The War Wheel is one of the more unusual products of Terraxian military engineering. Where the Bulwark battle tank is designed to endure enemy fire and grind steadily through defensive positions, the War Wheel is an assault and breakthrough vehicle. Its enormous armored wheel carries a stabilized central fighting compartment suspended within the rotating outer rim.
The design looks archaic even by Terraxian standards—riveted armor, exposed structural members, massive track plates, and brutal external spikes—but beneath that exterior are sophisticated stabilization systems, fire controls, and a powerful drive system. War Wheels are intended to build speed, cross broken terrain, and smash directly into fortified positions while their weapons suppress the defenders.
Terraxian crews have a simple maxim concerning their use:
When the walls will not fall, we roll them down.
War Wheel
Size: 8 (Huge)
Handling: −1
Top Speed: 50 MPH
Toughness: 23 (8)
Crew: 3
Passengers: 8
Cost: Military
Availability: Terraxian Military
Crew: Commander, driver, and gunner.
Weapons
Forward Heavy Autocannon: Range 75/150/300, Damage 5d8 (III), AP 8, RoF 2, Shots 60, Heavy Weapon. The main weapon is mounted through the central hub and intended for engaging vehicles, fortified positions, and other hard targets during an assault.
Twin Sponson Autocannons: Range 50/100/200, Damage 4d8 (III), AP 6, RoF 2, Shots 300, Heavy Weapon. One weapon is mounted on either side of the central hub. Each may engage targets on its respective side of the vehicle.
Commander’s Machine Gun: Range 12/24/48, Damage 2d10, AP 4, RoF 3, Shots 300. A lighter defensive weapon mounted on the upper fighting compartment.
Special Abilities
Gyrostabilized: The central hub does not rotate with the enormous outer wheel. Powerful gyroscopes and active suspension keep the crew compartment upright while the armored rim revolves around it. The War Wheel ignores 2 points of penalties caused by Unstable Platform when firing its mounted weapons while moving.
Spiked Assault Wheel: The outer wheel is an armored weapon in its own right. When the War Wheel makes a Ram, increase the collision damage by +2d6. Its spikes count as a Heavy Weapon for purposes of determining what they can damage. This bonus applies only when the War Wheel strikes something with the wheel itself—it doesn’t increase damage suffered by the War Wheel in the collision.
Assault Carrier: Up to eight troops ride within protected compartments incorporated into the inner structure of the wheel. The vehicle has armored deployment doors on either side, allowing its passengers to dismount once the War Wheel reaches an enemy position.
Siege Climber: The enormous wheel, high ground clearance, and powerful drive system are intended for terrain that would immobilize more conventional vehicles. The War Wheel treats Difficult Ground as normal ground. Particularly extreme terrain may still require a Driving roll at the GM’s discretion.
Sealed: The fighting compartment and passenger spaces are environmentally sealed against Aegis III’s dust storms, smoke, chemical agents, and extreme weather. It is not automatically vacuum capable.
Terraxian Redundancy: Like most Terraxian fighting vehicles, the War Wheel is deliberately overbuilt and carries extensive onboard repair equipment. Crew members receive +2 to Repair rolls made to repair Wounds or Critical Hits in the field, provided they have access to the vehicle’s onboard tools and replacement components.
Vulnerable Hub: For all its imposing armor, the War Wheel has an obvious engineering weakness. Its central hub and the structural supports connecting it to the outer wheel are essential to both stabilization and locomotion.
An attacker may make a Called Shot (−4) against the central hub or one of its major support structures. The attack must be made with a Heavy Weapon and must equal or exceed the War Wheel’s Toughness after Armor and AP are applied.
On a successful attack, the War Wheel’s Top Speed is halved as its stabilization and drive systems compensate for the damage. A second successful attack against the hub or support structure immobilizes the War Wheel until repaired.
Repairing this damage requires an appropriate Repair roll, tools, and replacement parts. Terraxian Redundancy applies.
War Wheel Tactics: War Wheels aren’t normally used like tanks. A Terraxian commander deploys them as breakthrough vehicles. Cavalry and lighter forces locate a weak point; conventional armor and artillery suppress it; then War Wheels are unleashed to cross the intervening ground as quickly as possible. Their job is to get frighteningly close.
A War Wheel may crash through barricades, trenches, light fortifications, and infantry positions before disgorging its assault troops directly into the breach. Once there, its central weapons become a mobile strongpoint while Terraxian infantry expands the foothold.
This also gives the two Terraxian armored vehicles very different SWADE niches: the Bulwark is the tough, methodical battle tank, while the War Wheel sacrifices some protection for speed, terrain handling, ramming power, and troop delivery. That distinction should make encountering the two feel quite different at the table.