Mech of the Week: Great Wyrm
This week, a mech that has long been an emotional favorite of mine, not because I’m a big fan of its capabilities, but because for a while it was one of the only contributions of Clan Mongoose, the one true Clan. I’ve used the mech a fair few times, largely on that basis, and my main conclusion is, I’m very glad for the Chippewa IIC.
The Wyrm is based on the Dragon, from when it was offered to the Star League to compete with the Shadow Hawk. While that story is a tangled web, textual evidance tells us the author meant to base the Wyrm on the Dragon 1N, which gives us a starting point for the mech. We all know the Dragon, of course: 60 tons, AC5, LRM10, forward and rear ML, 5/8, 10 tons of armor. A good solid workhorse mech for the Combine, if one that was always more of an oversized medium meant to fight Enforcers and Centurions, and even then was lighter on power than we all wished it were, but with good mobility and durability for a mech of its day.
The Wyrm takes that, and gives it a treatment akin to the Shadow Hawk IIC (it’s old SL procurement rival) and drops the weight to 45 tons. Asside from that, it does it’s best to emulate the Dragon. It’s LRM10 matches the Dragon’s save for the minimum range, it moves both of it’s medium lasers (now Clan ERs) to the front, and backs them with two ER smalls, and it mounts an auto cannon array that offers similar power to the old AC5. It still moves 5/8, but armor was cut to just seven tons (the noted 30% reductions is what ties us to the 1N).
The key problem of the Wyrm is that it is trying too hard, much too hard, to be a Dragon, at a time when the Dragon itself is trying not to be. The Dragon was fast for it’s era, but while the Shadow Hawk IIC upped the anti to 6/9/6 the Wyrm just stayed the course. The Dragon was tough for it’s era, but in an environment where weapons hit harder the Wyrm goes backwards on protection (though it does mount the same standard engine as the Dragon, giving it some added measure of toughness). And though it’s laser array is quite lovely, the decision to try and emulate what the Dragon’s AC5 could do pretty much damns the mech.
This is because the Wyrm does not mount an Ultra 5 or LB5, or anything along those lines, or a 10 or 20 for that matter. Rather, it uses a pair of Ultra 2s. With a max of 8 damage, the more likely outcome is pretty close to 5 between misses and missed second shots. If all you want to do it match the Dragon closely, it’s not actually a bad choice. If you want to destroy enemy mechs, it represents a poor choice. An appalling choice. A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad choice of weapons. Let me be clear, I don’t like AC2s at the best of times, but their use here creates a mech that would have been pretty usable in the Succession Wars, good even given its Clan lasers, but just can’t pull its weight in a world of Clan tech. Now, doubtless some AC2 apologist will say that the weapons offer the mech great range, and useful crit seeking at range. The mech is a terror against tanks, they might say, and aircraft, because it can plink away at 27 hexes, and by keeping at that distance it can protect itself from return fire it can’t tolerate. This is all true.
There is one (and exactly one) Great Wyrm with a custom laser based weapons suite, used by a single surviving Jaguar on a reconquered Combine world. It mounts one large pulse and one large ER in place of the AC2s, which dramatically changes the mech, and turns it into a genuinely useful long ranged fighter. Since it is unique, it would be hard to rationalize using it out of context, but it might serve as the basis for one’s own upgrade (I’d use symmetrical lasers, for my money, probably ERs).
But, at this point, rather than comparing the mech to the Dragon, I’d like to seek out perhaps a more apt comparison: the Blackjack. It too mounts two AC2s, and it too has its apologists that claim that despite mounting two of the worst weapons in common use in the game, because it also mounts four of the very best (the basic ML, a weapon still worthy to be part of that conversation even in the most modern era) it can be a useable and even quality mech, as a brawler which can also plink.
The Wyrm does, in fact, mount two of the least efficient weapons in the Clans’ tool box, but it also mounts five of the best. Clan LRMs and Clan lasers are without peer, and it’s non AC2 weapons can combine for 34 damage at close range. Sure, it has to be pretty well in some other mech’s face, but the Wyrm isn’t a mech that can’t afford a slugging match, especially if it’s been able to wound its opponent as they closed (hopefully over the course of 27 hexes). If one must fight mechs, this shows one possible way forward.
The worst thing is that the Great Wyrm is a poor mech to represent Clan Mongoose. The Mongeese were noted as early and enthusiastic adopters of Omni technology, deploying three galaxies against the Adders (more than some Clans could boast in 3060, when the Wyrm’s TRO was set). They were noted as favoring speed and power, which the Wyrm lacks. Tanks weren’t common in the era, and the Mongoose air arm was as good as the Cobras or Ravens so anti air isn’t a likely role. So from a universe standpoint, the only thing the mech really does well is mimic the Dragon, or perhaps show how little imagination the Mongeese had (our star unit is another IIC unit, after all, though the Chaeronea is original). Now, I still cherish anything with a Mongoose pedigree and I still use the mech, but now that we know more about the true heirs to Kerensky’s vision, it does leave one wanting.
There is, however, a non-Mongoose variant of the Great Wyrm, deployed in the Jihad. It was, presumptively made by someone who felt like I do, but doesn’t have the same sort of Mongoose nostalgia I do. I only just learned of it today, and my daughter being sick means I can’t really dig too far into it, but it is a far better mech, if only for not having any AC2s. Rather, it has a lovely Hyper Assault Gauss 20, which also has long range and crit seeking that match and exceed the capabilities of the weapons it replaces. Its remaining weapons are three ER mediums and an AP gauss (bit of a rail gun theme here), and it upgrades the armor somewhat. The loss of the LRMs means it’s overall ranged power is roughly on par with the base model, though better packaged, and the switch from small lasers to a medium brings mid ranged power up at the expense of infighting power. With the extra protection and more unified ranged punch, plus the mid range bump, it is probably a better mech. But, the cannons were never the bulk of the mech’s punch and the HAG just isn’t so much better than it can make up the loss of the LRMs fully, and I think the upgrade is hardly more of a star than the Mongoose design, even if it is a strong step in the right direction, and almost surely the correct choice for those who don’t have my ludicrous fondness for the fallen Clan Mongoose. It still needs to get close, I think, it still wants to brawl, even if it can snipe as is closes, and I do think it does have some Wyrm spirit in it.
So, how does one use a Great Wyrm? It is on one hand a mech that invests most heavily in ultra long ranged weapons, yet on the other is a powerful brawler. A mech that tries to replicate a succession wars heavy as a Clan tech medium. My advice is to exploit it’s greatest asset: it is not only a bad mech, it is evidently, obviously a bad mech. If going by BV, it offers great value, on par with middling Clan lights and only a bit more than the Dragon 1N itself (it’s within a few points of the Succession wars 1G Grand Dragon). In a bid, any sensible Clanner will see the mech as the joke it is. This means you can throw the Wyrm up against the sorts of Fire Moths and Mist Lynxes that can actually be threatened by AC2s and an LRM10 (and blown apart by twin MLs and SLs). You can plop a better pilot it in, to keep those ridiculous AC2s on target, or just plop a better pilot in that Stormcrow you also bid. Plus, much like using a Blackjack, it can be a fun challenge, to take a mech that objectively isn’t very good and still manage to work into close range and use those lasers to rip the heart out of some mech thinking it was going to use its ER LLs against your AC2s. This is no easy task, of course. The Wyrm is of course a problematic mech at best. But, it is far from impossible, since you do actually have considerable power on tap, and no one will ever in a million years take you seriously.
And in that way, if in only that way, it is perhaps an embodiment of the modern Mongoose. To taking something that’s broken, something that was to have been discarded and consigned to history, and to bring it back and make it live again, in spite of the odds, and never the less manage to win and to keep winning. It isn’t easy to be a Mongoose. It isn’t easy to use the Great Wyrm. There’s precious little information about the former, precious few heros and heroic units, and the Wyrm is far from a heroic unit. But, there’s not nothing, and the same is true of the Wyrm: for all it’s flaws, it is a mech, and it can be used and, despite my repeated pronouncements about its problems, it should be used. It’s a poorer tribute than Clan Mongoose deserves, but it is the tribute we have.
