HT-150-9R "Harrower" Superheavy Tank

[Darth Armyss]

Image Credit: Originally by Wargaming.net, then shopped by somebody going by "Impuls Art" (can't find the original source - found it on the World of Tanks forum).
Intent: To provide a heavy armor vehicle for the One Sith, which they currently lack
Development Thread: N/A
Manufacturer: Tantorus Defense Forces (original more primitive design), Rothana Heavy Industries (mass production design using modern production methods)
Model: HT-150-9R "Harrower"
Affiliation: One Sith
Modularity: Limited
Production: Limited (by Galactic standards anyway, a little more than 3000 are eventually produced)
Material: Durasteel
Description: The HT-150-9R, also known as the "Harrower" after a type of Sithspawn, is a monstrously-heavy armored vehicle that entered service with the One Sith some time after the occupation of Tantorus. The tank was technically already in limited service with the Tantorus Defense Forces as the original HT-150-9, but due to Tantorus' less advanced manufacturing techniques when compared to the rest of the Galaxy, these were deemed unfit to serve the One Sith. However, the novel solution of enabling such a heavy vehicle to work as it did was not lost upon one of the Sith, a Knight known as Darth Armyss, who recommended that it be outsourced to another manufacturer for production. Rothana Heavy Engineering was contracted for production, and a couple of months later, the first HT-150-9R rolled off the production line.

While a seemingly crude and primitive tracked vehicle, the HT-150-9R in fact possesses several innovative features, including a combination drive that combined a tracked system with a repulsorlift in order to reduce the vehicle's ground pressure, thus helping to make up for its heavy weight.

Speaking of weight, the HT-150-9R is an absolute monstrosity when it comes to its weight, particularly considering that its dimensions aren't very large. The reason for this is the sheer thickness of its durasteel armor, which makes it all but immune to most anti-vehicle weapons and most combat ranges. Combined with its heavy firepower, the HT-150-9R might appear to be nigh invincible on the battlefield, but that would be far from the truth.

With a top speed of 40 km/h under ideal conditions (realistically speaking it can only reach 25-30 km/h on most terrain), the HT-140-9R is very slow, and its turning capabilities aren't impressive either. The engine is mounted at the front of the tank, so if a shot somehow makes it through the vehicle, with a higher probability of that occurring if shot through the lower glacis plate, it could disable the tank outright with a single hit. Furthermore, its slow speed also makes it a tempting target for aerial attack, which isn't helped by having relatively thin armor on the top of the vehicle, allowing a skilled pilot to disable it with a shot to the engine deck ahead of the turret. In addition, while its medium turbolaser cannon is among the most powerful weapons that can be mounted on a vehicle of its size, not to mention among the most accurate, it has a slow rate of fire, and due to the vehicle's size it can be vulnerable to infantry at extremely close ranges. Lastly, if it throws a track, it won't be going anywhere for a while, as it relies on its tracks for propulsion, which makes it particularly vulnerable to landmines. Due to having so many weaknesses, the vehicle is usually deployed with a strong escort of infantry and lighter vehicles in order to prevent it from being outflanked.


Role: Superheavy Breakthrough/Counteroffensive Tank
Height: 3.3 meters
Length: 10.2 meters
Width: 3.71 meters
Weight: 150 tons
Minimum Crew: 3 (Driver, Gunner, Commander)
Optimal Crew: 5 (Driver, Gunner, Commander, Two Engineers for maintenance purposes, both of which can be considered weapons technicians as well)
Powerplant: Fusion Drive
Propulsion: Combination Drive - Tracks for propulsion, repulsors for reducing ground pressure
Top Speed: 40 km/h (assuming ideal conditions)
Armaments:

• 1 x Medium Turbolaser Cannon
• 1 x Repeating Blaster Cannon coaxial to the main gun (may be replaced with a flamethrower)
• Provision for two additional light repeating blasters on ring mounts on the commander and gunner's hatches

Passenger Capacity: 0
Cargo Capacity: 0
Misc. Equipment:

• Standard Comlink with Encrpytion (command variant has a more powerful comlink to burn through jamming signals)
• Standard Comlink Jammer
• Standard Military Sensors covering Infrared and Ultraviolet Spectrum
• Standard CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear) protection (only functional with all of the hatches buttoned up)
• Advanced Targeting Computer
• Optional mountings for dozer blades or mine-clearing devices on the front (being made of two-inch thick durasteel plate with a concave curve of the forward-facing part, the dozer blade is considered a popular attachment due to covering up one of the main frontal weak spots in the tank's frontal armor, although it has a detrimental effect on speed)
• Attachment points for tow cables at the front and rear of the hull

 

[Valik]

[member="Darth Armyss"]

Now, forgive me if I am wrong, but this is intended to be more of a 'glass cannon' type tank, packing a punch but not taking it's hits too well? Even so, I'm going to have to ask you to change your main armament from a Turbolaser to a Laser Cannon. Land turbolasers are sparingly used in Canon, and usually fixed to massive machines latched to the ground. Putting them onto a tank isn't typically feasible, or allowed in the Factory for that matter. A Heavy Laser Cannon will the trick just fine. On the other hand, is there any particular reason you're using a Fusion Drive as your power source? And can you add some bit to the description on the Dozer Blades and tow cables?

 

[Darth Armyss]

[member="Valik"]

It's a Mighty Glacier, with a big gun, lots of armor, and crap mobility (Glass Cannon is a big gun, highly mobile, and no armor whatsoever)

I hate to be difficult here, but turbolasers have been used on tanks, like the Century Tank. That thing has a light turbolaser mounted below a repurposed TIE Fighter cockpit of all things, so I don't see any reason why a medium turbolaser can't fit into a purpose-built turret atop a superheavy tank. A HEAVY turbolaser would definitely not fit on a tank, I will agree, but you're thinking in terms of Clone Wars tech, while it's established canon (or it was until George Lucas invalidated the entire Expanded Universe to appease the whiners over at Disney) that by late in the Galactic Civil War, it was possible to fit light and medium turbolasers to armored vehicles, such as the aforementioned Century Tank and later production models of the AT-AT. Besides, the main reason I went with a turbolaser is their much longer effective range compared to a laser cannon. If I swap it out for a heavy laser cannon, its ROF will increase by a lot at the expense of effective range and the strength of each individual shot.

The Fusion Drive is the same power source used on a previous submission of mine, the AT-LAW (which was approved btw), which is a much lighter vehicle but made use of that type of engine in order to give it a high power-to-weight ratio for negotiating obstacles and unstable terrain. On this thing, such an engine is necessary for it to be able to move at all.

Lastly, the tow cables aren't on the vehicle itself, it just has d-rings on its hull so that it if it gets stuck, it can be pulled out by another vehicle that has them.

 

[Valik]

[member="Darth Armyss"]


If I wasn't aware of what a glass cannon was I wouldn't have used the analogy. The description is filled with describing armor inadequacies, not to mention it's made of simple durasteel rather than anything that would significantly armor a vehicle.There is a line or two that speaks of the armor's strength, but they don't gel with the rest of the submission and were admittedly glanced over as a result. Additionally as I've said, there are scant uses of Turbolasers on tanks in Canon, however, we do not allow turbolasers on tanks and as such the turbolaser going is non-negotiable. Furthermore I'm going to need these lines clarified/changed.

The reason for this is the sheer thickness of its durasteel armor, which makes it all but immune to most anti-vehicle weapons and most combat ranges.

-Waaaay too much armor here.

(by Galactic standards anyway, a little more than 3000 are eventually

-Let's stay away from exact numbers here. In general Mass Production means it can be NPC'd, Minor means it can be NPC'd sometimes but is usually PC-captained, and limited means it's almost exclusively used by PC's.

Top Speed: 40 km/h (assuming ideal conditions)

Assuming flat ground this tank should go about 10 km/h slower than that. Downhill I suppose 40 km/h is achievable, but I'll need this edited(or clarified) regardless.





Also, just so you know

The Fusion Drive is the same power source used on a previous submission of mine, the AT-LAW (which was approved btw), which is a much lighter vehicle but made use of that type of engine in order to give it a high power-to-weight ratio for negotiating obstacles and unstable terrain. On this thing, such an engine is necessary for it to be able to move at all

There's actually a rule stating that Factory Judges do not use previous submissions as precedents. What was approved in your previous submission, or any submission, literally has zero bearing for any future submissions, except of course if it's a unique version of a minor/mass produced submission. In any case I'd like a few lines explaining the stability of the fusion drive, and what'll happen if the fusion drive is disturbed.

 

[Darth Armyss]

[member="Darth Armyss"]


If I wasn't aware of what a glass cannon was I wouldn't have used the analogy. The description is filled with describing armor inadequacies, not to mention it's made of simple durasteel rather than anything that would significantly armor a vehicle.There is a line or two that speaks of the armor's strength, but they don't gel with the rest of the submission and were admittedly glanced over as a result. Additionally as I've said, there are scant uses of Turbolasers on tanks in Canon, however, we do not allow turbolasers on tanks and as such the turbolaser going is non-negotiable. Furthermore I'm going to need these lines clarified/changed.




-Waaaay too much armor here.




-Let's stay away from exact numbers here. In general Mass Production means it can be NPC'd, Minor means it can be NPC'd sometimes but is usually PC-captained, and limited means it's almost exclusively used by PC's.





Assuming flat ground this tank should go about 10 km/h slower than that. Downhill I suppose 40 km/h is achievable, but I'll need this edited(or clarified) regardless.





Also, just so you know




There's actually a rule stating that Factory Judges do not use previous submissions as precedents. What was approved in your previous submission, or any submission, literally has zero bearing for any future submissions, except of course if it's a unique version of a minor/mass produced submission. In any case I'd like a few lines explaining the stability of the fusion drive, and what'll happen if the fusion drive is disturbed.

You seem to be completely adamant about doing whatever you can to either render this thing completely worthless or prevent it from being submitted at all.

 

[Valik]

[member="Darth Armyss"]

Worthless? No. What I'm aiming to prevent is an overly armored, overly armed and overly fast tank with the weaknesses of it can be bombed from above and infantry can cause serious damage if they get "extremely close"(nevermind the two light repeating blasters or dozer blades to mow down infantry, or the statement that it's "all but immune to anti-armor fire", which can easily be used to justify insignificance of small armaments). Sure, you can argue the rate of fire is a weakness but with the accuracy described, advanced targeting computer and the power of a medium Turbolaser you're taking down tanks and platoons every shot, and that doesn't even account for the repeating blaster cannon. The Turbolaser stipulation wasn't made by me, but our Factory Admin, while the speed reduction was garnered after talking to our resident tank expert Popo. Add to that the near invincibility to traditional tank killing methods and the lack of dev threads and this is clearly an overpowered submission that requires edits.

You can tell me about the Century tank having a Turbolaser, but it wasn't as heavily armed or armored as this tank. Not to mention the inconsistencies in power of Canon Tech. For example take a look at our How to Build a Ship Guide. That was built using the middle of canon basings and we allow a carrier type command ship(2Km) to have 168 starfighters. By contrast a 1.2Km ship the Venator can carry 420 starfighters. Due to the rampant effect this has on the power balance we've created with the factory the Venator isn't usually RP'd with, if not outright banned, while any submissions using the Venator as a basis are promptly stripped down and redone to fit our standards. Allowing a turbolaser on a tank is very similar, far too powerful for the environment that's been created by the board. If the AT-AT, a tank nearly twice this size(admittedly carrying a speeder bike or soldier complement) can live with a couple laser cannons and repeating blasters than you can certainly make a heavy tank without needing a turbolaser.

 

[Darth Armyss]

[member="Valik"]

Just reject the design, okay? I'll need to start over from scratch with something different.

 

[Valik]

Archived at owner's request.