I never thought the day would come that I'd be typing something about a canon
Iron Cheetah, my favorite non-canon Clan omnimech, in the Fan Articles board. Well, that day is here now, thanks to ilClan Recognition Guide Vol. 19! :)
The
Iron Cheetah was the last omnimech Clan Smoke Jaguar designed before their annihilation resulting from Operation Bulldog. It was available to their Touman in 3054, but thanks to the resource management technique the Jaguars employed, the omnimech’s availability seemed to be in small enough numbers that it was missed for TRO3055 and TRO3060. However, the
Iron Cheetah saw action against the Inner Sphere invaders, with the Draconis Combine capturing a few from combat against Clan Smoke Jaguar. It’s Inner Sphere code name could’ve very well been “Kaiju” (“strange beast”) or “Gojira” (“gorilla whale”, original name of the fictional Japanese monster “Godzilla”), but the names never stuck, probably considering how few
Iron Cheetahs were encountered. The few that were captured were assigned to prestigious Warriors of the Dragon, though again, few enough to not be featured in any earlier TRO. I imagine these units were likely hangar queens since they were the pinnacle of Clan omnimech technology, with the DCMS probably having little to no means of adequately maintaining the rare beasts for combat.
The
Iron Cheetah factory on Huntress was destroyed by Task Force Serpent, with surviving Jaguar technicians taking the ‘mech’s design plans with them. The techs ended up using the design plans to barter with Clan Diamond Shark, who waited until the 3080s to produce them in the Inner Sphere. With the
Iron Cheetah’s resurrection, the Republic of the Sphere purchased exclusive rights to procure the omnimechs from the Sharks. Most of these went to Stone’s Brigade and the Fidelis, leaving the deployment of the omnimech seemingly unknown to the rest of the Inner Sphere. When the Republic collapsed, Clan Sea Fox started selling
Iron Cheetahs to other factions. In the ilClan era you may find these omnimechs among not only the Sea Foxes, but also the Free Worlds League, Federated Suns, Lyran Commonwealth, Raven Alliance, and the Wolves-in-Exile. Considering that Clan Smoke Jaguar was resurrected from the Fidelis, they probably have them too from their time being part of the Republic military.
Born from the desire of Elementals to ride into battle on a faster 100-tonner than a
Dire Wolf, Khan Lincoln Osis commissioned the
Iron Cheetah following the Battle of Tukayyid to supplement the
Dire Wolf. With the need for speed, Clan Smoke Jaguar spared no expense with the
Iron Cheetah. Visually, it seemed to mix the best attributes of three well-known omnimechs: the arms, legs, and combined torso components of the
Warhawk and
Dire Wolf, and the feet and signature cockpit design of the smaller and faster
Timber Wolf from Clan Wolf – perhaps a way of the Jaguars for honoring a cutting-edge heavy omnimech from a rival Clan. I can’t help but think that the sharing of body components was planned by the Jaguars to help ease maintenance of the omnimech, much like how the
Warhawk and
Dire Wolf originally shared body components, along with the rest of the TRO3050 Clan omnimechs. At its heart is a 400XL Fusion Engine, the same model used in the
Gargoyle, able to let the 100-ton omnimech run at most 65 kph. Previously, Clan Ghost Bear’s
Kodiak, which debuted in 3001, held the speed record for the fastest 100-ton Clan battlemech. Clan Smoke Jaguar surpassed that, building not just a fast 100-ton battlemech, but a 100-ton
omnimech. The engine is big enough to house sixteen double heat sinks Like the smaller
Timber Wolf that partly inspired it, an Endo-Steel chassis makes up the bones and Ferro-Fibrous armor make up the skin. And that skin is the thickest possible for a 100-ton ‘mech, just slightly surpassing the slower
Dire Wolf while keeping a similar torso armor profile. The internal layout of the armor and structure criticals is similar to that of the
Timber Wolf. All these guts leave 39.5 tons of pod space available to configure to the needs of a mission. While this is about 80% of the
Dire Wolf’s available pod space and eight less critical slots, I think the extra speed makes up for it.
If your imagination isn’t allowed to configure the pod space, there are six standard pod configurations to choose from, all but one of them from the ‘mech’s debut in 3054 (the L configuration shows up in 3135):
Prime Configuration: There are three arm-mounted head-chopping weapons here: Two ER PPCs, and a Gauss rifle with sixteen shots. These are supplemented with an Artemis-enhanced LRM-15 with eight shots and two medium pulse lasers, all of which are also arm-mounted. With the heavy weapons taking up the lower arm and hand actuators, they can all flip to the rear arc where they are further supplemented by an ER small laser. An anti-missile system provide some protection against missiles with 48 shots. There are no additional heat sinks mounted, but the stock sixteen doubles are sufficient for the three main weapons, subbing an ER PPC for the LRM-15 to allow for a little cooldown. I see the pulse lasers helping with hitting faster targets at closer ranges, both fired in place of one ER PPC.
A Configuration: There are two large pulse lasers, an Ultra AC/20 with ten shots of fire at the normal firing rate, and five machine guns with 200 shots of fire between them, all mounted in the flippable arms. The torsos contain an additional machine gun and two Streak SRM-6 launches with 30 shots between them. An Active Probe is mounted in the center torso. This configuration reminds me of the
Dire Wolf A with the big gun being a short-ranged monster instead of a head-chopping sniping weapon. It also adds the ability to deal with lots of infantry harshly. Two double heat sinks are added, allowing the ‘mech to fire both pulse lasers and the AC at full firing rate while staying heat-neutral.
B Configuration: Two large pulse lasers and six medium pulse lasers are all mounted in the arms, while an ER small laser is mounted in the center torso. A targeting computer guides all these weapons, though location-specific aimed fire isn’t possible. Four jump jets allow this configuration to be used like a big Nova Prime; jump in, fire all your lasers, and jump out to cover to cool off, with the bonus of the pulse lasers and targeting computer negating any jumping movement impacts. Two double heat sinks are added, and allow for one large pulse and six medium pulse lasers to be fired while staying heat-neutral, or you can drop a pulse laser from the firing group to accommodate jumping movement heat.
C Configuration: Four ER large lasers, four medium pulse lasers, and two Streak SRM-2s with 50 shots between them are mounted in flippable arms, with an LRM-15 and eight shots sitting in the right torso. This configuration is basically a faster
Dire Wolf Prime without the Ultra AC/5s. Eight heat sinks are added, allowing for near-continuous fire of the ER large lasers. As the range closes, one or two ER larges can be substituted with the medium pulse lasers and the LRM-15.
D Configuration: Two ER large lasers, an ER medium laser, and an LBX-AC/20 with fifteen shots are mounted in flippable arms. A Gauss rifle with sixteen shots and a rear-facing ER small laser sit in the right torso. An ECM Suite takes a spot in the center torso. This configuration reminds me of the
Dire Wolf W with its long and short-ranged big guns. No heat sinks are added, but they aren’t needed for firing all the big guns and staying nearly heat-neutral.
L Configuration: A massive HAG/40 with twelve shots and four improved heavy medium lasers sit flippable arms, though because the HAG/40 is split between an arm and a torso it can’t be flipped. A large pulse laser and a pair of rear-facing medium pulse lasers sit in the left torso alongside a light Active Probe. CASE II protects locations from the explosion-prone HAG and improved heavy lasers. An engine supercharger is mounted in the center torso to allow the ‘mech to run up to 85 kph in bursts. One heat sink is added, but trigger discipline for bracket firing is still required.
I really like how the main flavor of some of the
Dire Wolf's tournament-legal configurations are fit onto the
Iron Cheetah. It really drives home that it's basically a faster
Dire Wolf! Overheat a little and it's as slow as a
Dire Wolf for a little bit with about the same punch, especially with the A and C configurations. the Prime configuration is like a
Warhawk that can shoot three of its PPCs all the time without much worry about overheating, but without the targeting computer.
Typically I see fan articles about combat units include a section about how to kill the subject unit, but I’m not really going to do that. The
Iron Cheetah dies like everything else – just shoot it until it stops twitching. Cross off the armor and structure boxes, score critical hits, hit it with a nuke and throw the record sheet into the fire pit or paper shredder – what and how you shoot it up with is completely up to you and may even impress your game table companions :thumbsup:
Some players might wonder: Why take the
Iron Cheetah over a pocket assault omnimech like the
Night Gyr or
Nova Cat? Both designs have nearly the same pod space as the
Iron Cheetah. You take the
Iron Cheetah for any of the following reasons:
• You want a 100-ton Clan omnimech that can move 4/6 with maximum armor coverage
• You want sixteen double heat sinks all stored in the engine
• Heavy ‘mech armor, even at maximum for the chassis, isn’t enough
• You like the tournament-legal configurations of the
Iron Cheetah more than the pocket assault omnimechs
• You want something that matches the visual aesthetic of the
Warhawk,
Dire Wolf, or
Timber Wolf, or any TRO3050 Clan omnimech for that matter
• You like 100-ton physical attack damage
• You like Clan Smoke Jaguar
• You like the FWL, Lyrans, Ravens, and Wolves
• You aren’t into ‘mechs built by green budgies or lesser felines ;D
In real life, the
Iron Cheetah was a design created by David Briedis and featured in the MechForce North America magazine in 1995, Volume 1, Issue 4. At the time the design was considered non-canon. While I don’t think it makes much sense in canon for the TROs to omit this design for so long, it couldn’t be helped due to real-life circumstances, though some really neat mini kitbashes made their rounds on the internet! It is nice to see non-canon MechForce designs getting canonized. Maybe we’ll see the
Sidewinder and other mashed-up 3050 omnimechs among the Homeworld Clans in a renewed Clan invasion? We’ll have to see!
While I love having these on my table, I really want to drive one in MechWarrior Online :D One can wish...
MUL Entry:
http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/8319/iron-cheetah-primeSarna Entry:
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Iron_Cheetah
