SHV-O Shiva - 85t, TRO3067
Originally posted 23 Feb. 2005. All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread. When the Free Worlders set out to build their first OmniFighter, they got something of a mixed bag out of the whole deal - and I get the impression someone was reading off the same page as the Smoke Jags who designed the
Sabutai. While the
Shiva is not especially nimble, and its armour is pitiful for so heavy a spaceframe , it carries a warload that
must be respected.
Eighty-five tons of spaceframe is wrapped around a 255XL engine, pushing the
Shiva to 5/8 with the standard five-ton fuel load; right from the outset, it's clear that this is not an aerial-combat platform so much as it is an attack bird (though it can lay down daunting fire support if need be). The base spaceframe includes eighteen double heat-sinks, allowing for a hefty array of self-defence weaponry while still leaving room for large pod arrangements;
52.5 tons of pod space is available. :o The bad news? Well, let's put it this way: did someone blow up every aerospace-armour factory in the Free Worlds League and cause a chronic shortage of aviation composites like ferro-aluminium? 'Cause that's about the only reason I can imagine for the
Shiva's being so thinly protected - that, or some opportunistic Leaguer swiped the plans for the
Sabutai during Operation SERPENT and they were in such a hurry to clone it that they didn't actually look at the specs too closely. Okay, so they used FA armour, which helps a little... but ten tons of ferro-aluminium laid out 60/42/35 just isn't adequate protection for a fighter this size, pod-space or not. Jesus, the F-90
Stingray is marginally tougher than this thing, and that's an IS1 fighter twenty-five tons heavier! :o To paraphrase a livejournal icon I saw
last night, "I'd like to order a plate of 'WTF?', with an order of 'bitch, please!' on the side." ::)
A momentary digression: when building fighters, people need to realise that many of the same compromises apply to them as to 'Mechs. In the heavy bracket, it's typically 'speed, resilience, throw-weight - pick any two', with the understanding that if you choose to neglect one, the other two must be correspondingly greater: if you go for tough and hard-hitting, you usually drop some speed (c.f.
Stuka), and so forth. The Leaguers put everything on the
Shiva into additional pod-space/warload, meaning that the fighter is neither fast enough to escape trouble, nor tough enough to stand up to it when it arrives. [shakes head] About the only good news is, it'll make the WoBM that much easier to kick the shite out of when the Jihad kicks off. ::)
Shiva Prime is a close-attack machine. Each wing supports a pair of large pulse lasers, while the nose houses a monster LB-20X autocannon with two tons of ammo, an SRM-6 with two tons, and an ERSL
(which I can't really see the point of, but that's just me [shrug]) (which is a pretty damn' thin PD fit if you ask me), along with three more DHS. Two ground-attack strikes from this configuration are all but guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye: the pulsers each tear off half a ton of ferro-fibrous armour, and in the first pass you throw in a Class-20 slug burst to really open the target's can, with the SRMs to exploit the resulting holes; on the second pass, you trade out the slug ammo for cluster munitions and
really crit-seek the poor son. Each such strike pass comes to a whopping +8 overheat, which is Not Good, but with a turn to cool off between attacks, it's kind of acceptable - and the strafing runs? IS tech or not, four LPLs is gonna make someone miserable in a hurry. And in the anti-shipping role,
Shiva Prime is a beast: each squadron (or Level-II, considering that it's also a WoB machine) has two pulse-laser bays of 11 Capital damage, the AC bay of 10 Capital (or 12, if you use slug ammo), and the SRMs make for another 5 Capital - all in all, WarShip captains should accord
Shiva units a great deal of respect. The bad news is, they have to get really, really close to deliver that damage, so an alert adversary will stand them off with fighters or a DropShip screen.
Shiva Alpha answers that tactic by mounting mainly long-range ordnance: an artemis'd LRM-10 and two tons of ammo in the nose (along with that had-a-spare-half-ton ERSL), while each wing boasts an ERLL and a Gauss rifle with sixteen rounds. Cooler-running than the
Prime (an alpha comes to net -6 heat, not using that afterthought small laser), with impressive throw-weight that all reaches out to Long range, this thing complements the
Prime very, very well indeed; while its armaments don't have the
Prime's one-bay knock-out capability, they do address almost any situation and have ample ammunition for sustained engagements (if you're silly enough to accept them). Any fighter that gets in front of a
Shiva Alpha is going to regret it immediately; any ground unit that suffers a strike from a
Shiva Alpha is going to be keeping the unit's repair techs (or salvage crews) busy for a good long while (the strafing passes are a little less impressive, but those ERLLs can still sting); and any DropShip or capital vessel faced with a squadron of
Shiva Alphas will face five Capital bays: two of nine points each (GRs), two of five points each (ERLLs), and a single four-point hit from the LRMs, all of it starting from Long (conventional) range and generating a sustained barrage all the way in without the need to cool off, ever. :o
"Aaaaaand, heeeere's MIRV!" ;D Obligatory though it may be, the missile-based
Shiva-Bravo is another eye-opener: each wing houses a pair of LRM-20s with Artemis-IV and two tons of ammo per launcher; interestingly enough, the
Shiva seems to pod-mount its CASE, and the
Bravo is the only configuration that features it. If the Leaguers ever get hold of CapCon Thunder munitions, this one's gonna make navigating any ground battlefield a nightmare; as it is, a single strike from this thing represents the potential to hit a single ground target with as many as sixteen five-point groups, which is both a nasty crit-threat and legitimate damage in its own right. This is also arguably the single 'best' anti-shipping configuration on offer, with a squadron generating two bays of 19 Capital each :o, which is getting close to "one-pass-outright-kill" territory on some smaller vessels
and can crit just about anything one cares to name - even the
Black Lion needs to respect these.
Shiva Charlie is a slightly different slant on the
Alpha. Four additional DHS are podded in; the nose-mounted LRM launcher gives way to a pair of ERMLs, and the ERSL stays; each wing holds an ERPPC, twin ERMLs, and that signature FWL weapon the Light Gauss Rifle, complete with two tons of ammo per gun. Now, a lot of people don't like the LGR, but it does make a certain amount of sense here - leave us not forget, in AT2/R there are only two conventional weapons which can do meaningful damage at Extreme range: the Clan ER Large Laser, and the Light Gauss Rifle. This makes the
Shiva Charlie about the only Extreme-range sniper in the Spheroid arsenal, and it has the ammo stocks to keep it up all day and/or take the more marginal shots that more ammo-conscious designs have to pass up. With its impressive dissipation capacity, the
Shiva-C can hang back and lay into an opponent with the LGRs and ERPPCs for as long as his ammo lasts without ever worrying about heat (44 capacity, 32 generated with the LR weapons - almost oversinked, really), and at Medium range or closer you can throw in one of the ERML bays and still be under, or completely trade out the PPCs for the lasers and go crit-seeking. All those energy weapons mean that strafers must make good situational calls - firing all your beamers hits up the heat-scale for +16, which is DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! territory - but they can put a nasty hurt on ground units, and a strike attack is just as daunting. In the anti-shipping role, this config can make itself a real pain in the ass: a squadron can just hang back at Extreme range and hit you with a pair of 5-point LGR bays (while being immune to almost any conventional-scale return fire), close to Long and throw in a couple of 6-point PPC smacks as well, or come right into knife-fighting range and give you three more 6-point love-taps from the laser mounts. Tactical options are what every commander wants, and the
Shiva-C offers them. }:)
On the offensive side of the table,
never leave a
Shiva unit exposed or they'll get cut to ribbons before they can play any meaningful part in the engagement; escort them as heavily as you can, ideally with a mix of LX-2
Lancers and F-92
Stingrays, and no matter how tempting the bait they wave before you, don't take it - get in, hit your designated target, then get away before they catch you and make you pay for it. THE MANTRAS ARE YOUR SOLE CHANCE OF SURVIVAL, SO
LIVE THEM - notice how none of the canon
Shiva configs carry back-scratcher weapons? :-X
Defensively,
Shivas are like bigger
Sabutais: they're bullies, hard-hitting but soft-skinned, enthusiatic pain-givers who hate being on the receiving end. Lyrans should swarm them down with -Z4
Seydlitz, whose ERLLs offer an all-aspect crit threat; Capellan TR-13A
Transgressor units can shit-kick
Shiva squadrons any time they like, though they need to keep their eyes open for the escorts and get in close as soon as possible, otherwise the
Shivas' heavy long-range armaments may produce sufficient attrition to turn the tide.
[VARIANT PROPOSALS REDACTED] All proposed fan-variants, including my own, belong in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,1740.0.html Be advised: the attached .txt transcripts of previous runs of this thread contain numerous reader-proposals for variants. I'll try to change those out for 'sanitised' versions of those threads when I can, but I can't promise it'll be soon - that's a lot of ground to cover. ;) Repost closing note, 15-02-2011: This was another article that didn't get much attention when it was re-run, it would seem. I wonder if Albatross ever did get back to reading it the first time around, like he said.... :'(