needing just 8+ to hit, modified higher only by intervening woods, etc. A twelve point hit in four clusters of three might not be that powerful, but there's more than a few fast movers that'll not want to get hit by that level of firepower.

Yep, this.  Powerful enough to put harm on BA and infantry, a few mobility crits on fast movers, and a general annoyance for people trying to play the medium range game.

For me, however, the real seller of the Centaur is the Mag Clamps.  It allows the Centaur to be teamed to any kind of fast vehicle as a transport.  If they set up in position and get attacked, any old hovercraft can swoop in and pick them up, or they can egress through buildings and such.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #14 on: 25 August 2014, 13:01:49 »
If you're using direct fire, then the accuracy will be acceptable. BA don't have an attacker movement modifier, so a regular gunner is going to be needing just 8+ to hit, modified higher only by intervening woods, etc. A twelve point hit in four clusters of three might not be that powerful, but there's more than a few fast movers that'll not want to get hit by that level of firepower.

I agree about the accuracy advantage that BA artillery enjoys.  And as light as BA artillery damage is, against fast-moving vehicles (hovertanks/VTOLs/WIGEs), it does have the potential for crippling movement hits or outright rotor destruction, even if it won't take down most mechs easily.

That said, the problem with artillery direct-fire and fast-movers is that the artillery only has a range of 17 hexes when making a direct-fire attack.  A good fast-mover can close most of that range in one turn and bring their weapons to bear on the artillery units before the artillery can get a direct-fire attack off.  Even a lowly Succession Wars-era Locust with 8/12/0 speed will close from 18 hexes out to 6 hexes in open terrain and bring its medium laser and SRMs to bear at medium-range on the artillery unit, before taking fire from the artillery's direct-fire attack.  This problem gets worse with faster units, especially hovertanks/VTOLs/WIGEs and modern light mechs.  For this reason, I still wouldn't rely on Centaur squads as guards for artillery units.

Against enemy fast-movers looking to take out friendly artillery units, direct-fire artillery attacks are really a last resort if you don't have a friendly guard nearby and have failed to take out the fast-movers in your longer-ranged, standard artillery attacks.  I'd much rather take out the fast-movers offboard or have some pulse/TC/big bore AC/etc. bouncer standing between the fast-movers and my artillery than rely on BA artillery in this role. 

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #15 on: 25 August 2014, 13:24:02 »
For me, however, the real seller of the Centaur is the Mag Clamps.  It allows the Centaur to be teamed to any kind of fast vehicle as a transport.  If they set up in position and get attacked, any old hovercraft can swoop in and pick them up, or they can egress through buildings and such.

I'd love to see the Horse touman adopt BA artillery and pair it with the new Hadur Arrow IV hovertank.  (Or a Spheroid military adopt an Arrow IV hovertank and pair it with Centaur squads.)
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"Slavish adherence to formal ritual is a sign that one has nothing better to think about."
"Variety is the spice of battle."
"I've fought in... what... a hundred battles, a thousand battles?  It could be a million as far as I know.  I've fought for anybody who offered a decent contract and a couple who didn't.  And the universe is not much different after all that.  I could go on fighting for another hundred years and it would still look the same."
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #16 on: 25 August 2014, 13:45:40 »
Centaurs seem to be hard to use effectively. Their low ammo count means that every shot has to count, but the inherent inaccuracy of any non-TAGged artillery means that making those shots count can be almost impossible to do.

To me, it seems like the best usage of Centaur BAtillery isn't in raw damage(or even accurate damage), so much as coverage. Sure, a good-size battery of Long Toms can easily cover a huge swath of territory, but how often can you actually spend the BV/C-bills/insert-balancing-method-here on a battery that big in an actual tabletop game? A platoon or two of Centaurs would be dirt-cheap by comparison, and let you lay down bombardments that could almost blanket entire mapsheets in damage. It won't be much damage at all, but because of the fact that it's still a cluster of damage from four individual suits, so you can do some pretty good crit-seeking or tank-parking en masse. Imagine dropping rounds on a mapsheet, and leaving entire lances of enemy tanks parked or nearly so, all for little to no cost on your end.

Also note that the rules for using artillery to clear mines has no damage requirement, so Centaur strikes can be a quick and cheap way to clear out large minefields, a very good thing to remember for any Republic player who expects to face Capellans in the near future.

A last thought that occured to me as I was typing the above: There are times when the low damage of BAtillery can work to your advantage. If you're fighting in a city that you'd rather not flatten completely, Centaur strikes could be a nice way to put some good hurt on any infantry, BA, or vehicles unlucky enough to be caught in the open when your salvo lands without levelling entire city blocks.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #17 on: 25 August 2014, 13:56:48 »
Does BA artillery affect reflective armor as it's big brothers? If a squad inflicts 12 points of damage normally and that's doubled against reflective 'Mech armor, well, that's definitely something I want to take advantage of.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #18 on: 25 August 2014, 13:58:22 »
I'd imagine so. Time to go hunt some Kraken-XRs, yes? >:D
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #19 on: 25 August 2014, 14:05:22 »
I'd imagine so. Time to go hunt some Kraken-XRs, yes? >:D
I was thinking more Wendingos and Mamotos, but sure, why not?

And for the earlier post about using a quad suit for BA artillery: I've made a custom Sloth for that. Makes the stupid things actually useful.


EDIT: FWIW, I could also see a use for these in units with large infantry formations. I think someone touched on it earlier, but using Centaurs would allow the transport group to use their standard infantry/battle armor carriers without requiring a new chassis type. That could help in a campaign.
« Last Edit: 25 August 2014, 14:12:58 by mbear »
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #20 on: 25 August 2014, 14:28:21 »
Centaurs seem to be hard to use effectively. Their low ammo count means that every shot has to count, but the inherent inaccuracy of any non-TAGged artillery means that making those shots count can be almost impossible to do.

+4 to hit on direct fire with no movement mod isn't too bad.  Lower gunnery Centuars are also not so BV intense that it will bankrupt your forces.  There are also pre-designated spots.  To me, this works nicely.  A low BV unit that discourages taking position in the most likely places, like behind hills or in woods, and can also pepper fast movers on a base 8+.

I'm just not crazy about the weaponry and armor.  One more point of armor would have meant everything when trying to survive Thumper counter battery fire.  The SL isn't bad, but I could see more use out of a MG once the DWP is ditched.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #21 on: 25 August 2014, 14:47:26 »
I'm not a fan of it either, but it's possible that the Centaur's deployment was rushed to get a final product into the field. If so, it'd make sense that once they finished wrapping a suit around the BAtillery piece, they went with tried-and-true simple(relatively) components to fill out thee rest, and as far as BA design goes, it doesn't go much simpler and well-understood than slapping a SL onto an arm.

As it stands, the SL at least means that most counterbattery attackers will try to maintain at least a bit of distance from the Centaur, making the jobs of the escorts that tiny bit easier. I do agree that there are plenty of better options out there, but soldiers have to make do with what they're issued, so complaining about it is pointless.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #22 on: 25 August 2014, 15:38:24 »
I thought the damage after special Armour was rounded down?
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #23 on: 25 August 2014, 15:41:37 »
You are correct. So a Centaur squad will just barely survive a single direct Thumper hit.

You know what's fun? Since there is no minimum damage, splash damage from an opposing Centaur(or friendly fire near-misses) will actually do zero damage. Nice to have an extra bit of safety margin if Centaurs have to shoot amongst themselves.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #24 on: 25 August 2014, 15:47:54 »
This is one of those units that could be a godsend to smallish merc units.  Gotta try them out sometime.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #25 on: 25 August 2014, 23:16:17 »
BA artillery seems weird to me. Can't think of a lot of situations where I wouldn't just take field gunners carrying thumpers, though the BA is easier to transport. I'd rather stick with heavy mortars.

Mobility is the key, a Centaur squad in terms of damage is six ton Thumper, more or less.  Something that can fit in a twenty ton heavy APC, or for the munchkin in you cling to the sides of a Savannah Master for deployment.   :D

As Sillybrit points out the Centaur is a great, almost seems tailored, anti-BA killer.  Sure it's only eight rounds, but it is heavy enough that an on target strike will totally kill an Elemental Point.  At six tons, plus a transport vehicle it is a cheap investment if your opponent likes to field masses of infantry, BA or PBI.

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #26 on: 26 August 2014, 11:23:49 »
To me, there seem to be some doctrinal reasons to use a Centaur.

If you have a very large SLDF / cold war sized force, then you can use the old Soviet model for assigning indirect fires: give your officers lavish combined arms resources under their direct control, but comparatively little access to fires from higher levels of organization. So a battalion or even company would get centaurs because they can't count on being able to call in support from the big vehicle-mounted guns their regimental or divisional commanders use when they need indirect fire.

I can stage a breakthrough with my Mechs, then push some fast cav mechs through and deep behind enemy lines to exploit the gap. They bypass heavy resistance and work to encircle and isolate, deploying their BA to support them assaulting a blocking force when they must. In a cavalry mech formation striking deep into the opponent's rear, you might carry Centaurs because it's the only artillery that can keep up.

In the BT universe, it gives you some modularity. I can take a vehicle or Mech formation and salt it with squads of BA as required. When indirect fire isn't required, I can pull them out and reassign them.

I'd have been interested in a version with some kind of jump / parafoil capability so I could have artillery assets in a large combat drop. Though I do like the mag clamps.

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #27 on: 27 August 2014, 09:37:19 »
You are correct. So a Centaur squad will just barely survive a single direct Thumper hit.

Good.  That makes it much better in my eyes.  There are many artillery weapons able to splatter them, but being able to survive a Thumper or an adjacent Long Tom isn't a bad thing.

This also has implications for my current favorite BA, the Kishi.  Hurray for surviving 2 clan medium pulse lasers.
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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #28 on: 01 September 2014, 18:14:22 »
If you're using direct fire, then the accuracy will be acceptable. BA don't have an attacker movement modifier, so a regular gunner is going to be needing just 8+ to hit, modified higher only by intervening woods, etc. A twelve point hit in four clusters of three might not be that powerful, but there's more than a few fast movers that'll not want to get hit by that level of firepower.
You're forgetting the fact that BA Tube attacks the HEX, not the unit, so that means not AMM and no TMM,

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Re: Battle Armor of the Week - Centaur
« Reply #29 on: 01 September 2014, 20:04:40 »
You're forgetting the fact that BA Tube attacks the HEX, not the unit, so that means not AMM and no TMM,

No, I'm not forgetting anything.

The direct fire rules (TO p185) state: "In all instances, start with the attacker’s Gunnery Skill as a base to-hit number, with a +4 to-hit modifier; apply all other modifiers as noted below."

So with regular rated Gunnery, that gives the 8+ I stated.

As for the modifiers, per the direct fire rules: "Do not modify the to-hit number for range, target movement, the terrain of the target hex or an immobile target. The base to-hit number is modified normally for the attacker’s movement and for firing through (not into) woods and for other terrain features."

I mentioned that BA don't have an attacker modifier and noted the issue of intervening hexes, which covers the allowed modifiers, so not seeing what you think I missed.

I thought the damage after special Armour was rounded down?

Yeah, not sure what happened there.