VotW: Zhukov Heavy Tank

[Weirdo]

Tau Zombie squads basically have the firepower of a basic foot laser platoon. They gain the ability to be crammed into a single ton of cargo space, but do so by sacrificing almost all ability to take damage. They've got armor and damage reduction galore, but all that stuff still won't reduce a hit below 1 damage, and they can't take more than a couple such hits before the squad is crippled.

Oh, and they've got the range and accuracy of a large laser tied to a targeting computer.

So they're really easy to haul around, have VERY impressive range and accuracy, but die really fast if anyone pays real attention to them. Honestly, I'd put regular troops or BA in our proverbial Zhukov, and keep the Zombies further back where they can act like numerous tiny field gun platoons.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I've used the Zhukov a couple of times.

It was there on the battlefield.  It got a participation trophy.

[Colt Ward]

I have used them in combined arms company+ games, the anvil w/BA to the faster mechs & hovercraft's hammer.  They can do some damage but that 15 hex range can be a problem when they get pillbox'd.

[pensiveswetness]

I was thinking about this on the bus to work. I did glance at the Errata and noted the suggestion of changing the speed to 4/6. the only bad thing about this was that you have to drop 1-ton of armor to fit the larger engine (as I felt it would be unlikely to drop the MML ammo to 1-ton total)... the 6-tons of Infantry space (to me, at least) makes far more sense for a typical 'Cost is no worry' machine for the WoB...

[Colt Ward]

The SRM only had 1 ton . . . hmm, I have 2t ammo, but when I tinkered it I gave it HFF which kept it at the same thickness though I do have a half ton left . . . because I did not notice it DOES have HFF and spent that extra half ton improving the protection on front & sides.

I might have liked it better if it had a Plasma Rifle instead of a 2nd Large VSP, but then it ruins the twin gun motif and maybe it something like the Typhoon.

[cavingjan]

Change the role from a main battle tank to be a heavy IFV would be a significant change that would make the write up.

[SCC]

Tau Zombie squads basically have the firepower of a basic foot laser platoon. They gain the ability to be crammed into a single ton of cargo space, but do so by sacrificing almost all ability to take damage. They've got armor and damage reduction galore, but all that stuff still won't reduce a hit below 1 damage, and they can't take more than a couple such hits before the squad is crippled.

Oh, and they've got the range and accuracy of a large laser tied to a targeting computer.

So they're really easy to haul around, have VERY impressive range and accuracy, but die really fast if anyone pays real attention to them. Honestly, I'd put regular troops or BA in our proverbial Zhukov, and keep the Zombies further back where they can act like numerous tiny field gun platoons.

Remember that they reduce burst fire by a single die. That said they'd be much nastier inside BA, where they retain many of their advantages but lose the disadvantages, also the BA would be cheaper then the 'ware.

[Alexander Knight]

Remember that they reduce burst fire by a single die. That said they'd be much nastier inside BA, where they retain many of their advantages but lose the disadvantages, also the BA would be cheaper then the 'ware.

Sure, but Wierdo's right too.  A single point of damage still kills a Zombie because they round up.

[Weirdo]

Bingo. Reducing a machine gun hit to 1d6(and the result of that even less) is all well and good, except they can never afford to take the 1-2 damage.

[Alexander Knight]

Well, they could if you could field them in more than 6-man units but....

They're not Zhukovs so we should let that lie.

[gyedid]

Was there ever a canon variant where they did with the Zhukov what was done with the Demolisher II--went to an Ultra/LB-X combo for the two boomsticks?

cheers,

Gabe

[Colt Ward]

I thought doing LB-10X & Gauss (or maybe Light) would have worked pretty well.


Pulling out HMV . . . to put a Gauss on you have to tweak a whole lot more- like make it SFE.  Just a LB-10X w/2t ammo and a UAC/10 w/2t ammo requires the SRM6 to be downgraded to SRM4 and switch to FF armor without any increases.  Or leave the SRM6 and make it HFF armor rather than just FF.

A LB-10X/LGR would still need FF or HFF armor to get adequate ammo . . . but twin LGRs need no other changes to get 16 shots each as a direct replacement.

Its one of the tanks I wish had gotten some variant attention back in the 3050s since fluff said it got a number of refinements over the years from Dragoon input.  I would imagine they had a couple of interesting refits- Clan weapons, maybe SFE, but the twin cannons would have definitely been updated.

[tomaddamz]

At the risk of being in the wrong subforum, I am going to suggest a more radical armament change.  First a question, what do you want the SRM-6 to do?  If you only have 1 ton, them specialty ammo is out of the question.  If range is an issue then there are Level 1 options that can help that, if it is ammo depth, then I suggest gutting the SRM entirely and using that mass to up the ammo count for the AC-10s, and maybe the balance in MGs of some flavor.  Heck this might be one of the places I see an Ultra 10 AC being in a decent place to be.  I am currently between vehicle designers and this is the wrong board for it.  But if someone post over in the fan boards I can go into greater detail

[blackpanzer]

Sorry if posting in such an old thread is in any way offensive or in error, but I was creating a non-canon merc command using WOB militia equipment, and was looking at the WoB variant of the Zhukov.
Have we ever gotten official clarification on where those extra tonnage went?

[Colt Ward]

What extra tonnage?

Pair of Large VSPL- 18 tons
SHS for 2nd laser- 10 tons
C3i- 2.5t
CASE- .5t
MML7- 4.5t
     at least 1t ammo, likely 2
Extra armor

Swapped out to a XL to cram everything in & get 10 free SHS.

Standard Zhuk has 24t for the ACs, 2t for ammo, 4t for SRM6 & ammo . . . 11t ammo . . . but that is 30t of warload for the original.  The laser set has a 37.5 ton warload with increased armor protection.

Or were you talking about WoB LBX?  Well, they save 2t with the guns, 1t with the SRM swap . . . which is taken up by 2.5t with the C3i and .5t of CASE.  Wish it had gotten FF armor . . . this variant should not have come out in '73 but rather '59 once Blakists started reordering the Terran factories.

[blackpanzer]

I'm actually referring to the WoB double VSP-Large laser variant.

Internal structure 7.5 t
Engine 5.0 t
Transmission 2.5 t
Heat Sink 10 t
Controls 4 t
Turret 2 t
Armour 11 t

2 x VSP-Large Laser - 18 t
C3i 2.5 t
MML-7 plus 2 tons ammo - 6.5 t
CASE 0.5 t

TOTAL - 69.5 t

There's a shortfall of 5.5 tons somewhere. Looking back, this was discussed in this thread previously as well by @pensiveswetness, @YingJanshi, @JadeHellBringer, @nckestrel, @Weirdo and yourself.

EDIT: Right, I went to the link posted by @nckestrel and read the errata that the speed was bumped up to 4/6 instead of 3/5. Sorry for the trouble!