What is your favourite 3085 IS BA?

[jymset]

As for Clan BA. Which one(s) do you like? Which do you loathe? Why?

[worktroll]

Got to go with the Kopis. Sure, it's not as heavily armoured as a Kanazuchi, but twin! medium! lasers! Heck, a squad of these are practically a Swayback. Double heavy battleclaws are not only great for close-in assault, but work well with the twin anti-personnel weapons when dealing with squishies.

(Wonders - how many LRMs could you fit on instead of the MLs? Just an idle thought ...)

The Longinus Magnetic has to come a close second. I love the Longinus, but the need to fire off the SRMs before you can jump, and the lack of transport available to move them, limits their use IMHO. Mag clamps is a game-changer. Sure you drop the SRMs to get the mag clamps, but an HMG makes for not only respectable (and repeatable) short-range damage, it also makes it more effective against the aforementioned PBI.

Just my 2 Eagle's worth (not that I'm biased at all ....)

[Weirdo]

Despite the fact that my factional leanings should have me vote for the Longinus, Kopis, or Ravager, combat experience forces me to vote for the Angerona. The ground movement makes it insanely mobile in a city, particularly in forr-to-floor searches of very large buildings. And once you do find a place to hunker down, the stealth armor plus camo system means that hitting them is an obscene pain, all while they're slugging back with LRRs. I'm also looking forward to using the scout version, which should change door-to-door searches from a drawn-out pain to a snap.

[Kit deSummersville]

The Rottweiler has all that speed combined with fire.

Fire, fire!

[worktroll]

For the RPG, yes the Rotti is fearsome. But on the hexmap, they're a little meh IMHO. Fenrises are nasty, but outside the scope of this poll.

W.

[Ruger]

The Rottweiler has all that speed combined with fire.

Fire, fire!

I would have said this, but the Ravager being of Marian origin forced my decision...

 Ruger

[worktroll]

Hah! Ravagers are the Inner Sphere's ProtoMechs, not BA! Now if only they could get some weapons worth the name on'em :D

W.

[Taurevanime]

I have to say that I like the Rottweiler variant 3085 introduced the most. It might not be overall the best as just a single suit, but it is the best one to fit into the Lyran army. With a ground speed of 5 hexes it can keep up with the Lyran assault mechs, and with it's four firedrakes, it is absolutely devastating to infantry. Something most Lyran mechs tend to have trouble dealing with, since quite a few lack true anti-personnel weapons.

[Klat]

I'll throw my vote to the GD-Heavy. Maybe it's that I like merc BA but all those SRMs are kinda fun  :D

[Gracus]

Magnetic Puma, for its ability to deploy with all units and retaining its maneuverability and range.

[ArcaneRaven]

This is a really, really hard to answer question. And therefore a very interesting poll! O0

I finally decided for the Kopis. I simply love it. It's aesthetically appealing, has a great weapon configuration and last but not least... It's an assault suit for the Mariks! That's what I wanted for a long, long time.  [rockon]

But honestly, I like them all. There are many good BA designs in this awesome book. I love BA.  :)

[O5P_Ghost]

Most of them are really good and fit with the in-universe theme of BA explosions in the Dark Ages.

I did vote for the Kage Space due to the adaptability of using BA against a new foe, the Ravens.

The Raven's seem to be a major foe for the Combine in the future and adapting a Battlearmor to fight them just seems genius.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I'll probably get the most use out of the Infiltrator II Magnetic, but I voted for the Ravager.  That fluff's just too good.

[jymset]

My choice - the Kopis - was an obvious one. So bad-ass... Same goes for the awesome-looking and excellently written Ravager.

Out of ONN, my two favourites would be the Fa Shih and... the Asterion. Really. It is like an upgraded GD Standard.  {>{> But it hasn't really received much love at all...

[JPArbiter]

the Angerona is going to be the ultimate in light harassment thanks to stealth armor and camo adding a net +4 at a minimum to hit the squad.

[Kojak]

The Angerona is a suit I'd initially overlooked, but upon reading Weirdo's testimony, I'm very interested to see it perform on the field. My original vote was cast for the mag-clamp Puma, 'cuz that thing is just stupidly powerful.

[False Son]

The Angerona is basically a perfect for what it does.  For clans, while the Ironhold is awesome, I gotta give it to the flame resistant Elemental.

[ArkRoyalRavager]

I voted Mag Puma too. Takes full advantage of anything that walks, crawls or runs in the AFFS while doing damage from 9 hex out.

[GespenstM]

Worktroll covered most of my sentiments; I like the Kopis a lot, followed by Longinus Magnetic Clamp Type.

The Kopis satisfies me on a very dark, cruel level. I've had far too many lyran and davion players gloat to me about how amazing their grenadier BA teams are... and suddenly it's not so friggin' funny when my Kopis team does the same things right back to them. I've had one or two of them pitch fits when they realized the "new FWL BA from TRO 3085" they agreed to let me use, or the venue generally permits regardless, can hold its own against their machines in a brawl. Their internet rage tears were delicious indeed.

The Longinus Magnetic gives us a reasonably mobile, reasonably powerful machine... a standard-use BA that was previously filled by the Achileus. Said BA was competent, but I like the new Longinus version much more in the role.

[IndyRI]

Well the Kopis brings a new level of pain to the Assault BA class, which is extremely appealing in city defense battles where mobility and armor aren't such a liability to be lacking.

For general work, though, the Firedrake Rottie Dog is essentially instant death to any infatry unit on the map. The baseline model was potent enough to wipe whole maps clean of infantry with little issue, and switching out for more firedrakes enables a single Rottie Dog unit to sweep a map at 5 terrain-unmodified hexes a turn. It's effective enough I'd almost not even bother adding more than one to a lance simply because it's unlikely the OpFor has that many infatry.

[False Son]

I've had one or two of them pitch fits when they realized the "new FWL BA from TRO 3085" they agreed to let me use, or the venue generally permits regardless, can hold its own against their machines in a brawl. Their internet rage tears were delicious indeed.

And I thought I had Davvy issues...

The Longinus Magnetic gives us a reasonably mobile, reasonably powerful machine... a standard-use BA that was previously filled by the Achileus. Said BA was competent, but I like the new Longinus version much more in the role.

I see it slightly different.  The Achieus is still a stealth suit, and only #2 to the virtually perfect Void.  The Longinus Mag doesn't have stealth armor, but has a ton of firepower.  However, with the magclamps you might be tempted to just use it for leg attacks, but the additional HMG really puts a premium on executing a successful swarm attack.  True, you could just use the HMG at 0 hexes, but that's sort of a waste of the magclamps.  What i've enjoyed about recent BA development and refits is that there is room for this slightly different approach to things.  It would be boring in the extreme if all humanoid suits drifted somewhere between Infiltrator IIs/Voids and Grenadiers.

As a Combine fan, also loving the Raiden AI.  From reading the description, I thought that it just mean that MG and flamer versions of the regular suits were given a vibro claw.  No... i'm glad to see something as good looking as the Raiden come back with a furious vengence.

[RedMarauder]

Hah! Ravagers are the Inner Sphere's ProtoMechs, not BA! Now if only they could get some weapons worth the name on'em :D

W.

Like battleclaws with fingers made out of chainsaws? :D

[GespenstM]

And I thought I had Davvy issues...

I admit I have a whole subscription, and a collection of back volumes. Not all of the faction's players are like that, and I'm pretty sure even most aren't that way... but there is a very loud sub-set of them who insist on the faction always being super-perfect designated heroes with 1950s Idealized America values and portrayal, and complain when they don't get a million new super-optimized designs in each TRO product. A good chunk of this sub-set also seems to thrive on fielding nothing but columns of optimized TComp-equipped energy boats backed by grenadier BA teams, and accompanied by random clantech (usually ones mounting tons of ER Large Lasers or Large Pulse). The Kopis lets me throw half of that right back in their face, and the PXH-7K lets me deal with the other half.

I take a certain dark satisfaction in beating those sort of players down in Megamek, and freely admit that their internet tears are delicious to me. TRO 3085 helps me make them cry, and for that reason I like TRO 3085.

On a more positive note, some of the faction's players that I've spoken with since Field Report: affs was released have taken their faction's current condition in pretty good stride, finding it an interesting opportunity and/or outright liking being a partial underdog. Those players are pretty cool. My disdain is more toward their "Hulk Hogan in Space: The Faction" brethren.

Now, as for the differing opinions on Battle Armor between us? That's a good thing. I like that we can disagree on this point, even if it's only in matter of degree. For my combat style, the Achileus is "Decent and genuinely playable but other options would be better if the FWL-s had them." Longinus Magnetic fills what I need (a little more armor and striking power, plus ease of transport), whereas you prefer hit avoidance through Stealth. Different roles and priorities are filled somewhat differently by these two unit types, and that's a good thing.

[False Son]

My disdain is more toward their "Hulk Hogan in Space: The Faction" brethren.

You mean...

Now, as for the differing opinions on Battle Armor between us? That's a good thing. I like that we can disagree on this point, even if it's only in matter of degree. For my combat style, the Achileus is "Decent and genuinely playable but other options would be better if the FWL-s had them." Longinus Magnetic fills what I need (a little more armor and striking power, plus ease of transport), whereas you prefer hit avoidance through Stealth. Different roles and priorities are filled somewhat differently by these two unit types, and that's a good thing.

I agree that it's a good thing to have points of preference.  I'm not saying Achileus or the Longinus is better that the other.  In fact, i'm saying i'd rather not compare them just because they both jump 3 and perfom anti mech attacks.

[GespenstM]

Haha. No, I was meaning more his 1980s pro wrestling run and how he was booked/written back then. (That said, Suburban Commando is a delightfully awful movie and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys such things).

However, I would like you to go more in-depth on your points re: Achileus vs. Longinus. They seem reasonably similar to me; both move 1/1/3, both have a fairly typical close range gun (well, the Longinus has two such guns), and the major difference aside from what machines they can ride seems to be one of them has 5+1 armor and basic Stealth, the other has 8+1 and no stealth.

To me, the Stealth just means +1 to BTH on incoming attacks. But you seem to see it far more significantly than that. What am I missing here?

[False Son]

Yes, an Achileus makes a fantastic indirect spotter because of it's stealth.  The Longinus Mag has more firepower, but it is fairly limited in application with the 0/1/2 range of the HMG.  And again, the Longinus Mag's magclamps/HMG combo are more rewarding when used in conjunction for a Swarm attack.  Yeah, it can pull off a more successful leg attack than the Achileus, but that's a waste of the extra gun.

More importantly the Achileus always has improved stealth, AP mount and the basic weapon MG/F/SL.  The Longinus Mag is only one recent variant of the Longinus.  Also, it has 9+1.  BVs= 136 for SL Achileus squad.  247 for Longinus Mag.

[Padrach]

The Longinus Mag has more firepower, but it is fairly limited in application with the 0/1/2 range of the HMG. 

Not to be picky here, but if memory serves me right, the HMG ranges are 1/2/- for s/m/l.  One of it's advantages over it's buddy, the Clan Bearhunter Autocannon. 
And on topic, I really liked the Kopis (but thought it looked a little odd) and the idea of MagClamps spreading beyond the Cappies' Fah Shih