Tell me about...the Merlin Class Dropship

[Alan Grant]

I haven't used this one at all. I thought the artwork for it in TRO: Experimental (The Merlin R1 with sub cap lasers) made the Merlin look a lot sleeker and cooler, especially for a spheroid dropship. Offhand I like the speed profile and the amount of firepower in the nose (in the original, not talking about the R1 version)

What are your thoughts? How does it stack up against contemporary attack droppers of similar size?

[Welshman]

I'm very mixed on this craft. If it were an older design, it could stand to reason the flaws. But as a modern design it has a stack full of flaws.

Spheroid: On the surface, this is a good thing. Unfortunately the lack of Aft Side weapons means it has blind spots. Smaller than aerodynes, but still unnecessary.

Weapons: The nose is packed with firepower. Then again, it's spread out between short and long range. The side firepower is strictly short range. Combined with no aft side weapons it means anything with long range guns can park off at range and pummel the Merlin. The aft guns are more an annoyance than a threat to anything but light fighters.

Armor: You can hold off against a medium squadron for a short while, but against a heavy squadron or most assault DropShips, it will crumple quickly.

Speed: One of the few saving graces. It has more thrust than most heavy fighters and heavy assault DropShips. It isn't enough to avoid assaults by medium fighters and fast assaults like the Avenger and Achilles. And with those short ranged side arcs, even a Seydlitz squadron could be a fatal threat to a Merlin.

Overall I'd give it a 4/10 score. In the Star League it would be worth a use, but in modern times it needs heavy support to be viable.

[Jellico]

Oh, I don't know.

The classic Merlin has to be used like an aerodyne. Under basic rules it has heat issues which limit how the side arcs can be used when firing the bow weapons anyway. There is a typo in TRO3067 which makes the side lasers regular rather than ER, though the heat and range stay the same. I tend to find the ship works best in slashing attacks with other Merlins in a mutual support role.

As for the Merlin R1. It gained AMS and capital ranged weapons. I guess the raw numbers tell the story. At 12 hexes a R1 will be doing 8 points of damage. At the same range a classic Merlin will be doing 13 with an extra ASF and much more cargo capacity. Those capital weapons weigh a lot. Thats the big problem with the R1. It has limited stand off capability, but in space it is very hard to stop an enemy closing.

[Wrangler]

I like the Merlin Ngake variant from XTRO: Marik.  I think that was improvement, better range and a floating Artillery piece in space for desperate Regulans.  Too bad there aren't more of them.