'Mech of the Week: CoyotlI've covered several other historical 'Mechs in this column - the
Orion's long, proud history, the
Hammerhands, the 'Mechs of the Not-Named - but the only one whose influence surpasses this week's entry is unquestionably the
Mackie, the first BattleMech to stomp its way into the history books. This week, we go back to the Golden Century and examining the first of the OmniMechs, the enigmatic
Coyotl, released for our viewing pleasure in
Era Digest: Golden Century alongside two other early Clan OmniMechs. The name itself is, as the spelling would suggest, a reference to the Nahuatl word the modern English word 'coyote' comes from, bestowed on it by Clan Coyote. The design of the 'Mech is linked to the Star League's
Mercury, but the Clans evidently find it prudent not to mention that the link is through the Not-Named design the
Mercury II. While the similarity struck me before, it wasn't until I set the images side by side that the fact that a
Coyotl is functionally a Clantech OmniMech version of a
Mercury II leaped out at me - the designs are nearly identical in structural terms aside from some differences to the cockpit and center torso design, as you can see for yourself from the link at the bottom of this article. Building on the easily replaced weapons of the
Mercury, a feature by implication retained in the
Mercury II, the
Coyotl was originally slated to include a fixed ER PPC but ultimately opted for a completely open design. It first hit the field in 2854 and the shock value was well demonstrated in a June trial against the Cloud Cobras, prompting nine years of Trials from various Clans before another finally got access. The design itself wasn't updated over time, unfortunately, and parts became scarce once the factory was mothballed in 2943, with the design finally going extinct by the Jihad.
In basic performance terms for the chassis, those of you who read the
Mercury II article aren't really going to find any surprises here. A Clan-grade endo-steel frame was used - unusual on an early OmniMech - rather than the
Mercury II's standard bones, while the center torso armor is fractionally thicker thanks to the use of 8.5 tons of standard plate rather than 7.5 tons of Spheroid ferro-fibrous, just one point shy of max protection on a frame this size. An extra-light Pitban 280 fusion engine drives it to speeds over 119 kph. The end result is a very similar design that has 15.5 tons of podspace, a half-ton less than the slightly smaller, slower, less heavily armored
Adder or
Kit Fox, but 7 tons more than the faster
Viper (still 3.5 more with jets) and 6 more than the
Ice Ferret, although the
Coyotl has a half-ton less armor than the latter. Overall, it looks like it was the Coyotes' own decline and their aggressive defense of the basic design that sent the
Coyotl to the scrap heap of history since the basic chassis is competitive against similar units. The far newer
Grendel and
Shadow Cat are much better matches overall. All of them, however, have a much wider range of configurations with some real stars, something the
Coyotl cannot boast.
The configurations of an Omni are what put the teeth into the tiger, though, and the
Coyotl debuted with only two configurations to its name. The
Coyotl Prime takes the extended-range particle cannon from the original design and mounts it in the right arm, with a medium pulse laser in that torso. On the other side is a mixed missile package containing an LRM 10 and a Streak 4, each with one ton of ammo, and a freezer in the center torso to manage heat gain. While the missiles aren't especially efficient, the combination of the Streaks, the MPL, and the ER PPC gives it a very effective payload out to range 12 and the LRMs give you some additional ranged firepower without taxing the heat sinks as you close. It's definitely a very general battle configuration, which means that more focused or efficient designs - especially closer range fighters - can easily overpower a
Coyotl Prime, which makes picking your fights carefully and weighing movement options a little more important.
The other configuration is a jump-mobile design with 7 jets and a large pulse laser for a "main gun". Backing that up is two Streak SRM 4 launchers feeding from a single ton of ammo (quite acceptable in a lot of Inner Sphere battles, let alone a Trial) and a small pulse laser. Given the heat balance and the way Streaks don't fire unless they have a lock, this one is a solid, quality attacker or raider. You can fence at range with the LPL, but the real payoff is getting in close, using the LPL to open someone up, and then slamming Streaks into them. The jets have a long reach as these things go and that can give you a lot of room to maneuver against opponents.
Want to stop a
Coyotl? Bring accurate weapons that hit decently hard since it can pull a solid TMM off reliably. Clan pulse lasers are a tool for all seasons, but cluster or precision ammo can do the job just fine. (Exactly what set of circumstances will bring a
Coyotl face to face with something using late Civil War-era IS ammo types I'm not going to speculate.) The stronger hits from precision rounds are probably more useful initially, but once they're opened up, cluster rounds will do plenty of damage. Pay attention to the configuration. An A (or a jump-mobile custom configuration) has a lot of reach on the jets, so be prepared to deal with that and don't leave your back open. Even ground-bound configurations have a lot of agility.
Image Reference: The picture, including a shot of the
Mercury II for comparison purposes, is
right here. The
Coyotl is on the right. The
MUL database may be useful for getting the BV.
