The Hammer's Slammers Handbook
Novel
1011250003
10.1125/Baen.0003
Baen Publishing Enterprises
John Lambshead
John Treadaway

Science Fiction
2003 by John Lambshead & John Treadaway
2003-11-01
US English (en-us)

The Hammer's Slammers Handbook

by John Lambshead & John Treadaway

Table of Contents

The Hammers Slammers Handbook

By John Lambshead and John Treadaway

Introduction by David Drake

Miniature wargaming involves moving figurines of soldiers and vehicles across contoured terrain against one or more opponents doing the same thing. Rules of varying complexity cover movement and combat. Figurines (OK, toy soldiers) are molded in many scales, but for ground combat 25-millimeter--that is, a human figure is roughly an inch high--provides a good balance between detail and awkwardly large playing surfaces.

Miniature wargames have a long and honorable history. The Prussian general staff used a variation (sand table exercises) to teach tactics, and H. G. Wells developed a set of rules. (By the way, Wells' rules leave a good deal to be desired. Battles played according to them tend to devolve into squads creeping through alleys behind a field gun.)

In Great Britain, miniature wargaming is big business. Most of the gaming-related materials which one sees in the US--Osprey books and Warhammer 40K, for example--are spillovers from British industry. A British wargamer, Dr. John Lambshead (in his day job he's the man you see to learn about the home life of the marine nematode) contacted me. From him I learned that the Hammer series has a cult following in Britain even though the books have never been well distributed there.

With my enthusiastic approval, John and another wargamer, John Treadaway (a graphics designer who already had a Hammer's Slammers website), put together a proposal for a Hammer's Slammers wargame book and associated figurines. Pireme Publications

http://www.miniwargames.com/

bought the proposal; the book itself should be out around Christmas, 2003. Ground Zero Games are casting the miniatures and metal details for the vehicles, while Old Crow are molding the vehicle hulls and turrets from resin. (Copies will be available from

http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk

shortly.)

The section on this CD includes much of the text from the book. The game rules themselves aren't included, but there are tables and specifications which wouldn't fit in the printed version. In addition there's as many of the graphics, both drawings and photos of painted figurines, as were available before this CD had to be put to bed.

I couldn't be happier with the results. These are the concrete expressions of the men and equipment which were often much fuzzier before John Treadaway and I spent a great deal of time refining them.

Dave Drake
david-drake.com

Extracts From The Hammers Slammers Handbook

By John Lambshead

The Human Galaxy

We are done with Hope and Honour, we are lost to Love and Truth,

We are dropping down the ladder rung by rung;

- Kipling

The theoretical scientific principles behind faster-than-light travel were discovered in the late second millennium but practical experiments demonstrating their utility were nor undertaken until the early third millennium. Star probes were successfully launched by the middle of the millennium and increasingly they actually made it home with live crews who reported the discovery of many Earth-like planets. This period was sometimes known as the Second Age of Exploration after the mid-second millennium on Old Earth. The Second Age of Exploration was followed by the Second Age of Colonisation, as interstellar travel became cheaper and more reliable.

A new land grab developed amongst the stars. Initially, the richer terrestrial states and corporations planted most of the colonies, usually for economic purposes, commonly to exploit some key mineral or biochemical resource. These were mostly well financed but rigidly controlled by the parent body. Poorer nations bankrupted themselves to colonise for reasons of political prestige, the same motivation that led dictators of second millennium starving nations to build battleships, international airports and six lane motorways through the bush. Included in this second, poverty-stricken wave were political and religious fanatics who left Earth to build paradise among the stars. Second wave colonisation was under-capitalised and the failure rate was enormous. The result was invariably impoverished, class-ridden rural societies clinging by their fingertips to existence. Finally, there was a third colonisation wave funded by the richer, more successful colonies themselves. These enterprises were often multicultural adding ethnicity to the potential for conflict.

It's a commonplace observation that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and then as farce. Many a postgraduate thesis has been hung on the assertion that galactic and terrestrial colonisation do or do not resemble each other. If one considers the ancient Spanish and English Empires it is clear that there were two quite separate types of colonies. The first was where a rich but militarily and organisationally weaker civilised state was conquered and looted, as in Mexico or India. No convenient alien race has yet been discovered to fill this role.

The second form of colonisation was the occupation and expansion into an empty land as largely happened with the English expansion into North America and the Spanish into South and Central America. Such colonies have always been a financially losing proposition. They absorb massive resources from the host nation and promptly rebel as soon as they become economically profitable. A sole imperial power might with great effort have hung on to its colonies but in human space there were always rivals for power and so the scene was set for conflict.

And the galaxy burned.

Extract from The First Galactic Empire, Theodore Bose.

The Mercenary Regiments

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
but we've proved it again and again,
that if once you have paid him the Dane-geld,
you never get rid of the Dane

– Kipling

It's a truism that human beings have never needed much in the way of technology to kill each other but it is equally true that it never hurts to have better weapons than one's potential opponents provided, and here is the rub, one knows how to use them. Many of the bush wars that burned across the galaxy occurred in impoverished, disorganised, politically corrupt, class structured colonies. Where armies existed, the troops were undertrained, badly armed and demotivated. The officer class tended to be, if anything, even worse, commissions and promotions being generally dependent on political or family connections.

Few colonies possessed the resources to manufacture anything but the most basic military equipment. Of course, better equipment could be purchased, often at some economy-breaking percentage of a colony's GNP, but was then handed to troops who had little idea how to service it, let alone use it in combat. Peasant communities were littered with immobile and inoperable prestigious military toys. There were a number of examples of low-tech armies slaughtering nominally superiorly equipped forces; a machete that cuts has many advantages over a laser rifle that fails to fire because the owner did not know to keep the mirrors clean. The classic example was on Sargon's World where the Bushmen massacred the beautifully tailored and equipped army of the Third Prophet before sacking his city. Grass still grows in the streets of what was Templetown.

A better solution was to hire professional soldiers who brought and operated their own equipment. A peasant community could, by putting itself in a debt that their grandchildren would still be paying, hire an elite regiment for a matter of weeks or months. But at least this way they would have grandchildren, losing meant impoverishment, cultural annihilation, economic slavery or even genocide.

Mercenaries can be defined as military units that are hired for a limited period of time and come complete with their own officers and equipment. This rules out situations where foreigners are co-opted either voluntarily or forcibly into a national army and armed and officered by national citizens. Other than that it is rather difficult to generalise about the mercenary regiments. Some were regular military units of a Terran or Colonial state hired out for political or financial gain. Others, although recruited primarily from a single state, especially the officer cadre, were organisationally and financially independent of that state's government. At the other extreme were cosmopolitan units that had no connection with any particular state or world.

The relationship between mercenaries and their employers is always fraught. The hosts tend to regard their employees as a bunch of unprincipled, armed thugs who are leeching off them in their moment of greatest need and whose loyalty is suspect. After all someone, possibly the enemy, might come up with a better employment offer and business is business. It has not been unknown in history for mercenaries to change sides at a critical moment.

For their part, the mercenaries tend to treat their employers with open contempt. After all, if they had any balls they wouldn't need to hire troops. This attitude is not helped by the fact that the only locals most of the troops are likely to meet are the hustlers and the whores who hang around the army camps.

However, the real problems arise when the fighting ends. It occurs to the civilians that the mercenaries are now the strongest power in the land and it occurs to the mercenaries that the civilians might think their pay now an unnecessary expense. The situation can be even worse if the mercenaries' side lose. Any armistice deal is unlikely to include clemency to foreign mercenaries, let alone back pay.

In the late 3rd Millennium, mercenary warfare was so prevalent that it was commercially viable to set up a Bonding Authority of merchant banks to oversee mercenary contracts. The Authority grew out of Felchow & Sohn in Bremen, the first merchant bank to see the lucrative opportunities of war as a business. The system worked by clients depositing a bond of money at the Authority which was released to the mercenaries provided they satisfied their contract, which was to fight not necessarily to win, or if the client broke their end of the deal. The Authority itself prepared and enforced the contracts, mercenary units that reneged were declared outlaw and hunted down and destroyed.

In the short term, the Authority 'civilised' the endless bush fires across the galaxy, sharply reducing the incidence of atrocities either by or to the mercenaries. In the long term, by making war just another form of acceptable business, albeit a highly profitable one, the Authority had a devastating effect on galactic development. The whole commercial system was winding down as resources were diverted from infrastructure development into weapons and soldiers. In many ways this was more devastating then the wars themselves as planet after planet spent the bulk of its GNP on servicing military debts.

The Great Crash was entirely predictable.

Extract from War and Finance, a history of merchant banking Sarah Loyd

The Men Behind The Guns

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
the drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

– Kipling

The poverty stricken agricultural societies scattered across human space made fertile recruiting grounds for the mercenary regiments. They tended to leave with as many troopers as which they arrived from every planet they fought upon regardless of losses. Regiments generally preferred farm boys as recruits to the urban slum dwellers of Old Earth or the more urbanised colonies because they had fewer psychological problems; oddly enough sociopaths, psychopaths and gangsters tend to make bad soldiers.

Farming families in the agricultural colonies tended to be large despite the high infant mortality rate; children were needed to work the farm. However, eventually only one offspring and spouse could inherit or the farm would have to be split into uneconomically small units. The options for younger sons were limited. A trooper's monthly pay in one of the elite regiments was higher than a year's salary for an agricultural labourer. Troopers also got access to medical care and pensions if they survived. The death rate among the dirt-poor farmers did not compare particularly favourably with soldiers.

Finally, soldiering had a certain romantic wickedness to it. The image of a swooning exotic girl on every planet just ready to be bowled over by a likely lad in a uniform stuffed with money to spend held a considerable attraction, at least for the male recruits.

If a recruit was lucky, they ended in an elite mechanised regiment where they fought protected by the thickest iridium armour, the best electronics and the most powerful guns the galaxy had ever seen. They also received an education, maybe for the first time in their lives. If they were unlucky, they spent their days as paramilitary policemen in ill fitting uniforms, that sometimes still bore bloodstains from the previous owner, gunning down rioters in shantytowns.

Officers in the regiments came from a variety of backgrounds. If the unit was mono-ethnic, the officers might be drawn from the traditional upper classes. Sometimes they were businessmen, protecting their investment. In the best regiments where results counted more than fashionable accents, officers were promoted from below.

As long as business was good, and there was never enough productive farmland to go round, the recruits came whatever their reception.

Extract from Psychology Of A Hired Gun, Fin Sao

Weapons Of The Late 3RD Millennium

Gold is for the mistress – silver for the maid –
copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.

'Good!' said the Baron – sitting in his hall,
'But Iron – Cold Iron – is master of them all.'

– Kipling

Firepower

The most effective weapons of the late 3rd Millennium were powerguns. They worked on the principle that metallic atoms of a fixed linear magnetic orientation could be converted directly into energy by the application of heat, pressure and intersecting magnetic fields. Powerguns used cartridges of copper-cobalt aligned in a wafer of microporous polyurethane. Powerguns released a flash of energy and plasma that struck in straight lines at light speed. Short iridium barrels were used to protect the firer from scatter. The barrels were cooled with liquid nitrogen but even so had limited life spans.

Powerguns came in all sizes from 1-2 cm infantry weapons to 15-25 cm heavy tank guns. Starships and planetary defence systems used similar weapons of up to 100 cm diameter. Quick-firing guns of 1-3 cm could be manufactured and these were commonly grouped into multi-barrelled, anti-personnel and air defence weapons, gatlings or calliopes. One tactical quirk is that powergun shots released all their energy on the first thing they hit, even soft cover could be protective to a target, at least for the first shot. Powerguns were expensive and difficult to manufacture but were the standard Terran military weapon.

Fig. 3. Heuvelman IA17, 2cm Infantry
Powergun with magazine tube waiting to be loaded (John Treadaway)

High intensity lasers were utilised in much the same way. They had less destructive power than powerguns, were expensive to manufacture, and were more delicate but they had one major advantage for colonial warfare in that they did not require ammunition.

Kinetic energy weapons of various sizes, from infantry weapons to heavy tank guns, and various levels of sophistication were still employed. There were too many variants to discuss here but they break down into simple, cheap, solid propellant ammunition, the more effective wire-fired liquid propellant rounds, and complex electromagnetic rail or coil guns that fired penetrators at flat hypervelocities. The most sophisticated versions of the latter fired osmium fletchettes down squeeze cone-bore barrels made from a single synthetic diamond crystal. These hypervelocity guns had higher penetration than powerguns but less destructive impact. They were not cheap and could only be manufactured by technically advanced cultures such as the Gorgon Cluster.

Artillery weapons, which includes guns, rockets and missiles, could fire a wide variety of ordinance over considerable distances. Loads included anti-personnel cluster rounds (firecrackers), anti-armour rounds with seeker heads, ground penetrators (bunker-busters), biochemical warfare rounds, nuclear warheads (if the enemy was foolish enough not to be protected by nuclear suppresser fields), electronic warfare rounds, reconnaissance rounds and even good old high explosive & shrapnel. Artillery was truly devastating if it penetrated the opposition's air defences.

Artillery was such a potentially puissant weapon that competent armies carried air defence guns that could shoot artillery shells out of the air before they deployed their bomblets. A variety of small to medium sized multi-barreled gatlings or calliopes were used in conjunction with sophisticated automatic detectors and targeting devices.

Some remarkably simple weapons were in common use even in the most sophisticated forces, for examples grenades, grenade launchers and buzz bombs. Buzz bombs were simple, unguided, short range, anti-armour rockets of a wide variety of designs. They were an infantryman's personal artillery and could penetrate any armour. They gave tankers sleepless nights as they could not be decoyed or shot down. An armoured vehicle's only hope was to prevent the infantryman getting close enough or to use automatic strip mines. These were claymore-type devices positioned along the sides of armoured vehicles that sprayed shotgun–like blasts of shrapnel. They could be set to fire automatically if the vehicle sensors detected infantry or incoming buzz bombs. Hypervelocity unguided rocket-penetrators were used in the anti-tank role precisely because they were too fast to intercept either by gunfire or stripmines but these weapons required stable launch bases of greater mass than an infantryman's shoulder.

Combat Vehicles

Military combat vehicles could be wheeled, tracked or hover craft. Wheeled vehicles were by far the simplest and cheapest to manufacture and maintain. Their disadvantages were limited all-terrain ability and limited weight capability, which precluded anything other than light armour although surprisingly large weapons could be fitted, provided the recoil was not too high. Light weight limited designs to armoured personnel carriers and armoured cars. Wheeled combat vehicles were always horribly vulnerable to mines.

Tracked vehicles offered considerably better terrain capability than wheeled and could carry considerably more weight. Their disadvantages lay in complexity and cost. Tracks could also be an endless maintenance problem. The most sophisticated tracked vehicles used electromagnetic suspensions that floated the body independently of the transmission but the cost and sophistication of such armoured fighting vehicles was not much less than a hover vehicle.

The elite armed forces used hover transmission vehicles. These required large power supplies, usually fusion motors, but could carry high weights allowing heavy armour. They were expensive, sophisticated vehicles with complex computer controlled tiltable multi-fans pressurising a plenum chamber. They had excellent terrain crossing ability, the lighter vehicles had sufficient power to weight ratio to cross open water and some with no armour could even fly (should the driver be tired of life).

A variety of armour types was employed. The most common heavy armour was cast iridium, which gave a good all round performance. Various steel and sapphire composite heavy armours were also used. These sacrificed some protection against kinetic energy penetrators for robustness to powerguns and shaped charges. High tech lighter armours included ceramic-iridium composites and titanium-aluminium alloys. Some armies still made do with steel, which at least had the virtue of being cheap and usually could be manufactured locally.

It is worth noting that no combat aircraft were seen over late 3rd Millennium battlefields. Sophisticated automatic detection and targeting systems coupled through AIs to heavy hypervelocity and light speed long-range weapons made an airman's lot a very unhappy one. Heavily protected hyperspeed aerospace fighters were used to deliver ordinance from low orbit but these are best considered to be a form of strategic artillery.

Hammers's Slammers

If wars were won by feasting, or, victory by song,
or safety found in sleeping sound, how England would be strong!

But honour and dominion are not maintained so.
They're only got by sword and shot, and this the Dutchmen know!

– Kipling

Background

The armoured regiment usually known by its nickname of The Slammers started as the Friesland Auxiliary Regiment, raised to fight on Melpomone, an agricultural colony under the control of Friesland. Friesland had originally been a speculative colony set up by Dutch entrepreneurs. When its GNP matched that of Holland, it declared UDI and bought out the shares of the original cartel at 2 cents on the Euro. Like most colonies, Friesland was heavily class-stratified with the ruling families of the Great Houses drawn from the ranks of those that had owned key resources in the original colony.

Friesland was stable and prosperous, so it could afford the finest military equipment from the arms industry on Earth. However, its military suffered from the twin disadvantages of a severe lack of combat experience and the fact that entry to the military academy and promotion in the officer corps depended to a great degree on family connections. These problems proved critical when Melpomone rebelled.

Melpomone produced a cash crop, the bluebright plants whose biochemistry was the source of a popular stim-drug. Bluebright farmers got wheat-prices for a crop that made the owners of Friesland shipping and chemical companies very rich. Twelve regiments of regulars failed to put down the inevitable rebellion.

Colonel Hammer was Executive Officer of the prestigious Guards Of The Republic, one of the handful of men who had achieved rank in the regiment on professional merit rather than aristocratic lineage. To his contemporaries' horror, he volunteered to leave the Guard to outfit and command a regiment of foederati recruited from soldiers with combat experience from all over human space. The Slammers did what the regulars could not do, crushed the rebellion and incidentally earned themselves a reputation for ruthless efficiency in the process.

Fig. 4 Uniform Insignia and name tape
from a Slammers combat uniform
(John Treadaway)

It was always understood that the Auxiliary Regiment would be disbanded when the rebellion was over and its troopers granted Friesland citizenship as a reward. However Secretary to the Council of State Tromp, who ran Friesland, regarded promises made to foreign mercenaries as worthless and resolved to execute the Slammers now their usefulness had ended. To this end, he landed a full armoured regiment of Guards on Melpomone to control the Starport and disarm the mercenaries.

The Slammers launched a lethal set piece attack on the Starport, annihilating the Guards in 13 terror-filled minutes of firepower. The next day the Slammers lifted in rented freighters and began their career as a high-end mercenary unit. They were perhaps the first but they were not to be the last.

A well-deserved reputation for pitiless competence followed Colonel Hammer's Slammers over nearly three decades of near continuous warfare. Friesland itself was not immune to the political instability that dogged human space. President Smol of the Council had been little more than Secretary Tromp's puppet and after the Secretary's unfortunate death at Melpomone various factions manoeuvred for control. Van Vorn finally assumed the Presidency arousing simmering hostility from a faction led by Counsellor Theismann.

Thiessman eventually rebelled when Van Vorn declared himself President-For–Life and the Counsellor hired the Slammer's to make him Dictator. Van Vorn poisoned himself after the Slammer's broke the Iron Guard at New Wageningen. Unfortunately, Thiessman walked into a stray round leaving Hammer to assume the Presidency. He legitimised his position by marrying Lady Anneke Tromp, daughter of the late Secretary Tromp, and the Slammers were out of the mercenary business. The regiment was now officially the 1st Brigade of the Friesland Defence Force.

Hammer's Slammers Order of Battle

Headquarters (Alpha) Company

Colonel Hammer, staff
officers, satellite launch & maintenance, finance, security element (153
personnel)

Maintenance

3 tank transports, 6 combat
car transports, all on stretched chassis ACV's, 2 large and 4 smaller 'dozers
(212 personnel)

Communications

(143
personnel)

Medical

24 line doctors and 36 others
including a full field hospital (60 personnel)

Supply - including
mess & quartermaster

(143
personnel)

Intelligence

3 command cars with
mechanical intelligence teams (84 personnel)

Transport

288 ACV Trucks (312 personnel)

Combat Car
Battalion

144 combat cars, 48 command cars in 8 companies of 4
line platoons, each platoon has 6 vehicles - 5 combat cars and one command car
(800 personnel)

Tank Battalion

64 tanks, 4
command tanks, 4 companies of 4 platoons plus command tank, each platoon has 4
tanks - (144 personnel)

Infantry
Battalion

Battalion Command, 4 companies of command element plus
4 platoons, each platoon has a command element and four ten man squads equipped
with skimmers plus 3 ACV jeeps carrying a mixture of support weapons, mostly
100mm mortars (808 personnel)

Artillery
Battalion

18 self-propelled rocket assisted howitzers, 3
batteries of 6 launchers, plus 3 command cars and 6 ammo haulers - (162
personnel total)

Replacement Battalion

10 tanks,
25 combat cars, 40 skimmers and 100 ACV trucks (1500

personnel)

Regimental Personalities

Colonel Hammer

Alois Hammer was born into a moderately prosperous professional family on the Dutch-culture independent colony of Friesland. His father was an insurance loss adjuster and his mother a nurse. He spent considerable time with his maternal grandfather who had been an NCO with a Flemish mechanised regiment on Old Earth and had fought in the Surawak Emergency. Hammer was a bright but not exceptional student. His grandfather had fought alongside a cousin of one of the Great Houses of Friesland and called in an old favour to get Hammer admitted to the Friesland Military Academy.

Hammer was single minded in his pursuit of a commission, it is true to say that he was respected rather than liked at the Academy. Alois Hammer turned out to be one of those few individuals who show military genius. He distinguished himself as a junior officer at the Sheroba debacle and the invasion of Lyon, Although his professional ruthlessness appalled his fellow officers, who considered themselves gentlemen, it soon came to the notice of his political masters who used him for special tasks.

As a reward for services to the Friesland Council, Hammer was promoted to Executive Officer of the Guards of the Republic, the first 'commoner' to achieve such a distinction. The appointment was not a success. The amateur gentlemen of the officer's mess deeply resented the admittance of an 'oik' with no social graces who was utterly uninterested in horse racing and had unsettling, unorthodox views on soldiering.

At the time Friesland was attempting unsuccessfully to enforce its political control over Melpomone with its valuable bluebright extract. Despite overwhelming military superiority on paper, the line regiments of Friesland showed a depressing inability to cope with the unorthodox guerrilla tactics of the rebels.

Hammer volunteered to be colonel of the Auxiliary Armoured Regiment of mercenaries recruited to do what Friesland soldiers shied away from. The Auxiliary Regiment was highly successful in crushing the rebellion and coalesced into an elite unit. Their methods were effective but brutal involving hostage taking and the gassing of rebel villagers.

The battle for the Melpomone Starport demonstrated that Hammer was a master of set piece armoured engagements and this tactical talent was demonstrated repeatedly over the next three decades. However, Melpomone Starport also showed that Hammer had two further skills, for military strategy and political infighting. Individuals who have all three skills are extremely rare and they tend to leave their mark on history; these are the Caesars.

Danny Pritchard

Pritchard was born on Dunstan, an agricultural planet that grew wheat to feed the industrial planets of Hagener, Weststar, Mirage and Jackson's Glade. The industrial worlds set up a cartel to keep wheat prices low. Pritchard's life changed when warfare erupted between the Scots and Hindi settlers on Weststar. The Hindi agent for the cartel on Dunstan recruited a battalion of Dunstan farm boys and shipped them in a grain freighter's hold to Weststar. Danny flipped a coin with his brother Jig and lost; he shipped out that day.

Jig never inherited the farm, five years later his tractor overturned crushing the cab. Danny was lucky; the Slammers landed on Weststar the same day as the freighter and needed replacements after the heavy attrition on Lost Dreams. They bought the Dunstan recruits as a job lot. Seven years and seven contracts later Danny Pritchard was Sergeant-Commander of a tank platoon in the attack on Foster's regiment at Starhome. The tanker showed promise as a leader and was given a commission after a two-year crash course in the Grüningen Academy on Friesland.

Pritchard was promoted to Captain for his skilful fighting retreat in the face of superior forces on the Messenine Plain at Hellenika. On Kobold, Captain Pritchard was the officer that Hammer trusted to carry out a complex political deception on Barthe's Company before crushing the regiment in a tank assault. Kobold was a defining moment in Danny Pritchard's career as it was here he began to have severe doubts about his career choice, appalled by the casual way soldier's civilian's lives were expended in the pursuit of political objectives.

After Kobold, Pritchard was promoted to major and appointed S-3, the Slammer's Operations Officer. He fulfilled this role for five years right up to the incorporation of the Slammers in the Friesland Defence Force. He then resigned his commission and married Margritte DiManzo who had been his commo tech when he was a company commander in tanks. Pritchard served Friesland and President Hammer as Minister of Reconciliation and then Interior Minister. On Colonel Hammer's death of old age Pritchard succeeded him as President.

Joachim Steuben

Major Steuben came from the highly civilised ancient colony of Newland. Steuben was a classic sociopath. It was not that he was wicked or mentally ill but simply that he lacked any ability to empathise with anyone else and there was a hole in his thinking where most people have a conscience. In the wrong circumstances, logic could cause him to commit acts that most people would find evil. Steuben also happened to be a natural gunfighter. He was a slender attractive man, always immaculately dressed in hand-tailored clothes, who made no secret of his homosexuality. This appearance sometimes led stupid people to try to bully him. After one duel to many, where he killed the son of the city governor, Steuben found it expedient to leave Newland. He drifted across the galaxy, living on inherited wealth until he was recruited into the Auxiliary Regiment of Friesland.

After several attempts by the rebels on his life plus some unsavoury non-combat incidents with some of his troopers, Colonel Hammer decided he needed a disciplined security detachment of military police. In the urbane, educated, utterly ruthless Steuben, the Colonel found just the man to lead them. The security detachment grew to four combat car platoons, known officially as A Company, and to the rest of the Slammers as 'The White Mice'.

Steuben was completely loyal to Hammer, as only a lonely man can be to his first love, and would carry out almost any act to protect his Colonel's interests. It is believed to be Steuben who assassinated Secretary Tromp and Councillor Theisman. Loyalty turned to jealousy as Hammer came to need and rely on many other people when Colonel Hammer of the Slammers became President Hammer of the Friesland Republic.

Joachim Steuben started to become a dangerous embarrassment when he threatened to kill Danny Pritchard and became sexually jealous of Hammer's wife. He was reported killed by a pistol blast in the back; no one was arrested for the crime.

Campaigns

In two decades the Slammers carried out almost 50 operational combat contracts. There is not space to list them all here so only a few of the most significant are discussed.

Melpomone Starport

The Melpomone Starport was held by a Friesan Armoured Guard Regiment who were supposed to disarm the Slammers and execute them. The Slammers put in a set piece attack on the Starport, shelling the port with firecracker round. As the Guards used calliopes to shoot down the shells, Slammer tanks in the hills above the port smashed the AA guns with long-range tank shots. More long-range shots incinerated the Guard's artillery vehicles while firecrackers scythed down unprotected Guard troopers. Guard tanks tried to reply, shooting long range at vehicles hull down in the hills but Slammer tanks that had worked their way in to the Starport perimeter smashed the Guard tanks and combat cars at close range.

Starhome

The planet Thrush is home to a whole series of religious memorials created by a long disappeared alien federation. Two religious factions struggled for control. One group hired Colonel Foster's Infantry to hold Starhome, one of the larger alien artefact temples against the other group who hired the Slammers. The armoured regiment took Starhome from Foster's Regiment and the rebels, unfortunately smashing most of it in the process. The famous quote from an unknown Slammer is that "We had to destroy Starhome to save it".

Curwin

On Curwin the Slammers put down a rebellion of local farmers for the shipping companies. This was a nasty grinding guerrilla war that ended when the shippers' money ran out and the Slammers shipped out.

Liberty

The single inhabited continent of liberty was divided into two states, Placida and Armstrong, concentrated on the east and west coasts with volcanic ash and lava flows in between. Both states were prosperous on rare metal mining and could afford to invest considerable monies in destruction. A series of vicious mechanised battles were fought across the wastes until an armistice was agreed. Some Slammer tank companies took 60% losses in single engagements.

Plattner's World

The various city-states on Plattner's World grew rich exporting a natural anti-ageing drug. The people of the outer states, The United Cities gathered the tree moss from which the drug was extracted and it was shipped out by Solace in the central upland, the only place where a Starport could be built. The planet Nonesuch encouraged Solace to put the port fees up while paying for the United Cities to hire the Slammers when civil war broke out. Despite hiring a number of regiments, the United Cities lacked the strategic facilities to organise the various regiments that they had hired and were losing to the better co-ordinated Solace forces when the Slammers carried out one of the most incredible blitzkriegs in armoured history. They abandoned the defence, formed a series of all arms battle-groups and struck cross country at the heart of Solace, the starport which supplied all the Solace regiments. Capturing the port ended the war at a stroke. This campaign is obligatory study-material at every military academy in the galaxy.

Kerwi

On Kerwi the Slammers fought for the Kingdom of Marshall against the electromagnetic tanks of the Lightning Division hired by the Kingdom of Ganz. Expensive high-tech armoured vehicles hunted each other through valleys and mountain passes dominated by medieval castles.

Pohweil

A shipping cartel made a grab for the government of Pohweil, which was controlled by the farmers' cartel. The shippers hired mercenaries to besiege and capture the capital. They would have done it too, if the farmers hadn't hired the Slammers to blast a corridor through to the capital. The opposing mercenaries tried to ambush the Slammer convoys without much success, after that it was all over bar the mopping up.

Sulewesi

Sulewesi was colonised by two waves of Malay settlers. The first owned everything, the second wanted a cut, so flames lanced the desert. The rebels hired the high-tech veteran `Brasilians so the government hired the Slammers, with a number of cheap regiments to fill the gaps on both sides. The sand-swept deserts of Sulewesi were the perfect theatre for armoured warfare and the Slammers and Brasilians duelled, slashing the lesser regiments to shreds.

Kobold

Kobold was a joint colony of Francophone Aurore and Flemish Friesland. The French dominated the colony, oppressing the Flemish settlers and inciting a rebellion. The settlers hired the Slammers and the French hired three well equipped Francophone regiments, the Alaudae, the Phenix Moirots and the Compagnie de Barthe. Aurore and Friesland came to a compromise and rehired the four regiments to keep order. Unfortunately, Col Barthe and the Aurore Government planned a double cross, smuggling powerguns to the French settlers. Eventually, Barthe pushed his luck and the Slammers pounced. Powerguns flamed the Kobold forests until the Compagnie de Barthe was crushed.

Prosperity

Prosperity Conservatives, equipped and operating from Terran Enclaves based around two starports in the north of the continent, ran a successful insurgency against the corrupt Nationalist Government who theoretically controlled the rest of the continent. The government hired the Slammers to break the rebellion.

The Slammers rapidly ascertained that Conservative operations depended on a constant supply of reinforcements and weapons down from the Terran Enclaves. The regiment interdicted the neutral zone, The Strip, shutting off the arterial supply to the insurgents in the south. Nationalist forces, beefed up by security detachments of Major Steuben's White Mice, began to get on top of the Conservative Action Movement (CAM) so the Conservatives gambled all on a single push, the Autumn Offensive.

Nationalist defectors slaughtered their officers and loyalist colleagues, and seized barracks with their all-important armouries. Thousands of weapons and ammunition were passed out to Conservative sympathisers. In some cases where even their officer corps had been subverted, entire battalions went over to the Conservative side. Large, well-armed formations of Conservative Regulars burst out of the Terran Enclaves and attacked the Nationalist units lining The Strip.

On The Strip, Slammer artillery hogs obliterated concentrated Nationalist formations and the survivors were mopped up by Slammer mechanised armoured detachments. In the south, the Conservatives achieved considerable success. All over the nationalist cities, military formations disintegrated without a fight, were overrun, or sat tight in fortified positions and screamed for someone else to come and rescue them. CAM units threatened to capture the provincial capital of Kohang on the southern coast precipitating the collapse of the Nationalist Government.

Twenty-seven Conservative units of company or battalion strength besieged the Government Compound in Kohang. On paper, the Provincial Governor had at his disposal 3,000 armed police and 6,000 soldiers organised into ten battalions of light infantry, although many had deserted or were ignoring orders. The 12th and 23rd Infantry Divisions under General Halas from Camp Fortune near Kohang were ordered to break the siege but seemed unable to organise themselves to advance. The 4th Armoured Brigade, based at Camp Victory to the south west of Kohang, did manage to mount an attack but soon bogged down in a series of ambushes.

By chance, the Slammers had a maintenance facility at the Nationalist military base Camp Progress in the central highlands to the south. The Slammer component at the base was commanded by Captain June 'Junebug' Ransom who was ordered to put a scratch column together from whatever armour and personnel she had available and break the siege of Kohang.

Camp Progress came under attack from a Conservative line battalion at the start of the Autumn Offensive. The Slammer detachment, consisting of a reduced company of six combat cars and a single troop of three tanks, put in an immediate counter attack destroying the attackers; Conservative losses were in excess of 60%.

Captain Ransom was given immediate orders to form a scratch-built jock column from the troops and equipment she had immediately available and relieve Kohung with her five remaining combat cars and three tanks. The column was ambushed right outside the camp in a troop recreation town called Happy Days. All the Slammer vehicles successfully traversed the town, annihilating a Conservative company en passant.

Ransom crossed the Padma at Adako Beach, a hamlet of twenty or thirty buildings built on the confluence of the Adako Creek and the Padma destroying a company of Conservative mobile infantry before they could debuss from their trucks. Her column then crossed the bridge at la Reole after breaking through the besieging Conservative lines. One tank was lost to friendly fire and another fell through the damaged bridge into the river.

The panicking Conservatives instructed the 1st of the 4th Nationalist Armoured Brigade, who had rebelled, to intercept Ransom's remaining vehicles at Kawana. The 1st had around 20 light tanks with 10 howitzer tanks in support. Ransom with one heavy blower tank and five combat cars annihilated the traitor company in a pincer attack, losing her life in the process. The column relieved Kohang and the heart had been ripped out of the rebellion.

Extracts From The Hammers Slammers Web Page

By John Treadaway

http://www.salute.co.uk/slammers3/index.htm

The M2 "Blower" Tank

Fig. 2. Icarus Industries M2A1 AFV, "Herman's Whore".
Combat laden and with field modifications (John Treadaway)

Manufacturer: Icarus Industries, Terra

Mass: 170 tonnes

Hull Dimensions: Length 11.2.m; width 6.95m; height (to top of turret) 2.8m

Armour: Cast Iridium

Power Source: Fusion bottle

Propulsion: 8 fans feeding into steel plenum chamber

Top Speed: 120kph

Max Lift: 0.1 metre

Amphibious: No

Crew: 2

Offensive Systems: Main gun 20cm powergun, secondary weapons 2cm tri-barrel powergun & ground penetrator rockets

Defensive Systems: Anti buzz bomb strip mines (ADS), mine-clearing net launcher

Artificial Intelligence: Extremely high

In Use With: Hammer's Slammers

Icarus Industries, of Hamburg, Terra, make one of the most powerful tanks employed by state armies or mercenary companies. In terms of overall performance, they have the best combination of speed, armour and firepower available anywhere and are much sought after by those organisations that can afford to use them.

The M2 series of heavy tanks has been in continuous production with Icarus for over twenty years. It has 'reached the end of it's production run' several times in the last decade but - without a definite replacement finalised – the M2 will be in use for many years to come and may still be in production for the next decade. Certainly it will continue to be upgraded both by the original manufacturer and independent suppliers.

The M2 "Ursa" was designed as a replacement for the earlier M1 of the same name. Since the introduction of the M2, the M1 is sometimes referred to as the Ursa Minor and the M2 as the Ursa Major. In the line they are both simply referred to as "Blowers".

The M1

Fig. 5. Icarus Industries M1A6 AFV, "Snow White".
Firing the 20cm main weapon.
Model by Ground Zero Games, Painted by Kevin Dallimore,
photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

This vehicle was a heavy tank of a previous generation. Slab sided and efficient looking, the M1 was armoured with a steel-faced sapphire and composite sandwich. Over 1 metre thick on the turret and frontal armour this offered protection against most current weapon systems up to an including 10cm power guns. Being one of the first AFV's fitted with a 15cm powergun, the M1 was a 'heavy hitter' compared to competitive vehicles of the time. Massing at over 130 tonnes and with eight 1.3 metre fans providing thrust into a steel, inward slanting plenum chamber, the M1 could travel at 120kph. Defensive measures included a flechette machine gun fitted to a small commander's turret, later replaced by a 1cm auto powergun. ADS strips covered the frontal and side arcs with static, ceramic 'stand off' plates on the rear of the vehicle.

Variants included a turret-less tank destroyer version (the M11) mounting the same main weapon but in a lower chassis with extra frontal armour and the M46 20cm Rocket Assisted Howitzer, which uses a much lighter variant of the hull M1 hull. The M46 is in use with various standing armies and mercenary units. Because of its modular construction, the M1 chassis is still very popular with maintenance crews and the design flexibility enables it to be utilised in a number of different configurations. The M46 has only four fans and lift is reduced commensurately but – with a lighter turret – the overall combat weight, depending on model, is between 40 and 60 tonnes so performance is only slightly degraded.

The final M1 variant – the M1A6 – has a mass of 145 tonnes with extra armour packs, an anti mine net pod fitted into a new frontal armour panel, a 2cm tribarrel in a new commander's cupola (having dispensed with the mini turret) and all round ADS. Top speed has been reduced to 100kph and many consider the vehicle overloaded, however, until the arrival of the M2 series, the M1A6 was one of the most potent tanks in service and will continue to feature on TOE's for a considerable period of time.

The M2

Starting afresh, Icarus planned the M2 as an entirely new departure with a hull manufactured from a one piece casting of solid iridium with the turret formed in a similar process. This threatened to increase the all up combat weight to over 170 tonnes and – even with new and very powerful 1.5 metre turbine fans fitted – a speed of 120kph was only attained by making the plenum chamber from plain armoured steel rather than the planned steel faced, beryllium and iridium lattice re-enforced material that had been specified at the design stage.

Combat trials were made of the M2 with a 15cm Power gun, as fitted to the previous M1 series. This proved the concept and a small batch were manufactured in this configuration. The first major variant was the M2A1, which was up-gunned with the 20cm powergun as its main weapon.

Again to save weight, the M2 dispensed with the commanders 'mini turret' fitted to the M1 design and all marks have a simple cupola with a 2cm tribarrel fitted as standard.

The heavy, domed turret which accounts for 38 tonnes of the vehicles weight, spins on frictionless magnetic bearings. One person can spin the turret by hand, given sufficient time, and there are crank handles deployed internally to achieve this, although in practice this is only ever performed in the workshop: the gearing is such that over 600 turns of the handle are required to turn the turret through 360 degrees!

The main weapon, whose barrel is 3m long, has a short breech assembly which is fed by 20cm plastic ammunition discs from a 20 round 'ready magazine' however the vehicle itself carries over 800 rounds in total. Although it would induce excessive barrel wear, the ready magazine can be emptied in well under a minute. To reduce this deterioration in the integrity of the barrel tube, rapid fire is usually reduced to a 'double tap' often used to push through friable or non-compacted defences.

Mine clearance is achieved with a similar unit to that fitted to the other vehicles from the same manufacturer although the system designed for the M2 is the largest fitted to any non-specialist mine clearing vehicle. A large, 12cm tri-rocket mortar drags an explosive mesh 'net' to a distance of around 500 metres and, with a width of between 5 and 20 metres, clears a path around 400 metres deep (starting 100 metres or so from the vehicle bow). This 'net' is then detonated clearing a mine-free path in front of the vehicle. Combat use has shown this system to be almost completely effective.

Because of the increase in efficiency of the 'Booster' – the artificial intelligence suite - the M2 has a crew of just two (reduced from 3 on the M1). The driver's position is almost central at the front of the hull, just forward and left of the turret front with an access hatch and vision aids. The turret has a cupola with similar vision aids on the roof for the commander/gunner. The single crew person turret is fitted with a large stowage basket at the rear, as – despite their size – the M2 series is not spacious internally.

As with most applications of the 2cm tribarrel, it is fitted on a curved pintel mount, with the magazine feed tube coming up through its swivel. There is a conical shaped sensor array on the roof of the turret usually with at least one radio aerial – this is usually painted red on Hammer's tanks as a close identification aid.

The M2 series are powered by a Westal AE5 fusion power plant at the hull rear which lifts its 170 tonnes mass on eight armoured fans (hence the name 'Blowers') with shielded oval intakes in 'shoulders' on the upper hull. Speeds of up to 120 kph can be achieved on paved surfaces.

The M2 has insufficient power to lift more than 15cm on the power of its fans alone and generally skims above the terrain using 'ground effect'. In addition, the vehicles mass – like the M1 before it – precludes the crossing of deep water.

Other Models

The M2 has spawned a number of variants. As already detailed, after the initial M2, the M2A1 was the first to be fitted with the 20cm main powergun.

The M2A2 was an experimental vehicle and carried a rather less massive turret than the A1. The shape was unusual having a 'scooped out' area to either side of the main weapon – a high intensity 5cm powergun. These scooped out sections carried armoured binnacles, each housing 8 guided anti-armour missiles. The rationale was that although the 5cm weapon had insufficient penetration to destroy another tank in the same class – except at virtually point blank range – it was quite capable of knocking out APC's and combat cars over a considerable distance.

The fitted missile load employed the 'Kestrel' ATGW, which used missiles with internal AI system. The field usage of the M2A2 was problematic, however, with the AI often being fooled by non vehicle based targets and counter measures. In addition, although the 5cm weapon has a proven track record, its use against heavy targets was unsatisfactory. The Kestrel is still employed on lighter AFV's but the M2A2 is rarely seen in combat.

The M2A3 has a smaller turret than any of the previous models and is fitted with a 17cm, ruby wave-guide laser. With those adherents of lasers as main tank weapons, the A3 was very popular.

The latest model of the M2 is the M2A4. This is fitted with the latest AI suite and the steel plenum chamber strengthened with the beryllium and iridium lattice re-enforced material that had been originally planned. The fan units are more efficient with a second layer of blades so performance is retained at a similar level to previous models. The power system is upgraded with a second smaller Westal AE7 fusion bottle to supplement the primary unit. A new technology has been developed by Icarus for polishing the interior of the barrel on the L14 20cm powergun increasing its life-span by 50% and extending its tolerance to rapid fire. Main weapon ammunition stowage has been reconfigured to make it safer in the event of a hull breech although this – and the extra fusion bottle - has reduced capacity to 600 rounds.

Last in this list of improvements on the M2A4 are a pair of 12cm Ground-penetrator rockets mounted in the rear hull and fired through the plenum chamber. Guided by the vehicles sensors and AI the vehicle can be positioned by the 'Booster' over tunnel systems or underground chambers and the penetrators fired directly downwards into the soil. The weapons will travel up to 3m in average soil densities, although this is reduced to 1.5m in rocky ground. When arriving at the AI/Sensor guided anticipated target depth – perhaps an open space or a concrete slab – the warhead will detonate.

An up armoured version of the M2A4 has recently entered service. It's likely classification is the M2A4UA (for 'Up Armoured'). This has an additional belt of armour around the turret affording it a rather more squat and angular appearance. The armour is comprised of a spaced layer of iridium and ceramic cells designed to disrupt the warheads of incoming missiles and buzzbombs.

Command Tanks

Two variants of specialist Command Tanks are made: the M2A2F and M2A4F. In both cases, a larger turret is fitted, less domed and more slab-sided. This has space for two extra crew – a commander and a comms operator. Overall weight is almost identical to the regular model at around 170 tonnes. This is achieved by thinning the iridium turret walls to around three quarters that of a gun tank. Weapon fitment of the F models is the same as the A2 and A4 respectively although main round storage is 500 on the A2F and 400 on the A4F. Two cupolas are fitted to the turret, with a side hatch for the comms officer, but only one tribarrel is fitted. The M2A4F carries no rocket penetrator rounds.

In the Pipeline

Icarus are rumoured to be working on a 25cm powergun equipped, non turreted, tank destroyer based on this chassis but are hampered by the lack of a suitable weapon. The only available gun has a very low rate of fire and an extensive upgrade to the standard liquid nitrogen cooling system will need to be implemented if the weapon is to meet the manufacturer's specifications.

Slammers Artillery

Colonel Hammer's regiment uses only self propelled artillery. They have experimented with (and rejected) calliopes for anti-artillery work (relying on tribarrels and the 20cm powerguns fitted to their M2 Blowers instead) The infantry carry both buzz-bombs – shoulder launched rocket propelled grenades – and grenade launchers for localised bombardment fire. However, the ballistic delivery systems used by the regiment fall into one of three types (only two of which are now currently in service): the L71 10cm mortar mounted in an A21 Jeep, the M18 15cm and the M46 20cm rocket assisted howitzer

Mortars

The semi-automatic, breech loading 10cm L71 mortar (produced by FN of Friesland) is the weapon of choice for the Slammers. This fires from a 4 round clip which is inserted into a hopper mounted above the breech. The weapon can fire all four rounds in under six seconds. A larger weapon from the same manufacturer (the L86) with a more complex breech and a capacious hopper holding two clips (of the same 10cm calibre rounds) was trialed but, ideally, needed to be carried by a larger vehicle or deployed from the vehicle itself in static positions. This did not meet the infantry support requirements of the regiment and so was rejected in favour of the L71.

When in use, the rear seats and cargo area of the jeep is designed to be folded flat to enable one crew member to load and the other to fire the weapon. Tactically, the weapon is often loaded and then fired by one crew member, leaving the driver to move the vehicle as soon as all four rounds are in the air, the objective being avoidance of counter battery fire.

Rounds available for the L71 include HE, white phosphorus, self-forging anti-armour, airburst mini-cracker, targeting, illuminating and practice.

15cm Hogs

The M18 15cm rocket assisted howitzer is based on an M6 or – more usually – an M9 combat car chassis. There is little effective difference in performance or use between the two options, the armour package performance is similar because, to make more internal room on the M9, the iridium liner in the fighting compartment is not fitted. The M18/6 is a slightly smaller vehicle than the M18/9 but both have similar internal layout and storage arrangements. The fighting compartment is reduced to just under 1 metre in height and a flat hull top built directly onto that. This holds the turret ring for the 2.2 metre tall turret, manufactured from aluminium and ceramic composites. The turret has two, full height, horizontally split doors at the rear which, when in use, are often left open: the lower as a ramp and the upper as overhead splinter protection. This increases crew comfort and facilitates ammunition replenishment.

Whilst the M18 is an effective system, the 15cm AL22 weapon has an effective range of only 80 kilometres with standard rounds, although this is increased to 95km with the smaller warhead/extra range propellant combination. All shells have an initial rocket motor fuelled by powdered beryllium with an oxidising agent (boron fluoride) but after a short period of time (depending on load this can be anything from 7 to 10 seconds) the rocket cuts off and the ramjet sustainer motor activates.

Rounds available for the M18/6,9 (AL22) are coded with coloured bands around the olive drab casing (with a white booster stage) and include:

Round type

Colour bands (number and size)

Nuclear (often known as "Red Pills")

one red, one white

K3 (gaseous, non persistent nerve agent; some times known as "Bitter Pills" because of the smell left by the nerve agent)

two black

HE

one brown, one white

Solid Targeting

one grey, one white

Incendiary (white Phosphorus and time-fused zirconium pellets)

two white

Illuminating/star shells

one green, one white

SFASAA (self forging, active-seeking, anti-armour)

one purple, one white

Cluster munitions ("firecrackers")

one blue, one white

Practice

one pink, one white

Practice, extended range

one pink, one black

SFASAA (self forging [depleted uranium], active-seeking, anti-armour), Extended range

one purple, one black

HE, extended range

one brown, one black

Solid targeting, extended range

one grey, one black

Flechette

one thick orange

AFPFDS

one thick blue

These latter two rounds are designed for anti-personnel and anti-armour direct fire deployment respectively. They are rarely employed and used very much as a 'last resort'.

Shells weigh between 80kg (K3) and 110kg (solid targeting) and the ready drum of ammunition can be discharged within 20 seconds. Crew for both the M18/6 and M18/9 is six (including two drivers) but not all can be carried in the vehicle itself. Two crew ride in the turret with a driver in the M18's front compartment, and three more (two and a driver) in a support vehicle (usually an M9A4C). Although 10 rounds are carried on the primary vehicle in a ready drum, with 10 more stored in the turret, and a further 20 in the support M9, ammunition haulers are used to support the M18 on the move. Often M5's or similar, these can carry over 120 rounds plus vehicle and weapon spares and are equipped with loading conveyer belts to assist the crew.

The M18 and its variants have now been superseded in use in the Slammers by the M46, although the weapon is widely used elsewhere.

20cm Hogs

The M46 is in use with a few standing armies and mercenary units. It is over all a rather larger vehicle than the M18 as it uses a lighter variant of the M1 tank hull as its 'donor' vehicle. Some of the M46's are new builds but many are conversions from refurbished M1 chassis'. The M1 is well suited to this kind of role because of its flexible, modular construction. The M46 has four fans removed from the basic hull, reducing the number to four and the space afforded by this change in running gear is put to good use with crew seating and ammunition storage. The rear hull is reduced to just under 0.5 metres in height and a large turret ring for the spacious 2.5 metre tall turret sits upon that. Manufactured from aluminium and ceramic composites, the turret gives protection from shell splinters and small arms fire to its crew.

Fig. 6. Icarus Industries M46 20cm "hog" "Strawberry bitch" -
Rocket Propelled Artillery ACV with infantryman from the Thunderbolt Legion.
(Model conversion based on a vehicle by Ground Zero Games,
painted by John Treadaway.
Figure by Denizen Miniatures,
painted by Graham Green and photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

The gun requires eight persons in total, all of whom can be accommodated on the move in either the turret (with some discomfort) or six in the turret and the last two in a pair of seats up front, next to the driver. The turret has two, full height, horizontally split doors at the rear which, like the M18, when in use are left open with the lower door as a ramp and the upper as overhead armour.

Fig.7. Icarus Industries M46 20cm "hog" "Strawberry bitch" -
Rocket Propelled Artillery ACV.
(Model conversion based on a vehicle by Ground Zero Games,
painted and photographed by John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

Combat weight, depending on model, armour packages and ammunition stowage, can vary between 40 and 60 tonnes and manoeuvring ability and cross country performance is only slightly degraded from the other "blower" vehicles it accompanies; this is due more to having a higher centre of gravity than because of any particular degradation of power to weight ratio.

The AL27 20cm weapon mounted on the M46 chassis uses a similar technology to the smaller, 15cm AL22. Ammunition is kept in a 6 round ready drum that can be emptied in 15 seconds. Sustained fire rates are around ten rounds per minute.

The effective range is 130 kilometres with standard rounds, increasing to 170km with the extended range driver motors (with a commensurate loss of warhead mass). All shells have the same type of rocket motor fuelled by powdered beryllium and ramjet sustainer combination as the AL22. Velocity is around 880m per second depending on warhead type.

Rounds available for the AL 27 are similar to the AL22 but significantly larger, weighing between 110kg (K3) and 180kg (solid targeting). AL27 20cm rounds have the same colour markings as the 15cm rounds with two additions.

Round type

Colour bands

LOLDCOM (low orbit, limited duration, communication packages of satellite clusters, known as "Constellation")

two silver

LOR (a limited duration, low orbiting reconnaissance satellite)

two gold

Both of these rounds lack the ramjet sustainers but are completely rocket powered in two separate stages. They can inject their payloads into orbits of between 25 and 45 kilometers, depending on atmosphere densities and other combat related factors (anticipated life-span, low observability requirements etc).

22 rounds are carried on the M46 hull. Accompanying M5 (or similar) support vehicles carry 80 rounds plus vehicle and weapon spares.

The M46, in various configurations, has superseded the M18 in service with Hammer's Slammers.

Developments

There has been some development of a 'hardened' or 'combat ready' version of an artillery piece by Icarus Industries. Based on an M2 chassis, with full armour suite and a lower, more heavily armoured turret than its contemporaries, this has been designed to operate at the combat front line.

The weapon mounts an AL27 20cm weapon and a cupola mounted 2cm tribarrel for defence, plus a full ADS package. Its major disadvantages in trials seem to centre around a lack of crew and ammunition space. Three crew – driver, gunner/commander and loader - as dictated by the available space and configuration, fire the weapon. It is reloaded from a ready magazine under the turret that holds only 19 rounds. Replenishment requires a team of 6 extra crew in a support vehicle (an M5) with another 44 rounds and enough 'non-combat down time' time to load the magazine through the rear of the turret. So far no one has actually found a combat requirement for this vehicle – initially named the M2-20C – and then purchase some.

Figures

Fig. 8. Infantry Skimmer, (F.N., Friesland)
Model by Ground Zero Games,
painted by Graham Green,
photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

Fig. 9. Panzerkampfwagen 47 "Panther II"
(Henschel, Terra The Compagnie de Barthe).
Model by Ground Zero Games,
Painted by Kevin Dallimore,
photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

Fig.10. Panzerkampfwagen 60 "Maus"
(Henschel, Terra as used by a number of planetary forces) opens fire.
Model scratch built/conversion by John Treadaway,
Painted by Graham Green,
photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

Fig. 11. P6 "Egalite 1" APC, (Panhard, Terra) opens fire.
(The Compagnie de Barthe).
Model by Ground Zero Games,
Painted by Kevin Dallimore,
photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

Fig. 12. Pan8_rear - Rear view of P8 "Fraternite" APC,
(Panhard, Terra, The Compagnie de Barthe).
Model by Ground Zero Games,
Painted by Kevin Dallimore,
photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

Fig. 13. Turret commander P8 "Fraternite" APC,
(Panhard, Terra, The Compagnie de Barthe).
Model by Ground Zero Games,
Painted by Kevin Dallimore,
photography John Treadaway,
copyright South London Warlords)

THE END

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The Hammer's Slammers Handbook

Table of Contents

Introduction by David Drake

Extracts From The Hammers Slammers Handbook

The Mercenary Regiments

The Men Behind The Guns

Weapons Of The Late 3RD Millennium

Hammers's Slammers

Extracts From The Hammers Slammers Web Page

Slammers Artillery

Figures

eBook Info

Title:

The Hammer's Slammers Handbook

Type:

Novel

Identifier:

1011250003

Identifier:

10.1125/Baen.0003

Publisher:

Baen Publishing Enterprises

Creator:

John Lambshead

Creator:

John Treadaway

Subject:

Science Fiction

Rights:

2003 by John Lambshead & John Treadaway

Date:

2003-11-01

Language:

US English (en-us)