[decloak]
Hey guys, been away from BT for a while, for several reasons that aren't relevant here. As one of the people long calling for the humble Blackjack to get an article, I was drawn back, like a moth to the flame. (Once upon a time, I considered writing it myself. But that was around the time I began drifting away. I'm glad I passed, since I'm certainly no Hellbie.)
Now, I must defend the honor of the humble BJ-1. The basic Blackjack is one of the most underrated designs in Battletech. It it the best light AAA platform in the game in any era, and one of the best AAA battlemechs in 3025. Compare it to the major competition: the JagerMech and the Rifleman.
First, a note on Flak ammo: Flak never went extinct. It isn't LosTech. AAA units should be packing it even in 3025 unless there's absolutely no chance the enemy has aerial assets. It gives a -2 to attacks against aerial units, and does full damage to such units and infantry, half against everything else. That also gives Blackjacks an odd niche of long-range anti-infantry fire, I guess.
The JagerMech gains 20 tons, and in the process loses 2.5 tons of armor, jump jets, and a heat sink, for the gain of....turning 2 MLs into AC5s. 3x the ammo, with much greater fears of the ammo bomb. In standard combat, it's worse at close range, only marginally better at longer range, and will probably die quicker. In AAA use, the range on the AC5s is fine, but they're still outranged by the AC2s, and having that long range ability to force lawn-dart rolls is what you really want. Would anyone trade their BJ-1 for a JM6-S?
The Rifleman-3N of course has its famed AAA targeting system, but unless you're playing with quirks that's meaningless fluff. Its weapons have even shorter range, if greater throw weight, less ammo, and worse heat woes. It *still* has 1 ton less armor than the BJ-1, and lacks jump jets. Most of the Rifleman's throw weight, though, comes from Large Lasers, which are the major source of its heat woes, *and* can't use flak ammo. And they have (relatively) short range, making them less useful for forcing lawn-dart rolls. Now, in normal combat most people would probably take and RFL. But as a AAA mech? Without its special targeting system, it's inferior all around. And if you're packing flak ammo, you lose more throw-weight vs ground targets than a BJ-1 does.
If you're in a unit that doesn't have the tech, size, and resources to blanket its HQ with a company of C3-linked partisans, but instead are the lone AAA unit in the CO's command lance, take the Blackjack. It's a better AAA mech than units 20 tons heavier, and when there aren't aircraft and you have to engage ground units? You're still better off than a JagerMech. You're also better at plinking vehicles from range than a Rifleman (and equal to a JagerMech), though if you're packing flak ammo you're doing 1 damage/hit instead of 2. Big loss. ::) To be clear, none of this necessarily means I'd want to take a Blackjack into close range combat with a Wolverine-6M. It has its niche that it's very good at: AAA. It's also serviceable at bullying smaller, less-well armed and armored units, and can even hold its own against units around its own size. It's not a world-beater. But it absolutely does not deserve its in-universe reputation.
A note on fighting Ravannion: Bugs are so weak that a single AC/2 hit pretty much anywhere can make a difference. A single 2-point hit anywhere on an STG-3R's torso or legs means the first ML hit goes internal. 2 points of damage to an arm or the head means that the first ML hit takes the area clean off. And Ravannion was only a Tai-i. Best I can tell from the fiction, his "hordes" replaced normal lances with 6-10 Wasps and/or Stingers. On Xhosa, he deployed his hordes (given that he's a Tai-i, say 3 hordes of 30 bugs total) against 2 companies of mostly Blackjacks and Locusts, with the Blackjacks doing most of the fighting. That's not really a big numbers advantage. It's hardly a shock he'd have been cut up at range and then annihilated in close. Heck, a company of Blackjacks could probably win that fight without the Locusts.
