A lot of the excitement over the Cauldron-Born is, I imagine, because it’s such an unusual-looking ‘Mech as well as being absolutely smashing. The Executioner, for all its good points, is Humanoid Assault Mech #69. It just doesn’t stand out the way the CBN does.
That said…the Executioner’s 380XL gives it back six tons over the Garfayle without dropping its movement profile too far, and with both M.A.S.C. and jets to bolster it, hopefully it’ll be a nice snappy bastiche even with the inevitable Huge profile dragging it down. It’s got enough [E] hardpoints to comfortably fit most any (sane) beam armament its pilot could desire, as well as enough tonnage to run a heavy ballistic gun
and also sufficient ammo and backup guns, which the Garfayle often struggles to do. As well I know, having been beating myself up with a cUAC/20 Garfayle since the burst patch.
The torso-mounted hardpoints, if the Prime (I) nipple guns are any indication, are neither blessedly high nor cursedly low, though they tend more towards the former than the latter. They should be perfectly serviceable. Obviously the ridiculous 7E right arm is most people’s immediate go-to…but if the Garfayle and Stormcrow are any judge, hardpoint-overladen arms like that don’t tend to be nearly as popular/ban-worthy as folks might think. The important thing is having
enough hardpoints; as we’ve seen of late, having too many just invites stupid pointless negative quirks, as well as heat problems.
Besides, 7E is over the Ghost Heat limit for literally every Clan energy weapon in existence except flamers. And frankly, I want to see someone try to use seven flamers on an Executioner. Any sane build limits itself to 6. Even then, if you don’t take all six beams – or five, I suppose – you’d be better off with the EXE-A’s 4E right arm, which covers your beam needs while not inviting whatever crazed-tomfoolery negaquirks they’re going to slap on the D right arm.
Even without the D variant at all, you can get up to 8E on the Executioner. 3E left arm, 4E right arm, 1E right torso. 5E w/shield side, if you want to go there, which is enough to do two cLPL and three cERML, though the targeting for the fifth laser will be wonky. Heck, with the D LT you could do 4E and shield with the
right side if you want, though that starts running into dude-where’s-my-guns territory.
I’ll say the same thing for the Executioner I’ve always said for it – it’s going to be a good, solid ‘Mech in Puglandia, possibly even a great Puglandia machine depending on final hitboxes and M.A.S.C., but at 95 tons it’s not going to see the light of day in anything but the trolliest of CW drop decks. Which is fine by me, I’m a Puglandia native anyways, but these days everyone I know seems to talk strictly in terms of how good a thing is in Commodity Warfare. Its builds are going to be somewhat restricted by the almost complete lack of [M] hardpoints – not that people won’t still try to make the derpiest LRM boat since the ALRM45 D-DC out of the durned thing >_< - and its lack of multiple-ballistics level free tonnage, but energy centric builds should work fine, as should single big-bore builds. I’m still thinking this sucker will be a nasty Clan *AC/20 ‘Mech if M.A.S.C. is any good at all. 95-ton hit-and-run troll
ho!
Edited by 1453 R, 11 June 2015 - 09:47 AM.
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Maxx Blue, on 11 June 2015 - 07:06 AM, said:
