I was looking for longbow varients to match a model I have, and was surprised that there were no mech of the week articles released for it. After some thought, and a perusal of Sarna, SSW and my TROs, I decided to do a hack-job of it
The Longbow. The unseen FASA didn't use, though I'm going to ignore the politics there. With TRO 3058 it retroactively became one of the most widely deployed mechs in the Inner Sphere, in use everywhere, with everyone.
The basic Longbow, the
7Q is a specialist. It has 50 LRM tubes (2x5, 2x20), ammunition, heat sinks, and assault-scale armor to absorb some return fire. Everything else is secondary to being able to brick the firing button until the enemy falls under the steady hail of LRMs; Two minutes, with no need to stutter like the Archer. The armor being weirdly biased towards the rear is the only thing that prevents it from being perfect in its role.
The introtech
OW (actually the first one published) takes one of the best features of the the -7Q Longbow, its armor, and reduces it to light mech levels in favor of a bigger engine. It also removes the medium lasers, leaving it basically hapless to anything that gets in close, and enough heat sinks that sustained fire is a toasty prospect. While it is a hundred points cheaper than an Archer, I have no other idea why you would chose an OW over any other model, and for twenty more BPV in a later era you could have a 13C. Park it behind something solid and try for indirect fire would be my suggestion should you ever field one.
With the return of alternate ammunition types, such as
Narc, swarm,
smoke, semi-guided, FASCAM/thunder and fragmentation, the 7Q and OW gain a 'soft' upgrade in the clan era. While it's still just 2 medium laser backup and 32KPH cruising speed, the LRMs become a swiss army knife for a number of situations - so long as they've been foreseen. Special munitions in the single ton of LRM 5 ammo should be carefully considered.
The
7V is an more thorough upgrade. The LRM5 are lost, but the upgrades to the 2xLRM20 in the form or Artemis and a ton of ammo each pretty much counter that. While the engine is replaced with an XL, some of the savings go to extra armor. The rest goes to lasers - five MPL mean you don't want to stand right in front of it, and an ER Large matches the short and medium range of the LRMs. The long range bracket can again be fired as long as the ammo lasts, but the medium lasers will blow most of the heat budget by themselves. Looking at the result, I'm reminded less of the 'original' Longbow, and more of a Stalker variant.
Next we have the
8V, a modification of the 7V that removes the LRMs for Arrow IV launchers. The pulse lasers didn't all survive, but eight tons of ammo means that you can carry situational ammo and still launch longer than your spotters are likely to have survived. It is perhaps better compared to the O-Bakemono than other Longbows; in that match-up it's slower but with more armor and still has the ER large for a respectable secondary weapon.
The
12C barely costs more BPV than the 7Q, but the throw weight of the LRMs goes through the roof. Not only are there twenty more tubes, for a total of seventy (2x15, 2x20,) but they're Artemis equipped, and an additional half-minute of ammo has been crowbarred in. What it lost is the medium lasers, as three ER smalls don't form an adequate replacement; two fewer tons of armor over an XL engine are more painful still. This is unquestionably a long-range specialist. The mini looks awesome though, very much an improvement over that of the 7Q
The
12R is less of a one-trick pony, but also probably less capable overall. Jump jets make it the most maneuverable Longbow. A light engine isn't as crippling as the XL and armor is halfway back to original levels. Four standard LRM 15 racks don't bring the pain the pain the same way as the 12C, but the ER large laser from the 7Q makes an appearance. Unfortunately, the 12R isn't sinked well enough to use all five weapons at the same time without overheating badly.
Moving into the age of MMLs we have the
13C. Six MML 7 with Artemis don't equal the long range throw weight of the 12C, but this is a beast you don't want to get close to. All 42 tubes pull double duty, capable of launching SRMs. It's part of the battery and an escort for the 12C at the same time, with a bigger engine bringing it to heavy mech speeds; definitely something to shoot first if you see it moving up, as armor is also heavy and not assault. Despite that, I'm seriously unsure how it costs so many fewer BPV than the original or a 12C
We come to the last normal model, the
14C, which should, IMHO, be a dead end. Not because the armor, which is almost back to 7Q weight. Not because the weapons, as MML 9 do as much damage as an artemis'd MML 7. The problem is that unlike the 12C or 13C, the 14C is under-sinked for it's weapons. Just the MML will heat it up to the point of interfering with subsequent attacks odds; adding the three ER medium lasers will chance it outright shutting down, with significant odds of exploding. If that happens, the XL engine will gut the mech, CASE or no. Remarkably, it manages to produce an offspring, which Kidd talks about below.
The
13NAIS is the most deviant of any Longbow configuration. It's the most heavily armored, and back down to assault speed. An interesting bit is the electronics, mounting an ECM and C3 slave. Secondary weapons are between the 12C and 14C, an ER small and two ER medium. What's weird is that there isn't a missile launcher is sight. Six medium-range Light AC5 suggest that the NAIS is supposed to be loaded with precision ammunition and go after fast lighter mechs; I'm going to theorize it as a city-fighter and bodyguard.
TLDR summery - Starts as a slow but improved Archer, moves to become perhaps the inner sphere's premier LRM boat, even above the Salamander. The 7Q is a worthy introtech specialist, the 12C and 13C the best of the upgraded versions.
Here's the MUL link:
http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Filter?Name=longbow#TbattlemechIn the event of forum crash or post loss, this post may be restored by any who have it.
