TFN-3* Typhoon - 90t, TRO3026R
Originally posted 4 Jan. 2006. All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding “FotW Workshop†thread.Image currently not available as link - please see attachment.
Best known as the chosen ride of Robert Steiner, who became Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth after deposing ‘the Mystic Usurper’ Margaret Olsen (whom his uncle apparently married precisely
because she was barking mad! ::) ), the TFN-3
Typhoon would seem to lend a lot of its design philosophy to later Steiner craft like the
Chippewa (or derive it therefrom, being that the ‘lost’ designs of ’26R and ’57R were created some twenty years
after the originals of 3025 ::)). Described in the HSSB as an introverted, brooding, lonely young man who suffered from a rare degenerative disease that denied him the full use of his legs, Robert was nonetheless so formidable behind the controls of his
Typhoon-A and carved such a swathe through opposing Marik ASF units that his fellow pilots had his bird painted in a vivid livery and given the nose-art slogan
Eagles cry at his approach, a gesture so touching that he couldn’t bring himself to have reversed.
Frankly, given the stats we are shown in TRO3026R, Robert Steiner must have been one hell of a pilot to survive flying the
Typhoon into combat - and Adolf Galland reincarnate to have as much success as he did! :o Even if the opposition’s aircraft were equally lacklustre, he must have used up a lifetime’s worth of luck during his relatively brief combat-aviation career.
The above notwithstanding, the Lyran Commonwealth must have seen
something in the TFN-3, being that it entered LyrCom service in 2366 and production only formally ended in 2485, when Lockheed/CBM began building the
Thunderbird in its place.
(It is important to note that TRO3026R was released several months
before Combat Equipment, which introduced the rule that pre-Star League combat systems had to spend some 20% of their mass on ‘old equipment’, denoting that the components and techniques used in construction were not as compact nor as mass-efficient as their ‘modern’ counterparts. As such, the less-than-overwhelming stats given to the TFN-3 in that publication may show the craft in a better light than it deserves! :o )
(Of course, these rules have in turn been superseded by the ‘Primitive Fighter’ rules in
Jihad Secrets, which are more refined than the
Combat Equipment arrangement. Presumably earlier, yet-to-be-seen marks of the
Typhoon were built with such ‘Primitive’ equipment, and the TFN-3 series is among the first to use all-up ‘Age of War’ gear. :D)
Even in the thirty-first century few heavy starfighters are racehorses, and the twenty-fourth-century, 90-ton
Typhoon is no exception to that rule at 5/8; the near-obligatory five tons of fuel meant that ‘bingo’ times were pretty close to the statistical mean for ASFs, but rather bizarrely, its eight-point-five tons of standard armour (45/34/23) actually offer slightly
heavier protection than would be ‘enjoyed’ by the
Chippewa some
three centuries later! :o (Nonetheless, the
Tiffy is immune to ML TACs only on its nose. :'()
The
Typhoon’s arsenal seems to be where most of the mass was spent - though not especially efficiently. Twenty-six (26) single heat-sinks are mounted, supporting an array of weaponry that will provoke a Shrek-like “Hold the ’phone!†from many: an LRM-15 with sixteen salvoes is fitted in the nose, while each wing houses a pair of LLs (sound familiar? :P) and a particle-projection cannon.
Now, for long-to-medium range engagements, the
Tiffy’s arsenal is pretty decent: centre-lining a target and giving it both particle-cannons and the LRM rack leaves you one under your maximum heat-dissipation capability and lays a very decent amount of throw-weight on the target. Unfortunately, when it comes to close quarters or Strafing, things are less fun, as you can only fire one wing’s worth of your ordnance at a time while remaining heat-neutral; adding in the LRM rack would spike your scale to +5 and cost you a Random Movement check, and anything more is simply out of the question in anything other than a Strafing attack in a completely uncontested sky where you can take a turn to cool off befcore trying it again. Now, clobbering the other guy with ‘only’ a PPC and two large lasers is actually pretty good hitting power (witness the
Stingray), and alpha-striking is not a tactic I like to advocate... but when your arsenal is about the only advantage you have over lighter, faster enemy craft, you need to make maximum use of it, smashing the other guy out of the fight in one or two salvoes before he can turn the tables on you, and the
Tiffy simply doesn’t have the sinks to use its firepower to the fullest extent. Again, stop me if this sounds familiar. >:(
On the other hand, the
Typhoon’s heavy throw-weight does offer nasty, nasty options in the attack role, as a full squadron can generate a pair of 6-Capital PPC bays, a 5-Capital LRM bay, and a pair of 10-Capital LL bays, though once again heat will play a significant role in what you fire: you get both PPC bays and the LRMs, or a PPC bay and an LL bay.
Unless one wishes to play a historical campaign set before the foundation of the Star League, the chances of flying or facing a
Typhoon are virtually nil; estimates put the number of ‘surviving’ TFN-3s at under half a dozen, and
those are found as museum pieces on static display. Nonetheless, in an age when the Word of Blake can seemingly hit you with
anything, no matter how archaic and antiquated it may have been before they got their hands on it, tactical advice is warranted.
Much like the later
Chippewa, the
Typhoon should not
ever get into an air-to-air furball if it can possibly help it. Heavy escorts and the avoidance of heavy defences are vital, as per
the mantras; anyone who gets a clean shot at a
Typhoon is almost certain to hit something important, since its armour just can’t stand up to punishment, so the best idea is not to expose them to enemy attention in the first place.
Defenders encountering
Tiffies should send in their dogfighters or interceptors - any modern fighter which can move 6/9 or better can outmanoeuvre and beat-up on the
Typhoon with ease. This is especially true since most such types also feature heavy armour - usually heavier even than the
Tiffy itself, which is a sobering indictment of the type when you consider its size.
Daggers,
Sais and
Samurai in particular will have ‘Stuka parties’ with the type: a single wing-pair should be able to polish off a whole squad of
Tiffies in short order. }:) (Note that none of the TFN-3s listed possesses tail-guns of any kind.)
TRO3026R tells us of two variants on the type, and thanks to Rick Raisley and the crew at
www.heavymetalpro.com, I’ve downloaded the files on all three types. 8) It’s interesting to note that the fluff explicitly states that all three types of
Typhoon are designed with malice aforethought to look completely identical to anyone who can’t take the time to take a super-close look, or even peek under the hood - like someone engaged in a dogfight with one. ;) [legal] }:)
The
Typhoon-A was Robert Steiner’s fighter of choice before his ascension to the throne on Tharkad, and by all accounts he made it into a holy terror; looking at it, I can see a certain degree of justification for this weighty reputation. :o Replacing the LL pairs in each wing with AC/10s and a ton of ammo per gun, the TFN-3A drops six heat-sinks but retains the same armour profile. Fluffed as an attack platform which could devastate enemy ’Mechs in a single Strike pass, and capable of Strafing with both PPCs, the
Tiffy-A is also slightly better as an air-to-air combatant (though using it in an AtA role would not be my own preference). Once you get into a turning fight with another fighter, you can lay into him with one wing’s armament (an AC/10 and a PPC, mind - two ten-point clouts! :o)
and the nose-mounted LRM-15 while remaining at -2 on the heat-scale... and if you get a centreline shot, tossing in the
other AC/10 only blips the heat-gauge to +1. }:) While this fighter is still under-armoured and quite slow, it offers very, very respectable firepower, and I have this beautiful mental image of one engaging a target, its nose and wings aflame with the yellow muzzle-flashes of its missile-launcher and ACs, a volley of LRMs leaving smoke-trails on their way down-range as streams of tracer and the actinic-blue pencil-beams of particle-fire reach for that same bad-guy.... [skull]
The
Typhoon-M is a missile-heavy fire-support model, none of which are thought to have survived to the thirty-first century. Replacing each LL pair with another LRM-15 and two tons of ammo per launcher, with the remaining two tons given over to heat-sinks (28 SHS total), the TFN-3M can lay down a punishing barrage of fire at Long and Medium range, tearing huge chunks out of its opponents. Unfortunately, its armour remains fearfully thin. Good for cooperative tactics - picture a few -3Ms hanging back and pelting targets with missiles while -3As move in to finish them - but not especially useful on their own. Not great, but not horrible, either.
[VARIANT PROPOSAL(S) REDACTED] All proposed fan-variants - including my own - belong in the corresponding “FotW Workshop†thread: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,4052.0.html I don’t imagine too many people have used the
Typhoon over much, but if you have, sound off and let us know the gory details, mmkay? ;)
Be advised: the attached .txt transcript(s) of previous run(s) of this thread may 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. ;)
