Jupiter
100-ton Clan BattleMech (http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/1725/jupiter-standard)
Source: Technical Readout 3075 (http://masterunitlist.info/Source/Details/189/technical-readout-3075)
Camo Specs Online Link (http://www.camospecs.com/MiniList.asp?Action=Detail&ID=981)
(https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mul-images/BattleMechs/Jupiter.jpg)
"Whether you are fighting Blakists or Hellions, obliterate your foes in style and comfort in the new 3075 Jupiter, with improved fire control, extra cup holders, and even more roll bars. CJF Factory Zone Four: Like a Roc. "
This week's topic is the Jupiter, a Dark Age design that's often associated with the Republic of the Sphere, but is actually produced by Clan Jade Falcon. It was popular with Alpha Galaxy, which used them against the Ice Hellion incursion and apparently brought Jupiters with them when they joined the nascent RAF. With almost everyone either eyeing the Republic greedily, or having to worry about the Falcons, it's a good design to be aware of.
Okay, lemme guess. It's a Clan 100-tonner, so I bet it has a bunch of armor and a 300XL and a bunch of guns.
More or less, yes. It's slow at 3/5, but that's not unusual for 100-tonners, and it actually mounts the full 307 points of armor permitted, accepting the inefficiency of the last half ton only getting three points of armor. However, the reason that it can tolerate such inefficiency is a feature unique to the Jupiter among all 100-ton designs: endo-steel internal structure with a 300XL. Now, there's a good reason why nothing else does that. Smaller designs wouldn't bat an eye at combining an XL with endo-steel, maybe even throwing ferro-fibrous armor on there, too. They've got crits and they want tons. The Jupiter has plenty of tons and the endo gives it more, but it needs crits.
I know it's not really my custom to get into the nitty-gritty construction details like this, but I think the endo thing is actually really important to the Jupiter's design! It has to cram sixty tons of guns, ammo, and heat sinks into a mere thirty-six crits, and accomplishing that while still ending up with a useful 'Mech is not a trivial task.
Well, how does it do that?
A large part of the Jupiter's utility comes from a pair of Clan ER PPCs. It's really pretty difficult for things to go too badly when you start with a pair of Clan ER PPCs. They're long-ranged, they do a lot of concentrated damage, and, most importantly for the Jupiter, they use up three tons per critical slot. Actually, that last part is a little misleading, because the seventeen double heat sinks the Jupiter mounts to deal with the PPC heat take up ten slots for only seven tons, but some sacrifices have to be made for a pair of Clan ER PPCs.
Next up is a battery of four Ultra AC-5s. Now, I generally detest AC-5s, and Ultras don't even get cool ammunition options, but I am okay with their presence here. The Jupiter represents as close to an ideal platform for them as I've ever seen. Their high tonnage requirement is less important than their small critical requirement. Their low heat generation is important because the engine heat sinks are already spoken for (and then some) and mounting more heat sinks is not feasible. Their tendency to jam is not even that big a concern, because heat issues keep them from being consistently double-fired anyway, so if one goes out another can just pick up the slack. Their long range works well with the rest of the arsenal, too. There really just isn't a better option for replacing them, and I find they give the Jupiter a pleasing bullet-hose aesthetic.
With its last nine tons and six critical slots, the Jupiter mounts a pair of LRM-15s and two tons of ammo. A mere eight shots per launcher seems worrisome at first glance, but in actual practice, the LRMs aren't used every turn. They are most useful as a stand-in for one of the PPCs once movement heat and Ultra-mode usage have pushed heat levels too high. The Jupiter usually can't afford to slow down, so having that swap available to free up some dissipation helps keep it running cool.
Are there variants that do it differently?
There's three of them. I prefer the original myself, but they have their charms.
Well, actually, the Jupiter 2 I just straight up despise. That's not necessarily a strike against it, but it irritates me. You see, the Jupiter 2 replaces the UAC-5s with a pair of UAC-10s, then uses the spare tonnage to add Artemis IV to the LRM racks and a trio of jump jets. If I'm being completely honest, the Jupiter 2 is probably the more dangerous design. The concentrated damage from the UACs and the PPCs will do a good job of battering things into powder, and it can still do a bit of critseeking with the LRMs. The jump jets are also nice, even if mobility is limited, because Falcon 'Mechs tend to be jump-capable and there's nifty things you can do with an entirely-jump capable force. That said, three things about the Jupiter 2 annoy me intensely. First, the heat dissipation is much less forgiving. Firing the PPCs and UACs on normal mode will put you at +2, more if you move, so after only a turn or two you have to think about dropping one of the PPCs for LRMs and/or Ultra double taps if you want to stay cool. The jump jets mean you can overheat and still maintain a modicum of mobility, but that screws up accuracy, too. Second, having to drop a PPC so often means you'll be using the LRMs more, and so the inclusion of Artemis IV over extra ammo is especially galling. Artemis is far less efficient on Clan designs than IS ones (since the launchers are so much lighter), and it has trouble being useful at all now that ECM is so common. The third thing is the smallest problem but the most annoying to me personally. In order to make all these changes, the Jupiter 2 had to ditch the lower arm and hand actuators. Actually, it only had to ditch the hands, but it drops both. Honestly, that is a good idea, so it can flip the arms to cover its rear, but it annoys me so, so much on an aesthetic level. Rather than rise to the challenge imposed by the insane use of endo-steel, the Jupiter 2 cheats and takes a shortcut. It is the Gary Oak of Clan assaults.
The Jupiter 3 is far less repugnant. Basically, it's the normal Jupiter, with the Pew Pew dial turned down and the Dakka Dakka dial turned up. Way up. The ER PPCs become ER medium lasers. The UAC-5s become UAC-10s, with hands, thank you very much. The LRM-15s become HAG-30s. It has less heat sinks, but still enough to double tap the Ultras with the HAGs and only build up movement heat. The lasers are a poor substitute for PPCs, but their presence is probably a comfort to the MechWarrior who knows he has about two minutes of ammunition. Probably not a lot of comfort, since after it runs dry the Jupiter 3 is outgunned by some ProtoMechs, but some comfort is better than none. Plus, during those two minutes, pretty much anything it points at is going to have a very bad time, up to forty damage in ten point hits and sixty damage in five point hits. Flying units in particular should stay far away from the Jupiter 3, because that is a lot of HAG.
The Jupiter 4 is simultaneously less and more interesting than its kin. It's less interesting because it's got a 400XL, and 4/6 100-tonners use endo-steel internal structure all the time, so it loses that uniqueness. More interesting, though, because at 4/6 it works a lot better with the more mobile Falcon units. The slower Jupiters are nice and all, but they are distinctly an assault unit, suitable for defending a fixed position or smashing one. Jupiter 4s can be deployed with a great deal more flexibility, since there's a lot more Falcon designs around that speed. Still not the fastest thing in their arsenal, but good. Oh, right, and guns-wise it's just like a standard Jupiter except the all the UACs are replaced with a Streak SRM-4 rack in each arm, the LRMs get Artemis IV (meh) and two more tons of ammo (woo!), and it has four more heat sinks so it can fire everything at once with minimal heat concerns. So, it suffers a bit from the bane of all 4/6 100-tonners, which is that it can't mount quite as much firepower as a smaller design with a more efficient engine, but it has way more armor than those designs, and it uses its tonnage on some of the most efficient weapons in the game.
Some pretty nice options there. How should I go about using them?
How you use a Jupiter depends a bit on who "you" is. The Falcons and the RAF have different options for complementing and covering them, but by and large Jupiters need the same things: fast units to run down extreme-ranged harassers, units with accuracy bonuses that can watch its back against backstabbers, and stuff that handles conventional units. The Jupiter is extremely long-ranged, with its shortest ranged guns going out to 21 hexes, but it can still be outranged by stuff with AC-2s, light gauss rifles, or Clan ER large lasers. The first two are less of an issue since they'll likely run out of ammo before they seriously harm a Jupiter, but the third is a bigger problem than usual because Jupiters are so slow. It'll still take a while, and that sort of tactic is really unfun if it's all you're doing, but it's still a concern for an unsupported Jupiter. Backstabbers are a problem because most of the Jupiter's guns are torso-mounted, so it can only hit a target directly behind it with a pair of UAC-5s, usually not enough to discourage much. It's got 10/16/10 rear armor, which is superb for rear armor, but it still won't last long. Conventional infantry might be the biggest problem since the Jupiter is almost entirely helpless against them and is really not much faster than them. Battle armor is less easier to kill because PPCs and five point clusters tend to kill them efficiently, but the faster suits will be able to catch and swarm a Jupiter. The Jupiter's ability to pump out raw damage will probably let it do fine against vehicles, but it doesn't have the kind of critseeking ability that is so good against them. It is first and foremost an anti-'Mech fighter.
The RAF has a few nice complements to the Jupiter. There are very few things that a Jackalope cannot run down, and while its firepower isn't the best, it's enough to annoy an ERLL harasser, especially if there's multiple Jackalopes (and why would you ever have just one?) The new BLD-XR Blades might also be helpful with precision rounds. Two point hits aren't much, but most backstabby designs rely on not being hit more than armor, so hitting them consistently with anything will worry them. Oh, and if you have one of those new Black Knights with the plasma rifles handy, it can help against all sorts of conventional threats, and the Accurate Weapon quirk on its PPC will help against backstabbers. BE701 Joust tanks will also be incredibly handy, capable of shooting ERLLs back at harassers and massacring infantry in droves with its LMGs.
For the Falcons, well, I have one word: Chalchiuhtotolin.
Gesundheit.
I actually do have a cold, but, no, the support vehicle! Chalchiuhtotolins are pretty much the perfect complement to the Jupiter. They can't quite match the range of an ERLL, but they're fast enough to push forward into large pulse laser range, and harassers won't like the pulse bonus. For that matter, neither will backstabbers, which also hate the Streak SRMs. Streak SRMs also help against vehicles, and the rest of its arsenal of antipersonnel weapons can kill off conventional infantry or set their cover on fire. If you're feeling especially profligate, you can even use the new Chalchiuhtotolin (XL), which is even better at almost all of that. As for other 'Mechs, Eyries and Gyrfalcons make nice reaction forces, and they appreciate the Jupiter's ability to threaten things from a great distance. The "damned if you do" to a flanking Eyrie's "damned if you don't."
I am a brave MechWarrior of...pretty much anywhere besides the Falcons and the Republic. Maybe the Federated Suns too. How do I make it explode?
There really isn't a magic solution. I mean, obviously sniping with ERLLs, dropping infantry on its head, backstabbing...the stuff I just warned you about. Problem is, those tactics tend to be easy to counter, excruciatingly boring, or both. Beyond that, though...there's not a lot. You pretty much just need to shoot it a lot, and that means you're going to get hurt. I'd be particularly cautious with a RAF Jupiter, because they don't make them, so the ones they have are probably in the hands of their best people. A great MechWarrior in a Jupiter makes for a really big danger zone. A Falcon Jupiter is still a problem, but it's more likely to have MechWarrior Ted at the controls, as opposed to, like, Knight Errant Odysseus Pendragon. Heat weapons might help, but they tend to run cool so it's unlikely you'll cause anything really catastrophic, and it can just drop a PPC next round. TAG and homing Arrow IV are probably the best bet, since it's not hard to predict where it will be. Oh, and if you're fighting the Jupiter 3, massed SRMs might crit one of those nice big HAG capacitors, and it has a bit of a minimum range. Of course, it is a 100-tonner, with extremely scary melee attacks, so point-blank range is not necessarily the safest place to be.
Alright, well, that sounds like a huge problem, then. Anything else?
I should probably mention that you'd probably be justified in giving it the Improved Sensors quirk, since fluff-wise it has a nifty retractable sensor vane thing up top. So, it's decent command 'Mech as well. Beyond that...no, I think that's it for the Jupiter. Slow, solid, and a ludicrous tonnage of gunnage. Small wonder the Falcons started using more BattleMechs in front-line units.