‘Mech of the Week: Warlord
Inner Sphere
TRO 3075
Technical Readout 3075 was an odd TRO. After a new Technical Readout every few in-game years from 3050-3067 with dozens of Inner Sphere ‘Mechs, 3075 had only fifteen in the new developments section. With a full six of those slots being devoted to the WoB’s Celestials, the other Inner Sphere factions only had a couple selections each. In fact, the
Warlord is the only assault ‘Mech not built by the Word of Blake. But it is a high quality one. Between the chaos of the FedCom Civil War and the opening stages of the Jihad in the Federated Suns, the AFFS apparently felt that a durable flashbulb design was necessary. GM decided to base this new ‘Mech on the
Battlemaster, and needed assistance in gaining the schematics for the design. The El Dorado branch of the Davion family, the Sanromea-Davions, stepped in and acquired the plans for GM, who built the Warlord on El Dorado. Although the Warlord’s aesthetics are clearly based on the
Battlemaster, and according to information on sarna.net, that is what it was based on out of universe as well. But to me, the Warlord is a completely different ‘Mech. It is a flashbulb
Thug. Whatever ‘Mech the
Warlord is based on, the more important question is if House Davion got an assault ‘Mech worth buying. To see that, we will have to examine the variants individually, as they have very different chasses.
Warlord BLR-2D:
The base variant of the
Warlord in TRO 3075 is the 2D, and it is built extremely tough. Using only endosteel for advanced construction materials, the 2D variant of the
Warlord is a very durable 80 ton ‘Mech. With no ammo or engine crits in the side torsos, the only way to kill the
Warlord is to rip it to pieces. And that is difficult when you have to shoot through 14.5 tons or 94% of the maximum standard armour to get into the internal structure. The Warlord can run 64 km/h, allowing it to keep up with heavies like the
Jagermech,
Marauder, or
Black Knight as well as assault ‘Mechs like the
Victor or the
Battlemaster it is inspired by. However being well-armoured and extremely durable means nothing if the
Warlord can’t kill anything, so let’s look at the armament. The
Warlord is a bracket-firer, using either it’s two arm mounted heavy PPC’s or it’s six torso mounted ER Medium lasers. One thing to note is that unlike the
Warhammer or
Marauder, the
Warlord still has its hand actuators for two 8 point punches in melees. Now this isn’t the most inspiring firepower ever, only a max of sixty points in a turn and considering it only has sixteen double heat sinks the Warlord is going to be hard put to do more than 40 points in all but the most desperate situations. But the sheer durability of the
Warlord and its energy loadout means it is going to keep firing turn after turn, and two reasonably long-ranged headcappers is nothing to be sneezed at. While the
Warlord cannot simply brutalize everything it’s path, it will keep fighting for as long as is necessary, exactly what the FedSuns needed during the Jihad.
Warlord 2Dr:
A refit of the 2D, the 2Dr makes no changes to the engine, heatsinks, structure, or armour. It adds a C3 slave and TSM; and modifies the short range loadout to four ER Mediums, a Medium Pulse, a regular medium, and a Small Pulse Laser. This puts the
Warlord three tons overweight, and the weight is gained by dropping one of the Heavy PPCs for an ER PPC. While gaining some range is nice, I feel like losing the second headcapper really hurts the
Warlords capabilities. So the question is if the short range gains are worth the cost. Adding C3 is undoubtedly useful for Davion C3 lances, although coming out during the ECM glutted Jihad limits the value of C3. TSM is undoubtedly useful in keeping the
Warlord mobile as it gets hotter, and can allow for devastating melee attacks. But the changes in energy armament make the close range damage much less consistent. Especially with the loss of long range damage, the short range armament has to be more damaging, and the mismatched weapon ranges make it difficult to consistently use. Is this variant worthless? No, but I don’t think it is worth taking over the 2D unless you really need a C3 capable
Warlord.
Warlord 2G:
While El Dorado could make the vast majority of the
Warlord components, it did not have the orbital facilities necessary to produce endo-steel. It could produce the needed materials for XL engines though. The 2G variant uses the XL engine to not only remove the endo-steel, but to add the last ton of armour the
Warlord can mount and to revamp the close range weapons. Defensively, this is a clear loss. While getting the last one of armour is nice, the side torsos only gain one point of armour which simply is not going to help. So if the
Warlord is now vulnerable to side torso destruction and has more engine slots to be crit, does the short range firepower make up for it? Well, it certainly is exciting. Instead of six ER Medium lasers, it has twelve regular mediums of which two are rear-facing. This makes the close range firepower fifty damage instead of thirty, and let’s the
Warlord protect it’s back. Is this better? Clearly, but the question is how much better when compared to the sharp decrease in survivability. According to the Battle Value, the answer is not much. If you are fighting in open areas where range is more important, the 2D is much better. But it might be worth the loss of survivability for a powerful close range punch in an urban fight. I prefer the 2D, but the 2G is still a useful choice.
Warlord BLR-2XC:
This one is weird. Being found in
XTRO Phantoms, it is very different than the other
Warlords. To begin with, it is only 75 tons. This means that it has less internal structure, weaker melee attacks, and it mounts half a ton less armour than the 2D. The 2XC still moves 64 km/h with an XL engine and has normal structure and armour. The armaments are simple, two ER PPC’s and six ER Medium lasers. No headcappers hurts, but
Warhammers have done it for centuries and it worked fine for them. While the weapons are uninspired, the equipment choices make this
Warlord a worthy XTRO project. Clearly built as a Command ‘Mech, not only mounting a Command Console but also C3i. An odd choice for a Davion ‘Mech, but whatever. I guess they were experimenting at the time. It also includes an Angel ECM suite, a Bloodhound Active Probe, a TAG, and a Remote Sensor Dispenser. This lets the commander riding in the Console to be hard to target with advanced electronics and create Ghost Targets, sniff out hidden units that might ambush it, and drop super accurate artillery on anyone who gets close. This is a good command ‘Mech if you have a commander that, you know, commands instead of getting into the thick of the fighting. But being a lighter variant without the trademark Heavy PPCs makes it not feel like a
Warlord.
Fighting with a
Warlord depends on the variant. I am only going to talk about the two main variants, because those are the ones most people are going to fight with and against most often. With the 2D, you mostly want to stay in mid-ranges. I would probably lean more on the PPCs than the lasers, but you are mostly relying on being impossible to kill. With the 2G, while you will use the PPCs closing, you really want to be right in the enemies face taking advantage of laser spam and melee attacks. Fighting
Warlords is the same for both variants, just a matter of degrees. Neither of them have very much range, as the PPC range simply is not what it was in 3025, so LRMs and ERPPCs are a good way to kill
Warlords with no threat of headcaps. This is even more important, and easier, when facing the 2G, as ten medium lasers is not something you want to get close to. Heat based weapons are also useful, as the heat balance is very precise. The
Warlord was built to fight long battles far from supplies, and it certainly delivers. Now tell me how you have used the
Warlord in the comments below.
MUL:
http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/3509/warlord-blr-2dCamospecs:
http://camospecs.com/Search/Index?Term=Warlord
