Here is the way I kook at it, the SL would have had regiments upon regiments of Long Range specialists designs, Archer, Longbow, Rifleman, Bombardier, Galahad. Designs like the Altas, Battlemaster, Victor, and other designs with sparse long range weaponry would be supported. Battlemechs were designed to be composes of at companies. Not the Lance on Lance play that most players do. When you have a Company of Atlases, and a Company of Archers, it makes more sense, while you can get sort of the same effect by 1 Atlas and 1 Archer, it isn't quite the same. So most designs are specialized in one way or another and crippled in one way or another. The Cyclops was a command mech, not intended to wade in the midst of battle so it sacrificed armor for comms equipment. Also in my opinion pre SW that DHS were the front line standard, and not SHS, that alone fixes almost all problems in 3025 mechs, with few notable examples, Charger cannot be fixed without XL Engines, and in my opinion quad designs are more suited 60 tons or less because of space restrictions. The Atlas was designed to wade into battle, and can shoot on its way there with its LRM, the Stalker and Awesome are the best 3025 Stock Assault Mechs, with the Battlemaster near the top. But take into account these were the Mad Max Mechs from Pre Core, and post 3rd SW, Not the Star League versions, which would have been the standard at manufacture, not after 250 years of war. Most of the 3025 mechs would have been in militias at the time of the Star League, These are Reunification Wars Designs for the most Part, but the 2750, 3050, and 3055 mechs would have been in front line units House, and House SL Units.
