Fuckin’ Black Flags again.

It takes blood, sweat and pain to get by in the ‘sphere, no question about it. I understand that everyone needs to make a buck and fight to make it out here. But by god and the stars above, why did Pirates always have to be so damned stupid about it?

Damian had seen its fair share of raids in the last hundred years or so since the invasion ground to a halt, each more desperate than the last. First came the Black Omens and their Kuritan handlers. Then the Ice Hellions with their tails between their legs and now a myriad of cut-rate pirate bands looking for whatever they could manage to scrounge up without dying. Some day they’d figure out just how tall an order that was, and the price paid for trying.

Until then, old Keel Hauler and I would just have to keep teaching them the lesson ‘til it stuck. 

“Star Commander Kætilfast.” The comm crackled to life, pulling my attention from the road ahead of me and back into Keel Hauler’s dim cockpit. “Black Flag ‘mechs detected on approach. It appears they are taking the bait.”

“Good to hear, Ingrid,” I replied, reaching up to prep Keel Hauler’s reactor to restart. “Beta star, prep your cores for startup, but keep them off. Wanna catch these pirate bastards out flat footed.”

“Aff, Commander.” “Yes, Sir.” “On it, Kæ.” Came the chorus of answers from Geirn, Tofa and Mak, the trio dutifully coaxing their reactors just shy of firing. 

“Star Commander, this course of action is unbecomi-”

“If you got a problem with the way us ‘freeborns’ handle problems, Ingrid, then you can issue your challenge when we get on home to base. ‘Til then I expect a ready reactor and updates on them pirates.” 

“Aff, Star Commander,” the young Mechwarrior grumbled, the discontent plain in her voice. This was only her second mission with us and already I could feel the chafe with this deployment. Trueborns always did hate doing the work that actually mattered out here at the edge of the periphery. Never enough honor in it for ‘em. ‘Least the rest of my trinary were either ’normal’ ‘warriors or Trueborns that’d finally come ‘round to their senses. Ingrid would either follow along or have it beaten out of her by experience. I didn’t rightly care which, so long as it happened sooner rather than later. 

Discontent killed out here, and pirates never did much care for honor.

The star of Locust IICs and Solitaires that’d been playing bait for our guests screamed down the road in front of us, blitzing out a call for help on every channel. Something about that always got a pirate’s goat. Made them feel like the big fish in the pond.

So predictable.

Before long, the distant thunder of pursuing ‘mechs grew. That persistent thump of old mediums and heavies trundling after the ‘fleeing’ lights—an invigorating sound in the cold night. An old, decrepit lance lumbered into view, excitedly giving chase. A Centurion, a Rifleman and an Orion led the way, all some form of invasion era chic and certainly showing their age. Save for one.

Another Kodiak.

A familiar Kodiak. A Kodiak that didn’t belong to them. A Kodiak now painted in garish black, red and yellow unbefitting of her heritage. A Kodiak I intended to bring home. A Kodiak I intended to beat. Star Captain Geitirgest would be quite happy to have his old Ormen back, even if it had a trashed cockpit that’d need washing out. 

The lance pushed on, unaware of the lurking danger watching it from the wood line. Pirates willing to piss off the dominion never were particularly smart, nor observant. The Centurion at their head passed us by, fruitlessly firing off its cannon into the great beyond as the Rifleman pitched in with a twin streak of lightning that sailed into the night.

Distracted and dumb. My favorite kind of prey.

Keel Hauler’s reactor flared to life, breathing vigor and light into her cockpit as I brought her to her full height and charged forward. Geirn and Tofa’s Karhus roared into motion and followed close at our side as Mak swung her Solitaire out and around us. The pirates didn’t even blink, just kept striding onward like they owned the world.

Right up until Keel Hauler and I slammed through the old feld pine in front of us and sank our claws into Ormen’s shoulder. I caught a glimpse of the ‘warrior inside as I drew back Keel Hauler’s right arm, surprised, scared, confused. Pirates never did understand where they’d fucked up, though if they did they rarely lived long enough to learn from it.

Keel Hauler’s clawed fist smashed straight through the Kodiak’s cockpit and sent it tumbling limply to the dirt. The sound of fire and fury split the air behind us, the chattering scream of cannons, lasers and PPCs heralding the rest of my star’s advance into the fray.

The fun had just begun.

Star Commander Kætilfast Atsurrsson, Kodiak 2 Pilot, Rassalhague Dominion Touman, 37th Provisional Garrison, Tau Galaxy. Damian, December 3148.

—

Howdy Mechwarriors and welcome back to Mech Review! The Kodiak is a monster of a machine and I adore it. It is one of my favorite ‘mechs and I love putting it on the table to rip and tear through an enemy force until either it, or they, are dead. That being said, the Kodiak was built by the Clans and as such suffers from the eternal ‘oh god this bitch is expensive’ disease but I’m of the opinion she’s worth the price.

Topping out at 3,147 BV and falling all the way down to 2,238 BV the Kodiak has some range on cost and most of the variants have the oomph to make back their BV and more if you play them right. Often this can be an awfully hard feat to manage for a ‘mech in this price range. Kodiaks are, for the most part, not ranged fighters, while they do have options for range they want nothing more than to close in on the enemy so they can start ripping off limbs to beat them to death with. Trust me, they’ve got the armor to take it on the chin and keep on truckin’ through the enemy like it’s nothing.

There’s a song by the band ‘Steak’ named ‘Big Bear’. I can’t look at the model for the Kodiak and not think of this song so I’m making it all of your problems as well.

Chassis

The base Kodiak is a 100 ton Battlemech built on a Clan Endo-steel frame clad in nearly all the standard armor it can take, all put into motion by a Clan 400 XL. Now, normally things like this don’t really keep between Battlemech variants but the Bear’s must’ve felt they got it right when they made the Kodiak the first time around, and I agree. Across all of the standard Kodiak’s variants this holds true. The Kodiak II on the other hand… well, we’ll get to him later.

Being a 4/6 100 tonner the Kodiak is an incredibly angry machine in close combat, wanting nothing more than to hunt down other assaults or slow heavies to brutalize them into the dirt with a fusillade of heavy hitting fire, 20 damage kicks or 10 damage punches.

Don’t believe KA-BAR’s marketing material. Unless they started making Gauss rifles or cERPPCs, their products are not gonna kill this bear anytime soon.

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).

Kodiak

Big Bear. He’s iron tough.

The base Kodiak sets the tone for what a Kodiak is and should be with an absolutely savage close range loadout. An ultra AC/20 with two tons of ammo, an ER Large Laser, eight ER Medium Lasers and a pair of Streak SRM-6s with two tons of ammo are supported by twenty double heat sinks that are fighting a losing battle when ol’ Big Bear here gets you where he wants you.

At long range on the approach the Kodiak wants to be chipping in the ERLL to try and soften up targets while being incredibly heat negative. The moment you get within 10 hexes of something you should switch over to the ERMLs which only makes you build movement heat while pouring a possible 56 damage into something in 7 point clusters.

Most things do not like to have this happen to them. Once you get within good gunnin’ range where you’re happy with the target numbers, spin up the UAC/20 and let her rip slabs of armor free from your target. By this point you’ve probably blown away enough armor to save the heat from the lasers and lean in on the gun, the streaks and the fists themselves.

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. They’re hungry.

Now, if you’ve got particularly juicy close range shots you could Alpha strike into the target and turn them inside out with a potential 120 damage. I do not advise this course of action as you’ll build 36 heat if both streaks fire, 28 if not, and probably explode, killing you. If you want to be a bit more reasonable, like a coward who doesn’t want explosion related brain damage or loss of life, you can drop a few weapons and do actual heat management and risk assessment. Like an honorless coward.

It’s me, I’m the honorless coward.

All of this hate, explosives and blinding light for 2,927 BV can seem a bit much to stomach at first, and trust me it is, but if it gets good work in it can single handedly devastate an entire enemy list. Or explode instantly from getting shot in the face by a Hollander and cost you the game due to over investment. C’est la vie, gotta die sometime and ‘mechs like this thing are just more fun.

Fun fact: The base Kodiak is apparently on the mercenary MUL for a long time and as such is quite accessible! I now have to get another one to paint up with my ‘mercs.

Liberty’s Rating: B-. Genuine horror ‘mech that wants you dead. Let her off the leash; it’ll be funny, so long as you can afford her.

Kodiak 2

Big jet-packs and bigger fists? I feel like there’s gotta be an old 80s action movie about this kinda shit.

Second verse similar to the first. The 2 takes the standard Kodiak and pulls out a bunch of the ERMLs and one of the Streaks and its corresponding ton of ammo to load up on four jump jets so you can get real close to those Kuritan dogs as fast as possible. This change ends up dropping the price to 2,856 BV which is a touch more manageable. Notably the 2 does not drop any heat sinks and, as such, can fire off all the weapons, save the ERLL and only go up on heat if the streak actually goes off. Though this gives it less possible damage it gives it far more in fight longevity while also still packing in a lot of hate to complement its newfound mobility.

This boost to mobility really helps the Kodiak in hunting its preferred prey of ‘anything slower than it’, while marginally reducing its overall capacity to kill. It also provides it the capacity to hunt things that are a touch faster than it in rough terrain, gaining more air mobility to be able to keep pace and deliver its message of love, peace and hugs.

No wait, those are those other technicolor bears, this one just wants to kill you. Like a normal bear.

Liberty’s Rating: B+. This is the primary variant I use for my Kodiak. Fixing the standard’s heat problem while giving greater mobility, being cheaper and keeping relatively the same loadout is astounding. Thing is a damned menace.

Kodiak 3

PULL

THIEVES! RAVEN THIEVES!!! The 3 comes to us from Clan Snow Raven who, apparently, despise rotorcraft, VTOLs and aerospace fighters. The 3 drops six heat sinks, both Streak boxes and four of the ER Medium Lasers to mount up a targeting computer in the left arm and TWO LB 20-X autocannons with a total of 6 tons of ammo… four of which are in the legs.

This is horrid. This is angry. This is a machine set and based upon the mere concept of screaming PULL into the void and throwing a county sized wall of 40mm ball bearings into the sky to see what sticks. Or, if you’re a sadomasochist, you could turn this hell machine on your fellow Mechwarrior and unleash an unholy head hit and Tac hunting hell upon them. You just better have the box-o’-death to roll it out with or you’re gonna piss off your opponent and drag the game to even more of a crawl.

That said, this thing is terribly effective for 2,615 BV, making it the cheapest baseline Kodiak you could field. It’s also still capable of just acting like a T-comped UAC/20 that can’t jam with a generally better chance of landing both shells on target when you set it to send out slugs. Honestly I’d recommend mostly taking slugs and reserving those cluster shots for when you’ve got a real funny target to soak them into.

Liberty’s Rating: B-. This machine will get more golden BBs than you can possibly imagine.

Kodiak 4

Ordering Fire Mission, Grid Ref: Over there.

This Kodiak has decided that range and clusters are cool and good and as such has gone in on them hard. The 4 mounts four ER Medium Lasers and replaces the hands with a pair of LRM-20s with Artemis IV and four tons of ammo, backed up by an LB 20-X with two tons of ammo for your cluster slinging pleasure. This is all supported by the Kodiak’s usual 20 double heat sinks making it heat neutral on the run.

This adds a fair bit to the Kodiak’s capacity to inflict work on the way in while still having a very respectable 88 possible damage on an alpha strike. These loadout choices bring the 4 to a, so far, very middle of the pack 2,728 BV. That all considered the 4 just kind of feels weaker than its brethren, even if its cheaper than most of them that loss of close range firepower makes the 4 feel like its some kind of fire support ‘mech wearing a Kodiak costume.

Now if we got some ATMs mounted up in there? That’d be something quite hateful.

Liberty’s Rating: C+. Objectively useful and still a savage bruiser but for the price there’s some other fire support choices that’d do the job just as well if not better and for the extra hundred BV or so I’d rather just have the 2.

Kodiak 5

Headhunting has never looked meaner.

The Kodiak 5 is going in on the idea of better range support but in a far more effective way than the 4. The UAC/20, the SSRM-6s and their ammo have been replaced by a Gauss rifle with two tons of ammo, three extra heat sinks, another ER Medium Laser and another ER Large Laser. This isn’t a bad trade in the slightest as it gives the Kodiak 5 a very good capacity to reach out and touch enemy units at range with some nice, chunky damage.

Once you get in close you can fire off the nine ER Medium lasers and only build one heat at a run, two if you decide to throw the Gauss in too which… I mean why not?

You’ll be paying a pretty penny for all this extra range though, unfortunately. The 5 comes in at a hefty 3,066 BV but, much like the standard and the 2 before her, she’s quite likely to make that investment back if her head doesn’t explode. That extra ranged damage really feels like it’d go a long way towards softening up the enemy on the approach, making the 5’s job far easier once it gets there. Love it.

Liberty’s Rating: B. A sidegrade to the standard is not a bad thing to be by any means.

Kodiak 6

Oh hey, it’s the cooler Kodiak! Literally.

The 6 is a 2 with two major differences; for one the UAC/20 is an LB 20-X with two tons of ammo, an medium pulse laser and a pair of shiny new Coolant Pods! This means that with the 6’s twenty double heat sinks, an alpha strike on the run would build 20 heat. Unless the coolant pods are activated at which point it will be heat neutral!

This is a standard in most of the ways that count, except the lack of my beloved UAC, but with the ability to go all in on an easy alpha strike free of consequence. The 6 can dish an astonishing 97 heat neutral damage on target at short range two turns in a row and be happy to do it. The target sure won’t be happy about it doing it though.

For all this fun and violence you’ll pay 2,922 BV to put the 6 on the field and, much like the rest of them, she’s got a damned good chance of making that investment back.

Liberty’s Rating: B. Less overall possible damage but having this much while being Heat Neutral? Damn if this isn’t a pissmissile that intends to obliterate something in a font of oil, blood and shattered parts.

Cale

The damned combine got ahold of a Kodiak in ‘68 and decided that they just had to fuck around with it and make it worse. So they did.

The Cale is the personal ‘mech of the 2nd Dieron Regulars Tai-Sa Cale Schultz-Tanaka. Loaded to the gills with both Clan and IS tech this thing is menagerie of oddball decisions that really is just wrong. Firstly there are seven lasers now with all of them in the left arm, specifically three Clan ER medium lasers, two Inner Sphere ER medium lasers and two IS medium lasers.

The right arm now plays host to a heavy PPC while the glorious UAC/20 has been replaced by an IS AC/10, two tons of ammo and a Beagle Active Probe. Also now there’s a C3 Master in the left torso next to the pair of Streak SRM-6s and their two tons of ammo. Also five of the heat sinks walked off, meaning the Cale goes up 23 heat on an alpha strike.

Well, at least it’s still fast! Oh. Wait. Nope, now it’s 3/5. I hate it here.

AND IT COSTS 2,511 BV!!! FOR THIS HUNK OF JUNK??? I’d rather have a 3 for a bit more, at least it goes the right speed.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. Feels like a waste of the chassis to me. I wanna go back to Standard or 2 land.

Kodiak II

That’s right! They tried to build on perfection! They did… a job of it? The Kodiak II ends up keeping the same armor and whatnot throughout its three variants with the primary change being in the engine bay. The Kodiak II is 4/6, has just about all of the armor that can be mounted on a 100 tonner, only missing a pip on each arm while retaining the OG’s twenty double heat sinks. With only three variants so far, having debuted in 3095 with the most recent variant coming about in 3146, there’s not a whole lot to go through so let’s get right into it!

Kodiak II Standard

This is… different?

The Ghost Bears seem to have lost a little bit of the Kodiak plot, having callously stolen both the autocannon and the Kodiak’s glorious fists in favor of an ocean of LRMs and an ER PPC with a targeting comp. Oh.

And also the ER Medium Lasers are all ER Small Lasers now. For some fucking reason.

The Standard racks up a pair of LRM-20 ART IVs and a singular LRM-10 ART IV with one ton of ammo for the 10 and 4 tons of ammo for the 20s which gives each launcher 12 salvos. The twenty double heat sinks keep the Standard ice cold while firing all the long ranged weapons on the run, being down seven heat. Once you close to close range the ER Small Lasers can start pitching in, to not build heat you’ll have to drop something.

I’d recommend firing off the small lasers, one LRM-20 and the ERPPC once you get in close for the fist fight as you’ll only build one heat on the run which is pretty good! If you drop the ERPPC you can ripple off the rest of the loadout at -4 heat. Surprisingly heat efficient for a Clan ‘mech with this kind of energy heavy build!

If you feel the call of the void from your 105 possible damage and go for an alpha strike you can expect to go up 11 heat, short of any shutdown or ammo explosion checks so certainly manageable enough! For 3,066 BV it feels like it’s a kind of worse OG Kodiak with some sad tradeoffs.

Liberty’s Rating: C+. Same point and purpose as the Kodiak but the swap to ERSLs instead of ERMLs and all the cluster weapons just makes me sad, especially on something that costs this much BV.

Kodiak II 2

Oh god, it’s gettin’ hot in here.

The Kodiak II 2 is a Kodiak II with some slight differences. For one the LRM-20s are now streak LRM-20s meaning they will land all of their missiles on target any time they hit, barring sufficient ECM protection. Secondly the ammo has been stowed in a CASE II bay, except for the LB 20-X can in the CT. Thirdly it has a bunch of Harjel III in it now which… cool? It has a weird rule about restoring/regenerating armor or something which sounds fun, though probably quite annoying to deal with considering it looks like it just puts your ‘mech back together.

These changes for 3,147 is a direct upgrade over the Kodiak II which makes sense. Wonder how they fit all those upgrades in there. Oh wait, I missed something.

Ah, shit.

XXL Engine.

And they pulled four of the heat sinks???

Welp. That’s unfortunate.

For those that don’t know, a XXL engine makes it so that you generate extra heat, with standing still generating 2 heat, walking generating 4, and running a whopping 6 heat. This means that the Kodiak II 2 builds 17 heat on an alpha strike and is quite vulnerable to heat building weapons if you want to get as much as you can out of it. Additionally it means that this ‘mech can now die to a side torso loss which is a very large loss of durability for the Kodiak II.

Man I hate XXL engines.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. Terribly expensive and suddenly very fragile. It’ll still kill shit but just looking at this thing is making me worried about it exploding or burning out from under me.

Kodiak II 3

YOU’RE UP AGAINST THE WALL, AND I AM THE FUCKING WALL!

Or, well, at least the missiles are. The Kodiak II 3 takes the chassis of a II 2 and pulls all of the weapons out of it to replace them with a pair of Apollo equipped MRM 40s with four tons of ammo in a CASE II bay, an LB 20-X with two tons of ammo and one extra heat sink. That is a withering amount of clusters to dump into something, especially if it’s on the tail of a big ass 20 damage hit. I like the idea hear but the XXL is still present and that’s certainly not grea-

2,238 BV.

Sold. That kind of a price for this much hate buys some goodwill back from the XXL engine. As does being only up 2 heat on the run. I feel a lot better about having a fire/ammo explosion hazard on my side of the table when it at least resembles a reasonable price.

Liberty’s Rating: C. Still desires death but at least the price isn’t as egregious as the II 2 is!

Conclusion

God I love the Kodiak. It is, in my head, one of the platonic ideals of an assault ‘mech. It’s coming for you, quickly. When it gets here it is going to beat you to death with your own limbs before setting about hunting down your friends. Not because it has to but because it wants to. Don’t let a Kodiak get near you, if it does you’re already dead and you should make peace with whatever god you follow.

Just about all of the standard Kodiak variants are B’s and are damned good at their job of tearing the enemy apart. Few things are truly so angry and yet overjoyed as a Kodiak Standard that has found itself standing on a hill surrounded by other ‘mechs that cannot get away.

Rip and tear. Until it is done.

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