I hate all of you.
Recognition Guide: IlClan Volume 24
Elemental III [AP Gauss]: Did you forget there were Elementals in this book? So did I! The Elemental III is an odd one, in the sense that I think that it is worse than the Fire Elemental because the Fire Elemental is outright immune to the most common killer of battle armor in the game in the form of Infernos, which is a capability so good that it is practically priceless. That said, I find the Elemental III to be significantly more interesting. Battle armor capabilities haven't been discussed in any detail whatsoever in this series so far, so this is going to be a very basic overview. The Elemental III suit has 1 ground MP and 3 jump MP, and given that infantry of any kind do not suffer attacker movement penalties, the use of jump MP is the only thing you should ever, ever be doing outside of the very specific case of using ground MP to enter a building. Protecting the operator are 10 points of Basic Stealth Armor, which means it takes 11 points of damage to destroy the suit as a combat element, a very important threshold to meet. A single Clan ER Large is not going to do it, and is probably the most significant damage break point you can hit until 15 points of armor (which is impossible on a Medium battle armor). Weapons include a one-shot Advanced SRM-2 and an AP Gauss. Advanced SRMs are battle armor exclusive, and they occupy a sort of middle ground between Clan SRMs and Streak SRMs. They lack Streak capability, but they have the extended 4/8/12 range brackets. The AP Gauss Rifle needs no introduction and is very nearly the best thing you can put on a suit of battle armor, period. Finally, there's a battle claw to allow it to hitch rides on friendly Omnis, or on very unfriendly enemy units. Anti-Mech attacks are too complex to go into in this review, but while the Elemental is not the most dangerous battle armor at that distance neither is it a slouch, and left unhindered will absolutely carve up anything they get their claws on. Battle armor do not interact with heat as a concept. The BV of a point of five suits is 532, and for that you get an offensive output that is capable but not likely to force a PSR against a 'Mech that strays into punishing distance, absolutely heinous against infantry, is durable enough to have to require significant effort to remove, is harder to hit even than average battle armor, is mobile enough to not be considered part of the terrain, all on top of being adorable and you've got something worth taking. I'm in particular a big fan of Elementals because they are the single fastest way to drive down the average BV of your force outside of taking introtech bug 'Mechs. No one expects you to show up with a full Nova at 10K BV. No one. A
Elemental III [Flamer]: The AP Gauss is the king of battle armor weapons. The Small Laser was a good weapon when the concepts were first introduced back in the early 90s, and against a Small Laser the Flamer is a reasonable trade-off. Here it's just worse. Worse does mean cheaper, though, and if you intend to use your battle armor offensively with fast carriers, cheap is very good for driving your hit numbers down to make them more effective for the same cost. This time it's 357 for the full point, over a third cheaper. It's arguably still worth it to pay for the extra, but this has promise. I will take the opportunity to go over a small part of the anti-Mech rules, though, which is that a Swarm attack, if successful, inflicts a crit regardless of the damage done. This means that if you're feeling particularly spiteful or vindictive, you can bring this point in order to turn up the heat of your target while still getting the spiciest benefit of a Swarm. You won't do hardly any damage to the armor that way, but at that point you're not really trying to, and you do have the choice to attempt to do damage next time anyway, assuming the Swarm continues. C+
Elemental III [MicroPL]: The AP Gauss renders the Small Laser obsolete one way, the Micro Pulse Laser does it the other. With the same 1/2/3 range as a battle armor Small Laser, the same 3 damage, and a -2 to hit at all ranges, this is just better. It also continues to do decent things to infantry, like the AP Gauss. This is the option for if you want to be up close and personal, but also still be doing damage. In that sense, the Elemental III has a generalist config (AP Gauss), a close combat specialist config (MicroPL), and a technical/support config (Flamer). That's enough variety that each has a use case, though some are more useful than others, without wearing out its welcome. Good stuff. The BV of a point of five is 434, offering a nice middle ground and being still worth taking, especially compared to the original Elementals. B
Skinwalker Prime: hoooooo boy, here we go. The Skinwalker is essentially a Stormcrow that uses an Interface cockpit to go without a gyro, and simultaneously benefit from improved skills and free up mass from the gyro. There's a bit of trade-off with the Interface cockpit being heavier, but the net result is at least one extra free ton, and I think it might actually be two. That tonnage has gone directly into the armor here, by using Ferro-Lamellor to have the absolute best general protection it is possible to have at 55 tons without slowing down from 6/9. I can't go without explaining the Interface Cockpit any longer, so here we go. In exchange for an additional cockpit slot (both 3 and 4 on the head table), the Interface Cockpit removes the gyro entirely and even if the gyro were still present damaging it would do nothing. Any ammo explosion pilot hits and any pilot hits from the head being hit are ignored. Life support crits can still happen and can still cause damage, and any time the Interface Cockpit takes a hit the pilot takes two hits and the PA(L) suit they're wearing takes a point of damage to the armor. Yes, you read that right, they're wearing a PA(L) in there. This does not appear to be reflected on the record sheet, and I would simply assume that it has the maximum two points of armor. In addition to this already damn good set of benefits, the pilot also gets a -1 bonus to both gunnery and piloting skills. This benefit is 'baked in' to the cost of the unit. Since a pilot also requires EI in order to use this Interface Cockpit, that means that the 'net' skill of a Skinwalker is -2/-2. You do still have to pay the BV cost for a pilot with EI, though, so in order to play the cost of the record sheet as printed, you bring a 5/6 MechWarrior, the EI augments them to 4/5 (and you pay for the 4/5), and then the bonus from the Interface Cockpit means you're playing a net 3/4 pilot but paying the 4/5 price. Skinwalker configs tend to look pretty similar to Stormcrow configs, and the ones that are directly similar enough are generally as much more expensive as a skill increase would be, so this is "fair" in the sense that the cost isn't outrageously cheap. To put that again more plainly, when you are playing a 2809 BV Skinwalker Prime, you are playing a 3/4 pilot for every practical purpose. Whew. There's that out of the way. The Prime is good. It's very good. We have the 6/9 max Ferro-Lamellor frame, and then we stick two Large Pulse Lasers, two Medium Pulse Lasers, and two SRM 6s with two tons of ammo into it. For those of you keeping track at home, we crammed a 5/6 pilot full of EI, then into this 'Mech, and they're shooting at things starting at base number of ONE. Good grief. There are some downsides here, the side torsos have a ton of ammo each, not a lot of crits to pad it, and standard CASE so if you take a hit there your pilot may not fry but half your 'Mech stops working. Not having a gyro means that a bunch of heat sinks are jammed in the center torso and I can't help but think that's actually a weird downside for this config. Thirteen doubles is more than enough at long range where you'll be ice-cold (-4) at a run, while up close you can mix and match any combination of two 4 heat guns to be +4 at a run, drop them both to be back to neutral, or drop one LPL and fire all four of them to be at +2 at a run. Neat, relatively intuitive, high up-time. I mentioned the BV above is 2809, and that's a lot for a Medium, but you're also paying for a skill upgrade out the gate. Comparing it to the equivalent 4/5 you'd be looking at around 2400 or so, which is still high but considering the protection is on the good end of things. It's the full package. No weaknesses. A-
Skinwalker A: Do you look at a Skinwalker and feel like you're not getting enough bonuses out of the Interface Cockpit? Welcome to the Skinwalker A! Two ER Large Lasers, four ER Medium Lasers, and six ER Small Lasers make this a lot of damage going downrange at any given time in very bite-size and configurable heat chunks, and there's a Targeting Computer jammed in the center torso to boot. Sixteen doubles is not enough to handle this much heat, and is simultaneously too much at long range (-6 at a run). Up close things heat up, though, adding two ER Mediums for a +4, and as the range closes to 9-10 hexes you can open up with one ER Large and all four ER Mediums for +2 at a run. As the range closes within 5 hexes, all ten short range lasers can fire at a net +2 while running. Any number of Small Lasers can be added or dropped to fine-tune heat at that point, and the amount of damage it puts out is ridiculous. Which it better be, because at 3500 BV it's honestly still too expensive. It's more durable than a Stormcrow, it's not that much more durable, and this config is genuinely too high to be considered a reasonable deal. It's... well honestly it's still good, but it's merely good. B-
Skinwalker B: Three Improved Heavy Medium Lasers, an LB-20X, and an ECM Suite is a very rude package to cram into one of these things. The arms house all four weapons, the right torso has all three tons of ammo and CASE II, and the left torso also sneaks in a Supercharger to make this version 6/9[12] for maximum disrespect to your opponents. The arms can flip, too, so the angle is easier to set up than ever. Firing all weapons and running is +3 heat, and I don't think I need to describe how to use this magnificent wrecking ball. The BV is downright reasonable for the hyper-efficient murderer that the Stormcrow C wishes it could be at 2851. This is the 'Mech you take if your opponent has started hiding in woods with Warhawks. There is absolutely nothing that a Warhawk, of any stripe, can do to prevent this little monstrosity from carving it to pieces, outside of get very lucky and headcap at range. That's it. A
Skinwalker C: The next time you hear one of your friends describe anything - literally anything - as "munchy", I want you to show them this record sheet. The Skinwalker C puts four Clan ER Medium Lasers, an ATM 9 (three tons ammo), and an Inner Sphere Plasma Rifle (two tons ammo) on this frame and includes a Clan Targeting Computer for maximum efficiency. The Plasma Rifle is one of maybe two concepts in the game where the Inner Sphere delivered a superior product to the Clantech equivalent, and the response to it has been to take it for whatever depraved ideas need that little bit of extra malice included. This is a lot of damage, it is very accurate, and one of the only downsides is the three tons of ATM ammo have only standard CASE. There are 12 double heat sinks, which struggle at times but can handle all four ER Mediums plus the ATM at a run for +4 heat. Two ER Mediums can be swapped for the Plasma Rifle at any time, as can the ATM and one ER Medium. I have derided toolkit weapons in previous entries, and it's worth mentioning that if you add the Plasma Rifle at a run you get to the exactly wrong +14 heat. One ER Medium for one heat sink would be damn near perfect here. As is, it's a bit more expensive than it should be at 3175. This prevents it from literally lighting the world on fire, but while I'm going to harp on the cost again it really has to be said that the base frame of this Omni is so thoroughly good that even the shitty configs are still solidly Good 'Mechs. B
Skinwalker D: And then you get this monstrosity. Behold, one of the best 'Mechs in the entire game. Four Improved Heavy Medium Lasers, an Ultra AC/10 with three tons of ammo, Watchdog CEWS, and CASE II everywhere it matters. Outside of the unlikely but still technically possible catastrophic jam early, there are no circumstances in which this 'Mech is removed from play without having to scrape and claw at every part of it. It has an Ultra AC/10 in the center torso for crying out loud. Eat your heart out, Mackie. Fourteen doubles is enough to fire all four iHMLs at a run for +2. One iHML can be dropped in order to add the UAC, either single for -2 heat or double for +1. You have enough ammo to fire on bad numbers all day, though I'd still keep the ultra shots for lower numbers just in case. You pay 2545 for this, which is some kind of crime, I'm sure of it. BV Evasion, or something. It's fast, it's tough, it puts out sixty points of damage on good numbers. It probes, it has ECM. It's cheaper than most Clan Heavy Omnis. It's disgusting. I'll take three. S+
Skinwalker E: This config adds jump jets to go 6/9/6, and then spends the rest of the tonnage on an ER PPC with Capacitor and a Gauss Rifle with two tons of ammo. Base 10 doubles doesn't have any heat troubles, whether you're using the capacitor or not, though you can technically heat up again if you try very hard for a while by jumping max distance and firing ER PPC and Gauss every turn. This config does not do enough damage for its price tag at 3102. It's not terrible like it would be with a slow heavy with heat issues, but it's still not great. I remain unconvinced by Clan ER PPCs with Capacitors. Every single one of them has felt like a waste of BV, usually a couple hundred at a time. C+
Skinwalker F: Who let this Stormwolf in here? This config goes 6/9[12] with three ER Medium Lasers, a RAC/5 with three tons of ammo, Laser AMS, and a Targeting Computer. The RAC ammo is protected by CASE II in the right torso. I joke that this is a Stormwolf, but then it's almost as fast (with no jump, admittedly), much tougher, has more firepower, its firepower is located better (all weapons in flippable arms), and it's comparatively firing pulse versions of everything the Stormwolf Prime has. Twelve doubles don't struggle even if the Laser AMS triggers, at +3 when running and firing the RAC at nominal RoF (5 shots), making it better at heat efficiency, too. It's honestly kind of funny to compare this to a Stormwolf Prime, and see everything that a Stormwolf Prime could have been and then... wasn't. Except the BV, that's very firmly in Stormwolf territory in a bad way, at 3704. That's way too much, and it's genuinely enough to make the rating here sink low enough to drop all the way down into "average". C
Grand Dragon DRG-12K: And now we get to the weird part of the guide, since there are two three-unit spreads and that results in a lot of record sheets that have little to no overlap with each other. This Grand Dragon is fast for a Heavy at 6/9[12] and like any muscle car this makes me respect it and wish I could own one. More seriously, this is reasonably well armored, albeit lacking a bit in the leg department, and has a weapons suite that's extremely solid. There's a Clan ER PPC, Clan Medium Pulse Lasers forward and rear, and a Clan LRM 10 with two tons of ammo. The ammo is protected by CASE II, which given that this 'Mech has an IS XL Engine to make all of this stuff fit is a big deal. Fourteen double heat sinks all fit in the engine and leave this design well-oversinked if you're only firing in one direction at a time (-3 at a run). That, plus the higher than average for its size rear armor indicates that this is a 'Mech that really wants to be in it, and the rear facing weapon being a Clan MPL means that much more than most 'Mechs, this one can actually handle being there. The BV is high at 2265, but you can leverage the speed for some significant advantage in matchups against more traditional heavies, and your guns are accurate and dangerous. I've wanted to play worse. B
Flashman FLS-10E: I choose to believe that this 'Mech was designed late enough in the Recognition Guide release schedule that the designer could see what was causing me physical pain, and doubled down on most of it in this 'Mech. First, the speed. At 5/8[10], I cringe every time I look. It's not 5/8[10]/5, at least, so things could definitely have been worse. Second, the weapons. We have three Clan ER Large Lasers, five Clan ER Medium Lasers (four forward one rear), a Clan ER Small Laser, an Inner Sphere AMS with one ton of ammo(?) that at least has the decency to be protected by CASE II in the right torso. The engine is a Clan XL Engine, which is enough to fit 18 Inner Sphere double heat sinks that managed to work well with an obvious bracket set up with the guns. The three ER Larges at a run at range are decent (+2, +3 if the AMS triggers), while up close you can switch two ER Larges for four ER Mediums and the ER Small and be heat neutral (+1 if the AMS triggers). Drop the ER Small if necessary to avoid heat buildup, and swap back to an additional ER Large if you need the additional accuracy or ten point hit. Protection is provided by a lot of Reflective armor providing very near to maximum coverage, and when I remember the 5/8[10] movement curve part of me deep inside starts weeping. This weeping intensifies when I mention that this 'Mech costs 3349 BV, and I go to drown my sorrows in a stiff drink. C-
Stalker STK-9F: There are very few things that make up for not being able, at all, to generate a +2 TMM. This version of the Stalker... probably isn't it. It comes close, don't get me wrong, but the sad truth is that when something moves that slow, it has to be able to respond to anything. The reason this variant can't generate a +2 TMM is the spritely movement speed of 3/4, thanks to a generous slabbing of Hardened Armor. It's a lot, and genuinely enough to showcase the benefits of using it. On a small map, in this case "small" being defined as a couple mapsheets, it's still a good take. Anything larger than that and you should leave this at home. Which is convenient, because it will probably still be there or close by when you get back. More to the point, this variant has a Light Fusion Engine to make everything work, and crams a lot of mixed tech onto the Stalker frame. Paired Clan Large Pulse Lasers and Clan LRM 10s make for a very good Reach Out And Touch Someone long range punch, while two Clan SRM 6s and four Inner Sphere Medium Lasers keep the short range fort held down. An IS Targeting Computer makes everything even more accurate. There's also a Clan Light Active Probe here for... some reason, I guess. Two tons of ammo for each launcher are split between left and right torso, with CASE II protecting both. Thanks to 13 double heat sinks, at range all four long range guns plus a run is +4 heat, after which dropping a single LRM 10 will keep you neutral, or both will go back down to zero. Up close, there is literally never any reason to not keep firing the Large Pulse Lasers, ever, please never stop using them the Medium Lasers are literally never, ever, ever worth it. You can add them to the LPLs, but for the love of god keep the trigger down on the LPLs if you have any weapons firing at all. There is a possible use-case for all four Medium Lasers and an LPL if you're seeing numbers so low that the pulse bonus isn't necessary to all-but-guarantee a hit, but the odds of that happening outside of a disabled 'Mech is very low and at that point just aimed shot at the head with the LPLs anyway. The BV here is 2469, which is relatively low for what you get until you remember that you will spend a significant chunk of the entire game waddling into medium range, which naturally mitigates the durability and offense a bit. In a larger game on multiple mapsheets this is an F, in a game on just a couple sheets I think it's solid. There are definitely worse Hardened Armor Assaults out there. B-
Alpha Wolf Prime: I have mixed feelings on the Alpha Wolf. On the one hand, it's an OmniMech that tries and succeeds in doing something unusual. In this case, that's mating Stealth Armor with a Clan Assault Omni. On the other hand, some of the configs just miss the mark for me. The Prime is one of those. The 'Mech itself is fine, moving 4/6 at 90 tons with an XL Engine and the previously mentioned Stealth armor. The armor coverage is excellent, maximum with full marks. The ECM Suite powering it is a Clan model in the head, and is fixed. The rest of the Prime's loadout is two Clan Rotary AC/5s with six tons of ammo and two Clan LRM 15s with four tons of ammo. The ammo is protected by standard Clan CASE but is notably not protected by CASE II, meaning that there are a total of 10 explosive crits split between side-torsos that can end your game somewhat prematurely. The range bands match, which is useful, and fourteen doubles handle the heat well enough. Firing both RACs at optimum RoF (5 shots) and the LRMs at a run with Stealth Armor on is +4 heat, and dropping an LRM 15 or throttling back the RACs can easily fine-tune the heat. The big problem I have with this design is that it will take forever to kill anything of consequence. Massed five point hits add up fast, but also tend to get spread around, and this design lacks the sort of killshot that most big Omnis tend to have. Being wholly ammo dependent, and ammo dependent to such an extent that you're looking at ~8 turns or so before the bins are dry is another downside. There's not much to fix that short of binning the entire config, though, and it's visually striking as the Prime at least. BV is frequently where something like this is going to be made or broken, and at 2966 the verdict is "acceptable, not great". B-
Alpha Wolf A: This config is the recipient of some errata and it foundationally changes how I feel about the config. The weapons load is a pair of ER PPCs, four Medium Pulse Lasers, two Streak SRM 6s with two tons of ammo, and the normal ECM Suite, plus a Supercharger to take it to 4/6[8]. The errata removes the CASE II protecting both tons of Streak ammo and replaces them with a single Coolant Pod in the left torso. Removing protection from two ammo bombs and installing a third explosive crit is, uh, well to put it plainly I would have preferred it remain unchanged. Twenty double heat sinks are enough to fire the ER PPCs at range with the Stealth active at a run for net +2 heat. This is exactly where I want the heat to be on a design like this. Up close, replacing one ER PPC with all four Medium Pulse Lasers is useful for an excellent +3 at a run, and disabling the Stealth to add both Streak SRM 6s for a +1 if both of them lock and a probably heat reduction is perfect as is. The Coolant Pod allows you to fire all weapons with the Stealth on, once, for +6 (or -2/+2 with Streaks not locking). I'm... not super impressed by the Coolant Pod here. The BV for the errata also jumps to 3435, which puts this config well into the territory where I'm just not going to take it. C-
Alpha Wolf B: What if Timber Wolf B, but good? Two Large Pulse Lasers, a Gauss Rifle with two tons of ammo, and two SRM 6s with Artemis V and two tons of ammo. All long range weapons are in the arms, which can flip, and the SRM 6s are in the torsos with ammo protected by CASE II. Sixteen doubles make for a running +1 at range, and disabling the Stealth once up close makes for a heat neutral (-1) run with all weapons. Slightly handicapped by having to declare Stealth at the end of the previous turn and reveal some intentions to your opponent, more than made up for by having butter-smooth heat management and the guns to handily outduel your opponents at range when necessary. BV plummets like a stone to 2672 from the A, and puts this pretty squarely on the podium for my favorite Alpha Wolf config. A
Alpha Wolf C: Shades of the Mad Cat Mk II here, and I appreciate that. We have over/under ER Large Lasers and ER Medium Lasers in the arms, plus more ER Medium Lasers in the side torsos, plus the interesting choice of a pair of Extended LRM 10s. While I don't generally think ELRMs are the best call, on a Stealth Omni with two of the longest ranged energy weapons that exist this beast lives to exist at the margins, pulling the trigger at 22 hexes and laughing at anyone trying to hit it. There are three tons of ELRM ammo, for a little bit over 13 shots per launcher. Twenty one doubles is a bit of a weird number, with firing both ER Larges and one ELRM with Stealth on at a run being heat neutral, while adding the second jumps to +6. While stationary the heat is only +4, and there might be some merit to that on a larger table, or when engaging from 22+ hexes where you might actually be able to safely turn off the Stealth armor and still be impossible to hit. This is a tactic that will be very difficult to practice on any but the largest tables, and one that consequently is not very applicable in a normal game. Up close the four ER Medium Lasers and two ER Large Lasers at a run with Stealth off is +4 heat, making this a ruinously dangerous 'Mech once the Stealth is no longer useful. BV is the lowest of any Alpha Wolf config published at 2535, and I like the gimmick and superficial similarity to my beloved Mad Cat Mk II enough that I'm going to give this a higher grade than it deserves, but not by much. B+
Annihilator ANH-5W: There are too damn many Assault 'Mechs in this book. This marks the 1/3 point on Assault 'Mech record sheets in this volume. Of the Assault 'Mechs in this book, the basic concept with this one is one of the worst, but the execution is one of the (relatively boring) best. The Annihilator's normal 2/3 speed is on full display here, with a standard engine and a Compact Gyro because it turns out that a 200 rated engine doesn't really pay a lot to do that. Armor is good not great at approximately 75% of maximum, which in absolute terms still puts it above most high end Heavy 'Mechs. Armament is reminiscent of Gausszilla, with four Clan Gauss Rifles with a whopping eight tons of ammo. One Gauss in each arm and side torso, all protected by CASE II. The biggest downside, after the speed, is that the lower arm actuators prevent the arms from flipping meaning that this 'Mech is hideously vulnerable to fast flankers. It's also, by virtue of being 2/3, even more hideously vulnerable to being outranged and picked to pieces with impunity on anything bigger than a 1x2 sheet map. Secondary weapons include four Clan Medium Pulse Lasers, one in each arm and two in the center torso. Ten doubles are technically capable of overheating with +2 at a run if your opponent provides you with a target within 12 hexes that is going to very quickly wish it had never existed. Top marks for firepower, bottom marks for speed, and a big question mark for what you think you're doing if you bring this to a big game. It's better than the Stalker 9F, but only because it has an extra couple hexes of range where it isn't completely helpless. This design would genuinely, hilariously, be improved by switching to Light Gauss Rifles to become functionally impossible to outrange with anything actually capable of hurting it. Ah well. B
