7 replies to this topic

[RAM]

Background
Commissioned in 2665 for the Star League by the Technicron Conglomorate, the Awesome is an extremely powerful assault ’Mech. What they produced became one of the more feared BattleMechs of all time. The Awesome is built around its impressive all energy arsenal and heavy armor making it a highly independent and powerful assault 'Mech. Rugged and reliable, the Awesome is traditionally used in a vanguard role when penetrating enemy defenses. The Awesome's massive firepower also lends it to defensive actions, acting as a mobile turret when necessary. Because of its reliance on PPCs, the Awesome is able to act independently for extended periods of time. This trait is also useful in siege situations where the 'Mech can keep up a constant barrage, allowing it to win battles of attrition through bleeding an enemy dry.

As with every BattleMech, the Awesome is not without flaws. While devastating at range, it is less efficient in point-blank combat, where its PPCs have a harder time connecting with the target. It only has a small laser to fall back on in that situation. Its reduced mobility makes it vulnerable to flanking attacks by faster opponents who eagerly seek to get clear of the PPCs. While they face some of the thickest rear armor found on any BattleMech, the lack of rear facing weapons, or of a weapon mount on the Awesome’s left arm, have given many MechWarriors a fighting chance against it.


Common:
80 tons
240 rated Engine producing top speed of 48.6kph
28 Heat Sinks
No JJ
494 MAX Armour


AWS-8Q: 6,764,270 CB / 2,710 MC
Tonnage: 80
Top Speed: 48.6 km/h
Armor: 15 tons; 480points
Weapons: 3 PPCs, 1 Small Laser
Hardpoints: 7 Energy, 1 AMS
Head – 1xEnergy
LT – 2xEnergy
RT – 2xEnergy, AMS
RA – 2xEnergy
HD – 1xEnergy

AWS-8R: 6,524,390 CB / 2,610 MC
Tonnage: 80
Top Speed: 48.6 km/h
Armor: 15 tons; 480points
Weapons: 2 LRM 15s, 1 Large Laser, 1 Small Laser
Hardpoints: 3 Energy, 4 Missile, 1 AMS
LT – 2xMissile
RT – 2xMissile, AMS
RA – 2xEnergy
HD – 1xEnergy

AWS-8T: 6,704,390 CB / 2,685 MC
Tonnage: 80
Top Speed: 48.6 km/h
Armor: 15 tons; 480points
Weapons: 2 LRM 15s, 2 Large Lasers, 1 Small Laser
Hardpoints: 5 Energy, 2 Missile, 1 AMS
LT – 1xEnergy
RT – 1xMissile, AMS
LA – 2xEnergy
RA – 2xEnergy
HD – 1xEnergy

AWS-8V: 6,574,390 CB / 2,630 MC
Tonnage: 80
Top Speed: 48.6 km/h
Armor: 15 tons; 480points
Weapons: 1 LRM 15, 1 PPC, 1 Large Laser, 1 Small Laser
Hardpoints: 4 Energy, 3 Missile, 1 AMS
LT – 2xEnergy
RT – 3xMissile, AMS
RA – 1xEnergy
HD – 1xEnergy

AWS-9M: 11,534,852 CB / 4,615 MC
3xER PPC, 2xSSRM2, MPL, SPL w/ 480 Armour
LT – 3xEnergy
CT – 1xEnergy, 1xMissile
RT – 3xEnergy, AMS
RA – 3xEnergy
LA – 1xMissile


Analysis shows that the Awesome 8Q’s hardpoints may be a limiting factor if configured outside its direct fire support role, especially since the Atlas shares 4xEnergy while still mounting additional hardpoints. The AWS would have a slight potential speed & torso twist advantage; however, the lack of a left arm mount could be an equalizer.

That said, in its intended role it would be without equal. Covering an Atlas’s advance & back with 3xPPC puts plenty of continuous fire down range. Although group firing the PPCs would result in singular damage, chain firing them in sequence ensures that the Awesome’s tgt is continuously rocked – aim small, miss small. Heat rapidly becomes a crippling problem if all three PPCs are fired as they cycle; the smart AWS pilot can mitigate this limitation by only firing two of his particle cannons keeping one in reserve in case need.

(mini)Mech Lab
The head SL is superfluous and can easily be removed or upgrade, although the single head critical slot limits what can be put in. The PPC hardpoints all have plenty of critical space around them and do not suffer that limitation. Swapping to Large Lasers lowers heat output while freeing up space for more heatsinks. Both the PPCs and the LPL share the same weight making a 1:1 swap. Even with an uprated engine boating medium (pulse) lasers is not going to be as good as other options (primary due to heat), although the ability to back those up with SRMs is impressive.

Update with current info – enjoy, cheers!

7x Medium (Pulse) Lasers and 3-4x Medium (Pulse) Lasers & 3-4x SRM6s/SSRM2s seem to be the goto configs atm


RAM
ELH

[jtyotJOTJIPAEFVJ]

Your 9M hardpoints are wrong, it has 6 energy slots and 3 missile slots. It has one energy slot in each side torso, 2 energy and 2 missile in CT, one energy slot in head, one energy in RA, one missile in LA.

Edit: Also, there are plenty of other viable builds than just Med laser/SRM boats. You should at least mention LL or LRM boats as well as PPCs.

Edited by Piipu, 30 October 2012 - 05:24 AM.

[FrozenSoul]

also of note, the 9M comes stock with an XL engine, and it can equip a 385XL (and you can put 5 doulble heatsinks into it) which reaches 77.9kph (before pilot skill tree)

Using endo-steel saves 4 Tons
Using Ferro-F saves 1.7 Tons

[Slanski]

Also notice that the PPC Awesomes are not beginner friendly mechs. You need to manage your heat very well, fight with a difficult to master weapon system and face a potential Atlas in the assault slot on the enemy team. Using ER PPCs without a complete loadout of double heat sinks (bugged or not) will make the mech unplayable.

[Punk KMSD]

First thing I do is throw that silly SLas away and use the tonnage to get more armor. Armor, RAM, ArmOr, I know you're a Canadian but you really need to stop putting U's where they don't belong.

I normally run with a 4 Large Laser AWE-8Q. Not only do the lasers weigh less, allowing me to throw in more heat sinks, but they build up less heat then PPCs, which you can chain them to also help with heat balancing. Normally I mount them L/R torsos as that right arm is a huge target for Meds and Lights...though this seems less valuable as they've now changed the graphics to show that you have nothing there so no bother to target it.

[RAM]

Punk KMSD, on 30 October 2012 - 11:16 AM, said:

First thing I do is throw that silly SLas away and use the tonnage to get more armor. Armor, RAM, ArmOr, I know you're a Canadian but you really need to stop putting U's where they don't belong.

Punk, Punk, Punk, Punk – some of us speak proper English… you really need to stop removing those excess vowels!


RAM
ELH

[Bogus]

"Atlas for show, Awesome for a pro"

My perception of the AWS has changed dramatically since playing around with a couple of the variants. The stock fits are lame, but loading up banks of SRMs or LLas produces phenomenal sustained short-medium range firepower with manageable heat. Also, since people tend to discount the Awesome's combat effectiveness they're likely to focus on your tanked-up Atlas buddy. What's ironic is that while Awesome does go down like a sack of potatoes under sustained fire, it's arguably capable of dishing out more damage than an Atlas due to the location of the hardpoints.

A couple of tips:

-Do the twist. Moreso than most mechs, AWS is reliant on torso-twisting to shield the vulnerable head/CT from incoming fire. Depending on fit you'll have one or two vestigal arms that can and should be freely used to soak up damage.

-Chainfire the big guns. Awesome can dissipate heat well but a single alpha is often >50% of the heat bar so if you can spread it out over time you'll get more overall damage in.

-Be a Fat Ninja. Sneaking up on someone with an assault mech isn't easy, but if you can and you're shooting lasers you're likely to be halfway through their structure before they know what's what since lasers, unlike the other weapon types, don't knock the target around.

[Raptor Khatib]

The 8 Q I tend to strip out 1 of the PPC's Put 2 in the right arm honestly your really ever going to use all 3 as you cannot cool down all the heat from 3 PPCs be adding in 4-5 ML's(Or 4 MPLs depending on the flavor I feel for the day) you can cover the "90M dead zone" of the PPC should someone get in there and be able to chain fire 8-10 PPC's shots without stop before having to hide for 0 sec to bleed your heat. Also once DHS's are working right there might be enough room for DHS's to handle the heat of ER PPC's instead of standard but that I'm not sure of yet. The joy of this config is you can set between your LRM mech and the front line putting a lot of fire down range and be ready to pounce on anything that comes for your missile mechs. One thing to note with the 8Q keep your left arm empty of stuff if you can and use it as a shield turn that armor to your target and watch them waste ammo and shots doing damage to something that you can throw away.

Another config I was using a lot was an Awesome 8T with 2 LPL's and 2 LL's why not 4 LL's well to be honest I'm not a huge fan of LL's in a brawl the pulses do a bit more damage up close and 2 LL's is more than enough to chew up most mechs at range before getting into the point where the LPL's can start singing. This working the pulse cause lots of little crits that can lead to loss of key weapons. As for heat sink counts I have not updated just yet so I'll have to come back but this one was pushing about 30ish heat sinks and can fire both LPL's and chainfire the LL's for about 45-60 sec before heat forces the issue.