Talk to me about the...Wakazashi Battlemech

[Zureal]

   This mech simply looks cool, and is definitely one of my favorites to. What are your opinions on this machine?   Could we have a MOTW on it soon? id sure love to get a good overview of it :)

[Moonsword]

An article can be done, yes.  Requests usually get more attention in the Mech of the Week Schedule thread, though.  Since most of the active authors post in there, that's the easiest way to get their attention.  I'll go ahead and do one but the first open slot is the 29th.

As far as my opinion, it's a reasonably powerful 'Mech.  Not really a powerhouse but heavily armored and effectively armed.  I'm not sure how much exposure it's had to date.  I'll have to wrestle with it a bit, do some playtesting, to draw my opinion out.

[Zureal]

 THANKS!  [notworthy]

[Ian Sharpe]

Its not bad.  It can punch hole and critseek pretty well.  I'd imagine a lot of HGN and Crockett jocks would've liked it.  Heat isn't a real issue, it has long and short-ranged guns.  The downside is that taking an LB-20 ammo crit means the gauss is also gone.  I would have arranged the guns differently, but the left torso is reasonably well crit-padded against such things.  Its also not defenseless if it loses the left torso and arm, or somehow runs out of ammo for the GR.

[Neufeld]

It is a nice design with three good big guns. What might be a little weak is that it has two heavy ballistic weapons, I wonder if it would work better replacing the gauss rifle with another ERPPC and more heat sinks?

[Iron Mongoose]

Its not really a traditonal bracket fire mech, but I see it as a lovely in fighter, in that it can continue to use the GR and PPC even in close quarters.  Having two 15 pointers backed by a 20 shot cluster offers a lot of oppertunities, especaly since at 7 hexes the big guns are at short and the LB is at medium -1, making the idea of 'in fighting' somewhat relitive.

Down side is, of course, each weapon does represent a large amount of the mech's firepower eggs, but since it will often remove enemy weapons quickly enough, I'm not too shook up over it.

[Wyrd]

The sarna page talks about it being both easy and difficult to repair...

[Kit deSummersville]

The sarna page talks about it being both easy and difficult to repair...

Someone screwed up there, the write up just mentions that while easy to build and durable, it is difficult to repair.

[Moonsword]

It is a nice design with three good big guns. What might be a little weak is that it has two heavy ballistic weapons, I wonder if it would work better replacing the gauss rifle with another ERPPC and more heat sinks?

That usually is marginally more efficient if you've got the crits (13 tons for the ER PPC and 7 freezers vs. 14 tons for the Gauss rifle and 2 tons of ammo).  The Wakizashi doesn't, though, so it's a non-starter.

[Martius]

I would take some for my Falcons. They are not that bad, still dangerous on a modern battlefield. To be honest I would prefer it to many newer 2nd line assault designs.

[Kit deSummersville]

An article can be done, yes.  Requests usually get more attention in the Mech of the Week Schedule thread, though.  Since most of the active authors post in there, that's the easiest way to get their attention.  I'll go ahead and do one but the first open slot is the 29th.

Make sure to note that inclusion of FF armor in the write up was a brain-fart on the part of the author/designer and not anyone else's fault.

[Moonsword]

I'll keep that in mind.  Any other fun tidbits I should know about?  Dark, terrible secrets from smoke-filled rooms full of desperate technicians laboring to meet impossible demands, their nights a haze of whiskey and shady women?

[Kit deSummersville]

Well, really the stats go back to a design I had sitting around for some time, I think I named it the Vampire. It was an IS 'Mech that had a GR, ER PPC and AC/20, maybe with some MLs. I pitched it for a few things (TRO 3075, I believe amongst other stuff), but it never got used. When doing ER: GC I figured I wanted to include the Wakazashi and looking at the story line, figured that would be the type of 'Mech they needed that also fit with the selection of 'Mechs I already had. So it got Clan-ized and tada, heavy hitter.