Back in the good old days, the Vedette was a reasonable, cost-effective, multi-role tank. It had a respectable movement rating, a decent main gun with respectable damage and range, fair armor for the time, and a better than nothing secondary weapon. It did several things well. Mobile fire support, security, COIN, reactive defense, generic gun carriage, infantry tank, and poor man's MBT. But's strongest role (and primary role, in my opinion) was that of a medium cavalry tank. And it was well suited for both militia and front line duties.
Variants were not really necessary for the design back then. But the ones we got made sense considering. The AC/2-SRM variant gave the Vedette a measure of safety outside the range of those pesky PPCs. Plus, the SRM Pack offered better defense against vehicles and light Battlemechs than the machine gun offered. The laser variant was better suited as a security and COIN unit than the base model tank.
In our playgroup, the Vedette weathered the early "Level Two" era well. Most of the SLDF vehicles from TRO:2750 tended to be specialists, rather than generalists, like Succession Wars stalwarts such as the Vedette. And most of the Battlemechs from that tome had the same issue. Very few SLDF units, as presented at that time, threatened basic combat vehicles like the Vedette with an early retirement to the scrap yard. The Vedette could still hold it's own on the tabletop if played right.
Then came Clan technology, and the Vedette (like many other vehicles from TRO:3026) went from being obsolescent to obsolete almost overnight. Rolling deathtraps of reduced effectiveness that were nothing more than glorified practice targets.
The Vedette concept still had a legitimate role to play. A cost effective, medium cavalry tank armed with a ballistic weapon as a main gun, was still a valid concept. But the definitions of what constituted "cost effective" had changed. Dragging along more Vedettes to make up for horrendous losses, and keep up previous levels of mission effectiveness against Clantech wasn't what I called "cost effective". I call it throwing away good units after the bad.
Add in the fact that Inner Sphere tech Battlemechs had been upgraded to variants that rival the now-rediscovered SLDF Royal units, the lowly, classic Vedette was in a no-win situation. It was now only fit for penal units and desperate planetary governments who bought anything that moved and mounted a gun.
I figured that FASA wasn't going to update vehicles anytime soon. And what's a combined-arms playgroup to do, but take matters into their own hands.
My group's "standard" Vedette upgrade? SFE, CASE, Ultra-5 AC, extra ton of AC ammo, two standard medium lasers (forward mounted), 0.25 tons of cargo, 7.5 tons of Ferro. Simple, no bullshit, and to the point. Nothing fancy and a Vedette for the advanced "level 2" tabletop.
The 3058 "upgrades" finally came along and I wasn't terribly impressed. The New Earth Trading Company variant doesn't address the key issues that hurt the Vedette in the modern era of Battletech. The Capellan built version was somewhat better, but had some issues of it's own. Since our House Rules at the time restricted what advanced technology were available to planetary militias, these variants were primarily merc fodder and used by independent worlds/collectives in our campaigns. Our in-house upgrade remained the "front line" Vedette of choice. Militias used the older variants with simple ferro-fibrous armor upgrades.
I will admit that the LB-5X version makes a decent tank destroyer and tactical air defense vehicle. The lack of ammo does limit options, however. Cluster munitions are the way to go in these roles, but limits it's defensive capability against some other units (like heavier Battlemechs).
Don't get me started on the RAC variant. It's a thin skinned deathtrap with piss poor ammo capacity in the magazine. Three tons is what I consider the minimum for the RAC/5. But that only adds insult to the injury of inexcusably poor armor. We never play this variant.
I don't much care for the LGR variant either. But it at least has the range to help keep it alive for a time, making it passable for fire support duties. Just make sure to pair it with units with good defenses in any fire support unit.
The V-G7X is actually a nice upgrade. I especially like the dual turret arrangement and Magshots for defense against battlearmor (reflecting some of the realities of the current timeframe in Battletech). The supercharger is sweet to have for those emergencies when getting the hell out of dodge is critical, and some uber-fast modern enemy unit wants you to stay and play for just a while longer. It's kinda overkill tech-wise, considering the flavor of the Vedette. But I still like it. So does the majority of my playgroup. So, it's fast becoming a "standard" variant for campaigns set in the coming new century.
The Blakist model has promise, despite the armor and fuel cell engine. Some may question the aft-firing SRM system. But sometime rear arc coverage is a good thing, especially when all flavors of infantry love sneaking up on tanks that are not moving. It can ruin your whole day. Overall, it has glaring flaws. But this variant shows that somebody was thinking outside of the box, until some bastard bean-counter stuck his or her nose in where it didn't belong.
The custom "Doris' Delight" has my interests. It may be the "ultimate" Vedette variant that still sticks with the basic role of the tank. We have yet to playtest it. But I suspect it very well could become yet another variant for the next century in Battletech time.
With the V7, we come to a vicious full circle. Pretty much back to square one. The same point that the classic base model was at in the dawn of the Clantech era. The armor is barely an improvement over the classic base variant, and it simply moves from one low tech engine to a lighter low tech engine still dependent on vulnerable fuel depots in a campaign. The Bombast Laser is a questionable, if mildly interesting choice. The only high points is the inclusion of CASE (for future mods) and the Magshots. Results have been...mixed with this thing. But thanks to changes in our House Tech Rules over the last couple of years, the V7 will definitely be militia fodder to replace the classic models in 32nd Century play. Leaving the better, higher tech variants for frontline use.
Just my two cents worth.
