http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/1345/guillotine-iic-standardThe
Guillotine was a rugged Star League BattleMech that served the League and later Clans well from 2499 onward. Mobile, loaded with firepower, and very tough, the
Guillotine was a great heavy ‘Mech for just about anything you’d need done. It’s not surprising that the Clans decided to upgrade the old warhorse and man did they ever. Debuting in TRO 3060 with an introduction date of 2889, the
Guillotine IIc was brought in by Clan Coyote to bolster second line forces. It takes the standard template of the 3N
Guillotine and pumps it full of Clan goodness.
The OriginalClan Coyote looked over the original
Guillotine and decided that the armor, speed, and jump capability was adequate and left it as is, while switching the Inner Sphere/Star League Endo Steel to Clan standard. The radical change that makes the
Guillotine IIc tick? Changing out to sixteen clan double heat sinks. This frees up nine tons to play with and the
Guillotine IIc makes excellent use of that weight. The right arm medium lasers are switched out to two Clan Large Pulse Lasers and then… oh, what? Still picking your jaw up off the floor? Me too. So it gets two of the Clans ace-in-the hole weapons, and then switches out the large laser for an ER PPC to provide some head capping ability. In case you are keeping score at home, firing those three bad boys will over heat you by three without movement. The backup weapons are somewhat sparse, with two ER Medium Lasers replacing the old medium lasers in each torso, and a Clan-spec SRM 6 launcher and a ton of ammo in the center torso.
This is the design that soldiered on, serving the Clans, especially the Coyotes, Star Adders, and Cloud Cobra’s, faithfully. Typically a Star Captain would pilot one of these ‘Mechs in Clan Coyote in a second line or solahma unit. Beyond those three, all Clans field small numbers of the ‘Mech, enough that the MUL has it listed in the Clan General List for the Jihad era. So you could theoretically expect to see this guy anytime you fight second line forces.
What to expect? Well, in my limited experience with the design, the
Guillotine IIc differs from its parent in that it wants to engage you at mid-to-long range and preferably keep you there. It heats up pretty quickly when firing most combinations of it’s weapons, though as long as you don’t hit the big red button you aren’t too bad off. If you are standing still, you can run the heat up for four turns before needing to drop something to cool down and avoid the +2 to hit. The standard engine and adequate armor will keep the ‘Mech pretty well protected, though Clan warfare will mulch through the armor quicker than the Star League’s day. I would also want some skirmishing units to keep the bulk of the bad guys force away. Sure it has some guns, but in the few games I played, it had a hard time truly putting stuff down as you had to watch your heat.
Fighting against one? If your opponent is using it as a sniper or mobile turret, closing to bring more firepower to bear seems prudent. And you can exploit one of the weaknesses of the design with a lucky critical, namely touching off the SRM ammo stored in the center torso. Clan CASE isn’t worth a thing if you put ammo in the center torso or head, so it’s a head scratching decision, especially since the 3N had it in the right torso according to TRO 3050U. Beyond that, you still have to chew through the design, as it’s still just as tough as it’s parent. Standard engine and enough armor covering it that you’ll need to mash it up good.
Second in LineSo, the
Guillotine IIc went on for a long time before a variant came out in 3070. As a thank you to the numerous volunteers that contribute to FanPro/CGL, we were offered the opportunity to submit two designs for Record Sheets: 3060 Unabridged. You weren’t guaranteed to get them accepted as someone else might design another ‘Mech and the designs were selected from that pool. You were guaranteed to get two designs in at least. So I started off with the
Canis and
Guillotine IIc 2. The only requirement was to use some of the new Total War tech in the designs, updating them to the current Jihad time period. I designed and designed and designed trying to come up with something I felt the Coyotes would do minus ATM’s. I finally gave up on the
Canis and did up the 4F
Blitzkrieg (I can talk about that in another article!) I still wanted to influence the Coyotes though so I stuck to the
Guillotine IIc, but it was pretty hard. I didn’t feel the anti-infantry/vehicle weapons fit the
Guillotine’s mold (so no AP Gauss or Plasma) while the HAG just didn’t work either. I wanted to go back to the original
Guillotine’s close range focus and went with Improved Jump Jets. The
Guillotine IIc 2 drops the large pulse lasers for two more ER Medium Lasers while dropping the SRM-6 for a Streak SRM-4. Six IJJ’s let it keep pace with jumping
Phoenix Hawks,
Conjuror’s, or most
Griffin IIc’s or
Shadow Hawk IIc’s. I also crammed all of the jets in the torso just in case someone wanted to jump into water, which would in turn help the heat sinks in the legs. The mobility cost the design raw firepower and the -2 from the pulse lasers, though a Targeting Computer gives everything a -1 instead. I tried my best to slip a Streak SRM-6 in, but just couldn’t do it by the deadline. The armor was upped to maximum ferro-fibrous while the heat sinks remained the same. I did not playtest it in MegaMek or even really consider much else. I submitted it and it was accepted (I doubt there was any competition for the design to be honest.)
When we submitted our variants, we had to also submit a 1-2 sentence statement telling what faction we designed it for and any backstory. The one I submitted read something like, “Clan Coyote refit used to test IJJ’s.” Of course by now, either WoR was released or it was just about to be released, and the authors decided to focus just about everything in the Inner Sphere. My Coyote
Guillotine IIc 2 became a Clan Wolf-in-Exile variant during the Jihad, and then according to the MUL, spread to the Lyrans, their mercenary lapdogs the Kell Hounds and Wolf Dragoons, the Republic, and Clan Wolf. By 3145, it shows up on the Marik RAT table in the 18 position, and that’s the only mention of it in the ‘Mech RATS for that book. The original
Guillotine IIc only shows up once, in the Wolf Empire RAT’s, so neither design is wide-spread enough to force its way into those tables.
So, using the
Guillotine IIc 2. As I said previously, I did no play testing with it. I put it together, played some TheoryTech in my head, and called it good. First things first, it has an outrageous Battle Value for what it can and can’t do. 2721 is a little too rich for my tastes, even with the increased jump range and heavy armor. The original version is a nice 2377, so you have more wiggle room with it in a sense. Still “high” but it’s workable. The next problem? While all of the weapons are Clan spec and the heat isn’t terrible, in the recent testing I’ve done, the firepower doesn’t have as much oomph as we would like in a Clan heavy. While the original suffers somewhat from the same problem, it can still take large chunks out of opposing ‘Mechs. The 2 is left with a load out that makes a
Stormcrow snicker (4xERML, ERPPC, SSRM-4, ton of ammo, 17 DHS, and 6 jump jets for 2553 BV can be crammed onto the fifty-five tonner.) Sure the ‘
crow loses out in the armor department, but the point is the firepower is a bit light for a Clan heavy. My testing proved this out time and again. You just couldn’t drop the hammer on someone and make them go away. In hindsight, I toyed with maybe replacing the ERPPC with a large pulse laser but at the time liked the headcapper and wanted to shy away from standard Clan Munch Combo’s.
But, with all of that said, you have a fully armored, standard engine heavy ‘mech that can generate a +3 TMM by jumping five or six hexes and only generate three heat as opposed to our
Stormcrow’s six. This tends to make the
Guillotine IIc 2’s job as one of a harasser, though I’ve kind of envisioned it as a commander’s ride in a strike company. I’ve used it just like a psychotic
Phoenix Hawk pilot, jumping from cover to cover and trying to keep the TMM’s as high as possible while dishing out damage. In the post-Clan dueling world (or in Inner Sphere pilot hands) being able to work with other ‘Mechs is a huge perk and can help shore up some of the anemic firepower.
If you are facing one, you still have to respect the guns as they are ClanTech. It will try to get in your face and your rear, so you do have to pay attention and will probably have to invest resources to putting it down as the maximum armor and standard engine require focusing. Someone could also use it as a long range sniper, hoping 5-6 hexes a turn using the ERPPC exclusively, but it seems to be pretty high-priced for that kind of business. If you are facing one in a BV 2.0 game, rest assured that depending on your cap, a significant chunk of BV has been invested in a design that probably won’t turn the tides with raw firepower.
Bonus Round: Alpha Strike!Alpha Strike offers a chance for ‘Mechs to reinvent themselves (or gives us another metric to compare apples to oranges) and the
Guillotine series is no different. To start off, we’ll look at the parent, the 3N
Guillotine. It has six armor and six internals, making it fairly robust compared to other ‘Mechs while also moving at eight inches with the option to jump. This allows for it to get a +2 TMM if it uses the jump ability, though it will incur a +2 penalty to it’s own fire. It has a damage spread of 4/4/0 as well as the CASE special and is labeled as a Skirmisher for its Alpha Strike role. For 37 points, it compares favorably with multiple Inner Sphere heavy ‘Mechs. The abstraction process helps to focus its damage and help it lay a smack down on its opponents.
So, coming from that, the
Guillotine IIc keeps the same armor and movement profile. What changes is the damage. Clan Tech allows it to gain four damage at long range for a total of 4/4/4 and a role change to Sniper. Due to the new weapons load out, it also has OV 2, which means it can go to 6/6/4 damage for two heat. The point cost rises to 42, which is a great price for a Clan heavy ‘Mech honestly. It compares well to the
Orion IIc with the jets giving it enough distinction to argue for picking either one if you were in say Clan Wolf. Outside of that, it’s still a fairly tough beat stick for a Clan second line force while the role reinforces the changes that were made to the design.
Finally, the
Guillotine IIc 2 has one extra armor point over its parent and sibling, while its brackets are 5/5/2 for damage. An OV of 1 can tie the originals over heat brackets though is more forgiving. The thing to look for here is the IJJ’s, which give the
Guillotine IIc 2 the ability to post a +3 TMM against enemies. While +1 increase might not be much in your books, in mine, it can make the difference between a hit and a miss. This version of the IIc goes back to the roots and reestablishes the Skirmisher role and has CASE like the rest of the family. At 46 points, it ties the
Orion IIc and is getting into the “average” band of price for Clan heavies in Alpha Strike.
In my experience with Alpha Strike the ability to stick around in the fight is one of the most important traits and all of the
Guillotine IIc’s are able to do so. It takes at least two ‘Mechs firing on it at medium/close range to make one disappear (baring the
Turkina Z and it’s 15 damage at short range) so just like BattleTech, some resources have to be dedicated to eradicating the unit.
I’ve rarely seen either
Guillotine IIc fielded and fought against them maybe twice. Hopefully this article has exposed you to a unit that isn’t seen all that often and given you some more options in your own game!
To view painted examples of this unit, check out
http://camospecs.com/MiniList.asp?Action=Detail&ID=585To purchase directly from IWM:
http://ironwindmetals.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6607
