8.8 cm Flak Morning Star SPG | |
File:IconConfedsAmbulance.png | |
Faction | Confederate Revolutionaries |
Unit Type | Mobile Defensive Structure |
Designation | Strategic Artillery/Anti-Air |
Production Building | |
Secondary Ability | Medical Kit |
Cost | Unknown |
Production Time | Unknown |
Heroic Upgrade | Proto-Drill Warhead |
Dev. Status | Modelled |
Tactical Analysis[]
- The Line-Backer: A strategic artillery piece for the Confederate movement, the Ack-Ack acts as a long-range artillery piece against enemy threats.
- Interception: Dangerous enough, the Ack-Ack also acts as a mobile anti-air piece, switching from a high-explosive to flak shell, and can be packed up and moved on a truck.
- Torn Ligaments: Like its more "advanced" opposing system, the Valkyrie, the Ack-Ack lacks any method of defense from a concentrated attack, relying on Confederate tactics of stealth and speed to save it.
- Piercing The Heavens:.
Pirate Radio Drama[]
From the unlicensed and possibly self-produced "The Adventures of the Fighting Fourty Fourth Fleet" radio broadcast:
Narrator:Last Time we left the 44th, Captain John Harvard of the USS Raptor's Dusk was helping a group of Thieves and Mechanics get into a collection of fighting vehicles.
Capt. Harvard:So, just beyond those gates is a ton of tanks, right?
Thief:Yup, and we need to get them before they call security. We heard they hired a crack team to guard all of it.
Capt. Harvard: I get that, but why am I here?
Thief: We need someone to unload the tanks to, and I heard your ship could use a bigger cannon?
Narrator: The group then get though the gates, but then...
Background guard: What was that?
Oblivious guard: Whose footprints are these?
Mechanic:I think we've been had!
Noise:(Guess what?) Crash!
Capt. Harvard:I think now is the time to run! I'll take the cannon, you guys get the tanks!
Background guard: Call in the hired hands! They are after the tanks!
Noise:(Surprised?) Crash!
Cool Bad Guys:We have you now!
Thief: We'll never outrun them in their Leopards!
Noise:(Bad Times...)Spudder
Capt. Harvard:My truck is out. You get these tanks to the others, I'll hold them off!
Cool Bad Guys:You cannot escape!
Capt. Harvard:Who said I'm escaping?
Noise:(Turn of Events!)Vrrrm
Narrator:With his swiped cannon, can Captain John Harvard get back to the 44th? Or will it be the end of the road? Tune in next time to find out!
History[]
Unlike the First World War, the Second was fought on a largely mobile front, with forces rapidly advancing and retreating, and so defences needed to keep up with the front. While prefabricated parts and SPAM modules make setting up new defences somewhat easy, the Germans, being on the front line, used their famed ingenuity and simply put a cannon on a truck. Throughout the war the "cannon and truck" idea started to evolve into the Self Propelled Gun. The first major SPG, the 8.8 cm, then 10.5cm, then 12.8 cm Flak Morning Star, was used all over the German front. Yet there was a problem: It used the same cannon as the Mastiff with every attempted upgunning resulting in them finding out that the Mastiff had plans to use the same gun; resulting in them throwing their hands into the air and hoping that the 12.8cm would take enough time for a mastiff capable of using it to be designed to give it extra life (and indeed, 12.8cm Mastiffs only saw action in the very last months of the war), and the Mastiff was deemed priority for all munitions and parts. The gap was filled by the advanced M-100 Husky. Many Morning Star SPGs, as well as other 12.8 cm Cannons were phased out after the war, replaced with better artillery.
In an odd twist of fate, many museums were looking for something to put in front and attract visitors, so the redundant Morning Stars were handed out to the many organizations trying to teach citizens about the war. They were passed from organization to organization until they were finally re-collected by a team of private citizens. The group, aiming to make the largest collection of military vehicles restored them to working condition. This made them prime target of the Confederate thieves.
While not as powerful as more contemporary pieces, the Morning Star platform has an edge that other strategic pieces do not. The Germans, ever ingenious, designed the 8.8, 10.5 and 12.8 cm cannon to traverse both to target ground and aerial threats. This allowed bases on the front to easily move from Soviet Anvils to YaKs easily. This has been a boon to the Confederates (who have exclusively used the 12.8cm for frontline duty; reserving the smaller guns to reserve roles), as many a Century pilot thinking they were targeting an easy kill found their craft falling to pieces around them. However, the Ack-Ack still has an effective range, meaning a skilled commander can easily employ counter-battery fire against a base defended by Ack-Ack guns.
Despite what would be seen as a weakness, the Confederates have stolen so many Ack-Acks that they're a common sight in bases where the Continental Army has placed an emphasis on high security. Like much of the Confederate arsenal, the Morning Star might be old, but has just as much experience in war as any Allied system.