Zaku
04/20/21 05:59 AM
82.40.9.192
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Zuku Too ZK-44
Mass: 45 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Motive Type: Tracked
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Age of War/Star League
Tech Rating/Era Availability: D/C-F-X-X
Production Year: 2432
Dry Cost: 578,188 C-Bills
Total Cost: 584,688 C-Bills
Battle Value: 424
Power Plant: 225 I.C.E.
Cruise Speed: 54.0 km/h
Flanking Speed: 86.4 km/h
Armor: Industrial
Armament:
1 Heavy Rifle
1 Machine Gun
Manufacturer: Deep Periphery
Primary Factory:
Communications System: A radio slapped in the back
Targeting and Tracking System: Iron Sights
Overview:
The Zuku Too (Japanese for Pig Iron) is the quintessential Deep Periphery tank.
Designed as a cruiser and with impossibly light armour, the Zuku Too (II) is
made by had in the Deep Periphery. Made with the most basic of technologies it
is possibly the last real tank that uses iron sights in the 3rd millennium .
Still despite its primitive nature the Zuku is very stable on the move and has
a very accurate gun which offsets its lack of fire control.
First made in the Outworlds Alliance 2432 under heavy criticism. The Holland II
MBT was considered a somewhat barebones tank, and was made on a minimalistic
budget by a nation who put a low priority on its military. It was behind the
times for a tank even at its conception, and its no wonder it earned a bad
reputation. Following its first interaction with superior Kuritan armour in
Star League's pacification campaign of the Periphery, it earned its moniker the
Zuku, after the Japanese word for Pig Iron, or a even older word for
'nothing.' Considered a write off this lead to the implementation of more
modern armour, even then considered industrial armour, leading to the moniker
the Zuku II.
During the Periphery uprising the Zuku II was deployed quite widely by Outworld
rebels, as the design had been leaked by the manufacturer who was sympathetic
to the cause of independence. Thanks to its redesign the tank was easy enough
to make in a shed with a minimal work bench, and many Zuku II's were made by
hand under the nose Star League garrisons.
Still ineffective on their own, the Zuku's saving grace was its impossible ease
of manufacture, and lack of complicated electronics. With a special mount to
compensate for targeting software found in modern tanks, the Zuku could move
rapidly, fire on the move and stand a slightly lower than average chance of
hitting the enemy. Which was enough for the resistance fighters.
Thanks to underground networks the designs for the Zuku soon spread to all the
periphery powers. And while disliked by their crews, with many opting for
stolen star League tanks or equipment provided by Amaris, it provided numbers
when numbers were needed.
Following the fall of Star League the Zuku was all but abandoned by the
Periphery States, who fell back on comparable in price tanks with better fire
control systems. However on independent worlds with a low or almost
non-existant industrial base the Zuku II production was kept up. As it soon
filtered out into the Deep periphery it became a common sight amoungst
primitive worlds where a tank that could be built in a shed was a force
multiplyer when all you were fighting was RPG's and even arrows.
Over time the Zuku would become known as the Zuku Too to the denisense of the
deep Periphery, being the most common tank far from supply lines. Indeed the
clans would encounter worlds who were still fielding variations of this
primitive tank during their invasion of the Inner Sphere.
The Zuku Too can be made with even the barest industrial resources. Equipped
with 6 tons of hastilly created Industrial armour, any number of heavy rifle
variations, and whatever millitary grade Machine gun can be equipped. It is
considered a impossibly cramped tank for the 4 man crew, and many would
opt for any other tank than it or its multiple variations. The Zuku is in fact now
purely a base on which many remote deep periphery powers base their tanks.
Design Quirks
Low Profile (3)
Stabalised Weapon Heavy Rifle (2)
Accurate Heavy Rifle (2)
Easy to Maintain (1)
Rumble Seat (0)
Poor Workmanship (-1)
Bad Reputation (-1)
Non-Functional Item (-5) (Advanced Fire Control) +2 to hit
(These perks do not transfer with new weapons)
Notes
The idea behind this tank is not to make a 'effective' vehicle, but rather a fluff
vehicle. Its so impossibly basic it doesn't even have onboard computer
technologies. Yet it can with some accuracy issues still work. Its +2 from having
no targeting computer is reduced to a +1, and while moving with its stabilised
weapons it is also reduced further, allowing it to fire more effectively on the
move. Its armour may be thin but its low profile and it is fast. It harkens
back to older tank tactics where the idea was not meant to be hit.
I will say this tank is unlikely to take out any tank the inner sphere has even in
the invasion era, but it can probably take on some of the more basic tanks the
setting has. Well it has a chance, and that's all a Deep Periphery man needs to
get those dam Inner Sphere tourists off his lawn.
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard 25 points 4.50
Engine: I.C.E. Engine 225 20.00
Cruise MP: 5
Flank MP: 8
Heat Sinks: Single Heat Sink 0 0.00
Control Equipment: 2.50
Lift Equipment: 0.00
Turret: 1.00
Armor: Industrial AV - 64 6.00
Armor
Factor
Front 15
Left/Right 12/12
Turret 15
Rear 10
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Spaces Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavy Rifle T 4 1 8.00
Machine Gun T 0 1 0.50
@Heavy Rifle (12) BD - 0 2.00
@MG (1/2) (100) BD - 0 0.50
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 2 Points: 4
5t 1 1 1 0 2 0 Structure: 3
Special Abilities: EE, TUR(1/1/1)
Edited by Zaku (04/20/21 06:07 AM)
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Karagin
04/20/21 09:33 AM
70.118.172.64
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Decent enough for as the fluff says a low tech tank. I can see this one worlds out there in the Deep Dark and folks very happy to have them.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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takakoburrell
07/25/22 03:49 AM
118.71.105.138
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Quote:
Decent enough for as the fluff says a low tech tank. I can see this one worlds out there in the Deep Dark and folks very happy to have them.
This tank is unlikely to take out any inner sphere tank in the invasion age, although it can take on several basic tanks.
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