Howdy Star Adder Ristars and welcome to Mech Overview! Some mechs are iconic because important characters pilot them, or because they have a common or central place in the lore. Some are iconic from sheer quality and destructive power. Some mechs though, are just insanely cool looking and grow a bizarre, cult-like following based entirely upon appearance alone, no one really caring how they perform or how good they actually are. This week’s mech is one of those: the great, mighty, shoulder-cannoned cool robot, the Blood Asp!
God damn this thing is fucking awesome! Ever since seeing this on the cover of Mech Commander 2, buried deep in a CD rack of games nearly older than me, myself, as well as I am sure many other impressionable children, were completely smitten by this thing. Like, look at it! It is an assault mech of some sort and it is a big, cool bastard, and unlike most mechs there was never a point where the Blood Asp didn’t look awesome. There is no embarrassing old art, mediocre linework, or doofy predecessor version, the Blood Asp has literally always looked fantastic. There is a reason this dork came in it’s own special standalone cool guy box in the Mercenaries Kickstarter, the cult following for this cool bastard is simply too strong for them to have to share a box with other, lesser mechs.
Chassis
The Blood Asp is an Omni-Mech, so the structural components and speed are fixed, with only the weaponry shifting between variants. At base the Blood Asp is a 90 ton assault mech with 4/6/0 movement, reasonable armor up front and genuinely thick back armor, and 42 tons to cram full of guns. This is not going to be a cheap mech, Clan weaponry is lightweight and that is a lot of space, only 8 tons short of the Dire Wolf. It really doesn’t stand out in any way mechanically, it is a perfectly serviceable 90 ton Clan hull to cram full of crap, so let’s see how the Star Adder technicians decided to kit this thing out!
Variants
These mechs have all been reviewed based on a standard F through S scale, which you can find described on our landing page here (along with all of our other ‘mech reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).
Blood Asp Prime
The Blood Asp Prime comes in at 2654 BV, starting us out in premium Assault mech price ranges. For weaponry it carries 2 Clan gauss rifles, 4 medium heavy lasers, 2 medium pulse lasers, and a streak SRM-6. The gauss rifles only have a single ton of ammo each, which is a bit lighter than I am comfortable with on a mech this expensive. For all of that gun it actually manages heat pretty well, only building movement heat firing all of the lasers, and adding pretty easy to manage heat throwing in the gauss rifles. I am generally not a huge fan of base, un-targeting computered heavy lasers, and this is no exception. +1 to hit just sucks and it is really hard to overlook that.
2654 BV for a pair of gauss rifles is massively behind the price curb, so you have to make use of those heavy lasers to make your BV back, and in my opinion that is not the easiest thing to do. If you can do that, or you really love base heavy lasers, this might be an ok investment. 94 points of alpha strike damage up close without overheating too badly in the grand scheme of things is remarkably high damage potential, and the Blood Asp Prime does most of its damage in big 10-15 point hits, which is a big plus. I am not personally a fan but it is more than fine as far as high end assault mechs go.
RATING: B-
Blood Asp A
Lord give me strength this mech is 3452 BV. So, the Blood Asp A. This mech carries 4 weapons, 2 large heavy lasers, 2 ER PPCs, a targeting computer, an ECM if it matters, and enough jump jets to move 4/6/3 for some fucking reason. This is 4 headchoppers, but with only 50 heat sinking capacity it can’t fire them all without cooking itself. A Loki MkII F can fire 4 headchoppers, heat neutral for 6 turns, for nearly 1000 BV less. That said, large heavy lasers are brutal things and the targeting computer does help, but I really don’t see the point in taking a mech this expensive to get weaponry like this. You can do better cheaper.
RATING: D
Blood Asp B
At 2885 BV, the Blood Asp B carries a pretty good party mix of weapons. You get a gauss rifle, 2 LRM-20s with Artemis IV, 4 medium pulse lasers, and an ECM if that matters. This is a good mix of weapons, trading the inconsistent heavy lasers of the Prime out for much more reliable pulse lasers. Heat management is good, unable to overheat if it wanted to. The LRMs have plenty of ammo, and I am not too broken up about trading a gauss rifle for 40 LRM tubes. Nearly 3 times the damage potential is a decent trade for not being able to headchop. LRM mechs are usually not my preference and this is very expensive, but I don’t hate it.
RATING: B
Blood Asp C
At 2270 BV the Blood Asp C is the cheapest variant we have looked at, and it is fucking awesome. For weaponry it carries two Ultra AC/10s, an ER large laser, and an LBX 20 Autocannon. This is a hell of a lot of damage potential for something so comparatively cheap. Between this and the Loki MkII T, I am beginning to think that UAC/10s are a dark magic that makes Clan mechs cheap. They are growing on me more and more each time I look at a mech that carries one. I still personally prefer the base AC/10 by a little bit due to precision ammo, but the UAC/10 is a genuinely good weapon. 70 points of potential alpha strike damage, 50 at long range, is pretty good for 2300 BV, and as is usual the cheap variants of these big clan bastard assault mechs tend to be the best ones.
RATING: A-
Blood Asp D
At 2396 BV the Blood Asp D makes a few confusing choices. Weaponry consists of a gauss rifle, 2 medium heavy lasers, 2 ER large lasers, and 3 ultra AC/2s for some fucking reason. UAC/2s are meme weapons and barely matter, though hilariously the Blood Asp D carries enough of them to functionally have something akin to a long ass range SRM-6. Damage isn’t bad here and the range is extremely long, so this is a pretty serviceable configuration if your force lacks a long range sniper type mech. It is competing in price with the Devastator and Thunder Hawk, but it does have a range advantage on those mechs and that can mean something on certain maps and with competent play.
RATING: B
Blood Asp E
Spiking back up to 3179 BV, the Blood Asp E is certainly one of the mechs of all time. It carries jump jets to move 4/6/4, and has a loadout similar to a mix of the A and B. It carries 2 ER PPCs, 2 medium pulse lasers, a targeting computer, and 4 ATM-3s. ATMs are very good weapons but the E is a bit short on ammo, only carrying 2 tons, and ATMs are really best when they are larger launchers in my opinion. This is just a lot to pay for a pair of headchoppers and functionally an ATM-12. I can’t recommend it, but it isn’t actively terrible.
RATING: C-
Blood Asp F
The Blood Asp F carries a bit of the soul of infantry guy in it, a fragment. Just a shard, split off from the great whole like a Child of the Dark. Hopefully it will not lead men into ruinous wars with giants or fucked up evil fire tree guys, but instead into wars against like, every infantry platoon on Twycross. It comes in at 2908 BV and carries 2 ER PPCs, 2 medium pulse lasers, 2 AP gauss rifles, 4 streak SRM-6s, and a plasma cannon. Four streak 6s is a lot of streak 6s, and overall this is actually a really good set of weapons. Heat is an issue and you will need to drop the ER PPCs when you get close, but it’ll really mess up things at any distance. Not a huge fan of spending this much personally when the C is right there, but it is one of the more functional infantry guy mechs out there.
RATING: B-
Blood Asp G
A cool advanced tech one, the Blood Asp G 3192 BV and carries some cool fun toys. Starting out we have a HAG/40, 2 ER large lasers, 2 medium heavy lasers, and 2 medium pulse lasers. It also carries a targeting computer to help with accuracy, which is a lot of fun. This is just a lot of damage out to a pretty good range. I am not the biggest fan of HAGs compared to other cluster weapon options, but if you want one this isn’t the worst option.
RATING: C-
Blood Asp I
At 2242 BV the Blood Asp I is a mixed tech variant, which automatically makes it the coolest Blood Asp. I love mixed tech, dude; it just leads to so many cool and strange mech builds. This one carries an improved heavy gauss rifle, 2 large re-engineered lasers, and 4 Clan ER small lasers because why not. 2242 isn’t bad for the weaponry here; RE lasers are situationally awesome and I am always in favor of taking an improved heavy gauss rifle whenever I can. Not the cheapest or best HGR out there, but not a bad mech overall.
RATING: B-
Blood Asp T
The Rec Guide WYSIWYG variant of the Blood Asp, the T comes in at 3069 BV and I honestly love it. It carries a supercharger to boost its max run speed to 8 hexes, and is another mixed tech variant, including 2 inner sphere plasma rifles as the shoulder cannons, a neat reference to Mech Assault 2. For other weapons it has 2 ER large lasers, 4 ER medium lasers, and an SRM-6. The plasma rifles have a ton of ammo and the mech only builds movement heat firing both plasma rifles and both ER large lasers. The incidental heat damage is nice, and can be enhanced by loading the SRM-6 with Infernos, and the overall ranged DPS is somewhat low at 40, but it ramps up at close range and never, ever underestimate the power of adding 2d6 extra heat to your opponent, it can royally mess up their plans and make them think twice about going all out on attacking you. Not the best Blood Asp, but personally I love this thing. The C is probably better for the price, but I would gladly run a T.
RATING: C+
Conclusion
Yeah the Blood Asp is a post invasion mech and you can feel it. Most variants do monstrous amounts of damage and all variants are rugged. The base frame of this mech is just good, and it is hard to find a weapon load that doesn’t work well in it. I am sure one could be made, and I honestly really need to get around to running my bad omni-mech Olympics scenario locally, but the designers for the most part avoided anything terrible. The A is badly overpriced, but if you had the BV to burn for some reason it isn’t the worst thing ever. Also, mech cool, and everyone got one from the Kickstarter, so you might as well get some use out of it. I strongly prefer the C because of my overwhelming bias towards ballistics, but that is a me problem. Good mech, cool mech, cherish and protect it.
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