#sameteam It will always be special for me because it was the first mech I was exposed to. I still think it looks cool, like a mech version of an AH-64 Apache.
"Any mech that relies on a single weapon to make up the majority of its punching power is a stupid loadout." As a hunchback purist I resent this statement
As an L-1 pilot, I also resent this statement. L-1 best Bushwacker. It takes a mediocre long range skirmisher, which has it's largest flaws being the insufficiently punchy LRMs and overall fragility of the mech (XL engine plus average armor for a 50tonner) and turns it into an absolutely killer close range dense terrain fighter. It is now one of the toughest 50tonners around when you combine the increased armor of the L1 with the narrow profile quirk, and you have replaced the paint scratchers with the ability to punch 20 damage into a single location and force a pilot check, and almost guaranteed hitting of any holes in armor when firing cluster. It's decently fast, tough for it's size, and every bit as dangerous as a hunchie up close, with better long range firepower (you still have an ERLL) and the mobility to get a better chance of getting up close.
@@fix0the0spade as can the Bushwacker - in the same way as the Marauder can -just with a bit less oomph behind it due to lower tonnage. Mech-Fu is ALWAYS an option, therefore can be disregarded in this case as that is something each and every mech can do. How good it is at that, however, is another question.
"Why would you build a brawler to fight the clans?" Welp, this is why the King Crab remains my absolute favorite mech. Yes, I know it's in a completely different weight class from the bushwhacker. But it's got TWO AC/20s and enough armor to get within "testicle tickling" distance to be able to use them. And if you are foolish enough to let it get within firing range of those AC/20s, well, you get what you get.
The Bushwacker, my brother made a very "special" build of Bushwacker on MW2/3: It was filled to the brim with nothing but MGs. Just a buttload of dakka, ammo and... armor. He then proceeded to take on a Thor/Summoner with said mech. I thought he was gonna get wrecked but then I watched as the Thor's cockpit area suddenly went red in very short order and then (I couldn't believe my eyes) THE THOR TURNED AROUND AND RAN. SHOWED HIS BACK AND RAN. My brother was piloting a Thor the next mission.
Crazy fact: anti-vehicle mines are NOT a war crime if they are made with insensitive munitions and have a feature that makes it destroy its own explosives without exploding them after a set amount of time.
So fun fact... Well not fun but a fact. AP mines also when used correctly are also not a war crime. BUT there is an international agreement by a bunch of nations to not produce or use AP mines. But lets face it the moment they think they need them the mines will reappear without even an apology. Also AT mines have the same rules as AP mines. Marked area, not used on civilians, documented for later disposal and or destruction.
Bushwacker mentioned! Bushwacker is one of my favorite mechs almost entirely because, until recently, Mechcommander 2 was the first and only Battletech game I played and its one of the first mechs you get. The damn thing is so versatile in that game it can care you into the end game.
Love that game. Glad it still gets new players. I've done runs where every pilot becomes a medium mech specialist except for one or two who get heavy mechs. After that, just overwhelm the enemy with 5-8 medium mechs opening up to fire instead of 2 or 3 assault mechs.
same here. (still got the CD some where) that and the razorback was used to endgame for me. probably made me look the zues too had it with 4 ppc and ermlasers and could keep up with the heavies
Fun Fact: When the Bushwhacker first came out, it was considered an engineering failure. BUT when the clans invaded, the study of clan tech and designs gave the Bushwhacker a new lease in life.
The name Bushwhacker is perfect for the type of mech it is. From Wikipedia: Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, American Civil War and other conflicts in which there were large areas of contested land and few governmental resources to control these tracts. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers. The term "bushwhacking" is still in use today to describe ambushes done with the aim of attrition.
Over the years, I have taken to heart what my drill instructor said about the Bushwacker: "It's not the biggest mech around, but she's fast and packs quite a punch."
right?! Keeping it around to escort my Longbow tricked out with...a lawnmower engine and no sense of balance so that it can fit THREE Arrow IV system in place. Good times...
The bushwacker came, in my opinion atleast, was to replace the 4 unseen 55 ton innersphere mechs. As an omnimech it can fill the gaps the shadowhawk, Wolverine, griffin and dervish left during that period.
@@nicolasgodines1129 right, I still primarily focus on 3025, or earlier. Still with all the big ticket 55 tonners gone something need to fill that void.
The reason you build a brawler to fight the Clans is because at close range, all their fancy ER weapons aren't at such a great advantage. The problem is approaching tactically enough to minimize damage until you're in their face. Rotary Autocannons are fun rules-wise. You can choose whether to fire a single shot like a standard AC, or you can increase your fire rate to a maximum of six shots in a single turn. You _shouldn't_ do that (the optimal shot selections are 1, 3, and 5), but you absolutely can. And, unlike Ultra Autocannons, if a RAC jams on you, you can unjam it during the match instead of hauling around 10+ tons of useless metal for the rest of the game. Also, LB-X auditions very specifically cannot use specialty ammo. Only standard or cluster rounds. Regular and Light autocannons can use special munitions, justifying their continued existence in the post-Clan years
Way back when I first played Mechwarrior 3 I instantly fell in love with the Bushwacker and it's still my favorite today. It also imprinted my love of mediums with big cannons lol.
I love the Bushwacker. Long ranged command mech, fun on tabletop as long as you keep it at range. For my money, the most hated MWO mech right now is the Adder Warthog with 14 AP Gauss. The firepower of 3 AC10s for 1/4 of the weight on a mech moving 97kph. They must die.
No joke: I had a match earlier with a couple buddies; where we saw an isolated Bushwacker. When we went to flank it, there was a Warthog sitting right next to it. My lance curb-stomped the Adder, before taking care of the Bushy.
"Any mech that relies on a single weapon to make up the majority of its punching power is a stupid loadout and you shouldn't take it seriously." -Sci HBK-4G Hunchback would like to speak with you about that...
It said, "Don't @me. This is a guess as the rules keep changing and every video game is different." Its like you guys never had to read road signs in a blizzard or something.
The Raven will always be my favorite mech, but this thing comes up a close second. I remember getting one of these in the first MechCommander game I ever played and then doing everything to keep it in my lance until the final mission.
You either LOVE the raven or HATE the raven. It entirely depends on which side of the battlefield it is...and how good the ECM and ECCM systems in that particular game work. Battletech vs MW3 vs MWO...
While two RAC-5 are impressive, i remember when I still played MWO I used a King Crab with RAC-2s - six of them, three per arm. Poke one side out of cover, go BRRRRRRRT!, and then duck back in cover. Rinse and repeat. Worse, the Crabbo got enough armor to do this for quite a while...
Umm, i'm kinda surprised. This was one of several "original designs." Including the AN-2 Axeman, the Mauler, the sloth and the Infiltrator, that primary appeared in the battletech cartoon when talking about the bushwacker history supprised that isn't mentioned.
One notable thing about the Bushwacker is that it is a solid mech to just churn out in large numbers. The respectable but unremarkably weapons loadout is flexible enough, and it has the speed for a mech of its size. You can deploy companies of nothing but Bushwackers and they will get the job done. Hunting down stragglers, gunning down assaults, ripping apart lights or vehicles, they do it superbly.
Love the Bushwacker. I fondly remember the mechwarrior 4 early game ambush mission near the start where you had to take out a convoy by powering down your mech and waiting for them to get in range. The bushwacker had such a perfect setup for the long range pokes needed to do that.
the bushwacker is a favorite of mine because you said it yourself mechwarriors 3 was my first dip into the franchise so its got nostalgia and its design really appealed to me
I actually prefer the Rac/5s in those high mountings so they can peak over better. Less of me exposed and insures i clear my cover before firing. Those chin slots ain't bad though. (This i a MWO/MW5 opinion not tabletop!)
Just started playing MWO last week and the first mech I bought was the Bushwhacker. Love this sleek little guy, I've got an HMG+SRM build right now that eats unsuspecting mechs alive. Hide behind my heavy boys and just shred!
I have a special connection to this little machine, only because it was the first i ever controlled in MW3 1999. I really like the BSW-S7 version. In the RogueTech mod of BattleTech, you could build it up with 4 Clan ER large laser and make a extreme deadly sniper (which still had it's stealth bonus).
i use a whole other kind of build that i don't think they mentioned and i have consistently done great with it in MechWarrior online, i keep the xl engine, use an lbx10, an ER large laser and 2 different SRM one on the back/shoulder and the other in that arm. i also give it a ballistic anti rockets gun (cant recall its name) its a little messy and the ammo count is honestly JUST enough to last me most rounds but i been able to survive 300-600 points of damage and keep going while dealing normally 200-500. i adore the bushwhacker.
Let it be known that I discovered the RAC-Wacker before it became mainstream. Though it didn't take long for literally everyone and their mother to figure out how devastating the RAC-Wacker is. I run the 3x RAC2 variant of the build.
I always assumed that the term "Machine gun" in relation to mechs was like how the term was used in the US Navy during World War II. I don't know the exact definition they used, but if it was a fully automatic weapon that you didn't expect to be useful against warship armor, it was a "machine gun." The navy included everything from .30 cal to 40mm Bofors autocannon under the machine gun category.
Yep, that is correct. A "Machine Gun" is described as being the sort of weapon you would find in a helicopter gunships chin turret or IFV turret - .50cal through 40mm, electrically driven chain guns.
Well first of all the Bushwacker wasn't designed to fight the Clans, it was in development before they were a known threat, and unfortunately combat in the Battletech game rapidly develops into a short-ranged brawl given a combination of board limits and weapon ranges. So AC20.
the RACs actually do not fire at the speed of the GAU-8 or M61A2 in TT RACs fire 6x faster than a regular autocannon. so essentially 6 times in one turn.
i remember running this hunk of lego metal for most of MW3. it mightve been one haphazard piece of shit, but it sure made the clanners on the other end of mine more than shit themselves
Maybe my favorite mech. My first mech for sure, as the Mechwarrior 3 campaign was my introduction to the setting. I love the look, the name, and the loadout balance. Large laser [long range energy weapon] LRMs [tracking missile damage] AC10 [medium range Ballistic damage] 2 machine guns for anti infantry. Never ignore infantry in the lore. Medium chassie gives it a balance of mobility and staying power. It is the embodiment of a mech. A walking tank. Legs, arms, but stout profile. Not just walking human shaped mech. I love the WizKids Clix game and wish they had made the Bushwhacker for it. In Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, I love getting access to it and use it as a command mech for as long as it is viable.
I remember once I played it in MW3 and when I used a crawl mode I ended up glitching into the ground/ still could walk and fire wepons but was totaly unkillable.
I’m gonna be rocking a Shwacker for a MechWarrior TTRPG campaign I’m playing in. Good mech. As for Bad or Less Bad for fighting Clan mechs, the way you fight clans is with standard fusion engines and SO MUCH ARMOR in the front, and then behind your big zombie is your Gauss Rifle Caddy Battalion.
As I remember, the early MW3 missions were pretty easy as well. Lots of vehicles to destroy so a single large laser or an AC10 felt like a lot of fire power.
Love this mech. Always modded mine for a "light Cavalry" role. Remove the LRM in the left arm and put the machine-guns in that arm. Upgrade the engine and add armor. Modify weapon versions to taste.
Can confirm, that "RACWacka" build SHREDS in MWO and they even gave new cadets a taste of the dakka The mech itself is alright and actually very good at one specific thing which is a sign of a good design. If someone asks for more stuff to be crammed in it, they might as well look for a madcat instead Wacka is fine
Along with the Razorback it is the first mech you are given in Mechcommander 2. The laser is by default replaced with a PPC, making it quite deadly against everything.
I think it's miniguns are meant to be a direct copy of the 20mm M61/25mm GAU-22 cannons on most US jets. They're common dogfighting gatling guns (especially the M61, which is contemporary with the tabletop game). The M134/GAU-17 "minigun" you referenced gets its name for being the miniature version of these cannons.
i loved this mech when mwo had scouting in faction play. i used to run a p1?p2? 4mlas, ac20, 3 srm2's. max tonnage for armour, had it running 81 kph with a light engine. it was a scouting mech so i traded total ammo count for the loadout to fit everything in it. i only had to take on 4 other mechs and i had a good lance i could count on.
I actually have a bit of nostalgia for the Bushy: it was the very first mech I have ever piloted, during the tutorial of the very first MechWarrior game I’ve ever owned: MW4: Mercenaries.😊
The bushwaker was I think my first ever introduction to battle through mechwarrior 3 which then led me to get the two mach assualt games on the good ol brick called Xbox. God those games were such fun and I havent played one till mechwarrior 5 came oit as I havent had a pc for years and honestly only found out about mechwarrior 5 the day it was added to the xbox store which was probably one of the fastest purchases ive ever made and thoroughly enjoy playing still. It does need the bushwaker though.
Switched my P2 over to an LRM 15 + 5 with a Large and 2 Medium X-pulse lasers, switched to endosteel, ferro-fibrous armor, and double heat sinks. 2 tons of ammo feeding the LRM's keeps me on the backline and the pulse lasers hit hard enough to make it count if something gets in close
Machine guns don't do much against mech armor...unless you stick 12 of then in the center torso of a light with MASC and jump jets The Piranah is no joke
Like so many things in battletech I've never understood the logic of the xl engine. It's lighter, so that should make it SMALLER but more expensive. The idea that the engine expands into the side torsos but is somehow lighter than a standard engine that doesn't just baffles me. Like the cannons that get shorter range the larger they are, not how guns work generally speaking. A 105mm has a range of 10ish km, a 155 has a range of 30km give or take (my memory is fuzzy on details). Bigger gun equals longer barrel and larger charge to launch it which is why battleships fire over the horizon and not a couple of hundred meters. The same is true on a smaller scale for rifles.
XL engine logic makes no sense, but the gun ratings do... sort of? Assuming they aren't just scaled up versions of the same gun, you can envision them as a tradeoff between projectile weight and muzzle velocity. Lower ratings are zippy little bullets with long range, higher ratings are a big pile of high explosives lobbed at relatively much lower velocities. Think of the 105mm gun the Sherman started with compared to the 75mm and 76mm guns they went with later. Lighter projectile moving a lot faster instead of blooping out a big pile of HE. Or you could say the AC/20 is a shotgun slug, AC/5 is a 5.56x45mm round. Or you could compare pistol ammo with the 9mm and the .45 ACP, where the former is a smaller and lighter round that moves a lot faster and has much greater effective range.
@@PaxEmpyrean Maybe once upon a time where we barely understood physics, but these days the heavier the rifle, the further the effective range generally speaking. 5.56 vs 7.62 vs .50cal rifles. Likewise in artilliary, 105mm, vs 155 vs 200 vs whatever the hell mm a battleship's main guns were (post WW2), 16 inch I believe. With very few exceptions bigger guns have had longer range and more power, at the cost of rate of fire.
@@SheyD78 This is stupid. Did you not read what I wrote? You are assuming they are just scaled up versions of the same gun. They don't have to be. In real life, TODAY, we still have different calibers that trade range for bullet mass. That's the whole point of .300 BLK; you have a bullet nearly four times the mass of a 5.56x45mm, traveling at one third the speed, and they share the same casing. Oh, and shotgun slugs exist. Very slow. Very heavy. Range is short. This isn't some "once upon a time" crap, either. Sometimes you trade projectile velocity for mass because mass is more valuable in a given application. Or maybe you want to deliver a specialized payload. It's not hard to imagine an AC/5 shooting 120mm APFSDS rounds at a thousand meters per second while AC/20s are lobbing HE rounds the size of a refrigerator at a hundred meters per second. A scaled up version of the same design will shoot farther, but bigger guns don't have to be scaled up versions of the same design, and with the way that these fictional guns lose range as they get bigger, the mechanical implication is that they aren't what you think they are.
I was very surprised when I played with the Bushwacker in Mechwarrior. I was surprised because I did not expect to like this mech, and it turned out that I really did
I love battle tech because I don’t think I’ve ever met a mech I didn’t like in some way. Bushwacker may have stole my heart alittle bit just on the look alone.
Love your stuff SCI.I buy I’m gonna be blunt, why you build the ‘wacker with the biggest mech shotgun (at least in classic) is because most of the maps have at decent cover and no one is dumb enough to fight the clans in open plains.
My build ac10 to lbx10 and the 1 ton saved to additional ton of ammo. Mgs to small lasers 1lrm5 and 3 med lasers. I love this thing. Mines for the lrm.
Bushwhacker was my first "Reactor online. Sensors online. Weapons online. All systems nominal." Always going to hold a special place.
MechWarrior 3. Plenty of fond memories.
#sameteam It will always be special for me because it was the first mech I was exposed to. I still think it looks cool, like a mech version of an AH-64 Apache.
Mine, too…
The Crab was mine. As you could buy it for the first level in MW2:Mercs
@@topcatcoast2coast579 I never played that game, so I can’t say anything about it…
"Any mech that relies on a single weapon to make up the majority of its punching power is a stupid loadout."
As a hunchback purist I resent this statement
As an L-1 pilot, I also resent this statement. L-1 best Bushwacker. It takes a mediocre long range skirmisher, which has it's largest flaws being the insufficiently punchy LRMs and overall fragility of the mech (XL engine plus average armor for a 50tonner) and turns it into an absolutely killer close range dense terrain fighter. It is now one of the toughest 50tonners around when you combine the increased armor of the L1 with the narrow profile quirk, and you have replaced the paint scratchers with the ability to punch 20 damage into a single location and force a pilot check, and almost guaranteed hitting of any holes in armor when firing cluster. It's decently fast, tough for it's size, and every bit as dangerous as a hunchie up close, with better long range firepower (you still have an ERLL) and the mobility to get a better chance of getting up close.
I'd say the entire Hunchback Orthodoxy would disagree with that. Both the traditionalists and Swayback pilots.
No Hunchback relies upon a single weapon, they have a big gun... and two fists. Never forget the Hunch can punch.
@@fix0the0spade as can the Bushwacker - in the same way as the Marauder can -just with a bit less oomph behind it due to lower tonnage. Mech-Fu is ALWAYS an option, therefore can be disregarded in this case as that is something each and every mech can do. How good it is at that, however, is another question.
This guy just doesn't understand mechwarriors
"Why would you build a brawler to fight the clans?" Welp, this is why the King Crab remains my absolute favorite mech. Yes, I know it's in a completely different weight class from the bushwhacker. But it's got TWO AC/20s and enough armor to get within "testicle tickling" distance to be able to use them. And if you are foolish enough to let it get within firing range of those AC/20s, well, you get what you get.
You get, the CLAMPS!
"Testicle tickling range" is my new favorite idiom for CQB.
@@xxxlonewolf49 th-cam.com/video/g2_zb6oyep8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=c-l0USS7JEATjoEW
@@xxxlonewolf49 th-cam.com/video/g2_zb6oyep8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=c-l0USS7JEATjoEW
@@TempestsFist I very loudly LOL'd when he said that.
"Refrigerator on legs"
Highlander: I resent that remark
No Highlander, you RESEMBLE that remark.
@@zerosen2141 good one! 😂
Stalker - Hey, at least you're not the Goodyear blimp on legs.
@F15ElectricEagle I always associated the Crab as a blimp with legs.
Bushwacker: At least I'm not as ugly as the Ice Ferret
It's the a-10 warthog of battletech but more warts than hog. Love it.
Which is literally what the Mechbuster is, an AC20 with wings.
The Bushwacker, my brother made a very "special" build of Bushwacker on MW2/3: It was filled to the brim with nothing but MGs. Just a buttload of dakka, ammo and... armor. He then proceeded to take on a Thor/Summoner with said mech. I thought he was gonna get wrecked but then I watched as the Thor's cockpit area suddenly went red in very short order and then (I couldn't believe my eyes) THE THOR TURNED AROUND AND RAN. SHOWED HIS BACK AND RAN. My brother was piloting a Thor the next mission.
"Is this the male fantasy?"
RACWacker: "TAKE IT ALL!!!"
Giggity
Crazy fact: anti-vehicle mines are NOT a war crime if they are made with insensitive munitions and have a feature that makes it destroy its own explosives without exploding them after a set amount of time.
3 Tricks the Ares Convention doesn't want you to know!
Crazy fact: that’s not true
So fun fact... Well not fun but a fact. AP mines also when used correctly are also not a war crime. BUT there is an international agreement by a bunch of nations to not produce or use AP mines. But lets face it the moment they think they need them the mines will reappear without even an apology.
Also AT mines have the same rules as AP mines. Marked area, not used on civilians, documented for later disposal and or destruction.
Bushwacker mentioned!
Bushwacker is one of my favorite mechs almost entirely because, until recently, Mechcommander 2 was the first and only Battletech game I played and its one of the first mechs you get. The damn thing is so versatile in that game it can care you into the end game.
Love that game. Glad it still gets new players. I've done runs where every pilot becomes a medium mech specialist except for one or two who get heavy mechs. After that, just overwhelm the enemy with 5-8 medium mechs opening up to fire instead of 2 or 3 assault mechs.
same here. (still got the CD some where) that and the razorback was used to endgame for me. probably made me look the zues too had it with 4 ppc and ermlasers and could keep up with the heavies
It's easily one of the best mechs in MC2. With a medium mech specialist and max armor it's incredibly durable.
Fun Fact: When the Bushwhacker first came out, it was considered an engineering failure. BUT when the clans invaded, the study of clan tech and designs gave the Bushwhacker a new lease in life.
I love the Bushwacker as one of the first post Clan designs basically stealing their space magic nonsense.
Except its design origins were before the Invasion, but it got its proper start during the Invasion due to salvaged Mad Dog/Vulture design studies.
@@MechInterest Yeah it was basically a flop until they got the clan space magic
@@MechInterest It still resembles their designs.
The Bushwhacker will always be a favorite of mine. She won't win any beauty contests, but she's got 50 tons of personality.
The name Bushwhacker is perfect for the type of mech it is. From Wikipedia:
Bushwhacking was a form of guerrilla warfare common during the American Revolutionary War, War of 1812, American Civil War and other conflicts in which there were large areas of contested land and few governmental resources to control these tracts. This was particularly prevalent in rural areas during the Civil War where there were sharp divisions between those favoring the Union and Confederacy in the conflict. The perpetrators of the attacks were called bushwhackers. The term "bushwhacking" is still in use today to describe ambushes done with the aim of attrition.
im australian a bushwhacker to me means someone from the countryside
Over the years, I have taken to heart what my drill instructor said about the Bushwacker:
"It's not the biggest mech around, but she's fast and packs quite a punch."
Hey, I remember that quote. Too bad it was on loan. And no chance of bringing my own mech, either.😅
My Mechwarrior 3 inner nerd is screaming right now. One of the most iconic mech to me personally
right?!
Keeping it around to escort my Longbow tricked out with...a lawnmower engine and no sense of balance so that it can fit THREE Arrow IV system in place. Good times...
The bushwacker came, in my opinion atleast, was to replace the 4 unseen 55 ton innersphere mechs. As an omnimech it can fill the gaps the shadowhawk, Wolverine, griffin and dervish left during that period.
Bushwacker is not an Omni, but it's son the Gauntlet is.
@@nicolasgodines1129 right, I still primarily focus on 3025, or earlier. Still with all the big ticket 55 tonners gone something need to fill that void.
It gets shark jaw nose art, it's a 10/10 'mech just for that, also, thank you Steve.
The reason you build a brawler to fight the Clans is because at close range, all their fancy ER weapons aren't at such a great advantage. The problem is approaching tactically enough to minimize damage until you're in their face.
Rotary Autocannons are fun rules-wise. You can choose whether to fire a single shot like a standard AC, or you can increase your fire rate to a maximum of six shots in a single turn. You _shouldn't_ do that (the optimal shot selections are 1, 3, and 5), but you absolutely can. And, unlike Ultra Autocannons, if a RAC jams on you, you can unjam it during the match instead of hauling around 10+ tons of useless metal for the rest of the game.
Also, LB-X auditions very specifically cannot use specialty ammo. Only standard or cluster rounds. Regular and Light autocannons can use special munitions, justifying their continued existence in the post-Clan years
It wasn't just the first mech you got in Mechwarrior 3, it was also in the Battletech Cartoon from the 90's
Way back when I first played Mechwarrior 3 I instantly fell in love with the Bushwacker and it's still my favorite today. It also imprinted my love of mediums with big cannons lol.
Oh, I'm sick as hell looking for something to distract me and Sci comes through with a new video just in time
I love bwacker since MW3. In mwo i have:
1. RAC wacker
2. Lb10x2 Wacker
3. Binary laserwacker
5. Mrmwacker
>Steve didn't say hello
>Day ruined
It would be fun to see an Ares video, enough of a meme to be funny, different enough to make it unique but overall probably my favourite 'mech.
I love the Bushwacker. Long ranged command mech, fun on tabletop as long as you keep it at range.
For my money, the most hated MWO mech right now is the Adder Warthog with 14 AP Gauss. The firepower of 3 AC10s for 1/4 of the weight on a mech moving 97kph. They must die.
No joke: I had a match earlier with a couple buddies; where we saw an isolated Bushwacker. When we went to flank it, there was a Warthog sitting right next to it. My lance curb-stomped the Adder, before taking care of the Bushy.
I love the bushwhacker. It’s my favorite mech of the setting and the one I’ve spent the most time in
Bushwhacker was a toy I got for Christmas one year. It will always have a place in my heart as a result.
MW3 was one of the first PC games I've ever played, so the Bushwacker has a special place in my heart. Great video!
"Any mech that relies on a single weapon to make up the majority of its punching power is a stupid loadout and you shouldn't take it seriously." -Sci
HBK-4G Hunchback would like to speak with you about that...
As would most real world military vehicles.
“Rac whacker go brrrrrrr.” “This is so much new information.”
3:13 : White text on mostly white background.
Frodo: "All Right Then, Keep Your Secrets."
this. Sci PLS what was that?
It said, "Don't @me. This is a guess as the rules keep changing and every video game is different." Its like you guys never had to read road signs in a blizzard or something.
@@Mr._Anderpson well i live in the tropics so cant say that i have
@@setsunachiame Thanks for your service. I couldn't live in that zone.
The Raven will always be my favorite mech, but this thing comes up a close second.
I remember getting one of these in the first MechCommander game I ever played and then doing everything to keep it in my lance until the final mission.
You either LOVE the raven or HATE the raven. It entirely depends on which side of the battlefield it is...and how good the ECM and ECCM systems in that particular game work. Battletech vs MW3 vs MWO...
Raven? Not the Men Shen?
While two RAC-5 are impressive, i remember when I still played MWO I used a King Crab with RAC-2s - six of them, three per arm. Poke one side out of cover, go BRRRRRRRT!, and then duck back in cover. Rinse and repeat.
Worse, the Crabbo got enough armor to do this for quite a while...
Umm, i'm kinda surprised. This was one of several "original designs." Including the AN-2 Axeman, the Mauler, the sloth and the Infiltrator, that primary appeared in the battletech cartoon
when talking about the bushwacker history supprised that isn't mentioned.
One notable thing about the Bushwacker is that it is a solid mech to just churn out in large numbers.
The respectable but unremarkably weapons loadout is flexible enough, and it has the speed for a mech of its size.
You can deploy companies of nothing but Bushwackers and they will get the job done.
Hunting down stragglers, gunning down assaults, ripping apart lights or vehicles, they do it superbly.
Ah, the Bushwacker. My favorite medium mech in Mechwarrior 4.
Also MechCommander 2.
And the starter in Mechwarrior 3.
Lies. Everyone loves the uziel!
Love the Bushwacker.
I fondly remember the mechwarrior 4 early game ambush mission near the start where you had to take out a convoy by powering down your mech and waiting for them to get in range. The bushwacker had such a perfect setup for the long range pokes needed to do that.
First thing to get used in mw3 but changed asap i got something slightly better looking or just more weight
That nova, followed by the Orion, then the Thor, then the annihilator or shadow cat
Okay need to go play mw3 now
@@joshkellemen5931 ? What do you mean
the bushwacker is a favorite of mine because you said it yourself mechwarriors 3 was my first dip into the franchise so its got nostalgia and its design really appealed to me
I actually prefer the Rac/5s in those high mountings so they can peak over better. Less of me exposed and insures i clear my cover before firing.
Those chin slots ain't bad though. (This i a MWO/MW5 opinion not tabletop!)
Just started playing MWO last week and the first mech I bought was the Bushwhacker. Love this sleek little guy, I've got an HMG+SRM build right now that eats unsuspecting mechs alive. Hide behind my heavy boys and just shred!
I love the Bushwacker. And on tabletop, it is consistently im my top 3 MVP's, almost always gets the final kill, and usually with the machine guns.
I have a special connection to this little machine, only because it was the first i ever controlled in MW3 1999.
I really like the BSW-S7 version. In the RogueTech mod of BattleTech, you could build it up with 4 Clan ER large laser and make a extreme deadly sniper (which still had it's stealth bonus).
i use a whole other kind of build that i don't think they mentioned and i have consistently done great with it in MechWarrior online, i keep the xl engine, use an lbx10, an ER large laser and 2 different SRM one on the back/shoulder and the other in that arm. i also give it a ballistic anti rockets gun (cant recall its name) its a little messy and the ammo count is honestly JUST enough to last me most rounds but i been able to survive 300-600 points of damage and keep going while dealing normally 200-500. i adore the bushwhacker.
Let it be known that I discovered the RAC-Wacker before it became mainstream. Though it didn't take long for literally everyone and their mother to figure out how devastating the RAC-Wacker is. I run the 3x RAC2 variant of the build.
The Bushy is and will always be my favorite Inner Sphere medium mech.
love this guy on the tabletop shame he wasn't in mech warrior 5 merc
I always assumed that the term "Machine gun" in relation to mechs was like how the term was used in the US Navy during World War II. I don't know the exact definition they used, but if it was a fully automatic weapon that you didn't expect to be useful against warship armor, it was a "machine gun." The navy included everything from .30 cal to 40mm Bofors autocannon under the machine gun category.
Yep, that is correct. A "Machine Gun" is described as being the sort of weapon you would find in a helicopter gunships chin turret or IFV turret - .50cal through 40mm, electrically driven chain guns.
Well first of all the Bushwacker wasn't designed to fight the Clans, it was in development before they were a known threat, and unfortunately combat in the Battletech game rapidly develops into a short-ranged brawl given a combination of board limits and weapon ranges. So AC20.
the RACs actually do not fire at the speed of the GAU-8 or M61A2 in TT RACs fire 6x faster than a regular autocannon. so essentially 6 times in one turn.
For me the first time I seen the bushwhacker was actually the battletech cartoon Which I wish never ended on shitty cliff Hangar
BSW-X2 dual Ac20, 48rnds and a hell of a lotta spite, now that's a yolo meme build
Thanks for showing up, Steve
My favorite mech ever
i remember running this hunk of lego metal for most of MW3.
it mightve been one haphazard piece of shit, but it sure made the clanners on the other end of mine more than shit themselves
I had the giant toy of this thing from the cartoon. This guy had always been one of my favorites.
Enough Dakka? ... IMPOSSIBLE! - 40k Orks
Maybe my favorite mech.
My first mech for sure, as the Mechwarrior 3 campaign was my introduction to the setting.
I love the look, the name, and the loadout balance.
Large laser [long range energy weapon]
LRMs [tracking missile damage]
AC10 [medium range Ballistic damage]
2 machine guns for anti infantry. Never ignore infantry in the lore.
Medium chassie gives it a balance of mobility and staying power.
It is the embodiment of a mech. A walking tank. Legs, arms, but stout profile. Not just walking human shaped mech.
I love the WizKids Clix game and wish they had made the Bushwhacker for it.
In Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries, I love getting access to it and use it as a command mech for as long as it is viable.
Ever since Mech 3 the Bushy replaced the Cent as my favorite medium mech. I love the awkward ugly thing. It's beautiful.
It's 5 tons heavier than a centurion and fixes everything I didn't like about said centurion. I like it as a versatile cavalry mech.
Bushwacker is so good with many weapon systems it's a brawler if designed right with some high damage options it plays more like a lighter heavy mech
I remember once I played it in MW3 and when I used a crawl mode I ended up glitching into the ground/ still could walk and fire wepons but was totaly unkillable.
Huh. I remember being able to crouch, but not crawl. Was it base mw3 or pirates moon?
I’m gonna be rocking a Shwacker for a MechWarrior TTRPG campaign I’m playing in. Good mech.
As for Bad or Less Bad for fighting Clan mechs, the way you fight clans is with standard fusion engines and SO MUCH ARMOR in the front, and then behind your big zombie is your Gauss Rifle Caddy Battalion.
As I remember, the early MW3 missions were pretty easy as well. Lots of vehicles to destroy so a single large laser or an AC10 felt like a lot of fire power.
Oh heck yeah. Here early. Love me some SCI funsies.
A great early to midpoint mech in MechCommander.
It'll carry you through the entirety of MC2. Full armor and a medium mech specialist pilot and it's extremely durable.
Love this mech. Always modded mine for a "light Cavalry" role. Remove the LRM in the left arm and put the machine-guns in that arm. Upgrade the engine and add armor. Modify weapon versions to taste.
I remember this mech for MW3 where I was overloaded with heavy lasers and sat in the water to negate heating.
Mechwarrior 3 is still best Mechwarrior game
Instant flashback to the very first mission on Mech Commander 2.
Bushwacker is good and all, but I prefer my Mad Cat.
Can confirm, that "RACWacka" build SHREDS in MWO and they even gave new cadets a taste of the dakka
The mech itself is alright and actually very good at one specific thing which is a sign of a good design. If someone asks for more stuff to be crammed in it, they might as well look for a madcat instead
Wacka is fine
If you like the Racs, go try a King Crab with six RAC-2s. You are going to love that.
Along with the Razorback it is the first mech you are given in Mechcommander 2. The laser is by default replaced with a PPC, making it quite deadly against everything.
I think it's miniguns are meant to be a direct copy of the 20mm M61/25mm GAU-22 cannons on most US jets. They're common dogfighting gatling guns (especially the M61, which is contemporary with the tabletop game). The M134/GAU-17 "minigun" you referenced gets its name for being the miniature version of these cannons.
If you want Max R/AC dakka then just look at the stock bane/kraken which has 4 of them is literally a 100 assault version of the black jack
I've got a bit of affinity with the Bushwacker because it was the first battletech mini I ever got. Bought it in a blind buy with a hunchback IIc
2:00 this is literally the first time i've seen this channel
I made a custom version with anti infantry pods in the legs for Battle armor defense, I always loved the Bushwacker.
I remember the Bushwacker from the morning cartoon, still have the toy of it.
You dare refuse my batchall
I always preferred the triple RAC/2 Bushwhacker build in MWO. Rotate through the cooldowns to prevent jams and just keep firing.
And 2 x RAC 5 variant is armor striping cancer 😂
That won't do much damage then... You are better off firing all at once or just use regular acs.
This is a classic Mech from MechWarrior 3.
The Bushy has a special place in my Mechwarrior 3 demo playing heart.
i loved this mech when mwo had scouting in faction play. i used to run a p1?p2? 4mlas, ac20, 3 srm2's. max tonnage for armour, had it running 81 kph with a light engine. it was a scouting mech so i traded total ammo count for the loadout to fit everything in it. i only had to take on 4 other mechs and i had a good lance i could count on.
I actually have a bit of nostalgia for the Bushy: it was the very first mech I have ever piloted, during the tutorial of the very first MechWarrior game I’ve ever owned: MW4: Mercenaries.😊
I had the toy of this as a kid from the cartoom.
Still wish I did.
Give me a marauder and a budget, I'll give the clanners a run for their money.
That was my start up Mech in Mechwarrior 3. Not too bad of a Mech in the early Going.
The bushwaker was I think my first ever introduction to battle through mechwarrior 3 which then led me to get the two mach assualt games on the good ol brick called Xbox. God those games were such fun and I havent played one till mechwarrior 5 came oit as I havent had a pc for years and honestly only found out about mechwarrior 5 the day it was added to the xbox store which was probably one of the fastest purchases ive ever made and thoroughly enjoy playing still. It does need the bushwaker though.
Switched my P2 over to an LRM 15 + 5 with a Large and 2 Medium X-pulse lasers, switched to endosteel, ferro-fibrous armor, and double heat sinks. 2 tons of ammo feeding the LRM's keeps me on the backline and the pulse lasers hit hard enough to make it count if something gets in close
Machine guns don't do much against mech armor...unless you stick 12 of then in the center torso of a light with MASC and jump jets
The Piranah is no joke
This was a hell of an introduction to this channel.
It was MechWarrior 4 for me, it was also one the the first mediums you got.
Like so many things in battletech I've never understood the logic of the xl engine. It's lighter, so that should make it SMALLER but more expensive. The idea that the engine expands into the side torsos but is somehow lighter than a standard engine that doesn't just baffles me. Like the cannons that get shorter range the larger they are, not how guns work generally speaking. A 105mm has a range of 10ish km, a 155 has a range of 30km give or take (my memory is fuzzy on details). Bigger gun equals longer barrel and larger charge to launch it which is why battleships fire over the horizon and not a couple of hundred meters. The same is true on a smaller scale for rifles.
XL engine logic makes no sense, but the gun ratings do... sort of? Assuming they aren't just scaled up versions of the same gun, you can envision them as a tradeoff between projectile weight and muzzle velocity. Lower ratings are zippy little bullets with long range, higher ratings are a big pile of high explosives lobbed at relatively much lower velocities.
Think of the 105mm gun the Sherman started with compared to the 75mm and 76mm guns they went with later. Lighter projectile moving a lot faster instead of blooping out a big pile of HE. Or you could say the AC/20 is a shotgun slug, AC/5 is a 5.56x45mm round. Or you could compare pistol ammo with the 9mm and the .45 ACP, where the former is a smaller and lighter round that moves a lot faster and has much greater effective range.
@@PaxEmpyrean Maybe once upon a time where we barely understood physics, but these days the heavier the rifle, the further the effective range generally speaking. 5.56 vs 7.62 vs .50cal rifles. Likewise in artilliary, 105mm, vs 155 vs 200 vs whatever the hell mm a battleship's main guns were (post WW2), 16 inch I believe. With very few exceptions bigger guns have had longer range and more power, at the cost of rate of fire.
@@SheyD78 This is stupid. Did you not read what I wrote? You are assuming they are just scaled up versions of the same gun. They don't have to be.
In real life, TODAY, we still have different calibers that trade range for bullet mass. That's the whole point of .300 BLK; you have a bullet nearly four times the mass of a 5.56x45mm, traveling at one third the speed, and they share the same casing.
Oh, and shotgun slugs exist. Very slow. Very heavy. Range is short.
This isn't some "once upon a time" crap, either. Sometimes you trade projectile velocity for mass because mass is more valuable in a given application. Or maybe you want to deliver a specialized payload. It's not hard to imagine an AC/5 shooting 120mm APFSDS rounds at a thousand meters per second while AC/20s are lobbing HE rounds the size of a refrigerator at a hundred meters per second.
A scaled up version of the same design will shoot farther, but bigger guns don't have to be scaled up versions of the same design, and with the way that these fictional guns lose range as they get bigger, the mechanical implication is that they aren't what you think they are.
I was very surprised when I played with the Bushwacker in Mechwarrior. I was surprised because I did not expect to like this mech, and it turned out that I really did
I love battle tech because I don’t think I’ve ever met a mech I didn’t like in some way. Bushwacker may have stole my heart alittle bit just on the look alone.
Bushwacker is my unironic favourite IS medium.
Mostly.because it was the starter mech in MW3.
Love your stuff SCI.I buy I’m gonna be blunt, why you build the ‘wacker with the biggest mech shotgun (at least in classic) is because most of the maps have at decent cover and no one is dumb enough to fight the clans in open plains.
Thank you Steve for showing up today!
My build ac10 to lbx10 and the 1 ton saved to additional ton of ammo. Mgs to small lasers 1lrm5 and 3 med lasers. I love this thing. Mines for the lrm.
I truly enjoy the mech in MW4 mercs, sticking a light gauss in the arm was alway funny.
I love the bushwacker in the MWO I put three RAC/2 and a pidgeon shooting medium laser just in case I am out of ammo.