Issus - 40t, TRO3067
Originally posted 18 May 2005. All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread. One of the first products of the Golden Century’s technological advances, the
Issus was originally known as the
Stooping Raven, which means you have one guess as to its original progenitors. ;D Only lightly armoured but possessed of an arsenal fearsome as only ClanTech can be, the
Issus is not a brawler, but it can make its presence known in most aspects of aerial combat.
Being that it was constructed very early in the Clans’ Golden Century, before XL engines became fashionable
(or perhaps before they were even viable for aerospace craft) (
Era Report: Golden Century notwithstanding, I suspect the Clans were still getting their industrial infrastructure up and running), the
Issus uses a conventional-pattenern 240 engine to achieve its 8/12 thrust curve, making for a nasty limit in available weapons volume but also meaning that the
Issus has a deceptively low cost in terms both of BV and of C-bills/K-bills. Four tons of fuel is lower than most IS operators would accept, but as long as both sides obey the strictures of Clan ‘warfare’, it’s not a massive failing. The firepower would be impressive on an IS fighter twenty tons heavier: cooled by twelve DHS, the
Issus boasts ER large and ER medium lasers in each wing, backed up by a Streak-6 in the nose and an ERSL that seems to do nothing but consume a ‘spare’ half-ton. It might have been better invested in armour: wrapped in only five tons of Clan Ferro-Aluminium at 28/23/20, the
Issus is vulnerable to all-aspect thresholding by every meaningful weapon in the book - both Clan and Spheroid. (Oddly enough, according to HM:A the
Issus still has two points of armour left unallocated! :o Personally, I’d put them on the stern, so at least IS small lasers can’t TAC you. ::))
That said, the
Issus is a very useful craft, if used properly. An alpha-strike is +16 heat, meaning it’s out of the question for anyone with any real sense, but you can run both ERLLs all day and snipe the other guy to death. If you’re silly enough to get into a turning match - which is A Really Bad Idea
TM - you can fire one wing and the nose weapons and remain under your total capacity, and since that’s about all you’re likely to get to bear on a turning target, that’s not so bad. Its maximum bomb capacity is eight tons at a very nippy 6/9, making for a rain of pain on hostile mud-bugs and crunchies (or a good amount of external fuel to extend range), and while a strafe or strike generates only about as much throw-weight as a Clan ’Mech of equivalent size, they can cause nasty amounts of grief nonetheless. Anti-ship work is not the
Issus’ primary design role, but a Star of them can still perform ably in that role: two laser bays of 10 Capital at Extreme range is admirable fire-support (and a genuine worry to many smaller craft); at Medium, you use
one wing laser bay (for 17 Capital, mind! :o) and the Streaks for another 12 Capital while still staying at -3 heat. (Using both laser bays at Medium or closer is a sure and certain way to fry yourself, though, so
don’t do it. Got that? ???)
Remembering the mantras,
Issus units should be used in one of two ways: as snipers, or in one-pass-haul-ass hits. They cannot turn with smaller birds, and they are far too fragile to mix it up with the big boys, so they should hang back and support other fighters by softening up heavy targets before the merge, or make high-speed attack passes on targets of opportunity and smack them hard before extending and running away to escape retribution. Avoid XL-engined lights like the
Batu or
Avar - they have a significant agility advantage and more firepower, which puts the
Issus behind the proverbial eight-ball. :D Avoid anything that has serious firepower, lest it crush you in one volley; remember, a soft answer turneth away wrath. (Of course, if wrath should actually look the other way, you should have no qualms about putting a round right in the back of its skull and fleeing the scene before anyone can nab you. ;D)
For all of its impressive firepower, though, the
Issus’ heavy SFE and the resultant mass-penalties mean that it’s a pretty easy target for any other Clan light it might encounter, especially smaller ones with better movement curves and weapons like C/ERMLs. The Mongoose-designed
Chaeronea, itself based off the former
Stooping Raven, would appear to be an ideal counter-craft: agile enough to win the turning battle, with a weapon heavy enough to make a big mess once it has. Heavy fighters of either tech-base would also be a good bet; though many of them lack the agility of the
Issus, a couple of doses with an ERPPC or an LRM-20 in the early going should redress the situation quite admirably. ;) In fact, a few
Xerxes would have a field-day if set amongst
Issus flights; their twin ERLLs would be a one-hit-kill to the
Issus’ stern, and a single UAC/20 is an all-aspect insta-kill in close action. ;)
The only canon variation on the
Issus spaceframe is the Series 2, which offloads the ERLLs and SSRM-6 for a nose-battery including a heavy large laser, another ERML, and an ATM-9 with two tons of ammunition. While lacking the sniping ability of the original series, arguably its strongest selling-point, the
Issus 2 can generate a fearsome amount of throw-weight at point-blank range; using HE-ATMs and the HLL alone (a heat-neutral weapons selection, BTW), it can put a very ugly-sounding 37 points of damage onto a target. The usual pattern for this one would likely be to employ the ERMLs to deal with any opposition en route to the target, hit it hard with the ATMs and heavy large, then go home again when the ammo is depleted. I can’t say this one is a good use of either of the new technologies, though; you don’t have enough ATM ammo-capacity to use all three types, your heat-curve is still pretty awful, and you’ve lost your sniping capability for a close-range paradigm that doesn’t strike me as a good way to get your spaceframes back for reuse. ::)
[VARIANT PROPOSAL(S) REDACTED] All proposed fan-variants - including my own - belong in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,2229.0.html Be advised: the attached .txt transcripts of previous runs of this thread contain numerous reader-proposals for variants. I’ll try to change those out for ‘sanitised’ versions of those threads when I can, but I can’t promise it’ll be soon - that’s a lot of ground to cover. ;) No discussion of this one from the second time it ran? ??? Hmmm.... :-X
