OBT Forum

This thread is for the various 'Mech designs that are part of my Vaults AU. A few are minor enough that they could've been shoved into the canon timeline with little to no changes to events, but most everything in this thread from after 3022 is specific to the Vaults timeline.

Some of these designs use non-canon equipment. Where appropriate, I'll provide little blurbs describing it.



This first design was originally a TRO42 design by Snow_Cheetah, and can still be found there. All I did was fluff it out and add variants, both for canon and for the Vaultsverse. I'm assuming it's his pencil art, too, but this long after the original post it's hard to say for sure.



Vanguard VNG-3D

Mass: 60 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Introductory
Era: Succession Wars
Tech Rating/Era Availability: D/X-E-D
Production Year: 2818
     VNG-1A 2473-2531
     VNG-2L 2528-2713
     VNG-3C 2630-2815
Cost: 5,008,960 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,203

Chassis: Technicron Type B
Power Plant: Pitban 240
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h
Jump Jets: Pratt and Whitney 440
    Jump Capacity: 120 meters
Armor: Valiant Lamellor
Armament:
    1 Holly LRM-15
    1 Imperator-A or Mydron Model C Autocannon/5
    1 Holly SRM-6
Manufacturer: Confederation Defense Corporation, Earthwerks Inc.
    Primary Factory: Exedor (CDC; production ended 2713), Tikonov (production
line irreparably damaged 2849)
Communications System: Varies
Targeting and Tracking System: Varies


================================================================================
Equipment           Type                         Rating                   Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard                      99 points                6.00
Engine:             Fusion Engine                240                      11.50
    Walking MP: 4
    Running MP: 6
    Jumping MP: 4 Standard
    Jump Jet Locations: 2 LL, 2 RL                                         4.00
Heat Sinks:         Single Heat Sink             10                        0.00
    Heat Sink Locations: 1 LT
Gyro:               Standard                                               3.00
Cockpit:            Standard                                               3.00
    Actuators:      L: SH+UA+LA+H    R: SH+UA+LA+H
Armor:              Standard Armor               AV - 184                 11.50

                                                      Internal       Armor     
                                                      Structure      Factor     
                                                Head     3            9         
                                        Center Torso     20           28       
                                 Center Torso (rear)                  9         
                                           L/R Torso     14           19       
                                    L/R Torso (rear)                  6         
                                             L/R Arm     10           18       
                                             L/R Leg     14           26       

================================================================================
Equipment                                 Location    Heat    Critical    Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autocannon/5                                 RT        1         4         8.00
SRM-6                                        RA        4         2         3.00
LRM-15                                       LA        5         3         7.00
@AC/5 (20)                                   RT        -         1         1.00
@SRM-6 (15)                                  RA        -         1         1.00
@LRM-15 (8)                                  LA        -         1         1.00
                                            Free Critical Slots: 30

BattleForce Statistics
MV      S (+0)  M (+2)  L (+4)  E (+6)   Wt.   Ov   Armor:      6    Points: 12
4j         2       2       2       0      3     0   Structure:  5
Special Abilities: SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA, IF 1


Overview:
   For a long time, little was definitively known about the origins of the Vanguard. The few surviving records from that era were damaged. Fortunately, the New Dallas Memory Core provided detailed information on the design's early years. The Vanguard was built by House Liao during the Age of War, as a contemporary of such early designs as the Mackie, Firebee, and Hector. The production line was shut down after the Reunification War. A second production line was set up on Tikonov just prior to the outbreak of the Succession Wars, but it was crippled by sabotage during the Second Succession War and has only produced a scattered collection of spare parts for the machine since then. Despite that, the Vanguard is still occasionally used today. It has a distinct reliance on ammunition, limiting its use in offensive operations, but it is otherwise a very versatile design.


Capabilities:
   The Vanguard's primary loadout was brought to regularity when a forgotten cache of mothballed Star League-era Vanguards were discovered on Shoreham by AFFS forces in 2894. The ER lasers were removed and subsequently lost before they could be taken to New Avalon for reverse-engineering; at the time, the destruction of the dropship was blamed on Liao sabotage, but in the wake of the War of Silence, it is now thought to have been carried out by a ROM operative.

   The Vanguard chassis, however, were still on Shoreham and were perfectly serviceable. Removing the now-unnecessary extra heat sinks and the token medium laser, techs added an autocannon in place of the missing main gun. The final configuration stuck when it received good reviews from a front line Capellan March lance leader. Its flexibility was so apparent that other MechWarriors -- even some on the opposite side of the border -- changed their designs to match it.

   With its class 5 autocannon in the torso and the Holly LRM rack in the left arm, the Vanguard-3D has an acceptable long range punch. The SRM-6, coupled with its combat grade fists, delivers a decent close range blow as well. While some might consider it slow for its purpose, the Pratt and Whitney 440 jump jets add greatly to its maneuverability.


Deployment:
    Estimates are that a maximum of 356 Vanguards existed within the Inner Sphere as of the beginning of the Capellan Civil War, none of which were in good condition (outside of the handful fielded by ComStar, of course). The Succession Wars were not kind to the design, with many falling prey to ammunition explosions or heat-induced shutdown. The CCAF could not afford to retire the 'Mech or relegate it to militia units, due to their limited heavy 'Mech production. Thus the Vanguard was reserved for times when it was most useful.

   Two small companies -- one on Capella, one based on Tikonov itself -- exist solely to fashion spare parts for surviving Vanguards. The first was bought up by Ceres Metal Works in 2907, and the second was damaged during the Capellan Civil War but has since been rebuilt.


Variants:

   The prototype VNG-1A, a relic of the Age of War, was designed only shortly after the Firebee. It is known to have mounted a primitive engine, cockpit, and armor. The main gun was a standard large laser, and the LRM rack was much smaller than in later variants. Jumpjet technology had not yet been perfected at the time, so it comes as no surprise that the primitive Vanguard lacked them. (VNG-1A: LLAS, LRM-5/1A, SRM-6/1A, 290 PFE, 16.5T Primitive Armor. 1,042 BV; cost 4,441,760 C-Bills.) Only two original-run Vanguards are known to still exist in this form, both museum pieces. A third was found in the New Dallas vault, but was destroyed by Marik forces during the fight for Carver V's Lunar HPG in 3022.

   A refit which saw some use during the Succession Wars, the VNG-3E replaced the LRM rack with another SRM-6, and removed the increasingly finicky jump jets altogether. This made room for a more sizable engine, the tried-and-true Vlar 300. Half a ton of armor was removed, mostly from the legs, to add the extra free tonnage required to mount a medium laser in the right torso. (VNG-3E: 1,180 BV; 4,989,760 C-bills.)

   The Star League variant, the VNG-3C, was built by Earthwerks on Tikonov, and was functionally identical to the Succession-War 3D variant, except that the autocannon was replaced by two lasers -- an extended-range large and a standard medium -- and three single heat sinks. (VNG-3C: 1,327 BV; cost 5,202,560 C-bills.) During the Succession Wars, Capellan Mechwarriors were forced to downgrade their main guns to a standard large laser, producing the 3L variant. (VNG-3L: 1,312 BV; cost 5,042,560 C-bills.)

   Liao forces produced an intermediate variant, starting in the 2530s, which overhauled the Primitive 'Mech to then-modern technology. It was functionally identical to the later -3L, but with the older "Primitive" skeleton, different targeting equipment, and with the heat sinks in a slightly different configuration. Production slowed to a trickle during the days of the Star League's military limitation treaties, and stopped altogether by 2713. All of these VNG-2L models were overhauled to the more modern VNG-3C variant over the course of several decades, apart from a tiny handful that had somehow found their way into foreign or mercenary service.

   A minor refit of the -3L from the mid-3030s upgrades to Semi-Ferro Armor, reducing the weight by half a ton without losing any protection. This provides the weight for CASE, though the ammo feeds are now external. The three heat sinks outside the engine have been upgraded to double-strength Freezers. (VNG-4C: 13[16] HS. BV 1,386; cost 5,268,960 C-Bills.) Another refit variant that would have downgraded the VNG-3D's AC/5 to a snub-nosed version in order to mount CASE and a Protector ECM suite was considered, but ultimately abandoned, due in large part to the rarity of the Vanguard in the wake of losses during the War of 3038.

AU EQUIPMENT OVERVIEW (VNG-4C)

- Semi-Ferro Armor:
A partially-successful attempt to work towards Ferro-Fibrous armor without the benefit
of Star League metallurgy data. 14 crits, multiplies armor value by 1.06.
- Mixed Heat Sinks