EGL-R** Eagle – TRO3075
Man
alive, but we’re reaching back into hallowed antiquity with the ‘generic fighters’! :o First flown in
2324, the
Eagle post-dates the SB-27 by barely a decade and reflects the outcome of House Marik’s first ASF development programme as the
Sabre did House Kurita’s. Its modern form was seen ‘only’ in 2601, but ImStar meant it for cheap, reliable operation independent of ammunition resupply, making it understandably popular with ‘lower-priority’ worlds and rendering it the FWLM’s primary transatmospheric combat system during the Star League era almost by default, but ImStar got stomped during SW1 and the
Eagle (rather ironically) faded from prominence within the FWL, ceding its former primacy to the
Stingray while other states maintained and even expanded their own inventories of
Eagles.
(Or
Eagle clones, for that matter. The Federated Suns stole
Eagle blueprints from ImStar shortly before their plant was flattened and put the type into production on Axton during SW2, and to this day they serve some Feddie militias in place of the more ‘Davion’
Stuka. The Capellan Confederation’s Saroyan Special Productions doesn’t seem to have *directly* stolen the
Eagle from the Leaguers, but the genesis of the Tengo
Lightning and Mujika’s ‘derivative’
Transit makes it amply clear that if the Cappies captured examples of the
Eagle during their border-squabbles with the FWL, they were more than capable of cramming its specs into a new skin (to whit: Saroyan’s TR-13
Trangressor) and paying ImStar a licencing fee of... ‘the Mujika BOHICA!’ :D Quite *how* Lockheed got the specs for production on Gibbs is left a mystery by the long-awaited fluff-text, but it may well have been one of the exchanges made during the Katrina Steiner/Hanse Davion negotiations that led to Big Pappa Pimp’s notorious alliance-by-marriage, SW4, and sundry other abuses of the FedCom’s neighbours.)
EGL-R6: 75t, 6/9/8/5 (300SFE), 80/52/40, N: LL, ML, W: LL, ML, A: ML, 25 SHS Not that said copies/clones are a bad choice, even in the era of foundtech. A seventy-five ton spaceframe exhibiting 6/9 performance that could be termed ‘impressive’ by some onlookers (especially if they were used to chemical rockets! :o), the
Eagle is quite happy to turn-and-burn with most of the dogfighters of its day — and some of the ‘newer’ breeds, at that. Though its five-ton fuel endurance is nothing extraordinary, its *armour* fraction is a gratifyingly solid fourteen tons; at a layout of 80/52/40, that armour is effectively immune to thresholding by the ubiquitous medium laser across its wings and nose and will even shake off a couple of doses from a *large* laser to its snout.
Nor does the ‘good’ news end there, for the
Eagle’s willingness to mix it up with opponents extends to its armament package. All four of the firing-arcs house a single Magna II medium laser, offering all-around defence and crit-seeking capability, but these are merely back-ups to the *primary* weapons: a heavy-hitting Magna III laser-cannon mounted in the nose, and one more in each wing. Moreover, this ‘flashbulb’ armament package is provided with no fewer than twenty-five heat-sinks, allowing pilots an impressive degree of freedom in their weapons-mixes. At Medium range during the closing stages before a dogfight, or centre-lining someone during a ‘pell-mell brawl’, all three laser-cannons remain one point *under* the dissipation-circuits’ capacity — the sort of firepower than makes many fighter-pilots lick their chops. }:) In a ‘slashing attack’ during the turning battle, you can engage with everything you’ve got in the nose and the engaged wing *while* stinging another target (or a tail-gater) with the ML that will bear — all while remaining exactly heat-neutral. If you’re in truly desperate straits, a full alpha-strike of everything you’ve got gets all the way up the heat-scale to +11 — which is exactly why you save it for such last-ditch circumstances, unless the idea of a +1 TH penalty *and* a 6+ ‘Random Movement’ roll *appeals* to you. ::)
All in all, the EGL-R6 is almost a classic example of the ‘level 1’ dogfighter — nimble enough to yank-and-bank with its competition, tough enough to absorb punishment and mean enough to dish out at least as good as it gets. The fact that it’s a *heavy* fighter doing a medium’s job in that era can make for culture-shock for the unprepared, but it’s the sort of bird that falls under the heading of ‘all-purpose workhorse’. Nor is it hurt by having no fewer than fifteen ‘hardpoints’ available for bombs or other external ordnance: okay, a full load of bombs makes for 3/5 manoeuvring performance that is ‘uncomfortably low’, but what those bombs will do to a ground-target is more than compensation enough, and following it up those bombs with a Strafe or Strike will most likely finish the victim with great dispatch. (I might also note that in the dogfighter role, using a couple of external tanks for fuel on the way to the fight will greatly extend your endurance... and thus your chance to get kills when the other guy tries to RTB for gas. :beatdown:) And since (under current rules) a squadron of six
Eagles possesses no fewer than *three* large-laser bays of 5-Capital damage each, ’Ship captains might want to be respectful of them as well. :smirk:
If you’re tasked to defeat an attack by
Eagles, you’ve no easy task ahead of you. (/me waits for the cries of ‘Thank you, Captain Obvious!’ to subside. :P) You need the firepower to punch through their armour and either the range/agility to evade return fire or the armour to survive it — the latter characteristic being conspicuous by its rarity in the era before the emergence of advanced aerospace components like DHS, ferro-aluminium armour, and most of all the eXtra-Light engine. Absent an interceptor like the SYD-Z1
Seydlitz, which mates blistering agility to a large laser, my own preference would be for another 6/9 dogfighter with Medium-range weapons (like the Terran Hegemony’s
Hellcat I), which has the speed to match the manoeuvres of the EGL-R6 and, once it gets behind the heavier machine, can pound away at it with multiple weapons heavy enough to beat the
Eagle’s armour thresholds and force TAC checks. (The
Eagle’s only real soft spot is its tail; an ML can TAC it there, but the tail-gun discourages getting too close, so Medium range weapons like the LL and/or PPC would be my preference.) Of course, like it says in
The Book, it wouldn’t hurt to have support fire from LRM platforms to soften up the
Eagles — or do them real harm, if they get a good angle. ;)
Several variants of the Eagle exist, from earlier pre-Star League primitive variants to upgrades found among the more prosperous worlds of the Inner Sphere. A number of low-tech versions exist, having proliferated through the Succession Wars, and they continue to fly with planetary militias and mercenary forces. The R4 Eagle, with five medium lasers, two large lasers, and industrial-grade armor, is a typical example of a backwater Eagle.
Now, I don’t know exactly what ‘industrial grade armour’ actually *is*, but I’m willing to bet that it’s softer than regular plate, hence the need to offload at least four tons of warload to accommodate it; I’m also willing to bet that some heat-sinks went with the third laser-cannon. That said, until we see a record-sheet and rules for said industrial armour, I’m *not* willing to speculate on full-blown specs for the EGL-R4. Sorry. :( There were two major variants of the
Eagle in the ‘Primitive’ technology days, each accepting a 5/8 thrust curve but otherwise biasing themselves differently on the infamous speed/armour/firepower triangle.
EGL-R1: 75t, Primitive cockpit, 5/8/8/5 (225PFE/270SFE), 63/41/31 (Primitive), N: LL, ML, W: LL, ML, A: ML, 25 SHS The first model of
Eagle, introduced in 2324, the -R1 was the engineers choosing the ‘speed & weapons’ foci, and doing a pretty fair job of it. Even with the limitations of the day’s technology so clearly evident, this was a bird to be treated with respect; it wasn’t *blisteringly* fast, and the armour wasn’t quite where they wanted it to be, but the precedents for all the capabilities of the -R6 are clearly visible. Like its evolved form, it gets kind’a toasty if you use all the forward guns against a centrelined target, but otherwise, this is a thoroughly proficient dogfighting platform.
EGL-R4: 75t, Primitive cockpit, 5/8/8/5 (225PFE/270SFE), 78/51/39 (Primitive), N: 2×LL, W: 2×ML, A: ML, 25 SHS Whether contemporaneous with the -R1, or a later experiment prioritising ‘speed & armour’, the -R4 drops one of the -R1’s large lasers for a close approximation of the armour-layout made ‘classic’ when technology advanced to the point where the -R6 became possible. It’s clearly meant more for a dogfighter’s ‘slashing’ tactics, being able to hammer targets with its twin nose-cannons and the ‘engaged’ wing without building heat, though if you manage to centre-line someone you can give them everything you’ve got and
sort’a-get away with it.
The EGL-R9, on the other hand, is a far easier proposition to imagine. Intended as a defensive ‘Dropper chopper’ for various orbital works like space-stations and such, it trades away the triple laser cannons for a little more concerted punch. ;)
[STAT-BLOCK OMITTED]
I don’t know that this is the best idea ever — after all, three 5-Capital bays do *more* damage than two bays of 6-Capital each, and I don’t recall a large number of assault droppers that are vulnerable to thresholding by twin PPC bays as opposed to the triple laser-cannon mounts — but it shows that someone’s thinking and trying to do something about a specific tactical problem, so at least the Robes didn’t kill *all* the brain-cells out there. ::)EGL-R9: 75t, 6/9/8/5 (300SFE), 80/52/40 (Standard), N: ML, W: PPC, ML, A: ML, 26 SHS An experiment intended to produce a specialist DropShip hunter (though probably not a
Marik program, given that their production of PPCs was notoriously overstretched in the late-SW3/early-31st-century era), the -R9
Eagle gave up all three of its large lasers for a PPC in each wing and another heat-sink. As I originally noted, I’m not completely sold on whether this was a good trade-off, since a squadron of -R6s generates more total damage, but if you play alt-historical scenarios featuring WarShips, a pair of 6-point Capital bays will see even a
Lola-III destroyer experiencing what Nicholas Moran has famously dubbed ‘significant emotional events’.
The EGL-R10, on the other hand, is intended as a specialist ground-attack bird.
EGL-R10: 75t, 6/9/8/5 (300SFE), 80/52/40 (Standard), N: LL, ML, W: 4×ML, A: ML, 29SHS The -R10 takes rather a ‘death of a thousand cuts’ approach to things, really — though the speed with which many MLs will flay all the armour from a BattleMech would likely appal anyone who’d never seen an
Ontos in action. :P Reserved purely for the Striking/Strafing role, and given enough time to cool off between passes, this one is a fearsome crit-seeking machine — though it can easily punch its own holes if need be. }:)
Lastly (for TRO3075, anyway), we have a ‘mystery’ refit that was first showcased by a small, no-name-given mercenary command’s pirate-bashing operation over the Lyran world of Arcadia in 3071. Now, I’d imagine that the
Eagle has always been very popular with the cost-conscious mercenary market — not only for its efficacy as a weapons system in its own right, but also for its reasonable capital-purchase requirements, all-energy armament for no ammo-replenishment bills, and use of readily available parts and components minimising supply difficulties and repair bills — and with the new availability of foundtech systems for those who have the right connections or bank-balances, relatively modest upgrades can achieve impressive results.
EGL-R11: 75t, 6/9/8/5 (300SFE), 80/52/40 (Standard), N: ERPPC, ML, W: LPL, ML, A: ML, 15DHS By its very nature as a pull-out/plug-in sort of upgrade for those who can get the needed bits and pieces, this is quick-and-affordable, but it does what every good merc wants: gives a good (hell, *great*!) ‘return on investment’. With an ERPPC to open the ball at Long range (and hopefully cause some early TACs), large pulsers in the wings for the dogfight phase (where their combination of Medium range, TH bonus, and 9-point armour-piercing whack brings them into their own), and some medium lasers for ’follow-up’ crit-seeking in the ground-attack role, this is a *hell* of a good weapons-package — and if Lockheed aren’t already offering it on the open mercenary market as a refit-kit or new construction, they’re betraying their Lyran heritage by missing a golden opportunity for profit. Considering that people are clamouring for *anything* with which to nobble the WoBblies, a bird this capable that prices out to a hair over 4.5M C-bills per-unit is going to sell faster than Lockheed can frakkin’ *make* ’em. :D
(Just... be mindful of the heat-gauge when you’re considering using that ER peeper, okay? Especially in a turning fight. Fifteen freezers are good, but they can’t cover *all* of your Medium-range heat. :D)
Aerospace Fighters
Upgrades for the SLDF’s aerospace forces came in the latter half of the 28th century, though with much reduced funding compared to what the Star League dedicated to upgrading the ’Mech service. The program was interrupted by Amaris’ coup, shutting down the SLDF’s access to most of its key production facilities. As the Amaris Civil War progressed, and the SLDF’s losses mounted, Kerensky turned to suppliers the Star League hadn’t typically utilized.
EGL-R6b Eagle: As Kerensky’s drive on Terra waged on and on, it was clear the SLDF required planes that could be both dogfighters as well as ground-attack fighters. The Eagle, produced in both the Free Worlds League and the Federated Suns, seemed to fit the bill, especially with the upgrades requested. An XL fusion engine and twenty-two double heat sinks provided all of the power of the original Eagle and nearly ideal heat dissipation. All of the forward-mounted lasers were replaced with pulse lasers, with a second medium pulse added to the nose, and the single rear-mounted medium laser was doubled. Fourteen and a half tons of ferro-aluminum armor made the Eagle one of the best-protected fighters of the era.
... erm, shouldn’t that have been ‘raged’ on? Wars rage or they are waged. Meh — I should’ve spotted that sooner. I hope it was corrected before Operation KLONDIKE came out in DTF... :D Remember, everyone: spell-check and Grammarly are useful, but even they miss things, so cultivate good proof-readers whenever you can. ;DEGL-R6b: 75t, 6/9/8/5 (300XLFE), 85/65/41 (FA)†, N: LPL, 2xMPL, W: LPL, MPL, A: 2xML, 22 DHS † The RS says the armour is 85/65/41, so if the armour-tonnage is right, the RS seems to have four points adrift somewhere. I’m not aware that that’s been errata’d, either. ;) ... holy shaznak. More laser-light than a Pink Floyd tour. :o
For all that, this is another case of ‘the same, but more’ — again, THAF engineers were smart enough not to try and turn the
Eagle into something it wasn’t, but to make it better at what it
was. I won’t resurrect the issue of the XL engines and their provenance — though the same problems raised by the
Sabre are just as present (and galling) — but leaving those aside, this is a very conscious use of the technology. The XLFE and DHS save weight and improve the heat-curve, and thanks to judicious
abuse exploitation canny appraisal of the aerospace range-brackets, the pulse-lasers mean that not only do you not lose any effective range in aerospace combat, their TH bonus means you’re effectively engaging at a range-bracket
closer than you physically are! The added damage doesn’t hurt (you) any, either, and again lets players involved with a “Royal
Eagle” treat the machine just like the old one, only tougher, more accurate, and slightly harder-hitting. I certainly don’t envy any pilot who tries dogfighting this thing... and woe betide the ’Mech that gets strafed by one. xp
About the only tweak one might apply to the Royal Eagle would be to trade in the twin MLs aft for another MPL, mainly for the sake of proper commonality of weaponry more than for any mechanical benefit. I’d leave that more to the individual player’s taste — some prefer having two chances to hit for *some* damage than one fairly solid whack with a TH bonus. [shrug] :brew:
WORKSHOP THREAD :brew:
