The Strider

When the Blood Pearls were a feared pirate unit in NBT, MekTek was in the business of making mek paks for our great game. Some really great battlemechs came out of MekTek like the Ares and the Marauder. Another gem that I overlooked in the beginning was the Strider.

A box on legs, the 40ton Strider didn’t seem all that wonderful to me. With only 6.5tons of armour, some missiles and a few medium lasers, I was not real impressed. Then one day I got bored and went to the mech lab. I stripped that puppy of weapons and loaded up the armour to see what could be done with this little box on legs.

Now holding 8.5tons of ferro armour, 102kph with BAP and LAMS, the slots were staring at me begging me to make this little mech a laser boat. Not just a laser boat, but also one that was fast and small and extremely agile. Forgetting that each arm houses a 2-slot missile rack, each torso holds a 2-slot energy and the ct holds a 2-slot omni. Having 15tons free, well damn, 3 large lasers will fit on this mech. Trade the BAP for IFF and all of the sudden you have very small mech that goes 102kph holding 3 large lasers and is hard to target at a distance.

Let me say now that in the beginning, when this mech 1st came out, the hit boxes were a bit different and this little beast could take some damage. No that is incorrect. This beast could take a LOT of damage. You could pack on specialty armour and still fit the 3-laser config and I often did. There are other viable configs and I will discuss those but I want to take a look at the 3-laser config that brought this mech its fame.

The Strider quickly became THE mech of choice for the Blood Pearls. Weighing only 40 tons, a drop commander could put several of them in a battle config and still have some assaults or heavy mechs and know that these little leg wagons with lasers would be strong enough to hold up through most of the battle. Our very own Cowcrusher used one in a battle against who we now know as MC’s Marauders and managed to kill 4 of them in a brawl after all of his teammates had been destroyed.

I dropped with the Marauders as an Ally pilot against CC (Cap Con). Shoreline was the 1st battle and it was a heavy drop, 450tons or something like that. I managed to kill 5 Capellans in that getting the last kill in a 1 v 1 dual with another Strider that was untouched. The second drop with MC was on Royal Guard and again I managed to get 5 kills in my 2 large laser full reflective strider. The best one was against a Marauder. I managed to get in behind the 75ton monster because it was no radar and I had circled behind CC. The Marauder was bringing up the rear. I got within about 50meters and starting chaining my lasers hitting him right in the crotch. He stopped dead and tried to turn on me. The rest of the MC team came from in front of the Capellans and as the Marauder turned, I turned with him continuing to pump laser fire into his butt. He exploded never getting a shot on me. One of the other CC pilots spotted me and fired his heavy gauss rifle hitting me square in the ct, the omni slot, which was empty. I was knocked over and slid down the hill behind where the HQ would be on mission play. That probably saved me as I righted the Strider and went back into the fray. I just started firing at whatever made my reticule turn red. Four kills later we won the drop.

Yeah, the Strider was one tough beast. Many times we would take Striders with 4 MLs and an LBX10 or later an AC10, a fine brawler config. We used many in BBQs packing it with an LBX or AC10 or Arty and a couple of flamers. Of course, the 4 Wolfie 4 Strider config became a standard for many IS teams but none used it better than the Blood Pearls.

Notice I said was one tough beast above? That’s is because the whiny Clanners complained that the Strider was too hard to kill, it was overpowered and whine whine whine. MekTek succumbed to the pressure and reworked the hit boxes. That’s too bad because the Strider was a terror on two legs.

Don’t get me wrong. The Strider is still a very good mech. It can still pack those killer configs, it still has the speed but it just doesn’t last as long. It now behaves like a 40ton mech. In fact, it is now almost a requirement that you take spec armour on a Strider. The Strider went from one extreme almost to the other, that is, almost uber to almost a shelf mech. I would like to see MekTek rework the slots one more time and add a little more umph back into the Strider. It was a fun mech to drive and play with.

It’s time to put a rating on this mech. A year or so ago, this mech would have rated 4 to 4 ½ minutes, outstanding for a 40ton battlemech. Now the Strider falls into the “oh, it’s a 40 ton mech” category. Memories don’t get you far in a mech that simply is not what it once was. Vettie’s View? 3 minutes, average for a medium class battlemech. It still has the speed and the small size and it can still pack a very nice load. Center torso is now pretty big for a small target and the legs have always been its weak link. Hit and run is the game to play with a Strider.


The Strider Once Again

Not seen much any more is a wonderful little mech known as the Strider. Weighing in at 40 tons, this little box with legs can put a hurt on you in a hurry. Lets open the box and take a peek inside, shall we?

The Strider comes with BAP, LAMs, 2 heat sinks and pre-set to 120kph. IFF is available and that rounds out the electronics. Built on a standard frame, the Strider is loaded with 6 ½ tons of Ferro Armour. For weapons from the factory it is loaded with 6 medium lasers, a SRM6 and a LRM 15.

Stripping away the weapons the maximum armour is 8 ½ tons of Ferro. The speed range is from 82kph to 107kph. The weapons slots are much different than before. Each arm still houses a 2-slot missile rack, but the side torsos now each have a 2-slot omni rack while the CT has a 2-slot beam rack.

IF you set the speed to 102kph and take all the available electronics, BAP, LAMs and IFF, with full FF Armour you have 14 ½ tons to spend on weapons. This little bugger wants to be a missile mech but there is very little tonnage to make it devastating. By shaving some armour, you can load up 3 ALRM10s. Vettie suggest loading the torsos because the arms are very weak and get destroyed quickly. It is possible to load 4 standard LRM10s by dropping the speed and shaving some armour, again leaving the arms empty. A couple of MRM20s fit nicely, but I find them difficult to use especially in a small mech unless the target has no idea I am near and he is stationary. 4 SRM4s fit perfectly allowing for 2 medium lasers to be installed and still have full armour. This makes a pesky little beast.

Even though this mech seems to be made for missiles, it may have other uses. A slight armour shaving allows the fabled 3 Large Laser config. With a little more alterations, 2 LBX5s makes for a nice speedy brawler. For distance fighting, the Strider can carry a Light Gauss or a HVAC5 with extra ammo to knock an enemy around. For closer fights, an AC10 or LBX10 still fits with room for lasers. 2 RAC2s can be installed not to mention a nice assortment of machine guns. Mix in any set of lasers and you have a nice little mech.

The Blood Pearls used the Strider with Flamers, LBX and/or Artillery Strikes when we hosted a BBQ. It’s a nasty config but, by itself, not very effective. Team work is the key for that Hibachi. Of course the laser version is possibly the most favoured variant. The Strider can hold 3 Large Lasers or 3 Large X-Pulse Lasers. It is a mean little laser platform. I always liked the 2 Large Pulse Laser version with spec armour. On team only or no radar maps, add some fog and you have a little powerhouse that is difficult to find and hit.

The problem with the Strider was discussed in my earlier review. It is a 40 ton mech and it behaves like a 40 ton mech. Assaults can take it out with ease if they hit it. Keep the Strider mobile, don’t sit still or you wont last long. The legs are obvious targets and a decent alpha will take one out in one shot. Use your speed and mobility. This thing climbs like a mountain goat. The torso twist is very good. The Strider is very agile with good accel and decel ability. I find it hard to use as a long range missile boat because it is low to the ground and you need to keep moving to avoid getting hit. For whatever reason, I cant seem to keep a target locked or to get a target lock in a Strider. You may have better luck, ALRMs will definitely help.

The Strider was once a feared little beast. It was a damage sponge that would hit you like a bad stepfather. Now it’s a 40 ton mech that rarely sees action, especially on Sunder. On weight restricted maps and in league play, it is still a valid weapon. I have to stick to my original rating of 3 minutes. I suggest you take one for a spin and see what you can come up with. If you die, whats the big deal> You were in a Strider, a 40 ton battlemech. Go for it!

The Black Lanner

I was not familiar with today’s mech. It may have been in MW3, but I never played those, so I can’t say if it was in those or not. I don’t believe it to be a MekTek Custom because I think I saw it somewhere in a TRO.

What I do know is that I liked it from the day I got in one. At 55tons, The Clan Medium Class Black Lanner is a fine piece of machinery. Having 10tons of ferro armour, packed with LAMs and a speed of 100kph, the Lanner has a strange stock load out consisting of 2 HMLs, 1 ERLL and 2 ATM6Ms.

Most pilots, like myself, will strip away the stock config and start with a blank mech. The very 1st thing I do is fill the armour. On the Lanner, that comes to just over 11tons. Next I go to the electronics shop and drool over the offerings. Let me see, the Black Lanner offers ECM, BAP, LAMs and EO, wow, almost all of my favourites, only missing jump jets. The speed is set at 100kph and that is a very good setting in a range from 73 to 114kph. For a Lanner in most situations, I like to leave the speed and add on ECM and BAP; the LAMs are already there. EO is a good choice, but not always required.

Having set the speed, armour and electronics, I have 22.9tons free for weapons. I go back to the armour and cheat off .1ton to free up a total of 23tons for firepower. The weapons slots on the Lanner are very nice. Each side torso sports a 2-slot missile rack. The right arm is a 3-slot omni. This allows many choices. The Left arm houses a 2-slot energy and a 2-slot omni.

Knowing these slots and having ECM and BAP, the Lanner is primed to be a missile boat. However, it makes a great laser boat, or Lt. PPC boat or even a true omni mech packing a gauss rifle a laser and some missiles. I like the Gauss with 2 ERLL config myself.

The torso of the Black Lanner is sort of bullet shaped making it a difficult target. The cockpit of the Lanner is high on the torso, similar to the Vulture allowing for excellent visibility. Almost forgot to mention that the Lanner has a 360 torso, another nice addition.
Most of the weapons are mounted high, almost even with the cockpit placement so it makes a good hill hump without exposing those long legs,

The arms hold only 1ton of armour (ferro) and typically get blown off rather quickly under sustained fire. The legs are long but strong and are usually the secondary target. The Black Lanner takes punishment very well. The CT is not very big and having the 360 spin helps a pilot spread his damage.

This mech has many uses such as a command mech because it houses a nice electronics suite but the most action it sees is as a missile boat. Being a relatively small target that is very fast, the Lanner can pack on lots of missiles and do the old hit a fade routine. The Lanner can hold 4 LRM15s or 3 ATM12Es. Of course there are other missile combos and all work well with this mech. I mentioned earlier that I like to use the gauss / ERLL load out. That config makes it a strong range mech utilizing again the electronics package.

The Black Lanner is a stout mech. The torso shape and spin ability spread incoming damage so it seems to last a very long while. It has good speed and a very good electronics package offering.

Vettie’s View? Vettie likes this one. More than that, the Black Lanner is a good battlemech.
Other than jumpies, it has everything you could want in a mech, good weapons load, speed, 360torso and great electronics all packed onto a small frame that holds up well in battle.
I rate the mech at 3 ½ to 4 minutes. Good for a medium class battlemech.


The Black Lanner MP3

A Mech that many have used to much success. Fast and stealthy, loaded to the gills with firepower. What mech is it? The 55 ton Clan Black Lanner.

When this mech made its first appearance the Blood Pearls were still part of NBT. For those of you who don’t know, when MekTek released a MekPak, NBT would ‘issue’ all the teams an amount of the ‘new’ mechs based on your Tech base and relative size (holdings). You could take some amount of opposite tech base, but it was a percentage of your tech base. We were IS Tech Pirates and we were allocated a small percentage (in tonnage) of Clan Mechs from the latest MekPak. I urged ‘Hacksaw’ to make sure he selected some Lanners.

This medium class mech was and is a very useful piece of machinery. It is truly an omni mech capable of many roles, sniping, missiles, brawling, hit and run, speed everything short of jumping. The lines of the mech are rounded, or angled so that it doesn’t take direct shots from the front. Having a 360 torso allows you to keep your rear armour away from the enemy (the rear of the mech is the only place that has flat surfaces) unless you want it there. The 360 is also very good to help you avoid incoming missiles by twisting or turning just prior to impact.

The mech is fast. From the factory the speed is preset to 100kph (remember, Ol’ Vettie rounds down even if the number, in this case, is 100.94kph) but ranges from 73kph to 114kph. Adding to its speed is stealth. ECM and BAP are options available to a pilot tho they don’t come stock. Also available are LAMs and Enhanced Optics. We all know Ol’ Vettie says take LAMs if offered, but the EO option is one I have rarely discussed.

Enhanced Optics are only available to Clan Mechs and then, only to certain models. I don’t use EO very often because I don’t use the zoom function (except for missiles). I suffer from target fixation and usually end up getting my butt killed while focusing in on a target and not watching where I am going or watching my armour dwindle away. However, EO is a very good option for those that like to snipe or stay in the back and provide support fire for your team mates. EO allows you a ‘big screen TV view’ of your opponent and allows you to target a specific area of the mech with much greater accuracy. Enhanced Optics are VERY good for missiles. Those of you that have used a Vulture may have noticed that because of EO, the lock time ‘seems’ reduced when using missiles. What is really happening is that you are able to focus more on the target and your missiles ‘get lock’ quicker because you actually spent the required time on target. The EO option is a mixed boat for me. When you get close to an enemy (close is a relative term, I mean 600 meters or less) it becomes more difficult to zoom on them while fighting because the EO actually takes up a large portion of your screen. This makes it difficult to maneuver and watch where you are going while trying to focus on your enemy. On the other hand, for ranged fighting it makes it much easier to hit and enemy and then repeat the hits on the same panel or panels. Vettie cant recommend you always take EO, you have to be your own judge depending on your style and the battlefield on which you are about to fight.

The Lanner comes from the factory with an interesting load out. Two Heavy Medium Lasers, an ER Large Laser and two ATM6Ms with LAMs and 11 heat sinks. Looks to me like the plan was to snipe with the ER Large and close in with the missiles (650m range) and finish off with the HMLs, or possibly protect yourself with HMLs if someone gets within 300m. The mech is loaded with 10tons of Ferro Armour being slightly down on each of the side torsos, the legs and the rear armour.

Stripping away the weapons and filling amour shows us that the Lanner holds 11.1 tons of ferro armour. Dropping the heat sinks (for now) and shaving .1 ton of armour, adding ECM and BAP yields us 23 tons for weapons (and heat sinks). The Slots are nice with each side torso having a two slot missile rack and the right arm being a 3-slot omni while the left has a two slot energy and a two slot omni. Omni slots are nice because you can put anything in there as long as it fits.

The Lanner allows for many varied configs. You can load a missile boat, with CLRM20s, ATM12Es or Ms, CStrks, or whatever. This thing will even hold an arrow. You can load a Gauss rifle and 2 ER Large Lasers or Lt.PPCs. You could load a LBX20 and a couple of HMLs. Three ER Large Lasers is a fav as well as 3 LtPPCs or 1 ERPPC and 2 LtPPCs. With a bit of shaving or lowering of the speed, you can get 4 CUAC2s on board. Versatility is the name of the game.

Combine the varied layouts, the speed, 360 torso and unique design and you have a damn fine mech. The weapons are all above the waistline, but lower than the cockpit. You can see what you are hitting but you don’t have to expose your legs to land damage. With BAP and ECM, you can stay in the shadows and put a hurt on others while they try to figure out where its coming from.

Defensively the mech hold up well. Plenty of armour for its size and lots of speed. Again I mention the shape similar to that of the Marauder, Ares and Bushy, no flat surfaces face front. If an arm gets blown off the other one can be just as deadly. IF a torso gets taken out, the other is also just as deadly. It takes damage well and holds up well. The Lanner handles very well and climbs like a mountain goat. The Lanner is not too big so it doesn’t present a huge profile while other mechs are chasing it down.

All in all The Black Lanner a good package. It’s an offensive machine that is hard to kill. It has stealth and speed with good firepower and it holds up well under fire. When it made its first appearance I knew something was special about this mech. I liked it then and I like it now. My first rating gave the Lanner a 3 ½ to 4 minutes, I slightly raise that to a solid 4 minutes. I find the Black Lanner to be one of the most useful mechs in the game as well as one of the most deadly. Sure, an assault packs more fire power and some even approach the speed, but even I have killed my share of assaults with this one. In a league setting where the team weight is restricted, this little machine can be a menace to the other team. You even see some on Sunder.

The Sunder

Black Knight brought us several mechs to the game we all love. Showing up as a gift from the Lyrans, let me introduce you to the Sunder. Weighing in at 90tons, the Sunder looks to me to be an intended replacement for the Awesome.

Offering ECM and LAMs, the Sunder has an ‘ok’ electronics package, but neither are installed from the factory. Both options are suggested to be used, because this is a big mech.

Having ferro armour it hold 17.5tons when full, only 1 ton more than the Awesome. The speed setting is a bit slower at 68kph. It’s not until we visit the slots that we see the real differences between an Awesome and the Sunder.

The Sunder can pack on some serious firepower such as 4 PPCs, 2 CapPPCs and 2 standard PPCs, A Heavy Gauss and a Cap PPC, 6 LLs, 5 or 6 LXP and any missile system you want. The Slots are nice, each side torso housing a 3-slot energy, a 3-slot missile in the center, and a 4-slot energy in the right arm. The left arm houses a 4-slot omni.

The Sunder also handles heat comfortably allowing the pilot to use less heatsinks and more firepower. It is sometimes referred to as “the Refrigerator”.

So, the Sunder offers more firepower than the Awesome but less speed. It is slower but it has ECM. It weighs 10tons more but it can take any ballistic in the game today. Is it better than the Awesome?

Well…., let’s look a little closer. The Awesome was built on a standard frame. The Sunder is built on an Endo Steel Frame. This suggests to me that the Sunder is little bit weaker and that once an area of the mech is destroyed, the damage will begin to transfer to the adjacent area much quicker. In my experiences with a Sunder, this proves out. The Sunder seems weak or fragile to me for a 90ton assault mech.

Stripping the stock load of weapons and heatsinks, adding in the electronics options offered and maxing the armour, a pilot is left with an astounding 48.5tons of free weight to be used for speed upgrades and weapons load outs. I suggest that the Sunder be loaded with spec armour. If you do, the Sunder still has 40tons of free weight for weapons.

I don’t have a lot of time in the driver’s seat of a Sunder. It is not one of my favourites. For what it is, I like the Awesome better. Many have done well in a Sunder. It is one of the few mechs in the game that can alpha fire 6 Large Lasers with only 10 heatsinks and not shut down. It has ECM which allows you to get in range to use that alpha shot, but it’s still not up there on my list.

Vettie’s View? I rate the Sunder at 3 minutes. This is average for an assault. It is my opinion that the Sunder is just an average mech with a big weapons load. The large amount of energy weapons that it can pack is a big factor in the life of the mech during battle combined with ECM ability. I personally believe the mech is too fragile for 90tons.

Post MP3 Sunder

I have to say I do not use a Sunder very often. It is not up there on my favourites list. It weighs 90 tons but it doesn’t seem all that tough to me. In any case, I will run thru the Sunder today and give you what I do know.

From the Factory, this baby has no electronics installed. There are 15 heat sinks and a speed setting of 68kph (remember Vettie always rounds the numbers down). 16.5 tons of Ferro Fibrous armour almost fills this mech, but it holds 17.5 when completely filled. The weaponry pre-installed includes a LBX20 for those intimate moments, 4 Large Lasers for when you wanna say “hi” and 2 Medium Lasers to back up that LBX Cannon. Not too bad. This thing is set up for medium to short range smack and those 15 heat sinks will keep cool while you pressurize someone.

Filling the armour (with ferro) and stripping away the weapons and heat sinks yields 51 tons to play with. Wow, that’s a lot. The speed is still set at 68 and the next upgrade will cost you 3 of those tons and boost your speed to 75. The slots are nice too. Each side torso has a 3-slot energy rack while the center torso has a 3-slot missile rack. The Right arm houses a 4-slot beam rack while the left is a 4-slot omni rack.

Looking over the slots again, first impression leads you to think energy based weapons. Staring at the mech with no weapons let you expand the usefulness of this mech beyond lasers. That omni slot will hold any missile in the game or multiples of other missiles (you could pack 7 LRM5s or 7 srm4s). That same slot could also hold any ballistic (except a rail gun, but it’s a Clan weapon and I review things from a puretech stand point) including a Heavy Gauss, a regular gauss, a couple of light gauss and any of the auto cannon types. The rest of the slots are made for energy weapons so PPCs (including the CapPPC in the right arm) or lasers. IF you use this as strictly an energy based platform you can easily pack 6 large lasers and add ECM and LAMs and still have 15 heat sinks, 16 if you shave ½ tonn of armour or skip the LAMs (Vettie recommends LAMs if they are available). Another nasty config is to load 2 CapPPCs and 2 Standard PPCs, put the rest in heat sinks (15). The 4 (or 5) Large X-Pulse is another mech that hurts. Another config that sounds messed up but really works pretty good is to keep the speed at 68, load 2 Large Lasers, 2 HVAC5s and an Arrow Cluster (with extra ammo) and add a couple of heat sinks. The HVAC5s keep an enemy mech bouncing while the cluster does area damage. The 2 Large Lasers add lots of damage when the enemy gets within 650 meters.

The Sunder is versatile in its weapons loads although all the slots may not be where you want them. What is nice is that the torso slots are high on the body of the mech so you can use those slots behind a hill without exposing too much of yourself. The arms ar slightly higher than the waist line so again you can protect the lower portion of the mech with terrain and still use all the weapons.

The Sunder is built on an Endo Steel Frame. This means the outside is tough but once a panel is damaged or destroyed, the internals take it pretty quick. Vettie likes to put spec armour on the Sunder. As I said, the outside is already solid, so making it reflective or reactive adds to the toughness. Many use a Sunder on colder maps and use the 6 large laser or 4 Large X-Pulse configs. On those same colder maps you will be facing opponents with ERLarge Lasers and / or ERPPCs as well as the Inner Sphere versions. Reflective is a good choice. Once loaded with either spec armour completely, you still have 37 tons to work with (assuming 68kph and ECM and LAMs). Shaving .2 tons gives you 38 tons and you wont miss the .2 tons. This really toughens up the mech quite a bit.

That has always been the problem for me, the mech seems fragile. I have seen Col Bird and Commander Homer run Sunders that just wont seem to die, but I am not as talented as they are and my identical Sunder dies alarmingly fast (or so it seems to me). At 90 tons, this beast should be tough. I have a few Sunders in my Mech Lab and as many have spec armour as those that don’t. I guess that as with all mechs, you have to use it for a while to learn the specifics.

The Sunder is a big target. It is tall and has a wide profile. ECM extends the life of this mech by making it harder to detect. When it runs, it looks like it is hunched over and shuffling its feet, even while heading at you at 75kph (or more). It just looks fat. The arms are also big targets on this mech, but if fully armoured (ferro), they are worth 54 damage points. That basically means a 55pt (or more) alpha shot will take an arm off. The legs can take up to 78 points before being blown out. The CT is big and wide but it only holds 72 points of damage. Protect your CT, turn, twist, use terrain, but protect the CT.

This mech can dish out some damage. Many different weapons load outs can make this mech an all purpose machine. My biggest problem with it, is that it seems fragile. The CT is big and weak (similar to the BK). Play smart when using a Sunder, don’t just rush right into the fray.

In my original review, I compared the Sunder to an Awesome. Both have ECM, both have a center mount missile rack and both are basically energy based platforms. The Sunder gets a slight edge because of the omni slot and it weighs 10 more tons than the Awesome.

I set up my server and loaded it with a couple of evenly matched BOTs, 1 Awesome and 1 Sunder. With matching load outs ( each with 4 ppcs) and another round with the Sunder using 6 LLs while the Awesome had 5, and I let them fight. In both scenarios, the fights came to an even split in waves for 15 minutes. That’s right, the number of kills in both fights were dead even. The difference was in the cooling power of the Sunder.

This is something I haven’t touched on in this review and that is the cooling ability of the Sunder. Unless something changed in MP3, the Sunder is the coolest mech in the game. By that I am speaking of the heat dissipating ability, or the way the Sunder handles heat.

At one time in our game, all mechs had a ‘number’ that the heat ability was based on. The heat scale in the game was hosed a bit and roughly stated, all mechs had more or less the same ability. MP2 (if I remember correctly) changed the heat scale and the way heat was handled. To us, the players, everything seemed to get hotter. Lasers, when fired, would heat you up real fast as would PPCs and a few other weapons including missiles. Depending on the heat index of your mech and the number of heat sinks, the cool down time varied, whereas before, all mechs (more less) cooled at basically the same rate. What does all this mumble talk mean? Simply put, the Sunder handles heat better than any mech in the game (unless something in MP3 changed). This also means you can run more energy weapons on this mech with fewer heat sinks than on similar mechs.

I rated the Sunder pre MP3 at 3 minutes. I said some thing to the effect that this was average for an assault and that I thought it was just an average mech with the ability to carry a large energy based weapons load out. More or less that is still true. The omni slot can make this mech a threat across all weapons platforms. If you utilize this slot for missiles coupled with the missile rack it becomes a different beast altogether. Pack that slot with a Heavy Gauss and load Large Lasers every where else and at 600 meters this thing will rip you apart. It has decent speed and using the ECM ability on normal radar maps help extend the threat. I guess the rating increases a little from 3 minutes, to 3 to 3 ½ minutes. Just about average. The Endo Steel Frame and weak CT hold this mech back from being a deadly threat. Its easy to core through the CT and once cored a pilot has to decide to lay back a bit or go all out and hopefully take someone with you as you die.
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Mercs, The Game, The Updates, The Connections

Some time back, I wrote an article about Mercs being 'The Greatest Game'. Since that time I have given a lot more thought about it actually being the greatest game. I am sure there are many that would disagree and I can not say they are wrong. I may not agree with them, but it doesnt make them wrong. The thing is, if you read any forums like NBTs or MWLs or MekTeks, you do see new players coming on board and old players coming back.

By now, all of us know that MekTek is working on another MekPak for this game. Every time they do this, players that have long since kicked their joysticks to the curb come crawling out from where ever they have been and decide to brush off the rust and give it a go once more to see what MekTek did this time. It never fails. Look at the forums. Some of these folks have not posted in a year or two have decided to 're-install' 'the game'.

Look at your MekMatch web link some time (link = http://www.mektek.net/joomla/index.php?option=com_mekmatch&Itemid=3) during a week night or a weekend night around 7.0p to 8.0p EST. Several servers are up and running and are full or near full. Also, check the league matches, many are happening every night (usually locked servers). I spend most of my gaming time in Sunder or my own server, but several others like Brawl Busters are full or near full, every night!

For those players making a come back, I have to tell you to be ready. You may have, at one time, been the nastiest gunslinger in the game. The people that play today are pretty damn good. The changes made since way back then and the steady (sometimes nightly) play of many has those edges sharp. Your 'old faithful' config of your one time favourite mech may not hold up as well as it once did. In Sunder, you will run into a large amount of assault mechs. Probably,the majority of mechs used there are assaults. Let me also say that the players there have learned a lot about alpha power and dont be surprised if you die in 1 or 2 shots in 'old trusty'. Dont be discouraged. Get back in there the next round and give them what you got, It will come back to you.

For new players joining the game on line for the first time, be aware that you are entering a game that is very old and the players already in the game are very good. Very good. Watch some of them. See what they do. Learn from your mistakes and dont repeat those errors next time. Use terrain. Use cover. Dont expose yourself longer than needed. Unless you are in a closed box with no doors, you CAN be seen on the map. If you can be seen, you can be shot.

With an influx of new players (or old players getting back in to the game), comes a new generation of 'issues' related to getting the game running or getting on line to play. We (we as a group of peoples) have been through a few Operating Systems changes since this game 1^st came out. I would venture to say that most of you started playing this game using Windows 98 or Windows 2000. Of course, thats a guess on my part, but I would bet that I am pretty close to correct (and I am talking about the old timers and the players that are returning to the game, not the new players). Since that time, we saw Win98SE, WinME, Win2000, Win XP and now Vista (assuming that most players are using a Windows Platform PC). Well, thats 5 operating systems (even if some were just updates to existing ones like Win98SE). So not only has the game changed (MekTek MekPaks) but the OS we use to make the game work has changed.

When Mercs came out (or Vengeance) I suspect many players were dial up users and fewer were 'hi-speed' players. Now, that is most likely reversed. I would Also guess that most players are using some form of Windows XP (or even Vista) with only a slight minority using Win98SE or Windows 2000. Back in the early days, there weren't too many running a firewall or using a router, heck, I would go so far to say that only small numbers were even running virus protection. Again, in today's world, the non-users of those things would be only a small fraction of the people playing the game (or any game).

Mercs is one of the few games still being played that dial up folks can enjoy on line. Yeah, I know there are others and I dont even want to get into that, so maybe it was a dumb statement. Maybe not. I would think that 'high action' games with lots of graphics and 8 or more players going at would almost 'require' a hi-speed connection just to compete or to keep the game itself from being a lag fest.

What we see with old players returning and new players finding their way to MekTek is confusion. People are confused as to what is needed to be installed and they are confused as to why they cant connect to any servers and they are confused as to why, when they finally get everything installed and they finally 'see' servers out there with people in them, why they cant connect to them.

Many people have said that MekTek 'did' something to the last MekPak that caused the rash of problems of connectability (just made up that word) because before MP302b they never had a problem. Some folks also do not understand why certain ports must be opened when they 'dont remember doing that' before installing mp302...

Let me give you Vettie's View on this. WRONG! MekTek did nothing to the connect codes or net routing in MP302. Nothing. What your are seeing is changes in the OS. Even if you have always run the game from Win XP, Win XP itself has changed several changed several times with monthly updates and we are up to 'service pack 2' with a 3^rd one in the works. Again, when we started, Win98 or Win2k and a dial up account, now Win XP or Vista and a router and a firewall and a hi-speed connection. So we have introduced changes to the OS and we have added 'things' between the game and the Internet that were not there before.

Additionally, Direct X has been updated a few times since Mercs was released. Direct X 7 was the flavour in the beginning, we are now using DX 9c. That would suggest 4 or 5 changes, but it could be more than that depending on the numbers of revisions 7 went through before changing to 8 and how many 8 went through before the release of 9.

So yeah, there could be issues.

First lets look at the installation of Mercs and what we need to get going to be 'up to date' with the latest from MekTek.

1 Install Mercs

2 Install Microsoft Update PR1

This is available from the Microsoft Mercs Website

Link = http://www.microsoft.com/games/mw4mercs/downloads.aspx

3 Install MekTek PR1 to MP302A patch

this is avail from MekTek

Link (english version) = http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?automodule=downloads&req=idx&cmd=viewdetail&f_id=298

4 Install MekTek MP302A to MP302B patch

Also avail from MekTek

Link (english version) = http://www.mektek.net/forums/index.php?automodule=downloads&req=idx&cmd=viewdetail&f_id=304

That is all that is needed to get you current as far as the game. There are other mods available, such as NBT's Hardcore (or HC) and MechStorm's NetMech IV.

HC is available from

Linky = http://www.netbattletech.com/nbt-hc/

check the download section from there.

NetMech IV is available from

Linky = http://www.mechstorm.net/projectdocs/netmech/netmech.htm

IF you have the hard drive space, I suggest a separate install for each. This is actually easy to do. IF you KNOW you want these to MODS in addition to MP302B then follow these steps

Do steps 1 thru 4 as listed above.

Navigate to your Microsoft Games Directory on your Hard Drive.

Create a new Folder (or folders for both). Name it whatever you want. I suggest something like NBT-HC and/or NetMech4.

Navigate to your Mercs Folder.

Copy it (and all sub-folders) to your newly created folder. Repeat this process for each folder you created. Make sure in your 'view files' option that you have the 'view hidden files' options set, or you will miss a couple of files. This is important!

Download HC or NetMech as listed.

Run the installer for either and direct it to your newly created folder.

Either or both of these will access the internet and check for updates. If there are any, they will install if you agree. Once you are updated you should be good to go. For connectivity issues (if you have any) please check the respective web site for help in resolution.

The Microsoft Mech Packs (Clan Pack and IS Pack) can be installed at any time. NBT-HC does not require these packs and they have included them in their mod, but only for their mod.

IF you are interested in playing on line using the MekTek MP302B mod, there are some more steps you may want to do.

There are MANY maps in use on various servers. To insure you have all the maps and that you dont get kicked from the server because you dont have the map, I suggest you download the MWL Map Packs (1 thru 4). This will get you almost every map in play in most servers out there. Also, at this time, you do not have to be a member of MWL to download maps.

Linky = http://www.mechwarriorleagues.com/cgi-bin/ops/mapman.cgi

Each of these has a built in self installer set for the default installation of Mercs. (If you have a different install directory, or you are installing into a different folder (like NBT-HC, or NetMech) be sure to install the maps into the correct folder).

This gets you maps and mechs and weapons. What else? Well there is this connection issue you read about from time to time. See, some time ago, Microsoft discontinued support for Mercs on the 'Zone'. Every once in a while, games DO show up on there, but overall, 'The Zone' no longer supports Mercs. MekTek stepped up to the plate on this and created their own version of the zone called 'MekMatch.' (thanx Greeneyed and Jeho) Inside your Mercs directory, where ever you installed MP302B, there is a small file named 'mekmatch'. Double click that and click on yes when it asks you a question. This is a registry change that re-directs your Mercs game to look for MekMatch instead of 'the zone'.

There may be networking problems or the server maybe gone. Ever see this? Well, this goes along with some of the stuff I mentioned before, WIN XP and its updates are different from Windows 98. So what do you do? Well, this one is more a case by case issue, but some general info here can be helpful. If you see this error, it simply means something from your machine or your connection is blocking your ability to connect to 1 or more of the on line servers.

Again, in general terms the fix for this (or at least a start for a fix) is not to complicated.

1 Make sure your firewall is off or set to allow Mercs to talk both ways, incoming and outgoing.

This includes your Windows Firewall. Even though you may have turned it off in the past, some Windows updates turn it back on by default. Just check it and make sure.

2 If you are on a DSL or Cable connection, you will need to open certain ports for Mercs and

Direct X for your internal IP address. Access your routers settings through your browser

(you will need to check your users manual for how to do this, because they all could be different)

Then you will need to 'forward' ports 2300-2400 for your internal IP address.

3 IF you use a separate router and a 'newer' DSL modem, the modem itself may also be a router. IF this is the case, be sure that you access them both and forward the ports for your ultimate

IP address.

4 IF Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is enabled, you will need to disable this option.

Well, those are the things that fix 'most users' issues. Any more would need to be handled on a case by case basis. I hope this helps and I hope to see you online.

The Awesome

Vengeance provided me with my first interface with the battlemech that I will discuss today. The Inner Sphere, 80ton assault mech called the Awesome is the topic.

For whatever reason I have always been a jump jet fan. I guess I feel jump jets give you that extra measure to be able to climb, jump snipe, hurdle walls, dfa an opponent or whatever, I just have always liked them. That fondness of jump jets often leads me to play other battlemechs that could take jumpies.

Back in the Vengeance days there were no IS Assaults with jumpies. If I remember correctly, only the Mad Cat MKII had jump jets. But there was this one map called Lunacy that I enjoyed taking an Awesome on. I didn’t know much about map heat efficiencies in those days, I simply knew I could play a stock Awesome and not overheat.

As stock, the Awesome likes a mere .1 ton of armour to be full and it comes with 3 PPCs. Once I learned how to arrange my fire groups, I could blast away at enemies on the red or blue team, not overheat, keep shooting and kill lots of them. I think its kind of funny how when you find something that works, others want to know your load out and then suddenly you see multiple mechs with your load out on the battlefield. Many a “What? Stock?” posts came to the chat window when I replied.

Today’s Awesome is not much different; it still has 3 PPCs, a stupid missile and 2 medium lasers. All that is wrapped in an Assault Mech that does 75kph stock. If you go into the mech lab, you quickly find out that the Awesome can carry up to 4 PPCs or 3 PPCs and a CapPPC. The Missile slot is rarely used but it can carry any missile system in the game including either Arrow.

The Awesome handles the heat well but you do need to use heatsinks. A famous load out for the Awesome is the Blood Pearl 4 LXP put to great use by our own Hugh Manatee. Another one is 4 Assault Lasers or 5 Large Lasers or 12 MPL.

The Awesome is an energy mech. Other than the missile rack, all slots are energy. The Awesome has 16tons of ferro armour packed on a standard frame. Its tough. The awesome can take a lot of fire before going down. The Awesome can easily pack on Spec armour and still take a deadly weapons load.

Having very little in the way of electronics, LAMs and AG are all that are offered, makes this mech a little more vulnerable, but if you run passive, you will be able to close and utilize your weapon load.

I like the Awesome. It handles well, it turns good, it’s tough and brings a lot of firepower to the party. It ranks way up on my list when a stock drop is called for, but I just like it. As for ground-pounders, the Awesome ranks up there as one of my favourites. Being basically an all energy mech, it is not my first choice for maps like griffon base or tumbleweeds, but 100% (or better) heat maps will see this mech in use.

Although I drove the Awesome quite a bit in Vengeance, I really don’t have any good stories to tell. No overly eventful drops or battles. I have managed lots of kills in this battlemech but I killed a lot as well. Some of the more fun times were playing a respawn game of team battle on Gator bait.

As we all know, this map has lots of water wrapped around an old airbase sort of island. Most of the killing takes place on the base part, but I would always like to go passive and try to sneak around one side or the other and come up behind the enemy and get a few rounds in before they turned to return fire. When they did, it would allow my teammates to close in across some of that open ground and take a few down. The Awesome was perfect for that because it carried PPCs and I could start the shooting at long range. Many Highlanders and Kodiaks will be hiding behind a hill, hill humping my guys when the sploog machine started to pump them. Yep those were some fun battles.

Vettie’s View? Well, if you read the review, its no secret I like the Awesome. Better than that, the Awesome is a tough mech with outstanding firepower. The downfalls are that it has no jumpies or ECM or BAP and that is basically an all energy mech. Without proper heatsinks you will spend more time shut down than shooting. The Awesome is tough; it’s hard to bring down. I rate this mech at 4 minutes, above average for an Assault.



The Awesome MP3 Style

The first look at the Awesome in the mech lab gives us little info regarding what this mech can do. The mech lab tells us the Awesome is an 80 Ton Inner Sphere Assault Mech that has 16 heat sinks and does a speed of 75Kph with Advanced Gryo installed. Taking a closer look at the armour section reveals that the Awesome is filled 16 tons of Ferro Fibrous Armour (lacking only 1/10th of a ton). Moving to take a look at the load out shows us some nice toys, 3 PPCs, an SRM4 and 2 Med Lasers.

Stripping everything away but the armour shows us much more. The Awesome can take ECM and LAMs as well as the Advanced Gyro. The speed ranges from 65 to 90kph so a few options there as well. The slots are a bit different than before. MekTek gave the right arm a 4-slot energy allowing a pilot to take the CapPPC or 2 Large Laser (or 2 of the Large Pulse Family (pulse or X-Pulse)). They made the Left arm a “heat generating” hard point, that is one that can take either energy weapons or missiles. The is a 3-slot rack. The center torso now has 2, 2-slot missile racks rather than a 3 or 4 slot rack.

The Awesome presents itself as a short but wide target. It is built on standard internals and it is a very tough mech. Because of the width of the torso, this mech takes hits to any of the 3 torsos very quickly. As basically an energy based weapons platform, losing a torso or either of the arms could take out a quarter or more of the weapons load. The addition of ECM helps protect this mech from early death and I suggest it be taken. LAMs also help and again, for those that don’t know Vettie’s suggestion, if it has LAMs and you can fit them in with your load out, take them, better to have than to want or wish.

The speed of the Awesome is preset at 75kph. It is costly in terms of tonnage to upgrade much beyond this speed (3 tons get you to 80kph, another 4 gets you to 85kph) and I don’t think it is worth the loss in tonnage. At 75kph, this mech handles as good as it ever will (unless MekTek makes some changes) The torso twist is not great, but it is sufficient. It turns rather slowly and this even seems worse if you are traveling at a high rate of speed. The acceleration is not great, but it does respond when given the go juice.

The Arms are a bit low slung, as are the ct mounted missiles. The torso weapons are a bit higher, allowing good fire from behind hills or rocks and allowing for decent hill humping. IF you want to get the arms into play you have to expose your entire torso. Again, ECM helps conceal your location so use it.

The Awesome has a very good heat capacity meaning that it handles heat well. This is a good thing because it is an energy based weapons platform (for the most part) and energy based weapons generate heat. Now you have to use heat sinks or you will spend a lot of time shut down depending on your weapons load out. Again ECM will help you here if you spend most of your time shut down from over heating. Only those with BAP will see you at over 450 meters when you finally do power up. Vettie says use heat sinks, spending your time shooting not flushing.

Weapons? Well you have some choices. PPCs, CapPPC, and any laser from Assault Lasers to Continuous Large Beams to Pulse Lasers to Medium to small types. The Awesome can also carry missiles, in fact, it can carry every missile except the Artemis Arrow. This includes rocket launchers and heavy rocket launchers as well as the inferno version. From Thunder LRMs to Arty Beacons, you can load ‘em up. I warn you, the left arm is the biggest missile slot. With Ferro Armour 49pts of damage removes the arm and the weapon (49pt of damage if the arm has full armour).

The Awesome is one of those mechs that just begs you to take spec armour. The age old question is which spec to take, reactive or reflective? I answer this question with several that I always ask myself. What is the heat index on the map to be played? What is the radar setting? What is the visibility and what weapons type do I expect to face? All of these factors affect my choice. If it’s a cold map, I can expect to face PPCs and Lasers so reflective is a decent choice giving me better protection against ERPPCs, PPCs and all types of lasers. IF it’s a map I can expect RACs or HVACs or UACs or something like that, then its reactive especially if it’s a city map or one lending itself to brawling. CapPPCs and Light PPCs even loaded and treated like energy weapons are ballistic in their damage applications so reflective doesn’t add additional protection from them.

Something interesting to know about spec armour, both types seem to run hotter than ferro. Even tho the heat efficiency rating on the mech is the same no matter what type of armour you use, the actual heat efficiency is affected. This is, of course, assuming full armour application, not just converting the ferro to reflective and not adding more armour to fill the voids. Just keep that in mind, you might want to add 1 or 2 more heat sinks than you normally would to keep your mech firing rather than flushing.

Configs? Well there are many. The most popular is of course the 4 PPC Awesome. As a brawler, take reactive armour, 70kph, all the electronic toys and 13 medium lasers with 2 SRM6s. The SRMs for the Inner Sphere include the inferno option so they are sure to heat up the party. Those of you that think 13 medium lasers don’t hurt have never felt the sting. You can substitute medium pulse or medium X-Pulse but you will need more heat sinks.

The Awesome is a ground pounder with the potential to pack a nasty alpha. It can hit you from a long distance or smack you up close if you want. The addition of the missile potential and ECM have added to the threat this mech adds when on the battlefield. In a league setting this is a scary foe that you want to put away as fast as possible else you will be the one watching from the site of your destroyed mech. If you don’t agree, ask and of the KC guys when Hugh Manatee began ripping their butts with a 4 Large X-Pulse version on Gatorbait. The rest of the Blood Pearls made our rush and slow withdrawal firing away and pulling the KC guys right into the range of those X-Pulses. I think Hugh got 4 kills on that map, but we got the win and in very short time.

You don’t see many Awesomes on Sunder, unless it is a stock drop, and I think that is because it doesn’t jump. The wide torso make it a large target like the Templar. However, it is a very good mech and deserves some battle time. Like many, non-n00b mechs, you have to learn to use it to be effective and to survive. Maybe that’s why we don’t see many, nobody wants to ‘learn’ to use it. They just want to get in a mech, take fire from everyone and not die, but kill folks with 1 or 2 shots. Bah, the Awesome, when used at range is a finesse mech that actually requires you to ‘pilot’ it. IT can take some damage, but, as with many, it wont last long if you don’t protect it by using cover and spreading the damage.

4 Minutes was the original rating. You may think that to be a high number. IT may be. Learn to use an Awesome and you will see 4 minutes is a reasonable rating. IF it only had Jumpies…nah, it wouldn’t be so awesome then, it would be more like an energy based Templar. I like the mech. Its not for everyone. Many wont like it and many will disagree with the rating. Those that do like it and learn it will agree. Try one out, but try it more than 1 or 2 maps. Report back, let us hear your thoughts.

Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

The Holiday season has passed and we start a new year. Hopefully, everyone has made it through safely.

2007 was not a particularly good year for Ol’ Vettie. I suffered and very bad bout of pneumonia that landed me in the hospital for over a week. After that, a disk in my back decided it needed to explode causing near unbearable pain resulting in an additional back surgery.

Earlier in the year, my oldest step daughter totaled the ‘kids’ car. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but a great little car was sent to the scrap heap. Yes, cars can be replaced, people cant and I am thankful she or no one else was injured. The same step daughter, later in the year, had to have her wisdom teeth cut out. I guess that explains her lack of wisdom sometimes…

The youngest stepdaughter received her driver’s license. Need I say more about that? Ok, I will anyway. After the loss of ‘their’ vehicle, Ms. Vettie and I decided to buy Ol’ Vettie a small truck to drive back and forth to work and to ‘use’ it around the house or when Ms. Vettie buys plants and trees or whatever that has to be transported from the store to home. The kids inherited a newer compact car to drive to school and work and band practice and all the things they do. Youngest proceeds to back over our mailbox on her way to band colour guard practice. Later in the year, she is involved in a small ‘bump’, a hit and run accident in a ‘not so good’ area of town on her way home from her high school’s home coming game. No real damage and no one hurt, but now that nice little compact car of theirs’ has a nice shiny white spot on the front bumper. Shows up nicely against the sea foam green paint…

Zoe was one of our family cats. She passed this year around Thanksgiving. We had raised her from a kitten of 4 weeks (her mother was killed as well as some of most of her siblings) to the ripe old age of 13 years. Zoe spent her time in or out of the house. On hot days or cold ones, she would come in, but she preferred to be outside. She was a sweet cat and she had a great life, always staying in our yard or in our house. When she was inside, the ‘boys’ (our other two cats) knew who was in charge! She passed of natural causes.

The worst thing that happened during 2007 was Lucy. Allow me to explain. Lucy is/was our 2 year old beagle. Lucy was the sweetest pup. We had selected her a couple years ago from the Humane Society. Someone had mistreated her mother after she gave birth to 3 pups. My wife has always loved Beagles and we would have taken all 3 except that 2 were males and we already had a male Husky (also a rescue).

Simon was just barely 33lbs when we adopted him. You could count every bone is his body. We thought he was brown and black until we got him home. We gave him a bath and scrubbed him for over an hour. Turns out the brown was not brown, nor was it dirt, but instead, it was dried blood where he was being eaten up by fleas. The dog was actually white and black. We took him to be groomed after we finished cleaning him up and when we picked him up, we thought they gave us a different dog! Well, 5 years later and Simon is a ‘comfortable’ 53lbs and one of the most beautiful Huskies I have ever seen.

Anyway, Simon is very territorial (as are most Huskies) so we did not want to chance bringing another male dog into ‘his’ territory. Even though Simon had been neutered, he still owns the back yard. We thought Lucy would stand a better chance simply because she was a female. It worked. Simon and Lucy got along famously. They would run and romp and play together just like Forrest and Jenny.

Little did we know that poor Lucy had an inherited disease, the canine version of Addison’s disease. The week before Christmas, Lucy suffered kidney failure and began having seizure’s. After 2 or 3 days at the animal hospital, many tests and attempted procedures, we were told that Lucy would not recover. We did not want our little pup to suffer so we elected to do the humane thing. She has left a big whole in our hearts and we wont forget our sweet little W000ceee.

It’s a hard thing when you lose a family member. Vettie’s family does consist of animals. We treat our pets better than many people treat their kids. This past year, we lost two of our family, Zoe (mostly because of her age) and Lucy (due to an unknown (to us) disease). In both cases, there would have been nothing we could have done to change the out come, neither were hit by cars or mistreated in any way. Zoe had been with us for nearly 14 years and was a big part of all of us. Lucy came to us only 2 short years ago and touched us very deeply with her sweetness and loyalty. Her mannerisms and facial expressions were often human like. They both were always given the best of care by the family members and medically.

So 2008 begins. I have mostly taken time away from my blog during the holidays, only posting once or twice. Now most of you know or can figure out why. Its hard to write about stuff that really doesn’t matter (in the grand scheme of things) when so much is happening to you or your family. Hopefully, all that is behind me now, I mean, I wont forget and I still miss by ‘little girls’ but I cant change that and I have to accept that they are gone. I have pictures and memories and the faith that the Good Lord will care for them now.

Looking forward into 2008, I plan to continue my blog as long as there are folks out there that read it. I will continue to write about the mechs, the weapons, the maps, the players and the tactics. I will continue to throw in the odd story every now and then. Of course, you need to expect a rant or two through out the year, too. I am getting old and grumpy and things don’t always go my way, or maybe I am just old school, but I call things as I see them.

I hope you enjoy Vettie’s View’s on things and I encourage you to post your comments. Let me know what you think and if you have things what me to post about, let me know that too!

Hoping that everyone has a great 2008!

Vettie Out

The Templar

When Mercs first came out the box cover yielded an interesting looking battlemech. Templar was the name, 85tons of Inner Sphere Assault mech. I have always liked the Templar from the day I first saw that picture. Well, today I am going to talk about the Templar and we’ll find out why the Templar doesn’t live up to its promise.

It is really a shame that an assault mech such as this is so weak. I already told you I like the Templar, but I don’t play them much because it dies so very fast. Why is that? Well, lets look closer and see.

At 85tons, the Templar offers a lackluster electronics package; Jump Jets, Lams and Advanced Gyro are all that are offered. Although this sounds like a decent package, later we will see why it needs something more. The jump jets cost 5 tons for this mech. That is expensive but the Templar, in my opinion, needs them too add to the threat. LAMs and AG should also be taken.

When full of ferro armour, the Templar holds just over 16.5tons. I suggest you use it all and leave no area ‘light’ of armour. A stock Templar has many heat sinks because it comes with two Large X-Pulse lasers and 2 Lt Gauss rifles. LXP generates a tremendous amount of heat and those heatsinks are put to good use.

Slots on the Templar are pretty nice, each arm housing a 3-slot omni and a 2-slot energy. Each torso has a 2-slot ballistic and the left torso holds a 2-slot missile rack. Missiles aren’t seen much on the Templar but the slot is there if you need it.

The best use I have seen of the Templar is to make it a jumping RAC boat. It can hold 4 RAC2s or 4 RAC5s. It also makes a decent energy mech loading 2 PPCs and 2 Large Lasers.
I have seen 3 Lt gauss boats and multiple Mini Gauss used on this assault mech. Firepower is not really the problem with the Templar; defense is its biggest problem.

Taking damage in a Templar is very easy to do, everywhere except the arms. That’s good for the arms because most of the weaponry is housed there. The designers of the Templar decided that the arms of this mech (i.e. the parts that take damage) were just to run from the elbow to the end of the barrel. The upper part of the arm was to become part of the side torso. Because the Templar is almost as wide as it is tall, making the torsos that big leads to huge side torsos the get blown out quickly. This assault is built on standard internals, but I don’t think there are many in the side torsos. Almost all shots from a distance of over 500meters result in one of the torsos taking damage unless it is a clean headshot or CT shot. It doesn’t take much to bring a Templar down.

You would think that at 85 tons, it would be tougher than it is, but it is weak. I am not sure, but I think MP2.1 or MP2.1a did a fix on the arm and torso defensive slots, but the side torsos are still huge.

The Arms on the Templar are low slung, meaning that you have to expose much of the upper body to use them and this is generally where most of the weapons are. IF you put a weapon in either side torso there is a very high risk of the weapon being destroyed very quickly from incoming fire.

Because of its shortcomings, I am a firm believer that the Templar needs ECM and specialty armour. Spec Armour would / does add life to the mech in battle and ECM would allow you to close into useful range without being half dead before you get there.

In all the drops with the Blood Pearls in NBT, I can remember only 1 using a Templar. I did manage to drive one in a drop as a Black Knight Merc. I managed to get a kill but I was killed within seconds afterward.

The Templar at a stock speed of 69 is not very nimble, but it does handle ok. The Jump Jets make it easier to get around tough terrain but a pilot must run passive almost all the time because this thing generates a huge radar signal and does not have the speed to evade once it has been targeted.

I have lots of Templar configs but I only use them on no radar or team radar missions or on Solar Dessert for the RAC ability.

Vettie’s View? Its tough to give such a poor rating to a mech that I like so much. I rate this mech at 2 to 2 ½ minutes, poor for an assault. I really like the Templar and I think it has much potential. My hope is that during the testing and adjusting phase of MP3 that the lowly Templar sees some much needed adjustments. Add some internals, make the defensive slots tougher and by all means give this mech ECM. By doing any of these, the Templar just added a minute to its rating, do two of them and the mech goes to useful status, do all the changes and it becomes a serious threat.



Templar of MP3

At 85 tons, the Inner Sphere Templar is looking for a fight. Problem is, once it finds one, it usually doesn’t see the end of it. Too bad really, it’s a good looking mech and it should be powerful, but its not. The mech has had some improvements and it is tougher than it used to be but I personally think it is one of the weaker assault mechs in the game.

From the Factory it comes only with LAMs installed but also offers ECM, Jump Jets and Advanced Gyro. 69 KPH is the set speed with 13 heat sinks installed. The weapons from the factory did not change as it comes stock with 2 Large X-Pulse and 2 Light Gauss Rifles. The Armour on the stock model has slightly improved with 13 tons of Ferro installed, but the armour by no means is full. The center torso is where as the previous versions had it at about 75%.

As you know, I like to strip away the weapons and fill up the armour on a mech to see what we have left to work with. Leaving the LAMs, and doing the aforementioned nets you 16.7 tons fo full ferro and 45.3 tons to play with. On the electronics side, I think ECM and Jump Jets are needed on this mech as well as the pre installed LAMs system. This is a change that MekTek did in a positive way for the Templar, the addition of ECM, something I think it really needed. Doing that leaves you 39.3 tons for weapons.

Looking over the slots it is clear that MekTek did not change the slots. Each arm has a 3-slot omni rack and a 2-slot energy rack. The right torso has a 2-slot ballistic and a 2-slot missile rack while the left torso has a 2-slot ballistic rack. Not a bad selection, however, as with most, the Templar has the biggest weapons slots in its arms. Each arm holds 1.8 ton of ferro armour resulting in 54 to 55 points of damage before these slots are destroyed.

The Templar is small and squatty for an assault mech, but it does have a wide frame. One of the changes MekTek did make was to increase the hit box of the arms and decrease the side torsos accordingly. The Arms hit boxes are now truly the entire arm. The Arms house almost as much armour when full as the side torsos. The wide frame make it an easy target. The arms and side torsos are often the areas to receive damage 1st. The hit box adjustments do make this mech a bit tougher so another + for MekTek.

Configuring the Templar for battle is not an easy thing even tho it has a nice slot selection. The arms are low on the body forcing you to expose lots of torso when firing. Even the torso ballistic slots are not much higher sitting just above the ‘waist line’. Only the missile slot is high up on the torso, but it is not a big enough slot to take any of the Arrow family so a pilot could only take a 2-slot missile if he so decided to put missiles on this mech.

One of CowCrusher’s favourite designs is to switch the armour from Ferro to reactive. Load a LBX5 into each ballistic slot and one in each of the omni slots. With ECM, LAMs and Jumpies, you can nearly max out the Reactive armour shaving a mere .4 tons. This beast will hurt you up close and knock you around out to 700 meters. I like the LBX5. As with most in the LBX family, it has partial damage at full range and full damage at about ½ or less of its potential range. The best thing about the LBX5 is the knock. You get the same knock at 700 meters as you do at 70 meters. Chain these babies because they reload very fast and a hit on an enemy mechs knocks them pretty good. In chain fire mode, it is difficult for an opponent to return fire. I suggest that even with ECM, this config is best used on team only or no radar maps. Sneak up on an unsuspecting mech and chain away.

The tried and true config for the Templar is to load 4 RAC2s, each with an extra ton of ammo, bump up the speed to 74 KPH and let ‘er rip, literally. The RAC2s have a 900 meter range and the addition of an extra ton of ammo means you can fire away at targets and rip away at their armour. Even reactive filled mechs suffer from the constant tearing and sawing a RAC2 or four can do. I suggest putting 2 on one trigger and 2 on another, rotating between them to keep from jamming the weapons. Of course a burst or 3 from all four will certainly eat away at the guy charging you or trying to brawl you.

For those of you out there that like to snipe, the Templar offers a decent layout for you too. Load up two Lt Gauss rifle and two PPCs. I suggest putting the Lt Gauss in the torsos. IF an Arm get blown off, you don’t lose ½ your weapons. This config is a bit hot so you may have to shave some armour to add a heat sink or two, unless you strip some of the electroncs.

One thing I find a bit disappointing with the Templar is that you really have to strip away the armour to get one of my favourite mixes on board. 4 Mini Gauss and a PPC loaded on this mech leave some good sized holes in the armour and the Templar needs all the protection it can get.

For those of you that like to brawl, you can load up 2 AC20s and up to 4 machine guns and still add up to 4 medium lasers or 2 medium pulse lasers. This can get really nasty. If you are comfortable with armour strippage, then you could add a different load out of ballistics for up close encounters. Of course, stripping the Jump Jets nets you more tonnage to use for weaponry as well. Another config for brawling that just came to mind is the 4 RAC5s. That is mean.

Defensively, the Templar is not as strong as many in its class and I think weaker than most. The enlargement of the arm hit boxes and reduction of the side torso boxes did help. My thinking is that MekTek also ‘tightened’ the hit boxes when they re-did them. The addition of ECM helped a great deal in my opinion. This was a mech that screamed ‘hide me’. The rest of the mech is fairly balanced and holds up well. Standard internals help once an arm or side torso is blown out. Reactive armour helps a great deal but it cuts down on the weapons you can take a great deal, or makes the mech very slow.

I mentioned in my early review that I always like the Templar. When I 1st bought Mercs and started playing online, I used them often. I would put 2 Lt Gauss rifles and 2 large lasers on one and go hunting. I learned quickly to turn the radar off. Without ECM, I was a big target wandering around cluelessly on many battlefields. I took awhile, but I learned how to move and hunt without radar. I still got killed a lot but I actually started killing too.

In those days, all the maps were new. Now think about that. Think about the 1st time you ever played Griffon Base, if you can remember that far back. I remember playing on no radar versions at night and just walking around completely lost not having a clue where the base was in relation to where I was. Often I found myself being the last one alive on my team because I had wandered off and gotten lost, only to find my way to the base where there were 4 or 5 surviving defenders just waiting for some juicy Templar Torso to chew on.

Yeah those days were fun, all the maps were new, Tumbleweeds, Griffon, Royal, Defiance, Shoreline and maybe one or 2 more. A pilot did not know where the objectives were nor where all the little nooks and crannies were that allowed you to hide and snipe or ambush. Some of the servers were running a thing called team battle and maps like oil spill and Gladiator Pit would come up. You didn’t know what the heat index was and you were just learning the weapons ranges and effectivity. It was all new and it was all fun.

Its still fun and I certainly enjoy my time in the cockpit. I will use a Templar every once in a while but its not my mech of choice. MekTek definitely made some improvements. If you spend some time with one of these beasts you will find it can be a good mech. The slots allow for many varied configs and uses. It handles well with decent twist and acceleration. Its not the best climber around, but that what jumpies are for (and you guys thought they were for jump sniping! Ha!). I will have to amend my rating on this rig. Before, I rated it at 2 to 2 ½ minutes. I will bump that to 3 minutes maybe even to 3 ½ minutes. It is stronger than before but it is still weak for an 85 ton assault mech.