Author Topic: Battle Armor of the Week - Tunnel Rat  (Read 2488 times)

sillybrit

  • Major
  • *
  • Posts: 3939
Battle Armor of the Week - Tunnel Rat
« on: 05 October 2014, 15:40:42 »
Tunnel Rat Mining Exoskeleton - Technical Readout Vehicle Annex Revised page 193



     The Tunnel Rat Mining Exoskeleton is one of those designs that give a slight hint to its purpose in its name. Just a slight one. Another of the suits we received from Technical Readout Vehicle Annex and its Revised edition, the Tunnel Rat is also yet another design that started off purely civilian, but has found its way into the military market thanks to the Jihad. The recently published Record Sheets Vehicle Annex - IndustrialMechs and Exoskeletons provides us with greater detail of those military variants.

     Introduced in 3055 by General Motors of Kathil, the Tunnel Rat has spread across the Inner Sphere, held back only by its cost. As detailed in the fluff, many smaller mining concerns or those that have little need to care about the health of their workers simply can't afford to equip their miners with the suit. That's not to say that the Tunnel Rat is packed with expensive gizmos, it's just that any exoskeleton is going to be more costly than the traditional alternatives, even in hostile environments.

     The Tunnel Rat isn't the first known mining exoskeleton, with primitive, externally-powered pre-Clan Invasion versions giving way to an early exoskeleton suit in 3052. This design, the Mule, is only mentioned in fluff, without the hint of any stats whatsoever. If you really wanted to use one for a scenario, I'd suggest just using Tunnel Rat II stats, but if you really wanted a difference, try removing a feature, such as the modular manipulators or life support. Obviously that won't be canon, but I doubt many players would complain given the negligible impact it should have on a game.

     The first two versions of the Tunnel Rat are identical in basic game terms, with some fluff improvements in reliability and electronics in the later model, which was first introduced in 3058. If you care to use the advanced Design Quirk rule, the Tunnel Rat I does suffer from Poor Sealing, which can be a nasty one in hazardous environments. As for the rest of the stats, they're not very impressive on the battlefield, but then again, that's to be expected for a civilian design.

     Firstly, the Tunnel Rat I/II has the minimum ground mobility of one MP per turn, and no other movement options, so don't expect it to be mobile. If fitted with the appropriate manipulators, it could be used in Mechanized Battle Armor operations, but if you have the Omni capacity for this, then I'd really hope you also had better suits to deliver to the battlefield.

     Armor protection is equally sparse, with just a single point of standard plating. Combined with the Extended Life Support, this is enough to seal the exoskeleton chassis for operations in a vacuum or other hostile environment. It also provides greater protection for the operator against the hazards of working in a mine, whether it is errant machinery, falling rocks or anything else that would wound or kill a miner wearing just a spacesuit or simple work clothes.

     A searchlight provides integral illumination and the fourth and final feature of the Tunnel Rat I/II designs are the pair of Modular Equipment Adaptors. These allow the suit to be equipped with any manipulator, even including cargo lifters with a carrying capacity of 1.5 tons, although the canon configurations only allow paired armored gloves or a combination of a basic manipulator and an industrial drill. For combat, if one or both of the arms are tipped with an armored glove, then the suit could wield an infantry weapon, including some powerful types such as the Man-Portable Plasma Weapon. While potentially outgunning the typical infantryman on a one-to-one basis, the small unit size and general weak stats means that Tunnel Rats still aren't going to amount to much on the battlefield. Also, bear in mind that standard Total War rules assign all battle armor AP weapon attacks as being the same as simple ballistic rifle infantry, no matter what weapon is carried, a restriction not suffered by conventional infantry.

     For optimum combat stats, a custom configuration consisting of a single glove combined with a Vibro-Claw would provide the Tunnel Rat I/II with an AP attack and an enhanced melee attack. The latter would even allow a somewhat weak attack against other infantry, but it’s potentially more useful ability would be allowing Anti-Mech assaults. Swarm damage isn't going to be great, but there's always the chance for a lucky crit, and in any case a Leg Attack is usually a better choice against 'Mechs. In the latter case, the Tunnel Rat I/II would inflict greater damage than an Elemental or IS Standard, but, given its otherwise poor showing that's, small comfort for a trooper who is assigned the mining suit on the battlefield.

     Another combat use for a custom Tunnel Rat I/II configuration would be to mount a pair of Heavy Vibro-Claws. This would give the highest possible bonus that the design could obtain in marine boarding actions. With a Marine Point Value of 3.25, that would make the Tunnel Rat I/II a superior choice than an IS Standard equipped with a Machine Gun or Flamer, which can one-shot kill the exoskeleton while surviving multiple turns of Vibro-Claw attacks. As I've mentioned before, this only goes to show the less than satisfactory nature of the marine boarding rules, but it's a tiny niche of the entire rule set.

     With just the canon options, the twin gloves are your best bet. You get the AP attack noted above, Mechanized Battle Armor capability, and the ability to conduct Anti-Mech attacks. With the basic manipulator/drill combination, you lose both attack types, while only gaining a token bonus to the suit's Marine Point Value, which isn't really much in way of compensation.

     Introduced in 3062, the Tunnel Rat III becomes a little more usable for those who want to field these suits in a BattleTech game. The armor is doubled, which means that it'll at least survive a hit by two-point weapons, but the most useful enhancement is the addition of jump jets. Only capable of a single Movement Point, the jump jets do at least provide an extra +1 Target Movement Modifier. It's not much, but for such a flimsy design, it's not going to survive by its ability to absorb damage, so every little helps. As a side effect of the extra equipment, the Tunnel Rat III can only be fitted with Cargo Lifters with a one ton capacity, but all other manipulator options remain the same.

     For those players who are only interested in combat units, the Tunnel Rat IV might be more to your taste. Developed to help replace the massive losses of the Jihad and first entering service in 3079, the existence of this latest variant of the Tunnel Rat was first revealed in the RATs of Field Manual 3085. Technical Readout Vehicle Annex Revised gave us our first details of the design in the Armed and Dangerous section, with the full stats appearing in the IndustrialMechs and Exoskeletons version of Record Sheets Vehicle Annex.

     jymset: It's worth noting that the Tunnel Rat IV is an exercise of design (not game) elegance. It has both modular manipulator and weapon capability, but due to the limits of an exoskeleton chassis, cannot fully exploit either.

     Still produced by General Motors in the shattered remnants of their Kathil facility, the Tunnel Rat IV was based upon the mark III variant. Retaining the same armor protection, searchlight and Extended Life Support, the jump capability is doubled and one of the Modular Equipment Adaptors is swapped for a Modular Weapon Mount. The single slot space possessed by the Modular Weapon Mount unfortunately does limit armament choice, so if you wanted a custom missile-based configuration, then you're out of luck.

     The canon manipulator options consist of a Heavy Battle Claw or a glove. In the case of the former, that provides the suit with the ability to make Anti-Mech attacks and to hitch a ride on friendly Omnis, but lacks an AP attack. If fitted with an Armored Glove instead, the suit gains an AP attack, but loses the Anti-Mech and Mechanized Battle Armor capabilities. Even with custom manipulator configurations, there's no way to combine all three features, and with some you can actually lose them all, such as opting for an Industrial Drill.

     For armament, the Tunnel Rat IV is currently limited to either a Grenade Launcher or a LMG, although other configurations would be possible. A MG would generate the maximum possible anti-armor damage, while a David Light Gauss Rifle would provide some useful range, with a Firedrake giving brutal anti-personnel firepower. ECM, Improved Sensors or a Light TAG would also work, with the latter potentially the most dangerous custom configuration if you have other units that could benefit from any TAGed targets.

     The LMG is the simplest option, while the Grenade Launcher does offer the possibility of alternative ammo types, albeit at a shorter range. Sadly, it only possesses a single magazine clip, so you're stuck with one ammo type. The standard rounds provide the same anti-armor damage as the LMG, but are more effective vs personnel. If using incendiary grenades, you gain an area effect attack equivalent to a single Inferno round, while smoke rounds are a great way to reduce the chances of being shot, making them a good choice for suits intended for use as spotters.

     Even though the armament is obviously a massive enhancement over the purely civilian versions of the suit, the Tunnel Rat IV remains an exoskeleton, with all the limitations that implies. With the jump capability still unable to generate a Target Movement Modifier due to range, it's still as easy to hit as the Tunnel Rat III. The majority of weapons, including many mounted on other battle armor, can one-shot kill the suit, which means that squads die quickly. Any decent conventional infantry platoon can inflict enough damage that they can wipe out a squad, and some can potentially do it at ranges that a Tunnel Rat IV couldn't match even with a David Light Gauss Rifle. At least the BV cost of PA(L)/exoskeleton designs is low, so that you can field plenty of units if that's your desire.

     So what sort of roles can you best use a Tunnel Rat IV? Anything where you need a cheap disposable unit will obviously be ideal, so double blind games or scenarios otherwise using the hidden unit rules are a good example. Send out a swarm of Tunnel Rats IV and let them find the enemy one way or the other.

     Being a mere initiative sink or pestering enemy units that are engaged with more important targets are other good options. The former allows you to totally avoid the enemy, assuming they don't come looking for you to whittle away at your numbers, while the latter is good sense for any battle armor, but especially PA(L)s/exoskeletons. If you want a cheap way to add kneecapping capability to your force, while not really caring whether it succeeds or not and especially not caring about survivors, then the Tunnel Rat is a viable choice.

     A Time Of War scenarios are the best place for lightweight suits like the Tunnel Rat, no matter what model. Compared to unaugmented body armor, it's now the Tunnel Rat and its ilk that are the damage tanks. Sure, heavier battle armor can also do this, but the scale of RPG scenarios allows the size and mass of a suit to be more of a factor, and it's entirely possible for even a light battlesuit to be too big and heavy.

     Naturally found in the ranks of the AFFS, the Tunnel Rat IV can also be encountered among mercenary forces. I have to wonder how many mercenaries chose it simply so they can claim they field battle armor-equipped infantry, selecting the Tunnel Rat IV because it's one of the cheapest options. Somewhat amusingly, the RATs in Field Manual 3085 reveal that the suit is also to be found in the service of the Taurian Concordat, giving them even more reason to hate the Davions! Presumably these are captured suits, unless General Motors really are being devious and mean by actually selling them directly, thus continuing the tradition set by the equally superb Garm.

     Sadly, we're unlikely to see the complete demise of the Tunnel Rat on the battlefield any time soon, so I guess we'll just have to get used to them. On the positive side, at least it's not a quad.