Recognition Guide: IlClan Vol 30
Stormbird: In a stunning turn of events, we have a battle armor unit I actually like leading off the volume. There's a very long standing, almost enshrined in the fabric of the game 'problem' that comes with building a battle armor unit: is there any reason to take this over an Elemental? For an unfortunate number of them, the answer is “no”. The Stormbird is a heavy suit that answers the question with “holy shit, yes”. Defensively the Stormbird has 13 points of armor (and the trooper) to be able to stand up to big 10 point hits and still have some extra armor, which is a tried and true battle armor killing tactic. The armor is also Fire Resistant, which removes the other tried and true battle armor killing tactic that isn't artillery, making them very difficult to shift. Ground speed is 2 MP with no jump, leaving us firmly in the “bring help” category of self-locomotion, but you can adjust range a bit once deployed. The guns are another place that this suit shines, with an Advanced SRM 3 with 5 shots per suit, and a battle armor Heavy Flamer. This is a lot of offense for a suit, 4 points per Flamer (of either heat or damage, remember) and effectively an SRM 15 with 4/8/12 ranges and +1 to the cluster hits table. No opponent will be happy when your squad of battle armor put an average of 9 SRMs into a target from something they can't actually easily remove. Solid suit. The downside, such as it is, is that it's expensive at 633 for a full Point. This is acceptable. B
Stormbird (Jade Falcon): Long time viewers may remember that I am a fan of Clan Jade Falcon, and shit like this is exactly why. The amount of armor and type are unchanged, but the movement speed switches up a bit, dropping to 1 Ground MP, in order to make it have 2 Jump MP. Instant improvement, the extra TMM alone is worth it but the slight increase in (ironically) ground speed through broken terrain is also very helpful. Weapons are replaced with a regular SRM 3 with 4 shots per suit, a minor downgrade, and the Heavy Flamer has been replaced with an AP Gauss, a fairly significant upgrade. This is technically less offense per suit, but it's now at uniform range bands and those range bands are long enough to pose a problem for your opponent still. The cherry on top is that it gets cheaper, down to 587 per full Point. This is more than acceptable. B+
Vulcan VL-7T: There's good and bad about this 'Mech, which is a shame because the bad could be fixed with a little rearranging that doesn't affect the mission profile at all. Starting out, this Vulcan moves 6/9[12]/6 thanks to an Inner Sphere XL and a Supercharger. Solid start, if not terribly impressive. Armor is where the bad comes in. It's not awful, but it's definitely thinner than it could be to the extent I have to bring it up as a weakness. Side torsos are a full five points light, center torso is six points light, and legs are eight points light. That's a lot of points on a 'Mech that's only 40 tons and doesn't have a whole lot of those points even at max armor. It's rocking Light Ferro-Fibrous, so by my count it's spending six tons on armor. Offense consists of a Plasma Rifle (excellent!) with two tons of ammo (good!), an ER Medium Laser (solid), a Heavy Flamer (questionable) with a ton of ammo (this is why it's questionable), and a Heavy Machine Gun (bad) with a half ton of ammo (could definitely be worse but can't be better). This is all linked to a Targeting Computer (good) except the Heavy Flamer I think? It's 9.5 tons of guns and the Target Computer is Inner Sphere and only two tons so I'm pretty sure it's not contributing. The Heavy Flamer is a ton and a half for the gun, plus a ton of ammo, for two and a half tons taken up on this 'Mech instead of a regular Flamer's one ton. The Heavy Machine Gun is a full ton with a half ton of ammo. But wait Scotty, I hear you say, don't you say tonnage is fake all the time? Yes, I do, and it's fake for determining whether or not a given weapon is good in a vacuum. The Vulcan is not a vacuum, unfortunately, and that extra ton and a half is sorely missed. Mocking it up in a designer, I'm seeing that you can shave two full tons of equipment. That goes a long way on a low end Medium like the Vulcan if you pour it directly into armor. Much like the Dominator, it's a collection of small inefficiencies that build up in the design to leave it lesser than it could be. Ten doubles is enough for running and firing all guns to be a +4 on the heat scale, or +6 for jumping. That's about as good as you can hope for so it doesn't lose any marks for that. I would hope that this kind of capability would be relatively cheap, but coming in at 1499 BV it's just too expensive for the thin shell. It's still better than most earlier Vulcans, though, so it has that going for it. I'm not a fan but it could be so much worse. D+
Whitworth WTH-2H: Every once in a while you get an 'upgrade' where you'd just genuinely prefer the original Introductory variant and that's where I'm at for the Whitworth. Movement is 5/8/4, which is an improvement over the original, but the weapons are two ER Medium Lasers, one regular Medium Laser for some reason, and two MRM 10s with Apollo FCS and 24 shots each (two tons of ammo). This is an ambitious suggestion for how long this thing is going to last, but at least you have CASE II on both tons in the Left Torso. Armor isn't perfect but it's better than the Vulcan we just looked at by a fairly wide margin. Ten doubles makes it +3 at a run or +4 at a jump, so I can't complain there. That might be why we have mismatched Mediums, which irks me even if it's not actually a meaningful difference. I'd almost prefer all regular Mediums instead of the ERs. Mostly I just don't want MRMs, 10s or otherwise, Apollo or otherwise. I don't have a great suggested alternative with the difference in weight that isn't just “use Streaks”, though, and that's less interesting. Better, but not as interesting. Unfortunately you're paying 1148 to be “interesting” and that's not a transaction I'd like to make. D
Hellcat (Hellhound II): Okay now we get the 'Mechs that I want to talk about. This is the MechWarrior 4 Hellhound, which I love that it's been canonized, and I honestly really like what it brings to the table. We have a 6/9 movement speed due to a 300 XXL, which is already starting off spicy. Armor isn't max but it's under half a ton from max, so it's about as efficient as it can get. Guns include two ER Large Lasers, an LB-10X with two tons of ammo, and an SRM 6 with one. Simple. Elegant. Effective. Two (or three if you need it) 10 point hits and a bunch of critseeking to follow up. Ammo placement is the first slight concern, with the LBX ammo split between the arm and torso, but with an XXL and no CASE II it's dangerous to have it there. The other torso has the SRM ammo, which is a problem for the same reasons. There's space to put the ammo all in the arms and though it'd make the 'Mech lose weapons if they blow it'd be better than losing the whole 'Mech. Not enough to make me dislike it but enough to note that this could be improved. Fourteen doubles honestly struggle a bit thanks to the XXL heat. At a run plus the two ER Larges you're at +2, add the LB-10X and you're at +4. This is a good place to be at, and you can simply drop the second ER Large to cool down immediately. Up close you can fire everything for +8, which isn't ideal but you're fast enough to eat the heat penalty and sometimes you just need all the guns. It's a respectable amount of guns and armor on a speedy higher end (50 tons) Medium, and the BV clocks in at 1801. This is solidly cheaper than most of the Medium gunboats available to the Clans, and it's a solid price for it. Adjusting the ammo locations or finding a way to squeeze even one CASE II in here would be incredible, and it's one of the best candidates for Supercooled Myomers I can think of if that tech ends up proliferating. B
Conjurer (Hellhound) 6: This is the simultaneously cooler and not cooler initial version of the above. Cooler, because it has an XL instead of an XXL, and not cooler because this is the safe and boring pick. You naturally lose something for not having the XXL, and it comes in the guns which have to switch to less mass intensive options. You have three ER Medium Lasers, an ER Medium Pulse Laser (I love these), an ER PPC, and an LRM 10 with one ton of ammo. Honestly this is better offense than the Hellcat, but it comes at a pretty hefty heat burden and it's going to affect the cost later. Nineteen doubles puts you to +4 on a running alpha, which I genuinely would not have guessed at first glance. Dropping one ER Medium puts you back in negative territory, and it's almost always going to have your worst numbers even though the ER Medium Pulse saves you a bit more heat. The real difference between this and the Hellcat is cost. At 2223, this is much more in line with the Stormcrow Prime that it fills the same role as. Lots of direct fire energy weapons that are mobile and don't struggle with heat. It's solid, a little less durable (just the nature of being lighter), but you can absolutely do worse. Personally I prefer the Hellcat, but not by much. B-
Hellcat-P (Hellhound II-P): This is identical to the Hellcat, but with an XL instead of an XXL, and as a result it goes 5/8 instead of 6/9. Heat burden is eased by not having an XXL so now both ER Larges and the LBX is heat neutral at range and up close you're only +4. This is a selling point to some people, it's a wash for me. If you overheat with the Hellcat, you're going the same speed as this, but you didn't have the extra speed to start with. These tradeoffs come to a BV discount of exactly 24 points, dropping to 1777. I like it, but I like the standard better. I'll use it if someone objects to bringing XXLs to a game I guess. B-
Hoplite HOP-5C: I love this dumb little guy. Moving 4/6 at 55 tons is a choice, but this choice is backed up very well by a Light engine and absolutely caking on the Ballistic-Reinforced armor, which is one of my favorites. This armor is fully maximum, and it means you can weather a hideous amount of missile or ballistic damage. Weapons are an MML in the Left Arm with two tons of ammo (protected by Clan CASE II) in the Left Torso, and a Clan Ultra AC/10 in the Right Armo with three tons of ammo (protected by more Clan CASE II) in the right torso. But wait, there's more! Both weapons are supported by AES, making them more accurate. I love Ultra AC/10s, and this design basically combines three or four things that I really like into a very effective package. Ten doubles handles that maximum of 11 heat you can generate at a run without any issues whatsoever. This beautiful machine (it's beautiful to me, don't look at the art) comes to 1520 BV, and this is a great cost for something that against ballistic and missile weapons is basically a sawed-off Orion. A
Grizzly 3: Why the hell are all the guns labelled with the C for Clantech? It's a Grizzly! ...Oh. The Grizzly 3 starts off with familiar Grizzly beats, 70 tons and 4/6/4 thanks to an XL. It gets interesting with the weapons. We have one each of ER Large, Medium, and Small Lasers all in the Left Arm. We have an LRM 10 with Artemis V (I love this) in the Left Torso with one ton of ammo. We have a Targeting Computer making sure all the other weapons are just as accurate as the Artemis boosted LRMs. Then we have a Plasma Rifle with two tons of ammo. Not the Cannon you might expect, but the actual Rifle, which is much better. If there's one downside here it's the heatsinks having some trouble up close. The LRM and ER Large are fine by themselves at -8 at a run at range, but once you hit 10 hexes you're suddenly juggling a higher heat burden at 33 heat against 13 doubles for +7. That's a bit spicy, and you'll end up dropping the ER Medium more often than anything else. You have a pattern for +2 with the three bigger guns, though you can switch the Plasma for the ER Medium if you end up too warm and go to -3 at a run. Up close there's the ER Small that I'm pretty sure is only included to match barrels. It's totally superfluous here, though you can juggle heat to be -1 at point blank without the Plasma Rifle I guess? It's not wasted, per se, but I'd definitely rather just be shooting the Plasma Rifle as often as possible with how good and fun that gun is. One thing I very nearly missed is that it has Reinforced Structure, making this a nightmare to actually drop since it covers a half ton shy of the efficient maximum armor for a 70 tonner like this. There's a funny mistake on the record sheet showing a Reinforced crit in the Head that I'm pretty sure isn't supposed to exist, and is the only reason I caught it before sending the volume to post. That extra durability goes a long way to making the price tag of 2331 BV palatable. It's still expensive and the heat curve isn't perfect, but it's still pretty solid for a durable, dangerous Clan Heavy even if it's not notably fast. It's not my first pick and I will continue to forget it exists, but it won't cause a problem if you end up with one. C+
Highlander IIC 4: This is by far the most expensive unit in this volume and it's also by far the most dangerous. I'm not entirely sure it's worth the nearly 3K BV price tag, but it's putting in a lot of effort to try. Starting off is a 90 ton 'Mech that moves 3/5/3 with a Standard Fusion Engine. The Highlander IIC has chosen “armor” and “firepower” as its two choices from the Triangle of Capability. The armor is Ferro-Fibrous, only two points shy of maximum. I'd have preferred to have the deficit come from a location other than the Center Torso but at only two points out of a possible 58 missing I'll give it some slack. Guns are pretty significant, starting with a Gauss Rifle and LRM 20 with Artemis V. These are long range, accurate firepower, and you're averaging over 30 damage if both connect. Three tons of LRM ammo mean you can take fliers on some shots you might not take otherwise, and two tons of Gauss ammo should be enough. There are also a pair of ATM 6s that you can contribute with at range, since three tons of ammo for the pair of them means you will almost certainly not run out of whatever type you want to be using at any given time. Three whole CASE II locations protect you from the twelve different explosive crits. It seems more likely than not that your pilot will take damage from an explosion, but the 'Mech will probably soldier through it. Up close you can add three ER Mediums to round out the hideous firepower. Twelve doubles handles the long range heat very well (-6 jumping alpha) but up close things start getting toasty. Two of them gets you to a running +3, which is pretty good, but the third one is going to take you too high to be useful most turns. You have an unusual situation here where your long range guns that you're already using are more damage efficient than the trio of ER Mediums. The LRM 20 is going to average 16 damage if it hits and will be more accurate, the Gauss is a Gauss and will probably have better numbers for only 1 heat, and the ATM 6s at HE range are going to handily out-damage the Mediums. They almost seem like they're for if your ammo runs out, which I wouldn't bank on but could happen. Odd choice, though I know it was to make the art work. A Small Pulse would have been a really good alternative here but I get why they didn't. What does that leave you? A truckload of damage that can contribute at standoff range and up close, protected by a full Assault 'Mech's maximum armored shell, for 2958 BV. I can see playing this. It suffers from Eggs-in-One-Basket Syndrome, but sometimes that's just the price you pay. Assuming your head doesn't come off at a bad time, this is probably going to bore through its own BV in lighter 'Mechs and not particularly break a sweat doing it. It takes a lot of capability to cost this much and still look good. A-
Units by rating:
F: none
D: 2
C: 1
B: 5
A: 2
S: none
Cumulative Units by rating (Including bonus content):
F: 42
D: 108
C: 228
B: 242
A: 120
S: 19
