One for every 5 tons... (Smiles wanely at the name Fiddler crab) 15 to 25 tons speedy as hell Pincers for use other than combat. Ecm/probes and tsm (for that surprise, ouch) Paper cutter laser loadout. The laser boat answer to the Piranha. All the smalls! Fiddlers are often used as bait for bigger fish. Same tactics used in design. Pilots also must be able to yell, "Weeeeeee!" When charging or moving. No reason for enhanced actuators other than this lil crab can dance. (Actual use is on civilian duties where fine control is essential. ) Civilian versions have laser cutter/welder in each claw. It can shut down extra hs to ensure tsm is on, too. Many mech pilots with techie backgrounds keep the cutter welders in arms as they can make taking salvage apart easier, the same for turning enemy mechs into salvage) Getting swarmed by fiddlers should scare any larger mech pilot as they can quickly disassemble their mech in combat. Fiddlers can dodge in any direction, including up n down, making melee with them difficult. Though armor is not much, its frame and armor are crude but tough. (Industrial or rff'd) making normal kill hits iffy.
An honor to see one of my models in a video of yours. Kuddos! Tahnk said, the Crab is an interesting model that I never got the chance to use on my own. Seems solid, though.
I am a devout Crab player, and it really is a great mech. The 20 and 27 are very well balanced troopers, and the 27sl is a terrifying raider. They're basically dead center on the durability/speed/firepower triangle.
The closest I have ever come to a remotely successful 75 ton Crab was made by swapping a MAD-3D's ppcs for large lasers and investing in a pair of small lasers and even more armor. Ended up using it like a regular Crab so I believe there's room for improvement. 75 tons is a strange bracket to leave empty.
In Battletech 2018, I pulled up both large lasers, crammed in jump jets, armor, medium lasers and heat sinks. The last thing many enemy saw was a Crab, gracefully flying through air to land and affix the pincers on their mech's neck
Two Disco lasers replace lg lasers. 2 fusion flamers Extra hs. Mml5 w infernos and hydra 1 ton each. 4 imp jjs Kick ass all spectrum sound system. Tying in weapon pulses to chosen soundtrack enemy can hear... Priceless...😊
The Crab is one of the smartest-designed mechs in the setting and has literally never done me wrong. Also bonus points for mentioning the Pueblo Initiative, Clan Coyote doesn't get enough love from the wider community imo
The crab is the mech equivalent of a 60's era Chevy truck: it ain't fancy, but there's a reason you still see them driving around fifty years later: they just work. Doesn't need ammo, doesn't need fancy positioning or special tactics, you just walk it over and shoot stuff until it's dead, and it'll take a good amount of punishment for it's size. When you drive a heavy, this is one of the mediums (along with the Hunchy and a couple of other common ones) that you respect. Because it will bite you.
ive killed unwary assaults in my favorite crab in mw5, solo and witj friends. your ankles are not safe from the crab, no matter your weight class. amd its really hard to avpid being ganged up on if i snip a leg
I was drawn to the Crab's ease of maintenance in the lore, as well as its laserboat status meaning it was easy on supply lines. the idea of an economically minded giant death machine just feels right.
I cooked up a superheavy Crab for a local campaign called the Fiddler Crab. 135 tons, a RAC5 in one hand, a Long Tom in the other, and LP lasers on its back
Will say my main reason for loving the crab is that it is a 50 tonner thats comparably armored to a centurion, but faster than one, and if managed well can both operate for very long engagements AND punch above its weight reliably.
I have to say I prefer the the Royal and SLDF variants as the best cannon upgrades. The Royal variant replaces the 16 regular Heat Sinks with Double Heat Sinks and trades the Standard Large Lasers for ER Larges. A relatively simple upgrade that stays heat neutral until you Alpha Strike with that Small Laser. The SLDF variant turned it into a vulnerable brawler with an XL Engine. The Large and Medium Lasers were replaced with Pulse variants and the Small laser was upgraded to a Medium. Add in 5 Jump Jets for in close mobility and you have a decent medium brawler that can deliver accurate fire with out going to far into the red when jumping and Alpha Striking. Simple upgrades that work, though they likely won't 'wow' with their firepower. Also, I appreciate the notification on the Night Chanter as this is the first I've ever heard of it. I appreciate the acknowledgement that the Crab was a solid design, but understand why they couldn't go full on production because of the design.
The Crab 27sl has been my go-to for awhile. The jump jets in conjunction with the pulse weapons just makes it such a deadly machine. Even into late eras I tend to want to bring along a Crab 27sl despite being outdated, I know it can perform well especially if the environment is rough
That little guy got me through a solid chunk of MW2: Mercenaries. I tended to stick with all-energy loadouts to cut down on ammo costs, and the Crab was a solid pick. It also has the most straightforward Royal variant that just upgraded the heatsinks and used ER large lasers.
The crab is just a solid medium battlemech. I had one hold its own (albeit with a hefty repair bill after) against a pair of heavy mechs long enough my assault (a Battlemaster) to come in for the rescue. Two to three turns of drawing fire and giving back with those large lasers is honestly more than I would have expected of most 50 ton mechs against a Black Knight and Hatamato Chi. By all rights it should have been dead, guess the dice can be kind sometimes.
I normally only listen to your videos while taking care of other things and I'm happy and delighted that I came back to this tab for the glory of the crab armor diagram!
The Crab is a really cool design, both aesthetically and functionally. It is perhaps the perfect mercenary ride, needing exactly zero ammunition to keep running while being easy to repair and maintain. Being the King Crab's little brother helps too.
being new to the setting, having gotten my teeth wet by the HBS Battletech game and the modding scene behind it, upon seeing the crab and its intended role, i dunno it just spoke to me. mid range in tonnage, not exorbitantly expensive, simple in design & effectiveness. From what was written about the mech, it filled my head with long term patrols / guerilla operations. A rugged design, fairly short and squat (perfect for hiding behind buildings in an urban setting, or crouched in the forest or jungle). 2 claws for close range fisticuffs, long range damage with the large lasers the only issue was the heat build up, but dropping a large for a round or letting a turn go by for full heat purging, the mech i would say should make for a decent defensive unit, capable of dishing out damage, taking some, but more importantly, just outlasting the enemy & their munitions - especially with the range on the large lasers.
I must take this chance, as I do any time the beloved Crab appears, to stand up for the CRB-27sl. Relegated to the annals of not-quite-canon, but an absolute beast of a design that really merits a revist in the modern era. 5/8/*5*, twin large pulse, single medium pulse, and single medium Laser. and 14DHS! Even with the IS XL engine, that thing has never underperformed for me; it's a great light-hunter and raider. But it exists only in a passing reference in the 2750 Era report. Sea Foxes, I don't ask for much, but please put this thing back in production, it really feels like it's close to the Crab for the IlClan era.
Your right, this is quite good! I think with a little finagling, newer tech could allow the -27sl to become even more durable. For example, I found that if you swap the Ferro-Fibrous for Endo-Steel and dropping the Medium Pulse to a standard or ER Medium, you can swap the XL for a Light Fusion Engine. While you loose some armor, I feel it's overall durability would be improved by the swap.
@@csmead209 different models of a chassis can absolutely have different roles, it makes zero sense to slap one label on a frame and say that all the others "are wrong because they're meant to be x, not Y". You may notice that I specifically qualified that the mech performs great in the new role despite the loss of durability. And if you want a zombie medium, slapping the biggest weapons in the arms is a strange way to go about that, isn't it? If my CRB-27 lost both arms but still had the torsos, the only benefit that gives me is a bit more durability as I am running off the field.
Decent speed, decent armor, decent cost, decent default firepower, decent heat management, decent flexibility in load out and role, virtually all stock parts, and before the catalyst era retcon limiting them to about a thousand to have ever existed in the first production run, had a pretty good chunk of the positive design quirks as standard, not the least being ubiquitous, easy to maintain, rugged, and reinforced legs and protected actuators. This in the earlier incarnation of the game basically let you bring a lot of mech for a low cost. And with a very visually distinctive design that was easier to effectively play then many other medium mechs in the old school game, too. Though the fact that it's a relatively simple to paint mech design in comparison to a lot of other medium mechs even back then probably didn't hurt, either. Used to be you'd see players running entire crab only lances in the tabletop game, because they knew this combination of traits would pretty much ensure they'd be able to outflank, and effectively outgun newer players putting more of their resources into heavies and assaults.
Great episode. My favorite Crab is a bit of an obscure one, the CRB-27sl. It's 5 jumping movement combined with its 2 Large Pulse Lasers is just fantastic.
I love the design of it because I fiddle with STLs all the time and like to make physical representations of non weapon components for pure aesthetic reasons. It's fantastic for figuring out "what looks good"
One loadout I've experimented with which was interesting was a variant I called the CRB-33F "Fiddler Crab", named because of the asymmetric weapons loadout in the arms. Designed for...let's just say post-FedCom era gameplay to avoid tripping the censorbots, I thought of this as something the Blakists might issue to hunter-killer units tracking down insurgents on occupied worlds. It has ten double heat sinks, a light engine and 8.5 tons of heavy ferro-fibrous armor. Weaponry is a bit eclectic and designed to give it a weapon for every occasion, with a heavy PPC in the right arm for fighting hostile battlemechs, a large X-pulse laser in the left arm for engaging fast movers, and two ER flamers in the side torsos for roasting infantry. An Angel ECM Suite makes it harder to track and also lets it disrupt C3 networks. Oh, and just in case it gets into trouble, it has triple-strength myomer which can let one deliberately overheat their machine for a speed boost.
The crab is an excellent budget medium mech. So its easy to upgrade this machine, replacing the 16 heatsinks and its Large Lasers with 11 double heat sinks, and 2 PPCS. Increase the armor to 10 tons of FF Armor and you've got yourself a decent beast. Its a cheap, solid trooper.
The most fun I've ever had in MW5, is running a full lance of those Star League CRB-27's. They're almost as fast as light mechs, and hit like heavies! 🦀🦀🦀🦀
I did NOT know about the Night Chanter. But I knew the Crab. I salvaged one in the second campaign I ever played and fell in love with it, mainly for its lack of ammunition (which goes BOOM in 3025 games way to often). So many times the Crab was just solid, hanging in there and hammering away. CRB-20, eventually with DHS and clan-spec energy weapons fitted. Crab and P-Hawk also make a GREAT pairing on the field. 🙂
The Crab: The Big Zam of Battletech. Thanks for the video. "Once the Crab is mass produced. We'll put an end to Amaris' goons in no time!" - A random Star League commander.
Why do I like the Crab? It's all-energy, a solid medium mech, decently easy to paint, and I keep getting them in salvage boxes! (Well, them and phoenix hawks)
I have found it an irony of sorts that the Night Chanter was ultimately superseded by the Nova which is a distance cousin design of the Crab. Thanks for posting the video.
I knew about the Night Chanter, but I'm really glad you covered it! Great video, and it's weird we never saw a proper Crab (or King Crab-no, the Supernova doesn't count) IIC
The frankencrab in HBS's Battletech game is fun to tinker with. Putting urbie internals into a crab somehow worked. Though its strays from a regular crab in weapon hardpoints. Its a fun and chaotic mech.
(Finally got a chance to sit down and watch this. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this video, it’s deeply appreciated especially since it’s always nice to see one of my favorite mechs getting the spotlight. I loved the video and I’d never heard of the Night Chanter but I love the basic idea for it! I can’t wait to see more.) Okay, so I’ve already told this story around here but I might as well tell it again since it pertains to this mech. My families regiment was contracted for garrison duty along the Magistracy/FWL border when I was a girl. So I spent a lot of my youth on this border planet that was the site of several major battles during the Freedom War and the local population was proud of their struggle against the SLDF. In the city near our base there was a museum dedicated to the Periphery Uprising and the Freedom War. One of the big exhibits was the remains of a Crab mech which had been destroyed by guerrilla fighters on the world. It had basically been a burned out husk with everything valuable or useful salvaged long ago. But they still collected it, dragged that pile of scrap back to the museum, and painstakingly rebuilt the exterior to look as much like its old self as they could including a SLDF paint job. I remember visiting that museum a lot as a kind and staring at that prettier up pile of scrap metal and dreaming about what I would be like to pilot a machine like that. The design, the weapons loadout, and the look were just so different and I was in love. It began a minor obcession of mine. But that was back in the day when Crabs were an endangered species of mech especially out in the periphery. It would be many years before I got to pilot one myself and I’d already lost my Mechwarrior cherry to my other beloved Battlemech the Hatchetman. Still I jumped a chance to volunteer to pilot one when I unit came across a Crab among battlefield capturers and it rapidly became a second favorite of mine.
The Crab story had me come up with the Blood Limpet, named after a nasty creepy crawlie to scare the Dracs. Heavily invested in advanced tech with a Vlar 300XL, Endo Steel and 16 DHS, it started development prior to the Crab but turned into a money sink for a failed hexaped locomotion system. Wasn't until the SLDF said "anyone _else_ got anything?" that a cooler head took over, ripped out the skitter skitter legs, put it on a set of more reasonable chicken legs, and used the saved weight and space for a ring of six jump jets under its Tommy helmet-shaped carapace. An ER large laser in either claw gave it reach, but a toasty reach, while a pair of standard Mediums in the side torsos bracketed the cockpit. Unfortunately, not many got cranked out before Amaris did the inevitable, but those that did survive the early Succession Wars managed to survive late into the game because its 11 tons of standard armor were cheap and easy to replace, compared to expensive armor over standard internals. If you were willing to bend the knee and withdraw before you were breached and your expensive innards got broken, at least. Really, Fabrica Di Granchi's RLB-52 Rock Lobster was a much more successful unit, 100 tons of 'The King Crab We Have At Home'
Literally got into battletech cause my friend bought himself a Clan Invasion box set a several months ago, and we both bought the Comstar battle level II box set. I specifically wanted it cause another friend suggested it, also because when I first saw the crab I really loved the way it looked and felt when I used it on Megamek.
Didn't expect to see certain things in this video. A HPL reference, a Clan Coyote variant, a Coyote variant with an LRM, and Mech Frog disapproving of a plasma loadout. But the Crab survives by sticking to one thing & doing it well.
Love the Crab. A durable, brutal little duelist that is good in pretty much any configuration. Ooh, love your MF version. I'm a sucker for PPC Capacitors.
The upgrades for the Crab past the 3rd succession war are just a unnecessary heat mess. My thoughts on upgrading the Crab. 3050ish: Based on Inner Sphere technology, take the 2750 Crab and install 10 double heat sinks. Remove the 5 other heat sinks. Add 3 medium lasers to the side torsos (bringing the total to 4), upgrade the small laser to a small pulse laser and add 5 jump jets. Retain the standard large lasers. While this crab can't afford to alpha strike, it is a very potent brawler that isn't afraid to close with anyone. 3150ish: Take that same base crab, upgrade to 15 double heat sinks. Use inner-sphere Endo Steel frame. Upgrade the large lasers to clan-grade ERLLasers. Remove the medium and small lasers. Add 4 clan-grade ER Medium Lasers with a pair in each side torso, and 2 clan-grade small pulse laser in the head and center torso. While the clan-grade weapons will significantly raise the cost of this mech, its core systems remain relatively cheap. The lack of an XL engine will keep this mech fighting longer than many of its rivals.
You didn't have to mention my boy Starslayer, but you did. And the Night Chanter was a special treat. Very well connected overview of a well designed mech.
Most balanced 50 tonner that fills the role of main line mech. Give it double heatsinks, ferro armor, and watch it outfight heavies and some assaults like the BNS-3E
As someone whose experience with Battletech is mostly the 2018 game with BTA 3062 installed, and some MW5 in there as well, the crab appeals to me for one reason: it's a good starter mech. There is nothing to go KABOOM if a shot goes internal, it hits pretty well, and it's just a solid mech overall. Now, I personally will always add in dual heat sinks and an XL engine with ferro so I can up armor the crab and add jump jets, and maybe some clan grade ER large lasers. Turns the mech from a good all arounder to a nightmare for the enemy.
The crb-27b with Er larges and double heatsinks has always been an easy fit into any inner sphere lance that needs a well priced, rugged piece of firepower. The crb-30 has been an mvp during my occasional foray into a c3 list, providing 2 large lasers a turn on 6's from 15 hexes away in safety. The crb-20 was one of the first mechs I chose in my original 3025 company when I began playing bt around a year ago, and was a savior to my wolverine/company commander in my first ever match. Right as my opponents Guillotine jumped in to close on my smaller, and weaker wolverine, the brave crab pilot downed prone(missing a leg and 80% of its other armor) propped itself up and headshot the heavy mech with its large laser, killing the pilot and winning me the game.
I'm fond of the Crab. Some of that is bias, some if that is recognizing a medium energy boat that can do pretty well in most situations. Except for Mechwarrior: Online where everyone brings heavies and assaults to the table.
From a pure esthetic perspective, chicken-walker mechs with lowslung arms just look so good, and the Crab is easily top10 in the looks department imo.
Agreed. It has the swagger.
Those low slug arms and rounded torso give it a lower hit profile harder to it .
A friend of mine painted my crab mini as a taxi. So yes, I had a taxi crab.
Perfection.
Truly the pinnacle of military and transportation innovation
All Shall Become Crab 🦀
Carcinization cannot be stopped, or even slowed.
💯 % facts.
All of my mechs tend to become Crab- or Hunchback-like. It seems Crab is indeed a pinnacle of mech evolution!
'til all are Crab!
@@MechanicalFrog Except for Omnis, the only time pincers don't work.
Pulse Laser Crab: "It's crab rave time"
We really need a 75-ton Heavy Crab to complete the family.
Absolutely.
One for every 5 tons...
(Smiles wanely at the name Fiddler crab)
15 to 25 tons speedy as hell
Pincers for use other than combat.
Ecm/probes and tsm (for that surprise, ouch)
Paper cutter laser loadout.
The laser boat answer to the Piranha.
All the smalls!
Fiddlers are often used as bait for bigger fish. Same tactics used in design.
Pilots also must be able to yell, "Weeeeeee!" When charging or moving.
No reason for enhanced actuators other than this lil crab can dance. (Actual use is on civilian duties where fine control is essential. ) Civilian versions have laser cutter/welder in each claw. It can shut down extra hs to ensure tsm is on, too.
Many mech pilots with techie backgrounds keep the cutter welders in arms as they can make taking salvage apart easier, the same for turning enemy mechs into salvage)
Getting swarmed by fiddlers should scare any larger mech pilot as they can quickly disassemble their mech in combat.
Fiddlers can dodge in any direction, including up n down, making melee with them difficult.
Though armor is not much, its frame and armor are crude but tough. (Industrial or rff'd) making normal kill hits iffy.
Spider Crab when?
@@Darren_Xero you know the theme song to filk already
The question is will you see a Crab or Phoenix Hawk first in the heavy category?
An honor to see one of my models in a video of yours. Kuddos! Tahnk said, the Crab is an interesting model that I never got the chance to use on my own. Seems solid, though.
Thank you for letting me share it.
I am a devout Crab player, and it really is a great mech. The 20 and 27 are very well balanced troopers, and the 27sl is a terrifying raider. They're basically dead center on the durability/speed/firepower triangle.
We need a heavy crab! We already have a light, medium, and assault crustacean. Make it 75 tons so they are all in 25 ton increments.
Everytime I try, I accidentally make a Marauder. Its like reverse carcinization.
@@Psychohistorian42 Energyboat Marauder is an honorary Crab
I can definitely agree with you there
The closest I have ever come to a remotely successful 75 ton Crab was made by swapping a MAD-3D's ppcs for large lasers and investing in a pair of small lasers and even more armor. Ended up using it like a regular Crab so I believe there's room for improvement.
75 tons is a strange bracket to leave empty.
Melee 75 tonner, come on Solaris stables, you know we want it!
In Battletech 2018, I pulled up both large lasers, crammed in jump jets, armor, medium lasers and heat sinks. The last thing many enemy saw was a Crab, gracefully flying through air to land and affix the pincers on their mech's neck
As it should be.
Non-stop.
Two Disco lasers replace lg lasers.
2 fusion flamers
Extra hs.
Mml5 w infernos and hydra 1 ton each.
4 imp jjs
Kick ass all spectrum sound system.
Tying in weapon pulses to chosen soundtrack enemy can hear...
Priceless...😊
@@keebbles So, more lasers than Excision at Tacoma Dome then, got it lol
DAMMIT NOW I NEED TO HEAR THE SONG AGAIN
The Crab is one of the smartest-designed mechs in the setting and has literally never done me wrong.
Also bonus points for mentioning the Pueblo Initiative, Clan Coyote doesn't get enough love from the wider community imo
Much love for the Coyotes. They got the short end of the stick too often.
Well, yeah. They're clanners.
The crab paper doll was a nice touch 🦀
We got a kick out of it here.
Laser boats are rad, zombie mechs are rad, line mechs are rad, and shellbacks are rad. All hail the mighty Crab!
The crab is the mech equivalent of a 60's era Chevy truck: it ain't fancy, but there's a reason you still see them driving around fifty years later: they just work. Doesn't need ammo, doesn't need fancy positioning or special tactics, you just walk it over and shoot stuff until it's dead, and it'll take a good amount of punishment for it's size. When you drive a heavy, this is one of the mediums (along with the Hunchy and a couple of other common ones) that you respect. Because it will bite you.
ive killed unwary assaults in my favorite crab in mw5, solo and witj friends. your ankles are not safe from the crab, no matter your weight class. amd its really hard to avpid being ganged up on if i snip a leg
I was drawn to the Crab's ease of maintenance in the lore, as well as its laserboat status meaning it was easy on supply lines. the idea of an economically minded giant death machine just feels right.
Agreed. I love the idea of a mech made super easy to keep maintained.
The Inner Sphere demands a Coconut Crab Superheavy. ALL SHALL BECOME CRAB!
I cooked up a superheavy Crab for a local campaign called the Fiddler Crab. 135 tons, a RAC5 in one hand, a Long Tom in the other, and LP lasers on its back
I like to think my pilots scratch the Crabs under their chin after an engagement. They are all just adorable.
This is now canon.
@@MechanicalFrog hands down my favorite to play! Might not be the best, but it is my best.
Will say my main reason for loving the crab is that it is a 50 tonner thats comparably armored to a centurion, but faster than one, and if managed well can both operate for very long engagements AND punch above its weight reliably.
In all honesty, this might be the ‘mech I enjoy the most both on tabletop and in the video games. The design and loadouts are simply iconic.
"I just think it's neat."
the crab armor diagram instead of your normal frog one is an absolute delight
I have to say I prefer the the Royal and SLDF variants as the best cannon upgrades.
The Royal variant replaces the 16 regular Heat Sinks with Double Heat Sinks and trades the Standard Large Lasers for ER Larges. A relatively simple upgrade that stays heat neutral until you Alpha Strike with that Small Laser.
The SLDF variant turned it into a vulnerable brawler with an XL Engine. The Large and Medium Lasers were replaced with Pulse variants and the Small laser was upgraded to a Medium. Add in 5 Jump Jets for in close mobility and you have a decent medium brawler that can deliver accurate fire with out going to far into the red when jumping and Alpha Striking.
Simple upgrades that work, though they likely won't 'wow' with their firepower.
Also, I appreciate the notification on the Night Chanter as this is the first I've ever heard of it. I appreciate the acknowledgement that the Crab was a solid design, but understand why they couldn't go full on production because of the design.
I'm glad to be the one to introduce people to the Night Chanter.
I love how youtube recommended me this before I could even search it up because it knows I love crab.
We meet again Frog...
When you have the algo finely tuned.
The Crab 27sl has been my go-to for awhile. The jump jets in conjunction with the pulse weapons just makes it such a deadly machine. Even into late eras I tend to want to bring along a Crab 27sl despite being outdated, I know it can perform well especially if the environment is rough
That's a solid one.
🤣 THAT ARMOR DIAGRAM LMAO.
:P
I would run an all Crab company, and call it the Crustacean Nation, just because I can.
I called my lance the Crustacean Commotion. 2 crabs and 2 king crabs
The crab is what i always imagine the 31st century version of green berets using on LRRP patrols
This checks out.
That little guy got me through a solid chunk of MW2: Mercenaries. I tended to stick with all-energy loadouts to cut down on ammo costs, and the Crab was a solid pick.
It also has the most straightforward Royal variant that just upgraded the heatsinks and used ER large lasers.
Thanks for CRAB!
You bet!
The Crab has never let me down, no matter the era.
It just works.
CRAB CRAB CRAB CRAB
Oh god am so happy to see my favourite little tanky guy here!
(Also I saw that crab critical location lol)
We had fun with this one.
@@MechanicalFrog Everything becomes crab, even the video's overlay
The crab is just a solid medium battlemech. I had one hold its own (albeit with a hefty repair bill after) against a pair of heavy mechs long enough my assault (a Battlemaster) to come in for the rescue. Two to three turns of drawing fire and giving back with those large lasers is honestly more than I would have expected of most 50 ton mechs against a Black Knight and Hatamato Chi. By all rights it should have been dead, guess the dice can be kind sometimes.
That Crab 'Mech armor diagram, though. Haha
>-OO-
Crab is love. Crab is life.
Glad to see my top pick Medium mech featured!
Glad to do it.
I always thought it looked more like a lobster. I used to not like it at all but the crab really has grown on me
The future is crab. You can fight it, but it only delays the inevitable.
The best medium mech of all time.
I normally only listen to your videos while taking care of other things and I'm happy and delighted that I came back to this tab for the glory of the crab armor diagram!
That was a fun element to create.
This is one of my all time favorite star league mechs. I'm so happy you finally put out a video honoring this capable crustacean.
Happy to finally do it.
The Crab is a really cool design, both aesthetically and functionally. It is perhaps the perfect mercenary ride, needing exactly zero ammunition to keep running while being easy to repair and maintain. Being the King Crab's little brother helps too.
being new to the setting, having gotten my teeth wet by the HBS Battletech game and the modding scene behind it, upon seeing the crab and its intended role, i dunno it just spoke to me.
mid range in tonnage, not exorbitantly expensive, simple in design & effectiveness. From what was written about the mech, it filled my head with long term patrols / guerilla operations. A rugged design, fairly short and squat (perfect for hiding behind buildings in an urban setting, or crouched in the forest or jungle).
2 claws for close range fisticuffs, long range damage with the large lasers
the only issue was the heat build up, but dropping a large for a round or letting a turn go by for full heat purging, the mech i would say should make for a decent defensive unit, capable of dishing out damage, taking some, but more importantly, just outlasting the enemy & their munitions - especially with the range on the large lasers.
I must take this chance, as I do any time the beloved Crab appears, to stand up for the CRB-27sl. Relegated to the annals of not-quite-canon, but an absolute beast of a design that really merits a revist in the modern era. 5/8/*5*, twin large pulse, single medium pulse, and single medium Laser. and 14DHS! Even with the IS XL engine, that thing has never underperformed for me; it's a great light-hunter and raider. But it exists only in a passing reference in the 2750 Era report. Sea Foxes, I don't ask for much, but please put this thing back in production, it really feels like it's close to the Crab for the IlClan era.
The SL is so good
The SL is in MW5. It's my favorite medium mech in the game
Your right, this is quite good! I think with a little finagling, newer tech could allow the -27sl to become even more durable.
For example, I found that if you swap the Ferro-Fibrous for Endo-Steel and dropping the Medium Pulse to a standard or ER Medium, you can swap the XL for a Light Fusion Engine. While you loose some armor, I feel it's overall durability would be improved by the swap.
No, the Crab is meant to be a zombie mech that can fight even as a stick. Extralight engines make that impossible.
@@csmead209 different models of a chassis can absolutely have different roles, it makes zero sense to slap one label on a frame and say that all the others "are wrong because they're meant to be x, not Y". You may notice that I specifically qualified that the mech performs great in the new role despite the loss of durability. And if you want a zombie medium, slapping the biggest weapons in the arms is a strange way to go about that, isn't it? If my CRB-27 lost both arms but still had the torsos, the only benefit that gives me is a bit more durability as I am running off the field.
Decent speed, decent armor, decent cost, decent default firepower, decent heat management, decent flexibility in load out and role, virtually all stock parts, and before the catalyst era retcon limiting them to about a thousand to have ever existed in the first production run, had a pretty good chunk of the positive design quirks as standard, not the least being ubiquitous, easy to maintain, rugged, and reinforced legs and protected actuators. This in the earlier incarnation of the game basically let you bring a lot of mech for a low cost. And with a very visually distinctive design that was easier to effectively play then many other medium mechs in the old school game, too. Though the fact that it's a relatively simple to paint mech design in comparison to a lot of other medium mechs even back then probably didn't hurt, either.
Used to be you'd see players running entire crab only lances in the tabletop game, because they knew this combination of traits would pretty much ensure they'd be able to outflank, and effectively outgun newer players putting more of their resources into heavies and assaults.
CRAB BATTLE!
That takes me back…
Bring it on!
We all know what must be done.
*CQC ENGAGE*
Solaris oddities aside, I must always ask this question in regards to every ‘Mech with Crab in its name: “Why no pinch?”
Double pinch. Triple pinch on Fridays.
Oh hell yeah
This is my favorite medium mech, I'm glad you covered this
I love the crab its visual design is memorable in a fun way. And its intended roll sounds compelling.
"I just think it's neat."
10/10 on the crab's paper doll.
Edit; I also love that you've maxed out the fun for this crabby guy.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Damn that intro Music hit hard!
When can we expect a Mechfrog Intro music compilation? I would buy that immediately
It's all music I purchased the rights to use from sales on Fanatical or from Ovani Sound
Reject humanoid mech designs, return to crab.
Great episode. My favorite Crab is a bit of an obscure one, the CRB-27sl. It's 5 jumping movement combined with its 2 Large Pulse Lasers is just fantastic.
I love the design of it because I fiddle with STLs all the time and like to make physical representations of non weapon components for pure aesthetic reasons. It's fantastic for figuring out "what looks good"
What?! LOGISTICS is Evolving!
Congratulations! Your LOGISTICS Evolved into CRAB!
Indeed... indeed...
One loadout I've experimented with which was interesting was a variant I called the CRB-33F "Fiddler Crab", named because of the asymmetric weapons loadout in the arms. Designed for...let's just say post-FedCom era gameplay to avoid tripping the censorbots, I thought of this as something the Blakists might issue to hunter-killer units tracking down insurgents on occupied worlds. It has ten double heat sinks, a light engine and 8.5 tons of heavy ferro-fibrous armor. Weaponry is a bit eclectic and designed to give it a weapon for every occasion, with a heavy PPC in the right arm for fighting hostile battlemechs, a large X-pulse laser in the left arm for engaging fast movers, and two ER flamers in the side torsos for roasting infantry. An Angel ECM Suite makes it harder to track and also lets it disrupt C3 networks. Oh, and just in case it gets into trouble, it has triple-strength myomer which can let one deliberately overheat their machine for a speed boost.
Elegant in its simplicity, powerful in its functionality, beautiful in its form.
took a break from making my way through the rest of the playlist to watch this one, cheers!
Thank you!
Glad people enjoyed it.
This mech always reminded me of a modified Marauder.
Marauder is so successful, because it ubderwent carcinization in order to survive.
The crab is an excellent budget medium mech. So its easy to upgrade this machine, replacing the 16 heatsinks and its Large Lasers with 11 double heat sinks, and 2 PPCS. Increase the armor to 10 tons of FF Armor and you've got yourself a decent beast. Its a cheap, solid trooper.
I'm with you except 9.5 tons is the max you can put on the crab.
The most fun I've ever had in MW5, is running a full lance of those Star League CRB-27's. They're almost as fast as light mechs, and hit like heavies! 🦀🦀🦀🦀
They're really something.
3050 Full Clan Tech Rebuild of the Crab.
50 tons. 2.5t endo-steel, 8.5t fero-fiberous, 6.25 XL+DHS, 6t cockpit+gryo, 2.5t Jumpjets, 25.25t podspace.
Prime Config: 2 LPL (r/la), 2 MPL (r/lt), 2 SPL (r/lt), mg (h), mg ammo (cased, lt, 200), targeting computer (5t, rt), DHS.
AltConfig: 2 ERLL (r/la), 4 ERML (r/lt), 4 ERSL (r/lt), 10 DHS, 0.25t unallocated.
May The Crab Never Be Poached!! (Frenetic maraca sounds intensify...)
it cannot.
The CRB-27B is my original mech of choice. I really kicked butt in MWO with it.
Crab strong. Crab reliable. Crab is life.
I did NOT know about the Night Chanter. But I knew the Crab. I salvaged one in the second campaign I ever played and fell in love with it, mainly for its lack of ammunition (which goes BOOM in 3025 games way to often). So many times the Crab was just solid, hanging in there and hammering away. CRB-20, eventually with DHS and clan-spec energy weapons fitted. Crab and P-Hawk also make a GREAT pairing on the field. 🙂
And now that you know about the Night Chanter, your life is forever changed.
This week begins CRABFEST at Red Lobster!
The Crab: The Big Zam of Battletech. Thanks for the video.
"Once the Crab is mass produced. We'll put an end to Amaris' goons in no time!" - A random Star League commander.
Great intro quote, and I felt the same way reading that TRO for the first time!
Right?!
Why do I like the Crab? It's all-energy, a solid medium mech, decently easy to paint, and I keep getting them in salvage boxes! (Well, them and phoenix hawks)
I fell in love with this mech while playing MW2 Mercs !
Excellent.
My favorite medium mech, followed closely by the Centurion. It's my main in MWO- The Crab(R), with twin AMS hardpoints.
I have found it an irony of sorts that the Night Chanter was ultimately superseded by the Nova which is a distance cousin design of the Crab. Thanks for posting the video.
Should we grant the Nova honorary Crab status?
It is a proud descendant of the King Crab.
I knew about the Night Chanter, but I'm really glad you covered it! Great video, and it's weird we never saw a proper Crab (or King Crab-no, the Supernova doesn't count) IIC
The frankencrab in HBS's Battletech game is fun to tinker with. Putting urbie internals into a crab somehow worked. Though its strays from a regular crab in weapon hardpoints. Its a fun and chaotic mech.
I do love putting at the end your own MF variant. Have to admit your choice on the Crab is very good - might keep it for later use.
Thank you.
One has to respect the raw K.I.S.S. in all Crab designs.
Very true.
I enjoy all of Mechanical Frog videos
I don't think anyone will hold that against you. ;D
(Finally got a chance to sit down and watch this. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this video, it’s deeply appreciated especially since it’s always nice to see one of my favorite mechs getting the spotlight. I loved the video and I’d never heard of the Night Chanter but I love the basic idea for it! I can’t wait to see more.)
Okay, so I’ve already told this story around here but I might as well tell it again since it pertains to this mech. My families regiment was contracted for garrison duty along the Magistracy/FWL border when I was a girl. So I spent a lot of my youth on this border planet that was the site of several major battles during the Freedom War and the local population was proud of their struggle against the SLDF.
In the city near our base there was a museum dedicated to the Periphery Uprising and the Freedom War. One of the big exhibits was the remains of a Crab mech which had been destroyed by guerrilla fighters on the world. It had basically been a burned out husk with everything valuable or useful salvaged long ago. But they still collected it, dragged that pile of scrap back to the museum, and painstakingly rebuilt the exterior to look as much like its old self as they could including a SLDF paint job. I remember visiting that museum a lot as a kind and staring at that prettier up pile of scrap metal and dreaming about what I would be like to pilot a machine like that. The design, the weapons loadout, and the look were just so different and I was in love. It began a minor obcession of mine. But that was back in the day when Crabs were an endangered species of mech especially out in the periphery.
It would be many years before I got to pilot one myself and I’d already lost my Mechwarrior cherry to my other beloved Battlemech the Hatchetman. Still I jumped a chance to volunteer to pilot one when I unit came across a Crab among battlefield capturers and it rapidly became a second favorite of mine.
I have been feeling really crabby today.... I definitely needed this video to unwind.
The Crab story had me come up with the Blood Limpet, named after a nasty creepy crawlie to scare the Dracs.
Heavily invested in advanced tech with a Vlar 300XL, Endo Steel and 16 DHS, it started development prior to the Crab but turned into a money sink for a failed hexaped locomotion system.
Wasn't until the SLDF said "anyone _else_ got anything?" that a cooler head took over, ripped out the skitter skitter legs, put it on a set of more reasonable chicken legs, and used the saved weight and space for a ring of six jump jets under its Tommy helmet-shaped carapace.
An ER large laser in either claw gave it reach, but a toasty reach, while a pair of standard Mediums in the side torsos bracketed the cockpit.
Unfortunately, not many got cranked out before Amaris did the inevitable, but those that did survive the early Succession Wars managed to survive late into the game because its 11 tons of standard armor were cheap and easy to replace, compared to expensive armor over standard internals. If you were willing to bend the knee and withdraw before you were breached and your expensive innards got broken, at least.
Really, Fabrica Di Granchi's RLB-52 Rock Lobster was a much more successful unit, 100 tons of 'The King Crab We Have At Home'
The original Solaris box cover Crab was *chef kiss*
For me its that old art design, and also the feel like I'm piloting a plane whenever I drive one in the mechwarrior games
Excellent point.
Literally got into battletech cause my friend bought himself a Clan Invasion box set a several months ago, and we both bought the Comstar battle level II box set. I specifically wanted it cause another friend suggested it, also because when I first saw the crab I really loved the way it looked and felt when I used it on Megamek.
Excellent. So the Crab really is a gateway mech.
Really solid medium mech; decent firepower, no ammunition, good range, good damage. Hard not to appreciate.
Didn't expect to see certain things in this video. A HPL reference, a Clan Coyote variant, a Coyote variant with an LRM, and Mech Frog disapproving of a plasma loadout. But the Crab survives by sticking to one thing & doing it well.
Gotta keep you on your toes.
Love the Crab. A durable, brutal little duelist that is good in pretty much any configuration.
Ooh, love your MF version. I'm a sucker for PPC Capacitors.
It's just neat...
Great video! Only addition I would add ecm to the Crab. Nothing more dangerous than a ghostly Crab. Looking forward to more videos.
I approve of stealthcrab.
1:31
Barrel Crab is love!
Barrel Crab is life!
Run this bad boy every time I play my Comstar forces, never lets me down
The upgrades for the Crab past the 3rd succession war are just a unnecessary heat mess. My thoughts on upgrading the Crab.
3050ish: Based on Inner Sphere technology, take the 2750 Crab and install 10 double heat sinks. Remove the 5 other heat sinks. Add 3 medium lasers to the side torsos (bringing the total to 4), upgrade the small laser to a small pulse laser and add 5 jump jets. Retain the standard large lasers. While this crab can't afford to alpha strike, it is a very potent brawler that isn't afraid to close with anyone.
3150ish: Take that same base crab, upgrade to 15 double heat sinks. Use inner-sphere Endo Steel frame. Upgrade the large lasers to clan-grade ERLLasers. Remove the medium and small lasers. Add 4 clan-grade ER Medium Lasers with a pair in each side torso, and 2 clan-grade small pulse laser in the head and center torso. While the clan-grade weapons will significantly raise the cost of this mech, its core systems remain relatively cheap. The lack of an XL engine will keep this mech fighting longer than many of its rivals.
Thank you for letting us know where to find the Night Chanter. I had no idea it existed before this video.
You didn't have to mention my boy Starslayer, but you did. And the Night Chanter was a special treat. Very well connected overview of a well designed mech.
Thank you for giving it a go. Have a great week!
"Why do we love the Crab?"
Is Crab. End of video. ALL SHALL BECOME C R A B
Fair enough.
Most balanced 50 tonner that fills the role of main line mech. Give it double heatsinks, ferro armor, and watch it outfight heavies and some assaults like the BNS-3E
As someone whose experience with Battletech is mostly the 2018 game with BTA 3062 installed, and some MW5 in there as well, the crab appeals to me for one reason: it's a good starter mech.
There is nothing to go KABOOM if a shot goes internal, it hits pretty well, and it's just a solid mech overall.
Now, I personally will always add in dual heat sinks and an XL engine with ferro so I can up armor the crab and add jump jets, and maybe some clan grade ER large lasers. Turns the mech from a good all arounder to a nightmare for the enemy.
All shall become Crab in the end.
Just as the prophecy foretold.
The Crab is a decent mech.
The Royal Crab (27b) is a beast up through the Clan Invasion.
And Pulse Crab (27sl) with JJ makes the Crab even more fun.
The crb-27b with Er larges and double heatsinks has always been an easy fit into any inner sphere lance that needs a well priced, rugged piece of firepower.
The crb-30 has been an mvp during my occasional foray into a c3 list, providing 2 large lasers a turn on 6's from 15 hexes away in safety.
The crb-20 was one of the first mechs I chose in my original 3025 company when I began playing bt around a year ago, and was a savior to my wolverine/company commander in my first ever match. Right as my opponents Guillotine jumped in to close on my smaller, and weaker wolverine, the brave crab pilot downed prone(missing a leg and 80% of its other armor) propped itself up and headshot the heavy mech with its large laser, killing the pilot and winning me the game.
🦀🦀🦀, the crab has always carried me in the table top solid mech
Glad to hear it.
Craaaaaab pe-pole craaaaaaaaab pe-pole.
Walk like crab, talk like people.
I'm fond of the Crab. Some of that is bias, some if that is recognizing a medium energy boat that can do pretty well in most situations. Except for Mechwarrior: Online where everyone brings heavies and assaults to the table.
I always loved the crab. I really wish there was a larger variant, maybe 65 tons. Thanks Frog.
CRAB GANG !