What is a Vulture?
...'tis an Omnimech mate ^_^
The Mad dog serves mostly as a fire-support 'Mech. Many Mechwarriors have
remarked about the foreboding feeling they sensed before looking up to
see a Mad Dog perched on a ridge, firing missiles at the raging battle
below, just waiting for its victims to die before swooping down for the
carrion. The twin racks of 20 long-range missiles can hasten along the
enemy's death; should the Mad Dog injure it and enemy at long range it
can take fate into it's own hands, or arms in this case, and use its laser
weapons to finish off it's foe.
- Mad Dog Battletech TRO
The Vulture (or "Mad Dog" as it's called by the Clans) is a fire support
Omnimech from Battletech. Omnimechs, and Battlemechs are a special type of
vehicle that appears in Battletech. Usually bipdeal in appearance and with a
mobile turret-like torso, with similary mobile gun mounts at the sides. The high
mobility of the mech, and it's extensive weapon systems and armour makes a 'mech
capable of taking on almost any conventional opponent in the field.
'Mechs have numerous on board systems that are too numerous to mention here, but
the core parts of a Battlemech or Omnimech are as follows; Torso the torso
has the weapon systems mounted both in it, and the arm fixtures are attached to
it, the torso itself can rotate (varying amounts on each mech), to help keep
the enemy in it's sights, the torso is the heaviest armoured point on the mech,
but if the torso is breached internal damage will occur, perhaps even resulting
in the on-board reactor exploding violently. The "arms" are further mobile usually, and track
independantly of the torso, as a result a skilled pilot can shoot backwards
if need be. The legs of the mech are the most controvertial part of a mech
the legs make the difference between a tank and a 'Mech really, they allow the
mech to traverse extremely rough terrain, and travel at suprising speeds, however
they're also a weak spot, since damage can cripple the myomers and actuators
leading to limping, loss of speed - or in extreme cases complete paralysis. The
Mech usually has a reenforced glass cockpit, the cockpit contains the life support
systems and the pilot, while extremely hard to hit, and even harder to breech, it is
technically speaking the weakest point on the mech, since a penetrating hit will
usually incapacitate or kill the pilot, or at the very leats injure him to a point
he control the mech effectivly.
The Vulture is a fairly average Clan Mech, it's more-or-less symetrical in design
mounting pairs of weapons (giving a backup in case of extensive damage to one of
it's weapon systems). It's mostly designed for combat from extreme range, packing
Long Range missile racks and large pulse laser mountings. It does however have
a pair of Medium Pulse lasers in it's nose turret so if something should get too
close it'll find it's armour getting stripped away at an alarming rate from the
Medium laser's blistering rate of fire.
Unlike many mechs, the Vulture has the ability to turn it's torso 360 degrees,
this means that the pilot can attack any enemy, no matter where he is relative
to the mech, the arm-swing abilty then lends even greater aiming flexibility. The
Vulture isn't a particular fast mech, only clocking up 85kph, but it's fast to
keep out of the main fray, and rain missiles onto the enemy. One note is the
Vulture isn't all that well armoured for a mech of it's size, but since it's
meant as a stand-off threat, this isn't really an issue.
The "Funky Chicken" variant that comes with this pack is a customised Vulture
built to Mechwarrior 4 specifications, it is not an official Battletech unit
but rather a user customisation of one. I chose to include this variant since
it mounts 2 PPCs, and Total Annihilation had the technology to hand to simulate
the PPC quite closely to the Battletech form of it, basicly a bit of eye candy
and extra mass destructivness. The Funky Chicken does a lot more damage than
the normal Vulture and is heavier armoured, but at the cost of speed and it has
no tertiary weapon systems (Severe damage may leave it un-armed)