After the battle of Endor, the New Republic began
experimenting with a number of more expensive weapon technologies,
including combat walkers. In response, AradonWorks developed an
anti-walker platform, that was most effective in massed groups.
The vehicle is ungainly, slow, and not very well armored, but it
can still outrun and outdodge walkers. When used in conjunction
with support craft of various sorts, the AWP-1 proved remarkably
effective in combat against the New Republic Walkers, especially
against the lightly armored prototypes that they first experimented
with. Later models of the AWP proved so effective that the New
Republic ceased fielding walkers against Imperial forces, using
speeders and sleds of various configurations instead.
Without walkers to target, the AWP was no longer very useful
as a combat weapon. It cost as much as three combat speeders, and
could rarely take out more than one of those more agile craft.
Rather than let the combat tested vehicle fall by the wayside,
AradonWorks has replaced the heavy blaster with a large scale
projectile cannon. The modification proved successful, and the
AWP-5 was born. The mission profile of the vehicle has changed
considerably from the AWP-4.2 to the 5.0. AWP-5s are used in
groups of twenty units for large scale shelling of defensive
positions or massed infantry positions.
The AWP-5 uses a number of different types of shells,
depending on it's specific mission profiles. Some of the more
common shells are listed bellow:
Poison Gas Canisters
Fire Control: 2D
Range:20-100m/400m/1.0km
Damage:20 meters diameter, 10D to non-
protected individuals.
Shrapnel Round
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 50-300m/1.2km/3.1km
Damage: 7D of character scale damage in a 15
meter diameter area.
Heavy Explosive Round
Fire Control: 1D+2
Range: 100-600m/2.0km/5.0km
Damage: 8D Walker scale damage
Smoke Screen Round
Fire Control: 3D
Range: 100-600m/2.0km/5.0km
Damage: No damage, produces a 60 meter
diameter cloud of thick white smoke that obscures both vision and
targeting systems.
In addition to these shells, the AWP also employs other non-
standard shells for specific missions. There have been some
experiments with nuclear shells, but their cost has proved
prohibitive for most missions. Still, massed groups of AWP-5 have
proved almost as effective as small scale nuclear bombardment, and
they are rapidly becoming a low cost replacement for the AT series
walkers.