“‘Mechwarrior Hansen you are clear for the range.”

Kathil’s sun glared in my eyes as the hangar’s doors shuddered open with a grinding chatter alongside a symphony of beeps and chimes as the ‘Mech’s systems breathed to life. The prototype Dragon Fire under my command couch shuddered with each titanic step, trundling forward and out onto the testing range. 

It was an odd machine, not terribly dissimilar from the test-bed Marauders and Rakshasas I had spent the last five years of my career piloting. Laden with heavy armor and heavier ordinance the machine ground onward, ambling across the compacted dirt in a loping, long stepped gait as I brought its weapon systems online and hauled the nose around to sight in on the range. 

“Capacitors charged. Firing test order one.” I announced, laying the barrel of the gauss rifle on target against one of the miniscule slabs of armor that had been set aside for the days targeting checks. “Smaug one-one going live.”

The Dragon Fire’s right arm barked, sending a gout of flame erupting from the gauss rifles barrel, heralding the slug down range as it connected with the plate and sent a shower of splintered armor spraying across the range followed close behind by the cacophonous report of the ‘Mech’s clan grade PPC. A crackling stream of particles slammed home into the next target, producing a font of slag, light and steam as it vaporized a hole clean through the test sheet. A howling roar built at my side as the laser spooled up before vomiting forth a shaft of vibrant, hateful blue light that carved valleys and rivers of molten metal free of the third plate.

“How’s she feeling, Caden?” Director Carlson called, a touch of static lacing the transmission.

“Well enough.” I answered, glancing up as a minor heat alert appeared over the ‘Mech’s targeting reticle. “PPC cladding could do with another look, I think it’s dumping out more power than’n ya want. Cooling system could also use an eye, haven’t even spun the rotary up and she’s already startin’ to groan.”

“I’ll get the boys over in Shark-Werks to have a look at it.” The Director sighed, the muted sound of a few aides rushing off barely audible in the background. “For now continue the test run.”

“Gladly.” A smile touched my face as I slewed the reticle over, laying the massive Mydron Tornado on target as the whirling sound of its drive spinning to life filled the air. “Main drive and ammo feeds green. Firing order two.”

An ear splitting peal of fire shook the ‘Mech as the cannon let loose, round after round hurtling down range to explode against the last target. The old plate buckled and bent under the deluge, rattling free of its carriage before collapsing to the dirt in a mangled heap of slag and smoke.

Gods, I love this job.

— Mechwarrior Caden Hansen, General Motors Generalist Mercenaries Contracted Test Pilot. Kathil III, December 3148.

Howdy ‘Mechwarriors and welcome back to another ‘Mech overview! This week I am free of clan space, though still toting that damned ‘advisor’ along close behind, and journey home to the Inner Sphere to observe a truly strange machine: The Dragon Fire.

Originally imagined as part of the same program that gave us my beloved Marauder the Dragonfire is another big gun all in command ‘Mech heavy stumbling in at 75 tons. Unfortunately for the Star League they never actually fielded the ‘Mech and as such it only really came about in 3058.

Chassis

Dragon Fires are a bit of a tight bunch, largely doing the same thing that Marauders do:

• Go 4/6
• Pack more guns than they should
• Look sick as fuck doing it

On top of this they kind of look like tiny Nightstars while packing along the full 14 tons of armor they can carry. This gives them the respectable profile of 24 on the arms, 26 on the side torsos, 38 on the CT and 32 on  the legs with a clean 6/8/6 across the rear.

While this sounds quite survivable they unfortunately also all, except the named variant, use an IS XL engine… usually with ammo near it.

Dammit.

Variant

These mechs have all been reviewed based on a standard F through S scale, which you can find described on our landing page here (along with all of our other ‘Mech reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).

3F

Sean Connery? Is that you?

Setting the tone we have a pretty simple command ‘mech build with the standard 10 double heat sinks supporting a Gauss rifle with two tons of ammo, an LB 10-X with two tons of ammo, a Large Laser, and a pair of Medium Pulse Lasers. Backing this up there’s also an ECM suite which is slightly helpful for keeping those damnable, pesky Artemis missiles off your back.

The big guns are out in the arms, the large laser is in the CT, and the MPLs are split between the head and left torso. There’s no real overlapping fields of fire range band wise here but this is the OG variant that dates its design lineage back to the Star League so it predates a few of the toys that would probably work a touch better here.

Overall this is… fine?

It’s 1,855 BV which is kind of expensive but could certainly be worse in the grand scheme of things for a well armored Gauss rifle with its own crit seeking and personal protection. Feels like it’s trying to be a very downgraded Nightstar, which… Cool?

I kinda like it but there are definitely better ways to build something like this.

Liberty’s Rating: C. Perfectly adequate… as so many things are.

4F

Same same, but different.

It’s a 3F with an ERLL in it.

That’s it.

That’s the change.

For 1,900 BV even.

The heat’s still fine so this is strictly an upgrade but I’m just surprised this isn’t where we started.

Liberty’s Rating: C. It’s… still aggressively adequate but now the laser is ER so that’s… cool?

4/6N

Why are you?

The 4/6N is weird and dumb. It’s a thing that was done in the 3080s to update old 4Fs and 6FCs that were sitting about after the Jihad, mating the 4F’s electronics package to the 6FC’s overall fire package.

Which means in practice this is a 4F that trades both of the MPLs for a pair of ERMLs and a pair of DHS that it… didn’t really need?

Also it’s more expensive than the 4F before it at 1,931BV so… Why?

Liberty’s Rating: C-. Why are you like this? Why are you just… worse than your forebear? Who the hell decided to do this? Why not just turn 6FCs into 4Fs instead? Who hurt you?

5F

… Am I being fucked with?

The 5F is, once again, a 3F/4F.

Except now it has CASE II… and the MPLs are MXPLs which is… cool? But also worse because it upsets the heat balance it had going before.

And now it’s 1,987 BV so it’s even more expensive. A running alpha gets you 5 heat now, which did not happen before so… yea, cool. Look I love MXPLs as is my right and heritage as the Fronc Reaches’ Strongest Marshal but man… this thing don’t need them.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. Look, if you’re gonna touch a Dragon Fire actually make it do something different, please. Stop pushing peas around your plate and expecting me to congratulate you for finishing your god-damned meal. Fucking Embarassing.

6FC

Ah shit, the Wobbies are doin’ shit again. This thing’s gonna be fuckin’ weird I can already tell.

I lied; it’s still just the same thing. It’s a 4F that ditches the guardian and the MPLs to grab a C3i, a pair of ERMLs, and a pair of DHS.

Fucking riveting.

At least it’s only 3BV more than the original 3F, I suppose? Coming in at 1,858 this isn’t the worst price we’ve seen so far but it’s still just… eh? Unless you wanna do C3i things just go grab a 4F and call it good.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. Go-Go Gadget Wobbie bullshi- Oh. You’re… You’re just a boring line heavy… Okay, carry on I guess.

7K

BY THE GODS!!! SOMETHING DIFFERENT?!?!

That’s right, the 7K is indeed different! Kinda. The loadout’s a bit different so let’s run through it:

• Gauss is still here
• The LB 10 is now an IS ERPPC
• The MPLs are now just ERMLs
• The LL/ERLL is now a far more interesting Large Variable Speed Pulse Laser.
• A supercharger for 4/6[8] shenanigans.

Unfortunately it also still has 10 double heat sinks and the ECM is gone… sad. Oh, also the armor is uh… Ballistic-Reinforced. Which means this big zippy boy can tank a Gauss slug to the forehead and laugh at you past the smoldering shell.

For 2,495 BV you get a ‘Mech that has fine heat management at long range between the ERPPC and gauss rifle while also being able to soak up counter fire from enemy gauss rifles like sun on a hot southern summer day. Once the fight gets in close the LVSP and pair of ERMLs leave you building movement heat which is… fine? Toss the Gauss on there for the extra 1 heat and you should be fine.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. If this thing didn’t have a Supercharger in it it would be 2,174 BV, and a C+, which would be astoundingly useful and absolutely something I could see fielding. At which point you stick an extra DHS in the engine, because it’s not full, and you can fire off your close range set without heat build. This saves 321 BV which is nearly a whole ass Wasp WSP-1L. Just… if your local lets you putz with customs and you like the look of this just do that.

9D

THE WORLD ENGINE RETURNS. THE GODLY TRUMPET OF THE MYDRON TORNADO SINGS MY SOUL TO JOY AS I LAY DESTRUCTION UPON ALL THAT RISES BEFORE ME. THE GEARS OF THE WORLD ENGINE TURN AND CLATTER AS I SING A SONOROUS SONG OF CONQUEST AND CORPORATE ADVANCEMENT!!! GENERAL MOTORS REIGNS IN THIS COURT AND I AM ITS JESTER PLAYING THE TUNE OF THE WORLD ENGINE TO MY HEART’S CONTENT!!!

God I love RACs.

Also, this is a weird, goofy ass pocket Nightstar.

With a mixed tech bag of an IS Gauss, a Clan ERPPC, a Clan ERLL, a pair of Clan ERMLs, and a random fucking IS RAC/5 with 2 tons of CASE IId ammo, and a trio of extra double heat sinks to bring the total to 13, this loadout is all over the place. Standing still firing off the long range guns you go up 2 heat. Firing off the short range guns with the RAC set to Mama-didn’t-raise-no-bitch o’clock you get 16 heat, well short of its 26 total. With the run and the Gauss you bump up to 19 and now have no good thing to throw on top of it to fill the remaining heat. An issue which the real Nightstar does not have because its heat neutral when firing off its entire complement at a run.

For 2,393 BV you save a whopping 6 fucking BV taking this instead of the actual thing that does the same job but better. The Nightstar has 19 more health in the CT than this does. It has less overall explosive components than it does, though a fair few more actual explodey slots, and its heat management is ‘didn’t take any extra heat so I don’t care.

Just go get his big brother, you’ll thank yourself for it. This isn’t even any faster than a Nightstar, as fitting all those guns in required dropping to 3/5.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. I want to love you, yet you make it so hard. Why can’t you be more like your brother: Perfect?

6FC2 (Gregory)

House? What are you doing in BattleTech? Weird shit, apparently.

The 6FC2 is an odd duck as far as Dragon Fires, and general ‘Mech design thought, goes. With 11 double heat sinks it can sink 22 heat. It uses this sinking to play with its guns, a pair of ERMLs, a plasma rifle, a Light PPC, and a Heavy Gauss rifle. Which is – checks notes – 29 possible heat, or 7 over its capacity to sink.

Usually this would be fine and workable, slinging the Plasma, LPPC, and HGR off the rail at range and just waiting for someone to get on top of you to rip them apart with the HGR and the ERMLs.

Except it has TSM… and also a small cockpit.

So. This means it:

• Cannot effectively build to TSM in one turn
• Cannot effectively use the speed granted by the TSM as the small cockpit plus the HGR check from firing will result in pulling a london bridge and fucking with your heat math.

All of that for 2,230 BV. Disappointing.

At least they tried to be different from the other ones, I suppose?

Liberty’s Rating: C-. What a weird wobbie oddball. Why are you like this, Precentor? Who told you this was alright to do to your ‘Mech?

Final Thoughts

Dragon Fires are, apparently, kinda fucking boring. Most of them are… fine? Just kinda the same thing over and over again with weird little tweaks that don’t do much to change the flavor. I suppose if you were gonna grab one I’d just say the 4F or the 7K? At least they’re effective/funny? Even then the 7K is just kinda expensive.

I don’t know what I want because I don’t know what I’m missing. IJJ weirdo? Zippy pulse beatstick weirdo? Strange anti-infantry obliteration machine? I don’t know. I’m so spoiled for options on things that this isn’t that I can’t pick what would be the funniest so…

Yea. Boring. A shame because it looks so cool.

Until next time! Fair weather, good seas, and happy tricking-towns-into-giving-you-money-to-slay-a-dragon-you’re-secretly-working-with-to-fleece-them-of-their-gold-ing!

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.