Strobe posted:

Clantech production has also ramped up significantly and successfully in many places. The Zeus 11S is the first one in the list, but every Clan component on it is domestically produced in the Lyran Commonwealth, and there are five or six more designs in the Rec Guides that do that.

Including a bona-fide "this is a Clan tech base equivalent" Crusader late in the series.

PoptartsNinja posted:

Rorahusky posted:

Won't lie, the way they're all positioned in the same direction makes me think that at any second Micheal Jackson is gonna walk on set and suddenly all the 'Mechs are going to be doing Thriller.

quote:

However, their unwillingness to retreat or surrender made them vulnerable to nuclear weapons and overwhelming odds. The unit was destroyed by the end of the First Succession War.

quote:

Recognition Guide: IlClan Volume 4:

Wasp WSP-1S: It's a Wasp. These are never good, only ever good for their cost. The Wasp 1S is... well honestly it's okay. At 423 BV it is one of the cheapest 'Mechs that you can buy that is still an effective combatant. With ten single heat sinks and a single Medium Pulse Laser, this config can jump and fire its main gun without generating extra heat, and it has two Small Lasers if you manage to set up a good run, and a Flamer because why not I guess? If it was any more expensive it'd be garbage, if it did any less damage it'd be garbage, if it was any more fragile it'd be garbage. This manages to thread the needle into being useful if not good. C+

Wasp WSP-3M: This is worse than the 1S, somehow. It's cheaper, at 394 BV, and might actually be the cheapest 'Mech in this entire series. It has the same main gun, but this time instead of a brace of small energy weapons it has an SRM-2, and spends two and a half tons to do so and fit CASE, meaning it has even less armor. For barely 25 more BV you just get the better 1S. Pass. D

Wasp WSP-3W: I was wrong, this is cheaper. For 342 BV you get the 3M's lack of durability and the traditional Wasp 6/9/6 mobility, but you bring along four Small Lasers and two Small Pulse Lasers. It's a backstabber but one that's not likely to live to backstab much. Genuinely useful at its price point as literally just an initiative sink, I can see using one sometimes but I don't really like it. I know some people swear by the 1W and this is just that but better, but I'm not one of them. Very cheap to put some skill upgrades on, but at the end of the day you're putting skill upgrades on a tin can with a sharp edge on it. C-

Wasp WSP-4W: This is better than the 3W. It's the first Wasp so far to be over 500 BV, at 551, but you have significantly better armor (such as a 20 tonner can have that), and for it you have the same speed but significantly improved weapons. It still can't force a PSR, but we're now up to two ER Mediums and two Small Pulse Lasers, and now we have double heat sinks so that doesn't strain the heat gauge. A Light Engine isn't enough of a downside here to make me pause, by the time a Wasp has lost a side torso you need to leave anyway. Not bad. C+

Wasp WSP-5A: I genuinely like this 'Mech. It's a Wasp, but it's significantly faster at 8/12/8. It has an ER Medium Laser and a Streak SRM-2, and the Streak has CASE II protecting the ammo. This is necessary to keep it alive with an XL, but I still find it funny. At 517 BV this is a fast, effective skirmisher that can play the field all day and that your opponent is almost certainly going to have better things to do than shoot. This is how you build an effective 20 tonner. A

Wasp C: And this is a great way to build a 20 tonner that just dies. Don't get me wrong, I still like this, but it's exactly the wrong kind of attention a 20 tonner wants to be drawing. Add a whopping four points of head armor and this is a deathtrap, in the in-character sense. It also won't usually live very long in a real sense. Standard fusion engine means that it's going to live perhaps longer than expected, but the expectation here isn't long. Why? Because it has a Clan ER Large Laser. There's also an iOS Streak SRM-2 that I don't particularly feel like is worth mentioning. At 755 BV you are paying for a very expensive speed-bump. It is still fun to use, and it's phenomenally useful to bring down the average BV of a Wolf Empire second line Star. C-

Blackjack BJ-5: Another 'Mech with four Light PPCs. I was very worried this was going to be a trend through the series based on the number of 'Mechs like it in the first four volumes. These ended up being fairly front loaded, but I still don't like it. In almost every example I'd rather have Medium Pulses or equivalent and something else instead. In this case, to make room for a better set of main guns, where we have LAC/2s. They have the same range as the Light PPCs, but do basically jack for damage and there's only one ton of ammo between them. It's still possible to use specialty ammos but much harder. All the main guns having the same range is neat, but you'll be perpetually using a 4-3-3 pattern on the Light PPCs due to heat if you have to move. Standing still you can do 4-4-3-3, but that's not generally advisable. Light Engine means it's more durable than a cardboard box. At 1165 BV it's probably fine I just don't like it. C-

Ice Ferret (Fenris) T: I'm a big fan of the Ice Ferret's base Omni chassis. I don't... necessarily think this is the best use for it, but it's a good one. There's an Improved Heavy Large and a Supercharger, and that's really the main attraction. Also present are an ER Medium, an SRM-2, and an Active Probe. The heat sinks are tuned pretty much perfectly for the main armament, and it does a lot of damage. Being able to have short bursts up to 16 MP is pretty good for getting that juicy back shot or exploiting cover on a bad initiative roll. At 1825 BV it's pricy but you arguably get what you pay for. B

Ice Ferret (Fenris) F: The Fire Falcon B IIC, ignore that it came first. Two ER Large Lasers and Watchdog. The ER Larges are in exactly the right locations (both arms) so it functions as a superb transport Omni. Good heat management, but will get toasty if you keep shooting both ER Larges every turn. Costs 1771 BV and is arguably worth it for the mobile orbiting PSR-maker with electronics. A

Ice Ferret (Fenris) G: Lots of small hits. Four AP Gauss, two SRM 4, and a pair of ER Small Pulse Lasers, which I guess aren't actually small hits as they get the full Clan Small damage of 5 each. Still a lot of small hits. The SRMs and AP Gauss are all in the flippable arms, making this one very easily able to put guns on target at all times even without jump jets. More than enough heat sinks to keep the triggers taped down until the engine is gone. Also has Light TAG. The BV on this one is good, at 1196, and it can do a good amount of damage without relying on cluster hit tables, but it has to be pretty close to do so. More vulnerable to pilot death than your average Ice Ferret if more than one of those AP Gauss gets hit. Price makes it competitive, I'd field one even if I'm not going out of my way. B

Ice Ferret (Fenris) I: I find this one hard to evaluate. Two Clan SRM 6s is fine, the Bloodhound is fine, the ER Small Laser is fine. All of that makes sense. What's odd is that there are two M-Pods. M-Pods are one shot weapons, so I'm not sure what the use-case here is, really. There are no hole punchers, it feels a lot like something designed to run into an enemy (potentially literally), pull the ripcord, and then run away. Or hound something very wounded until a good shot comes up. Doesn't feel like it works on its own well at all. The BV at 1096 is the lowest among all Ice Ferret configs by at least a hundred. I'm not sure it's really worth it even then. C-

Ice Ferret (Fenris) J: The Locust IIC grew up. Ten ER Small Lasers and a Targeting Computer, plus a pair of Heavy Machine Guns for some reason, and then also a Supercharger. I'm not a fan of the Heavy Machine Guns, having a two hex range is a bit much for me even if that is this 'Mech's preferred range. It does a lot of damage, has enough fixed heat sinks to cover the heat, and its extra speed will make sure that it's putting those on target. A very good design, though at 1739 it's relatively expensive. Arguably worth it, solid design all around. Would be a B+ without the HMGs. B

Ice Ferret (Fenris) K: I like this a lot. It's a Large Pulse, two ER Mediums, an ER Small, a Laser AMS that I frankly don't normally remember is even on this thing, and the heat sinks to use all of the actual guns but not the Laser AMS. Using the Laser AMS with the Large Pulse and two ER Mediums is fine, but if you happen to be using the ER Small the same turn you're going to get to a bad heat step. That's not crippling at 8/12 but it is disappointing when it's something you have so little control over compared to most equipment. At 1769 it's more expensive than the J, but it fills a different role and is much happier to poke from five hexes rather than two. Sometimes that's what you need for a good match up. I like that both of these configs exist. B

Trebuchet TBT-9N: It's a very good Trebuchet. First off, it's fast at 6/9 for a 50 tonner. It has good armor. It has three Medium VSPLs, which I am a pretty enthusiastic fan of. It also has two Clan LRM-15s, which means that it being fast is *very* good for it. This thing wants to get to two hexes and powerwash the enemy with missiles and extremely accurate pulse lasers. This will put you very high on the heat scale (+11), but when it works holy cow does it work. If you don't want to ride the heat wave quite that hard, the Medium VSPs on their own are good, and the LRMs plus a potshot at the lasers' long range isn't a bad idea. I like this a lot, and I like it a lot because it comes in at 1550 BV, which I think is a very good mark for something that can turn up unexpectedly quickly and gut something its size or smaller. This is going to be the first in a long line of traditionally Marik/Free Worlds League designs that go incredibly hard in this series. A

Thresher Mk II: I hate this 'Mech too. This time it's not for the same reason as the Dominator, though the effect is the same. Reflective armor plus a top speed of 13 plus jump jets plus a headcapper in an ER PPC and a very weird heat management curve makes this one... tough. It is, individually, a solid combatant and I would expect it to handle something around its weight comfortably, and may punch up very well due to the customary reliance on energy weapons for main guns in the most efficient Clan Heavies. None of that is the problem. The problem is that it costs 3364. No, there's not a typo there, it's over 3300 BV, and that's insane for what you get here. Irredeemably garbage if you're paying that much for it, especially if you happen to get unlucky and blow one of the two different speed boosters, or you end up next to a 'Mech your own size and remember that Reflective armor really doesn't like that. In the alternate universe where this 'Mech costs 2700 BV it's a solid A. In this universe it's an F.

Awesome AWS-11H: A standard fusion engine Awesome that moves 3/5 and has three PPCs and nearly max armor. Starting off strong. The PPCs are all Heavy PPCs, and there are finally enough heatsinks here to fire all of them, in the form of Clan Doubles, with enough room made by using Clan Endo Steel to do it. Twenty three doubles is exactly enough to maintain a full three shot fusillade every turn at a run with no build up. Every location that has a PPC is packed with heat sinks, making it difficult to disable one by chance. At 2036 BV I think this is an excellent take on the Awesome, offering an improvement in raw damage, damage per hit, sustainability, and durability. Good stuff. A

Warhammer IIC: The classic. Definitely a reprinted sheet, but it's still a very good one. Two ER PPCs, five Medium Pulses and an SRM 6. Typical Clan fare, standard engine and good armor. Moves 4/6 and is 80 tons. Clocks in at 2570 BV. Twenty doubles struggles a bit up close, but you can drop a single ER PPC and be back to running cool. A solid pick for any age or era, but relatively unflashy and I think overtaken by some of its later variants. B

Warhammer IIC 2: I love Medium Pulse Lasers, this one is still a good competitor to the Standard. All of the MPLs have been replaced with two LRM 15s with three tons of ammo, that's the extent of the changes. This time it's 2482 BV, and the two honestly function very well together. Very good heat efficiency, +2 at long range at a run, drop an LRM-15 every third turn and you stay very close to true neutral. Also a solid pick. B

Warhammer IIC 13: I find this variant absolutely hilarious. By going to an XL Engine, and cutting a small bit of armor, this variant adds a very large red button to cockpit in the form of just mashing the Standard and 2's secondary guns together. It has the two ER PPCs, and then it also has the two LRM 15s and then it also has the five Medium Pulse Lasers. And an extra heat sink. Hilarious sicko hours in terms of the amount of sheer devastation that you can launch in one turn. It will also burn hotter than the surface of the sun when it does that, a toasty +24 on a running alpha. But you have options, and those options include removing almost every single point of armor that an opposing Assault 'Mech started with in one go, and that's pretty sweet. At 2715 it's expensive but one of the 'Mechs that is almost certainly worth that much. The ability to mix and match weapons at every range and adjust to an opponent is sublime. A

'Mechs by rating:

F: 1
D: 1
C: 6
B: 6
A: 5
S: None

Cumulative 'Mechs by rating (series):

F: 4
D: 15
C: 33
B: 19
A: 11
S: 1

Strobe posted:

I hate the existence of variable damage in all of its forms but I am apparently in the minority on this one.

Fivemarks posted:

So what is the point of the ilClan era, anyway? is it all leading up to "Clan Wolverine shows up, forms a new star league, and kicks Clan Wolf in the face" or whatI

Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:

Do we really need any more galaxy-shattering events at this point? People have enough of a hard time dipping their toes into anything post-Clan Invasion by now

Dr. Lunchables posted:

It would be really cool to see a bunch of stuff in a smaller, focused area. Picking a border conflict and doing a few single system books about it rather than the broad strokes, entire known galaxy stuff.

Dr. Lunchables posted:

It would be really cool to see a bunch of stuff in a smaller, focused area. Picking a border conflict and doing a few single system books about it rather than the broad strokes, entire known galaxy stuff.