DominatorSource: Recognition Guide: IlClan Vol. 01It's basically a Warwolf A with an inferiority complex.
Welcome to the first in what should be a wave of new articles as designs from the IlClan recognition guides clear moratorium! Today, we're talking about a highly mobile Clan Wolf heavy 'Mech. In order to facilitate increasingly common physical attacks, it keeps one arm free for punching while mounting a headcapper in the other. Additionally, it is difficult to kill, wrapped in over two hundred points of reactive..
Wait. Sorry. That's the
Warwolf. I don't know what I was thinking.
Okay, this must be it. Brand-new, highly mobile heavy 'Mech, used by Wolves, one arm for punching and one arm for shooting, mounts a bunch of...reflective armor. Dang, nope, that's the
Thresher II.
Here we go. Alright. Very mobile, long-ranged, capable of physical attacks, just over 200 points of ferro-fibrous armor. It's the
Dominator!
THAT WAS A BIT OF A JOURNEY.I'm sorry, the design just seems a bit redundant is all. Now, in fairness, this is nothing new for the Wolves. At the 4/6 speed class they've got the
Tundra Wolf, the
Blood Reaper, the
Orion IIC, the
Guillotine IIC, the
Night Wolf, and now they're putting the
Woodsman back in production? And they started off the Invasion era using both the
Mad Cat and
Man O'War? Clearly this is not a phenomenon they feel bad about.
THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT OKAY.Yeah, well,
you try telling the Wolves what to do. That's how the Lyrans lost two different Archons in the summer of '43.
BUT YOU DIGRESS.Right, the
Dominator. Here goes: 65 tons puts it solidly into "we would like this to be effective, but we do not want to devote a lot of resources to it" territory. A 325 XL engine propels it at a respectable 5/8, and the inclusion of both a supercharger and five jump jets give it a great deal of flexibility as far as movement goes. It can put on great bursts of speed to run enemies down and then still be quite agile in a closer fight. The
Dominator is clearly intended to outshoot what it can catch, and outrun what it can't outshoot.
The armor is pretty solid. 10.5 tons of ferro-fibrous give it just ten points short of the maximum, and the armor is arrayed in an unusual fashion: the weaponless left arm has five fewer points than the right. This is a sort of ruthlessness that a lot of designs don't fuss with but it makes sense here.
It makes sense because the right side of the 'Mech is mostly where the guns are. It has an ER PPC in the arm and an ER Large Laser in the torso, a fairly nasty and very long-ranged combination only made more efficient by the targeting computer also stuck in the right torso. The entire left side of the 'Mech carries nothing but a Streak SRM-6, a ton of ammo, two jump jets, and two heat sinks. It also carries a rear-mounted ER Small Laser in the back of its head.
Eighteen double heat sinks cool the design, which means that it can fire its entire forward arsenal at a full jump with no heat issues. That makes it hilariously oversinked by usual Clan standards, but I think it makes sense here. Pushing the use of the supercharger will inevitably lead to an engine crit, but that's far less debilitating for the
Dominator. Additionally, it can lose its entire left torso and still contribute effectively despite the engine hits and missing heat sink.
SO IS THAT...GOOD?
It's fine, just a little unusual for a Clan 'Mech. Other 65-tonners like the
Loki and
Cauldron-Born have a lot more firepower than they can effectively use, so they can have large sections shot off and still have some guns. The
Dominator only has a few big guns, but between the targeting computer and the abundance of cooling, it can get the most out of them, even while jumping. Additionally, the two main guns have fantastic range, so it will start being effective as soon as possible. The ER Small Laser is a silly inclusion, though. A simple torso-twist will let it point an entire ER PPC into its rear arc, and it necessitates an entire extra ton of targeting computer.
It's hardly a logistical burden, either, consuming nothing but Streak SRMs (which are very efficient). Again, it's not built for losing lots of equipment and eking out a narrow victory in a Trial. This is a 'Mech for campaigns.
It definitely seems like a design that can be dropped into almost any Star without too much stress. It's mobile enough to keep up with lighter elements but well-armed enough to be useful if paired with heavier designs. I don't think I'd want it in an assault role, but at the very least it's got enough range to contribute as better-armored units take hits. Also, as we get further into the Recognition Guide series it's possible there will be additional synergies (or aggravating redundancies). Time will tell.
WHAT ABOUT VARIANTS?There's one, a field refit that was later put into production. It drops the ERPPC, SRMs, supercharger, and a heat sink for a second ER Large Laser, an ER Medium Laser, and an LRM-20 with Artemis V. This is without a doubt a much more dangerous design, but the loss of the supercharger stings a bit, and the importance of the LRM-20 makes it a bit less appealing to try to tank hits on the left side. Nevertheless, it makes for a very effective sniper, with accuracy bonuses on all its weapons.
HOW DO I KILL IT?That depends heavily on how good your pilots are. 5/8(10)/5 is fast enough that green-to-regular units are probably going to want some form of targeting bonus, whereas units with higher gunnery scores can probably do without. Getting close to it is likely a good move, reducing the impact of its range and accuracy bonuses, but it does have the Battlefist quirk, so be wary of getting too close. In the same vein, reflective armor can be good against its main guns, but it is quite vulnerable to physical attacks.
On top of that, its raw damage output isn't actually all that high for a Clan-tech heavy 'Mech. Conventional vehicles won't like the Streaks much, but aside from motive crits its ability to actually chew through a big slab of armor is pretty limited. They might not be able to catch it, but a small group of long-ranged tanks will be able to punish a
Dominator if it tries anything.
Oh, and if you can get the initiative against it, try to take out its right side. That's where most of its firepower lives, and
all of its long-range potential. Try not to be too predictable about it, though; a good
Dominator pilot could leave their right side open in order to encourage an opponent to make a mistake.
THAT SOUNDS PRETTY DECENT, THEN."Pretty decent" is the right summary, I think. It's unusual for a Clan design, but it's not at all mysterious how it should be used. Stay mobile, keep an accuracy advantage, protect your right side, and never stop shooting. Even a century after the initial invasion, the Clan ER PPC and Clan ER Large Laser are the premier energy weapons in the game and so very few things can safely ignore the
Dominator.