Half a Rant

Today I have a half rant. Maybe its because I don’t really feel well or maybe I am just half mad. The half rant goes to ASUS. Let me explain the reason and see if you agree.

A friend of mine, runs a local convenience store. He was born and raised in India, but he has lived here in the USA for many years and he is a citizen of the U.S. I wont tell you his real name because I can pronounce it, much less try to spell it. I have just always called him Abu (from the Simpson’s cartoon). I buy almost all of my petrol and cigarettes from Abu and have for the last 5 years. Over that period of time we have come to know one another fairly well and while I had my last back surgery, he filled my wife’s car with gas and would not accept her payment. He is just a very nice guy.

Sometime during our many talks, I helped him with a technical issue he was having with his computer. Whatever the problem was, I told him what I thought would fix it and apparently it did. The next time I saw him he was very happy and told me it worked. About a month or so later, we had some bad thunderstorms and lightening had hit his store. The lightening strike knocked out his security cameras as well as the computer network he had set up to control the prices and cash register.

I had stopped in one morning to buy gas on my way to work when I noticed the pumps were off. I went inside and Abu was working an old cash register and a calculator. He told me about the lightening and that his pumps were down because the computer got zapped and they controlled his pumps. He said he called the company that installed everything to come have a look but it was going to be a week before they could get to him. A week!! I told him I had to go to work, but I would stop by that evening and look things over to see if I could help patch things so he would not lose a weeks worth of sales.

That evening I stopped in and he showed me the ‘safety room’. I looked at his camera connections and security monitor and I followed the burns on the wall to a box. I opened that box and it was basically a home made power supply with a couple of circuit breakers. The monitor, the cameras and the computer were all connected and got their power source from this box (instead of being plugged into a wall socket). I figured out that this box was some sort of homemade APC / UPS. This ‘box’ had its own breaker that was tripped. I flipped it off and then on again. Then I switched off and on the ‘outside’ breakers where the other things were plugged in and everything came up. After a few seconds, I started to smell the nasty, something electronic is burning, smell. I shut everything off. I went to my truck and got my multi-meter and moments later I figured out a cap had fried (basically doing its job keep everything else from frying). I went to the local electrical supply house and bought a big cap to plug in its place. 5$ and 30 minutes later and Abu was running again.

He was so happy he did not know what to do. He bought me gas and cigarettes even tho I tried to tell him the cap only cost 5$ but he would not have any of me not accepting payment. So I accepted the gas and cigarettes and thanked him.

As I mentioned before, Abu and I have become good friends. We talk about many things and he was aware of what I did for a living in the past and currently. One morning, on my way to work, I stopped for a soft drink, he asked me if I would build a PC for his personal use. I told him to pick out what he wanted and I would build it. Then he asked me to pick out the parts for him. He said he had 3 restrictions, he could not spend more than 1200$, he had a particular case that he wanted already selected and whatever I built must run Vista because he already had a brand new copy of Vista that a salesman gave him.

So, with all of that in mind, I went searching on several Online stores to get the biggest bang for Abu’s buck.

I have been a long time fan of ASUS motherboards. I feel and have always felt that they build a quality product that performs and performs well. Abu would be getting an ASUS mother board. I asked him if he wanted Intel or AMD and he said he wanted AMD. So I selected and AMD Dual Core 6000 cpu and an ASUS M2N32 – Premium Vista Edition motherboard.

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=101&l3=300&l4=0&model=1553&modelmenu=1

I figured that this board would do anything Abu wanted to do with a pair of DVD Burners, a pair of SATA 250gig drives and 4gigs of ram. Oh yeah, I selected a 8800GTS SLi (512mg) Vid card. Abu already had a 22” monitor (Samsung Flat panel with 2ms response and a 3000:1 contrast ratio). I gave him the list of what to buy and where to buy it. Four days later, he called and he told me it had all come in.

We made arrangements for me to build the computer in his store so he could observe and learn. The assembly took about 45 minutes (even with him asking questions). Everything went smooth as silk. Even the mounting of the heatsink on the cpu. With everything in place, it was time to flip the switch to watch the fans spin and make sure the unit ‘posted’ and to make any adjustments in the bios.

Abu received the honours and everything worked. When we went into the bios, there were only 2 or 3 small adjustments that needed to be made (personal prefs really, nothing overly ‘function’, like turning off the logo and turning on quick boot). Before shutting down we opened the Vista box and put the disc in the 1^st DVD drive and restarted the machine.

When it rebooted, the Vista DVD began loading. It went for a while transferring data from the DVD to the HDD and then it was time for the 1^st re-boot. This is where the half rant starts. When the system re-booted and started to continue the Vista install, I got a blue screen explaining there was a ACPI error and that the BIOS was not Compatible with VISTA.

Huh? The name of the board was “ASUS M2N32 – Premium Vista Edition motherboard” with the emphasis on Vista Edition. How could a Vista Edition board be not compatible with Vista? I went thru the usual checks to make sure it wasn’t something I had done wrong, including checking all the BIOS settings and then reloading the software. Second attempt and I got the same answer, there was a ACPI error and the BIOS is not compatible with VISTA.

Before I selected the board, I read the reports and the reviews on this board and everything was positive. No where was there any mention that there was an issue with loading Vista. I did a little digging and discovered on some off-the-wall ‘motherboard gripes’ site that MANY people had the same issue. The Motherboard had already gone thru 3 or 4 BIOS revisions, but (some) people were still having issues.

I went back to explain to ABU what was going on and how to fix it, but I told him it was up to him. Flash the BIOS, hoping it worked and continue loading Vista or leave as is and load Windows XP. I explained to him how, that if the update went bad, the board would not work.

He understood the risk and decided to go with a BIOS update.

ASUS has this neat little feature where you can store the ‘working BIOS’ so if your update goes bad it can be brought back, sort of like the restore function in Windows. I downloaded the proper BIOS (again from gathering info from other sites) that I had determined would work best from his new machine. I also downloaded the installer. Insert the homemade cd and within 5 minutes everything was done. ASUS has some decent tools for doing this.

After the update and a reboot and then another as suggested, I went back to the Vista install and everything went pain free from that point. My rant is this, Why would you name a board @#$%^& Premium Vista Edition if it wont accept and load Vista? Why would you ever put a board with that name into production, this was not a proto type, it was a production board, why would you do it until you were absolutely sure that Vista would work with it? I thought it funny enough to call ASUS customer service and just ask them that very question. I have worked in their (the ASUS) end of the business for nearly 20 years and that kind of thing would not happen and if it did, somebody would be fired if not shot. Who knows, maybe somebody did get fired.

I just thought it very ironic that ASUS would advertise a board and even give it Vista edition as part of its name and yet, as is, from the factory, it would not load Vista. There have been at least 7 BIOS updates and an 8^th one is in beta stage. The 4^th change is supposedly where Vista would install if you had 2gigs of RAM or less. The 5^th or 6^th change allowed more than 2gigs of Ram AND Vista (altho the board is rated to accept 8gigs).

I will say this. Once the OS loaded and we got done with all the OS updates, that darn machine is a smoker. We got a 5.9 (highest I had ever seen) on the user experience rating built in to Vista. The board (with some help from the chassis I am sure) is very cool and the chassis / fans / video card are very quiet. Other than the spinning of the DVD Burner when loading a disk, you almost have to check to see if the machine is on. Everything is running very smoothly and when you click on an application, it pops to the screen almost before you get your mouse moved from the click point (Icon or start menu). Very nice assembly, very easy (other than the BIOS issue and it really was an easy fix) and very smooth.

I give them a half rant. A novice (like Abu) would have been hosed until after the holidays. ASUS tech support was closed for the holidays on the 3 phone calls I made (to pacify Abu) and they yet to return the one message I did leave. Other than that, we have one of the nicest, smoothest builds I have ever run across. The board had room for Ol’ Large Fingers Vettie and everything went together very easily. Again, even the BIOS upgrade was easy. Abu would have not figured that out on his own and ASUS would have had a hard time explaining what was wrong and how to fix it. Even if a newer BIOS was available, the one it shipped with should have accepted a Vista install... Rant complete.

Christmas Rant

Seasonal greetings to all and hoping that those of you that read my blog that do celebrate Christmas had a nice one. Those that don’t celebrate Christmas, please forgive me for not knowing your given (if any) holiday, but I hope that it was good for you too.

Normally I post something to do with mechs or MechWarrior but today will be an exception. I have a rant that I must do and this is as good a place to do it as any, so bear with me while I get it out of my system.

Many of you that know me, know that I recently spent some time in the hospital with a bout of pneumonia. After being out of work for a month or so and a little over a week of that time in the hospital, I was finally released (by my regular doctor) to go back to work. On the night before I was scheduled to report back, something went wrong. I started having some serious pain in my leg. As the night went on the pain got worse. The next morning, I was at a point where I could hardly walk.

I made the decision to take some pain medication and try to work anyway after being away for a month. By the end of that work day, I was in tremendous pain. I called my regular Doctor and asked her to stay a little longer than normal to see me because I knew something was wrong. When I got to her office, she didn’t even have to do an exam, she knew something was again wrong with my back. She called my surgeon and set me up with an appointment to see him as soon as possible. In the mean time, she fired an email, real mail and a fax to my employer stating that I would be out for some additional time because of a back related issue.

The appointment to my surgeon was changed because he had to do emergency surgery on some other poor suffering soul. When I did get to meet with him, still in major pain I might add, he did the usual xrays and MRI and within a half day I had the answer of the cause of the pain.

Many of you know I had spinal fusion a couple of years ago and that I was diagnosed with degenerative disk disease. This news (at that time) was pretty hard for me to take, because along with that info, came the news that eventually I would lose my ability to walk and be confined to a wheel chair (probably in my late 60s or early 70s). This was tough stuff for me to take as I had always been an athletic sort of guy, setting a high school passing yardage record (for my school) that held for 21 years. I played baseball and basketball in high school as well. I played basketball in Jr. College altho I was never a starter and I played rugby in ‘regular’ college. I coached little league baseball and football and I coached youth league soccer for years. I also coached mens softball in my spare time as well as playing some mens league basketball. So yeah, loosing the ability to walk was quite a stunner to me, but I have accepted that now and I will make the best of each day.

My surgeon informed me that the disk above where I had my fusion had burst and the disk above it was pressing down on a nerve an that generated the pain I was feeling. Surgery would be need to fix it and get me out of my pain. Any way, that I went well and I am now back at work.

While I was off and supposed to be recovering, I was ‘ordered’ by my surgeon to walk as much as possible. One of the days leading up to Christmas, my wife came home from work early. She needed to buy a couple of gifts and some grocery items for the house. I could see a Wal-Mart trip coming and I had no way out of it. She knew it, too. As I sat at my desk (probably posting a mech review) I could feel it coming, those dreaded words that I hate to hear, ‘honey, I have to go to Wal-Mart and it would be nice if you went with me.’

With no way out of it and not being able to take the pressure any long, I trekked the stairs from my office to the kitchen where she was mentally make a list of what she needed and screamed at her, “Yes!!! I will go, now, are you happy?” My face was read and heart was pounding and I looked a lot like Mr. Hyde after just changing from Dr. Jeckyll.

She looked up from the refrigerator and calmly said, “I didn’t ask you if you wanted to go.” Crap, I thought, I blew that one, she hadn’t even asked yet and I agreed to go already! Short of a heart attack, there’s no way to get out of it now… Crap!
“But, since you offered, I would love it if you went. I wasnt going to ask you because I assumed you wouldn’t feel up to it yet.”
Well damn. She wasn’t even going to ask…

We went to Wal-Mart and she found everything she was looking for and she didn’t dawdle, she got what she needed and headed for the check out. Now, I don’t know about your local store (if you even have one), but our closest one is a Super Center, you know, a combined Wal-Mart and Grocery Store all in one. Along the front of the store there is about 50 to 60 cash registers that almost span from one side to the other, leaving only a little bit of room for in and outbound traffic. That’s all good and nice, but they never have more than 2 or 3 lines open, with customers lined up back into the merchandise isles waiting to pay for their goods and leave. I really hate that. Why have all those registers, if you only have a few open when you have customers waiting in LONG lines?

That is one issue. While we were waiting in our check out line, I noticed that our line was not moving. Being only a few people back from the actual register, I managed to make my way up closer to ‘see’ what was taking so long. Having had my back surgery recently (very recent to the time of this event), I could not stand in one place very long with out needing to sit or move around some. When I got closer to the register to peek at the problem, I see the older man (roughly 65 ish) and his dear wife (who is having to use a walker to stand) there and the (young) cashier trying to run his check through the register. After what seemed like a zillion tries, the cashier calls for a customer service manager to assist. This person shows up (and still a young one, I would guess early 30s) tries the same thing the cashier did, only she used her own ‘log-in’.

The man’s wife said something to him and he gave her the keys to their car. He then told to go on ahead, he would be there as soon as he was done. The Wal-Mart CSM tried several swipes of the check but the register would not take it. The CSM then decided the ‘check swiper’ was not functioning properly and asked everyone in line (nearly 20 people in this line alone) to move to the next register. Everyone did but the problem carried over to the next register.

Finally, the Customer Service Lady pulled the check out and looked at it. She looked at the old man and then at the check again. She explained to him that the check was a ‘counter check’ and that it had no ‘account’ info pre-printed on it and that their machine would not take the check. She apologized and said she could not accept the check and asked for some other form of payment. Let me state here that she was very nice. The man told her that she had his driver’s license number, his address and his phone number. He explained to her that his daughter had just had a baby but had lost her husband in Iraq the previous month. He and his wife just moved into town to help their daughter, after transferring their account from Florida to a local account, this is what the bank gave him.

As I said, this guy was mid 60s and he was buying baby diapers, formula, baby wipes and some other items similar. The Service gal, again apologized and said there was nothing she could do. The machine would not accept the check so he had to pay by another method or leave.

Having worked retail at some time in my past, I was well aware of what the girl was saying was basically true, but I was also aware that she could over ride the machine and accept the check on her signature. This was an older man with a crippled wife buying baby stuff. It wasn’t like he was buying CDs, or tires or TVs, but baby stuff.

I had waited in this line long enough that my back was starting to ache and I had had enough. It was Christmas time and this guy was trying to help his daughter who had suffered enough already. I injected myself into the conversation. Let me remind each of you that I had not had a hair cut in some time, nor had I shaved. I was wearing sweat pants, a tee-shirt (with holes) and a hoodie style sweat shirt cover that was not zipped and I was bobbling about on my cane.

The man was in near tears and the CSM, altho apologetic, was unyielding. “Mam”, I said, as nicely as I could, “will you accept my bank card for his payment?” She looked at me in a very confused looking face and said that she guessed so, in fact she said, “I guess, so..” very hesitantly.

I handed her my atm card and turned to the old man. “Sir,” I said very loudly, loud enough to be heard several registers down where a store assistant manager was standing, “I am sure that Sam Walton would turn over in his grave if he saw how you were treated in his store today. Even tho I don’t work here, sit, I want to apologize for the behavior of the people here. Our town is very nice and most folks here are willing to help others. That includes stepping up when people are in need.” “Also, sir, I am sorry that you and all these ill shoppers behind you had to wait so long for such as silly matter, when this store could have easily opened additional registers and this nice lady here could have accepted your check on her signature. Please allow me to pay for your purchase here and I hope that you and your family have a Merry Xmas. Thank you lovely daughter for her husbands scarfice for our country so that you and I CAN stand in long lines to spend our money on the things we want and need.”

The people in line behind and beside us all started clapping and then even cheering. The Assistant Store manager came over and gave the man a 50$ give certificate, had some extra registers opened up and offered me a 50$ gift certificate as well as moving my wife up to a newly opened register.

The old gentleman tried to give me a check for the things he bought. I refused his money and thanked him for his kindness and I explained how I was sorry for the loss of his son-in-law.

The Assistant Store Manager called me aside (that’s when he offered me a gift certificate) and asked me how I knew about the override function. I explained that years before Wal-Mart existed outside of Arkansas, other stores had an over ride and could take checks based on a CSM or Assistant Manager sign off. I also told him it was obvious that the old man wasn’t trying to pull anything based on what he was buying. The 34$ (the amount of the guy’s purchase) wasn’t a big deal to me and it certainly couldn’t be a big deal to Wal-Mart. I also told him that I actually read Walton’s book and that he prided himself and his business on customer service and that if Wal-Mart would get back to some of that, they would have a lot more business, especially by people like Mr. Garnick (the older man).

The Assistant Manager guy then insisted that I take the gift card. I took the gift card and I asked the guy to follow me out of the store. I took his gift card an put in the Salvation Army bucket just out by the entrance where the poor Santa guy was ringing his bell. I thanked the guy and told him it would be a long time before he saw us in the store again, if ever. There are plenty of other retail outlets in our town and some of them actually like my money and my business.

So that is my rant for the season. I hate to wait in line, especially when the ability is there to prevent, or at least shorten the line(s). this store had some 40 registers not in use and some 10 employees hovering around the Assistant Manager at the front of the stores very close to the registers. The way I see it, some of those 10 folks could have been used to open additional registers to relieve some of the lines. The CSM people can be given some leeway in their ability to approve personal checks, too. Usually, CSMs and Assistant Managers are pretty good judge of folks and you can tell by what they are trying to buy if you are being taken fro a ride or if it’s a legit purchase. With that many people in those few lines, accept the check and move along, 34$ ‘ain’t’ gonna kill ya, and for goodness sakes folks, open some more registers!!!

The Avatar

Seemingly, one of the toughest battlemechs to kill is the Avatar. The Heavy Class Inner Sphere mech is one tough bird. Owning a very good electronics package, lacking only ECM and IFF Jammer, the Avatar has the potential to do it all.

The Stock Configuration has full Ferro Armour, some 14.5tons of it and a speed of 69KPH, LAMs is the only option installed but BAP, JJs and Advanced Gyro are there for the picking. The stock weapon load out is a mish mash of items that appear as if the designer did not know what to do with this mech.

If you strip away the stock weapons and add in all the electronics while bumping the speed up to 75kph, you still have 29tons of armament you can add. The weapons slots for the Avatar are decent. Each torso houses a 2-slot missile rack while the ct house a special slot listed as beam rack. The Beam Rack is a 2-slot energy. The Left arm is a 3-slot omni while the right arm holds a 3-slot ballistic and a 3-slot energy.

Because the Avatar is only 70tons, you will not be able to pack on too much of anything thing, but it can certainly take some power configs. The dual PPC and a light gauss is a popular config making the Avatar into a pop sniper with some punch. Some tweaking of speed and armour and you can get a dual gauss rifle load on this mech. Two HVAC10s are also very nice on the Avatar.

One thing you don’t see, but maybe more should look at, is the ability of the Avatar to boat missiles. The Omni slot can carry either of the Arrow options as well as a Heavy Rocket Launcher or any of the missile systems. The Avatar is often used as an Arty boat in mission play maps.

The Avatar is built on a standard frame. Although the arms are probably the weakest point of the mech, the torsos are rock solid. I have seen almost as many Avatars ‘hudded’ as I have with a crit ct. The body of the Avatar is as tough as almost any other mech in the game and takes lots of abuse before caving in to enemy fire. The problem with that is that most battle configs will have 2/3s, 3/4s or all the weaponry in the arms. I am not saying the arms are brittle or fragile, just that they are the weak spot of the Avatar and also where a majority of the weapons are housed.

The avatar is a tall mech with the cockpit mounted way up on top of the mech. The arms are mounted just below this giving the pilot good visibility for hill humping and you can fire rounds without blasting the hill in front of you. Personally, I think the shape of the Avatar is funny looking and it sort of bounces when it walks. It is almost egg shaped mounted on those long legs.

The Avatar handles nicely but the accel and decal rates are not as quick to respond as other mechs. If you bump the speed up to 81, these rates are improved but only slightly. The Avatar has a top speed of 105, but that only allows you 16.5tons of weaponry to be added.

I have tried many times to use this mech and to like it. Using and Avatar in the opens is becoming harder and harder on normal radar maps. So many pilots choose to go for an assault and the Avatar simply cannot pack enough smack to stand up against multiple assault mechs.

In its weight class, however, the Avatar is a fine mech. There are other 70ton mechs that can pack more weapons or speed. The Avatar is tough and holds its ground well. On weight limited maps or league drops, the Avatar can fill multiple roles and is very likely to be one of the last mechs standing.

Vettie’s View? I rate this mech at 3 ½ minutes. Just above average for its weight class. The rating comes mostly because it is hard to kill. It can be rendered useless by blowing away the arms. I feel the Avatar is mech looking for its niche.


MP3 Avatar

Today I plan to review the MP3 version of the Avatar. I paid this mech a visit earlier in life and I gave it a decent review. Since that time MP3 has been issued and we have been playing this version of our beloved game for a while. I like to go back to the earlier renditions of the battlemechs and see what the changes are to note any big changes and / or improvements. It’s a shame I was never able to get all the mechs reviewed before MP3 was released. My intent is to get them all reviewed. I don’t have a particular order, I am just scouring the mech lab and picking a mech, I guess similar to the way Ghengis is choosing the ‘mechs of the month’.

As with most of you, when I choose a mech, I start with armour, electronics the finally weapons load out unless I have a specific objective in mind with a particular mech chassis. Having said that, I will review the mech in that order.

The Avatar comes from the Mek Works with full Ferro armour, some 14.5 tons, not even .10 ton shaved. In the electronics category, this mech has LAMs pre-installed but offers BAP, Jump Jets and Advanced Gyro. The speed is set to 69 KPH and it has 3 heat sinks. When we look at the weapons load, I can think that the designer had brawling in mind with a bit of long rang support. It has a LBX10, a LAC5 (Light Auto Cannon 5), 2 Medium Lasers, 2 Medium Pulse Lasers, a Small Laser and a LRM15. The LBX10 and LRM 15 both have double ammo loads. I mention the heat sinks and double ammo loads because these can be turned into another weapon or speed or extra electronics.

Stripping the weapons and heat sinks yields 36.5 tons in which to create your Avatar variant. Adding BAP, Jump Jets and a single speed increase gets you up to 75 KPH (remember I always round down on the speed even if it is over the .5 mark. The reason is that various terrain can cause the battlemech to go a bit slower, like snow or water and certainly up hill.) That leaves you 30.5 tons for weapons.

The Slots are a bit different than I remember for the original edition of the Avatar. Each side torso has a 2-slot missile rack. The Chin Rack (I think this is a special slot, but I could be wrong) has a 2-slot energy rack and a separate 1-slot direct fire rack allowing for energy or ballistic weapons. The right arm has a 3-slot ballistic rack and a 3-slot energy rack. The Left arm has a 3-slot omni rack. Overall, the Avatar has a very good slot layout allowing for many varied types of uses. I will remind you that the Cockpit of this mech is way up high on the center torso and that the arms and missile slots are also mounted high. Hill clearance is a snap with this chassis.

I mentioned that the slot layout was good and it allowed for many varied weapons platforms, or, if you prefer, many ‘boats’. The problem with the Avatar, as is with many, the majority of the beam or ballistic weapons will be mounted in the arms. The arms are the weakest part of the mech taking only 42 to 43 points of damage before being destroyed. The damage points are exactly the same as that of the Clan Thor. Thor pilots out there know too well what its like to have a couple of gauss rifles and then have a Canis hit you in the arm blowing away your gauss in 1 shot.

In the 1st review I touched on the ability of the Avatar to be a missile boat. Don’t discount this. The avatar has 2-slot missile racks in the side torsos and a 3-slot omni arm. With BAP in the electronics mix, this thing can be a very nice jumping missile boat. A pilot can load an ALRM10 in each torso, an ALRM20 in the arm with extra ammo, a PPC for that loving touch and 81 KPH on top of the BAP, LAMs and Jumpies, you don’t even have to cheat the armour anywhere. BAP and Artemis offer you almost insta-lock, so a jumping missile sniper is born. OF course there are many other missile layouts that are possible.

One of the most infamous uses of the Avatar is to be used as a base killer. With the ability to move at 105 KPH and to pack 3 Artillery Beacons each with extra load of ammo, the Avatar is probably the most devastating base killer. The chassis is rock solid and can take lots of hits. The speed, at 105 KPH, is very fast, faster than a lot of light mechs with weapons. It can jump walls and hills and just run away while you are trying to pummel it.

As an energy boat, the Avatar can pack 3 Large Lasers, or 3 of either of the Pulse or X-Pulse lasers and load on plenty of heat sinks to make it a cool ride. Another thought is to add 2 PPCs and a Laser or Pulse laser of choice. It handles heat ok, but you will need heat sinks so don’t skimp on them unless you are very good at heat management.

All those ballistic slots, including the omni allow for some fun and excitement in the ballistic category. A couple of HVAC5s (Hyper Velocity Auto Cannon) and a PPC will knock the crap out of enemies at ranges up to 1000 meters. HVAC10s a or any of the Gauss family except the heavy can be used. LBXs can be fitted if you prefer a brawler. Let us not forget the machine gun group, this mech can pack them on with room for lasers.

Overall the Avatar is a very tough battlemech. I am not a big fan of the way it looks, but I am a fan of the staying power. The arms, while high up on the mech, don’t protrude far from the main chassis so it does not present itself as a wide target. The hit boxes are very tight. The legs are long and do present themselves as a target, but they are tough if loaded with armour. The weak spot is the arms which unfortunately is where a majority of the weaponry is housed.

I have tried the Avatar and I find it a good mech. It doesn’t need special armour although I have a config or two that utilize spec armour making this mech even tougher. When opponents see an Avatar it may not be their first choice of targets if larger mechs are in the same vicinity. That could be a deadly mistake. The Avatar can bring some firepower to the match and it can stand up to some serious fire in return. I don’t suggest standing still and taking shots, but with proper twisting and maneuverings, it doesn’t take a lot to spread the damage around.

In a recent MWL match one of the opponents was in an Avatar. This pilot was very good and he did more damage than any other pilot on the team including the guy driving a Gladiator. The mech was hard to kill and it packed a punch when he shot. He did a very good job and my respect for the Avatar went way up.

Originally I rated this mech at 3 ½ minutes, slightly better than average for a heavy class mech. In its class it is one of the best. In a free weight game such as Sunder it can be a dangerous threat but it will also die in a hurry under fire from several assaults. If used properly, the Avatar can be one of the toughest mechs in the game. IF loaded properly, you can put a hurt on enemies but it lacks that singular punch that makes the enemy say wtf was that? It needs speed to survive. The rating stands. In weight restricted maps it can be the biggest threat on the map, in unrestricted maps you must be more careful. Try an Avatar, post your configs and tell us what you think.

Thanatos XT

Presenting itself as a brawler, the MekTek Custom Thanatos XT is today’s selection for review. Following along the Argus XT line, the Thanny XT is an updated variant of the Thanatos.

MekTek again did a fine job on this mech, removing the missile arm and making it into a useful ballistic / energy arm. The Thanny XT no longer has the ‘big arm’ like its predecessor, but instead has two main arms with a 3-slot ballistic and a 2-slot energy in each. The torso remains untouched and is the same as the Thanatos housing a 2-slot ballistic in the left and a 2-slot energy in the right.

Jump Jets were removed from the XT version. It is my opinion that these were taken away to keep the Thanatos from becoming a shelf mech. All other electronics offered on the Thanny are offered on the XT version, still making for a fine package.

If you bump the speed to 75kph (the XT comes stock set at 63) and max out the ferro armour, you have 37tons of free weight to choose your load out from. This battlemech can hold 2 Gauss Rifles, 2 HVAC10s, or multiple 2-slot ballistics like the Lt Gauss, mini-gauss, AC10s, UAC5s, RACs and so on. The XT also has 3 2-slot energy making it capable of 3 large laser class weapons.

It is my opinion that MekTek altered the damage slots a little when they created this one, as it seems to take more damage than its jumping brother. I say, if you want to brawl, use the XT, if you want to jump, run and shoot with a big bang, use the standard Thanatos. That is not to say the XT version cannot pack some range or long-range configs, as it most certainly can.

If I remember correctly, when the XT 1st appeared on the scene, it did have jump jets. At that time, I believe the XT was the Inner Sphere Thor. It could take a couple of gauss rifles and a good laser with the ability to reach any spot on the map. Again, I feel the NBT League griped enough that MekTek took away the jumpies based on the fear of shelving the Thanatos standard. I really can’t argue the logic, but I personally think that both mechs would have seen time on the battlefield because the Thanny Standard would have seen the heavier weapons like the HVAC20 and Heavy Gauss along with missiles like the Arrow or a Heavy Rocket launcher.

The Thanatos XT defensively is somewhat tougher than the standard model. Again, it maybe that it has 2 arms to deal with so it appears to last longer, but I really think there were some slots adjusted making the mech a bit tougher. When fitted with spec armour and set up in a medium support role the Thanatos XT can dish out a lot of pain and it can takes lots of punishment in return.

It’s too bad the Thanatos XT does not have Jump Jets. It could quite possibly be my favourite mech. The 360 is gone, but this mech is another fine addition to the Inner Sphere arsenal.

Vettie’s View? I rate this mech at 3 to 3 ½ minutes. Average for its weight class. Jump Jets would take it up and possibly make it a complete counter to the Clan Thor. It is tough enough and it can do many things.


Thanny XT MP3

I reviewed the Thanatos XT shortly after it arrived on the scene. Since that time, MP3 was released and I really haven’t gone back to look at the differences, so today I will give you my review as if it were a new mech.

I remember being excited about the XT version before it was released. Rumour had it that the Thanny XT would be a true counter to the Clan Thor. Remember now, at that time, we had no Behemoths or Marauder IIs and the Thor was a (and still is somewhat) a dangerous threat on any battlefield, be it in the opens or league play. I had logged many hours in the driver seat of a standard Thanny and at the time, it was my preference for the IS Heavy Class. The XT would be the answer to losing ‘the arm’!! Well lets see what MP3 did.

From the factory, the XT comes with a speed of 63Kph (very slow for a heavy) loaded with LAMs and IFF Jammer. ECM is available to round out the electronics. The Jump Jets are gone. I am still guessing that the jets were removed to keep the standard Thanny in use. The XT has a variety of weaponry preloaded such as a LBX20, a LBX10, a RAC5 and 4 small lasers, The LBX20 and RAC5 both have extra ammo so it leads you to believe the Thanatos XT is a brawling mech. The armour is standard Ferro loaded to 13.5 tons (each critical area having .1 ton removed).

Stripping the weapons, adding ECM and filling the armour to 14.4 tons (completely full), with no engine upgrades leaves you 39.1 tons for weapons. Spending 3 tons gets you up to 75Kph and leaves you 36 tons for weapons. 75 Kph seems to be the optimal speed for the XT, at lease everything seems to work correctly at that speed. The frame work of the XT is still Endo Steel, so the engine upgrades wotn cost a lot in tonnage but you will gains some speed, however, once you start taking damage to the point of a slot going critical, the damage will spread internally like a nasty cancer.

The Slot layout did not change very much except the right torso. Instead of a 2-slot ballistic hardpoint, it is now a ‘direct fire’ hard point meaning it can hold either ballistic weapons or beam weapons. Personally, I think this is good, you can actually make a beam machine, with 4 large lasers, or 4 Large X-Pulse or 4 Large Pulse or even the dreaded 4 Large Continuous Beam Lasers, putting 1 in each arm and 1 in each torso. Four standard large lasers allows for 16 heat sinks or fewer if you wish another engine upgrade or two. Bumping the speed to 87 with 9 heat sinks and 4 large lasers still leaves you green on the heat scale (75%) and a very fast beam machine. (makes personal notes to try this config out)

The slots allow for many varied configs including 3 RAC2s and 2 Large lasers (with some minor armour shaving). The RACs will have double ammo and no heat sinks are needed with only 2 large lasers. This is a terror at 75kph. IT will rip the armour off any mech at 900 meters or less and the lasers hurt like hell at 650 meters. Brawlers will note that the XT can carry 2 LBX20s and still have room for other things (6 tons) while maintaining 75kph. Lowering the speed nets you more tonnage for more weapons. Medium or Large X Pulse lasers make great bawling weapons because they seem to melt away reactive armour like wax on a burning candle. They run hot, so Ol Vettie recommends 1 to 2 heat sinks for every 1 large X Pulse laser (at a minimum).

The Thanatos XT differs from its older jumping brother in that it seems tougher. I don’t know, but I am guessing that when MekTek designed the XT, they took a close look at the hit boxes and possibly tightened them up a wee bit. Again, that is purely my opinion and I have no facts to back that up, but the XT seems tougher and seems to withstand the fire a bit better than the Thanatos Standard. For those of you who prefer or want it even tougher, fill the armour with reactive, it holds 21.5 tons (completely full) and still yields 29 ton for weapons at 75kph with all electronics installed. Dropping the speed to 69 and removing the LAMs option, nets you 32.5 tons of fun for weapons.

As I mentioned, the arms both have 3 slot ballistic hardpoints. This allows you to mount many different weapons including standard gauss rifles, HVAC10s, AC20s, LBX20s, UAC20s, Long Toms, not to mention the AGL family of weapons. You can also mount single slot or dual slot weapons as well such as the RACs mentioned above.

The Thanny XT is a very tough mech. It holds up well and is very maneuverable. It has 360 torso twist, one thing I am glad they did keep from the Standard Thanny and it handles nicely. The higher the speeds, the better the performance, 75 or 81 KPH seem to be the sweet spots for this chassis.

At 63 KPH it seems sluggish. IF you need to start up in a hurry, this isn’t the mech. Backing up seemed quick enough, but its hard to tell unless you are pitted against a real opponent or several. Running, turning and twisting, the mech does fine and it climbs fairly well.

The Thanatos XT is a decent brawling machine for the heavy class. It holds up well for a bit and it can potentially deliver a devastating payload. It can also be a performer in a support role. In the 600 to 800 meter range it can pack a punch. As a sniper, it is grounded, but it can pack 3 Lt Gauss or 4 mini gauss or 3 HVAC5s or 3 RAC2s or 5 or 6 (if you squeeze it) HVAC2s. The ECM and IFF Jammer help to conceal it whereabouts and is very useful when the terrain is foggy and / or covered with trees.

I like this mech and it has some good slots and good slot layout. I rated it 3 to 3 ½ minutes before. I am going to upgrade that rating to 3 ½ to 4 minutes. The Thanatos XT has many uses and can fill many roles. As with any mech, you have to spends some time in the driver seat and get used to how it handles and what it can do for you. Try one, you might like it.

The Thanatos

A battlemech that I first remember seeing in Vengeance, The Thanatos is today’s choice for review. The ‘Thanny’ comes in at 75tons making it top out the Heavy Class scale. The Inner Sphere’s answer to the Clan Thor? Almost.

Offering an excellent selection of electronics, The Thanatos comes standard with ECM and Jump Jets. LAMs and IFF Jammer round out the offering and are very good options for this battlemech.

Out of the factory, the ‘Thanny’ has 14tons of ferro armour almost full. It also has some 6 heat sinks that I am guessing is because of the Rocket launcher and medium pulse lasers packed on as stock weapons. If you strip away the heat sinks and weapons, add on the LAMs and IFF, you have 32 and ½ tons of weaponry you can pack on.

Weapons slots on the Thanatos are again what I consider an ‘older design’ having one arm mostly for ballistics and the other for missiles with a mix if energy and ballistic slots in the torsos. The ‘Thanny’ goes one better offering and additional 2-slot energy in the ballistic arm.

The missile slot is rarely used on this battlemech, often even having the armour stripped away to add in an extra ton or two of firepower. The ballistic arm has a 4-slot ballistic and a 2-slot energy. This is basically where the smack is located on this mech. This arm is capable of housing a Heavy Gauss or a HVAC20 as well as any other ballistic such as AC20, regular gauss, 2 lt gauss and so on.

One config that sees a lot of action is a HVAC20 and 2 large lasers, or replace the HVAC with a Heavy Gauss. The Thanny can take several different load outs including up to 3 lt gauss rifles making it a very good sniper mech with jump jets. The Thanatos lends itself well to being a RAC boat and this seems to be popular.

The Thanatos can fill many roles, from sniper to brawler. It can pack a good weapons load. It has reasonable speed and a great electronics package. There are a couple of things that I feel hold this mech back from being the answer to the Clan Thor. Obviously the main arm houses the majority of the smack. Once that arm is gone, the Thanatos is reduced significantly in firepower. Opponents know this and target ‘the arm’.

Another thing that bothers me is that the mech is built on an endo steel frame rather than a standard frame. Although this allows for greater speeds, ranging from 63kph to 99kph, and possibly allows you to pack on more weapons, it also transfers damage much more quickly once ‘the arm’ is blown off, or even if the missile arm is blown away (remember that many pilots will strip most the armour off the missile arm if they do not pack a missile to get extra free tonnage for more weaponry). The CT is relatively small and tough, but the body of the mech is wide so the side torsos take some abuse and once blown out transfer that damage quickly to the CT. Had this mech been built on a standard frame it would most certainly be a powerhouse.

One thing I do not like about the Thanatos is the animation given to this mech during movement. To me, it looks like it is prancing or prissing to the battle. Once you receive a blast from it, you soon forget how silly it looks coming towards you though.

The Thanatos has a 360 torso spin, another useful device adding to the strength of the mech. It climbs well, and of course, with jump jets, it can reach almost any spot on the map.

This mech is another of my favourites. I have well over 20 configs. I don’t use it much in the opens unless it is on weight-limited maps because of the fragility. IF you pack on spec armour, it makes a big difference in the longevity of the mech.

Vettie’s View? I like the Thanny but I think it falls short of being an answer to the Thor. The chassis being made of endo steel makes the battlemech somewhat more fragile than it presents itself as being. A pilot must protect ‘the arm’ to keep the firepower up. It can take many varied load outs and fills multiple roles. I rate the mech at 3 minutes, average to below average for its class.


Thanatos MP3

In Greek Mythology, Thanatos was ‘the personification of death’. In other words, the Thanatos is the bringer of death or will make the enemy ‘feel’ like they are dieing. While it is true that this battlemech can pack some devastation, when I see one coming after me or hunting me, I don’t feel like I am about to die.

Prior to MP3, the Thanatos was, in my opinion, a powerful battlemech that commanded attention on the battlefield. MP3 brought us so many new mechs with many being 80 tons or better that the Thanatos has faded from the ‘feared’ list.

Lets look at what MP3 did to the Thanny then we can examine why I believe it fell from grace. On the outside, the mech doesn’t appear to have changed much. Factory specs are 75Kph with ECM and Jump Jets, 14 tons of ferro armour makes it nearly full, and it packs a brawler config of weapons load with a LBX20, 3 medium pulse lasers and a MRM20 missile and it still has six heat sinks.

Stripping away the weapons and the heat sinks yields the pilot 35 tons to work with (assuming you don’t mess with the armour). LAMs and IFF Jammer are still options on this mech and should be taken in my opinion. The LAMs are optional depending on the battle you are about to enter, but Ol’ Vettie likes LAMs because he is not so good at avoiding missiles and every bit of protection helps.

Moving to the weapons slots, everything is the same with one exception. The right torso used to be a 2-slot ballistic rack, but now it is a ‘blue’ direct fire hardpoint meaning that you can put ballistics or lasers there. You have the 4-slot ballistic, 2-slot energy in the left arm, a 3 slot missile rack in the right arm and in the left torso you have a 2-slot energy rack.

As mentioned above, the Thanatos comes with 14 tons of ferro armour and except for a shaving of the legs, it is completely full. Again this is mounted on an endo steel frame. Stripping away all the external armour, the engine upgrades and the electronics (ECM and JJs) reveals to us that the Thanny has 18.9 tons of internals spread throughout the mech. The fact that the internals are endo steel means that damage will spread from destroyed panel to the core more quickly than mechs made on standard frames.

One of the weak points of the Thanatos is very obvious if you look at the armour allocation vs the weapons slots. The left arm potentially holds most of the fire power of the mech but yet it holds only 1.4 tons of armour (ferro). This yields a 42pt damage allocation before this section is destroyed. 42pts is not very much. Two gauss rifles and an ER Large Laser shot from a Thor will strip that arm. A Canis or Victor or larger mechs will put a serious hurting on the Thanny, destroying the arm and taking out some of the internals in one alpha.

Another weal point of the Thanatos is the actual shape of the mech. If you are facing your opponent straight on, the Thanny has a very wide, broad torso area. Lots of mass for enemies to hit, even if the CT is relatively small, the side torsos are very large. This mech does have a 360 torso twist and that is a good thing. Use it to spread the incoming damage.

The addition of Artemis system for missiles will bring back the use of the Thanny’s other arm. You can pack an ALRM2o in there and do some real damage to some one from along distance. The Heavy Rocket Launcher can also be installed as well as the non Artemis Arrow systems. As I said in my original review, many pilots would not use the missile arm and instead would strip armour to put other weapons else where or add heat sinks or other electronics or whatever. Some of you may want to re-think some of your older configs when considering the use of a Thanatos.

The change of slots in the right torso allows greater flexibility from the pilot. You can add energy weapons, say 3 large lasers, or a crop load of mediums and not worry about ‘the arm’ taking out the majority of your alpha strength. Too bad the IS doesn’t have a Lt PPC, it would be perfect in this mech. Who knows, maybe MP4 will yield one for us puretech fanatics.

One of my favourite configs for the Thanatos is an ‘old school’ design. Three RAC2s and a Large X-Pulse laser with all the electronic toys and 81Kph speed will put a hurting on enemy mechs. For hotter maps, exchange the X-Pulse for a standard Large Laser.

I still say this mech is better used as long range mech, or even a sniper. Use mini gauss or HVAC2s and 5s, or Lt Gauss or RAC2s. Using ECM, IFF and JJs, this mech can get to places and hide itself, then snipe away. It can also be used to dislodge an enemy that is sniping. The Thanny is agile and climbs well, although I think the accel rate could use a boost, it seems sluggish or almost slow to start moving. This makes it tough to hill hump.

As a brawler, the Thanny can pack a punch with the capability of housing 3 lbx10s or a lbx20 and a lbx10. AC10 and 20s are my favourites because you get the full damage value at range, but an lbx20 is just a nice brawling weapon. Try a Thanatos with 3 AC10s and watch folks gripe about it.

Then Thanny also fits the mid range support mech role to a tee. A HVAC20 or Heavy Gauss with some large lasers and it will hurt you in the 400 to 600 meter range.

All in all this mech can fill most roles if needed but I think the mid range to long range role is where it will shine.

I rated this mech at 3 minutes in my first review. MekTek and the community must have had similar feeling because they created the Thanatos XT taking away the missile arm and adding another mostly ballistic arm. I will review the XT version another time, but I think the Artemis Missiles have brought the right arm back to the Thanatos. Put a Smoke AGL in the left arm and pack on some TLRMs or Arrows, a Lt Gauss or two or maybe even some mini gauss and fire away at enemies that can’t see you and if using your IFF won’t get a reticule on you unless they are inside of 400 meters.

My rating will only change by about a half a minute. I think 3 to 3 ½ minutes is a fair rating of the Thanatos. I like the mech and I wish it were tougher, but in today’s Sunder, it just won’t last against the assault mechs like the Cyclops, the Canis and the Behemoth II’s that are out there. It is just a bit to fragile. Stealth and patience play a big part in its survival on the battlefield.

Argus XT

I mentioned before that MekTek has brought to life many a classic chassis and some interesting ‘custom’ chassis. The Argus XT is a ‘custom’ MekTek design and if I may say so, one that was needed for the Argus design.

I reviewed the Argus sometime back and gave it a fair rating so today I will look at the updated XT version and see what, if any, improvements this one has to offer.

Starting with the electronics, the Argus XT has a small but effective package. LAMs and IFF Jammer come standard on this mech and are the only two options available. This, with an increase in armour makes up the 5 tons this battlemech gained over the standard Argus.

The Argus XT comes in at 65tons. From the Factory it has 18.5tons of reflective armour. The slots have changed a bit as well, although the each torso still has the 2-slot energy, the Argus XT now has 2 arms. Each Arm contains a 3-slot ballistic and a single slot energy making this mech fill the role the Argus has been forced into.

If you convert the armour to Ferro, you have 13tons completely full and you have some 34.5tons to load up weapons with leaving the electronics in place and leaving the speed @ 81kph. A single increase to the speed cost you 1.5tons and gives the mech 85kph. 81kph seems fast enough but that is up to the individual pilot.

34.5tons free give you lots of options for this mech. In each arm you could load dual HVAC10s, dual Gauss or Lt Gauss rifles, dual AC10s, dual AC20s and almost 4 mini gauss (some tweaking will get you there). That allows for some serious ballistic firepower from this heavy class battlemech. I would have preferred that the new dual arm design each housed omni slots, but we got ballistics and this machine can pack ‘em in. Some of those loads still allow you to add in a single large laser, or LXP or, in some cases, dual large lasers.

The Argus XT still handles like the Argus. It is agile, quick and responsive, some we all look for in a mech. It takes a good bit of punishment and opponents can no longer target ‘the arm’. IFF was a good additional making the Argus XT hard to target in passive mode at range.

The XT Version is no longer a medium to short range ‘closer’. The Dual ballistics and the options you can put there allow this mech to be a brawler, a support mech and a long-range hunter.

I really like the flexibility that is now offered with the Argus XT. It is my opinion that the XT modification pulls a ‘limited’ use mech into more frequent service. The XT seems tougher, even though that may be because of the extra arm / extra ballistic capabilities.

Vettie’s View? I rate this mech 3 minutes. An improvement over the standard Argus but still average for its weight class.


I reviewed the Argus XT and I liked the mech. MP3 did bring some changes and, at least I think, for the better. We will look at those as well as the rest of the XT version today.

The Argus XT, like it previous model, the standard Argus, comes from the factory with near full reflective armour. I never really understood why the XT version had reflective instead of reactive. The Argus is a tough, mid-range to brawler mech well suited for city fighting. In Vengeance, the Argus was well suited for reflective because the weapons of choice were ER Large Lasers. Again, in my opinion, the XT and the Standard should be equipped with reactive armour.

From the factory, along with the reflective armour, the XT comes with 2 medium lasers, 2 small lasers, an UAC5 and a LBX20. More ore less, still a brawler config. Stripping those weapons and converting the armour to reactive yields you 29 tons to load up weapons with assuming you leave the electronics, LAMs and IFF, and the speed set at 81kph. This is where we see the change MP3 brought to the Argus XT.

The right and left torsos of the XT, prior to MP3, were 2-slot energy racks. The gurus at MekTek did a wonderful thing here and converted those slots to direct fire hard points. What that means to you and me is that you can put beam weapons or ballistic weapons in those slots. MY opinion? This was a great change. It allows the Argus XT to be one mean mech. Enemies can no longer target the ‘arms’ to take you out of the fight.

These 2 new slots allow for so many configs I don’t even know where to start. IF you convert the armour to standard ferro, the armour becomes completely full and you gains 5.5 tons to work with for weapons without altering speed or electronics. This will allow for 4 RAC2s. F O U R RAC2s! Ouch, that will chew up many to any mech! A little tweaking will get you 4 Mini Gauss.

There are a few pilots out there that can drive an XT very well. Harry is one, Dragon Slayer is another that instantly come to mind. The next two that pop into my head are D-Day and Genghis Prawn. I hate to roll over a hill or around a cliff or big rock formation and find one of these guys lurking around out there waiting for some n00b like me to poke my mech out where they can get a shot. Thing is deadly with either of the configs I mentioned, but add one these guys in the cockpit and well its going to be a long battle for the opposite team.

Another config that rears its head a lot is 2 RAC2s and 2 Large Continuous Beam Lasers. You had a heat sink, double up the ammo on the RACs and bump the speed to 88 and you have an aggravating machine that can strip the armour off anything in just a few seconds.

Running passive and utilizing the IFF electronics, a pilot can be a very long range sniper or harasser. Peak, shoot, and move, repeat the action. Harry is one of the absolute best at doing this, not to take anything away from any other pilots, but I think the XT is his favourite mech.

Don’t get me wrong because I have listed ranged configurations for the Argus XT, it can still brawl. Two AC10s and 2 Large lasers make it a very tough mid range support mech with rapid reload time (on the AC10s). Want a brawler? Load up two LBX20s or AC20s and a Large X-Pulse laser. You can even use RAC5s for when you expect the fight to be up close and personal.

One thing I did like about the XT that doesn’t get mentioned much when we talk about it, is the fact that all of the weapons are mounted relatively high on the mech. They are all almost equal to the head. I like this in a mech. For you hill humpers, this allows you to roll to the hill and slightly raise your head above ground level, from there, what you see si where you can shoot without exposing the rest of your torsos and legs. Roll up a little, shoot and roll back. It works well with this one.

Ok, ok, we talked about configurations and we have talked about various uses for the mech, but how does it stand up under fire? That’s the real test isn’t it? The Argus XT is just about as tough as any mech in its weight class. The Tenchi is probably tougher, but I think the Tenchi is in need of some hit box adjustments, but that is just my opinion. The Argus XT holds 13 tons of ferro armour when full. There are no special slots, just standard hit boxes. The arms are a bit weak on the XT and tend to get blown off usually 1st in any conflict. The rest of the mech is very solid. You need to remember this is a relatively small mech and it has a small profile. This all plays as an advantage to the Argus XT, making it tougher to target, especially when the IFF is used.

The XT will not stand up under sustained fire, but then again, not many mechs do. You have to keep moving and twisting that torso. Use your speed, Luke and let the Force be with you. You can cover a lot of ground almost as fast as some light class mechs. IF you tangle with a bigger large class mech or any assault, hit and move, don’t stand there. Circle him, duck and weave, twist and turn, but don’t be stationary or you wont last long.

I have also noticed the head and/or HUD seems to get blown out. I attribute that to the fact that the XT is a short, low profile mech and assaults are shooting down at it to hit it. Losing your HUD is never fun, but it happens.

Assault mechs such as the Canis and Gladiator, oh, and of course the n00b mech called the Behemoth II with n00b cannon, can take out an Argus XT with one or two well placed alphas. The strongest points on an Argus XT are its center torso and its legs (unless you cheat some armour). Use the terrain to your advantage and hit these guys hard but don’t let them get and ‘free’ shots on you or the XT wont live long.

GP has made the XT one of the mechs of the month for June. Hopefully several of you had tried this machine out and hopefully many have found it to be an ‘I will use it’ kind of mech. It s a fun thing to drive and it can pack a punch.

In its class, the Argus XT is one of the better heavy mechs. Lots of speed, good fire power and agility, all the things you look for in a mech. Put it in Sunder and it drops some in value simply because it is a smaller mech outclassed in firepower. My rating of 3 minutes still stands, but in the right hands this mech could easily change its rating to 4 minutes. Run up against a few assaults and the rating drops rapidly if you don’t play smart. So, 3 to 3 ½ minutes it is. Try the XT, it’s a good ride.

The Uziel

The workhorse of the Inner Sphere Medium Class Mechs according to Carl. Carl is a big fan of the Uziel. A 50ton workhorse he says. From the factory, a dual PPC boat, it does pack a punch from 850 meters and in. The Uziel also has a SRM6 and two machine guns for those close encounters of the brawling kind.

We have come a long way since Carl made his workhorse comment. I am not so sure I would agree with Carl, but the Uziel does have some value. Over time, the Uziel has evolved into a ranged, jumping sniper. Having a 2-slot ballistic in each torso as well as those 3-slot energy arms. It also has a 3-slot missile rack.

Speed and slots are the plus marks for this battlemech. Pack on BAP and Jump Jets, load the armour as reflective, add in the 2 PPCs and bump the speed to about 101kph and you have a high speed jump sniper that can take some damage.

A pilot with patience can maintain his ground, staying about 805 meters out, just out of the range of Clan ERLL and Gauss Rifles and continuously pump PPC sploog into a frustrated enemy. The PPC is one of my favourite weapons. It does good damage, 12 points I think, it adds heat to your target when you hit and it adds what I call sploog. The sploog, if hit on or near the cockpit of an opponent, really rattles their cage. It temporarily distorts their line of sight, it leaves a crackling, sizzling sound and it lingers. An Uziel packed with a pair of PPCs at range can slowly eat an enemy and never take return fire except from missiles or Lt Gauss / Mini Gauss. IF you target the head, a well placed shot will keep the bad guy from firing back simply because he cant see you, at least for a second or two.

I like that config the best, but the Uzi can take 2 Lt Gauss, or 2 Mini Gauss or a combo of PPCs and Lt / Mini Gauss. The BAP gives you ‘vision’ out to the range of the Lt. Gauss, 1200 meters. The speed of an Uzi allows you to keep moving and jumping making a hard time for enemies to target you.

This battlemech is not a brawler. You can pack RACs and lasers as well as reactive armour, but I suggest staying out of close encounters. The arms and torsos are quickly destroyed. The Uziel is on an endo steel frame and the damage transfer happens at an alarming rate when a section is destroyed.

The Uziel presents a wide profile with the arms spread further than the mech is tall. Those torsos don’t take too many shots before going black. The center torso is strong enough as well as having a very small HUD. On the ground, this thing is an easy target. Stay in cover and use the jump capabilities.

My 1st two NBT kills came in an Uziel. Actually, they came in the same battle. It was in a night fight on Polar Tundra with no radar and snow. I was with Black Knights Mercs at the time and we were fighting for FS against CapCon. My wingman was Deathreach in a Thanatos. I wasn’t even scheduled to be in the drop, but one of the guys from Holland couldn’t make it so I was called in to service.

Boomer was in a Black Knight and leading the drop. I had queue locked Deathreach so I could keep up with him without getting lost. I didn’t care for Uzis much but I was getting to drop. For several minutes we did the hide and seek game looking all over the edges of the map for the bad guys that we were being paid to run off the planet. Probably 15 minutes passed before the 1st shots came.

Let me tell you that Polar Tundra with no radar at night in snow is a very dark map. Boomer announced over comms that he had contact. A second later Spewdog and Boomer both announced that they were dead. I guess CapCon had contact too. Death and I had not even made it to the point where these guys were. BlackKnights and Knightshade said they had killed a couple of then but both were crit. Hugh said he just killed some one and I saw his mech go up. A quick glance at the chat screened revealed that Hugh, BK and Knightshade all were dead. Hitting the tab button showed me that Deathreach and I had 3 bad guys left. We started up a hill and I saw Death’s Thanny explode.

That explosion killed one of the CC guys with him, leaving me against two others and I had no idea where they were. I decided not to crest that hill because everyone on my team that had so far had wound up dead. Instead I turned back and to my right. I stopped a scanned the horizon on the chance I could pick up a baddie in my reticule. I did. I locked him and moved within range of my PPCs. At 800 meters I fired my left arm followed a second later with my right arm. It was enough. The CC Wolfie went up on the second shot. Krazie and I were left and I had no idea where he was.

I decided to move because I was sure that the trail of my PPC fire let Krazie know where I was. I moved about 400 meters to my left and 200 meters forward. I stopped to look around. Zap, Zzap, Zap! Three lasers ripped into the backside of my Uzi. I turned and for some reason jumped straight up. Another red laser blast hit my CT. At this point I was really glad I had taken reflective armour because I had very little damage showing on my bars. The last laser shot allowed me to locate Krazie. I locked him up and fired away with an alpha of both PPCs. The unmistakable blue puff let me know that not only did I hit, but also I had taken a weapon off that Wolfhound. Two red lasers of return fire confirmed I had taken out one of his Large Lasers. I moved to my right and gave a little jump on a hill. Still having Krazie on radar I managed to turn and fire both PPCs again hitting him square in the ct.

Krazie was now about 600 meters away from me and he went passive. Aw shit, I thought as I had lost him. I decided to jump again and fire one PPC in the direction I thought he would run. My Hope was that he would see me jump or see the PPC fire and return fire so I could again get a fix on his position. I did. Much to my surprise, Krazie had closed on me and fired at me as I was going up. Now just 200 meters away from me and closing, Krazie ran over some trees revealing to me exactly where he was. While still in the air and on my way down, I fired another alpha hitting him again square on the ct. Krazie’s mech went up with a nasty explosion that ripped one of my arms off but the fight was over. I got my 1st 2 kills in league action and we won the match.

I still am not a fan of the Uziel, but it has is place. I am a firm believer that a good sniper can use this mech and get lots of kills. It has the speed and agility to avoid most shots and enemies. It is weak and begs for special armour. Special armour limits the load out.

Vettie’s View? I rate the Uziel at 2 ½ to 3 minutes, below average for its class. Good sniper, weak armour, no staying power.


Uziel MP3

MP3 brought changes to Carl’s ‘workhorse’ of the inner sphere. Everything is close to the same except there has been a flamer added. Yes, this mech comes from the factory loaded with jump jets, 4 heat sinks, 2 PPCs, 2 Machine guns (standard IS versions), a SRM6, a flamer, 8 tons of ferro armour all loaded on an endo chassis that does 95kph. The armour layout is not bad, except that it is weak in the legs.

I might be wrong, but I think MekTek added the 2-slot ‘beam rack’ to the arm and then packed it with a flamer. I don’t remember that slot being there, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been there all along.

In my earlier review, I mentioned that I wasn’t very fond of the Uzi. Last night, I saw the Cow Meister get 11 or so kills in one (maybe more). IF you are playing on a weight restricted map, or in a match with overall team limits or one of those MWL matches where everyone takes the same mech, then this thing is not bad. Let me be real clear, on a normal Sunder match, I advise against using an Uziel. Yes, it is an excellent sniper and yes there is a lot of speed potentially on one, but it simply doesn’t hold up well under fire from an assault mech or 3.

This mech is well suited for sniping, one config I like, as mentioned in the early review, is reflective armour, 101 speed and 2 PPCs with jump jets and BAP. This makes a very deadly sniper mech with a lot of speed and an extra bit of toughness against PPC and Laser fire. Another nasty sniper is 101 speed, jump jets and 3 mini gauss. I am not going to tell you where to cheat the armour, but I will say there is nothing in the arms so no need to protect them. Oh yeah, this version has ferro armour and not a lot of it but in its weight class, it can do some damage.

I have seen people brawl with these things, loading RAC 2s or even LBX 10s in the torsos but I vote against a brawl in an Uziel. Argue if you want, but with my style of fighting the Uzi and I will go down quick. Remember, the mileage you get depends on the way you drive.

The little mech climbs pretty good and is responsive to rapid stops or changes of direction. The torso twist is pretty big albeit a little slow. It handles very well and is fairly easy to learn and get used to.

The Uzi doesn’t offer a lot that other mediums don’t have. What it does offer is speed and a couple of PPCs, very nice ranged fire power for its class. If you do get it in close, a couple of machine guns, a flamer and a SRM6 will keep you busy. MP3 didn’t change the armour or hit boxes much if any, so those side torsos and arms are still big targets. Protect them and you will add time to your battle life, don’t and it will be a short fight.

I still remember Carl’s talk about the Uzi from the Vengeance days and maybe in those days it was a ‘workhorse’. Now, I see it more as a specialized mech. There are many more suited for brawling.

I am not saying you cant brawl in an Uzi, I am saying I cant. The darn thing is too fragile for me. Of course, I used to fell that way about a Hunchback but I spent many a weekend night brawling my butt off in one.

The Blood Pearls didn’t use many Uziels as part of our inventory of mechs. In fact, when we did get some via salvage or as a result of our thefts, we usually ended up selling them on the black market or putting them in deep storage so we wouldn’t have to pay maintenance on them. A few times we were recruited by FS to help them or to battle on a planet they couldn’t defend we had Uziels on planet and when it came to nut crunching time we had to use them. I think Smaga and Cow both had this Uzielaphobia because they both seemed to hate the mech and didn’t really want to take it on drops.

For a very long time, the Blood Pearls were not a long range team. We were more a mid range to brawling team. As the team jelled, and we became more mature as a team, we got to be pretty good at the long range game. We would use Black Knights, Thors and Victors, Striders with a single light gauss and Wolfies with a PPC mounted. I think that would have been a good time in our evolution to try a few Uziels with those PPCs or Lt Gauss rifles.

Anyway, give the Uzi a run. Every now and then, vote for a 75 ton map on Sunder and take an Uzi to pop those damn WildCats from just outside their Gauss range. Go passive, run like hell to another spot and hit ‘em again. Repeat until target is dead. Vettie originally gave this mech a 2 ½ to 3 minute rating. Not much has changed, but I do have a bit more respect for this mech now. The rating stands. One thing I will say for the Uziel, that ‘beginning’ movie for Vengeance, you know the one where the Vulture and the Scat come out of the hanger as the palace is under attack and the scat gets blown away? Yeah you remember, right?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QxfKZZ4RNng&mode=related&search=
The Uzi gets a cameo, w00t! He legs the Vulture!! I have never seen a Scat go down so fast…

The Argus

Before Vengeance was issued, I was not familiar with the battlemech known as the Argus. I did not play MW3 so I may have missed it if its 1st appearance was during that era. I do not recall seeing it in the MW2 series.

Vengeance brought my 1st interface with the Argus. My initial thoughts about this 60ton Inner Sphere battlemech were that the Argus struck me as funny. Most mechs I had seen or faced or driven had always had something similar to two arms. The Argus did not, it had one arm and, well, a stub.

Seems like the mission is a lunar one, I could be wrong but, you are in a Scat or something and you run up on an Argus. This thing starts blasting away at you and doesn’t seem to want to take damage. Some sort of ballistic is pounding the crap out of you while you blast away with your lasers and srms.

There is a logical reason the Argus wouldn’t take damage from the Scat’s lasers, and that is because it comes from the factory with 13.5tons of reflective armour. I did not know this at the time and it seemed like forever before the Argus was brought down. Of course your game given lance mates are pretty worthless and had rather watch you struggle than help you. Those ballistics that the Argus pounded away on you were Ultra Auto Cannon 5s, or UAC5s, and a machine gun if you were close enough. The MW4 Mercs version of the Argus is almost exactly the same.

Coming in at 60tons, the Argus is one of a very few mechs with no electronics package. Nothing. It is your basic ‘load it with firepower and send it into battle’ battlemech.

Lets strip this mech of a stupid stock load out and convert that reflective armour to ferro.
When you do this, it is nearly full now holding 12tons of ferro, leaving you 32tons to load up on weapons. The slots are not bad, the right arm holding a 5-slot ballistic, each torso holding a 2-slot energy and the left arm houses a 3 slot missile. Yes, the right arm has a 5-slot ballistic. In my mind, this is an old design for the slot layout, reminds me of a small Zeus, big ballistic arms, big missile arm and laser slots in the torso.

It is rare that you see an Argus loaded with missiles, although it can hold either of the arrow class missile pods. Most configs for the Argus consist of a big ballistic and 2 large lasers, or a big ballistic and a LXP. A Favourite config is a HVAC20 and 2 LLs. Many Argus pilots like the Heavy Gauss and 2 Large Lasers as well. Both are powerful load outs and both allow the pilot to use special armour without much sacrifice.

The Argus presents itself with a low profile. Being on the small end of the Heavy Class, it isn’t much bigger than a medium, in fact, it seems smaller than some. Having no electronics it generates a large radar profile so it is recommended that a pilot run in passive mode until it has closed within weapons range of its prey, generally around 600 meters.

With Heavy Gauss or HVAC20 and a couple of Large Lasers, the Argus is a powerful weapons platform. Of course, there are other load outs suitable for the mech, but these two seem to work best. As a medium range support mech or a city brawler with special armour, the Argus can rack up damage and kills on enemies. Weighing only 60 tons, it is a good option for a drop commander to bring in lots of punch if the terrain is suitable and not wide open.

Defensively, the Argus is a relative small target. The problem I see with the Argus is that ‘the power weapon’ is housed in the arm. The arm tends to be targeted and blown off rather easily, thus leaving the Argus only the lasers as most pilot put nothing in the missile arm using it as a meat shield. The frame of the Argus is endo steel meaning that it has less internal armour than others battlemechs made on a standard frame. The damage spreads quick once an area is destroyed, so if you continue to hit the arm that is destroyed the damage spreads quickly to the torso and on to the ct. The CT of an Argus is not hard to find and it to takes damage fairly quickly. The saving grace for an Argus is it size, being small and it maneuverability. It handles well and turns fast. The acceleration and deceleration on this battlemech are good, almost instant response as long as the legs are intact.

I am not a big fan of the Argus, but I have used them in league drops with good effectiveness. There are pilots that are deadly with an Argus. It packs a punch and has good speed. The lack of electronics forces this mech into a support role or that of a closer. A closer is a mech that closes in on an enemy that has been the target of harassers or range fighters and finishes them off with one or two power alphas from short range.

Vettie’s View? This one is tough to rate fro me. I mentioned I am not a fan, but I have had success with an Argus. It can take a power config or even a range config. It has speed but no electronics. The ‘arm’ tends to be lost with ease. This mech almost begs you to use special armour to add to its life on the battlefield. I rate this mech at 2 ½ to 3 minutes. Below average for it class.

MP3 Argus

Throughout the Vengeance era and on into Mercs, the MW4 version of Argus was a tough as nails, no-nonsense battle mech. Very basic, having no electronics and offering none, this mech was made to go out an pummel something. Because of its weight, it is classified as a heavy mech. Weighing only 60 tons, it is on the small end of the heavy class. However, the possible weapons configurations push its capability up the scale quite a bit.

MP3 was kind to the Argus, at least that’s my opinion. MekTek took away the twin 2-slot energy racks in the torso and made them ballistic or beam slots. This adds to the flexibility of the Argus, again, in my opinion. MP3 brought us an Argus XT and I will review that mech at a different time, but I am guessing the XT version is why we saw the slots change.

Coming from the factory at 81kph and reflective armour, this mech is still pretty tough. I never understood why it had reflective armour, reactive seemed a better choice on this one because of what it does best. With the ‘big’ arm, a 5-slot ballistic, and now having the possibility of more in the torsos, this mech can be a great choice as a ballistic boat. Not many use the missile arm and many actually strip armour away from the missile rack to get more weapons or speed or heat sinks or extra ammo rounds. What does it do best? Pounds the crap out of other mechs.

The Argus is very much suited for fighting in the streets or passive radar sneaking up on others. I don’t suggest a lot of open ground running especially if you are in range of the enemy, but on team only or no radar maps, the Argus is still a beast. There are many varied configs for it and I wont even try to list them, but the old school config of a heavy gauss rifle and 2 large lasers still comes to mind. That’s a lot of firepower from such a ‘small heavy’. The speed it offers compliment this config and firepower allowing the pilot to make some serious hits and fade or dodge away until the weapons recycle for another round of blasting.

The problem with the Argus is that the arm and the missile rack get blown off relatively fast. Any enemy facing an Argus knows that the bulk of the ballistics will be in the arm and will target that area first unless they managed to core the Argus early in the battle. With the change of slots in the torsos, The Argus pilot can now spread weapons throughout the chassis and not be in danger of losing all of its firepower to one hit. Having no electronics, the Argus is also susceptible to missile attacks and to any mech using BAP, ECM or the combination of both.

An Argus pilot not in a city fight must learn to use terrain, hills, trees, fog, water, rock, buildings and even other mechs as cover. Running passive until the ’furball’ begins is a good way of life for an Argus pilot. Learning to avoid incoming missiles using turns and twists is also something good to know if you are going to drive one these.

The Argus is old school but still a good mech. Many wont like and wont take the time to learn to drive one. This is a very capable mech but the lack of at least LAMs drags its rating down a little. The original rating stands, 2 ½ to 3 minutes.

The Victor

This issue will again revert back to MW2, actually to Ghost Bear’s Legacy. As best that I can remember that was the very 1st appearance of a Victor. If memory serves, the mission started in a cave mech bay on a snowy landscape. Ravens fell from the sky on top of your mountainside base and you had to kill them quickly. You were part of a lance of about 4 or 5 mechs. A Gladiator (I think) was leading the charge for your side. After the ravens were wiped, the Glad just started heading off to the void, so you followed him. I don’t remember the exact mechs way out in the middle of nowhere, but I think there were 2 or 3. After you did those in, you started back to base only to run up on a Victor as well as another couple of Ravens. That Victor had almost a helmet for a head and jump jets. It packed a bit of firepower and took awhile to bring down.

To be honest, I never played a Victor in MW2, ever. It wasn’t until MW4 Mercs came out that I piloted a Victor. One of the cool things about new releases being issued in a game you are currently playing is checking out what’s new. The first time I saw a Victor in the Mech lab, I knew this was the mech for me. At 80tons, it is an Assault, but just barely.

The Inner Sphere Victor has everything I want in a mech. It is strong, tough, good weapons load out, Jump Jets, ECM and fairly good speed. From the factory floor, a Victor comes with 15.5 tons of ferro armour. When fully armoured, it carries just over 16tons. It has LAMs installed but offers ECM, Jump Jets and Advanced Gyro. I like the ECM / Jump Jet combo, taking LAMs where needed and AG if I am going into a street fight.

I have to say here that many of you know this is probably my most favourite mech in the game. When you think Vettie, you just think Victor. I have close to 50 configs for this mech and who knows how many I have deleted. I have driven a Victor since Mercs came out. In the early days, I used to play mission play before being on a team in NBT. Griffon Base was one of my favourite maps. That is where I learned to Jump effectively, fire on objectives from range and fight enemies that I couldn’t see.

I have spent many hours driving one of these in almost every terrain the MW universe has to offer. At 80tons, its not too big for many drop decs and if on mission play in the opens, it is actually smaller than most. The Victor is not a big target, standing only about the height of a Thor. The speed is set at 72 from the factory and that seems to be a good speed for it, allowing you to pack on lots of nice weapons.

The slots of a Victor are mostly in its arms. The right arm houses a 4-slot ballistic, capable of holding a HVAC20 or a Heavy Gauss Rifle. The left arm has a 3-slot ballistic and a 3-slot energy. This arm can pack a Gauss rifle and a PPC. The torsos each contain a 2-slot energy and a 2-slot missile. It is rare that the Victor is used for missiles, but I actually have a config or two with missiles in them.

A couple of deadly load outs for this assault mech include a HVAC 20 and 3 Large Lasers or 2 regular Gauss Rifles and a PPC. As I said, I have about 50 configs, some in each type of armour, some for speed (+87kph, imagine a Victor charging your ass at 87+kph…), some for sustained fire with multiple ammo loads, some for brawling. I can use the Victor in almost any role except possibly scouting.

The ECM is a good choice on this mech because it is an assault mech. When on the battlefield or in league drops, it quite possibly could be the biggest (weight wise) mech on your team, therefore, the number 1 target. In the opens, the Victor is dangerous and often targeted to be killed quickly.

The Victor is stout and holds up well in a firefight. Typically, the arms get blown off, or it takes lots of CT damage. Most of the weapons are housed in the arms so if they get blown away your firepower is automatically cut down. I like to put a laser or two in the torso just for that reason. The Ct is big, but it is not made of glass. It is easily hit, but it takes several hits before going critical. The Speed and size of the Victor help you to move from a hot spot and I often find myself moving right or left after sustaining a crit CT, killing the enemy and still standing after the skirmish.

The Victor climbs well and turns well. It handles relatively smooth for an assault. It responds to forward or backward movement quickly. The cockpit has very good vision and for those of you that shoot from the side view, both side are completely clear.

Yeah, this is Vettie’s favourite mech but he has to rate it objectively. The Victor has its weaknesses, arms and Ct, but it is a tough mech. It can take deadly loads to the battlefield and deal out some serious punishment. Some of the newer mechs are harder to bring down, like the Canis, but if handled correctly the Victor can be just as tough. It’s hard to match the load out of a Canis, 2 Clan gauss Rifles and 2 ERPPCs, but the Victor gets very close with 2 gauss and a PPC. Of course you can out range the bastages with HVAC5s or Lt Gauss rifles.

Vettie’s View? The Victor gets a solid 4 minutes. Its tough, its fast enough and it has a lot of firepower. ECM makes this battlemech hard to detect until it is within range of all its weapons. It can take a lot fire before giving up and it can dish out a lot of hurt.



The Victor MP3 Style

As probably all of you know, the Victor is my favourite mech. I cant explain exactly what it is, but a Victor just suites me. It offers everything (almost anyway) a pilot could want in a mech, reasonable speed, lots of armour, LAMs for those pesky missiles and ample firepower to do away with thine enemies.

MP3 did not make many (if any) direct changes to the Victor. The Stock load out is the same, LAMs, near full Ferro Armour, A Heavy Gauss with double ammo, a regular Gauss with double ammo, two medium pulse lasers and an SRM4. The speed is set to 72kph and the fun is cranked way up.

About the only thing I can see that MP3 changed in the Victor was not a change TO the Victor, but an overall change. The heat scale was altered in MP3, as many of you know by now, and things seem to be a lot hotter than before. So much so, that some of my configs that once had a speed of 77kph or 72kph have been lowered to allow for extra heat sinks.

Ol’ Vettie is one of those pilots that hates to shut down because of heat. I will take off armour, or speed or even weapons to keep my mech running instead of shutting down because I shot too often. I used to run a Victor with a HVAC20 and 3 Large Lasers at 72Kph, now, I run it at 67 with 1 or 2 heat sinks. My thoughts are that I would rather be able to fire as often as I need to without worry of shutting down or even flushing than have that extra bit of speed or protection.
You wont see Vettie driving a 7 ERLarge Nova cat or 8 ERLarge Super Nova in the opens. Sure those are nasty cofigs with lots of alpha value, but, and again this is my opinion, what good is it if you shoot and shut down (even on the very coldest maps) exposing yourself to incoming fire for the rest of the team you just fired at. League play is a different story and yes I might use those configs because in League Play it is all about winning the match, especially if you are being ‘paid’ to win whether you are a Merc or Privateer.

Back to the Victor. When I did the first look I stated that I had over 50 configs for the Victor. Well that number has grown a bit since those days. I now have over 70 configs and it keeps growing because, for me, the Victor is that versatile.

Let me make one thing clear, what I consider a config may not be the same as what you might consider a true config. Let me give you an example. One of my more favourite configs is 72kph, ECM, Jump Jets, Lams, 2 HVAC10s and a PPC with full or near full Ferro Armour. That is one config. If I lower the speed and convert the Ferro armour to Reactive then that becomes another config. You may consider that as a separate varient, not a config. Its all semantics. If I have a good confg that works well and I find a way to make it usable in both spec armour types, then I now have 3 configs, each with a specific use, or different maps in mind.

One of my most popular configs is the 4 mini gauss 1 PPC version. The mini gauss give the Victor something it was lacking, reach with punch. I used to run a 77kph Victor with 2 Lt. gauss and a PPC. The Light Gauss seem to have lost their punch in the transition to MP3 altho I don’t think MekTek ‘nerfed’ the weapon so much as they increased armour values across the assault class of mechs. Four mini gauss are almost the same as 2 regular gauss rifles with a 1k range on them. Now, with mini gauss, the Victor is a real threat to anyone at a 1k range. I have a config with just 3 mini gauss, but you can get that on a BK or even a Tenchi and it just didn’t seem to be enough.

One day I was fooling around in the mech lab. I do this a lot, just strip a mech down of everything, speed, electronics and armour, just to see what weapons load out I can come up with. So there I was, looking at a naked Victor (ah! Mech Porn!) and wondering what I could do to make the Victor complete with Behemoths with RailGuns. I needed something with a reasonable recycle and plenty of range as well as punch. I didn’t need a huge alpha number if I could several hits in without dieing in the process. So I loaded 4 mini gauss and ppcs on the Victor. From there I added ECM, Jjs and LAMs and some speed. When I went to the armour section I realized there wasn’t much tonnage left for armour. I decided to strip the speed and LAMs and beef up the armour. I went into my server to see how it worked.

I was surprised. The mini gauss and ppcs all recycle at the same rate. This was a fine machine. I went back to the lab and did some more tweaking. Now I have a Victor with this load out AND LAMs and one with more speed and no LAMs. Sure the Armour is not full, but I a not going to say where it is shy, besides, that is up to each individual pilot as you know where you can take hits better and where you can shrug tem off or spread them out.

The Victor is not the best heat dissipating mech. Laser weapons, or PPCs on this mech requires heat sinks. I have one with 3 LX-Pulse lasers. Even with 20+heat sinks, it gets warm, hurts like hell when it hits, but it runs hot. Another config I have has 3 AC10s and a LX-Pulse. This particular config used to be a real smacker on Tumbleweeds or in a city fight. I had to drop the speed a bit to add additional heat sinks because the heat scale went up and the heat from all the Pulse family was increased.

As far as MP4, not much on the Victor needs changing with the possible exception of making the missile racks special slots. These two slots are probably the least used slots in the game. I have a few Vics with missiles, but just a few. The Thunder LRMs work nicely on this chassis for team only or no radar maps, but the lack of BAP causes more pilots not to load missiles on a Vic.

Most of the other stuff I covered previously, like the climbing ability, the agility, accel and decel (works best at 72k to 77kph, 67 and 61 seem sluggish), the turning ability, the rotation is good and the side views are clear. Jump Jets make this a threat anywhere on the field. None of that changed. Essentially, the Victor out of MW4 Mercs is the same as the current version.

The Victor is a threat to any mech on the battlefield. Weaker than many assaults, stronger than many others with the ability to take a beating and keep firing back, the Victor is one of the best. I have fought (just about) every mech in the game in one of these and I have killed just about every mech in the game. Conversely, I have been killed by just about every mech in the game in a Victor. If played correctly, never think you are invincible, the Victor can go toe to toe with all of them. Sure, you will get wiped, but most of you reading this are accomplished pilots surviving in this game for years, and you will all find a variant to your choosing that will suit your needs.

On second thought, forget that. Most of you will hate the Victor and the rest of you will think I am nuts. I say just keep to your favourite mechs and leave this one to Ol’ Vettie. I have plenty of variants that have never made it to multiplayer, enough to keep me going until MP4 is released possibly bringing forth a new favourite for me. Nah…, the Victor will always be my favourite.

It still gets a 4 minute rating. It still has the same weaknesses as before. Many more of you know how to kill a Vic faster now than before, but it is still a tough one. Not the best mech, not the toughest and it doesn’t carry the biggest weapons load, but it can get the job done.