Oh man, you're missing out! The Balius is actually secretly a great 'Mech...
Oh, I know the Balius was designed to take advantage of the quad squat in Clan trials and all. Not a bad idea.
But conceptually I can’t get past the laser anus that appears on multiple configurations, nor the awkward/decidedly non-military/fantastical ProtoMech-ish artwork.
A “Balius II” with some different design choices and better art would be great for me. But that’s just me.
I will say that, given its handcrafted and totemic nature, five Baliuses in a single star seems unlikely. But I know that’s not necessarily what you’re going for in Tau.
Yes; they're nine tons each and the Balius being an Omni subtracts three from their carrying weight, and if the carried units are less than 25% of the carrier's weight, there's no MP loss.
Good. Awesome. Then I’m definitely stealing this.
Edit: The Minotaur P2/Procyon Q combo could mechanize on a lot of classic Horse OmniMechs like the Nova, Stormcrow and Hellbringer (although the latter might be more about augmenting mech armor than deploying protos).
I also noticed that, in theory, the Horses could get hold of the Ravens’ Gorgon 5, which is advertised with Streaks (SRM or LRM is unclear) and Magclamps in TRO3150. I don’t think the RS ever came out for that, so the design specifics are probably uncertain. But the Gorgon 5 may be a better option than the Minotaur P2.
There’s also a Raven Cecerops with Magclamps, but I don’t really see the point given the Cecerops inherent speed. And also whatever Hobgoblins the Horses got from the Homeworlds (meh).
Would also be interesting to run this nova with different mobile protomechs on the ground, like Rocs at 5/8 or Satyrs at 7/11.
Point well taken, I will give that due consideration. My main thought with the Notos combo was to load up the Bs with semi-guided rounds and use the Cs to TAG for them, but perhaps a bit more variety would make the force more well-rounded overall, especially since the remaining ranged punch is really just coming from the Garudas and the LPLs on the Enyos, and those are arguably the most vulnerable part of the Trinary.
I forgot to say that I also liked how you mixed five long-range configurations of the Notos for fire support and five short-ranged Notos configurations for BA transport in Beta. It’s almost a self-contained trinary. Good stuff.