CTF-1X Cataphract

 I love FrankenMechs. Whether it’s Samual “Shorty” Sneed’s hybrid Rifleman/Warhammer/Archer/Phoenix Hawk in Snord’s Irregulars, 

or Professor Burke Kale’s Prometheus in the adventure Unbound, 

or the way Rifleman and Warhammer legs look the same, or the way the various original Clan Omnimechs seemed to be built with the same few arms and legs, it was always cool to me. Like hacking a physical system to work with something else, or building with LEGOs. I don’t have enough engineering know-how to build anything complex, but I like how it looks.

During the Third Succession War, the Capellan Confederation and House Liao found themselves short on factories to produce heavy battlemechs. Their big factory on Carver V was taken by the Free World’s League, and in the three years spent fighting over the planet, the factory was destroyed.

To make up for this shortfall, their engineers designed a “new” mech in 3025 by combining features of existing designs.

They took the legs, right arm, and part of the torso of a Marauder.

They took the right arm of a Shadow Hawk and reversed the hand actuator so it would be a left arm (though they didn’t fix the hand on the prototype).

They took the particle projection cannon from a Vindicator’s right arm.

And they added other components from a Phoenix Hawk.

And they created the CTF-1X Cataphract.

It carries a Sarlon MaxiCannon Type 10 in the right torso, a PPC and medium laser in the right arm, another medium laser in the left arm, and two rear-mounted medium lasers to discourage flanking. With 11 tons of armor, it is well-protected. The comm system could be replaced with the electronic warfare equipment used in the RVN-1X Raven or just left in place. The new factory on Tikonov was secure and the design promised to be the new standard heavy mech for the Capellan Confederation.

The so-called FrankenMech actually worked pretty well for them, right up until the Fourth Succession War, when the Federated Suns conquered Tikonov.

(Okay, technically there was the Free Tikonov Republic for a while, but it was basically conquered by Davion forces as part of Hanse Davion’s wedding present to Melissa Steiner, even before the “free and open vote to join the Federated Suns.”)

So Federated Suns forces captured the factory and started building their own version of the Cataphract to fight against the Capellan Confederation. Eventually House Liao built another factory, but it was all rather embarrassing. House Davion later designed another Mech very similar to the Cataphract called the Caesar. Decades later, Marcus GioAvanti eventually customized his Caesar with a hodgepodge of inner sphere and clan technology and used a Cataphract engine to power it.

I don’t have a lot of LEGOs compared to many MFZ players, so when I build frames they’re usually pretty much thrown together. I decided that if I build a frame that’s supposed to look like something, I might as well embrace the chaos and build something that’s supposed to be mismatched. I did it in the same way the Liao engineers did - I built it with bits and pieces of other designs.

 

The right arm is basically a Chub shoulder attached to some pieces to make it vaguely Marauder-shaped, and the legs and feet come from a Marauder build I found online. The waist and pelvis come from the Chub. The left arm is a modified Chub’s left arm, but is attached using a Chub hip mount.

Something I’m rather proud of is that the systems are designed to be removed from the frame easily, so when your frame takes a hit, it’s easy to remove what isn’t there any more. The arms and torso are solid, though the waist and hip joints are a little weak.

Mobile Frame Zero Loadouts*

CTF-1X Cataphract

Size: Heavy (70 Tons). Speed: Slow. Armor: Heavy. Systems: Particle Projection Cannon (1RA/1RD), Heavy Autocannon (2RD), Comm Antenna (1Y), Layered Armor (1B). 1RA/3RD/1B/1Y/2W (1RA/3RD/1B/2W Advanced Tech)**

Variants:

The CTF-2X basically replaces the PPC with a Large Laser in MFZ terms. 2RD+d8/1B/1Y/2W (2RD+d8/1B/2W vs Advanced Tech)**

The CTF-3D uses Advanced Tech. It has an Ultra Autocannon in place of the PPC, an LB 10-X Autocannon that can be used as an Auto Shotgun, and Jump Jets replacing the Comm System. 1RA/3RD/1B/1G/2W

The CTF-3L also uses Advanced Tech. It has an Extended Range PPC in place of the normal one and does not have jump jets. It does have Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry, however. 1RA/3RD/1B/1G/2W

The CES-3R Caesar uses Advanced Tech and mounts an ER PPC and a Gauss Rifle for its weapons. 3RA/1RD/1B/1Y/2W

* I’m using Francisco Duarte’s rules/guidelines for converting Battletech units to Mobile Frame Zero. They are clever and well-thought-out. These aren’t hard and fast restrictions, though, you can be a bit flexible.

** One of the challenges to adapting Battletech mechs to Mobile Frame Zero is emulating the different levels of technology. I do this by saying that any 3025 tech unit in a battle involving Advanced, Star League, or Clan tech usually has a maximum of one less system than the more advanced units would (minimum of 1 system). So if I field a 3025-tech heavy mech, which would ordinarily have up to four systems, it can only have up to three systems if fighting in a battle with Clan Mechs or mechs with Star League tech. Again, this is not a hard and fast restriction, you can be flexible.

So if you combine those rules, you get the following:

Light mechs get up to 3 systems (up to 2 if 3025 tech in a battle with advanced tech) and get the green d8 for movement automatically but are taken out if they lose 1 white die. Medium mechs get up to three systems (up to 2 if 3025 tech with advanced tech). Heavy mechs get up to 4 systems (3 for 3025-tech with advanced tech). Assault mechs get up to 4 (3) systems, but if they have at least 1 defense system they can roll 1 blue d8 in place of 1 blue d6, and they never gain a green d8 for not having ranged weapons.

Light vehicles use up to 1 (1) system, medium and heavy use up to 2 (1), assault use up to 3 (2) but cannot mount a movement system.

VTOL craft use 2 (1) systems, and one must be movement.

Aerospace fighters or other aerospace assets must include at least 1 movement die that is the last to be destroyed prior to white dice. Light assets have up to 2 (1) systems, medium assets have up to 3 (2) systems, heavy assets have up to 4 (3).