The WarHammer

When MechWarrior 2 came out, I bought it. I took it home and tossed it on the computer desk. I was much more interested in board games at that time in life. My favourite was (and still is) Advanced Squad Leader. I owned all the modules and there was a group of us that played twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays. For those of you who have never played it, don’t knock it until you try it / learn it. ASL is a very in depth tactical simulation of WWII combat.

I had a garage built next to my home and added a covered walk from our rear deck to the door of the garage. On the outside, it looked like any ordinary garage, but inside, it looked more like a drafting room for some design company. We had bought 3 old style drafting tables and converted them to gaming tables. I had 8 bar stools that we used for seating. The garage was climate controlled as we added and air conditioner unit from the rear of the building and we had a heater for the wintertime. Overhead, were 3 ceiling fans and the walls were covered in paneling and shelving for game storage (I have over 300 games).

My wifey is somewhat artistically inclined so we gave her a box top from one of the modules and asked her to do a mural on the inside wall facing the house since there wasn’t a window there. She did a great job. She decided to do on white paneling (similar to sheet rock) so we could paint over it if we ever decide to sell the house, or panel over it to match the rest of the insides. Here is a link to the Web site for those of your not familiar with ASL. http://www.multimanpublishing.com/ASL/modules.php

She did the “Yanks” module that features a Sherman tank and supporting infantry firing over a hedgerow at the Germans. She did a very good job. The guys and I named the garage the ‘War Room’. Man we had some fun in there.

This set up was perfect, we could get a night’s worth of gaming in and leave things set up as they were, record the data needed for the next round, like who’s turn it was or what phase we were in, etc. We spent a lot of evenings out there cutting up, shooting each other, reading rules and just having a great time.

It was the love of ASL that kept me from jumping right into MW2. In fact, it was a couple of weeks before I even opened the box. On a Sunday, the guys had family things to do and were not going to make our normal gaming night. I decided to see what MW2 was all about.

Wow!! Wow! I was stunned. This game was like no other I had ever played. Of course by today’s standards it was crap, but at that time it was, it was just WOW! The movies were cool; these big robot looking things firing away at each other while one was calling for help.
Wow! I played the crap outta that game, bought the add-ons as they came out, Ghost Bear and Mercenaries.

MechWarrior 2 brought many battlemechs to life for us, The Nova, The Summoner, The Warhawk, The Stormcrow and today’s topic, The Warhammer.

In those days, the Warhammer was a bit boxier if memory serves me, but I liked it. You could pack on some LRMs and a couple of PPCs and fire away. Today’s Warhammer is a very close rendition of that mech. The MekTek crew did a good job bringing an old favourite back to the battlefield.

Lets examine the Warhammer. It is presented as a 70Ton Inner Sphere battlemech. Holding 14 tons of Ferro Armour, The Warhammer is a very tough mech. It absorbs lots of punishment before going down.

The electronics offered are not bad, but certainly not top if the line. BAP, LAMs and IFF are the options, like I said not bad, BAP giving the pilot the ability to spot enemies at an extended range or if packing missiles, a faster lock time. LAMs are an option I suggest for every mech as it gives the pilot a bit of protection against incoming missiles. IFF Jammer is something I like for ranged maps, night battles or foggy ones, or teams / no radar maps. It keeps the enemy’s reticule from turning red unless you are in brawling range. For a mech like the Warhammer, this is just an extra bit of protection.

The weapons slots on this battlemech are not bad either. Each arm has a 4-slot energy capable of loading a CapPPC. The left and right torsos each house a 2 slot ballistic and a 1-slot energy. This is all topped off by a 2-slot missile rack.

The problem I have for the Warhammer is finding that ‘right’ configuration of weapons. If you pack the armour to full and use all the electronics without a speed upgrade, you have 35 tons to spend on weapons. The speed from the factory is not bad at 71kph, but a 1-point increase gets you to 77kph leaving you with 34 tons for weapons.

If you add on the dual CapPPCs as mentioned above, that leaves you 18 tons to spend. The Warhammer does not dissipate heat well, so some of the free tons are need as heat sinks or the poor Warhammer will fire an alpha and shut down if not on the 1st shot, then by the 3rd for sure. 2 Heat sinks bring the heat efficiency just up to 52%, still very hot. At this point, a pilot could load in 2 RAC2s in the torso, or 2 mini gauss or 2 LBX5s, or 2 AC5s or 2 HVAC2s or, well you get the idea. There will not be a lot of ballistic firepower, but there will be some. I suggest rapid reload weapons and keep the stream flowing because those 2 Caps are gonna heat you up a lot. Like I mentioned, it is really hard to find a good config for this battlemech.

On the battlefield, the Warhammer stacks up well. It takes a lot of punishment before going down. It size is a plus, as many other battlemechs are much larger and generally considered to have more firepower or be more of a threat than the Warhammer. One of the best uses I have found for the Warhammer is ranged fire, hill humping roll up fire and roll back. Running passive and using the IFF Jammer, the enemy has to get a visual on you to return fire or lock missiles on you. If you roll up and fire, that PPC will leave a sploog on the cockpit of an enemy, again making it hard for them to return fire on you. Stay 700 to 900 meters away and picking off targets.

Even though this mach can take lots of damage, I don’t see it as a brawler, 2 LBX10s would be the most ballistics this mech could carry or 2 RAC5s, while the biggest slots are in the arms. The arms tend to get mauled in a brawl so if you put any big energy weapons in there, fire them 1st cause they wont be there long.

The Warhammer doesn’t have a lot of speed and it doesn’t turn, or rotate as well as others. This points back to a stand off firing platform, best used at medium to long range in cover.
You put four large lasers on this thing with enough heat sinks. This is not a bad config as you could still add a Light Gauss rifle or some sort of ballistic. Two HVAC5s and two regular PPCs also make a nice load out, giving this mech some knock when it fires as well as the PPC sploog.

Vettie’s View? Well let me say that I like the Warhammer, but I have a hard time finding the right load out mix to make it useful. I am not of a missile guy, but this battle mech can only hold a 2-slot missile weapon. It is very tough and takes lots of damage. The ability of the Warhammer to absorb hits is one of the reasons it gets a high rating. The inability to find a good weapons mix lowers it some coupled with the low, slow turn radius. Many may disagree, but again this is my opinion and you are welcome to post your thoughts.
I rate this mech at 3 minutes. Average for a heavy class battlemech.

WarHammer MP3 style

So I went into the mech lab this morning to take a closer look at the MP3 version of the WarHammer. Personally, I think this thing gets overlooked alot because of the weapons loadout it can take.

Looking closely at the actual mech before going into the weapons or the armour I see another reason pilots arent overly happy with the WHammy. The Torso slots, the dual 2-slot ballistics are located very low on the torso, just barely above the waistline and slightly above the arms and I mean slightly (puts away the old calipers). As a hill humper, this mech will have to expose its ENTIRE torso to use the ballistics or the energy weapons. That is a strike against it. If the weapons were relocated higher in the torso, the huge, boxy torsos, this mech could be much more effective at hiding behind terrain and nailing enemies or turrets from far away.

The 2-slot missile box it mounted on top of the mech and is easily blown off. Careful what you put in there because it wont last long. Thats a shame too, because that slot COULD provide that extra umph that hurts from far away, but as it is, I suggest saving it for SSRMs in street battles.

The Arms will hold a CapPPC (CPPC in my langauge) being a 4-slot energy in each arm. It will also hold 2 of any large laser variety, large, pulse or X-Pulse. For its size and weight, the arms are as tough as any in its weight class and most decent pilots can keep their arms long enough to dish out some damage. On no radar or team only radar maps, load those arms with with large lasers and rip your opponents apart, burn 'em boys, these things are mean.

Back to the torsos, again, only 2-slot ballistics in each torso limit what this mech can hold, 2 light gauss, 2 HVAC 5s, 2 LBX10s and well you get the idea. It can hold 4 machine guns and it also has a 1-slot energy in each torso allowing you to add medium pulse or medium Pulse lasers to go along with the machine guns making this a 'ripper' up close.

The legs are very tough (for its weight class) but can be blown off with a high alpha or multiple alphas so dont cheat on the leg armour.

All in all this mech is very tough. MekTek has posted a picture of the 'revamped' WarHammer. The torsos will have more angled projection giving it a bit more protection (similar to the Canis torsos) and a bit better profile. The hit boxes are laid out well and no one part seems weak. This mech is a good defensive weapon that can take a lot of punishment. It can throw some fire power back just not many ballistics.

Some personal notes here - One of the things I like to look at in creating a config for a mech is the slots and the slot layout. I strip the 'stock' config and just study the slots. In doing so for the WarHammer, obviously, this mech was made to be an energy platform with ballistics for secondary (or even close) support. Putting in ballistics that rapid fire (HVACS or RACs or Machineguns) give this mech a chance to recharge its energy base. It can be a nasty energy mech. I loaded one with 4 Large lasers and 2 medium Pulse Lasers, lots of speed and heatsinks. Surprisingly enough, it does very well. Again the problem with IS lasers is the range. You have to be able to close to range an use your weapons without taking a beating on the way in.

I still say this mech is best used for no or team only radar and then as a range support mech, ppcs, cpps, lt gauss, min gauss, rac2s, hvac5s or 2s.

Its a good mech and its a tough mech, it just outclassed in the weapons department when you toss a bunch of assaults in the mix.