CHP-W10 Availability

[DragonKhan55]

Hello Aerospace friends, wanted to reach out here and see if anyone had an answer to a question I had. I've been writing up a new merc ASF unit and trying to come up with an interesting backstory and mix of gear, and one of the things I thought of was to have the W10 variant Chippies be the primary "strike fighter" for the unit, the better to lull people into thinking "oh god this is going to be a cakewalk, they're using Chippewas only to spring the vastly better armored W10s on them. How prevalent are they outside of the AFFS, and what was the intro date on them? Thank you.

[Hellraiser]

How prevalent are they outside of the AFFS, and what was the intro date on them? 

I know the fluff is that they are Davion Modifications to a Lyran bird, but no idea how old.
However, Per the MUL it was first created in 2953, so its not something from the AFFC Alliance.
Clearly at some point in the past century-ish, they purchased a bunch from the Lyrans, or just did this mod to left over stock from the SLDF era.
The really odd thing to me is the MUL has it as available to the Periphery too, which I don't understand.
Otherwise no one else has it till post 4th SW when some are given to St.Ives & the united FedCom used them.

[Hellraiser]

PS.
I can't find my Wo39 sourcebook right now to confirm, but IIRC they were available to the suns on a 2D6 RAT roll of 2-3.

[DragonKhan55]

I know the fluff is that they are Davion Modifications to a Lyran bird, but no idea how old.
However, Per the MUL it was first created in 2953, so its not something from the AFFC Alliance.
Clearly at some point in the past century-ish, they purchased a bunch from the Lyrans, or just did this mod to left over stock from the SLDF era.
The really odd thing to me is the MUL has it as available to the Periphery too, which I don't understand.
Otherwise no one else has it till post 4th SW when some are given to St.Ives & the united FedCom used them.

Thank you, I appreciate it! Still building out the unit but will be sure to give a shoutout once it's together.

[Sartris]

TRO: 3039 pg 216

Recently, the Taurian Concordat has been licensed to manufacture the Chippewa.

if you want to quibble over the meaning of "recent" but the TC is building and selling them in the periphery.

[Hellraiser]

Meh, I'd say that is Pre-Wo39 clearly & probably not as far back as 2SW, so anything 3SW/4SW seems logical to me.

[Decoy]

Wasn't the Chippewa a Star League fighter? the early W10s could be leftovers from the post Amaris Civil War.

[DragonKhan55]

Wasn't the Chippewa a Star League fighter? the early W10s could be leftovers from the post Amaris Civil War.

Per Historical: Operation KLONDIKE on ASFs and the Chippewa:

"Upgrades for the SLDF's aerospace forces came in the latter half of the 28th century, though with much reduced funding compared to what the Star League dedicated to upgrading the 'Mech service. The program was interrupted by Amaris coup, shutting down the SLDF's access to most of its key production facilities. As the Amaris Civil War progressed, and the SLDF's losses mounted, Kerensky turned to suppliers the Star League hadn't typically utilized."

So this says to me that the Chippy was not originally a SLDF design but did get yanked and used heavily during the Amaris campaign, much like the CSR-V12b Corsair or the STU-K5b Stuka models.

[Hellraiser]

The Chippewa is fluffed as being designed for the Star League so its not just a later Civil War purchase.

But also, the W10 is from the 3rd SW so Davion either waited a long time to do the changes or it was something they did w/ a more recent purchase.

[glitterboy2098]

as far as the periphery availability goes, the W10 is just pulling two of the large lasers for a lot of extra armor. i suspect that once word got out about what the Fedsuns did to the design, a lot of groups that had them followed suit, since it would produce a more survivable design that also can make better use of its weaponry.

[Daryk]

If that's all it does, that's a Class A Refit... you can do that in the shade of a tree without a penalty... ;)

[glitterboy2098]

If that's all it does, that's a Class A Refit... you can do that in the shade of a tree without a penalty... ;)

removes 2 of the 4 large lasers, to mount another 160 points of armor. more than doubling the armor, and giving the fighter's 25 SHS less heat to deal with.

[Daryk]

No argument on the tactical benefits... I'm just pointing out the Campaign Operations rules.  That mod is EASY and can literally be done in the field without so much as a cubicle (removing items and adding/adjusting armor are all Class A, the easiest customizations). :)

[Hellraiser]

The TC being right next to the Suns & getting rights to produce the Chip makes it natural for them to have that variant on the MUL, which was where my confusion was from, anyone can do a refit, but the MUL entry got me at first, total picture now of them producing the Chip makes the W10 likely since they probably salvaged 1-2 in raids over the years or something.