Achilles Mirage

[Iceweb]

My unit recently bought an old Achilles dropship, and since a new version of MegaMek Lab is out I wanted to see what it would look like if I upgraded to 3058 spec.  This is my first time altering a dropship so if anyone can give me a hint if I made any mistakes or Lab is having issues. 

Mostly it was just my hate of vanilla AC 5s and 10s which were upgraded to Ultra 5s and LBX 10s and the 5s given more ammo since the ultra chews through them faster.  The PPCs and Large lasers were also changed to their ER versions.  Then the cooling system was upgraded to double heatsinks and a few spurious tons of sinks were pruned.  The armor was also changed to Ferro-Aluminum which both lightened the amount of weight required for armor, and increased protection in all areas.   


Would love any thoughts

Code: [Select]

Achilles Mirage
Type: Military Aerodyne
Mass: 4,500 tons
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Introduced: 3058
Mass: 4,500
Battle Value: 9,949
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-D-D
Cost: 545,947,200 C-bills

Fuel: 300 tons (9,000)
Safe Thrust: 8
Maximum Thrust: 12
Heat Sinks: 117 (234)
Structural Integrity: 16

Armor      Nose: 302      Sides: 270/270      Aft: 180

Cargo
Bay 1: Fighter (2) 1 Door
Bay 2: Small Craft (2) 1 Door
Bay 3: Infantry (Foot) (5) 1 Door
Bay 4: Cargo (143.5 tons) 1 Door

Escape Pods: 4
Life Boats: 1

Crew: 5 officers, 18 enlisted/non-rated, 7 gunners, 42 bay personnel

Ammunition:
240 rounds of Ultra AC/5 ammunition (12 tons),
40 rounds of LB 10-X Cluster ammunition (2 tons),
12 rounds of LRM 10 ammunition (1 tons),
40 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (8 tons),
96 rounds of LRM 20 ammunition (16 tons)

Notes: Mounts 53.5 tons of ferro-aluminum armor.

Weapons:

Capital Attack Values (Standard)

Arc (Heat)             Heat  SRV   MRV     LRV   ERV  Class
Nose (72 Heat)
2 ER PPC                30   2(20)  2(20)  2(20)  0(0)  PPC
2 LRM 20                12   2(24)  2(24)  2(24)  0(0)  LRM
   LRM 20 Ammo (144 shots)
2 ER Large Laser   
2 Medium Laser      30   3(26)  2(16)  2(16)  0(0)  Laser

RW/LW (42 Heat)
1 ER PPC                15   1(10)   1(10)  1(10)  0(0)  PPC
1 AC/20
2 Ultra AC/5             9   3(34)   1(14)   1(14)  0(0)  AC
 AC/20 Ammo (75 shots), Ultra AC/5 Ammo (2400 shots)
2 LRM 20                12  2(24)    2(24)  2(24)  0(0)  LRM
   LRM 20 Ammo (216 shots)
2 Medium Laser        6   1(10)    0(0)    0(0)   0(0)  Laser


RW/LW Aft (35 Heat)
1 ER PPC                15   1(10)   1(10)   1(10)  0(0)  PPC
1 ER Large Laser
2 Medium Laser      18    2(18)   1(8)     1(8)   0(0)  Laser
1 LB 10-X AC           2     1(10)  1(10)    0(0)   0(0)  LBX AC
   LB 10-X Cluster Ammo (200 shots)

Aft (17 Heat)
1 AC/20                  7     2(20)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  AC
AC/20 Ammo (50 shots)
1 LRM 10                4      1(6)     1(6)    1(6)    0(0)  LRM
   LRM 10 Ammo (144 shots)
2 Medium Laser       6     1(10)    0(0)    0(0)    0(0)  Laser

Lab's ammo counts seems off.  The missile numbers look like the individual amount of missiles, but I don't know if that how things are done in areo. 
The Aft AC 20 has two tons of shells for 10 shots, but Lab is listing 50 shots, and that seems wrong.  Help me make a nice track for a bug report.

[Daryk]

The AC/5s should be traded for Point Defenses.  AMS (or Laser AMS) are the best at this, but Small Lasers (in pairs) can make do in a pinch.

[Iceweb]

I take it you are not a fan of the ultra 5 then? 

Not sure the rules on Point Defenses, could you give me the short version? 

Converting the AC bays to point defenses, especially lasers seems like a lot more work than taking one cannon out and putting another same sizeish one in.  I wasn't sure I wanted to try something that difficult yet.

[Daryk]

The Advanced Point Defense Weapons rules are on pages 96-97 of Strategic Operations.  Aside from AMS and L-AMS, Point Defense Weapons operate at half efficiency.

[dgorsman]

I'd be sorely tempted to switch out the AC-20/ultra 5 groups for paired gauss, and rear AC-20 for another.  Same with fitting some pulse lasers for easier shots against upgraded fighters of the age.

[Iceweb]

Swapping the cannons for gauss is a tried and true thing.  The Achilles is pretty fast so I am not sure it will be that hard to get in range of those big cannons.   

Are you thinking Large Pulses to replace the ER Larges, or ripping out the mediums and swapping them over to pulses?   I'm worried about the range issues on IS pulses, not sure losing all the range on an ER Large is worth it.  As for the mediums the range is not as much an issue, but the double weight is a bit of an issue.  Where do you see having weight to spare for the pulses?