Copyright 2007 by Brandon Cope
 
 

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Type 1 Engineering Mecha

The Type 1 is designed to assist engineers with various tasks and was intended for use in tropical regions that are difficult for even tracked vehicles. Aside from lifting objects up to one ton or shoving heavier objects, it can also be used to assault infantry with insufficient anti-tank weaponry. The Type 1 has so far primarily seen service in China, where it has performed admirably.

The cockpit is laid out with the driver on the right, the gunner on the left and the commander slightly between and behind them. All crew members have a roof hatch and there is a single floor hatch in front of the commander.

One unusual (but typically Japanese) feature is a rear-mounted machine gun, for use against infantry who try to sneak up behind the mecha. Given that the mecha can quickly turn around, such a weapon is mostly useless. However, the gun is designed to be removed and used away from the mecha.

The Type 1 had a crew of three: commander (who operates the waldo arms, rear MG and radio), the gunner (who operates the flamethrower and two forward mounted MGs) and driver. The mecha uses 1.2 gallons of diesel per hour at routine usage
.
Subassemblies: Heavy Walker chassis +3, 2¥Heavy Walker legs +1, 2¥Heavy Walker arms +1.
Powertrain: 30-kW diesel engine with 30-kW legged transmission and 21-gallon standard fuel tank; 8,000-kWs batteries
Occupancy: 3 CS body  Cargo: 3.5 Body.

Armor
Body: F 4/25
Arms/Legs: 4/15

Weaponry
2¥Ground LMG/Type 97 [Body:F] (1,000).
Ground LMG/Type 92 [Body:B] (582).
Medium Vehicular Flamethrower [Body:F] (30).
.
Equipment
Body: Small radio transmitter and receiver. Arms: ST 80 waldo each.

Statistics
Size: 6'x6'x9' Payload : 0.82 tons Lwt: 4.8 tons
Volume: 40.5
 Maint.:  64 hours Price: $9,800

HT: 9.
HP: 210 Body, 94 each Arm/Leg.
 
gSpeed: 20
 aAccel: 8
 aDecel: 20 aMR: 1.5
 aSR: 1
Very Low Ground Pressure. Full Off-Road Speed.

<>Design Notes
All the mecha rules from W:WW were used, except for the “cheap” transmission cost from the core book (see Variants for an “expensive” transmission). An exception is gAccel, which uses the “kick start” rule from VE2. The design gAccel, which was used for gSpeed determination was 2 (for mecha with a top speed under 30mph, the “kick start” acceleration is: 4 x top speed / speed factor (p.W146)).

Variants
The prototypes used an experimental drivetrain. Cost was $31,400 and maintenance Interval was 36 hours.

A heavy-lift version also exists, with two ST 400 arms. Weight is only 4.8 tons but cost jumps to $29,000.

The most common variants differ in weaponry, many field conversions. Some add an additional medium flamethrower with 15 shots in each arm (fired by the commander). A few remove the rear-facing MG. A few mount 70mm mortars on the roof, fixed to fire at 200 yards. These must be loaded externally and normally only smoke rounds are carried.

The cargo space is for assorted engineering gear. Some Type 1’s mount a pair of 2 VSP lockers (armored to DR 5), one each on the left and right sides, for additional non-fragile equipment like chains, ropes, shovels, etc. Without the lockers, such gear is simply carried exposed on side brackets.