Two big bears in one place...Oh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.....
Grizzly – the ‘failed’ progenitor.Background and designOn the surface, the Grizzly seems to be a very good design that was cursed to have the fluff set against it. Designed by the Bears in the waning years of the 2900’s as a Standard Mech when the then new OmniMech’s were springing up across Clan Space.
Perhaps this choice to build a non-Omni design was built by the very conservative Bears who simply didn’t see the need to build it as an Omni design, or perhaps technological or logistical reasons made them choose the easier to build standard design.
What the Bears came up with was a 70-ton design, built around an Endo-Steel skeleton the Grizzly’s beating heart is a 280-rated standard engine giving it a typical heavy Mech ground speed of 64kph. This is nothing out of the ordinary, even the revolutionary Woodsman could ‘only’ do 64kph without firing up its MASC, and most heavy Mechs the Clans had at the time could amble along happily at 64kph.
For added mobility the Bears also fitted a quartet of jump jets, giving the Mech the ability to leap up to 120 meters, which is nice no matter how you look at it. Protection was also impressive with 13 of standard plate used to give the Mech a thick and rugged hide;
9/23/31/23 (7/10/7)
22/22/27/27
Unfortunately, here’s where it all started to go wrong. The Mech’s bulky and complex actuators were maintenance nightmares and due to the armour layout and the design of the actuators, armour that had been melted by particle or laser energy tended to get stuck in the actuators, causing them to fail which in battle could be fatal.
To say the least this gave the Mech a poor reputation with both the Tech’s maintaining it and any MechWarrior who could suddenly find his or her leg or arm seizing up. It was this that killed the Grizzly, with production coming to a halt in 3013, after a mere 66 years which for Mech production is a blink of the eye. The surviving Grizzlies were pulled out of the front lines and quietly palmed off to PGCs to slowly Rust in Peace.
It wasn’t until the First Combine/Ghost Bear War that the Grizzly saw a resurgence in popularity when a custom refit turned the Mech into a fearsome close quarters fighter and battle armour hunter. If this meant that the Bears and later Dominion picked up construction of the Grizzly again or it continues to serve all be it in fading numbers is yet to be seen. In truth the Mech’s basically replaced by the much later, but VERY similar Bruin. Perhaps when the last Grizzly falls or is retired, it will free up the name to be used in the Dominions veritable zoo of Bear named Mechs.
VariantsGrizzly – Fluff based flaws aside, the Grizzly is a rather nasty Mech to face. To me it’s a slower, better protected Summoner A (or AA). The Mech’s main smackdown punch comes in the form of a Gauss rifle living in the right arm, feeding from a 2-ton ammo bin. More long range firepower comes in the form of a LRM-10 and single ton of allowing for indirect fire with little heat.
And as the range drops the firepower just amps up. A fearsome large pulse laser provides the main energy punch and can be the bane of fast vehicles or Mechs whilst also reaching out to long range and providing a heavy punch. At shorter ranges a Medium pulse laser and finally a small pulse laser can be added making life difficult for Mechs that rely on speed to make themselves hard to hit, whilst also being kind for the PGC who tend to be of lesser skill than front line Clan Warriors. The small pulse laser can also be useful against infantry and adds a bit of versatility.
The standard Grizzly is a jack of all trades. Its got a good solid punch and with 11 double heatsinks its basically impossible to overheat unless you do a full jump and fire everything, and even then, its barely noticeable.
Fielding this thing alongside its later and larger Bruin cousin or a Kingfisher or any of the IIC designs would suit it well and it could probably fit in as part of an Assault Star and thanks to its standard engine, it’s difficult to kill.
Grizzly 2 – First fielded as a custom refit by Captain Scott during the Combine-Ghost Bear War the custom job went on to be so popular that other Grizzlies were hauled in to be refitted to mirror it, with it possibly replacing the Standard as the Standard version.
Retaining the long-range slap of the Gauss rifle the Grizzly 2 also features an ER Large laser for more punch at the longest of ranges. The Grizzly 2 also features new toys in the form of an ATM-9 with 2 tons of ammo, but this is apparently used mainly as HE ammo, your choice may of course vary.
The remaining tonnage comes in the form of a veritable phalanx of 6 ER Micro-lasers to cut the Spheroid Battle Armour into chunks with a few hits. The use of HE ammo on the ATM also makes sense in this role as not many squads of BA want to be hit with that much damage.
Whilst the Grizzly 2 is meant to be more focused on making life miserable for Crunchies or tanks, the Grizzly 2 still packs a significant punch against Mechs and heavily armoured tanks at longer ranges as the 1-2 punch of a Gauss and ER large simply can’t be ignored. Depending on your ammo the ATM can be used at all ranges and the potential of 9 HE missiles should never be underestimated. The ER Micro’s may seem kind of pointless, but if all six hit, that’s two dead BA suits or a significant amount of armour shaved off an armoured target.
ThoughtsDespite its bad in universe reputation the Grizzly is a potent war machine in my book. Whilst its speed is nowadays unimpressive for a Clan machine its size, it can still jump which is something that not every Mech its size can do, and is as ‘fast’ and agile as the vaunted and much loved Grasshopper. For firepower and protection, it scores good marks, the combo of LPL and gauss give it a good hole punching and accurate punch. The LRM-10 adds a bit more punch as well as in later years’ versatility with the chance to deploy mines or smoke (which would probably be A-Okay in a PGC). At mid to short ranges the medium and small pulse give extra wallops whilst you just stop firing the LRM-10 if you’re overheating (which is basically very hard to do.)
The end result is effective, if a tad boring because its just effective. With three pulse lasers, you can hammer away with high to hit numbers and you’ll be fine as this thing is so absurdly hard to overheat.
The downsides are its speed, and the somewhat limited ammo for the gauss rifle, still the 16 shots should last long enough to see most battles decided and you’ve got a decent energy array to fall back on too.
This weapon mix was replicated many years later with the Karhu A, which mirrors the armament almost to a T with the Gauss, LPL, LRM 10 and laser battery combo that worked so well on the Grizzly. The main difference being that the Grizzly is slower and can’t jump as far but is more survivable thanks to its standard engine vs the XL one.
The Grizzly 2 is a bit of an odd one, for a city fighter its got a mean long range punch and if you take the ammo for it the ATM can perform at all ranges.
The ER Micro’s seem pointless, but if by some Kerensky given chance all six hit the same area, that’s 12 points of damage to a hostile target, which no matter how you look at it, stings. Whilst the 2 has a greater throw weight, its weapon ranges are either very long ranged, all over the shop for the ATM or point blank for the ER Micros so it requires you to be more aggressive with it, pushing forwards to bring all its guns to bare because you actually want to use the ER Micro’s.
And here the Grizzly’s lack of speed gives it problems, it’s a close in Mech (for the most part if you take HE ammo exclusively as the fluff says) that will have issue closing with a hostile, and in a time where more heavies can quite happily trot along at 5/8 your 4/6 Grizzly will have issues trying to corner someone.
But no matter what variant you take, this thing is a bully. It’s a baseball bat of a Mech, its simple, its effective and its easy to use and won’t give you too many problems in terms of performance or reliability. Much like its heavier Sempai, the Bruin.
Taking one on the best bit of advice I can give is go for the arms. A Grizzly has all but its LRM in the arms, and snipping those off will render it largely toothless and of course there’s the potential bonus of a gauss rifle exploding. This goes the same for the 2, remove the arms and you remove the heavy guns but you need to remove the torso’s to strip out the ATM and the majority of the Micro lasers. But otherwise, the Grizzly is a tough old bird that will not go down easily and thanks to its standard engine, it won’t go down fast, so expect to take some licks whilst engaging it. In short the Grizzly hits almost as hard as an Albatross 3U, a Mech 25 tons heavier, so let that be a warning. Its old, it’s got arthritic knees and elbows but the Grizzly WILL maul you if you take it lightly and don’t treat it with the respect it deserves
Bruin – That warm comfortable feel of the familiar.With the Ghost Bears integrating themselves more and more into former Rasalhague space and doing a lot to win over the populace, one of the big things was Mech’s made in the Inner Sphere for use by both the Clan’s Warriors and Absorbed Kungsarmee Soldiers.
This started off with things like the Ursus and Arcas and things looked all rosy. Then there was this little thing called the Jihad which you may have heard of.
When the Bears as their new Dominion decided to finally get involved, they got involved in a BIG way, but it came at a high cost to their Tourman as well as their industrial capacity due to Blakist attacks or sabotage. If it wasn’t for this, its most likely that we’d be seeing a larger family of Dominion made Mechs instead of just flavours on the Ursus and the few other designs that came out before the Jihad.
In the post Jihad Inner Sphere, the Dominion once again turned to rebuilding its strength and making folks in its ‘big happy family’ big, and happy. And whilst this was mostly done with big civic and infrastructure work (with the Bears being the campers that they are). They also turned their eyes on their damaged Mech factories, including the big Bergen plant.
With the factories and their lines rebuilt Mech’s started walking off the lines and into Dominion service, and at their head came a new assault Mech that would serve both True and Freeborn Warriors alike.
DesignThe Bruin (Dutch for Bear) follows the typical Bear/Dominion naming convention, but with the Bear’s quite simply running out of Bear related names, they just started calling their newer Mech’s ‘bear’ in other languages. Hence Kuma, or Karhu.
At 80 tons the Bruin does not set any records for weight but again we can see the Bear’s preferences in its design. A good land speed thanks to its 320 rated XL engine is nicely complemented by a quartet of standard jump jets, allowing for 120 meter leaps. With a max speed of 64kph the Bruin is still as fast as many Spheroid heavies and faster than a fair few assaults.
15 tons of standard plate are fitted to the machine’s skeleton and give it good, if not total protection;
9/24/35/24 (10/14/10)
25/25/32/32
The thick back armour is quite noticeable, perhaps the Bears with their somewhat top heavy Tourman had concerns about backstabbers when designing this Mech.
Before I go on, I must talk about the Bruin’s looks. I think she’s a beautiful machine, none of the cartoonish overstyling of the Ursus family, nor even the carved skull shoulderplates of the Karhu, in fact, there’s naryee a skull to be seen on the design.
Instead what you get is a long legged double knee joint biped with a sleek and angular torso that wouldn’t look out of place on an aerospace fighter design.
Whilst not an Omni Mech the Bruin’s weapons are mostly arm mounted, allowing for easy replacement and all the weapons are familiar, reliable and well known for their output in battle. Flashy new toys the Bruin has none.
VariantsBruin – If you’ve ever driven a Grizzly or a Karhu-A this is going to feel incredibly familiar. The TLDR here is that the Bruin is basically a fat Grizzly, with an increased punch at mid to short range. At the longest of ranges a Bruin can bring its Gauss Rifle and LRM-10 to bear. The Rifle has the standard 2 tons of ammo, giving it adequate if not great endurance and both ammo and rifle sit in the right arm. The Gauss rifle is naturally the Bruin's main punch and gives it the ability to reach out and touch someone, all-be-it at hyper velocity with immense kinetic force. The LRM is mounted in the chest, although the launcher is mounted on a hod-like launcher on the back of the chassis and seems to retract when not firing. Somewhat worryingly the ammo for the LRM is mounted in the chest with it.
As the range drops, the reliable, fearsome , large pulse laser in the Left arm comes to bare. Whilst not the headcapper the ER PPC can be, the LPL is brutally efficient and very long ranged.
A pair of ER Mediums, one in each arm can then join in whilst for barrage work a pair of Streak SRM-4’s who share a single ton of ammo between them can then engage with the launchers being mounted in the left and right torso respectively, seemingly behind folding doors.
This is an improvement on throw weight compaired to the Grizzly or Karhu A but otherwise its near identical with the LRM, Gauss and LPL combo. The main difference being the shorter ranged weapons where the Bruin wins out.
Whilst this weapons mix was decried on the Grizzly for being a jack of all trades master of none mix, it seems to have been accepted on the Karhu A and Bruin. This I think is more a sign of changing times. A Mech needs to be flexible even if it sacrifices raw throw weight.
With fourteen double heatsinks the Bruin is also very forgiving for the inexperienced and you only overheat if you alpha EVERYTHING and everything hits and you run, and even then its not by much. All in all, the Bruin is very easy to use, advance towards enemy and apply firepower depending on what’s in range. Its tough enough to take a pounding and its got adequate speed and the jumping is nice. It’s a nice beef sandwich of a Mech. It is a filling, if somewhat boring design.
Bruin 2 – Showing the Bears had learned from the Jihad the Bruin 2 is designed more with a bent towards opponents who use combined arms (which by 3085 is pretty much everyone not Clan, Horses excluded of course).
To this end the weapons are stripped out and what emerges is a Mech that’s far more happy at mid to short range.
A pair of large pulse lasers and Ultra AC-5’s, (one LPL and an ultra in each arm) give the Mech its main firepower, although the choice of Ultras is strange considering the design would probably be better with LB-5’s to make a mess of vehicles and VTOL’s. Still this firepower is nothing to sniff at, the paired Large pulse can obliterate any fast vehicles or make a light or Medium Mech regret its life choices very quickly. Whilst two tons of ammo does not really permit the Bruin 2 to go nuts with the double rate of fire of the Ultras, it can still reach out and blat someone with them.
Then firepower drops until you get to short range where six machine guns, three in each side torso with a woeful half ton of ammo between all six guns can turn infantry formations into smears. Finally a SRM-2 is buried in the chest along with its ammo. Curiously the TRO said that the ammo for this was usually inferno rounds. This made me think that the Bruin 2 was mainly a Spheroid ride, unless the Bear’s Trueborns have accepted Inferno’s as a necessary evil.
To make room for all this, the designers removed one heatsink but the Bruin 2 is very cool running like its brother and will only overheat if you push it very hard.
ThoughtsThe Bruin is a workman-like Mech, the standard version is almost the definition of Jack of all trades. Its got firepower, if not an overwhelming amount of it, at all ranges. And if you get close, it can deliver a very nasty punch, whilst also being capable of hurting at long to mid range.
The 2 is more a mid to short range fighter and whilst its light on ammo (a typical Bear and Clan trait) its still got a respectable punch and is basically a super Rifleman. And whilst she can mulch fast movers with her large pulsers, and turn infantry into hamburger meat with her six machine guns, she lacks a solid wallop like the standard Bruin, which packs the gauss rifle for power punches.
Either way depending on what one you take, you’re going to get a dependable and solid, if somewhat dull machine.
Their playstyle is also very similar. Advance, open fire when in range and bring more guns into the barrage as the range drops. Seeing as you can run with a fair few IS heavies and outpace quite a few assaults, and the 4 hex jump gives you the ability to avoid nasty terrain, an opponent could have a bit of time trying to avoid a Bruin who wants to get close. Sure, faster Mech’s are a problem, but then the single or paired large pulse lasers make that problem go away.
Fighting one its more a case of being prepared to take a good hard slap or two. You could use inferno’s or plasma to try lessen the fire coming at you but either way, you’re going to have to take a Bruin down the hard way, and you’ll probably take a serious pounding whilst doing so.
For added hijinx deploy a Bruin alongside a Kingfisher and deploy the smug face as they just won’t die.
A Grizzly
Another one
Bruins!
As always thoughts and comments are most welcome!