Nice to see you again. I liked this video but I found yours when I started playing Battlerech again. My old mechs are the old pewter alloy and one of my old friends and I just restarted. Nicely done both of you.
I agree with most of this list. I probably would have ranked the Atlas higher, and the Victor and King Crab lower, but other than that I think your ratings are spot on. I think the Victor’s combination of poor range + terrible armor is a recipe for disaster, and it’s too specialized to be generally useful. It’s a sitting duck if it ever has to close on the enemy. The King Crab is intimidating but has criminally low ammo reserves. I have heard the King Crab called an “area denial tool” - and I think it fits. Wherever the King Crab is you will want to avoid, but it has too little effect on the battlefield outside its spot. I probably would have given the King Crab a C+, and the Victor a C-.
The Victor is a city fighter, or a deep woods fighter. Put it in either of those environments, and its going to dominate. The ability to jump over an assault line, and start putting fire into backs is a brutal and great use of it, too.
So, if I recall, when Otto (that is, Nerdy Overanalyzed) was doing his tier lists, he also took Design Quirks into account for a number of 'Mechs, particularly in the Light category, since those 'Mechs had to be measured against the ability to shove two Locusts into a single 'Mech Bay. That in mind, I think the Cyclops does deserve a mildly higher ranking, owing to its ability to serve as a command & control 'Mech. I'd still never put above C-tier for the same reasons as you've got it in D-tier, but if we take Design Quirks into account, it does bring a unique, valuable asset to the table.
In 3025 the Dragoons were not selling Marauder IIs or Imps to anyone - it was only after the end of the 4th Succession War that Marader IIs were for sale. Likewise it wasn't until the Dragoons held Outreach that they started production of new Imps so I very much suspect none would have been sold prior to that point as they wouldn't have been able to replace any sold.
Yeah, if you wanted either of them, you had to take them from Wolf's Dragoons... no mean feat. ticked me off that the best mechs out there were completely unavailable, even to my opfors.
Your comment is correct and is supported by TRO 3039 (p. 302). According to the text, Marauder IIs were exclusively produced by Blackwell Corporation for Wolf's Dragoons. TRO 3050 indicates that Miller's Marauders became the first organization outside of the Dragoons to be allowed to purchase new Marauder IIs as recognition for their loan of dropships during the Dragoons conflict with House Kurita in the 4th Succession War. It's not quite clear when that occurred, but likely just after 3040 as the Dragoons needed Marauder IIs to replenish their rosters following their great losses in the 4SW. Miller's Marauder's became "Barber's Marauder IIs" and was comprised exclusively of Marauder IIs, enough to fill out a battalion (36 mechs) by the year 3050.
The Imp still looks like a kit bash where they were running low on parts, so they started with Gundam legs, added a gimballed mining laser for a left arm. Then they had nothing for the torso and head, so they just threw in their kids' Mandolorian helmet.
Definitely some interesting and well thought out takes. I do feel that the Victor is placed a bit low in your list for my liking, but considering that we're only talking 3025 variants I can understand that. Even so, I've found it very valuable in any kind of built up terrain. Because of its reasonably quick movement and the jumping ability it's better able to keep up with medium mechs and it pairs off well with mechs like the Griffin, Enforcer, and Vindicator. It's one of the heavier assets that can really keep up with more mobile formations and it's generally able to outgun other mechs with comparable movement. At least in close.
9:06 my favorite Goliath tactic is to stand it in a wood with a elevation in front of it for the ULTRA annoying you wont be hitting my legs even if you hit , being a quad it doubles down on that
The thing about chargers I always have to stop and remember, is that it's BV is insanely low (for reason) and given the right circumstances, it can be surprisingly brutal. An 80 ton mech charge at 8 hexes, is not something even an assault mech can ignore, but it has enough armor, and IS to soak up damage as its coming at you. And many of the "good" heavies and most mediums can't outrun it, much less have enough movement to run AND shoot at a charger coming at them. And if you're not running from a charging charger, you're going to be the bug on the windshield. And a Charger is less BV than most mediums and heavies. When playing random rolled skill ups (like in some campaign games/merc games), this is a glorious place to stick that 4/3 pilot. And even with a pilot like that, the BV is not going to skyrocket badly.
Great video! Love seeing your assessments on these mechs (with only a few being ones I'd rate higher/lower). One thing I'd like to add for the Goliath: it's the best kicker in 3025. The +2 to PSRs only applies to falling down, but with a 4 piloting that turns a low chance to fall into a NO chance to fall. Really big deal! Add in the shimmy shenanigans (as well as opponents not expecting the long range mech to come up on them) and it's very effective. Works a bit how you described the 3E Banshee: shooting past the opponent you're brawling. Don't forget the donkey kick backward, either! With a sidestep it's pretty easy to setup and surprise an opponent. Kicked off the head of a Grasshopper once with a Goliath donkey kick. So worth it! Love the mech!
Couple complaints for a 3025 Tier List - the Banshee 3S is 3026. It's Introtech and one of the better 4th Succession designs, but it's not 3025. In a similar situation is the decent Zeus ZEU-6T; solid fire support mech; redemption of the early chassis. Armor a touch low, but weight gives durability. Fire support shouldn't be slugging it out anyway. And enemies may regret it if they move to brawl. But it's a year too late; you're stuck with a lackluster ZEU-6S or 6A. I feel like the Crockett should be rated lower. Firing the main guns at the longest range while walking is +20 heat and it sinks 15, putting it at a bad break with +5 and taking penalties. The AC/10 and LL's have the exact same brackets; it you're going to have weapons share the same brackets - be able to shoot them. Honestly, I'd downgrade the missiles to SRM4's, or remove 1t of SRM-6 ammo and both Small Lasers, and get just a couple more heatsinks on there. You WANT to use all three big guns, so you can trigger a PSR - it takes all three. Even one heat sink would be lovely and avoid the bad break. A good mech, and an especially useful mech in Introtech, 3025, is the Atlas AS7-RS. It's like a better Crockett. Decent ranged damage. Good close and brawl. Good heat balance. It makes favorable trades with most mechs by having better range brackets. ... But out of Introtech, everything else outshines the AS7-RS and it's not even particularly good "for the price" like a Banshee 3E is. It has a niche; it's a solid predator in 3025, and nowhere else. Yeah, the Victor has some flaws in 3025; I actually wouldn't want it even in the preferred hunting ground. But you know what I do want for that job in 3025? A Charger. The CGR-1A5 is doing most of what I want that Victor to do; the only thing it doesn't do is jump. I'd be happy to trade one of the SRM-6's for jump capability at 4/6/3 for urban combat, though. Heat's good, damage is good, mobility is good. Range is terrible, but the Victor doesn't have range either and the CGR-1A5 can play that rogue's game.
Wow lots of great thoughts, I love this kind of detailed constructive criticism. Good points about the Crockett especially, my eyes turned into stars when I saw the armor but I've never actually used one so maybe I was overrating it.
I can't blame someone for counting the Banshee 3S as a 3025 mech, since it's mentioned as a variant in TRO 3025. It's not production yet, but it existed.
You left out a couple of mech from this era: Annihilator ANH-1A: Commonly described as "four UrbanMechs stacked on top of each other in a trenchcoat". It's slow, but heavily armored, and it hits like a truck. The 1E model is even better with four PPCs and enough heat sinks to fire all of them while walking without generating a single point of waste heat. Pretty much exclusive to the Wolf's Dragoons, but the Kuritans salvaged some after the Battle of Misery, so there's at least a handful on the market. Titan TI-1A: Technically this design was almost extinct by 3025 since there weren't many made to begin with, but imho this is basically a better version of the Stalker. It's got two PPCs, six medium lasers, four SRM-4s and an SRM-6 with three tons of ammo, max armor, twenty-two heat sinks, and a 3/5 movement profile. Oh, and unlike the Stalker, this has ARMS, so you can punch things. This would probably be my pick of an assault mech to take into battle in 3025, given the option.
The Charger: For mercenaries? No. For Solaris Gladiators? Oh, yes. Also, if you have a choice between a Cyclops and an Orion, you'd probably be better off taking the Orion. They've got the same movement profile and similar weapon load-outs, but the Orion actually has more armor. The Zeus he mentions with the PPC, the ZEU-6T, is definitely the way to go. Just remember, it's a fire support 'mech, not a brawler. Keep it near the back and try to keep its targets around the 6-10 hex range.
The more I learn about BT’s industrial history, the more convinced I am that the Charger was meant to be given to planets of questionable loyalty to the Star league. It’s relatively fast with okay armour and an anaemic weapons load. I would swap 4x small lasers for 2x flamers, but otherwise it is all you need from a militia “police” mech. And if the lord rebels, drop some units with decent speed and long range fire.
@@WolfHreda Yeah, it seems like the mech you give a lance of to a semi-trustworthy local lord to help keep his own troops in line - think Kuritans to Rasalhague pre-independence. And if that local lord starts to get their own ideas, well, the heaviest kit they have is a charger.
@@CaptainBanjo-fw4fq That's an interesting point, but I'd have to ask why you'd give a charger, with its high cost and not say, an extremely cheap locust or wasp/stinger. Sure, medium lasers, but otherwise? Its not like a local lord couldn't refit the charger to put a pair of MLs on it.
Stumbled across your channel and it’s exactly what I want to listen to. Love the tactic videos and find your videos can help me understand that higher level to battletech. Keep up the amazing work!!
The Goliath - 1 H can be made tremendously better by making two minor changes. The first is to combine the twin LRM-10 racks into a single LRM-20. Normally its better to have the redundancy in weapons, but not if it comes with heat issues. As it stands, the Goliath overheats by 1 even standing still and by 3 if it runs. Switching to the LRM20 drops the weapon heat load to 16, which makes the mech heat neutral at a walk. This would be good on its own, but it also synergises with the second minor change: trade the MGs for medium lasers. Firing both of them would be 6 heat, which coincidently is the heat of the LRM20. So now the mech has two solid weapon groups; always fire the PPC and add either the missiles or the lasers. BV rises slightly to 1586 but thats a small cost compared to the gains in effectiveness. (Also, in cases like this where the mech has two tons of ammo I stick one ton in the side torso with the weapon and one ton in the head. CT houses both medium lasers)
Yeah. The King is scary, but easily kited by faster mechs. Occupied one for 6 turns with a Phoenix hawk last week. The king brings point blank annihilation but a medium mech's long range.
For mercs, if taking assault mechs, it’s 4/6 or nothing. 4/6 is hardly fast but if you run into someone you can’t outfight, you can at least outrun. Mercs need to be able to bug out if the day isn’t going well.
@@TrailblazerBT I feel the same about highlander and Stalker. All three are great mechs and I would not be upset with any in my unit. However, merc assaults should be used to bully lighter designs and save the breakthrough attacks for the house units as they can better absorb damage and casualties.
Finally someone who doesn't shit on the Goliath after trying to use it as a close-range battering ram! Though, i am still angry about the 3025tech Xanthos being "extinct" in 3025. It's probably my favorite Assault mech and the official availability for it is so bad.
Apparently lore wise, a huge portion of those outer windows are false cockpits to try and confused enemy fire. Even so though, I bet they're quite roomy
Im glad you put the battlemaster as an A. Its not a 3/5 assault mech. Its a 4/6 and out of the 4/6 mechs its the best of the lot by a mile. I know a lot of people talk down about it, but it isn't a breakthrough mech. It shines as the second mech in a push. It can usually get a +1 tmm at a walk. That alone makes it a far better mech than many of the 3/5 assaults. They have a tad more armor, but either lose the +1 tmm or have to run to get it typically. That little detail is critical. People who dont master that are the ones who fail with battlemasters. Get your +1 tmm, keep woods/smoke/hills/buildings between you and the enemy as you close the distance. Ideally avoid exchanging fire until you get to 6 hexes. Your ideal is 1 round of shooting at 6 hexes, 1 round of shooting at 2 or 3 hexes and then you are kicking. My go to strat with it is to use cover to close the distance or to escort a 3/5 mech on its breakthrough run. I know the 3/5 will likely get shot at more so the battlemaster quite often lasts longer. It still wants to melee just like most assault mechs, but it shines tossing out all that medium laser fire and then kicking. First turn I think I will be taking fire I run, but after that I usually just walk unless I see an opportunity to kick someone by running to them. Its a great mech to put into any lance composition where you are ok with 4/6 movement.
Just found your channel, love seeing more nitty gritty breakdown vids about the actual tabletop game. Gladly subbed. Also I'm glad to see the Banshee 3S so high, I feel vindicated after having debated about it being the superior 3025 assault compared to the common staples of the Atlas and Awesome. 😂
The Cyclops is more valuable if you're using Quirks. Then it's design intent as a command 'mech starts to mean something, and if you view it's armament as a defensive suite to fend off headhunters it makes sense. I'm not saying it's a great design mind, there's certainly far more viable assaults in 3025, but the +2 initiative bonus from Battle Computer is nothing to sneeze at.
My favourite mech is the very rare SLDF KGC-010 Simple load out with 2 each of PPCs, LBX10s and SRM6s with CASE protected ammo, 10 double heat sinks and 19 tons of armor. Much like the Stalker, it excels at every bracket but inside of 6, it will shred anything with holes in it in a round or two, an absolute crit producing monster. Only drawback is you can only fire both PPCs every other round at long range if you wanna stay reasonably cool and almost never both once you start throwing the SRM6s into the fray. That said, i remember one game taking an early engine hit from a random LRM cluster TAC 3 rounds in and it only reduced the big fella's effectiveness to a minor degree.
Great vid! Banshee for me all the way, it brawls like no tomorrow. The 3E dosent have the most weapon hardpoints of the variants but sure can go full metal ape in cities and other less open environments with the three it has as backup😎
Good list, although I would move the Striker up a tier. This mech is just SOLID. It's basically a 5-tons heavier MAD-3L, trading 2 heatsinks for 2 tons of armor, and a 3rd heatsink for a 3rd ML. Otherwise, same loadout. In exchange you're getting a way tankier machine with excellent crit padding. I've always found Maraduer (except for the D) love to go boom, no such issue with the Striker. That said, it does make it more of a Super-Heavy rather than a true assault mech. but is that a crime when it's just GOOD?? :)
Yeah that's an interesting way to look at it. I do like the MAD-3L. I guess that 5-ton gap shouldn't be expected to make a qualitative difference just because now it counts as an "assault mech"
@@TrailblazerBTTBH it goes for 40 and 60 tonners too. The weight classifications honestly almost feel like they gimp some mechs just because they're weak for their bracket, but good for the bracket below.
@@AlexDenton0451 On a related note I have always thought that 35 ton mechs don't belong in the same weight class with the other light weights. They are just so much hardier and more powerful
There are also 2 other Assault Mechs which the Wolf's Dragoons brought with them to the IS, but they rarely fielded them on the battlefield because doing so would raise eyebrows as they were created by the clans in the early years with the final one being created from blueprints brought over with the exodus. That being the Annihilator and the Stone Rhino (yeah they brought a single Stone Rhino with them) and a cluster of Annihilators. In all fairness, both are not worth mentioning as the Dragoons only had 1 Stone Rhino whom existed purely as a last resort and the Annihilator is a bit of a D tier mech.
The best part about an Atlas is its generalist loadout and max armor. It fits in any lance composition you have already. And don't over look that LRM20. two atlases are the rough equivalent of a pair of victors and a longbow coming at you. Its a flexible, mean mech to throw into a fight. I have, on several occasions, thrown a lance of atlases at people, and brutalized them, even up into the clan era. (Though, against clan mechs, they're to slow.)
It's good but to me a real generalist arsenal for a 3/5 mover is the stuff the Imp is packing. The armor is beyond reproach though and so is the cooling.
The Cyclops instantly gets a lot better if you pull 2 tons of AC-20 ammo for armor and maybe swap the LRM-10 for 2 5s for another ton of armor. At which point you have a decent albeit not great 13 tons of armor
I used to think the victor B was bad in a vacuum... But then I started using it as a partner for the grasshopper. Grasshopper NEEDS other JJ brawlers to travel with it but with mediums they still focus fire. The only satisfactory solution for years was a second grasshopper (guillotine). But then finally I gave Victor another look - its bad armor for assault weight but the same~ armor and BV as grasshopper H. It does lose the "zombie factor" but using the two together is so great because there is no clear choice for the opponet - victor has more armor, grasshopper is more crit proof. It's definitely more of a 6000BV mech than a 10000BV mech.
Again gotta reiterate , listen to this guy new people , all pretty solid ..... Like i'd have rated the OW Longbow lower cant defend itself at close range at all which is a no no for an Assault and you can get indirect LRM on a cheaper platorm that can defend itself at short range/run away , like a Trebuchet or Dervish mechs i also dont really rate . But thats being pedantic , the call of max armour and the ability to do a respectable amount of damage is true in any era but especially 3025
Good ratings overall. Definitely agree about the Stalker being one of the better chassis, it's not perfect. But... in support of a lance that plays together well it can be devastating at all ranges.
I think it would be neat to go over under rate mechs and look through the eras and see if there are any stand out that are good. For example is the charge just bad always or is there a variant or two that works.
I would argue a few of your choices, but just my thoughts compared to yours. The Goliath should be lower. Its heat sinks do not allow it to full long range fire without overheating. Doesn't do enough damage for a PSR often with its weapons if you do not open up fully. Add in when in close its got no real reply and being a quad just need to get to a side of it and it has no arc to fire at you. Sure its heavily armored but it just makes it a target when more important threats are dealt with. The normal Banshee you should have swapped to the M model. Its 2 PPC instead of the AC 5 model is just better for the job. The Banshee S is just a monster so I can not argue it but thought it odd you would have 2 Banshees in the video separately. I actually would downgrade the Atlas due to its limited ammo and slow speed. Sure it will wade though a lot of fire but if you can kite it a bit its ammo runs out its pretty useless. The model with the large lasers at least gives it more threat when closing. I like the Stalker but its massive number of ammo bins makes it often limited life span in the battlefield. I would have to down grade it.
Awesome really should be next to Longbow 7Q. There's really not any other mech in that list that outperforms it. It just mauls everything, and you really have to go for optimized 100T builds to have something in those lines.
You've got the Marauder II and Imp listed, but no Shogun or Annihilator? And the BNC-3S variant but not the ZEU-6T? The 6T is a solid B/B+. Also, I think the Victor should rate higher if you're considering its a purpose-built mech like the Longbow.
I would be curious on what your take on the Xanthos would be, since the 3O in theory able to show up in 3025 due to its intro tech. And I know it’s an often over looked mech so but I’m still curious on your take
while I would agree with most of your rankings, I have to disagree with a coule. The Banshee and Battlemaster are both ranked a slot too high. The Banshee just doesn't have the firepower to justify this high of a rating. Everything you say about it is good, but would only put it as a solid C. The Battlemaster suffers a little of the same failure as the Atlas, in that it needs to get close to really be effective. It's faster, true, but it's still limited at range. It, likes the Atlas, is a solid B, maybe high B, but not quite an A class mech. (I've rutinely called the Battlemaster one of the best heavy mechs in the game... because you play it like a heavy). Also... you included the Imp and the MAD-II, but not the Shogun?
In this period assault 'Mechs are really strong because you don't have a lot of headcapping or pilot-killing weapons... but yeah, heavies fit my personal style a bit more too
Functionality wise a 80 tonner is a 75 tonner with the ability to mount a few more points of armor. There is little distinction between 70 - 75 or 80 tonners.
I'm just going to say I love the Cyclops Not because it is a brawler Not because it has a decent firepower for long range engagements But it is an awesome command mech and fills its role as a backline mech really well If your under enemy fire in a Cyclops, your playing your Cyclops wrong But that is just my opinion, good list.
If you can run down a PDF of Battletechnology 11, there's a 'mech in there called the Titan. (Battletechnology was FASA's house magazine, much as Dragon Magazine was for TSR). In brief, it was a Battlemaster on steroids. I'm curious as to what you think of the design.
Oh I remember the Titan for sure! That's a deep cut. It's really good yeah. Medium laser spam is no joke even in later eras but in the '20s it was highly optimal. Best Battletechnology mech from that period though was the PPC-armed Alliance that was really close to an Imp in design.
@@TrailblazerBT The 6 ML are mean, but it's the 22 SRMs that usually end games quickly via crit-seeking once the armor is weakened. Which BT was the Alliance in? I don't remember that one offhand. If you want a really deep cut... I remember when Lucas had a go at FASA, before even Harmony Gold got involved.
@@andrewszigeti2174 Nice... Battledroids is before my time. The title of the issue that included the Alliance was something like "Hans Davion's New Mech"
I'd have the Banshee 3S as an A-plus mech. Yeah, its armour might not be maxed but it's got a loadout as versitile as a Stalker and it's 10 tons heavier.
As a melee player, the Charger rating is a bit irritating. The Banshee 3E rating I agree with, I see it as the 3025 answer to something like a Spartan in the fact it's a brawling fast assault that has some fire power. The Cyclops rating also is really sad to see especially considering the LRM variant of the Cyclops is a great variant.
I love the charger it's my favorite scout mech, I take one almost every game I play, 981BV2(700ish Bv1) for an 80tonner is stupid cheap. Walk 5/Run 8, same armor as a 70ton heavy mech. sure its only 6 small lasers. But a club attack is 16damage to one location on top of being able to still shoot 4 lasers. Now if you are playing with tonnage limits never take this mech unless it's one of the 1600bv2 or higher varients(which usually has the same armor as a standard IS 80 ton mech); if you don't have a tonnage limit throw together a steiner scout lance or two and have a blast.
you rarely get a ammo explosion on a Zeus as you use that ammo fast firing every turn , also in BV and C bills its cheap but that goes into the weight thing being a game idea not an in universe idea
Longbow OW kind of sucks simply due to the existence of the LRM carrier. For the role of "stay behind hill and loft missile at targets spotted by your scout and brawler mechs", there is no reason to pay the big BV premium for the extra mobility and armor of a mech to carry those LRMs. You can get 20% more LRM weight of fire at 62% the cost in an LRM carrier, meaning you can *almost* afford two LRM carriers, with 120 LRM tubes, for the price of the Longbow with only 50 tubes. Sure, the LRM carrier is easier to kill, but the enemy has to get to it first, which means they have to try to rush through your front lines to get to the hill your LRM carrier is hiding behind. This is easier said than done- and in the process, those "soft" LRM carriers actually make great bait for luring your opponent into a close-range ambush from the rest of your force.
@@bronco5334 Yes, plus the LRM carrier is easier to hide since it's one level high. Although if an opponent has their own LRMs and can get a spotter in LOS of the carrier that can be a quick way to kill it
Tge Cyclopse should have had an AC-10, LRM-15, and four ML. Dropping the SRM and some of the extra ammo for the AC and youd have a 4/6/0 support mech. You could also add 3-4 tons of armor.
I'm not shitting my pants over the Battlemaster. If you're going 4/6, there's no tonnage benefit from going from 75 tons to 80 or 85, so the only thing it really has over a mech like the Orion is more internal structure and stronger physical attacks. Even light mediums can have a close-range armament like the BM's since it's low tonnage and the bulk of the heat is covered for free. The Battlemaster also doesn't get the full value out of the PPC since it wants to brawl up-close, and doesn't want to waste its armor in a shootout with a Warhammer or Awesome. I think the Orion is superior and 10 tons lighter. I think that piercing weapons are far more valuable than LRM's, since pinpoint-frontloaded damage is really the only efficient way to kill mechs in this era. You can get a lot more armor ton-per-ton than damage: so spreading out damage in clusters of 5 or 2 is going to be a slog: especially at the start of the game where everyone's armor is completely topped off and there's no need to fish for crits yet. The big guns also fit the best on big chassis. This kind of puts mechs like the Longbow in a tough spot because it's stupid expensive. You're going to have to rely on lighter chassis to give it the piercing support it needs, which are usually a lot more compromised one way or another. There's only so much BV to go around and it's very often i'd take something like an Awesome instead, and leave LRM's to lighter designs that mount them easier. (This could be a result of me fighting more on the lance level, though.). LRM's in general are kind of inconsistent since they have to make all-or-nothing rolls, followed by cluster hit rolls that can really disappoint you. They also have to deal with worse target numbers because the short range bracket is eclipsed by its minimum range bracket save for 1 hex, so the result is that you're at medium range most of the time. The Stalker looks like a big fat atom bomb on legs, and that's exactly what it is since there is a crapload of ammo sloshing around inside of it. This coupled with its relatively low armor makes it risky to invest into despite the crazy firepower it has. (Not that I don't like living on the redline because it's just more fun that way) The Awesome's armor protection is deceptive since it allocates almost 40 points of said armor to its rear sections. This makes its effective durability just kind of a bit better than the Grasshopper. Being an energy-only mech, it shouldn't be that worried about getting critted. That said, it might be a little too good for the era if more of that was allocated up front. Crockett has a really hard time staying cool. The King Crab pays for its fists and lower arm actuator by splitting the AC20's 10 critslots between its arm and its side torso: meaning that it cannot use its side arcs to aim its AC20. This leads to a humorous potential situation where an Ostscout or Spider can 1v1 destroy a King Crab 100% of the time by using cover and gaming the initiative system. I appreciate you standing up for the base Banshee variant. People often judge a mech purely by the design itself and not what the mech puts out relative to its value. It gets a huge bonus from the fact that firing and physical attacks are two separate phases: and it doesn't get any secondary target modifier despite engaging 2 dudes at once. It really does fill the Charger's shoes as physical attacker but far more flexible. Apparently, DFA's Battlytics found the PPC Zeus to be extremely cost-effective. Its range brackets kind of gracefully overlap, so it succeeded in dealing a lot of consistent damage in the simulations it was put in.
I would like the Orion if it had better heat management, but it just can't bring all its firepower to bear the way the BLR can. I do think the Thunderbolt 5SS compares positively to the Battlemaster and I often take that mech instead of a BLR. With the Stalker I think you want to dump some of the ammo, then it has pretty good endurance.
I'm really torn on assault mechs. On one hand they can give and take a lot of punishment. On the other hand they have really limited strategic mobility in any campaign scenario, and I'm still struggling with that. It's so easy to put an Awesome in a lance, just for the opfor to deny you the engagement and skedadle (
It's true, if you're running a company sized unit you may not want to go below 4/6. But 3/5 isn't *that* much slower than 4/6, and in '25 it's hard to get much faster than 4/6 at the strategic scale since even a lot of mediums go that speed
@@TrailblazerBT True, it's more of a problem if you want to put a 3/5 assault in a formation with 4/6 heavies, as it will slow down the whole lance or ends up being left behind. And full assault lances are really unvieldy and expensive
In a "last man standing" pickup game style fight, sure, the faster unit can just run away. In a battle to take or hold an objective.... that extra speed isn't that important when you either have to push someone away from an area or prevent them from pushing you out of that area...
Was curious if you believe that replacing the Atlas's AC20 with a Guass Rifle would solve some of it's range problems, more of a question for a late 3040s Formation and a wealthy one at that.
@@TrailblazerBT I was considering a well off Merc Commander in 3045 giving his Atlas a refit to keep up with the times: 10 Doubles instead of 20 singles, then Pulse Lasers to make up for the lost brawling potential of Gauss, along with Artemis IVs for the launchers.
@@primesouls4185 Yeah you could do that as a class B field refit. Similarly you could really buff up a KGC-000 or 0000 with Gausses and doubles. It would be easy to make a mech better than the KGC-001 that way
Awesomes for defense, Stalkers for offensive sprearheads, maybe highlanders to outmaneuver other assaults though i personally would rather use mediums for maneuver warfare.
I dunno about how "bad" an AC/5 is , i know on paper it looks pretty underwhelming for the weight , but you are saving a massive amount of heat ....... Like you could replace it with a PPC i guess but any 'saved' tonnage will have to go into heat sinks , no doubles to save you in 3025
The AC5 works well as the third or perhaps second main weapon (if lacking heat management). For example, on the marauder to help with heat. It also works for vehicles that lack a fusion engine. Finally, you may get mileage out of specialist ammo. Outside those cases, I would take a ppc, large laser or heavier gun any day of the week.
2 lrm 5s will replace an AC5 completely and still have 3 tons to spare, 2 heat sinks and an ton of armor and the only thing the Lrms are worse at are short range since they have a larger min range. ACs really only start at 10 and even the 10 has questionable utility over a large laser. Really the AC20 is an outlier because it deals more damage than it weighs, that's why many people consider it a good choice. Obviously being the only head capper in 3025 and the ability to cut most mechs under 50 tons in half is also very impressive.
Charger is a cheap assault mech when it comes to bv. You can field it with much lighter vehicle assets and it absolutely obliterates most things smaller than it. Small lasers strip armor and it gets into melee
Yeah, like Nerdy before me I am aiming this list more at campaign/narrative players than folks who play for BV. If you're balancing BV the Charger is definitely playable.
I wish there were people talking about the game like this for Clan Invasion or Civil War era. This is cool, but utterly useless to me when you add in the new options in those Eras which are most common where I play.
I like the Charger swap the engine to a XL and upgrade to a few large lagers and heat sinks and hit people at long range while they ignore you. and rename it the the Spanish Inquisition
the stalker really benefits from its quirks as well the basically ability to sink 4 more heat is amazing, i think your wrong about the MAD 2 i have had a PC using one for 2 years in a RPG game and its nice but frankly it has very little damage unless your brawling so it just becomes a think to get shot so your friends don't that's if the enemy will shoot at the massive armoured beast more then once i have just been ignored while the enemy shoot more damaging mechs that are easier to kill i still love it as a ride but its not as good as it feels
Interesting... I don't play with quirks but that does sound amazing. Re the mad 2, it hits at 10-12 hexes basically the same as the awesome, it's 28 points and not 30 but you can keep the fire up constantly. Also the JJs are great
How would you rate the SHG-2E? Nobody remembers the Shogun, so I don't blame you. But it was technically part of this era, and I don't see many commentators talk about it.
I love those tiering of mechs I can see. One thing though, the tiering for TT Battletech versus the one for say MW5 is quite different. For example, the Stalker 3F and Awesome 8Q are quite good on paper, but they get rape in almost every battle - especially the 3F that is my favorite Battlemech since BattleTech exists, and this makes me sad. The King Crab is an overrated 100t assault mech that also gets rape before even reaching the battlefield, is easy to isolate and cut down its firepower by 50% by just removing 1 arm... a thing the Altas doesn't have a problem with and is the reason it really is the king of the battlefield.
@@RattlerNxt Have never played with that one, but it looks like a Victor on steroids so a lot of what I said about the 3025 Victor goes (except the part about not having enough armor). Cities and heavy terrain will make it shine, open fields will not be easy for it. The LB20 is a very powerful weapon.
Tsk tsks in someone forgot the best assault mech in this period since you pulled the unobtainian Imp and Marauder II .......... Drum roll the Devestator which Big Mac had ......... Also missed the Shogun A tier
@@TrailblazerBT I mean technically the refit was started in 3036 but it is a full introtech build so IDK. I'd let people run the DVS-1D in the succession wars as a SL downgrade like the HGN-733
I actually like CT ammo if you don't have CASE, less likely to actually get hit and the other CT criticals are almost as bad as an ammo explosion anyway
@@TrailblazerBTdo you usually play with floating criticals? Neither of my LGS groups like that rule, so the center torso gets almost all the through armor criticals.
@@ObiwanNekody I do, but even without floating crits the chance of a hit turning into an ammo TAC is 0.25% with one ton of ammo and 0.46% with two tons. And the other CT crits are so bad that it's not that much worse than other possible CT TACs. I'd still rather have ammo in the CT unless you have CASE and/or the side torsos are fully padded
@@ObiwanNekody Like think about it this way, if a TAC isn't hitting ammo then it's hitting engine or gyro. That's not as bad, but gyro in particular is like 50% as bad as killing the mech
@@TrailblazerBTwith the Cyclops being a command mech it isn't quite as bad. When taking a Cyclops you are commonly leveraging the command console, the quark, and/or the C3 computers. Being half dead for combat but still giving the useful board wode utility is much better than being a cloud of chaff floating above a small crater.
- LRM-5 generate 2 heat, so it'll be 16 heat for the Longbow, not 14, when firing all LRMs. - I really can't get behind your reasoning for the Banshee. It's a terrible mech, anything from 80 tons and heavier that has a 4/6 movement will underperform because you actually get a negative net gain of free tons compared to a 75t mech that moves 4/6. At least, this loss in minimal for 80 and 85 ton mechs but the Banshee weighs 95t, the net loss is HUGE while upping the total weight of your lance by another 10t. - And that's why I don't think the Battlemaster is an A, should be a B. And everything you said about his weapon loadout actually applies to the Warhammer, not to the Battlemaster. A single PPC can't make effective use of 18 heatsinks and he has no other weapon above range 9, so he has the same problems like the Atlas, not just as severe because the BM is a bit faster. Yes, good armour protection is a plus but probably the only thing that is going for the BM. The Warhammer is the better rounded mech and with an almost identical loadout but weighs 15 tons less! - The Crocket looks great until you realize it only has 15 heat sinks which you didn't mention at all. Half of that firepower will literally be on cooldown every turn and it only gets worse the closer it gets to the target. The jump jets are nice but add even more heat. - It's actually the AC/10 that is strictly worse to the PPC, not the AC/5. It has lower range for the same damage and it weighs 5 tons more + 1 or 2 more tons for ammo, which eats the entire advantage of generating 7 less heat (because you could just have a PPC + 6 o 7 heat sinks instead). The only saving grace of the AC/10 is not having a minimal range of 3, but personally I'd rather have those 3 extra range. I mean, both weapons hit with normal accuracy at 15 hexes and the PPC gets another 3 hexes with lower accuracy ... which is better than no extra hexes at all. But a PPC never runs out of ammo, the mech doesn't risk ammo explosion and the extra heatsinks allow for more flexibility. Now, with an AC/5, a PPC is of course the better choice for a mech that runs cool. Mechs like standard Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, Clint and such would all benefit if you replace the AC/5 with a PPC + 2 extra heatsinks. But that's not true for mechs with a tighter heat map, for example if you did this for a standard Marauder, you'd cook it. The Zeus also couldn't handle the heat as soon as the large laser is in range. Zeus is the prime example where an AC/5 makes sense. It's a weapon you can just always add to the mix because it's just a single heatpoint and 20 rounds is usually just enough for most battles.
Interesting assessment!
Hi Nerdy. Good to see you again. Hope you’re doing well with the new gig!
Nice to see you again. I liked this video but I found yours when I started playing Battlerech again. My old mechs are the old pewter alloy and one of my old friends and I just restarted. Nicely done both of you.
🫡
THE GOAT
Is Nerdy like Kerensky? Will he be back when the inner sphere needs him most?
I agree with most of this list. I probably would have ranked the Atlas higher, and the Victor and King Crab lower, but other than that I think your ratings are spot on. I think the Victor’s combination of poor range + terrible armor is a recipe for disaster, and it’s too specialized to be generally useful. It’s a sitting duck if it ever has to close on the enemy. The King Crab is intimidating but has criminally low ammo reserves. I have heard the King Crab called an “area denial tool” - and I think it fits. Wherever the King Crab is you will want to avoid, but it has too little effect on the battlefield outside its spot. I probably would have given the King Crab a C+, and the Victor a C-.
The Victor is a city fighter, or a deep woods fighter. Put it in either of those environments, and its going to dominate. The ability to jump over an assault line, and start putting fire into backs is a brutal and great use of it, too.
So, if I recall, when Otto (that is, Nerdy Overanalyzed) was doing his tier lists, he also took Design Quirks into account for a number of 'Mechs, particularly in the Light category, since those 'Mechs had to be measured against the ability to shove two Locusts into a single 'Mech Bay. That in mind, I think the Cyclops does deserve a mildly higher ranking, owing to its ability to serve as a command & control 'Mech. I'd still never put above C-tier for the same reasons as you've got it in D-tier, but if we take Design Quirks into account, it does bring a unique, valuable asset to the table.
It's a good point, I don't play with quirks so that's another difference from his method.
There's a battlemaster varient that has a command cockpit in it too for the same quirk. Makes a good design better.
In 3025 the Dragoons were not selling Marauder IIs or Imps to anyone - it was only after the end of the 4th Succession War that Marader IIs were for sale. Likewise it wasn't until the Dragoons held Outreach that they started production of new Imps so I very much suspect none would have been sold prior to that point as they wouldn't have been able to replace any sold.
Good call, I get the '20s and the '30s mixed up sometimes!
Yeah, if you wanted either of them, you had to take them from Wolf's Dragoons... no mean feat. ticked me off that the best mechs out there were completely unavailable, even to my opfors.
Your comment is correct and is supported by TRO 3039 (p. 302). According to the text, Marauder IIs were exclusively produced by Blackwell Corporation for Wolf's Dragoons. TRO 3050 indicates that Miller's Marauders became the first organization outside of the Dragoons to be allowed to purchase new Marauder IIs as recognition for their loan of dropships during the Dragoons conflict with House Kurita in the 4th Succession War. It's not quite clear when that occurred, but likely just after 3040 as the Dragoons needed Marauder IIs to replenish their rosters following their great losses in the 4SW.
Miller's Marauder's became "Barber's Marauder IIs" and was comprised exclusively of Marauder IIs, enough to fill out a battalion (36 mechs) by the year 3050.
The Imp still looks like a kit bash where they were running low on parts, so they started with Gundam legs, added a gimballed mining laser for a left arm. Then they had nothing for the torso and head, so they just threw in their kids' Mandolorian helmet.
It's super gross
It's an urbanmech on steroids.
the imps arm medium laser looks 1 to 1 like the one on hornet. i cannot look at imp and dont think its assault hornet LMAO
That explains the early days of the Clans
The Imp looks like a Union class dropship grew limbs.
Definitely some interesting and well thought out takes. I do feel that the Victor is placed a bit low in your list for my liking, but considering that we're only talking 3025 variants I can understand that. Even so, I've found it very valuable in any kind of built up terrain. Because of its reasonably quick movement and the jumping ability it's better able to keep up with medium mechs and it pairs off well with mechs like the Griffin, Enforcer, and Vindicator. It's one of the heavier assets that can really keep up with more mobile formations and it's generally able to outgun other mechs with comparable movement. At least in close.
9:06 my favorite Goliath tactic is to stand it in a wood with a elevation in front of it for the ULTRA annoying you wont be hitting my legs even if you hit , being a quad it doubles down on that
Very nice. Feels almost like a waste of all that good leg armor but I know that's irrational
Ah yes, a sweet 22% probability that every HIT against a Goliath so positioned behind a hill is actually a miss.
The thing about chargers I always have to stop and remember, is that it's BV is insanely low (for reason) and given the right circumstances, it can be surprisingly brutal. An 80 ton mech charge at 8 hexes, is not something even an assault mech can ignore, but it has enough armor, and IS to soak up damage as its coming at you. And many of the "good" heavies and most mediums can't outrun it, much less have enough movement to run AND shoot at a charger coming at them. And if you're not running from a charging charger, you're going to be the bug on the windshield. And a Charger is less BV than most mediums and heavies.
When playing random rolled skill ups (like in some campaign games/merc games), this is a glorious place to stick that 4/3 pilot. And even with a pilot like that, the BV is not going to skyrocket badly.
Definitely if you're playing for BV it can be good!
Great video! Love seeing your assessments on these mechs (with only a few being ones I'd rate higher/lower). One thing I'd like to add for the Goliath: it's the best kicker in 3025. The +2 to PSRs only applies to falling down, but with a 4 piloting that turns a low chance to fall into a NO chance to fall. Really big deal! Add in the shimmy shenanigans (as well as opponents not expecting the long range mech to come up on them) and it's very effective. Works a bit how you described the 3E Banshee: shooting past the opponent you're brawling. Don't forget the donkey kick backward, either! With a sidestep it's pretty easy to setup and surprise an opponent. Kicked off the head of a Grasshopper once with a Goliath donkey kick. So worth it! Love the mech!
Great thoughts!
@@TrailblazerBT I just like it because it's an AT-AT with no neck.
Couple complaints for a 3025 Tier List - the Banshee 3S is 3026. It's Introtech and one of the better 4th Succession designs, but it's not 3025. In a similar situation is the decent Zeus ZEU-6T; solid fire support mech; redemption of the early chassis. Armor a touch low, but weight gives durability. Fire support shouldn't be slugging it out anyway. And enemies may regret it if they move to brawl. But it's a year too late; you're stuck with a lackluster ZEU-6S or 6A.
I feel like the Crockett should be rated lower. Firing the main guns at the longest range while walking is +20 heat and it sinks 15, putting it at a bad break with +5 and taking penalties. The AC/10 and LL's have the exact same brackets; it you're going to have weapons share the same brackets - be able to shoot them. Honestly, I'd downgrade the missiles to SRM4's, or remove 1t of SRM-6 ammo and both Small Lasers, and get just a couple more heatsinks on there. You WANT to use all three big guns, so you can trigger a PSR - it takes all three. Even one heat sink would be lovely and avoid the bad break.
A good mech, and an especially useful mech in Introtech, 3025, is the Atlas AS7-RS. It's like a better Crockett. Decent ranged damage. Good close and brawl. Good heat balance. It makes favorable trades with most mechs by having better range brackets. ... But out of Introtech, everything else outshines the AS7-RS and it's not even particularly good "for the price" like a Banshee 3E is. It has a niche; it's a solid predator in 3025, and nowhere else.
Yeah, the Victor has some flaws in 3025; I actually wouldn't want it even in the preferred hunting ground. But you know what I do want for that job in 3025? A Charger. The CGR-1A5 is doing most of what I want that Victor to do; the only thing it doesn't do is jump. I'd be happy to trade one of the SRM-6's for jump capability at 4/6/3 for urban combat, though. Heat's good, damage is good, mobility is good. Range is terrible, but the Victor doesn't have range either and the CGR-1A5 can play that rogue's game.
Wow lots of great thoughts, I love this kind of detailed constructive criticism. Good points about the Crockett especially, my eyes turned into stars when I saw the armor but I've never actually used one so maybe I was overrating it.
I can't blame someone for counting the Banshee 3S as a 3025 mech, since it's mentioned as a variant in TRO 3025. It's not production yet, but it existed.
Oh god, I waited for this for so long. Thank you!
You left out a couple of mech from this era:
Annihilator ANH-1A: Commonly described as "four UrbanMechs stacked on top of each other in a trenchcoat". It's slow, but heavily armored, and it hits like a truck. The 1E model is even better with four PPCs and enough heat sinks to fire all of them while walking without generating a single point of waste heat. Pretty much exclusive to the Wolf's Dragoons, but the Kuritans salvaged some after the Battle of Misery, so there's at least a handful on the market.
Titan TI-1A: Technically this design was almost extinct by 3025 since there weren't many made to begin with, but imho this is basically a better version of the Stalker. It's got two PPCs, six medium lasers, four SRM-4s and an SRM-6 with three tons of ammo, max armor, twenty-two heat sinks, and a 3/5 movement profile. Oh, and unlike the Stalker, this has ARMS, so you can punch things. This would probably be my pick of an assault mech to take into battle in 3025, given the option.
Armor is good, but ammo is very limited on the Succession Wars era Annihilatior. 10 shots per ac-10 is severely limiting.
A Banshee replacing all wraponry with 2x LL's, and 4 ML's would be much more useful. Kinda a huge Ostol/Ostwar that'll punch your face off.
@@MrDmitriRavenoff We're talking canon variants, not custom ones.
I am glad to see someone else appreciate the battlemaster. It's a great mech for putting weight on objectives, acting as a bodyguard and crit seeking.
The Charger: For mercenaries? No. For Solaris Gladiators? Oh, yes.
Also, if you have a choice between a Cyclops and an Orion, you'd probably be better off taking the Orion. They've got the same movement profile and similar weapon load-outs, but the Orion actually has more armor.
The Zeus he mentions with the PPC, the ZEU-6T, is definitely the way to go. Just remember, it's a fire support 'mech, not a brawler. Keep it near the back and try to keep its targets around the 6-10 hex range.
The more I learn about BT’s industrial history, the more convinced I am that the Charger was meant to be given to planets of questionable loyalty to the Star league. It’s relatively fast with okay armour and an anaemic weapons load. I would swap 4x small lasers for 2x flamers, but otherwise it is all you need from a militia “police” mech. And if the lord rebels, drop some units with decent speed and long range fire.
@@CaptainBanjo-fw4fq I just love that they were like, "It's a heavy scout!"*
*Whose engine costs more than a lance of actual scout 'mechs.
@@WolfHreda Yeah, it seems like the mech you give a lance of to a semi-trustworthy local lord to help keep his own troops in line - think Kuritans to Rasalhague pre-independence.
And if that local lord starts to get their own ideas, well, the heaviest kit they have is a charger.
@@CaptainBanjo-fw4fq That's an interesting point, but I'd have to ask why you'd give a charger, with its high cost and not say, an extremely cheap locust or wasp/stinger. Sure, medium lasers, but otherwise? Its not like a local lord couldn't refit the charger to put a pair of MLs on it.
@@JesterMotley any local lord worth his gaudy furniture could probably afford to field a decent light/medium lance with better overall capability.
The Awesome is just awesome. The Steiner Banshee is also boss.
Stumbled across your channel and it’s exactly what I want to listen to. Love the tactic videos and find your videos can help me understand that higher level to battletech. Keep up the amazing work!!
Yeah I really like Nerdy Overanalyzed's work too.
Fantastic video, i just love battletech and this was very enjoyable. I hope you share more with us!
The Goliath - 1 H can be made tremendously better by making two minor changes. The first is to combine the twin LRM-10 racks into a single LRM-20. Normally its better to have the redundancy in weapons, but not if it comes with heat issues. As it stands, the Goliath overheats by 1 even standing still and by 3 if it runs. Switching to the LRM20 drops the weapon heat load to 16, which makes the mech heat neutral at a walk. This would be good on its own, but it also synergises with the second minor change: trade the MGs for medium lasers. Firing both of them would be 6 heat, which coincidently is the heat of the LRM20. So now the mech has two solid weapon groups; always fire the PPC and add either the missiles or the lasers.
BV rises slightly to 1586 but thats a small cost compared to the gains in effectiveness. (Also, in cases like this where the mech has two tons of ammo I stick one ton in the side torso with the weapon and one ton in the head. CT houses both medium lasers)
Yes thank you so much for keeping it going
King Crab as B-tier.....well this heresy.
Lol I seriously thought about C!
Yeah. The King is scary, but easily kited by faster mechs. Occupied one for 6 turns with a Phoenix hawk last week.
The king brings point blank annihilation but a medium mech's long range.
I’d trade one ac20 for an ac10 and more ammo or upgrading LL to PPC.
@@amw5288 Yeah. The King Crab is a specialist compared to the Atlas' more generalist assault role. It's niche is murdering other assault Mechs.
@@magni5648 And out of position heavies
Something that absolutely helps me shred in tournaments, King Crab with two LBX-10. Crit fishing builds work well on it.
Yeah that royal CK is a superior mech... Wish it were available to more factions in the eras I play!
Enjoyed this a lot. Hope to see more.
For mercs, if taking assault mechs, it’s 4/6 or nothing. 4/6 is hardly fast but if you run into someone you can’t outfight, you can at least outrun. Mercs need to be able to bug out if the day isn’t going well.
Yup. That's why I love the Striker and Battlemaster. They both just WORK.
I see the reasoning here... but I don't think I can live without the Awesome
@@TrailblazerBT I feel the same about highlander and Stalker. All three are great mechs and I would not be upset with any in my unit.
However, merc assaults should be used to bully lighter designs and save the breakthrough attacks for the house units as they can better absorb damage and casualties.
First reason ist their ability to run away with its heavy cousins, If you have to move quickly, your just as fast as your slowest mech.
Finally someone who doesn't shit on the Goliath after trying to use it as a close-range battering ram!
Though, i am still angry about the 3025tech Xanthos being "extinct" in 3025. It's probably my favorite Assault mech and the official availability for it is so bad.
Is it just me, or does the King Crab's cockpit look big enough from the outside to have a couch, fridge, big screen tv and a pool table?
Inside it looks like a 70's place with thick carpets, a sunken firepit and a bar hidden behind fake sheetrock.
@@rotwang2000 That being said, it's a beast. A combination of retro luxury and raw firepower? It would probably be my 'mech of choice. Lol
Apparently lore wise, a huge portion of those outer windows are false cockpits to try and confused enemy fire. Even so though, I bet they're quite roomy
Im glad you put the battlemaster as an A. Its not a 3/5 assault mech. Its a 4/6 and out of the 4/6 mechs its the best of the lot by a mile. I know a lot of people talk down about it, but it isn't a breakthrough mech. It shines as the second mech in a push. It can usually get a +1 tmm at a walk. That alone makes it a far better mech than many of the 3/5 assaults. They have a tad more armor, but either lose the +1 tmm or have to run to get it typically. That little detail is critical. People who dont master that are the ones who fail with battlemasters. Get your +1 tmm, keep woods/smoke/hills/buildings between you and the enemy as you close the distance. Ideally avoid exchanging fire until you get to 6 hexes. Your ideal is 1 round of shooting at 6 hexes, 1 round of shooting at 2 or 3 hexes and then you are kicking.
My go to strat with it is to use cover to close the distance or to escort a 3/5 mech on its breakthrough run. I know the 3/5 will likely get shot at more so the battlemaster quite often lasts longer. It still wants to melee just like most assault mechs, but it shines tossing out all that medium laser fire and then kicking. First turn I think I will be taking fire I run, but after that I usually just walk unless I see an opportunity to kick someone by running to them.
Its a great mech to put into any lance composition where you are ok with 4/6 movement.
@@goodbodha BLR is like a Thunderbolt on roids, and who doesn't like a Thunderbolt?
Just found your channel, love seeing more nitty gritty breakdown vids about the actual tabletop game. Gladly subbed. Also I'm glad to see the Banshee 3S so high, I feel vindicated after having debated about it being the superior 3025 assault compared to the common staples of the Atlas and Awesome. 😂
Battlemaster is the ultimate fast assault mech. Especially the two PPC star league version.
The Cyclops is more valuable if you're using Quirks. Then it's design intent as a command 'mech starts to mean something, and if you view it's armament as a defensive suite to fend off headhunters it makes sense. I'm not saying it's a great design mind, there's certainly far more viable assaults in 3025, but the +2 initiative bonus from Battle Computer is nothing to sneeze at.
My favourite mech is the very rare SLDF KGC-010
Simple load out with 2 each of PPCs, LBX10s and SRM6s with CASE protected ammo, 10 double heat sinks and 19 tons of armor.
Much like the Stalker, it excels at every bracket but inside of 6, it will shred anything with holes in it in a round or two, an absolute crit producing monster.
Only drawback is you can only fire both PPCs every other round at long range if you wanna stay reasonably cool and almost never both once you start throwing the SRM6s into the fray.
That said, i remember one game taking an early engine hit from a random LRM cluster TAC 3 rounds in and it only reduced the big fella's effectiveness to a minor degree.
Yeah, his channel is awesome.
What I love about the Imp is that it’s weapons are primarily torso mounted.
Finally, a tier list for my favorite scout mechs.
Great vid! Banshee for me all the way, it brawls like no tomorrow. The 3E dosent have the most weapon hardpoints of the variants but sure can go full metal ape in cities and other less open environments with the three it has as backup😎
Ah, if you're picking up where Nerdy left off...? Hi, glad to see you, I'll be subscriber #282!
Good list, although I would move the Striker up a tier. This mech is just SOLID. It's basically a 5-tons heavier MAD-3L, trading 2 heatsinks for 2 tons of armor, and a 3rd heatsink for a 3rd ML. Otherwise, same loadout. In exchange you're getting a way tankier machine with excellent crit padding. I've always found Maraduer (except for the D) love to go boom, no such issue with the Striker. That said, it does make it more of a Super-Heavy rather than a true assault mech. but is that a crime when it's just GOOD?? :)
Yeah that's an interesting way to look at it. I do like the MAD-3L. I guess that 5-ton gap shouldn't be expected to make a qualitative difference just because now it counts as an "assault mech"
@@TrailblazerBTTBH it goes for 40 and 60 tonners too. The weight classifications honestly almost feel like they gimp some mechs just because they're weak for their bracket, but good for the bracket below.
@@AlexDenton0451 On a related note I have always thought that 35 ton mechs don't belong in the same weight class with the other light weights. They are just so much hardier and more powerful
Finally, a scout mech tier list.
There are also 2 other Assault Mechs which the Wolf's Dragoons brought with them to the IS, but they rarely fielded them on the battlefield because doing so would raise eyebrows as they were created by the clans in the early years with the final one being created from blueprints brought over with the exodus. That being the Annihilator and the Stone Rhino (yeah they brought a single Stone Rhino with them) and a cluster of Annihilators. In all fairness, both are not worth mentioning as the Dragoons only had 1 Stone Rhino whom existed purely as a last resort and the Annihilator is a bit of a D tier mech.
For charger variants I'd refer you to CGR-1A5 or CGR-SB.
Yeah Challenger is nice, I should have included one of the good variants
The best part about an Atlas is its generalist loadout and max armor. It fits in any lance composition you have already. And don't over look that LRM20. two atlases are the rough equivalent of a pair of victors and a longbow coming at you. Its a flexible, mean mech to throw into a fight. I have, on several occasions, thrown a lance of atlases at people, and brutalized them, even up into the clan era. (Though, against clan mechs, they're to slow.)
It's good but to me a real generalist arsenal for a 3/5 mover is the stuff the Imp is packing. The armor is beyond reproach though and so is the cooling.
@@TrailblazerBT It's been noted elsewhere, but the Imp isn't a 3025 mech. Otherwise, yeah, its a great mech.
Cyclops always cracks me up - it’s faster to get into range to loose its armour sooner!
The Cyclops instantly gets a lot better if you pull 2 tons of AC-20 ammo for armor and maybe swap the LRM-10 for 2 5s for another ton of armor. At which point you have a decent albeit not great 13 tons of armor
Huh... yeah I was waiting for the assault mech tier list too. Didn't realise it had been so long.
For a merccompany the longbow is a nogo. Four hunter tanks and you could also purchase four galeons with tag infantry for its price, maybe....
I used to think the victor B was bad in a vacuum... But then I started using it as a partner for the grasshopper. Grasshopper NEEDS other JJ brawlers to travel with it but with mediums they still focus fire. The only satisfactory solution for years was a second grasshopper (guillotine). But then finally I gave Victor another look - its bad armor for assault weight but the same~ armor and BV as grasshopper H. It does lose the "zombie factor" but using the two together is so great because there is no clear choice for the opponet - victor has more armor, grasshopper is more crit proof. It's definitely more of a 6000BV mech than a 10000BV mech.
Zeus 9T is pretty good with the PPC. It even can manage the heat
Marauder2 is a pumped up Marauder MAD-3D
Again gotta reiterate , listen to this guy new people , all pretty solid ..... Like i'd have rated the OW Longbow lower cant defend itself at close range at all which is a no no for an Assault and you can get indirect LRM on a cheaper platorm that can defend itself at short range/run away , like a Trebuchet or Dervish mechs i also dont really rate . But thats being pedantic , the call of max armour and the ability to do a respectable amount of damage is true in any era but especially 3025
Good ratings overall. Definitely agree about the Stalker being one of the better chassis, it's not perfect. But... in support of a lance that plays together well it can be devastating at all ranges.
I think it would be neat to go over under rate mechs and look through the eras and see if there are any stand out that are good. For example is the charge just bad always or is there a variant or two that works.
It would have been nice to have them all in one tierlist as an overview
I would argue a few of your choices, but just my thoughts compared to yours.
The Goliath should be lower. Its heat sinks do not allow it to full long range fire without overheating. Doesn't do enough damage for a PSR often with its weapons if you do not open up fully. Add in when in close its got no real reply and being a quad just need to get to a side of it and it has no arc to fire at you. Sure its heavily armored but it just makes it a target when more important threats are dealt with.
The normal Banshee you should have swapped to the M model. Its 2 PPC instead of the AC 5 model is just better for the job. The Banshee S is just a monster so I can not argue it but thought it odd you would have 2 Banshees in the video separately.
I actually would downgrade the Atlas due to its limited ammo and slow speed. Sure it will wade though a lot of fire but if you can kite it a bit its ammo runs out its pretty useless. The model with the large lasers at least gives it more threat when closing.
I like the Stalker but its massive number of ammo bins makes it often limited life span in the battlefield. I would have to down grade it.
Awesome really should be next to Longbow 7Q. There's really not any other mech in that list that outperforms it. It just mauls everything, and you really have to go for optimized 100T builds to have something in those lines.
You've got the Marauder II and Imp listed, but no Shogun or Annihilator? And the BNC-3S variant but not the ZEU-6T? The 6T is a solid B/B+. Also, I think the Victor should rate higher if you're considering its a purpose-built mech like the Longbow.
Yeah I wasn't comprehensive enough with the Dragoon mechs. Agree about ZEU-6T
I would be curious on what your take on the Xanthos would be, since the 3O in theory able to show up in 3025 due to its intro tech. And I know it’s an often over looked mech so but I’m still curious on your take
I've never used it nor even really given it a look! Looks pretty similar to the Atlas?
I do really like the quad PSR bonus on assaults in general
@@TrailblazerBT Yeah but it has a PPC instead of LRMs
For mercenary availability, best bets are the Awesome, Longbow, and Stalker.
while I would agree with most of your rankings, I have to disagree with a coule. The Banshee and Battlemaster are both ranked a slot too high.
The Banshee just doesn't have the firepower to justify this high of a rating. Everything you say about it is good, but would only put it as a solid C.
The Battlemaster suffers a little of the same failure as the Atlas, in that it needs to get close to really be effective. It's faster, true, but it's still limited at range. It, likes the Atlas, is a solid B, maybe high B, but not quite an A class mech. (I've rutinely called the Battlemaster one of the best heavy mechs in the game... because you play it like a heavy).
Also... you included the Imp and the MAD-II, but not the Shogun?
I am more of 70-75toners fan but yeah
Sometimes you just want to use the biggest toys
In this period assault 'Mechs are really strong because you don't have a lot of headcapping or pilot-killing weapons... but yeah, heavies fit my personal style a bit more too
Functionality wise a 80 tonner is a 75 tonner with the ability to mount a few more points of armor.
There is little distinction between 70 - 75 or 80 tonners.
An Awesome is always AWESOME!
I'm just going to say I love the Cyclops
Not because it is a brawler
Not because it has a decent firepower for long range engagements
But it is an awesome command mech and fills its role as a backline mech really well
If your under enemy fire in a Cyclops, your playing your Cyclops wrong
But that is just my opinion, good list.
If you play with quirks it's good!
If you can run down a PDF of Battletechnology 11, there's a 'mech in there called the Titan. (Battletechnology was FASA's house magazine, much as Dragon Magazine was for TSR). In brief, it was a Battlemaster on steroids. I'm curious as to what you think of the design.
Oh I remember the Titan for sure! That's a deep cut. It's really good yeah. Medium laser spam is no joke even in later eras but in the '20s it was highly optimal.
Best Battletechnology mech from that period though was the PPC-armed Alliance that was really close to an Imp in design.
@@TrailblazerBT The 6 ML are mean, but it's the 22 SRMs that usually end games quickly via crit-seeking once the armor is weakened.
Which BT was the Alliance in? I don't remember that one offhand.
If you want a really deep cut... I remember when Lucas had a go at FASA, before even Harmony Gold got involved.
@@andrewszigeti2174 Nice... Battledroids is before my time. The title of the issue that included the Alliance was something like "Hans Davion's New Mech"
@@andrewszigeti2174 The other thing I recall about the Titan was that it had a buttload of heat sinks and was really awesome for that reason
@@TrailblazerBT 20 heat sinks was great. Good heat management for the PPCs or ML, and even allowed a couple ML to be fired with the SRM battery.
I'd have the Banshee 3S as an A-plus mech. Yeah, its armour might not be maxed but it's got a loadout as versitile as a Stalker and it's 10 tons heavier.
I like the Cyclops for command version.
Yeah if I played with quirks I'd assess it differently
As a melee player, the Charger rating is a bit irritating. The Banshee 3E rating I agree with, I see it as the 3025 answer to something like a Spartan in the fact it's a brawling fast assault that has some fire power. The Cyclops rating also is really sad to see especially considering the LRM variant of the Cyclops is a great variant.
I love the charger it's my favorite scout mech, I take one almost every game I play, 981BV2(700ish Bv1) for an 80tonner is stupid cheap. Walk 5/Run 8, same armor as a 70ton heavy mech. sure its only 6 small lasers. But a club attack is 16damage to one location on top of being able to still shoot 4 lasers. Now if you are playing with tonnage limits never take this mech unless it's one of the 1600bv2 or higher varients(which usually has the same armor as a standard IS 80 ton mech); if you don't have a tonnage limit throw together a steiner scout lance or two and have a blast.
you rarely get a ammo explosion on a Zeus as you use that ammo fast firing every turn , also in BV and C bills its cheap but that goes into the weight thing being a game idea not an in universe idea
You forgot the other two dragoon assaults. Annialator and Shogun.
Yeah my bad! I should have done more of an exhaustive sweep
Longbow OW kind of sucks simply due to the existence of the LRM carrier. For the role of "stay behind hill and loft missile at targets spotted by your scout and brawler mechs", there is no reason to pay the big BV premium for the extra mobility and armor of a mech to carry those LRMs. You can get 20% more LRM weight of fire at 62% the cost in an LRM carrier, meaning you can *almost* afford two LRM carriers, with 120 LRM tubes, for the price of the Longbow with only 50 tubes.
Sure, the LRM carrier is easier to kill, but the enemy has to get to it first, which means they have to try to rush through your front lines to get to the hill your LRM carrier is hiding behind. This is easier said than done- and in the process, those "soft" LRM carriers actually make great bait for luring your opponent into a close-range ambush from the rest of your force.
@@bronco5334 Yes, plus the LRM carrier is easier to hide since it's one level high. Although if an opponent has their own LRMs and can get a spotter in LOS of the carrier that can be a quick way to kill it
The charger makes a very good franken mech. Drop the engine to a pitbane 325. And just use the tonnage to pump it out
Tge Cyclopse should have had an AC-10, LRM-15, and four ML. Dropping the SRM and some of the extra ammo for the AC and youd have a 4/6/0 support mech. You could also add 3-4 tons of armor.
Really miss the jellyslime professor.
Yeah he was saying something about coming back a month or two ago but I haven't heard anything further!
I think the weak long range firepower knocks the Battlemaster down to a B, personally. Lack of ammo should drop the King Crab to B- or even a C tier.
You convinced me to revisit the Marauder II. But don't sell the Charger so short.
I'm not shitting my pants over the Battlemaster. If you're going 4/6, there's no tonnage benefit from going from 75 tons to 80 or 85, so the only thing it really has over a mech like the Orion is more internal structure and stronger physical attacks. Even light mediums can have a close-range armament like the BM's since it's low tonnage and the bulk of the heat is covered for free. The Battlemaster also doesn't get the full value out of the PPC since it wants to brawl up-close, and doesn't want to waste its armor in a shootout with a Warhammer or Awesome. I think the Orion is superior and 10 tons lighter.
I think that piercing weapons are far more valuable than LRM's, since pinpoint-frontloaded damage is really the only efficient way to kill mechs in this era. You can get a lot more armor ton-per-ton than damage: so spreading out damage in clusters of 5 or 2 is going to be a slog: especially at the start of the game where everyone's armor is completely topped off and there's no need to fish for crits yet. The big guns also fit the best on big chassis.
This kind of puts mechs like the Longbow in a tough spot because it's stupid expensive. You're going to have to rely on lighter chassis to give it the piercing support it needs, which are usually a lot more compromised one way or another. There's only so much BV to go around and it's very often i'd take something like an Awesome instead, and leave LRM's to lighter designs that mount them easier. (This could be a result of me fighting more on the lance level, though.). LRM's in general are kind of inconsistent since they have to make all-or-nothing rolls, followed by cluster hit rolls that can really disappoint you. They also have to deal with worse target numbers because the short range bracket is eclipsed by its minimum range bracket save for 1 hex, so the result is that you're at medium range most of the time.
The Stalker looks like a big fat atom bomb on legs, and that's exactly what it is since there is a crapload of ammo sloshing around inside of it. This coupled with its relatively low armor makes it risky to invest into despite the crazy firepower it has. (Not that I don't like living on the redline because it's just more fun that way)
The Awesome's armor protection is deceptive since it allocates almost 40 points of said armor to its rear sections. This makes its effective durability just kind of a bit better than the Grasshopper. Being an energy-only mech, it shouldn't be that worried about getting critted. That said, it might be a little too good for the era if more of that was allocated up front.
Crockett has a really hard time staying cool.
The King Crab pays for its fists and lower arm actuator by splitting the AC20's 10 critslots between its arm and its side torso: meaning that it cannot use its side arcs to aim its AC20. This leads to a humorous potential situation where an Ostscout or Spider can 1v1 destroy a King Crab 100% of the time by using cover and gaming the initiative system.
I appreciate you standing up for the base Banshee variant. People often judge a mech purely by the design itself and not what the mech puts out relative to its value. It gets a huge bonus from the fact that firing and physical attacks are two separate phases: and it doesn't get any secondary target modifier despite engaging 2 dudes at once. It really does fill the Charger's shoes as physical attacker but far more flexible.
Apparently, DFA's Battlytics found the PPC Zeus to be extremely cost-effective. Its range brackets kind of gracefully overlap, so it succeeded in dealing a lot of consistent damage in the simulations it was put in.
I would like the Orion if it had better heat management, but it just can't bring all its firepower to bear the way the BLR can. I do think the Thunderbolt 5SS compares positively to the Battlemaster and I often take that mech instead of a BLR.
With the Stalker I think you want to dump some of the ammo, then it has pretty good endurance.
I'm really torn on assault mechs. On one hand they can give and take a lot of punishment. On the other hand they have really limited strategic mobility in any campaign scenario, and I'm still struggling with that.
It's so easy to put an Awesome in a lance, just for the opfor to deny you the engagement and skedadle (
It's true, if you're running a company sized unit you may not want to go below 4/6. But 3/5 isn't *that* much slower than 4/6, and in '25 it's hard to get much faster than 4/6 at the strategic scale since even a lot of mediums go that speed
@@TrailblazerBT
True, it's more of a problem if you want to put a 3/5 assault in a formation with 4/6 heavies, as it will slow down the whole lance or ends up being left behind.
And full assault lances are really unvieldy and expensive
In a "last man standing" pickup game style fight, sure, the faster unit can just run away. In a battle to take or hold an objective.... that extra speed isn't that important when you either have to push someone away from an area or prevent them from pushing you out of that area...
Was curious if you believe that replacing the Atlas's AC20 with a Guass Rifle would solve some of it's range problems, more of a question for a late 3040s Formation and a wealthy one at that.
Oh yeah, a 7D with a Gauss replacing the AC 20 and a heat sink is way better than a 7K Atlas. I play with that field refit often
@@TrailblazerBT I was considering a well off Merc Commander in 3045 giving his Atlas a refit to keep up with the times: 10 Doubles instead of 20 singles, then Pulse Lasers to make up for the lost brawling potential of Gauss, along with Artemis IVs for the launchers.
@@primesouls4185 Yeah you could do that as a class B field refit. Similarly you could really buff up a KGC-000 or 0000 with Gausses and doubles. It would be easy to make a mech better than the KGC-001 that way
AS7-K is god tier Atlas
Awesomes for defense, Stalkers for offensive sprearheads, maybe highlanders to outmaneuver other assaults though i personally would rather use mediums for maneuver warfare.
I dunno about how "bad" an AC/5 is , i know on paper it looks pretty underwhelming for the weight , but you are saving a massive amount of heat ....... Like you could replace it with a PPC i guess but any 'saved' tonnage will have to go into heat sinks , no doubles to save you in 3025
The AC5 works well as the third or perhaps second main weapon (if lacking heat management). For example, on the marauder to help with heat.
It also works for vehicles that lack a fusion engine.
Finally, you may get mileage out of specialist ammo.
Outside those cases, I would take a ppc, large laser or heavier gun any day of the week.
If you don't have the heat for a PPC I'd prefer an LRM launcher, any size tbh
2 lrm 5s will replace an AC5 completely and still have 3 tons to spare, 2 heat sinks and an ton of armor and the only thing the Lrms are worse at are short range since they have a larger min range. ACs really only start at 10 and even the 10 has questionable utility over a large laser. Really the AC20 is an outlier because it deals more damage than it weighs, that's why many people consider it a good choice. Obviously being the only head capper in 3025 and the ability to cut most mechs under 50 tons in half is also very impressive.
Mechs with LRM10s just generally turn me off. The amount of wasted tonnage there compared to 5s and even 15s and 20s really makes me wanna avoid em.
Charger is a cheap assault mech when it comes to bv. You can field it with much lighter vehicle assets and it absolutely obliterates most things smaller than it. Small lasers strip armor and it gets into melee
Yeah, like Nerdy before me I am aiming this list more at campaign/narrative players than folks who play for BV. If you're balancing BV the Charger is definitely playable.
I wish there were people talking about the game like this for Clan Invasion or Civil War era. This is cool, but utterly useless to me when you add in the new options in those Eras which are most common where I play.
Will be doing ratings of the 3050 Clan omnis soon!
@@TrailblazerBT hype! Looking forward to it
I really question how the plans for the Marauder II didn't INSTANTLY blow the Dragoon's cover, but that's the mary sue faction for you tbh
I like the Charger swap the engine to a XL and upgrade to a few large lagers and heat sinks and hit people at long range while they ignore you. and rename it the the Spanish Inquisition
the stalker really benefits from its quirks as well the basically ability to sink 4 more heat is amazing, i think your wrong about the MAD 2 i have had a PC using one for 2 years in a RPG game and its nice but frankly it has very little damage unless your brawling so it just becomes a think to get shot so your friends don't that's if the enemy will shoot at the massive armoured beast more then once i have just been ignored while the enemy shoot more damaging mechs that are easier to kill i still love it as a ride but its not as good as it feels
Interesting... I don't play with quirks but that does sound amazing. Re the mad 2, it hits at 10-12 hexes basically the same as the awesome, it's 28 points and not 30 but you can keep the fire up constantly. Also the JJs are great
The charger has two uses imo
1: Scrap
2: Solaris mech racing
How would you rate the SHG-2E? Nobody remembers the Shogun, so I don't blame you. But it was technically part of this era, and I don't see many commentators talk about it.
I love those tiering of mechs I can see. One thing though, the tiering for TT Battletech versus the one for say MW5 is quite different. For example, the Stalker 3F and Awesome 8Q are quite good on paper, but they get rape in almost every battle - especially the 3F that is my favorite Battlemech since BattleTech exists, and this makes me sad. The King Crab is an overrated 100t assault mech that also gets rape before even reaching the battlefield, is easy to isolate and cut down its firepower by 50% by just removing 1 arm... a thing the Altas doesn't have a problem with and is the reason it really is the king of the battlefield.
Would add an Atlas RS to A-Tier ;)
Yeah I was remiss in leaving it off.
may be its time to move 3151?
we are part of events and timeline that develops right now.
Succession wars are like using windows 95 these days.
I don't personally play in eras after the 3060s, since I stopped enjoying the lore at that point. No shade on those who like the later eras of course!
rating the AWS-8Q, the most mathematically correct mech and the single best mech of the OG 3025 lot, as A tier should be a crime.
Why isn't the Annihilator here? I mean it's not great but would have liked your thoughts on it
Yeah my bad... I'd put it with the Cyclops I think
@@TrailblazerBT Okay. Makes sense.
The optimal assault mech is two Hunchbacks.
I just salvaged an Emperor in my campaign. What’re your thoughts?
EMP-6A? It's butt ugly but it fights well, as long as the range is relatively short. Two LB10s can be murder against lots of targets
Like it's a great anti-air and anti-tank 'Mech
@@TrailblazerBT I got the 6S variant. Two big bite LBX20s.
@@RattlerNxt Have never played with that one, but it looks like a Victor on steroids so a lot of what I said about the 3025 Victor goes (except the part about not having enough armor). Cities and heavy terrain will make it shine, open fields will not be easy for it. The LB20 is a very powerful weapon.
@@TrailblazerBT I was able to take it into a double blind cave system. That was a lot of fun. “Surprise! It’s a shotgun!”
Tsk tsks in someone forgot the best assault mech in this period since you pulled the unobtainian Imp and Marauder II .......... Drum roll the Devestator which Big Mac had ......... Also missed the Shogun A tier
Hm yeah should've talked about the Shogun, not sure how I forgot that. But the DVS wasn't available until the '30s I think?
@@TrailblazerBT I mean technically the refit was started in 3036 but it is a full introtech build so IDK. I'd let people run the DVS-1D in the succession wars as a SL downgrade like the HGN-733
Generally agree! Except for that Banshee assessment... Utter garbage machine in my book.
Definitely my most debatable pick!
The 3S is a monster of an assault in intro tech.
AS7-RS variant would be A tier then I guess?
Certainly
The Cyclops makes me so sad. Why do you put a SRM4 with ammo in the CT for pretty much every variant?
I actually like CT ammo if you don't have CASE, less likely to actually get hit and the other CT criticals are almost as bad as an ammo explosion anyway
@@TrailblazerBTdo you usually play with floating criticals? Neither of my LGS groups like that rule, so the center torso gets almost all the through armor criticals.
@@ObiwanNekody I do, but even without floating crits the chance of a hit turning into an ammo TAC is 0.25% with one ton of ammo and 0.46% with two tons. And the other CT crits are so bad that it's not that much worse than other possible CT TACs. I'd still rather have ammo in the CT unless you have CASE and/or the side torsos are fully padded
@@ObiwanNekody Like think about it this way, if a TAC isn't hitting ammo then it's hitting engine or gyro. That's not as bad, but gyro in particular is like 50% as bad as killing the mech
@@TrailblazerBTwith the Cyclops being a command mech it isn't quite as bad. When taking a Cyclops you are commonly leveraging the command console, the quark, and/or the C3 computers. Being half dead for combat but still giving the useful board wode utility is much better than being a cloud of chaff floating above a small crater.
The Cyclops is just fat Orion but worse.
110%
With Quirks enabled it has a tiiiiiiny niche.
- LRM-5 generate 2 heat, so it'll be 16 heat for the Longbow, not 14, when firing all LRMs.
- I really can't get behind your reasoning for the Banshee. It's a terrible mech, anything from 80 tons and heavier that has a 4/6 movement will underperform because you actually get a negative net gain of free tons compared to a 75t mech that moves 4/6. At least, this loss in minimal for 80 and 85 ton mechs but the Banshee weighs 95t, the net loss is HUGE while upping the total weight of your lance by another 10t.
- And that's why I don't think the Battlemaster is an A, should be a B. And everything you said about his weapon loadout actually applies to the Warhammer, not to the Battlemaster. A single PPC can't make effective use of 18 heatsinks and he has no other weapon above range 9, so he has the same problems like the Atlas, not just as severe because the BM is a bit faster. Yes, good armour protection is a plus but probably the only thing that is going for the BM. The Warhammer is the better rounded mech and with an almost identical loadout but weighs 15 tons less!
- The Crocket looks great until you realize it only has 15 heat sinks which you didn't mention at all. Half of that firepower will literally be on cooldown every turn and it only gets worse the closer it gets to the target. The jump jets are nice but add even more heat.
- It's actually the AC/10 that is strictly worse to the PPC, not the AC/5. It has lower range for the same damage and it weighs 5 tons more + 1 or 2 more tons for ammo, which eats the entire advantage of generating 7 less heat (because you could just have a PPC + 6 o 7 heat sinks instead). The only saving grace of the AC/10 is not having a minimal range of 3, but personally I'd rather have those 3 extra range. I mean, both weapons hit with normal accuracy at 15 hexes and the PPC gets another 3 hexes with lower accuracy ... which is better than no extra hexes at all. But a PPC never runs out of ammo, the mech doesn't risk ammo explosion and the extra heatsinks allow for more flexibility.
Now, with an AC/5, a PPC is of course the better choice for a mech that runs cool. Mechs like standard Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, Clint and such would all benefit if you replace the AC/5 with a PPC + 2 extra heatsinks. But that's not true for mechs with a tighter heat map, for example if you did this for a standard Marauder, you'd cook it. The Zeus also couldn't handle the heat as soon as the large laser is in range. Zeus is the prime example where an AC/5 makes sense. It's a weapon you can just always add to the mix because it's just a single heatpoint and 20 rounds is usually just enough for most battles.
I know its a bit late but I'd recommend turning down the background music it was nearly as loud as your voice
Thanks yes, this is something I've taken steps to improve in my more recent vids!