Author Topic: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator  (Read 29777 times)

Dakkagor

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Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« on: 31 August 2017, 17:21:07 »
So, the mighty Devastator . . .



No, not that one.



Not that one either!



I mean, he's cool but he's not who we are after either. . .



Yeah, that's the ticket. . .

Picture the scene:  Terra burns, Amaris and his Rim World Republican Guard are fighting for survival against a vengeful Star League, and from out of the smoke of the battlefield, titans of war stride, the ultimate assault lance.

At their head, a solid wedge of armour bearing two AC-20 Autocannons, designed to slay opposing mechs as quickly as possible.  The indomitable King Crab shoulders through the enemies heaviest fire and guts mechs in one massive salvo.  Following behind, standing tall and shrouded in smoke like a pair of grim reapers, come the Atlas II’s.  Any mech opened up by the King Crab gets shredded by missiles, LBX-pellets and burned down by lasers.  Finally, standing on the ridge line behind, laying down a hail of murderous long range gauss and PPC fire, the Devastator stands watch.  Four hundred tons of fusion powered death machine, all designed by or designed for Aleksandr Kerensky.

Its just a damn shame it probably never happened.  The Devastator, the last of Kerensky’s trifecta of Assault Mechs, only saw a desperate limited production run in the lead up to the assault on Terra, with six being produced and deployed.  After that, the design is lost to the Inner Sphere until the Fed Suns trip over its schematics on Hoff in 3023.  A low-tech monkey copy was produced and put into production in 3036 after being prototyped by NAIS, and it would take a further twelve years for the full DVS-2 to return to the fields of the Inner Sphere in the arsenal of the Fed-com alliance, and it would soldier on in both the Davion and Lyran halves of the Alliance, and Republic Space, right into the Dark Ages.

The Devastator is a simple, murderous machine.  A hundred tons, it uses a Vlar 300 XL to propel it to the blistering speeds of 54 KM/H.  The engine supports 14 double heat sinks, and its Star League XT frame carries 18.5 tons of Durallex heavy armour, near maximum for frame.  Every forward location takes at least two gauss rifle hits to claw open barring the head, its legs take two AC20s to strip and the centre torso takes that and a large laser to inflict your first critical chance.  Its rear locations are well protected, with protection enough to keep out an AC-10 or IS PPC on each rear torso, with a shred of armour left on the rear centre torso.

Weapons wise, the DVS-2 uses a pair of Poland Main Model A Gauss Rifles, one to each arm.  Each gun has a dedicated bin feeding it in the arm, and a cross-fed bin in each side torso for decent ammunition endurance.  This is combined with a pair of Donal PPCs in each torso, and four intek medium lasers, one in the head, one in each torso location (the centre one points backwards, pointlessly.)  This weapon arrangement helps protect the vulnerable XL engine, keeping Gauss explosions somewhat contained, so if some lucky devil crits out the gauss rifles, its unlikely to kill the mech.  Thanks to the locations of the PPC’s and heat sinks that extrude out of the engine, the XL engine is well packed against criticals.
This variant is about as optimally designed for an Inner Sphere assault mech as you can get.  The only flaw seems to be the range brackets of the PPC’s not quite matching up with the Gauss Rifles.  ER PPC’s would make it easier to use, improving the designs overall range, but screw with the heat curve, which is currently gloriously easy to manage.  A Stalker this ain’t.

The DVS-1D is the monkey tech variant pushed out in 3036.  With a standard engine, it has to save a lot of weight.  It strips out the heavy weapons and replaces them with a pair of AC10 and a pair of large lasers.  This is a vicious combo for a Succession War era assault machine.  It gains an extra heat sink, but its a single, so its heat curve is ruined.  It also only loses a half ton of armour over the original variant. 
With its matched up range brackets, and solid secondary battery, this mech has only a single flaw: Heat!  A standing ranged strike with the four big hitters generates a six point heat spike.  You have to drop the large lasers every other salvo to keep the heat under control, or pick your moments for an alpha very carefully.  This variant completely disappears from Davion space by 3060, surviving only in the Taurian Concordat. 

The DVS-3 is pretty much a standardized field refit for the DVS-2.  It strips medium lasers for armour and more gauss rifle ammo.  Apparently it is intended for long term operations, and gains an additional two tons of gauss ammo and a half ton of armour.  The only secondary weapons remaining are a rear facing small laser and a rear facing medium, both in the centre torso.  No, I don’t know why either.

We have an experimental tech variant debuting in 3075, the Devastator MUSE EARTH.  This is jammed with experimental gubbins.  Built on endo-composite frame and with a compact gyro, the engine has been upgraded to a 400 XXL engine, combined with MASC and a super charger, allowing this 100 ton machine it to nearly hit 100 KM/H, which is nuts.  For weapons its packs a pair of medium Variable Speed Pulse lasers, and for long range poke it carries a pair of Heavy PPC’s, each mated to a PPC capacitor, allowing it to dish out serious hurt at medium range if you are willing to risk a big heat spike.   Finally, the entire mech is coated in 19.5 tons of reactive armour, which provides superb protection against missiles, artillery and mortars, as well as screwing with AC armour piercing rounds, mech tasers and tandem charge rounds.  Seeing this thing accelerate towards you faster than most cavalry mechs, exploding under fire and not giving a single flip, is probably a pant wetting experience for most pilots.

Finally, a production model of the MUSE EARTH, the DVS-10 uses an XL engine and a suite of re-engineered lasers.  This variant is found in readout 3150, and doesn’t yet have a control sheet printed as far as I can tell.

The Devastator is easy to use in most configurations: find your range, find some good cover, and lay down the pain.  The MUSE EARTH and its production model are different, providing horrid speed and blistering take down power, which on a 100 ton frame is exceptional.  Of the three mainline variants, the base is undoubtedly my favourite, followed by the Succession War era DVS-1D, which is just a nasty bit of kit for period and would require very little tinkering to make usable in the modern era.   

Fighting one is not easy: Shoot it till it dies.  All of them apart from the DVS-1D have zombie characteristics, with no explosive criticals apart from the Gauss Rifles, but they all mount an XL engine in a pair of (relatively) thinly armoured side torso bays.  If you can rip open a side torso a salvo of missiles or cluster rounds can put one down for the count and leave you some premium salvage.  The MUSE EARTH is a different kettle of fish, you will need to use lasers or PPC’s to chew through its armour, as it can shrug of long range barrages of missiles.  Thankfully, its probably going to charge right at you to get optimum range for its PPC’s, so you should get a turn or two of close range fire as it closes to kill.   The reactive armour and XXL engine makes it very vulnerable to criticals, so if you can dig past its fancy armour you can hope to get lucky and watch the armour fall of in a chain reaction.

The Devastator is a great machine, and arguably stands at the apogee of what can be achieved with Star League technology: maximum damage and direct fire range mated to the toughest chassis available.   I've used them in a few games as I have a terrible weakness for assault mechs, and I've always found them to be a demanding presence that cannot be ignored.

You can find a selection of excellently painted Devastators on Camospecs:
http://camospecs.com/Search/Index?Term=devastator 

And further information on its deployment and availability on the MUL:

http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Filter?Name=Devastator     
« Last Edit: 01 September 2017, 16:21:14 by Dakkagor »
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #1 on: 31 August 2017, 18:35:27 »
Excellent writeup of an excellent machine. The Devastator truly lives up to its name and never fails to be an MVP when deployed in any of my games. Pilot motto: Stand and Deliver!

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #2 on: 31 August 2017, 18:55:08 »
IMHO one of the best darn mechs in the whole game.

In the last game I used one it took a clan ppc to the head in round 1.  I lost a few turns later. :-\

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #3 on: 31 August 2017, 20:28:05 »
I love this thing.  I wish the Taurian Concordat was able shoe horn double heat sinks into the 1D model since i love the idea of a AC/10 packing variant.

Hope we won't be waiting a while to get record sheets for 3150's new tech section. I'd like see what else the 10D has.
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #4 on: 31 August 2017, 20:51:13 »
IMHO one of the best darn mechs in the whole game.

In the last game I used one it took a clan ppc to the head in round 1.  I lost a few turns later. :-\

Some times Murphy comes. 

2 Gauss Rifles, 2 PPCs and 4 medium lasers is a great set of weapons.  I generally do not like IS XL engines but they have their place.

The Devastator is a beast and so is the Pillager.  Although I would rather have the Pillager since it has jump jets. 

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #5 on: 31 August 2017, 21:39:39 »
A great 'Mech, another of the Gauss monsters from 3058 (Nightstar, Pillager, and Thunder Hawk), this is one I don't field often.  When they show up in my games, they have TERRIBLE luck, and that stains my view of them.  The long range punch is solid, the best of the 4, on paper it should be a 'Mech I love.

But that bad luck streak has been around for a long time, and I don't trust them.  :)
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #6 on: 31 August 2017, 23:41:08 »
I always wanted to run one for campaign reasons, especially like Wendy Sylvester in the Guards during Operation Bulldog.  IMO its the ideal Clan fighter for when they can slug it out understanding you are giving up some range with regular PPCs and slower.  Wonder if it got much action in Op Sovereign Justice or the SIC conquest from FedCom units, because facing Pillagers or Liao stealth designs would be different.

I would have liked to see the latest Davion Devastator using the Clan ER lasers they put on the Black Knights, maybe REs for in close?

I have not played with one often, or maybe even not at all.  I also wonder how the mini is?
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #7 on: 31 August 2017, 23:53:22 »
Glorious. You just have to love it. A cornerstone for my Crucis Lancer assault units.  I even enjoy the extra ammo version. I have yet to play with the Muse version, but I should get around to it. Other 3150 updates would be nice, but its one of those Mechs you can understand they look at and say  "leave well enough alone."

Dakkagor

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #8 on: 01 September 2017, 08:16:03 »
A great 'Mech, another of the Gauss monsters from 3058 (Nightstar, Pillager, and Thunder Hawk), this is one I don't field often.  When they show up in my games, they have TERRIBLE luck, and that stains my view of them.  The long range punch is solid, the best of the 4, on paper it should be a 'Mech I love.

But that bad luck streak has been around for a long time, and I don't trust them.  :)

I've had much the same experience, one of the first times I used the thing my opponent TAc'ed the gyro and it fell down a hill and refused to get up for the rest of the game. . .

I have not played with one often, or maybe even not at all.  I also wonder how the mini is?

The mini is. . . .fine.  Its ok to put together and paint, but the pose looks like its just tripped on a rock and is about to fall over.  I get that its meant to be running full pelt, but on a 100 ton assault it just looks wrong.  But for the muse, I suppose the mini is quite fitting. . .
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #9 on: 01 September 2017, 08:29:56 »
You can't argue with the effectiveness of this one.  Personally I'd prefer a Nightstar or - if one was going for style points - a King Crab 001, but I wouldn't pretend for a second that the Devastator wasn't objectively better than either of them.

To me, one of the nice things about the Devastator is that, optimised as it is, you can still think of ways to make it better so it doesn't feel as uber-muchy as something like a Hellstar.

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #10 on: 01 September 2017, 08:59:03 »
Quote
The DVS-1D is the monkey tech variant pushed out in 3036.  With a standard engine, it has to save a lot of weight.  It strips out the heavy weapons and replaces them with a pair of AC10 and a pair of large lasers.  This is a vicious combo for a Succession War era assault machine.  It gains an extra heat sink, but its a single, so its heat curve is ruined.  It also only loses a half ton of armour over the original variant.
With its matched up range brackets, and solid secondary battery, this mech has only a single flaw: Heat!  A standing ranged strike with the four big hitters generates a six point heat spike.  You have to drop the large lasers every other salvo to keep the heat under control, or pick your moments for an alpha very carefully.  This variant completely disappears from Davion space by 3060, surviving only in the Taurian Concordat.

Fun Fan Fact: The DVS-1D is actually two Enforcers welded together! ;)

I'm kind of surprised that the AFFS didn't turn that heat flaw into a benefit by installing TSM. The four big hitters give you six heat points, and a single Medium Laser gives you the three you need to activate it. Then you're moving at 4/6.
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #11 on: 01 September 2017, 11:23:36 »
3058 was a good year for gauss rifles, wasn't it?

The Devistator has long been my pick of the class from that year.  The Thunder Hawk is great on paper, but I dislike the feel of it, the unballanced GRs, and it does feel a bit more Hellstar-ish (plus I've had bad experiances with two engine crits and SHS, which is really just unforgivable on a 100 ton XLed three GR monster).  I love jets, but on a mech with the Pillager's range I generally like to just stay  on the groun and snipe, even if it is a decent brawler with it's lasers and GRs (a-la Michael Searcy), but giving up six tons to jets just is too much to be competitive with the Devistator and T-Hawk.  And the Nightstar...if it were five tons heavier, I'd like it more even if it made no other changes.  Lot's of irrationality in this, but I accept that.

As to the Devistator itself, asside from that it's a good mech there's little to say.  It's slow, with good range, a forgiving heat curve and good armor.  It's hard to fight a sniper dual with unless you've got a Warhawk or Supernova, since slow as it is it's still generally pretty easy to get the PPCs into range (and few mechs have the power to just trade blows with twin GRs anyway) and with a bevy of MLs it's not entirely safe to try and close to get under the minimums of it's big guns, since in the first place the big guns may just rip you appart before you get there, and in the second a mech fast enough to get there safely can't usually stand up to the MLs and a 20 point kick. 

Really, the only sure fire stratigy is to either just curcumvent it, in which case perhaps it's won anyway, or just hit it so hard there's no hope of recovery, in which case hopefully there was enough cash to spare for solid lance mates for the thing.
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #12 on: 01 September 2017, 13:21:41 »
3058 was a good year for gauss rifles, wasn't it?
Funny, I kept thinking Cerberus was in the book, not 3055.
That and the Gunslinger made up that book's Gauss Rifle mafia. 

I remember the CBT Novel Flashpoint where the Devastator faced off with the Cerberus at the HPG.

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #13 on: 01 September 2017, 13:23:56 »
A very nice article on a Mech I never really warmed up to... it feels weirdly generic to me, or maybe "simple" is the better word. The MUSE EARTH on the other hand oozes character, even though the combination of an XXL engine with armor that has the nasty habit of coming off all at once if someone gets a lucky TAC in, doesn't leave me with warm and fuzzy feelings.  #P

By the way, I am intrigued by this "Gauss Armour" idea of yours that is supposedly found on the DVS-3. How exactly does this special armour work?  ;D

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #14 on: 01 September 2017, 13:57:57 »
This is one of those mechs where the original is probably still my favorite variant. It really does feel like a solid clan-fighter and makes the smart choice as a slow assault mech to make sure it has big, long-ranged guns to keep it in the fight. Honestly, you don't even really want to close with it, because even at hugging distance, the to-hit mods on the PPC's and Gauss Rifles really aren't that bad. Plus, you have to give up one point of that penalty if you don't want to stand within kicking/punching range.

As much as I love some of the classic big-gun Assaults like the Atlas and King Crab, this has got to be one of the best 100T Inner Sphere mechs there is. It piles on the armor. It carries big guns, and lots of them. It doesn't have way more weaponry than heat capacity to use it. It isn't totally reliant on ammo or one type of weapon. This thing is just plain good.

The art isn't the most interesting or inspiring I've ever seen, but it isn't bad and does give the feeling of a pretty large and beefy mech. The cockpit is probably my least favorite detail. I think the artist was maybe going for using a small 'head' to make the rest of the mech seem larger, but that isn't what it ended up looking like to me. It just looks like the head is too small. Other than that, it's really a decent design.

Dakkagor

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #15 on: 01 September 2017, 16:22:56 »
By the way, I am intrigued by this "Gauss Armour" idea of yours that is supposedly found on the DVS-3. How exactly does this special armour work?  ;D

I have no idea what you are talking about.   :P
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #16 on: 01 September 2017, 21:33:49 »
i'm surprised we didn't see a 'field upgrade' version of the DVS-1D used in the war of 3039.. double strength heatsinks (that are hard to maintain but can be combined with SHS), would have gone a long way to fixing some of the type's issues, and those AC10's just beg for prototype LB10X's.


Edit: playing round with megamek lab, you could do it easily.. remove the AC10's, their ammo, and the 3 external SHS, and put in Prototype LB10X's, move the 4 tons of ammo (split between slug and cluster) to the side torso's, then fit in 4 DHS prototypes (2 per side torso), and CASE in both side torso's. the primary arsenal (the AC's and LL's) becomes heat neutral aside from movement, and heat management becomes much easier. would also put the ammo behind not only more armor, but better crit padding.
would probably need to be a factory refit, but would make for a nasty surprise.
« Last Edit: 03 September 2017, 18:04:02 by glitterboy2098 »

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #17 on: 01 September 2017, 21:57:40 »
Also could have made it AC/5s & PPCs . . . would fit in with all the other Davion AC/5s.

I never really got to look at my War of 3039 SB before it was water damaged (mom's window AC unit got it & several other books) how often did the -1D or prototype models enter into play?
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #18 on: 02 September 2017, 03:22:05 »
Ahh the Devastator, one of TRO 3058's wonderfully potent series of assaults like the Nightstar or Pillager.  Its a great Clan fighter and fighter all round with firepower at all ranges whilst being a darn tough nut to crack. The placement of the Gauss' in the arms just makes more sense so it won't kill itself with an exploding gauss rifle unlike the Pillager. 

The MUSE EARTH sounds utterly bonkers, but in the best possible way :)  And I didn't know about the low tech Monkey version, which as was pointed out, is two Enforces slapped together with duct tape and string :D

When i've used them i've had a mixbag of luck. One Dev pilot couldn't hit ANYTHING with his guns save his medium lasers.  Another one headcapped a Dire Wolf at long range with its first shot.  Six of one, half a dozen of the other :)
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #19 on: 02 September 2017, 03:42:51 »
Fun Fan Fact: The DVS-1D is actually two Enforcers welded together! ;)

I'm kind of surprised that the AFFS didn't turn that heat flaw into a benefit by installing TSM. The four big hitters give you six heat points, and a single Medium Laser gives you the three you need to activate it. Then you're moving at 4/6.
The DVS-2 on the other hand is functionally two FALCONERS welded together, in terms of firepower at least.

Playing the heat curve like that is not worth the potential negatives to THNs, IMHO.

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #20 on: 02 September 2017, 11:19:55 »
When the 1D came out, they didn't have that type of TSM, and by the time they did, the 1D was probably considered obsolete, since the 2's had supplanted them in production.

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #21 on: 02 September 2017, 21:06:04 »
Anyone else feel like the DVS-2 is a souped-up Warhammer?  It even looks kinda like one, with the arms and the searchlight.
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #22 on: 02 September 2017, 21:39:25 »
I used to call the Devastator a Warhammer on PCP
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #23 on: 02 September 2017, 22:23:30 »
Anyone else feel like the DVS-2 is a souped-up Warhammer?  It even looks kinda like one, with the arms and the searchlight.

Now it does  ;D
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #24 on: 02 September 2017, 22:30:25 »
The Devastator is emblematic of my feelings of assault gunboats: I love the simplistic, efficient, and brutal payload, yet I feel uninspired when I run it or any of its compatriots. That may be more of an indictment of my lack of skills than the mech itself though.
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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #25 on: 02 September 2017, 23:20:00 »
I used to call the Devastator a Warhammer on PCP
It was the Warhammer on Steroids for me.  The photo from the MAC with the search light nailed it home for me (http://www.sarna.net/wiki/File:Devastator_MACp55.png).

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #26 on: 03 September 2017, 12:18:46 »
The Devastator is one of the few mechs that could be called Clan-busterish. 

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #27 on: 05 September 2017, 04:17:50 »
The Devastator is one of the few mechs that could be called Clan-busterish.

But DOES the Devastator consistently give a good accouting of itself against opponents like Dire Wolves, Turkinas, and Hellstars?

cheers,

Gabe
So, now I'm imagining people boxing up Overlords for loading as cargo.  "Nope, totally not a DropShip.  Everyone knows you can't fit a DropShip in a WarShip!  It's...a ten thousand ton box of marshmallows!  Yeah.  For the Heavy Guards big annual smores party."
--Arkansas Warrior, on the possibility of carrying Dropships as cargo in Warship cargo bays.

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THUD

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #28 on: 05 September 2017, 10:10:37 »
But DOES the Devastator consistently give a good accouting of itself against opponents like Dire Wolves, Turkinas, and Hellstars?

cheers,

Gabe

IMHO yes. It's one of the few IS mechs that can throw 50 points of damage long range for little to no heat every turn. (I know that people don't consider the PPC long range any more, but I still do) At least until the bins run dry.

Iron Mongoose

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Re: Mech of the Week: DVS- Devastator
« Reply #29 on: 05 September 2017, 11:49:02 »
That's the key. If you can fight at 16-18 hexes, the Devastator is comparable to a good Clan assault until the armor is breached (IS XL engine can't be ignored). Plenty of terrain situations can create this. 

But, Devastator still gives up speed to Warhawks and Executioners and Blood Asps and things, making it harder to hold that sweet spot without really optimal terrain or lots if other mechs, or maybe mines. And while many Clan assaults aren't nearly as slickly designed, putting the Devastator up against the few that are is still a mismatch.

But, for an IS mech, it's as good as can be asked for.
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Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century..."

 

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