The Wolfhound

Today I cover one of the mechs that I have used in many battles. About a year or so ago, I managed to get 5 kills in a drop against CapCon (CC) and 1 friendly kill, I hope Alistair forgives me. Killing a friendly is never fun, but it did manage to piss off Futher and added to driving him from our unit. Sorry, I digress.
The IS Light Class Wolfhound is today’s subject. 35 tons of fast energy mech that performs like a mech of much higher class. I have to try to be objective, and I will, but I do like this mech.
I feel I am very well qualified to write a review on this battlemech because I have spent a lot of time in the driver seat. I know the ins and outs as well as probably anyone else. So here goes, Vettie’s view on the Wolfie.
My first experience in one of these was not so pleasant. I was a mercenary, part of the Black Knights Mercenary Unit. I don’t remember who we were fighting, but I did not have much experience in light mechs, in fact, I did not even have a config for a Wolfhound at the time of the battle. I wasn’t to be in the first drop, but some of the regulars had not made it in time for drops. Hugh and I were rushed into service.
Boomer helped me set up my 1st Wolfie, a 3 Large Laser config, I was to be a scout and engage the enemy while the rest of the team got into position. I found the bad guys easily enough and managed to get off a few shots before a BK and a Thor sent me to the sidelines, some 45 seconds into the actual fight, that we lost.
It took sometime before I could be coaxed into driving a Wolfhound again. I thought they were crap. Problem was, I didn’t know how to use one.
You see, the Wolfhound is not a fragile mech, and it has a use, but you can’t charge right into an enemy position and expect to live very long. No, it is better suited as a scout; one that keeps at range and slowly rips away at the bad guys while constantly moving.
The profile of the mech is a strong point. Even though it is tall, very tall for a light mech, it is very thin and very hard to hit from the side. Run, twist and fire, keep your side to the enemy, turning only to hit them is a very good tactic for this little guy.
Lets get to the technical specs of this mech. 35 tons coming from the factory with reflective armour, standard internals and offering a very good electronics package. ECM, LAMs and IFF are all offered. ECM and IFF are 2 choices I almost always use. If fully armoured, this battlemech holds a little more than 11 tons of reflective armour. That converts to more than 7 ½ tons of ferro for those of you that don’t like spec armour.
The weapons on the Wolfhound are all energy class weapons. The slots are very nice. The right arm is a 3-slot, allowing you to pack a PPC. The right and left torso slots are 2-slot with a 1-slot in the center and left arm.
A good config for the Wolfie is to put a PPC in the arm and a Large Laser in the Left Torso. This gives the Wolfhound some very good range and smack with the PPC and the laser can be pulled into service as the range closes.
Another config that I used many times in battle is the full reflective, 2 large laser config. Putting a large laser in each torso and stripping the arms a little, allows you to pack the electronics and up the speed from 100kph to 105. Alternate firing the lasers and you keep smacking the enemy while they try in vain to hit a skinny lag stick running at 105kph. Many bad guys try for ‘the’ arm first, assuming it has a PPC or a Large Laser. After 3 or 4 wasted shots the arm blows off, but doesn’t hurt you any as you packed your payload in the torso.
One of my favourite Configs is to put a LXP in one torso and a standard Large Laser in the other. The LXP gives you an extra 50 meters of range and packs a bit of a knock when you hit, as well as some decent damage. This config tends to get hot, so pack on heat sinks when you can or use it on cooler maps.
One of the best configs, especially for brawling (yes Wolfies can brawl) is the 9 ML option. When in range you can continue to hit your enemy with a stream of laser fire, either in groups or chain mode. The speed of the Wolfhound allows you to circle or move away from your opponent then close back in hitting him again and again with multiple bursts.
If used in packs, the Wolfhound becomes just that, a Wolf Pack. Two or three of these things can really disrupt your opponent and can not be ignored because they potentially pack a heavy load out, almost always 2 to 3 large lasers each. A pack of these things can lay down a devastating reign of laser fire, drawing the bad guys after you, allowing the rest of your, hopefully heavier teammates, to close in and put away anything you haven’t killed already.
The bad things? Well it is very tall. If you present a full Monty expect to take some fire. It is a light mech, weighing only 35 tons, so it won’t last long against heavy fire. It is susceptible to knock downs, especially from missile fire (take LAMs I say!) and LBX20s. Ballistic weapons wear down this mech if you use Ferro or Reflective Armour, so be evasive and don’t give them a big target.
The Wolfhound seems to get legged a lot. This is very effective in stopping the hit and run. A Wolfie dies pretty quickly after being legged because of its height and now lack of speed. Protect your legs, keep moving and wear full armour on them. IF you have to cheat on armour, cheat in the arms and the back. The arms get blown away relatively quickly anyway, so cheating on armour is not that big a deal.
This mech is one of my favorites. It has brought me many kills, and helped any team I was part of to many victories. I am not a light mech kinda guy, but I like this one.
Vettie’s rating? 4 minutes. Solid for any class, exceptional for a light.



One of the things I like to do is set my server up with a few maps and some bots and then take a mech in and see what I can do with it. I like to try different configs including speed changes, different electronics; different weapons load outs and different armours. For the BOT team, I try to select what we would see if we were in a drop. What I mean is, I don’t always pit a Wolfhound against a Wolfhound; sometimes the other team is all Clan so you might see an Ares, a Thor, a Shadow Cat, and a Hellhound and so on. I try to set the BOT team to be as close to the load out another might take using 5 or 6 mechs. Sometimes, I will load the server with light vs. light fights to see how one mech performs against its own class. I always set the BOT names to match the mech they are representing. This is helpful when the match is over to instant tally kills and deaths. If I have more than 1 BOT of the same chassis, I note the difference by the name, like Wolfhound LS (for reflective) and Wolfhound FF (for ferro), unless there is no difference, then I simply call them Wolfie 1 and Wolfie 2.

I have used some of my time off to go through the mechs I already reviewed and bring the reviews up to date with the current mekpak, MP3. After reading the problem reports in the beta test forum, I may actually be going back and reviewing mechs a third time if some of the changes are brought to fruition. But what else am I going to do? So on with the report.

The Wolfhound was mostly untouched by MP3 with one notable exception, they took away the LAMs option. This frees up some tonnage for the little Wolfie, but it takes away a big lifesaver in my opinion. With the introduction of the Artemis system for the Inner Sphere and of course, the Advanced Tactical Missile Systems of the Clans, missiles have become an ever increasing danger to mechs of all classes. More and more missile boats are showing up on the battlefield and racking up the damage. LAMs were by no means a complete answer to missile attacks, but it was/is the best thing available to a mech pilot.

LAMs (in MP3) provide random coverage against missile attacks. Prior to MP3, LAMs would knock down a percentage of incoming missiles, almost to the point that the LRM5 was useless by itself. As I said, now it is random. LAMs might destroy a complete salvo of LRM20s and let a LRM5 zip right through, or it may knock out 1 group of the LRM 20 (5 missiles) and stop the LRM 5 at the same time. LAMs are dicey, but still worth the tonnage if there is even a thought of bad guys with missiles.

So back to the Wolfhound. LAMs is no longer and option. Just ECM and IFF, as far as electronics. Not much else changed. The speeds and slots appear to be unchanged.

The Wolfhound is still a tough mech. It is still one of my favourites in the small or light class. No change really to Vettie’s rating except to say that a Wolfie pilot now has to master missile evasion. That task is much easier in a Wolfhound that it is in a Black Knight.

Yep, the previous review on the Wolfhound stands. Its tough, its fast (enough) and with 2 or 3 large lasers or 7 to 9 medium lasers, it packs plenty of firepower for its weight. Even with the heat scale change, the Wolfie runs is a cool running mech. Fewer heat sinks are required to keep it cool than on mechs much larger.
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