MG144-OF03 Ardboy TFDL

Orc Fearcrushy

144th (10 or 12mm)

Four vehicles supplied.

Size (Bounding Box, assembled): 57.8mm x 33.31mm x 24.0mm

The Ardboy TFDL would be classified as a heavy armoured personal carrier by most standards. But for the Fearcrushy, dealing with the physical sizes of their infantry, by nature it is a regular t’fudle.

The exact derivation of the acronym of TFDL when it came into usage in the industrial age is unknown, but almost certainly went something like this:

High Orc commander (presenting the first troop carrier to his troops): “And dis, lads, is da APC ter carry yer into bat’le.”
(short pause)
Orc soldier 1 (looking around puzzled): “Big fella, is ‘e, den?”
Orc Commander: “You wot?”
Orc soldier 2: “Dis new platoon commander. ‘E must be a big fella if ‘e's goin’ to carry us all, like.”
Orc commander: (slack jawed silence)
Orc Soldier 3: “You idiot! ‘E don’t mean a PC like a platoon commander!”
Orc commander (recovering): “O’ course not, I means-“
Orc Soldier 2: “Course ‘e doesn’t! ‘E means one o’ them fancy fings what is a bit like da gogglebox, what it does stuff.”
Orc commander: (puts his head in his hands)
Orc Soldier 3: “Like wot stuff?”
Orc soldier 2: “Fancy stuff, like, maffs and stuff. Teknology.”
Orc soldier 3: “But how’s a gogglebox goin’ to carry us inta bat’le? Is on, like a trolley wiv wheels of-“
Orc commander: “NO! No, I’m not talkin about-“
Orc Soldier 1: “A city policeorc?”
Orc Commander: “No, you maggots, no, dis, dis great metal fing here behind I’m pointin’ at, very clearly is not A PC, it’s an APC! An armoured. Personnel. Carrier! It is a Tank. For. Der lads!”
Orc soldier 1: “Oh, why didn’t ya just say, so sarge…”

(Incidentally, in a not untypical fashion for Grotfang orcish, TFDL further breaks down into older acronyms turned words.

Transliterated to Galactic English, the derivation translates as the following

LADS: Orc soldier, lit. “orc what get given shinies by der King fer killing wot He sez”
TANK: lit. “heavy METAL thingy wiv lots of GUNs”
METAL: lit. “melty hard rock”
GUN: lit. “stick wot [goes boom with EXPLOSIVEs]”
EXPLOSIVE: lit. “stuff what goes boom when you put FIRE on it”
FIRE: lit. “hurty orange thing”)

The Ardboy thus has a capacity that would be considered ten “man” by a human. In practise, this carries a varying number of orc infantry organised into squads on dint of their size.

While Fearcrushy infantry platoons are sometimes organised like this, it is more common to have a mixed of breeds in a single unit (since some breeds are better suited to some jobs).

A typical mixed platoon with four attached Ardboys would likely consist of something like:
One Ardboy with one squad of six pure strain orcs.
One Ardboy with one squad of eight slightly smaller orcs
One Ardboy with one squad of eight roughly human-sized orcs, with the last space being taken up by a couple of specialist, but most commonly a detached light mortar team of four goblins and/or kobolds

One Ardboy with as squad of six hobgoblins and a squad of eight goblins and kobolds.

Typically for orc armoured vehicles, Ardboy benefits from advanced or armour technology with several layers of composite, light-weight armour. The armour is rated to Tier 20 against both kinetic and energy attacks. The requirement to carry infantry sets a limit on how much thickness of armour to resist kinetic attacks on the sides and rear are possible, but the protection against energy attacks remains extremely good (rated to Tier 17 against energy in the rear).

Produced by Huragh Elektriks, the Ardboy is fitted with a powerful Knokky-Farr FE720 fusion engine to move its 70 tons. While it is has still only average top speed, the Ardboy has good acceleration and deceleration. The centralised location of the driver gives them not only a good field of view for an AFV, but a better feel for getting into tight spaces, with equal distances either side of them.

Even the tracks are well-armoured and a simple but robust design means it is atypically hard to throw a link out of alignment, even when hit by enemy fire.

The price for its armour and capacity is that there are was little tonnage left for active defences or weaponry. The Ardboy’s armament consists solely of a twin 30m autocannon point defence turret. This is a standard weapons emplacement, and is also seen on other vehicles such as the Arm Arder MBT. The guns are produced by Krag-Nark and have an effective range of 2500m and are rated, in tandem, to Tier 15. A series of smoke dischargers provides some additional visual defence.

The electronics warfare suite is has only limited capabilities by modern standards, due to the low level of advancement of orc technology. It is perhaps surprising, then, that the orcs provided the Ardboy with a small, but fully functions suite of sensors, allowing it to even act as a spotting vehicle for indirect missile fire.