The Ghost, from TRO:3085
Yeah, it’s Wednesday, I know. But hey, I had a slow night and plenty of time to finish this *and* start another, so you’re getting this one early. Got a problem with it? PM me and I’ll 1v1 you over Megamek, bruh.~ ~ ~
Wew, the Ghost. What an amazing ‘Mech. Although its 3077 introductory date doesn't make it the first non-Capellan/Blakist ‘Mech to get Stealth Armor, it was the first to get a dedicated TRO entry. It would also be the first Stealth ‘Mech the Free Worlds League (or the Duchy of Oriente, if you want to get pedantic about it..) would get their grubby little hands on, and that’s something special, I guess. Said to be designed around its Stealth Armor, the Ghost was built off of the Mongoose II’s superb electronics package to create a ‘Mech “...nearly impossible to corner or trap”, one that “...can cause enough damage to make it a fearsome deep penetration raider.” And that, my friends, is why you should never believe a TRO’s filthy little lies.
Man, if
only the Ghost was like the Mongoose II. The Mongoose II is a great ‘Mech, with everything you could ever want from an E-Warfare specialist. But the Ghost, the freaking Ghost. Whadda ‘Mech. A wonderful, uninspiring, unimpressive flounderer that somehow spends all of its tonnage without managing to muster the firepower of ‘Mechs half its size (Huh, I just wrote about the Anubis too, what a coincidence). I don’t get it, I just don’t. I mean, look at it! A 50-ton ‘Mech with an XL engine moving it 6/9. That ain’t bad, right?! The Centurion has more than a handful of decent variants at that speed, same goes for the Hunchback and the Nightsky. So what gives?
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Let’s break it down. Two Light PPCs, that’s six tons. Two MML-3s with two tons of ammo (no CASE), that’s another five. An ER Medium Laser rounds out the armament for a total of twelve tons spent on firepower...out of fifty. Damn that’s low. Why, though? The E-Warfare package for starters. A Beagle Active Probe makes it a "scout", while the Guardian ECM can either interdict or power the Ghost's 10.5 tons of Stealth Armor. Then there’s the four extra double heat sinks. Wait, four
more double heat sinks, on top of the base ten?! Guess the League gets its oversinking habits from Oriente.
Put it all together and whaddya get? You don’t wanna know. Nah, I’m joking, but honestly...it’s not good. It can scout, but the Beagle and ECM stop working the moment the Stealth goes on. Sure, you can drop the Stealth until the hostiles start appearing - but you can’t count on those hostiles to always play your game. Any enemy scout-hunters can and will tear this thing apart, and since the Ghost only moves 6/9, that means even a basic bug can outmaneuver and reliably backstab it. And if anything closes to point-blank range, chances are you’ll only be able to hit with those MML-3s and the single ER Medium. Not exactly scary.
To talk a bit more about reconnaissance, 6/9 isn’t the best of speeds for a scout - and that’s even if you aren’t using the superior TacOps rules for Probes. The armor does come in handy though - if you do stumble across hidden units, the GST’s heavier armor will let it keep trudging on even when lighter scouts would crumble. Still, scout-hunters are, once again, a huge problem. Nimble scouts like the Nyx, Mongoose II or Owens can reliably outrun most of their natural predators. The Ghost? Not so much - and there’s nothing quite like losing your Probe when there’s still hidden units on the map.
Alright, scouting is...problematic. What about using it as a ranged sniper? Ehh...two 5-point hits and two 1-3 point plinkers. That’s hardly anything intimidating. You can shoot 'em all and remain cool, but Light PPCs don’t really work well as stealth weapons. Their brackets will force you to hang back farther than you’d like to gain that sweet stealth advantage, especially versus common ranged weapons like ERLLs, AC/5s, PPCs of any kind, etc. The Ghost might deal decent damage for a Medium Stealth ‘Mech (for a total of 12-16 points per volley) but the lack of any decent damage clusters or good back-up brawling weapons (see, for example, the Eyleuka -45A for a similarly-priced competitor) make this ‘Mech little more than a nuisance. That said, facing a short-ranged AC/20 or ML brawler is a piece of cake. The Ghost can dance at ranges 4-8 all day long and bring three 5-point hits along with its SRM/LRM missiles...which frankly, ain’t bad at all.
The old MWDA fluff says that the Ghost was designed as a heavy raider or headhunter, a partner-'Mech to the ol' Griffin standbys. It...works? Sort of? I guess? The MMLs and Light PPCs do kind of compliment the standard ERPPC/LRM combo of most Griffins, and both 'Mechs are relatively mobile mediums (although they certainly aren't the fastest). The Beagle would come in handy, as would the ECM, but I'm still not feeling it. There’s just not enough straight-up firepower to make this combo a viable headhunting duo, and they seem way too slow to act as effective raiders.
Honestly, the Ghost’s biggest strength and key selling point is how tough it is. That full shell of armor, laid out 21/10(CT), 17/7(ST), 16(arms), 24(legs), makes it pretty durable in any straight up fights or ambush situations. That toughness also makes it a simple choice for enemies to, well...ignore. Why bother wasting the time to down a ‘Mech that hardly does anything at range while there are still better targets to shoot at?
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The first variant, the GST-11, is as simple as they come. Replace the Stealth Armor with the standard stuff, and there ya have it. Doesn't much matter, that Stealth was hardly useful anyway. ‘Cause I mean, come on. I doubt many people would go out of their way to shoot it in the first place, and removing the Stealth probably won’t change much of that. I mean...why waste the ammo? The ECM can be a pain if you’re going the C3(i) route, but other than that? Man, deal with the big uglies first. The only real downside is that the -11 is more vulnerable to pulse lasers, but that ain't too big a deal in my eyes.
Oh yeah - since this is a simple armor swap, the -11 is wildly oversinked. Like, B1-HND Bloodhound or half-of-the-‘Mechs-in-TRO-3050 oversinked. Woof, talk about a tonnage dump. This swap does save you more than 100(!!) BV, so if you just want the Ghost for its slow scouting and interdicting abilities, I’d suggest going for this one instead. Still...that BV could be put towards a Mongoose II. Or a Firestarter -OH/-OX. Or hell, even a Raptor II -2X1 if you’re fiddling around with high-quality Republic toys. The only thing the Ghost has over any of them is, once again, its armor. Better be worth a lot to you.
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Now we can get into the Dark Age models. And yeezus...ya gotta wonder what happened here. The transition to a Light Engine - definitely a good choice. 50 tons is the ideal weight for Light Engine’d 6/9 movers. They get new Endo-Steel skeletons, too. Apparently a “cheaper component”, but hey, bring on the weight savings, eh? Things must be good now, right? Yeah, no.
The GST-50 spends all of its free weight on two Large Pulse Lasers, an SRM-6 with a ton of (CASE’d!) ammo and a single ER Small Laser because why the hell not. For the number crunchers among you, yeah, this thing would be overweight...if the armor didn’t get reduced to 8 tons of standard plate, distributed 17/6(CT), 14/4(ST), 12(arms), 18(legs). Yeah. More survivable because of the engine, but less survivable because of the armor. What a fantastic trade-off. The weapons
are an improvement, as crazy as that sounds. It’s a scout-hunter of its own now, with its decent speed and twin LPLs throwing up a pretty potent threat bubble for most lights. The SRM-6 can mount infernos to mess up infantry and vehicles, and the ER Small is there to look good and work with the art. Cool. Just watch your heat - all of the extra sinks of the GST-10 fail to rematerialize here, so you’re stuck with the base 10 double.
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Our final contender for “Most WTF Ghost Variant of the Year” is the GST-90 - and hell, it can claim the grand prize. It's a near copy of the GST-50, with the same Light Engine, Endo-Steel, 10 double heat sinks and armor layout. It even has the twin Large Pulse Lasers giving it some sweet light ‘Mech interdiction powers. But then it takes the SRM-6, the CASE, the ER Small and replaces them all with...a Chainsaw. A bloody chainsaw. All to pretend to be a Crosscut LoggerMech and to reduce logistical burdens, according to the MWDA fluff. Man. Sure, you can cut down trees now. But trust me, there are waaaay better ways to get rid of a few woods hexes, especially since the Chainsaw requires its ‘Mech to be in the same hex as the woods it wants to destroy. What’s that? You enjoy getting rid of your own cover? Yeah, ok.
You want some good news? Those two modern Ghosts are dirt cheap and about as easy to use as they get. Since they no longer have Light PPCs or carry ER Mediums on their arms, feel free to run around and throw two 5-point lovetaps whenever you want. ‘Course, the GST-90 has one of its hands actuators missing (thanks, Chainsaw - and don’t even think about using *that* on another ‘Mech, it ain’t worth it) but it’s still a cheap and effective 'Mech for telling lights to screw off and bug something else for a while. You do, after all, have the armor of a 40-ton ‘Mech and enough firepower to punch some nice holes into more than a few backstabbers.
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Conclusion? The originals are oversinked, undergunned, oversized and overly-slow Scout ‘Mechs. The new ones are underarmored, but otherwise somewhat effective scout-hunters. They actually play kind of well together, in an interesting sort of way. The new breed provides some measure of holepunching and attention-grabbing, while the old ones can follow up with some sandblasting and critseeking. The new gives some protection to the old from other scout-hunters, the old provides some valuable ECM and Probe data to the new. Oh, but
don’t be tempted to send one of the -50/-90's against a -10/-11 unless you want a long, drawn out and absolutely yawn-inducing fight. The -50/-90 might be good at killing lights, but they're terrible at dealing with tougher mediums. And the -10/-11 don’t even have enough firepower, period, to even think about burning through through the -50/-90's weaker armor.
How do you kill one? Well, for the oversized scouts, bring something just as fast or faster with some decent short-ranged firepower. The Wraith, Marik Ostsols, and Hermes -4S are all good League options if facing Lyran forces, while the Uziel -8S, Nightsky, and Firestarter-O are solid choices for Lyrans facing Leaguers. For the scout-hunting variants, outrange or outarmor them. Most decently-armored mediums can take them on, so stick with the staples and you’ll be fine.
Looking for alternatives? The Lyrans have free access to the Mongoose II and Firestarter-O - two very effective scouts. The League isn’t lacking in designs either; they’ve got the Bloodhound and Cicada -3G to fit their needs. And if your thirst for armor isn’t overwhelming, the Owens, Ostscout -9S and Nyx are common enough to be viable choices as well. For the -50/-90...they’re cheap, very cheap. Better alternatives will invariably force you to either pay more BV, or lose out on armor and durability. That said, they’re basically inferior knock-offs of the Anvil. If you can afford them, the Anvil -5Q and Ostsol -5M both have more firepower, more armor (although the Ostsol does have an XL) and deadlier physicals. They’re a lot pricier, though, so the -90 and its “purer” concept might be a better purchase depending on what you’re looking for.
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I know this has been a largely negative write-up, but I truly feel that the original Ghost tried to do too much and failed because of it. It could have sacrificed firepower/sinks/armor for more speed, or the beagle/sinks/armor for more firepower. Maybe both. And either situation would have a better, more streamlined 'Mech because of it. Even the newer Ghosts could be cleaned up, as the removal of their extraneous doodads could give them the armor or back-up weaponry needed to be more attractive units. Perhaps one day we will get new and improved variants to shock and awe, but until that day, be prepared to work hard if you bring one of these to the table.
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MUL:
http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Filter?Name=ghostIWM:
http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3742
