The Vulture

I often refer back to MW2 days when I talk about a battlemech. I guess the reason for that is simple enough; I received my 1st exposure to these things from that game. One of my son’s favourites from that game set was the Mad Dog. Today’s edition is known as the Vulture.

Just barely making the Heavy Class at 60tons, the Vulture is a power packed, low slung mean machine. From the factory it comes with 12tons of reactive armour, roughly 2/3 capacity. In Vengeance, this mech had reactive armour as well, but the load out was slightly different. At one time during the Vengeance Era, reactive armour provided better protection for your battlemech against missiles than the other armour types. That is why I believe the Vulture comes stocked with reactive, it is primarily a missile boat waiting to attack. I am not sure when the change happened to make basically all armour the same protection against missiles, but it did happen, maybe in mercs, maybe in PR1 but it did happen.

If you convert the armour to Ferro, the Vulture when full holds just under 12.5tons. ECM, LAMS and Enhanced Optics are offered and all should be taken. The Vulture has a 360 torso and slots o’plenty. Each arm houses a 3-slot energy, while the torsos each have a 4-slot missile rack. The nose is fitted with a 2-slot omni.

The stock load out is very interesting. Four ERMPL and two LRM20s running at 80kph with no electronics but 9 heat sinks. Those medium pulse lasers quickly heat this baby up. The LRM20s give it long-range punch and the MPL will eat you up inside of 400 meters. The ability to twist the torso and stay on target while moving the mech to safety, or closer to the enemy is a big plus.

Most pilots will load this thing with ATM12Es, a very good choice for range and damage, but I actually prefer to put 4 LRM15s and an ERLL on it. You get lots of missile fire and if those run out or are blown out, you still have a laser to defend / attack with. Another config I like is to load 2 ERPPCs and 2 LRM15s, all at 85kph. Range, slap and knock, always good to give. Another config is 8 LRM5s and 2 ERLL. The LRM5s all fly together as one and LAMS will catch only 1 or 2 salvos. This also makes an excellent chaining machine, just a continuous flow of missiles, non-stop, with a laser thrown in once in a while for the burn effect.

The cockpit of the Vulture is on top of the CT and back towards the rear. The angle of the missiles racks and the location of the cockpit make this a great hill humping, missile firing beast. In most cases, the missiles fire upward before making their line to target so they fly right over the hill you are using for protection, while your view is unobstructed. Nice.

I have talked a lot about the offensive prowess of the Vulture so its time to point out the weaknesses. The weakest point of the mech is the nose cone. It generally only takes 1 hit to lose it. Any weapons placed there are sure to be lost to an enemy that fires toward the CT.
The arms arm probably the next weakest parts of the mech. They are easily targeted and destroyed. The legs take a lot of abuse but also go pretty fast. Most enemies know this is used as a missile platform and target the missile racks, or the side torsos. These hold up well, but if packed completely full, you may lose some of the missile packs in one side prior to the torso being blown out. Use the torso twist to avoid incoming fire, or to spread the damage. Use the speed to keep moving and make yourself a harder target.

The Vulture is a small mech, not much larger than many mediums. It has some speed, ranging from 65kph to 100kph. It has ECM and a 360 torso. I like the look of the Vulture. I love the opening scene in Vengeance as the Vulture comes out of the Mech Bay with a Shadow Cat, damn that’s a cool sequence.

The Vulture is not overly tough to kill, but its size and shape make it a more difficult target to put away. It can pack lots of firepower for any range. It is maneuverable with some stealth.

Vettie’s View? I rate this mech a solid 3 minutes. Average for its weight class.


MP3 Vulture


Not much has changed on this mech from my original review. The slots are still the same, the speed, the armour, the 360 torso, yep, other than the nose hit box receive a slight touch up, the basics of this mech havent changed.

Other than to say nothing ahs changed, why re-visit it? Well, the weapons have changed. Clan missiles have taken a back seat to the IS missiles in a big way (at least the long range ones). The addition of Artemis gives the IS an almost point and shoot missile system. Additionally, it FEELS like the Clan LRMs and ATMs have taken a loss in their damage output.

Maybe that is because more and more you see Archers or Longbows fill the killing fields on missile friendly maps. Both of those mechs out class the Vulture as a missile platform. The Yeoman is a better match up to the Vulture, but you don’t see many of them.

I have to say, if I were to take a missile mech Sunder, the Vulture is not in my top 3 unless its going to be a city fight. The reactive Vulture loaded with Cstreaks is flat out nasty in the tight quarters of a city brawl. Its tough and can take few hits while it launches round after round of Cstreaks at its target.

Mid Range, The Clan CMRMs and ATMMs also rule. ATMMs can knock down a lot of mechage.
The low profile and placement of the missile racks on the Vulture help this one be a very tough missile mech. Hiding behind a ridge with just its cockpit above the hill, this this can fire and smack a foe and not take much, if any, return fire.

All this talk of missiles. The Vulture offers so much more. It can pack 2 ERPPCs and enough heatsinks to fire them (a lot). The Speed and shape and general toughness help the Vulture last while it dishes out some serious damage in return. Load it with pulse lasers and take to to a brawl. Those pulse lasers will rip Reactive or Ferro Armour like melting butter. Use that 360 to keep hitting your target or to turn and avoid incoming fire.

I gotta say that the entrance movie to Vengeance is, as least to me, one of the best movies trailors of any game. Watching as that Vulture stomps out to the street, his gal pal gets blown away in the Scat and its him against the entire invasion force. He lets it rip, pulse lasers blasting, machine guns ripping and missiles flying. Nova Cats and Uziels jerking from the hits, turning and unloading on that Vulture, first crippling it and then continuing to blast away as it crumples over into a heap of burning metal. Ouch! Microsoft got that one right. Crap I could stand to sit through a whole movie of that stuff.

Back to the battle mech. I have always like the Vulture, but I don’t use em much. MW2 version (Mad Dog) was one of my favourite mechs in that game. Veng /Mercs version looks a lot different, but I still like it. To me it looks they way a battlemech should look, not human like, but more a macine of destruction. The lines of the mech make it good for not absorbing direct hits very easily. It just looks mean.

I often refer to some of the battles BP were in because we had many and we used many different mechs in many different ways. One night, while on a BP drop against Clan Steel Viper (I think) we had the chance to take several Vultures. The Map was the NON Mission version of Shoreline. Cow, Prime, Hugh and I were in Vultures and I think Smaga was in a BK with dual Arrows. CSV had been having a hard time with The Blood Pearls as we were in the K Cluster en masse and raiding the crap out of them en route to other Clans. CSV were a decent bunch but seemed to have organizational issues.

On this drop, we took the drop zone closest to the water. When go was called, we set off into the water moving at a very slow pace. The Vultures were to run passive until Smaga spotted a target for us. A few minutes into the drop and the 1st victim was spotted. I don’t remember the name of the pilot but do remember watching his Black Lanner explode under the shower of ATMs. Smaga spotted the Lanner hill Humping trying to get a visual on us. He unloaded a volley of Arrows and gave us the coordinates. We all went active and must have gotten lock within seconds of one another. Cow, then Prime then I fired. The lanner never made it back down the little hill hump.

At that point a few of the other started appearing along the edge of the shoreline. The same sequence of events met them all. We killed about 5 mechs along the shoreline and Mechnut chased another one to us. He had killed one and led one to slaughter. The other 2 CSV mech went up to the mountains where they thought they could snipe us. A few missiles later and the drop was over. We had zero losses, they were down eight mechs. The Vultures accounted for 5 of the eight kills.

The Vulture is still a very powerful an tough mech. ECM, LAMs and big screen TV, I mean Enhanced Optics help the Vulture seek its prey. Its still a good missile platform, it still can pack some nice beams weapons, it is still maneuverable.

My Original rating stands. A solid 3 minutes.