Talk to me about... the Eagle (battlemech)

[Ferrosol]

Basically as a marik player who is experimenting with light mechs this.... thing keeps showing up in my forces. Now on the face of it I am pretty much obliged to use it given the shortage of tag equipped mechs the mariks have, But what I am less clear on is how to use it well?

[Martius]

The Eagle is a slow 25t Mech. This means it will not survive long, if it attracts any attentions as there are Warhammers able to keep up with this Mech or even outrun it.

Against other lights it is not bad, the Large Laser is an acceptable main gun making the 1M some kind of light direct fire support like the Panther. The TAG on the 2M is nice to have but it will attract a lot of attention, the 3M has fancy toys but it lacks the main gun of the 1M. A medium VSP is nasty close up but IMO no substitute for the ER Large- neither is the lPPC.

[Slicer3025]

A light slow mech with an XLE, WTF were they thinking!?!?

I mean i can totally dig a slow SFE light mech.  I mean the Dracs and Caps were doing the whole cool slow light thing, but at least they did it cheap and with panache.  The Eagle is just straight bleh, too slow to run, too easy to kill, and thus just enough of a blip on threat radar to be put down quick and easy.

[Sartris]

The 1M needs to hang out as far from the action as possible and snipe. 
The 2M is a bit of a head scratcher for me - If it's doing its job it will attract attention - a slow TAGer with an XL engine will fight very bravely and die very quickly
The 3M is just asking for trouble by showing up. 

[Iron Mongoose]

As near as I can tell (by looking at the TRO) the Eagle uses a standard engine, so it is cheap and 'durable' for a 25 ton mech.  And it does have jumpjets, and a main weapon with a 19 hex range which it can use with no heat problems.  So its far from useless, though you get back to the classic light fighter problem, in that in order to keep from being hit, it has to take actions that make it very hard to hit back.

With TW rules, the 1 is probably the better bet.  Granted TW improved both AMS and TAG, so both are better than they were in 1998, but as noted getting a mech with only 5 tons of armor into a position to call in huge artilery or LRM strikes would probably attract a lot more attention than keeping it at 19 hexes and offering a bit of support, so being able to shoot down the odd LRM will help that armor last just that much longer.

As for value, its cheaper both in cost and BV than the origonal Panther, and I'd sooner have an Eagle than an old Panther (which I do like in its day, mind you) so not half bad for that.  Not a half bad way to get an ER LL on the field, if you ask me.

[jc.knight]

from Wikipedia

"The USCGC Eagle (WIX-327) (ex-SSS Horst Wessel) is a 295-foot (90 m) barque used as a training cutter for future officers of the United States Coast Guard. She is one of only two active commissioned sailing vessels in American military service, the other being the USS Constitution.[1]

She is the seventh U.S. Navy or Coast Guard ship to bear the name in a line dating back to 1792. Each summer, Eagle conducts cruises with cadets from the United States Coast Guard Academy and candidates from the Officer Candidate School for periods ranging from a week to two months. These cruises fulfill multiple roles; the primary mission is training the cadets and officer candidates, but the ship also performs a public relations role. Often, Eagle makes calls at foreign ports as a goodwill ambassador."

I know your talking about the mech, but as a former Coastie I couldn't resist