An artillery mech capable of firing a barrage of rockets upon a large area.
The SHM-68 "Nakovalnya" (ШM-68 Hаковальня, Anvil) is a medium-armored artillery mech produced by Rusviet. A long-range fire support unit, it takes indirect fire to the extreme to blanket an area with explosive ordinance.
Lore[]
While most artillery pieces like the SLL 33 "Erlkönig" or the PZM-13 "Mocny" focus on accurate and singularly powerful artillery shells, Rusviet opted for a "more-over-magnitude" approach: saturating a large area with flying explosives to devastate buildings and clumped up enemy units. The shriek of its horde of rockets should herald a sudden need to scatter lest you die with the others.
General Description[]
The Nakovalnya's appearance is quite unusual as far as mechs go. Instead of legs or arms, it rolls on two large wheels and the mech's body swivels on the wheel axles. Most of the body itself is a "pipe-organ" set of large firing tubes that spit out rockets. At the back of the machine, along with the engine, are three small mechanical legs that push the machine around. The pilot is seated in a small armored cockpit on the right-hand side of the machine, accessible through a hatch in the top.
This artillery mech has unparalleled area-of-effect; quite devastating against groups of clumped enemies and dealing good damage to even heavy armor. Unlike other artillery mechs, it can fire at its full, impressive range without having to deploy, and its rockets fly up and over terrain or buildings. Its ability allows it to be set up like a long-ranged turret with decent accuracy
However, if the target is at all mobile or isolated, much of the barrage is wasted as the rockets have a tendency to miss even large targets. It has a minimum range and a very long cooldown, making it easy to rush, flank, or demolish from behind with no close-in defenses. It works best from behind the front lines, pounding and softening up enemy forces as they group up for an attack or try to bunker down. It is also heavily recommended to separate Nakovalnyas into grouped pairs to alternate their barrages; a long cooldown leaves a space between salvos to be overwhelmed.
Pros[]
- Long range
- Barrage has massive AOE, devastates groups of units
- Ignores line of sight
- Strong against infantry and good damage to all armor types
- Does not have to deploy to fire, turns relatively fast, and is not restricted to a narrow arc of fire while not deployed
- Ability makes it a decent defensive tool and helps compensate for lack of accurate fire with Barrage
- Can be built with a standard workshop rather than the advanced workshop that all other artillery mechs require
Cons[]
- Very long cooldown between salvos
- Barrage is extremely inefficient against lone targets
- Light armor with no defenses
- Has to be manually targeted if out of Sentry Mode
- Sentry Mode only targets a fairly small specified area within range
- Has a dead zone, easy to flank or rush
Weapons[]
This mech's sole armament is a set of sixteen rocket tubes fixed together. While not as long-ranged or hard-hitting individually compared to an artillery shell, for their weight the rockets carry strong warheads with a wide area-of-effect and their sheer numbers ensures more overall damage.
Abilities[]
- Bombardment: Unleashes a barrage of rockets at a specified area.
- Sentry Mode: Fires individual rockets at any target that enters a specified area with decent accuracy. This renders the mech immobile.
Trivia[]
- Nakovalnya (наковальня) is Russian for "Anvil."
- A voice line references it being "ready to drop the hammer," the hammer and anvil being terms used to describe two parts of an armed force crushing an enemy between them.
- The machine bears a resemblance to the real-world Tsar-Tank - a massive tricycle armored vehicle with two giant forward wheels and a rear supporting roller, built by the Russian Empire during World War I. However, the Tsar Tank was designed as a massive assault vehicle, not as mobile artillery.
- The Nakovalnya also resembles a number of similar weapons throughout history with similar purposes, from the 15th century Korean Hwacha to the Russian Katyusha rocket system of the 20th century.
- The "68" could reference the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia during the "Prague Spring," a period of protests and reforms.
- An interrupted barrage (eg, enemy unit dies just as the launch is started) sometimes will be cut short but still goes into cool-down.
- When destroyed, an animation shows the Nakovalnya firing rockets in an uncontrollable manner. This is only aesthetic and won't do any damage to units or environment.
Gallery[]
