I was reading through the new Vehicle Annex and was reading up on the Dig Lord. The Dig Lord is none other than our friendly MiningMech except this thing masses out at 65 tons. But enough about the mech. The last paragraph under Capabilities caught my eye:

In 2920, the FWL began experimenting with creating large Industrial mechs that massed greater that 100 tons. It goes on to describe a Three-Man Digging Machine (nicknamed hedgehog after a similar failed experiment by the Star League). It was three legged and piloted by three miners. It was taller than an assault mech and massed more than a hundred tons. It did in fact work and produced but was discontinued in the early 31st century. The original funding came with some hope that the experiments would lead to larger battlemechs.

Interesting little story. Looks like someone picked upon the project and continued with it. The three legged design was chosen for its stability when drilling although it was difficult to move.

was this old fluff from a CBT book or soemthing they just made up now to put into the fluff?

Technical Readout: Vehicle Annex is a new product just released for CBT (Only in PDF Form at http://www.battlecorps.com for the moment. 1~2months for the hardcopy to hit stores usually.) It's a readout on all sorts of civilian and support vehicles. Things from trains, minivans, trucks to transport 'mechs, airships etc.

And the apparent daddy of the Ares. Interesting. I'll have to nab it when it comes out in hardcopy.

I sounds interseting will have to check it out.

Call me biased, but I'm always going to think that a Urbanmech is the ancestor of the Ares. Only way. Really! ;)

Phad: It is available in hardcopy already. The store had 4 copies when I bought mine on Monday.

Interesting... a possible background story for the earliest origin of the mighty colossal class BattleMech! Is there also a picture of that Dig Lord in the PDF?

I think the Hedgehog first appeared back in an old Stardate or Battletechnology magazine.

So yes there is a long standing historical precedence for it. Just like the first mention of Star League Battle armor was in Stardate back when that mag was being made. Both are old CBT items.

I don't think the Hedgehog was bigger than a medium though (could have sworn it was a 35 ton light, but it's been a LONG time).

Doppelganger

The Three-Man Digging Machines first appeared in The Galtor Campaign (page 38) way back in '87 as a one line mention. TRO: Vehicle Annex expanded on that reference to give the Ares some in-universe backstory.

The Free Worlds League/House Marik roots of the design are also interesting - that points to the mysterious Ares faction as being either House Marik, or possibly Word of Blake, which had lots of connections with House Marik.

Not really. A Marik design that was discontinued over 100 years before the debut of the Ares doesn't mean the latter has any relation to the Mariks or allied factions at all. The developer of the Ares could have been inspired by the earlier design or could have come up with it on their own.