The Uziel

The workhorse of the Inner Sphere Medium Class Mechs according to Carl. Carl is a big fan of the Uziel. A 50ton workhorse he says. From the factory, a dual PPC boat, it does pack a punch from 850 meters and in. The Uziel also has a SRM6 and two machine guns for those close encounters of the brawling kind.

We have come a long way since Carl made his workhorse comment. I am not so sure I would agree with Carl, but the Uziel does have some value. Over time, the Uziel has evolved into a ranged, jumping sniper. Having a 2-slot ballistic in each torso as well as those 3-slot energy arms. It also has a 3-slot missile rack.

Speed and slots are the plus marks for this battlemech. Pack on BAP and Jump Jets, load the armour as reflective, add in the 2 PPCs and bump the speed to about 101kph and you have a high speed jump sniper that can take some damage.

A pilot with patience can maintain his ground, staying about 805 meters out, just out of the range of Clan ERLL and Gauss Rifles and continuously pump PPC sploog into a frustrated enemy. The PPC is one of my favourite weapons. It does good damage, 12 points I think, it adds heat to your target when you hit and it adds what I call sploog. The sploog, if hit on or near the cockpit of an opponent, really rattles their cage. It temporarily distorts their line of sight, it leaves a crackling, sizzling sound and it lingers. An Uziel packed with a pair of PPCs at range can slowly eat an enemy and never take return fire except from missiles or Lt Gauss / Mini Gauss. IF you target the head, a well placed shot will keep the bad guy from firing back simply because he cant see you, at least for a second or two.

I like that config the best, but the Uzi can take 2 Lt Gauss, or 2 Mini Gauss or a combo of PPCs and Lt / Mini Gauss. The BAP gives you ‘vision’ out to the range of the Lt. Gauss, 1200 meters. The speed of an Uzi allows you to keep moving and jumping making a hard time for enemies to target you.

This battlemech is not a brawler. You can pack RACs and lasers as well as reactive armour, but I suggest staying out of close encounters. The arms and torsos are quickly destroyed. The Uziel is on an endo steel frame and the damage transfer happens at an alarming rate when a section is destroyed.

The Uziel presents a wide profile with the arms spread further than the mech is tall. Those torsos don’t take too many shots before going black. The center torso is strong enough as well as having a very small HUD. On the ground, this thing is an easy target. Stay in cover and use the jump capabilities.

My 1st two NBT kills came in an Uziel. Actually, they came in the same battle. It was in a night fight on Polar Tundra with no radar and snow. I was with Black Knights Mercs at the time and we were fighting for FS against CapCon. My wingman was Deathreach in a Thanatos. I wasn’t even scheduled to be in the drop, but one of the guys from Holland couldn’t make it so I was called in to service.

Boomer was in a Black Knight and leading the drop. I had queue locked Deathreach so I could keep up with him without getting lost. I didn’t care for Uzis much but I was getting to drop. For several minutes we did the hide and seek game looking all over the edges of the map for the bad guys that we were being paid to run off the planet. Probably 15 minutes passed before the 1st shots came.

Let me tell you that Polar Tundra with no radar at night in snow is a very dark map. Boomer announced over comms that he had contact. A second later Spewdog and Boomer both announced that they were dead. I guess CapCon had contact too. Death and I had not even made it to the point where these guys were. BlackKnights and Knightshade said they had killed a couple of then but both were crit. Hugh said he just killed some one and I saw his mech go up. A quick glance at the chat screened revealed that Hugh, BK and Knightshade all were dead. Hitting the tab button showed me that Deathreach and I had 3 bad guys left. We started up a hill and I saw Death’s Thanny explode.

That explosion killed one of the CC guys with him, leaving me against two others and I had no idea where they were. I decided not to crest that hill because everyone on my team that had so far had wound up dead. Instead I turned back and to my right. I stopped a scanned the horizon on the chance I could pick up a baddie in my reticule. I did. I locked him and moved within range of my PPCs. At 800 meters I fired my left arm followed a second later with my right arm. It was enough. The CC Wolfie went up on the second shot. Krazie and I were left and I had no idea where he was.

I decided to move because I was sure that the trail of my PPC fire let Krazie know where I was. I moved about 400 meters to my left and 200 meters forward. I stopped to look around. Zap, Zzap, Zap! Three lasers ripped into the backside of my Uzi. I turned and for some reason jumped straight up. Another red laser blast hit my CT. At this point I was really glad I had taken reflective armour because I had very little damage showing on my bars. The last laser shot allowed me to locate Krazie. I locked him up and fired away with an alpha of both PPCs. The unmistakable blue puff let me know that not only did I hit, but also I had taken a weapon off that Wolfhound. Two red lasers of return fire confirmed I had taken out one of his Large Lasers. I moved to my right and gave a little jump on a hill. Still having Krazie on radar I managed to turn and fire both PPCs again hitting him square in the ct.

Krazie was now about 600 meters away from me and he went passive. Aw shit, I thought as I had lost him. I decided to jump again and fire one PPC in the direction I thought he would run. My Hope was that he would see me jump or see the PPC fire and return fire so I could again get a fix on his position. I did. Much to my surprise, Krazie had closed on me and fired at me as I was going up. Now just 200 meters away from me and closing, Krazie ran over some trees revealing to me exactly where he was. While still in the air and on my way down, I fired another alpha hitting him again square on the ct. Krazie’s mech went up with a nasty explosion that ripped one of my arms off but the fight was over. I got my 1st 2 kills in league action and we won the match.

I still am not a fan of the Uziel, but it has is place. I am a firm believer that a good sniper can use this mech and get lots of kills. It has the speed and agility to avoid most shots and enemies. It is weak and begs for special armour. Special armour limits the load out.

Vettie’s View? I rate the Uziel at 2 ½ to 3 minutes, below average for its class. Good sniper, weak armour, no staying power.


Uziel MP3

MP3 brought changes to Carl’s ‘workhorse’ of the inner sphere. Everything is close to the same except there has been a flamer added. Yes, this mech comes from the factory loaded with jump jets, 4 heat sinks, 2 PPCs, 2 Machine guns (standard IS versions), a SRM6, a flamer, 8 tons of ferro armour all loaded on an endo chassis that does 95kph. The armour layout is not bad, except that it is weak in the legs.

I might be wrong, but I think MekTek added the 2-slot ‘beam rack’ to the arm and then packed it with a flamer. I don’t remember that slot being there, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been there all along.

In my earlier review, I mentioned that I wasn’t very fond of the Uzi. Last night, I saw the Cow Meister get 11 or so kills in one (maybe more). IF you are playing on a weight restricted map, or in a match with overall team limits or one of those MWL matches where everyone takes the same mech, then this thing is not bad. Let me be real clear, on a normal Sunder match, I advise against using an Uziel. Yes, it is an excellent sniper and yes there is a lot of speed potentially on one, but it simply doesn’t hold up well under fire from an assault mech or 3.

This mech is well suited for sniping, one config I like, as mentioned in the early review, is reflective armour, 101 speed and 2 PPCs with jump jets and BAP. This makes a very deadly sniper mech with a lot of speed and an extra bit of toughness against PPC and Laser fire. Another nasty sniper is 101 speed, jump jets and 3 mini gauss. I am not going to tell you where to cheat the armour, but I will say there is nothing in the arms so no need to protect them. Oh yeah, this version has ferro armour and not a lot of it but in its weight class, it can do some damage.

I have seen people brawl with these things, loading RAC 2s or even LBX 10s in the torsos but I vote against a brawl in an Uziel. Argue if you want, but with my style of fighting the Uzi and I will go down quick. Remember, the mileage you get depends on the way you drive.

The little mech climbs pretty good and is responsive to rapid stops or changes of direction. The torso twist is pretty big albeit a little slow. It handles very well and is fairly easy to learn and get used to.

The Uzi doesn’t offer a lot that other mediums don’t have. What it does offer is speed and a couple of PPCs, very nice ranged fire power for its class. If you do get it in close, a couple of machine guns, a flamer and a SRM6 will keep you busy. MP3 didn’t change the armour or hit boxes much if any, so those side torsos and arms are still big targets. Protect them and you will add time to your battle life, don’t and it will be a short fight.

I still remember Carl’s talk about the Uzi from the Vengeance days and maybe in those days it was a ‘workhorse’. Now, I see it more as a specialized mech. There are many more suited for brawling.

I am not saying you cant brawl in an Uzi, I am saying I cant. The darn thing is too fragile for me. Of course, I used to fell that way about a Hunchback but I spent many a weekend night brawling my butt off in one.

The Blood Pearls didn’t use many Uziels as part of our inventory of mechs. In fact, when we did get some via salvage or as a result of our thefts, we usually ended up selling them on the black market or putting them in deep storage so we wouldn’t have to pay maintenance on them. A few times we were recruited by FS to help them or to battle on a planet they couldn’t defend we had Uziels on planet and when it came to nut crunching time we had to use them. I think Smaga and Cow both had this Uzielaphobia because they both seemed to hate the mech and didn’t really want to take it on drops.

For a very long time, the Blood Pearls were not a long range team. We were more a mid range to brawling team. As the team jelled, and we became more mature as a team, we got to be pretty good at the long range game. We would use Black Knights, Thors and Victors, Striders with a single light gauss and Wolfies with a PPC mounted. I think that would have been a good time in our evolution to try a few Uziels with those PPCs or Lt Gauss rifles.

Anyway, give the Uzi a run. Every now and then, vote for a 75 ton map on Sunder and take an Uzi to pop those damn WildCats from just outside their Gauss range. Go passive, run like hell to another spot and hit ‘em again. Repeat until target is dead. Vettie originally gave this mech a 2 ½ to 3 minute rating. Not much has changed, but I do have a bit more respect for this mech now. The rating stands. One thing I will say for the Uziel, that ‘beginning’ movie for Vengeance, you know the one where the Vulture and the Scat come out of the hanger as the palace is under attack and the scat gets blown away? Yeah you remember, right?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QxfKZZ4RNng&mode=related&search=
The Uzi gets a cameo, w00t! He legs the Vulture!! I have never seen a Scat go down so fast…