An artillery mech capable of firing a barrage of rockets upon a large area.
The SHM-68 "Nakovalnya" 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[edit | edit source]
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[edit | edit source]
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 without being deployed, 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 your Nakovalnyas into grouped pairs to alternate their barrages; their long cooldown leaves a space between salvos to be overwhelmed.
Pros[edit | edit source]
- Long range
- 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
- Barrage is quite spectacular with multiple units firing at once
Cons[edit | edit source]
- Very long cooldown between salvos
- Barrage wastes firepower if used on lone targets
- Light armor with no defenses
- Has to be manually targeted if out of Sentry Mode
- Sentry Mode only targets a specified area within range
- Has a dead zone, easy to flank or rush
Weapons[edit | edit source]
The 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[edit | edit source]
- 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[edit | edit source]
- Nakovalnya (наковальня) is Russian for "Anvil."
- The machine bears a resemblance to the real-world Tsar-Tank - a massive tricycle armoured 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 "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, the animation shows the Nakovalnya firing it's rocket in a uncontrollable manner. This is only atheistic and won't do any damage to units and environment.
