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I created the CTX-155 as a self-propelled version of the GR-155 Electromagnetic Howitzer

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qwIdTXNkxsSbB-znjQnD-DkP22XCof2e

I love it. The artwork looks great, the stats all make sense and are balanced. You did a great job here, I've saved this file and already consider it cannon within my game universe.

After reading it, I took time to reread it with a critical eye and try to spot anything that I would have done differently. The only thing that comes to mind is that the Cupola Laser Gun seems to be a little more powerful than other such guns on Coalition vehicles. I might have went for a C-30R Light Rail Gun from the SC command car (Coalition War Campaign page 165), or the Hatch Laser Guns from the Mark V APC just to keep things standardized. Honestly your choice is not in any way unbalanced, as their are plenty of examples of similar sized weapons available to the CS that do similar damage. I also like that you chose to have a laser that can patch into the power plant since the main weapon is limited by its ammunition if they were ever to get cut off from supplies.

The main weapon system is spot on with what I would expect the Coalition to have. The range on it is extended beyond it's contemporary modern version, but doesn't go way beyond ranges typical of artillery. The damage is similar to warheads on Medium range missiles. The blast radius is pretty big (fragmentation at 70ft radius can cover a lot of territory), but it is on par with existing statistics for long range missiles.

Another thing you could mention is a tactic that they use in modern military where they fire a sequence of multiple progressive shots at different angle trajectories so that they all hit at the same time to surprise the enemy with a heavily saturated area of fire.

DD The Shmey wrote:I love it. The artwork looks great, the stats all make sense and are balanced. You did a great job here, I've saved this file and already consider it cannon within my game universe.

I see what you did there.

Great tank and I love the artwork. It fits in really well the existing CS mechanized units and fills in some of the gaps nicely. I have some convention games next weekend and the players are going to encounter a CS FOB near Xiticix territory. I had planned on a battery of GR-115's but now I am thinking of using a group of these.

Thanks for the feedback. I cannot take credit for the main gun it's straight from the Cutting Floor. The artwork is directly based on the M109 Paladin. The other players in our group were a little unhappy with me creating this for our GM when got caught in a barrage fir the first time. Artillery is a main stay of modern mechanized forces and I see no reason why it would not be one for the Coalition. My GM agreed and the CTX-155 was born.

DD The Shmey wrote:I love it. The artwork looks great, the stats all make sense and are balanced. You did a great job here, I've saved this file and already consider it cannon within my game universe.

After reading it, I took time to reread it with a critical eye and try to spot anything that I would have done differently. The only thing that comes to mind is that the Cupola Laser Gun seems to be a little more powerful than other such guns on Coalition vehicles. I might have went for a C-30R Light Rail Gun from the SC command car (Coalition War Campaign page 165), or the Hatch Laser Guns from the Mark V APC just to keep things standardized. Honestly your choice is not in any way unbalanced, as their are plenty of examples of similar sized weapons available to the CS that do similar damage. I also like that you chose to have a laser that can patch into the power plant since the main weapon is limited by its ammunition if they were ever to get cut off from supplies.

The main weapon system is spot on with what I would expect the Coalition to have. The range on it is extended beyond it's contemporary modern version, but doesn't go way beyond ranges typical of artillery. The damage is similar to warheads on Medium range missiles. The blast radius is pretty big (fragmentation at 70ft radius can cover a lot of territory), but it is on par with existing statistics for long range missiles.

Another thing you could mention is a tactic that they use in modern military where they fire a sequence of multiple progressive shots at different angle trajectories so that they all hit at the same time to surprise the enemy with a heavily saturated area of fire.

That is an excellent suggestion. I will look at adding a Time on Target attack to the damage stats and write-up.

I originally created an SPH for the CS as a variant on the Mark V APC using the same artillery but I like yours better. I mainly chose the Mark V because of all the variants in Rifter 19. After looking this over I am going to make only one change and that is reducing the crew by one and eliminating the loader. I have been looking at the now canceled XM2001 Crusader and if it had an autoloading system I have to imagine that the CS could manage one.

Mlp7029 wrote:Thanks for the feedback. I cannot take credit for the main gun it's straight from the Cutting Floor. The artwork is directly based on the M109 Paladin. The other players in our group were a little unhappy with me creating this for our GM when got caught in a barrage fir the first time.

I used artillery strikes against my PCs a few times but it only works if the players are slow or taken by surprise. A dragon Hatchling, a Techno-wizard, and a bunch of Power Armors were all impossible to hit.

Mlp7029 wrote:Artillery is a main stay of modern mechanized forces and I see no reason why it would not be one for the Coalition. My GM agreed and the CTX-155 was born.

My original PC group and I have been debating this since CS War Campaign came out. With the advent of MDC creatures, power armors, and mages we just weren't sure how effective it would be.

Even IRL we see that artillery being less important in modern conflicts with even the Crusader being canceled. We figured that artillery would just be part of major armies and only rolled out in big operations, like attacking a Xiticix hive.

Kitbashed Approved!

Warshield73 wrote:I originally created an SPH for the CS as a variant on the Mark V APC using the same artillery but I like yours better. I mainly chose the Mark V because of all the variants in Rifter 19. After looking this over I am going to make only one change and that is reducing the crew by one and eliminating the loader. I have been looking at the now canceled XM2001 Crusader and if it had an autoloading system I have to imagine that the CS could manage one.

Mlp7029 wrote:Thanks for the feedback. I cannot take credit for the main gun it's straight from the Cutting Floor. The artwork is directly based on the M109 Paladin. The other players in our group were a little unhappy with me creating this for our GM when got caught in a barrage fir the first time.

I used artillery strikes against my PCs a few times but it only works if the players are slow or taken by surprise. A dragon Hatchling, a Techno-wizard, and a bunch of Power Armors were all impossible to hit.

Mlp7029 wrote:Artillery is a main stay of modern mechanized forces and I see no reason why it would not be one for the Coalition. My GM agreed and the CTX-155 was born.

My original PC group and I have been debating this since CS War Campaign came out. With the advent of MDC creatures, power armors, and mages we just weren't sure how effective it would be.

Even IRL we see that artillery being less important in modern conflicts with even the Crusader being canceled. We figured that artillery would just be part of major armies and only rolled out in big operations, like attacking a Xiticix hive.

I think artillery would have been heavily utilized in the war on Tolkeen. CS spent a lot of time attacking fixed defenses which are prime targets for arty. I would not interpret too much into Crusader being canceled. The US military is always preparing to fight today's conflict not what tomorrow's will look like. Heavy combat forces in the US are getting the short straw for training and equipment funds currently because anti-terrorism is the mission of the choice today. Besides Crusader did not actually seem to offer much improvement over the current M109 except for the autoloader.

The irony is that when I was creating an artillery platform for a Paladin Steel vehicle, I mounted a mass driver on a copy of a Coalition heavy hover vehicle.
When you made an artillery platform for the Coalition States, you mounted a mass driver on an M109 Paladin vehicle.