The Kit Fox (Uller) is an ancient design, predated by only the Nova (Black Hawk) and possibly the Summoner (Thor) out of the Omnis of TRO:3050 (the Fire Moth and Executioner appear to be undated in that book). Despite being very advanced in terms of construction materials (it utilises all four forms of advanced construction endo steel, ferro-fibrous armour, DHS and XL engine), its 180 year life-span shows very much when compared to newer designs.
The Kit Fox was an original design of Clan Cloud Cobra, debuting in 2890. After an early string of impressive victories against Clans Coyote and Jade Falcon, the latter made sure to win the production rights in a Trial of Possession and quickly made the Uller their standard light OmniMech. (TRO:3050U, p.118) The Snow Ravens, traditionally a Clan close to the Cloud Cobras, traded for the manufacturing rights. These factions continue to manufacture the Kit Fox to this day and are the only regular users of the chassis, with one noticeable exception: Clan Blood Spirit. Apparently the Snow Ravens trade the design with the Blood Spirits on a regular basis, meaning that the Kit Fox is the fifth OmniMech (together with Stooping Hawk, Crimson Langur, Battle Cobra and Crossbow) which the smallest Clan can field with any reliability. [This bit of news was noted with a certain amount of surprise in the Falcon Watch and is certain to catch the attention of the Star Adders, too, quiaff? - Late addition: the newest reports seem to indicate that the 'Mech reserves of the Spirits have been all but annihilated, so this conclusion may already be out of date.]
Finally, this Mech is also manufactured by the Wolfs Dragoons. How is this possible? The Wolves do not manufacture it, but the Dragoons do? Of course, it is one of the oldest Omnis still in use, but nevertheless, this seems very strange.
Now, what exactly is a standard light OmniMech? I hold this to be a legitimate question, because if the Kit Fox is any sort of standard, the answer does not automatically present itself. At all.
With a speed of 6/9 and a pod space of 16 tons, the Kit Fox falls right into the niche of the Adder (Puma) its derivatives. However, it does not mount more than 4 tons of armour. These are not even placed following the rules of smart armour allocation (as a reminder: smart armour allocation). Any Mech that is so relatively slow and carries such a huge percentage of its own weight as weapons (53%, eking out the Dire Wolf to take the price as the most heavily armed 3050 omni, in terms of firepower as a percentage of total weight incidentally, the absolute lead is shared by the Nova Cat and the Cougar, with a good 54%, while the Savage Coyote is also at 53%) needs to survive at least a single hit of a head-capper to any vital location (legs, torsos). This is totally ignored by the Kit Foxs design, where side torsos and legs both have a total internal structure *and* armour value of 15. That may be great against Clan medium lasers, but the real threats are the big guns that are liable to shoot back at the Kit Fox. And it would be ideal to survive more than one turn of shooting, quiaff?
As it is, the Mech is completely redundant for most Clans. It is convincingly outclassed by the Adder, which is a similar design but carries 1.5 times the armour. The Pouncer even adds jump jets. And the Hellion, of equal weight, demonstrates that the 30-ton class can well support the Adders armour and increase the speed by one point while still carrying 11.5 tons of pod space!! It is of small wonder that we Jade Falcons are currently replacing the Kit Fox with the Cougar and Fire Falcon. The Kit Fox neither works as a light front-line fighter nor as a scout/striker.
Hence, the crux of the Kif Fox is similar to the Hellbringers. It needs to justify its existence by presenting dangerous configurations within the envelope of its (relatively) huge pod space, yet an aggressive weapons load will only compound the problems caused by the miniscule armour. As a dangerous Mech it will receive a lot of enemy attention and thus succumb to damage even quicker. As thus the measure of a good configuration will also be its realistic chance of survival.
Primary configuration ERLL, LBX5(20), SSRM4(25), SPL. The primary configuration may not be the most dangerous one, but in light of above analysis, it is probably the one fitting the chassis best. [As such it continues the trend of my previous articles on the Mist Lynx and Black Lanner.] It can certainly hurt an enemy an alpha strike will do an average of 24 damage. More importantly, the two main weapons have a respective range of 25 and 24, more than even the average long range weapons (and any weapons dealing those deadly 15-point impacts). The SPL has become more useful recently, but then again: why would this dedicated sniper ever come close to infantry? The configuration is not optimal, but it will not be high on the enemys kill priority, either. I would recommend this configuration for most Kit Fox pilots.
Configuration A Gauss, 2 ERML. This is undoubtedly the most deadly Kit Fox configuration. But by fielding the Gauss, it will always also be in the enemys Gauss or ERPPC range. It has no defensive systems and will quickly succumb to the attention it will undoubtedly attract.
Configuration B UAC10(20), ERML, SRM6(15), ERSL. To Inner Sphere surats, this may seem very similar to the Primary configuration. And indeed, it also sports an AC, SRM rack and two lasers. Even more significantly, in both the old and new bidding value [BV] systems, the point costs of both configurations lay within 1% of each other! Yet, accounting for all the previously mentioned factors, where the Primary configuration succeeds (though by definition does not excel), configuration B fails miserably. By the time its own AC comes into range, the Mech may well be disabled. And all other weapon systems are also of shorter range than their counterpart on the Prime. On top of that, its damage potential is not that much better to actually warrant a charge into suicidal ranges.
Configuration C ERLL, SPL, 2 MG(200), 3 AMS(96), 2 A-Pod, Probe, TAG, ECM. This is another variation on the Primary configuration, exchanging the ballistic for anti-infantry weaponry and a complete electronic package. This certainly made sense at the time of its introduction, when normal infantry was still common even in Clan space. However, times have changed since then. The Clans mostly use Battle Armour, and Inner Sphere infantry generally hides in buildings the Kit Fox C however lacks jump jets, severely reducing its utility in urban environments. And while MG, SPL and A-Pods do excel at killing PBI, 5 tons of AMS equipment is extremely foolhardy in view of recent developments in ammunition technology [TW rules].
Configuration D 2 LRM15(32), LRM5(24), NARC(6). Even in my simulator training days [MW2], this was my favourite configuration. Somehow, it seems to combine a lot of positive traits: long range, serious throw weight, yet a lower threat status than configurations A, E, W, etc. This is also reflected in its bidding value [BV2] which, at 1142, borders on the low end of standard variants. All in all, this configuration is recommended, as long as the pilot remembers the dire limitations of the chassis and the fact that in no way can he avoid dangerous return fire (unlike the Primary configuration).
Configuration E ERPPC, ERSL, ATM3(60), 2 DHS, 6 JJ. Even with some other good configurations to come, I hold this one to be the best one of the lot. Obviously, the ATM3 is rather silly, at which point I would like to remind you of Iron Mongooses excellent evaluation of small ATMs on small 'Mechs in the Viper article. Nevertheless, I am willing to accept the total waste of 4.5 tons (!!) for the reason of this being the only configuration to combine two powerful ingredients: the awesome ERPPC and jump jets. This alone makes the Mech worthwhile. And eminently dangerous to its foes, which is why I still think I would avoid the configuration because I can see it getting eliminated within seconds once combat has been joined.
Configuration F HAG20(12), 2 MPL. The Hells Horses spiel on the A configuration does have some merit. The HAG increases the Gauss range slightly, the MPL make it more successful at its running game. The loss of the Gauss' knock-out punch probably lowers the kill priority on this configuration (slightly). I do not rate the slight loss of endurance on the main weapon negatively the armour of the design is always going to be the first thing it runs out of.
Configuration H Gauss(16), 2 HML. This is the single most silly and/or redundant configuration of the whole lot. Personally, I cannot agree with Iron Mongoose, who used this Mech as his first H-example and rated it quite highly. I loathe any H configuration which simply swaps out some ERLasers for Heavy Lasers most of them will not work. The Stormcrow H does not; neither does this Kit Fox. There is nothing the HML offer that the ERML of the A do not do as well or better. At least that configuration can attempt to stay alive until it brings all of its weapons to bear at medium ranges. I do not rate the Hs chances of doing the same at close ranges very highly. Once again: At all.
Configuration S LPL, MPL, SPL, SSRM4(25), 2 MG(100), 6 JJ. And then, there was light! The first non-3050 configuration to appear, this made its debut before the end of the Clan Invasion as a rapid response to urban warfare which became increasingly necessary against IS opponents. And it really is a good configuration on several accounts: the pulse lasers offset its undeniable need to jump as much as possible, the MGs, SRMs and SPL equip it well to face non-Mech enemies. If I can hazard a guess, I would suspect that many opponents would not react quite as fearfully to this configuration as to configuration E, meaning that its life-span would also be somewhat greater. This is a highly recommended configuration to any unlucky Kit Fox pilots.
Configuration W 2 LPL, 2 MPL. Finally, though it was only canonised very recently, this 3050U configuration was possibly the first one ever described in great detail as a training chassis in the BoK trilogy. As such it is ascribed to Clan Wolf, though I highly suspect that the variant would be quite wide-spread and definitely not only used in training scenarios. It has the distinction of replacing the Cougar Prime as carrying the honour of being the lightest canon Mech which mounts 2 Clan LPL. In itself, that is excellent. Its flaws remain the mediocrity of the base chassis and the obvious redundancy of the secondary weapons. I withhold judgement while suggesting that some other configuration may suit the OmniMech better.
And without further ado, I finish!
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