Cray
03/04/04 02:10 PM
147.160.1.5
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Contrary to Inner Sphere expectations, the vehicle name "Lurch" is not a comment on the M-17's ride, but rather an honor on a distinguished armor general (General L. T. Lurch) of Del Gado's Third Global War.
The M-17 Lurch was one of several responses to pirate raids on the backwards Periphery planet Del Gado. One was the enormously expensive Peregrine space fighter program, which sucked money away from ground and ocean forces' attempts to introduce weapons able to combat the pirates raiding Del Gado.
Del Gadan navies mostly admitted their gunboats were of limited utility against the (are you sitting for this?) spacefaring, star traveling, fusion harnessing, high tech pirates. (Del Gadans often commented on the stupidity of people who could travel between stars but used their enormous power and technology to be...pirates.) Yes, one Del Gadan navy, a single battleship, had managed to obliterate four of the pirates' giant robots when the robots' pilots dismounted for old school rape and pillage of a "pacified" town, but pirates couldn't be depended on to stay near coasts, and smaller weaponry (of the sort found on naval aircraft) was proving ineffective against the magical armor of the pirates. Likewise, the smoldering wreckage of armored regiments made Del Gadan armies grudgingly admit they might not be too much use against the pirates, either.
However, Del Gadan armies were in a better position to capitalize on new technology. Their vehicles were relatively cheap and, once breakthroughs in weapons technology came along, they could quickly build (or refit) vehicles around the new weapons. The navies were stuck with huge warships and expensive fighters.
And it was fortunate that ground vehicles were cheap, because the Del Gadan Air Forces had stolen the show with their idea for dealing with the pirates: space fighters! Nearly one hundred space fighters would need to be built before their cost (factoring in development and support facilities) was less than their weight (100 tons) in gold.
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The M-17 Lurch shows every sign of a budget-starved tank design. It is a no-frills approach to tank design, though the designers left in growth room for more advanced systems.
The original model was not a sophisticated tank. It continued to use a pair of transistorized radios (now with several additional channels and improved EMP protection) and simple internal intercom network (with an external handset on the rear for infantry to use). A radar rangefinder and a simple mechanical ballistic computer provided good accuracy by Second Global War standards, but the fire control system was getting long in the tooth. The Lurch could fire on the move, but only if it felt like endangering anyone around it. At its introduction, the Lurch lacked night vision systems, but since the pirates' giant robots also seemed blind at night, this was not viewed as a problem. Perhaps the most innovative system on the M-17 outside of its weapons is its amphibious systems. Many Del Gadan tanks included "bottom crawling" abilities, but required as much as an hour to prepare for an underwater crossing. The M-17 included an automated check-out and valving system that prepared the tank for such crossings, and a self-deploying air intake (snorkel).
The tank uses a turbocharged version of a popular AFV diesel from the Third Global War, with several refinements to ease maintenance. The Lurch's APU (also an established design, this time based on a popular civilian portable generator) can vent its exhaust into the main engine compartment to keep the engine block warm in cold environments. The pneumatic transmission, pneumatic starter motor, and hydropneumatic suspension were adapted from the very automotively reliable heavy tanks of the defeated Hatti Confederation. ("We kicked their ass, so we ought to get something out of the deal," was the thinking.) The Lurch's pneumatic system gained several refinements, including simpler but superior air filters and compressors. It also enlarged the air reservoirs to give the Lurch about 3 minutes of engine run time should the snorkel be shot off during an underwater crossing.
Safety systems included a fire extinguisher network activated by handy slap-buttons; an ammo magazine in a separate, armored compartment; NBC filtration systems; air bottles and masks to help escape a tank stranded underwater; and gear-assisted sideways sliding hatches that could be opened underwater.
The M-17's crowning glory was its 180mm liquid bipropellant cannon (coughlb10xcough). This advanced smoothbore cannon was able to fire six rounds per minute at a sustained rate. An autoloader fed the massive projectiles into the cannon, while pumps and reliable couplings injected a predetermined amount of the two propellants into the breech. Separately, the chemicals were fairly inert, but when mixed (accomplished only at injection into the breech), they formed a compound that would explode when triggered by an electrical arc. A multitude of munitions were available for the weapon, but their effects boiled down into two types of damage: area effect (coughclustercough) and armor piercing (coughstandardcough). Critics of the Lurch bemoaned its limited ammo supply, which consisted of only forty rounds. ("Back in the Gee-Dubya Two, sonny, our tanks all carried at least eighty rounds, and sometimes we'd tossy out those pansy radio operators and put another forty rounds in his seat! No sir, there was no smoking in those tanks! And, no, I don't care how big the cannon is. You don't need no one-eighty mic-mic to break up an infantry unit, you need a lot of little rounds...") The 180mm is backed up by a pair of heavy machine guns, one coaxial and one in the commander's coupla.
DEPLOYMENT
Several hundred original model M-17s were built before being replaced by the heavily updated M-17A1s. Lurches did not once face pirates, because the space fighter programs worked as planned. The only pirates to land after the Peregrines entered service were fighter pilots who had run out of fuel in space battles, and they were killed by an irrate farmer's shotgun.
VARIANTS
The M-17A1 benefitted from trade with some spacefaring gypsies who called themselves the Nomads. The Nomads traded some technology (with lessons) for raw materials and the design of the M-17's LB10X. The Nomads' software algorithms and microchip architectures enabled the M-17A1 to be fitted with the first true, fire-on-the-move fire control system fielded by any Del Gadan military. The M-17A1 was also fitted with independent driver's, commander's, and gunner's thermographs, which eliminated the Lurch's night blindness and expanded the driver's field of vision significantly. Later, the M-17A2 would trade the amphibious equipment of its predecessors for a high-endurance anti-missile system. By the time the M-17A2 entered service, Lurches were far more involved in dealing with irregular troops with tank-busting anti-tank weaponry than they were crossing underwater.
M-17 LURCH
50 tons
11 tons 150 ICE
....Cruise: 3
....Flank: 5
0 tons 0 SHS
2.5 tons controls
2 tons turret
2.5 tons amphibious equipment
9.5 tons armor
....Front: 47
....Sides: 21
....Rear: 21
....Turret: 42
11 tons LB10X (turret)
4 tons LB10X ammo (turret)
1 ton 2x MG (turret)
1 ton MG ammo (turret)
0.5 tons CASE (turret)
The M-17A2 removes the amphibious equipment in favor of a "Clan" Anti-Missile System with 2 tons of ammo.
House Rules:
1) The M-17A1 and M-17A2 do not suffer to-hit penalties for night fighting.
2) The amphibious equipment allows a tank to cross underwater, up to depth 2. The tank must stop and spend 3 turns converting to submerged movement mode. At the other side, folding the snorkel takes 2 turns. While converting to and from submerged movement mode, and while in submerged movement mode, the tank is vulnerable to having its snorkel shot off. When out of the water, on any attack (by weapon, not by hit location rolled) against the tank that does damage (except mine attacks), roll 1d6. If the roll is 4-6, the snorkel is damaged. When in the water, the snorkel can be targeted by surface opponents. It is treated as a very small target, giving a +3 to hit. Submerged tanks (i.e., those in depth 1 or depth 2 water) spend 4MP to enter a hex, like a fully submerged mech. Tanks using this system prefer to do so away from combat.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Karagin
04/23/21 07:13 PM
70.118.172.64
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This fluff...yes I brought an older topic to life. Noting the date of it I was in Iraq so....
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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Reiter
04/23/21 10:36 PM
107.185.100.70
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Quote:
Noting the date
Both Karagin and Cray age like lostech...
Quote:
Profile for Karagin
Member # 19
Registered on 04/21/01 10:38 PM
Profile for Cray
Member # 338
Registered on 07/27/01 02:46 PM
"Back in my day, we didn't use dice. We rolled rocks, used dinosaurs for mechs, and the time to finish a game was longer then an ice age.."
Probably the oldest active posters
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Karagin
04/23/21 10:39 PM
70.118.172.64
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LMAO!
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
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GiovanniBlasini
05/13/21 05:53 AM
68.111.142.13
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Quote:
This fluff...yes I brought an older topic to life. Noting the date of it I was in Iraq so....
Missed it the first time through, too. Was not in Iraq, though. Was sysadmin for a law firm.
Member of the Pundit Caste
"Which side are we on? We're on the side of the demons, Chief. We're evil men in the gardens of paradise, sent by the forces of death to spread devastation and destruction wherever we go. I'm surprised you didn't know that." -- Col. Saul Tigh, BSG2003
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