The Alacorn is the tank that I would pick. Yes, it is a big target, but that's the fun thing about an otherwise boring unit. I have used it a lot, but it has never been something that I felt a want to run. It's a solid design and can easily mess things up. Most people have been afraid of it, which makes it worth running and having it sit in an area that you want to keep people out of. If it becomes a brick does not matter as it has the reach and turret to make sure that it's still a threat.
see, you're still thinking only about defense, which is where it excels. On offense, it's dead weight and wasted BV, like just about every other non-indirect artillery unit sludging along at 3/5 that isn't a Battlemech or Armor point. The ideal environment where the Alacorn is at it's very best, is parked with a good line of sight. un-parking it is what you can call 'a very bad idea' quite accurately. The problem being, when on the table, getting it to that ideal environment, which is parked, stationary, with good sight lines for that triple-gauss, to deny a spot of terrain, because unless you
start the match parked on that good spot, there's a pretty decent likelihood that your Alacorn will wind up bunkered in the WRONG spot, a spot where those triple gauss are pretty nearly useless, pretty quickly, even if it's otherwise undamaged. Why is this? because most opponents who've played the game more than once, and understand vehicles, will target it even with more threatening 'mechs nearby, because doing so will deny said more threatening 'mechs that support from those 'scary' triple gauss rifles.
think: "Mission Kill" versus the more usual pickup game of 'total annihilation'.
I don't have to outright kill the tank, if I can simply remove it from being a factor. This is relatively easy compared to a 'mech, since a tank is relatively easily rendered non-mission capable, especially a slow tank, being used in support of a 'mech. (It also becomes infinitely easier to kill a 'mech if you can isolate it from support, even a very super-scary, super-tanky 'mech with hardened armor and big, scary weapons.)
Tank-on-offense is a playstyle that doesn't work if you're focused on controlling a specific point and being defensive. it relies on being
aggressive and mobile, shifting position and flexing on ground. 3/5 is very easily rendered incapable of offense, plus eating flanking penalties to gunnery makes the tank less effective as a supporting element. (three fifteen point shots are less damaging when they miss, than one two point hit, and flanking enhances your chance of missing.)
The rules make the base model Alacorn
superb as a
fixed defensive emplacement. it's a Gauss Turret that works best when parked, letting the enemy come at it. It falls apart in capability when the enemy can go around, flank, or render it unable to get to that good position. a Stationary Alacorn with level 1 terrain on either side of it, can't engage enemies on the other side of that terrain. if the motive system is critted out (say, by a cheap LRM carrier that everyone, even the Clans, have and use dropping missiles on indirect fire), then it's great-for defending that one gap between two hills, but it's not going to be able to advance to support your 'mech. get it? unless you run right down the path in front of that triple gauss? you can bypass it, ignore it, whatever.
because it can't move to a firing position! It really doesn't matter if the crew is alive or dead, it doesn't matter if the armor is otherwise pristine, or the turret has full traverse,
because it's blind on two or more sides and can't influence the battle anymore.
