Some time ago, I decided to give designing a battlemech a try, so I sketched something, 3d modelled it, and used Solaris Skunk Werks (thank God for the Java 8 update!) to make sure everything I had in mind fit together. I just realized I had never posted it here.
Being a fan of hunchbacks and mechs capable of hit above their weight in general, I went for a mech carrying the bigger gun I could think of, while still moving 5/8/3.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you the Cupacabra CHU-X3. An artillery mech capable of blowing up enemy positions and retreating at respectable speeds. it's armor is nothing to write home about, but it's a Long Tom capable of quickly repositioning thanks to moving at medium mech speeds. It might even be able to provide artillery support to a raiding party. Would you drive in it?
Total weight: 60t
Engine: 300XL fusion
Armor: 8,5t Ferro Fibrous
Heatsinks: 10 Double heatsinks (engine)
Jumpjets: 3 (Rt, CT, Lt)
Weaponry:
-Medium Laser (La)
-Medium Laser (La)
-Medium Laser (Rt)
-Long Tom Canon (split Rt, Ra) with 4t ammo (Lt)
Given it is a 60 tonner with an artillery Canon bigger than the one in the 75 ton Helepolis, I went with an oversized the right arm, as I envision the mech having to place the hand on the ground as an extra stabilization point in order to cope with recoil as it fires.
Now, some lore:
Overview:
Warfare was changing. While trying to upgrade their forces with technology found in the Helm Memory Core and under asault from the Clans, some officers in the Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces desperately worked with new concepts in order to adapt to the new landscape.
Given how useful artillery proved itself during the succesion wars and in ambushes against clan forces, one of the confidential projects LCAF spearheaded revolved around resurrecting the "artillery mech" concept embodied by the old Helepolis HEP-1H, a very rare sight in current battlefields. No formal request was ever made, but the idea was floated around several engineering teams and industrial firms.
Some of these groups started skeching and working on prototypes, hoping to sell their designs to the armed forces. Among these, Albufera Agromechs Incorporated, an agromech firm whose facilities had been retrofitted into battlemech production and repair installations due to their proximity to the Jade Falcon front, started working on a chasis built around a Long Tom Canon, with the goal of taking the Helepolis concept beyond the old Star League design.
What started as a 75 ton heavy artillery platform featuring a Long Tom Canon and several heavy weapons was soon downgraded to a 60 tonner, as the installations available to the firm were not suited for heavier mechs. Sacrifices had to be made, but the engineers had been ordered to keep the Long Tom Canon by management. Therefore, the project was reinvented as a fast and nimble artillery mech capable of repositioning quickly, instead of an upgunned Helepolis.
Convinced they had struck gold with a lighter, (and therefore hopefully cheaper) mech that would carry a bigger artillery cannon that a Helepolis and be much more mobile than any towed or self propelled equivalent, management gave the green light to the design team, ignoring any potential shortcomings.
Believing selling the design to the LCAF would be easy, a respectable ammount of prototype CHU-3X left the production lines shortly after. The pressure from the Clan Invasion helped moving things forward, as Clan Jade Falcon continued it's drive into Lyran space, pushing the front closer and closer to the factory each day.
The factory was never taken by the invaders. The first batch of newly built Chupacabras blew it up with their own canons from the distance, denying it to the enemy as they retreated when the jumpships of gamma galaxy were detected. The machines were quickly requisitioned by diferent units, which dispersed them along the front. The plans for the CHU were never offered to the Lyran high command since, after losing its production facilities, there was little money for Albufera Agromechs Inc. to make, certainly with management fleeing towards the Marik border.
Capabilities:
What was intended as a compact, nimble and easy to transport Long Tom platform to replace the Helepolis soon spiraled out of control after being greenlit. Given the weight of the artillery canon, only a XL300 fusion engine would allow the mech to reach top speeds comparable to medium mechs. Even after dropping any heavy support weapon for a trio of medium lasers, only 8.5 tons of armor could be installed, which pushed the engineering team to go with ferro fibrous armor. Then, they upgraded the engine heatsinks to double strength after tests proved shooting with its main gun repeatedly caused shutdown and ammo explosions.
The recoil of the canon was also troublesome. A redesigned muzzle break and hydraulics helped, but the jumpjets on the mech had to be synchronized with the main canon to compensate for the backwards push. In addition, in order to help the mech cope with stabilization and said recoil, the canon-side arm was intended to brace against the ground, as a firing cleat.
It was the first foray of Albufera Agromechs Inc. into battlemech design, and it showed. The end product was almost twice the cost of the mech whose niche they intended to fill and, while noticeably faster and capable of keeping up with medium mechs, it was also much more vulnerable to enemy fire and less suited to any role beyond long range bombardment.
That's all. Thanks for reading!
