Sorry I got my pics a little out of order. The Mech Lab pic usually goes with the article and the action pic is posted later.
Oh Well, heres the Mech Lab pic of a very tough config of an Ares. High Speed, near full armour, nice ranged weapons, Jumpies, BAP and Enhanced Optics.
One hellofa sniper mech.

The Ares

MekTek has provided us many additional mechs for our favourite past time. Some of their battlemechs are remakes of older mechs and some are creations of their own. The Issue will concentrate on one of the MekTek creations, the Clan Ares.

Built on the framework of a Vulture, weighing only 60tons, the Ares, as we know it today is possibly ton for ton the toughest mech in the game. It packs 11 tons ferro armour when full and travels at 85kph. The stock load out in my opinion is really goofy, but it is rarely used in stock config.

Stripping the weapons and heatsinks from a stock Ares yields 32tons to play with. The electronics are generally where I start when building a mech so I will cover those offerings first. The Stock config has none but BAP, Jump Jets, LAMS and Enhanced Optics are all offered. I suggest BAP and Jump Jets, LAMS if you think you will be facing a missile happy crew with 2 or more missile mechs.

The Ares offers some pretty nice slots. Each arm has a 3-slot energy and a 2-slot ballistic. On top is a 3-slot missile rack and the nose has a 2-slot omni, reminiscent of the Vulture. However, this omni slot seems much more resistant to enemy fire than that of its framework predecessor. Do not hesitate to load weapons in there.

Many different configs can be made with this slot lay out. You like sniper mechs? Load the JJs, EO and BAP, put an ERPPC in each arm, an ERLL in the nose cone, bump your speed up to 97 and throw on some heat sinks. You have one of the finest snipers in the game. You like to brawl? Drop your speed to 79kph, load up 3 LBX10s and 2 HMLs, ouch! Harassing your game? Load this baby with BAP, JJs, EO, 3 ERLLs and 97KPH with a few heatsinks and fire away, people will soon hate you.

The size and shape of the Ares remind you of a Bushwacker with wings. It takes damage much like the Bushy, mostly the side torsos or arms and missile rack before the CT takes hits. The center torso of the mech is well protected from all angles except from the rear. Straight on, the nose and missile rack partially block the CT, and from the sides the arms do the deed until blown away.

Specialty armour is rarely needed for the Ares, but it can take it and still take a devastating load of armament. This mech has many uses; there is no one specific use for it. It can fill any role and do its job well.

Weakness you ask? Yes it has a couple, maybe three. The Legs are obvious targets and are usually targeted because they can be blown off easier than a CT kill. From the back, it is possible to get direct hits on the CT and take this thing down.

Vettie’s View on the Ares? Personally I think that in its current state the Ares is the toughest mech in the game. It’s small and hard to kill. It packs a big can of whoopass and can hit you from anywhere on the battlefield. It can brawl, harass, snipe, support, hell, it can do missiles. It has speed and jump jets. It is an offensive powerhouse. It CAN be killed, but usually has claimed a victim or two before it is brought down. I don’t use the Ares much in the opens because I haven’t spent the time to learn the mech. Trust me, you can’t just take one into battle and expect to kill 2 or 3 enemies and not be killed. People see an Ares and they go after it, 2 or 3 together. The Ares takes a lot of punishment while dishing out plenty, but it cant stand up to 2, or 3 or more mechs pounding it, but then again, not many, if any can. I rate this mech at 4 ½ to 4 ¾ minutes. Probably the highest rating I will issue.


The Ares MP3 Style

The MP3 version of the Ares is a bit different from the previous incarnation. The MP2 version was smaller in size and thus, it was harder to hit. If I remember correctly, the speeds were different as well. What I mean by smaller in size is that MekTek actually made the mech a little bit bigger. If any of you have ever worked with photos or pasting something in a word document or spreadsheet then you will understand what they did. Simplistically put, they dropped a ‘photo’ (model of the mech) in the game, ‘grabbed’ the corners and stretched it a bit to make it closer in size to that of other heavy mechs or other 60 tonners. That was one of the things that made the MP2 Ares so hard to kill, the shape of the mech and it was small so the hit boxes were small.

The current speed range is 73 to 115Kph. Not quite as fast as it once was, I think 121Kph was the MP2 top speed (I could be wrong). This is another factor in removing the ‘uberness’ of this mech, its simply not as fast as it once was.

The slots didn’t change, 1 2-slot Omni in the nose, 1 2-slot ballistic in each arm, 1 3-slot energy in each arm, and a 3-slot missile rack near the head. The Missile Rack and I think the nose Omni slots are specials. This gives them almost ‘add-on’ features and I think it is good and bad. The good is that ‘specials’ are almost like free weight, not exactly, but close and that specials have their own armour hit value. The bad part of this is that you can not change that armour value in any way. Once the slot has received its damage value it gets blown off along with any weapons that were in the slot. There is (more a less) a formula MekTek uses to determine the armour value of a special slot and it varies with the size of the slot, the location and the size of the mech the slot is being applied too. Way to complex for me, other than to say the Ares specials are in line with other mechs.

If you fill the mech with Ferro Armour gives you 33.5tons to work with. The Ares is tough enough with Ferro armour, so, in my opinion, there is no need for special armour. Filling in the electronics, BAP, Jump Jets and enhanced optics still yields 27.5 tons for weapons and speed. Bumping the speed to 91kp gives you 24.5 tons for weapons. 91Kph seems to be a very good speed for the Ares. 24.5 tons COULD hold 6 UAC2s, or 2 ERPPCs and a Lt PPC or 3 ERLLs, or 1 Arrow T-Bolt and 2 ERLLs or well the list goes on. The numbers of options are many and the potential to build a mean killing machine is there.

The Ares is a fine jump sniper. Its profile and body shape make it a hard target to hit. The torsos seem to shrug damage as this thing continues to come at you, or fade away from you and still hit you at the same time. I have seen the MP3 version get knocked over more than I ever remember the MP2 version picking itself up off the ground. I pay that to the fact that the body is a bit larger and a little easier to hit and that there is no LAMs available to it now.

At one time, early MP2 days, the Ares was almost indestructible. I remember a drop in NBT the night before MekTek was to release a patch that adjusted the hit boxes on the Ares to ‘bring it in line’ with other mechs. The map was Spaceport (not the siege map)but for the life of me I can not remember who we were playing. These guys took 6 Ares and 2 50 ton mechs. Needless to say, the match was over very quickly and The Blood Pearls did not come out the winners.

That showed me that some groups were more about winning and exploiting known flaws than they were about playing the game. In fact, the patch was already out, but Dark Phoenix was not going to implement the patch into NBT until the next day. Our match had been scheduled for sometime so we played it knowing that the next day something about the Ares would be different. We did not know they guys we were playing would take all Ares into the match.

Later, after the patch, The Blood Pearls set out on a quest to steal 100 Ares and build our own factory, an Ares factory. In NBT, you had to salvage, trade, buy or steal 100 chassis of any mech that was not your technology in order to have your own factory producing that mech. We were an IS Pirate class team, so Clan Tech was ‘foreign’ to us. Factories cost LOTS of C-Bills to build and you had to pay for light class, then medium class and so on. The Ares is a heavy class so we had to, in effect, pay for a light class factory and then 2 upgrades to produce the mech and you could only do this AFTER you had captured enough of the chassis.

This put us on a crusade. We raided Clan after Clan and several IS Houses in search of the Ares. Hacksaw took half the jumpship forces and I took the other half as we entered the K-Cluster. He went east and I went west, launching various attacks on the different clans. After plenty of raids, disruptions and thefts, along with some special deals, the Blood Pearls were the 1st and ONLY Pirate unit to have an operating factory producing Clan Heavy Class chassis. Yep we had our own Ares factory.

The MP3 version of the Ares is much easier to kill than its debut version. But it is still very hard to put down. There are some pilots that can pilot thing mech exceptionally well and, in their control, it seems even tougher. I have always had respect for the Ares, but I have rarely piloted one.

I rated this mech before MP3 as one, if not THE toughest mech in the game. That has changed since MP3 but it is still one of the toughest mechs in the game. The size, height, body shape, speed, and I am sure there are other elements I havent considered or covered that combine to make this mech good. My original rating was 4 ½ to 4 ¾ minutes. That has gone down, but not too far. The Ares still rates 4 minutes.

The Vulture

I often refer back to MW2 days when I talk about a battlemech. I guess the reason for that is simple enough; I received my 1st exposure to these things from that game. One of my son’s favourites from that game set was the Mad Dog. Today’s edition is known as the Vulture.

Just barely making the Heavy Class at 60tons, the Vulture is a power packed, low slung mean machine. From the factory it comes with 12tons of reactive armour, roughly 2/3 capacity. In Vengeance, this mech had reactive armour as well, but the load out was slightly different. At one time during the Vengeance Era, reactive armour provided better protection for your battlemech against missiles than the other armour types. That is why I believe the Vulture comes stocked with reactive, it is primarily a missile boat waiting to attack. I am not sure when the change happened to make basically all armour the same protection against missiles, but it did happen, maybe in mercs, maybe in PR1 but it did happen.

If you convert the armour to Ferro, the Vulture when full holds just under 12.5tons. ECM, LAMS and Enhanced Optics are offered and all should be taken. The Vulture has a 360 torso and slots o’plenty. Each arm houses a 3-slot energy, while the torsos each have a 4-slot missile rack. The nose is fitted with a 2-slot omni.

The stock load out is very interesting. Four ERMPL and two LRM20s running at 80kph with no electronics but 9 heat sinks. Those medium pulse lasers quickly heat this baby up. The LRM20s give it long-range punch and the MPL will eat you up inside of 400 meters. The ability to twist the torso and stay on target while moving the mech to safety, or closer to the enemy is a big plus.

Most pilots will load this thing with ATM12Es, a very good choice for range and damage, but I actually prefer to put 4 LRM15s and an ERLL on it. You get lots of missile fire and if those run out or are blown out, you still have a laser to defend / attack with. Another config I like is to load 2 ERPPCs and 2 LRM15s, all at 85kph. Range, slap and knock, always good to give. Another config is 8 LRM5s and 2 ERLL. The LRM5s all fly together as one and LAMS will catch only 1 or 2 salvos. This also makes an excellent chaining machine, just a continuous flow of missiles, non-stop, with a laser thrown in once in a while for the burn effect.

The cockpit of the Vulture is on top of the CT and back towards the rear. The angle of the missiles racks and the location of the cockpit make this a great hill humping, missile firing beast. In most cases, the missiles fire upward before making their line to target so they fly right over the hill you are using for protection, while your view is unobstructed. Nice.

I have talked a lot about the offensive prowess of the Vulture so its time to point out the weaknesses. The weakest point of the mech is the nose cone. It generally only takes 1 hit to lose it. Any weapons placed there are sure to be lost to an enemy that fires toward the CT.
The arms arm probably the next weakest parts of the mech. They are easily targeted and destroyed. The legs take a lot of abuse but also go pretty fast. Most enemies know this is used as a missile platform and target the missile racks, or the side torsos. These hold up well, but if packed completely full, you may lose some of the missile packs in one side prior to the torso being blown out. Use the torso twist to avoid incoming fire, or to spread the damage. Use the speed to keep moving and make yourself a harder target.

The Vulture is a small mech, not much larger than many mediums. It has some speed, ranging from 65kph to 100kph. It has ECM and a 360 torso. I like the look of the Vulture. I love the opening scene in Vengeance as the Vulture comes out of the Mech Bay with a Shadow Cat, damn that’s a cool sequence.

The Vulture is not overly tough to kill, but its size and shape make it a more difficult target to put away. It can pack lots of firepower for any range. It is maneuverable with some stealth.

Vettie’s View? I rate this mech a solid 3 minutes. Average for its weight class.


MP3 Vulture


Not much has changed on this mech from my original review. The slots are still the same, the speed, the armour, the 360 torso, yep, other than the nose hit box receive a slight touch up, the basics of this mech havent changed.

Other than to say nothing ahs changed, why re-visit it? Well, the weapons have changed. Clan missiles have taken a back seat to the IS missiles in a big way (at least the long range ones). The addition of Artemis gives the IS an almost point and shoot missile system. Additionally, it FEELS like the Clan LRMs and ATMs have taken a loss in their damage output.

Maybe that is because more and more you see Archers or Longbows fill the killing fields on missile friendly maps. Both of those mechs out class the Vulture as a missile platform. The Yeoman is a better match up to the Vulture, but you don’t see many of them.

I have to say, if I were to take a missile mech Sunder, the Vulture is not in my top 3 unless its going to be a city fight. The reactive Vulture loaded with Cstreaks is flat out nasty in the tight quarters of a city brawl. Its tough and can take few hits while it launches round after round of Cstreaks at its target.

Mid Range, The Clan CMRMs and ATMMs also rule. ATMMs can knock down a lot of mechage.
The low profile and placement of the missile racks on the Vulture help this one be a very tough missile mech. Hiding behind a ridge with just its cockpit above the hill, this this can fire and smack a foe and not take much, if any, return fire.

All this talk of missiles. The Vulture offers so much more. It can pack 2 ERPPCs and enough heatsinks to fire them (a lot). The Speed and shape and general toughness help the Vulture last while it dishes out some serious damage in return. Load it with pulse lasers and take to to a brawl. Those pulse lasers will rip Reactive or Ferro Armour like melting butter. Use that 360 to keep hitting your target or to turn and avoid incoming fire.

I gotta say that the entrance movie to Vengeance is, as least to me, one of the best movies trailors of any game. Watching as that Vulture stomps out to the street, his gal pal gets blown away in the Scat and its him against the entire invasion force. He lets it rip, pulse lasers blasting, machine guns ripping and missiles flying. Nova Cats and Uziels jerking from the hits, turning and unloading on that Vulture, first crippling it and then continuing to blast away as it crumples over into a heap of burning metal. Ouch! Microsoft got that one right. Crap I could stand to sit through a whole movie of that stuff.

Back to the battle mech. I have always like the Vulture, but I don’t use em much. MW2 version (Mad Dog) was one of my favourite mechs in that game. Veng /Mercs version looks a lot different, but I still like it. To me it looks they way a battlemech should look, not human like, but more a macine of destruction. The lines of the mech make it good for not absorbing direct hits very easily. It just looks mean.

I often refer to some of the battles BP were in because we had many and we used many different mechs in many different ways. One night, while on a BP drop against Clan Steel Viper (I think) we had the chance to take several Vultures. The Map was the NON Mission version of Shoreline. Cow, Prime, Hugh and I were in Vultures and I think Smaga was in a BK with dual Arrows. CSV had been having a hard time with The Blood Pearls as we were in the K Cluster en masse and raiding the crap out of them en route to other Clans. CSV were a decent bunch but seemed to have organizational issues.

On this drop, we took the drop zone closest to the water. When go was called, we set off into the water moving at a very slow pace. The Vultures were to run passive until Smaga spotted a target for us. A few minutes into the drop and the 1st victim was spotted. I don’t remember the name of the pilot but do remember watching his Black Lanner explode under the shower of ATMs. Smaga spotted the Lanner hill Humping trying to get a visual on us. He unloaded a volley of Arrows and gave us the coordinates. We all went active and must have gotten lock within seconds of one another. Cow, then Prime then I fired. The lanner never made it back down the little hill hump.

At that point a few of the other started appearing along the edge of the shoreline. The same sequence of events met them all. We killed about 5 mechs along the shoreline and Mechnut chased another one to us. He had killed one and led one to slaughter. The other 2 CSV mech went up to the mountains where they thought they could snipe us. A few missiles later and the drop was over. We had zero losses, they were down eight mechs. The Vultures accounted for 5 of the eight kills.

The Vulture is still a very powerful an tough mech. ECM, LAMs and big screen TV, I mean Enhanced Optics help the Vulture seek its prey. Its still a good missile platform, it still can pack some nice beams weapons, it is still maneuverable.

My Original rating stands. A solid 3 minutes.

The Arctic Wolf

Weighing in at 40Tons from the Clan Technology Group the Artic Wolf is presented for you today. A little missile-firing demon that runs at 97kph from the Clan factory. Fresh off the drop ship, this medium class battlemech is equipped with 4 C-Streak6s and a speed of 97kph. Fast and hard hitting, a major pain in the cockpit. From the factory it has no electronics, offering only BAP and LAMS. C-Streaks do not need BAP as they have some sort of auto lock built in. The Artic Wolf is capable of closing on an enemy quickly and circling larger mechs while rapid firing those missiles the whole time. It has 8tons of ferro armour (99% full) so it can take some return fire while it dishes out the damage. The Artic Wolf is primarily a missile platform in the medium class. It has a couple of 3-slot missile racks that are referred to as ‘ears’. The arms house a 2-slot omni in each. A pilot can pack other weapons such as a ERLL in each arm as well as some missiles to make this a range support mech, or change the C-Streaks to LRMS and have a long range missile boat that is small and hard to find, using its speed to move around from a long way off. As a brawler, a pilot can pack in a couple of LBX10s, or keep the stock config. On the other hand, this mech is generally weak, having a large CT slot. The ‘ears’ and arms get blown off relatively quickly reducing the firepower by 25% for each on blown away until there is nothing left but a torso running around. The Artic Wolf would be a good candidate for High Explosives carrier if that weapon was still around. Don’t get me wrong, this is a useful mech, providing missile fire or long-range support as other close on the target forcing the enemy to spread out or take cover. With it speed, it can close quickly to add support. You don’t see that many on the battlefield, I would guess because it is fairly weak or because it is so specialized. Personally, I think on team radar only battles with low tonnage, this little thing can be a big help on a drop in the right terrain. Load up a couple of ERLLs in the arms and some missiles and from 800 meters you have a deadly support mech. Shoot, run, hide, come out, and shoot again. On colder maps, use the ERLPL instead of ERLL. It is my opinion that the artic Wolf needs Jump Jets. That would add a great deal to the ability of this mech and possibly add to the longevity during battle. As it is right now, if spotted, this mech doesn’t take many hits before being stripped of weapons or killed outright. If not Jump Jets, then possibly ECM. Two or more of these things in the background, do make for great cover fire mechs as the team close in on enemy positions. Concentrated missile fire form two of these on an enemy not only does lots of damage, but forces them to stay in cover as your team mates close in for the kill, reducing the amount of return fire. Best use? Long-range support fire, or when loaded with streaks a harasser of larger slow turning mechs. Vettie’s View on the Artic Wolf? I rate this mech at 2 minutes. Sustained fire on an artic Wolf will bring down quickly or strip it of weapons rendering it useless. The arms and ears are weak. It has a big CT. Weak for a medium class mech.

Arctic Wolf MP3 I visited the Mech Lab on the way to the tech writing desk today. The purpose of this visit was to look closely at the Arctic Wolf. The name Arctic Wolf conjures up images of a frozen tundra with a few trees poking their leafless trunks up thru tons of snow scattered amongst a few bushes that are also lifeless but standing defiant to the weather. As you scan the horizon you see a gray-white figure with eyes as brown as mud tensing his muscular frame about to pounce on the next poor jack rabbit that comes running by on his quest for food. When I look in the mech lab, I don’t see that. I see and under powered, squatty little mech that is outclassed by nearly every mech in its class and by some (several) in the light class. The Arctic Wolf is a very specialized mech and not known for ability to absorb much punishment. Its specialty is missiles. It comes from the factory in probably one of the best configs for this mech, 4 Cstreak 6s. From the factory floor, its job is to swarm other mechs with missiles, fade in, circle about missile the crap out of any enemy and get back in cover. It has enough speed for this, 97Kph, if there is enough cover or if you are fighting in a city. Hilly terrain also helps this little mech in that it climbs very well and can scoot around rocks or rock formations, unload an alpha or chain its load and keep running away. In addition to the ability to carry missiles, and it doesn’t have to be a short range missile mech, it can take any 2 slot missiles, it has in each arm a 2-slot Omni and it also has a 1-slot Omni in the torso. It has the ability to be a ballistic boat or a laser boat or a mixture of the two as well as an all purpose mech that carries ballistics, lasers and missiles. The electronics package includes the ability to take BAP (useful for the missiles), LAMs and Advanced Gyro. A decent package for this mech. The speed ranges from 73Kph to 121Kph and a full load of ferro armour is just over 8 tons. The mech is agile and swift with a decent turn ability. With all of this going for it, why then does the Wolf seem more like a puppy? The mech is weak. The hit boxes are standard fare, almost square in layout and easily hit from many directions. Other than the head, almost any part of this mech can be hit from range. It is easy to leg, to arm or even to remove the ‘ears’. From the front, even tho the head is a very small hit box, it is easily hit and often this mech is hudded quickly. Without the use of Advanced Gyro, it gets knocked down a lot, too. As we all know, usually, if you get knocked down, the second shot from whatever knocked you down will kill you. From a distance this mech is easily sighted and targeted. The body is short and squatty, but it is almost square. As mentioned above, body parts are targeted with ease. IF you bump the speed up where it is fast enough to avoid fire or incoming missiles, then you loose the ability to pack on what little weapons you can already take. If an assault mech happens to stumble on one of these loaded with Cstreaks, the little Wolf can run around and leg the bigger foe very quickly, but if the larger ever gets a hit on it, the damage comes at a heavy price. The ears and arms represent 25% of the fire power (stock version, 4xCStreak 6s) and they get blown off fast. Im not saying that an Arctic Wolf cant take down an assault, Im saying I would rather be in something else fighting that assault. The torsos are the toughest part of this mech. As mentioned, the ears, arms and legs get blown off quickly. Even the torsos seem weak. It could be the simple geometry of the mech. I mean look at it. The torsos are almost flat with little or no curvature to them to help deflect incoming rounds or blasts. Of the 40 ton mechs, this one is surely the weakest. The Reaver offers more speed AND spec armour standard from the factory. The Chimera does the same, speed and spec armour. Both these mechs have at least a 3-slot non missile rack so they can carry a weapon of punch. The Strider offers a harder to hit profile as well as better speed. The Blood Pearls used the Arctic Wolf on a few drops. This little mech was something we ended up with as a result of several raids on a few Clans. If they knew we were coming and they knew we were looking to steal their valuable Clan chassis, they would load their planets with these things in the event we won. In NBT, I would safely say the medium class mechs saw the most usage. To a pirate team, or Inner Sphere house, Clan Tech was a prized possession. If you won a recon match, or if you bought intel, you could discover that a planet may have a Clan Medium Factory. IF you attacked and won certain types of battles, you could steal some of those mechs, or disrupt the output of a factory so that you got a portion of the output. Clan mediums. Ummmm. Images of Shadow cats, Lanners and Ryos danced in the heads of pirates as we descended to their planets in hopes of filling our drops ships with Clan Tech. One particular drop I remember was played against NBT Ghost Bear on the map Tetsuhara. Many of you know this map to be very hot and mostly barren. We had a plan to run to a pre-decided (on our part) ambush zone and shut our mechs down. Smaga was to be in an Arctic Wolf loaded with ERLLs and entice the Clanners to chase him to us. When they got in range we were to start up and ambush them. The Arctic Wolf worked out as an excellent choice for this because it had BAP and some speed. Smaga could run all over the map pinging away with BAP trying to locate the Ghost Bears, and once he found them, he could zap them with a pair of ERLLs and run like hell away from them. Worked like a charm. The Clanners got with 400 meters of us and we started up and mowed them down. We won the match losing only 1 or 2 mechs to their 8. We got salvage and because we won we got to steal some mechs from their inventory on planet. Guess what? We stole a bunch of Arctic Wolves, lol. The Arctic Wolf is not on my top 20 list of favourites, but I can see that it could be a useful mech. In Sunder, with radar on, it just wont last long. In leagues drops, it could be very useful actually be a good mech where the weights on the drop were limited. Other wise I see it as a target. For those out there that like to se their kill numbers range high on Sunder I suggest you target one of these every time you see one, especially if you are in a Wildcat or any assault. Two minutes is what I gave this mech in my original review. One and half to two is what I give it now. Sure some of you will disagree, many of you are much better pilots than I am and maybe you can make this mech last a long time. I am an average pilot and it dies quick for me.

The WarHammer

When MechWarrior 2 came out, I bought it. I took it home and tossed it on the computer desk. I was much more interested in board games at that time in life. My favourite was (and still is) Advanced Squad Leader. I owned all the modules and there was a group of us that played twice a week, Wednesdays and Sundays. For those of you who have never played it, don’t knock it until you try it / learn it. ASL is a very in depth tactical simulation of WWII combat.

I had a garage built next to my home and added a covered walk from our rear deck to the door of the garage. On the outside, it looked like any ordinary garage, but inside, it looked more like a drafting room for some design company. We had bought 3 old style drafting tables and converted them to gaming tables. I had 8 bar stools that we used for seating. The garage was climate controlled as we added and air conditioner unit from the rear of the building and we had a heater for the wintertime. Overhead, were 3 ceiling fans and the walls were covered in paneling and shelving for game storage (I have over 300 games).

My wifey is somewhat artistically inclined so we gave her a box top from one of the modules and asked her to do a mural on the inside wall facing the house since there wasn’t a window there. She did a great job. She decided to do on white paneling (similar to sheet rock) so we could paint over it if we ever decide to sell the house, or panel over it to match the rest of the insides. Here is a link to the Web site for those of your not familiar with ASL. http://www.multimanpublishing.com/ASL/modules.php

She did the “Yanks” module that features a Sherman tank and supporting infantry firing over a hedgerow at the Germans. She did a very good job. The guys and I named the garage the ‘War Room’. Man we had some fun in there.

This set up was perfect, we could get a night’s worth of gaming in and leave things set up as they were, record the data needed for the next round, like who’s turn it was or what phase we were in, etc. We spent a lot of evenings out there cutting up, shooting each other, reading rules and just having a great time.

It was the love of ASL that kept me from jumping right into MW2. In fact, it was a couple of weeks before I even opened the box. On a Sunday, the guys had family things to do and were not going to make our normal gaming night. I decided to see what MW2 was all about.

Wow!! Wow! I was stunned. This game was like no other I had ever played. Of course by today’s standards it was crap, but at that time it was, it was just WOW! The movies were cool; these big robot looking things firing away at each other while one was calling for help.
Wow! I played the crap outta that game, bought the add-ons as they came out, Ghost Bear and Mercenaries.

MechWarrior 2 brought many battlemechs to life for us, The Nova, The Summoner, The Warhawk, The Stormcrow and today’s topic, The Warhammer.

In those days, the Warhammer was a bit boxier if memory serves me, but I liked it. You could pack on some LRMs and a couple of PPCs and fire away. Today’s Warhammer is a very close rendition of that mech. The MekTek crew did a good job bringing an old favourite back to the battlefield.

Lets examine the Warhammer. It is presented as a 70Ton Inner Sphere battlemech. Holding 14 tons of Ferro Armour, The Warhammer is a very tough mech. It absorbs lots of punishment before going down.

The electronics offered are not bad, but certainly not top if the line. BAP, LAMs and IFF are the options, like I said not bad, BAP giving the pilot the ability to spot enemies at an extended range or if packing missiles, a faster lock time. LAMs are an option I suggest for every mech as it gives the pilot a bit of protection against incoming missiles. IFF Jammer is something I like for ranged maps, night battles or foggy ones, or teams / no radar maps. It keeps the enemy’s reticule from turning red unless you are in brawling range. For a mech like the Warhammer, this is just an extra bit of protection.

The weapons slots on this battlemech are not bad either. Each arm has a 4-slot energy capable of loading a CapPPC. The left and right torsos each house a 2 slot ballistic and a 1-slot energy. This is all topped off by a 2-slot missile rack.

The problem I have for the Warhammer is finding that ‘right’ configuration of weapons. If you pack the armour to full and use all the electronics without a speed upgrade, you have 35 tons to spend on weapons. The speed from the factory is not bad at 71kph, but a 1-point increase gets you to 77kph leaving you with 34 tons for weapons.

If you add on the dual CapPPCs as mentioned above, that leaves you 18 tons to spend. The Warhammer does not dissipate heat well, so some of the free tons are need as heat sinks or the poor Warhammer will fire an alpha and shut down if not on the 1st shot, then by the 3rd for sure. 2 Heat sinks bring the heat efficiency just up to 52%, still very hot. At this point, a pilot could load in 2 RAC2s in the torso, or 2 mini gauss or 2 LBX5s, or 2 AC5s or 2 HVAC2s or, well you get the idea. There will not be a lot of ballistic firepower, but there will be some. I suggest rapid reload weapons and keep the stream flowing because those 2 Caps are gonna heat you up a lot. Like I mentioned, it is really hard to find a good config for this battlemech.

On the battlefield, the Warhammer stacks up well. It takes a lot of punishment before going down. It size is a plus, as many other battlemechs are much larger and generally considered to have more firepower or be more of a threat than the Warhammer. One of the best uses I have found for the Warhammer is ranged fire, hill humping roll up fire and roll back. Running passive and using the IFF Jammer, the enemy has to get a visual on you to return fire or lock missiles on you. If you roll up and fire, that PPC will leave a sploog on the cockpit of an enemy, again making it hard for them to return fire on you. Stay 700 to 900 meters away and picking off targets.

Even though this mach can take lots of damage, I don’t see it as a brawler, 2 LBX10s would be the most ballistics this mech could carry or 2 RAC5s, while the biggest slots are in the arms. The arms tend to get mauled in a brawl so if you put any big energy weapons in there, fire them 1st cause they wont be there long.

The Warhammer doesn’t have a lot of speed and it doesn’t turn, or rotate as well as others. This points back to a stand off firing platform, best used at medium to long range in cover.
You put four large lasers on this thing with enough heat sinks. This is not a bad config as you could still add a Light Gauss rifle or some sort of ballistic. Two HVAC5s and two regular PPCs also make a nice load out, giving this mech some knock when it fires as well as the PPC sploog.

Vettie’s View? Well let me say that I like the Warhammer, but I have a hard time finding the right load out mix to make it useful. I am not of a missile guy, but this battle mech can only hold a 2-slot missile weapon. It is very tough and takes lots of damage. The ability of the Warhammer to absorb hits is one of the reasons it gets a high rating. The inability to find a good weapons mix lowers it some coupled with the low, slow turn radius. Many may disagree, but again this is my opinion and you are welcome to post your thoughts.
I rate this mech at 3 minutes. Average for a heavy class battlemech.

WarHammer MP3 style

So I went into the mech lab this morning to take a closer look at the MP3 version of the WarHammer. Personally, I think this thing gets overlooked alot because of the weapons loadout it can take.

Looking closely at the actual mech before going into the weapons or the armour I see another reason pilots arent overly happy with the WHammy. The Torso slots, the dual 2-slot ballistics are located very low on the torso, just barely above the waistline and slightly above the arms and I mean slightly (puts away the old calipers). As a hill humper, this mech will have to expose its ENTIRE torso to use the ballistics or the energy weapons. That is a strike against it. If the weapons were relocated higher in the torso, the huge, boxy torsos, this mech could be much more effective at hiding behind terrain and nailing enemies or turrets from far away.

The 2-slot missile box it mounted on top of the mech and is easily blown off. Careful what you put in there because it wont last long. Thats a shame too, because that slot COULD provide that extra umph that hurts from far away, but as it is, I suggest saving it for SSRMs in street battles.

The Arms will hold a CapPPC (CPPC in my langauge) being a 4-slot energy in each arm. It will also hold 2 of any large laser variety, large, pulse or X-Pulse. For its size and weight, the arms are as tough as any in its weight class and most decent pilots can keep their arms long enough to dish out some damage. On no radar or team only radar maps, load those arms with with large lasers and rip your opponents apart, burn 'em boys, these things are mean.

Back to the torsos, again, only 2-slot ballistics in each torso limit what this mech can hold, 2 light gauss, 2 HVAC 5s, 2 LBX10s and well you get the idea. It can hold 4 machine guns and it also has a 1-slot energy in each torso allowing you to add medium pulse or medium Pulse lasers to go along with the machine guns making this a 'ripper' up close.

The legs are very tough (for its weight class) but can be blown off with a high alpha or multiple alphas so dont cheat on the leg armour.

All in all this mech is very tough. MekTek has posted a picture of the 'revamped' WarHammer. The torsos will have more angled projection giving it a bit more protection (similar to the Canis torsos) and a bit better profile. The hit boxes are laid out well and no one part seems weak. This mech is a good defensive weapon that can take a lot of punishment. It can throw some fire power back just not many ballistics.

Some personal notes here - One of the things I like to look at in creating a config for a mech is the slots and the slot layout. I strip the 'stock' config and just study the slots. In doing so for the WarHammer, obviously, this mech was made to be an energy platform with ballistics for secondary (or even close) support. Putting in ballistics that rapid fire (HVACS or RACs or Machineguns) give this mech a chance to recharge its energy base. It can be a nasty energy mech. I loaded one with 4 Large lasers and 2 medium Pulse Lasers, lots of speed and heatsinks. Surprisingly enough, it does very well. Again the problem with IS lasers is the range. You have to be able to close to range an use your weapons without taking a beating on the way in.

I still say this mech is best used for no or team only radar and then as a range support mech, ppcs, cpps, lt gauss, min gauss, rac2s, hvac5s or 2s.

Its a good mech and its a tough mech, it just outclassed in the weapons department when you toss a bunch of assaults in the mix.

I ran across this action shot of an Anni that I had taken sometime during the beta testing of the HDP (High Def Pack) for MP3 Mercs.

I felt like I should post it, mostly because its a cool screenie. If you enlarge it by clicking the photo, you see the smoke coming from the arms where this beast just fired at some poor target.

w00t!

Godzirra!!!

Godzilra Attacks!!! The hillsides shake as the rumbling gets louder. People are running and screaming afraid for their lives. Buildings crumble in the path of this monster from the depths. It walks on two feet, fire spewing from its eyes, slowly trudging its way to another victim. No, this is not some old Japanese movie that showed up on Mystery Science Theatre 2000, no, this is a 100 Ton Battlemech created by some sinister Inner Sphere scientist after eating a bad batch of mushrooms. One hundred tons of ballistic killing machine, this thing is called the Annihilator. Many pilots call it Godzilla or Raczilla. The reason for that is easily explained for anyone that ever saw the old Japanese movies featuring that monster from the sea, Godzilla. This mech looks very much like the monster but smoother and it has no tail. The Raczilla part? Players of the game know this answer; The Annihilator can pack 6 Rac2 or 5 Rac5s. Ouch!! Godzilra, I mean the Annihilator, is the easily the tallest mech in the game even towering over the Atlas. This thing carries 19.5 tons of Ferro Armour from the factory. That is as much as some mechs weigh! The Anni (another nick name used for it) has very limited energy slots, 1 two-slot in the head when fired from gives the illusion of fire spitting from the eyes, 1 two-slot in the ct, and each arm house a single slot. The power of this mech is in its ballistic slots. Each arm carries a five-slot while the right and left torsos hold a two-slot each. Other than the Fafnir, this is the only mech capable of 2 Heavy Gauss Rifles. The Annihilator is a slow moving beast, coming from the factory set at 43kph, but the speed ranges all the way to 73kph. There is no chance of hiding this mech. The only electronics offered are LAMs. As mentioned, it is tall, not just tall but huge. Huge and basically slow. To survive, regardless of the amount of armour, this thing needs rapid firing ballistics to stay alive. It does have a 360 torso that adds to its ability to survive and fend off smaller mechs. The Annihilator is not an easy kill, but because of its shear size and weapons packing capability it often becomes the 1st target on the battlefield. Godzilra here is a very tough mech, but SEEMS to die fast. Again the main reason for that is it commands attention. It’s hard for any battlemech to survive multiple rounds from multiple mechs, to beat it quickly simply gang up on it and kill the monster. In a street fight, the Annihilator has the potential to be the most devastating machine in the drop. All those ballistic slots add up to a massive beating. Pack on the RACs mentioned earlier and the Anni can sweep clean a street in seconds. Drop some RACs and add a LBX20 or 2, or 4 LBX10s or 4 AC10s or 5 HVAC5s or, well you get the idea. The CT is big. The arms and legs of the beast hold up in a firefight, but again, combined fire from multiple mechs can rip any of these limbs off. This mech can hold its own, but it has to be supported or it will go down fast. I am not a fan of the Annihilator. It’s too big and too slow for me. The Godzilla look makes it almost comical to me, but it is a tough battlemech. It has good slots and can pack lots of ballistic weapons. Vettie’s View? 3 minutes. One on one, this mech is a terror. One on two, it can win. When two or three pick this mech up on radar the shows almost over. It is big, bad and mean. King of the streets? Maybe so, but again, the shear size and low speeds of the mech draw fire. It’s almost a guaranteed that if used in a team battle, multiple mechs will converge on it and take it down simply because of its size and potential firepower.

MP3 Annihilator From the factory you get 43Kph + LAMs and 2 heat sinks, 4 LBX10s, 2 mgs and 2 med lasers and 19.5 tons of ferro armour. If you wipe that clean, then max the armour, that is 25tons and leaves you with 49.5 ton for toys, I mean weapons. The armour is standard so that means it will transfer damage from a lost slot or arm or leg at a slower rate. Did I mention the torso is 360? The slots were changed so that the Fafnir is still the only IS mech that can carry 2 Heavy Gauss Rifles. Each arm has 2, 3-slot ballistics and each torso has 1, 2-slot ballistic, the Head and Center torso each have a single 2-slot energy. The speed range is from 37Kph to 67kph. At 67 with full (ferro) armour you still have 35.5 tons for weapons. LAMs is the only option for electronics. At 55Kph with LAMs and full Ferro Armour, you have 44.5 tons to work with and lots of ballistic slots. A popular configs is 2 Large Beam lasers (continuous) and 4 RAC 2s. A Beast. A Beast that deals pain at 900 meters. Another fav is set the speed to 49Kph and plug in 4 AC10s. you have to cheat a little on the armour, but this creature has lots of armour. For those brave ones out there, if you lower the armour to stock value, and raise the speed to 43Kph removing the LAMs, you can get 4 HVAC 10s. OUCH, Pain and knock at 800 meters with a great recycle time. 49 to 55Kph seem to be the best operating speeds and also allows a great weapons load out. This thing was made to be a boat, whether your choice is Mini Gauss, Machine Guns or some sort of LBX or auto cannons. It can take a lot of weapons to the fight. The best use that I see for the Godzilla of mechs is for city fighting. It can take enough weapons to kill any other mech in the arsenal and kill them quickly. It has lots of armour so it can take a hit or two. Ideal setting, Street fight, no radar or team only radar with fog. In a league match under those conditions, the mere sight of the beast makes an opposing pilot stop for second and say to himself, whoa, Anni!! A secondary use is to load this thing with mini gauss or light gauss or HVAC2s or 5s and stand on a hill and spray cover fire for your team as they advance. Its gonna take a bit to kill an Annihilator, so the hill standing is not as dumb as it sounds. The Rac2 boat or Rac2 Large Beam Laser boat works well for this too. The problem with the Anni is that it is slow and other than LAMs and armour, it offers no self protection. Its too big to hide much and its too slow to get out of the way. If a small mech or a couple of small mechs get close enough they can run circles around it and take it down with very little return damage. It does have a 360 torso but the turn rate is rather slow. The arms come off rather fast so always fill them completely with armour because most of the weapons are in the arms. The legs are very stout but this beast can be legged. Your speed drops to about 25kph even when wide open if you are dragging a dead leg. This equals easy target. Even I can hit one moving that slow. In a league setting, it is often the 1st target called simply because it is so big and slow and the potential firepower it holds. Actually this holds true out in the opens. I know if I run across an Anni in Sunder and its on the other team, unless there is someone right in front of me, I try to kill the Anni first. You don’t see many of these out there in Sunder. I think it is because it doesn’t jump and it has no electronics like BAP or ECM. BAP may be a good add for this mech to see it used more often. Everyone on the whole map can see it coming so why not allow it to see some mechs from a distance? I might bring this up when we start testing for MP4…. Anyway, I think I gave this mech a 3 minute rating before. That’s a bit slight, but I wouldn’t go much more than 3 ½ minutes simply because it is a walking target. That and the fact that the entire Japanese army fires every weapon they own at it on sight. Godzirra LIVES!!! !w00t!