Mech of the week repost : Wyvern

[Demon55]

   The WVE-XX Wyvern is an older model that was commissioned in 2660 AD and has been around ever since.  The first time that I looked at it, I thought it was a mech that was supposed to look like a mummy.
   It is an okay design in my book.  A 45 tonner with a large laser, long range ten rack and a six pack launcher of short range missiles.  It has decent punch for its weight class assuming that all the missiles hit in a salvo which is seldom the case.  Plus the addition of jump jets, which are almost always a nice addendum in my book as they help you get up and over the hills and other obstacles faster.  With a movement curve of 4/6/4 it is comparable in speed to many mechs.
   Over the years there have been several variants, but not much variety between them.  The variant that I will start with is the old WVE-5N.

WVE-5N
   This mech was designed to be a dedicated city fighter.  Its large laser and LRM-10 rack are its long ranged weapons.  Backed up by a SRM-6 and a pair of small lasers for things that get close.  Its Twelve heatsinks allow it to fire its large laser and short range missiles or large laser and long range missiles without overheating if the mech does not jump or run.
This variant can take a PPC hit any where on its front except the cockpit.  Its center torso will lose all its armor to an AC/20 hit, but anything more will go internal.  Each of its legs can take an AC/20 hit and still have two points of armor left.  It has 152/153 points of armor making almost as well protected as it could be.
   Its endo-steel internals free up some weight.  CASE protects the LRM ammo in its left torso and the SRM ammo in the right.
   What I would change on it would be drop the small lasers for a medium laser.

WVE-6N
   As technology declined with the Succession Wars, the Wyvern lost is endo-steel internal structure and CASE.  Its armor protection also declined, but its weapons and heat sinks stayed the same.   
   Its legs can take an AC/20 hit, but will be stripped of armor and the next shot to the stripped leg will go internal.  Its center torso now only has 18 points of armor enough, not enough to take an AC/20 hit without damaging the sensitive things underneath.  It loses 16 points of armor and has 136/153 points of armor.

WVE-9N
   In 3050 the Wyvern was upgraded, but at cost.  Its armor was reduced and shifted around.  It regained the endo-steel internals and CASE of the original.  It also has ten double heat sinks these allow it to fire more of its weapons at the same time than the earlier variants.
   The large laser has been swapped for a large pulse laser which is still in the right arm.  It keeps the LRM-10 and one ton of ammunition.  The small lasers have been removed and replaced with a pair of medium pulse lasers.  Lastly the SRM-6 has been replaced with a SSRM-2 pack.  An SRM-4 or Streak SRM-4 would have been better in my opinion as it is my preferred SRM launcher.
   As I mentioned earlier its armor was reduced and shifted around.  It now has 128/153 points.  Its center torso now has 20 points enabling it to take an AC/20 hit.  Its legs however have reduced armor protection with only 17 points each.  Each side torso contains CASE to protect against an ammunition explosion.

WVE-10N
   This Wyvern came out in the 3060s.  It has a total of eleven double heat sinks.  It has the same armor protection as the 9N.  The endo-steel internal structure is also there.
   This variant sacrifices the large laser for an ERPPC.  The ERPPC and LRM-10 make this a long range fighter as it only has a medium pulse laser for when things come into knife fighting range.  Since the ERPPC does not have a minimum range it can still be used up close.
   The SRM launcher is dropped with one of the medium pulses to have weight and space for a Guardian ECM suite in the right torso along with a C3i computer.  The C3 computers allow mechs to share targeting data so they can multi-tap foes as a team.  The C3i on this Wyvern variant combats this.  So the loss of a C3 master computer means that six mechs can share targeting data to kill things together.

Original article here: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forumarchive/index.php/topic,60019.0.html

[LastChanceCav]

For a dedicated urban combat machine, the wyvern is lacking in the ability to fend off hostile infantry.  Trading the 5N's SLs for a flamer or SPL would be helpful.

Cheers,
LCC

[Arkansas Warrior]

The Wyvern's screammed MMLs for several years.  It's always struck me as a little too slow and generalist, but would probably make a good militia mech exactly because it isn't a specialist.

[IndyRI]

^Exactly. Part of the problem many people have with the Wyvern is that it is always fluffed as a city-defense mech, when its really more along the lines of a generalist trooper mech. It's not great at anything, but it can passably fill virtually any role its assigned. This makes it very handy for campaign, and even useful in Lance on lance tactical simply because it can fill any area where you find yourself deficient over the course of the battle. Your fire support goes down? It may not be good fire support, but the Wyvern's better than nothing. Have a knife fighter that's not quite good enough to stand face to face with the enemy? Supplement it with the Wyvern. It'll balance the odds.

[Moonsword]

There's times LRMs are useful for city defense, as Liam's Ghost pointed out in the Archer article but it is a bit odd.  As a second-line defensive unit, the Wyvern makes a lot of sense to me - it was intended as a site defense unit, with the LRMs for peppering an approaching an enemy.  Think about defending suburbs or outlying manufacturing sites, for example, or indirect fire.

[IndyRI]

Indirect fire is a use in rare situations in cities. It has its benefits, but they rarely outweigh simple brute force from other weapons. The real advantage in cities in mining. Even in minimum range it's easy to hit a hex, and a well-placed mine network can direct opponents into pretty effective killing zones, or even lock them into a small alley, essentially forcing them to take damage no matter where they go.

[Crow]

Curious what you guys think of the WVN-5UX Wyvern City

[Empyrus]

Dubious.
It mixes jump jets and ground speed boosting, something i find unnecessary usually. Vehicular Grenade Launchers have some neat options, but using the weight for third ton of SRM ammo for some special option (like smoke and/or frags) would be better.
ERLL is OK but given that it is a commander's ride, it should have weapons that are suited for hanging back. Like the LRM-10 of the original Wyvern.
It is certainly workable for the role, but i'm not sure the is the best platform for a command console. The primary issue is the weight, 3 tons is quite a lot for a 45-ton design.

For a production-grade variant, i'd be inclined to strip the VGLs, Supercharger and one CASE, add a ton of SRM ammo and add a Beagle Active Probe. (I define production-grade for common units as not using anything more than advanced technology for its era.)
The last one is for fluff and practical reasons. BAP offers additional sensor data, something that is useful for a commander (fluff), and in city fighting it should be useful too (hidden units, firing through your own smoke).

[Colt Ward]

Indirect fire is a use in rare situations in cities. It has its benefits, but they rarely outweigh simple brute force from other weapons. The real advantage in cities in mining. Even in minimum range it's easy to hit a hex, and a well-placed mine network can direct opponents into pretty effective killing zones, or even lock them into a small alley, essentially forcing them to take damage no matter where they go.

Huh?  IDF fire is rare in cities?  Since when?

IMO its especially important for lighter armed designs like the Wyvern to sit behind cover and lob those missiles out of LOS so you can weaken a target before it can get to you.  Its not going to do the killing by itself, but sitting next to a LRM Carrier or Hetzer (LRM) it can contribute its bins and protect the IDF LRM vehicle.

The Wyvern IIC is missing . . .

[Liam's Ghost]

Huh?  IDF fire is rare in cities?  Since when?

IMO its especially important for lighter armed designs like the Wyvern to sit behind cover and lob those missiles out of LOS so you can weaken a target before it can get to you.  Its not going to do the killing by itself, but sitting next to a LRM Carrier or Hetzer (LRM) it can contribute its bins and protect the IDF LRM vehicle.

The Wyvern IIC is missing . . .

There's something undeniably beautiful when the enemy only sees the one wyvern but still takes fire from twelve different directions.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

For a dedicated urban combat machine, the wyvern is lacking in the ability to fend off hostile infantry.  Trading the 5N's SLs for a flamer or SPL would be helpful.

Cheers,
LCC

It's one of the rare places I'd recommend a machine gun over an SPL or Flamer: when you're defending a city, it's best if you're not packing a lot of weaponry that can set it on fire.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Well, I ended up running a 9N in a game yesterday.  First time I've ever actually run a Wyvern at all.

It actually did pretty well given that it was a Comstar vs Smoke Jaguar scenario (Battle of Tukayyid).  I'll admit that I was expecting it to be an early casualty but it ended up surviving most of the battle and only got put into Forced Withdraw conditions after it got the killing shot against a Crossbow.

[Minemech]

 This is a mech that grows on players, sometimes unexpectantly.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

So it's a fungus?

[ThePW]

This is a mech that grows on players, sometimes unexpectantly.

The Wyvern should have the distracting quirk (but only to Periphery Infantry, maybe tankers, too) Because of it's mummy-like armor layout. That might explain the surprising good remarks the 'mech seems to earn...

[Gorgon]

I like the Wyvern, especially the downgrade. It's a solid Introtech trooper. But I feel it often stands in the shadow of the somewhat more durable Vindicator.