Overview
The Inner Sphere's first brush with an OmniMech was with a Timber Wolf on The Rock, Oberon Confederation, 13 August 3049. It was from a broadcast by a member of the Kell Hounds mercenary unit that Our Blessed Order learned of these machines and their mysterious masters. ComStar named this design the
Mad Cat because its hunched-over torso is common to both the Marauder and Catapult. The
Timber Wolf is an exceptional combination of an XL Class engine, Endo Steel internal structure, Ferro-Fibrous armor, and double heat sinks.
Capabilities
The most common configuration of the Timber Wolf carries impressive firepower, starting with double LRM-20 racks on the shoulders. The weapons pods on the arms each contain an extended-range large laser and extended-range medium laser. The
Timber Wolf also incorporates pulse technology, with a medium pulse laser in its left torso. Two machine guns round out its weapon array.
Alternate Configuration A carries a short-range missile launcher on its right shoulder instead of LRM's, and a box-mounted package of three medium pulse lasers in the left shoulder. It also features a particle projection cannon in each arm, with a small laser in the center torso.
Somewhat less common is a version that mounts a Gauss Rifle in its right arm. Its left arm carries a large pulse laser and a small pulse laser. The version B
Timber Wolf makes use of the Artemis IV fire-control system for the LRM-10 rack on its left shoulder and the SRM-4 on its right shoulder.
The Timber Wolf C also concentrates more firepower in its arm weapons pods. Its right arm carries the Ultra-5 autocannon, while the left has two extended-range large lasers. These leave enough pod weight for an LRM-15 launcher on each shoulder and an anti-missile system in the left torso.
Though rarely seen, Configuration D of the Timber Wolf carries an especially unusual array of weapons. Apparently designed to fight in the enemy's midst, this version has double Streak SRM-6 launchers mounted on each shoulder, one pointing forward, and the other to the rear. Each arm packs the devastating firepower of an extended-range particle projection cannon, and the center torso holds an extended-range small laser.
Deployment
The Timber Wolf is the favorite 'Mech of the Wolf Clan. It can claim a large share of the credit for the Wolves' great successes and there is no apparent explanation why it appears in only moderate numbers with the other Clans.
Second only to the Night Gyr in number of the various heavy OmniMech
designs in Clan Star Adder's Omega Galaxy, the Timber Wolf appears in
almost every Trinary. Many of the pod configurations that are used
on Timber Wolves in the Galaxy were created in the last fifteen years as a
direct response to lessons learned in the Inner Sphere.
