Starring in the intro cinematic to the hit 1999 game MechWarrior 3, the Firefly is a combat-oriented light mech that broadly performs a little better than that cinematic would have you believe (they don’t die in a single hit to a PPC). As far as mechs we’ve already looked at go, it’s probably best compared with the Wolfhound. Despite having quite a few early timeline variants, it didn’t see much use – it disappeared with the Star League and didn’t return until Wolf’s Dragoons brought it back, who were the only users until the Clan Invasion era.

Chassis

The Firefly is 30 tons, putting it at the top end of the light mech scale, and has nearly maxed armor – some variants have 105/105 points, and some have only 104 points, and I’m sure if I say they all have maxed armor someone will come correct me in the comments. Most variants stick very close to the same loadout as the mini, with a missile launcher in the right torso and a scattering of lasers. In trade for having surprising firepower for a non-clan light mech, the Firefly has a somewhat painful movement profile – 5/8/4. Only having the 4 jets is a big downside, as you can’t get to that +3 TMM by jumping, meaning it’s nearly always a bad idea unless you’re using it to break line of sight.

Variants

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).

FFL-3A

The first firefly is running three medium lasers, four small lasers, an LRM 5, and a TAG. This is a lot of gun for a light mech, but fortunately the double heat sinks keep it quite happy. The LRM launcher gives you some harassment as you close (or, given the 5/8/4 movement profile, wait for your opponent to close), but most of the damage comes in close from the pile of lasers. 797 BV is pretty cheap for these guns, which is good because 5/8 is medium mech speed (or faster heavy mechs). To make use of this, or a lot of the other variants, you’re generally best off keeping it with the rest of your force and using it to fight off flankers. One extra downside: there are two tons of ammo for a single LRM 5. That’s 48 turns of shooting.

My rating: C

FFL-3SLE

A variant on the -3A, this swaps the TAG for Guardian ECM. You’re paying 79 BV for that swap, going up to 876, which is only worth it if you know you’re going to be facing C3. Otherwise, take the cheaper option.

My rating: D

FFL-3PP

Another simple change, the TAG here has been dropped to upgrade the LRM 5 to an LRM 10, also dropping one ton of ammo. While you now only have 12 turns of shooting instead of 48, you have less risk of ammo explosion and will do more damage each time you fire. 888 BV is a bit higher than the 3SLE, but you gain a lot of damage.

My rating: C

FFL-3PP2

This is a 3SLE that drops CASE from the ammo bins to switch from ferro fibrous armor to standard armor. It also drops 1 point of armor on the head. It has an Inner Sphere XL engine so outside of campaign play the CASE doesn’t matter, so effectively the only difference is one point of armor on the head, for which you save 3 BV, going down to 873 BV. If you want this mech, take the 3SLE instead, unless you badly need to save exactly 3 BV.

My rating: D

FFL-3PP3

This trades the ECM of the 3SLE out for Artemis IV on the LRM 5, and like the 3PP2 has dropped one point of armor on the head. It drops back down to 808 BV, making it marginally better but not meaningfully different than the 3A.

My rating: C

FFL-4A

The introtech variant of the Firefly, this is a 3A with single heat sinks (and again missing a point of armor on the head). It’ll now overheat a touch firing all the lasers, and because it has a standard fusion engine instead of an XL and has dropped down to a single bin of LRM 5 ammo, is more durable and thus now costs 831 BV. An XL engine doesn’t really meaningfully change the durability of a light mech, so I’d say the 3A is unambiguously better, though not by much.

My rating: C-

FFL-4B

Still mostly simple tech (now with CASE for the ammo), this swaps the four small lasers for an anti-missile system. I think the small lasers are a substantial portion of the firepower on this and more useful than an AMS (which adds another ton of explodable ammo), though the BV system disagrees with me – this is up to 870 BV.

My rating: D

FFL-4C

A genuine upgrade, this is back to an XL engine (woo BV reduction), swaps the medium lasers to medium pulses, and adds Artemis IV to the LRM 5. It keeps the AMS, which I still think is worse than the small lasers, but goes down to 806 BV. With the medium pulses and decent armor this is an excellent escort mech, able to bully away a lot of faster lights, though it’s not slow enough to go out and catch them on its own.

My rating: B

FFL-4D

Three ER medium lasers, an Artemis IV equipped LRM 5, and an AMS arm this Firefly similarly to others. Instead of an XL engine it’s using a light engine, giving it a meaningless durability increase (and BV increase), and it’s using single heat sinks, which aren’t even enough to sink the three lasers. At 897 BV, pick something else.

My rating: D

FFL-4DA

This swaps the AMS for a guardian ECM. If you want to take a firefly against someone you know is running c3, this is better than the 4D, but also bumps the cost up to 921 BV. If you need an ecm Firefly, the 3SLE is a better choice.

My rating: D

FFL-5A

Huge jump here up to late Dark Age, the wings on the back of the Firefly mini are now real, as this is equipped with a partial wing. The engine is also upgraded so it moves at 6/9/8, which is a really rude movement profile – jump 8 is a lot of distance. Weapon loadout is the same trio of ER medium lasers and LRM 5, though this one doesn’t have Artemis. It’s up to 996 BV, but this is genuinely a small striker mech able to jump into the back of things in a way nothing previous could.

My rating: B-

Firefly C

The requisite Clan upgrade, this one is pushing the scales at 1290 BV for a 5/8/4 light mech. It’s a massive upgrade in damage though – three clan medium pulses, four clan ER small lasers, and an SRM 2. 20 heat sinking is adequate – you won’t be completely cool, but you don’t build over 5 heat with a running alpha. I think this can be extremely effective as a way to bully other small mechs, but because of the relatively high BV on a fairly slow chassis you need to be careful with positioning – it’s not significantly harder to hit, and it’s now worth enough to be justified as a primary target.

My rating: B-

Conclusion

It sure is a slow light mech. While it occupies a similar role of being a well armored, well armed light mech as the Wolfhound, dropping from 6/9 to 5/8 is a big hit on your ability to get into position unless you’re hunting assault mechs. Of every mech I’ve looked at this is probably the one with the most similar variants (outside of mechs that only have one or two) which is amusing, and an interesting lesson in how marginal functional changes can have substantial BV changes. I do wish one of these had an MML, I think there’s a lot of room for a modern firefly that doesn’t go in for the partial wing but does have some other newer tech.

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