Kirghiz - 100t, TRO3055
Originally posted 3 Aug. 2005. All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding “FotW Workshop†thread. The heaviest of the Clan OmniFighters yet revealed to us, and quite possibly part of the inspiration for the formidable Lyran
Eisensturm, the
Kirghiz was the next best thing to unstoppable when it first appeared in the Inner Sphere. One of the older OmniFighters ever produced, it also shows us exactly how nasty even an incomplete application of ClanTech can be in an Aerospace platform.
A hundred tons of death-from-above wrapped around a 300XLFE and the typical five tons of gas, the 5/8
Kirghiz certainly isn’t going to set any speed or agility records; that said, the design is fluffed as having fairly forgiving handling characteristics, as opposed to its more ‘precise’ competitors, which endears it to many pilots. ::) That engine, by the bye, also houses twenty double heat-sinks; while seen in some other Omnis, this decision is a little curious on its face, but it
does reduce the amount of piss-farting about required in connecting extra freezers when energy-heavy loadouts are installed. The armour is standard plate, rather than “bulky†ferro-aluminium - a holdover from the days when FA armour on ASFs occupied two weapons-slots on each wing; it’s also why I say the application of ClanTech is ‘incomplete’ - but sixteen tons of the stuff, in an 84/62/48 pattern, renders the nose and wings immune to first-hit thresholding by Clan medium lasers. That’s still a little light against ClanTech for my tastes, but the CBT universe is riddled with ‘legacy fluff’ decisions like that, so you pays your money and you takes your chances. ::) As for the pod-space... can I get a “Ye gods!� ;D The use of an XLFE gave the
Kirghiz some fifty-six-point-five (56.5) tons of pod-space to stuff chock-full of ClanTech firepower... lending credence to the fluff’s assertion that the
Kirghiz can give some assault DropShips a run for their money. :o
Kirghiz Prime is what the Lyrans were shooting for when they armed the
Eisensturm, and what a mark it is. The nose houses an LB-10X autocannon with two tons of ammo (allowing situational choices of slug or proximity-fused }:)); each wing packs a Gauss Rifle with two tons of ammo and an ERLL; aft, we have an ERSL for tail-defence and two SSRM-6s with a ton of ammo each - the Streaks used to be mounted on the wings facing aft, and indeed could still be, but for gameplay purposes they’re considered ‘aft’ mounted. Let’s see: the
Prime can alpha-strike everything, facing both ways, and still be two points under its maximum heat-dissipation capacity. Its ERLLs can reach into Extreme range for sniping duty; the GRs punish anything that strays into Long range or closer; and trying to tail the thing from Medium range or closer is a recipe for a face-full of Streak SRMs. Nasty, nasty stuff, girls; this one can act as a sniper, as fire-support, or an anti-shipping platform, with a pre-TW Star generating two laser bays of 10 Capital (from Extreme conventional-weapon range, no less! :o), two 15-Capital Gauss bays, and the LB-10X’s lending the Star ‘merely’ 6 Capital (or another 10-Capital for slug rounds!).
Kirghiz Alpha is more of the same, albeit in a different package. The nose houses twin ERPPCs; each wing supports twin LPLs and an LB-2X autocannon(!) with a ton of ammo per AC; aft, we have an ERLL and an ERSL; four more heat-sinks are mounted to ameliorate the effects of throwing all that wattage down-range. While the LB-2X is a weapon possessed of perhaps the most pitiful damage:mass ratio in all of CBT/AT, it also has Extreme range for next to no heat, allowing one to ‘plink’ for extended periods, and while a single LB-2X is to be laughed at, an entire Star of them makes for a one-point Capital bay, making it fit for use against targets with heavy armaments but little armour... such as many JumpShips with attached DropShips? ??? Alpha-striking with the forward guns generates a nasty +6 heat deficit per turn, but use of ‘slashing’ attack runs where only one wing is brought to bear can offset that, and the
Kirghiz Prime makes for a strafing run equivalent to an alpha-strike from a
Warhawk Charlie (“though without the targeting computer!†many ground-pounders cry in relief, illusory as it may be. ;D) Note: prior to the ‘maximum of 6 fighters per squadron!’ rule instituted with the TW-era rules, a Star of
Kirghiz-A could lay into a ’Ship with a PPC bay worth
30 capital
(which will crit most anything, including some battleships!), and the two 20-point Capital LPL bays were hideous in their own right, too, with their -2 to-hit bonus. The aft-mounted ERLL grants one the ultimate in Parthian shots and/or back-scratching, too: hot though it may be, it can hammer any would-be tail-gater (or the target it left behind!) with a weapon capable of TACing most starfighters - from Extreme range! :o This leaves no truly ‘safe’ range/angle envelope from which to engage a
Kirghiz-A. :o
Kirghiz Bravo is the obligatory missile fire-support variant, mounting five LRM-20 racks (one in the nose, two in each wing), each with a single ton of ammunition and backed up by ERPPCs (one nose-mounted, one on each wing), an ERSL to use up that ‘spare’ half-ton, and an MPL aft to fend off the ass-grabbers; six extra DHS are included in the package. The amount of hurt that five LRM-20s and three ERPPCs can put onto a target is perhaps better imagined than described, and when one realises that one can salvo both wings onto a target for only +2 heat, it gets even more gruesome. :o This one is pretty explicitly meant to use
either its missiles
or its beams, depending on which is appropriate to the situation; even so, the really, really limited ammo-stores do not fill me with joy and contentment. (Though the fluff mention of ammo-loads like FASCAM warheads - the RL military term for ‘Thunder’ scatterable mines - makes one shudder to think of what a few passes by a couple of
Kirghiz-Bravos will do for the mobility options of enemy ground-forces! :o) Anti-shipping Stars of
Kirghiz-Bravo would be to be feared by ’Ship commanders; three LRM bays, one of 6 Capital points and two of 12, with three bays of 15 Capital for the PPCs, makes for a lot of misery for most canon WarShips not described as ‘battleships’. }:) And of course, strafing runs by three C/ERPPCs, any of which can headcap a ’Mech in one hit... not pretty.
Kirghiz Charlie is meant for a gambit which is perhaps the
single BARMIEST tactic I have
ever heard proposed for a CBT battlefield... which is possibly why it might be successful, at least once or twice. ::) The nose-mounted twin LPLs, Ultra-20 and two tons of ammo, and that token little ERSL discourage anyone from getting too close; the ERPPCs in each wing blast opposition out of the way at Long range; twin ERLLs aft fend of anyone who tries to get behind the
Charlie... and its precious cargo. The
Kirghiz-Charlie uses the remaining ten tons of pod-room for
cargo racks, allowing it to air-drop two Points of battle-armour onto a target like they were bombs.
Please take a moment to appreciate the insanity of that notion. Bombing an opponent - with Elementals? :o
In-universe, it is hard to imagine the circumstances that would lead the Clans to develop such an...
eccentric technique, unless it was cooked up by the Elemental-happy Ghost Bears (who invented the
Kirghiz - coincidence? Fshyeah, whatever.) or developed for ‘total war’ situations, where one’s forces were not restricted by bidding. But with that set aside, it’s the kind of high-risk/high-gain scheme Clan commanders might find intriguing, and if timed just right, it could pay off beautifully - especially in the early days of Operation: REVIVAL, when battle-armour was still alien to Spheroid eyes and they didn’t know how to deal with it. An enemy formation (probably Spheroids, since it’s a tactic likely to be used only against those considered without honour) is spotted ahead of the Clan spearhead, which heads for it (or lays in wait for it); just before the two units enter firing range of each other, a Star of
Kirghiz-Charlies makes a low, fast bombing pass on the enemy... planting two full Binaries of Elementals right in the middle of the enemy, completely disrupting their formation-discipline, command-and-control, and any semblance of their battle-plan just as the engagement is about to begin. “Chaos, panic and disorder - our work here is done!†;D
That said, the
Kirghiz-Charlie would also make a fairly well-protected courier-ship for running arms or other vital personnel/equipment/information past a fairly strong blockade force,
and the rule in AT2R about using pod-space for bombs means that the Kirghiz-Charlie can put ten tons of rather more conventional air-delivered ordnance on target while retaining its 5/8 thrust curve... or load up on the externals as well and give ’em twenty tons at 3/5. :o PH33R! Please note that
JediBear pointed out last time around that smaller WarShips, which might lack small-craft facilities, would likely use Kirghiz-Cs as boarding shuttles(!). More to the original point,
Weirdo also noted that Clan ROEs do permit the use of commando-style raids and headhunter tactics to open the way for heavier forces - so long as you’re sneaky about how you do it and the Toads mind their manners when they come knocking. Please refer to his rather whimsically-phrased post in the transcript for more detail -
Weirdo’s was the last post in the ‘first run’ thread. ;)
With no extra heat-sinks and all that energy-weaponry,
Kirghiz-Charlie can’t even hope to alpha-strike, but use of proper bracketed fire - PPCs for range, the nose-bays up-close, and the ERLLs and one PPC while retiring - can make for useful all-range firepower. Its Striking and/or Strafing abilities cannot be overstated, either - it’s that same
Warhawk-Charlie routine, only more so - and its anti-shipping abilities are just as fearsome in full Stars:
- Nose LPLs = 20 Capital
- UAC-20s = 30 Capital
- ERPPCs = 2 x 15 Capital
- ERLLs = 20 Capital (for that ‘be sure to write!’ parting shot! ;D)
Of course, a lot of this is now moot, since the
Total Warfare rules don’t allow for ASFs to carry cargo, much less BA
as cargo, and shrink maximum Star size to improve WarShips survivability against fighters. That said, the Catalyst Gaming Police are kind’a overstretched at the moment, so I don’t think they’ll come barging into your home-games to arrest you if you use this capability as originally intended.... }:)
Kirghiz-D comes to us from the pages of ’55U (waves ‘hi’ to
Weasel and
Ghost_msl for the stats!)... and brother, this is gonna hurt. The nose houses twin ERLLs (rarely a bad start), an ERML and an MPL; each wing houses
two ATM-12s, supplied with no fewer than
TWELVE tons of ammunition for all-day shoot-y-ness; an ERSL minds the back, for whatever little it’s worth; and five more DHS are shoehorned into the spaceframe to manage the heat-burden.
They don’t succeed spectacularly well, but you can use both ERLLs and three racks’ worth of ER-ATMs to snipe at the opposition while you close, and the good news keeps getting better as the range falls; you can also freely make ‘slashing’ attacks with all the nose-guns and one wing’s ATMs when/if it gets into knife-distance while remaining five points under your maximum capacity.
Personally, I don’t think the brace of mediums does much for the configuration save confuse the issue, but that can be covered in the ‘homebrew’ section. ;)
The
Kirghiz is fluffed as a support player, and with other, smaller OmniFighters like the
Visigoth delivering almost as much firepower on a sustained basis with fewer heat-problems, it’s certainly within reason. On the other hand, the sheer punch of the above configurations argue for it to be used much like a
Stuka and in accordance with the
mantras: as heavy, whomp-’em-with-a-crowbar semi-mobile artillery, under heavy escort and with an eye out for defending fighters. Remember, the lack of ferro-aluminium has left the design a little thin-skinned for sticking around with Clan ordnance on both sides, so try not to court more trouble. ::)
The trouble with finding a counter to the
Kirghiz is not so much finding a fighter that can smack it about as finding one which can survive the attempt, especially with the obscenely overpowered tail-guns of the
Alpha and
Charlie configs. :o That said, the perennial favourite the
Visigoth is perhaps the best bet for Clanners, as it’s mobile enough to (hopefully) get inside the
Kirghiz with big enough guns to kill it before its own formidable throw-weight can knock the attacker down first. On the Spheroid side of things,
Eisensturms are probably your only realistic chance of eking out a win. In either case, you’ll have to expect casualties; fifty-six-point-five tons of Clan weaponry is, in technical terms, a crapload of trouble for anyone to handle. :o
[VARIANT PROPOSAL(S) REDACTED] All proposed fan-variants - including my own - belong in the corresponding “FotW Workshop†thread: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,3054.0.html Be advised: the attached .txt transcripts of previous runs of this thread contain numerous reader-proposals for variants. I’ll try to change those out for ‘sanitised’ versions of those threads when I can, but I can’t promise it’ll be soon - that’s a lot of ground to cover. ;)
