Best NARC platforms

[Crow]

I know that NARC is probably an obsolete technology for most players, but the idea of painting a target with a pod and raining down indirect LRM fire has always intrigued me. The Royal Zephyr seems to me probably the most optimized NARC boat that I can think of. Fast, well armored, and relatively cheap. Can anyone offer me any better NARC platforms?

On a side note, I really wish that there was a Clan battlesuit with Compact NARC a la the Purifier, but alas I know of no canon examples :'(

[dgorsman]

I can't think of anything, outside of a small gun emplacement in support of some larger platforms.

[Natasha Kerensky]

If you’re asking for Society forces, the Royal Zephyr is about as good as it gets under the MUL.  The Odin is a less mobile but more survivable runner up.  Since there are no canon Society vehicles with Nova CEWS or iATM tricks, the Narc/TAG combo on those vehicles makes them pretty valuable for low-skilled Society forces.

Beyond Society-specific units, the Stormcrow D is probably the best Clan Narc platform — mobile, highly survivable, and carrying its own substantial missile load.  The Summoner B is basically the same thing, only jumpy.  Less survivable are various Narc configurations on the Hellbringer, Kit Fox, and Mist Lynx.

Spheroids have the Tufana as probably the best vehicle platform, with the Scimitar 3050 being available earlier and more widely.  The Kintaro is as a more survivable mech platform that could also be available to the Clans/Society, but the Owens D is a faster and probably more common, mech platform.

[Weirdo]

You want speed and durability in a NARC platform?

Try a Hannibal. :)

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

NARC launchers aren't obsolete, just badly underutilized.

[worktroll]

I'm fond of the TAG Scimitar - despite the name, it carries a NARC and two SRM-4s as well. Yes, it takes motive hits for being a hover, but the utility of a lance with both TAG & NARC should provide some opportunities.

[Crow]

Try a Hannibal. :)

Not exactly BV, C-bill or tonnage efficient, though, is it? Definitely a unique answer, though  :D

[Colt Ward]

Tufana . . . when you absolutely have to point someone out to the spear carriers.

Yeah, we should have gotten a LOT of one-off refits in the 3040s and 3050s to take advantage of improving the damage of old 3025-tech missile launcher equipped machines.  Its the easiest way to increase the damage of a lance, company or battalion.  For light mechs, Locust, Jenner, Javelins IMO are the most likely candidates.

[Greatclub]

They're marginally useful even in the Jihad era. Yeah, there's ECM all over the place, but that ECM is in ECM mode, not ECCM keeping their C3 up.

Mind you, it takes a very unusual setup to actually encourage it to a useful degree

[Colt Ward]

NARC are useful Jihad & later when used with HARM munitions- even if what you do want to hit is not using ECM, you can still pull in ARAD LRMs/SRMs by what I read.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

NARC is also less vulnerable to ECM than Artemis to begin with.

[Hellraiser]

I'm fond of the TAG Scimitar - despite the name, it carries a NARC and two SRM-4s as well. Yes, it takes motive hits for being a hover, but the utility of a lance with both TAG & NARC should provide some opportunities.

Its not the best platform IMHO, but its hands down probably the best EASY TO ACQUIRE platform in the era when it arrives.

3050 was limited but this one shines to me as something everyone can get & get the job done well enough.

[Hellraiser]

I know that NARC is probably an obsolete technology for most players, but the idea of painting a target with a pod and raining down indirect LRM fire has always intrigued me. The Royal Zephyr seems to me probably the most optimized NARC boat that I can think of. Fast, well armored, and relatively cheap. Can anyone offer me any better NARC platforms?

On a side note, I really wish that there was a Clan battlesuit with Compact NARC a la the Purifier, but alas I know of no canon examples :'(

Yeah, we should have gotten a LOT of one-off refits in the 3040s and 3050s to take advantage of improving the damage of old 3025-tech missile launcher equipped machines.  Its the easiest way to increase the damage of a lance, company or battalion.  For light mechs, Locust, Jenner, Javelins IMO are the most likely candidates.

In that era the 3039 Jenner-Grace is a unique but probably the best platform available if you don't mind using a unique, since, in the entirety of the IS, isn't it possible someone had the same idea?


And I'm still annoyed the Javelin got twin Streak-2's in 3050 instead of the obvious NARC that should have been put in there to spot for the rest of the company.

I'm also annoyed we still don't have a Firestarter-Omni with a NARC (Or C3 Master) to this day.


According to the MUL to this day there are only 63 units that even mount NARC.  So disappointing.  And no Mech mounting it since a 3069 Tessen variant.


Kintaro was the only mech of the entire SLDF to mount it..... along with the Zephyr-Royal as only Vee.

Hitman is one of the better mechs of the Clan Invasion era to mount it.

Scafa-D is a solid upgrade to the Zephyr-Royal.

[Crow]

I'm probably going to go with the Royal Zephyr or the Kintaro. But man the Kintaro is goofy looking  :D

[Colt Ward]

Yeah, its one that I was hoping to get in the KS because I really do like the revised look of the mech in HBS.

[Daryk]

*snip*
I'm also annoyed we still don't have a Firestarter-Omni with a NARC (Or C3 Master) to this day.
*snip*

It's an Omni, so what's stopping you?  ???

[Weirdo]

Canon record sheets. Not everyone uses customs.

[Daryk]

True, but wasn't the whole point of Omnis to allow customs?

[Colt Ward]

In Universe . . . Out of universe . . . lots of frownies.

[Daryk]

And people wonder what motivates us grognards…  ::)

[dgorsman]

Canon record sheets. Not everyone uses customs.

In Universe . . . Out of universe . . . lots of frownies.

Good for ongoing campaigns.  Not so much for pickup/drop in games, especially if some players are new to the group.

[Hellraiser]

Good for ongoing campaigns.  Not so much for pickup/drop in games, especially if some players are new to the group.

Exactly.

Customs is fine for a home game, but not a Catalyst Demo game at your local FLGS.


I want a nice capable NARC platform Mech on the IS GEN list in the 3050's,  is that so much to ask for????   DO YOU HEAR ME DEVS!!! 

/breaths in,  breaths out.

And nobody better say Trebuchet-7M.

Though I still think that if we had gotten a 5S upgrade on the 7M chassis with some extra armor/DHS that it would have been beautiful.

While I'm at it,   Cavalry (NARC) should be a thing too.


Javelin, Firestarter-O,  Trebuchet-S,  Cavalry,   4 RS just waiting to be made, so simple, so needed.     /sighs

[Greatclub]

Tufana . . . when you absolutely have to point someone out to the spear carriers.

Yeah, we should have gotten a LOT of one-off refits in the 3040s and 3050s to take advantage of improving the damage of old 3025-tech missile launcher equipped machines.  Its the easiest way to increase the damage of a lance, company or battalion.  For light mechs, Locust, Jenner, Javelins IMO are the most likely candidates.

Hand-wave it as there was a real bottleneck in narc capable munitions production early on, leading to the actual pods not being able to be capitalized on, and that spiralled into shallower deployment as things trended towards artemis. By the time artemis became dead weight due to ECM proliferation, it was too hard to replace everything with narcs.

VHS vs Betamax. 

Besides, quartermasters would hate the system. Lance 1, able company has two narc-capable mechs, a raven and a custom medium. Do the archer and longbow in lance 3 get full loads of NARC by default? Partial loads? How often and effectively do the two groups opperate together?


Now, what do you do after a minor skirmish if somebody otherwise intact gets Narced? Send them home to the techs? With escort? have them carry on? How badly does getting Narced raise your long-range sensor profile, and for how long?

[dgorsman]

One more job for BA troopers: nit picker.

[Colt Ward]

Oh, they DO get a OS Narc Launcher . . . but their SRMs & LRMs cannot be NARC compatible . . .

[StoneRhino]

True, but wasn't the whole point of Omnis to allow customs?

Not really, no. It was to allow a mech to be refit for different missions very quickly. It was also to help improve the downtime from repairs by allowing that damaged arm or weapon to be swapped out for another when the mech is otherwise fine to run.

[StoneRhino]

Owens D has Narc and a TAG. I typically rely upon infantry to spot for indirect fire, but I have been considering using NARC/iNarc for the same purpose. As others have mentioned, ECM is everywhere, but sometimes people decide that they don't need ECM next game because it didn't really do much in the last game. Its similar to people dropping machine guns and flamers, if I see that you do so then its my job to make you rethink that move for the next game.

Not to long ago I was working on a vtol with 2 narc launchers. I wanted it to be sort of a Pinata spitting out narc pods onto slow moving units. If they ignore it then everyone is going to be hit with a pod or two. If they attack it then they are ignoring my other units. The pods are to be used with plenty of lrms to rain on them and get a few easy kills if they don't have ECM. If they do have ECM then I want them getting nice and clustered for other things. ;D

[grimlock1]

NARC is also less vulnerable to ECM than Artemis to begin with.

I never realized that NARC was only affected if the target was in an ECM field.

NARC was always meh for me.  iNARC had some neat options and the +1 TH was nice, but between the size, weight and smaller bins it never really struck me as a leap forward. 

Then TW came out and tied linked NARC with IDF.   This makes LRM boats the fire support units they were always fluffed as. Now they can hang back behind a hill, set the parking brake and make it rain.   NARC assisted indirect fire doesn't suffer terrain modifiers, and with some care, you can park your LRM boat and avoid AMM. It's not perfect. You are typically taking a shot in the long range bracket, with the IDF +1. I've typically had a lot of fun with it though.   Especially once the victim closes into medium range.

[Colt Ward]

Its all about forcing choices . . .

Your opponent wants his mechs & tanks to shelter under the ECM bubble to protect against NARC/Artemis IV?  All the units crouched under the umbrella now becomes a great place to send in artillery.

[SCC]

The best NARC platform is a good intel campaign that causes your opponents to to walk onto the battlefield with NARC beacons already installed in them