Pershing Howitzer

M-95 Pershing Howitzer
Minor Faction	Allied Reservists
Other Faction(s)	None
Unit Type	Emplacement
Designation	Strategic Artillery
Production Building	Command Centre
Secondary Ability	Deploy/Pack up
Cost	Unknown
Production Time	Unknown
Heroic Upgrade	Cluster Shells
Dev. Status	Conceptual

Country of Origin	United States
Produced by/ Recovered from	Bradley Munitions Co., Virginia
Key Features	» 105mm howitzer  » Deployable stabilisers  » 8-man crew  » Hard-point for towing  » Ear mufflers (x8)

Tactical Analysis

• Instant Artillery Support: The Howitzer is a cheap and effective foot-mobile artillery. It needs to deploy to fire, but once deployed, it can lob 105mm shells down range at decent rates, dealing universal damage to tanks and infantry alike.

• Urgent Fire Request: The Howitzer can also be towed behind Ranger Battle Cars also fielded by the Allied Reservists, greatly increasing its mobility.

• Not for the Frontlines: However, the Howitzer is extremely vulnerable to damage, having no armour at all. It is also laughably slow when not being towed by a Ranger Battle Car. Note that it also has a minimum range.

• Carpet barrage: Cluster munitions are not as common as high explosive munitions, but undeniably deadly when it comes to saturating large areas, and possess superior AOE.

Operational History

For the reserve forces of the Allied Nations, protecting one's country is the ultimate goal. In WWII the Allied Nation's various armies stood their ground on their soil against the communist onslaught. Then in WWIII, with the help of the Peacekeepers, they held the line against the Soviets and a new enemy: the Empire of the Rising Sun. Today, to better protect Allied lands, the Reservists have adopted a combination of mobile defence and search and destroy tactics.

Most of these tactics dictate a similar strategy: Tanks, APCs, and infantry will secure an optimal location on the battlefield (one with high ground, easy to dig in, etc etc) while Ranger Battle Cars hunt down targets. Once the reserves have an area locked down, they will advance with artillery coverage from location to location engaging enemies along the way and by the time they reach they enemy base, it will have been pounded into the dirt by airstrikes and artillery. When the Allied reservists needed an artillery piece that can could hit hard and far, the Pershing Howitzer gave them just that.

Meant to be a low-cost, footmobile artillery piece, the Pershing is an equal to its older relative. The Pershing can hit at far out targets with its 105mm howitzer, and can maintain a rate of fire comparable to autoloading howitzers like the Eclipse, allowing it to provide sustained fire support.

Of course, the Pershing suffers from all the disadvantages of towed artillery. The gun's crew, not to mention the gun itself, is completely exposed to enemy fire, and the Pershing lacks the mobility of self propelled artillery like the Athena or V4. With the Peacekeepers' focus on mobility, and the Pershing's exceedingly slow speed without a Ranger towing it, there was never any chance of the Peacekeepers adopting it.

The Pershing has already begun its deployment in Vietnam where is considered a rousing success. Hills captured by reservist infantry are fortified with sandbag nests and dug in vehicles to hold off enemy forces. Then, Condor Transports and Battle Cars (or sometimes just the crew) pull the howitzers to the top where they can rain fire over a large area on NVA targets. These tactics have proven so successful nearly every country has adopted the Pershing and sales have shot through the roof. Bradley Munitions has even begun to produce small amounts of DPICM shells which detonate mid-flight to saturate an area in bomblets.

Just the Stats

Pershing Howitzer
Artillery
Cost
Build Time
Health
Speed
Armour Type

105mm Howitzer
Indirect
Burst
Range
RPS
Damage
Suppression
DPS