Razorback

Specifications
Use	Assault Gear
Production Code	HACS-04HG-AST
Manufacturer	Northco
Height	4.7 meters
Speed	Walker: 37 kph SMS: 61 kph

By its first hundred cycles of use, the Hunter had spawned dozens of different field variants to fill a great number of operational niches. One of the first totally original designs to come out was the Razorback.

The Razorback was a heavily built machine, with a stock, blockish appearance. The Northco designers were conservative and used flat armor plating throughout. The main body was angled to deflect incoming rounds and the cockpit was completely sunken into the torso. Most of the sensor equipment was mounted in a small turreted head placed just in front of the pilot’s compartment. The Razorback’s weapon complement was no less impressive. Its main weapon was a potent Paxton LGPC 106 mm snub cannon, held in a rifle-like manner in the Gear’s huge manipulators. Adding long-range firepower was a rocket launcher attached to a shoulder hardpoint, usually a 70 mm pod with nine rockets. Together, these weapons made the Razorback a devastating anti-armor unit.

A 7 mm rapid-fire machinegun was mounted in the torso right next to the cockpit, although it was so close to the pilot’s head that it is uncomfortable to fire for an extended period of time. Coupled with the standard APGL, the machinegun made the Razorback a superior anti-personnel vehicle. Finally, a pack gun was provided as a backup weapon and attached to a leg hardpoint. Some pilots used it regularly against opponents “unworthy” of the firepower of the snub cannon.

The Razorback did suffer from limited speed and maneuverability, often a crippling difficulty against fast moving targets. The design’s thick steel alloy armor largely compensated for these drawbacks, however. More importantly was a serious flaw in the sensor pod of the Razorback which led to regular fluctuations in effectiveness. The Razorback was usually deployed against slow-moving and less-than subtle armored columns, making its flaws less of a hindrance. The sensor difficulties of the Razorback were associated with the miniaturization involved in the use of a small head pod and led Northco developers to become dedicated to the “head-in-head” design of the Hunter, in which the pilot’s head was within the sensor pod of the Gear.

Usage

The Razorback served in the armies of all three Confederated Northern City-States member-leagues as well as in the Northern Guard, though it was always more numerous in the United Mercantile Federation. It served with distinction in a variety of roles and was so successful that many Southern Gears designs — most notably the Boa, Anaconda and Python family — can be traced to a fear and appreciation of the Razorback. The Gear was originally designated as the FS-01 Razorback and was expected to serve as the first dedicated heavy assault/fire support Gear; while it excelled at the first task, the machine was less than impressive at the latter. Its limited supply of rockets (and their relatively light payload when compared to artillery pieces) made the Razorback an unimpressive fire-support platform.

This weakness would inspire the design of the Bear and later the Grizzly, who use guided mortars as indirect fire weapons and dispense with the snub cannon, a purely direct-fire and close-range anti-armor weapon. The heavy assault mission profile remained the purview of the Razorback, however, until the War of the Alliance. The venerable Gear was the first choice for dealing with the rapid armor of the Colonial Expeditionary Force (in conjunction with other tank-hunters such as the Hunter Zerstörer) and a great number of units were destroyed in the early cycles of the war. The front-line units would receive newly designed Assault Grizzlies or Strike Jaguars to replace their old Razorbacks, finally forcing the grandfather of that class of Gears into retirement.

In the post-war years, the Razorback can still be found in some regiments. Second-line units may still have old Razorbacks and the United Mercantile Federation Army still has a fair number of them despite programs to replace them with Grizzly variants. More than a few frontline units, however, keep some Razorbacks as part of their arsenal in order to bring the power of the snub-cannon (still unparalleled in short-range firepower) to bear in dedicated anti-tank squadrons. Once the heart of the Guard’s heavy firepower Gear forces, the Razorback is now regarded as a highly specialized tank-hunter that is largely unsuited to patrol, anti-Gear or anti-infantry operations. The Razorback went on to inspire several Gears such as the Bear and Grizzly series.

Variants

• Peacemaker Razorback

Media

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External links

• Razorback Miniature - DP9 Store