'Mech of the Week: VKG-** Viking/Viking IIC

[JadeHellbringer]

All of the Vikings are solid in Alpha Strike, but (as you'd expect!) the Viking IIC is all the way to 31. It has better/equal stats when compared to the Omega (!!); with 8/6/6 damage and 17 points of armor. For comparison, max-armored 100-tonners top out at 10 armor. There are DropShips which come out to less armor than the IIC has. Even if I'm a firm believer that Hardened belongs on lights in Battletech, I'm sold on the application of it in Alpha Strike.

Frankly, I'm wanting one to add to my Ghost Bear force; the thought of going to a 500-point game with a Viking IIC, Stone Rhino 3, Dire Wolf C, Executioner C, and a Naga, spending the last 100-odd points on upgrading the pilots, and when I plop my Star on the table against the company+ arrayed against it say, "What? This is how the Clans do superior firepower: with SUPERIOR FIREPOWER."

I assume 'zellbrigen' is a four-letter word at your table.  ^-^

[iamfanboy]

I assume 'zellbrigen' is a four-letter word at your table.  ^-^

Hey, if I pull a stunt like that and they DON'T break Zel, it's on them - after all, the only other 'Clan' player is running Wolf's Dragoons, so Clan v Clan isn't a huge concern.

The thing I like about adding a Viking to my Ghost Bears force is it also fits into the early Ghost Bear Dominion nicely - and the unit's backstory is that it's a provo Cluster pulled together from the shattered remains of a frontline and two garrison Clusters destroyed by a WoB attack, so having non-Clan 'Mechs in it just makes me happier. :D

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

So I finally got a chance to play a Viking on Saturday, a VKG-3W.

It.  Is.  A.  Beast.

When you get 8 hexes from someone and hit them with twenty SRMs after your companions had already brutalized it with lasers and LB-20X slugs.

I opened up on a Tempest in the second round, took out its Gauss with a floating crit, knocked it on the head, and ripped most of its right torso off.

The rest of the game it proceeded to march forward, blasting whatever chose to provide a target.  I had some ridiculous cluster rolls, too: the one time I fired LRMs I hit with three of them and proceeded to get two 11s and a 12.  I even used the LAC 2s- the Tempest was knocked out with 4 points of internal structure and no armor remaining on the Right Torso, so I used the only direct-fire weapons on the Viking to finish it of.

[Orin J.]

I can appreciate any 'mech that requires extra leg joints to fit more guns inside.

[AJC46]

something that should be pointed out for the viking IIC now is the change of rules for hardened armor and damage taking for PSR.

long story short just hitting it with a 20 class slug isn't enough to cause a PSR check anymore.

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=62102.0

[Nightsong]

I loved both of the original Vikings from day one. I’m a huge fan of LRMs and indirect fire in particular. And the G has some of my favorite guns teamed up, if not perfectly, then at least decently enough, especially if you team it with its brother. There really isn’t a safe range to deal with them assuming they’re played with any bit of intelligence.

I never understood the WoBbie version and never saw the ComStar version, though it is a decent version. I did not realize the IIC had hardened armor, though. There’s some fun fire support that you won’t be able to shut up easily.

...and I loved the Cersei Clannister joke even if I haven’t seen more than the first few eps.

[Moonsword]

One point on the 3W: Big, slow, ridiculously tough 'Mechs with C3i and short range weapons are perfect to slot into the mid-range role in a Level II.  They're not the outer-band spotter.  Instead, they're the 'Mech behind that, deterring rushes for the snipers, packing the punch to make jammer units back off (or drop dead - 40 SRMs is a lot!) and able to move up and act as the spotter, with the bonus that they're now in range to unload with all the short-range guns.

I think the baseline Legacy does a better job in that role with jump jets and the Ultra/10s but the VKG-3W can hold down a slot there, too.  Having both of them in one Level II also opens up holepunching against anyone who steps into the "middle band" of the Level II.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Unleashing that many SRMs really delivers the pain.  Especially if you can use C3i to get short rang modifiers at 7 hexes.