Many many years ago, a first draft of the second edition periphery sourcebook was posted online by its author and discussed on the board, and in this book we received five new mechs, including a seventy ton version of the Marshal that we won't be discussing today as well as four designs that were supposed to originally be part of Stephan Amaris' secret army, the so called Deceiver Series. Since I'm a fan of digging up weird and wonderful units that couldn't quite make the jump into canon and incorporating them into my own universes, I put the designs into megameklab for my own use, and then decided to share the results.
There were a few errors that I had to work around, and the nature of the TRO style entry meant I had to guess on things like heatsink placement, and the model numbers were my own invention, because the entries lacked them, but otherwise they are as close to their original stats as I could get them.
Without just reproducing the fluff from the book in whole, the gist is that the Deceiver series was intended to replicate the look of heavy and assault mechs (in the order they appear here, the Awesome, Battlemaster, Warhammer, and Atlas), but on lower cost medium frames, in order to create the look of a massive army of imposing machines without spending the money or needing the industrial infrastructure those machines would require to build. That logic, honestly feels like a very realistic Authoritarian mindset that focuses on creating the image of power you don't actually have in the hopes of cowing your opponents and citizens. Would it have actually been all that effective on the battlefield? That I'm iffy about. It feels like something that might work in the first chaotic engagements against a surprised enemy, but after that, the cat is out of the bag. I feel like the only way to retain any utility from the bit would be if you have enough of the genuine articles mixed in with your forces to keep the enemy guessing as to whether they're fighting the real deal or not, and I'm not sure the Rim Worlds would have that kind of access to most of them. And even then, the concept could backfire against a disciplined and more numerous enemy who simply devotes the appropriate firepower to what they think is an assault mech and watches it fold like cardboard. These mechs went to both the Secret armies in the periphery as well as the troops used in the takeover of terra, and the fluff indicates that even by the 3050s they were still common in the periphery.
The questions about pretending to be something you definitely aren't aside, for the most part they are overall mostly serviceable mostly introductory tech medium troopers. They're reasonably armored, fairly well armed, and for the most part mobile enough to be workable alongside a force that isn't a Star League Royal Division. Okay, maybe not the lumbering chibi atlas that is the Tadeo, but if you ever wanted an excuse to break out your old platech atlasi, you'd be hard pressed to find a better one. The use of one shot missile launchers on two of the designs might rub some folks the wrong way, but I kinda like the charm of committing to the bit that much.
Also, as I hinted at with the Tadeo, in a way their central gimmick works even with the What you see is what you get crowd, since all of the mechs the Deceivers cosplay as are currently available in various lance packs or random drops from a salvage box, meaning you too can be a Rim Worlds hipster without shelling out for a pewter Phoenix or Rampage.
So yeah, they seem fun, and I'm kinda sad that they didn't make it into the canon.
Impaler DCV-INP1
Mass: 55 tons
Chassis: Standard Biped
Power Plant: 220 Fusion
Cruising Speed: 43.2 kph
Maximum Speed: 64.8 kph
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Standard
Armament:
3 Large Laser
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communication System: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking System: Unknown
Introduction Year: 2750
Tech Rating/Availability: D/C-E-D-D
Cost: 4,140,153 C-bills
Type: Impaler
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Introductory)
Tonnage: 55
Battle Value: 1,128
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure 5.5
Engine 220 Fusion 10
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sink 19 9
Gyro 3
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor 152 9.5
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 9
Center Torso 18 23
Center Torso (rear) 6
R/L Torso 13 15
R/L Torso (rear) 6
R/L Arm 9 18
R/L Leg 13 18
Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand
Weapons
and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage
2 Heat Sink LL 2 - 2.0
Heat Sink CT 1 - 1.0
2 Heat Sink RT 2 - 2.0
Large Laser RT 2 8 5.0
2 Heat Sink LT 2 - 2.0
Large Laser LT 2 8 5.0
2 Heat Sink RL 2 - 2.0
2 Heat Sink RA 2 - 2.0
Large Laser RA 2 8 5.0
Invader DCV-INV1
Mass: 55 tons
Chassis: Standard Biped
Power Plant: 220 Fusion
Cruising Speed: 43.2 kph
Maximum Speed: 64.8 kph
Jump Jets: Standard
Jump Capacity: 120 meters
Armor: Standard
Armament:
1 SRM 6 (OS)
1 PPC
4 Medium Laser
2 Machine Gun
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communication System: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking System: Unknown
Introduction Year: 2750
Tech Rating/Availability: D/C-E-D-D
Cost: 4,581,748 C-bills
Type: Invader
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tonnage: 55
Battle Value: 1,194
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure 5.5
Engine 220 Fusion 10
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 4
Heat Sink 16 6
Gyro 3
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor 152 9.5
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 9
Center Torso 18 22
Center Torso (rear) 7
R/L Torso 13 17
R/L Torso (rear) 5
R/L Arm 9 17
R/L Leg 13 18
Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand
Weapons
and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage
2 Heat Sink LL 2 - 2.0
2 Heat Sink RT 2 - 2.0
2 Jump Jet RT 2 - 1.0
2 Medium Laser RT 2 3 2.0
SRM 6 RT 2 4 3.5
2 Machine Gun LA 2 0 1.0
2 Heat Sink LT 2 - 2.0
2 Jump Jet LT 2 - 1.0
2 Medium Laser LT 2 3 2.0
Half Machine Gun Ammo (100) LT 1 - 0.5
2 Heat Sink RL 2 - 2.0
PPC RA 3 10 7.0
Mallet DCV-MAL1
Mass: 55 tons
Chassis: Standard Biped
Power Plant: 220 Fusion
Cruising Speed: 43.2 kph
Maximum Speed: 64.8 kph
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Standard
Armament:
1 SRM 6 (OS)
2 Medium Laser
2 LRM 5
2 Large Laser
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communication System: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking System: Unknown
Introduction Year: 2750
Tech Rating/Availability: D/C-E-D-D
Cost: 4,292,983 C-bills
Type: Mallet
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tonnage: 55
Battle Value: 1,137
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure 5.5
Engine 220 Fusion 10
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sink 13 3
Gyro 3
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor 160 10
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 9
Center Torso 18 20
Center Torso (rear) 7
R/L Torso 13 18
R/L Torso (rear) 6
R/L Arm 9 17
R/L Leg 13 21
Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm
Weapons
and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage
2 Heat Sink LL 2 - 2.0
Heat Sink CT 1 - 1.0
LRM 5 Ammo (24) CT 1 - 1.0
Medium Laser RT 1 3 1.0
LRM 5 RT 1 2 2.0
SRM 6 RT 2 4 3.5
Large Laser LA 2 8 5.0
Medium Laser LT 1 3 1.0
LRM 5 LT 1 2 2.0
2 Heat Sink RL 2 - 2.0
Large Laser RA 2 8 5.0
Tadeo DCV-TAD1
Mass: 55 tons
Chassis: Standard Biped
Power Plant: 165 Fusion
Cruising Speed: 32.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 54 kph
Jump Jets: Standard
Jump Capacity: 90 meters
Armor: Standard
Armament:
1 LRM 20
3 Medium Laser
1 AC/10
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communication System: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking System: Unknown
Introduction Year: 2750
Tech Rating/Availability: D/C-E-D-D
Cost: 3,994,350 C-bills
Type: Tadeo
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Introductory)
Tonnage: 55
Battle Value: 1,238
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure 5.5
Engine 165 Fusion 6
Walking MP: 3
Running MP: 5
Jumping MP: 3
Heat Sink 10 0
Gyro 2
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor 144 9
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 9
Center Torso 18 20
Center Torso (rear) 7
R/L Torso 13 15
R/L Torso (rear) 5
R/L Arm 9 17
R/L Leg 13 17
Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm
Weapons
and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage
2 Heat Sink LL 2 - 2.0
Jump Jet CT 1 - 0.5
Jump Jet RT 1 - 0.5
AC/10 Ammo (10) RT 1 - 1.0
AC/10 RT 7 3 12.0
2 Medium Laser LA 2 3 2.0
Jump Jet LT 1 - 0.5
LRM 20 LT 5 6 10.0
LRM 20 Ammo (12) LT 2 - 2.0
2 Heat Sink RL 2 - 2.0
Medium Laser RA 1 3 1.0
