Here’s another one of the original Operation Revival Clan omnimechs that has not yet been covered in a fan article: The Nova!
(Source: Solaris7.com)
(Source: Sarna.net)
The Nova was first produced in the year 2870 by Clan Hell’s Horses at the Tokasha Mechworks. It is one of the oldest omnimechs available to Clan toumans at the time of Operation Revival, being produced only five years after the Woodsman heavy omnimech came into production (the Woodsman was produced in 2865, the second heavy omnimech produced by the Clans, and the basis of the Timber Wolf, Gargoyle, and Naga omnimechs). The Inner Sphere forces which encountered the Nova code-named the chassis “Black Hawk”, probably due to its hunched appearance with its bird-like reverse-jointed legs, coupled with its ability to fly (jump) through the air to attack targets where they are most vulnerable.
The Nova appears to be based on the 90-ton Supernova battlemech, a Clan design dating back to 2846, 24 years before the Nova was produced. The general appearance of the Supernova was carried onto the Nova, from the pods mounted on either side of the battlemech’s nose, to the large forearms loaded with lasers, and even jump capability was retained. The Nova became a smaller, more mobile successor to the Supernova, while retaining the firepower of its progenitor in a couple of its standard-issue configurations. Besides the differences in weight and mobility, the Nova eschews a separate pelvic assembly for its legs, with the legs being directly connected to the side torsos and the arms attached to the outside hip of each leg. This reduced the overall height of the Nova while apparently severely limiting its available firing arcs, and the possible loss of legs due to a destroyed side torso. (Author’s Note: The BattleTech board game rules always trump the accompanying game art; the last couple sentences just suggest possible quirks players could add to the chassis. But if it makes people feel better, the MechWarrior Online version of the Nova follows traditional battlemech design practice by giving the omnimech a separate pelvis to which its legs are attached, thus allowing torso twist and no threat of leg loss due to a destroyed side torso. The MechWarrior Online artist achieved this reimagining of the Nova while maintaining the aesthetic and spirit of the original TRO: 3050 design. You can see it here:
http://static.mwomercs.com/img/gallery/43D7994A8B82BBD09806DA903F845858.jpg).
Clan Hell’s Horses designed the Nova with combined arms strategies in mind, being the first of the Clan omnimechs to have hard points allowing battle armor-clad warriors to ride along on it. The Hell’s Horses scientists recognized that the special balancing circuitry incorporated within previous omnimechs, and now their Nova, could help the machine stay balanced and move and jump at top speed while bearing the load of several armored troopers distributed around its torso. In addition to getting a faster ride to the battlefield, the armored troopers could also recharge their power packs and directly communicate with their Nova’s MechWarrior. Other Clan scientists caught on to this new feature and incorporated it into their own omnimech designs, and quite possibly retrofitting older omnimech chassis like the Woodsman and Lupus.
It is worth mentioning that the heavier and faster Stormcrow medium omnimech was also produced at the Tokasha Mechworks by Clan Hell’s Horses beginning in 2930. Although the Stormcrow’s prototype is the Corvis chassis, it appears that the production version of the omnimech borrowed its arm and leg assemblies from the Nova, possibly for ease of manufacturing and repair.
At some point before Operation Revival, Clan Ghost Bear seized the Tokasha Mechworks from Clan Hell’s Horses, and production of the Nova ceased in 2921. Despite being out of production, the Nova soldiered on into Operation Revival and beyond due to a wealth of spare parts available for the chassis.
I am unsure whether or not Nova production was restarted within any other Clan after 3050, besides the Clan Diamond Shark standard battlemech version of the 3080s. (Author's note: According to
Objectives: Clans, Clan Jade Falcon resumed production of the
Nova in 3070 on Sudeten :)).
The Nova’s chassis is simple in design, making no use of advanced materials like an Endo-Steel skeleton or Ferro-Fibrous armor. The bones are made up of a standard Star League XTA chassis, and the armor is ten tons of regular Forge Type HH30, making the Nova well-armored for its weight. In fact, its armor can stop a Class-20 AC hit to the center torso and each leg, although unlike the legs, the center torso will have some armor left. The side torsos and arms can stop a Gauss rifle and have a tiny amount of armor to spare. The rear torsos can each stop an Inner Sphere Large Laser, but there will be no serviceable armor left then. The head has the maximum protection rating afforded by standard armor. In the event the Nova takes internal damage, Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment is built into the entire chassis to prevent the omnimech from being totally destroyed if any ammunition it is carrying is hit.
A Model SF-2 XL engine with a rating of 250 and fourteen fixed double heat sinks are all the flair that this chassis gets. Another simple fixture of the chassis is its five Clan Standard Type A2 jump jets, with two ports in each leg and one in the center torso. The Model SF-2 XL reactor propels the Nova to a running speed of around 86 kph, while the Type A2 jets allow the omnimech to leap 150 meters. Fourteen double heat sinks are hardwired into the chassis, which, like the 85-ton Warhawk, allow the Nova to effectively use weapons configurations that are heavy on high-heat arms, like lasers and plasma weaponry.
With the hardware taken into consideration, the Nova has sixteen tons of pod space available for weapons and equipment. In addition to that, the chassis is very spacious, perfect for mounting large weapons, masses of small, light weapons, and tons of double heat sinks. Because of this, MechWarriors will find that the chassis does not lend itself well to pod configurations that use one heavy ballistic weapon or many small ones, barring machine guns.
The standard-issue Primary configuration of the Nova consists of twelve ER Medium Lasers, with six banked in each arm. An additional four double heat sinks help keep the laser-generated heat in check. Each arm can produce the damage equivalent to five Inner Sphere Large Lasers, or two Class-20 ACs. Firing one arm’s worth of ER Medium Lasers generates just enough heat for the eighteen total freezers to tame and allow the Nova to use its entire jump jet capacity. Oftentimes, a MechWarrior can fire as many as nine or ten of the lasers, then jump behind cover momentarily to cool off. This tactic unleashes an overwhelming amount of damage again and again. Because the immense firepower of this configuration is spread evenly between the two arms, the loss of one arm will not cripple the Nova’s combat capability. Also, the arms end in massive fists, allowing MechWarriors to carry objects or wield an improvised physical weapon if they so choose. If I wanted to improve this configuration, I would remove a laser from each arm and add a targeting computer to one of the side torsos.
Configuration A mounts an ER PPC in each arm. Although the hands are lost due to the heavier connections requiring the mounting of the ER PPC pods, the weapons themselves more than make up for that by being able to remove the head of another battlemech with one hit. An anti-missile system is mounted in each side torso with a single ton of ammo feeding both devices. A medium pulse laser is mounted in the left torso to dissuade lighter, faster opponents from getting too close. Like the Primary configuration, it is wise to fire both ER PPCs a couple times in a row, and then jump behind cover to cool off. However, because the ER PPCs have a greater range than the ER Medium Lasers, a MechWarrior could keep this Nova configuration at range and fire from a good position as long as the enemy allows it, then relocate as necessary by running or jumping.
Configuration B has a Large Pulse Laser in the left arm next to the hand, and an Ultra AC/5 in the right arm with a ton of ammo. An ER Small Laser in the right torso and two machine guns with a ton of ammo in the left torso can be brought to bear against opponents who get too close, and are especially useful for cutting down unarmored infantry. This configuration will not come close to straining the base heat sinks on the chassis. Attacks can be easily made while jumping repeatedly and not build up any heat, and the accuracy of the Large Pulse Laser encourages this. In the event of engine shielding damage, the base heat sinks can keep the Nova A going at nearly full combat capability. The arsenal may be anemic compared to the other standard configurations, but it allows the omnimech to sustain heavy damage yet continue to be a threat on the battlefield. But if I were to make a change to this configuration, I would drop the Ultra AC/5 and its ammo for another Large Pulse Laser and two extra freezers in order to keep this configuration’s resistance to heat-generating attacks and engine shielding damage.
Configuration C is what I believe to be a very inefficient use of the chassis. A Gauss rifle occupies the left arm along with a single ton of ammo for the weapon. A small pulse laser sits in the right torso for anti-infantry use, and a SRM-4 with a single ton of ammo sits in the left torso. The right arm has no weapons but the massive fist used from the Primary configuration. While this configuration has a head-chopping weapon, it barely uses half of the Nova’s available heat capacity, and lacks the firepower present in the previously mentioned configurations. On the flipside, any Nova using this configuration will be impossible to disable with heat-generating attacks, and engine shielding damage will have no effect on the omnimech’s performance. The single ton of Gauss rifle ammo might be okay in a duel, but it will not last an extended trial. I think dropping the Gauss rifle and its ammo for a large energy weapon, like an ER PPC, would be wise. The rest of the pod space could then be used for more anti-infantry weapons like flamers and SRMs. This would keep the anti-battlemech ability of this configuration while making it effective against combined arms forces.
Configuration D makes a combined arms fighter out of the Nova. A LBX-AC/5 is mounted on the right arm with two tons of ammo, and a LRM-20 is mounted on the left arm, also with two tons of ammo and room for a hand. The LBX-AC can be used to pepper vehicles and aircraft with cluster munitions and cause disabling damage. The LRM-20 can load different LRM munitions, like Thunder missile-delivered mines, but can otherwise be used in the same manner as the LBX-AC in peppering soft targets with missiles. I do not feel that this configuration is suited to fighting harder targets, like battlemechs. Yes, the LBX-AC can switch from cluster to slug rounds, but it is just a Class-5 AC, which is not much to fight with. The LRM-20 will probably output more damage than the LBX-AC. If this configuration is to be used, I would avoid battlemechs entirely. If I were to make a change to this configuration, I would drop the LRM-20 down to a 15-pack launcher, and add an ER Medium Laser and an ER Small Laser to aid in fighting harder targets.
Configuration E mounts an ATM-12 in the right arm with six tons of ammo, and three ER Medium Lasers in the left arm. There are hands on both arms. This configuration’s heat buildup in addition to jumping meets the rated heat capacity for this chassis. The ATM launcher has plenty of ammunition to make it a flexible combatant, and it is able to deal damage at any range. However, I think it could use two less tons of ATM ammo for other equipment, like AMS or ECM. But if one were to swap the ATM-12 for The Society’s iATM-12 (which is a direct swap and upgrade), I could see keeping all six tons of ammo for the different munitions that The Society developed for the iATM.
Configuration F appears to be very similar to Configuration E in that three ER Medium Lasers and a hand are mounted in the left arm. The right arm now has a HAG/20 with three tons of ammo. The HAG is a nice multi-purpose weapon, being able to easily knock fliers from the sky while retaining the characteristics of a LRM-20. While the HAG has a long range, it is most effective at close range due to the decreased spread of its projectiles. As far as heat generation goes, this configuration runs cooler than the E setup, leaving some room to thwart heat-generating attacks and reactor shielding damage.
Configuration H sets five Heavy Medium Lasers in each arm and adds six additional freezers to the torsos to keep up with the heat generated by the weapons. This configuration makes the Nova a devastating brawler, as it exceeds the firepower of its ancestor, the Supernova, but at a shorter range. The MechWarrior can safely fire six of the heavy lasers with a small buildup of heat. Like the Primary configuration, more lasers could be fired, but then the Nova will have to jump to cover to cool down. Due to the accuracy problems associated with firing heavy lasers, a MechWarrior will have to fire a few at a time to guarantee a few hits. But if the MechWarrior is sufficiently skilled, there will be tons of enemy armor plate dripping to the ground.
Configuration S is a different take on the Primary configuration. Three Medium Pulse Lasers occupy each of the Nova’s arms, in addition to hands. A pair of machine guns sits in each side torso, sharing a half ton of ammo. An AMS is located in the center torso and draws from a ton of ammo in the right torso. An active probe sits in the head location to aid in detecting ambushes. Not only does this configuration provide the chassis with anti-battlemech abilities, it also has superb anti-infantry capability thanks to its active probe and machine guns. Like the B configuration, the accuracy of the pulse laser armament encourages constant jump fighting. The MechWarrior need not exercise much discipline when it comes to heat control unless firing all the weapons and jumping is the main strategy. But even then, leaving just one of the lasers out of the firing order will allow the Nova to cool down.
Configuration U is probably the most specialized of the standard configurations available to the Nova. This configuration allows the chassis to excel in space operations, whether it is walking on the hull of a friendly ship for defense or performing repairs, or for boarding actions. In each side torso is a liquid storage tank for storing reaction mass for the jump jets so that they can function properly in space. In each side torso sits a battery of four machine guns, meant to cut down space marines in boarding actions. Assisting these machine guns is a trio of Micro Pulse Lasers in the left arm. A trio of Heavy Medium Lasers resides in the right arm for harder targets. In addition to the heavy lasers in the right arm is a spot welder for use in either ship hull repairs or for cutting holes into the hull of an enemy ship during a boarding action. Perhaps the strangest addition to the Nova, or any Clan omnimech, is a sword being held in the left arm. While very un-Clanlike, the sword is likely used to chop or knock holes into the hull of an enemy vessel where the spot welder was used to weaken the armor there. (Author’s Note: This is purely speculation on my part as I am not familiar with battlemech space operations rules or the rules for boarding actions, but the use of a welder and a sword for forceful entry of an enemy ship makes sense to me!). An ECM suite helps with masking the Nova against the numerous Artemis-enhanced missile systems available to aerospace craft, and a Light Active Probe helps ward off ambushes within the ship the omnimech is boarding. To increase survivability in space, a Harjel sealant system is mounted in the center torso to prevent a lucky hit from breaching the center torso armor and disabling the reactor.
There are a couple notable pilots of the Nova. Phelan Kell/Wolf of Clan Wolf piloted a Nova in his second trial for a bloodname. Diana Pryde of Clan Jade Falcon also used a Nova in a bloodname trial.
When fighting a Nova, you usually just have to keep shooting at it until it goes down. It does have plenty of armor, just about the most you can mount on a 50-ton battlemech chassis. In addition to its armor, it has superb mobility, allowing it to stay in the fight for a while and take quite a bit of punishment. Many of its configurations do not overheat, so using heat-generating weapons is futile. However, its energy-based configurations will be vulnerable to heat attacks. The weapons in the different configurations are generally balanced between the left and right sides of the chassis. But for configurations like the C and D, you will want to try and maneuver towards the side that has the most dangerous weapon in order to take it out and reduce the Nova’s effectiveness. I suppose, in a way, fighting against a Nova is like fighting against a smaller Summoner in many cases.
I hope this article sparks some discussion on another one of my favorite omnimechs, which, like other designs, has barely had any mention on these boards. Let us put the Nova on the spot, shall we?