NOTE: A couple of half-finished –otW articles popped up on an old USB drive recently. I need the drive for work, so I’ve polished up these turds and am posting them over the next couple of days rather than let the effort go to waste.The Inner Sphere learned a lot from the Clan invasion, one of the key lessons being ‘we have a LONG way to go before we can compete with these vat-born weirdos.’ The Tukayyid truce saved the bacon of the FedCom and Combine- neither nation could have realistically stood up to further invasion waves any better than they had with the prior ones, and even when things went well it was less of a matter of glorious victory, and more of a deux ex machina (see: Twycross). For every victory came a series of defeats, and it was clear to Houses and their manufacturing arms alike that adapting older machines was only going to go so far- new designs were needed to help stem the tide. The Federated Commonwealth threw themselves at this cause, and among those that answered the call to arms was Coventry Metalworks. Considering the need for an ammo-independent light Mech, the design team looked at great designs like the Spider, Spector, and Hussar, and… sort of didn’t really do any of that useful stuff. Showing a surprising misunderstanding of Clan technology and tactics, the Dart is… a thing that exists, at least! Let’s give it a quick look before the Jade Falcons kill them all.
The idea being to face the Clans, the Dart is already off to a rough start in that the Clans were (at this point) an unstoppable force of nature, and using light Mechs to face their light Mechs was a lesson in futility. But, there’s more to it than just enemy Mechs, after all- one has to be able to take on their battle armor as well, and building a Mech for that job makes sense- the Combine found great success in this role in the criminally-underrated Komodo, while the Capellans attempted to meet the threat with their Snake (which while it didn’t really fit the bill, can be forgiven since Liao had yet to face battle armor in combat. Also, it ended up being a champ at tank-killing). So a machine designed to deal with the infantry isn’t a bad one. It should be fairly quick to move to where the infantry are, and able to hit the target with the kind of multiple-kill potential you get from machine guns and flamers. Small pulse lasers are a good choice for the job, except… the Clans rarely use conventional infantry, certainly not in frontline roles, and Elementals will shrug off small pulse laser fire all day long. If that was the plan for the Dart, it’s a wonder anyone survived driving these things.
Getting a Dart 3S opened up, we find a 225-rated fusion engine rather than the XL types so popular at this point in designs. This isn’t a bad thing really- it gives the Dart the ability to lose both side torsos and still keep fighting at full power. This provides us a 9/14 movement curve, but without jump jets because there’s only so much to be done on 25 tons. You can outrun the Locust of its era (still the benchmark at this point for fast lights), and as a result can deploy in even bad terrain quickly to where the action is. Single heat sinks keep costs down, and aren’t really taxed much here anyway. Standard internal structure also keeps costs down, and wouldn’t save a huge amount of weight anyway if you did try it.
We also find standard plating in the armor- this feels remarkably 4th Succession War overall, honestly, and here a switch to Ferro-Fibrous would be nice. We have internal space galore, after all, and every point of armor on a light Mech really does count for a lot. Regardless, we still end up with a reasonable (for its size) three and a half tons of plating, A large laser will open any location, and a medium will strip the limbs. Even the head only has six points of armor. Darts taking fire from heavy weapons does NOT go well, reinforcing the ‘use this to kill infantry, dummy’ mantra. Being that there’s no ammo though, it at least doesn’t have to worry about anything like that (or mounting CASE, obviously).
OK, so… here we go. Three Magna small pulse lasers are the sole weaponry on a Dart, with two in the center torso and another in the head. That’s a good setup in that they’re well-protected from losing limbs and such, but does limit their firing arcs. The weapons have… look, let’s not be polite here, their range is abysmally bad, and it means a very lightly-armored machine has to get into literal body-punching range to do real damage. That’s a tough paradigm to love, folks- even against infantry, a Dart pilot may find that his quarry outrange him! While their power against unarmored infantry is quite respectable, again, that’s not a unit the invaders did much with. One has to hope that FedCom deployed their Darts quickly to other theatres in the hopes of limiting contact with the Clans- at least against other House units, there’s SOME usefulness. Imagine using a Dart though to fight, say, an Uller in a duel. That’s essentially murdering your Mechwarrior.
So the 3S sucks on toast. Fine. Let’s change things up. The obvious solution- factory or field-mod- is to swap out those ridiculous pulse lasers for the standard, tried-and-true medium laser. Three of them get installed where the pulses were on the 4S version, and that’s the only swap- no new armor or any of that, just a straight swap. And you know what? Old tech still works. Three five-point hits at decent ranges means you actually can close in and hurt that Uller now. It’s still going to probably lose, but it’s much more competitive against a Clan unit than it was before, and makes for a pretty handy harasser sent to hunt enemy LRM-boats and artillery (against IS foes, of course). It loses the anti-infantry punch, but against light armored units it’s a very useful little tool to throw at an unsuspecting opponent, and should be utilized over the 3S as often as possible (unless you suspect infantry hordes).
The 6S (where was the 5S?) takes the 4S and runs with it, swapping the head-mounted laser out for more armor. Here we run into a discrepancy- the TRO states it’s a ton of standard plating, but the record sheet shows it’s swapped for Ferro-Fibrous (and the amount of armor backs that up). When sources contradict, the record sheet is considered canon, so apparently this machine does indeed switch to Ferro for its plating- which makes for a much more durable machine, obviously, with the swap adding a few points and a whole extra ton of it tacked on! However, it armors up locations that didn’t have anything to do to begin with (side torsos, for example) while losing 33% of its firepower in the process, essentially becoming a slightly-faster but non-jumping Spider. It’s not terrible, but it’s better to just use a 4S and accept that it’s a bit fragile- the loss of firepower for a fairly negligible increase in protection in the long run (especially against Clan weapons!) isn’t really worth it.
As the years passed by, Darts that hadn’t had their asses handed to them began to receive a refit to the 6T configuration (the author also presumes that Coventry was producing this version in the factory, since the other three were all available brand-new as well). Taking the cheap and simple Dart concept and tossing it, the 6T first put in a light fusion engine, freeing up weight. Ferro-fibrous armor gives a similar protection level to the 6S. The weapons of the older versions are stripped away in favor of aCT-mounted light PPC, giving a very good ranged weapon at a reduction in raw power. The ER small laser in the head is essentially window-dressing, but the targeting computer tied to both weapons means the Dart becomes a handy little sniper, adding a five-point hit now and then from distance (and cover, if you’re smart). One is a nuisance, but a lance is a big problem.
So how do you use a Dart? The 3S should be sent to kill infantry, and the pilot should make sure to have his affairs in order every time he gets in the cockpit. No exceptions- the Dart is terrible at every other job you throw it at, and it’s only competent at that one (the old Firestarter is realistically a better choice!). The 4S and 6S are more of a conventional setup- move quick, beat up target with lasers, repeat until you die or it dies (and don’t be surprised if it’s the first option). They’re not anything wild and crazy, no advanced tactics needed, just point and shoot. Simple stuff really. The 6T, however, is more of a small sniper, and should be held back at range where it can pop the occasional shot at a target when the time arises. It shouldn’t be taking fire- ever.
Need to kill a Dart? Well, it’s not hard- hit it with even modest weapons like medium lasers, and they come apart like they’re made of Timbiqui Dark cans. Even the tougher versions won’t take fire for very long before bad things happen. However, all four versions move quickly, and that can make hitting them difficult to begin with. Pulse lasers are the longtime cure to your fast-harasser problem, and it’s no different here- slap a Dart with a couple of medium pulse lasers, and it goes away fast. Note that the earlier versions also have to close on you in order to do their jobs, which means the 4S and 6S both will be inside range of most battlefield weapons, and a 3S will be so close that you’ll smell the pilot’s onion breath before he can hit you. That helps reduce those to-hit numbers for you! Mines work as well, forcing the Dart to either lose his speed advantage by sidestepping them, or risk running a lightly-armored leg over a bomb or twelve.
Look, this isn’t a good Mech, and if you find uses for it you’ll likely find that other Mechs do that job better- it’s very limited in its abilities, and it shows. But for a cheap, nearly disposable infantry hunter, it’s not terrible. It’s just not GOOD either- and while it’s cheap, it’s also not coming home from fights often, so merc units that are intrigued by being cheap will find soon that it’s either wasted money on a quickly-ruined Mech, or a maintenance hog due to its constant need of replacement pieces. Avoid this thing and get something more useful- period.
Screw this Mech, I need a drink.
