Let's take a moment to talk about quadruped Battlemechs. The concept is one that dates back, real-world, to the early days of the game, with TRO:3025 debuting two of them for us. The first, the Scorpion, is fluffed as being an absolute travesty of a machine, hated by pilots and increasngly rare simply because they're scrapped to keep better Mechs running. The author wishes to note that he actually likes the Scorpion in this era, and wonders how much of its bad reputation with Battletech players is based on those words in the book rather than experience. (The same can be said of the Whitworth, actually). The other quad has a better reputation, though whether or not it's deserved at that point is open to interpretation- the famed, and incredibly rare, Goliath. Today we'll be giving that oddball a detailed look, and determining whether or not it's worth a USE as well in your armies. The short version: It depends wildly on what version gallops off your Dropship.
Brigadier's experiences with the Scorpion were mixed, at best- TRO:3025 paints it as building on success, but the Scorpion was kind of a mess- pilots hated the rough ride, low stance, and odd gait. The follow-on Goliath then attempted to fix some of this- moving the four legs under the body like a horse rather than splayed out to the sides like a spider was a big help in that regard, improving the gait and raising the pilot up high enough that infantry can no longer flick cigarette buts at the canopy. However, the Mech had only seen limited production by the time of the fall of the Star League, and so Goliaths in the Succession Wars are extremely rare (to a point that only once was a battle recorded in which two of them fought each other). Later eras saw other companies pick up production, making them a much more common (if still not regular) sight on the war-torn worlds of the Inner Sphere.
We start with the primary version from those old hair-metal-soundtracked early days of the game, the
GOL-1H. And a few things are immediately obvious when we do. First, it's got four legs. I KNOW, I was stunned by that revelation as well upon looking at the record sheet. I won't waste a ton of time here on the special quirks and rules that quads use, other than to point out where they directly affect these variants in particular, but the short version here is that we can't torso-twist, but we CAN crab-walk. We don't have arms for punching or bringing weapons into side or rear arcs, but we CAN carry more armor since legs can carry more plating than an arm. We have less internal space, but we CAN mule-kick (which is more of an amusing idea than a handy feature, I admit). So... keep all of that in mind as we go. Opening up the engine bay reveals a surprisingly-quick 320 engine, driving the 80-ton behemoth to 64 kph. That's not anything wild and crazy, but compared to its competition at the lower end of the assault bracket like the Awesome and Stalker, it's a little extra spring to the Goliath's step at least. With little internal space for weapons, more could be devoted to the engine, and it shows here. No jump jets are available (a pity, imagine THAT spectacle!). Where we see the old 'speed, armor, firepower, pick two' rule come in is that we also went with armor- Golaiths are a pain to bring down thanks to the extra legs instead of arms. Every location save the head can keep an AC/20 round out without any problems (though the side torsos will be open afterwards), and combined with the Mech's intended role of staying back away from the heaviest fighting, that means that heavy armor is even tougher than it looks at a glance- if used correctly, return fire is limited to a few long-range shots at bad numbers, and those are then shrugged off by the elephant-hide plating. Even the rear armor is respectable, though a Goliath of course can't do anything to an opponent back there but yell for help.
The 1H looks at the machine's inability to attack anything outside of its forward arc and says 'meh, then I'll stay at long range and keep anyone from flanking me'. It's a wise move- a Goliath with enemies on its sides is a Mech in extreme distress. The 'tank turret' on top (which of course is NOT an actual turret, just art) houses the main gun, a particle projection cannon. Long range, hefty punch, reasonable mass. Great! Just what we needed to start off a fire support machine! (Note that, like the old Marauder, the gun appears to be center-mounted, but due to construction rules it's considered to be in the right torso). Two LRM-10s, each with a ton of ammo to draw from, sit in the side torsos in drum mountings that look much like those of a Thunderbolt or Summoner, adding to the long-range pummeling. And... that's really it. For an 80-ton machine, you get two modest LRM salvos and a PPC. The Griffin is 25 tons smaller and manages most of that, with far greater mobility to more than offset the armor difference and paltry second LRM launcher the Goliath gets. It's an almost shockingly anemic salvo- but the seventeen heat sinks aren't challenged much by the long-range battery (gaining one heat from firing all three without moving), so as long as you hold off every so often, your Goliath can sustain fire for a long while. It just won't hurt a lot of targets along the way. A pair of machine guns sit in the side torsos as well, with their ammo in the left torso. The LRMs, meanwhile have both of their ammo bins in the center with the gyro and engine, and I'm starting to understand why this is such a rare machine in the Succession Wars now. With zero ability to fire at side or rear-located enemies and only a pair of MGs in close, this is a machine that is both not very powerful, and requires help to survive on a battlefield- a Demolisher makes for an excellent way to tell an enemy to not get cute about the Goliath's sides, and if you're a Marik player an Ontos is, as always, a laugh riot as a bodyguard.
So the 1H is a bit... frustrating... to love. It can only improve though, right? The Helm core improved so many units... kind of. A few genuinelyl got better (Clint), some got better with some worrying quirks (Shadow Hawk), and some were just weird (Orion). And then there's the Goliath... the author is taking a moment to take a few deep breaths, finish the glass of bourbon he poured while writing, and just cleaing his mind of negativity... peace... relaxation... tranquility...
...nope, didn't work, this thing ****** sucks. The Panther at least was just a DHS-swap away from being a good upgrade, and we got errata fixing the Blackjack and Scorpion, This? THIS? The
GOL-3M is the single worst upgrade in TRO:3050 and I will die on that hill... right next to the GOL-3M that tried to go into a fight. We removed the PPC, and in its place we mounted an enormous Gauss rifle. That.. actually sounds good at a glance- better range, heftier punch (headcappers rejoice!), no heat, what's not to love? Well, we had to make a couple of minor changes- the right torso MG had to move to the center torso, while the LRM ammo shifted to the left with the now TWO tons of MG ammo. The rifle is so massive though that the main change is installing an XL engine. The author has gone on record many times as believing an XL is fine, so long as it greatly increases the abilities of the Mech beyond what it otherwise could do- the Shadow Hawk being a good example, gaining greatly beyond what was possible without that engine. Here, it allowed us to increase the main gun's weight by double. Fine, so where's the problem? The LRMs remain, the MGs have ammo for days, the Gauss has its ton of ammo in the center, and since Gauss ammo is inert it's safe th-
TON.
ONE TON.
We brought one ton- eight rounds- to the fight. We found a spare ton for an extra TWO HUNDRED ROUNDS of MG ammunition, but only EIGHT SHOTS of endurance for the big gun. That, friends, is absolutely criminal. People should have gone to JAIL over this Mech, or if there's any justice, forced to drive a GOL-3M into battle. We kept the original seventeen heat sinks- a Goliath can now take a bath in inferno gel and shake it off like a dog without building heat- but in every way possible way this machine got worse. Again, this is THE worst upgrade in that book, and that's saying a lot when you look at a few of those lemons. The Goliath deserved better than this. One has to believe that individual pilots saw the folly in some of this and removed that new ton of MG ammo or a heat sink to get more Gauss ammo on board- with the rarity of the Mech, I'm surprised there was an official upgrade package at all, really.
Breathe, Hellbie, breathe... the bad Mech can't hurt you... or anyone else after eight shots...
GOL-3M2 deserves only a minor mention here, as a simple upgrade to the 3M. The MGs and ammo go away to be replaced by small pulse lasers, because THAT sure fixed the problem, I guess...? It's the equivalent of putting in racing seats and a roll bar in a car that has a rusted-out chassis- cool, but you didn't really fix what was wrong. Less explosives on board, I guess, but the same glaring problems outside of that remain.
UPDATE: I have mention in the comments that a second ton of Gauss ammo was added, which is HUGE... and not on my record sheet I have here. Clearly shows one ton on this, but on another there is indeed another ton. I guess, like the BJ-2 Blackjack, be mindful of what source you get a record sheet from, because the errata REALLY matters if you get it wrong.A mysterious Circinus upgrade to the original 1H (and thus likely existing in numbers of less than a dozen across all of human space, by my guess) is the
GOL-2H. A very austere refit sees the MGs and ammo removed from the Goliath, and replaced with six RL/10 systems. This is a bit mixed- while the anti-infantry power of the MGs isn't really missed on a fire support machine, the rockets don't really help it in its main job either. The massive salvo will absolutely end a small Mech that comes to harass the Goliath, for sure- if it hits- but with the rocket's inherent inaccuracy, hitting a fast unit is always a bit tricky... and with only one shot to fire, you'd better hope that even if you DO kill that Stinger, there's not a second one along for the ride. It's probably an improvement over the original if you need to use a Goliath, but it's still not all that great at its intended job, and if you really want long-range support for your Periphery forces you should really look into a far-more-common Archer. AUTHORS NOTE: The 2H is fluffed as being an upgrade to the original model, but the art shows it as based on the reseen artwork. Obviously the original art couldn't be used anymore, but it does make for kind of an odd quirk)
So far we're not talking about a lot of success here, are we? It's either underwhelming or flat-out rotten. Due to the Mech's in-universe rarity, and real-world becoming one of the hapless Unseen, we didn't see a lot more out of the Goliath for a while- but in its absence, there WAS development from the world of quad-Mechs. The ZPH series- the Tarantula- prompted a whole new look at whether quads should be considfered reasonable for use in armies, and we begin to see more of them take the field over the years to follow! This prompted a new look at the Goliath as well, and as noted before, companies begain to consider building them for their liege lords again. (Real-world, the Reseen gave us new stuff, and as many variants as could be conjured were put out to spread things around)
Enter House Steiner.
GOL-4S debuted late in the FedCom Civil War, and it's nice to finally have a Goliath that isn't bad. It's just also kind of...not good? We get a whole new look, with much shorter legs and a drooping cockpit, all of which was based on captured Clan Dire Wolf-class assault Mechs. (As a side note, anyone who has been around these forums for a long time can be forgiven for looking at the reseen Goliath and thinking it looks remarkably like a heavily-armed version of the avatar used by longtime forum-goer Wombat- I painted my reseen in cobalt blue for that very reason). Shoveled out the door rapidly by Defiance and TharHes, the new Mech puts in a light engine, freeing weight but staying reasonably durable. Armor increased dramatically, with over thirty points on the legs and center- the 4S takes work to kill. The heat sinks become doubles, but drop to only ten, saving yet more weight. And what do we get for that? Well, one of those LRM-10s remains in the right side, with two tons of ammo (in CASE), and a pair of ER medium lasers ride shotgun with that missile drum for some close-range muscle. Oh, and as an afterthought, a heavy Gauss rifle takes up every bit of space available in the left torso and bleeds over into the center. Wow. This odd weapon is tricky to get used properly, with weird range brackets and four rounds per ton- luckily, the Goliath brought two tons of ammo in each back leg for sixteen total shots, plenty for a standard operation. The quad layout makes the rifle's famous kick easier to deal with than a biped as well. Buuuut... it's not all sunshine. The Mech still is totally inable to engage targets outside the forward arc- and with the shorter range of its weapon profile, it has to get closer now to fight, increasing the likelihood of getting units flanking it compared to the old fire-support days. It still needs help- so long as it gets it, this is a fun Mech. Do note though that a crit to the rifle will not only blow out the left side, but probably the center as well, so be VERY careful if you start looking a bit haggard on armor.
While we covered the 4S first since it was the posterboy for the Goliath in the new era, Steiner forces built TWO Goliaths at this point- the
GOL-3S has the same problem in that it makes a Mech that can't torso-twist act like an in-fighter, and it's just begging for trouble if you're not super-careful with it. But, it does the job well for its limitations, at least. Keeping the LFE, we also keep the LRM-10 (adding Artemis because that seemed fun, I guess) and its two tons of ammunition. We also give it an ER large laser to help it at long ranges, a very handy weapon harkening back to the 1H's PPC. An ER medium laser its in the head, in a funny little chin mount, and another is in each front leg as well. Much like the HGR on the 4S, the 3S then uses all the extra weight left over to cram on a giant ballistic weapon- this time, an LB-20X. Fed by a cavernous four-ton ammo bin in the right torso, the gun sits in ht left, using every bit of space in there and still needing a space in the left rear leg as well (how THAT works in engineering terms would be fun to learn). Soften targets with the big laser and LRM, add in the mediums as you close, wallop with the LBX. It's a solid idea, and if you guard its flanks it can actually be a very fun Mech (I lost to one years ago while running a Warhawk- it was a wake-up for me). In the Civil War era, this might be the best of the lot.
UPDATE: I'm told that an updated record sheet was made that moved the LBX crit in the leg to the center torso due to a rule that said split-weapons can't be in leg locations, which makes sense I suppose. This also forced the large laser to shift to the side to compensate. My PDF was the original version (and the app I usually use to look at sheets doesn't support quads!), so this was news to me.On the other side of the Civil War, the Federated Suns had a new Goliath going as well, this time from GM. The Davions love their rotary autocannons, right? Well, here you go, a RACliath. Again using the new art but claiming to be based on the old 1H, we keep the original engine and all of that, but the weapons get a big change.
GOL-5D gives us the RAC/5 previously advertised, packed in the left torso for some reason instead of the right from the 1H's PPC. Three tons of ammo give it standard endurance, with CASE keeping you from blowing apart in case it gets hit. Your take on RACs may be more positive than mine- I find them somewhat underwhelming- but it's a solid idea at least. Four ER medium lasers back up the cannon (three in the right torso, one in the head), and all of that gets tied to an NAIS targeting computer, standard Davion fare for the era. The MGs return from the old days, now parked in a chin-mount in the center, fed by a more-than-enough half ton of ammo. It's not a terrible idea, but other Mechs do the RAC/computer thing better than this does, honestly, so if you really need that job done you can skip this for your Davion needs.
The Jihad saw a lot of horrible things. It also saw new Mechs, so yay for the Jihad...? Another new contestant enters with the Word of Blake's
GOL-5W, and immediately we see the Word up to their usual tricks. C3i? Check. Small cockpit? Check (to the dismay of pilots). We kept the standard engine, making it a tough customer to kill, then armed it with a pair of awesome plasma rifles in the right torso. This. Is. FUN. Plasma weapons are fantastic for making Mechs miserable, and absolutely devastate buildings- so the 5W is a handy urban-renewal machine in an era in which the Word and its allies engaged in a lot of that kind of spring cleaning. A trio of regular medium lasers back up the plasmas. All of the weapons are in the right torso, so if that looks thin on armor, it's time to call it a day. Thirty rounds of ammo for the plasmas are parked in the left side, plenty for most jobs, while fifteen double-heat sinks allow you to fire all of that and walk for zero heat. This is a hidden gem of the Word's arsenal, and deserves your respect if you ever run into them- or get to use them, even better.
House Liao, apparently impressed with all of these many and assorted Goliaths running around their borders over the prior decade and change, decided to get in on the action in the immediate post-Jihad era. The resulting
GOL-3L (why they went with a 3 designator rather than keeping up with the 5s and such of neighbors at this time is a mystery) makes a few big changes. The small cockpit used in the 5W is back, to the pilot's discomfort. An XL returns to the Mech for the first time since that awful 3047 3M debacle, but this time it's used to bump speed to 86 kph. An ER PPC makes up the usual heavy-gun quotient, backed by a medium pulse laser. Two MML-7 pods get by with three tons of ammo, including one in the center torso, and normally I'd be railing against such a bad idea (the other two tons in the left torso get CASE at least). But, you can't crit what youc an't hit. Stealth armor (and the ECM needed for it) make this a remarkably tricky Mech to nail down, and with the PPC and LRMs from the missile systems it feels like a faster, sneakier take on the original. Heat is tough to love, though- ten DHS are overwhelmed easily if the armor is running, so you'll have to be very careful how you utilize this strange but fun machine. One suspects this caused a lot of headaches for the Republic in its formative years.
GOL-6H makes an attempt to go back and fix the problems with the disastrous 3M, which is surprising. To do that, engineers first removed the XL engine for a light version, then popped out the Gauss rifle, and installed a heavy PPC. This... isn't a bad idea. Same damage, slightly less range but not enough to ruin it, no more worrying about running out of ammo (or having the rifle get hit)... ok, solid move. LRMs remain as always, I guess we fixed everyth- why are you loading so many belts of MG ammo? Good lord. Attempting to make the fire-support Goliath an anti-infantry nightmare as a backup role (you idiots), we get two MG arrays, one in each side torso. Each sontains three light machine guns, less 'oomph' but more range than the old stalwarts. It's cute, but it didn't really do anything for the Mech that helped it. Four B-pods are a little more reasonable, making battle armor miserable if they attempt to swarm the Goliath's legs. Twelve DHS keep the Mech reasonably cool. Dumbass MGs aside, this really fixed a lemon, and kudos to the design team for 80% of a good idea.
Another post-Jihad contestant, the GOL-6M goes anothe direction from Liao's idea, and drops the speed down to 53 kph. The freed-up weight then... didn't go to armor, because it's got the same layout as the original 1H model. Ooookaaay. What DID we do here? Well, the engine is still a standard model, so that's nice. An odd layout shows up in the legs, with the right front and left rear each having an ER medium, and the other two having small VSP lasers. The rear legs have their weapons facing backwards, our first time seeing a Goliath attempt to cover its derrierre. It does so in another new way as well- the Gauss rifle of the 3M returns, and it's in a quad turret! We can hit target on the sides now! (Well, to one side!). Two MML-7s from the 3L back that up, one in each side torso, with the left-side launcher also in that turret. Fed by four tons of ammo (and two more for the rifle), this is solid, if laid out weird. It's a solid Mech overall, if a bit thin-skinned, and the 6M designation makes me think someone in the ex-FWL has a nasty customer walking off their assembly line to make their former-allies miserable.
GOL-7C starts off with another light engine, as we've seen repeatedly, then tries to follow the GOL-3S as a brawling-quad... with all the same drawbacks to make that a questionable idea. The Ultra AC/10 is a polarizing weapon that many enjoy, and many more do not- I would rather see an LB-10X almost every time, personally. Here, it's backed up by twin Streak SRM-6 systems, a very good way to follow up the cannon's hammerblows. Two ER medium lasers complete the ensemble. The cannon can fire at double-rate all day thanks to the four-ton ammo bin, while both missile racks get a ton each as well, all protected by CASE II because ammo explosions shouldn't be the end of your work day. As part of a formation this works great to finish up softened up targets, but again, using a quad without a turret as a brawler is a very dangerous idea, and should be attempted only if you're VERY careful about it, or if you just don't like the pilot.
We have Goliaths from four of the five Successor States now, let's add Kurita in for no apparent reason other than hilarity, shall we?
GOL-7K, hooray. Except... Kurita has something here. The light engine (again) this time gets a supercharger for some fast-moving when you need it, and must look absolutely hilarious in-person to watch the quad's legs skittering about at double-speed. A heavy PPC with a capacitor is a really neat idea (side note, that damned bourbon I needed for the 3M writeup meant I misspelled 'capacitor' four times), giving us an absolute unit of a heavy weapon to start things with. MRM-10s with Apollo computers replace the LRM racks of old, a mixed blessing at best (I'm not a big fan). A single ton of MRM ammo is kept in CASE II again, with the original two MGs having their half ton kept in there too, because infantry in the post-Jihad era is kind of scary and it's nice to have that security blanket these days. M-pods are a weird choice, but four of them got added as well. It's a weird Mech, but honestly the speed and PPC really carry it.
GOL-7R takes the hated 3M and turns it on its ear a little, keeping the main weapons but adding CASE II. The MGs are replaced with ER medium lasers, which is an improvement for sure. Quads don't have a ton of internal space going, so it's rare to see things like endo-steel, but here we get light-ferro-fibrous armor added along with the CASE. It's a nice return to form, but the author is having a lot of trouble liking it after the 3M's bad taste.
It remains for us to discuss an IlClan-era variant from, of all people, Clan Wolf. Based loosely on the 6M (a Mech they likely got experience with during the Wolves' time living in the FWL),
GOL-C seems to be one of the rare times a 'C' variant in this era isn't made by the Sea Foxes. The quad-turret now contains a Clan ER large laser and Clan Gauss rifle, a classic one-two punch at massive ranges. Backed up by the ER medium laser in the head and an ATM-9 in the other side from the turret, this is a Goliath that can lay down impressive damage at long-to-medium ranges! A single micro pulse laser also sits in the turret, of some limited value, but if you really want rid of infantry, light off the B-pods stored on the back legs. It's a fun Mech, and probably the best of the lot thanks to its ability to cover its flanks without help.
We'll close with a couple of notes- there's no unique variants out there to discuss (due to this having been so rare of a Mech for so long, one wagers). First is that the tall-legged look of the original art also gave Marik the idea behind their interestin Sirocco assault Mech just after finishing Operation GUERRERO. This has been covered in another article a while back (by me, no less), but it's worth noting the family lineage. It's also interesting to look at the 'tall-legged quad with LRMs and a big primary gun' layout and wonder if a prototype wen ton the Exodus, because the Hells Horses' beloved Thunder Stallion looks like it's a not-so-distant cousin to the Goliath. And, of course, we cannot forget the Xanthos, the other early-days quad assault Mech, which saw less success early-on than the Goliath (due to being pushed as a Catapult-replacement for some reason) but eventually in later eras went into production in Liao space.
So there you have it. A few really good variants, a few really 'eh' ones, a couple that are war-crimes to their own army. It's as mixed of a bag as any Mech out there in terms of wildly-varying effectiveness of variants, and it makes the Goliath a difficult Mech to really nail down. Is it worth your time? Depends on what faction you run, and what era... and what job you need it to do, because it's kind of lackluster in some roles that it's designed for sometimes. Very unusual and difficult to love Mech overall- and one of the most visually distinctive in the entire line. New players know a Goliath almost instantly, where telling a Quickdraw from a Grasshopper might not be so easy. Chime in with your thoughts, and thank you again for dropping by for this.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pour another glass of that bourbon and stare in hate at the GOL-3M again
