’Mech of the Week: WHF-** White Flame
White Flame. Half again as heavy as its little sister the
Blue Flame, this 70-tonner seems made to attract attention away from the lighter design, as well as be more of an annoyance. The looks of the design are more functional than aesthetic, though the jump jets when fired are apparently a sight to behold.
When first developed the one thing holding back both quad designs was the engine problem. A standard engine left enough space, but too little mass. An extralight engine left enough mass, but too little space. But then came the Lyran development/theft of the light engine. When the inevitable FedCom Civil War broke out, ROM agents were happy to procure the plans for themselves.
The WHF-3B
White Flame entered service in 3065. Built around an endo-steel chassis, it mounted a 350-rated Magna light engine, giving the design ground speeds equivalent to the Lyran
Barghest. The addition of five jump jets allow for better maneuverability than that design. Fifteen tons of standard plate give the design maximum protection in a 9, 34/10, 23/7, 30 pattern (head, center front/rear, side front/rear, legs). The weapons-load makes this a strike-and-fade type, consisting of a large pulse and medium pulse in the right torso, and twin extended-model mediums in the left. An improved C3 computer helps by allowing up to five other units to join in the fun. Finally, a head-mounted anti-missile system rounds out the defenses. The two tons of ammunition for that system are artifacts of another time (and rules set). Eleven double heat sinks struggle with the full heat-load, but since you need to be mobile, going somewhere to cool down is not out of the question.
The Jihad came soon after. And sometime shortly after its introduction as a full-production weapon, the ROM procurement agents snatched the plasma rifle from the Capellans around 3069. They immediately added it to the WHF-3C model, taking the place of the twin pulse lasers. One heat sink, one ton of AMS ammo and a ton of armor were also removed to upgrade the gyro to a heavy-duty model. The armor removed took one point from the legs and side torso fronts, and three from the center front.
As the Jihad began to crumble towards its end, a final variant showed itself. The WHF-4C entered service in 3077, and from the -3B, removed one point of armor from the center torso, uses a small cockpit, swaps the left torso mediums for pulse models, the right torso medium pulse for an extended medium, the AMS for another extended medium and TAG, and the large pulse for a Snub-Nose PPC. Two heat sinks were added to try and mitigate some of the heat woes. This seems to be the most likely “Manei” model, but lacks some of the cutting edge stuff their late designs used.
Using one starts with your friends. Bring units that can support you as you hop-and-skip around. Units that can double as spotters when you aren’t at optimal range, as well as back-up when you are and they aren’t. Try to take care with your weapons-fire, as all models overheat when you are jumping around and as I am wont to do at times, follow Nero’s advice from the
Star Trek reboot, and “Fire Everything!” You should jump every turn for the higher defense numbers, and fire where you see opportunity. Try to avoid enemy ECM suites, or provoking something you cannot handle.
Fighting one starts with noting his back-up. Bring ECM to shut down as much of the enemy network as possible. Bring flankers and/or heavy-hitters. These range from annoyances like the
Scarabus and certain
Vindicators, to brawlers like the
Ti Ts’ang. If you are faster and can hit harder, so much the better. He suffers from the standard quad deficiency of inability to torso-twist, so side and rear arcs are nice (none of the variants I saw had rear guns). The first two variants also have a nice bomb sitting there in the left torso. Target it, if you can and have the pilot skill to make it work.
As with the
Blue Flame, the future looks bleak for this design. As a Word of Blake staple, it is likely one of the first to be phased out, and the plant shut down or retooled. Barring later-day LostTech caches or Blakists returning in numbers with new variants, this design is likely among those in the dustbin of history.
