Mech of the Week: Burrock
The Burrock, named after its once and future clansmen (sometimes they come back), is a heavy battlemech produced by Clan Star Adder on Albion. Initially appearing in 3066 the Burrock was designed by the Star Adders as a sign of respect to their Burrock born warriors after their clan’s absorption. The mech tips the scales at 75 tons and can run up to 86kph thanks to its 375XL power plant. The swift second-liner is also well protected with 12.5 tons of standard armor on an endo steel chassis. The Burrock warrior preference for swift mediums with big bore cannons sort of gets merged with the Adder warrior preference for mobile heavies with lots of guns here. The Burrock really is more a melding of the two clans than an homage to the Burrock warriors.
The Burrock is armed for one thing only, close range brawling. Stylized to favor the Burrock warriors love of big bore autocannons and incorporating Star Adder flavor with heavy lasers as well. The big bore gun comes in the form of a right arm mounted Ultra 20 autocannon supported by four tons of ammunition in the right torso. Six heavy medium lasers; three in the left torso, two in the left arm, and one in the right torso; round out the armament. To cope with all the residual heat the Burrock mounts 20 double heat sinks.
Using it is simple, get close and pull the trigger. Single tap the autocannon and fire five of the HML’s to just go two points in the red on heat, but get close first (so drop to 4 lasers). If you need to take a longer range shot, like from 10 hexes, just double tap the autocannon. If it jams dump the ammo and bum rush the other guy firing all six heavy lasers. Not many mechs this size can unleash this level of damage (no seriously you can throw 70 damage for 42 heat and dissipate 40). If you lose the cannon you can still dish out 60 points at knife range. The solid armor and speed makes this beasty a threat to other mechs its own size if it gets close. It does have some draw backs in tight terrain since its speed is mitigated and it can not jump. Use your speed against things like Warhammer IIC’s, Marauder IIC’s, Guilotine IIC’s. The Burrock has the same amount of armor and if you can get close by running you can blast away. Just hope you don’t have Hellbie’s dice since the heavy lasers tend to miss a lot.
During the Wars of Reaving somebody looked at this mech and said “I have HAG fever.” (Looking at you Cobbs and Fletchers out there) And of course they slapped a HAG 40 on it creating the Burrock 2. To accommodate the biggest gun in clan-space short of capital weapons, the designers pulled five heat sinks and down graded the three left torso mounted laser to extended range mediums. The monster cannon is backed by five tons of ammo, but since the shells appear to be the size of a VW bug, you only get 15 shots.
To use the second version, do the same thing as the first but this time you can take smart shots from range (be selective). And then use your speed and armor to close. Again, contemporary second line mechs are going to have a tough time with this thing. The best bet is to get into the ER mediums range and fire those with the HAG, then close and switch to the heavies and the HAG. Again, bring friendly dice, run fast, and hit hard.
Facing one of these guys??? Well if it’s the first version just stay as far away as possible. PPC and LRM the thing to death. Do everything possible to control distance in the fight and don’t get cute and try to run in to punch it or something.
If you come across a Burrock 2, do not let it close again, but also do not let it get a good shot with the HAG. Move, cover, move.
Try and match either version against an equally speedy or faster opponent if you’re using zell. Do not get caught up in the thing being funny looking or just a close range brawler; don’t count on inaccurate heavy laser fire. Play smart and control range against this thing. Outside of zell try to corner it where its speed can be mitigated and combine long range fire. Shoot all your gauss slugs at it, hope it dies (it won’t die easy and it may fall over dead then get back up after you walk past it, it’s a Burrock after all).
Truly, this thing is not the best designed mech, it can do a lot of damage, it has good armor, and 5/8 clan heavy battlemechs are few and far between. It is sort of a one trick pony and once you know the trick it’s not particularly challenging to stop (think Hunchback here). The undead Burrock’s association to the Dark/Society really made me wish for a Burrock Z of sorts built by the Society, but alas no dice. The Burrock 2 is an improvement as it double the effective range but with severely limited ammunition supply.
