The Blood Asp

I have this game called Mech Commander 2. It is a fun game. It has Mechs and pilots that talk to you. You can customize the mechs and you direct them into battle and select their targets. The campaign is set that you fight 2 or 3 different opponents and you get to see many different battlemechs.

One mech from Mech Commander was named the Blood Asp. House Liao (forgive me if I spelled it wrong, but its been awhile since I played the game) uses the Blood Asp towards the ending of the campaign against them. In Mech Commander the Blood asp is big and mean.

Fast forward to today. MekTek added the Blood Asp to Mercs. It looks a little different, but it is still big and mean. Weighing 90tons, this Clan Assault can and will put a hurting on you. Built on a standard frame, the Blood Asp is the first mech presented to us utilizing the dual overhead gun rack.

Homer doesn’t care much for overhead gun rack. He thinks they can be blown off too fast. I am not going to argue that point because some can do it with ease and then there is me, the guy that is just lucky to hit the mech at all.

Since I started down that road, I will continue to talk about the slots and weapons and discuss the electronics a bit later. Most of the power of the Blood Asp is packed into those gun racks or the arms. Each overhead gun rack is a 3-slot ballistic capable of holding a gauss rifle. The arms house a 3-slot energy and a 2-slot omni. The right and left torsos have only a 1-slot energy while the CT houses a 2-slot missile.

Ballistics and energy weapons are the forte’ of the Blood Asp. Dual gauss rifles and 4 ERLL or dual gauss and 2 ERPPCs and almost standard configs. A stock config has the dual gauss rifles and 4 HMLs as well as a CSTRK6.

The Asp comes with 14.5tons of ferro armour but if packed full will hold 17.5tons. The stock config has no electronics, but ECM, BAP and LAMs are offered. I suggest them all. If you pack it full of armour and take all the electronic goodies offered you still have 44.5tons free for weapons. That’s a lot of whoop ass.

The Asp has a 360torso, unusual for an assault, but a nice touch. This meanie can brawl. It is one of the few battlemechs that can take 2 LBX20, 2 LBX10 and 2 HML with full armour and electronics. Ouch!

The Blood Asp can be a long-range threat, simply pack on 2 ERPPC and the 2 Gauss rifles. One of favs for this mech is to go near full reactive armour and pack on the config I just mentioned. It can hit from 900 meters or a smack from 800 and take a return punch. With the reactive armour, the light gauss hitting you because not much else can reach you does very little damage.

The Blood Asp is a big target. It is very tall and presents itself with almost a square shape from a distance. It appears to move slow but comes stock set at 64kph while topping out at 88. Engine upgrades are very expensive. The first upgrade cost you 4tons and bumps you to 70kph. It’s all uphill from there. The ECM is needed because of the size and speed of this mech.

You see a lot of these in the opens because they are tough and can pack a lot of firepower. The Asp makes a good CUAC2 boat. Eight will fit while allowing you to keep all the electronics and near full ferro armour. I prefer the 6 CUAC5s. Although the range is on 700, the recycle rate is very fast at 1.5 seconds and you do 5points of damage per round fired. That’s 30 points of damage every 1.5 seconds. Hmmm sounds like a Clan RAC….

I am not a big fan of the Blood Asp, but I don’t dislike it. It has a lot going for it with the electronics package and firepower potential. The 360torso adds to the spice of the mech too.

Vettie’s View? I rate the Blood Asp a solid 3 ½ minutes. I tokes a beating and can dish out one as well. Its big and square making it a big, easy target.


The Blood Asp Re-visited

MP3 brought us many new mechs and several changes to existing mechs as well as a few new weapons and some weapons changes. I reviewed the Blood Asp some time back and today I will look at it again to see what if any changes were made and to explore this mech a little deeper.

I always seem to start my review with a view of the stock load out. The main reason for this is because this is the 1st look at the mech you get when you go to create your own version. I try to tell you what the mech has pre-loaded as well as most of the options available to you so you can decide what to put on the mech based on your needs. Maybe, just maybe, I will manage to point out some little fact that perhaps you overlooked or toss out a config you may want to try.

The Clan Blood Asp is an assault mech weighing 90 tons. The speed is set at 64kph. 17 Heat sinks are pre-installed but no electronics are loaded. ECM, BAP and LAMs are all options and in my view are all requirements. The armour is Ferro Fibrous and the Asp has 14 and ½ tons installed. 2 Clan Gauss, 4 Heavy Medium Lasers and a Clan Streak 6 are also installed.

If you max out the armour, the Asp holds 17 and ½ tons of Ferro armour. This is mounted on a standard frame. Speed increases or engine upgrades are costly. From the 64kph setting it will cost you 4 tons to move up to 70kph. From there it cost another 5 tons to increase to 76kph, ouch! 9 tons to speed up from 64 to 76. This beast ranges in speed from 46 to 88kph. At 88kph and full armour, you do have 26 tons to play. The 64 or 70kph speeds work well on this mech, even the 58kph is not too bad depending on your goal for your variant.

IF you leave the speed at 64kph with full ferro armour and add all the available electronics you have 44 and ½ tons which to spend on weaponry. As far as slots, MP3 doesn’t seemed to have changed much if anything. The dual overhead gun racks are still 3-slot ballistic racks and each arm houses a 3-slot beam rack and a 2-slot omni rack. Each torso has a 1-slot beam rack while the CT houses a 2-slot missile rack. As you can see, the gun racks and the arms hold most of the armament for this mech. To protect the arms, the torso offers a 360 twist feature. Not many mechs offer this, but you see it more on Clan mechs than on IS.

The Blood Asp can take a variety of load outs. One of the most popular is often seen on the Canis and that would be 2 Clan Gauss Rifles and 2 ERPPCs. Load this beast with heat sinks because it doesn’t do well with heat. Dropping the speed to 58kph allows you to load 8 CUAC2s. One of Soth’s configs is to load 6 CUAC2s and an ERPPC or a LtPPC, very nasty. Actually, you can put 2 LtPPCs on this but again, careful with your heat. You can load 2 Clan Gauss and 4 ERLLs but it is very hot, even with 7 heat sinks. An effective config for cooler to cold maps is 2 ERPPCs and 2 ERLLs or 2 LtPPCs, at 70kph and a bunch of heat sinks, this baby will hurt you.

This rascal can brawl too. The 360 torso allows you to keep firing on enemies as you pull away from them or to turn and shoot an enemy you normally couldn’t because you could twist without turning. Loaded with Ferro armour, the Blood Asp can take 2 LBX20s, 2 LBX10s and a couple of Heavy Medium Lasers, nice smack. With full reactive armour, I like the 5 LBX5, 3 HML version. Chain those puppies and watch you opponent bounce. Again, Full reactive and 6 CUAC2s @ 64kph is a good config too. Near full reactive @ 58kph still gets you 2 Clan Gauss and 2 ERPPCs but you have to be careful with the heat.

Offensively, other than missiles, although you can pack 3 ATM12Es with 2 ERPPCs, the Blood Asp is a well rounded machine. It packs plenty of fire power for most any situation. It can fire at range, it can brawl and it can be a boat, beam or ballistic. The downfall of the Asp is its defensive ability.

The Blood Asp is very tall. Those two Gun Racks on top add to the height and become instant targets because many configs will have 2 Gauss Rifles or a few UACs mounted inside. Take those out and you have cut down on the outbound fire of the Asp significantly. Also, the Blood Asp offers a wide torso. The CT is not very strong nor are the arms. I suppose this is why the mech has a 360 torso, so you can turn and twist and spread the incoming shots to avoid damage as much as possible. The legs hold as much armour as the CT but are prime targets for many. The speed of the mech, normally set at 64kph also allows for easy targeting by missiles or ballistics. This is why I suggested taking all the electronics offered, ECM, BAP and LAMs. Each of these electronics help in some way to the defense of the mech. As I said, the Blood Asp is big and presents itself as a big square target even at range. There is nothing you can do if you have been acquired via a visual but try to move and get out of the open.

I like the Blood Asp. I like the ‘look’ of the MechCommander 2 version a little more, but the Blood Asp we have is big and tough. Although slow, it moves and handles well. It does climb well but I find it slow to start moving from a dead stop or to go forward if in reverse. Along those lines, I also find it a bit slow to back up, but this mech does have 360 so you shouldn’t have to go in reverse very often. The Asp is an offensive powerhouse capable of many varied load outs. Protect its CT and it will serve you well.

I used a Blood Asp on a few drops when we were in MWL Clan vs IS Ladder. I got a few kills with it. I never had the chance to use one (that I recall) while we were in NBT although we did use them. ~BP~Buddha was our Blood Asp specialist. He was/is a very accomplished pilot and the Asp worked well for him. We even stole a couple (well, we were pirates and that was our job). Its amazing what Clans or IS Houses will just leave laying around. I was surprised that when we fought some of the Clans in NBT, we never faced a Blood Asp (again, that I recall). We saw more from the IS side than from the Clans. Sure, they had them, they just didn’t use them against us for whatever reason.

In my original review I rated the Blood Asp at 3 and ½ minutes. That’s reasonably solid for a mech of its class. It has some nice things going for it and it can hand out a serving if punishment. Protect it and you will be out there a long time. IF you think you are invincible in one you wont last long at all. My rating stands.