Author Topic: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor  (Read 29361 times)

Kidd

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Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« on: 29 October 2017, 09:27:52 »
MECH OF THE WEEK: VTR-** VICTOR

Introduction

First of all, my apologies for this late MOTW. As the old Victor is lost to history and a few variants have emerged since, we shall take a look again at this old grand-daddy of a Mech. The Master Unit List entry for the Panther is here.



A Victor 9B, and a Victor 9K or 9D



Victor Steiner-Davion, a Victor pilot.                                                     Chris Hemsworth

The Victor has been around for what feels like all of Battletech history, inside and outside the game. It is 1 of only 4 original 80-ton Assaults (if one discounts the Hatamoto-Chi), and 1 of that 4 is the Charger (sigh). The regular SLDF and House militaries used the Victor extensively, at least a few went on the Exodus, and 3 surviving factories lived to see the Fourth Succession War; Styk and St. Ives for the Liaos, and Quentin for the Davions. (Make a note.)

(Variant flowchart pending)

Variants

VTR-9B – the quintessential Victor, the 9B moves 4/6/4, carries 15 single heat sinks and mounts 11.5 tons of armour (74%) arranged 9, 23/34/23, 10/15/10, 18/18 and 20/20. As a proud member of the ‘Maximum Armour’ school of Mech design, to me this is personally disappointing, beating only the Cyclops and tying with the Zeus in the 3025 lineup of Assault Mechs. (No, the Charger does NOT count!) Weapons comprise 2 medium lasers, SRM-4 with 25 shots, and the Victor’s raison d’etre, AC-20 with 15 shots.

From a design perspective the Victor is actually outside the 75-ton “sweet spot” for 4/6/4 movement on all-standard tech. It is an oversized heavy and should be considered as such. The “natural order” of Mech technology in Level 1 play makes 80 and 85 tonners like the Victor the “assault troopers” and they should be designed and used as such. The Victor’s approach hearkens somewhat back to the Roman legions of old; get in close with those short swords and stab, stab, STAB.

Using the VTR-9B therefore is brute simplicity. You have nothing that hits beyond 9 hexes. You use the jump jets to get up close, put the muzzle against the opponent’s body, and pull the trigger. The AC-20 is not the most efficient of weapons, but you’re in this to make big holes. In 3025, 2 shots to any single location will cripple all but the heaviest of Mechs, so keep firing and pray they strike true. The jumpers will help in broken terrain and to get those juicy back-shots, lasers and SRMs to crit seek or worry off those last few bits of armour.

How does the 9B compare against the other 80-tonners of its time? Not well. Against the LCAF’s equally thin-skinned ZEU-6S Zeus, those jumpjets might offer a certain evasive advantage, but the Victor will still have to suffer from those long guns before it closes in. A close-range slugfest though will see the 9B prevail. The DCMS’s HTM-26T Hatamoto-Chi however has 25% more armour and only a little less firepower; again those PPCs will inflict significant damage and continue to do so at close range. The FWL AWS-8Q Awesome is (surprisingly) the slowest of the four and more of a direct-fire support “turret”. Again the outcome will bank on the Victor getting up close and personal without suffering too much from those PPCs.

Shortly before the 9B were two prior protoyvariants. Frankly I don’t much like to talk about them, but here they are for completeness. Nearly any fiddling that drops armour on a Mech already this thin and short-ranged is a Bad Idea™.

VTR-9A – trades 3 tons of armour for a machine gun and two flamers.

VTR-9A1 – trades 1.5 tons of armour for 2 machine guns. Because they couldn’t even lessen the pain by giving this guy a flamer at the very least. Blah.

VTR-9S – this variant arrived near the turn of the millennium in the LCAF. 1 ton of armour is shaved off to add 2 tubes to the SRM-6. Again, the loss of armour is saddening, but I’ll venture to “explain” this: if you already think of it as a 60-ton lite-Heavy, having Moar Dakka™ is a plus point. And that’s about the best spin I can put on that.

VTR-9D, 9K – the rediscovery of the Helm Memory Core and the introduction of the VTR-9D upgrade coincided with the takeover of the Victor plant on Quentin by the Kuritas. At the same time the Davions bit off another chunk of the Capellan Confederation with the formation of Hong K Taiw the St Ives Compact, so the Capellans got the short end of the stick there. In any case – the Kuritas proceeded to call their version the 9K and the Davions the 9D, and everyone else got confused.

The 9D/9K is (are?) built on endo-steel bones, allowing it to carry 1 more ton of armour (hallelujah!), “upgrade” the medium lasers to medium PULSE lasers (sigh…), and the AC/20 to a Gauss Rifle. This variant is obviously born of a desire to make the Victor a more general-purpose fighter, but only succeeds in pulling the resulting model in 2 separate directions – do you want to stand off and make use of the Gauss’s long-range-headcapping terror? Or do you want to close in to the VTR-9B’s usual gut-stabbing short range, and capitalise on those pulsers? Make up your mind!

Victor C (Clan) – the Clans refitted their Star League surplus for the use of solahma troops. Like the 9D/9K they went the Gauss rifle route, and added Streak and ER upgrades to the secondary armament. This leaves the design both under-armoured AND under-weight by 2 tons, but washed-up solahma and freebirth second-line “warriors” take what they can get, and LIKE IT by Kerensky!

VTR-C – not to be confused with the “Victor C” above, the VTR-C was a (probably Kurita) upgrade to the 9K, taking off 1 heat sink from a somewhat over-sinked design to add a C3 Slave. Of course this is all good, increasing the effectiveness of all onboard firepower.

VTR-10S – in the face of all this and the Fed Com Civil War, naturally the Lyrans began to realise their Victors weren’t cutting the mustard. And this time they were going to make an ASSAULT Mech. Using endo-steel, 10 double heat sinks, an XLFE and deleting those pansy jumpjets maximised payload in best Lyran fashion, and all in aid of one overriding objective: if the 9D put a Gauss on their Victors the Lyrans were going to put TWO, and make one of them BIGGER as well!

In addition to the Gauss Rifle, SRM4, 2 ER Medium lasers and an Anti-Missile System a Heavy Gauss Rifle and 12 rounds give the -10S the ability to Drop Thor’s Hammer from most any range with epic fragging consequences, though best at 3 to 13 hexes. In the hands of a good Lyran Mechwarrior the 10S is a killer, and the motto as with almost everything mounting multiple Gauss rifles is Stand and Deliver. But the lack of CASE for any of its very explodey crits also means the 10S is relatively fragile, despite mounting 13 tons of standard armour, and critting it to death is eminently doable.

VTR-10D – very obviously based on the 9B, but borrowing the armour layout of the Lyran 10S, the 10D is produced by Fed Suns conglomerate GM on New Valencia. One would not be wrong to call this a “baseline” upgrade of the VTR-9B to 3060 standards, retaining all the original armament but upgrading them to their advanced versions – 2 ER Medium lasers, a Streak SRM-4, and an Ultra AC/20 with a staggering 6-ton ammo bin in a CASE-d right torso. 12 double heat sinks make the 10D a de facto alpha baby.

Much like the original 9B, the 10D is unimaginative but brutally simplistic – get into range and tape down that Ultra’s triggers. You have the ammo, use it up. A standard engine and that CASE makes this guy more survivable than a 10S, though in practice this only means that it will probably survive a catastrophic ammo hit long enough to withdraw off the field.

VTR-11D – shortly on the heels of the 10D, the Davions decided to get fancy. Armed with the Light Fusion Engine plans they created a more obviously Davion version, probably as much to thumb their noses at the Lyran 10S as anything else – remember, this was at the height of the Fed Com Civil War. 14.5 tons of armour makes me very very happy. The Streak SRM-4 remains as-is, but the ER Medium lasers are now ER Large lasers and replacing the Victor autocannon with that classic Davion weapon, the RAC-5. 3 tons of RAC ammo, 15 double heat sinks and a C3 Slave lay the mascarpone frosting on this alpha-baby Cheesecake… which is about the only negative thing one can really have against it.

VTR-10L – over 3 decades after the Capellan Confederation suffered the indignity of losing BOTH their Victor factories to Hong K Taiw the St Ives Compact, House Liao got its own back while the Federated Commonwealth was distracted by the acrimonious divorce proceedings then ongoing. The result is Liao’s own take on an upgraded Victor, a very capable machine designed according to the new sneaky-beaky doctrine of the CCAF.

Based off the VTR-9B but with obvious influence from the 9D, the 10L keeps the Gauss Rifle, adds a third ER Medium Laser and two more tubes to the SRM launcher, and as much newfangled stealth armour as the Victor can carry. With all-standard structural components and no more than 10 double heat sinks, its obvious that the watchword here is efficiency and simplicity, and IMHO, the Liaos do deliver.

VTR-Cr – with an introduction date of 3069 this variant might well be the very first Mech to carry a C3 Boosted Slave… unless it is a typo for 3079, which is quite likely as all other C3 Boosted Mechs I can find date no earlier than the late 3070s. Then again, with its dearth of useful equipment it might be that this is THE designation for the prototype machines used to trial the C3 Boosted system – with a High Velocity AC/10, standard medium lasers, a Streak SRM-4 and 14 standard heat sinks, one can imagine that this was nothing more than a test model perhaps pressed desperately into service when the Word of Blake attacked New Avalon.

VTR-9Ka – chronologically the last Victor variant, the 9Ka too smacks of the desperation of the Jihad. Using the 9B as the baseline model, it strips all weaponry to mount 5 Improved Jump Jets, a single medium laser, and double the AC/20’s ammunition bin to enable carrying alternate munitions such as Precision and Armour-Piercing ammo. Players who want all the flavour of monkey models and the ravages of the Jihad are welcome to take this one out against the C3i-equipped cybernetic hordes of the Master, and I mean that in the best possible way – this model is I imagine something like what a Ghost or Night Stalkers regiment might have thrown together in the face of Toaster-worshippers and Black Dragon traitors, and now you know the 9Ka’s gone all the way out through Yucks to So Bad It’s Good territory in my review book.

There are no further models of Victor. A 3145 Victor, to be frank, is called a Lu Wei Bing, and there’s a MOTW article for that here.

Custom Models

VTR-9B (Shoji) – the closest we’ll get to a Royal Victor, this custom of a Benjamin Regulars regiment commander maxes out armour (seyla!), carries an AC/10 with 20 shots, 3 medium pulse lasers, leaves the SRM-4 untouched, and mounts 10 double heat sinks. Perfectly serviceable through to the Jihad, where the availability of alternate ammo for the AC and SRM both further increases its potential.

VTR-9B (Li) – another DCMS regimental CO’s custom, this model takes a standard 9B and mounts an LRM-15, TEN medium lasers in place of the AC/20, and an absolutely inadequate 19 heat sinks. I have no words for this, other than that if hot-shot there wants to ride the lightning volcano, then by all means.

VTR-9K2 (James) – the story behind this variant is right out of a Hollywood Holovid. Fitted out with a Supercharger to hit speeds of 4/6(8)/0, 2 medium X-pulse lasers and a sawn-off Long Tom Cannon (that is, not the howitzer artillery version), this Victor is the heavily-modded vehicle for one retired colonel’s Roaring Rampage of Revenge™. Its painted a cool matte-black. All its really missing is a white skull on the chest, maybe a cool motto, like “I am Benedict St. James, Colonel of the Syrtis Fusiliers, loyal servant of the Federated Suns, father of a murdered son, and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.” Except with its use as a civilian-killing murder machine, this story is more of a Tarantino than a Russell Crowe vehicle, so perhaps we’ll find Samuel L. Jackson as its Chief Tech, and Christoph Waltz lurking somewhere…

Notable Pilots

As a mobile heavy with the biggest, most badass gun in 3025, the VTR-9B Victor saw plenty of page time as the chosen Assault Mech of Grayson Carlyle, Patrick Kell, and yes Victor Steiner-Davion – the man had no shame, or taste.

Lori Kalmar-Carlyle had her late husband’s ride upgraded to the VTR-9K/9D standard, and the machine was destroyed at the end of The Dying Time, and she was killed while on foot shortly after.

General Belle Lee, Devlin Stones right-hand woman and CO of Stone’s Lament piloted a Victor, probably a 10D or 11D, but it might be fun to imagine how it might have been tricked out if one is so inclined. Given the enemy, ECM is almost a must IMHO.

Final Thoughts

In 3025, and Level 1 play, technology was sufficiently ‘low’ to force compromises, and so where the 9B might be mediocre, there is instead latitude for a little risky play. The pant-crapping, jaw-dropping firepower of that AC/20 coupled with the jump jets gave it an excitement sufficient to turn it into a Hero Mech more palatable than the plodding Awesome and Atlas.

The 3060s-era models too are decent enough, but bland, downgrading the Victor to a filler mook for an Assault lance, though they serve well enough in this role. Hence oddly enough, my favourite upgraded variants are the flavourful Improved Jump Jet-equipped 9Ka, and the brutal double-tapping 10D which basically replicates the 9B in the modern era.

What do you think?
« Last Edit: 29 October 2017, 10:23:32 by Kidd »

Scotty

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #1 on: 29 October 2017, 12:02:25 »
MECH OF THE WEEK: VTR-** VICTOR

Introduction

First of all, my apologies for this late MOTW. As the old Victor is lost to history and a few variants have emerged since, we shall take a look again at this old grand-daddy of a Mech. The Master Unit List entry for the Panther is here.

This made me do an amused double-take.

I'm not a huge fan of the Victor.  The epitome of its role, at least later in life, is instead the Lu Wei Bing.  That said, the concept of "One big gun, backed up by an array of much smaller secondary weapons on a mobile jumping assault" is one that I'm a very big fan of.
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #2 on: 29 October 2017, 13:04:32 »
Teddy Kurita briefly piloted a Victor after swapping rides during the War of 39, though as the point was that the FedCom troops didn't realize he was in it, he may not count as a notable pilot.
« Last Edit: 29 October 2017, 15:16:30 by MoneyLovinOgre4Hire »
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garhkal

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #3 on: 29 October 2017, 14:20:16 »
This made me do an amused double-take.

I'm not a huge fan of the Victor.  The epitome of its role, at least later in life, is instead the Lu Wei Bing.  That said, the concept of "One big gun, backed up by an array of much smaller secondary weapons on a mobile jumping assault" is one that I'm a very big fan of.

And every time i have used a victor, it has done that role well!

The 9B and 10D are my two faves but i would have loved seeing a version that went to 5/8 (10 with masc)...  and got rid of the jump jets.
Never used the 9A or 9AI, or 9S, but did on occasion use the 9D/K (the gauss version).   Seemed to no longer be a victor to me.

Loved the VTR-C with the slave, and had many a good run with them in my playing with C3 lances.. 

Most of the rest of the versions, either never used or never knew of.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #4 on: 29 October 2017, 14:34:15 »
One of my favorite assault mechs.

I used to love them in Level-1 play where I would take apart Awesomes in close with the AC20.


I only ever field the 9B base model as the Introtech variants all kinda suck.

The upgraded models on the other had are an interesting mix of love/hate.

My favorites would be the 9B(c), the C, the 9B (Shoji), 10D, 10L, & finally the 11D which I don't actually like because of the LFE but do find it works well at C3 enhanced direct fire support.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #5 on: 29 October 2017, 14:55:43 »
i don't know.. the VTR-9S isn't too bad. i agree the -9A and -9A1 suck. the -9A trades way too much protection for minimal real gain. the -9A1 isn't quite as bad, but since it only gains 2 MGs, i'm not sure it is worth it. at least the -9S gains a bit better SRM power. (and really, the whole "anti-infantry mod" thing is such a case of "early installment weirdness" now. at the time only SRM2's could carry infernos, but now all non-streak SRM racks can, so a better mod for anti-infantry use would be an extra ton of ammo to carry some inferno's.)





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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #6 on: 29 October 2017, 15:04:46 »
True, it is the best of the variant models, but I think I'd rather just use the 9B & field infernos as my only ammo.
I don't like touching the Armor levels.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #7 on: 29 October 2017, 15:22:39 »
I don't like touching the Armor levels.

Especially since they're quite low for an assault 'Mech in this case.


I like the VTR-9B, but I don't love it; I use it exclusively nowadays as part of my Cannery Attack Lance, a canon element of the 10th Marik Militia.  VTR-9B, CGR-1A5, BNC-3Q, and an BLR-1G (Or Hunchback if I need to save mass/BV).  For a whole lot of hole-ripping pain charging your way.

They key, I find, is making sure the Victor is accompanied by something just as scary -- if not scarier -- so it can avoid being focus-fired.  It's not tough enough in most circumstances to survive a lot of ranging fire on its way in, so either a distraction unit that is tough enough is warranted, or you better have plenty of terrain on the board to foul sight lines and add defensive modifiers.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #8 on: 29 October 2017, 15:43:16 »
They key, I find, is making sure the Victor is accompanied by something just as scary -- if not scarier -- so it can avoid being focus-fired.  It's not tough enough in most circumstances to survive a lot of ranging fire on its way in, so either a distraction unit that is tough enough is warranted, or you better have plenty of terrain on the board to foul sight lines and add defensive modifiers.
so Victor -9B and 3x Awesome's? (or worse.. thunderhawks?)

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #9 on: 29 October 2017, 15:55:30 »
No actually.  You have to maintain a similar target profile. Being scary isn't enough, it has to be scary and take up target priority that would otherwise go to the VTR-9B.  Like in my big-gun assault lance, the CGR-1A5 and BNC-3Q are better armored (and the Charger carries more guns), so they usually draw more fire than the Victor.  If a VTR-9B is charging you and trip-AWS-8Qs are in the back providing fire support, sure, I'll direct my PPCs and LRMs and AC/5s at the Awesomes. . . but all of my mid- and close-range weapons are pointing solely at the Victor.  It'll survive to land a few shots in a situation like that, but it doesn't have the staying power to survive any longer than that.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #10 on: 29 October 2017, 16:06:11 »
No actually.  You have to maintain a similar target profile. Being scary isn't enough, it has to be scary and take up target priority that would otherwise go to the VTR-9B.  Like in my big-gun assault lance, the CGR-1A5 and BNC-3Q are better armored (and the Charger carries more guns), so they usually draw more fire than the Victor.  If a VTR-9B is charging you and trip-AWS-8Qs are in the back providing fire support, sure, I'll direct my PPCs and LRMs and AC/5s at the Awesomes. . . but all of my mid- and close-range weapons are pointing solely at the Victor.  It'll survive to land a few shots in a situation like that, but it doesn't have the staying power to survive any longer than that.

What about pairing up three Victors with a single fire support design? Overwhelm the enemy's target priorities by having a trio of equally scary close range designs bearing down on them. Sure, they could focus fire and take one down to improve the odds, but that would mean leaving the other two virtually untouched and in range of their big guns.  }:)

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #11 on: 29 October 2017, 17:00:18 »
Which is what I do with my mixed lance.  I try not to repeat 'Mechs in a lance -- as much sense as it makes logistically, it flies in the face of established canon circa 3rd Succession War and on -- and by sticking four big-gun 'Mechs in one lance I'm guaranteeing that at least some of them will arrive to deliver their payload.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #12 on: 29 October 2017, 17:07:57 »
No actually.  You have to maintain a similar target profile. Being scary isn't enough, it has to be scary and take up target priority that would otherwise go to the VTR-9B.  Like in my big-gun assault lance, the CGR-1A5 and BNC-3Q are better armored (and the Charger carries more guns), so they usually draw more fire than the Victor.  If a VTR-9B is charging you and trip-AWS-8Qs are in the back providing fire support, sure, I'll direct my PPCs and LRMs and AC/5s at the Awesomes. . . but all of my mid- and close-range weapons are pointing solely at the Victor.  It'll survive to land a few shots in a situation like that, but it doesn't have the staying power to survive any longer than that.

Odd.  I would have guessed that most people would focus fire on the easier to kill AC-20 (that being the Victor) first.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #13 on: 29 October 2017, 18:20:37 »
I don't mind using the old AC20 Victor, though the fact that it was only very moderately better than the Hunchback made it seem like pretty bad value so I'm generally pretty reluctant to select it if I've got a choice.  The jets are the main bonus, and only then in the right sort of terrain, or if you need to try and close and can't just set and ambush and wait for your enemy to come to you.  But, since the Hunchback is very good, being better still makes it a pretty quality mech, even if it's possibly bad value, and every now and then you get to jump into some fool's back arc and put an AC20 slug into their ass.

I've used the 10D a few times, and I quite like it.  I don't mind it as a big bully, since it's got enough ammo that you can afford take shots at lights and mediums, and have that chance to just rip them in half with a double tap.  But, it can bring down whatever.

As to the GR models, I've taken them a few times in St Ives/CC forces, but there are enough other good GR mechs out there that I nearly never default to it, unless I'm trying to find an excuse to get a GR assault in a lesser, lower tech type unit. 

And lastly, it is frightening how much that CCG picture of Victor looks like Hemsworth.  If they ever did a movie for BattleTech (a pipe dream I know) he wouldn't be such a poor choice...
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #14 on: 29 October 2017, 19:47:36 »
Whats funny is that my Warhammer was just decapitated by a Victor just prior to it getting cored in today's game.

The Victor is probably one of the better intro tech AC/20 platforms and continues to be deadly in any close combat scenario. The Victor Li is also surprisingly effective in 3025 games (as long you don't alpha strike)

Also, I had a friend named Victor who like the Victor for obvious reasons. Cant knock VSD choice of mech after that. 
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #15 on: 29 October 2017, 23:12:40 »
I don't mind using the old AC20 Victor, though the fact that it was only very moderately better than the Hunchback made it seem like pretty bad value so I'm generally pretty reluctant to select it if I've got a choice.  The jets are the main bonus, and only then in the right sort of terrain, or if you need to try and close and can't just set and ambush and wait for your enemy to come to you.  But, since the Hunchback is very good, being better still makes it a pretty quality mech, even if it's possibly bad value, and every now and then you get to jump into some fool's back arc and put an AC20 slug into their ass.

I've used the 10D a few times, and I quite like it.  I don't mind it as a big bully, since it's got enough ammo that you can afford take shots at lights and mediums, and have that chance to just rip them in half with a double tap.  But, it can bring down whatever.

As to the GR models, I've taken them a few times in St Ives/CC forces, but there are enough other good GR mechs out there that I nearly never default to it, unless I'm trying to find an excuse to get a GR assault in a lesser, lower tech type unit. 

And lastly, it is frightening how much that CCG picture of Victor looks like Hemsworth.  If they ever did a movie for BattleTech (a pipe dream I know) he wouldn't be such a poor choice...
You'd just have to do a lot of forced perspective shots. 
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #16 on: 30 October 2017, 00:49:02 »
You mean like what they didn't do with Hugh Jackman so he could play Wolverine?

Seriously, if they got Chris Hemsworth to sign on to a Battletech movie as Victor SD, few people would complain about how overly tall his is for the role.
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garhkal

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #17 on: 30 October 2017, 02:16:19 »
Odd.  I would have guessed that most people would focus fire on the easier to kill AC-20 (that being the Victor) first.

Well, its a damned if you do, damned if you don't kind of situation.   Go for the big Dakka of the AC-20 bearing down on you, OR focus fire on the trip PPC's or Paired Gauss rifles..   

Quote
As to the GR models, I've taken them a few times in St Ives/CC forces, but there are enough other good GR mechs out there that I nearly never default to it, unless I'm trying to find an excuse to get a GR assault in a lesser, lower tech type unit. 

That's a valid point Mongoose, there are already quite a few GR carriers, some even paired Grs..  So there's not much reason to go with the GR victor, UNLESS you just want nothing BUT GR's going downrange..
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Jellico

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #18 on: 30 October 2017, 03:34:37 »
You mean like what they didn't do with Hugh Jackman so he could play Wolverine?

Seriously, if they got Chris Hemsworth to sign on to a Battletech movie as Victor SD, few people would complain about how overly tall his is for the role.
Use Luke Hemsworth.


marauder648

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #19 on: 30 October 2017, 03:37:09 »
Excellent article about the Victor :) Nice bits of humor and I didn't realise there was so many variants, and trust the Lyrans to put a Gauss AND a heavy gauss on it :p  And yes VSD does really look like Mr Hemsworth :D
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MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #20 on: 30 October 2017, 11:41:29 »
That's a valid point Mongoose, there are already quite a few GR carriers, some even paired Grs..  So there's not much reason to go with the GR victor, UNLESS you just want nothing BUT GR's going downrange..

Or you're playing Kurita during Operation REVIVAL, don't want a Cyclops, and can't justify or don't have the BV to run an Atlas.
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Fat Guy

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #21 on: 30 October 2017, 14:17:34 »
Back in the day when all the 'Mechs were in BattleTech Reinforcements 1, I used to like running the Victor and Awesome as a tag team - and usually had great success with it.
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garhkal

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #22 on: 30 October 2017, 14:23:51 »
Or you're playing Kurita during Operation REVIVAL, don't want a Cyclops, and can't justify or don't have the BV to run an Atlas.

OR as a lancemate to stalkers and archers..
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glitterboy2098

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #23 on: 30 October 2017, 14:49:01 »
my favorite memory of using a Victor was in the last Martial Olympiad (in both senses of the world "last")
if you remember, it was the solaris VII themed one.
it was the first round, the "light category", and we got the Steiner Arena in full chaos mode. my opponent had, iirc, a strider, a LCT-3D LRM locust, and a couple other high BV lights. (i forget what all he brought.) he'd basically assumed that "light category" meant "light mechs".. but all it really meant was we had limited BV to work with.
my force was a VTR-6B, a PHX-1, a SLDF Mongoose, and IIRC a Wasp.
the look on the guy's face when i put that Victor mini out, and he realized i wasn't proxying.
the battle was a pretty one sided fight.. his stuff was all long ranged stuff, stuff with no armor to speak of, or both..

the Victor was the real MVP in that match, taking down nearly his entire force (aside from the -3D Locust, which was just too fast to catch.. the Mongoose took that one down.)

Luciora

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #24 on: 30 October 2017, 16:43:43 »
Where are the stats for the Lyran beast?  Inquiring modder minds want to know!
« Last Edit: 30 October 2017, 19:12:40 by Luciora »

MoneyLovinOgre4Hire

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #25 on: 30 October 2017, 17:21:57 »
The 10S?  Record Sheets 3050 Upgrade unabridged Inner Sphere
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Sjhernan3060

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #26 on: 31 October 2017, 12:47:52 »
I am surprised the victor c is so tame... Any clan custom mods that appeared in cannon?

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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #27 on: 31 October 2017, 14:55:17 »
That's because the Victor C was one of the slapped-together and intentionally sucky Clan refit mechs that we got before the IIC and other Second Line mechs in TRO 3055 were revealed.
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #28 on: 31 October 2017, 15:39:09 »
It's for giving a Clan force an assault-weight unit without actually giving them something as monstrous as a Clan Assault Mech...
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Re: Mech of the Week: VTR-** Victor
« Reply #29 on: 31 October 2017, 15:49:50 »
i kinda wish they'd go through and rework the early "C" refits to avoid the underweight problem. in the Victor "C" case, they could easily have just tacked on a few extra tons of ammo, or an ECM, or something small like that. (or made the lasers CMPL's and upped the SRM to a SSRM6..)

 

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