A mobile skirmisher armed with explosive rounds effective against clustered foes.
The SHM-86 "Kolokol" (ШM-86 Kолокол, Bell) is a light mech built by Rusviet. It can deal with infantry and light armor using potent close-range explosives.
General Description[]
This mech is designed to be fairly light as Rusviet machines go. It has a relatively small, can-shaped body with two digitigrade legs that give the mech good speed and agility. The joints that attach the legs are further protected by a pair of armored pauldrons. The crew can see forward via a slit in the armor and a spotlight is also mounted to the left front of the hull. Finally, atop the mech is a device known as a flywheel launcher for flinging explosive pucks as well as a loading ramp leading to the ammunition reserve.
The sight of a Kolokol on the field spells doom for any roaming squads of infantry without heavy armor or anti-mech support. Unlike the Polanian Republic's "Straznik" or Saxony Empire's "Grimbart," rather than gunning down infantry one-by-one with machine guns, it uses explosives to deal damage to whole squads at once. While lightly armored, it can weather a fair bit of rifle or machine gun fire, and a pair of these vehicles can quickly level infantry squads.
Kolokols are ill-suited to deal with anti-mech units, however. Gunners, especially attacking from behind, can take it down fairly quickly, as well as Field Guns, and it does little damage to medium mechs like the Lowca. Also, for a light mech it is not very fast and can be chased down by infantry if it tries to flee. Thus, these mechs work best in small packs to smash light vehicles and infantry squads. Light units that have bunched up together and/or have tried to hunker down are also fair game.
Pros[]
- Decently tough for a light mech
- Fires explosives, good damage against lighter mech units
- Unbalanced fire rate
- Can damage clusters of units and knock down infantry
- Rusviet's quickest mech, fast enough to scout or avoid mortars and artillery
- Can decrew any weapon system in short time
- Low oil need
Cons[]
- The projectiles fire and fly slowly, can be avoided by strafing infantry
- Not fast enough to outrun infantry (does not need it anyway)
- Vulnerable to heavier mechs
Weapons[]
The Kolokol's sole weapon is a top-mounted flywheel device, also called a centrifugal grenade launcher, using two opposing spinning wheels to chuck explosive grenades. Their area of effect will do good damage to infantry, as well as briefly knocking down any infantry in the blast radius and leaving them momentarily vulnerable.
Abilities[]
None, currently
Skins[]
- Default Skin
- Wrought Iron - 1,500
- Gold Knight - Rusviet Lvl.15
- Painted Bronze - Player Lvl.15
Trivia[]
- Kolokol (колокол in Russian) is Russian for the word bell.
- The pilot references "ringing the enemy's bell" which is a phrase meaning to hit someones funeral bells.
- There were numerous attempts to develop a practical centrifugal grenade launcher in both World Wars, due to their ability to hurl grenades fast and quietly, without revealing flash or sound. No attempt was successful, however, due to mechanical complexity and relatively low projectile speed.
- Flywheel launchers today are most commonly used to automatically hurl tennis or baseballs for practicing athletes.
Gallery[]
