Hawkmoth
| Hawkmoth | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Faction | Inner Sphere | |
| Ticket cost: | 5 upon destruction | |
| Tier: | {{{Tier}}} | |
| Speed: | 170 km/h | |
| Variant Armament | ||
| Variant | Weapons | Equipment |
| Prime: Price: 47 750 CBills Total armor: 17 249 |
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| A: Price: 45 000 CBills Total armor: 17 249 |
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| B: Price: 54 200 CBills Total armor: 22 769 |
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| C: Price: 48 300 CBills Total armor: 14 490 |
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| D: Price: 48 250 CBills Total armor: 17 249 |
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| E: Price: 46 500 CBills Total armor: 17 249 |
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| F: Price: 62 500 CBills Total armor: 17 249 |
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| G: Price: 55 800 CBills Total armor: 17 249 |
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All stats current as of release 0.15.3
The Hawkmoth is a light VTOL available to the Inner Sphere. Relatively decent armor mixed with high mobility allows it to survive prolonged periods of time over the front-line, keeping fire on opponents below. The greatest weakness of the Hawkmoth is its poor weaponry, comparable to a light hovertank.
Contents
Roles and Gameplay Hints
Prime
A long-range sniper variant. Probably most suitable for typical gunship duty - it can pop-up from behind cover at extreme range, fire a single damaging projectile, then hide before the enemy manages to return fire. The greatest problem of this variant is lack of damage potential. While the Light Gauss Rifle has incredible range, it also has a poor damage profile, meaning that this unit should prey on the wounded and focus fire on units that are retreating from the front-line for repairs.
Variant A
A multipurpose variant loaded up with medium and short range weaponry. Typical usage relies heavily upon strafing targets from one point of cover to the next, each trip becoming more dangerous unless alternative routes are used during each strafe.
Variant B
The B variant replaces the standard LGauss with a Thunderbolt 15 launcher and a TAG, trading direct-fire capacity for more damage and some limited fire support capabilities. An additional 3 ERSL allow it to not be completely helpless when out of thunderbolt missles. Much like the Prime, the B can paint a target outside the range of most weapons, then move in to unleash a TBolt strike and move out before ground units can blast it out of the sky. Like most Hawkmoths, the B is largely helpless against other air assets and lacks the firepower to deliver a decisive blow to a tough enemy.
Variant C
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Variant D
Piloted well, the Hawkmoth D can be a real irritant for an enemy force. Its PPC provides a relatively strong long-range punch, backed by a pair of SRM4 racks. BAP enables better situational awareness, making this variant a decent brawler.
Variant E
This variant of the Hawkmoth carries a LXPLs and 2 LRM5 into battle, giving it ample direct and indirect firepower for most Air to Ground applications.
Variant F "Evil Eye"
Effectively a flying Raven Prime, the Hawkmoth F carries the same iNARC system plus TAG for painting targets for missile attacks. The F also carries BHP C3 and GECM, which combined with its better targeting angles from being airborne as well as its greater speed, this variant can be used as a good stand-in for a Raven on maps where speed is of greater importance than armor. Outside of the NARC, the F carries only two MGs which can be ineffective vs armored ground targets.
Variant G
The G Variant offers better damage output than the Prime variant and can pull limited AA duty, but otherwise fills much the same role at a closer range. The combination of 2 SPL 2 MG and a RAC5 means that a lot of lead is going to be falling on the target, but all five weapons perform poorly against targets with heavy armor, meaning that this VTOL is meant to be hunting Light 'Mechs, Aerospace Fighters and other VTOLs. Operating at closer ranges than those possible with the more sniper-oriented Hawkmoths opens this variant up to a lot of anti-aircraft fire.
Trivia
Up until version 0.7.0 there was no Hawkmoth D available ingame, because the name was considered "reserved" for an imaginary asset. The Hawkmoth D was a variant set up by KingLeerUK, one of the MWLL team's Lead Developers. The proposed configuration was 4 Long Tom, 6 Heavy Gauss, 8 RAC20, 1 MG with additional 4 LAMS, GECM, BHP and C3. See original post. The Hawkmoth D quickly became a common in-joke of the forum community, and is sometimes mentioned in discussions about alternate variants and anything regarding "overkill". There are promotional posters near some spawn points, showing Hawkmoth D advertisements.
Canon
The Hawk Moth is the lighter cousin of the immensely popular Yellow Jacket VTOL. Another Michaelson Heavy Industries design, the Hawk Moth was designed around the Light Gauss, just as the Yellow Jacket was around the larger Gauss Rifle. Using the weight saved by the smaller weapon, the Hawk Moth can zip along at up to 130kph and also carries enough ammunition for a prolonged engagement at extreme stand-off range. However, it carries very light armor, and stands very little chance of survival when engaging outside the environment for which it was designed.
BattleTech Reference
