BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Fan Articles => Topic started by: BATTLEMASTER on 12 May 2018, 21:21:59
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I've been fascinated with the Nightstar lately. I like to think of it as an official, bigger version of the Marauder, and it makes me think of Wolf's Dragoon's Marauder II as a cheap knockoff. Nothing says good night from a distance like twin Gauss rifles and an ER PPC in the old 9J model, and the 9FC and 9SS models offer greater mobility in the form of a larger engine or three jump jets, respectively, but each make some sacrifice in long-range firepower.
Which variants do you fellow players prefer and why? I like the 9J for being a somewhat less-explody Thunder Hawk, but I wouldn't mind some more mobility.
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The 9J is begging for a capacitor to replace some of its excessive Gauss ammo. Pretty easy to shoehorn in a Command Console too, if you like.
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The 9J is begging for a capacitor to replace some of its excessive Gauss ammo. Pretty easy to shoehorn in a Command Console too, if you like.
There's no such thing as too much ammo for gauss rifles. ;)
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There's no such thing as too much ammo for gauss rifles. ;)
I think this is the only weapon we can say this about.
It's interesting because the three vars are all very different beasts. The 9J can sink a running alpha, but does it really need to? Most of your day should be spent at 15-20 hexes out. With 65 rounds of gauss, you should be like, "12s to hit? Why not?" I'm not a huge fan of mplas, the short range eats most of the pulse buff. A regular mlas would probably get at least more chance to fire before a mplas gets into range, and ERmlas probably has 2 more chances to fire, and either one is half the mass. But they are decent for close range backstabbers trying to get in under the gauss minimum. The small laser, on a 95 ton assault? I'm guessing it's there because massaging cockpit chair and Dolby 7.1 surround sound with subwoofers only came to about .49 tons.
No doubts, it is a beast. Just keep the range open, and tape down the triggers.
The 9FC is a different animal. The LB 10's shorter range mean this Nightstar is going to be taking considerably more fire. The 9J is a lethal sniper, supporting teammates from the next town over. The 9FC is one of those teammates. After a couple turns of attention from a 9J, you are either out of the fight or you have got daylight peaking through your armor, but as long as you keep your damaged right side away from that monster on the hill, you'll be okay. OHCRAP! The monster has a brother and it's brother has paired sandblasters and I'm stuck between them!!!!
Between slugs from paired LB 10s and the PPC, this machine is well equipped for making holes, then exploiting them with cluster, although the ammo is a bit thin for fighting other assault mechs. As the forward element in a formation that is anchored by gauss boats, those twin LB 10s are very scary to anyone with breaches. Yeah, they aren't as scary as twin LB 20s, but they do reach 50% farther with correspondingly better TH numbers.
And now for the 9SS... When your load out contains AC/20s, plural, you know will occupy a great deal of the enemy's thoughts. A running alpha strike(ultra on standard mode) will leave you with just +1 heat, and a jumping alpha will give you +2. But really, you can subtract 1 heat from those figures because, how much are you really going to use that small laser? Those mplas will be more useful since your big guns only reach 10 and 12 hexes, respectively. But if you drop two mplas and the small laser, then you can let 'er rip with that Ultra 20, LB 20 and one more mplas for fun and stay heat neutral on a run.
Unlike most AC/20 applications, the 9SS has plenty of ammo to go around. 15 rounds for each gun. That's almost 3 minutes of sustained John Woo, A-10 BRRAAAAAAP! action. But the 9SS is completely harmless to anything standing 13 hexes away. Given that its fluffed as a Solaris dueling machine, that's not as big a deficiency as it might be in a general service machine. That said, the Steiner, Marik, and Davion arenas are rather large and offer some good fire lanes. The Liao arena is huge as well but it's forests are so dense that breaking LOS shouldn't be hard, especially for a jumper like this.
Weapon placement does reveal a issues the wise pilot should consider. Two out of three mplas are leg mounted, which means they can't be fired from partial cover. Then there is the LB-20, which fills the right arm, and intrudes into the torso. Which means this monster gun's firing arc is fixed to the torso weapons arc, rather than the arm. So no torso twist, reach back and cluster spam that jumpy-backstabber in the face for you. It also means that despite a complete lack of hand and lower arm actuators, this thing can't flip its arms like a certain Rifleman was famous for doing.
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While I prefer the Marauder IIs and King Crabs durability, the Nightstar is a awesome fire support/Gauss platform that can stand right next to the Devastator and Thunderhawk. It's a shame that Loose didn't give the mech a more flattering angle, thankfully there some awesome fan art out there that does the design justice.
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While I prefer the Marauder IIs and King Crabs durability, the Nightstar is a awesome fire support/Gauss platform that can stand right next to the Devastator and Thunderhawk. It's a shame that Loose didn't give the mech a more flattering angle, thankfully there some awesome fan art out there that does the design justice.
I agree about Loose's art. I know some people really like his work, but it just doesn't click for me.
As to durability, Nightstars all carry 18.5 tons of standard plate. Most 100 tonners only carry 19, with a few carrying 19.5. The Nightstar is only 8 points shy of the Marauder II and equal or better cladding than many King Crabs.
A Nightstar -9FS working with a Thunder Hawk.... :yikes:
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I like the beasty, it can be a tough nut to crack when i goes in. Command Mech in the novels, Tancred Sandoval leading the way for Pro-Victor Troops to ultimately liberate FedCom from Katherine Steiner-Davion before he got shot out of it.
While i prefer the 9J standard, giving long range fire power and reserve trio of Medium Pulse Lasers deal with someone who closed in it, the 9SS best variants when it comes to urban/close-quarters fighting. Keeping trio medium pulse lasers for gauss rifles /er ppc be swapped out for LBX20/UAC20 One-Two Punch should enemy try corner it and then find it's bit more mobile with it's Jump Jets. I'm not so keen on the LBX10 one, only because i don't think it pack enough punch for the stature of the thing. It to me becomes oversize Bushwacker.
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The basic 9J Nightstar confuses me, and has for years. Why? Because it doesn't need an XL engine. Had it gone with endo steel instead, it could have run with a standard fusion engine, and only sacrificed a ton of ammo and three of its heat sinks which, really, it doesn't actually need.
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The basic 9J Nightstar confuses me, and has for years. Why? Because it doesn't need an XL engine. Had it gone with endo steel instead, it could have run with a standard fusion engine, and only sacrificed a ton of ammo and three of its heat sinks which, really, it doesn't actually need.
...Why haven't I done this yet!? In fact, why isn't this in a record sheet book yet!
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The basic 9J Nightstar confuses me, and has for years. Why? Because it doesn't need an XL engine. Had it gone with endo steel instead, it could have run with a standard fusion engine, and only sacrificed a ton of ammo and three of its heat sinks which, really, it doesn't actually need.
Many 'Mechs are like this...
Ruger
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I adore this 'Mech. It is an IS twin-gauss with FLAVOR. Hands actuators, ridiculous ammo bins, runs cooler an an ice cube. It's a flawed, strange machine, but it's still great. I think it fits in the universe and on the table top well. Probably my favorite IS assault.
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The basic 9J Nightstar confuses me, and has for years. Why? Because it doesn't need an XL engine. Had it gone with endo steel instead, it could have run with a standard fusion engine, and only sacrificed a ton of ammo and three of its heat sinks which, really, it doesn't actually need.
There are other examples of that as well like the UAC Fafnir. Try to build it with a SFE instead of a LFE, it'll work.
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There are other examples of that as well like the UAC Fafnir. Try to build it with a SFE instead of a LFE, it'll work.
Pillager-3Z, Devastator-2, Caesar-3R, Hatchetman-5S, and so many others...
Ruger
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Typical FASA silliness.
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Neither as obviously munch as a Thunder Hawk, nor as efficient as a Gunslinger. More sniper-y than a Devastator which does have good reason to close...
...and all that are excuses you can make for bringing yet another twin-gauss Assault turret to the table :D
Scoring a kill on one of these should be the highlight of any Light Mech backstabber's career.
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If you think of the FC as a heavy, it changes you world. For the BV (especially in BV1, wow!) it's contemporaries are/where generally heavy 'mechs. Under BV2 it looks like it went up enough that now it's contemporaries are jumping heavies (Thantos, Black Hawk KU variants, Defiance etc) and lower end assault 'mechs. Still, I've always played this guy to it's main difference over the other two variants, and thats the speed. At 4/6 I just rush forward blasting away. You have enough armor that you eventually get into physical ranges and then you act like a Banshee or Albatross and kick the legs out of other units (or cave in the sides of vehicles.)
I'm generally giddy when people underestimate the 9FC to be honest. If you are looking for a Gauss Monster Command 'mech, yeah the 9FC isn't that. At ALL. It is though a heavy with 293 armor and 19 point kicks that has enough firepower and versatility to really mess up opponents.
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Yeah, it's a fine fast assault 'Mech in the tradition of the 4/6 Banshee lineage, the Albatross, and the Grand Titan.
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It's honestly not a Mech I'm a fan of. It combines being 'flawless' (and so a little bland, in the same vein as the Devastator, Hellstar, etc.) with having wretched looks and an even worse miniature. That's a rough combination. I own one (in 3rd Crucis markings), I've used it on rare occasion, but it's not something I find that I gravitate towards.
Also the arm weapons drive me insane because on the miniature in particular it's hard to tell which is supposed to be which. ::)
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I think there something missing here. The 3055-3058 gang of gauss rifles totin mechs, were typically assigned to certain factions. I know it's not big deal having faction specific
While the majority of the SL era machines were tied to the SLDF, they became faction focused machines.
Devastator was known to be operating with FedCom/FedSuns
Pillager was known for Capellan Confederation / St. Ives / FedCom (prior to St Ives war)
Thunder Hawk is known for FedCom/Lyran Alliance
Cerberus was initially sold to everyone, but by3060/Jihad it became a Marik/WoB mech
NightStar was known to operate with the FedCom/FedSuns.
Gunslinger was jointly developed/operated by FedCom/Kurita.
I know there general RAT, but it does explain why there so many of same kind of twin+ Gauss machines out there. Its to me give somewhat reason why there so many of them out there,
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Everyone was building anti-Clan mechs, and Gauss Rifles were the it gun for fighting the Clans. So naturally everyone wanted as many Gauss-packing mechs as they could get and tried to pack as many Gauss Rifles onto mechs as they could.
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Pretty much. To this day its hard to think of a weapon to match the Gauss Rifle - long range, low heat, headcapper...
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[Unproductive post]
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It's honestly not a Mech I'm a fan of. It combines being 'flawless' (and so a little bland, in the same vein as the Devastator, Hellstar, etc.) with having wretched looks and an even worse miniature. That's a rough combination. I own one (in 3rd Crucis markings), I've used it on rare occasion, but it's not something I find that I gravitate towards.
Also the arm weapons drive me insane because on the miniature in particular it's hard to tell which is supposed to be which. ::)
It is ugly. The MWO version is nice looking though. When I saw thet itle, "talk to me about the Nightstar" my first thought was, "Hideous." But at least MWO tidied it up.
As far as the guns are concerned it is about as bizarre as the Behemoth.
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Weird 'Mech, a rare case for me as...
...I like the MWO iteration of the Nightstar is actually better than the canon TRO/mini, i'm don't generally speaking like MWO versions.
...It is a TRO3058 'Mech i actually like, one of my least favorite TROs overall. The others i like are the IS Omnis, Bushwacker, O-Bakemono, and few Clan 'Mechs. Everything else is meh as stats and looks go.
...It is a rare case of nearly optimized 'Mech i actually like. As noted, it could be made better with few tweaks, the 9J is a rare 'Mech with actually overstocked Gauss Rifles (3 tons per rifle is plenty already) and the XLFE is a bit pointless. But it is pretty good all the same.
The variants are interesting.
A jumping bruiser with different class-20 ACs? Nice, though i'd swap some ammo and MPL places, don't care for leg mounted weapons.
And a fast multi-role assault? Sure, why not.
Surprising the 'Mech does not have Dark Age variants, nor C3-slave variant, or even a C3 Master carrier. It is good, but it can be improved with Dark Age tech, it would be ideal platform for a C3 slave thanks to its long-range firepower, and its nature a as command platform would make it a logical platform to carry a C3 Master Computer.
For the Dark Age, simple modification using a Silver-Bullet Gauss could be interesting. A C3 Slave variant could be either created by modifying it to carry a Boosted Slave for the Dark Age or just swapping one ton of ammo for a C3 Slave. And the C3 Master can be created either by modifying lasers, heat sinks and ammo amount; or by swapping the ERPPC for a C3 Master Computer and... well, something extra.
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Here's MWO's rendition of the Nightstar in case people were wondering how it looked:
https://mwomercs.com/static/packages/civilwarescalation/img/concept-nightstar-std.png
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It's very... lumpy.
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Seems like it'd be hard to actually use those hands for much. (Which is, to be sure, accurate to the '58 art, but no less annoying for all that)
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Prefer the fan art myself
https://orig00.deviantart.net/9455/f/2016/118/7/4/battletech___starry_night_by_ajtrooper-da0jv0t.jpg
https://pre00.deviantart.net/c1b6/th/pre/f/2016/132/8/1/nsr_9j_nightstar_by_giorgioespinos-da28mr0.jpg
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Somehow between the TRO and MWO... I like the mini best.
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Seems like it'd be hard to actually use those hands for much. (Which is, to be sure, accurate to the '58 art, but no less annoying for all that)
I'd either imagine the Gauss barrels can be retracted, or perhaps the guns should have "jettinsonable weapon" quirks.
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Quit posting images above 600px, please. This is not a new requirement. It doesn't work that well on smaller screens and the bandwidth use for high-resolution images that aren't cached is something that's avoidable for users who face those restrictions. (As a reminder, scaling the image doesn't affect bandwidth - that's done by the browser once the image is received by the device.)
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I like to think of it as an official, bigger version of the Marauder, ...
IIRC, there was a line of 'Mechs that were designed as partners or family members to the Marauder. I think the Nightstar and Maelstrom were two of them. Though I could be wrong.
Quit posting images above 600px, please. This is not a new requirement. It doesn't work that well on smaller screens and the bandwidth use for high-resolution images that aren't cached is something that's avoidable for users who face those restrictions. (As a reminder, scaling the image doesn't affect bandwidth - that's done by the browser once the image is received by the device.)
There's some instructions about how to resize images in the minis forum: A very easy way to crop and resize the pictures of your miniatures (https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=14684.0). YMMV.
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IIRC, there was a line of 'Mechs that were designed as partners or family members to the Marauder. I think the Nightstar and Maelstrom were two of them. Though I could be wrong.
Your not, there was fluff in the original 3058 where it talked about being the last of Marauder series of Podwalkers. Upgrade still says it's related, but not as part of the series.
The last of the Marauder series BattleMechs, the Nightstar was intended as a general support 'Mech for heavy companies. It's primary goal was to protect unit commanders piloting Marauders, who became targets for Amaris troops during early years of the Amaris Civil War.
If you look at the miniature itself, from above which impossible with the TRO picture that only shows from the ground looking up view, it's clearly a Marauder in main body.
Later in the Upgraded TRO, it expands the information but does drop mention of the Marauder series though it seems to just expand on the older book's info.
It does again remind read that..
The Nightstar shares a number of design features with the Marauder...
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The basic 9J Nightstar confuses me, and has for years. Why? Because it doesn't need an XL engine. Had it gone with endo steel instead, it could have run with a standard fusion engine, and only sacrificed a ton of ammo and three of its heat sinks which, really, it doesn't actually need.
You can almost replicate it using a Hauptmann.
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You can almost replicate it using a Hauptmann.
Oh yeah, that's why I love that mech :)
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Operational Turning Points: Falcon Incursion has a custom Nightstar used by Shelly Brubaker. It's basically a mixed tech version that replaces weapons with Clan equivalents. Each arm mounts a Clan Gauss Rifle and Large Pulse Laser, and the right torso has a Clan Large Pulse Laser. An ER Small Laser is in the head. Each gauss rifle has three tons of ammo.
Looks like armor, heat sinks, etc. remain the same. Given the increased range of the Clan LPL, this thing would be a beast.
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Operational Turning Points: Falcon Incursion has a custom Nightstar used by Shelly Brubaker. It's basically a mixed tech version that replaces weapons with Clan equivalents. Each arm mounts a Clan Gauss Rifle and Large Pulse Laser, and the right torso has a Clan Large Pulse Laser. An ER Small Laser is in the head. Each gauss rifle has three tons of ammo.
Looks like armor, heat sinks, etc. remain the same. Given the increased range of the Clan LPL, this thing would be a beast.
I take it that didn't make the cut to be a hero mech on MWO because it had mix clan-innersphere weapons? I noticed just i've gotten to play more regularly that technologies aren't mixed.
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Operational Turning Points: Falcon Incursion has a custom Nightstar used by Shelly Brubaker. It's basically a mixed tech version that replaces weapons with Clan equivalents. Each arm mounts a Clan Gauss Rifle and Large Pulse Laser, and the right torso has a Clan Large Pulse Laser. An ER Small Laser is in the head. Each gauss rifle has three tons of ammo.
Looks like armor, heat sinks, etc. remain the same. Given the increased range of the Clan LPL, this thing would be a beast.
Assuming it dropped the MPLs and ER PPC, that would give it 17 tons, so drop a ton of Gauss ammo and it fits.
Sounds like a beast.