MTHEL

126 (Elite)

169 (Heroic)

379 (Heroic)

## Introduction

The **MTHEL** (**M**obile **T**actical **H**igh **E**nergy **L**aser) is a tier 2 heavy support vehicle fielded by General Ironside. It's a powerful laser cannon mounted on a eight-wheel drive truck that's capable of shooting down with missiles and aircraft.

## Overview

The MTHEL is designed to function like a XL sized Avenger, it's a high output laser cannon mounted on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (**HEMTT**) that's specifically designed to shoot down enemy ballistic missiles and heavily armored aircrafts that are too durable for the Avenger to shoot down quickly. This makes the MTHEL an excellent supplementary unit for defensive lines, and a decent counter against missile or rocket based artillery units such as the Luna, the A-100 or the Tomahawk Launcher. The MTHEL is capable of intercepting smaller rockets, such as those fired by infantry units.

Like most other United States combat vehicles, the MTHEL can equip itself with support drones to increase its combat effectiveness.

Despite their more powerful weapons, the MTHEL is not exactly a more practical option compared to the Avenger or the SLID in an offensive role. Due to its heavy weight and large chassis, the MTHEL is rather bulky, it has a wide turning radius and its speed is on par with a main battle tank. The MTHEL also lacks the Avenger's target designator, meaning that it's a less versatile in its support role. Also, due to the high amount of energy the laser cannon consumes, the MTHEL cannot carry a sufficiently large power generation unit onboard without reducing its speed to a crawl. Thus the MTHEL needs to tap into base power in order to remain operational. Finally, the MTHEL is very expensive, costing $2,300 per unit, two Avengers can be built for the price of a MTHEL.

## Upgrades

### Drones

Rank 1:

* **Battlefield Mechanic**: Repairs the MTHEL on the field.
* **Scout Drone**: Detects stealth units, does not detects mines and traps.

Rank 3:

* **Jet Sniper Drone**: Anti-infantry drone, armed with dual sniper rifles.
* **Stinger Drone**: Anti-air drone, armed with a stinger missile launcher.
* **Hellfire Drone**: Anti-armor drone, armed with a hellfire missile launcher.

## Assessment

Pros:

* Highly effective at destroying enemy aircraft and missiles.
* An effective counter against missile based artillery units.
* Fast turret rotation speed, allows it to react to enemy threats quickly.
* Deals far more damage than the Avenger, and thus much more efficient at intercepting missiles.
* Has longer firing range than the Avenger.

Cons:

* Expensive ($2,300).
* Cannot retaliate against ground units without proper support drones.
* Consumes power (4 points).
* Cannot shoot down artillery shells, despite its description.
* Vulnerable to anti-armor weapons.

## Trivia

* The MTHEL was originally a unit fielded by General Townes, and is based on the same chassis as the USA Supply Truck. The unit was eventually removed from his arsenal due to the fact that it's too unbalanced against generals like Dr. Thrax who rely heavily on missile based weaponry.
* The closest real-life counterpart of the MTHEL is currently the Indirect Fires Protection Capability-High Energy Laser (IFPC-HEL) which is also built on a HEMTT truck.