The Stormwolf was introduced at the end of the Dark Age era as Clan Wolf prepared for their assault on Terra. With demand for new ’Mechs exceeding their own manufacturing capabilities, they turned to Clan Sea Fox to deliver a new medium OmniMech. The collaboration used Clan Nova Cat’s Wendigo as a starting point but made several major changes. The cockpit was moved from the torso into a wolf-like head that brought the aesthetics of the design in line with other Clan Wolf designs like the Wulfen and Warwolf. Fixing MASC, a supercharger, jump jets, and an anti-missile system made the design less flexible and pushed it into a fast skirmisher role.
Both Clan Wolf and Clan Sea Fox are able to manufacture the Stormwolf. As the ilClan era dawns, it has also been seen in the forces of the Clan Protectorate, Rasalhague Dominion, and Wolf’s Dragoons.
Read This First
- Use your mobility to stay around 10-14 hexes from enemy forces and be a difficult target
- Use your MASC and supercharger sparingly to help you control range and be hard to hit
- Firing 5 shot bursts will usually be the most efficient way to use your rotary autocannon
- When possible, favor taking fire from energy weapons rather than ballistics or missiles
Stormwolf Prime
- Role: Striker
- Tech Base: Clan (3149)
- Chassis: 50 tons (Endo Steel)
- Movement: 6 / 9 (15), XL
- Jumping: 6
- Armor: 160 (Laser Reflective)
- Heat Sinks: 10 (20)
- Weapons:
- RAC/5 (ammo: 60)
- ER Medium Laser
- Equipment:
- Laser Anti-Missile System
- MASC
- Supercharger
- Light TAG
- CASE II
- Cost: 19,813,125 C-Bills
- Battle Value: 2,788 + TAG adjustment
Mobility
The Stormwolf’s equipment gives it a lot of options for moving around the battlefield. It starts with a slightly above average speed for its tonnage at 6 walking MP and 9 running MP. Then it has both a supercharger and MASC that can allow it to boost its running speed up to a maximum of 15 MP. For dealing with rough terrain, it has 6 jump jets that can allow it to clear rivers, buildings, and hills. For evasion, running full speed can give the Stormwolf an impressive +4 target movement modifier and jumping can give it a +3 modifier.
A MechWarrior does need to be careful about using their full running speed. Both MASC and the supercharger carry risk each time that they are enabled and using the same system multiple turns in a row greatly increases that risk. In order to protect its mobility, those systems should only be used when a MechWarrior needs them to either increase their target movement modifier or get to a more favorable range from a target.
Durability
The Stormwolf is fairly durable for its tonnage. It is protected by 160 points of reflective armor which is 95% of the maximum for its chassis. The reflective armor increases its protection against energy weapons, so against an adversary using only energy weapons, its armor is instead comparable to an assault ’Mech. The Stormwolf’s anti-missile system then adds protection against missiles by reducing the number of missiles that will impact it. A drawback of the reflective armor is that it makes the Stormwolf more vulnerable to physical attacks, falling damage, artillery, and bombs.
Underneath its armor, the Stormwolf Prime carries a large amount of explosive ammunition in its left torso. If a critical hit occurs there, it has a 27% chance to strike ammo. That risk is mitigated by a CASE II system that gives the Stormwolf a good chance of keeping its torso relatively intact even if there is an explosion.
Weaponry
The Prime configuration’s offensive abilities are built around a rotary autocannon. Its only secondary weapon is an ER medium laser. The autocannon gives it the same range as long-range missiles, and the ER laser still has a fairly long range of 15 hexes.
The rotary autocannon presents a MechWarrior with a tradeoff between damage output and the risk of jamming the weapon:
| Shots Fired | Expected Hits | Jam Percentage |
| 1 | 1.0 | 0% |
| 2 | 1.4 | 3% |
| 3 | 2.0 | 3% |
| 4 | 2.6 | 8% |
| 5 | 3.2 | 8% |
| 6 | 4.0 | 17% |
Given that risk, a MechWarrior needs to weigh the likelihood of scoring hits against how much of a problem a jam would be for them. The high risk of jamming on 6 shot bursts means that many MechWarriors will opt for using 5 shot bursts as their default with rotary autocannons. If the target number for an attack is high enough though, a 1 or 3 round burst may be a better choice to preserve ammunition and minimize the jamming risk. Luckily for a Stormwolf’s MechWarrior, its mobility means that it can generally disengage in order to more safely unjam its autocannon when it does have problems.
That weapon mix means that a Stormwolf Prime has no reason to move closer than 5 hexes away from a target since its expected damage output doesn’t increase any at shorter ranges than that. It is also well suited to operating at ranges out to the autocannon’s medium range of 14 hexes.
The Prime configuration’s weapons give it a relatively limited firing arc. Both are torso mounted, so they can only fire the direction that it is facing. A MechWarrior can’t fire at enemies that manage to get behind it, so they will need to use their own mobility to prevent that from happening.
The Stormwolf carries three tons of ammunition for its autocannon. That gives its 60 shots, but at its max rate of fire it uses up 6 of those each round. If a MechWarrior sticks to 5 round bursts, then they have 12 rounds of shooting which should be enough for most engagements. A MechWarrior should keep an eye on their situation though and lower their rate of fire if they anticipate a longer battle.
Heat Management
The Stormwolf Prime’s cooling system can handle its heat level without many issues. Its offensive weaponry generates a maximum of 11 heat, its anti-missile system can add 5 more, and then jumping can add 6. That total of 22 heat slightly exceeds the cooling power of its 10 double heat sinks, but that will only be an issue when both jumping and using its anti-missile system, and one turn without one of those will cool it back off. That means that a MechWarrior shouldn’t have to hold back due to heat levels.
Brawling
Due to its brittle armor and weapon range, a MechWarrior should keep the Stormwolf out of arm’s reach of their enemies. If it does find itself stuck in a brawl, both of its arms have full actuator sets and can punch for 5 damage each. It can also kick for 10 damage, but that gives it a chance to fall which can also shatter its reflective armor.
OmniMech Chassis
The Stormwolf chassis is capable of being configured with different equipment. The fixed MASC, supercharger, jump jets, and anti-missile system limit the amount that a MechWarrior can customize it though. With those systems using up tonnage and occupying critical slots, the Stormwolf only has 15 tons of available pod space and only its side torsos have enough room to accommodate much equipment.
| Capacity | 15 tons |
| Head | none |
| Center Torso | none |
| Right Torso | 8 slots |
| Left Torso | 6 slots |
| Right Arm | 4-6 slots |
| Left Arm | 3-5 slots |
| Right Leg | none |
| Left Leg | none |
As an OmniMech, the Stormwolf can carry mechanized battle armor, but it is poorly suited to that role. While it has the mobility to be a good transport, its combat role wants it to maintain more distance from enemy units than ideal for dropping off infantry. While a battle armor unit is mounted on it, it also loses the ability to fire any of its weapon systems.
Other Capabilities
The Prime configuration is equipped with a Light TAG system that allows it to designate targets for its allies. The target designation is useful when the Stormwolf is operating with the support of artillery or missile boats that need a target spotted for indirect fire. Unfortunately, using the Light TAG means that the Stormwolf has to get closer to its targets than ideal since it has a much shorter range than the configuration’s weapons.
Cost & Upkeep
As a cutting-edge Clan OmniMech, the Stormwolf carries a big price tag. It makes use of endo steel, laser reflective armor, and an XL engine that all contribute to that cost. During a campaign, the Prime configuration can easily chew through 3 tons of ammunition each battle, so it requires a solid logistics infrastructure to keep it in the fight.
When using the Warchest Point system, these are the expected costs for the Stormwolf Prime:
| Action | Clan Cost | Inner Sphere Cost |
| Purchase | 1,000 SP | 2,000 SP |
| Armor Repair | 50 SP | 100 SP |
| Structure Repair | 100 SP | 200 SP |
| Reload | 20-30 SP | 40-60 SP |
| Reconfigure | 13 SP | 25 SP |
Miniature
A metal Stormwolf Prime miniature is available from Iron Wind Metals. The model has one annoyingly small piece for its TAG system but is otherwise a great miniature.
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