Alpha Strike Vehicle of the Moment:
HuitzilopochtliThe Huitzilopotchli stands as the Clans’ testament to simultaneously needing and despising conventional forces. Like most Clan tanks, it complies with the convention of being named for pagan gods of War: the central figure of the Aztec religion in this case. As the Huitzilopotchli dates almost back to the inception of the Clans, it actually helped set the convention as opposed to simply comply with it.
The 85 ton tracked elephant is said in the lore to be commonly referred to as the “Huey”. That bit of lore is perhaps more fun than what is assuredly the face value of “we primarily Anglophone writers and players of BattleTech can’t be expected to pronounce
Huitzilopotchli”. For the record, it’s pronounced “Whee-tzee-low-potch-tlee”. Which in turn means that the in-universe nickname “Huey” should probably be pronounced “Whee”. Think of the Family Guy running gag about how Stewie pronounces Cool Whip. And I love this, as “Whee” is the perfectly sarcastic name for a tank that is a military necessity yet you’re unexcited about having the TOE&E dead weight for Zellbrigen warfare.
The Huitzilopotchli dates back to the aftermath of the Pentagon Civil War. Few of the SLDF’s Padilla tanks were still extant, and 20 years after the firm establishment of Clan society they set about making a proper successor. Clan biases against conventional forces are already starting to show in this very early stage.. making the decision to name tanks after gods to be potentially enlightening. In this early stage of Clan cultural development, battlemechs are mostly IIC evolutions of pre-existing Inner Sphere designs. Those few that are contemporary to the Huitzilopotchli and also completely new tend to be named in a totemic manner. The Clans themselves are elevated above the gods of war, so what does that speak to the mechwarriors who are the pinnacle of the Clan totems that in turn surpass the gods of war? Through the example of the Huitzilopotchli, Clan hubris can be demonstrated to go back even further than the primacy of Zellbrigen as a mode of warfare! It’s an interesting theory on the Chicken and the Egg relationship of Clan hubris and Zell, at any rate.
So, back to the “Huey” (and I hope you read that as “Whee” in Stewie’s voice). It’s spiritually a Padilla IIC. It’s raison d'être is to be mobile tactical artillery. At a slight increase in mass, it doubles the Padilla’s warload to two Arrow IV systems. It keeps the bare minimum of self-defense weapons and below-bare minimum levels of armor protection. It’s also one of the rare Alpha Strike units with the EE special (Elementary Engine) as even in that early day it was felt that lowly tanks didn’t warrant the same resources as ‘Mechs.
Whee, it’s a Huey!So, if you’re taking a “Huey” for your force you’re taking it for the 2 ARTACs. That in turn comes down to weighing the alternative options to see if you’re getting the best PV deal. For most play eras, the main alternative would be a Naga omnimech. The Naga is 50PV and much more survivable.
So why take a Huey instead of a Naga? Well if you’re using offboard artillery no stats matter any more except skill and ARTAC specials. And 2PV cheaper is still 2PV cheaper. If you’re using onboard artillery, there are some merits to using the overall more fragile tank: the ECM and TUR specials.
If you’re using a Huey as onboard artillery, you have some glaring weaknesses to work around. Namely the widowmaking combination of very low speed and poor survivability. Still, so long as terrain permits hiding back in your deployment zone out of LOS, that’s what you’ll want to do. Render the tank immune to attack until aero can reach the CZ or a spotter can flank your force and draw LOS. That’s where the TUR and ECM come in handy. No matter how a bomber/striker flies overhead, you can at least shoot back. And ECM is a godsend for at least neutralizing C3 advantages if you can’t totally stop LOS to your Huey.
Now keep in mind that artillery has taken a fairly hard nerf; it’s no longer a case of pointing at a unit and saying “that one takes 2 damage from my auto-hitting Arrow IV missile..” And since the Huey is designed around ARTAC-2, the nerf hits the tank hard. If possible you’ll want to use SPAs to help maximize your stack of bonuses as appropriate to which version of Artillery rules you’re using for the game. A favorite trick under advanced rules I’ve employed on the Schiltron (and applicable to the Huey, as it’s basically the IS version of the same) is to make a
Time on Target attack. That's where you lob 2 Arrow IVs at a POI distance selected just a smidge far enough away to incur a flight time, then on the next round lob 2 Arrow IVs just within that line, and ensure you TAG a target anywhere within 34” of both POIs and they’ll get hit by all 4 missiles at once. (Yes technically the missiles each need to roll to hit, but on 4+ on 2d6 all should reliably hit ;) ) It’s absolutely not Zell-compliant to drop 4 Arrow IVs on a target at once… but using a Huey is absolutely not about being Zell-compliant! And also don’t forget that if you plan on TAGing for the Huey, don’t forget to downgrade its crew skill. Just as Clanners are thematically better mechwarriors, BA troopers, and ASF pilots, they’re thematically worse tankers. For every 3/4 mechwarrior there’s a 5/6 tank crew. Drop that Huey’s crew down to 43 PV to get a skill 5, and let your missiles hit on 4+ anyway! (if you’re using standard rules, don’t forget that TAG
still works without the homing rules from the optional artillery rules!
Even the Huey eventually got an upgrade.So what do you do with a Huey if you swap out the super inefficient EE engine for a FC? In this variant’s case, you use the spare tonnage to update the weaponry to HAGs and slap on some more, much needed armor. Slightly better weapons result in much improved AAA. While the PV is going up, the HAGs provide flak even at long range and for the slight investment in PV you’re getting a perfectly good flak battery for protecting not just your artillery but a sizeable chunk of your entire force from Aero/flanking VTOLs. Of course in order to do so, you’ll need LOS to most of the battlefield and that drek is reciprocal ;). Of course if you’re using this artillery tank for double duty as an allegedly mobile Flak tower, perch it up with the best LOS you can find.. and use those ARTACs in direct fire mode. Put your opponent in a Catch-22: focus on the fire support monstrosity or your front line forces. Remember, it’s still got ECM to counter C3 spotting shenanigans! Hilarity ensues.
The Huey Not Appearing In This Article.3150 NTNU added either one or two more Hueys. Where you’d expect Malvina’s Mongol Falcons to embrace the devastation made possible by Huey artillery, they’ve invented a more direct fire support platform. Sine the record sheets for 3150 NTNU are still MIA we don’t have any more information than the smidgen of info given, but it does tell us that they’re using LRMs w Artemis V and Streak SRMs and increasing durability with the Dark Age’s new gadget Hardened Armor. Not so clear if they’re broken down into two separate variants (ala a LRM and SRM Carriers IIC) or if it’s one tank with both. Still, swapping out a Clan Arrow IV for LRM-20s w Artemis V would result in an IF4 special (IF7 for both) and doing the same for Streak SRM-6s would be 5/5 damage (10/10 for both!).
