EST-** Eisensturm - 95t, TRO3067
Originally posted 9 Feb. 2005. All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread.We control the skies.
A childhood of reading
Commando comics tells me that the name of this week's fighter roughly translates to 'Iron Storm', and that's certainly what it promises to be on the receiving end: a hail of firepower that inflicts unmitigated misery on the poor bastard who gets in front of one of these.
The first OmniFighter fielded by the Lyran Alliance to my knowledge, the
Eisensturm is a hell of a first effort, and in many ways reflects the Lyran philosophy of 'No weapon too big, no weapons platform too heavy, and if in doubt, charge the middle of the line with everything you've got'... albeit with certain concessions to its being an ASF. ;) A 380XL engine drives the
Eisensturm at 6/9, which is a match for many medium fighters and outperforms a fair number of heavies; the usual five-ton fuel-fraction is arguably a little small for a bird this size, but it's meant as an attack platform, not a long-range dogfighter, so that's probably a moot point. The base spaceframe includes only eleven DHS, undoubtedly a conscious choice in order to leave free pod-space }:) but still quite adequate for a respectable basic battery, but the armour... y'know, I'm not normally a fan of the Lyran 'lumbering herd' philosophy, but 19.5 tons of ferro-aluminium is
OVER the 'magic' 20%-by-mass fraction, and laid out 110/85/69?
Mein Gott, you need at least an LRM-20 to TAC the nose, a PPC or C/LPL to threshold the wings, and an IS (ER)LL to punch through the stern. [shakes head in wonder] This spaceframe is about as close to invulnerable as ASFs get - only the Clan
Hydaspes is tougher. All this, plus a fifteen-ton bomb-load at 3/5 and
FORTY-SIX (that's 46) tons of pod-space? :o Why am I suddenly hearing 'The Ride of the Valkyries'? }:)
The EST-R3, a fixed-equipment variant that was the first model of
Eisensturm deployed, reached IOC in 3063 and saw combat throughout the FCCW and the Jade Falcon Incursion; the EST-O Prime is the -R3's weapons layout expressed as an Omni configuration; both have the impact of a brick through a window and are about as subtle, but as one of my characters is fond of saying, "subtlety... is overrated". ;D The nose mounts twin medium lasers and a pair of Gauss rifles(!) :o with a shared four tons of ammo; each wing features a large laser. (None of the energy weapons are ER models, presumably for heat-management reasons.) Jade Falcon ground-forces were punished by EST-R3s throughout the Incursion, and they must have come to know and loathe the
Eisensturm with an undying passion; nor can their DropShip pilots have enjoyed the sight of EST-R3s coming at them. This layout of
Eisensturm is
brutal: an alpha-strike is only a net +2 on the heat-scale, it can generate fearful amounts of damage at Long range and the good news only gets better as you close, and in the anti-shipping role... well, let's see, a six-plane squadron comes to a Gauss bay of 18 Capital damage(! :o), a medium-laser bay of 6 Capital, and two wing bays of 5 Capital damage each. These things will
eviscerate smaller/older WarShips and cause many heavier/newer ones some anxious moments
[waves to the Black Lion, which is vulnerable to thresholding by the Gauss bay! :o], and pretty much any DropShip should just kiss its ass goodbye and be done with it.
However, the EST-OA
Eisensturm Alpha, mounting twin ERLLs in each wing, an HGR with twelve rounds in the nose, and five additional DHS, does not fill me with that same maniacal glee. I realise that the Lyrans are obssessed with their new toy, but to me the Heavy Gauss Rifle completely defeats the point of a Gauss Rifle: inflicting massive damage
from far away. Any Gauss weapon that inflicts its best damage in knife-fighting range strikes me as a waste of weapons volume. Nor does the rest of the armament work: with a heat-capacity of 32, using both laser-bays puts you to +16 on the heat-scale! :o Given the drastic consequences of such an over-heat, I don't imagine that that flies with the pilots any better than it does with me - pun intended. >:( As it stands, a configuration whose only plus is as an expression of National Spirit; otherwise, it's pointless and more-or-less useless. >:(
Missile-fire-support variants of an Omni design are almost
de rigeur, and the EST-OB
Eisensturm Bravo is just that. For all that it's 'obligatory', though, this one makes for fearsome reading: the nose bears a pair of ERLLs, while each wing packs a
pair of Artemis'd LRM-15s, feeding off a common four-ton magazine.
(Aside: I thought the rule under AT2/R was 'at least ten rounds per weapon'? ???) Missile-only attacks leave you at -2 compared to your heat-dissipation capacity, which makes for a platform well-suited to sustained fire-support operations (while its ammo lasts), and while you can't fire both the lasers and the missiles at once (the lasers alone are a +2 heat deficit), it's pretty clear that the ERLLs are there as 'getting-home guns' when you RTB for more ammunition. And the EST-OB makes a respectable anti-shipping weapon in its own right: a full squadron holds two bays of 14 Capital damage, which will gut most smaller WarShips in one or two turns, and the 10 Capital damage projected by the nose lasers can make for a nasty finisher once your magazines are depleted.
Eisensturm Charlie took me aback at first glance, but there is a method to the seeming madness. The nose holds an Ultra AC/5(!) complete with two tons of ammo, as well as an LRM-20 with twenty-four salvos and Artemis, while each wing holds two Artemis'd SRM-6s with a ton of ammo for each launcher. Few people favour autocannons on ASFs, especially the notoriously heavy and tempermental UACs and most of all light ACs like the Class Five, but it does offer the EST-OC an all-range, low-heat weapon that does enough damage to let most targets know they've been nudged. The LRMs are the true long-range punch in this configuration, allowing it to supplement the EST-OB as fire-support; however, it can also make its presence known at close range, with those SRMs causing all sorts of grief for the recipient. In ground-attack strikes, the
Eisensturm Charlie is perhaps the most Godawful crit-seeker imaginable, overshadowing even the
Crossbow-Bravo, and a full alpha-strike is only +2 heat, meaning that the 'lucky' recipient can look forward to getting everything the EST-OC has in multiple strike passes in a short space of time. }:) And it's no slouch as an anti-ship crit-seeker, either; a six-bird squadron possesses no fewer than four Capital bays, dealing 4, 10, 6 and 6 points respectively, which will ruin the day of most DropShips in short order and spike the sales of antacids and headache medicines to captains of smaller WarShips. }:)
I'm guessing that most export sales of the
Eisensturm are of the fixed-configuration -R3 model, as national governments are typically reluctant to sell their top-of-the-line military hardware to people who may end up using it against them. That being so, most
Eisensturms will be in the hands of Lyran or Lyran-friendly users, who find themselves dealing with Clan Jade Falcon or up against Leaguer/WoB forces. The temptation would be to simply charge in with all guns blazing, trusting to your slab-like armour to get you home once your heavy arsenal has mauled the other guy.
Don't do it.
Against the old tactical model and the old design doctrines, where any fighter packing a weapon big enough to actually hurt something this tough was too slow to bring it to bear, this might work. Unfortunately, the same technological advances that brought you the
Eisensturm in the first place also brought the Clans interceptors like the
Batu and the Leaguers a dogfighter like the
Lancer, both of which can out-turn you
and threshold you, especially from behind - and you have no back-scratcher weapons. You still need to respect that kind of weapons platform, so don't go Charge of the Light Brigade; screen your
Eisensturms with dogfighters and interceptors to tie up enemy fighters while the ESTs go after their assigned targets, usually capital ships or enemy ground-units. The system you're flying is highly survivable; it is not invincible. You forget that at your peril. If you find yourselves engaged, remember: Formation Discipline, Wing-Pairs, Mutual Support - few enemy fighters can stand in front of an
Eisensturm's arsenal for more than a couple of turns without really, really wanting to be somewhere else - like Tahiti. >:D
Opposing players have several options for dealing with
Eisensturms - all of them involving massive overkill. The armaments of most light ASFs are barely enough to singe an
Eisensturm's perm, so you can forget the Lightfighter Swarm - though Clan players, with their lighter, harder-hitting weapons that can fit on smaller platforms like the
Batu,
Avar,
Issus and
Sulla, might be able to make it work. Of course, they're going to find themselves with a number of very large gaps in their touman when the wreckage cools, but they can always clone more pilots. :P Most players, however, will probably find better success with their dogfighters - birds like the
Shilone,
Slayer,
Lancer,
Stingray,
Scytha and
Xerxes; designs with enough agility to keep up with
Eisensturms and weapons that can actually cause them real damage - coming at the ESTs from all angles, trying to slide in behind 'em and crit something vital before their friends get your range. Concentration of Fire, Isolating Singletons, Breaking Enemy Formations - these are the keys to your success.
[VARIANT PROPOSALS REDACTED] All proposed fan-variants, including my own, belong in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread: http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=1526.0 . ... well, crud: the .txt of the second run was too long for the forums to accept. #P I'll have to quote it all in when I get time tomorrow. :-X
