Originally posted on October 23rd, 2008, this was a repost/redux of an old CoyoteWarDog article. Edited slightly to cut back on the speculative and to update it; I also pulled up the first paragraph, originally posted at the end of CWD's article.An explanation for the extraction from the zip Archives: in context of the
Balius, I felt it important to add this 65-ton Clanner to our omnibus. It needs to be there for everyone to access freely (and for me to refer to). While I had considered redoing this article, two reasons prevented me from doing so: A) I simply did not feel any passion about the design and B) no new variants or insights have made their entry into canon since Coyote War Dog originally posted his article. Oh, and we can't ever have too many CWD articles, isn't that right? O0
I did update the summary of the design [
in green italics] briefly to reflect 3055U's fluff text.
This week I'm covering the Linebacker. Yes, this is another another request, and no, I'm not taking any right now.
Aside from having one of the most...interesting (is "creative" better?) names in the canon BT universe, the Linebacker is also very odd-looking. It's another on of those 'mechs that shouldn't be able to torso twist. *Shrug*
The Linebacker suffers greatly from the truly awful TRO3055 fluff (a lot of fluff in TRO3055 was awful...remember the Cerberus?) that tries to make it a replacement for the Timber Wolf. This has been the subject of a great deal discussion and debate. So much, in fact, that I'm royally sick of the subject. I'll give my opinion, which is also, I believe, that of the majority of players, and leave it at that: the Linebacker is not a T-Wolf replacement, and it never will be.
Indeed, TRO: 3055U confirms that the Linebacker never came close to replacing the Timber Wolf - in fact, it is mostly used in Striker Clusters by the Wolves (in Exile). "Khan Vlad Ward’s Wolves are even more dismissive of the design, considering it the brainchild of a freebirth and a geriatric; only their need for equipment has kept the design in production among them." (TRO: 3055U, p.90) The TRO also confirms that the design was actively shared with Clans Coyote and Snow Raven before the Refusal war.
Further proliferation has been noted: Clan Wolf lost some Linebackers to the Hell's Horses and Jade Falcons; Clan Snow Raven lost some to Clan Steel Viper, who in turn battled the Cloud Cobras, meaning that they, too, have a few Linebackers. By far the strangest omission in TRO: 3055U is the fact that Clan Ice Hellion is not mentioned at all.
This is not to say, however, that the Linebacker is inherently a bad 'mech. It should never have been compared to the T-Wolf to begin with, and it would get much fairer analysis if people wouldn't let that idiotic comparison influence their thinking.
The Linebacker weighs in at 65 tons. The 65-ton class has always been a big problem for the Clans: the Linebacker and Hellbringer are the only front-line 'mechs they have of that weight. Linebacker vs. Hellbringer is a much more reasonable and interesting comparison than Linebacker vs. T-Wolf. IMO, the Linebacker is a decidedly better 'mech than the Hellbringer is.
The Hellbringer tried to do too much and failed, ending up with tinfoil armor that crippled it in combat and pushed it perilously close to the "punchline" territory currently inhabited by the UrbanMech and 3025 Charger. The Linebacker sacrifices pod space for greater armor and speed. The Primary config packs paired ER PPCs backed by a single LRM 5, a single Streak SRM 4, and a tonnage-filler ER small laser. The Streak is OK, but the single LRM 5 is a grievous sin. There's absolutely no good reason for that thing to be there. It should be replaced with a pair of ER medium lasers, or a single ER medium and an extra double heat sink.
The A config is apparently a long-range config. Like the Prime, it has a single LRM 5 that is largely a waste of tonnage, although paired with the larger 15-rack it makes some sense. It also mounts 2 ERLL and 2 ERML, making this one of the most well-armed Linebackers of the lot. This config is going to run a bit hot, but overall I like it a little better than the Prime.
The B config is crippled by the Linebacker's fixed DHS. The designers should have just given us ten in the engine and let us add extras in pods as needed. As it is, the B is laughably oversinked, and is arguably undergunned as well. With 1 Gauss Rifle, 3 ERML and 1 ERSL... It can still give a good accounting of itself, but the loadout is a bit underwhelming compared to other Clan heavies.
The C is a little bizarre, packing an Ultra AC/5, a cluster of ER lasers, a flamer (!) and two machine guns. The flamer and MGs might make sense from a fluff standpoint, but that's not enough for me. I wouldn't bother improving on this config, I'd have my tech' remove all the pods and start over.
The D config is an infighter, with a combination of speed, armor, and close-range firepower that can make the enemy stop and take notice. I love the monster crit-seeking abilites of the quad SRM 6 racks, but the D will run a bit hot if you don't manage your fire carefully.
The E is the requisite ATM config, and it's pretty unimpressive. Like the B, it can hold its own, but it's not in the same leage as most of its counterparts. (Although it is dangerous up-close.) It mounts 2 ATM6s, 1 ERLL and carries a light active probe.
The H is the obligatory Heavy Laser config, and it's pretty average, too. Lacking the targeting computer many H configs are blessed with, it ends up mediocre bordering on awful, dangerously hot-running and in truth rather weakly armed. It fields 2 HLL, 2 ERML, 1 ERSL and 6 jump jets, making it the only jump capable configuration.
That's it. Sorry if the analysis was a little bad (by which I mean worse than usual) this week. I'm pressed for time.
Some quick notes of my own:
No, I do not think the
Linebacker is superior to the
Hellbringer - at least when matching a
Linebacker Prime to a
Hellbringer Prime. It runs almost as hot, yet does not come close to the
Hellbringer's flexibility or accuracy. The extra movement is almost unfelt in a dueling scenario - the one time we tried out this constellation, the
Hellbringer emerged victorious over the
Linebacker's smoking hulk. The
Linebacker Prime looks good on paper, but it lacks flexibility that even the
Nova A has (at least that one can jump out of LOS). I do not mind overheating - but I hate being left without alternatives. The Prime simply will have to cease firing one of the PPCs after a couple of turns of fire exchange.
As I have hinted above, the
Linebacker A satisfies me the most - it almost gives the feel of being a genuine heavy 'Mech, with a respectable suite of lasers and missiles that can start laying on the hurt at long ranges. The
Linebacker B is woefully oversinked - yet I quite like that configuration. It provides decent punch and can be used as a low-end medium 'Mech that simply happens to have the resilience of a heavy.
I will not comment on the next configuration, but the
Linebacker D definitely makes the best possible use of pod space. I have to contradict CWD directly: when all 4 SSRMs heat - and only then - the
Linebacker will only have to deal with movement heat. Nonono, this configurations has no intrinsic problems to speak of; it merely lacks range.
The two newer configurations are intriguing. I quite like the choice of *not* simply making the
Linebacker E into a plain ATM boat. It also does not go the route of the silly
Crossbow C in adding meaningless crap to the ATM6s (the
Crossbow *really* should have just mounted two ATM9s); no, it adds an ERLL. Together with the ATMs, this can do respectable damage at extreme ranges. And with HE ammo, the ATMs mean that this configuration should have no problem with closing, either.
The
Linebacker H is noticeable not for its heavy lasers. No, it mounts 6 jump jets, instantly making the variant very, very interesting. It is the first configuration that jumps; indeed, no
Stormcrow - the closest competitor to the
Linebacker - jumps, either! Yet instead of turning this into the most heavily armed fast skirmisher the Clans can field, the H configuration is a dud that has overheating problems on par with the
Ebon Jaguar B! This is worse than a
Hellbringer! Despite it carrying an additional HS, it cannot even fire its main guns without some excess heat. Yet this design relies on its jump movement. At which stage it becomes increasingly...impossible to hit with the HLL!! Ok, true - jump, fire 2 ERML and 1 HLL and you will only overheat by the golden 4. But WTF? This should be fearsome, yet behaves like a low-end medium even more than the B!
[
2011 closing: when I reposted/wrote the original article, there were several discussions happening on the forums about a comparison between the Linebacker and the Stormcrow. They both feature the same speed, but the Linebacker's weapon capacity is inferior to the Stormcrow's, even when counting the fixed heat sinks. This underlines the argument that the Linebacker is too fast for its own good.
All in all, this was a failed experiment for the Wolves, especially in terms of it being a heavy 'Mech. Yet the Balius still happened some 20 years afterwards.]