THK-*** Tomahawk (TRO3050 Updates)
Originally posted 17 Oct. 2007.The confusing fluff on the Tomahawk continues. If the -53 (the 6 medium laser version) didn't utilize DHS, and only had 16 single heat sinks, then maybe the fluff of it overheating would make sense. Make it so that the -63 is the first version to utilize DHS, then the fluff makes perfect sense. Usage of the Tomahawk doesn't really change from its FOTW. Even the three new "variants" that we recieve from 3050U doesn't change the basic firepower of the design.
I should point out that
Maelwys describes only the "new" variants and seems to have overlooked the "old" variants, which appear to have been earlier versions of the base spaceframe. I'll deal with them a little later. ;)
Class/Model/Name: Tomahawk THK-63CS [from RS'50U]
Mass: 45 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant: 270 Fusion 14.50
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 8
Maximum Thrust: 12
Structural Integrity: 8 .00
Total Heat Sinks: 12 Double 2.00
Fuel: 5.00
Cockpit & Attitude Thrusters: 3.00
Armor Type: Ferro-aluminum (179 total armor pts) 10.00
Standard Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Nose: 57
Left/Right Wings: 42/42
Aft: 38
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 ER Small Laser Nose 3 -- -- -- 2 .50
1 ER Large Laser RW 8 8 8 -- 12 5.00
1 ER Large Laser LW 8 8 8 -- 12 5.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 26 45.00
Tons Left: .00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 2,768,133 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,146
Cost per BV: 2,415.47
Weapon Value: 1,269 (Ratio = 1.11)
Damage Factors: SRV = 16; MRV = 11; LRV = 4; ERV = 0
BattleForce2: MP: 8, Armor/Structure: 4 / 0
Damage PB/M/L: 2/2/2, Overheat: 0
Class: FL; Point Value: 11
The -63CS is Comstar's version which replaces all the laser weaponry for extended range versions. In a mockery of the original fluff, the new fluff states that these weapons (capable of building up 26 heat total) cause complaints about heat management issues (it can dissipate 24). I think at this point Tomahawk pilots need to be told to shut up about heat problems unless they're flying the -33 or -43.
'Quoted for truth', as they say on tha intarnets. :D The additional weapons-range is more than welcome, the heat-scale is all but neglible unless you spend too long in the 'phone-booth with someone and have too many(!?) centrelined shots at them, and the difference in price from the older model is little more than a rounding error. This is the sort of refit that's long, long overdue. :-X
On a side-note, with the exception of the 'newtech' ERSL, the perfect heat-balance between 12 DHS and twin ERLLs almost makes me suspect that this is what the SLDF actually had in mind with the
Tomahawk concept
- and that this may indeed have been its ultimate expression in the pre-Coup era.Class/Model/Name: Tomahawk C [from RS'50U]
Mass: 45 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant: 270 Fusion 14.50
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 8
Maximum Thrust: 12
Structural Integrity: 8 .00
Total Heat Sinks: 13 Double 3.00
Fuel: 5.00
Cockpit & Attitude Thrusters: 3.00
Armor Type: Ferro-aluminum (211 total armor pts) 11.00
Standard Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Nose: 72
Left/Right Wings: 52/52
Aft: 35
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 ER Small Laser Nose 5 -- -- -- 2 .50
1 ER Large Laser RW 10 10 10 10 12 4.00
1 ER Large Laser LW 10 10 10 10 12 4.00
1 C.A.S.E. Equipment Body .00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 26 45.00
Tons Left: .00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 2,861,233 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,612
Cost per BV: 1,774.96
Weapon Value: 1,620 (Ratio = 1.00)
Damage Factors: SRV = 23; MRV = 14; LRV = 6; ERV = 0
BattleForce2: MP: 8, Armor/Structure: 5 / 0
Damage PB/M/L: 3/2/2, Overheat: 0
Class: FL; Point Value: 16
The Clan Tomahawk does the exact same thing, but its smaller ER Large Lasers allows it to add another DHS (making it perfectly heat neutral) and some extra armor.
Armour which is, I might point out, subject to the same mentality of "auto-allocate in HM:A, then forget" which I noted a couple of weeks ago. And for all that the Clans don't pay too much attention to their second-line forces - especially the ASFs - this is a nice, solid, cheap platform for them to work with, and its 100% heat-dissipation makes it simple enough to use effectively that even a Clanner can manage it. :P
Class/Model/Name: Tomahawk CH [from RS'50U]
Mass: 45 tons
Equipment: Mass
Power Plant: 270 Fusion 14.50
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 8
Maximum Thrust: 12
Structural Integrity: 8 .00
Total Heat Sinks: 13 Double 3.00
Fuel: 5.00
Cockpit & Attitude Thrusters: 3.00
Armor Type: Ferro-aluminum (211 total armor pts) 11.00
Standard Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Nose: 72
Left/Right Wings: 52/52
Aft: 35
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Heavy Small Laser Nose 6 -- -- -- 3 .50
1 Heavy Large Laser RW 16 16 -- -- 18 4.00
1 Heavy Large Laser LW 16 16 -- -- 18 4.00
1 C.A.S.E. Equipment Body .00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 39 45.00
Tons Left: .00
Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 2,994,451 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,323
Cost per BV: 2,263.38
Weapon Value: 1,589 (Ratio = 1.20)
Damage Factors: SRV = 21; MRV = 12; LRV = 0; ERV = 0
BattleForce2: MP: 8, Armor/Structure: 5 / 0
Damage PB/M/L: 3/2/-, Overheat: 1
Class: FL; Point Value: 13
The second Clan variant, the Tomahawk CH, replaces all the extended range lasers with heavy lasers. Creating 39 heat on an alpha strike, and only able to dissipate 26 gives the CH pilots a reason complain about heat issues. On the other hand, a single laser is thresholding small DropShips, and even some WarShips, so it's worth considering...just don't fire both (13 heat is +2 to hit, and random movement on 6+).
Actually, this one's a little more fitting for second-line pilots, who are mostly solahma looking to die with some semblance of military dignity. I never understood why the supposedly waste-averse Clans would choose to make war-machines specifically designed for 'death-or-glory' suicide operations (though I believe
chanman has a theory :D), but the smashing power heavy lasers impart makes the
Tomahawk CH a good way to kill-or-die in a brief, glorious bout. Like
Maelwys said, though: only use both HLLs one a centrelined target if you're willing to eat the heat-penalties or don't care about them in the first place. :D
This is yet ANOTHER design that is still being produced (On Mars) that gets nothing more then a field refit. And a field refit by COMSTAR at that. It's even mentioned being put back into production in 3052 by ComStar, yet no new variants have come out yet? If we go by the ER small laser on the -63CS, that means the "Revamp" didn't occur till after 3058. Just what the heck have they been doing? Considering the WoB helped design the Shiva, the Defiance, and who knows what else, the fact that their own locally produced designs were ignored is more then dumb (I suppose you could say that all of the Sol system's aerospace production was geared towards making whatever space based defenses it's utilizing, but I seriously doubt it).
Damfino. I've long since given up trying to follow what passes for WoB 'thinking' in order to preserve my own sanity (and if Apollyon's mentality in the JHS3072 previews are any indication, it's just as well!), and who knows how much of 'ComStar' was ever truly loyal to Sharilar Mori and Anastasius Focht in the first place? ::)
For the sake of completeness, however, I'm including assessments on the two 'old'
Tomahawks Maelwys missed in his eagerness to post. ;)
> Tomahawk THK-33 [from RS'50U]: 45t, 8/12 (SFE), Armour 60/46/40 (std), 10 SHS, N: SL, W: LL Apparently the first-ever model of
Tomahawk, and truly deserving of the accusations of 'hotbox!' many pilots level at the type as a whole. While I laud their eagerness and determination to get a 45t twin-LL-shooter into the black, the designers overlooked a few 'minor' concerns in the process which mean that the final product is useful only as a 'slashing' dogfighter or in the role of Strafer (with adequate cooling time between passes). The technology they had available simply didn't support their intentions, and what they came up with is hobbled by its own firepower. (I'd almost suggest that they should have installed a single LL on the centreline and gone with an array of additional SHS and MLs, mixed to taste... but that seems a little pedestrian, don't'cha think? ???)
> Tomahawk THK-43 [from RS'50U]: 45t, 8/12 (SFE), Armour 57/42/38 (FA), 12 SHS, N: SL, W: LL Getting better, but still not that great. Upgrading the armour to ferro-aluminium thinned the total protection a touch, which is unnerving but liveable... especially since it also freed tonnage for two more SHS to moderate the worst of the heat-burden. It takes the THK-43 a full alpha-strike or two turns of firing to generate enough heat-burden for a 'random movement' roll, which makes it rather better for dogfight applications, especially if you use a 2-1-2-1 pattern of fire that will be immediately recognised by many players who 'date back' to the Succession Wars era of design and gameplay.
However, my fascination with these earlier THKs stems not from their stats as a tool of gameplay but as a measure of the IC thinking that went into the programme, and by following the various mark-numbers one can chart the evolution of the
Tomahawk from its initially disappointing form to the SLDF standard it reached before the Amaris Coup:
- The THK-33 was the designers' first attempt to create an 8/12, 45t ASF armed with twin LLs, but it was simply too far ahead of the technology to be truly viable;
- then came the THK-43, which was better than the -33, but still not great;
- the THK-53 was an attempt to 'solve' the
Tomahawk's heat problems once and for all, but they went too far out the other side - and I can almost see the miscommunications within the design team that led to that problem. Boffin One decided to downrate the armament from LLs to triple-ML packs for more heat-sinks, getting near an ideal balance; somewhere in the process, Boffin Two upgraded the coolers to freezers to let the design handle its guns without looking too closely at what would be installed in the gun-bays; by the time they got together and realised that they'd managed to work at cross-purposes, they had the THK-53... and a
lot of explaining to do. (I almost have to wonder if the DHS was introduced into SLDF service halfway through the THK-53's design-process, too late for them to reinstate the old armament in light of the improvement in dissipation capability.)
- then, finally, we have the THK-63, with its twelve DHS, FAA, and two 80mm laser-cannons - a (field?) refit of the older -43 models which solved most of their problems. Given how they'd outsmarted themselves last time, the boffins probably took one look at what they'd wrought, considered doing something about its being oversinked... then remembered their 'experience' with the -53 and decided to leave well enough alone. ;D
[VARIANT PROPOSALS REDACTED] All proposed fan-variants, including my own, belong in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=1416.0 .