The Disco Rhino.....MBT of dreams....

[RockJock]

Okay, so I was bored and thinking “what would a tank made with the state of the art Terran Tech look like?”. This is what I came up with…..The Disco Rhino. I know this tech would never end up in one place, and you can argue that the Archie AI isn’t really Earth tech, but it was my fun daydream. Thus the name, Disco Rhino, well that and the fact that it has two disco balls and mirrored armor.

So we start with the XM-350 Rhino Heavy Hover Tank (WB 31, Triax 2, page 157)as your base machine. It has decent speed, limited mobility over water, and nifty prowl ability.

First we go to main weapons. Strip the Dual Particle Beam out of the turret and replace it with a triple mount consisting of the Dual Coaxial Boom Gun from the Fat Boy Glitter Boy (WB 31, Triax 2, Page 118) and a PB-20 Rapid Acceleration Particle Beam Cannon from the Mark IV Space Glitter Boy( Mutants in Orbit, page 68). Depending on the way you look at the standard boom gun I would up the ammo load to the new 1,000 standard, or leave it as is with 800 Boom Gun shots. As for the P-Beam I would double the capacitor to allow for 40 shots, while also doubling the recharge rate to 1 shot per 30 seconds. The tank is huge in comparison to a even a big power armor, so I don’t see that as being to big of a leap.

Next, we look at secondary weapons. I’m going to switch the mini-missiles out for an equal number of Slammer missiles. The slammers are bigger, but in my opinion the Rhino should have the space for something bigger. The lasers are adequate, but we will go ahead and redesign the laser turrets to allow two laser turrets to cover 180 degrees each, one per side, and remove the third altogether. The extra laser gunner is now a dedicated main gun gunner.

Now we start getting crazy with defensive systems. The Smoke Grenade launchers are a fairly simple addition from the old Phantom Tank (WB5, Triax, page 135), but with double the capacity. Note: these can make use of any sort of grenade, possible even Hex Grenades. Similar to the Smoke Launchers are a pair of Chaf-Flare Decoy Systems adapted from the Wild Weasel SAMAS, and added to each rear side quarter of the Disco Rhino(WB 14, New West, page 187). To go with the countermeasure launchers a complete WWECM 6 Black Box system, also from the Wild Weasel is included (WB 14, New West, page 187). A final nod to active defense is a pair of SLAS Mirrored Laser Balls pulled from the Puma Medium Tank (WB 9, SA2, page 181), which helps give the Disco Rhino it’s name. Instead of being run by a crewman all of these defensive systems, except the disco balls (already have an automatic setting) are fired by an AI brain based on the Male Shemarrian (Shemarrian Nation, page 47).

A few odds and ends for the upgraded Disco Rhino that don’t fit into a category are below. Nanobot- Repair System similar to Diablo Joe’s (Black Market, page 26), that handle basic maintenance and cosmetic repairs in the field. Integration of the Active Camouflage Holographic Image Adaptor found on the Triax X-4600 Sharpshooter gives added stealth to go with the prowling motor of the base Rhino. Japanese SNARLS type sensors (WB8, Japan, page 116) are available, as are Russia style Gromeko Friend or Foe Identification Computer (WB 17, Warlords, page 102) for added identification options. The Shemarrian ECM AI also gives basic autopilot abilities.

Finally armor. Simply we chrome the whole thing, and give the appropriate name of the Disco Rhino. I am going with a 40% increase in damage capacity, plus the added laser resistances do to chromium armor. We also leave the force field off the original Rhino in place for a bit more protection.

A strange optional add on feature that allows the Disco Rhino to bring it’s own support into the field is a rack with space to fit 2 dog style(Triax, NEMA, or Archie models), 2 humanoid style(Triax, NEMA, or Archie models), and 4 small drone style (NEMA style probes) in external, unarmored lockdowns. These drones are usually directed by a trained communication officer.

So I know this is munchkin, but it is meant as a thought exercise if you will, and not something ever seen in my game. The weight of the tank could go up, but when we are talking a 60 ton vehicle the weight increase would be fairly minor. Worse case in my head is a 10% drop in speed for all the add ons, but I don't expect that big a gain.

In the end we have a laser resistant beast of a tank with stealth abilities, a very formidable anti-missile defense, main gun that can kill many vehicles in one shot, and various anti-infantry options based on the needs of the situation. The Disco Rhino can also hold give a good showing against alien tech designs when needed.

[Shark_Force]

i would suspect that a significant portion of being able to use the ability to jam missiles to full effect involves being able to move as fast as a SAMAS (that is, you jam the missile, it stops tracking, keeps going to where you were, and if where you were is close to where you are by the time it gets there you're still not going to be very happy).

otherwise, most of that looks reasonably plausible if someone were to somehow get all of that stuff together. although i'd say the shemarrian brain is probably not going to happen (but it wouldn't be *that* far ahead of a standard artificial intelligence anyways).

[HWalsh]

How is this thing getting around the fire stabilization issue with the boom gun?

[ShadowLogan]

How is this thing getting around the fire stabilization issue with the boom gun?

The Fire Stabilization for the Boom Gun issue can be over come by shear mass, this is a hovertank afterall and not a bot/pa. There are a few examples of heavier platforms using the Boomgun without need for the GB's stabilization system:
-WB31 Devestator MK2 (IIRC)
-WB9 pg177 "the recoil of the gun is negligible for this 160-ton vehicle" from the weapon description (this is a vehicle version of the GB weapon)
-MercOps pg62 on the modified Naruni Hovertank ""the massive recoil handled by the enormous weight of the tank and adjustments to the hover system"

[HWalsh]

How is this thing getting around the fire stabilization issue with the boom gun?

The Fire Stabilization for the Boom Gun issue can be over come by shear mass, this is a hovertank afterall and not a bot/pa. There are a few examples of heavier platforms using the Boomgun without need for the GB's stabilization system:
-WB31 Devestator MK2 (IIRC)
-WB9 pg177 "the recoil of the gun is negligible for this 160-ton vehicle" from the weapon description (this is a vehicle version of the GB weapon)
-MercOps pg62 on the modified Naruni Hovertank ""the massive recoil handled by the enormous weight of the tank and adjustments to the hover system"

I'll have to look at the devastator.

MercOps is using alien tech.

It just seems sketchy to me.

[Shark_Force]

How is this thing getting around the fire stabilization issue with the boom gun?

The Fire Stabilization for the Boom Gun issue can be over come by shear mass, this is a hovertank afterall and not a bot/pa. There are a few examples of heavier platforms using the Boomgun without need for the GB's stabilization system:
-WB31 Devestator MK2 (IIRC)
-WB9 pg177 "the recoil of the gun is negligible for this 160-ton vehicle" from the weapon description (this is a vehicle version of the GB weapon)
-MercOps pg62 on the modified Naruni Hovertank ""the massive recoil handled by the enormous weight of the tank and adjustments to the hover system"

I'll have to look at the devastator.

MercOps is using alien tech.

It just seems sketchy to me.

why?

this tank is 50 times heavier than a glitter boy. the glitter boy is knocked back 30 feet if it fires without stabilization systems (unless it is in water, in which case physics gets kicked squarely in the nuts and runs away crying, never to be seen again). but let's even say that the tank gets knocked back 10 feet (i doubt it would move that much*, but whatever)... so what? big deal. it's a tank. it slides back 10 feet. the end. unlike a vehicle with legs, it isn't going to get knocked over by that, it's just going to move a bit. it can even slide back on angles to the direction the tank is facing, no big deal, because it is a hovertank.

heck, rifts earth already *has* a double-barreled boom gun that can be fired from a flying vehicle. if it's really that offensive, just imagine that system being added to this tank. but seriously, there isn't much reason it should need that. this tank is much more massive than a glitter boy. we're talking the difference in mass between a compact car as compared to a main battle tank.

* it's been a long time since i took physics, but F = m * a, which if we rearrange should mean in this case that there is 1/50 the acceleration. that's a very substantial reduction. now, this tank has 2 boom guns, so that's doubling the force in the first place, making it 1/25 the acceleration, and honestly, i don't care enough to figure out how that would translate into distance traveled, but basically, this tank just has a heck of a lot more mass to it than a glitter boy.

[kaid]

i would suspect that a significant portion of being able to use the ability to jam missiles to full effect involves being able to move as fast as a SAMAS (that is, you jam the missile, it stops tracking, keeps going to where you were, and if where you were is close to where you are by the time it gets there you're still not going to be very happy).

otherwise, most of that looks reasonably plausible if someone were to somehow get all of that stuff together. although i'd say the shemarrian brain is probably not going to happen (but it wouldn't be *that* far ahead of a standard artificial intelligence anyways).

We have cannon examples of larger robot vehicles capable of mounting a boom gun without need for extraneous recoil suppression systems. Any tank design likely could be fitted with a turret to handle it without that much issue and the bigger the tank the easier it would handle it.

[kaid]

Also note that triax has a gb variant that does not need the full recoil supression system. It is just a lot fatter and more massive than a normal GB. The main reason the GB needs its full system is trying to stop the recoil on a bipedal platform is a lot more challenging than if you have a better base such as a 4 legged or tank like design and then the heavier it is the less the recoil is a problem.

[RockJock]

If you really have a problem with the Boom Guns switch to 2-3 Shemarrian Guns instead. Shorter range, similar damage. Use the P-Beam as the longer ranged weapon, and the railguns closer in. I prefer the Boom Gun because of the sound effect to enemies, but it is switchable. If it is a minor problem make the tank slow to 50mph to fire the Booms, with the extra power being used to stabilize the shot.

For me the Boom Guns aren't an issue. As other people have noted the Devastator II has boom guns as forearm guns, not super stabilized. The Merc Ops tank version has a Boom Gun in what is basically a machine gun mount, again not super stabilized. You also have a flying GB in Triax 2 that uses vectored thrust to stabilize without use of the pylons.


I see no issue with the ECM/Blackbox/chaff/flares. First off there are active/passive countermeasures on real life tanks today. Second, the Male Shemarrian in Shemarrian Nation has a version of the Blackbox ECM built in, and he has no problem using it.


Again, this thing was built as a bit of a joke, with the Disco Theme, but also to show what you can really build with only Earth Tech. I may flip through the Russian Books for anything else to add.