The Argus

Before Vengeance was issued, I was not familiar with the battlemech known as the Argus. I did not play MW3 so I may have missed it if its 1st appearance was during that era. I do not recall seeing it in the MW2 series.

Vengeance brought my 1st interface with the Argus. My initial thoughts about this 60ton Inner Sphere battlemech were that the Argus struck me as funny. Most mechs I had seen or faced or driven had always had something similar to two arms. The Argus did not, it had one arm and, well, a stub.

Seems like the mission is a lunar one, I could be wrong but, you are in a Scat or something and you run up on an Argus. This thing starts blasting away at you and doesn’t seem to want to take damage. Some sort of ballistic is pounding the crap out of you while you blast away with your lasers and srms.

There is a logical reason the Argus wouldn’t take damage from the Scat’s lasers, and that is because it comes from the factory with 13.5tons of reflective armour. I did not know this at the time and it seemed like forever before the Argus was brought down. Of course your game given lance mates are pretty worthless and had rather watch you struggle than help you. Those ballistics that the Argus pounded away on you were Ultra Auto Cannon 5s, or UAC5s, and a machine gun if you were close enough. The MW4 Mercs version of the Argus is almost exactly the same.

Coming in at 60tons, the Argus is one of a very few mechs with no electronics package. Nothing. It is your basic ‘load it with firepower and send it into battle’ battlemech.

Lets strip this mech of a stupid stock load out and convert that reflective armour to ferro.
When you do this, it is nearly full now holding 12tons of ferro, leaving you 32tons to load up on weapons. The slots are not bad, the right arm holding a 5-slot ballistic, each torso holding a 2-slot energy and the left arm houses a 3 slot missile. Yes, the right arm has a 5-slot ballistic. In my mind, this is an old design for the slot layout, reminds me of a small Zeus, big ballistic arms, big missile arm and laser slots in the torso.

It is rare that you see an Argus loaded with missiles, although it can hold either of the arrow class missile pods. Most configs for the Argus consist of a big ballistic and 2 large lasers, or a big ballistic and a LXP. A Favourite config is a HVAC20 and 2 LLs. Many Argus pilots like the Heavy Gauss and 2 Large Lasers as well. Both are powerful load outs and both allow the pilot to use special armour without much sacrifice.

The Argus presents itself with a low profile. Being on the small end of the Heavy Class, it isn’t much bigger than a medium, in fact, it seems smaller than some. Having no electronics it generates a large radar profile so it is recommended that a pilot run in passive mode until it has closed within weapons range of its prey, generally around 600 meters.

With Heavy Gauss or HVAC20 and a couple of Large Lasers, the Argus is a powerful weapons platform. Of course, there are other load outs suitable for the mech, but these two seem to work best. As a medium range support mech or a city brawler with special armour, the Argus can rack up damage and kills on enemies. Weighing only 60 tons, it is a good option for a drop commander to bring in lots of punch if the terrain is suitable and not wide open.

Defensively, the Argus is a relative small target. The problem I see with the Argus is that ‘the power weapon’ is housed in the arm. The arm tends to be targeted and blown off rather easily, thus leaving the Argus only the lasers as most pilot put nothing in the missile arm using it as a meat shield. The frame of the Argus is endo steel meaning that it has less internal armour than others battlemechs made on a standard frame. The damage spreads quick once an area is destroyed, so if you continue to hit the arm that is destroyed the damage spreads quickly to the torso and on to the ct. The CT of an Argus is not hard to find and it to takes damage fairly quickly. The saving grace for an Argus is it size, being small and it maneuverability. It handles well and turns fast. The acceleration and deceleration on this battlemech are good, almost instant response as long as the legs are intact.

I am not a big fan of the Argus, but I have used them in league drops with good effectiveness. There are pilots that are deadly with an Argus. It packs a punch and has good speed. The lack of electronics forces this mech into a support role or that of a closer. A closer is a mech that closes in on an enemy that has been the target of harassers or range fighters and finishes them off with one or two power alphas from short range.

Vettie’s View? This one is tough to rate fro me. I mentioned I am not a fan, but I have had success with an Argus. It can take a power config or even a range config. It has speed but no electronics. The ‘arm’ tends to be lost with ease. This mech almost begs you to use special armour to add to its life on the battlefield. I rate this mech at 2 ½ to 3 minutes. Below average for it class.

MP3 Argus

Throughout the Vengeance era and on into Mercs, the MW4 version of Argus was a tough as nails, no-nonsense battle mech. Very basic, having no electronics and offering none, this mech was made to go out an pummel something. Because of its weight, it is classified as a heavy mech. Weighing only 60 tons, it is on the small end of the heavy class. However, the possible weapons configurations push its capability up the scale quite a bit.

MP3 was kind to the Argus, at least that’s my opinion. MekTek took away the twin 2-slot energy racks in the torso and made them ballistic or beam slots. This adds to the flexibility of the Argus, again, in my opinion. MP3 brought us an Argus XT and I will review that mech at a different time, but I am guessing the XT version is why we saw the slots change.

Coming from the factory at 81kph and reflective armour, this mech is still pretty tough. I never understood why it had reflective armour, reactive seemed a better choice on this one because of what it does best. With the ‘big’ arm, a 5-slot ballistic, and now having the possibility of more in the torsos, this mech can be a great choice as a ballistic boat. Not many use the missile arm and many actually strip armour away from the missile rack to get more weapons or speed or heat sinks or extra ammo rounds. What does it do best? Pounds the crap out of other mechs.

The Argus is very much suited for fighting in the streets or passive radar sneaking up on others. I don’t suggest a lot of open ground running especially if you are in range of the enemy, but on team only or no radar maps, the Argus is still a beast. There are many varied configs for it and I wont even try to list them, but the old school config of a heavy gauss rifle and 2 large lasers still comes to mind. That’s a lot of firepower from such a ‘small heavy’. The speed it offers compliment this config and firepower allowing the pilot to make some serious hits and fade or dodge away until the weapons recycle for another round of blasting.

The problem with the Argus is that the arm and the missile rack get blown off relatively fast. Any enemy facing an Argus knows that the bulk of the ballistics will be in the arm and will target that area first unless they managed to core the Argus early in the battle. With the change of slots in the torsos, The Argus pilot can now spread weapons throughout the chassis and not be in danger of losing all of its firepower to one hit. Having no electronics, the Argus is also susceptible to missile attacks and to any mech using BAP, ECM or the combination of both.

An Argus pilot not in a city fight must learn to use terrain, hills, trees, fog, water, rock, buildings and even other mechs as cover. Running passive until the ’furball’ begins is a good way of life for an Argus pilot. Learning to avoid incoming missiles using turns and twists is also something good to know if you are going to drive one these.

The Argus is old school but still a good mech. Many wont like and wont take the time to learn to drive one. This is a very capable mech but the lack of at least LAMs drags its rating down a little. The original rating stands, 2 ½ to 3 minutes.