The Warhammer WHM-6Rb was created for the Star League Defense Force Royal Divisions shortly after the end of the Reunification War in 2599. It is an upgrade over the WHM-6R that makes use of double heat sinks, ferro fibrous armor, and an Artemis IV guidance system.
While it was originally only available to forces from the Terran Hegemony, the WHM-6Rb survived the fall of the Star League. The SLDF took many into exile with them, and a few of the Great Houses managed to field them during the first two Succession Wars. The design was lost to the Inner Sphere until the return of the Clans who still had surviving models of the variant in their caches and second line units. Then during the Jihad, the Taurian Concordat began to manufacture the WHM-6Rb again and made the design available to other nations of the Periphery and mercenary forces into the Dark Age.
Read This First
- Try to be 3-6 hexes from your targets
- You shouldn’t need to worry about overheating or running out of ammo in most battles
- Your armor is thin for your tonnage, so cover or evasive running can be important to prevent some incoming damage
Warhammer WHM-6Rb
- Role: Brawler
- Tech Base: Inner Sphere (2599)
- Chassis: 70 tons
- Movement: 4 / 6
- Armor: 179 (Ferro Fibrous)
- Heat Sinks: 17 (34)
- Weapons:
- PPC × 2
- SRM 6 w/ Artemis IV (ammo: 15)
- Medium Laser × 2
- Small Laser × 2
- Machine Gun × 2 (ammo: 200)
- Design Quirks:
- Rugged (2)
- Searchlight
- Stable
- Ubiquitous
- Cost: 6,603,083 C-Bills
- Battle Value: 1,431
Mobility
The Warhammer WHM-6Rb has a fairly average movement profile for a heavy ’Mech. In clear terrain, it can walk 4 hexes and run 6. That can give it a +1 or +2 target movement modifier. The design lacks any jumping ability to deal with rough terrain or urban environments.
Durability
Despite the upgrade to ferro fibrous armor, the WHM-6Rb is still lightly armored for its tonnage. The 179 armor points that it has are only 82% of what it could carry and more in line with what would be expected on a ’Mech that is ten tons lighter. The design also has two locations carrying explosive ammunition. The right torso has 10% of its critical slots occupied by SRM ammo and the center torso has 9% occupied by machine gun ammo. Without CASE protection, explosions in either of those locations will destroy the Warhammer.
Weaponry
Like the WHM-6R, the WHM-6Rb’s armament is built around a pair of PPCs supported by SRMs and medium lasers. The PPCs can engage targets as far as 18 hexes away while the secondary weapons have half that range. At very short ranges, two small lasers and a pair of machine guns can be fired as well. The minimum range on the PPCs counteracts the addition of those last few weapons leaving the WHM-6Rb’s peak damage output at 3 hexes with it losing a small amount of expected damage closer than that.
With the mix of weapon ranges, the Warhammer WHM-6Rb does best once it is within 6 hexes of its targets. That puts the medium lasers into medium range while the PPCs are in short range. It can deal even more damage if it gets inside 3 hexes, but its light armor means that it can be risky for a MechWarrior to make it an easier target by getting too close to enemies.
The WHM-6Rb’s weapons are focused in its forward arc. One PPC is in each arm to cover the right and left, but the rest of the weapons are torso mounted. The arm-mounted PPCs do mean that no matter where a target is, the Warhammer can fire at least one of its primary guns at it, but a MechWarrior is much better off if they can keep their targets in the front arc.
Two weapon systems on the WHM-6Rb require ammunition. The SRM 6 has 15 shots and the machine guns can be shot 100 times each. Even the SRM ammo should be enough that a MechWarrior doesn’t often need to worry about conserving ammo in a single battle. A downside of the Artemis system is that the SRM loses the benefit of the guidance system if a MechWarrior wants to make use of alternate ammo types.
Heat Management
The upgrade to double heat sinks eliminates the heat problems that can plague the earlier WHM-6R variant. The WHM-6Rb’s 17 double heat sinks can dissipate all of the weapon and movement heat that it generates under normal battlefield conditions.
Brawling
The heavy weight of the Warhammer means that it is dangerous in a brawl even if it isn’t ideally equipped for one. It lacks hand actuators, so its punches are less accurate than they could be, and each punch thrown requires not firing a PPC. The particle cannons are less accurate at that range, but their 10 damage is still more than the 7 damage punches. The WHM-6Rb can also kick for 14 damage. It also benefits from the Stable quirk that means it is easier to keep on its feet in a brawl.
Cost & Upkeep
While the WHM-6Rb makes use of more advanced technology than a WHM-6R, it is only about 10% more expensive because it does not make use of an expensive XL engine. Its Rugged and Ubiquitous quirks make it easier to maintain and repair than many other ’Mechs. It does require a reload for its SRM ammo after most engagements, but the ton of machine gun ammo can last an entire campaign without needing replacement.
When using the Warchest Point system, these are the expected costs for the Warhammer WHM-6Rb:
| Action | Cost |
| Purchase | 1,400 SP |
| Armor Repair | 70 SP |
| Structure Repair | 140 SP |
| Reload | 10-15 SP |
Miniature
The plastic Warhammer WHM-6R miniature in the Inner Sphere Battle Lance force pack works great for representing a WHM-6Rb since the weapons match between the two variants.
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