The Owens

The Owens

An Inner Sphere Light class mech weighing in at 35 tons is known as the Owens. This interesting little pest looks like an attempt by the Inner Sphere to create their own version of the Jenner. IT has speed, electronics and a very small profile making the Owens a difficult target that can pack a decent weaponry load.

Lets take a look at what makes up an Owens. From the factory floor, the Owens comes with ECM, LAMs and IFF Jammer and a top speed rating of 102kph. BAP and Advanced Gyro are offered while the top speed ranges from 90 to 126kph. The stock weapons loadout consists of 2 Medium Lasers in the center torso 2 slot omni rack while each arm is packed with a LRM15 in the 3 slot missile racks. The arms also house a 1 slot beam rack that are not used in the stock configuration. The Armour is 7 tons of Ferro Fibrous on a standard frame.

IF you drop the LAMs and add BAP and AG while stripping the weapons, you have 14 tons to work with at stock speed settings and armour levels. With some creative3 armour shaving, you can mount up to 3 ALRM10s on this little troublemaker and you have a damn nice little missile boat. The problem with ALRM10s is that, even tho you get 24 rounds per rack, it doesn’t seem to be enough to kill much so you really need double the ammo and that really hard to manage with the Owens.

Again, getting creative with armour or speed, you can load up to 6 LRM5s or 2 MRM20s or 4 SRM4s and if you get real creative you can load up a couple of heavy rocket launchers. IF you want to brawl without missiles, you can load an LBX10 or AC10 and a couple of medium lasers. For real rip ‘em up action, put in a RAC5 with extra ammo and a couple of medium lasers or better, a couple of medium pulse lasers. For sniping fun you can put in a Lt Gauss Rifle or even a Mini Gauss Rifle. One of the better configs, other than missiles, I have found is to load a Large X-Pulse and 2 Medium X-Pulse lasers with a few heat sinks.

The Owens is versatile, but it simply cant pack a big punch. It is probably best used as a missile platform / scout mech.

In these days of Assault Mechs, the Owens doesn’t last very long once it has been hit. The Arms only hold .6 tons of FF armour (18 damage points) and the legs are double that. The majority of fire power for this mech is located in either the arms or the CT (33 damage points). It has speed and stealth on its side, but again, a well placed shot from a heavy or assault mech and the Owens is in trouble.

A player that goes by the name of Howling Chiken (yes, I believe that is how they spell their name) is probably one of the best Owens driver I have run across. I am not sure, but I think he runs the 3 ALRM10 version and he does a damn good job of it. He knows how to twist and turn to make damage spread on this mech and he seems to make it last much longer than others I have seen. Howling spends a lot of time in the cockpit of an Owens and he knows just where the little mech can go on a map and fire with minimum exposure. He has the old ‘shoot and move’ tactic down pretty good and he doesn’t spend a lot of time in one place. He makes the Owens a worthy adversary.

In weight restricted league play you see more Owens than you do in the open servers. At 35 tons, they can play an important role to your team. Offering BAP and ECM, the Owens can be a very effective scout. It offers enough speed to go out and seek the enemy, and if equipped properly, can even inflict some damage on them before making it back to the safety of the pack. They are versatile enough that they don’t have to be missile boats, other weapons fit and work.

I have tried using them and I am simply not talented enough to be effective. I still have that stupid tendency to stick my CT out like a proud ape or something and the pilots playing the game today have no problem hitting that CT, even if it is very small, from 900+ meters. I am just to dumb to fold it up and turn away. Much the same reason I don’t drive BKs very often…

The Owens is an interesting light mech. IT handles pretty good although I have noticed the turning on it is not so great for such a small mech and the twist ratio is only 90 degrees. IT does climb well and it has that ‘bobble run’ making it a bit difficult to hit as it runs.

I have to tell you that I am not a big fan of the Owens. Maybe its because I don’t drive one very well or maybe it’s the way they look. I don’t know, but I just don’t like them very much. As a light mech, it is decent and in the hands of someone that can drive one, they are actually a pretty good little mech. Low to the ground, good electronics and enough speed makes the Owens one of the better light mechs. I rate the Owens at 2 ½ minutes. Fair. Give it a run and see what you can do.

The Commando

The Commando

Weighing in at just 25 tons, the Inner Sphere Commando is up for a run thru today. A great looking little mech, reminds me of a Storm Trooper from Star Wars. This mech is about speed and agility. This particular mech is one of my favourite of the light mechs.

Before I get into the specifics of the Commando, I would like to talk a little about Mission Play. The NBT Sunder Server is a Puretech No Respawn Mission Play server set up for waves. There are 2 teams and one team has to defend an ‘objective’ like a Head Quarters building and a Communications Array (usually). The other team has to attack the objectives. One of the all time favourite mission play maps is named Royal Guard. Sunder is run so that the weather and radar are random as well as the maps.

One thing I just don’t like about Sunder, or rather, the play in Sunder, is when a no radar map comes up with some level of fog AND the attacking team takes ‘base rapers’. Sure it’s a mission play server and part of this type of play is based on killing the objectives. I know this and I accept this. What I don’t like is for a team to take 2 to 4 Tenchi’s or a couple of Avatars loaded with arty strikes or even Hellspawns loaded with Heavy Rocket Launchers or Arty Strikes and head out without attempting to fight anyone right for the objectives. Most of these mission play maps were made before some of these mechs and weapons were introduced and they simply aren’t set up for this type of attack. The round will be over before many, if any kills are registered. Nothing ruins it for me more than to be in the middle of a good fire fight with an enemy mech (regardless if I am defending or attacking) and the round end because some one (or more) took a fast base raper and destroyed the objectives.

IF you want to do that, that is fine. Do it when the radar is on or do it with light to no fog level in the day time. The Blood Pearls have a little fun every now and then on mission play maps. We have done it on Broken Sky, Griffon Base, Arctic Wasteland and Royal Guard. We ALWAYS do it in day time scenarios with the radar on and default visibility or clear visibility. We will use 2 to 3 Commandos loaded with speed and regular rocket launchers. The Commando is easy to kill and regular Rocket launchers take many shots to kill the objectives and they heat up the little Commando very quickly. We have been successful using these and killing objectives, but we have also been killed many times too. Its fun and the enemy team has a very good shot at killing us before we even reach the objectives. A BAP / ECM loaded defender can pick us up at 600 meters even if we are passive and a Commando will die fast form 1 or 2 good alphas.

So on with the Commando. IT comes loaded with only IFF and a speed of 121kph. The Commando offers Jump Jets, LAMs, IFF and Advanced Gyro. The Speed range is from 90 to 129kph. The weapons load out is 1 Large Laser, 1 Medium Laser, 2 Small Lasers and a Rocket Launcher. The Armour is Ferro Fibrous, a full 6 tons is packed on a standard frame.

In the Right and Left Torso are 2-slot Missile Racks. The Head houses a 1 slot Beam Rack and each Arm holds a 2 slot Heat Generating Rack. This type of slot holds either beam weapons or missiles.

Let me tell you if you add Jump Jets and Advanced Gyro while leaving the speed at 121kph you will only have 6 tons left to work with for weaponry. That’s not very much. You could load up 3 SRM2s or 2 SRM4s or a NARC with extra ammo or an Arty Beacon with extra ammo or a couple of Rocket Launchers. IT will also hold 5 medium lasers or a couple of medium pulse lasers or medium x-pulse lasers or a few small lasers or small pulse lasers. You can get creative and lower the speed and armour and load up 2 large lasers or 2 large beam lasers even. But, one thing for certain, this mech is no offensive power house.

Then again, it was not meant to be a power house. The basic job of a commando is that of a scout or harasser or objective killer. The mech is weak and goes down fast under any type of real firepower and it doesn’t have ECM so regardless of its size, it has a big radar signature unless it runs passive.

I told you I like this mech. I like the way it looks and I like the way it handles. No other mech in the game will start or stop as fast. No other mech will turn as quickly, it handles almost too well. It has a great twist ability and a decent heat capacity. The Commando climbs like a mountain goat and has jump jets for those places it cant climb too. It has speed and agility. You do have to keep moving once in range of the enemy or you wont be in the battle long.

I don’t often suggest that anyone NOT take LAMs, but this is one mech where you really don’t need them. If you keep moving and darting about like a drunk on a bicycle, you can avoid most missiles fired from range. It is possible to rack ups some kills of larger mechs if you move quickly and get in behind them. Missiles, Rockets or firing of lasers will eat away at their armour until you eventually kill them. You just have to keep from being legged or taking heavy alphas. Keep moving so that they do not get a good shot on you.

In a weight restricted environment, the Commando can be a useful mech. It can carry some nice laser loads or even some missiles. It is fast enough to find the enemy and run away from them. If Camos are used on the map, using the IFF and running passive makes this mech very hard to see at a distance because it is so small. Against other lights and most mediums, the Commando can actually hold its own ground for a little bit.

Well its time to put a rating on the Commando. I like the mech and I like the way it handles. I don’t like the lack of ECM or BAP, but it makes up for some of that with speed. The Command is a good scout mech and a fun objective killer. Its not much more than that. It doesn’t pack much armour and its offensive prowess is not very much. IT has to go fast to live. I rate the Commando 2 to 2 ½ minutes. Weak. It’s a fun mech to drive and play with but its really not a very serious threat.

The Raven

The Raven

Often over looked, especially for use in Sunder, but even in many league games, is the Raven. A Light Class Inner Sphere battlemech weighing in at 35tons, just doesn’t see much use. Personally, I like the Raven. It offers a lot of features with the possible exception being firepower. Just take a closer look and you can decide for yourself.

When we go look at a stock Raven, we see that it has ECM, BAP, IFF, AG and a max speed of 100kph. LAMs are also offered rounding out an excellent Electronics package. More on this later. The Raven has 7 tons of Ferro Fibrous armour (.1 ton from being fully armoured) on a standard frame. The weapons include a Small Laser, 2 Small Pulse Lasers, a LRM15 with double ammo and a NARC Beacon. The weapons slots are decent for a Light Class, the Right arm has 2 single slot beam racks and the Left Arm has a single slot missile rack. The Right Torso houses a 2 slot missile rack while the Left torso houses a 2 slot beam rack. The max speed ranges from 90kph to 120kph. Adding LAMs and leaving the speed and armour settings gives you 12tons for weapons. This must be the problem. Only 12 tons to work with. Well if you drop the LAMs, you have 13.5 tons, so you make the call.

I would like to talk about the NARC Beacon for a minute before we move on to possible load outs for the Raven. I have tried NARCs and they do work. A common misconception is that IS NARCs do not work with CLAN Missiles and vice versa. Let me say that as far as I know, NARCs are TEAM based weapons. That is, whatever missile types are being used by your TEAM, will work with A (singular) NARC Beacon.

Another thing about NARCs is that the mechs using missiles MUST be in range of the Narced target. IF you are using 1200 meter missiles and the Narced target is 1500 meters away, your missiles will not work with the NARC. You have to be with your normal missile range.

IF you are piloting a missile boat, or any mech that contains missiles, you CAN NOT obtain a lock on one target and expect that your missiles go to the NARCED target. They wont. They will go to your locked target.

NARCs work best for teams with good team work and comms. IF you load NARCs on a mech, say a RAVEN for example, then any mech using missiles should go passive and stay within support range of the Raven. When the Raven pilot ‘hits’ a target with a NARC, he should say NARC ON or something like that. A beeping noise will then start in PASSIVE mechs. They can then fire their missiles and the NARC will call the missiles to it.

An IS NARC has a 700 meter range while the Clan Version has an 800 meter range. This is the flight range of the NARC, NOT the effect range of the beacon. Remember that NARCs, once placed have a limited time of operation and if they get knocked off or destroyed (from the hail of incoming missiles) that they will cease to work and another must be placed. DO NOT CONFUSE the missiles by placing more than 1 NARC in play at any given time of they will simply be ineffective as the missiles being fired will simply go to the closest beacon. IF you MISS when trying to place a NARC, the NARC is still active if it hits another object like a tree or a building or the ground. Either destroy it by stepping on it or wait 10 to 15 seconds for the beacon to expire, otherwise all the missiles will fly to that beacon and hit the building or the ground. Also remember that a NARC Beacon is not magic, it will not alter normal missile behaviour. Missiles will still fly their normal abilities, but they wont avoid objects or hills that they normally would not avoid.

Ok, back to the Raven. The reason I went over that is because the Raven is the 1^st mech I have reviewed that has a NARC as standard equipment to the best of my memory. The NARC is a good option for the Raven as the Raven is small and stealthy and reasonably fast. NARCs do take a little practice to be able to place them in critical locations, so keep that in mind. A good missile option is to load an ALRM10 plus an extra ton of ammo. Using BAP and the Artemis option missiles, a pilot can achieve near insta-lock on a target. Just for fun add a Large Laser, a Large BEAM Laser or a Large X-Pulse on the Raven and have some fun. You can bump the speed to 105kph, load up an ALRM10, a Large Laser and 2 Medium Lasers and you are all set. The ALRM10s will annoy targets a long range or even kill a ‘cored’ target, while the large laser will add a bit of punch at 650 in. The mediums offer solid protection when the bad guys get close.

The best defense weapon of this mech is its stealth, speed and handling. The Raven ‘bobs’ from side to side when it runs and it has a 360 torso allowing the pilot to keep fighting while adding distance to the (usually) unequal equation. More so, the Raven turns very easily and climbs hills almost like it has jump jets. A good pilot can drive this thing around like a spider on LSD and never take a solid hit. The torso has the same shape (albeit much smaller) as the Ares and Bushwacker, that long curved, sloping nose. The arms do tend to be destroyed, but the main slots are in the torsos and they are much harder to take out. Drive a Raven like a woman shopping and you will last a long time.

A raven is not going to rack up major amounts of kills, especially in Sunder and you don’t want to be surprised by any mech, especially an assault, but it is a decent mech. They are hard to target and they offer a great electronics package. IF you get legged, you are toast so keep moving. Shoot at targets, don’t be the target.

The Raven makes for a very good scout mech. The speed ability of up to 120kph, ECM, BAP and IFF make it near invisible except to other BAP equipped mechs but by the time they see you, you have seen the, too. In FOG situations, the Raven is even better using the electronics package I already listed. The thing is small enough that even if picked up on radar, with IFF , it may not actually be SEEN.

Well, the Raven is not a offensive powerhouse by any means, but it offers a different type of offense, the I found them first type. That is a big advantage in fighting battlemechs, especially in league play. A good Raven pilot can move in, find the enemy, report the location and heading and even keep them distracted while your team moves into position to put them away. The Raven is tough enough and fast enough to keep them busy or even finish off a few. You just gotta stay out of direct fire range of any heavy weapons.

In our NBT days, we were privateers for a major house team. We had a decent arrangement that allowed us a lot of passage throughout the inner sphere as well as jump station usage without too much fear of being discovered or attacked. In exchange, we would often help our hosts with battles or even fight some for them. During that time, one of the neighboring teams launched a Planetary assault on our allies.

A Planetary Assault, in NBT, COULD go on for weeks and weeks depending on how many mechs were loaded on whatever number of drop ships the attacker brought to bear and depending on what was on planet of the defending team.

After several weeks o f battling, Cap Con had made major strides against a garrison planet of the Federated Suns. A Garrison was like a mech holding area, except it was a planet loaded with mechs. Mostly 2^nd tier mechs, but lots of them. FS had asked us to take over the fight as Cap Con had worn them pretty thin.

We when took over the fight, most of the larger, heavy duty mechs were either already destroyed or captured. We lost 2 very heavy tonnage rounds (650 tons limit per team for 8 players) and we struggled to make weight. On the third round, again a very heavy round of 500 tons, we ended up using 4 Ravens, 2 Uziels and 2 Chimeras. As you can see we were not where close to drop weight but we fought on. We did kill 4 of the attackers including a Blood Asp and a Marauder. The Next round we could only field 6 Ravens against 8 of the Cap Con attackers. We lost that match and the Planet. Cap Con made a post that they had gained a new respect for the Blood Pearls who were willing to fight to the last mech against such weight differences. The 6 little Ravens again racked up 3 or 4 kills but still fell to the odds. I gained respect for the Raven.

I like the Raven and I would like to see them used more. Against the big boys, they just don’t last long. If used correctly and by a good pilot who understands the mech, a Raven will last awhile.

Time for a rating. The Raven is basically unchanged since those Cap Con days. Yes maybe some minor changes, but overall it is the same mech. Its quick, its agile, its stealthy, but it lacks serious punch. I give the Raven 3 minutes. Decent for a light.