Eyrie Light Battlemech The Eyrie whilst introducing nothing really new in terms of technology also represented a complete paradigm shift for Clan Jade Falcon and introduced a ‘new’ tactic and very much encouraged it. That of melee combat.
Traditionally the Clans always distained melee combat in Mechs, viewing such a thing as crude, barbaric and beneath them. Its far more honourable to rip an opponent apart whilst they are still a blip on the horizon, or, beat them to death with their bare hands in a Circle of Equals. Because the Clans are nothing if not totally contradictory. But with the Eyrie the Falcons designed a Mech to get in close and work in melee.
As one of Clan Jade Falcons Totem Mech’s the Eyrie is also the one that got the ball running with the Falcons new obsession (other than orbital bombardment) of making very stylized Mechs with distinctly avian features. With the Eyrie I get the feeling they were going for a Terror Bird kind of look as the Mech lacks arms save stubby little boxes and has long legs as well as a wickedly sharp looking beak around its cockpit.
And looking at stats, really its not THAT impressive. A 210 rated XL engine propels the 35-ton Mech up to 96kph. This is speed the Falcons are used to with their long love affair with the Kit Fox and slower Cougar, with them generally lacking super-fast light Mechs other than the near proprietary Fire Falcon. Six tons of Ferro-Fibrous armour protect the Endo-Steel skeleton and give the Mech near full protection, which is a nice change from the horribly fragile Kit Fox and probably influenced by how squishy the Kit Fox was.
Five standard Jump Jets also let the Mech leap up to 150 meters, but now one of the Eyrie’s party tricks comes into play. After testing the Partial Wing system on the Cougar X, the Eyrie went full ham with the system and made it integral to its design. This not only increased the Mech’s cooling but also gave it another 60 meters of jumping range, boosting it up to 210 meters at a time, which is a fair bit for a ‘slow’ light like the Eyrie.
This impressive agility lets the Mech leap over all but the heaviest terrain and get close which is what you really want to do in this Mech.
For a Clan Mech, the firepower appears a tad underwhelming. A pair of ATM-3’s give the Mech its main punch and 2-tons of ammunition give you some flexibility, a mix of HE and standard rounds is probably your best bet as ER ammunition’s wasted on 3 shot launchers unless you want to door ding someone.
For direct fire the Eyrie also has a pair of the good ‘ol ER Medium lasers, no complaints here, two nice solid punches with a decent range, can’t go wrong.
The remaining firepower’s a bit curious, a quartet of Micro pulse lasers don’t do that much damage individually but if all 4 hit one spot you’re still looking at a 12 point ‘dent’ in your armour. Still you'll notice that this is a fairly solid wallop. But its dispersed, spread out and not overly concentrated. But fine for thinning off a foe's armour or turning infantry into kibble. Don't expect a raw knock down punch, this isn't a Cougar Prime or a Puma Prime, or even a Kit Fox Prime, the Eyrie is all about mauling someone rather than punching through a certain area.
And that’s it…right?
Wrong. I said the Eyrie was a game changer, and mentioned melee utility, the Eyrie mounts the Clans first ever development in the field of close combat weapons. Heavily reinforced Talons on its foot actuators that can cause significant damage in a kick or probably when dragged down a Mech’s leg in a clawing like motion (which would also fit the Terror Bird like design of the Mech to a T).
The Talons are the final piece of the Eyrie puzzle. Its agility is there to let it get close and its firepower sure as hell works best up close and at point blank range it can start kicking you or even more dangerously, land a Death From Above attack. A kick from the Eyrie’s claws will do more damage than an AC-10 round, and if the Mech manages to land a DFA, then it does more damage than a Gauss Rifle and that isn’t at all bad for a 35-ton Mech. And it must have been a terror for Inner Sphere pilots to have the Clanners piloting these things actively engaging them in melee. One might expect that from the Dominion, we know that their Rasalhagui forces like Melee and Dominion Mechs are now starting to sport retractable blades or claws, and they do have a small number of Berzerker’s in their TOE. But to have the ultra-purist Falcons be more than willing to mix it up in melee must have come as a nasty surprise. And it wasn’t a one off either, the much later and much larger Jade Hawk Mech was also designed for close quarters combat and is far more effective at melee and this shift and increasing brutality got worse and worse under the Khanship of Malvina Hazen and her brutal, bloody interpretation of the Mongol Doctrine.
ThoughtsThe Eyrie on paper looks a bit underwhelming for a Clan Mech, its not fast, its firepower is adequate but really only at short to medium ranges and its quite tough, a nice change from many Clan lights which tended towards being made of meringue when it came to armour. But it’s a Clan light quite unlike any other, and really against other Mech’s in its weight Class its still an unholy terror and is probably a superior machine than anything in its weight Class at what it does. The closest rivals are the lacklustre Mjolnir and Storm Raider. Whilst we may be used to Clan Mech’s being able to deliver big single punches of damage, the Eyrie sandblasts an opponent before the Warrior goes “KA-KAW MOTHER STRAVAG!!!” and kicking your Mech hard in the shins. The Eyrie is a real infighter, someone faster than you tries to run away, you should be able to jump after them and stay close enough. Fighting a big lumbering mech all alone, hop behind it and give him the good news into his back and the back of his legs. The Eyrie, like its bigger cousins isn’t about raw knock down power, its about whittling your opponent down before closing in to finish them off. And whilst the Talons are a nice addition and who’s going to say no to a +10 point whack, you want to thin off some armour before you go a kicking them to death.
Fighting one might be a bit unpleasant. The Eyrie’s heat neutral even if you fire the lot and jump as far as you can around so there’s no heat issues there which is a more usual Clan issue (Wulfen says hello). Its also got a lot of protection for a light Mech and whilst a few solid hits from big guns like heavy calibre AC’s or ER PPCs will put it down in short order, so would nearly any other Mech. Pulse lasers are your friends, but not if you’re having to use IS pulse lasers, because that tends to mean the Eyrie is very close to you and that’s where it wants to be. As its pretty much murder on two gangly legs for Lights you might need to devote a lot of firepower to killing this thing, but its jumping range can mean it’s a real pain in the neck to hit. And if pressed, it can jump away either behind you or behind cover.
Hard to put down and dangerous up close, the Eyrie will be a nasty thing to fight. And as the Falcons under Malvina have zero issues ganging up on people, if you see two Eyrie’s running and leaping towards you with a hungry gleam in their cockpit, prepare for some serious stinging. Still, like the Shrike and Gyrfalcon, the Eyrie requires a bit of finesse to use. Use the Mech's agility and dispersed but hard hitting firepower to weaken an opponent, never be afraid to gang up and always stomp on heads like you're crushing a tin can under your foot.
Also a though I just had. The four Falcon Totem Mech's each pair up. The Gyrfalcon and Shrike are meant to dance around at long range, picking you apart slowly. The Jade Hawk and the Eyrie are built to get in your face, and in the Jade Hawk JHK-03's case, that Mech's whole life is built around screaming RIP AND TEAR!!! before thundering towards you to bring its TSM beefed up claws to bare.
You can read the article about the Jade Hawk here -
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=38529.msg891097And the Gyrfalcon here -
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=57138.0And here's the Shrike -
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=65838.0As always, thoughs and comments are most welcome!