Re: Name that Doodad....

(See the archive of GZG digest 280. Very humurous)

Keg of beer... Brings back memories. My first tabletop (instead of
hex-board) wargame was a Battletech game where the objective was a
brewery.
Lets try some other one liner obvious choices for the barrel on front.
how
about :

An armored winch. After all the engineering package dosen't take up
capacity
(at least I haven't found it in the rules), so just bolt one on.

An ammo drum, wouldn't be the first time a military design company had
made
a deathtrap (the original Bradley A.P.C. as an example)

An armored housing for an air filter to keep dirt and fragments out of
ducted fans used for forward propulsion. The figs do have "engine
apretures"
on back, sometimes you can see them between the flash. Besides Iv'e
personally never liked the idea of mounting an A-Grav generator for
"falling" forward movement . It too easily brings to mind the idea of a
cartoon character holding a magnet... (remember gravity moves the
lightest
object the fastest, and sticks it to the heavier object. A 4 ton tank
moving
at 150mph may have 1,000 mph or more winds preceeding it, much less the
two
to three hundred pound infantryman they keep picking up as they pass
infantry emplacements,
    Hey a use for those GW40K cannister platoons, throw them at a GRAV
tank
and let them engage it in melee while they are stuck to the hood.  8D)

Badly placed survival gear in a 55 gallon drum.

Water.

Okay, now for my Paramount Studios Technospeak entry:

The forward cylindrical feature is the housing for the Advanced  Threat
Detection and Analysis Sensor Array (ATDA-SA).

Backstory: The NAC command, pressured by the supply staff of the 103rd
Blood
Tigers, an elite special forces company, made a request for a multi role
vehicle with easy access and maintence away from friendly lines. Royal
Armaments Inc. made the FV700 MMRAV family and won the production
contract.
The Modular Multi-Role Armored Vehicle was an instant hit amongst
command
staff and technical crews for it's ease of repair and it's fast
turnaround
in the repair bays. The modules could be unlimbered quickly and repaired
from angles that were previously unaccessable, while the remainder of
the
vehicle, often in working order, would be off performing it's intended
function.

Later, in the spinward rim colonies an ESU commander named Yuri Ling was
making successful advances against NAC forces. The first thing Commander
Ling attacked was the artillery and air support platforms, with his own
artillery, air support, but especially his own elite special forces.
Then
while the support cannons were waiting for AEV's to return from trench
digging and minelaying to the command lines to repair the damage the ESU
forces would rapidly advance across the battlefield while the main NAC
forces had no artillery cover, and their aircraft were busy in
air-superiority dogfights, unable to take advantage of the air defence
"umbrella" they were so accustomed to having.

This tactic disturbed the NAC comand, and although this was happening on
an
outermost colony world, the continued colonization of more and more
worlds,
meant that garison forces were streched thin and still streching. If ESU
had
found a tactic that could break their lines it would be a serious blow
to
the NAC. Something had to be done about the interruption to the support
cannons and their invalulable cover.

Battle Advanced Technology (BAT) industries came up with the FW series
support vehicles. The original specification called for a modular turret
that could be quickly moved from hull to hull changing a damaged AA gun
with
a working artillery gun off a damaged hull, quickly consolidating the
working elements in to as many tanks as possible. Unfortunately this was
all
but impossible as the design spec for the turret became larger than the
proposed chassis. Increasing the size of the chassis was proposed, and
rejected due to cost considerations as the increased chassis would be
not
only more expensive but harder to work on, something the FV series was
intended to combat. Other proposals included multi-tank formations: if
the
artillery sensor was damaged roll up another one so the cannon could
keep
firing (rejected due to the need for specific placement of vehicles
relative
to each other.), Trailer modules (couldn't move fast enough if front
lines
were overrun, these things were still too expensive to loose casually)
and a
host of even more rediculous ideas, Man portable systems was one of the
most
extravigantly silly.

General Garret Stuart (ret.) was brought in to assist in creation of the
vehicle. As it turned out the NAC had a "strong enough to bend" tactic
that
called for all forces to fall back while command section repairs were
underway, and return strong once completed. The invention of the GRAV
made
ground combat speeds too high to make effective use of this tactic.
However
the BAT research team theorised that if repairs were streamlined, they
might
be able to make effective use of this tactic to make up for time spent
in
repairs.

The FV series tank was made Gravitic itself to get the most out of a
retreat, and given modular components that could be replaced in one
minute
or less, the largetst replacement component was the turret and ammo
bins.
That could take from fifteen minutes up to half an hour, but with a
retreat
at GRAV speeds that might give enough time to make that interval
feasable.
In order to cut down the time on replacing the turret many common
components
between the A and T variants were fitted to the chassis, and some
components
not considered necessary for either, but still might be useful, were as
well
dropping the necessity for them to be moved from one chassis to another,
as
well as providing replacement parts without a supply line.

The barrel looking object seen on the front of the FV series support
vehicle
is one of the components that was not absolutely necessary for the
artillery
gun but mounted anyways. The Intel corp. Argus mark V Advanced Tactical
Sensor had a new cousin: The Argus II ATDA-SA, which incorporated
advanced
magnetic resonance imaging as well as a gravatic pulse detection system,
with the traditional active/passive radar/milimetric, thermal,
low-light,
and telescopic imaging suite common on most support vehicles. The
problem
with the Argus II was its size. It was too large to be placed in place
of
smaller less efficient systems, and less effective than larger sensor
array's common to command and Anti-Battery-Radar carriers. This made the
Argus II a technical masterpiece but a tactical orphan. Intel believed
that
the Argus III would be able to replace smaller sensors in ten years.

Meanwhile back at BAT industries the design was taking shape. The
engineers
had a problem installing the tactical analysis and IFF sensors on the T
variant turret. The sensors required massive weight counterballancing
that
the turret ring couldn't handle. When the turret was applied and the
tank
was overpressured the turret twisted sideways in the ring, binding it in
place. BAT researcher Jeremy Halles worked on some of the Argus II's
side
components, one of which was the parallax compensation for the
long-array
layout of the sensors. The Parallax compensation consisted of a computer
that constantly calculated the angle differential between the leftmost
and
rightmost sensors to arrive at an accurate target point. Jeremy believed
that the computer could handle one more set of variables, the parallax
between the sensors and the gun. This would still involve placing
sensors on
the gun barrel itself , but they wouldn't be as heavy as the complete
sensor
array planned for the turret. Mounted on the forward chassis, the Argus
II
would cover the detection and analysis duties. Intel was happy to sell
the
Argus II to BAT even with the agreement that BAT would do the
modifications,
this would be the first mass order of the Argus II and Intell was
gratefull
to be able to unload their "white elephant". Originally the Argus II was
to
be placed in the hull itself, but it was too large to be placed in the
forward knife edge, and so ended up in a barell shaped housing on the
front
of the tank.

The placement of the Argus II ATDA-SA on the FV series chassis had one
other
effect that was not intended. The artillery batteries were capable of
adding
to a commander's knoledge of the forces arrayed on the battlefield. The
use
of multiple magnetic resonance sensors in a line up to 1.2 KM  long
enhanced
rangefinding and technical analysis of the enemy on the battle field.

With the final results in prototype, BAT requisitioned a NAC combat
group to
perform maintence on the prototypes, swapping every component from one
vehicle to another. At the demonstration for the "brass" the tank
components
were swapped in less than seven minutes, each tank swarming with groups
of
two moving one component each, while a crane and three crew  moved
turrets
between the chassis. Generals at the demonstration were concerned with
the
fact that this was expected to be done under-fire and sometimes while
moving
at gravatic speeds. BAT produced a platoon of each tank for NAC military
to
perform tests. After two months of trials NAC ordered limited production
of
the FV series. Some of the production went to the 103rd Blood Tigers,
who
immediately ordered another platoon of each to replace their aging
support
platoons. After that order colony garrissons began flooding I-Corps
supply
with requisitions for the FV series support tanks. NAC command was
forced to
order unlimited production for the FV series from BAT.

Destruction of the Argus II often gains the comment "Blind as a BAT",
and
the FV series isn't popular amongst toy makers as children often think
that
the barell on front makes it look less cool than the MBTs.

Okay that's my contribution to the theory. As to the fact that I may
have
too much time on my hands: "Aren't we all just killing time before the
final
oblivion anyways?"