(http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/r7v1gvaq2v/phalanx.jpg)
Phalanx Battle Armor - Technical Readout 3075 page 31
The Phalanx is that rare beast, an Inner Sphere Heavy Battle Armor design, that squats almost uncomfortably between the far more common Medium and Assault classes that populate the armed forces of the Successor States. Until the recent Tactical Operations 2nd Ed, the Phalanx was also plagued by somewhat sub-standard performance thanks to its choice of main weapon, but now it truly deserves to stand alongside its impressive stablemates, the Achileus, Longinus and the even newer Kopis.
First seen in Combat Equipment, my initially reaction was happiness that the Inner Sphere now had what I presumed was to be the first example of many more heavy trooper designs to come, copying the abilities of the Clans' impressive Gnome. Capable of mounting more armor and weaponry than Medium suits, Heavy Battle Armor has the advantage over their larger Assault brethren in the ability to still hitch a ride on friendly Omni units. This combination allows Heavy designs to more easily keep pace with 'Mech units while providing greater impact than Mediums and Lights once they get to the battlefield. The weakness is that they do rely on plentiful Omnis for this to work, otherwise you might as well just field a more capable Assault suit if you're going to have to assign an APC as transport.
The Clans obviously have large numbers of Omnis, which is why they've traditionally favored the development of Heavy Battle Armor over Assaults, but for most of the Inner Sphere it's a different story. Although the stats in Field Manual Update are often questioned, the FWLM didn't field a noticeably large number of OmniMechs compared to other states, while Field Manual Free Worlds notes that the FWLM assign its Battle Armor dedicated APCs, such as the Maxim and Maultier. In my view the explanation for the FWLM's choice of a Heavy is their emphasis on flexbilility, prefering the possibility of Mechanized Battle Armor tactics as an option, however uncommon that possibility might be, over having greater raw combat capability. I can't say I completely agree with that approach and would have been more comfortable if they'd quickly followed up with an Assault, but it was many years before we were to see the Kopis.
Beginning in 3059, the development of the Phalanx was not without its pitfalls, and even though it's not stated I have to wonder whether the Word of Blake were secretly the cause of the project's early problems. The Blakists are not averse to using deep cover agents to further their goals, and after the FWLM decided that they wanted to go it alone with the development of the Phalanx, I could easily see ROM running spoiler operations to force the League to come begging for help, which would naturally come with a price. Whatever the cause of the early technological issues, the FWLM did indeed ask for Blakist assistance after about three years of struggling on their own, with the first working prototypes stepping out onto the Irian test grounds a year later, followed by the first production suits in 3065.
When initially seen in Combat Equipment and Technical Readout 3075, the Phalanx didn't really live up to the potential of its chassis, primarily due to being hamstrung by its King David Light Gauss Rifle, although the unused 80kg doesn't help. The Phalanx lacked jump jets, which both restricts mobility and removes the ability to generate a Target Movement Modifier, and it only possessed seven points of armor, meaning it was vulnerable to Inner Sphere Large Lasers, but overstrength for any form of Inner Sphere Medium Laser. At least the secondary armament was good, with a missile pack capable of throwing twice the number of SRMs as the benchmark Elemental, while retaining the same number of salvos.
Alongside the respectable missile battery, the Phalanx did have some other plus points going for it: its otherwise anemic King David was capable of reaching out nine hexes; and the Improved Stealth Armor could make up for the inability to generate a Target Movement Modifier, plus originally allowed the suit to hide from Probes until this was nerfed by Total War. The doubled ground speed also made the Phalanx a decent urban fighter, better capable of moving around buildings than suits like the IS Standard, that rely more upon their jump jets.
One unique feature for the Phalanx is that alongside its defacto standard Battle Claw, which provides its ability to ride on Omnis, it also possesses an Armored Glove. Normally only seen in pairs on much lighter suits, such as the Gray Death Scout and Tornado PA(L), the use of an Armored Glove enables the Phalanx to be used in some non-traditional roles for Heavy Battle Armor, and I've even known one player who liked to use one for RPG scenarios. Able to access or wield anything that can be handled or manipulated by the human hand, Phalanx troopers commonly use the Armored Glove to wield an infantry weapon, giving the suit an Anti-Personnel capability even without an AP Weapon Mount. If not using the default Total War rules that treat all AP weapons as Auto Rifles, the ideal choice would be the Man-Portable Plasma Rifle, although others like the Portable Machine Gun are also good.
Originally, these features best suited the Phalanx to an anti-vehicle role in city combat, with a secondary role against 'Mechs when acting in concert with heavier units, allowing the Phalanx to provide crit seeking firepower that could cripple a tank or finish off a damaged foe. Outside of the city, the Phalanx worked well in a supporting role with OmniMechs, providing infantry backup in situations where vehicular APCs were unavailble. This changed with Tactical Operations 2nd Ed, which introduced certain Battle Armor weapons inflicting extra damage against other Battle Armor, with the King David being one of those weapons. Now inflicting 1D6 damage instead of a single point when used against Battle Armor, this makes the King David better suited to the name King Cobra, such is its potential lethality. When combined with Infernos in the SRM tubes, a Phalanx squad can now even kill a squad of Ravagers in a single Turn, although Medium suits would typically be a more comfortable prey.
Altogether this makes the Phalanx an almost ideal support unit for 'Mechs. The Battle Armor can enter buildings to dig out infantry and other opponents the 'Mechs cannot reach; they can help degrade enemy 'Mech and armor forces; and they can protect their own 'Mechs from enemy Battle Armor. About the only issue I have with the design is that I'd prefer at least a token jump capability, although this would require a downgrade of the missile pack without other changes. The choice of armor type perhaps isn't the best for such a slow suit, with Mimetic being much better, but this was originally only available to the Word of Blake, so the FWL's choice of Improved Stealth is forgivable.
The Word of Blake were also a user of the Phalanx, taking the design as payment for their assistance in its development and initially fielding the -A model according to Combat Equipment, before introducing their own variant, although the Technical Readout just has them starting with their own version. Also introduced in Combat Equipment, the Phalanx-B simply swaps the King David for a 'Mech Taser, and personally I believe that the Word should be congratulated on switching to just about the only weapon worse than the original King David. Barring the occasional lucky dice roll that resulted in a shutdown, which may only be temporary for non-Battle Armor targets, the prospect of a one-shot (assuming a hit), range three, one point damage weapon that has a targeting penalty and masses 300kg is simply unappealing. Oh, and let's not forget that the feedback could disable the firing suit.
Presumably intended for use in capture teams, akin to the Manei Domini units equiped with the Se'irim (Capture Team), the Phalanx-B is of dubious combat value in my experience. Apart from the SRMs, which remained unchanged from the -A, or acting as a simple spotter or initiative sink, I'm struggling to recall more than a few token instances of a Phalanx-B unit actually having any significant effect during a scenario. The times where I've seen the Taser cause a shutdown are few and far between, so at best either I or my opponent had to be satisfied with a mere +1 penalty inflicted on the target's dice rolls for a few Turns. Of course, that was assuming that we even managed to get the Taser into range, and that makes such a questionable weapon even chancier.
jymset: Tasers (of any grade) are heavily penalised in terms of drawbacks and BV simply because of their theoretical potential, never mind the actual odds of, you know, being useful. I think I'm not the only one who has a distaste of a weapon that could mess up the enemy completely... but usually doesn't... and even when it doesn't, it still sometimes messes up the party that fields it. It's do or die and usually the latter and who wants to play like that? So yeah, the Taser sucks, and with it the Phalanx-B, but at least the Phalanx was the unit to inflict the weapon on the universe, so the Phalanx-B has a point, as stupid as it is. And at least it's not the Aquagladius, the first 'Mech to mount a Taser and a far bigger dud than the Phalanx-B.
In 3071, the Word of Blake introduced their own pure combat variant in the form of the Phalanx-C, a variant that has also benefited from Tactical Operations 2nd Ed, although in this case in the form of the new Battle Armor Mortar rules. Now capable of firing Flare and Smoke rounds in addition to their standard ammunition, more importantly they can now perform indirect fire just like 'Mech Mortars. That's perhaps not quite so useful with the Light Mortar, which can only shoot three hexes, but thankfully the Phalanx-C has the Heavy Mortar that can reach out six hexes. While still short ranged, this can be especially powerful in urban combat or other situations where direct line of sight is blocked by terrain even though the opponents are relatively close together.
The Phalanx-C swaps the -A model's SRM launcher for the Heavy Mortar, but then goes further and exchanges the King David for a Magshot Gauss Rifle, thus freeing up enough mass to add an extra magazine and allow the use of multiple ammunition types. Alongside the Nephilim, another Word of Blake design, this was the first instance of the Magshot appearing on a non-Suns design and was a definite upgrade at the time Technical Readout 3075 was published, but that opinion is now open to question with King David's new capabilities. Prior to the upgrade of the King David in Battle Armor vs Battle Armor combat, the Phalanx-C did provide superior sustained firepower, but at the cost of much lower short-term firepower. That tradeoff was acceptable in some scenarios or for some players, but overall I prefered the punch of the Phalanx-A even if it could only hit hard twice before become just a mere nuisance. The Phalanx's armor is low enough that sustained firepower is often of little benefit in my experience, but other players did prefer the -C if they could justify fielding the design.
Sadly, the Word's second variant is the end of the Phalanx's story and it's almost the end of the Inner Sphere's dabbling with Heavy Battle Armor. Only the Gray Death Heavy currently follows in its footsteps, leaving a distinct hole in the Battle Armor arsenal outside of the more numerous Clan designs. Given that the Sloth is a quad, it can be viewed more as a pocket-Assault than a Heavy, since it gains no real benefit over the larger class. Furthermore, it could be argued that neither of two bipedal Heavies are particularly powerful, despite their extra mass over the many fine Inner Sphere Mediums, although the King David's recent boost will no doubt alter that viewpoint with respect to the Phalanx.
The Jihad was nearly the end of the Phalanx, but luckily the Word of Blake's own production lines survived, allowing the Republic of the Sphere to inherit the design. The remnants of the Free Worlds League have lost their ability to manufacture the Phalanx, leaving them reliant upon the Republic for supplies of the suit, with the Grand Duchy of Oriente exchanging them for Kopis Assault Battle Armor, which some would argue means that the Republic are getting the better half of the deal. Interestingly, the Capellan Confederation has also managed to get hold of significant numbers of the Phalanx-A judging by the RATs in Field Manual 3085. Presumably some of these represent captured suits, while others may be a result of the growing links between the Confederation and the Duchy of Andurien.
Given a new breath of life thanks to Tactical Operations 2nd Ed, the Phalanx-A is definitely a suit that other Battle Armor need to step lightly around, while the Phalanx-C will undoubtably prove to be a major annoyance for foes who encounter it in cities. Once a mere also ran, the Phalanx now truly deserves being called a first-rate design.
Next up: