160 replies to this topic

[Grizley]

Might as well throw in a hated too, I hated anything that didn't run at least 75-80% of max armor. Too many times running a Rifleman and turn 2 taking 2 PPC hits to the same location and losing it. I also tended to like mechs that were either very fast, or very slow. Hanging around the 4/6 area just didn't appeal, unless it was with an assault who would normally be in the 3/5 waddler brigade.

[dal10]

Grizley, on 05 March 2013 - 01:09 PM, said:

Might as well throw in a hated too, I hated anything that didn't run at least 75-80% of max armor. Too many times running a Rifleman and turn 2 taking 2 PPC hits to the same location and losing it. I also tended to like mechs that were either very fast, or very slow. Hanging around the 4/6 area just didn't appeal, unless it was with an assault who would normally be in the 3/5 waddler brigade.

so you would love the urbie.

[Grizley]

dal10, on 05 March 2013 - 06:38 PM, said:

so you would love the urbie.

It falls afoul of the at least 75-80% of max armor rule. It's more like 50%. Which is sad considering how slow it is.

When your mech has as much internal structure as armor...

[Sparks Murphey]

In a 3058 BT campaign I played with a friend, I randomly generated a Thunderbolt TDR-5S as part of my company. "Great," I moaned, "a useless heavy. At least it's well armoured, maybe I can convince the enemy to shoot that rather than something I care about." So, the Thud got relegated to the 6/7 green pilot I had, and generally forgotten about.

That little Thunderbolt saved no less than three games from disaster.

By the end of the campaign, I was loving it. Because it wasn't all bright and shiny, and had a rather rubbish pilot in it, I didn't tend to push forward with it, and my opponent was generally happy to leave it alone. And that's where it's eclectic weapons really shone. At the end of a match, most things were dead or damaged, and this lone Thunderbolt comes in to mop up. Need to snipe something that's running away? The LRMs and large laser have you covered. Something's still standing but not got much armour left? 3 medium lasers, 2 machine guns and an SRM 2 say it's crit huntin' time. Got something behind cover, and a damaged unit can still see it but not bring the hurt? Indirect fire ahoy!

The Thud became the initiation 'Mech of the company. Whenever a new MechWarrior got hired, the Thunderbolt's pilot got promoted to a different 'Mech (I hesitate to say "better") and the newbie got put in the Thunderbolt for a while. Rolled well with your LRMs? Guess you're bound for a Catapult, once you've done your time in the Thud. (It's probably no surprise that the Summoner has a special place in my heart too. It loses the weapons versatility, but at the end of the day, it still looks like a Thunderbolt.)

My second guilty pleasure 'Mech is the Victor, primarily the VTR-9A, -9A1 and -9B variants. The ones with the AC/20s. I'm not normally a fan of autocannons (give me a gauss rifle or PPC any day; yes, I know this makes me a poor excuse for a FedRat), but something in the Victor brings out the monster in me. My favourite match was a test of the BV system: another friend and I decided to see how balanced BV was for Clan versus Inner Sphere in 3050. To enforce cultural aspects as well, they had to take a full star, I got a lance.

It turns out that you get a lot more IS 'Mech for your BV than you do Clan (no surprises there), and dividing the Clan BV five ways rather than 4 makes that even harder. So, my opponent had 5 light 'Mechs (I forget which chassis, other than "squishy ones"), while I had an Atlas, an Awesome, a Banshee and a Victor, all 3025 variants. I then stood on a hill and rained all kinds of firepower down on the little insects, while they tried to do something about it. Key point was a Fire Moth running up behind the Atlas. In the firing phase I torso twisted the Victor around and demonstrated that it (just) had arc with its AC/20. And was in short range. And hadn't moved.

"Viktor SMASH!" *Blam* The Fire Moth's leg goes sailing away.
"Viktor CRUSH!" *Blam* 80 tons of IS metal soars through the air to deliver a diving tackle on the Clan Omni.
"Viktor TRAMPLE!" The Victor's mighty foot scatters the remaining pieces of hyperengineered war machine to the four winds.

So, yeah. I don't care how many people try to tell me that the Highlander is a better 80 tonner than the Victor. For me, it's about the AC/20, jump jets, and gratuitous sound effects.

[Commander Kobold]

I like the bushwacker,Canis and the Vulture I really hope atleast one of them makes it into the game.

[Steinar Bergstol]

Sparks Murphey, on 06 March 2013 - 02:27 PM, said:

In a 3058 BT campaign I played with a friend, I randomly generated a Thunderbolt TDR-5S as part of my company. "Great," I moaned, "a useless heavy. At least it's well armoured, maybe I can convince the enemy to shoot that rather than something I care about." So, the Thud got relegated to the 6/7 green pilot I had, and generally forgotten about.

That little Thunderbolt saved no less than three games from disaster.

By the end of the campaign, I was loving it. Because it wasn't all bright and shiny, and had a rather rubbish pilot in it, I didn't tend to push forward with it, and my opponent was generally happy to leave it alone. And that's where it's eclectic weapons really shone. At the end of a match, most things were dead or damaged, and this lone Thunderbolt comes in to mop up. Need to snipe something that's running away? The LRMs and large laser have you covered. Something's still standing but not got much armour left? 3 medium lasers, 2 machine guns and an SRM 2 say it's crit huntin' time. Got something behind cover, and a damaged unit can still see it but not bring the hurt? Indirect fire ahoy!

The Thud became the initiation 'Mech of the company. Whenever a new MechWarrior got hired, the Thunderbolt's pilot got promoted to a different 'Mech (I hesitate to say "better") and the newbie got put in the Thunderbolt for a while. Rolled well with your LRMs? Guess you're bound for a Catapult, once you've done your time in the Thud. (It's probably no surprise that the Summoner has a special place in my heart too. It loses the weapons versatility, but at the end of the day, it still looks like a Thunderbolt.)

Personally I don't see the Thunderbolt as a guilty pleasure. It's pure pleasure and no guilt about it all the way. It's one of the most wonderfully sturdy 3025 heavies ever designed in my opinion, and I personally prefer it to both of its more famous brethren, the Warhammer and the Marauder. Put a Thunderbolt on the line and you have a mech that'll take a kickin' and keep on tickin'.

Plus the unseen design looks just absolutely awesome. That squat, powerful look with the offset cockpit next to the big shouldermounted missile launcher and that giant large laser strapped to the right arm. Just beautiful.

Edited by Steinar Bergstol, 06 March 2013 - 04:20 PM.

[NyxOOX]

I can think of two: the Argus and the Uziel. The Argus has always seemed like sort of a "tank among mechs" in the sense that it's loadout makes me think of a tank somewhat. I just want to load it with ballistics and shell everything in sight until the ground is littered with shrapnel. On the other hand, I just can't put my finger on what I like so much about the Uziel.

[Grizley]

You're right that BV hugely favored IS. The problem was it way undervalued armor and way over valued weapons. Of course you could exploit that pretty hard too... This is my 100 ton mech with 1 large laser in the chest, it costs about the same as your Hunchback and has double the armor and an unhealthy enjoyment of charging into close combat and kicking the enemy to bits.

Don't get me wrong, in no way am I saying the Thunderbolt was a bad mech. It's just got a little bit of an odd collection of weapons and not as much of a punch as say a Marauder. I used it fairly heavily because I did love the mini for it, I had a whole lance of them and more than once I used them all at once.

[ICUBurn]

My adder/puma running 2 Clan LB20X with 4tons of ammo. Unfortunaly only 3tons of armor protect it but in a solaris light match in mw4 it never lost. I did have to ramkill an opponent once cause I ran out of ammo chasing him down. Ah the fun times knocking over heavys and a few assults at point blank from behind and them going wtf hit me. So fun.

[GumbyC2C]

Steinar Bergstol, on 06 March 2013 - 04:19 PM, said:

Personally I don't see the Thunderbolt as a guilty pleasure. It's pure pleasure and no guilt about it all the way. It's one of the most wonderfully sturdy 3025 heavies ever designed in my opinion, and I personally prefer it to both of its more famous brethren, the Warhammer and the Marauder. Put a Thunderbolt on the line and you have a mech that'll take a kickin' and keep on tickin'.

Plus the unseen design looks just absolutely awesome. That squat, powerful look with the offset cockpit next to the big shouldermounted missile launcher and that giant large laser strapped to the right arm. Just beautiful.

Long ago, when we used to play BT tournements at the local game shop, lances were chosen based on tonnage instead of BV. Usually the lance was restricted to either 250 or 200 Tons. I really like the 250 because it allowed us to get two Thunderbolts, a P-Hawk, and and Archer. The versitilty and durablity of the Thunderbolts was very potent and the other teams would usually try and focus fire on the T-Bolts, leaving the P-Hawk and Archer to rain in the indirect LRMs on whatever the T-Bolts were focus firing on. One of the T-Bolt miniatures was painted up with a Bull's Eye and the other was green with lots of bullet holes carved into it. In 3025 tech, few things can beat a Thud ton for ton. At long range, it matches up well with Maraders and Warhamers and up close it beats them both; sometimes litteraly since having two hands equals some trees broken over the opponents cockpits.

[Spokes]

The Scorpion and Griffin are old friends, and for higher tonnage engagements the Penetrator is effective and just weird enough without being ridiculous.

But for sheer guilty pleasure, "What the heck is that??" insanity, nothing beats a Vulcan.

[Karl Streiger]

I'm still in love with the Barghest and Thunderbolt. Although both Mechs betrayed me several times in TT or MegaMek.
They got floating criticals into the Gyroscop in the first round of battle... missing a pilot roll after firing the Heavy Gauss...resulting in criticals and resulting destruction... got critical in their mainweapons.... and dozen of other occassions where luck or karma denied me to use them in force.

However... it seems that this bad luck was broken by a the combination of the TDR-10M Thunderbolt Ilyena and two Barghest 4X.
C3 Technology and Heavy Gauss Rifles is a really sweet combination

[Cairbre]

For me, the light has always been the Valkyrie. The missile rack is too big for its frame, it isn't really useful against anything but slow mediums, but I just can't seem to stop taking them.

The Shadowcat is just a medium that I keep getting drawn back to. It is everything the panther wished it could be, and a match for most anything short of an assault.

I'll second the Toyama for heavies. It is just a really, really appealing set of weapons- and the design is modern, but so utilitarian.

And for assault- the fatman. The Grand Crusader Bracket fire is just so perfectly executed in this mech- I think it has equal chance of dmg at all ranges, and is quite sturdy enough not to need to run for cover. Good thing too, because it moves like the tubby egg it so closely resembles. I'm planning to recreate it with an Awesome, 2 LPL and 2 LRM 20s should be quite doable.

[Maxwell Albritten]

Qrion, on 23 December 2012 - 09:26 PM, said:

Dervish, maybe. The bizarre hands with the SRM-2s. Oh hey, here it is: I'm a big fan of the 3025 Charger. I love running up and doing physicals all over the place, and pew-pewing till my heart is filled with joy.

This was pretty much exactly what I was going to say

[WANTED]

Mine is the Grasshopper. Ugliest, goofiest mech design there is but I won a FASA tourney with it so I have a soft spot for it. It's got nothing special in weapons, 1 Large Laser, 4 MDL, and 1 LRM 5 and Jump jets but for some reason I did well with this mech.

[Selah Ward]

It certainly isn't a second-line mech, but I have always loved the Summoner. In the trilogy, Stackpole wrote about one that had an AC/20 in one arm and an ER-PPC in the other, and that's the way I've always played them. I remember playing MW4 on a home network one time with a couple friends. The first time I unloaded both of those at close range I was rewarded with a howl of surprise from the other end of the apartment.

[Shiro Matsumoto]

In Classic Battletech i loved the Style of the (now officially unseen) Marauder.
I did play a while in a Mechwarrior - Roleplaying group, that used the tabletop game to play vehicular action, mixed with roleplay.... ah fond times.

Oh and my first ever painted Mini was a Griffin.. sadly another "unseen".

[KalebFenoir]

Boosting this back to the first page so people can add to it again.

Come on! Share your favorite unusual mechs and adventures you had with them!

[Stomp]

Friendly bump with no content, but I am starting a game of Battletech to introduce some lore to my little brother and girlfriend. Personally I can definitely see the appeal of the Charger 1A1. That mech just screams SHOOT ME, and keeps coming for more punishment.

[Nekki Basara]

There's a certain charm in it alright. It'd be a much better design if it had two hands and made sure the small lasers were all torso-mounted though.