Ok, so some serious builds...
Ninja-Hawk (Move like a butterfly, sting like an Arrow IV)
Hawk-inator (Slow...ish and brutal, Atlas' best friend)
Spear-Hawk (Blasphemous to use MGuns in such a sweet-spot Ballistic point, but that Array tears up criticals once the LRMs have stripped the armor clean. Also, no real reason not to drop some LRM ammo for a bigger engine, I just like filling out critical slots.).
The SHD is by and far one of my favorite 'mechs ever, from TT to now, simply for just how amazingly versatile it is for just 55T.
And the only 'downside' to the SHD? Next week some other idea will strike my fancy, and I'll likely end up tearing them all down and building them back up. About the only thing that really ever stays the same on any of them is the Armor (Which I'll admit I was kind of lazy in Smurfy's, I tend to swap a decent bit to the front).
Not so serious builds;
Hobo with a Shotgun (aka-OverUnderHawk)
Turret-Hawk
Swiss Army Hawk
Second three are wretched FrankenMechs that came about more from boredom than anything.
I really, really do not recommend in any circumstances running the Swiss Army Hawk. It was a masochistic source of fun using all 6 weapon groups, ran out of ammo like it was going out of style, and while it could clear 3-400 damage a match, it reminded me while we may have six weapon groups, it is not exactly wise to utilize all of them for six different weapons.
The Turret Hawk is more of a joke build that came about from a buddy saying something along the lines of it possibly being fun to shoehorn a LRM40 into one of them (Actually I think it was more complaining about just how much the SHD gets away with being able to do). Yes, it is an atrocious abomination of a 'mech and does not come with a recommendation for usage. You walk slower than an Atlas, with less firepower than an Atlas, and die even quicker than an Atlas if swarmed by lights. I only put it up there because even with all of that, it was terribly fun to play with......for like five matches. (Curse you Alpine Peaks)
The OverUnderHawk however.....thing is surprisingly effective. And yes, Just dropping an A/C-20 into it and actually making it more competitive would be the prudent course, but that wasn't the point. Chainfiring LBXs on the 'cowboy' of 'mechs was the point. And it was wickedly fun.
Other acknowledgements go to the more streamlined 'Hawks. Quad Streaks, Double AC5, Trip 2's, 5/2 & PPC, and all the other stuff that 'dumbs down' the weapon groups into MB1 and MB2. They're extremely efficient, they're also terribly boring, but I highly recommend the builds for the sake of performance.
SHD is by far my favorite 'mech, at least from what we have access to, simply for the fact that it's one of the Inner Sphere's closest rigs resembling Clan Omni-mechs, and somehow, even when you build something crazy, silly, trollish, or outright dumb, it disturbingly has a way of still putting the hurt out, and standing it's ground.
The REAL question, for me, is how do you build something effective using it's max standard engine? STD 360 weighs in at 80% of the SHD's total weight. After armor? You're lucky if you have a ton of space left for a weapon. Sure, the SHD goes 116.6kph, but there's nothing on it to dish out the hurt. THERE is the puzzle.
Could rant about the SHD all day long, but I think that's enough for now
Edited by Mercer Skye, 25 November 2013 - 02:37 PM.
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Arctourus, on 25 November 2013 - 06:55 AM, said:
