RGU-133* Rogue - 40t, TRO2750
Originally posted 21 Sept. 2005. All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding “FotW Workshop†thread. Another of the Star League’s quirky designs, the
Rogue is not the ‘typical’ light fighter... but in some ways, it might have been the first sign of things to come, perhaps even a distant inspiration for designs like the formidable
Sai. Another ‘light fire-support’ starfighter like the defender’s-delights that are the
Spad and
Zero, the
Rogue can lay down a pattern of long-range fire to daunt even the stoutest heart, and it can actually turn-and-burn with some of the best if it has to. ;) :o
The RGU-133E operates off of a 200-rated fusion engine with the obligatory five tons of fuel, yielding a 7/11 thrust-curve that many pilots of the time considered ‘sluggish’. Now, on one hand they’ve got a point; the
Rogue cannot hope to keep up with kamikaze crotch-rockets like the
Cheetah or
Thrush. On the other, they were still thinking like light-fighter pilots in that they were thinking of trying to yank-and-bank with
interceptors, which is not what a 7/11 thrust-curve is for; they needed to be retrained to think of
larger game, for that same thrust-profile allows you to eat ‘normal’ dogfighters like the
Stingray for breakfast - and still have room for a nice, hearty stack of pancakes. ;D
Fluff text in TRO2750 also says that many of those pilots (like WWII Commonwealth pilots who drove the vastly-underrated Hurricane and the justly-renowned Mosquito) would often land after a sortie, get out to take a look at their bird, and be struck dumb by how much punishment the spaceframe had actually absorbed and remained combat-viable. Again, they must have been thinking of super-light spaceframes like the F-10 when they thought that, because this is another assertion that doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny (especially in light of birds like the earlier
Sparrowhawk); while ferro-aluminium armour is a good (and rare) move on the SLDF birds, 5.5 tons of the stuff is less than 14% of the ship’s mass, and its 30/27/15 layout means that
every section is vulnerable to threshold TACs by the omnipresent medium laser/cluster-damage. While this may not be a catastrophic flaw in a fire-
support design, it still isn’t too good for one’s peace of mind. :-\
However, the true shining glory of the -133E
Rogue is its arsenal. The self-defence medium lasers in the nose and tail are sound enough ‘getting-home’ guns, and will cause enough anxious moments for the interceptors which are the
Rogue’s natural enemy; the real prizes, though, are the Holly LRM-15s fared into the wingroots, each rack having a full ton of ammunition for sustained firing. With only the base ten (single!) heat-sinks, alpha-striking all your forward firepower can get very, very ugly in one or two turns, but you can fire any two arcs without problems. Better yet, the LRM racks give you a pair(!) of weapons which can threshold the vast majority of pre-Clan starfighters from almost any angle - from Long range, moreover! :o - and that, in squadron strength, can generate a pair of 5 Capital bays in the anti’Shipping role, which is enough to make the lives of most IS1-era ’Ship captains distinctly unpleasant. All told, while the RGU-133E is not especially suited to the ‘line of battle’, its contributions to the aerial battle are often quite significant. }:)
One might also note that the
Rogue, like many other 7/11 or better fighters, can carry a goodly amount of external ordnance and still keep a respectable degree of performance. Eight tons of external warload at 5/8 isn’t the best ever, but it can keep pace with ’clean’ heavies like the
Stuka, making for good escort coverage all the way to and from the target if you load up on gas... and let’s face it, eight tons of high explosive landing on your head isn’t going to do much for your outlook on life, either. :D
As noted, this is not a machine built for slugging it out in the front lines; it’s meant to travel in company with heavier dogfighters (or lighter interceptors), stand off from the main furball, and pour in salvo after salvo of missiles to tear big, bloody chunks off of any enemy starfighter which offers itself (or is giving friendlies particular grief). Being that it is a support machine, anyone who paid attention to
the mantras knows that you need to provide escorts to keep enemy interceptors from molesting them (
Sparrowhawks would be a good start ;)). Be careful of you fuel/ammo states, too; you only have eight salvoes per launcher and your back-up weapons are suited only to purest self-defence, so when you’re out of either, it’s time to dance the Bug-Out Boogie and go get more bullets/juice.
On the countermeasures front, specific platforms would depend greatly on who you’re playing as... but you definitely want a spaceframe that can reach/catch the 7/11
Rogue, so you’d do well to have similar performance yourself. The
Sai and/or
Samurai would be good choices; so would almost any interceptor you care to name, and let’s face it, when a single ML is a valid crit threat, two or more look like the blades of a food-processor. :o
Two production-variants of the
Rogue saw the light of day. The RGU-133F was fluffed as a ground-based bomber, trading away the LRM racks for two SRM-6s per wing, each launcher getting a full ton of ammo to itself(!). This model loses the signature weapon of the
Rogue and voids its intended design role, long-range support, but picks up a close-range punch that is hard to argue with. Without additional heat-sinks, Really Bad Things
TM happen if you try to use more than half of your forward armament (ML + 2 SRM-6s = +1 heat), but a Strike from that many SRMs makes for as many as twenty-four crit chances on enemy ground-vehicles (and ’Mechs that have already been heavily damaged); nor can their efficacy against other starfighters be questioned at point-blank range. Not my choice as a ‘fast dogfighter’, as its unchanged armour is still fearfully thin, but as a bodyguard to LRM-packing
Rogues or for making slashing attacks on distracted enemy dogfighters, you can do a lot worse.
The RGU-133L is the ‘Medium’ of the ‘Short/Medium/Long’-reaching
Rogue family, offloading the missile-launchers completely in favour of a single large laser per wing and six additional heat-sinks. Again, with its armour going unaltered it remains disturbingly fragile, but it can Strafe fairly well (unlike both of its brothers), and with proper heat discipline it can make the other guy’s life pretty lively in a yank-and-bank contest (both LLs before the merge, the appropriate wing-laser and one or both MLs in the turning fight). Another decent ‘bodyguard’ for its LRM-toting sibling.
[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,3421.0.html If you have your own ideas/opinions on the
Rogue, or any funny/humiliating/startling stories about it, I’m sure at least
somebody here will be ready to hear it! ;) ::)
Be advised: the attached .txt transcript(s) 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. ;)
