The Catapult

A Mad Cat without arms. That’s the way I used to describe today’s choice of battlemech. It always looked to me that the Inner Sphere salvaged a Mad Cat and put enough “stuff” into to get it running. I figured the scientist and engineers of the Inner Sphere were ‘reverse engineering’ the Maddy to see what made it tick. I figure they got it running and left the arms off simply because they forgot them, or the unit they salvaged already had the arms blown off. Somewhere in there, the research teams decided that if they put jump jets on this thing, it would be a ‘killer’ design.

That’s my impression of how the I. S. ended up with what we know as the Catapult. At first appearance, it does look like an armless Mad Cat. Weighing 65tons with 18.5tons of reactive armour on an endo steel frame, The Catapult is any interesting battlemech with a purpose.

This machine offers BAP, Jump Jets, LAMs and Advanced Gyro, a very good selection of electronics. The slots are straightforward and simple. Each ‘ear’ has a 4-slot missile rack. There are no arms but the torsos, right, left and center house a 2-slot energy.

This mech was designed to be a long-range support mech. Its main purpose is to be a missile boat. In the early days, reactive armour worked better against missiles than did the other options, so, similar to the Vulture, I suspect that is why the Catapult comes stock with reactive armour. The Catapult can hold two Arrow Thunderbolts or just about any combination of missiles. An interesting change of battle configs brings us 2 or 3 Large X-Pulse lasers. With plenty of heatsinks strapped on, the LXP Cat is a very deadly machine.

The Catapult is a very tough battlemech. Maybe it’s the reactive armour, Im not sure, but the Cat seems to absorb a large amount of damage before dying. The problem with this one is that it is on an endo steel frame. Once an area of the mech is blown out, the damage rapidly spreads to the CT. I am not completely sure, but I think the ‘ears’ or missile racks are actually special sections. These do tend to get blown off faster than any other part of the mech. The legs are probably the next weakest section.

Interestingly enough, when people see a Catapult, the initial instinct is to blow off the missile racks. That is why I think the LXP Cat is such a deadly config. If the ears are special sections, there is a good chance that the damage does not transfer to the torso once they have been blown out.

Jump Jets and BAP are essential electronics for this mech, especially if you want to use it as a missile boat. The Catapult does not climb very well. This is where the jump jets come in, giving the Cat that extra little boost in hilly terrain. You can also use the jets to make this a jump sniper. A couple of arrows, hiding behind some terrain feature, a little juice on the jets, up you go and the BAP allows rapid target lock. Fire those arrows and float gently back to safety.

The Catapult does not seem to handle as easily as other mechs. The turn radius just doesn’t seem small enough or fast enough. It’s really not a good idea to get into a brawl with the Catapult, stay outside the fur ball and peg away at stuff in brawl.

Vettie’s View? I like the Catapult. It’s not one of my favourite mechs, but it is a tough mech. Pilots that enjoy missile boats will love this mech. It holds up well and does its job. At 65tons, it is a bargain for the drop dec. I rate the mech at 3 ½ minutes. Good for a Heavy mech.


MP3s Catapult


I had a hard time coming up with a review of the Catapult. The reason is pretty simple, the Catapult is not one of my favourite mechs. I have never been very effective in one and I have had team mates get whacked relatively quickly in them. On the other hand, I have seen Catapults that seemed to take an extraordinary amount of damage before blowing or even managing somehow to survive the entire wave.

That fact that I don’t care for Catapult doesn’t mean that is not a decent or even good battlemech. As I mentioned, I have seen the Catapult used very effectively and I have seen them do lots of damage. So, I will do my best to give you an objective review solely based on the facts about this mech. I invite your comments as I am sure there are Catapult fans out there.

Weighing in at 65 tons, the Catapult comes from the factory with a nice set of weapons and a decent set up. The Speed is pre-set to 75kph and the mech is packed with Reactive armour. I don’t know if the reactive armour load traces its roots back to ‘battletech’ but I suspect it just goes back to Vengeance (the early days prior to Microsoft updates) when reactive armour was the armour to use against missiles. Loaded in each missile rack is an Artemis LRM20 (ALRM20). A Large Laser is packed in the center as well a medium laser in each side torso. The package is rounded out with BAP, Jump Jets and 2 heat sinks.

Additional electronics are offered for the Catapult in the form of LAMs and Advanced Gyro. The Missile racks are actually 4-slot racks that are capable of holding any missile currently in the game. Each torso holds a 2-slot energy or beam rack and the center torso holds 2 of these dual slot beam racks. The speed ranges from 61kph to 103kph. 75kph up to 89kph seem to be the most suited for this mech making it ‘handle’ a bit better.

Although the Catapult was designed to be jumping missile platform there are other uses for it. Because it is known to launch a salvo or two, the ‘ears’ or racks are generally the 1st thing enemies shoot for, so even if you cant kill it, you can disarm it. When used in other roles, this works in the Catapult’s Pilot’s favour. Loading 4 large lasers or 3 Large X-Pulse or 3 Large Pulse or any combo of these, the mech can absorb lots of punishment to the missile racks while burning away at whatever is trying to shave the ears away. The 82 to 89kph speed is deceptively fast allowing the Pult to take evasive action quickly. The ability to jump adds an additional mobility element for attack or defense, allowing the pilot to jump over obstacles or hills or to use as a pop-snipe tactic.

As a missile platform, the Catapult can take a wide variety of missiles or pack in a couple of any two missiles in the game. Dual Arrows or Dual Clusters packed on a jumping platform make for a very devastating impact. BAP allows this mech to ‘see’ up to 1200 meters out and gives a quicker lock time on any missiles it packs. The Jumpies give it an added dimension. Hide passively behind a building or hill, hit the jump gas and switch on radar long enough to get a lock, fire and go passive as you float back down behind cover.

The Catapult climbs fairly well for a jump jet based mech. As I mentioned earlier, at 75 to 89kph, it handles decently. It doesn’t have a very good turn ratio or torso twist, but it wasn’t made for ‘in fighting’. The basis of the design suggests this mech was created to be a support mech, selecting a target from afar and splattering it with missiles while lancemates moved under cover to finish off whatever was left of an enemy. I am not saying that a Catapult cant brawl, in fact, loaded with MRMs or SRMs or even Artys and some medium pulse or medium X-Pulse lasers this thing can really do a lot of damage up close. What I am saying is that it wasn’t designed for close up fighting and it doesn’t handle well when the fighting gets tight.

The lack of ballistic slots hold this mech back a bit, in my opinion. Having to use only missiles or lasers or combinations of both let the enemy know right away what kind of platform they are facing. The addition of Artemis Missiles has helped this mech, again, in my opinion. Loaded with Beagle Active Probe, an Artemis Missile system is an almost insta-lock platform. However, Artemis Systems weigh a bit more, especially when you consider the fact that you almost always have to pack on extra ammo.

I personally believe that the Catapult works best if used in pairs. I don’t mean pairs of missiles, I mean pairs of mechs, 2 Catapults. One should wing for the other. Once a target has been selected the pair of Catapults should alternate firing on the target with about a 1 second break between salvos (assuming a missile load out). Two of these rascals reigning missiles on pretty much anything is almost guaranteed to ruin its (the target) day. I envision two Catapults both load with dual ALRM20s and plenty of ammo sitting just behind the peak of a hill. The 1st jumps up, goes radar active and fires a complete salvo on some poor Gladiator or Deimos some 900 meters away. As the missiles leave the 1st Catapult goes radar Passive and descends back to its hiding spot while the other goes active and jump repeating the actions of number 1. It doesn’t take many of these to do away with the (any) target and soon the search is on for another.

One thing I do like to do with a Catapult is to make sure that it has a secondary weapon. I like to load on a large laser or large X-Pulse laser (usually in the CT) along with whatever missiles are need for its role for that mission. This always allows the Catapult a way to defend itself in the event missile racks (the ears) are blown off. It also allows for a decent weapon should a smaller (medium class or light class) mech somehow make it close enough to begin to work on the missiling menace.

I don’t know how many of you played Mech Commander or Mech Commander 2. I played MC2 a lot. That game was loaded with Catapults and they always seemed pretty tough whether up close or from far away. You would shoot them, hit them, knock them down but they would just keep coming at you and flailing away at you with missiles. You always seemed to salvage some of them if they were used against in a mission. I didn’t like ‘em much, but they brought good C-Bills that you could use to buy other things.

In NBT, we faced these things on a few occasions but none were better at them than a team called CC (Cappellan Confederation). They (CC) had a guy known as Krazy A who was a pretty good pilot in whatever he drove. I remember a match we had against CC on a team only radar, light fog filled map of River Canyon. Krazy and another pilot (sorry I cant remember the name of the rest of their pilots) were in Catapults. Krazy’s mech was loaded with 2 or 3 Large X-Pulse Lasers while the other pilot had twin Arrows. They set up a pretty good ambush for us. The 2 Catapults had backed themselves a bit up a ridgeline, both covers by the big pipes sticking out of the mountainside. Depending on which way you entered the area where they were, one of the 2 Catapults would be hidden unless you came for over the top of the mountain.

CC had some other mechs, I remember a couple of Uziels and a couple of Wolfhounds. We had a mixed bag of mechs including a Thor and a BK. I was driving a Hunchback. We had done away with most of their mechs and I was chasing a Wolfhound. The battle had been going on for some 15 minutes. CC had 3 mechs left, the Wolfie I was chasing and 2 we had not seen yet. We were down to four, my hunchie, Buddha in a Bushwacker, Cow in a Thor and Smaga in a BK.

I was chasing this Wolfie in my Hunchie and blazing away with medium X Pulse lasers and a HVAC20. He made it over a rise and made right turn as I fired on him. I followed over the rise just in time to see a Catapult locking in on me. At 500 meters, he was out of the reach of my lasers but not of my HVAC20 which was in process of reloading. I heard the beep, beep beep signal of missiles achieving lock. I fired just as I was hit by 2 Arrows. The impact was enough to blow out my HVAC20 and knock my mech down.

I screamed over comms that I had found them and that I needed help. As with most times in a league game, once you get knocked over within range of an enemy you are pretty much dead and this time was no exception. Before my Hunchie could back to its feet, the sting of blue lasers lit me up. BOOoooom! Buddha had been following behind managed to take out the Wolfie that I did leg before the Catapults got me. But they got him too.

From where I died, I could see both the Catapults. That’s when I realized one had lasers and the other had Arrows (in most league games, the camera ship is turned off for dead mechs, once you are dead (in no respawn games) you are dead and can only see out in front of where your mech died). I got on comms giving the best intel I could to Cow and Smaga. Cow’s Thor was a ‘standard’ load out, 2 Clan Gauss rifles and an ERLarge Laser while Smaga had opted to load his BK with PPCs. I suggested that on come to the front of the ‘v’ area and keep the laser mech busy while staying low enough to avoid the arrows while the other went over the mountain to hit them from behind.

Cow went in from the front and began pegging away at the ‘ears’ of the Arrow Pult. Smaga made his way around behind the mountain and started climbing over. I remember watching those Catapults take round after round from those gauss rifles. Cow lost an arm somewhere in the fray but did manage to take out both of the Arrows. He started to close on that damaged mech when the other started firing away with those LXPs. Just as Cow’ second gauss was stripped, Smaga began firing on the XPulse Catapult from above. The combination of PPC fire and heat build up from LXPs shut the Laser Pult down. Cow turned to fire his remaining ERLarge at the Arrow Mech who was now charging him in hopes of taking him out with a suicide maneuver. The Arrow Mech blew up in front of Cow but did not kill him.

The XPulse Pult had recovered from shut down by now and began firing on a shut down Cow driven Thor. It was enough. Cow exploded right in front of my dead mech. It was also enough to shut the Catapult down that had done the killing. Smaga laid into him with round after round of PPC, chain firing on him until he died. When the smoke settled, we had won the fight but only by 1 mech. I had gained a new respect for the Catapult as Krazy and the CC team used them very effectively.

I am still not a big fan of the Catapult, but they are a decent mech. When used correctly, they can be very effective. I originally rated this mech at 3 ½ minutes. I have no change to that rating.