Welcome back, folks. The series took a bit of a hiatus the last two weeks for my first ever convention attendance, but we're back with a classic. The Dervish has been around for a very long time. Not Mackie long, but long enough that in the twilight of the Dark Age, the first variant of the design emerged off the production lines over six hundred years ago. For some perspective, this time six hundred years ago, Europe at large was still ignorant to the existence of North America as a continent. How time flies.
Let's send it through the normal observation session. Size two makes the Dervish a Medium 'Mech. That's just about the only thing that won't change as we examine the variants that follow. This particular Dervish is built as a primitive 'Mech, which means that its capabilities are significantly below what you may expect for its size. Or, at least, they are in standard BattleTech. In Alpha Strike, you get what you pay for, and I can probably produce a few Mediums that the Dervish 1S stacks up favorably against.
In this case, the primitive tech manifests itself mostly in the movement column. A MV of 8”/6”j brings us our first instances of both different maximum movement, and also our first instance of split movement in general! The 1S has the option to walk, or it can take to the skies on plumes of superheated plasma jump jets. Fortunately for the Dervish (and for this article), the movement speeds of 6” and 8” both result in the same (walking) TMM. Here's where jumping gets interesting, however. When jumping, the TMM of a given MV is increased by 1. Since 6” falls squarely in the +1 category, jumping adds another +1, for a cumulative +2 TMM whenever the Dervish jumps at least an inch. The tradeoff is significant, a full +2 added to the Dervish's target numbers when firing.
That's not all jumping does, though I consider it to be arguably the most important and significant part of it. Jumping also allows a unit performing the jump movement to outright ignore extra terrain movement costs while it moves. A unit with 8” of jump movement can leap straight over a 6” in diameter stand of woods without even slowing down. A unit with 8” ground movement only would get at best two thirds of the way through. That's pretty significant! Units may also clear obstacles up to the height they jumped. That same 8” jump movement can reach the top of an 8” tall hill or building, or even jump right past it (or hostile units) like it's not there. The vast increase in mobility, even if there's no increase in speed, is enough to make the extra to hit penalty more than worth it. This is especially true when merely having jump movement is enough to allow a unit to participate in some lance roles, with perhaps the best example being the Fast Assault Lance. Fast Assault Lances must be made up entirely of units with 10” or greater movement... or any jump capability whatsoever. That's a pretty big opportunity.
That's the biggest thing that leaps out from the Dervish 1S. The rest of it is pretty ordinary. A damage profile of 1/2/2 neatly demonstrates the lack of punch from LRMs at short range, but damage is damage and long range damage is long range damage. No one will be outranging the Dervish on your table without using Extreme Range rules from the Companion. The damage isn't much, but at a total of 7 points spent on brute offensive punch, there's not many points wasted. A single point of IF brings the total up to 8 points, and the LRM1/1/1 Special allows the use of alternate munitions as the need arises. Consider that the Mad Cat Mk IV we covered a month or so ago, and realize that the PV cost for just the Mk IV's medium range armament alone is four PV higher than the Dervish's entire weapons compliment, including Specials!
Armor is similarly average. I believe this is the first time we've seen a 'Mech with higher structure than armor. Armor is always better than structure, but a point of damage absorbed is still a point of damage absorbed. Four armor and five structure leaves the 1S able to take eight points of damage, with the ninth destroying the 'Mech. Against our handy ASMOTW benchmark of “average” damage for a 3025 Heavy at 3 points, the Dervish can weather up to two turns of fire, with the third destroying it. Not a lot, but enough to need a particularly stern glare before it crumples.
The 1S's role is supremely unsurprising. With the IF and LRM Specials, this Dervish (and most other Dervishes) is a Missile Boat. This allows it to fit neatly into Fire or Indirect Fire Lances. With a price tag of 26 points, you get a 'Mech with so-so mobility, so-so armor, so-so firepower, and so-so cost. I declare this 'mech to be:
Round two. Ninety years later, the Dervish -6M appears on battlefields across the Sphere. What's different between this and the 1S? Mostly weapons and mobility. The armor stays the exact same, so we'll focus on the points that are different.
The biggest and most meaningful change came in the Dervish's mobility. Jumping up from an 8”/6”j to a 10”j is pretty big, going from (tabletop standards) 4/6/3 to 5/8/5. It's also good to leap into the +2 TMM for a walk. This means, at a jump, that the Dervish -6M is the first 'Mech we've covered that is capable of hitting that coveted +3 TMM. +3 is really the point at which hits start to turn into misses with frustrating regularity, especially at any sort of range.
Most of the other changes are small, and only felt situationally or at short range. The short range damage is increased to 2 points, and the -6M enjoys the possibility of using OV for a brief damage spike at the cost of heat.
The changes to the weapons suite (which lost LRM1/1/1 but retained IF1) increase the cost by themselves by two points, up to a whopping 10. Movement improvements (and especially that jump increase to +3 TMM) influence the total price of the 'Mech toward 30 PV. Still not a whole lot, especially compared to some of the 'Mechs covered in previous weeks. The role remains the same. The improvement in mobility makes this 'Mech now passable in several other lance types, such as Probe or Heavy Recon, instead of the Fire Lances it was previously stuck in.
There's a unique variant of the Dervish, the DV-6M (Mauck) on the MUL. It doesn't have a unit card, so I'll be skipping it in this article.
Next up on our (alphabetical) foray into the Dervish, the -6Md. Don't ask what the d stands for, I have no idea. This one has a unit card, but absolutely nothing else. No BV, no date introduced, no faction availability data, nothing.
The changes sound bigger than they are. The OV value increases by 1. The base damage stays the same, but the LRM Special from the -1S increases to 1/1/2 and the IF follows along at 2 points. This honestly rather modest increase in firepower is gained at the cost of an XL engine, reducing the -6Md's structure to 3 points, and its total combined pool of health to 7 points. This doesn't drop it below the threshold for two 3 point hits, but it does cut a good chunk of staying power off of the 'Mech. I'm not a fan of it. At 29 points, the tradeoff is at least just that: a tradeoff. If you want more health, stay with a -6M or -1S. If you want slightly more firepower, try out a -6Md. Especially since the mobility and role of the -6Md stay the same as the -6M. Drop in drop out, one point of difference in cost between the two.
Moving on to the next variant in sequence, we arrive at the -6Mr. And are promptly smacked upside the head with 4 points of medium range damage. At fully double what any other Dervish to date can fling downrange, the -6Mr is the first Dervish reasonably capable of threatening heavier 'Mechs on its lonesome. A full damage profile of 3/4/2 is head and shoulders better than any other variant so far – and at three PV more expensive than the -6Md's damage after considering overheat, it's worth it. IF and LRM remain pretty solidly at 1 point across the board. The mobility also has the good graces to not change, resulting in a pretty mobile brawler. Armor is back up to the -6M standard with 9 points split 4/5 between armor and structure.
At 34 points, you pay for a pretty mobile brawler. As it turns out, that's exactly what it says on the tin, too. With the Brawler role, this Dervish is hands down the most flexible we've seen so far. Brawlers are the cornerstone of any Battle Lance, and do well in Command Lances too, beyond the usual suspects. Having a Brawler capable of flinging LRMs downrange with indirect is always useful for the flexibility. A solid 'Mech with a solid selection of roles.
Next! The -7D is a really nice trooper Medium. The movement stays the same. There's only one variant of the Dervish left to cover that deviates from the standard 10”j, so I'm going to quite remarking on it after this time. To my delight, the armor on this one took the all important step up to 5 points, granting an armor/structure total of 10 points. That's enough to weather another shot from our test cannon, and four turns of solid combat gets a solid stamp of approval from me.
Weapons stay fairly even. At 3/3/2 with no OV it's constant, reliable damage with no frills. There's a reason 3 points is the test cannon. IF1 and LRM1/1/1 are still present, no change there. The -7D also manages to acquire CASE, making the already infrequent ammo explosion less automatically catastrophic.
Even though the weapons loadout is less high power than the -6Mr, the -7D recoups the point cost with the additional point of armor, leaving both variants sitting at 34 points. This particular Dervish, however, is back to being a Missile Boat. I'm generally not a fan of Missile Boats, simply for the reason that they're one of the less flexible roles a unit can be. Still, most Dervishes are, and there are plenty of ways to use them.
The Dervish -8D is the first Dervish in the Clan Invasion era to really pump up the new tech. While the movement stays the same, the armor and structure rearrange themselves to fit into a 6/3 configuration. We're back to nine points total, but this distribution is much more friendly to not taking crits. Given how painful crits can be in Alpha Strike, this is always a good idea.
The weapons also get a shot of kick ass. While 3/3/3 isn't much better than 3/3/2, this time it comes paired with OV2, which is enough to drop a painful five point bomb, and then jump away to cool down the next turn. Five points is really the threshold where “average” starts turning into “pain”, so that particular OV value is fine by me. It gets the job done.
The LRM Special takes a hike because this Dervish upgrades to Artemis IV on the launchers. Despite Artemis IV being an ammo type itself in the base game, in Alpha Strike, the conversion process means that no 'Mech with Artemis on it can use alternate munitions for LRMs, SRMs, or MMLs. It has to do with the damage potential for the various missile systems with and without it, but it's still a little disappointing. The LRM may be gone, but IF is upgraded to 2. IF1 is useful on occasion, but IF2 is really where it starts to get useful. One point is a hassle. Two points is significant enough on most 'Mechs that they want to get out of the line of fire before taking crits, especially if there's more than one Dervish opening up over a building.
The offensive increases and the armor rearrangement bump the cost of the -8D all the way up to 38 points, making it the most expensive Dervish so far. It's still a Missile Boat, so using it in a Fire or Indirect Fire Lance is always an option. Now that it has IF2, I can even recommend that in good conscience.
This is the one where things get weird. Just take a look at that unit picture. The Dervish DV-8D2 “Lightbringer” is a unique pirate affiliated one-off. Normally I'd read that sentence and immediately write it off as a useless piece of crap, but the Lightbringer manages to be interesting and effective despite its lowly origins.
I'm saving the best for last, so let's check out the weapons first. Long range damage is gone, with short and medium filling 3 and 2 points, respectively. Not too bad, pretty on par for most Dervishes, if a bit low at medium. An OV of 2 is good enough to rectify the lack of raw stopping power at medium range, though lacking in consistency. Armor is down to five points, structure stays at three. Keeping an XL engine, clearly. Unusual for pirates, but not unheard of. Eight points is still high enough to require three 3 point hits. Good enough for me to use.
Here's where things start to get odd (and cool). MEL appears in the Special box, extending the range of the Lightbringer's melee attacks and increasing the damage done on a successful melee attack. In a quirk of the conversion process, having spikes on any torso in your 'Mech is enough to confer the MEL Special, improving standard physical damage without actually doing anything for standard physical attacks. In a shocking revelation for this author, melee attacks in Alpha Strike happen simultaneously with weapon attacks during the combat phase. Your 'Mech does
not have to survive weapon attacks before laying into some poor sod with a spiked fist. This makes MEL much more useful than I was giving it credit for.
Now, that best part I was saving. Take a look at the movement. 10”/16”j. No, that's not a typo. This Dervish is a 5/8/8, mounting 8 Improved Jumpjets. Not only is this Dervish as mobile and bouncy as your garden variety Spider, this also brings the TMM up to a whopping +4, by far the hardest thing to hit we've seen in the series so far. If +3 is the point at which things start to miss with frustrating regularity, +4 is the point at which you start losing friends. Please jump responsibly.
So, not only is this Dervish capable of laying into someone in base to base contact for 3 damage that can be thrown back in melee form (for the one in contact, at least), it's also capable of forcing base to base from just about anywhere on the map on short notice. I like it. It's also a Striker, my favorite role, hands down. They just fit in all the Lances I actually like, like Striker/Cavalry and Pursuit. At 30 points, it's even pretty cheap to bring, especially for the combination of that TMM while jumping and the decent armor it brings.
Here we go, the last Dervish on the list. Back to normal movement. Armor/Structure of 6/3 is back to the traditional nine total, and distributed as well as can be with an XL engine. Damage is up in terms of consistency at close range, with a 4/3/2 and OV1. If anything, the Dervish -9D feels like a combination of all of the various Dervishes we've seen so far. It's the EveryDervish. CASE and IF1 round out the Specials, making a unit that can do good damage, move well, and contribute indirectly when called upon.
At 36 points, it's one of the more expensive Dervish variants available. It's also hands down one of the most flexible and useful for its role. A role which is, regrettably, missile boat, but I have yet to find a perfect 'Mech. With the high short range damage and good mobility, the -9D works well as a combination Fire Support/Bodyguard unit for an Indirect Fire Lance.
The classic DV-6M is available to everyone, as is the -6Mr. After that, just about everything is Federated Suns, Lyran Commonwealth, or Federated Commonwealth predominantly. Judging from that and absolutely nothing else, you'll find Dervishes primarily in FedCom units, but given how many different fronts the FedCom was fighting at any given time, it's not unreasonable to see any of the non-unique Dervishes in any military.
Next week: Vanquisher