Yep, the first Dark Age set had a lot of lame and gimpy units. Not the least was the old Spirit Cat Blackhawk that shuts down with the Alpha Strike and waits helplessly for three turns while everything and its cousin tries to kill it. Hit or miss, the Blackhawk was a one shot wonder. But the Spirit Cat infantry was fearless and very competent, the hoverbikes could base and breakaway from opposing units at will, and the Clan Battle Armor had flamers and could capture a shut down mech before it knew it was in trouble.
Of course the game mechanic changed a bit with Age of Destruction, but without those improvements, the game would have gotten stale and died a much earlier death.
GC