MAD Fight Night: Marauder MAD-9D vs MAD-11D

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

The Marauder is one of the most iconic mechs of the game.  Powerful but never overwhelmingly so, it's still gotten significant upgrades over the years and I was curious about how two of the most modern, powerful versions fared against each other.

Debuting in TRO 3145's New Tech New Upgrades section, the MAD-9D mounts two Clan ER Large Lasers, a trio of Medium X-Pulse Lasers, and a Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle, attaching a Radical Heat Sink System to its 16 double heatsinks to help manage the heat.

From Rec Guide 6, the MAD-11D uses paired Clan ER PPCs and Medium X-Pulse Lasers in the arms and also features a Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle in the torso.  It lacks the 9D's Radical Heat Sink System, but has one additional heatsink and protects the SB Gauss with CASE II.  Both mechs are otherwise virtually identical, with the same speed, the same Inner Sphere XL Engine, and virtually the same armor (The difference being that the 9D transfers one point from each side torso to each arm and two points from the front of the Center Torso to the rear).

[ANS Kamas P81]

It'd be a tight fight, but I go for the 11D for having its headcappers.  Everything else is the same between the two, but the ERPPCs swing it for me.

[worktroll]

It'd be a tight fight, but I go for the 11D for having its headcappers.  Everything else is the same between the two, but the ERPPCs swing it for me.

Statistically, I have to agree. Insta-kills are instant.

[Sabelkatten]

The 11D outguns the 9D except at range 24-25 and every other turn at range 1-6 (until the RHS fails).

AND the 11D has CASEII which is a massive boost to survivability,

[Minemech]

 The 11D, assuming random terrain over 1000 battles.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Well, given the 11D has a roughly 300 point BV advantage, I suppose that's not a surprising outcome.

[Natasha Kerensky]

Even setting aside the headcapping potential, the -11D just throws 29% more firepower every turn outside 9 hexes.  That will add up and give it the advantage most of the time against a nearly identical mech like the -9D.

Maybe if combat starts under 9 hexes apart in a canyon or something, the -9D has a chance by using its RHS to alpha strike and bring its three X-Pulse Mediums into play.  But that alpha strike only delivers 18% more firepower than the -11D, is limited to every other turn (or until failure) by the RHS, and still lacks the -11D’s head capping and armor penetration potential.  Even in those circumstances, it will probably go to the -11D most of the time.

(Both design suffer from Spheroid XLEs.  On the -11D, I’d drop a freezer and the CASE II to free up slots for endo-steel.  That extra free tonnage, in combination with a couple more tons from dropping the X-Pulse Mediums to regulars, should allow the -11D to switch to a safer LFE.  That would be a dangerous brick of mech.)

[MarauderD]

Agree with the hive mind here.  The 9D can't wring enough out of it's close range firepower advantage unless the engagements start at artificially close 9 hex ranges.  Normal engagements are going to swing to the 11D's advantage due to the efficiency of those two headcappers.  Both are good mechs, but once you can get a 11D, the 9D becomes pretty moot.

[Daryk]

With no move advantage, the ER Larges just can't compare to the headcappers.

[Vonshroom]

It'd be a tight fight, but I go for the 11D for having its headcappers.  Everything else is the same between the two, but the ERPPCs swing it for me.

This

[Colt Ward]

I thought the -11D had a weaker IS?

The cERLL has a a range advantage at 8 hexes as well, though I think they match at 15- been a while since I looked to compare.

I think the real decider is not the ERPPC but the Silver Bullet, getting up to 15 crit chances at the range the ERLLs & ERPPCs operate instead of being much shorter like the LB-10X or LB-20X.  The ERPPC is going to carve away armor opening the door for more than TACs.

[Decoy]

The MAD-11D's IS is Endo-Composite, not Composite. This means it weighs 75% of the weight of a normal IS for half the space, not that it takes double damage.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I thought the -11D had a weaker IS?

No, it has Endo-Composite IS, which is radically unlike Composite IS.

Composite IS is light but crumbles at the slightest provocation.  Endo-Composite is like Light Ferro-Fibrous Armor: doesn't offer the same mass-savings as the standard version but also only takes up half the crits.

Making two different types of internal structures with such radically different rules but nearly identical names was not Catalyst's best choice.

[Minemech]

 Composite is what you put on mechs that should already be avoiding the frontlines at all costs, like the old Pandarus (And even it did not keep it). Endo Composite is a normal Internal Structure that can benefit some designs more than others.

[Hellraiser]

The cERLL has a a range advantage at 8 hexes as well, though I think they match at 15- been a while since I looked to compare.

8-15-25
v
7-14-23

It has an edge in every bracket, but, I'm not sure its enough to counter 15 point hits.

[Daryk]

It does, but only if you have a speed advantage big enough to keep it... ;)

[Minemech]

It does, but only if you have a speed advantage big enough to keep it... ;)

A Fire Falcon fan.