Battle Cobra Prime, From TRO:3058
The introduction of the OmniMech, and the demonstrations of its battlefield superiority, prompted a massive construction program amongst the Clans. Each Clan put their scientist caste hard to work designing these new, flexible, and powerful weapons of war. Clan Steel Viper, already deep in its rivalry with the Jade Falcons, was part of this first wave of OmniMech design. The Vipers’ first OmniMech, introduced in 2870, was the
Crossbow, a 65 ton ‘Mech whose primary roles were fire support. The
Crossbow’s success – its combat debut against the Smoke Jaguars was impressive – prompted the Vipers to keep innovating. The scientists used the successful
Crossbow as a basis for much of their work, incorporating several design elements into a new ‘Mech.
This new design, christened the
Battle Cobra, entered service three years later, in 2873. The design elements shared between the two OmniMechs include the use of a standard engine and an entirely arm-mounted pod design. But whereas the heavy-weight
Crossbow is a missile-heavy support design, the medium-weight
Battle Cobra was built as an energy-heavy knife fighter. Its combination of speed, durability, and firepower quickly made it the premier Steel Viper OmniMech.
SERVICE HISTORYThe
Battle Cobra fills the Viper touman, but it also sees service in many other Clans. Some of these other operators come immediately to mind, such as the Diamond Sharks (through trade), the Cloud Cobras (through trade as an ally), and the Snow Ravens & Jade Falcons (through salvage; they and the Vipers have never gotten along). Other operators include the Burrocks, Goliath Scorpions, and Nova Cats. The real winner of the list, though, is the Blood Spirits. The Spirits most likely got the design from either the Ravens or Sharks, and the use of a standard engine leaps out of the page as a pillar of Spirit ‘Mech design. The
Cobra is also fairly heavily featured on some Spirit RATs. Though not normally fans of the
Cobra’s signature pulse laser – too expensive! – we know the Spirits can make them and will use them thanks to the
Stooping Hawk.
CAPABILITIESThe
Cobra’s 40-ton chassis houses a 240-rated standard engine, pushing the machine to a maximum ground speed of 97 kph; heat sink capacity consists of the standard ten double-strength freezers, with extra sinks tacked on only rarely. Endo-steel structure and ferro-fibrous armor were both employed to save weight. Armor distribution is pretty standard, consisting of six and a half tons laid out in a 9/17(5)/14(5)/11/17 pattern. This constitutes 90% of maximum coverage. Although not exceptionally heavy – the side torsos and arms can’t even take a Gauss round or Clan ER PPC without shedding all of their armor – the protection is adequate given the ‘Mech’s mass. As for weaponry, the
Battle Cobra packs 14 tons of pod space, which is fairly comparable with other Clan “small mediums” like the
Grendel.
PRIME: The
Cobra likes to fight at close range, and the Clan large pulse laser is one of the best weapons there is when it comes to punching holes at knife range. The
Battle Cobra sticks one of these in each arm, with an underslung small pulse laser along for the ride. The small lasers provide a little extra oomph when you’re trying to put down enemy ‘Mechs, but I personally think there’s another answer to their riddle. The Elemental was introduced in 2868, a mere five years before the
Battle Cobra. Battle armor was still being phased in and, to an extent, the Steel Vipers never completely phased out conventional infantry. So those small pulse lasers are probably ancillary anti-infantry weapons rather than crit-seeking weapons. If the Prime has one serious issue, it is heat; its heavy laser armament when fired on full blast overpowers the bare ten double heat sinks that constitute the cooling system.
ALPHA: The Alpha configuration takes the “all the pulse lasers” of the Prime and side-grades the concept. Here, the arm pods each take two medium pulse lasers and three small pulse lasers, for a total armament of four mediums and six smalls. This is a basically a more specialized version of the Prime, configured for sandblasting armor, crit-seeking, or as the infantryman’s worse nightmare. It also features the same major flaw of the Prime in that its cooling system is woefully inadequate for a full salvo from its laser battery. Careful target and weapon selection is critical with the Alpha as a result.
BRAVO: The Bravo appears to be a development of the Primary configuration designed not for close range fighting but for sniping. The large pulse lasers are pulled for a pair of ER PPCs, though the underslung small pulse lasers remain. The overheating trend continues here since the Bravo also doesn’t have any extra heat sinks, though the increase in range and raw damage output might be seen as a fair trade off. And I say “might” because hitting +10 on the heat scale (at a full run) is a difficult pill to swallow. I’ve often wondered why those small pulse lasers aren’t a pair of heat sinks to relieve at least some of the burden, though that’s neither here nor there.
CHARLIE: Introduced in 3062, the
Battle Cobra Charlie is the first variant of this OmniMech to mount a missile weapon, in this case an ATM-9 in the in the left arm pod. The right arm pod though is classic
Cobra, with three medium pulse lasers and one small pulse laser. The ATM has two tons of ammunition, giving it some options (I’d go for one ton of ER to harass the enemy as you close, and one ton of either standard or HE rounds for when you close the range to bring the lasers to bear). This particular variant doesn’t have the same “infantry-murder” power as the others, but the ATMs give it a flexibility that none of the previous versions can really claim. In the writing of this article, it seems like the ATMs more than the bread-and-butter pulse lasers really define the Charlie and its combat capabilities. The maximum heat generation also dips thanks to the switch away from all-energy weapons; the Charlie can alpha strike while standing still and remain heat neutral. One additional note is that I personally believe that this variant is actually the work of the Blood Spirits, a prolific
Battle Cobra user; the loadout is eerily similar to the
Crimson Langur-Bravo, which mounts an ATM-9 and three medium lasers.
FOXTROT: Skipping over Delta and Echo, the next variant is the Foxtrot (although technically, it and the Hotel appeared before the Charlie. What is up with these configurations?). The F-model gives the
Cobra its first jump-capable variant, sticking three jump jets in each side torso. Armament is an Ultra AC/5 with one ton of ammunition in the right arm and three ER medium lasers in the left. The jump capacity combined with the UAC/5 makes me think that this is supposed to be a support variant, firing its autocannon and using the jets to reposition to maintain a relative safe distance, and then sweeping in close to deliver a
coup de grace after the long range weaponry has done its work. Personally, I’m not a fan; Ultra-5s are one of my least favorite weapons in the game, and that colors my view of the Foxtrot.
HOTEL: Again skipping around in the alphabet, next comes the H-model which I believe is another product of my beloved Blood Spirits. Like so many other H-models, the
Battle Cobra H carries heavy lasers: two mediums, one in each arm. The Star Adders may have invented the heavy laser, but the Blood Spirits have certainly adopted it as a favorite, and here they paired it with their other favorite weapon, the ER large laser, placing one in each arm along with the heavy mediums. This gives the Hotel an extremely long reach and a solid punch at close range, but heat woes again rear their heads. There are four more heat sinks packed into the machine for a total of fourteen, but its max heat production is 40 and its max heat dissipation is 28. Alpha Striking with this thing should, as usual, be a last resort measure. I mean, landing all four shots is four ten-point hits. That’s great for hole-punching and ripping off limbs, but still.
X-RAY: The X-model, the final variant of the Clan
Battle Cobra to see service, was an experimental model that was field tested during the hectic days of the Wars of Reaving. Probably a product of the Goliath Scorpions, the X-ray packs five improved heavy medium lasers onto the ‘Mech’s frame. One notable addition is the placement of one laser in the right torso; previously, the arm pods were the sole owners of the ‘Mech’s firepower. The other addition is a targeting computer. Combined with the “improved” lasers’ lack of a targeting impediment, this introduces a nice swing in the lasers’ accuracy. Still short-ranged, the X-ray can quite reliably put fifty damage on a single target. That’s fairly impressive, especially for a ‘Mech this size. The X-ray never percolated to the Inner Sphere Clans but made its way to several Home Clans, so if they ever renew the invasion, this is going to no doubt be a nasty little surprise.
So that’s it, the
Battle Cobra. It’s reasonably nimble, decently armed, decently protected, and several Clans have plenty of them. The Vipers have so many in fact that they just couldn’t stop themselves from leaving a few dozen on the fields of Tukayyid for the ComGuards to salvage. . . and promptly develop into their own OmniMech!
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY The BTL-C-2*
Battle Cobra is ComStar’s home-grown variant of the Clan OmniMech. ComStar scientists took a good, long time redeveloping it into their own machine; eleven year passed between Tukayyid and the BTL-C-2*’s service date of 3063. Very little is known about the development, so it remains to be seen why the gap when the DCMS put half a dozen OmniMechs into service in half the time and even House Marik – with zero combat and technical experience with OmniMechs – had the
Perseus in production before the turn of the decade.
SERVICE HISTORYThis new, Spheroid model of
Battle Cobra went into production in 3063 and served ComStar – and only ComStar – through the Jihad. That it avoided wide-spread service in the Word of Blake, unlike many ComStar designs, is quite an achievement especially given WoB ROM’s capabilities and the vast materiel production capacity of the Word early on in that campaign of terror. The design never percolated beyond ComStar, however, and all or most extent models were likely scrapped as part of Devlin Stone’s de-armament program as the MUL lists all variants as Extinct as of the Early Republic period.
CAPABILITIESThe BTL-C-2* takes almost all of its base-line construction cues directly from its progenitor. It uses a standard engine, though this one is only a 200-rated power plant. The smaller engine slows the machine down to a maximum ground speed of 58 kph, but the reduced speed was necessary to maintain free mass for weapon systems. Also like its forebear, the BTL-C-2* uses endo-steel and ferro-fibrous components to save weight, though these being of Inner Sphere manufacture obviously impacts performance. Armor is seven tons, exactly equivalent to the Clan design’s in armor points and physical layout (9/17(5)/14(5)/11/17). A C3i computer is hard-wired into the center torso as well.
BTL-C-2O: The “Prime” configuration, the -2O strives to continue mimicking the original by placing a Spheroid-tech large pulse laser in each arm. Unlike the original, the small pulse lasers do not appear; instead, ComStar included an eleventh heat sink. In this configuration, the
Battle Cobra makes for a decent lightweight brawler for a Level 2; its armament wants it to operate in comparatively short ranges, at which point it also works as a spotter for the rest of the C3i network.
BTL-C-2OA: In its “Alpha” configuration, the
Battle Cobra takes the Prime configuration’s capabilities to a new and different level. The C3i computer remains, of course, and is supplemented by the full suite of electronic warfare equipment: a Beagle Active Probe, a Guardian ECM Suite, and a TAG designator are all present, packed into the arm pods. The large pulse lasers are gone, however, and in their place, the -2OA mounts three medium pulse lasers and a small pulse laser in the left arm (with the BAP), while a trio of standard medium lasers fills out the right arm (with the ECM and TAG riding shotgun). Calling this a dedicated EW platform is simply stating the obvious, but it continues the –2O’s trend of being an excellent light brawler and spotter for a C3i-equipped Level 2. Heat dissipation is actually not that as much of an issue, however; you can run this one pretty hot for a turn or three without killing your engine. Keeping the small pulse out of your firing pattern means that it’s not going to racking up many points on the heat scale unless you run into plasma or Infernos, so there’s that.
BTL-C-2OB: The -2OB is ComStar’s first deviation from the
Battle Cobra’s traditional energy armament, and what a deviation it is! All of the weaponry and that eleventh freezer are yanked out and replaced with four Medium Range Missile 10-racks (two per arm) fed by a three-ton ammunition bin in the right torso. You won’t face any heat woes in the Bravo, but personally, I’m not a fan of MRMs. That is indeed a lot of potential damage, but MRMs have that pesky penalty on the to-hit roll, and the cluster hits table can be a savage enemy if your dice go cold. As a C3i spotter, though, getting in and grabbing the enemy by the belt can at least mitigate this penalty. However, given that less than a ton of armor covers the ammo bin and that there is a distinct lack of CASE protecting it. . . well. Suffice to say that I’m not a fan of the -2OB.
BTL-C-2OC: Anyone who has tried to build a good force in the early Invasion era knows that the Inner Sphere powers liked to just slap NARC launchers on just about anything that carried a missile launcher. By the time of the Jihad, NARC seemed to be bypassed by most defense contractors for Artemis or the TAG/semi-guided combo. But not ComStar. Oh no, they loved the NARC launcher so much that they designed the new-and-improved iNARC launcher and developed a bunch of special types of ammo pods for it. The
Battle Cobra Charlie mounts two such launchers, one in each arm, as its sole armament. Where does all the leftover mass go? Into ammunition of course! That three-ton bin from the Bravo has been expanded to a five-ton bin on the Charlie. There are also five types of iNARC pods; what a fortuitous coincidence! Of course, having only four shots per ton means taking one of each ammo type is probably a bad idea, and you’re better off focusing on just two,
maybe three types depending on personal preference, force generation, or expected opposition. That C3i console is still present of course, so running in and dumping homing pods on the enemy is a good idea if you’ve got some LRM carriers in your network. ECM pods can be hilarious if your enemy is running their own C3(i) networks, and given the timeframe that this
Battle Cobra entered service, I’m sure they were put to great use against Word of Blake units. I also like the idea of haywire pods, as they royally muck up your enemy’s targeting system; in particular, these seem like they’d be best used against opposing long range weapons carriers (ie, LRMs and gauss rifles) though the ancillary effect of preventing haywired-enemies from spotting for indirect fire could be insanely useful in urban or close terrain.
BTL-C-2OD: The Delta variant is just about as straight forward as it can get: the entire pod space is filled by four light PPCs, two to each arm, matched with a targeting computer. This ‘Mech is a bit of lightweight sniper, standing back a bit and reaching out for some death-by-paper-cuts. Going back to a classic ammo-less weapons set up also helps with the ‘Mech’s durability, something the Bravo and Charlie sacrificed with their CASE-less ammunition bins. Personally, I’m not a fan of the LPPC without a capacitor to charge it up, but this is not a terrible configuration as a lightweight direct-fire support platform.
BTL-C-2OE: The -2OE, however, is on the other end of the spectrum, and seems like an advanced-tech upgrade to the -2OB. Instead of four MRM-10s, two MML-9s are fitted – divided evenly, again, between the arm pods – with three tons of ammunition supplied. The ammo is two tons of LRMs and one of SRMs as standard, which implies that this ‘Mech is intended as a light fire support module; instead of running up close to spot for other units in the C3i network, this is a unit intended to take advantage of said spotters and lob some LRMs down range. Unfortunately, I feel like the LRM throw-weight of the MML is too light, so I’d recommend against this variant unless you swap the ammo to double SRM slots and a single LRM slot. That way it can plink as it advances to contact, then pound the enemy at close range with its short-ranged salvos. Again, though, ComStar neglected to CASE the ammunition bin, so keep those movement mods up!
BTL-C-2OF: The final variant is the -2OF “Foxtrot,” which mounts a plasma rifle in each arm with three tons of ammunition filling that right torso bin once again. The use of plasma, of course, makes this an infantry murder-machine, which probably came in handy against Word of Blake and Protectorate formations that do tend to be combined-arms in nature. The secondary heating effect against BattleMech targets can really throw a spanner in the works – especially with two such weapons hitting – against units that tend to run hot, such as those equipped with Triple-Strength Myomers. This makes the
Battle Cobra Foxtrot a very specialized variant, but when its particular specialty is needed, it can do some serious work.
TLDRThe Clan
Battle Cobra is a decent enough striker, with good speed and decent, accurate firepower in most configurations. The ComStar
Battle Cobra is best as a brawler and spotter for C3i networks, also doing its best work at knife-fighting ranges.
