I'm still reviewing Battletech's Technical Readout: Dark Age. I'm reading through all of the entries and giving my thoughts. But as a collection of other TRO's, it's very long so we're going over it in 8 parts.
As always, first impressions are in regular text and later notes are in italics.
Mad Cat III
It's a fast fire support 'mech with backup lasers and then additional backup lasers.Y'know, like a Dervish. That pulse laser and SRM variant sounds like a mulch pile buffet.
I can't judge Derek Leung until I know what an Incubus is.
Okay, he sucks.
Final analysis on Timber Wolves II - IV
Thunder Fox
Shit. Skobel Mech Works really beat the Clans to the trademark office on this name, didn't they? The base model seems like a decent direct fire support unit. The jump jets, small laser, and light armor imply it's not quite focused. I know I've been clamoring for slow, SFE 'mechs, but a quad--maybe the only quad without a ubiquitous turret--wasn't the platform for it.
As a cheap training 'mech, I think it's deecee.
The variants seem reasonable...except for adding mechanical jump boosters (MJB), which make all of the quad problems worse without the free facing changes allowed by conventional jump jets (JJ).
Anzu
I immediately took to this guy. I like 65-tonners, but TRO: DA left me cold there. It was this or the Carronade.
Or the Mangonel.
Or the Hound.
The Anzu takes it because it strikes me as a big brick with enough choices that it actually leans into finesse.
Powerful? No. Tough? Also no. Intimidating? Absolutely not. Dangerous if used well? Eh. Deadly in its versatility? It doesn't even have hands.
I'm charmed at its humble complexity. (Ditto the -J70 variant) In a BattleTech where the Falcons have betrayed their ideals & been absorbed by the Wolves, the Capellans are stock evil, and The Word of Blake, Blood Spirits, and even ComStar have been annihilated, maybe I should throw in with the Free Worlds League.
Or maybe I should look at the Carronade again.
Shadow Cat II
I don't even know what the Shadow Cat I did; how can I judge the SCII, another non-omni version of an omnimech made at a different tonnage.
You don't need JJ on a 6/9 guy with this kind of range. It needs armor. Preferably stealth armor.
That said, I like stupid ideas and the variant with a partial wing sounds stupid.
The fluff makes it sound like it salvaged an AC mid-battle instead of just...getting properly repaired?
Another "cost effective" 'mech with one of the largest XL engines out there.
Vulpes
Stupid. Perfect.
Okay, what if you replaced the RAC with, like, 15-18 MMLs? A targeting computer? Additional heat sinks?
I do feel like the fluff forgets just how hard it is to kill a mechwarrior. OR maybe we're supposed to assume Capellans and Combine officers are stock evil enough to kill Davion mechwarriors 'just cause.'
Vulture Mk III
Goods help me, it's actually and omni. Looks like an improvement in almost every way. I respect its role as a support omni, even if assigning a specific role to an omni defeats the purpose.
The B config is conventionally good. The rest...have character.
What?! Character is good!
Vulture Mk IV
Oh fuck off!
(It's actually fucking sweet.)
Dragon II
It's an artillery 'mech. Did the CPLT-C4 stop working?
Oh. That makes sense.
Disappointed that the description of the -11R only mentioned being faster and not swapping the Arrow IV systems out for LRMs.
Clan LRMs.
Clan Streak LRMs.
30 Clan Streak LRMs.
Karhu
Prime config, item one of this post-Jihad 'mech is a retractable blade, which both stinks of the Word of Blake, and stinks in general. Dramatically under-gunned for a 65-ton 'mech.
A - Solid. Lasers are unfocused (no pun intended).
B - Shades of the Kodiak. Nothing wrong with that.
C - Exists.
D - The natural endpoint of Clan design. This omnimech is nothing more than a delivery system for 2 Clan PPCs.
Lament
I lament these jacked PPCs and the poorly-applied text on this image.
Excited by the Heavy Laser version. Too fast and XL-ed for its job as a juggernaut. A 260 SFE weighs 1.5 tons more and you could recoup some of that by upgrading the armor to Ferro-Fibrous (FF). Whatever.
Loki Mk II
That is a stupid number of guns. Well done.
The fluff does ask how the Falcons and Hells Horses can manage Inner Sphere populations. If, y'know, as a matter of course they obliterate unruly villages. That's pretty war crimes on laundry day behavior, and I don't know how long...oh yeah, Malvina Hazen.
How is there any nominally Jade Falcon space left with her dead and her touman gone?
Scourge
I'm feeling scourged by these undergunned racecar heavies.
Putting AES on an arm with no hand actuator doesn't seem like a wise utilization of resources. I GET that 4 ERML's is usually the better attack...I just want it in case I want it.
"It's fast"? "Only the gauss rifle ammo keeps it from being a heavy scout"??? Wat? And they just lean into this ilClan-era heavy with average speed being some kind of unusually fast machine.
Someone, please tell "Deacon" Mendoza that pious restraint and gauss rifles parted ways in 2587.
Ursa
Gee, I wonder who made "'Bear' in a foreign language 'mech"?
Lyrans? Well fuck me.
I guess I gotta break this down. The Ursa is nicknamed "The Rhino." Call me crazy, but I've always thought BattleTech naming conventions were--at least in the beginning--based on WW II plane nicknames. The Japanese didn't call their fighters Zero's, but the US did. Were the nicknames for the Spitfire, Stuka, Stratfortress, Tiger Tank, et al marketing pushed to the field, or were those descriptive names used by grunts passed up and into history?
Fuck. It was all marketing, wasn't it? Even the Zero.
So clearly I was wrong about that. But I like my more romantic concept, where 'mechs have production grades and numbers created by cold, industrial calculus that are graced with names by the humans who must know them by their character on the battlefield in a pantheon of metal to be wielded...or defeated.
I hope whatever ghost manufacturers the Clan version of this removes the RAC/2.
Also, do quads take rear leg damage when they charge? I gotta read up on that?
I'm not sure, but I think they do.
No comments:
Post a Comment