Why thank you, Nerdly, the company's support lance will surely be bolstered with the Slime-X1 modification of our Crusader. We won't be needing you in the SRM infantry platoon we had scheduled to drop alongside it for covering the flank. You may return your helmet and rifle to the Quartermaster.
Courtesy of my friend Markus, we proudly present "Crusadering": The act of firing pretty much all the weapons (machine guns were replaced with heatsinks) at 5 hex "medium range" (LRM short range but +2 due to minimum range penalty) and then laughing at the enemy piloting skill check.
Hello Nerdy. Excellent video. You have correctly pegged the 'right' modifications to 'improve' the Crusader in the most efficient manner possible to the Era. My primary comment is the comparison with the Archer, which is 5 tons heavier. Both have the same 'start battle at long range, then close to short range' profile. Where the Crusader is 'weak' is in the placement of its weaponry. It is far easier to lose a missile launcher and laser by losing an arm with the Crusader. The Archer mounts its missile weapons in the torsos, making the lost of the launchers less likely. If the Archer loses an arm, it loses only a laser. If the Crusader loses an arm, it has lost an LRM and a laser. And since arms are less armored than torsos, you can see why, other than mass, the Archer can survive longer than the Crusader. Now, the addition of jump jets and heat sinks, and the removal of the MGs and their ammo, is a definite 'gain' for the Crusader. The Jump Jets alone will make accurate hits to the arms less likely, and preserve its primary mode of damage projection for a longer duration in combat. Where the Archer is 'weak' is short ranged combat, when it has to rely upon just its lasers. The Crusader's SRM-6's ensure that close range isn't where you want to be with a 'sandpapered armored' Mech (the result of multi-volly attacks with the LRMs). For an example of what I mean by this kind of tactic, would be the employment of one of my own designs. A decidedly modified Atlas Mech. My Mercenary Company had gotten an Atlas for its efforts. One without ANY weaponry installed. The Techs ran through the Company Inventory for weapons, and finally slapped on TEN LRM-5's, and SIX medium lasers, as well as additional heat sinks. Both the LRM-5's and the medium lasers are exceptionally available, just about anywhere in the Sphere, and are very cheap in pricing. Ditto for the medium lasers. With this design, the Mech can 'throw' 50 missiles at targets per turn, for 9 turns, before running out of missile ammo. And this is where the thick armoring and multiple medium lasers come into focus. Because by this time in the battle, the 'Grusome' (Atlas variant) is now at the edge of short range (9-10 hexes), and just runs into combat, lasers blazing, and then kicking and punching its enemy to death. Now, your modified Crusader design could do the same thing, but with Medium and Heavy Mechs, instead of Assault Mechs, like the Grusome does. As a bit of 'history', I fielded 3 Grusomes and a Phoenix Hawk, against 3 Awesomes, backed by a pair of Spider Mechs. At the end of the battle, all 3 Awesomes were down, and both Spiders were trashed, smoking wrecks. My 'losses' were ONE Grusome heavily damaged, and limping off the battlefield. The other two had only moderate damages between them. The Phoenix Hawk was totally ignored in favor of shooting at the heavier units. Your Crusader could be fielded similarly... perhaps 3 of that variant, backed by a Phoenix Hawk, and end up with similar results. Just some observations.
Ngl, Slime, your Crusader is basically CPLT-C1 with two more tons of armour, 3 less heatsinks, 1 less ML and more ammo. Which isn't bad, just.. Weird? I mean, you could make a Catapult this way. Would've been much more organic, imo.
You got me lol. The redesign is in fact basically a CPLT. The idea behind this Crusader is that the Catapult is lore-wise quite rare. By essentially remaking the Catapult on the Crusader chassis a merc company could have access to the better design. Damage will come out slower, because of the reduced heatsinks but the additional ammo will give it endurance (hopefully) over multiple missions. If you wanted to retain the identity of the Crusader dropping the machine guns for 1-2 additional heatsinks and either ammo or armor would be a pretty good place to start. :)
@@nerdyOveranalyzed This is normally my go-to way of customizing things if I ever customize them. To try and keep the "spirit" of the thing as close as possible to the original intent. Crusader was always striking me as a Mini-Stalker in it's intended way of engaging the targets. Stay at the LRM range until your LRM ammo runs dry (which will also severely reduce your chances of going boom) and then swing into the melee to mop up the fight. Stalker is significantly better at that, but Stalker is an undisputed King of the Meat Castle.
To be fair, we've made a mod much like this because of the art for the Gladiator in the Robotech II: The Sentinels RPG from Palladium, where their redesign basically took the source mecha upon which the Archer is based and replaced the missile pods with energy weapons. So we just took the very similar missile pods on the Crusader and put PPCs in them.
Keep the brawler with fire support on the way in. Drop the MGs and downgrade the dual SRM-6 to dual SRM-4. Use the 4 tons to add three heat sinks and a ton of armor. Can run and fire the LRM-15s on the way in with no heat build up. Two medium lasers and two SRM-4s generate 12 heat; with 13 heat sinks you're heat neutral walking and firing. Can even drop one ton of SRM ammo, since that will provide 12.5 double SRM salvos for a second ton of armor or a 14th heat sink.
2:19 Wow I made that image about 11 years ago. I was experimenting with mech design so that the "unseen" mechs could be legally used again. I'm glad all that legal rights nonsense is mostly gone.
Encountered what I thought was a Crusader while on tour somewhere outside of Taurian space. Swear on my CRB-27, the thing jettisoned it's armor, turned into a LAM, and flew off.
I had good success using a Crusader K variant in a fight today sticking to your main points. I was not very high on the Crusader in the past, but it’s a great scrapper if used correctly in its intended roll.
On paper the Crusader is a decent design, but when I've played one on tabletop they tend to fall apart really quick for some reason. Of course I've had one or two of them detonate on me due to ammunition hits, this was really before I knew about dumping ammo 🙂.
This is my command mech in MW5 at the moment. Stock variant, too. It has weapons for all ranges of confrontation that are very effective if used intelligently. And for those problems that survive that, they never survive its fists. Target running too fast to smash? That's what 12 SRM's and machine gun fire are for. They'll take a leg or two off easy. Sure, heat can be a problem. But you can fade in and out during intense combat if you have your comrades around. The Crusader is a 10/10 heavy Inner Sphere mech in my book.
The Crusader is my preferred "missile boat", and is one of those mechs which I consider nearly perfect in it's basic configuration. I organize heavy lances with at least 2 mechs which can fight at a variety of ranges, and will tend to pair a Crusader with something that has close to maximum armor and increased damage potential at close and medium range, such as an Orion. The dual fire-support/brawler role fits very well with the way I typically employ heavy lances. I'd generally leave the MGs on the Crusader, since I want some MGs in every lance, and the Crusader is often overheating by the time it's within 3 hexes of opponents. My biggest complaint with the MGs is that there is never a need for a full ton of MG ammo, so we always remove ½ ton and replace it either with armor or with a 3rd MG in the head. It's also helpful to move the MGs to the right and left torso, so they don't conflict with punching. Even with just ½ ton of MG ammo, it often makes sense to only bring a partial load. We usually relocate the SRM-6s to the right and left torso as well. With their hip mounts they are blocked by partial cover, and can't be fired while kicking, so they lose effectiveness as close-in weapons. I've never seen a particular problem with ammo explosions the way I employ the Crusader, but it's generally the last mech in it's lance to take hits and often exhausts it's ammo.
Get rid of both LRMs and Ammo to free up 16 tons. Use this tonnage to upgrade both Medium LASERs to Large LASERs, and to add 6 additional heatsinks and two tons of armor. This gets rid of the ammo problem in the LT/RT, and means that you can fire either both Large LASERs at range, or a single Large LASER, both SRMs and both Machine Guns at close range.
Yeah, I picked this mini up in the Inner Sphere Direct Fire Lance pack. The LRM gauntlets look cool, but it's like piloting a walking stick of dynamite with all that missile ammo. If I HAD to pilot one, I would want to hang back and use LRMs. I wouldn't want to get in SRM range unless the enemy was heavily preoccupied.
The crusader is my favourite mech. I have a ral partha one that I use as a CRD-3L and the new catalyst one which is the CRD-·3R or the 5M (as proxi, dont want to remove hand for the flamer)
While I happen to like the pseudo-Catapult build, I do think a lot of the Crusader's problems can be easily fixed by removing the MGs and shifting around where the ammo is, and adding some more armor and maybe a heat sink. That bit aside, the appeal of the chassis seems to be its ease of maintenance, not in its technical performance.
I play mech warrior 5 with my dad and his buddy. A while back his buddy had a stroke. And in the last class couple weeks he was referring to one of the mechs as the crusader. My dad jokingly asked if he was having another stroke. I guess he was sorta accurate but i think he was calling the marauder the crusader.
Great video man, I think I'm gonna whip up the Dues Vult for HBS, it'll need the CAB-3025 for the model, but I'll have this bad boy running around in game in no time.
Hi Otto. I went a slightly different route than you. I too started out with the CRD-3L for the sake of the jump jets. But I outfitted mine with four LRM 5s, 4 tons of ammo, 4 Medium Lasers, 4 Laser Insulators, 13 Heat Sinks total, 13 tons of armor, a Rocket Launcher 10, and added a Searchlight for night fighting. Now granted, that's experimental stuff in MegaMek. As you prefer to stick to Introductory Tech that's 4 MLs, 4 LRM5s, 4 tons of ammo, 13 tons of armor, and 16 Heat Sinks instead. Now, based on Tactical Operations, p. 103, we can actually designate ammo as Hot-Loaded, which then allows us to bypass the Minimum Range requirement of the LRM launchers. Makes those shots a bit more inaccurate, and more dangerous on critical hits, but if the Mech should ever enter short range it becomes a necessary last-ditch defense effort before dumping ammo.
That was an interesting vid! The Crusader definitely feels reliable despite the issues and while i get some comments on "just use a catapult" for your redesign, I think coupled with the traits the Crusader has and how you never know what you'll get for your company, i think it's good to have mechs that can overlap or pick up the slack!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed heh as a long range loving fella I couldn't agree more. And if you have a surplus with them being so rugged and easy to maintain, it wouldn't hurt to have some of them converted into such a role especially if you're lacking in Catapults
@@willdavis3802 Correct! The center torso ammunition is too risky in my opinion. Too frequently hit in a brawl for the risk to reward ratio to be good. So I changed the role completely Not quite a copy-paste. Overall combat performance will be lower than the Catapults because of the fewer heat sinks. The "Deus Vult" will be slower and do less damage. But in return it should (in theory) have enough ammo to be taken on multiple missions.
I always love your analysis and rubrics, do you have those published in the discord or something? Also would love to see a breakdown of how to make certain types of lances. For example if I was filling a Union Class what kind of scout lance considerations would I need? What do I want out of a command lance? What should be a focus on a fire support lance. Keep it up Slime Sama o7
Alternatively, retain the short ranged weapons, remove an LRM-15 or downgrade them to LRM-10s, and either add more sinks and short range weapons to turn it into a better brawler. Or add PPC or Large Laser (the latter with extra sinks of course) to give it some hole punching ability (a weakness Nerdly harps on). The latter of course would require more work. Oh, and move the SRM launchers into the side torsos. Don't know what the original designer was smoking when they decided the legs were a good place for weapon mounts.
The refit isn't bad, but it just kinda feels like a slightly undergunned Catapult with hands. Which isn't, like, bad, but I think you lose too much by dropping the SRMs.
Possible yeah, them 4 jump jets are heavy! It does depart from the original design's intention, but you could always just drop the machine guns for heat sinks!
Was assigned to a crusader 3R a few week ago to try to stop some invading arseholes. Did alright on fire support but had to keep holding back an lrm salvo every 30 seconds or so due to heat issues. Then when the fight got to brawl range I basically had to choose lasers or srms, not enough cooling to fire all of em. Was just about to try to kick a target that was hugging cover on the other side of a ledge when a laser snuck in through a loose bolting on my ct. Didn't technically destroy the engine but did slag through all my heat sinks. Had to punch out, the heat warnings were spiking if I even tried to move the dang thing. EDIT: I heard some periphery nutjobs were taking out the srms and stuffing the legspace with a bunch of glorified fireworks strapped to lrm warheads. Sounds like it'd be inaccurate at best, but I suppose if you could blast out enough of em at point blank they'd catch someone off guard.
Wow this video has bin out for 10 days and I just got an alert? Thanks TH-cam. As to the Crusader, I think you missed the heart of the design. I can see the play style you are looking at, but a Crusader is a heavy weight dancer. He moves around and is the long range flanker. Yes, JJ's do help and the 3050 refit adds them, but the design is a all range heavy flanker and threat that exploits holes that Warhammers and other piercing damage mechs inflict. I understand the temptation to make it onto a catapult but doing that makes it less of a threat as you close. Also if you consider using specialty ammos it makes not closing till you pass a selected damage threshold on your emeries a much more sustainable tactic for a Crusader. Break the armor from long range salt the ground behind the target, then move in to break the bones.
The Crusader is better as a heavier Dervish than a lighter Catapult. Your custom variant works, sure, but I'd rather use it to brawl and cheaply replace those parts, than squander that cheap upkeep on repairing more expensive mechs. The opportunity cost of having another mech play the role of brawler is way too high when you could have this one pull double-duty, and smoothly at that.
@Nerdy Overanalyzed In the most insane move you'll ever hear, I'd recommend putting it in the head. Worst case worst, the ammo cooks off and the pilot ejects anyways, best case, immune to a TAC.
The walking fireworks show. Again. another mech where the Davions seem to figure out the best factory variant to order. If you want the mixed long range/brawler role, 8 rounds of LRM15 should time out almost perfectly to then go throw haymakers with your shorter range stuff. It could even lose a heatsink for more LRM ammo if you planned to stay at range longer or to add a flamer to deal with pesky infantry. Adding a head mounted ML would just look cool on this chassis.
I love the crusader. But I still sorry for the other guy in a game when he stopped his crusader at 7 hexes at 7 hexes with my archer cause he thought it was a good idea my armor held I it ... his didn't.
Yep! The Catapult is rare mech for mercenaries but a very good design. The Crusader is common for mercenaries but a flawed design. So by turning the Crusader into a Catapult we can get a good design that's easy to maintain. It's also relatively easy to do because of the similar double LRM-15 load out. Hope that helps!
Mhmmm! That would be a pretty good choice if you wanted to retain the Crusader's identity. Dropping the machineguns and the ammo will give you 2 tons to play with.
I don't see the point of an entire ton of MG ammo when there are only two MGs to use it. It's doubtful that they'll be within range for 10 rounds, let alone 20. It doesn't really solve the ammo vulnerability (a half ton cooking off in the CT will still core the 'Mech) but that half-ton savings could be used for a few more points of coverage. Also, there's no point in even _having_ MGs if you dump the ammo upon entering brawl range, as that's the only range in which they even work.
Yeah I'm gonna pass on the refit. I'd be more apt to drop the MG's and make the SRM-6's into SRM-4's. That would let it have 4 JJ's. Pair it with a piercer like a Warhammer, a brawler like a Grasshopper and and all arounder like a T-Bolt and you've got a nasty lance.
That combination of Quirks makes this a very practical Mech. Just has to be tweaked a bit. If I had to use one of the standard variants it would be the 3L. For a custom variant yours is a pretty solid way to go.
The Crusader is probably the most common heavy mech in the Inner Sphere, and for good reason. It's so versatile and easy to modify that, to this day, nobody knows exactly what the original Reunification War-era CRD-1R variant was like. I think my personal favorite production model of the Succession Wars is the CRD-3L. The Capellans' refit of the Crusader carries respectable firepower and mobility...although if it were my mech, I'd probably ditch the machine guns and replace them with additional medium lasers to give me more firepower for when my missiles run out (and the SRM launchers in the legs can do double-duty as anti-infantry weapons anyway)
Not big fan of this build honestly. You striped most of its utility to turn the mech into catapult. Thats alot armor sitting in the back. Forgot mention the 4/6 is to slow be considered a skirmishes.
Tbh this is a pretty soul-less optimization attempt. We've all done this at some point, but the sad truth is, that you end up with a lot of bland, generic designs. Flaws, culprits and limitations of mechs is what makes Battletech interesting.
I just looked again to check. Its strong for sure but not 100% optimized. Weapons mix is very good but there are a few flaws: 1. over ammo'd for a single game. You don't need 16 rounds of LRM in my experience. Better would be to run 3 tons rather than 4. 2. Side torsos are better than the original but still have a 50% explosion on a crit. Better would be to move the bins to arms or legs. 3. Minor point but the side torsos only run 5 armor. A single shot from a Medium laser will open them up and then something can start to crit. 3039 pulse laser tech will overcome it and immediately roll on the crit table. hope that clears things up!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed You already said that the version that you made was the catapult but worse except in long engagements. You should have made it a 2x lrm 5 (with one ton of ammo) armed, and 4x srm 4 brawler variant, while ditching MGs and ammo as all mechs should. All the ammo should be in the side torsos, and that ticks all your boxes for a heavy.
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Mechs like the Crusader and Thunderbolt make me wish they gave us the option to ammo dump in Mechwarrior and HBS’s battletech.
Why thank you, Nerdly, the company's support lance will surely be bolstered with the Slime-X1 modification of our Crusader. We won't be needing you in the SRM infantry platoon we had scheduled to drop alongside it for covering the flank. You may return your helmet and rifle to the Quartermaster.
WTF. XD
Why thank you Commander! Always happy to be of service! D:
Courtesy of my friend Markus, we proudly present "Crusadering":
The act of firing pretty much all the weapons (machine guns were replaced with heatsinks) at 5 hex "medium range" (LRM short range but +2 due to minimum range penalty) and then laughing at the enemy piloting skill check.
I'm melllltttinnnngggggg~
@@nerdyOveranalyzed Well yes, his ammo blew up at some point. His replacement mech ... a Firestarter of course!
Hello Nerdy.
Excellent video. You have correctly pegged the 'right' modifications to 'improve' the Crusader in the most efficient manner possible to the Era.
My primary comment is the comparison with the Archer, which is 5 tons heavier. Both have the same 'start battle at long range, then close to short range' profile. Where the Crusader is 'weak' is in the placement of its weaponry. It is far easier to lose a missile launcher and laser by losing an arm with the Crusader. The Archer mounts its missile weapons in the torsos, making the lost of the launchers less likely.
If the Archer loses an arm, it loses only a laser. If the Crusader loses an arm, it has lost an LRM and a laser. And since arms are less armored than torsos, you can see why, other than mass, the Archer can survive longer than the Crusader.
Now, the addition of jump jets and heat sinks, and the removal of the MGs and their ammo, is a definite 'gain' for the Crusader. The Jump Jets alone will make accurate hits to the arms less likely, and preserve its primary mode of damage projection for a longer duration in combat.
Where the Archer is 'weak' is short ranged combat, when it has to rely upon just its lasers. The Crusader's SRM-6's ensure that close range isn't where you want to be with a 'sandpapered armored' Mech (the result of multi-volly attacks with the LRMs).
For an example of what I mean by this kind of tactic, would be the employment of one of my own designs. A decidedly modified Atlas Mech. My Mercenary Company had gotten an Atlas for its efforts. One without ANY weaponry installed. The Techs ran through the Company Inventory for weapons, and finally slapped on TEN LRM-5's, and SIX medium lasers, as well as additional heat sinks.
Both the LRM-5's and the medium lasers are exceptionally available, just about anywhere in the Sphere, and are very cheap in pricing. Ditto for the medium lasers.
With this design, the Mech can 'throw' 50 missiles at targets per turn, for 9 turns, before running out of missile ammo. And this is where the thick armoring and multiple medium lasers come into focus. Because by this time in the battle, the 'Grusome' (Atlas variant) is now at the edge of short range (9-10 hexes), and just runs into combat, lasers blazing, and then kicking and punching its enemy to death.
Now, your modified Crusader design could do the same thing, but with Medium and Heavy Mechs, instead of Assault Mechs, like the Grusome does.
As a bit of 'history', I fielded 3 Grusomes and a Phoenix Hawk, against 3 Awesomes, backed by a pair of Spider Mechs. At the end of the battle, all 3 Awesomes were down, and both Spiders were trashed, smoking wrecks. My 'losses' were ONE Grusome heavily damaged, and limping off the battlefield. The other two had only moderate damages between them. The Phoenix Hawk was totally ignored in favor of shooting at the heavier units.
Your Crusader could be fielded similarly... perhaps 3 of that variant, backed by a Phoenix Hawk, and end up with similar results.
Just some observations.
Form and function, the Crusader is great.
It's a pretty neat one! A bit tricky for me though cause I like to hold down the trigger. xD
I absolutely love the breakdown of the "Armor Sharing" tactic, that kind of maneuver breakdown is a lot of fun to see.
Ngl, Slime, your Crusader is basically CPLT-C1 with two more tons of armour, 3 less heatsinks, 1 less ML and more ammo. Which isn't bad, just.. Weird? I mean, you could make a Catapult this way. Would've been much more organic, imo.
It's also a Catapult with arms lol
You got me lol. The redesign is in fact basically a CPLT.
The idea behind this Crusader is that the Catapult is lore-wise quite rare. By essentially remaking the Catapult on the Crusader chassis a merc company could have access to the better design. Damage will come out slower, because of the reduced heatsinks but the additional ammo will give it endurance (hopefully) over multiple missions.
If you wanted to retain the identity of the Crusader dropping the machine guns for 1-2 additional heatsinks and either ammo or armor would be a pretty good place to start. :)
@@nerdyOveranalyzed This is normally my go-to way of customizing things if I ever customize them. To try and keep the "spirit" of the thing as close as possible to the original intent. Crusader was always striking me as a Mini-Stalker in it's intended way of engaging the targets. Stay at the LRM range until your LRM ammo runs dry (which will also severely reduce your chances of going boom) and then swing into the melee to mop up the fight.
Stalker is significantly better at that, but Stalker is an undisputed King of the Meat Castle.
To be fair, we've made a mod much like this because of the art for the Gladiator in the Robotech II: The Sentinels RPG from Palladium, where their redesign basically took the source mecha upon which the Archer is based and replaced the missile pods with energy weapons. So we just took the very similar missile pods on the Crusader and put PPCs in them.
Yup dripping the MGs is the way to go. The LRM/SRM ammo gets used up in no time anyway
Keep the brawler with fire support on the way in. Drop the MGs and downgrade the dual SRM-6 to dual SRM-4. Use the 4 tons to add three heat sinks and a ton of armor. Can run and fire the LRM-15s on the way in with no heat build up. Two medium lasers and two SRM-4s generate 12 heat; with 13 heat sinks you're heat neutral walking and firing. Can even drop one ton of SRM ammo, since that will provide 12.5 double SRM salvos for a second ton of armor or a 14th heat sink.
Yep, doesn't seem too bad. The CT SRM ammo makes me pretty nervous though!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed Agreed, I'd shift it somewhere else
2:19 Wow I made that image about 11 years ago. I was experimenting with mech design so that the "unseen" mechs could be legally used again. I'm glad all that legal rights nonsense is mostly gone.
Oh you're the original artist? Nice!
I really like the upper arm missile box with the lid, it makes sense i think.
I hope the next mech you review is the "grasshopper" I like the look of it and the idea of a brawler heavy mech. Great video by the way.
Next up will be the Orion! It's already in production! But the Grasshopper should be out in 3-5 more mech videos!
Encountered what I thought was a Crusader while on tour somewhere outside of Taurian space. Swear on my CRB-27, the thing jettisoned it's armor, turned into a LAM, and flew off.
D:
Next you're going to tell me you saw a 50 foot tall man climb out of a marauder.
@@dakkath414 I know what I saw and it doesn't have anything to do with a faulty neuro-helmet linkage, no matter what the company doc says.
Happy to see a new mech review. I hope you see more soon!
Thanks Phillip! Working on a script today in fact!
As someone who has grown up with MWO and left that game in 2019 I know nothing of Crusader. Bring me up to speed, Nerdy!
Of course! :)
I had good success using a Crusader K variant in a fight today sticking to your main points. I was not very high on the Crusader in the past, but it’s a great scrapper if used correctly in its intended roll.
On paper the Crusader is a decent design, but when I've played one on tabletop they tend to fall apart really quick for some reason. Of course I've had one or two of them detonate on me due to ammunition hits, this was really before I knew about dumping ammo 🙂.
lol yeah. They uhhh, they have alot of ammo and have to close in later in the game after mechs are beat up. xD
Good job on these guides!
This is my command mech in MW5 at the moment. Stock variant, too. It has weapons for all ranges of confrontation that are very effective if used intelligently. And for those problems that survive that, they never survive its fists. Target running too fast to smash? That's what 12 SRM's and machine gun fire are for. They'll take a leg or two off easy.
Sure, heat can be a problem. But you can fade in and out during intense combat if you have your comrades around.
The Crusader is a 10/10 heavy Inner Sphere mech in my book.
The Crusader is my preferred "missile boat", and is one of those mechs which I consider nearly perfect in it's basic configuration. I organize heavy lances with at least 2 mechs which can fight at a variety of ranges, and will tend to pair a Crusader with something that has close to maximum armor and increased damage potential at close and medium range, such as an Orion. The dual fire-support/brawler role fits very well with the way I typically employ heavy lances.
I'd generally leave the MGs on the Crusader, since I want some MGs in every lance, and the Crusader is often overheating by the time it's within 3 hexes of opponents. My biggest complaint with the MGs is that there is never a need for a full ton of MG ammo, so we always remove ½ ton and replace it either with armor or with a 3rd MG in the head. It's also helpful to move the MGs to the right and left torso, so they don't conflict with punching. Even with just ½ ton of MG ammo, it often makes sense to only bring a partial load.
We usually relocate the SRM-6s to the right and left torso as well. With their hip mounts they are blocked by partial cover, and can't be fired while kicking, so they lose effectiveness as close-in weapons.
I've never seen a particular problem with ammo explosions the way I employ the Crusader, but it's generally the last mech in it's lance to take hits and often exhausts it's ammo.
Get rid of both LRMs and Ammo to free up 16 tons. Use this tonnage to upgrade both Medium LASERs to Large LASERs, and to add 6 additional heatsinks and two tons of armor. This gets rid of the ammo problem in the LT/RT, and means that you can fire either both Large LASERs at range, or a single Large LASER, both SRMs and both Machine Guns at close range.
valid!
Yeah, I picked this mini up in the Inner Sphere Direct Fire Lance pack. The LRM gauntlets look cool, but it's like piloting a walking stick of dynamite with all that missile ammo. If I HAD to pilot one, I would want to hang back and use LRMs. I wouldn't want to get in SRM range unless the enemy was heavily preoccupied.
Heh heh heh, yes. Be careful! Try to burn through all your ammo before going into brawl. And hopefully you have a friend when you do!
The crusader is my favourite mech. I have a ral partha one that I use as a CRD-3L and the new catalyst one which is the CRD-·3R or the 5M (as proxi, dont want to remove hand for the flamer)
While I happen to like the pseudo-Catapult build, I do think a lot of the Crusader's problems can be easily fixed by removing the MGs and shifting around where the ammo is, and adding some more armor and maybe a heat sink. That bit aside, the appeal of the chassis seems to be its ease of maintenance, not in its technical performance.
Yep, very true!
Loving these videos
Thanks! Glad you're enjoying!
I play mech warrior 5 with my dad and his buddy. A while back his buddy had a stroke. And in the last class couple weeks he was referring to one of the mechs as the crusader. My dad jokingly asked if he was having another stroke. I guess he was sorta accurate but i think he was calling the marauder the crusader.
Great video man, I think I'm gonna whip up the Dues Vult for HBS, it'll need the CAB-3025 for the model, but I'll have this bad boy running around in game in no time.
Have funnnnn! Don't melt yourself! :)
Love this guy
Thanks!
Hi Otto. I went a slightly different route than you. I too started out with the CRD-3L for the sake of the jump jets. But I outfitted mine with four LRM 5s, 4 tons of ammo, 4 Medium Lasers, 4 Laser Insulators, 13 Heat Sinks total, 13 tons of armor, a Rocket Launcher 10, and added a Searchlight for night fighting. Now granted, that's experimental stuff in MegaMek. As you prefer to stick to Introductory Tech that's 4 MLs, 4 LRM5s, 4 tons of ammo, 13 tons of armor, and 16 Heat Sinks instead. Now, based on Tactical Operations, p. 103, we can actually designate ammo as Hot-Loaded, which then allows us to bypass the Minimum Range requirement of the LRM launchers. Makes those shots a bit more inaccurate, and more dangerous on critical hits, but if the Mech should ever enter short range it becomes a necessary last-ditch defense effort before dumping ammo.
thanks for the video, i love the crusader :)
You're welcome! Thank you for watching. It's an interesting sort of mech!
Liking this series so far, very fun stuff.
Where do you get the data on Mech availability? It's always something I've been interested in.
Hey, glad you're enjoying it! :) I get my info from Xtol RATS :)
That was an interesting vid! The Crusader definitely feels reliable despite the issues and while i get some comments on "just use a catapult" for your redesign, I think coupled with the traits the Crusader has and how you never know what you'll get for your company, i think it's good to have mechs that can overlap or pick up the slack!
Yeah! I although it departs from the original designs intentions I think having essentially a Catapult is pretty good!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed heh as a long range loving fella I couldn't agree more. And if you have a surplus with them being so rugged and easy to maintain, it wouldn't hurt to have some of them converted into such a role especially if you're lacking in Catapults
@@nerdyOveranalyzed You butchered the design and essentially copied a better one. Well done, you hit CRTL C, CRTL V.
@@willdavis3802 Correct! The center torso ammunition is too risky in my opinion. Too frequently hit in a brawl for the risk to reward ratio to be good. So I changed the role completely
Not quite a copy-paste. Overall combat performance will be lower than the Catapults because of the fewer heat sinks. The "Deus Vult" will be slower and do less damage. But in return it should (in theory) have enough ammo to be taken on multiple missions.
You recommend the Black Knight as a lancemate in like, every video. When are you gonna do a Black Knight video?
Lol, it's on the short list! Brings triple piercing, no ammo explosions, and Command Mech
I would swap the Medium lasers with the LRM Ammo for greater survivability and drop the machine guns and ammo to add 4 more heat sinks.
I always love your analysis and rubrics, do you have those published in the discord or something? Also would love to see a breakdown of how to make certain types of lances. For example if I was filling a Union Class what kind of scout lance considerations would I need? What do I want out of a command lance? What should be a focus on a fire support lance.
Keep it up Slime Sama o7
oki, we can do a lance composition video :)
Alternatively, retain the short ranged weapons, remove an LRM-15 or downgrade them to LRM-10s, and either add more sinks and short range weapons to turn it into a better brawler. Or add PPC or Large Laser (the latter with extra sinks of course) to give it some hole punching ability (a weakness Nerdly harps on).
The latter of course would require more work.
Oh, and move the SRM launchers into the side torsos. Don't know what the original designer was smoking when they decided the legs were a good place for weapon mounts.
@@namkha209 which I'm okay with, the Armored VF's just one hell of a beaut
The refit isn't bad, but it just kinda feels like a slightly undergunned Catapult with hands. Which isn't, like, bad, but I think you lose too much by dropping the SRMs.
Possible yeah, them 4 jump jets are heavy! It does depart from the original design's intention, but you could always just drop the machine guns for heat sinks!
Was assigned to a crusader 3R a few week ago to try to stop some invading arseholes. Did alright on fire support but had to keep holding back an lrm salvo every 30 seconds or so due to heat issues. Then when the fight got to brawl range I basically had to choose lasers or srms, not enough cooling to fire all of em. Was just about to try to kick a target that was hugging cover on the other side of a ledge when a laser snuck in through a loose bolting on my ct. Didn't technically destroy the engine but did slag through all my heat sinks. Had to punch out, the heat warnings were spiking if I even tried to move the dang thing.
EDIT: I heard some periphery nutjobs were taking out the srms and stuffing the legspace with a bunch of glorified fireworks strapped to lrm warheads. Sounds like it'd be inaccurate at best, but I suppose if you could blast out enough of em at point blank they'd catch someone off guard.
lol an all LRM boat huh? Seems possible~ Then you'd be competing with the Archer which isn't bad I suppose~
These videos are bomb 🎉🎉🎉
Thank you! Glad you're enjoying!
So your rebuild of the Crusader is basically an upscaled Trebuchet. I think I'd still take the Trebuchet though for the C-Bill cost in comparison.
Fair!
Wow this video has bin out for 10 days and I just got an alert? Thanks TH-cam. As to the Crusader, I think you missed the heart of the design. I can see the play style you are looking at, but a Crusader is a heavy weight dancer. He moves around and is the long range flanker. Yes, JJ's do help and the 3050 refit adds them, but the design is a all range heavy flanker and threat that exploits holes that Warhammers and other piercing damage mechs inflict. I understand the temptation to make it onto a catapult but doing that makes it less of a threat as you close. Also if you consider using specialty ammos it makes not closing till you pass a selected damage threshold on your emeries a much more sustainable tactic for a Crusader. Break the armor from long range salt the ground behind the target, then move in to break the bones.
Are you using a RAT to determine era availability?
Yep, should be in the slides!
The Crusader is better as a heavier Dervish than a lighter Catapult. Your custom variant works, sure, but I'd rather use it to brawl and cheaply replace those parts, than squander that cheap upkeep on repairing more expensive mechs. The opportunity cost of having another mech play the role of brawler is way too high when you could have this one pull double-duty, and smoothly at that.
Fair critique, the center torso SRM ammo does make me a bit wary to take it into close combat though. But we could try!
@Nerdy Overanalyzed In the most insane move you'll ever hear, I'd recommend putting it in the head. Worst case worst, the ammo cooks off and the pilot ejects anyways, best case, immune to a TAC.
Leg-mounted SRMs hit different.
Rocket Kickkkkk!
Also where do you get the mech distribution stats from?
Info should be in the slides!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed but which RATs?
@@scuttlefish4667 www.sarna.net/wiki/Faction_Assignment_%26_Rarity_Tables
@@nerdyOveranalyzed thanks!
The walking fireworks show. Again. another mech where the Davions seem to figure out the best factory variant to order. If you want the mixed long range/brawler role, 8 rounds of LRM15 should time out almost perfectly to then go throw haymakers with your shorter range stuff. It could even lose a heatsink for more LRM ammo if you planned to stay at range longer or to add a flamer to deal with pesky infantry. Adding a head mounted ML would just look cool on this chassis.
Davion always seems to make the best stuff. xD Good to see you again Matthew!
The baby stalker or bigger dervish :-) a great mech if used properly....decent lance and catapult remake :-)
Hey Luke, it's a bit of a struggle for me still lol, but workable. Thanks for your feedback and taking the time to write your comment!
Crusaders my home boi mw5
Look at my missile arms!!!
Yes the Heavy Armor Veritech Fighter is awesome. Whoops I mean Battletech Crusader. 😉
:^)
I love the crusader. But I still sorry for the other guy in a game when he stopped his crusader at 7 hexes at 7 hexes with my archer cause he thought it was a good idea my armor held I it ... his didn't.
lol. Yeah boi them Archers -hurt-. My friend likes to run them a lot. Being on the receiving end of those LRM-20s is pain.
I don't understand why you turned a crusader into a catapult.
Yep! The Catapult is rare mech for mercenaries but a very good design. The Crusader is common for mercenaries but a flawed design. So by turning the Crusader into a Catapult we can get a good design that's easy to maintain. It's also relatively easy to do because of the similar double LRM-15 load out. Hope that helps!
I would have just added one ton of Lrm ammo and perhaps a ton of armour or another heat sink.
Mhmmm! That would be a pretty good choice if you wanted to retain the Crusader's identity. Dropping the machineguns and the ammo will give you 2 tons to play with.
I don't see the point of an entire ton of MG ammo when there are only two MGs to use it. It's doubtful that they'll be within range for 10 rounds, let alone 20. It doesn't really solve the ammo vulnerability (a half ton cooking off in the CT will still core the 'Mech) but that half-ton savings could be used for a few more points of coverage.
Also, there's no point in even _having_ MGs if you dump the ammo upon entering brawl range, as that's the only range in which they even work.
Yarp very true!
Ah, the Crusader... The Catapult But What If Also Kintaro classic.
We could try it if you wanted to Commander! Just be aware of the ammo in every torso location! D:
@@nerdyOveranalyzed I mean... *I'm* not going to be driving it.
Yeah I'm gonna pass on the refit. I'd be more apt to drop the MG's and make the SRM-6's into SRM-4's. That would let it have 4 JJ's. Pair it with a piercer like a Warhammer, a brawler like a Grasshopper and and all arounder like a T-Bolt and you've got a nasty lance.
Ooh hey that refit is actually pretty decent! Would you drop the MGs too?
That combination of Quirks makes this a very practical Mech. Just has to be tweaked a bit. If I had to use one of the standard variants it would be the 3L. For a custom variant yours is a pretty solid way to go.
Thanks!
It's a Catapult, but worse.
oh look a catapult.
I might skip the DLC and try to get it cheap later on
ye ye ye
The Crusader is probably the most common heavy mech in the Inner Sphere, and for good reason. It's so versatile and easy to modify that, to this day, nobody knows exactly what the original Reunification War-era CRD-1R variant was like.
I think my personal favorite production model of the Succession Wars is the CRD-3L. The Capellans' refit of the Crusader carries respectable firepower and mobility...although if it were my mech, I'd probably ditch the machine guns and replace them with additional medium lasers to give me more firepower for when my missiles run out (and the SRM launchers in the legs can do double-duty as anti-infantry weapons anyway)
Not big fan of this build honestly. You striped most of its utility to turn the mech into catapult. Thats alot armor sitting in the back.
Forgot mention the 4/6 is to slow be considered a skirmishes.
Yep yep, fair critique. Feel free to drop the MGs and add a heatsink + something else!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed that the best part about crusader. You don't need to go crazy with the customization to make it workable.
Might be better off with a Warhammer at that point.
Hmmm, I think the Warhammer is pretty different from the Crusader Commander!
Tbh this is a pretty soul-less optimization attempt. We've all done this at some point, but the sad truth is, that you end up with a lot of bland, generic designs.
Flaws, culprits and limitations of mechs is what makes Battletech interesting.
I just looked again to check. Its strong for sure but not 100% optimized. Weapons mix is very good but there are a few flaws:
1. over ammo'd for a single game. You don't need 16 rounds of LRM in my experience. Better would be to run 3 tons rather than 4.
2. Side torsos are better than the original but still have a 50% explosion on a crit. Better would be to move the bins to arms or legs.
3. Minor point but the side torsos only run 5 armor. A single shot from a Medium laser will open them up and then something can start to crit. 3039 pulse laser tech will overcome it and immediately roll on the crit table.
hope that clears things up!
You made it into a Catapult, but worse.
Somewhat accurate~ Overall damage and mobility goes down to get a better long term endurance. At least that's the theory!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed You already said that the version that you made was the catapult but worse except in long engagements. You should have made it a 2x lrm 5 (with one ton of ammo) armed, and 4x srm 4 brawler variant, while ditching MGs and ammo as all mechs should. All the ammo should be in the side torsos, and that ticks all your boxes for a heavy.