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WHMM-1R Warhammer II
Overview:
The Warhammer battlemech is a legendary machine among most mechwarriors, renown
for it's balance in being able to handle enemies at many ranges, and for being
able to deal significant damage at range with it's dual PPCs. Following the
Clan invasions the Warhammer fell out of use and was unseen for many years, but
in recently it has begun to resurface. Inspired by tales of this fearsome
weapon the Star league Design Coalition designed the WHM-12R Warhammer II. The
SLDC was a short lived attempt by the Star League to get the various
manufactring forces of the sphere to work together under the Star League
banner. The Warhammer II was the first design put out by this coalition. It's
components were manufactured across the Inner Sphere and all shipped to a
central assembly plant errected on Turkayyid.
Capabilities:
The Warhammer II is very much exemplary of what a Warhammer should be, PPCs for
long range combat, SRM's if the enemy gets too close, and a number of small
support guns for anyone who want to get "up close and personal." The Major
change of the Warhammer II from the standard Warhammer, apart from being 15
tons heavier, is the SRM 6 pack, normally mounted above the mech's right
shoulder has been moved to the center trso, immediatly below the cockpit, and
their former position was taken by an ERPPC. The mech's arms still contain
standard PPCs, chosen over the ER models for sake of heat efficiency. This
arrangement allows the Warhammer II to burn an additional ton of armor off an
enemy mech at range. For support weapons the Warhammer II carries 2 Medium
Pulse lasers and a quartet of Machine Guns. Although this is considered to be
pitiful weaponry by modern standards it keep with the flavor of the Warhammer,
and should they be insufficient, the ERPPC, not suffering the minimum range
limitations of it's standard brothers, may now also be brought to bear. The
largest weakness of the Warhammer II is its legs, finding themselves with
insufficient space in the torso for ammo bins the designers were faced with a
tough choice. They could either remove a heat sink in favor of ammunition and
CASE, or place the ammo bins in the mech's lower legs. After considering the
heat surplus the mech would already be running under, they elected to place the
Ammo in the mech's legs. This leaves it somewhat vulnerable to enemy fire, so
additinal armor braces were placed over the lower legs, and thick armor plates
were constructed around the ammo feeds. Although this reduces the range of
motion on the leg, the mech only really suffers if attempting a truly unusual
stunt at full speed. One minor, cosmetic change made to the Warhammer II which
really, in the opinions of several of the lead designers, "make it a Warhammer"
is the inclusion of a spotlight over the left shoulder. Common on early
Warhammers, recent advances in night imaging have made the spotlight somewhat
redndant, but most warrior's agree that it's great for times when your night
vision's been damaged, and, when equiped with Ultra-Violet bulbs, allows the
mechwarrior to use his night vision, properly modified, to be able to see in
near perfect dark without giving away his own position.
Deployment:
Several Warhammer IIs have been delivered to various units within the SLDF, and
each company involved with it's construction has been given full plans for the
design and will no doubt begin producing the mechs for their own houses' units
in the near future.
Variants:
Several unit's who have recieved the Warhammer II have apparently been
stripping out the machine guns and their ammo in favour of medium lasers,
however this seriously effects the mech's heat curve and is not a recommended
modification unless Clan technology is available to improve the mech's overall
heat efficiency.
Spoiler
