'Mech of the Week: YOL-4C Yao LienThe
Yao Lien's story begins toward the end of the Jihad with Apollyon refusing to share his toys with Cameron St. Jamais. After the planning session transcript revealed to us a while back by the hard work of 3rdCrucisLancers and MadCapellan, I can't blame him. St. Jamais responded by diverting excess materials from Celestial construction to Martinson Armaments on Liberty (better known as Carver V), a factory built in the ruins of the SLDF Marine base at Quantico. Sharp-eyed readers will remember it as the site of a major holdout against Amaris, but in that time period, the factory was putting together the pieces in that
rara avis, a production FrankenMech named the
Eidolon after a sort of shade or phantasm from Greek mythology. Fittingly, the 'Mech was rare and elusive, but the Capellans were able to track it down and struck Liberty not long before the Coalition arrived. Fiercely resisting at first, the CCAF forces withdrew after Warrior House Imarra seized Quantico, giving them the opportunity to dismantle the factory and get enough parts to start limited production. Initially, the Republic Armed Forces wasn't aware that they
had started building the design but eventually the supply chain led them to the truth. Expected to see a reasonable production run, with at least two
Yao Liens going to each Warrior House, the design is going to be a thorn in the Republic's side for a long time to come.
Getting down to brass tacks, the
Yao Lien is a 55 ton 'Mech, sitting at the top end of the medium weight bracket and built on an endo-steel skeleton. A Ceres Motors 275 standard fusion engine powers it to 86 kph, matching classic designs like the
Wolverine and
Shadow Hawk but the design's greatest mobility comes from the array of seven Chilton 210 improved jump jets that let it match an
Assassin leap for leap. The small cockpit doesn't do it any favors but saves tonnage to fit those jets in without compromising somewhere else, like the 10 tons of ferro-fibrous armor. That total is all of six points of shy of max, shaving three points off each leg for 23 points while each side torso has 20, the centerline has 28, and the arms have 18 each. The rear is similarly hardy at 6 on the side and 8 across the center. The armor is hardy enough to stand up to a fair bit of punishment, letting you use a
Yao Lien aggressively in ways that smaller 'Mechs can't match. Only ten double heat sinks runs a bit short but compared to the sort of heat load a MAD-3R can rack up, it's pretty mild. The main and only armament is the pair of Ceres Arms Thrasher Snub-Nose PPCs on the right arm, a combination of vulnerability and utility that's interesting. The vulnerability is obvious, but the utility is that if you can get one onto someone - and I'm thinking of getting backstabbed here - the other's pointed right at the target, too. All in all, I'd rather see at least one in the torso, but I've seen worse. On the other hand, with the electronics, the snubbies might not be your biggest problem trying to deal with one. The original
Eidolon featured a C3i, but the Capellans favor the C3 slave and a Guardian ECM, allowing you to counterjam, use standard defensive ECM, or project ghost targets. Overall, the total package is a solid skirmisher with the ability to gut someone's rear torso if it gets into position and the combination of speed, armor, and weaponry makes its use as a C3 spotter a menacing possibility.
If you've ever used a
Wolverine, especially the WLV-6M and its spiritual children, you're going to be right at home here. The snubbies give
Yao Liens a lot of “short” range to play with, letting you use your agility to stay out of someone's sweet spot while hammering them with ten point hits, even knifing them at 270 meters. The jets should be used sparingly - the heat curve gets a bit touchy if you overuse them - but being able to suddenly pop 7 hexes is useful. Defensively,
Yao Liens have enough speed to get by and enough armor to survive getting into medium range with the big boys to provide C3 spotting or use the ECM in ways your enemy won't approve of. Use terrain to get into a favorable position or as a way to escape and cool off, then get back into position to wear at someone. Lance mates would do well to bring things to the table the
Yao Lien can't, like crit-seeking or anti-infantry weaponry, but unless you're spotting for a hard-hitting high-end sniper, they're also well-advised to be at least 5/8 like the Capellans' thoroughly excellent selection of heavy cavalry 'Mechs.
Stopping a
Yao Lien is a bit difficult. Once they decide to get out of your way, the jump jets make them a slippery prey, and a potential +4 target modifier between movement and the jets isn't always easy to deal with. Then you have to hit it hard enough to breach the armor, and like a lot of SFE 'Mechs, you have to practically shred a
Yao Lien to actually put it down. Sure, the weapons are all in one relatively weak location, but then there's the C3 slave to deal with. A lot of the dirty tricks don't really work that well - artillery is hard-pressed to nail something this slippery, Infernos might be helpful but rely on a short range delivery system and wouldn't stop a
Yao Lien from jumping to safety, minefields don't work well against jumpy 'Mechs, etc. That means you really need to fall back on good cooperative tactics between lance mates, covering each other and being prepared to pour fire into the
Yao Lien. One option that might be worth a try is to use tanks with powerful turreted weapons to provide some coverage to rear arcs.
References: The
Master Unit List is a great first stop... and it's the only stop with no miniatures yet produced.
