TRO: Dark Age, Part 8 of 8

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.

Onager

Did they roll laser sizes on a table? Do you hate logistics?!

Orochi

Can any man argue against 20-point hits from 18 hexes? Not I.

Not--actually...

I'm glad they fixed the Longbow's ammunition problem with more ammunition problems. (Drop 1/2 ton of armor and small laser and 1 ton of stream ammo for 2+ tons of Thunderbolt 20 ammo). 

Peacekeeper

Seems deecee. The variant with 2 Heavy PPCs seems better. TSM is a nice touch for a 'mech that is going to run hot.

Shrike

More like, "Please say sike," am I right? A sniper that's slightly too fast.

Yeah, fluff, the Shrike can beat the Onager because the Onager has a 13-ton LRM 30 with a cluster malus at long range and a scrap bin of pulse lasers. The Shrike carries a 14-ton LRM 20, an actual LRM 10, and two ER Large Lasers which are okay. Targeting computer or not, it's a sniper, not an assault class totem 'mech.

An immediate 2nd trial begs questions that beggar my basic knowledge of Clan knowledge.

We can add "Child Starvation" to the mustache-twirling repertoire of the Jade Falcons now. Yaaay this "shades of gray" setting.

Ten Shi

Ten whole "shi's"? Sound dec-ly. Get it? "Dec--ly"? Like "deadly," but ah, nevermind.

Inner Sphere assault-class omnimech. You love to see it.

The Combine seems to be making a lot of assaults.

Prime - Gauss Rifle and Light PPCs with a few toys isn't that impressive, but it's okay.

A - I have no idea if 3 Variable-Speed Pulse Lasers is good. I hope so for the sake of the Tenshi A.

B - Am I thinking of TSEMPS wrong? Do they not fuck you up as surely as your target?

C - Hard to complain about a Super Archer. A bit slow for that but maybe a Stalker II would be a good name.

Atlas

'Grats on your shit Thug.

Atlas III

No real "main gun," but lots of range. Is there a benefit to jettisoning weapons?

Jupiter

Too much UAC ammo and not enough LRM ammo.

Jade Falcons, your friends are all here today because we care about you. You keep using UAC 5's and you shouldn't. We want you to destroy the enemies of your clan in a healthy and productive way. You have a problem and you need help.

Malice

You know what we haven't seen? A Wolves-In-Exile 'mech. 

Guess not. It's an anti-Annihilator, a Back Massager? Ann Arbor Nator? En-rage-inator?

Xanthos

A quad infighter without a turret and no jump jets. Carries itself like an Atlas, but the variants with jump jets are more interesting.

Poseidon

Anything that carries LRMs and SRMs should consider MMLs and anything w/MRMs should consider C3 or in this case boosted C3. 

2 PPCs contribute to 'shock and awe,' but do the 10 LRMs? 7 tons converts to 12 MMLs you can't even argue crit efficiency because this is a superheavy.

Ares

41 tons of pod space? Really? You're getting outgunned by an Annihilator? Transporting battle armor with a 2/3 movement? If the Fire Moth is a battle armor taxi, the Ares is battle armor heelys. 

Cronus has interesting quirks.

Wow. Every weapon system I bitched about is now fixed equipment. Great work.

Hades - MRM & UAC 10 sounds fun. The inclusion of TSEMPS says that...it's laser focused on this theme of sucking and being bad. 

Hera - One Heavy Gauss Rifle and 3 ER Medium Pulse Lasers? Uh, okay.

Hephaestus - C3, two Clan Large Pulse Lasers, a Light PPC, two Clan ER Large Lasers, and 13 DHS with a Radical Heat Sink system is nice. Clan energy weapons are good, so it's not like it's hard, but it's good to see an Aries that clocks in at "basically okay for being so huge."

Zeus - 2 ER PPCs with a targeting computer and 18 streak SRMs. It's excessive and beautiful. Dissipating 48 heat is just a bonus. 

Aphrodite - Two C3M units is hella good but three Streak LRMs and an RAC is...pathetic armament for a super-assault. Fixed equipment or not. Do we need those 5 Double Heat Sinks? I don't see it.

Maybe I'm not familiar enough with superheavies to evaluate how good they are. But I guess I'm at least intrigued.