‘Mech of the Week: Storm Raider

[Weirdo]

A thought occurred to me. A single hit from an -R3's RAC, followed by a whack from the mallet or a buddy -R1's AC will auto kill the vast majority of medium battlesuits out there.

There's gotta be something we can do with that.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Which is true, for sure, but that can be said of any Mech. 16 Stalkers is scarier than one. 16 Dervishes are scarier than one. 16 Targes... er... ok, exception to every rule, fine.

Point is, if the only way to make it scary is to deploy it in numbers, why would the Lyrans not just say 'thanks, but no' and invest in more Hollanders? A company of Hollanders is enough to make even the bravest Clanner kick up his heels back to his LZ.

Yeah, the "deploy it in much larger numbers than other mechs" thing only works if there's some sort of special thing about the mech that makes it somehow easier to flood battlefields with, and that's never really been something that the BTU has had.

[Arkansas Warrior]

 :-\  I was mostly trying to make a "Lyran Battlearmor" joke.  That joke doesn't really work for Stalkers or even Dervishes.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The joke is kinda old and not funny. :P

[JadeHellbringer]

:-\  I was mostly trying to make a "Lyran Battlearmor" joke.  That joke doesn't really work for Stalkers or even Dervishes.

Misunderstood it- I blame the lobotomy they did when they bumped me to admin around here. (Seriously, allen wrenches HURT). Carry on!

[Colt Ward]

This is the Lyran Urbie 2.0 project . . .

Not sure where someone was getting that in the 3100s ammo for Plasma Rifles should be rare outside of the CC, but this thing would have been better off as urban defense using a Plasma Rifle- one of the lightest 10 point hits and its useful in the other manners.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Dude, I would not want the mech in charge of defending the city I lived in to be packing a plasma weapon.

[Arkansas Warrior]

Dude, I would not want the mech in charge of defending the city I lived in to be packing a plasma weapon.

[social general]My dear boy, why would a gentleman live in a city, crammed tight with the unwashed masses of the hoi polloi?  All the real gentlemen live in country estates surrounded by several hundred meters of cleared fire zone.  [/social general][/size] :) 

[marauder648]

There's another thing I've just remembered.  Isn't the Stormraider basically made kind of useless by the earlier MLR-B2 Mjolnir?

Its lighter, its got a standard engine and HS, and has TSM and can jump.  So...*looks at the Stormy* Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy....?

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

[social general]My dear boy, why would a gentleman live in a city, crammed tight with the unwashed masses of the hoi polloi?  All the real gentlemen live in country estates surrounded by several hundred meters of cleared fire zone.  [/social general][/size] :)

But what happens when it burns down all the fine dining establishments?  Am I expected to hold my business lunches at a restaurant that rates a mere three stars?

[Maelwys]

There's another thing I've just remembered.  Isn't the Stormraider basically made kind of useless by the earlier MLR-B2 Mjolnir?

Its lighter, its got a standard engine and HS, and has TSM and can jump.  So...*looks at the Stormy* Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy....?

Probably someone looked at the Mjolnir and said "Its nice, but it can't hit anyone at long range, what can we do about that?"

[mbear]

There's another thing I've just remembered.  Isn't the Stormraider basically made kind of useless by the earlier MLR-B2 Mjolnir?

Its lighter, its got a standard engine and HS, and has TSM and can jump.  So...*looks at the Stormy* Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy....?

Social General looked at the Mjolnir and thought "Needs to be bigger."

[Arkansas Warrior]

But what happens when it burns down all the fine dining establishments?  Am I expected to hold my business lunches at a restaurant that rates a mere three stars?

What, you've got no personal chef?  You must only be a Hauptmann.




Ok, ok, we should probably stop.

[SteelRaven]

Social General looked at the Mjolnir and thought "Needs to be bigger."

Thus the Berserker

[JadeHellbringer]

Thus the Berserker

Wait. That would mean someone looked at the Berserker and said "You know, we need a midget version of this."

I can only assume that person was executed by Atlas-stomp for his un-Lyran thinking.

[Decoy]

So, humor aside, the Storm Raider is best as either a dueling 'mech or a garrison/militia 'mech?

[Colt Ward]

I am not sure its a dueling mech either, unless your plans for the duel are blindman's bluff with each pilot just swinging the mace around hoping to hit.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

So, humor aside, the Storm Raider is best as either a dueling 'mech or a garrison/militia 'mech?

I'd say it's quite usabe as a unit meant to add some ranged firepower and/or teeth to a recon lance.  It doesn't carry fancy electronics, but it can keep up with and help bodyguard those units that do.

[SteelRaven]

I tried theory crafting with Storm Raider when it appeared in TRO, removing the mace and AC for a SRM setup to make it a 35 ton Commando. The Wolfhound is already the better 35 ton energy boat though I never thought of a Plasma Rifle until it was mentioned above.     

[Iron Mongoose]

So long as it has Hunchbacks or King Crabs in front that are distracting enough that no one will notice the poor Storm Raiders, up until their ACs start getting crits. The mace is for pounding dents out of the big mech's armor, or opening a victory keg post battle.

[Arkansas Warrior]

You could use it to bodyguard a low-end firesupport lance.  Things like Valkyries and Whitworths that would be in trouble if the enemy got in close.

[Wrangler]

BattleTech is known to have it's winner and loser of designs, where their not suppose to be spectacular and allow others get more attention.
Storm Raider i think was simply not designed for our game.  I suspect A game designer for MWDA came up with cool looking figure, came with descent (i don't know, I've not used a dial for this thing in years.) dial for it while putting on random stats on the figure. I've heard they did use HMPro for some of them, but not all of them.  I think Storm Raider is victim of that.

Given how the design was born into age of Battlemechs are rare beasts outside the military that limited it's numbers of Mechs to 2 mechs out every 4 vehicles if the Novels were to be believed. The Raider should have been out production when 3145 range in New Years.   I think perhaps it could be interesting design in Solaris, but it barely i think a Raider or a harasser.

I remember reading a member of Stormhammers (republic splinter group) used one these Mechs during the attacks against then invading Jade Falcons into Perfecture XI (9) on their way to Skye.   I thought was funny MechWarrior raised his Hammer yelling over comes "Cowabunga!".

Thanks the article, Wantec!

[Firesprocket]

I am curious if anyone has played the R1 in a game of AS?  A Clint or Gladius would provide faster and lighter weight platforms to get the AC special out on the board, but the Storm Raider would be a lower cost to throw out alternate munitions. 

[Tai Dai Cultist]

I am curious if anyone has played the R1 in a game of AS?  A Clint or Gladius would provide faster and lighter weight platforms to get the AC special out on the board, but the Storm Raider would be a lower cost to throw out alternate munitions.

I'd sooner pick the R3, despite the higher cost.  But R1 specifically?  It benefits from AS's system of PV only paying what the unit can do.  It's a cheap, low end mech.  Good news though, you don't pay much.  This mech, much like Kurita's comparable Rokurokubi, greatly benefit from the traslation to AS.

There was a joke about the Storm Raider being Lyran Battlearmor upthread.... well guess what else costs the same PV as a Storm Raider R1? A squad of clan elementals.   It's a lightweight, but you pay lightweight prices.  It's cheap enough in PV to deploy en masse, even if you can't do so to the same degree in BV.

TL;DR: it's the Scorpion tank of mechs.

[Liam's Ghost]

TL;DR: it's the Scorpion tank of mechs.

Except for being expensive. Though you just gave me an idea.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Except for being expensive. Though you just gave me an idea.

Expensive? It's pretty cheap in BV, PV, or even SPs.  Cbill pricing isn't a thing anymore... because for example listed prices for XL engines are from when they were put together by hand by grad students at NAIS.  By the time the Storm Raider is walking off the producrion lines during the 32nd century, XL and even XXL engines are being much more cheaply mass produced....

[Decoy]

Got an official source for that? People keep SAYING that.....but none of it turns up in the crunch.

[Caedis Animus]

C-Bills are fluff, not crunch, if I recall correctly. You only pay for the XL in BV2, unless you balance by C-Bills (Which honestly is a bad idea, especially with how many crappy XL-engined Mechs there are).

[Tai Dai Cultist]

Got an official source for that? People keep SAYING that.....but none of it turns up in the crunch.

Because TPTB took Cbill pricing out of the crunch.

[Liam's Ghost]

Cbill pricing isn't a thing anymore...

Not exactly. There are a great many reasons why c-bill cost shouldn't mean what it used to, but a standard engine is still inherently less complicated and easier to produce than an extralight engine. A fuel cell even less so, though one might have to make the storm raider bigger to pull off near same performance.

because for example listed prices for XL engines are from when they were put together by hand by grad students at NAIS. 

The quote you're thinking of was referring to the XXL engine, not the XL. The XL was in production for decades using the same cost calculations. Heck, centuries if you include the Star League and swap Star League Dollars for C-Bills.