The WVE-XX Wyvern is an older model that was commissioned in 2660 AD and has been around ever since. The first time that I looked at it, I thought it was a mech that was supposed to look like a mummy.
It is an okay design in my book. A 45 tonner with a large laser, long range ten rack and a six pack launcher of short range missiles. It has decent punch for its weight class assuming that all the missiles hit in a salvo which is seldom the case. Plus the addition of jump jets, which are almost always a nice addendum in my book as they help you get up and over the hills and other obstacles faster. With a movement curve of 4/6/4 it is comparable in speed to many mechs.
Over the years there have been several variants, but not much variety between them. The variant that I will start with is the old WVE-5N.
WVE-5N
This mech was designed to be a dedicated city fighter. Its large laser and LRM-10 rack are its long ranged weapons. Backed up by a SRM-6 and a pair of small lasers for things that get close. Its Twelve heatsinks allow it to fire its large laser and short range missiles or large laser and long range missiles without overheating if the mech does not jump or run.
This variant can take a PPC hit any where on its front except the cockpit. Its center torso will lose all its armor to an AC/20 hit, but anything more will go internal. Each of its legs can take an AC/20 hit and still have two points of armor left. It has 152/153 points of armor making almost as well protected as it could be.
Its endo-steel internals free up some weight. CASE protects the LRM ammo in its left torso and the SRM ammo in the right.
What I would change on it would be drop the small lasers for a medium laser.
WVE-6N
As technology declined with the Succession Wars, the Wyvern lost is endo-steel internal structure and CASE. Its armor protection also declined, but its weapons and heat sinks stayed the same.
Its legs can take an AC/20 hit, but will be stripped of armor and the next shot to the stripped leg will go internal. Its center torso now only has 18 points of armor enough, not enough to take an AC/20 hit without damaging the sensitive things underneath. It loses 16 points of armor and has 136/153 points of armor.
WVE-9N
In 3050 the Wyvern was upgraded, but at cost. Its armor was reduced and shifted around. It regained the endo-steel internals and CASE of the original. It also has ten double heat sinks these allow it to fire more of its weapons at the same time than the earlier variants.
The large laser has been swapped for a large pulse laser which is still in the right arm. It keeps the LRM-10 and one ton of ammunition. The small lasers have been removed and replaced with a pair of medium pulse lasers. Lastly the SRM-6 has been replaced with a SSRM-2 pack. An SRM-4 or Streak SRM-4 would have been better in my opinion as it is my preferred SRM launcher.
As I mentioned earlier its armor was reduced and shifted around. It now has 128/153 points. Its center torso now has 20 points enabling it to take an AC/20 hit. Its legs however have reduced armor protection with only 17 points each. Each side torso contains CASE to protect against an ammunition explosion.
WVE-10N
This Wyvern came out in the 3060s. It has a total of eleven double heat sinks. It has the same armor protection as the 9N. The endo-steel internal structure is also there.
This variant sacrifices the large laser for an ERPPC. The ERPPC and LRM-10 make this a long range fighter as it only has a medium pulse laser for when things come into knife fighting range. Since the ERPPC does not have a minimum range it can still be used up close.
The SRM launcher is dropped with one of the medium pulses to have weight and space for a Guardian ECM suite in the right torso along with a C3i computer. The C3 computers allow mechs to share targeting data so they can multi-tap foes as a team. The C3i on this Wyvern variant combats this. So the loss of a C3 master computer means that six mechs can share targeting data to kill things together.
Original article here:
http://www.classicbattletech.com/forumarchive/index.php/topic,60019.0.html