I've been trying to start this MOTW article for weeks now.
It's not really the issue of how to START an article- let's face it, most of us will read just about anything when it comes to our favorite game universe- it's that I just can't get over one issue with the
Uraeus. Namely... it's the feet.
Look at them.
Look at 'em! When Comstar was destroyed in the Fortress, did a slight breeze help? Did it kick it's feet like ED-209 in
Robocop? This 'mech has the “Bad Reputation” quirk as it reminds people of nuclear missiles and
awesome terrifying combat cyborgs, but I can't get Ben Stiller lines out of my head anytime I look at it's picture.
Made for 'mech-piloting ants. … anyway, the Uraeus is the Republic's latest and not-greatest brawler design, a 75 ton close-combat machine with some... interesting design choices. It's genesis falls in Comstar's camp, who sided with the Republic's Senate in an attempted coup because of reasons or power or something that ended up in getting them smashed. Now Comstar is dead and gone within the fortress, the Republic get's some new 'mechs made by the New Earth Trading Company (abbreviated to NETC) and we get to bask in how... unique they are. In the case of the Uraeus, 'unique' is in the same vein as
your a fedora and Trench coat draped on slim shoulders of a pasty white male in a mass effect shirt.
The Uareus starts off pretty neat. NETC used an Endo steel chassis and strung the whole thing in TSM, and used the good 'ole standby of a 300 Vlar engine to get it moving at “normal” speeds. It's plain and boring admittedly, but combined with it's standard cockpit and near-maxed Light Ferro armor the base design has some great endurance. The placement could be better, of course- and is the beginning of many problems to come- with each location having one point short of most thresholds for damage. Tho the rear is at an acceptable 8/10/8 spread, the legs
with those tiny baby feet sit at 29 points; making a double tap from clan ER peepers all the more dangerous. It's like this across the whole chassis, too- while the CT sits pretty at 33 points, the arms and torsos (at 24 and 23, respectively) are at weird levels that make repeated hits very threatening. While 13 tons of armor is great, this is an era populated by capacitor-toting Heavy PPCs, Thunderbolt 20s, and other forms of high-yield middle finger-forcing PSRs; making a brawler who's whole point is to close vulnerable to follow-up medium laser hits seems counter intuitive when a half ton of armor covers these sins.
Another area where the meat n' bones of the 'mech start to go awry is the use of an XL gyro. Now, XL gyros really are a matter of preference- and for designs like light 'mechs the saved tonnage can mean a lot when internal damage means you're dead already- but on a 75 ton scrapper? Despite the
Uraeus being able to hit 5/8 the gyroscope feels extremely out-of-place, and even more so since the 'mech uses standard components everywhere else. The fact that it makes a brawlers gyroscope such a big target is not a good idea, especially when the 'mechs whole point is to close with it's opponent. With the Uraeus having to spend ammo to hit the desired temperature, replacing the gyro and light ferro for a light engine would have been far more cost-effective, and would have actually benefited the 'mech in the long run since it's (again) reliant on ammo to keep it's TSM going.
Yeah, that's right; the
Uraeus is benefited by having an engine crit. Makes them ballerina feet work faster.
But how bout' dem guns? Surely the
Uraeus has got some vindication for those wee little tosies. Sadly, NETC didn't take their lithium the morning they built it, and proving that the once-reborn Comstar was really “TEH WORD IN DISGUISE!!1!11” they slapped a streak SRM 4 into the right torso Grand Crusader style. And it doesn't get much better from there- the right arm is dominated by an Ultra AC/10, the left torso lugs around a Bombast laser (with some cool additions too) and the left arm carries a medium-scale vibroblade apache-style.
Think about that- even with the bombast laser firing full blast and the vibroblade hummin' away, you're still 3 heat short before running- so either you turn off heat sinks (in which case you're a looser) our you start spending some of that Sweet autocannon ammo to keep the TSM going. While the ultra AC has 30 rounds to fire (lovingly stuffed into a CASE II ammo bin with the streaks) the ultra's were never known for their reliability, and the poor schmuck who makes a bad roll is going to find his TSM a distant memory.
Stranger still is the vibroblade; though it's addition ensures that the
Uraeus can never be without altered physical attacks, the medium blade does too little damage to really be threatening. When active for 5 heat, the blade deals a whole 10 damage- unpowered, it deals 9. In both cases, it has a -2 to-hit, but powered up gains no TSM benefits. In other words, for the weight of a large laser you have a physical weapon that is no better than a sword or retractable blade, on a 'mech that would probably get more mileage out of simple punches and kicks. On the GOOD side however, an active vibroblade's damage is unaffected by actuator damage, so a
Uraeus with critted upper and lower actuators it attacks for a 0 penalty and still does 10 damage. Sounds good, but I think few world millitaries are reliant on weapons that come into their own when you're half dead.
This means that the only weapon that isn't extremely questionable is (hilariously) the bombast laser, a 7 ton weapon with the WORST ratios of damage-to-tonnage in the game. If you haven't read TacOps (and live under a rock in the Ukraine) the Bombast laser can “upgrade” it's damage by one point up to 12 for one heat, at the expense of a to-hit modifier of its current damage MINUS it's minimum DEVIDED by 2, round UP. In English, this means the Bombast laser has a +1 to hit for 8-9 points, a +2 for 10 and 11, and +3 for the full headcapping 12. Unless you're pilot is a good shot (or you're completely reliant on it to activate TSM) you're better off using a standard large laser of all things, laughable in the era of the common (and almighty, glory to it's name) Clan ER medium laser. What makes the Bombast really cool tho, is the turret it's friggin' mounted on; it's even armored! This means the
Uraeus can always fire at someone no matter their position or it's facing, which is extremely useful for a close-in scrapper. But this one great addition does not “save” the 'mech- everything about it is either poor, average, or “questionable” like a funky scent in an oft-used living room.
One final point should be brought up- BV. With all these weapons, one would think that the purpose to make a crappy 'mech would be to draw the BV down to rock-bottom levels, giving a player the chance to throw a 75 tonner into a game for little cost. This isn't the case. The
Uraeus has a BV of 1843 and pulling random battlemechs from the
massive Republic RATs reveals that it's value is similar to the Marauder MAD-9M2 / 9W2 and the Prefect PRF-1R. Though these obviously don't have the same roles, it's hard to argue against the 9M2 realizing that dual HPPCs and Streak 6's are friggin' sweet, and the 9W2 being a good city-fighter with it's huge jump, ECM and pulse/snubbie combo. If you go from the side of the brawlers some things get clearer- the
Ureeus is the only 4/6 heavy with TSM in the Republic- but it's BV puts it against the cheaper ST-8A Shootist at 1507 (when did this get made- there were only like, 12 left!) and the “oh god what are you doing with that Vindicator engine” OTL-9R Ostsol at 1,654. Though both these mech's can only hit a max speed of 4/6, on average they'll be much more accurate and the job of keeping things away is something an AC/20 or a SLOWLY WALKING KITCHEN SINK FULL OF LASER BEAMS tend to do well.
So if you roll and strike this piece of strange metal, what do you do with it? Well, like most physical weapon carriers you would think to move in close, however the
Ureaeus is at an odd middle ground. Without being fast or accurate enough to catch smaller foes (like the kickass TSG-10L
Ti Ts'ang) you would be half-tempted to go after bigger opponents, but without jump jets the
Uraeus isn't maneuverable enough on-foot to get to juicy rear areas or good vantage points. Heavier units also pose a problem- that armor issue will come into play there, and with fully half your crit slots now being “roll again” thanks to all the weight-savers the
Uraeus is more vulnerable than usual. That 4-ton ammo bomb in the RT doesn't help much either, CASEII or no.
The best way I can see using one is to treat it as a point man in a lance, albeit a point man with no C3 and/or ECM and a bum leg. The most mileage you'll get out of one is something as a distraction- don't use it necessarily as a front line combatant, but let you're opponent take it for what it is and not focus much firepower onto it. Basically, let it be ignored. With the vibroblade you might be tempted to close, and with the bombast laser 's issues with accuracy you need to, but remember that it ain't no
Berserker and only gets that knockout punch on a 6. As for the guns, keep firing em! The
Uraeus doesn't need to keep it's heat up, but it does need to lessen the chances that it's ammo getting critted and your 'mechwarrior reduced to a drooling vegetable. With 30 rounds for the UAC, take hail-Mary shots and unless you need the TSM try for the streaks.
On the other side of the coin, remember that the
Uraeus is oddly susceptible to crits for a standard engine machine and it is inaccurate at range. Try baiting one with lighter 'mechs first, and if not go for the old standby of 20-point smacks and 5-point followups. The armor again is weird and the
Uraeus doesn't stand up well to the kiss of an AC/20, so any breached holes should down one quick. Finally, since the most accurate gun is a streak missile launcher, battle armor are good choices if you can bog one down.
To summarize, the
Uraeus spreads itself too thin. Comstars (and by extension, the Republic's) hand-to-hand scrapper tries to fulfill as many roles as possible with some interesting weapon choices, but the fact is that any 'mech that can be improved by replacing existing guns with REGULAN large lasers might have some other issues. The space for a 4/6 moving, TSM using boxer in the Republic's arsenal is like a large and tasty waffle, but the
Uraeus is a tiny shred of butter that barely lubricates the crevasses- only to taunt you of what
could be something great.
