Has anyone noticed how the Word of Blake was really into symbolism? Really unsubtle, self-congratulatory symbolism… So when Precentor Martial Cameron St Jamais called for an advanced new mech design that both looked to the future and recalled the glory of the Star League, is it any wonder they called it the Legacy?
The war machine Skobel Mechworks produced in answer to this call was modelled off one of their Star League era designs called the Rising Star. The Rising Star was produced in small numbers but was wholly discontinued because it had a defective targeting system – which seems a bit draconian compared to just replacing the faulty components, but hey, what do I know about 28th century economics? Whilst we don’t have an official record sheet for this enigmatic precursor, TRO 3067 does give us some strong clues about what it was like. Firstly we know that it had the same movement profile and armour as the Legacy because the Blakist mech is explicitly mentioned as retaining those features from the earlier design. We also know it had a pair of standard class 10 autocannons which, if we assume succession war technology, would give us enough weight to back that up with a suit of lasers and missiles laid out in the same way as the LGC-01, but beyond that it’s all speculation. In any case, it’s a shame the Rising Star was lost to history because it sounds like would have made a nice alternative to the Awesome or Stalker as a mid-line Assault mech during the Succession wars.
For all the fact that the Word of Blake design that debuted in 3064 appears to be little more than a modernised Star League reject, you should not underestimate the Legacy. I’ve used them and faced them and found them to be very potent mechs, so let’s peel back their skin and see why.
Starting with the guts of the mech, the Legacy is built on an endo-steel chassis and the initial variants used a 240 rated standard fusion engine. The top speed of 54 kph is slow for an eighty ton assault mech, but as the Awesome has been demonstrating for four hundred years that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Later variants try out light and compact engines, but in theory all Legacies can loose a side torso and keep on fighting – ideally not the left torso, however, because that’s where the C3i computer is always fitted. Another common feature is jump jets, almost always mounted in the legs and centre torso, so the Legacy is a manoeuvrable mech even when it is not a fast one.
The Legacy has a very durable carapace with the maximum fifteen and a half tons of armour installed. That said, the rear armour could probably stand to be a bit thicker – the rear side torsos can be penetrated by common weapons like large lasers and as most variants store a fair amount of ammo in their torsos that’s somewhere you really don’t want to be taking critical hits, even when both torsos have CASE protection. This is not a deal breaker by any means, but it’s just something you need to keep in mind. The rear centre torso location is less of a problem as it can at least shrug off a PPC or a couple of medium lasers – although that will still leave your internals exposed to any follow up strikes. Of course, when you have maximum armour the upside to weak rear protection is a stronger frontal aspect, so if you avoid mixing it up too much, have a friend guard your back (C3 helps with this) and keep your face towards the enemy you can expect your shiny white murder machine to take a bit of a kicking and keep on ticking.
The core of the LGC-01s firepower comes from a pair of Mydron Excel class ten Ultra-cannons, each supplied with two tons of ammunition. Assuming lady luck is on your side, this can put a tremendous amount of hurt upon the enemy for a relatively modest heat output, but you can also burn though your ammo at an ungodly rate. This is reinforced by a pair of Diverse Optics ER medium lasers in the right arm, an ER Small laser in the left and a Guided Technologies Streak SRM 4 rack supplied with a single ton of munitions buried in the right torso. However, the chassis has only its basic ten double heat sinks to cover all these weapons, which is woefully inadequate. If you double tap both autocannons, you don’t have enough reserve capacity to fire even one of your ER medium lasers. You can get away with firing both lasers on the move if you restrict yourself to single shots and you might risk the missiles assuming they’ll only hit half the time, but that’s wasting the potential of the autocannons. Seeing as there is only just enough ammo to last for an average engagement my preferred approach is just to hammer away with the autocannons at maximum rate until the ammo is run down to the last ton or so, then move in to short range and use the laser and missile battery supported by one or two autocannons when the target numbers look good. There’s obviously a risk of jamming a gun early doing this, but seeing as you probably going to be restricted to single shot fire after the merge anyway I don’t think it’s something worth worrying about.
A relatively straightforward modification, the LGC-02 replaces the 01’s Ultra 10 autocannons with a pair of LRM 20s giving you a bit more reach and nominally the same firepower at the cost of damage concentration. Each launcher gets three tons of ammo in the corresponding torso, so now you can last though a typical battle without too much difficulty. A pair of medium pulse lasers has also been included to cover the LRMs minimum range, but there are no additional heat sinks so whilst you'll be fine providing long ranged support, this Legacy will still get uncomfortably hot during sustained short ranged combat. Perhaps unsurprisingly the LGC-02 works well when networked with the 01.
The LGC-03 takes the idea behind the 01 and overhauls it with some new tech. Upgrading the engine to a 320 rated light fusion unit gives you a valuable increase in speed to 64 kph although the jump range remains unaltered. This time the Ultra ACs have been replaced with the head-chopping fury of dual Heavy PPCs. Whilst your peak damage output has dropped somewhat, your average damage is slightly higher and you gain the advantage of damage concentration. The secondary weaponry remains unchanged from the 01. Unfortunately, however, the heat exchange system has not been upgraded sufficiently to keep up. Even if you stand still, letting rip with both peepers will cause your heat gauge to tremble - doing the same while jumping will inflict a movement penalty on you next turn. Trying to use the short ranged armament at the same will quickly send your heat scale spiralling in the dangerous zone where you have to worry about shutdowns and ammo explosions. For all the fact that is probably the most potent Legacy variant, this predator is definitely an obligate bracket firer…
Clearly deciding that the 03 variant wasn’t fast enough, the LGC-04 takes it’s chassis and fits MASC giving an 84 kph top speed, but it gives up a great deal to do so. The armour is now light ferro-fibrous and a compact gyro is required to make enough room for all those space hungry components. The armament has also been heavily revised with the Heavy PPCs replaced by a pair of their Snub-nosed brethren with everything else removed in favour of a pair of claws. Snubbies are fine weapons, but I have already opined elsewhere that they don’t do much for C3 equipped mechs – if you try to exploit the 270 metre short range, nothing else in your force will thank you greatly for the targeting data and if one of your team mates spots for you so you can fire from medium or long range, you suffer a damage drop that means you would probably have been better off with a humble large laser. On the other hand, you won’t find me complaining about the claws – two chances to punch an enemy’s head clean off in one turn is well worth the small penalty to hit. This is a design that would probably do better with a pair of Large Pulse Lasers to make it’s in-your-face style even more threatening, but that would cost you it’s two extra heat sinks and the LGC-04 is the only Legacy that runs cool. In fact you can perform jumping alpha strikes all day without so much as a murmur on the heat scale which, combined with the claws, makes me feel it would be much more at home in the arenas of Solaris.
The final variant uses a compact engine and gyro, meaning it has to revert to the original ground speed and can only jump sixty meters. However thanks to all this space saving equipment and sensible critical padding the LGC-05 is impressively difficult to take down. The armament consists of an Artemis equipped MML 7 in each torso whilst each arm sports a Light PPC and Medium VSPL. There’s a slightly superfluous ER small laser in the head and the two tons of missile ammo are concentrated in a single CASE protected bin in the right torso, representing the mech's only real weak spot. The weaponry of the 05 is – problematic. The outright firepower is mediocre for a 80 ton mech, none of the range increments really line up nicely and there are some points of overlap where it’s tempting to alpha strike (150 metres, for example) but having only thirteen double heat sinks means heat is still a major problem if you tape down the firing buttons. On the other hand, you can almost always fire at least four of your six main weapons, so it’s really a case of using whatever is most suitable for your range brackets, at least until the missile munitions run out. Certainly the zombie vibe and the fact that the VSPLs and the MMLs both do the most damage at short range means this variant likes to brawl, so it makes sense using it as the point man of an assault weight C3i Level II, but you still need to be careful about that pesky rear armour.
In summary, no matter what flavour of Legacy you favour, you’re getting something tough and maneuverable. Most of them fight best at short and medium ranges and run a bit hot, with only the LGC-02 having a really potent at long range punch.
Of course, the real trick is deciding what role within your C3i level II the Legacy should be performing. Although only the LGC-02 has properly long ranged battery, being part of a network can enable a Legacy to stand off and joust against weapons with ostensibly advantageous range increments on equal or superior terms. Seeing as most LGC variants only really have the heat sinks to cover their long ranged guns consistently and their rear armour isn’t great, this really puts you in the position of a mid ranged slugger - laying down hard hits with C3i support while something smaller and faster delivers the finishing blow. The exception, of course, is the LGC-04. The 04 really, really wants to close with the enemy and is fast enough to do so with some reliability so it makes a good spotter for a heavy or assault Level II – however, have a care as it’s not as tough as it might at first seem. Despite being the only Legacy without any ammo, getting in your opponents face invites backstabbing and any critical damage that slips past the armour will damage something important.
Overall, I find the Legacy wants something quick within its network as early short ranged targeting data can make up for its typical lack of speed - the Gurkha is a good team mate as it can spot for you and then try to find the big holes in you’ve blown in your target’s armour with that cluster of small lasers it carries around. C3i equipped Buccaneers and Lightrays can perform the same role if you want something a bit bigger and tougher. Within its own weight class, a Legacy will certainly enjoy the company of the C3i equipped versions of the Thug and Crockett, which provide complementary capabilities on a similarly durable chassis.
As a design exclusive to the Word of Blake, I think it’s fair to assume the Legacy became extinct with the end of the Jihad - which kind of makes me sad. It’s a seriously badass looking mech (especially on the cover of TRO 3067r) with some really good variants so it’s a shame that such a cool design should pass into history without leaving much of a….
Well, you get the idea…
