The Urbie | Battletechs mascot and the lords silliest warrior
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Hello hello, today, not only do we get to enjoy the urbanmech. One of battletechs most famous and infamous memes but steve himself has finally been wrangled back into the basement where he belongs. So join us as the dynamic duo regales you with the lore and, ok, no it's mostly memes and really dumb jokes but still. THE URBANMECH. Everyone loves the urbie.
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"Anyone who takes it seriously is a fool."
Said the guy who has probably never seen one of these little guys bumble out from behind a skyscraper, core the engine block of an Orion through its backplates with its AC20/BF, then jumpjet two streets over and break contact while three other Urbies descend on a Hunchback a block over like a pack of cylindrical alligators. And suddenly half your lance is dead, while you were trundling forward trying to smoke the little trash cans out of hiding.
With the right tactics and opportunity, Urbies can absolutely hold their own. They're not strong, and they're not fast, but in the right terrain with a good and smart pilot, Big Iron R2D2 can and will make a force pay *dearly* for every foot of ground they have the presumption to claim. That's why when I see an Urbie on the field, I prioritize its right arm, because I respect that AC20 enough not to entertain the potential risk to me or my lance.
Beyond that, the Urbanmech tends to speak to a certain sort of person. It may be small. It may be clunky. But it's got spirit. Despite all its faults, it's got *courage* baked into its very intention - the courage to go forth and TRY. It may be an ambulatory trash can - but it's a trash CAN, not a trash can't.
also, its designed to be a cheap easily mass produced mech for a budget conscious buyer. these were meant to do police and militia work when money is tight and any mech is better then none. it doesn't hurt that logistically that these are 5 times Cheaper then a charger and 20 times cheaper then a Timber Wolf (Mad Cat). AC20 still hits just as hard.
"Anyone who takes it seriously is a fool."
AC20 Urbie: So anyway I started blasting.
Money beyter spent on an SRM carrierm
UM-R80 laughs in Snub-nosed PPC
They had to remove armor for that. And it has five shots.
Arrow-IV Urbie who nuked the Kell Hounds says hi
@@Xeno426 yes 5 shots of an ac 20 if you don't miss you core an assault mech. So you're a little mech designed for ambushes with pretty much a one shot weapon.
i think what makes the Urbie such a meme mech is the fact that in the correct circumstance in the exact instance it is able to perform in the scenario it was designed for, the Urbanmech becomes an actual threat, because if it was completely useless it would not be as beloved. it it's ability to prank your enemy with it that leads to hilarity and stories of how a Urbie in an city ruined someone's day. thats why we love it
"we can't stop here, this is urbie country!" - house steiner scout lance approaching a high-density urban environment
The urbanmech is making the most of a bad situation and still give a good account of yourself in the process. 2/3/2 movement is enough with the right support. I have played scenarios on tabletop with urbies and if you know what you are doing, you can get more than your monies worth.
@@LexYeen I live in a high density urban environment that goes by the government name of "the city." Me and a group of my clanners control certain areas of this section in order to run our illegitimate business.
It doesn't help that Urbanmechs are usually shown from a bird's eye perspective and people instinctively think it only comes up to their waist and they could kick it to the ground and win the fight whereas in reality it's a ten meter tall monster that weighs thirty tons and can step on you like a bug, incinerate your car and blow up your house. It's like everyone looking at a Bradley or a T34 and calling it a harmless joke.
@@eddapultstab2078 People who claim slow speed mechs excel in urban combat never fought urban combat. Just like any other scenario a fast mech will or at least should outperform a slower one, even in a city, where the options to move are already extremely limited. Making a simple angle turn already swallows up half your walking movement and not all buildings and built up terrain can be cleared with a 2-point jump. Also remember that running on pavement involves piloting checks so it make sense to have a high walking speed to prevent you turning into a giant pinball.
Realistically the Urbanmech is mostly designed for security duty and be a semi mobile gun platform, something that can deal with rioters, insurgents, small armoured vehicles, scout mechs and anything that is looking to make trouble in your area and you don't want to dedicate a Mad Cat II to go deal with. A lance of them can with some luck take down much bigger prey, but so could a lance of Firestarters and they are a whole lot more mobile to boot. A Firestarter vs Urbanmech duel means that a clever pilot can almost always keep the Ubie at range and dominate the mobility game.
This lazy meme that a slow mech is somehow excellent and superior to other mechs needs to go. By that logic an Atlas would be a monster inside a city, but somehow it's never seen as being great in a city, despite having massive armour and the firepower of a lance of Urbies.
My friend Sophie used to have an extensive collection of BT miniatures, which included two lances of Urbies painted as different types of soda cans.
Now that's a cool company commander. I'm sad to hear that she had them in the past tense
Tell me there are different generations of Pepsi products and the lance leader is Dr. Coca Pepsiman.
The cola coalition
Trashcan. Not Trashcannot.
With the requisite Urbanmeme out of the way, in its intended role of cityfighting defence it's a pretty solid design. Heavy, short-ranged firepower, jump-jets and 360 torso twist, and a low profile. Also, cheap. In most battles it's not a good choice but in that specific role it's designed for it's extremely good.
Its literally meant to be a low cost easy to maintain garrison unit or for policing a major metropolis. You dont want heavy mechs for that cause they might DAMAGE your city just moving around. These under the old city fight rules walking slow is an advantage, you dont risk crashing into buildings from slide on concrete roads into buildings.
Correct, the urbie is meant for defensive combat in dense terrain or urban environment with the strategic concept of "you shall not pass!" It's a very niche role but it's common enough and highly needed that the urbie proudly fields.
Nothing is more terrifying than walking into a tight clustered urban center in your medium or heavy mech and hearing hardbass begin blasting.
You turn to look and realize there's an Urbie squatting on EVERY SINGLE BUILDING ROOF AROUND YOU.
@@KillerOrca That's the bit folks forget - Urbies are pack hunters. If you can see one Urbie that means there are at least 3 more you can't see. They're the bastard offspring of Humpty Dumpty, velociraptors and a tank.
I still want to see Urbanmech drop troopers, I mean they're about the right shape for re-entry without a dropship and they're cheap so... Either that or just stack them in a Leopard and do a flyby pushing them out the side. Some won't be able to stop their falls but then just become an extra large ballistic projectile. Win/win!
@@MrGrimsmith Drop thrusters for a hoverdrop maneuver, Nova Cat style
Who needs two companies of Urbanmechs? I'll tell you. The Van Zandt Militia and the Black Pants Legion.
Hail (of Missiles) Cargonia
Perfect for escalating a limited engagement into a theatre-wide problem...
"For cry havoc, and let slip the arrow-iv"
"Now I'm everyone's problem"
What's hilarious about this guy's rant is that for the price of his beloved Mad Cat, I can buy a full company of Urbies plus a reserve lance of the same plus spare parts or fund a company of infantry to give the Urbies more teeth when setting ambushes.
@@RaderizDorret Skip the reserve lance and invest heavily in field resupply and repair, and you'll not go too wrong. Quitting is for fucking clanners whose ultra special ace mechs ran out of ammo.
@@Tomyironmane It gets better. When Clan Coyote got the ball rolling on advancing their Mech technology base, they looked at the Urbie and decided all they needed to do was mild upgrades to its equipment while more or less leaving the base chassis alone.
The Urbanmech IIC that resulted retains its 6 tons of armor, 90-rated engine, and doesn't use endo steel or double heatsinks. It also packs an Ultra AC/10 and a Clan ER Small Laser while boasting a speed of 54 km/h. And the price tag is 1.83 million C-bills.
"who out there needs 24 of these things?"
Just assuming AC10s, that gives you more armor and damage output, per C-bill, than any Assault mech in the game....
I also want to add that, if I'm remembering the prices correctly, that many Urbies (blessed be their name...) is on par with a single Mad Cat, and, kept in patrolling clusters of 3 or 4, in an urban environment, will smear that single Mad Cat (stay salty, clanner scum...) 99 times out of 100, before it can accomplish it's objectives within that city.
Now, just imagine if they could retrofit the venerable Urbanmech with Omnipods, so they could refit and rearm after breaking away from an engagement, to quickly get back into the fight...
@@andrewamann2821 You just need to spend a few of those C-bills on a Raven or any light mech with decent electronics and the kill count goes up even faster.
Plus even the best mechwarrior can only shoot one urbie per weapon at best, in the same amount of time as that mechwarrior can be shot by dozens of urbies. Urbies are at their very best operating in packs. Being so incredibly cheap, a city can potentially field dozens of them without breaking the bank.
@@andrewamann2821 I like to retrofit my urbies... take out the autocannon (12 tons + 1 ton for ammo, and small laser (1/2 ton), and slap in a binary laser (9 tons), machine gun with a half-ton of ammo (1/2 ton +1/2 ton for ammo)...nobody ever runs out of MG ammo with a single MG anyway... and a few extra heat sinks. You then have extra endurance, and deal significantly more damage without compromising range. After 3028, the lostech datacore found on Helm by the Grey Death Legion becomes available IS-wide, so Urbies can be equipped with enough DHS to be heat neutral enough to constant firing with just the required 10 heatsinks, barring engine damage.
Anybody who talks about using an UrbanMech to *attack* enemy locations was sleeping through any of the ‘analysis’ they claim to have done.
The UrbanMech doesn’t walk into enemy infantry fortifications. It lures enemy Mechs into its *own* infantry fortifications, punching holes in their armor in the process, so the infantry can finish the job in a few seconds.
If you're using them to attack enemy locations either there are no weapons whatsoever, they snuck in thru a water channel, or the commander has gone insane and is dropping them from a shuttle.
The Urbie does NOT do a regular assault. It's too slow.
The only way you manage to get an Urbie into the field fast enough to make a difference is to orbital drop them.
@@AsheramK Or just have them everywhere. That said, orbital drop Urbies are funnier.
I moded my mercenarys game and realized how scarry the urban is. They pack a big gun and have lots of armor. They don't die fast enough. The radar says a light mech. I see an ac 20 with almost heavy armor.
Then I found out I could put a 100 series engine, endo steel, and double heat sinks, max armor, and room for 8 tons of wepons.
Urbies are scary as hell in MW5, especially early game when you are running smaller mechs and don't have a lot of money to cover the costs for repairs, when one of your mechs rounds a corner and gets it's whole right-torso blown off by an AC-20 hit from the Urbie that just pinged up on sensors all of a sudden.
In the HBS turn based game, I put an AC 5 on one, gave it a 180 engine (I think) Ferro Fibrous armor and battle armor hand holds.
It has an evasion of 7 when it runs. Basically can outrun everything.
I pair it with gnome (?) Battle armor. I call it Master Blaster. It can run up behind an assault mech, shoot it in the back, then the BA climbs on and takes it down.
The pilot and the BA pilot both have sensor lock. If they're not shooting, they can strip 4 points of evasion off a target.
Sadly, I updated my BTA 3062 mod version and had to restart from scratch. Lost all my old saves and Mechs.
@@weldonwin That game will teach you to respect the humble Urbie. They are somehow MORE threatening than a fucking Victor. Because the arm holding that cannon is smaller and harder to hit.
Did you meet the one loaded with flamers and inferno missiles? I fucking HATE those little bastards.
@@CM4wsler Urbies in MWO are priority targets for my lance. They scare the shit outta me.
The Urbie is perfectly designed to exploit the city fighting rules. Also this little meme mech nuked the Kell Hounds out of existence.
Indeed. We need to look at it from a lore perspective rather than in-game rules. I don't care how heavy your mech is or how many weapons you have, getting hit by a dozen urbanmechs from multiple directions during a city fight will still kill you. Even if you manage to escape and take down a few, they have done more damage to you than it cost them in losses.
@@Paul-cu9lu Or just from the video game perspective, playing Mechwarrior5 and coming around a corner on a city map or just coming to a garrison and BANG, AC-20 to the face. Even if the Urbie doesn't kill one of your mechs, it can cripple them and it will cost a small fortune to repair, especially early game when you don't have a lot of money and are primarily running smaller mechs.
@@Paul-cu9luthey who scorn the urbie have never went in a city full of them
@@nitesy381 There is one way that Urbies are like trashcans. There is one on every corner.
My usual come back to people urbie bashing is 'UM-AIV'. Although I do have much fun in MWO with my Urbies.
See, here's the thing: You don't _bring_ an Urbie anywhere. You build _around_ the Urbie. Every police station, every militia outpost, every Block Defense Force (think Judge Dredd) has an Urbie in the basement, it's fusion reactor hooked up to the building power grid, providing cheap, easy energy.
Until the day the enemy comes. And from every basement, every supply closet, every urban power station the Army of Urbies arises. When the infantry topside says 'go!', every house on the street splits apart and spits out an unboiled egg of unbridled rage and heavy autocannon ammo.
lol, it’s the urban utility mech. Wouldn’t be surprised to see someone yank the ac19 off and put a ton of firefighting and engineering equipment.
@@CaptainBanjo-fw4fq canonically there are utility fits for Urbanmechs. There's even a Pursuit variant that fits a MG array and additional Small laser to make space for an uprated engine so it can go faster then a brisk senior citizen crawl.
@@Talon1124pursuit varient? Lol
You're just describing Plantet Van zant
@@CaptainBanjo-fw4fqI could have sworn Tex mentioned one with that exact set up...
They called me a trash can.
So I did. There were no survivors.
for the cost of one Timber Wolf you could get 16 Urbanmechs + spare parts.
I'd rather have a Timber Wolf over 16 Urbanmechs. I love the little things but oh my gosh it is such a bad mech competing with one of the most revolutionary and iconic mechs of the series.
@@patchpatch4008 I mean yeah if your the pilot I can see why you would want the timber wolf but if your a lord trying to defend your various stations, forts and cities etc.. I would likely prefer to have the 16 Urbie's in most cases.
Total urbie dominance
@@patchpatch4008 One timber wolf cant be in 16 places when you need to garrison a planet. Or suppress an uprising.
@braddl9442 I feel that a bunch of scorpions and mechanized infantry support would do just as well, though. Being in multiple places is a valid point but each of those points are now just vulnerable because the only thing guarding it is an Urbanmech.
The Urbie. The most deadly mech ever designed.
When it finally reaches you....
Hunchbacks cry themselves to sleep wishing they were half as cool.
Deadly to its pilot, I presume
@@Wastelandman7000 As one battle report I watched put it, "It's exceptionally mobile for a stationary object"
One of those took off the head of my MAD-4A at 14 hexes, through woods, because its player vouldn't stop rolling fives and sixes... every mech can be dangerous.
The twelve-pack of Urbanmechs makes sense if you think like this. You don't send a single Urbanmech to fight in a city. You send them in four mech units. Each mech pointed in a different direction or they can focus fire all four AC 10's at 1 target.
The urbie is a mobile turret. Pop up, blast and hop away, cause they should work as a pack.
As an avid Mechwarrior 5 player I can wholeheartedly state that anything with an AC20 gets my full attention, be it single shot or burst fire. Chasing light mechs or brawling with heavy mechs while a trashcan cores my ass is not fun. 😂
Hit that right arm then go back to the important stuff 😂
@@imtableship1703 Yeah, it's too easy to just kill the arm with the big gun and then just leave it to deal with everything else until it's alone. Esp. since pilots will eject if you strip the mech of their weapons, and urbies are really easy to target the limbs of.
@ASNS117Zero for some reason Urbanmechs especially will run around without arms for an extensive period of time, drawing my lancemates fire if I don't quickly dispatch them
It introduced you to the ground, didnt it?
The MWO weight issue is because they calculate the weight of the gyro and whatnot based on the engine rating, with a baseline at 100 rating (IIRC). This means that a smaller engine will reduce the weight of the gyro and other ancillary equipment more than the engine's added weight, leading to an apparent negative mass for the 60-rated engine.
I'm thinking of an ilClan Urbanmech packing a large re-engineered laser in place of the autocannon, a small pulse to replace the small (actually useful against infantry, unlike the standard laser), and use the rest of the weight to switch to hardened armor (effectively doubles the maximum protection, but reduces the run speed by one hex, making its speed 2/2/2, which is hilarious).
Listen I will knock on the urban mech any day of the week. But all the trash-talking is in good fun. In reality on the tabletop and its element it's freaking terrifying. You put a lance of those bastards in the cityscape and it's one like donkey.
Urbie is pretty much walking bunker perfect for city defense that you mostly need to sit and hold position
the first time i fielded urbies on the tabletop, one took out a clan mech's arm and torso in the first shot of the game (before being immediately destroyed by return fire), and the other executed a downed clan assault mech in the final shot of the game
beautiful little round boys
You see... I need them for Urban Kombat. It's where you have only urban mechs in your lance... and then they fight.
Centurion and Enforcer are mentioned as comparisons. Here's a challenge for you: 1 player with UrbanMechs against you with Centurions/Enforcers balanced by BV. Depending on how many maps are used and if UrbanMech player knows his (and Urbie's) shit, he has a decent chance to corner Centurions to map edge. I've been at the receiving end of it. Reason to have several UrbanMechs painted differently is to make a given model match with faction's colour scheme.
You take one UrbanMech, but you put an Elite pilot in. The opponent can afford ONE Centurion, with a Green pilot. Or worse.
It'll break your opponent.
Ah yes the Urban Train, the mythical spawn of the Urban Lord. Can't turn for the life of itself, but can float towards you and has a taste of your health points
You do not understand how to use the Urbanmech. It is cheap, has an AC10, heavy armor, and unlimited torso twist. You buy Urbanmechs in lances. How many shots of 4 AC10 can your average heavy mech survive?
And usually its a lance of Urbies vs 1 mech. Cause they are that cheap in C bills to operate.
A surprising amount, depending on the exact mech. And most Urbie pilots aren't going to be great shots, because you put those into better mechs. Like a Panther, or given the skill set, a Hunchback.
Hey I want to run a scenario That pits a whole company of urbanmechs against a single Steiner scout lance in urban environment.
UMR-60Ls preferred. Because AC/20.
@@SRTifiable one lance R60L for impact, 1 lance R68/R27 with both Inferno and standard ammo for Heat stress/crit seeking, and 1 lance R70 for sandpapering.
If you go by the c-bill value it would be 6 lances of Urbanmechs with 6 million left over for infantry. That's a really bad day for the Steiners!
Urbanmechs make for good teaching matches. My local store is planning a "Trash Can Throwdown" or "Urbie Derby" at some point in the future.
It may be silly....until someone straps Arrow 4 missiles on it and it cores an assault with one salvo LOL
As to why it survived, it got shunted to planetary militias. It was not in line regiments. And being cheap, you could afford to relegate it to units who weren't supposed to be on the front line and you didn't want to waste money on giving them line battlemechs.
Except for the Capellans. Because they're Capellans. Nuff said.
The lord of the battlefield, the protector of everything that is good and true - the almighty Urbie!!!!
Ey yo, Im the creator of the Urban Lord. I also made a free to download 3d model for people to print their own and use on the tabletop. In addition, i also made a medium 50t version called the urban warrior (also with a free 3d model) and plans for a heavy version called the Urban Knight.
nice to see it featured.
I've got 9 Urbies. None are for standard play, All are for when DMing campaigns. Deployed a lance at a time (Variants to switch up the basic lance)
Forget the Arrow IV Urbie, someone stated up an Urbie with a Long Tom Cannon - that's a 20ton gun in the right arm of a mech that totals 30 tons. I want one.
Sacred Cow Shipyards called this thing an 'HerbalMech', and everyone had a laugh!
Completely disagree with your assessment of the Urbanmech. I have and do repeatedly use it to punch way above its bracket. One time, using those dozen urbies you maligned, I beat 2 other players using a comstar level II each (12 mechs varying between 40 and 100 tons) in an urban environment. That being said, the purpose of the urbanmech is not to win in a 1 v 1 fight. The purpose is to bleed the enemy, and make them pay for every inch they advance. You HAVE to remember the cost of the urbanmech is under 500k cbills. Thats half the cost of almost every other mech. You can buy 2 for the price of a decent light scout. It is the AK47 of the Battletech world, and is utilized the same. You just suck at attrition warfare and insurgencies
The urbanmech is also a tactical gun emplacement that is specifically designed to accentuate static defense networks. A turret emplacement can move but an urbie can move away from artillery barrage zones. It doesn't need to move fast, because it is not meant to go to the enemy, the enemy has to go to it.
The urban mech actually cost 1 2 million cbills. To give reference a locust, 20 tons is around 1.8 million and wasp and stinger, also 20 tons, is 1.6 million each.
@@eddapultstab2078 I think that was in lore rather than the games. Most planetary garrisons will buy these things in bulk so they would likely get wholesale prices. The urbanmech is so ubiquitous that there are always plenty on the market.
Bruh, you forgot to mention the urbie with the arrow 4 missile launcher could fire nukes.
I never got the 'useless' memes because everytime Ive encountered one its already blown my arm away before I even noticed it was right next to me. You often overlook Urbanmechs, and in first person Mechwarrior games quite literally.
The Urbie is a great example though of combined arms and urban warfare. Even an AC10, when fired from ambush or a prepared position, hurts a lot. When it gets into your back, it hurts a lot more. Plus it forces you to engage a literal trashcan while a hetzer, savannah master, or infantry with infernos roll up on you and pimp slap your mech into the stratosphere. It's also usually less than 1/3 to 1/10 the cost in BV or C-Bills compared to most mechs, so a great trade for cost.
I put a Gauss Gun on a Urbie and bullied a Cataphrat into a corner like I was making him give me his lunch money
Urbies - basically fantastic at their strange, niche role. A lot of games forget the issue of skids, where urban surfaces are a nightmare for faster mechs, slipping around all over the place. Lots of corners too, where mechs have to peer round and you can even hide in the shell of a building - these urbies hold all the cards in battles on their home turf.
Urbies and infantry, working together to make built up areas a nightmare for intruders. A glorious thing.
“Anyone who takes it seriously is a fool.”
- Clan Ghost Bear before losing a metric shit ton of ‘Mechs to that one Kuritan missile variant
I needed 12 Urbanmechs. I give them out as lances for others to get into the hobby.
What does it do? It headshots my assault mechs from off map in Battletech! All. The. Damn. Time!
The urbie the mech for when you want to stunt on people in the most disrespectful way possible.
"Did I just get killed by a trashcan?"
The urban mech is fantastic at being the most hateful firehydrant to park my caddy on. Literally all my attention is thrown on it even when other mech are around cuz that ac 20 pairs well with a locust
I bought the urbie company for 2 reasons. The first one is my daughter loves them (bought the plushie as well. We named it "Stompy.") And the second is because I actually know how to use them on tabletop to good effect.
That and I used more than just the stock model. They are remarkably good on some of the TUKAYID maps.
The reason you have a dozen urbanmechs is because they're cheap and meant to be used as defensive attrition
Ah yes, a dozen urbies, or as my c-bill minded friends like to say, _one atlas_
Back in Mech Commander 2, we used to salvage so many urban mechs at the end of a mission that that's how we got paid, we cashed out every urbie we could after salvaging the good stuff and used that to repair what was left. Good times.
all hail our lord and Savior urbie
13:22 Answer: Me! Think about it, individual Urbies have low BV, so you can field more of them. In an urban setting, more urbies means more ambushes,
Also for shits 'n' giggles, set up a race track, give everyone an Urbie to pilot, and let Urbie Derby begin
and the UM-60L cos nothing is funnier than an Assault mech getting cored by a peddle-bin
The cray thing is that in the group I'm playing BattleTech with my character got introduced by escaping captivity from a bunch of pirates and the ONE mech that was available for me to pilot...was an URBANMECH.
I at least managed to get a couple of decent hits in before I got knocked down.
I have used an Urbie in Mech Warrior Online extensively I have found 2 uses for them, 1 actual, 1 cheese
1: the ultimate peeker, with such a small profile and high mounts, on a big map with hills or a mountain to jump on, take carefully aimed laser shots all match. Then if anyone comes for you, you can shoot 180
2: HA HA, YOUR TOO TALL TO SEE ME. Basically, you sneak up on the super heavy ATLAS and other snipers on a city map, get right up in their crotch, and they CANT see you even if they turn around. And if they use 3rd person to see you, their weapons cant look down far enough. AND if their allies try to hit you they will splash their big guy. Its an all or nothing cheese play, but when it works, it is so funny.
Sadly the machine gun commando is even better for the 2nd one, being faster and smaller.
“Crackhead R2-D2 was born” made me laugh well done sir.
An Urbanmech's only redeeming quality is that as a garrison mech, it's less then half the price of the next viable mech for the job.
There's also the Arrow IV variant which is actually decent.
The "Urban Lord" already existed in lore.. it is called the IMP and the Urban Overlord is the Annihilator
You need at least a dozen of them to hold an Urbie-Derby. I've done 3 different ones through the years. 1 being a race, one a 12 player PUBG style deathmatch with a shrinking map, and a 4 player 4 mech team deathmatch.
The urbie is a good desing for it's designed function. I like them with a gause gun.
The Urbanmech: What happens when a trash can is sick of your shit...
Urbanmechs are perfect, with Heavy Infantry. The Urbanmech hole punches enemy armor, the infantrymen turn compromised armor plates into internal damage, or just get cockpit hits while the Timber Wolf is too busy tanking AC-10 fire.
Urbanmech IIC art from the CCG rocks. The nuclear urbie was based off the Davy Crockett, a nuclear bazooka developed in the 50s.
I see 2 primary purposes for the Urbanmech.
1. You are a warlord who promised that the local militia of a settlement can have a mech but are afraid they may try to use that mech against you in a rebellion. An urbanmech allows you to give them a mobile turret that can defend the settlement without having to worry about it being used to harass your forces.
2. Glamping. The urbanmech comes with a fusion powerplant and extra heatsinks. You take that AC20 off and you have a powerplant that doubles as a small laser turret. Perfect for establishing small frontier settlements out beyond normal supply lines. Once the settlement establishes its own infrastructure the Urby either falls into disrepair or is used to power the next push into the frontier… or gets rediscovered in some time of need.
Its got a role, its just not a role in the regular military.
In mechwarrior it does that exact job tho, you can’t ignore it and turn your back to because it just does just enough damage, it takes time to kill for its size, while the enemy drop ship is bringing in the real mechs, and it’s often found in 2s or 3s guarding an urban area
In days of yore (the original mechwarrior rpg had just come out recently.. maybe 1989?) our unit was poor, and consisted of a jenner with a broken missile system, an assasin, a phoenix hawk with a destroyed large laser, and my shadowhawk.
We fought an urban defensive mission with dozens of these guys on the board, and merrily hopping some pretty big mecha into urbie ambushes.
Anyway, we had full salvage rights, so we actually rebuilt 3 of them, just using 90 engines from the tanks (to improve the speed to extremely slow), and replaced the ac (for which there was no ammo anyway) with a ppc, and the small laser with a medium. It was never great exactly, but it did surprisingly well in the next two urban defense skirmishes.
The Urbie is not simply a mech. The Urbie is a one man, easily re-positionable bunker.
Love the Urbie, just wish someone would put a ERPPC and SPL on it and call it a day. As far as Anchovy are concerned, lots of tasty stuff is made with anchovy paste, and anchovy can be made into lots of stuff like Worcestershire sauce! I will say, canned anchovy can be quite strong, but don't let that blind you to a whole lot of options that cook the fishy taste right out, just like using shrimp paste or fish sauce.
Fun fact, there's some errata about the UrbanMech which suggests it was supposed to have a machine gun. The UM-R60 has a completely pointless eleventh heat sink, and I wonder if, when they were writing TRO:3025, that was intended to be a machine gun and half a ton of ammo instead.
Oh, and the Arrow IV variant originated at a convention where somebody brought a custom mini of an Urbie firing a nuke to a tournament match. The line developers were present, and one of them was so amused that he wrote up a record sheet and canonized it on the spot, and then it was decided, canonically, that it was one of these nuclear trash cans which the Word of Blake used to nuke the Kell Hounds.
Honestly I've used this mech at its worst and best... (i.e. stripped and refitted...) 130 kph... rotary autocannon 5.... machine-gun and lazers... and jumpjets.... I've dropped assault mechs like atlases with the opponent drastically dismissing me as a non threat.... I love the sounds of them screaming at the end of their match....
Way back when, there used to be an event at conventions where someone would take a company of Urbies versus a Timberwolf. It was called the Charge of the Urbie Brigade. That's why they put out a company pack of Urbies.
Last I heard, the Urbies would win half the time.
Since the video is 90% “lol meme mech! Meme mech! Its useless it has no use other than as a meme!”
I’ll try to explain why the mech is still in use despite being ‘worthless’.
The urbanmech costs only 1.4 million C-bills, for reference a locust costs 2.2 million C-bills. This means for nearly half the price for a locust you get yourself a mech than can carry a heavy and medium weight weapon. Urbanmech isn’t the fanciest or biggest or toughests mech but its cheap and its simple design make it very easy to repair and mass produce.
Because of this, they are typically deployed by the dozen in the lore. Meaning you can outweigh your enemies firepower through sheer urbanmech. Its like the T-34 of mech. Its cheap and mass produced so you can put absolute rookies in them and not lose much in the way of trained pilots.
They are a favorite for militia forces because they typically need to do a defensive role anyways and the urbanmech is the only kinda mech they can afford on their kind of budget. Since the urby excels in defense and won’t be moving anywhere too quickly they fill in the secondary niche as guard dogs. Mechs are rare and expensive so you have urbanmechs left on standby for basic defense and patrol in worlds not expected to be in a massive conflict but you also don’t want to leave completely undefended.
I hope this helps cause I could barely get through the video it became genuinely annoying to repeat the same joke over and over for 25 minutes. Theres a reason black pants legion of all channels who are known for at minimum hour length videos only talked about the urby for 8 minutes, because there’s not much to say about it and you don’t want to overstay your welcome.
The most difficult setting for BTA 3062 is called Urbie Derby. You start with 1 lance of Urbies and nothing else.
A thousand urbies is a threat to be considered even forthe most skilled Black Watch pilot.
As the Star League began to fall, the Urbie stood tall.
The Urbie is a heavily armor trash can. It can also carry nukes. It can put out fires. It can even power city blocks. They canonically are used to race.
It can do anything other than chase down enemies.
That said, I found out something new. The laser isn't just a targeting sight. It's just an infeatruman's holdout pistol. Who knew?
One benefit of it being cheap and slow is that it's probably easy to operate and would make a decent mech for inexperienced mech warriors in a planetary militia.
No curbie the Urbie! “Who the hell would buy a company of Urbanmechs?!” *slowly raises hand* lol! I have 17 rubies not including the Urbanmech plushie which my daughter absolutely loves. Can’t wait to get the new Urbanmech lance that recently released. And you know two is one and one is none so gonna need to get two of those bad boys. 🤣
Good day, fellow Urbie Company Connoiseur!
I mean unless u have the coffers of the steiner family, you might now have the option to laugh at the urbie XD
The urbie is the grandma with a sawed-off shotgun and arthritis of mechs
I mean, its really cheap and easy to maintain. And those cannons HURT if you are not expecting it because your sensors said "Light Mech"
Are those old-fashioned bubblegum police lights on the urban Lord Mech up on the head I can just see Cartman now with his famous saying "you will respect my authority "😂😂😂
2:49 Arrow IV urbie: And I took that personally.
"Anyone who takes it seriously is a fool." - HERESY!!!!
11:36 - 11:38 "and thus, crackhead R2D2 was born" never thought I'd hear that sentence, but it's the funniest thing if heard all day.
imagining you just see an urby looming over a building then it steps out from behind it and its just got like 170 legs
Yknow that horror trope where a creature skitters past a doorway, and the character sees movement but not what's there? Imagine what appears to be a normal urbanmech standing at an intersection in a dense city, and before you turn to look at it, it walks sideways... and then it clownhandkerchiefs it's way with all those reactors on legs for a solid minute
In urban environments, this 'Mech is extremely capable. A lance of these can knock the crap out of any assault mech while being cheaper
"Anyone who takes it seriously is a fool."
I disagree, anyone who DOESN'T take it seriously is a fool, it will fuck you up if you ignore it.
Battletech's R2D2 w/ stompy legs, an AC10, and the personality of a chihuahua.
Glory personified as a trashcan.
I really wish they made a heavy mech version of the Urbie. Model it after a dumpster for extra keks.
Edit: 21:25! Praise COMSTAR!
Played a lot of Urbie with MRM and Laeer in MWO, he is a real Titankiller in forestmaps. Killed 3-4 Mechs every round and often ran Out of missles before getting killed.
You joke about the Urbie, however, most of the scouting is done by light and medium mechs first, which means some of those mechs are going down in the first shot
Urban Lord is the Gyarados to the Urbies Magicarp
The urban lord is what you get when you decide the annihilator isnt big enough
Anyone who _doesnt_ see the urbie as the king of the urban environment is a fool. It's small, cheap, heavily armored and even heavier in its arms. In almost every aspect, it has the best proportional value for its role. Yes, these things are basically turrets with their walking speed (which, tangent, you said that they're roughly in line with Olympic sprinters? Nah, the urbie runs let's say an average of 28kph. Olympic sprinters can run about 28MPH. Any ablebodied person could keep up with an urbie) but theyre dangerous in an urban environment. You kinda neglected to mention in your assault mech v urbie skit that a single urbie is not only capable of taking down their opponent, but even if one doesnt, theres going to be more. Even an atlas would crap their pants if they saw four ac20-bf aimed at them the moment they turned a corner.
In summary:
The urbanmech is a meme, a funny little trashcan that someone stuck a big ol cannon on. But it is no joke. You can laugh at it all you like from the safety of your open fields and mountain ranges, but never walk into the territory of the Urbie and say any of this to its face unless you've decided that having one is something you're not particularly fond of.
strip out the urbanmechs engine and you can conquer the world with that thing.
I was half expecting you to mention the Imp, due to visual similarity... I've always felt it was someone who tried to actually take an Urbie, and turn it into an effective mech...
I've 1v1'ed a fresh Centurion while piloting an Urbanmech. It was a sweat inducing and cortisol rising duel. I did however win resulting in winning my team the match (no pressure). If I could remember the Cent's pilot's gamertag I'd totally give a shout out and props to him. He managed to almost keep up with all my shenanigans and take me down. 😅 👍
I still remember a time in MW5, with that mod that adds all those extra parts and weapons we typically see in MWO, I somehow managed to armor an Urbanmech to the degree of a fucking ATLAS (800 armor rating I think?), while still being decently armed.
It was slow as fuck, painfully so, but i still remember the laughter i got out of my buddies when we drop into a defense mission with an Urby and saved one of the boys by just tanking shot after shot, shooting the legs of the approaching Atlas (what nearly killed him, and did kill the other's, but they stripped most of the armor), then rotating around and saying "We fucking take those." Which secured our first assault mech of that run.
Good times in that little trashcan. It was years ago though, so i dont remember the loadout exactly, but someone could probably recreate it.
Oh, and we held onto that mech for the rest of the campaign. It wasn't used much other than for defense missions due to its slow speed.
that urbie @15:17 is what happens when an urbanmech and a hunchback have a baby
Finally got to this video and I have to say... Urbie is life! Urbie is the trashCAN, not the trashcan't. This is my go-to mech in MWO. My license plate is URBIE. A friend of mine learned to crochet and made me an Urbie and it's my favorite gift of all time. Respect the Urbie!
The Urbie is the Chihuahua of Battlemechs?
Yeah, can confirm.
Everyone mocks the Urbie till they have to face one in a cramped city fight, then they realize two things.
1. It's not a waddling trashcan but a hungry pitbull.
2. Someone just smeared bbq sauce all over their knee joints.
I think of the Urbie as less of a Battlemech and more of a mobile turret, lol.
This is the second ever Battletech video I’ve ever seen. I will be buying the 12 pack as soon as possible. Me. I need it. Those things are adorable, I’m gonna paint mine like isopods.
"They put nukes on it" You can put nukes on anything that has an Arrow 4. It's just one of the ammo types. Now every great house and half the periphery will try to end you if you did load one of those, and shot it at anything that wasn't a pirate (even then you might wanna put the ol' magnet on the side of battle recorder.)