Hey, it's another equipment poll!
Round 1
Light Fusion Engines
Gauss Rifle
That's rough. Making engines lighter without making side torso loss fatal is good. On the other hand, a headcapper with a 22 hex range. Gotta give it to the gauss.
Round 2
Ultra ACs
Armored Components
I gotta call neither/don't know. UACs seem pretty fucking bad. But I don't even get how armored components are good. Imagine declaring called shots on your own crits. There's no way to protect everything important. My books are all packed so I don't even know if they protect components when a section is destroyed.
Armored components sound good on paper. So do UACs. I've got the experience to back up UACs being bad, but not so much Armored Components.
Round 3
Targeting Computer
ER Pulse Lasers [Clan]
ER Pulse Lasers seem like another Clan laser if you want something between ER and pulse lasers. Targeting Computers kinda suck since they changed the targeting rules. The -1 to-hit-is really what saves it. Sure, you can just choose to have 25% more weapons.
But you can also choose to have the weapons you do have get a solid bonus. Targeting Computer because even though its fluff is confusing, it is the more interesting equipment.
Round 4
Streak LRMs [Clan]
Chameleon LPS
I like that streaks let us skip a Cluster Hits roll, but I feel like it misses a lot of the risk versus reward of the game. Who cares about judging to-hit numbers, heat, and ammo supplies when you can hold down the button every turn and let Kali figure it out? They also raise questions about targeting systems in the setting.
I really thought the Chameleon LPS system was the one that gave penalties to shoot slow 'mechs, but it's another stealth armor system, albeit one that can stack with the nearly-identical null-signature system. It does seem slightly better than both NSS and Stealth Armor, as it generates less heat and doesn't seem to need an ECM.
Streak LRMs might be objectively better, but Chameleon LPS.
Round 5
Mech Mortars
Composite Structure
Composite Structure. Mech Mortars don't impress me. Never have. I feel like their original advantage was versatile munitions and LRMs have since closed the gap. Immunity to AMS might be a benefit, but how often will an LRM shooting through AMS do less damage than a comparable mortar package? I think rarely.
Round 6
ATMs [Clan]
Light ACs
ATMs. While the timing of ATMs makes me want to compare them to MMLs; they're radically different systems. ATMs are great anyway. I wish they had more specialty munitions. They're advanced. And tactical. Why don't they have inferno rounds?
If I were to ever make my own BattleTech-like game from the ground up, the missiles systems would look a lot like--well they'd look a lot like Sidewinders, but if they didn't look like modern air-deployed missiles, they'd look a lot like ATMs.
Round 7
Laser Anti-Missile System
HarJel Self Repair Systems
The HarJel Self-Repair Systems include the HarJel II and HarJel III systems. I find them to be very niche. Laser Anti-Missile Systems, however inconveniently abbreviated, are a big kick to the heat curve in exchange for their services. LAMS.
Round 8
HarJel I
Variable-Speed Lasers
VSPLs look bad. I don't get them. I especially don't get them at their terrible weights. Between X-Pulse Lasers, Pulse Lasers, PPCs, and even regular old lasers, I don't get it.
That said, HarJel is so heavy and situational that I still can't pull for it.
Round 9
Heavy Gauss Rifle
Reactive Armor
Hear me out! Until we got a plethora of specialty armors in the Dark Age, Reactive Armor stood out and was something unique without being complicated. HGRs are complicated. I get that they're so powerful you have to gate them, but there's too many elements of the setting suddenly invoked and too many rules about mounting and firing them. Reactive Armor because it's just a better-crafted piece of equipment.
Round 10
DNI Cockpit Modification & DNI Implants
ICE Engines
This isn't buffered or Vehicular DNI. It's old school brain-melting DNI and it still wins. ICE Engines (I know) have their place, and I'd be interested in seeing them used in certain scenarios, but I've always kinda liked the cutting edge of direct neural interfaces.
It's down to taste, and sometimes I have none.
Round 11
Apollo FCS
Light Active Probe [Clan]
Light Probe. I always pull for probes and certainly, the Beagle Probe is a joke so a smaller shittier version is worse.
But MRMs are a cruel and stupid joke. Trying to fix them is like cleaning up sour milk with toilet tissue.
Round 12
Fusillade Launcher
Damage Interrupt Circuit
Fusillade Launchers are only for protomechs and therefore not eligible for this poll.
I swear, the Damage Interrupt Circuit was a real thing. I didn't pull it from The Tactical Handbook! I swear it was from real, current rules. I assume it gives some buffering effect to DNIs or maybe reduces neurofeedback from exploding ammo? I don't know. If it's real, it's actual BattleMech equipment which the Fusillade Launcher is not.
Round 13
A Pod
Rifles
The A-Pod has rounded out quite a few designs when tweaking armor wouldn't do. Its long service to idle 'mech design is recognized despite being so niche that active probes laugh at it.
Round 14
M-Pod
Centurion Weapon System
When a soldier-mounted claymore can out-range your sophisticated RF-Safe Stop, it's time to put down the coils and transformers and duct tape some LBX rounds to your torso. M-Pods.
Round 15
Recon Camera
Heat-Dissipating Armor
I really thought recon camera units were units the dispensed recon cameras. Why wouldn't the advanced sensor suites of the future generally include something like that? Whatevs. According to Sarna it is an actual high-fidelity camera that can be used to spot for LRM indirect fire like its a TAG.
That's better than building an entire 'mech with a shitty armor/ton instead of mounting an equivalent amount of regular armor and some extra heat sinks.
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