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.