I was going to update the Javelin article with the new variant – and there wasn’t an article.
OK
The Javelin. Light mech, designed in the sunset days of the Star League, original deployment SLDF and FedSuns, a mech everyone has by the slog part of the succession wars. Real world it was released with the second batch of mechs, in TRO 3025. In BV it costs about a Wasp and a half. This is probably about where it deserves to be relation to that bug.
Starting with the original, the
JVN-10N, we have a thirty tonner that can move what was, a the time, the standard light mech jumping movement, 6/9/6. This means getting a +3 movement mod is pretty likely. That’s a good thing, because the armor is only good in relation to Wasps and Stingers. Nothing will be breached by a medium laser, but everything will be stripped or worse by a large laser. Only the head will be outright ripped off by a PPC. Crit padding is acceptable, everywhere important has extra gear in it. Four of the jump jets are in the legs; bounding leaps out of water are impossible, but you're less likely to lose a hip to a crit.
Weight that was skimped on armor was dumped into weapons. Two SRM 6 is a respectable amount of critseeking, especially for the era. It is not, however, a good armament for quick solo kills, so Javelins have no business being one of the mechs first to meet the enemy. Leave that to people with medium lasers or better, and when armor starts getting thin swoop in and steal some kills. Heat management is acceptable, no heat on a running alpha, and a jumping one won’t leave you with penalties the first time.
You have two tons of ammo. With armor that thin you really have to consider if you’ll survive to use it all. The second ton can be used for alternate ammo; fragmentation for infantry and woods clearing, TC in later eras, inferno to screw with people who’ve been careless with their heat, or smoke to help hide you and your buddies. Your choice.
Speaking of medium lasers, between the first two succession wars somebody came up with the
-10F, AKA the Fire Javelin. Everyone copied it. Losing the SRMs got four medium lasers, two extra heat sinks, and more armor. Upside, you can now strip armor instead of sandpapering it away and have a decent chance of surviving people paying attention to you. Downside, fewer plinks and heat management now becomes a chore; a full alpha leaves you dealing with movement heat.
The 10F is the more popular of the two Javelin, even if in universe it was supposed to be rarer. It’s also more expensive in BV, a bit over two Wasps worth.
Last of the introtech Javelin is the
-10A. It’s the newest release, coming in Record Sheets: Succession Wars in 2019, but the second oldest in universe, having come out a year later than the -10N. Given the timing it
probably isn’t related to the other A series mech in the PDF, but we don’t know for sure. A variant on the -10N, it has the same mobility and armor. It also went for missiles, and here the similarities end. An LRM 15 with a single ton of ammo is an interesting choice. It means you don’t have to risk your thin hide by getting as close and opens up the possibility of indirect fire. On the other hand, anyone who gets close only has to deal with your fists and feet, and there isn’t enough ammo to put any into alternate. This is a posterchild for overspecialization, but it does do it’s designed task pretty well.
Fast-forwarding to the clan invasion we have the
-10P, which is an upgrade of the -10N. (Get used to not being able to track liniage by designation, as that doesn’t end.) Same armor, internals and mobility. The only difference is that one of the srm racks is pulled for a pair of streak 2s. Upside, heat management is easier and it’s basically impossible to run completely out of ammo. Downside, max damage goes down a hair, and if you want alternate ammo you’ve got to sacrifice the damage of your srm 6. I can’t call it a downgrade, but it’s situational; in BV it is actually four points cheaper.
It's worth noting that once upon a time only SRM 2 and streak 2 could use inferno, and inferno was the only alternate ammo, so the launcher that could use non-standard ammo was reversed from the current situation. Also, getting hit by a single inferno used to be a far bigger problem.
Next up is the
11A, the new Fire Javelin. It’s expensive, more than some trooper mediums, and the armor isn’t as tough, with the CT and back getting thinner despite ferro fiberous armour. But the firepower… hoo, the firepower. No less than seven medium lasers, and double heat sinks almost cover using them. The new lasers are placed a bit unusually; it’s one of only two variants with items in an arm. The downside is that you’re a high priority target that has to get close to hurt people. It’s not a mech I’d expect to survive many battles, though I’d pick it over most Jenners in a heartbeat.
The
-11B is an electronics boat descended from the -10N. It gains a guardian ECM and a Beagle Probe. It loses the jump jets and two tubes off each SRM launcher. Armor is the same as the 11A, not max but still better than the old -10N. CASE protects the ammo – speaking of which, with fifty shots and two guns, you really don’t have an excuse not to use alternate ammo. It’s less use as a striker, but certainly capable of giving a lance of FedComs mechs an ECM bubble while watching their backs.
-11D is a civil war variant Fire Javelin. Three ER mediums and two medium pulses are linked to a targeting computer, and the heat sinks again almost handle the heat; movement heat plus one on an alpha. BV is kept under control by adding a ‘kill-me’ spot in the form of an XL engine, but it’s still the most expensive non-custom Javelin. It is back to being a FedSuns exclusive, and while accurate enough to hunt its light mech peers, I still really have to question whether it has the armor to survive playing C3 point-man for long.
-11F is another FedSuns exclusive. It keeps the XL and armor from the -11D, and a snubbie in the right torso gives a nice big hit. Right under the snubbie is an unCASEd ammo bomb, feeding two machine gun arrays in the arms. It isn’t a variant I’ve played with, but looks like a nice skirmisher and infantry sweeper combination. BV is about that of the introtech Fire Javelin, which is reasonable but doesn't change the fact it's barely a Javelin.
-11P is used by the Filtvelt Coalition (FedSuns breakaway) after the Jihad. It has the armor of an original Fire Javelin, distributed slightly different. Four streak 2s let the single heat sinks keep things under control. In era this is a budget mech, for people who don’t have access to the cool tech-toys, but is still a respectable light.
The sole hero mech we have a sheet for is based on the
-11D, the Farrell. He hangs out with the Bounty Hunter, and increased the range of the pulse lasers by substituting in experimental x-pulse lasers. The other change is getting rid of the C3 for a clan Beagle Probe. This does spike the heat burden, but makes an already accurate mech even more likely to hit, especially if the enemy is hiding in woods.
The Javelin doesn’t age as well as some mechs, but variants are still contenders at least until the end of the jihad if not later.
UPDATE
New Javelin in RG31, and... Somebody got some Spider and clantech in the Javelin, it's honestly pretty good.
Weapons are two SRM 6. They’re clantech, which only matters as a weight saving measure. Both tons of ammo are in the right torso, but the IS XL means that if you lose that torso you’re dead anyway. Case II is in there to mitigate ammunition criticals. As a new feature the
-12N gets a second role, with a head mounted TAG it can artillery spot. A homing arrow followed up with a salvo of SRMs is a very dangerous combination.
Endo Steel and Light Ferro save enough weight to increase the armour to ~90% max. Still fragile, it has reasonable odds of surviving a gauss hit. The rest of the weight saved goes into go-fast. 8/12/8 is upper end mobility into the ilclan era, equal to a Spider or Dragonfly. Speed-is-Armour might be partially countered by the proliferation of accuracy boosters, but it should be enough to get in position for the missiles.
At ~800 BV for the package it’s a decent deal, only 200 BV over an introtech Javelin for significant armour, speed and a TAG.
In the event of forum crash or post loss, this post may be restored by any who have it.
