Flamethrower

**Key Features** | »LPO-50 flamethrower»Gas mask»Flame-retardant flak armor»Lovely singing voice»Unread instruction manual

## Tactical Analysis

* **Propane and Gas:** Armed with a surplus Soviet flamethrower, the Front uses these weapons to raze Allies border posts and terrorize enemy infantry with the fear of death via fire. Their full body flame-retardant suits and smoke-cancelling gas masks also give them more resilience to bullets and protection against NBC weapons, letting them shrug off Allied Tear gas with ease.

* **Firewall:** Not only does a flamethrower quickly clear a garrisoned building, it can also create a burning wall of fire that's practically impenetrable even by armor. Though effective, the tanks need to be refueled whenever this technique is utilized.

* **Keep Out of Water:** Though effective, the flamethrower still has a short effective range and lacks the same mobility offered by an MX-15. Heavy vehicles are functionally immune to the fire, and you might as well forget about taking out aircraft.

* **Irish Fire:** Eventually, the surplus manuals that came with the flamethrowers can be translated to legibility. This means that the operators learn how to tighten the stream and increase their range, along with certain concoctions that can stop vehicles in their treads via Black Napalm recipes from deepest China.

## Background

*"Who wants to have roast for lunch?"*

- The last thing PKs and Legion operatives are supposed to hear before being set ablaze at the hands of flamethrower-wielding Front guerrillas.
*"Whmph wamfff tff hmph rrrnng ffomph lng?"*

- What they tend to actually hear due to the gas mask and heat distortions heavily muffling their voice.
One of the best suppliers of materiel to the Front is the Soviet Union, maker of high quality killing machines since 1917. The deal is frankly mutually beneficial to both parties; the Front gets weapons, and the Soviets give the Allies a black eye. This is because the Front's weapons deals with the Soviets fly straight in the face of Allied embargoes and restrictions, making them look horribly impotent when it comes to policing their member states.

This doesn't mean the Front have thrown open their arms and accepted Soviet rule, but they do keep the AKS-45 suppliers through the world stocked up and still in business. The Front doesn't prefer the AKS, seeing it as clunky and inaccurate when compared to the MX-15. Likewise, Soviet attempts to supply the Front with vehicles and walkers prompts a big, "Thanks but no thanks". The Front feels that any military vehicle would bankrupt them and only be wiped out faster by the enemy. Still, the Front is glad to accept these Soviet supplies due to the fact that the Soviets have given them a weapon the Allies thought they were through facing.

The Front immediately took an interest in the Soviet flamethrowers. Leftovers from WWII, the weapons were quickly phased out due to the international outcry from the pain of dying from being roasted alive (Desolator defoliant was, after all, still a way away). Left with stockpiles of flamethrowers and the old "pyro-suits" used to protect their wearers from the heat and smoke of their own weapons, the Soviets desperately searched for a way to clear their inventory. The South Vietnamese of course would have nothing to do with communism, and the Continentals opposed them on both practicality concerns and their own beliefs on the rules of war. The Vietcong and the NVA found the weapons too bulky for their guerillas and fast and furious mechanized assault tactics. Communist China made plenty of their own, superior flamethrowers. Even sympathetic GLA warlords to Moscow prefer to use their own personal chemical concoctions as opposed to napalm. Indeed, the Soviets were getting desperate when the Front became active and started raiding borders between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Offering the Front the flamethrower and pyro-suit with the argument that it would be perfect for the Belfast sprawl and the tightly packed ghettos and slums of Northern Ireland, the Front accepted an initial shipment to test their use. Initially, the Front was actually quite afraid to use the flamethrowers anywhere near civilians for fear of collateral damage. Instead, they wanted to make sure the weapons would function effectively in an initial skirmish before using them in the cities.

It was at a border post near Crossmaglen that the Soviet surplus was tested. A small Allied patrol, a dozen PKs with a fortified checkpoint that had survived a dozen bombing attempts. At night, the Front moved a squad into position just beside the post and waited. They struck at tea time, rushing the post and torching the barricades and small reinforced garrison building next to the small pillboxes while the wearer shrugged off the few confused shots thrown at his direction without spending so much as a day in the infirmary. The Allies, caught off guard by the unexpected weapon, were unable to effectively respond as the assault squad fled into the city.

Suitably impressed, the Front has since ordered additional flamethrowers from the Union. This has caused the Syndicate-aligned companies to create their own private fire services, with no men willing to work in them. The Allies see this move in an entirely different light, since the Soviets should not have been able to slip in these weapons without even a blip on ACIN's radar. At first, the Front's leftist-oriented rhetoric was just seen as words. Now, the powers-that-be in Geneva consider it a frightening clue that the Front is possibly more dangerous than they even anticipated if the Soviets are sending them weapons they're skilled enough to use (Unlike certain *other* factions).