Dire Wolf

Why it earns its tonnage

A hundred tons, walk three, run five, matching an Atlas for speed and for armour class down to the point. State that comparison to an Inner Sphere engineer and there is no argument to have, because the numbers agree. What does not agree is the pod space. An Atlas spends its tonnage once, at the factory, on a fixed loadout it will carry for its whole service life. This spends roughly fifty tons of the same hundred on weapons a technician can swap between Trials.

The Prime carries four ER large lasers, twin Ultra AC/5s, four medium pulse lasers and an LRM 10 on twenty-two double heat sinks. On the Alpha Strike card that is 6/6/4 short, medium and long. An AS7-D Atlas manages 5/5/2 on a chassis that cannot change what it is carrying. The Prime is only one of fifteen answers this chassis can give to the same question.

The part that costs something. Fifty tons of free pod space does not arrive without a price, and the price is speed. Walk three is slow even by assault standards, and nothing in fifteen configurations changes it. Every one of them carries the same engine, the same structure, the same armour. What varies is entirely what sits in the pods, which is also why the Trap test on my rating scale finds nothing to flag here. You cannot strictly out-build a Dire Wolf configuration the way you can out-build an Inner Sphere variant. You can only out-manoeuvre one, and at a walking speed of three that is not as difficult as the reputation suggests.

Almost no jump jets, and that is the more interesting fact. Thirteen of the fifteen configurations spend nothing on mobility at all. Two, C and S, each carry three jump jets for ninety metres of lift, the smallest jump allotment the rules allow, bought for six tons that could otherwise be an Ultra AC/20 and a ton of ammunition. Twice in a hundred and thirty-two years, an engineering team looked at that trade and took the jets anyway. Thirteen times out of fifteen, they took the gun instead.

A design Clan Wolf did not build first

Clan Wolf's scientist caste designed this as their concept of the ultimate assault OmniMech. Clan Smoke Jaguar heard what was being developed before it was finished, and won the plans and the production rights in a Trial that is, to this day, spoken of as fought dishonourably. Production began at the Svarstaad Industriplex Delta on Huntress in 3010, and for nine years the entire supply belonged to the Jaguars alone.

Clan Wolf did not manufacture their own design until 3019, when Star Colonel Ulric won a Trial of Possession on Strana Mechty and brought production back to the caste that had conceived it. Consider that arrangement for a moment. The Clan that fielded it first, in the opening season of the invasion, was not the Clan that built it.

Wolcott, 2 October 3050, deserves its own mention, because a configuration on this page is named for it. Sho-sa Hohiro Kurita commanded the Combine's on-world defence, and when the Jaguars attacked, he negotiated terms with Galaxy Commander Dietr Osis before the battle was decided: if the Combine held the world, the Clans would never invade Wolcott again, and would provide OmniMechs and Elemental battle armour besides. The Combine held. The (Hohiro) configuration fielded exclusively by Kurita forces is not a coincidence, and neither is the fact that it carries the best long-range damage in the entire chassis.

What followed the invasion is the part my caste finds least comfortable to recount. This machine, designed to be the exclusive property of two Clans, is now fielded by every Clan in the touman and by every Great House of the Inner Sphere besides, ComStar and the Republic included. Salvage, trade and outright capture moved it further and faster than either Wolf or the Jaguars ever intended, and the Dark Age refit built in 3142 proves the design was never allowed to simply age out of relevance.

How these are rated

Every verdict below is against other Dire Wolf configurations. As with every OmniMech on this site, the Trap test finds nothing here: engine, structure and armour are identical across all fifteen, so nothing can be strictly outperformed the way an Inner Sphere variant can be. The tiers are judgement, not arithmetic.

Only the Trap tier is calculated. It is worked out from the variant data rather than decided by me, which means it is falsifiable: to argue with it you only have to name something the cheaper machine gives up. The other three are my opinion and you should treat them that way. 2 of the 15 Dire Wolf variants fail the Trap test. The full rating scale is here, including what it deliberately does not measure.

The configurations worth arguing about

All 15 are in the table further down. These are the ones that change what you are actually facing.

On the table

Fielding one. You are not manoeuvring for position. At walk three you rarely get to choose the range, so choose the configuration for the range you expect instead. The A and Prime punish a straight fight at any distance. The S and W want the enemy close and make them regret arriving. None of the fifteen wants to run anywhere.

Opposing one. Speed is the entire answer, for thirteen of the fifteen configurations. At 2609 to 3610 Battle Value a Dire Wolf costs enough that you will usually outnumber it, and at walk three most of them cannot chase what they cannot catch. Confirm which configuration you are actually facing first: C and S both carry three jump jets, and treating either of them like the other thirteen will cost you the one advantage you had.

What I observe going wrong. Inner Sphere warriors treat the reputation as the machine and close to a range where the reputation is actually earned. It hits hardest at exactly the distance most pilots instinctively want to fight at. Do not give it that distance for free.

Against OpFor Command

If you run solo games with our AI opponent, the Dire Wolf is close to the opposite of the Timber Wolf, and worth fielding for exactly that reason.

• 13 of the 15 configurations are tagged Juggernaut. Whichever one the engine draws, expect it to close to its effective band and stay there rather than manoeuvre for an angle.
• Thirteen of the 15 configurations carry no jump jet at all, so the AI will handle most of them the way it handles an Atlas: committed to the ground it is standing on. C and S break that pattern, and the engine will use whatever height those two can reach.
• Practically, that means this chassis is a straightforward, honest threat rather than a tactical puzzle. Good for a scenario that wants a hard target without a trick to it.

Put a Dire Wolf on the other side of the table when you want raw pressure. Put a Timber Wolf there when you want to be surprised.

All 15 configurations

Damage figures are the Alpha Strike short, medium and long values. Every configuration shares the same engine, frame and armour, so only the pods change.

Where and when you can field it

Availability for the Prime by era, straight off the Master Unit List.

Related designs

Other machines that do the same job

Take it to the table

Common questions

Stats on this page are generated directly from our variant database, which is reconciled against the Master Unit List for Battle Value, introduction dates and per-era faction availability. Alpha Strike damage values are the standard card figures. If you spot something wrong, tell me and I will fix it.