XERXES - Clan, 85t - TRO3067
Originally posted (ye gods! :o) 17 Nov. 2004 All proposed fan-variants should be posted in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread. Let's get this out of the way at the start, okay? The
Xerxes looks absolutely
BAD-ASS. Those anhedral, forward-swept, double-delta wings and dorsal-mounted intakes make it look like a cross between a Kilrathi fighter out of the
Wing Commander game-series and the title aircraft in
Firefox, which is one of my all-time favourite jet-fighter movies.
Unfortunately, like so many other cool-looking Smoke Jag designs (
Cauldron-Born and
Subatai, anyone?), the
Xerxes' aesthetics mask some truly dreadful design choices that hobble its combat utility. It has formidable short-term throw-weight, of course - the Jag's 'smashmouth' fighting style makes that a given - but when that's exhausted, you have
problems. The fluff says that the
Xerxes is "derisively known among Clansmen as 'the
Hunchback IIC of the skies'", which is not an inaccurate comparison.
GOOD POINTS: POWERPLANT: The
Xerxes is powered by a 340SFE that gives it a 6/9 thrust curve, making it about as mobile as any fighter of its size can be and more so than many - among the Clans, only the
Scytha can match both its size and speed. This is fed by fuel-tanks holding a staggering eight(!) tons of go-juice, giving it more legs than any other canon fighter apart from the
Hydaspes 2 or the
SL-25 Samurai, both of which can only match its reach without exceeding it, or the longer-ranging SL-15
Slayer, whose ten tons of gas are almost ludicrous. Looking for a long-duration CAP or an ultra-long-range interception (which is the model's designed role, according to the fluff)? You'll love the
Xerxes' combat radius.
PRICE-TAG: SFE fighters aren't too popular with the affluent factions in the modern era, but a price-tag of 6.55 million C-bills per bird makes the
Xerxes awfully attractive to buyers looking for heavy fighters on a budget. The BV of 1,789 is likewise very cheap for the price, meaning that a
Xerxes can under-cut some Sulla and Turk configurations, much less other Clan heavies. (This suggests some problems with the BV system, but that's neither here nor there.)
FIREPOWER: The Clan Ultra-20 is
the most powerful conventional weapon in AT2, short range notwithstanding, and the
Xerxes has one in
each wing - get caught in front of a
Xerxes at Medium range or closer, and you
WILL know you've been kissed.
Two UAC/20s will all but vapourise most light or medium fighters, and it'll sure-as-hell get the attention of anything bigger (up to and including many WarShips). The nose mounts a pair of C/ERLLs; 'token' long-range firepower to some, but considering that said 'token' laser bay is enough throw-weight to threshold any other canon fighter without exception, I'm not about to argue the choice on the grounds of effective hitting-power or reach.
The
Xerxes does have one other advantage in this area that few Clan players consider very often: a truly titanic bomb-load. The Clans don't often use ASFs for ground-attack, but when they do, the
Xerxes is a bomb-truck matched only by the Scytha: it can carry seventeen tons of bombs and still fly, albeit not well. Even at the 'minimum' 3/5 thrust profile, it's carrying some fifteen tons of externals, which is none too bad. That much bird-crap falling out of the sky will ruin
anybody's day. With its capacious fuel reserves, it can stick around afterward to make more follow-up passes with its onboard weaponry than any other bird flying - and a point-strike attack with twin UAC/20s is the sort of thing assault 'Mech pilots have nightmares about.
BAD POINTS: ARMOUR: HM:A considers '100% protection' to be devoting 20% of a fighter's total mass to armour; personally, I've always been more comfortable edging a little above that mark, but like with a BattleMech, 17% armour by mass (being 85% of 'maximum' armour coverage) is what I consider an absolute minimum - especially since armour is so cheap in C-bill
and BV terms. Considered in that light, the
Xerxes' nine tons of ferro-aluminium sheathing, Clan-grade or not, is utterly inexcusable (except as a way to kill off solahma pilots, which is dumb even for the Clans). While the
Xerxes is immune to TACs from an Inner Sphere medium laser, anything more potent - including all of the
Clan medium beam-weapons - is going to punch right on in and do unspeakable things to the ship's guts.
HEAT: The downside of the
Xerxes' impressive throw-weight is the fact that twelve freezers just isn't enough dissipation capacity. You have just enough to fully sink the lasers, but firing both Ultra-20s will put you over; doing so again without taking a turn to cool off by not firing anything
will cause problems. And forget an alpha-strike at any point - you'll depart controlled flight, shut down the powerplant, cook off your ammo and/or fry the pilot all at once, which is a rather humiliating way to die in the post-3050 era. I try not to be an alpha-baby, but I do greatly prefer clear range-brackets that are heat-neutral, and the
Xerxes doesn't have those.
AMMUNITION: If you're tracking ammo consumption, the
Xerxes is a cardinal example of what not to bring to an extended fight. Five turns at double-rate will pulverise pretty much anything short of a WarShip, true, but after that you've got only two C/ERLLs. Considering the batteries most heavy OmniFighters carry and the criminally thin armour on the
Xerxes, that's not a worthwhile arsenal - it's a way to kill your own pilots if they stick around, or just enough to let them defend themselves on the way back to the barn to re-arm. Granted, in anti-'Shipping Stars this ammo lasts the full ten turns (being that you can't fire both Ultras at once), but still.... :-\
ALTERNATE VERSIONS: The CHH
Xerxes 2 is a step in the right direction, trading the ammo-hog Ultra-20s for Gauss Rifles: alpha-strikes are now possible (though your heatscale will still climb, albeit not terribly fast), you don't have to risk point-blank return fire, and the ammo lasts longer (though the throw-weight is effectively halved). This one's a long-range fencer, not a mugger like the original, but the same principles apply: do your damage and go home before the return fire hits something important through that tissue-paper you're wearing.
RECOMMENDATIONS - USE: I'd deploy
Xerxes Points or Stars against DropShips and larger vessels, using max-thrust slashing attacks to get in, inflict massive damage with those twin BFGs, then using the next turn or two to extend and cool off without firing anything; turn back in, lather, rinse, repeat as necessary. By preference, I'd use two or more such units, each pair of
Xerxes formations zig-zagging across the target's base course (and crossing each other over the target) as they made simultaneous firing passes (to stretch the defences) then extended to cool off and let other units make similar passes. When you run out of ammo, disengage and go home to re-arm. If there's anything left of the target by the time you get back into the fight, start the whole process all over again. The SLDF-era vessels fielded by most Clans, the ones with only capital missiles for ASF defence, are your prey of choice; avoid anything built recently, since they actually have anti-fighter arrays worth the name. DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO A SLUGGING MATCH.
The
Xerxes' inadequate cooling prevents
Xerxes Stars from using both UAC bays simultaneously in the anti-'Shipping role, which is rather disappointing. Nonetheless, if one uses the lasers at Extreme and Long range, then immediately transitions to firing only one Ultra, you can make a hell of a mess - a full Star generates a 20-Capital laser bay and two 30-Capital Ultra bays, which can shatter most civilian 'Ships in one volley and tear large, bloody holes into anything military. Even the toughest of WarShips should watch out for
Xerxes Stars. Still and all, what's the point of having all that firepower if you can't use all of it effectively?
By preference, you shouldn't engage fighters at all, but if you must, or if you have an opportunity to finish a cripple in one pass, once again the
Xerxes is the master of the slashing attack. Use full-thrust to get close, hit hard, and get out before the other guy realises what the hell hit him. DO NOT GET SUCKED INTO A SLUGGING MATCH - most other heavies can take far more punishment that you can, and some have the arsenals and the heat-efficiency to dish out more, too. DO NOT ENGAGE ANYTHING SMALLER THAN 70 TONS - the
Xerxes has no defence against 'tailing' and has no business inviting a turning engagement with more agile aircraft that can and will crit the hell out of you.
Either way, get into an extended engagement and you'll get handed your lunch, so DON'T DO IT. As a ground-attack aircraft, bomb the hell out of them (if you have bombs), then make strike attacks with your UACs. Don't stick around, especially once your bomb-racks are clean and your magazines empty - the amount of damage two C/ERLLs will put on a target (either in a strike or a strafe) just isn't worth the ground fire you'll take. Fuel-state or not, three passes is the absolute maximum safe loiter time - anything more is begging for a Darwin Award candidacy.
RECOMMENDATIONS - COUNTERING: To take down a
Xerxes with minimum risk, make maximum use of stand-off engagements, especially with long-range weapons with damage 5 or more - large LRM racks, ER lasers and PPCs, AC/5s and UAC/5s, any class-ten AC, or Gauss Rifles (light or standard). Even if you don't kill him outright, all those threshold criticals will ruin his day but good.
Alternately, you could go for the 'Titanium Testicles' approach and engage at close range with a more agile aerofighter, evading his fire while hoping for threshold crits, preferably from the flanks or behind.
Sparrowhawks,
Seydlitz and
Sholagars, or Clan
Bashkirs,
Chaeroneas,
Avars or
Batus, are the vehicles of choice for this 'death of a thousand cuts' approach, though I wish you luck - one slip and there won't be enough left of your bird to make a decent tinfoil wrapping for your ashes.
All proposed fan-variants - including my own - belong in the corresponding "FotW Workshop" thread: http://www.classicbattletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=807.0 . Be advised: the attached .txt transcripts 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. ;) FWIW, my current intentions are to repost at least one FotW per night, but I'll try to accelerate that where I can, since such a pace would mean I'd be at this most of the year(! :o) even without any new content (:().