Hi my first post here from a lover of Battletech Boardgame and I hope to post more in the future.
Apologies in advance if you see writing errors. English is not my mother language.
I hope you will like this post of my Black Hak Impostor. A bit of history plus design stats extracted from a blog that I´m participating.
There is a miniature of the BattleMech.. But I don´t know how to add the picture.
I believe that this post match the rules for this forum.
The arrival of the Clans during 3049 shook the Successor States, changing everything in the Inner Sphere. Like a boxer about to be knocked out, the great houses withstood the onslaught as best they could until Comstar's decisive intervention in Tukayyid in 3052.
One of the biggest blows that the Successor States had to face was the great technological gap in their war weaponry compared to their Clan equivalents, especially for the kings of the Battlefields, the BattleMechs.
There was during those years of invasion and defeats the widespread exaggeration that the fallen BattleMechs of the Clans in battle did not end up falling completely to the ground, since the recovery teams of the Inner Sphere pounced on them, hungry as vermin to recover all technology. of those new and miraculous invading machines.
The first impulse of the engineering and research teams studying the recovered technology was of course to try to replicate it to power the obsolete war machinery inherited from the hundreds of years of decline and internal wars between the Successor States.
Although it was true that weapons technology in the Inner Sphere had an impressive qualitative leap, it never managed to match that of the Clans, generally resulting in technically inferior machines. It became clear that the only way to possess those glorious invading war machines was to take them from the invaders themselves. But there were dreamers, people with brilliant minds who persevered and did not give up in their efforts to create, by their own means, machines with Inner Sphere technology equivalent to those of the Clans.
"Operation Bulldog" during 3059 was the scenario where the impossible became possible.
Among all the minor operations that were carried out by the New Defense Forces of the Star League in the occupation zone and subsequent confrontation against the Smoke Jaguar Clan, which few are aware of was "Operation Impostor" .
This operation was intended to be definitive proof that the Inner Sphere could manufacture BattleMechs equivalent in capabilities to those of the Clans.
To carry out this miracle, the unconditional collaboration of multiple parties was required, including, among others, Comstar itself, The Draconis Condominium, The Federated Commonwealth or the Mercenary units of Wolf´s Dagoons, The Banzai Team or the Remington's Riflemans. .
During the Clan invasion, Remington's Rifleman unit had suffered extensive losses. In return, by pursuing their own interests, they were able to recover large quantities of new and advanced machinery. Among everything they had achieved, they had a BattleMech Black Hawk in good condition that the specialists believed was ideal as a starting point. The base from which the Inner Sphere would make the leap to be at the same technical height. It is no coincidence that in 3055 the Draconis Condominium presented its new model of BattleMech Black Hawk Ku.
By the time Operation Bulldog began "The Impostor", a replica of a “C” variant BattleMech Black Hawk built from scratch with Inner Sphere technology was shipped in crates. The model was not yet finalized and there was no option but to finish the work during the operation so that it could fulfill a specific mission whose details were unknown.
The chassis had the latest and most advanced that the entire Inner Sphere could bring to the table. Internal structure of Endo Steel, Ferro Fibrous Shielding, Double Radiators, CASE.
It had an amazing Light Reactor provided by the Wolf´s Dragoons, which was said to have barely passed the prototype stage. Like his Clan counterpart, he had as weapons a Gauss Rifle, a mount with four short-range missiles and an improved Light Pulse Laser of the “X” type.
The Impostor was completed just in time to be deployed to Huntress, the main planet of the Smoke Jaguar Clan. Seen from the Exterior, only the most expert eyes could find differences in the BattleMech compared to the original model. Already inside the cabin, although there was a clear intention to clone the Black Hawk cabin, it was not difficult to see that it was a good imitation. Where all the similarities ended was once the internal parts of the BattleMech were exposed, where important differences could clearly be seen with the naked eye.
Just as the details of the mission he was to carry out on Huntress are not available, it is also unknown if he was successful in completing it. It is known that he was deployed Piloted by one of the best MechWarriors of the Remington's Riflemans. Currently the Impostor continues to operate with the mercenaries since he was seen on several occasions along with other BattleMech models of the Clans. There are plenty of indications that his spear companions (Vulture, CrossBow, and Loki models) have also been built from scratch with Inner Sphere technology.
BattleMech Technical Readout (Mordel Format)
Name/Model: Black Hawk Impostor
Designer: Javelin
Source(s): Custom Mordel.Net Units
Technology: Inner Sphere
Technology Rating: E
Tonnage: 50
Configuration: Biped BattleMech
Year: 3059
Rules (Current): Standard
Rules (Era): Advanced
Rules (Year): Experimental
Total Cost: 7,368,750 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,510
Chassis: Endo Steel
Power Plant: 250 Light Fusion
Walking Speed: 54 kph
Maximum Speed: 86.4 kph
Jump Jets: Standard
Jump Capacity: 150 meters
Armor: Ferro-Fibrous with CASE
Armament:
1 Gauss Rifle
1 SRM 4
1 Small X-Pulse Laser
Manufacturer: Several Involved
Primary Factory: Handmade Battlemech
Communications: Sipher CommSys 4b
Targeting & Tracking: Matabushi Sentinel Plus
================================================================== ===========================================================
Equipment Mass
-------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Endo Steel 2.50
Engine: 250 Light Fusion 9.50
Walking MP: 5
Running MP: 8
Jump MP: 5
Heat Sinks (Double): 10 [20] 0.00
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Armor Factor: 160 9.00
Type: Ferro-Fibrous
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head: 3 9
Center Torso: 16 23
Center Torso (rear): 8
R/L Torso: 12 16
R/L Torso (rear): 8
R/L Arm: 8 16
R/L Leg: 12 20
================================================================== ===========================================================
Weapons and Ammo Location Critical Tonnage
-------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
Jump Jet CT 1 0.50
Small X-Pulse Laser RT 1 1.00
CASE LT 1 0.50
SRM 4 LT 1 2.00
SRM 4 (Ammo 25) LT 1 1.00
Gauss Rifle LA 7 15.00
Gauss Rifle (Ammo 8) LA 1 1.00
2 Jump Jets RL 2 1.00
2 Jump Jets LL 2 1.00
================================================================== ===========================================================
Alpha Strike Statistics
-------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------
Point Value (PV): 31
TP: BM, SZ: 2, TMM: 2, MV: 10"j
Damage: (S)2 / (M)3 / (L)2, OV: 0
Armor (A): 5, Structure (S): 3
Specials: CASE
Grades:
The idea when creating "The Impostor" was actually to replicate an official published Clan BattleMech and make one exactly the same with the Inner Sphere technology current with current applications to create Battlemechs.
It wasn't just about copying a Mech and putting a Sphere Extended Range CPP where the clan one should be and so on with the whole configuration. The aim was to obtain an Inner Sphere Mech in which its behavior on the board would not differ at all from its Clan original.
The Nova C (Black Hawk variant C) is easily the best suited to accomplish something that should normally be extremely difficult to do. "The Impostor" for game purposes the only difference between the two is a single square in the long range of the Pulse Light Laser, the Inner Sphere being 5 squares while the Clans Pulse Light Laser has the long range It is 6 squares.
The Nova C and "The Impostor" are so similar that the Battle Value 2 of the Nova C is 1515 points, the Battle Value 2 of "The Impostor" is 1510 points. Same mobility. Same armor points. It incorporates a CASE in the BattleMech area that can explode just like the OmniMechs of the Clans. The weapons do the same damage, have the same amount of ammunition, generate the same heat, and travel the same distance except for a single Light Pulse Laser slot.
The idea was not to make a good BattleMech but to do something that in theory cannot be done. "The Impostor" works and in a BattleTech game if your opponent does not check the token the deception works.
