Catalyst 35TR104 - Recognition Guide - ilClan vol. 04 [2020].pdf

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REC OG NI TI ON G U I DE : ILCLAN
VOLUME 04
STAR
LEAGUE
SUCCESSION
WARS
CLAN
INVASION
CIVIL WAR
JIHAD
DARK AGE
ILCLAN
C A T A LY S T G A M E L A B S
INTRODUCTION
RECOGNITION GUIDE: ILCLAN VOL. 04
sa
F
actor
,
3
Words which once seemed impossible now seem inevitable: the ilClan is nigh.
The turbulence of the last two decades has brought several of our fellow Clans to Terra’s doorstep, to say nothing of the Inner Sphere powers which gaze upon humanity’s
birthplace with hungry eyes. But we know our people, we know their aggression. One of them will move to take Terra first and claim the mantle of ilClan, however briefly. If
they intend to hold it, however, they will need new hardware—and, as ever, we stand ready to deliver. For a price.
Contained within these volumes is that hardware. It is an intriguing combination of all-new BattleMech designs and retrofits of existing Inner Sphere and Clan designs
with weapons and equipment suitable for modern combat. All are in our inventories or otherwise obtainable, and I have instructed all Merchant Caste personnel under my
command above the rank of Point Merchant to familiarize themselves with the contents of these reports and be ready to negotiate terms for any merchandise herein. I hope
you will assist me, “old friend,” with their distribution across all Khanates.
The wheel of power is poised to spin once more, but we must be the axle on which it revolves. Who winds up atop that wheel, and who is crushed beneath it, matters
little as long as we profit from each turn.
—Merchant Colonel Reece, aboard CSF
Atlantean,
Skate Khanate, 14 November 3150
Welcome to
Recognition Guide: ilClan,
a supplement offering players exciting new ’Mech variants rooted in the closing days of the Dark Age era and the transition
to the ilClan era. Inside, you’ll discover a mix of all-new ’Mechs only recently seen on battlefields of the Inner Sphere, alongside modern refits of long-existing and much-
loved units.
Each volume of
Recognition Guide: ilClan
includes full,
Technical Readout-style
entries on new ’Mechs or significant rebuilds of existing designs; a selection of brief write-
ups on existing variants; notable pilots for each ’Mech, and record sheets for immediate game use.
Special attention has been given to ’Mechs which were redesigned as part of the
BattleTech: Clan Invasion
Kickstarter, to ensure that these brand-new miniatures have a
place in games set in the Dark Age. Many of these units have torn apart battlefields of the Inner Sphere for hundreds of years. With these guides, they will continue to do so
for hundreds more.
CREDITS
Project Development:
Johannes Heidler
Development Assistance:
Aaron Cahall, Chris Wheeler
BattleTech Line Developer:
Ray Arrastia
Writing:
Matt Cross, Edward McEneely, Mike Miller, Lance Scarinci,
Patrick Wynne
BattleTech Line Editor:
Aaron Cahall
Production Staff
Art Director:
Anthony Scroggins
Assistant Art Director:
Ray Arrastia
Cover Design and Layout:
David A. Kerber
Illustrations:
Alan Blackwell, Harri Kallio, Matt Plog, Anthony Scroggins
Record Sheets:
Dave Nawton, Carl Spain, Matt Wilsbacher
Proofers, Core Fact Checkers, and Unit Design:
Ray Arrastia,
Matt Cross, Joshua Franklin, William Gauthier, Keith Hann,
Mike Miller, Joshua Perian, Luke Robertson, Lance Scarinci,
Matt Wilsbacher
Additional Fact Checkers:
Stephan Frabartolo, Eric Salzman
Special Thanks:
To the fans whose projects that have kept the
BattleTech
flame going in the community—especially Scott
Bukoski and Matt McLaine. To Joshua F. for his magnanimity,
to Chris W. for keeping me honest, and to Ray for our pact.
FIND US ONLINE
precentor_martial@catalystgamelabs.com
(e-mail address for any
BattleTech
questions)
http://bg.battletech.com/
(official
BattleTech
web pages)
http://www.CatalystGameLabs.com
(Catalyst web pages)
http://www.store.catalystgamelabs.com
(online ordering)
Published by Catalyst Game Labs,
an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC.
7108 S. Pheasant Ridge Dr. • Spokane, WA 99224
35TR104
Under License From
®
©2020 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Recognition Guide: IlClan, BattleTech, ’Mech, BattleMech, MechWarrior and Topps logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. in the
United States and/or other countries. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Copyright Owner, nor be
otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC.
WASP
light
’MECH
and expendable design. (Claims that the SLDF classified
the
Wasp
as a “unit of ammunition” rather than a
BattleMech in its logistics systems are, however, wholly
untrue). Systems were designed with rugged simplicity
and ease of replacement in mind. Similarly, the
weapons suite was intended to give the
Wasp
staying
power without resupply. More
Wasps
were destroyed
by ammunition explosions over the last 650 years than
ever ran dry in combat.
Irian BattleMechs Unlimited produced the lion’s share
of
Wasps
for the Free Worlds League—and by extension,
the rest of the Inner Sphere—for many years. Irian found
little reason to alter their production lines after rolling out
the WSP-3M in 3051, declining to involve themselves in
the redesigns of the late 3060s. All that changed with the
collapse of the Free Worlds League during the Jihad and
the subsequent formation of the Republic of the Sphere.
As demand for BattleMechs plummeted, shareholder
pressure compelled IBU to act. Their WSP-5A focused on
boosting the speed and maneuverability of the
Wasp
while adhering closely to the original weapons loadout.
Sales so far have justified the revamp.
The
Wasp’s
arm-mounted laser has long been its
“main gun.” With their typical sober disdain for excess,
the Wolf Empire’s engineers were able to squeeze a
mammoth Series 6b laser into the right arm of their
Wasp
C,
a testament to the flexibility of GM’s original design. The
additional firepower comes in handy, since the
Wasp C
is
hard-pressed to escape ’Mechs twice its size.
BATTLE HISTORY
Owing to its size and intended role, the
Wasp
has rarely
played a prominent or decisive part in battles. However,
Tai-i
Mercer Ravannion’s experimentation with mixed
Wasp/Stinger
swarms has become the stuff of legend,
despite his fighting only three actions in the four years
between his initial advocacy of the tactic and his death
at the hands of McKinnon’s Raiders in 3023.
Ravannion’s second battle, in 3022, was the purest
expression of his tactics, with the Combine scraping
together a full battalion’s worth of
Wasps
leavened
with some
Stingers
to test the theory. In an era when
possession of a BattleMech represented a substantial
store of social capital, the commitment of thirty-five
trained MechWarriors to Ravannion’s plan was evidence
of high-level support within the DCMS. Everything went
wrong for the Combine battalion. Ravannion personally
selected a frigid, barren plain for his landing site,
reasoning it would enable his light ’Mechs to more easily
outflank the Davion defenders. Instead, the freezing
4
temperatures wreaked havoc with the light ’Mechs, many
of which were years overdue for refit (as was often the
case during the Succession Wars), and the lack of cover
meant that Davion MechWarriors could use their much-
maligned
Blackjacks’
autocannons to their full potential.
The limited striking power of these weapons against
heavier ’Mechs was little comfort to Kuritan
Wasp
and
Stinger
pilots who found their armor penetrated at ranges
far in excess of their own. When exhorted to close, they
found themselves facing massed medium lasers, and
casualties ran high. Davion gun camera footage was
later used in a successful General Motors ad campaign
for refurbished
Blackjacks,
ads which are said to have
exerted a strong influence on First Prince Hanse Davion
and ensured a steady stream of development contracts
for that little-loved ’Mech.
A happier incident in which the
Wasp
featured
prominently came when elements of the Wolf Empire’s
Theta Galaxy, equipped with new
Wasp Cs,
raided into
the Lyran Commonwealth and struck at the crack Eighth
Donegal Guards on Caledonia. The raid was launched
with more enthusiasm than skill, enabling the Lyran
unit to execute a pincer attack and cut the Wolf raiders
off from their DropShips. But the awesome firepower of
the
Wasp C’s
arm-mounted laser let a recon Star cut its
way through the Donegal Guards’ light units standing
between them and their ride off-world. Casualties for the
Wolf forces were heavy, but the
Wasp C
pilots who fell
died gloriously, enhancing the design’s standing within
the Empire.
VARIANTS
IBU’s WSP-3M, though eclipsed by the faster -5A,
remains a rugged and dependable design. While Irian
no longer produces it, they buy back existing models
to refurbish for resale to those who cannot afford the
top-tier WSP-5A.
During the Federated Suns and Lyran
Commonwealth alliance, the Lyrans took the lead in
developing the
Wasp
with their WSP-1S, which utilized all
energy weapons, bolstered the design’s thin armor, and
was intended to be the standard model for the Federated
Commonwealth. Later, both nations produced Project
Phoenix models post-Civil War.
Wolf’s Dragoons had perhaps the most bizarre
model of the
Wasp,
the -3W produced specially for them
by House Davion, with paper-thin armor and a battery
of small lasers. Shortly before the Jihad, after repeated
adverse experiences with the design in combat, they
replaced it with the improved WSP-4W.
Introduced barely thirty years after the first
Mackie
strode
onto the proving grounds at Yakima, the
Wasp
was widely
touted at its unveiling as the fastest BattleMech in mass
production, and it has stood the test of time. From the
Star League era to the brutal grind of the Succession
Wars and beyond, the
Wasp
consistently evolved to
remain competitive, helped in no small part by its ease
of construction and widespread availability.
While some variants in the last century dramatically
altered the “classic” look of the
Wasp,
the exterior
changed little at the Free Worlds League factories
where nearly 50 percent of the Inner Sphere’s output
of the design rolled off the lines. Thanks to the Wolf
Empire’s conquest of Kalidasa and subsequent ramping
up of
Wasp
production, not even the
Locust
or
Stinger
outnumber it in modern times.
Other light ’Mechs produced by the Star League
were faster or boasted more firepower, but the Camerons
were never ones to let quality act as a barrier to quantity,
and the
Wasp
was produced in eye-watering numbers.
When the SLDF discovered after a hundred and ten
years of mass production that the
Wasp’s
legs had an
alarming propensity to shear clean off when performing
a “Death from Above,” so many were in service that
to decommission them would have represented a
significant diminution of the SLDF’s ’Mech forces.
Instead, the League scrambled to refit all
Wasps
with
new monomolecular stress-resistant actuator bars, a
task so monumental that it took thirty years to complete.
Even today, some elderly variants can be found in
neglected backwaters that managed to elude the SLDF
Quartermaster Corps.
CAPABILITIES
When General Mechanics designed the
Wasp,
their
focus was on producing a low-cost, simple-to-maintain,
WASP
WSP-5A WASP
Mass:
20 tons
Chassis:
Irian Chassis Fourth Generation
Class 20 Endo-Composite
Power Plant:
Hermes 160 XL
Cruising Speed:
86 kph
Maximum Speed:
129 kph
Jump Jets:
Rawlings 52
Jump Capacity:
240 meters
Armor:
Jolassa-328 Ferro-Fibrous with CASE II
Armament:
1 Magna MK VI Extended-Range Medium Laser
1 Holly Streak SRM 2 Pack
Manufacturer:
Irian BattleMechs Unlimited
Primary Factory:
Shiro III, Irian
Communications System:
Irian E.A.R.
Targeting and Tracking System:
Wasat Aggressor
Technology Base: Inner Sphere
Tonnage: 20
Role: Scout
Battle Value: 517
5
Equipment
Internal Structure: Endo-Composite
Engine:
160 XL
Walking MP:
8
Running MP:
12
Jumping MP:
8
Heat Sinks:
10
Gyro (XL):
Cockpit:
Armor Factor (Ferro):
53
Internal
Structure
3
6
5
3
4
Mass
1.5
3
Weapons and Ammo
ER Medium Laser
Ammo (Streak) 50
CASE II
Streak SRM 2
Jump Jet
3 Jump Jets
3 Jump Jets
Jump Jet
Location
RA
LT
LT
LL
RL
RT
LT
LL
Critical
1
1
1
1
1
3
3
1
Tonnage
1
1
1
1.5
.5
1.5
1.5
.5
0
1
3
3
Head
Center Torso
Center Torso (rear)
R/L Torso
R/L Torso (rear)
R/L Arm
R/L Leg
Armor
Value
6
7
2
6
2
5
6
Notes:
Features the following Design Quirks: Easy To Maintain,
Extended Torso Twist, Ubiquitous.
WASP C
Mass:
20 tons
Chassis:
Irian Chassis Second Generation
Class 20 Endo Steel
Power Plant:
Magna 120
Cruising Speed:
64 kph
Maximum Speed:
97 kph
Jump Jets:
Rawlings 52
Jump Capacity:
180 meters
Armor:
Type-1 Ferro Fibrous
Armament:
1 Series 6b Extended-Range Large Laser (Clan)
1 Pattern J2 Improved One-Shot Streak SRM 2
Launcher (Clan)
Manufacturer:
Kali Yama
Primary Factory:
Kalidasa
Communications System:
Irian E.A.R.
Targeting and Tracking System:
Wasat Aggressor
Technology Base: Mixed Inner Sphere
Tonnage: 20
Role: Sniper
Battle Value: 755
Equipment
Internal Structure:
Endo Steel
Engine:
120
Walking MP:
6
Running MP:
9
Jumping MP:
6
Heat Sinks (C):
10 [20]
Gyro:
Cockpit:
Armor Factor (Ferro, C):
48
Internal
Structure
3
6
5
3
4
Mass
1
4
0
2
3
2.5
Armor
Value
4
6
4
6
2
4
5
Weapons and Ammo
ER Large Laser (C)
Streak SRM 2 (I-OS, C)
Jump Jet
Jump Jet
2 Jump Jets
Jump Jet
Jump Jet
Location
RA
LL
RL
RT
CT
LT
LL
Critical
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
Tonnage
4
.5
.5
.5
1
.5
.5
Notes:
Features the following Design Quirks: Easy To Maintain,
Extended Torso Twist, Ubiquitous.
Head
Center Torso
Center Torso (rear)
R/L Torso
R/L Torso (rear)
R/L Arm
R/L Leg

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