Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[Snekposter]

I genuinely have no clue how you'd actually use something like the Hetzer. Tank destroyers with the gun mounted in the hull are ambush predators, they rely on concealment to fire the first round. The Hetzer will have a lot of difficulty staying hidden if it needs to move to adjust the gun every time the target moves.

Well, yeah, which is why unlike the BT Hetzer they tended to have long-ranged guns for use in an overwatch position.

I mean, nobody here is going to call the actual design of it well-thought-out, since as you've stated it has wheels and not tracks, but hey... Quikscell. Tracks are expensive, wheels are not.

But its also far from the worst design despite that considering TRO: 3060 exists.

 

[Tactical Wizard]

Yeah, but that's really only for fine-tuning the aim in the terminal phase.


You'll note that all those examples, including the WW2 Hetzer, have tracks, while the Battletech Hetzer has wheels.

Now, why does that matter? Because, as I said in my original post, a tracked vehicle can rotate in place by engaging one track forward and the other in reverse. This known as neutral steering.

Here's a good example of this in action:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iBbo3TelVnU
Unless I'm missing something from the lore, the Hetzer does not possess this ability, so the only way it can rotate the gun towards a target is to actually drive the whole vehicle forward or in reverse to turn. One can already see why this is going to be a problem when aiming, let alone if the vehicle is in a hull down position.

It is actually possible to do it with wheels but not in the Hetzer's configuration. They'd need to be free spinning and forward of the chassis to allow them to point in whatever direction that the rear wheels are taking them.

 

[regalterry]

I mean, nobody here is going to call it a well-thought design, since as you've stated it has wheels and not tracks, but hey... Quikscell. Tracks are expensive, wheels are not.

I'm mostly just sperging.

Realistically, if you were making a piece of shit that was able to fit the biggest gun you can think of, you'd just plop an open-top turret and call it a day (though, I have no clue what firing an AC20 would do to such a light vehicle if fired from a turret), or just do a German weapon carrier thing.

It is actually possible to do it with wheels but not in the Hetzer's configuration. They'd need to be free spinning and forward of the chassis to allow them to point in whatever direction that the rear wheels are taking them.

Yeah, that looks much more viable, though the vehicle still moves a bit even when rotating, and I'm sure there would be a lot of problems steering the vehicle at speed, or over rough terrain, requiring a specialized chassis, and thus increasing the cost, which would in turn defeat the purpose of the Hetzer in the first place.

EDIT:

But its also far from the worst design despite that considering TRO: 3060 exists.

To be fair, out of these four only the Indra looks genuinely retarded, and a death sentence for all the infantry they'd cram inside.

The rest are goofy and impractical, but at least they look vaguely functional.

 

[Snekposter]

To be fair, out of these four only the Indra looks genuinely retarded, and a death sentence for all the infantry they'd cram inside.

The rest are goofy and impractical, but at least they look vaguely functional.

The Zorya's ammo is in the body, not the separated turret trailer, the Ares has no ground clearance or obstacle-crossing ability with the cockpit so far ahead of the tracks, and the Mithras is... functional.

Good luck trying to aim your Gauss rifles in this considering how far apart they are. You'd need to aim one, fire, and then traverse to aim and fire the other.

 

[Blasterisk]

The Zorya's ammo is in the body, not the separated turret trailer, the Ares has no ground clearance or obstacle-crossing ability with the cockpit so far ahead of the tracks, and the Mithras is... functional.
View attachment 9059859
Good luck trying to aim your Gauss rifles in this considering how far apart they are. You'd need to aim one, fire, and then traverse to aim and fire the other.

It's a Clan vehicle set up to aim for IS side torsos as a deliberate counter to IS XL engines. A brilliant design.

 

[Grayson Death Carlyle]

What's your favorite alteration of a standard vehicle you love?

I'll bite here, I like the Von Luckner tank because "Haha 16 SRM's and AC 20 goes brrrrrrrrrrr"
It has a variant that gives it 2 AC 20's and retains one SRM 6. It is like a more fun demolisher IMO

 

[Snekposter]

What's your favorite alteration of a standard vehicle you love?

If VTOL's are allowed, going to say the Arrow IV Yellow Jacket just for the lols there.

If not... there's the plasma rifle Myrmidon, because a 40 ton tank with a PPC wasn't enough of a "Fuck You" to MechWarriors. Of course, since it has a plasma rifle, its also a "Fuck You" to everything else as well.