Have any of you used Drone Battlemechs or the UBM-1A Revenant?

[Auman]

I just picked up Jihad: Final Reckoning and I had the best nerdgasm of my Battletech career. Mindless killer robots have always been the one thing I thought this game needed and now that they're here, I just need to know how they fun/lame/awesome they are to use on the tabletop.

[theothersarah]

They're flavourful as all hell but I don't feel that the reduced BV reflects just how harsh the penalties are. Ignoring pilot damage is powerful but I feel that the ECM-induced freakouts are way too harsh. Because of the prevalence of ECM especially in the Jihad and onwards era I plan on ignoring that bit or using my own house rules. I was thinking that ECM would confer the stealth armour effect to any units within its bubble - non-stacking with real stealth armour of course. Would useful but much less debilitating than fleeing or going berserk.

I came up with a bunch of custom drones to go along with the Revenant that I have dubbed the "Undead Series" (the over-dramatic reporting name given to them by the Coalition, the Blakists just called them the Unmanned BattleMech series) that I plan on using in a post-Jihad "what-if" mission chain. What if the Word of Blake garrisoned planets with drones but their human overseers abandoned them when the Coalition moved on Terra? And what if their programming deteriorated over time so that their programmed patrols became hostile incursions into population centres? And what if mercenaries were hired to deal with such a drone infestation? Could be fun :)

[Auman]

I haven't played them yet, but I thought the ECM freak outs were pretty cool, man. I guess I'll get to try it out next time I play a game and see for myself. If Ironwind could get around to making the Revenant and the Gestalt, hell, even the Omega, I'd buy the crap out of them. Especially the Revenant... The thing is just cool on so many levels.

[idea weenie]

I'd settle for Home on Jam missiles, and a line in the drone targeting protocols that says, "If enemy jammer detected within sight, range, and accuracy of weapons, focus fire but record and stay away from it".  So if you have an ECM unit, the drones will keep out of its bubble where possible.  If you take that jammer unit and hide it in Heavy Woods, the drones will not fire on it (except for Mortar and artillery).  If the to-hit for going after your jammer is 13 or higher, the drones will not open fire on it.

So if you activate the ECM on an equipped unit, expect the enemy drones to try to shred it.  If they are missile armed, expect to see lots of missiles using your jammer as a targeting guide.  Of course, if you sit in the cluster of Light Woods, expect to see lots of HoJ missiles blowing up on the trees around you (making sure to keep the to-hit for the HoJas close to 12 as possible, without going over).  This results in the drones only using their missile systems against you, ignoring other Mechs in your force.

Hmm, I'll have to rethink the order protocol.  Maybe something along the lines if it is 4 pts easier to hit another unit, or if it took fire, the drone will target the other unit before the jammer.  This could get complex.

[Wildonion]

The drones are a wonderful little force multiplier and I think they work best when paired with manned vehicles, such as tanks or 'Mechs. I am working on using them as part of a campaign that I am currently running. They are knock offs and not quite as advanced as the WoB models, something like retrofitted UrbanMechs with LRM launchers and a back up medium laser. That way they stay away from ECM bubbles naturally (players, however, can start to exploit that weakness when they discover what ECM does to the enemy) and they will have the support of human pilots who try to keep up a battle line that protects the drones.

[ThelVadam]

I want to, and I have been building a series of drones to compliment the Revenant, but I have not had the inclination to test them out yet.

[theothersarah]

I haven't played them yet, but I thought the ECM freak outs were pretty cool, man. I guess I'll get to try it out next time I play a game and see for myself. If Ironwind could get around to making the Revenant and the Gestalt, hell, even the Omega, I'd buy the crap out of them. Especially the Revenant... The thing is just cool on so many levels.

They're cool on paper but they pretty much amount to a drone being mission-killed 5 times out of 6 as soon as it touches ECM. I'd feel better about it as written if it was reduced to only haywire pods and EM pulses causing this effect rather than normal ECM.

[verybad]

How about if you tool ity with a strong ECM mech using ECCM?

[I am Belch II]

The look intresting to play, hope to play them soon.

[Auman]

They're cool on paper but they pretty much amount to a drone being mission-killed 5 times out of 6 as soon as it touches ECM. I'd feel better about it as written if it was reduced to only haywire pods and EM pulses causing this effect rather than normal ECM.

I figure since the rules are experimental, they might be fixed later on down the road.

[Lazarus Jaguar]

The drones are a wonderful little force multiplier and I think they work best when paired with manned vehicles, such as tanks or 'Mechs. I am working on using them as part of a campaign that I am currently running. They are knock offs and not quite as advanced as the WoB models, something like retrofitted UrbanMechs with LRM launchers and a back up medium laser. That way they stay away from ECM bubbles naturally (players, however, can start to exploit that weakness when they discover what ECM does to the enemy) and they will have the support of human pilots who try to keep up a battle line that protects the drones.

You're converting Urbanmechs to quads?

[Gus]

Whilst there is only one type of drone control system for ground units, Liberation of Terra gives us both Aerospace Robotic Control Systems (ASRCS) and Shielded ASRCS. The Shielded variety is immune to ECM effects. Now imagine if a shielded version of the ground unit robotic controls existed. That'd be interesting!

[SCC]

I figure since the rules are experimental, they might be fixed later on down the road.

If the rules are experimental, yes, if the equipment itself, I doubt it
That said given the ECM environment at the time and the fact that the WoB began putting ECM on units to protect its iC3 systems, I really doubt that would have fielded something so easily disabled by it

[Wildonion]

You're converting Urbanmechs to quads?

Actually, I just failed to read the construction rules properly.  :-X Kind of sucks that only a quad can make use of the system.