MG144-RE03A Silmanordo Talco–Nerte AAA

Royal Elven Kingdoms

144th (10 or 12mm)

Two vehicles supplied.

Size (Bounding Box, assembled): 57.76mm x 38.0mm x 22.83mm

Silmanordo Talco-Nertë Anti-Aircraft Artillery

The Royal Elven Army’s limited resource budget over the last century has required it adapt to a policy of “making do.” The army has had to adapt existing designs to new functions. While this is often the case for armoured vehicles, for the REA, it has been a particularly acute problem.

It is not unusual in the history of armoured vehicles to see an APC transformed into a weapons carrier (and as evidenced by the Talco-Otso Silmanordo variant), but rather more rare for one to be converted into a primary anti-aircraft role.

Yet that is precisely what the Silmanordo Talco-Nertë Anti-Aircraft Artillery (lit. “silver oak mark nine”) vehicle is. Fundamentally, the Talco-Nertë is a Silmanordo hull with a new turret slapped on top. Without the ability to design a dedicated hull to house all the required electronics, the Talco-Nertë had to place the majority of its functions in the automated turret and what little space and mass was left over in the relatively small Silmanordo hull. The result was a somewhat ungainly-looking vehicle that performs notable much worse when it is require to fly, being not at all stream-lined and rather top heavy.

However, when functioning as ground vehicle, the Talco-Nertë at least performs its function adequately.

The turret is at least slightly better armoured than the hull, rating at Tier 16 verses energy weapons, and a Tier above the hull against kinetic weapons at Tier 12.

The weapons load-out is the vehicle’s strongest feature. The Talco-Nertë’s primary weapons are the four rotary railguns, a rare direct-fire weapon system that is not energy based. In concert, these weapons can reach a combined rating of Tier 19, and it has sufficient ammunition for extended fire missions.

The railguns are backed up by two rail-mounted Stormlight missiles; with a warhead rated to Tier 21, the Stormlights are a threat to main battle tanks.

However, the efficacy of these weapons is somewhat muted by the sensor array, which is only updated from the base Silmanordo’s by the addition of the AA tracking systems. This leaves the sensor suite quite basis, and incapable of performing any other useful actions such as transmitting firing locks.

Due to the relatively low combat usage, the Talco-Nertë has not suffered extensively due to its shortcomings, but as the galactic situation continues to deteriorate, it is a race against time for the REA to replace or upgrade these aging vehicles before they become more liability than asset.