Mech of the Week: WakizashiThis week's 'Mech was done by request of Zureal, looking at a 'Mech covered in
Era Digest: Golden Century, a PDF supplement on the enigmatic, eponymous period of Clan history. While a few tidbits had been revealed in the past, including that this was the time when the OmniMech and the Elemental were both developed as well as the period containing the fall of Clan Mongoose to the Smoke Jaguars, relatively little was known. Several new units were included for us to blow up, including Clan Jade Falcon's
Wakizashi. The early era of the Clans was not pleasant for the Jade Falcons. While they performed well in Klondike, chosen along with the Wolves to assault the Brotherhood of Donegal on Dagda, the Falcons inflicted grievous wounds on themselves following that, including a deliberate decision to restrict their territorial growth in favor of maintaining what they considered proper control over the civilian Castes and the Culling, excising secessionist Warriors from the Clan before Kerensky could react to the matter. Khan Lisa Buhallin selected the
Wakizashi from seven submissions; Golden Century suggests that the name, speaking of the Japanese companion sword to the katana used in either desperation or ritual suicide, may have echoes on her thinking, deliberate or otherwise. Durable and easily built, the
Wakizashi's downfall was the combination of difficult maintenance and lack of flexibility in the face of the newer OmniMechs.
The
Wakizashi, at 85 tons, is comfortably into the assault class, sharing a tonnage with the
BattleMaster, the
Stalker, and the
Katana itself. An endo-steel skeleton is driven forward by a 255-rated standard fusion engine for a maximum speed of 54 kph, slow by modern Clan standards but not at all uncommon for assaults . Given the emphasis on easy construction and durability, that's not really surprising. Mobility was assisted with three jump jets, a smart choice given the way the
Wakizashi sits right on the edge of the two ton jet mark. Khan Buhallin asked for durable and the StarForge armor certainly delivers - maximally thick, with ten points on the rear sides and eighteen on the centerline with 36 and 26 respectively facing forward, 28 points on the arms, and 36 points on the legs. That armor was wrapped around an SLDF Model 22-99-b Gauss rifle in the left arm, a Talon 5 ER PPC in the right, and a Flocculation LB 20-X autocannon mounted in the right torso, supported by a pair of ERMLs, one in the center torso and one in the head. Both ballistic weapons are fed by three tons of ammunition. Fourteen double heat sinks make it arguably a bit oversinked but reduce strain due to overheating. The long range firepower is a bit light for a modern Clan assault, which explains part of why they started coming up short against other, more modern designs, but once it gets close, the combination of weapons is capable of ripping into a lot of smaller 'Mechs or making other assaults step carefully.
Employing a
Wakizashi is kind of like employing an
Atlas - point it at a target and keep moving until you get there for the class 20 to work 'em over. The main guns harmonize reasonably well, even the Gauss/LB 20-X combination, as long as you're not in knife-fighting ranges, and the jump jets let it control fine positioning better than a lot of other 3/5 designs can. The Gauss ammo is enough that you can afford to take a few bad shots to keep people honest. Personally, I recommend stacking two tons of cluster ammo and one ton of solid shot for most situations - the accuracy edge and crit-seeking is probably more useful since a Gauss rifle and a Clan ER PPC will do plenty of their own hole punching most of the time, but there are occasions where the ability to slam three large clusters down range is preferable. Heat management is mostly a matter of flipping an ERML in and out at close range to deal with movement heat, or you yank it completely if some surat is getting cute with the incendiary weapons without touching your main arsenal. To me, companions would ideally also be jump capable and dropping a
Summoner in to assist in flanking opponents with some more maneuverability might be worth considering. The
Wakizashi can also function as a maneuverable element in a ground-bound 3/5 assault sledgehammer Star.
Stopping a
Wakizashi involves bringing enough firepower to breach the armor and applying it until the 'Mech stops shooting at you. Certain mediums can probably outmaneuver it while packing in enough weaponry to whittle at the
Wakizashi - candidates that come to mind are all high-end designs like the
Stormcrow and
Nova with enough armor to take some lumps themselves, and this is not a task for the faint of heart, nor one I expect success in - but you're probably better off doing it with heavies or even some of the more mobile assaults. Plenty of 'Mechs, especially well-armored XLFE-powered designs, can win a straight firepower exchange. As powerful as the 'Mech's weapons are in a medium-range engagement, it doesn't have the speed to pick its fights that way (and avoid someone picking them for it) nor is it really overwhelming to anyone used to Clan assault 'Mechs. All of that said, this is certainly not a 'Mech to take lightly - with a potential for three heavy hits a turn, it deserves respect, and the armor means that you're not going to put it down too quickly in a most Clan-style engagements.
This is a proud old soldier among the Jade Falcons, a 'Mech that did its duty to its Clan - without this 'Mech and the victories it won, it is possible that the Jade Falcons would find themselves ranked alongside the other marginalized Clans and fallen from glory instead of soaring the skies as a proud and mighty predator. History has unfortunately moved on since then, but the
Wakizashi, for all that it has a bit of difficulty standing out in a crowd today, deserves a place of honor. If it now stalks only the history books, I think it has earned an honorable retirement.
Image Reference: The
Wakizashi has no miniature as of yet, the
MUL database contains the artwork, the news about already being extinct I've already shared, and the 2909 BV before skill adjustments.