And now, to the first of no less than
four unique variants of the Banshee. One of those unique variants is from the Battle Lance pack, and will therefore not be covered here. This one will, though!
Three years after the production of the -3S, Mr. Reinesblatt fielded this customized model. Much of the armament remains similar to the -3S. Both PPCs have been removed in exchange for one Hatchet in the left arm and one Large Laser in the right. The right torso SRM-6 has also been converted into an LRM-10. Heat dissipation remains the same, as does the armor package of all Banshees and the speed of the -3S.
All in all, much more geared toward melee combat than any Banshee so far – odd, because it's one of the slower ones. This makes it difficult to get into melee range in the first place, but when you do things start to hurt, and hurt badly. Heat is still a problem on an alpha strike, and the optimum brackets for firing have gotten a bit... muddled. For extra confusion, this is also the first Banshee to mount something with a range longer than 18 hexes. Ever! So not only does it double down on melee, it does so while simultaneously reaching farther (albeit more anemically) than any Banshee before. Go figure.
Alpha Strike is kind to this one. The LRM-10 lets it keep a point of long range damage and gain IF1 for use while keeping to cover in order to get to melee range, while the Hatchet adds MEL for increased damage in melee. Five points is nothing to sneeze at. A final damage block of 4/4/1 OV1 is still respectable, lacking the burst damage of the -3S, but keeping a moderate amount of long range damage. That's invaluable, especially for a scary melee monster like this. I'm going to forego doing the OV calculation this time, because five examples should be good for you guys. :P
Alpha Strike PV is still 45, on account of the IF1 and MEL bumping it up just as much as a point of OV and long range damage brought it down. Role remains Juggernaut, good for use in Assault Lances. With this one, I definitely recommend taking Demoralizer as the lance ability. Really, anything that uses melee wants to do that, in order to make shots against you harder while not in base to base contact, and to slow down your target below the speed they need to reasonably outrun you.
Let me save you some time when you come around to considering the -3MC. It's bad. The armor and speed are back up to the typical -3E standards, but that doesn't save the 'Mech. Typically, the AC/5 is a poor weapon. On this 'Mech, the AC/10 is a poor weapon. In order to free up the tonnage for the cannon and two tons of ammo, the Medium Lasers are gone, and so are five heat sinks. The result is a 'Mech that overheats while firing its primary weapons, gives up significant amounts of offense at short ranges, doesn't match ranges well at all, and puts out less damage than just about any Assault 'Mech you could name, leaving aside the notorious Charger -1A1. This kind of firepower is matched and exceeded by 'Mechs half this size. Warhammers and Marauders point and laugh. Normally that's not a huge knock, but for something 20-25 tons larger, it's a painful sight. Barely worth mentioning is the single Small Laser that's still chilling in the head.
As for Alpha Strike? Well, it's cheap. Read the preceding paragraph again to remind yourself why it's so cheap. Armor and move are, once again, back up to -3E standards, which is probably this thing's only saving grace. Damage is a mediocre 2/2/1. At least it
has long range damage! There is no OV to even periodically bring the damage up to average levels. The only thing that recommends this is the AC1/1/- Special, which is useful for shooting at airborne targets, or targets with high move. That's about it.
Well, that's not strictly speaking correct. The -3MC actually gives me an excuse to break out the overheat calculations and show you how
not to build a 'Mech in AS. Damage rounds up to the nearest whole number, which makes things like solitary Small Lasers good for eking out that little extra bit of short range damage for a low tonnage investment. This particular Banshee could have done that, and instead screws it all up with heat.
Take a look at the short range damage. From the AC/10 we get 1, from the PPC we get 0.75 due to minimum range, and from the Small Laser we get 0.3, for a total of 2.05. Then the overheat calculations come in. (2.05 * 11)/(16 – 4) → (22.55)/(12) → I'm sure you can see where this is going. The final, adjusted value is 1.9 after rounding to the nearest tenth, not good enough to round up to 3 points. The heat has robbed us of a point of short range damage.
But what about medium? This thing lost a point at short range, why can't it at medium to claim OV1? Well, it's because of that Small Laser. It doesn't enter calculations for medium range, which means that it can't influence the damage of the combined PPC and AC/10 above their cumulative exactly 2 points if it tried. Ever. The heat modifies that slightly, too, to a similar 1.9. That rounds back up to 2 points, and since at medium range the 'Mech lost exactly nothing, it doesn't qualify for OV1. The long range damage of exactly the PPC and nothing else is not influenced by heat.
And that, kids, is how to avoid building a 'Mech for your own games. As alluded to earlier, the only saving grace of the -3MC in Alpha Strike is that it's cheap as hell at only 37 PV. It's also a Brawler, which means it no longer fits easily into an Assault Lance, but it can do well enough in a Battle Lance. If you do put it in a Battle Lance, you'll probably want to use the Battle Lance's Lucky SPA on melee attacks. Two points at short and medium isn't generally worth spending the rolls on unless you need two points to kill something
right damn now.The only significant numbers of this particular machine are found in the Magistracy of Canopus, starting in 3037. So I guess, if you really need a bad Assault 'Mech to fill out a unit playing Periphery, this is the 'Mech for you. I can definitely see the CAF deciding that Assault 'Mech > no Assault 'Mech and putting it into heavy production.
And with that, we have now entered a new era, ladies and gentlemen. The next Banshee on the lsit, the BNC-5S, is a product of the Clan Invasion. Notably just a bit too late for Tukayyid and the main thrust of the Clan Invasion, this variant stepped off the lines for the first time in 3053.
I would also like to say that, after the walking blunder that is the -3MC, the -5S is pretty good, guys. It starts on the solid base that the Banshee has been built on for over 600 years by this point, with a 64 kph top speed, and a solid 15 points of armor. The armor distribution has
still not changed even once, now on variant #8. That's all window dressing to the main event, however: the guns.
In order to save mass at the expense of bulk, an XL engine was fitted into the -5S's frame. This freed up
over 20 tons to use to improve the armament. And oh, how it is improved. The two PPCs from the -3S make an appearance, shifted around a bit to both fit in the right torso. Both are also upgraded to ER PPCs. Against the Clans, this is a significant benefit in range, and also has the benefit of making the -5S right out of the gate the single most dangerous Banshee yet, by dint of being able to put 20 points of damage downrange to 690 meters. Even better, that's not even the end of the big guns! The AC/5 has been upgraded into a fearsome Gauss Rifle, reaching just shy of the ER PPCs but bringing in an impressive punch. The only negative for this set up is the single, solitary ton of gauss ammo. You'll run out of ammo
long before you run out of armor. Fourteen double heat sinks (another awesome upgrade) struggle to deal with the heat burden of just the main weapons. Firing the three big guns all at once at a run will leave the -5S a little toasty in the cockpit, but it will still function at full effectiveness the next turn, which is the important part. It's easily sustainable to run at 3-3-2 firing pattern, dropping one ER PPC every third round and remain heat neutral. Or, for the slightly more daring, or the slightly better shots among us, 3-3-3-2 will also stay heat neutral while keeping firepower up longer. At that point, you do start to run into some targeting issues, but the increased damage output could be the deciding factor, depending on the range and speed of your target.
The close range punch of this Banshee got heftier, too. Two Medium Lasers in the left arm coupled with an SRM-6 and a ton of ammo in the right get good results, and arguably better than most Banshees before now regardless of other weapons especially at short range. The only downside is that they're arm mounted, which means in the event of a melee range brawl, you're either restricted to kicking, which can sometimes be risky, or you're unable to engage with all of your short range armament. An additional two Medium Lasers are mounted in the side torsos, one each, but face rearward. While good against backstabbing threats, I think I speak for most everyone when I say that forward mounted weapons are largely superior, and I would pick them every time. The head mounted Small Laser remains, and is actually joined by a second nestled in the Center Torso. I'm again reminded I'd rather have another Medium instead of two Smalls. Heat is fairly easily managed at short range, however, trading out one ER PPC for
everything else. Dropping one ER PPC and firing everything else in the front arc generates only movement heat. Pretty slick brackets, but firing an alpha strike will leave the pilot wondering who turned on the sun in the cockpit.
To my delight, the -5S stacks up well in Alpha Strike, too. This is the first time out of all our previous Banshees where the armor or structure changed. In this case, it's the structure. XL Engines in Inner Sphere terms basically half the amount of structure a unit receives (rounded up, with exactly one exception in the 80 ton column), so this Banshee comes in with 4 points of structure. This significantly reduces the total punishment that the 'Mech can take, but that does also affect how expensive the 'Mech is. In this particular Banshee's case, those four points of structure save around 4.5 PV, before rounding and final computation. I'm a big fan of durability, but a total of 12 points is still pretty acceptable, and the number of things that can take it out in one hit are very, very few and far between.
So where does all that raw
gun go in Alpha Strike? It goes into a 4/4/4 OV1 damage block. That's pretty solid right there. Good at all ranges, consistent damage, and a little bit of extra kick at short and medium range when you need it. It can't do 7 or 8 like we saw the Mad Cat Mk IV get up to, but the -5S gets top marks from me for damage, and good marks for combining armor, speed, and firepower all in one package. As an extra bonus, it has REAR1/1/-. Rear is one of the only ways to make a second attack in Alpha Strike, so it can be incredibly useful even though it does reduce your primary attack's damage correspondingly.
The rear mounted weapons make the overheat calculations interesting. In Alpha Strike, rear mounted weapons are not counted for overheat
unless rear firing weapons do more damage than forward firing weapons. I can't honestly think of any 'Mech where that happens, so it won't affect much here. Total damage of all forward facing weapons is pretty hefty. A point for each ER PPC at all ranges, half a point for each Medium Laser forward in short and medium, 0.8 points for the SRM-8 in short and medium, 0.6 total for the two Smalls in short only, and the Gauss Rifle puts up 1.245 in short and then 1.5 each in medium and long range. Or rather, that's what it
would do if it had 10 shots of ammo. Instead, that value gets reduced by a quarter at all ranges. Adjusted, the damage is 0.93375/1.125/1.125
That gives us an unmodified damage total of 5.33375/4.925/3.125. Damn, that's pretty sweet. As of right this moment, that rounds up to a total of 6/5/4 before we consider heat woes. Anyway, on to the calculations.
At short range, with everything except the rear mounted medium lasers, this Banshee can put out a blistering 45 heat at maximum movement heat. Plugging that into our cool little formula, we get (5.33375 * 28)/(45 – 4) → (159.345)/(41) → 3.6, which will round up to a total short range damage of 4 when we get there. That's a difference of two full points of damage. Now time to see if the difference persists in medium range.
Back to the formula (4.925 * 28)/(45 – 4) → (137.9)/(41) → 3.4, which will likewise round up to 4. That is a difference of only one point of damage. That restricts the -5S to OV1, rather than 2. This is likewise an example of how not to build a 'Mech for an entirely different reason. Have ammo for your guns, kids.
At 42 PV, this one is more expensive than the base -3E, but the capability it offers is
vastly improved offensively, for a not-insignificant but certainly not crippling hit in vulnerability. With its speed, the -5S plays more like an oversize Heavy than a traditional Assault. I like it. The -5S is a Sniper, which means it's a great addition to a Fire Lance, and the high damage at all ranges with good armor contributes to Assault Lances well, too. This one definitely wants to take
fewer hits than a -3E, but it can still take a couple, so don't be shy. The extra damage also means you can probably try to outduel someone in raw damage, and promotes being more aggressive with your shots.
The Banshee -5S is available to the Federated Commonwealth, member states thereof, and allies.
Custom variant number two. I had no idea who this one was named for until I saw that the source for it was actually the TRO3050 Upgrade record sheets. Apparently a mercenary in Bronson's Horde, Trent “Bullfrog” Sawyer opted to remove one of his Banshee -5S's ER PPCs and one heat sink in exchange for a full complement of jump jets. This allows the -5S (Sawyer) to really open up at shorter ranges without worrying too much about overheating too badly, even despite the lost heat sink. Overall offensive power is reduced, but the mobility is hugely improved.
Nothing else about the 'Mech changes, making this particular custom something that could easily have marched off the line at a glance if we didn't know anything about where it came from. There's only one -5S (Sawyer), and the Horde was destroyed as a fighting unit on New Avalon during the Jihad fighting on the side of the Blakists, so the likelihood of this particular model still existing is not high.
In Alpha Strike, the -5S (Sawyer) is pretty similar in Alpha Strike, too. The loss of an ER PPC reduces the long range damage by one point, but the rest of the damage component remains the same minus overheat. That is to say, you can still do 4 damage at short and medium, but the lack of ER PPC pumping up the temperature means that there's no overheat along with it; you just get 4/4/3. That's still pretty good! And the extra mobility granted by the jump jets arguably matters more here than it does in standard play. You don't lose distance when you jump, and being able to clear terrain like that makes the -5S (Sawyer) pretty terrifying in a built up area, especially since it can use that mobility to bully smaller but individually more powerful units. Getting into base to base contact means that the -5S (Sawyer) and original -5S don't lose any damage they could be doing, but if an enemy unit does less damage in melee, the Banshee comes out on top.
Despite the drastic mobility change, this one retains the Sniper role, and only goes up by 1 PV to a total of 43. I'd take that if I ever got the opportunity to use unique units like that in my games. As a Sniper, this one works well in an Assault Lance that's trying to stay mobile, like a Fast Assault Lance. At that PV, you can probably afford this plus a skill increase in the place of a 'true' line Assault. As a unique unit, no major power uses any great number of the -5S Sawyer. It debuts in 3057, and may be presumed destroyed by 3070.
Somewhat amusingly, our next variant is also unique. The Banshee BNC-5S (Vandergriff) is the personal ride of a Solaris VII gladiator. It, too, goes the way of improved mobility with jump jets, but it takes a different path to get there.
One of the ER PPCs moves to the left arm, while the other stays in the right torso. The rear mounted Medium Lasers are ripped out, and the SRM-6 is downgraded to an SRM-4, while keeping the same amount of ammo. Both Small Lasers are also removed, making at least one interesting first for this particular Banshee. That accounts for four tons, and the remaining four tons are gained by dropping the Gauss Rifle down to an LB-10X. Only one ton of ammo furnishes the weapon, defaulting to slugs. You keep the long range punch of the ER PPCs, but lose the long range concentrated punch of the Gauss. I'm genuinely not sure which I prefer, but it's definitely worth noting that loading a ton of cluster ammo makes this one an excellent generalist while the ammo holds out.
And I guess I should at least mention that the armor hasn't changed again, and that the engine is still the XL of the base -5S. Surprise.
The changes in Alpha Strike make the -5S (Vandergriff) much more average than the last couple. Armor and structure are what you may expect, and the jumping move is the same as the -5S (Sawyer). Damage is significantly evened out, a flat 3/3/3 all the way down, and OV2. Not losing that ER PPC while going to jump movement sure affected that significantly! I'm generally a bigger fan of 4/4/4 OV1 than 3/3/3 OV2, but you do get the points cost back for it. The difference in points is 17 PV for the 4/4/4 OV1, and 13.5 PV for 3/3/3 OV2. Significant enough to make a difference in the final PV, I wager. Also making a special appearance courtesy of the LB-10X is FLK1/1/1, making the -5S (Vandergriff) the first Banshee capable of effectively responding to airborne targets, or at the very least much moreso than previous variants.
At 41 PV, this version of the -5S is the cheapest so far, but not by too terribly much. The jumping movement accounts for some of that, as does rounding in the final calculations. If you ever do find an excuse to use this one, the role is that of a Skirmisher. This particular 'Mech was destroyed on Solaris VII during riots that broke out on the eve of the FedCom Civil War. The pilot did not survive.
Finally, out of the unique variants! The -6S debuts in 3062 to the Lyran Alliance and the Lyran Alliance only. It's also probably one of the most Steiner things to ever exist. It's also the largest major changeup to the Banshee's base characteristics yet.
First up, the engine changes again. It's moved to a Light Engine, and kept the rating and speed. This makes the -6S inherently less vulnerable than the previous -5S, and I'm 100% okay with that. Losing the tonnage for guns is a shame, but somethings are worth it. Besides, the -6S keeps guns in an impressive way. More on that in a little bit. Double heat sinks are also kept, and all ten of them fit in the engine with no problems whatsoever.
The engine has changed, and so has the structure. The -6S is the first Banshee to mount Endo-Steel, freeing up an additional four and a half tons, somewhat mitigating the switch from XLE to LFE. You pay more in crits, but gain in durability.
Something I'm less enamored with, this is the very first Banshee to mess with the trademarked armor alignment. Armor is kept the same type, but reduced by half a ton. Most of that came out of the rear armor. What was previously a pretty solid rear plate along all torsos has been reduced so far that an AC/10 will nearly breach the center, and
will breach the sides with some boom left over. Not having that threshold against what are arguably the most common big guns of just about any era isn't great for something that's designed to go in and mix it up. Two points come off the center torso, too. Then the legs get a pair of points each. They were arguably the weak link on the Banshee's original armor segment, but I'm concerned that the loss is greater than the reward on that redistribution. Which is to be expected when armor is reduced.
So, what's the point of all these changes? Three words: Heavy Gauss Rifle. Occupying almost the entire (CASE'd) left torso and what space remains in the center is the behemoth of a gun. Five tons of ammo feed the beast, split with four tons into the legs and one in the right torso. The right torso houses an LB-10X with two tons of ammo, also CASE'd. The biggest knock against equipment placement on this 'Mech is that the HGR spills into the center torso but those two crits are unprotected. It's entirely possible to go up in a puff of smoke if the rifle takes a crit, though to be fair CASE wouldn't stop that. The token Small Laser returns in the head. Mmmm, that sounds pretty good to me. Total maximum heat generation on the whole 'Mech is a whopping 7 points. You could probably pilot this thing in sweats and barely even notice.
In Alpha Strike, however, the Heavy Gauss isn't quite as sterling. A short range damage of a mere 1.65, rather than the 2.5 you might expect, really weighs it down. That minimum range hurts. The combination of that and the LB-10X (and token Small Laser) brings up the damage totals to 2.58/2.63/1.63, for a final total of 3/3/2. Not great, and certainly not what you'd expect to see out of a Heavy Gauss. The threat range of the big guns in Alpha Strike just doesn't translate nearly that well.
Disappointing. The heat level on this thing might as well be set at 'refrigerate', so heat modification won't be necessary in the slightest.
Now the good news: LFE means that we get a point of structure back, up to five, and the armor drop didn't actually change the number of armor points. Rounding for the win. With a total of 13 points, split 8/5, the -6S is once again capable of sustaining four hits from the ASMOTW's Thud test and keep trucking, which is definitely good for its utility. FLK1/1/1 also appears in the Specials again. It's also the first to have CASE, which is something, at least.
At 37 PV, the lack of general offensive ability in the Alpha Strike stats makes the -6S one of the cheaper Banshees available. It doesn't come with a whole lot of punch, and it's titled as a Brawler so it won't really help you out in many Assault Lances. This one is a battler, through and through. Stick it in a Battle Lance to take advantage of the good durability, average damage, ability to reroll when it
really matters, and the relatively inexpensive PV cost to field something that big that's still fast enough to stay in the fight.
Fast forward one year to 3063. Looking for an upgrade to the -5S, the Lyran Alliance (as it was calling itself at this point) took what had worked from the -6S, the LFE and the Endo-Steel, and built on a good thing.
That starts with the armor. An extra ton is added from the -6S, cumulatively a half ton more than most other Banshee's. The way this armor was arrayed is... interesting. There's a net
loss in torso armor from the originals, while the arms and legs get a few extra points. Now, the arms and side front torsos are evenly matched at 27 points each, enough fewer points that three PPCs or AC/10s, or perhaps more importantly a pair of Gauss Rifles will go right through it. The legs are up to 32 points, significantly improving compared to the original, six points each. It's probably a personal taste thing whether you want leg armor or torso armor. With an LFE it's perhaps not quite as vital to have that torso armor as high as possible, but it doesn't sit well with me. The center torso also loses a couple points front, to where the fourth PPC or AC/10 will outright breach, rather than leave the internals untouched but with no armor left. The head armor stays the same at the ubiquitous 9 points. Rear armor also takes a hit compared to the originals, able to stop a Large Laser exactly in the sides, and the same plus a Medium Laser in the center. Overall, while the protection has gone up by eight points I'm not as impressed with the distribution. Losing legs really sucks, but side torsos are more likely to be struck in the first place, and carry most of the 'Mech's firepower.
And now, to the guns. An ER PPC sits under the left arm, supported at long range by a Gauss Rifle in the left torso. This time the gun has a proper amount of ammunition to feed it, two tons in the center torso. If there was ever a time to put ammo in a center torso location, gauss ammo is it. The torso with the Gauss Rifle is protected by CASE. An SRM-6 occupies the opposite side torso, with a single ton of ammo, likewise protected by the same CASE that protects the rifle. That leaves two engine crits and eight explosive crits in that side torso. No thanks, but with CASE it's better than nothing at all. Finally, four ER Medium Lasers back up the SRM at short range, arrayed one in each side torso and two in the right arm. All in all, a pretty hefty punch. The same base 14 DHSs present in the -5S manage the heat well in brackets. Long range is actually fairly cool-running, contributing an ER PPC and a Gauss. Short range is similarly well behaved. Four ER Mediums and an SRM-6 provide good short to mid range punch, and do so while still remaining heat neutral. Add the Gauss as numbers permit, and in a pinch the ER PPC can add some firepower too, but you'll run pretty damn hot to do so.
How fare thee in Alpha Strike, champion? Thee fares pretty well. The 15.5 tons of armor aren't enough to bump the -7S up another point, so we're still at 8. Light Fusion means 5 points of structure. That's the same 13 points as the -6S, so same concerns (or lackthereof) about durability.
The damage is pretty sweet. Unlike the -5S from earlier, this -7S
does manage to claw its way up to 4/4/3 damage
and keep OV2. I think I might have mentioned it three or four times this article already, but while sustained damage is better, that OV potential is good for keeping PV down while keeping offensive punch. The particular advantage, or at least my favorite way to use it, is on the very turn that the unit is destroyed. In Alpha Strike, combat is conducted one player at a time. That is, the player that lost initiative fires
everything, and then the player that won initiative fires. This allows the player that won initiative to react to destroyed units. If a unit that just blew up but has yet to return fire has an OV value? Punch it. Hit the “All the Missiles” button, because there's no reason to leave the heat scale anything short of a melting ruin. In PV terms, OV1 is one point, OV2 is 1.5 points, OV3 is 2 points, and OV4 is 2.5 points. So, effectively, you're spending two points in order to take advantage of really good shots that may present themselves, and also to get two extra points of damage from a dead unit. This contrasts directly with the PV cost of the damage you lost from heat. OV2 corresponds to a whopping 6 PV you
didn't spend on flat damage, so you're effectively getting a 4.5 PV discount on that damage as long as you use it a couple times. There are definitely worse trade-offs.
I don't think I'll actually go through the heat calculations for this one, mostly because as of this paragraph, this article just hit 10,000 words. Yeah. I hope at least a couple of you read this far. Not that I would blame you if you didn't. Proof-reading this thing is going to be a gigantic pain, and I may forego it entirely just to get this out the door.
PV for this one reflects its abilities. Good damage, potential for catastrophic damage, good durability, good speed for its size, and getting in close with one really sucks for anyone who does. In light of that, 43 PV is a pretty good deal. This one is a Brawler, fitting in well with Battle Lances. This one also serves as a great bodyguard in a Command Lance, with the good OV capable of taking out headhunters or at least crippling them before they get to the CO.
