Fighter of the Week, Issue #041 (repost) - Defiance

[Trace Coburn]

  I really should have posted this over the weekend, I know, but I figured I should give myself a couple of days’ break to mourn respect my personal clock striking ‘34’ on Saturday.  Special thanks go to the French Armée de l’Air for marking the occasion with fireworks....  ;D

DFC-O Defiance - 55t, TRO3067

Originally posted 14 Sept. 2005.

  All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding “FotW Workshop” thread.

  Sometimes you have to wonder how far TPTB will take the whole ‘Fiat-Swings’ issue.  Most other IS/Periphery factions got access to only one new fighter apiece in TRO3067; along with the CMT-3T Troika, which serves with several CCAF formations, the DFC-O Defiance technically makes it two new fighters for the CapCon.  ::)  Not that they’re likely to be complaining about it, mind - it’s probably “Xin Sheng!” all the way.  :P
  Minor fluff note: what’s with the art in TRO’67?  The Defiance is a brand-new OmniFighter, serving only with McCarron’s Armoured Cavalry and the WoBM Fifth Division and having entered service far too recently to have seen action during Operation: BIRD DOG or Operation: SERPENT... so why does the picture show two Defiances gloating as a shot-to-shit Visigoth spins down in flames?  ???  All I can figure is that it must be a Capellan propaganda shot, but even so, c’mon, guys: get real!  ;D

  Designed as a first-rate attack platform first of all, the DFC-O Defiance is actually pretty damn’ capable as a medium fighter in most roles one cares to contemplate.  Driving at 6/9 off a 220XL powerplant with eleven hard-wired DHS and the usual five tons of fuel, it can keep up with most of its colleagues, including the close-attack TR-10 Transit, the dogfighting TR-13 Transgressor and the very able fire-support system Troika - which is no bad thing.  ;)  While only standard armour is used for some odd reason - economy (on an XLFE ASF?  ::))?  Saving internal space for ordnance? - a full fifteen tons of the stuff, laid out 75/60/45, makes the Defiance proof against ML thresholding from any angle and arguably makes it another “’67 Brick”.  ;D  And the internals... well, all XL-engined starfighters are notorious for their healthy warload mass-fractions, and the Defiance’s twenty-six (26) tons is certainly no exception to that rule.  ::)
  The Defiance is one of those fighters which finds its external ordnance capacity limited more by its tonnage than its engine; it can sling a maximum of eleven tons, slowing it to the minimum 3/5.  External fuel is popular, and would do much to offset a defender’s ‘home-turf advantage’, but that many bombs and/or rocket-launchers would also make for a heck of a street-sweeper.  :o

  Defiance Prime is a little warm, but it’s a dry kind of heat.  :P  The nose houses that great leveller, a Gauss Rifle (with two tons of ammunition, no less), backed by a pair of medium pulse lasers; each wing supports twin ERMLs; the anti-tailgater defences are a little underwhelming, consisting of only a brace of aft-mounted ERSLs, but at least there’s something, right?  Fully capable of standing back and pounding away with the Gauss or getting into a turning fight with its lasers (just don’t fire all three forward laser bays at once), Defiance Prime is a nice sort of multipurpose config that undoubtedly makes most Cappies chortle with glee: Strikes and Strafes can be devastating, and the anti-’Shipping firepower a full squadron can deploy is just as fearsome (GRs = 9 Capital, MPLs = 7 Capital, and there are two 6-Capital ERML bays as well!  :o)

  Defiance Alpha has an all-energy forward battery, making it more of a Strafer/fire-support loadout.  The nose houses a pair of ERMLs; each wing supports an ERPPC; aft, we have a piddly little SRM-2 with a ton of ammo; eight additional DHS do what they can to offset the hellacious heat all this energy-weaponry generates.  Now, to my eyes this load-out looks very much aimed at the FWL; after all, of its likely opponents’ arsenals the only thing an SRM-2 can really offer a genuine threat to is a Cheetah, and it has the big guns that are the prime threats to the notoriously under-armoured Leaguer fighters and ’Ships.  Regardless of whether this is the intent or not, we have a config that can reach out to Long range with its PPCs, alpha-strike its forward guns for two turns running without serious heat issues (+2 per turn!), deal out significant pain in a turning fight to boot, and a squadron of DFC-OA’s has three 6 Capital bays with which to threaten ’Ships.  It ain’t bad work if you can get it, pal.  :P

  Defiance Bravo is rightly fluffed as a ground-vehicle’s terror (though the note about anti-fighter work is an IC idea, not a gameplay reality).  Its sole armament is a pair of LB-10X autocannons, one in each wing, with a total of four tons of ammo - which means pilots enjoy healthy supplies of both Cluster and Slug rounds.  The amount of crit-seeking this loadout can do is a tread-head’s despair; however, it’s not what you’d call well-suited to other missions, especially aerial fighting.  It’s not often that you see an Omni config dedicated to vehicle-killing above all else, but here it is.  :-\

  Defiance Charlie is another super-strafer, and would be a munchkin’s dream-machine if it ever got its hands on Davion TC technology.  :P  The nose bristles with a triplet of MPLs; single LPLs are loaded into each wing; twin SPLs guard the stern (for whatever they’re worth >:(); and four extra DHS work on the heat-burden.  An all-forward alpha-strike is the same +2/turn as the Alpha, making them quite complementary - the Alphas stand back and plink while the Charlies rush into the knife-fight - and the punishment it can inflict in air-to-ground passes is just fearful.  I won’t say that it’s the best for anti-’Ship work, but with pulse-bays of 11, 5 and 5 Capital, all with those wonderful -2 TH bonuses, I can’t say it’s a total waste of time, either.

  For my money, the Defiance fills one of two critical gaps in the CCAF fighter corps: the need for a dedicated attacker taking advantage of advanced technology.  The Transit is nasty for what it is, but it was never upgraded and frankly, without such an upgrade the TR-10 simply can’t keep up on the modern battlefield; the Defiance packs almost twice the performance into a spaceframe only ten percent heavier, and does it with half-again the armour protection to boot.  It can directly replace the oldtech Transits on a one-for-one basis (procurement budgets permitting, of course) and do much the same job, but far, far better... and it’s better-equipped to defend itself, as well.
  There are no real weaknesses to the DFC-O design, save for the lacklustre guns some of the configs think will protect their rear sectors, so there are few things to say about employing it.  Use Transgressors as escorts and/or to keep the other guy’s dogfighters busy, and maybe assign some Troikas to ‘shoot in’ the Defiances, then sit back and watch the carnage.  Keep a sharp eye out for LX-2 Lancers or DARO-1 Daggers, though - they can out-manoeuvre your escorts and ‘get into the backfield’ to cause all sorts of problems, especially since your own tail-guns are so marginal.  Of course, in the end this is really just a long way of saying remember your mantras.  :D

  Defenders need to do much the same, albeit on the other side of the coin.  Forget your interceptors, though - their armaments just aren’t up to the task of downing DFC-Os.  Your weapons of preference are 7/11 fast dogfighters like Lancers or Dagger-As, which can ruin the Defiance’s day in short order (oh, that lovely, lovely RAC/5!  }:)); optionally, support from birds like the CSR-V14 Corsair and/or F-92 Stingray would be more than welcome, as it can do much to ease the lighter birds’ passage through the enemy’s lines - not to mention the way those spaceframes can mix it up with the Defiance in their own right.


  [VARIANT PROPOSAL(S) REDACTED] All proposed fan-variants - including my own - belong in the corresponding “FotW Workshop” thread: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,3379.0.html

  Be advised: the attached .txt transcript(s) of previous runs of this thread contain numerous reader-proposals for variants.  I’ll try to change those out for ‘sanitised’ versions of those threads when I can, but I can’t promise it’ll be soon - that’s a lot of ground to cover.  ;)

  No discussion on the repost of this one, it seems.  I wonder what that says about the bird - or the Cappies who made/operate it?  ???  :D

[Neufeld]

The problem with discussing the Defiance is that nothing really stands out. No major flaws, but it is no Eisensturm either. It is a great looking bird however. Would probably end up in my top ten overall and is in top three from 3067 according to looks.

[sandstorm]

Hmm, apparently the bay rules for squadrons have changed a bit, with wing bays combined instead of being separated?
And TC+Pulse no longer gives the benefit, since TC won't work with rapid-fire weapons?

As for Defiance itself, it seems that it suffers from the "It's decent, but has nothing special to stand out".

Woudn't say no to squadron worth of these in a battle, but they aren't ones that I would be spcifically looking for, either.

[Ghost_msl]

The pulse lasers should get the to hit bonus - same as they do in ground vehicles, it was the pulse laser + TC  called shot combo that was removed.

[Moonsword]

The Defiance is sort of an Omni-Stingray in terms of basic design.  Mid-size dogfighter, decent punch, good armor, but not especially standing out.  Most of the configurations are pretty excellent although the Defiance B has lost some of its luster with the changes in clustering rules.

The pulse lasers should get the to hit bonus - same as they do in ground vehicles, it was the pulse laser + TC  called shot combo that was removed.

As would rapid-fire weapons like RACs or Ultras in rapid-fire mode (which is all the time in the air).