Talk to me about the Mjolnir (the mace light, not the WarShip)

[Moonsword]

Rolled up a lance over the weekend and the Mjolnir I wound up with off a RAT was, despite my low expectations, even more useless than I expected.

In my opinion and backed by that limited experience (I avoid them if I can), this 'Mech doesn't have the armor to get close or the firepower to do anything useful if the mace can't be put into play effectively.  The enemy mediums were a GRF-1N Griffin and a CLN-7W Chameleon, neither of them especially high firepower units, and the Mjolnir was still singularly underwhelming.  Hell, I think the enemy's STG-5R was more useful overall, not least because there was no reason for it to try and close to melee range.

While I'm probably going to replace it with the Wolfhound I salvaged, does anyone have any advice about using it?  Or should I just sell it to the local militia?

[JadeHellbringer]

Yeah, it's... honestly it might be the worst design of the Dark Age era, even. There's not much to like here. I'm not a fan of small melee Mechs anyway, to be fair, but I'm not sure I'd stop to salvage one if the opportunity presented itself. Sell it, for sure- or at the very least find a way to shoehorn TAG on it. If your job is to run up in someone's face and suck, at least bring the long-range 'O HAI' too.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

It's the kind of mech that you expect to be marked "for export to people we don't like."  It fights valiantly for the title of "worst mech the Lyrans have ever built" with the Stormraider.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Ran one once in an AtB fight. Omg, that mace is utterly worthless. I can't think of instances where it's better than using a kick.

[glitterboy2098]

the post-jihad period seems to have been a time for useless Lyran fast mace wielding Lights.. Ark Royal made the Mjolnir, and Defiance made the Storm raider then farmed it out to Coventry Metal Works when that proved to be a Lemon. why Coventry ven wanted them i don't know but apparently they managed to sell some. the storm raider is ten ton heavier but similar in movement profile, and armed with a RAC2.. meh

[mbear]

The chief concerns of the Mjolnir’s design team were available components and simplicity of construction. From that perspective they looked at some of the Lyran Alliance’s historical successes, including the Wolfhound and Commando designs.

...and promptly said "****** that noise" and tried to make a 25 ton Berserker.

Utilizing design elements of both...

Really? They must mean cosmetically, because the 'Mech isn't great. Or even good.

...as well as acquiring a list of components in ready supply helped the Mjolnir take shape quickly.

You just have to remember the shape is a pile of suck.  xp



To be fair, the BX version uses an XL Engine and XL Gyro to free up enough weight to replace the lasers with two SRM-4s. Which makes perfect sense, because you'd want to replace the energy weapons with missiles instead of adding more armor or MASC or a supercharger.  ??? Seriously, at least the Pathfinder retrotech unit has a Beagle Probe.

(Normally I'm not like this, but I'm in a crappy mood from work. Sorry to the author/designer for taking my frustrations out on your design. Of course maybe the design brief was "Make a light LyrCom 'Mech in the vein of the Stiletto: Interesting idea, terrible execution.")

[JadeHellbringer]

Well, remember to be fair that in a lot of cases the designers had to go off the look and dial stats of the DA unit and go from there- which is why a few of these units became a little strange. This, I suspect, is one of the victims of that tragedy.

[Kit deSummersville]

Everyone has a Targe moment now and then.

[Darkwing]

I remember that bit of fluff in the old 3025 TRO about the general who believed you take down the enemy with waves of light mechs. If I remember right the tactic failed miserably.

In my mind the whole strategy becomes insanely funny when updated with a company of mjolnir trying to club down an Atlas III

[JadeHellbringer]

I remember that bit of fluff in the old 3025 TRO about the general who believed you take down the enemy with waves of light mechs. If I remember right the tactic failed miserably.

In my mind the whole strategy becomes insanely funny when updated with a company of mjolnir trying to club down an Atlas III

Ravannion. And his idea works beautifully against ONE target, maybe even a couple. He... didn't use them that way, and died the way he deserved to as a result.  ;D

[Wrangler]

Yeah, it's... honestly it might be the worst design of the Dark Age era, even. There's not much to like here. I'm not a fan of small melee Mechs anyway, to be fair, but I'm not sure I'd stop to salvage one if the opportunity presented itself. Sell it, for sure- or at the very least find a way to shoehorn TAG on it. If your job is to run up in someone's face and suck, at least bring the long-range 'O HAI' too.

I think click base wise, the mech may have been descent, but that stupid minimalists in their marketing team that roll CBT stats for the thing were underwhelming. I remember reading somewhere that the lady was using Heavy Metal Pro in some cases.  I doubt they kept that up.

As it being worse ever, well i think someone figured it was a bad mech since it's center torso has very similar grill to a 1950s Ford Edsel.  :P

[Fat Guy]

Actually in the Clix game the Dragon's Fury one was a very handy little unit for it's point cost.

In this game, I think I'd take my chances remaining dispossessed.  ;)

[Decoy]

Smacking things in the face is the last thing you want to do with a Mjollnir. Bounce around for the first few turns and build up enough heat to activate the TSM. Then go skirt the edges of the battlefield for bugs that need to be squashed. A 12 point hit will do that pretty well. If that's done or you have none, you flank the enemy and then come in from behind. Few 'mechs survive 12 points to the head and that hit generally opens up things in the rear armor as well.


AS Wise, you can use it with the Horde template and if you have meatshields, redirect fire onto them as the Mjollnir closes to put the kaibosh on things.

[JadeHellbringer]

I suppose I could see it doing well in rear-area raiding operations as well- ammo trucks and the like won't have much answer to exploit the thin armor, and its speed and lack of ammo dependency makes it a handy option for extended operations. It even has two hand actuators (not aware of any rule saying it would have to drop the mace to carry something!) in case you want to take a few souvenirs.

There's BETTER choices, mind you, but if you get handed a lemon you try to make lemonade out of it. I can't see a situation where two of these takes a Valiant regularly.

[DarkSpade]

In the clix game charging something from the other end of the board without line of sight or even a direct path was a valid (and for a long time the best) tactic that the Mjolnir excelled at.  It's not such a great idea (or often even possible) in CBT.

I'll always have a soft spot for the mech though.  It's wild and questionable charging inspired me to name my cat after it.  As a bonus it's always fun to see the vet come out into the waiting area and say, "We're ready to see [looks at chart]...  [looks again].  John's cat."

[The_Livewire]

I'll always have a soft spot for the mech though.  It's wild and questionable charging inspired me to name my cat after it.  As a bonus it's always fun to see the vet come out into the waiting area and say, "We're ready to see [looks at chart]...  [looks again].  John's cat."

This makes me laugh, given Darcy calling Mjolnir "Mew Mew." In the Thor movies.

[iamfanboy]

Yeah, in Alpha Strike I played with the idea of converting my Commandos to Mjolnirs for a bit. They're not terrible if used correctly - jump behind an enemy that's moved, after activating your TSM, and you're dealing a 4-point hit which is not subject to variable damage. That's pretty good for an 18-point pricetag, and can by itself squish a lot of smaller units in one hit. Makes for a good escort to your heavier stuff, to keep the little lights from backstabbing them repeatedly.

And boy, is the Mjolnir mini gawdawful, so taking Commandos and putting hammers in their hand isn't a big stretch... if the Commando mini was any better.

[SD501st]

What's so bad about the mini? The pictures I can find on google for it make it look quite decent.

Like this:

[mbear]

Could the Mjolnir be improved with Heavy Ferro Fibrous armor? It has the crit space available and according to TechManual the max armor for a 25 ton biped is 89 points. So maybe?

[Wrangler]

Could the Mjolnir be improved with Heavy Ferro Fibrous armor? It has the crit space available and according to TechManual the max armor for a 25 ton biped is 89 points. So maybe?

It would still be undergun hooligan of a mech running around with hammer.  It to me is failed/lemon product deliberately made by Lyrans to undermind usefulness anything under 35 tons.  ;D

[JadeHellbringer]

It would still be undergun hooligan of a mech running around with hammer.  It to me is failed/lemon product deliberately made by Lyrans to undermind usefulness anything under 35 tons.  ;D

Yeah, I'd have to back that. It increases its durability by a small extent, but it doesn't fix the fundamental problem with the Mech... that it's lightly armed, and the weapons it has aren't particularly smart ones (MACE). It's kind of the whole lipstick-on-a-pig thing.

[UnLimiTeD]

If you make it look good, that's one hell of an endorsement for the lipstick. In this case, however, that'd probably require for groundbreaking technologies.  ^-^

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

As long as the Mjolnir remains saddled with a standard engine and a mace, it's not going to really be able to change in the ways it needs to to significantly improve.  It's too slow for its size and too lightly armed and there's just not a lot that can be done to change that.

[Wrangler]

Is the Mace still hitting on the full chart, not the headchart?

I know that the Mace used with this thing follows the rules that with one ton and takes up one critical slot for each 10 tons of a 'Mechs weight, rounded up to the nearest ton, and inflicts one point of damage for each 4 tons of the 'Mechs total weight. So this thing only smacking opponents with 6 points of damage a swing.

If it were hitting on the head chart, then i'd say maybe worth it if it was against a light opponent. MAYBE.  xp

[wantec]

Is the Mace still hitting on the full chart, not the headchart?

I know that the Mace used with this thing follows the rules that with one ton and takes up one critical slot for each 10 tons of a 'Mechs weight, rounded up to the nearest ton, and inflicts one point of damage for each 4 tons of the 'Mechs total weight. So this thing only smacking opponents with 6 points of damage a swing.

If it were hitting on the head chart, then i'd say maybe worth it if it was against a light opponent. MAYBE.  xp

The mace is like the hatchet (hits full chart, can choose upper or lower at a cost) except it has a +1 to-hit penalty. The problem is the 'Mech comes from MWDA and it works with the mace from a fluff & MWDA standpoint, but not so much in TW rules.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The mace is like the hatchet (hits full chart, can choose upper or lower at a cost) except it has a +1 to-hit penalty. The problem is the 'Mech comes from MWDA and it works with the mace from a fluff & MWDA standpoint, but not so much in TW rules.

That +1 penalty vs the hatchet's -1 bonus is a pretty hefty issue, especially since you've got to make a PSR to avoid falling any time you miss.

[packhntr]

The tonnage of the mace can better be put to use on larger weapons.  As is, not even a good harasser.

[Wrangler]

Cudgel is 80 tonner with Mace.  It far nastier with it's swings with it's 20 damage if it should land a hit.

TSM with the Mjolnir may help somewhat.

[Decoy]

A) The Mjolnir has the accurate weapon (Mace) quirk and the easy to maintain quirk. The Accurate Weapon quirk gives it a -1 to hit with the mace. This is all if you use quirks, of course. It just makes it easier to land that 12 point hit on something, eh?


B) TSM means that as a rear line raider, the Mjolnir can carry home as much as a 'mech twice it's weight and move as fast as the Valiant.


C) It's 25 tons. What can you do without turning it into another 'mech entirely. I'm also surprised the MLR-BX hasn't been discussed.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The problem with TSM is that the Mjolnir really doesn't have much in the way of fine-tuning its heat efficiency.  It only generates 13 heat on a jumping... I can't in good conscious call a single ER Medium Laser and a Single ER Small Laser an alpha strike.  It generates 13 heat if it jumps 6 hexes and fires both its weapons.  It has to do that three turns in a row to get up to 9 on the heat scale to activate TSM.  After that, maintaining a stable temperature requires turning heatsinks off.

You can pull this off, but with plasma weapons and Inferno SRMs so common I think it's pretty dangerous for a small, relatively slow mech to try relying on TSM.