The Marauder

Greetings Mech Fans.

After sometime away, Ol' Vettie is back at the keyboard bringing you some more fun and Mech Reviews as well as other things that I find out about the world of Mercs and MekTek and an occasional rant about something that grinds my gears.

I started to write about all the things that have been going on to keep me away from the keyboard, but who cares, right? Short version is that my internet connection would not allow me connection to my own blog site long enough to update or add new articles. Some of that has cleared up so I will try to give a new review for folks to (hopefully) enjoy.

During my time away I had a request to write about the Marauder. Seems like a good topic so I will do my best to give an objective review of the battlemech. I must say right up front that the Marauder is one of my favourites but I will still try to be objective about it. So here we go...



The Marauder is a Heavy Class Inner Sphere battlemech. It was developed near the end of the First Star League and became a favourite of many Inner Sphere Houses and Pilots. It is easy to see why. This 75 Ton warhorse is very tough. It has a long cylindrical body allowing the mech sustained life on the battle field. Hitting the mech from straight on gives you basically a small target yielding little damage. From the side view, the torso does not really have any flat surfaces, again the cylindrical shape comes in to play. A direct shot may not apply as much damage as a pilot would think simply because of this shape. Ballistics tend to hit and go up or down following th shape of the torso instead of directly into the torso. Same for laser burns. A laser hit generally will not sustain a clean burn, especially if the Marauder is in motion. If it is not moving, well the pilot should be shot.

The Marauder is basically a energy weapons platform with the exception of the dorsal gun. The Dorsal Gun is a “special” slot as far as armour is concerned. A pilot may not add or remove armour from this slot when configuring his mech for battle. Personally, I am a little leery of putting a “big” gun in there because of several reasons. I have no control of the amount of armour protecting my choice of weapon(s). It also attracts a lot of attention from enemy pilots, and I am not very good at keeping things undercover, or maybe protected is a better choice here, when I am under attack, even more so at close range. In other words, I tend to loose the dorsal gun cause I cant hide it from the bad guys. Lastly, because of mechs like the Behemoth (both versions) and the Marauder II, dorsal guns have become a favourite target for mechwarriors. Take out the “big” gun and “lots” of firepower is gone.



This dorsal slot is a “4” slot ballistic only slot meaning you can put pretty much any ballistic weapon in there except a rail gun. A Standard Gauss Rifle or Heavy Gauss Rifle seem to be favourite choices, but many of the Hyper Velocity Auto Cannons are now starting to show up in this slot. The other slots on this battlemech are two “2” slot energy only slots, one in the upper left torso and one in the “beam” rack roughly located in the “chin” area. Each arm also house a “4” slot energy only weapon slot. This would also anything from a small laser (1 slot weapon) to a PPC with Capacitor (4 slot weapon).

Stripped of all armour, engine upgrades, heat sinks and electronics show us that the Marauder has internal armour of 18.4 tons. Speeds range from 65kph to 95kph. To get a decent engine speed from the base 65kph lets say to 75kph will cost you 3 tons. This now leaves you with 53.6 tons to fill your mech with armour, electronics and weaponry. If you max out the armour with Ferro Fibrous (standard (for now)) it takes 13.6 tons. Leaving you with 40 tons for electronics and weapons.



Forty Tons will buy some fire power. I always suggest that a pilot take electronics if offered. LAMs and ECM are two of my preferred choices, but NEITHER are offered for the Marauder. Only BAP. This one is a choice I leave strictly to you. It depends on what you want to do with your mech, the mission at hand, the radar ability on map and your role as a pilot. BAP will attract some missiles (if the enemy has any and if the terrain is suitable), but it will also give some 1200 meters of “electronic” vision. It also lets you be seen from that distance if the enemy is running BAP. Again, I say pilots choice and mission dependent.

Heat Sinks. Well there are many different thoughts on heat sinks and simply put, some pilots are better heat managers than others are. I need them. I always count on using them depending on the weapons I choose to use and I count them as part of the tonnage cost of using that weapon even though different mechs have different heat capacity ratings. This where time spent in the cockpit lets you learn the mech. An example for me is the Sunder vs a Thor. The Sunder runs very cool using nothing but energy weapons but for me a Thor runs VERY hot and requires more heat sinks to keep it cool. Maps or battlefields also play a big part in heat efficiency, some are cold and some are hot. Load sinks accordingly and load them to how well you can manage heat. I use a 100% efficient map to do my base judgments (such as the coliseum). From there I know whether to add or take away based on the map to be played.

Well there used to be lots different thinking on armour. Different chassis perform (last longer) using specialty armour, at least in my opinion. The Marauder, with its shape, speed and profile does not really require any spec armour. It is a pretty tough mech on its own.

We have not talked much about weaponry for the Marauder. Again it depends on your mission and the map. Some typical load outs are 2 PPCs and a Gauss Rifle or Heavy Gauss Rifle, or exchange standard PPCs for PPCs with Capacitors (CPPCs for short). These are pretty hard hitting configurations and they cover a lot of ground. This best also makes for a nasty brawler using Large Lasers or LOTS of medium lasers and an LBX 20 0r 10, a Heavy Gauss or a Hyper Velocity 20 Auto-Cannon. There might have even been a “BBQ” config that had a flamer or two or six on it with a LBX 20.

Well I have gone over some of the basics and the standard stuff but how does this mech perform? In simple words, great. This thing is relatively fast for its size and pretty powerful. It actually handles better going backwards (good reverse speed too) so you can jam that nose into something then back out firing all the time. The dorsal gun is a bit fragile (but that's because it is a natural target) but the rest of the mech can take some punishment. The rear of the mech is probably the weak point so (in pilots words) cover your ass.

The Marauder climbs extremely well. It goes up and down mountains as easily as any mech without jump jets. Also, the Dorsal gun is set up high with a natural (gradual) downward pointing slope to it (maybe it is level but the shape of the mech gives it an optical illusion of a downward slope). I have already mentioned that this gun is a natural target, but being set up so high, it allows a pilot the ability to fire at an enemy from behind a ridge or hill or slope and never give the enemy a target other than the dorsal gun itself. Useful at times.

I guess it is about time to give you my rating and then my personal view of the Marauder. Ol' Vettie rates this thing a solid 4 minutes. Its tough and easy to pilot. The “Big” gun (Dorsal) seems to get blown off quickly leaving (most) with only arm weaponry. These go quickly too (or seemingly so after the dorsal gun) but are there long enough to inflict some heavy damage on the enemy. When on the battlefield it often becomes the number target because it is a dangerous machine.

On a personal note, I really like the Marauder and I was very happy when MekTek were able to include this mech (as well as some others) in their work and free downloads. Once known as one of the unseens, this mech gets seen quite a lot, especially on weight restricted maps. Its tough and can hold its own against larger more powerful assaults. When The Blood Pearls were active in NBT (Mercs, not HC), the Marauder was one of our mainstay mechs and they saw a lot of time on the battlefields.