(posting this early because i have an unexpected work day in the morning and will probably be too worn out tomorrow afternoon. this is my first attempt at a MOTW type review, so if it's a bit unpolished, that's why.)
Alpha Strike Unit of the week: Wasp Land Air MechToday we will be looking at one of the more unique, and sadly almost extinct, units ever created by the Star League. Land Air Mechs were, on the surface, a simple idea. combine an Aerospace fighter and a Battlemech to create a unit with the strategic mobility of a fighter and the durability of a mech. Naturally of course, this proved much harder to pull off in practice, requiring the development of an entirely new area of technology, and the resulting unit proved to be inferior to both Fighters and mechs in their respective elements. but used correctly, the Land Air Mech offers some unique capabilities not available to either mechs or aerospace fighters.
first, lets take a look at the special rules?
if you look, you'll notice the "LAM" special rule, followed by some numbers in parentheses. the presence of that special rule means that this unit is a Land Air Mech, and thus actually has three different movement modes. yes, i said
three. a standard Land Air Mech has three forms it can shift between. Aerospace fighter and Battlemech, which are about what you'd expect, and Airmech mode, a hybrid between the two which operates as a Wing in Ground Effect Vehicle or WIGE.
for a LAM, it can choose to move as any of it's three modes at the beginning of it's movement phase
In Battlemech mode, a LAM operates exactly like a standard mech, with all the standard rules.
in Airmech mode the LAM operates as a Battlemech with the WIGE movement mode, and is pretty much restricted to the same terrain as a normal WIGE. this means that, first and foremost, unless it takes off it has a ground movement of only 2 inches. takeoffs require 4" of movement to be used up before any distance is travelled, but after being in the air it can move it's full remaining amount, and they do not have to land so they can stay up in the air and not lose any distance the next turn. they skim along the ground, and have to go around any terrain higher than 2" tall, because elevation changes are limited to 1 inch up or down per inch traveled. and if the unit wants to stay airborne, it has to move at least 4 inches of distance. (thankfully landings are free). that said, in this mode because of it's much higher movement and the status as a WIGE unit, it can generate a much higher TMM while airborne (
it is +1 to hit when airborne, and the higher movement means a larger TMM to start with in that mode). which is good, since the WIGE movement also puts the unit at one inch higher than the underlying terrain. something that for a battlemech makes it a very visible target. one that is going to attract a
lot of enemy fire. as
Schlock mercenary points out:
and the high TMM's, while adhering to the fighter pilot's adage "speed is life", aren't a sure thing for survival. they certainly help a lot, but while high TMM's mean that most of those enemy shots are likely to miss, the odds being what they are mean that at least a few will get through, and given LAM's weights and tech limits, it won't take too many hits to bring one down.
Aerospace mode operates exactly like a standard Aerospace fighter. a LAM that converts from Aerospace fighter mode to airmech obviously needs to be in the central zone of the aerospace combat map at the start of that movement phase, and one converting to aerospace fighter mode will just as obviously start it's movement in the central zone as well. also, you cannot convert directly from Fighter to mech mode (and presumably vice versa),
if you do you'll crash. you'll need to spend a turn in airmech first.
Now on to the Mech!
the Wasp series of LAM's was created by the Harvard company, out of Epsilon Eridani. Similar to how the Stinger battlemech was developed off the original Wasp Battlemech, the Wasp LAM found itself copying much of Lexatech's Stinger LAM technology. the first prototypes were prone to difficulties in converting between modes and suffered targeting and tracking problems, which required bringing in an outside expert to fix. once the design flaws were solved, the Wasp LAM had the fastest conversion rate between modes of any LAM. (although this is not represented in actual gameplay) very few of the models used advanced technology originally, aside from the conversion equipment, which made them easier to maintain by the SLDF. the Wasp LAM's first battlefield use was in 2690, in the Sol system's Oort cloud, a strike on a nuclear weapons facility. it would go on to see extensive use by the SLDF, earning the nickname "angels on our shoulders."
so let's go back to that stat card, shall we?
the WSP-100 Wasp LAM is the first Wasp LAM the Star League produced, and the most common one in Royal Regiment hands.
right off the bat we can see that the WSP-100 is a light mech at size 1, and it's mech mode movement is not exactly stellar. 10 inches will certainly get you around, but the jump movement is smaller at only 8 inches. a TMM of 2 in either method of getting around means you need to pay close attention to terrain mods for the best survivability.
a 1/1/0 damage scale is also rather limited, though since that translates to 24" of range, you can stay a decent distance away while defending yourself.
Armor of 2 and Structure 3 means this thing fails the Thud-test, and two such hits will destroy it outright.
the Specials are where this mech lives. first up, and a first for ASUotW, is BOMB-1. the WSP-100 has a bomb bay, which really defines it's role. Bomb bays can only be used in aerospace fighter mode in Alpha Strike, to carry various area effect bombs, one use rocket pods, or target acquisition gear (TAG). (while the standard battletech rules allow it to carry arrow-IV missiles,the rules for Alpha Strike prevents the WSP-100 from using them, as in AS an air launched Arrow IV counts as two bombs forthe first one loaded or if carried singly. also, in standard BT,
a LAM can use rocket pods and TAG in all three modes, and bombs in both fighter and airmech, but currently AS does not cover such.) the downside of having bombs in alpha strike? despite the fact that the LAM's bomb bay is internal, and thus under normal rules doesn't effect flight speed/thrust, the abstraction of alpha strike saddles the LAM with -1 to it's thrust rating/aerospace fighter movement value.
FUEL4 gives it some range in aerospace fighter mode, but is largely unused in airmech and battlemech modes.
Rear 0*/0*/- is handy for scratching your back, but probably won't do much.
LAM(24"g/4a) this is where the real fun begins. 4a is it's aerospace fighter movement. it is rather slow so don't think you can go around dogfighting. laden with bombs it's brought down to a lethargic 3a. 24"g is it's airmech WIGE movement, and with two feet of movement it can really get around. it also means that (if I'm reading the rules correctly) it can do so with a TMM of +5, which will really help keep it alive while moving from place to place.
how do you use a WSP-100? well, the limited ground firepower and the BOMB1 means that this LAM model is more of a fighter than a mech. load up bombs or rocket pods and make an attack pass, then come back and land to harass the enemy. that said, never operate it without aerospace fighter cover because any kind of real aerospace fighter is going to make mincemeat of the LAM. (if errata comes down allowing the use of Rocket pods and TAG in non-fighter modes, this unit will become a bit more flexible in how it can be used.)
next up is a simple variant, the WSP-100A. basically a -100 with it's bomb bay replaced by an LRM-10, this model is most notable for being the original inspiration for the Valkyrie battlemech.
at first glance, pretty much the same as the WSP-100. same armor and structure, so still fairly fragile. TMM stays the same, though the movement is now a full 10"j, so if it jumps it can push the TMM to +3.
the big difference is in damage and range. 1/2/1 is fairly impressive for a light mech, letting it hit out to 48 inches away, and doing it's best damage between 18 and 24 inches.
specials see some change as well. FUEL4 is right where you'd expect it, but IF1 comes as an automatic for the LRM's, letting it shot over interveining terrain.
movement in airmech and fighter mode also went up, to 30"g and 5a. this really doesn't change the airmech mode TMM any from the WSP-100 (still a +5 while airborne) and fighter mode is still fairly slow.
this one gets used rather differently than it's brother. while you can still use fighter mode to approach or escape the battlefield, it is definitely a ground unit. use it much like you would a Valkyrie, for fire support of other light units, only with much better 'shoot-and-scoot' options.
and the last of this brotherhood of early LAMs is the WSP-100b. this one really doesn't have much detail on it's background.. it's a variant indicated to have been used by the SLDF's 77th Special Operations Group, the "Blackhearts." presumably during their operations during the Reunification war and Amaris Civil War. they may have had some left over or cached away during the early succession wars (after they went Mercenary) but it seems unlikely they had many, survive till the Jihad. the parts of the 77th SOG which followed Kerensky into the Exodus however probably brough any LAM's they had left with them, so you might find a few in old Brian Cache's or being experimented with by the Society. in SLDF service, it seems likely that if one special operations unit has access to a specific variant, other similar units would have access as well. The WSP-100b is more of a scout mech than the two we have covered previously, with the weapons pulled for a medium pulse laser, a streak SRM, and an ECM system. it is the clear predecessor to the WSP-105, which will be covered later in this article.
first up, you'll notice that the armor is improved. it can now survive the thud-test, although two such hits will still kill it. movement is the same as the WSP-100A, at 10"J, 30"g, and 5a.. fairly mobile on the ground, but still slow in the air.
the major difference is the damage. a 2/2/0 bracket means this LAM can actually bring the pain, albeit only within 24 inches.
the ECM special gives it the ability to shut down sensors and electronics in a 12 inch radius, and lets it sneak around when using blip counters and the other concealing data rules. (in more modern games it also gives it the ability to sever C3 links, but since C3 came around long after this model went extinct, the combination is unlikely.)
the next three LAM's we cover are more like half-brothers to the ones already covered. not long after the first LAM's were deployed, the SLDF noticed they were taking a lot of extra fire because oftheir unique looks. so the SLDF commissioned new models, designed to more closely resemble each LAM's conventional Battlemech progenitors. (while the MUL gives these cards the art of the Royal LAM's, the actual art is currently Unseen.) these units never received advanced technology refits and were assigned to standard SLDF units. as a result, it was these later models which would survive to go on to serve in the armed forces of the Successor States during the Succession wars. the Wasp LAM saw use all across the Inner Sphere, but the biggest concentrations were found in the Capellan confederation.
Unseen WSP-105 Wasp LAM Miniature produced by Ral Partha. Image provided by Dave Fanjoy's Website.
first up is the WSP-105, which appears to be a reduced technology version of the -100b. Because the Production facilities on Epsilon Eridani were destroyed during the succession wars, the WSP-105 was a valuable but increasingly rare unit.
first thing you'll notice is that the movement is higher.. 12"J in mech mode, 36"g in Airmech, and 6a in fighter. this doesn't change the mech mode TMM any from the other models so far, but it does push the Airmech mode TMM to +6, which makes this model much harder to hit when airborne.
Firepower is back to being 1/1. this is fairly typical for a light mech the time and technology of it's heyday, so decent enough.
armor/structure is the same 3 by 3.. not bad for a light mech but you will be relying on being hard to hit more than anything.
the specials are pretty standard for a LAM.. FUEL4 and the LAM alternate movement.
the WSP-105 is definitely a scout. use it's airmech mode to look ahead and find the enemy, then to run away. if you have to stay and fight, stick to mech mode and use terrain for cover.
the WSP-105M
is (as far as i can tell) a Pilot's custom machine, not a regular variant. Lieutenant Mandrake Matherson was a Combine LAM pilot in the 12th Air Lance, part of the Deiron Regulars. apparently he used his airmech mode to great effect during a campaign on the border planet of Capra in 3024 (most likely against the Fedsuns), and as a result was allowed to modify his LAM with armor found in a bunker on Galtor that brought close to a Mk.I's appearance, and gave it a minor weapons mod. the armor thing is pretty much just fluff, but the weapons change is minor enough that I'd be very surprised if it hadn't occurred more than once. it evidently swaps out the SRM2 for an LRM5, giving it longer range capabilities.
stats are pretty much the same as the regular -105. same movement, same armor and structure. the big change is the damage. 1/1/0* is only a minor improvement in damage, but the extra range is very handy for a unit this fragile, and the combination of high mobility and long range makes it useful as a harasser. IF0* again comes with the LRM's.
edit: and i just noticed.. the MUL has the -105M as a FWL only unit.. now i have no clue where this one came from.
the WSP-110 is one of the more bizarre platforms. serving as a testbed for the Word of Blake's redevelopment of Land Air Mech technology, it combined features of the different Wasp LAM's with cutting edge WOB technology, such as the Variable Speed Laser and composite structure. in terms of appearance this one is a bit of a mystery. while it's number matches that of the 'unseen' LAM models, since it was a completely new design it may well have been built with the Mk.I appearance.
on the surface, not much different. the mobility and firepower is the same as the WSP-100A, as is the presence of the BOMB1 special. the big difference is armor. Composite structure saves weight but makes the internal more fragile, so it results in a reduced internal score for AS. in this case, the same 3 armor is there from the WSP-105, but paired with only 2 internals. which doesn't make much difference to the thud test, but does make it somewhat more fragile.
use this one the same way you would the WSP-100. it's more of a fighter than a ground unit, so make use of it's airstrike ability.
Overall the Wasp Land Air Mech is fragile, and not terribly powerful. it's high mobility in airmech mode gives it potential for use as a harasser, using shoot-and-scoot tactics to close on an enemy, sting it, and run away to a safe distance. even better, it makes a good recon unit, which can range ahead of your force, find out what the enemy has, then retreat back to safety. but remember it's a light mech still. hits from anything bigger than another light mech are going to mess you up, if not put you down for good. The Royal and WOB variants are pretty much the same, but the addition of the bomb capability makes for an interesting option, especially if you opponent skimps on air cover.
the biggest hindrance for the use of any LAM is the extinction issue. with them no longer in common use by the clan invasion era, and their revival by the WOB during the Jihad being so brief, you are not likely to encounter a LAM very often. that said, there were enough in use during the 4th succession war that a WSP-105 Wasp LAM could occasionally pop up in private or mercenary hands during the post-clan era's, and the setting certainly has enough examples of hidden star league caches that a few Mk.I's could even come into play in later eras. they'll just be rare cases of someone being willing (or forced by circumstances) to deploy a hard to maintain museum piece.
