’Mech of the Week: Fire Moth
Fire Moth. The first light-class OmniMech. As fragile as a moth dancing around a flame. And the fastest thing on two legs when it first showed up.
The Inner Sphere name
Dasher fits better than most.
The
Fire Moth was originally developed by the Cloud Cobras as primarily an infantry support platform, and a strike unit second. The first
Fire Moths had a strange infantry pod slung under the arms, which led to both a reinforced torso and the strange upside-down arms. However, problems with the pod idea (primarily being called a “Mandrill crazy idea”) caused them to be discarded, and the inability to reduce the fragility of the MASC system caused the Cobras to “lose” the design to the Ghost Bears for a five-year trade agreement.
The Bears kept the arms because of balance problems when using standard arms. This had an unexpected benefit, as battle armor suffered less accidental brush offs that way. And the upraised arms allowed for easier dismounts by the battle armor as well. Finally going into full production in 2874, the
Fire Moth is a relatively uncommon design. The Ghost Bears have the highest numbers of this design, with the Horses a distant second (mostly due to salvage from their long feud). The Exile Wolves are also known to have enough to create stars of them. The rest of the Clans disdain the design as being too fragile for constant use (though use in trials is accepted).
The chassis is fine-tuned with every possible method (for its time) to squeeze speed out of it. Along with the MASC, the design is built around an endo-steel skeleton and mounts a 200-rated Firebox extralight engine, giving the design a top speed of 216 km/h. Two tons of ferro-fibrous armor (amusingly named IceSheet) give these machines 55% of maximum protection, laid out in a 5, 5/2, 4/2, 3, 4 pattern (head, center front/rear, side front/rear, arms, legs respectively). Just as a note, this means that while the design mounts ferro-fibrous armor, it only mounts half the weight of the Inner Sphere’s
Locust design. Ten double-strength heat sinks are fixed.
The Prime configuration mounts two medium lasers in the left arm, a 4-pack SRM in the right torso, and a 6-pack SRM in the right arm. One ton of ammunition is allocated for each SRM launcher.
Alpha is more of a support configuration, as it mounts only a 6-pack Streak SRM with one ton of ammunition in the right torso for offensive weaponry. Alongside there is an anti-missile system, an active probe, and Target-Acquisition Gear, which can call in artillery fire from
Nagas and the like.
Bravo mounts an ECM suite and two machine guns with half a ton of ammunition in the tight arm, a medium pulse laser in both the left arm and right torso, and an anti-personnel pod in the right leg.
Charlie puts an anti-missile system in the right torso and a 5-rack LRM in each arm, each fed by a ton of ammunition.
Delta was the original dueling configuration, mounting two medium lasers in each arm, an additional medium in the right torso, alongside a flamer, and a targeting computer for the lasers, placed in the right torso. This configuration is one of the hotter-running ones.
Echo carries a single 6-pack ATM launcher fed by three tons of ammunition. All placed in the right arm. This configuration is likely to die from combat long before the ammunition runs out.
Foxtrot mounts an active probe in the left torso, three medium lasers in the left arm, and three anti-personnel Gauss Rifles in the right arm. One ton of ammunition feeds the Rifles.
Golf is the most recent configuration and also the most advanced. Two improved heavy mediums are in each arm, tied to a targeting computer placed in the right torso. A coolant pod allows for one running alpha strike with no heat woes. Finally a supercharger allows for a top-end speed of 270 km/h.
Hotel (aka psycho circus) is the lone configuration to install an additional heat sink, though it barely helps with the heat loads. Nine heavy small lasers (five right arm, four left arm) tied to a targeting computer make this the knife-fighter of choice for those with a couple screws loose (which is not to say ineffective, I have seen one take down a
Turkina).
Kilo is the last standard configuration. A heavy medium is mounted in each arm, alongside a machine gun array with three light machine guns each. A half ton of ammunition for both arrays is placed in the left torso. A Battle-Armor Pod is placed in each leg.
While most of those assigned to
Fire Moths are non-Bloodnamed warriors on the slide towards solahma, meaning they are a bit aggressive, there is at least one Bloodnamed Warrior who has taken to the
Fire Moth. And she rode the design all the way to becoming Khan of the Ghost Bears. Aletha Kabrinski revels in “skillful kills,” so much so, that some wonder if she might have a bit of Goliath Scorpion blood in her veins. In that vein, her personal configuration, which we get to see in
Jihad Hot Spots: Dieron, mounts an ECM suite in the left torso, three small lasers in the left arm, and a large laser for sniping in the right arm.
Using one starts with the old adage, “Speed is life.” Perhaps never truer than in this case with the thin armor. Keep your movement numbers as high as possible, though make sure not to tax the MASC too much. Your first job might be as a battle armor taxi, as you can get to the front quicker than any other OmniMech that I know of. Initiative determines your move. If you win and you are close enough, you can get behind almost any foe. If you lose, run and hide until you win. (I will note that my GM still hasn’t adopted the one side moves one, other side moves one, continue rule. We still play under the old rule [or at least how he was trained] where the winner of initiative moves their entire side after the loser moves his.) Anyway, with most of the configurations lacking long-range weaponry (C, E, and Aletha’s are the exceptions), your best shot is to dash in, hit hard, and withdraw. That is, unless you are a little loose in the head, in which case bring the H, and dance the dance of death. In that fight with the
Turkina noted above, the guy piloting the H simply ran in circles around the assault and kept ending up in his rear.
Fighting one is a bit frustrating. With his speed, he is incredibly hard to hit, and that was before they put out a configuration that mounts a supercharger on top of the MASC. That said, if you do hit him, he tends to shatter. Especially since my gunners seem to have a hankering for chicken (they like hitting limbs). Leg hits make
Fire Moths fall down and go boom. On that note, if he does fall down, pound him as he gets up. Targeting computers, pulse weapons, and precision ammunition if you have it help. Though I like giving out locations to target, the speed of the
Fire Moth make that a touch iffy. If you are going to try that, I’d say the legs, with arms secondary if there is ammo or as my friends say, “explody things” in them. While CASE is standard, the explosions still rattle the pilot a bit. And in the case of the E, a cascade is possible (crit an ammo bin, and it chains to the other two).
The
Fire Moth is a rare taste in BattleMechs. Those that like it, tend to be very good with it. The rest hate it. Even in universe, it may be on its way out. The Homeworlds began phasing out the design after the Wars of Reaving. Considering the two plants were in Ghost Bear space they were moved to the Inner Sphere. One appears to have been a casualty of the Jihad, and the other is a mobile factory that may be wearing off by the time the Dark Ages roll around. Thus it is possible the design is not in production any more. However, enough of them should still exist that they can continue to make an impact in the times to come. We shall have to see.
This design first appeared in TRO 3050. Additional variants are in
Jihad Turning Points: Dieron and in the New Tech, New Upgrades PDF of the 3145 Record Sheets.
Fire Moth
