The twilight rays of New Valencia’s sun laid across the field around us, casting rolling hills in long shadows as waving grass shifted in the gentle wind. The ticking clack of my Marauder’s cooling barrel linkages mixed with the distant sound of waves on the shore and the groan of a brutalized off-white Guillotine that’d come crashing back down to the hard-pack a few moments ago. 

A map of molten rivers and shattered cliffs had spread across the armor around me, disrupting the pristine blue-white dazzle we’d left base with. She settled as I swung her hatch open, well used actuators easing into a rest position as I pushed up into the salt filled air. Met with the smell of cannon-fire, burnt ozone and melted metal I pulled in a long, thankful breath. Essex 1-1 and 1-2 stood a few strides away now, perched over their own kills as they took the moment of respite to survey their own ‘mechs and just breathe. 

Though those moments never lasted long. “Essex, Dragnet,” Came the crackling feed of the Dalban through my Nuerohelm, “reports of another blakist lance preparing to assault the production facilities to your north by northwest. Is your lance actionable?” 

Never a moment to rest on a House’s dime.

A small sigh slipped past my lips before I keyed the radio. “Dragnet, Essex lance is available for tasking.” 

“Understood, assigning Bataan to assist. Link with Rainier to rearm before engagement, forwarding coordinates. Dragnet Out.” 

At least the pay is good, the salvage plentiful and the techs competent…

“Essex, we’re underway on new orders. Batten down and get moving.” I called over the lance comm, prompting Anna, Steth and Rahmur to get back into their ‘mechs. We had a long march and only another hour or two of daylight to do it in. Anna and Rahmur’s Marauders ambled towards me, falling in on my flanks followed close behind by Steth in his old Stealth. At least we were all still in one piece and at the tail end of the contract.

And the old Marauders were as dependable as always.

• Lt. Jeremiah ‘Essex’ Wade, Marauder MAD-5T Pilot, The General Motors Generalist Mercenary Company

—

Howdy Mechwarriors and welcome back to another Mech Overview! Today we’ve got a mech that everyone knows and that holds a special spot in my heart, and my lists: the venerable Marauder! GM’s second best product to ever hit the lot. People who know me know that I’ve got a bit of an… obsession with General Motors products in the Battletech universe, having put together an entire Battalion of mechs for my ‘General Motors Generalist Mercenaries Company’ or ‘GMGM’. By far the greatest example of that obsession is the Marauder itself as some form of it also finds its way into my other forces.

Let me tell you, I own a lot of Marauders.

The Marauder, unfortunately, disappeared for a while with the whole ‘Unseen’ problem that came along, leaving a few other heavies to step into the role until her triumphant return. That being said the Marauder is one of the most iconic ‘mechs in the Battletech universe and certainly one that has contributed to a lot of other designs to appear in the warzones of the Inner Sphere.

Peri: I, meanwhile, fucking hate the Marauder and have traded all but one of the ones I have ever owned over to Liberty in exchange for Panthers and Banshees. The very gun-centric design philosophy that most marauders have, with huge piles of guns and a lack of much else, is just antithetical to the way I prefer to play BattleTech.

Chassis

The Marauder is a 75 ton heavy that’s been cultivated into a pretty strong identity that holds, relatively, true across most of the variants. Marauders pretty universally sport a pair of big and small energy guns in the arms and another big gun mounted up on the right torso. The Marauder is a classic ‘mech and, as is the fate of most classics, has a lot of variants, weighing in at 38 machines ranging in origin from General Motors themselves, the Great Houses, the Clans and the Periphery! Hell there’s even an Omni Marauder or two! This proliferation is not without reason, the Marauder’s design, layout and payload make for a very good machine with a lot of potential for doctrinal customization. There’s a Marauder for just about anything from sniper, to command mech to brawler. If you’ve got a need for a heavy mech to push a line, hold a point or beat on guys that are otherwise engaged then the MAD’s got a variant that will do just that.

Peri: The trio of big guns is the central issue with the Marauder, as nearly every variant is chained down to having those big guns. Running that many main gun grade guns in something lighter than an assault mech is a recipe for mediocrity and excessive BV costs.

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 the other ‘mech reviews).

1R

GM’s first try at perfection, the Royals always get the cool toys first.

The 1R sets the baseline for every Marauder going forward, which makes sense since it’s the first one after all. A PPC and a medium laser occupy both arms while an AC/5 auto-cannon and one ton of CASE protected ammo occupy the right torso. The medium lasers do a good enough job of filling the hole in the 1R’s range brackets, coming into their own at the same time that the PPC and AC/5 are going to start having trouble hitting things that get a touch too close.

This setup supports the 1R’s 4/6 movement profile pretty well, letting it do a good job of advancing behind your line as it moves forward. Moving from cover to cover behind the assaults or other heavies so it can happily sling lightning at your problems will keep the Marauder happy and fed.

Unfortunately the 16 single heat sinks are fighting a bit of a losing battle trying to keep the 1R cool. Firing both PPCs and the AC/5, what the range brackets suggest is the goal, will put you +5 up the scale with even more if you’re on the move. Now, four of those heat sinks are in the legs so you could seek depth 1 water to get partial cover and an even 20 effective heat sinking, though this will still have you building +1 heat with the PPCs and the AC/5, a situational solution but ‘mechwarriors from 2612 were just built different I guess.

Armor wise… It’s not bad! The 1R is AC/20 proof everywhere but the head which is certainly a good armor profile to be sporting. Unfortunately the ‘mech does have an achilles heel: the left torso. There’s nothing in it which means any crits to that location automatically transfer to the CT. This is not great.

For 1420 BV this isn’t too terrible a start, even if I have my many gripes with it. At least if the ammo gets cooked off by the heat you won’t throw the cockpit into low earth orbit!

Rating: C-. There are just better options but if you want cheap, heavy metal that won’t just stop existing suddenly she’ll do the job.

Peri: Starting off with a platonic example of the Marauder, I sure do love spending 1420 BV for a mech that has too many guns to shoot and not enough heat sinks to shoot them. In my opinion if you can’t fire all of your guns in a given range bracket without overheating, you are a bad mech. Having 3 main guns that all have identical range bands and when fired together build 7 heat at a run is honestly unacceptable. That triple main gun identity means that the intro-tech variants simply do not have the tonnage to fit in enough heat sinks to deal with their weapon loads.

My Rating: D-. Overheats, empty side torsos are horrifyingly bad on heavy mechs, and gives you nothing you can’t get better for cheaper.

2R

R is for Royaler.

The 2R fixes just about all the problems with the 1R and then some. Sporting the same armor, movement and number of heat sinks the 2R bumps the 1R’s PPCs up to ERPPCs. This represents a marked interest in both short range capabilities as well as long range as the ERPPCs do not have the standard PPC’s minimum ranges.

On the other hand this also represents a marked increase in dreaded heat generation. Luckily the designers thought of that. The 2R replaces the 1R’s 16 single heat sinks with 16 doubles, meaning that firing off both ERPPCs and the AC/5 leaves you -1 on the heat scale. All of this for a mere 210 more than the 1R at 1630 BV. If you’ve got the choice and you just want a ‘mech to sling hate at your problems from a good clip behind your front line the 2R will do it without complaint.

Honestly this is nearly the ideal of what a Marauder should be and there are several variants that get even better. I just wish the ranges lined up.

Rating: A- if only the AC/5 had the same range bracket as the ERPPCs

Peri: This mech is automatically significantly better. Having enough heat sinks to function is an incredible upgrade over the 1R shit-o-tron. Armor is adequate, it has enough heat sinks, and those heat sinks fill up the previously empty left torso. For the price this is actually an adequate mech. It is a bit light on the armor compared to something like an Orion, and 2 ERPPCs and an AC/5 is by no means incredible, but it isn’t an active detriment to you the way some Marauders are.

My Rating: C+

2T

By god! They’re listening to me! Get out of my walls you damned Taurians, that’s not where my nukes are!

The 2R is a 2T in every way that matters except one: The cannon.

The AC/5 is replaced by an LB/5 X backed by the standard ton of ammunition. On the surface this doesn’t sound like a big upgrade and the lack of a second ton of ammo feels limiting but as someone who uses this variant a lot with my Colonial Marshals it is anything but.

The LB/5 extends the range out to almost the exact same banding as the ERPPCs, only falling slightly short at the edge of long range while also eliminating the AC/5’s minimum. This means that, if you like your pinpoint 5 damage slug, the 2T will happily send it down range to the same target numbers as the ERPPCs and give you 20 turns of doing it without complaint.

But, if you want the bonus to hit and more possible head hits, TACs or just plain old internal structure crits then the cluster will do that job happily. Rolling on the quite acceptable 5 point cluster table you’re averaging three extra hits per hit, that’s 300% more bullet per bullet! At a paltry BV increase of 16 over the 2R I highly recommend the 2T for 1646 BV. Even if your plan is to sling slugs out of it instead of the clusters the range matching and elimination of minimum range is well worth the miniscule cost increase.

This is the standard I set for every other Marauder going forward. It’s here with a purpose, a point and a goal and it excels at doing it.

Rating: A. Machine good. Use machine. Kill with machine. Repeat.

Peri: I’d rather have a 2R to load precision ammo. If your group doesn’t allow the thing that makes basic autocannons acceptable weapons, the 2T is substantially better. The extra range matching up with the ER PPCs is also nice, so it is a bit of a wash between this and the 2R.

My Rating: C+

 

3R

This thing puts the Suck in Succ wars.

The 3R is basically a 1R but worse. In every single fucking way. While the BV reflects this, costing a paltry 1363 BV, it still isn’t cheap enough to ever consider taking for any reason. It has the same sinking, the same guns, less armor and no CASE. This machine is the very definition of an ammo bomb. That empty left torso is now filled with one thing, one burning hateful thing that wants nothing more than to kill you. Your singular fucking ton of AC/5 ammunition.

I would rather that torso have stayed empty, honestly. Instead we have the ‘mech and pilot removal device.

At least you could survive taking a hit to the engine in the 1R, it’d make the cockpit hell drenched in napalm, ghost peppers and white phosphorous but you and your mech wouldn’t be scattered across the fucking countryside like the Sphere’s biggest game of 8 billion card pick ‘em up.

Piloting this godforsaken machine will not leave enough of you for your family to pour in a god damned bucket, let alone a casket. There are so many other machines that are better than this thing for nearly the same God damned price.

Shitbox. Bad Machine. Sullies the name ‘Marauder’. Fucking don’t. Even if someone has a gun to your head, don’t. The gun probably has a lower chance of killing you.

Rating: F. Get this fucking thing out of my sight immediately.

Peri: I don’t even disagree here I just want to jump in to body slam the 3R even more. This is without exaggeration possibly the worst heavy mech in the succession wars period, and I know the Quickdraw exists. The thing is that the Quickdraw doesn’t lie to you. Its a bad mech, a remarkably bad mech, but it doesn’t pretend to be good. The 3R Marauder is a fucking liar.

The fluff tells you it is a good command mech, the king of the battlefield, a force that must be respected, but in practice it is an overheating shitbot with a fucking ammo bomb and zero redeeming qualities. There is no reason to take the 3R Marauder, nearly anything else would be a better use of BV. I’d rather have 2 Panthers literally 100% of the time. There is nothing good about the 3R, even the 6R Warhammer, another horribly bad 3025 mech, is more functional and high quality than this piece of shit.

If someone tells you the 3R Marauder is a good mech, they haven’t played the tabletop game in 30 years or they are immensely deluded.

My Rating: F-, I’d rather have a Loki and I mean that as a Slur.

3D

Wait… This one doesn’t explode?

Going against not just current Marauder convention but the very nature of their cordite infused souls the Davions actually removed the AC/5 in favor of a large laser! Huh… Weird.

That being said the 3D is essentially a 3R with the key difference being that the 8 tons of auto cannon and 1 ton of ammo has been traded for a 5 ton large laser and 4 more single heat sinks, honestly a very good trade.

This takes the bomb out, puts a pair of heat sinks in the left and center torsos and makes it so that the 3D is overall far more survivable. Additionally all those extra heat sinks make the 3D’s heat far more manageable, only building movement heat when firing off the two PPCs. When things get a touch too close and you have to lay into them with the lasers the 3D is actually sinking -6 heat at a standstill.

All of these upgrades move the cost up by 107 setting the 3D at 1420 BV. Not bad for what it is.

Rating: C-. Not the best of the Marauders but it’s at the very least serviceable, especially for the era. 

Peri: C- is about right, there really is nothing wrong with this mech. It is perfectly adequate if somewhat unexciting. Probably the best 3025 Marauder in its period, the 3M is better once you get access to precision ammo.

3L

… Well this one is odd.

The 3L is, unsurprisingly, house Liao’s entry into the Succ War Marauder punch bowl and I’m not sure why they did it the way they did. It’s a 3R in every way.

Well, almost every way.

House Liao decided to pull the left arm PPC in favor of a large laser for some fuckin’ reason. Summarily using the two saved tons to stuff an extra pair of heat sinks in, meaning the 3L can in fact stand still and fire both of the mains while being heat neutral. Those two extra heat sinks were mounted up in the left torso next to… the device. Now, this does make it so there is at least some crit padding next to the ammo bomb and as such reduces your pilot’s likelihood of dying in a horrid explosion from a crit in the left torso from 100% to 33%. It ain’t much but it’s honest work.

The 3L is an odd bridge point between the 3R and the 3D that I kinda just wish was a 3D every time I look at it. It feels like it’s lacking in a few things that are just kind of unfortunate oversights. It lacks any real direction and the ranges are all over the place, pretty sure just pulling both PPCs and the AC/5 and replacing them all with large lasers and heat sinks would work and really lean into the Liao laser lightshow spirit that I think this thing could be.

At 1369 BV there’s only so much complaining to be done but there really are just better options for only a little bit more or less. At least it’s not the 3R, I guess.

Rating: D+. Could be worse, could definitely be better.

Peri: This is a halfway house between the 3D and 3M. The 3D or 3M would be a better choice in basically every situation.

3M

Huh… I think my house might actually be bugged.

The Free Worlds League has a problem. A supply problem. See, the FWL really likes the Awesome, to a somewhat unhealthy degree, and they make a lot of them. But the FWL can only make so many PPCs and most of the ones that they are making are sent to the Awesome lines to make more Awesome per Awesome because Awesomes are Awesome…

Anyhow, this means that the FWL, still wanting to use the Marauder, needed a different main weapon since PPCs were out of the question. As such they turned to the humble large lasers which they had a fucking lot of. The FWL ripped the 3R’s PPC’s out of the arms and replaced them with large lasers and spent the remaining four tons on heat sinks! This puts the 3M into an interesting spot of being the premier Succ. Wars brawler Marauder.

Due to its lack of a minimum range on its main weapons, and the fact that it is now only +3 on the heat scale when running and slapping the big red button marked ‘LASER TIME’, the 3M is all too happy to stride into the enemy’s face and start trying to give them a bootleg LASIK procedure out back of the local Dennys on demand.

Coming in at a mere 1335 BV this Marauder is honestly great if you’re looking for something you don’t care about to fill the line and get the shit kicked out of it. It’s cheaper than a 3R and unreasonably better. Use this instead.

Rating: C+. Why do my eyes hurt?

Peri: The 3M is my favorite 3025 Marauder and generally the Marauder I use when I use my single Marauder. It is reasonably cheap, doesn’t blow up too much, and is barely adequate for the price.

An interesting anecdote is that the two of us once played a game that was a single Mad Cat TC VS a pair of 3Ms, to see how well the best Succ War Marauder would fair in a BV balanced match against the best Invasion era Mad Cat. The Marauders won but it was a very close match. If you use BV, Clans and Inner Sphere are balanced against each other pretty well, being able to take more and heavier stuff is such a powerful bonus.

Liberty: Don’t forget their friend the singular wasp!

4X

My what big Lasers you have!

The 4X is… something. At 1453 BV it’s not terribly expensive and has a few interesting pieces of equipment but it wants nothing more than to turn your pilot into a roasted chicken. The 4X is an experimental variant of the Marauder built by the FWL because a large laser in each arm wasn’t enough and they thought strapping two of them together and mounting them in the same spot would be way cooler.

Enter the binary laser cannon.

The 4X drops the entirety of the 3R’s armament and does… stuff with the free tonnage. For one it brings the armor up such that the entire upper body, sans the head, is AC/20 proof, and the legs have 19 armor on them. So they only need worry about big kicks and bigger guns. Two, it mounts a binary laser cannon in each arm and an SRM-6 with one ton of ammo in each side torso. Three… Prototype double heat sinks and prototype endo steel?
The 4X has 6 Prototype double heat sinks and 12 single heat sinks, this doesn’t mean much for game play other than the fact that you have a total 24 points of heat sinking. This is an unfortunate number because a binary laser cannon makes 16 heat upon firing so the two of them, at a standstill, will generate +8 heat and leave your pilot baking even before you toss the SRMs or any movement in. You could fire them off independently but at that point it may as well have mounted one up in the spinal mount and done weird SRM shenanigans in the arms.

The 4X has some fun toys but it really should have just tried to be a 3M using the binary laser cannon in place of the AC/5 instead.

Rating: D-. Novel weapons and weird head-choppers aside that heat is just downright horrid and keeps the 4X back, hard.

5CS

This machine kills clanners… supposedly.

The 5CS is a ComStar refit of an old 3R meant to uprate the older mechs into something to meet their ‘Clan Buster’ requirements. To do this they entirely overhauled the old shitboxes to make something actually worth driving into battle at the acceptable price of 1648 BV.

Kinda.

The 5CS does quite a few changes to bring a 3R into the invasion era, pulling the old PPCs and replacing them with ERPPCs, replacing the medium lasers with pulse variants and ripping out the old, rusty AC/5s and replacing them with a shiny new LB/10 X and two tons of ammo all backed and cooled by 18 double heat sinks. Additionally the armor has been thoroughly uprated to bring it in just shy of the 5D, making everywhere but the head AC/20 proof. Now, how does the mech buy all that spare tonnage? Well, it’s a clan buster so the answer is simple, rip out the old standard engine and stuff an XL in it.

Unfortunately, in stuffing all these heat sinks into the old ‘mechs frame, the Com Guards had to make a choice on where to stick the ammo and, instead of just dropping a heat sink to make room in a side torso, they elected to stuff it all in the CT. Now, with an XL engine, it wouldn’t matter much if they’d dropped a heat sink and shunted the ammo into the same side as the LB/10 as it going off would still gut the engine and drop the ‘mech. But, at least it would mean there’s a bunch of other not critical slots present from the LB-10 to try and eat the crits which, should it manage to do so, would then give you reason to ditch the shells and carry on your merry Marauder way.

That in mind, this only dings the 5CS so much as it has 35 armor on the CT which means for it to be going off the mech is either critically injured and likely nearing death anyhow or getting severely unlucky.

Rating: C. Not actively bad but for what it’s doing at the price you might as well just run a 2T and get the extra survivability.

5D

Ma’, the Davions are back…

The 5D is a 3D but it’s using all the new fangled toys that the Helm-Memory Core had to offer. For one, the armor is better, the weapons are newer and it can jump now! All of this weight has been bought through the use of an XL engine. The medium lasers have been replaced with medium pulse lasers, the large laser is a large pulse laser and the PPCs have been upgraded to their extended range variants and for some reason they stuck a random SSRM-2 in it and protected the single ammo bin with CASE. I blame new toy syndrome. Either way this is a very angry loadout. I’d rather the streak wasn’t there since it really keeps you from rolling your face on the console when something gets near you and gives you a good shot but that’s fine.

The 5D’s loadout really likes bracketing. At appreciable ranges you can fling both of the ERPPCs at things to your heart’s content With little to no consideration for heat and when things get close don’t be afraid to feed them the pulse vomit and chuck the SSRM-2 in for good measure. The 5D is kept heat neutral when firing the ERPPCs at a run and deep in the negative if you’re relying on the pulse lasers by 16 double heat sinks that do a great job of keeping this Marauder cold in all but the most dire of circumstances. You get all of these upgrades for a respectable 1787 BV which is reasonable enough for a machine that can be used quite effectively as a sniper/skirmisher while also being able to defend itself.

There are a lot of opinions on putting XL engines into heavies, and I understand the hesitancy, losing a mech to one of your side torsos getting drilled out sucks, hard. But the amount of extra hate it allows you to pack on is almost always worth it in my eyes. And usually I find if a heavy is at the point that it’s in danger of losing the side torso to damage it’s either in such a bad spot that the XL engine is only going to make it die slightly faster… or it’s just the kind of unlucky stroke that happens sometimes with Battletech where a TAC finds the one ammo bin on the mech and sends you crumpling to the ground. C’est la vie.

Rating: B. Good hops, good guns and a nice mixed role make the 5D a competent support piece for your line!

Peri: This is one of the better “New Toy” IS upgrades from the Clan Invasion, there really isn’t a ton wrong with it, unlike the 5CS. I don’t think it is a B, it is pretty expensive for what it is, but it isn’t a bad mech by any means. I just think you can do better with 1800 BV, like a 3Mr Banshee or any number of Orions.

We really need to get around to doing an article on the Orion.

My Rating: C+

5D-DC

/Vote_Kick

It’s a 5D but it doesn’t have the SSRM-2! Or one of the heat sinks. This is all done so that the 5D can mount up a command console in the head and a small pulse laser(but why?) in the CT for the exact same 1787 BV as the standard 5D. This isn’t bad. It’s not the cheapest of the command consoles and if you’re playing with the optional rules it’s a good way to get a nice bonus to your initiative while still having something on the field capable of throwing some good work in to support the force. The loss of the heat sink stings a little as it means the 5D-DC can’t fire both ERPPC’s and run while staying neutral anymore but it just means you’ll have to do a little bit of heat management… or stand still I guess.

Rating: A- if you’re using the command console rules, B+ if not. Even though you ditch a heat sink, not being able to blow yourself up on heat makes the 5D-DC a bit more flexible to the situation it finds itself in and lets you get more aggressive with your heat scaling. 

Peri: If you just want the Command Console, grab the Grand Dragon that has one, it is a lot cheaper. The reason you would take this is that you already really want to take a Marauder and you want it to actually function as a command mech, the way the fluff says it is supposed to. It is a perfectly functional backline heavy mech that has twice the PPC of the Command Console Grand Dragon, so if you want to trade speed for guns you certainly can take this mech.

My rating: B+ with the command console, C+ if you are lame and don’t want to.

5L

Oh god, the Capellans are trying to cook their mechwarriors.

The 5L likes it hot. So hot in fact that the Capellans saw fit to mount triple strength myomer to the mech to take advantage of it. Though the clanneresque price tag of 2244 BV might keep you from taking advantage of it personally.

Armor wise this is a 5D with two of the CT pips moved out to the arms, not sure why they did that but they did. The 5L mounts a pair of ERLLs and a pair of ERMLs in the arms as well as an ERPPC in the right torso and a Guardian ECM in the CT. All of this is kept… warm by 18 double heat sinks. This mech, having TSM, wants to sit at +9 heat on the scale, making it go from the Marauder’s usual 4/6 movement to a more mobile 5/8. While this would obviously cause problems with firing, adding +1 to all rolls, it does make the 5L far more capable of getting places. This all shapes up to make the 5L a competent machine that will happily act as an aggressive fat cavalry mech that’s here to take long range pot shots while approaching a position until it’s close enough to start trying to put its size 300 TSM grade boots through someone else’s leg.

But why is the ECM here? It’s certainly nice to have and does keep the missiles off your back while you approach but the extra ton and a half, plus a little of the armor, could be used on MPLs or something. Well, that’d be because the 5L mounts something else: Stealth Armor.

This makes the 5L an interesting duck play wise. First turn you want to turn on your TSM, the easiest way I see to do that is to send out the ERPPC, both ERLLs, one of the ERMLs and walking your four hexes. After that, for maintenance of the TSM, you can fire off both of the ERLLs with the stealth armor on while running and be heat neutral. Honestly this is a good pattern in which to play the mech. It makes the ER PPC feel a little wasted unfortunately but it is still there for when you get ready for that super-alpha strike you can deliver when you’re at the ‘I’m going to beat you to death’ range. Heat will only kinda matter by the time you’re done because you intend to drive a juiced up foot through someone else’s shin. Just uh… don’t let the little rat bastards with SRM-Is get near you or it’s gonna be a BBQ in the cockpit.

Rating: D+ The cost REALLY hurts the 5L, most of that is coming from the boost in movement TSM provides but it wouldn’t be what it is without it. There is no doubt in my mind that this thing can rip shit and kill if given the chance but It’s an incredibly situational mech for way too big of an investment. Especially if it can be defeated by a warm summer breeze.

5M

The LASIK machine has a pulse setting now!

The 5M is a 3M but with some slight changes. For one, all the lasers are pulse lasers now. Two, it’s got the XL engine from the 5D. Three, the AC/5 is an LB/10-X, still with only one ton of ammo but it’s case protected so at least the Mechwarrior won’t die when it goes off. Four, it can fly.

The 5M buys a lot of tonnage with the XL engine and uses it quite well, in my opinion. The one ton of ammo leaves you with ten shots of your choice so do with it what you will. The pulse lasers mean this thing wants to be in a fist fight and is dead cold firing all the lasers and jumping the full four hexes and only goes up by +2 if you throw the cannon on. Overall a very heat efficient build that is going to be happy in the shit.

Unfortunately the 5M retains the 3M’s poor armor, meaning you’ve only got 17 on the side torsos and 18 on the legs while there is a whopping 35 points on the CT. Feel like that probably could’ve been distributed a touch more evenly and made the mech more survivable.

Do you need something to act as a heavy picket guard for your assaults to keep lights off their backs? It can do that. How about something to push your line forward before diving on something else to try and beat it to death? It can do that. Is one of your Mechwarriors failing their range quals because of their eyesight that they refuse to get checked? The 5M is just as happy as the 3M to drag them behind the nearest Dennys to give them their House mandated LASIK appointment. That all being said the 5M is only 1471 BV which is cheap as dirt for what it is. A lance of them is only 5884 BV before skills, this would not be an effective force but it would certainly be a very funny one. I should do that at some point, sounds like fun.

Rating: B-. Dear god this thing is fucking cheap. The armor profile is unfortunate but if you’ve got a hankering for cheap bastards, or a lot of Marauder models sitting around looking for something to do, the 5M will answer the call with resplendently low cost glee.

Peri: The 5M is an incredibly funny jumpy pulse mech but it is by no means a high tier jumpy pulse mech. For around this price you could get a TR-1 Wraith and jump 7 instead of 4, which takes you from +2 to +4 TMM without cutting into the firepower too heavily. I fundamentally just dislike the Marauder’s firepower centric design philosophy, I would much rather have more movement or more armor nearly 100% of the time. The Marauder draws way too much attention to hide in a backline and convince people it is harmless, and once this thing jumps in with its pulse lasers and mighty +2 TMM a smart opponent will just John Marston it to death immediately. The low price does help, but you can do better cheaper.

Rating: C+, it’s fine but better mechs are out there to do this exact thing. Like the IJJ Sagittaire.

5R

R doesnt stand for Royals. In this house it stands for Rotary.

The 5R takes the 5D and fiddles with it a little bit, dropping the normal AC/5 for a Rotary variant as well as grabbing a C3 slave and a Guardian ECM system for maximum doohickey applications. The mix of weapons on the 5R is a bit eclectic, especially when paired with the heat sinking capabilities that the 17 doubles provides. The two ERPPCs generate 30, while the holy lead spitter mounted in the right torso wants to generate 6. This, unfortunately, leaves us 2 into the red before movement on weapons that do not really line up on their range bands. You could use the RAC like a UAC that can be unjammed which would leave you down -2 heat, leaving enough room for a run, saving the 6 shot savagery for when you’ve got a real killer shot… but that’s kinda lame.

Or, you get the C3 into play. As long as you get someone else in the network within 5 hexes of your target, and keep the target within 15 hexes of the 5R, you can get some pretty good shots on and have a good chance of savaging a respectable chunk of armor off of whichever poor sap you decided to pick on. Pair all that with the 6 cluster table’ average of 4 rounds on target and the 5R has a reasonable expectation of delivering a PSR to a target every turn.

The 5R clocks in at 1877 BV which is unfortunately a good amount to distribute across the rest of your C3 lance, meaning it’s going to get kind of expensive kind of quick.

Rating: B- Outside of a C3 lance, B+ in one. The price is going to slightly tarnish the C3 tactic but that’s where I think the 5R would really shine.

Peri: Building 4 heat at a run isn’t that bad, but my usual problem with RAC mechs is still present here. It has too many guns. If the RAC jams, you have to take a turn off from firing, and spending a turn not shooting with your 1877 BV investment sucks. RACs are insanely good, but this is not a particularly great RAC mech. There is a Marauder that is a good RAC mech, spoiler alert, but it ain’t this one.

My Rating: C- in general, there are better uses of the BV both in C3 forces and in regular forces.

5S

32lbs of nickel, titanium and hate hurts a lot when you get it moving fast enough.

The 5S is an interesting take on the Marauder as a fulfillment of the sniping role. The Combine, at some point during the clan invasion, got a hold of the plans for the 5D and decided to make some changes. They retained the XL engine but dumped the jump jets, and a good amount of side torso and leg armor to make space for a gauss rifle, one ton of ammunition, CASE and an extra double heat sink.

This makes the 5S one of the best sniping Marauders we’ve come across so far, having a bonafide head-chopper on something with a good pair of support weapons that have nearly identical range brackets is very nice. While I’m not happy about the armor the 5S is meant to be in the rear slinging good damage at things that aren’t always going to have the best of time responding, other gauss trucks or cERPPC carriers may give it a hassle but it’s still going to punch at or above its weight with those sweet sweet boxcars. For 1799 BV it’s an acceptable way to haul the weapons it’s got onto the field while still being relatively mobile enough to get them into workable positions with enough armor to be serviceable if something starts getting close. A touch better than the 2T, the big gun is very nice especially when holding the same firing pattern as the 2T. The armor is holding it back a little but it’s not meant to be up there getting into fist fights. Make something else look like a better shot for a while and the 5S should be just fine for the 8 rounds it takes to empty the bin.

Rating: A. Get the gauss talking and take some heads with it. Barring that, blowing off big chunks of armor is great too!

Peri: This isn’t even close to an A. You can, once again, do better with less BV. If you like the sound of this mech, the Caesar does the same job better in my opinion. It isn’t a terrible mech, but it also isn’t nearly good enough to reach an A. For only a slight increase over this price you can get a pair of headchoppers on a lot of mechs, which is usually a lot better than the pair of ER PPCs that this thing has. The 9M Flashman is only 100 BV more expensive and carries 2 Heavy PPCs, 4 MPLs, 4 basic medium lasers, and has no explosive components as a result. Gauss rifles do blow the fuck up, and it really sucks when they do considering how many explosive crits they add.

I still like Gauss Rifles and IS ERPPCs when used responsibly, but an A is just a bit of a stretch for this mech.

My rating: B-, good but not top tier.

5T

Sometimes House Davion gets it right, and when they do you usually find the NAIS or GM lurking somewhere in the design rooms or the VIN numbers.

This time around it’s my boys over at GM.

Do you like Rotary Cannons? Do you like Pulse Lasers? Do you like Targeting computers? What about all of that on a ‘mech with enough armor to get into a fist fight and come out the other side probably alright and certainly better off than the other guy?

That’s the MAD-5T’s MO.

With two of the most BV efficient weapons in the game mated up to a targeting comp. covered with 14 tons of standard armor this thing is a steal at 1750 BV for what it can do in a knock down drag out fight. For that it ends up in my lists a lot.

Get Jumped by a light? -3 to hit Pulse Lasers will tell them to piss off. Get into a fist fight with another mech of equal or greater tonnage? 48 possible accurate, heat neutral, damage per turn, or 60 if you’re alright with gettin’ real hot on the MPLs, is a good clip of ‘stop existing’ to throw at someone who’s bothering you. The two tons of ammo parked next to an XL is a touch disappointing but the BV rebate on the engine only helps keep the MAD-5T in an even cheaper price range. Besides, if you use the rotary cannon like a real fucking Mechwarrior and hold the button down the 40 rounds will be gone in under 7 rounds of fire anyway. 14 double heat sinks mean you’ve got enough sinking to run around, flash the big pulse lasers at your problems and make the cannon roar until either the bins are empty, the other guy’s fucking dead, you’re deaf or she’s guttered out from underneath of you.

As much as I wish the 5T had some better range or a touch more speed it’s not what she’s here for. She’s got flaws but she’s got a job and damn is she good at that job. Keep her out of the open and provide some good coverage from her lancemates and you’ll be surprised just how much this ‘mech can do to something. All in all the MAD-5T sits in a two way fist fight for my favorite, and most used, Marauder variant.

And brother, she’s fucking winnin’.

Rating: A+. I love this thing to the moon and back and will keep doing so until the day she is ripped from my cold dead hands. The first game I ever played with Peri one of these fed their Atlas its teeth with several RAC/5 headshots out of the same burst and I’ve loved it ever since. 

All hail the rotary, the pulse and the targeting computer. Blessed be their name, deafening voice, blinding light and harrowing solutions. The 5T will take all comers and drag them kicking and screaming into death’s waiting arms. KNOCK THEM DOWN. GUT THEIR ENGINES. BREAK THEIR BACKS. KILL! KILL! KILL!!!

Peri: Having played against the 5T quite a few times, both alone and in pairs, this is a far better RAC Marauder. Good armor, good weapons, and a very reasonably price for a pulse+TC/RAC+TC mech. While it is not my favorite mech, or even my favorite Marauder, it has a lot going for it if it is allowed to get into a situation that benefits it. The 5T is a close quarters mech and requires a short engagement range to function, none of the guns here are particularly good at long range and 4/6/0 is bad movement. It is far and away at its best during defense missions or objective control missions where it can force enemies to move into it.

If your opponent lets a Marauder 5T into close range, you can do some really horrible things to them with it before the gun jams, and bluntly there is a very high chance at those ranges that either the 5T or, more likely, its opponent are already dead by the time the gun jams.

It isn’t an omni-tool and is a very niche mech for close range, defensive roles, but it is one of the best mechs in that category by far.

My Rating: C+, far too narrow in use case for it to be any higher, but insanely strong on defense.

6L

I… did Liao forget how TSM works or are they just trying to make MechWarrior Flambé?

I’m really not sure what to say here. The 6L is a 5L with some armament changes, same amount of stealth armor, same TSM, same movement profile and a few less double heat sinks, taking it down to fifteen, with some shiny new 3070s weapons. It’s the Heat sinks mixed with the guns and armor that I’m really not getting here.

The 6L removes all of the 5L’s armaments and replaces them with a plasma rifle in each arm and a PPC. That’s it. That’s all. This means that, firing the guns, you build 30 heat which puts you at dead even, cool, good for keeping TSM running. Ok but you have to move to do the thing the mech is trying to do so you’re building heat there which means you’re actively climbing in your TSM mech which gets bad fast. But how do we get to TSM? Well, you can build 40 + movement if you turn the stealth armor on but now that means you’re up to 10 and therefore back to 4/6…

At the very least all these glaring flaws are cool as it takes the 6L’s price down to 2322 BV from the 5L’s 2244… No wait, that’s more. How is this more? Why is this more? Why is this ‘mech the way that it is? Why are LIAO the way that they are? Maybe Hanse was right, maybe the Suns should’ve taken over the Capellan confederation if for no other reason than to stop them from making mockeries of GM’s second most perfect machine.

I’m really not sure what you’re supposed to do here to get, and keep, this thing’s TSM on. I think you could probably finagle it with some clever flipping of heat sink switches to turn a few off to make it square out but I just don’t see it being worth it, especially not for the price.

Rating: D-. The guns are cool, plasma rifles are fun but this thing sucks, don’t take it. If you want TSM go get something else. If you want Plasma Rifles go get something else. Just… just go get something else.

7C

Man, those shiny cantaloupes travel really fast.

The now standard pair of ERPPCs occupy the arms accompanied by a pair of medium x-pulses to back them up when the fighting gets a little too close. This is all wrapped up by a light gauss with one ton of ammo mounted in a CASE II protected bay in the right torso along with a Guardian ECM alongside it and a C3 slave up in the open head slot. There’s nothing really wrong with this ‘mech aside from the XL, it’s got acceptable armor, the standard movement profile, a good gun set and overall acceptable heat management from the fifteen double heat sinks that make it build movement heat +1 when firing both ERPPCs and the light gauss. All of this for an acceptable 1810 makes the 7C an alright enough sniper to hunt and peck at an enemy force.

Rating: B. One of the snipers of all time.

Peri: I am basically just a single letter grade lower on almost all of these. Mech okay, there are better uses of BV but whatever.

My Rating: C-

7D

This thing’s got computers and shit in it.

The 7D is, essentially, a 5T with a somewhat disappointing change: The lasers are no longer pulses, now being ERLLs and ERMLs respectively. This is kind of ok as it certainly fixes the 5T’s range problem but it does somewhat take away its capacity to go berserk in a hole and come out the other side still upright. Additionally the transition from pulses to ERs has made the 7D gain 236 BV on the 5T making it 1986 BV. That being said this is still a lot of gun strapped to a TC for that price, the 7D will happily be mid-line skirmisher that can probably give as good as it gets.

Rating: B+. But why not just a 5T?

Peri: This is a far more flexible mech than the 5T, but the increase in price hurts and it trades the close range dominance of the 5T out for mediocre sniping potential. Not a huge fan.

My Rating: C-

7M

Alright… well that’s fuckin’ funny.

The Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation are weird. Strange and Weird. The 7M retains the armor profile of a base 3R, gets the jump jets of the 5D, the LB/5 off the 2T, an XL engine and fifteen double heat sinks all in support of bringing a pair of Heavy PPCs into the fight so that they can start blasting massive chunks out of whatever it is you decide should really be actively fearing for its life. At 1908 BV it’s really quite expensive for what it is but this thing could, for as long as it managed to stay upright with only 17 LT/RT armor and 18 in the legs, really do a good job of tearing into an enemy force if given the chance.

I just don’t think it’ll do it for long enough to actually make itself useful. Heat wise it builds movement heat if firing both Heavies or movement +1 if you throw the LB/X in.

Rating: C. Still incredibly funny and ready to absolutely brutalize whatever it manages to dive on but I can’t help but feel like there’s just way better options at the price that will just do the job better, like a Flashman 9M.

Peri: There is no world where you wouldn’t be better off with a Flashman 9M for basically the same price. The Flashman 9M is, however, the grim reaper, a hater, the “Gatekeep” section of “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss” (“Gaslight” being a Javelin 12N and “Girlboss” being the Hammerhead), an S-tier mech, and an outlier in terms of effectiveness. Its fine, but there is an infinitely better option for a dual HPPC mech.

My Rating: C-

7R

Hey, I’ve seen this one before!

It’s a 7C without the C3 slave and with an extra ton of ammo for the gauss which would make it some what better for campaign play I suppose? This costs 1832 BV instead of the 7C’s 1810. If an extra ton of ammo is that important for your games then use this one instead… also wtf are you doing that your games have 16 rounds of fire? If you need the extra ammo take this, if not just run the other one with the C3 off to save a touch of BV.

Rating: B, same shit, different letter.

Peri: Still a C- from me.

7S

Man, those shiny watermelons go really fast!

The 7S is a 7C with less armor, no C3, no ECM and one crucial upgrade:

A standard Gauss rifle with two tons of ammo.

This gives it head chopping capacity on a mech that still only builds one heat standing still and firing all three of the mains while having AC/20 proof armor everywhere but the head. At 1903 BV I’d just about always be bringing this thing along over the 7C or 7R.

Rating:A-. Just a better 7C/7R.

Peri: Okay this one is marginally better but seriously just take a Caesar or a Flashman 9M.

My Rating: C

9D

What does this button do?

The 9D is another in the long line of Battle tech designers getting a hold of a new toy and immediately sticking it into things that don’t super need it. Namely here the radical heat sinking system. For those that don’t know the RHSS works like a MASC or supercharger but for your heat sinks. This makes it so that all of your heat sinks will do one extra point of cooling for this turn at the risk of causing damage to them. Activating the RHSS will make the 9D’s 16 double heat sinks capable of sinking up to 48 heat rather than its usual 32. This is in support of the 9D’s armament of 2 cERLLs, 3 medium X-pulse lasers and singular silver bullet gauss rifle, not in a CASE or CASE II bay, with two tons of ammo. Commiting to an alpha strike on the run you can generate 45 heat so with the RHSS active you’ll be down 3, without it you’re up 13 heat.

Considering that with the cERLLs and the S.B. firing at a run you’re down 5 heat I don’t think the RHSS is super necessary here until someone is in your face. Although it does give you the ability to look infernos in the face and simply not care which is nice. It does have enough armor to be AC/20 proof and retains the standard movement profile. To do all that it uses a few different weight saving technologies including an XL engine, XL gyro and an endo-composite structure.

For 1967 BV the 9D is a somewhat expensive sniper/midline brawler that has some great range thanks to the clan ERLLs paired with the silver bullet. As well it has the, somewhat risky, option to make no heat while trying to stuff a possible 53 damage into something wich is quite good.

Rating B. It’s got a good spread of weapons and a fun quirky piece of equipment. Just feels a touch expensive.

Peri: I am a big fan of the RHSS and wish it was on more mechs, that risk VS reward mechanic is a lot of fun. This is a bit of a waste of the RHSS though, which is really intended to let you load up on an irresponsible amount of guns and then push the big red button on an important turn/easy shot. It’s not terrible, but it is a bit of a waste of such a cool piece of kit.

My Rating: C

9M

Man, the FWL still doesn’t have any PPCs. This is getting out of hand.

This is… wrong? There’s something wrong about the 9M. It’s bad… And, more importantly, it’s not a Marauder. This is just some nebulous 75 ton heavy mech that costs 1704 BV that has gone and draped itself in the glorious cloak of a Marauder before summarily burning that cloak off with its poor heat sinking and exploding because it is just fucking built like that.

The 9M pulls everything normal out of the 7D, gives it ferro-fibrous armor and then pushes a few of the pips around like peas it didn’t want to eat before ingesting a concerning amount of stimulants and making decisions about what should and should not be present. First they stuffed a TAG into the head for some fucking and a Guardian ECM into the CT. As well, there is no spinal mount weapon. The place of the big cannon has been left coldly and callously empty, robbing the Mechwarrior of the love that ballistics bring into the world. Only for it to be replaced by a pair of streak SRM-6s mounted in either side torso, each provided with one ton of ammo and no CASE to at least keep the poor bastard alive when the bins kicks off.  The arms have also been tampered with. Instead of each arm carrying an ERLL and an ERML they instead each carry two ERLLs. All of that armament leads to a pretty nasty possible alpha strike of 56 damage if it all lands.

Also a heat spike of 58 if you’re running.

On a mech with 16 double heat sinks.

This goes 24 into the red, without moving, in an alpha strike. ‘Now hold on Liberty!’ You cry, lusting for the siren call of the 4 ERLLs carving rivers of molten armor into your enemy mech’s hulls. ‘but what about just the lasers! Surely you could just pattern them to be usable!’

You fool. You damnable fool who shall cook in your cockpit until the fire of ammunition explosions evaporates you and your mech to nothingness.

Two ERLLs build 24 heat, leaving you 8 under. 3 of them build 36, 38 with a run, leaving you up 4 or 6. All 4 puts you up to 16 or 18. You are never getting the full value of this machine. God forbid a singular Baboon 6 or Javelin JVN-12N appear next to you, fire in their hearts and infernos in their bins. This machine melts pilots. This machine mulches pilots. This machine is an unfortunate waste. It’s what I called for earlier, executed in the worst possible way. This saddens me greatly.

I will curse the Free Worlds League from now until the end of time for this transgression against GM’s near perfect machine.

Rating: D. You went and fucked it all up, FWL, you have failed me and my vision greatly. I will never forgive this.

Peri: It is genuinely funny how bad the 9M Marauder is considering it shares a model number with the best energy boat heavy mech in the entire game. The 9M Marauder is just not good, IS ERLLs are bad weapons to begin with and putting 4 of them on a mech with no business having that many of them is hilarious. Coupling that with uncased ammo just so that you instantly kill the mech when you overheat is somehow even funnier.

Completely non-functional mech, it is fucking hilarious how bad this is.

My Rating: F is for funny

9M2

YOU CAN’T JUST HIT ME WITH A ‘OOPSIE-DOOPSIE’ AND GET AWAY WITH IT YOU PURPLE CHICKEN BASTARDS. DISHONOR ON YOU AND YOUR WHOLE DAMNABLE LEAGUE.

The FWL realized they’d made the second shittiest Marauder ever built and called in help, I guess. After the third or fourth test pilot got turned into fuckin’ soup by the heat you’d think they’d’ve figured it out. But I guess they had to actually put it into the field to melt a whole regiment before something clicked. The upgrade is simple. 4 ERLLs, without the proper heat sinking, is dumb and bad. So they removed them, and only them, to replace them with a pair of heavy PPCs.

This is good. This is angry. This is just a better 9M as it does, roughly, the same damage and is heat neutral firing both heavies off at a run and only goes up 8 if both streaks go off. At 1875 BV this is a good brawler to get in and start dishing out possible head choppers with. Angry machine.

Rating: B+. 2 Head choppers for this price with real armor and the ability to capitalize on the holes it can open up once it gets close is honestly pretty great. Surprised Peri hasn’t thrown this thing at my head yet. 

Peri: I do love Heavy PPCs but the Flashman 9M is right there and has a cooler looking miniature. I just don’t see the point in using a less good version of the Flashman 9M.

My Rating: Take a Flashman 9M if you want a pair of Heavy PPCs. This is literally universal.

9S

Is this the first light engine in a Marauder? Took long enough.

The 9S, brought to us by house Steiner, is essentially a 5CS with a similar armor profile, a few new toys and a few odd choices. For the new toys it trades out the 5CS’ XL engine for a light, swaps the medium pulses for ER variants and mounts the LB/10’s ammo in a CASE protected bay in the left torso alongside a Beagle active probe and has a Guardian ECM in the CT. For odd choices it only has 14 double heat sinks, giving it 28 possible sinking, and now mounts a flamer in the head for some reason. I can only assume its to roast the choice meats that come in those very expensive Steiner ration packs… or maybe dissidents.

Now, this all costs weight and dropping 4 heat sinks does not the difference between an XL and a light engine make. So the 9S also uses endo-steel to get everything in there. Unfortunately these choices have posed a slight problem for the 9S. The 28 total sinking is not quite enough to handle the pair of ERPPCs so firing them at a standstill will put you up 2 heat and throwing the LB/10 on will set you to +4. This is, in my opinion, an acceptable trade for making it so that if your ammo explodes or you lose a side torso the mech does not instantly die. All of this for 1786 BV is honestly pretty acceptable for a line pusher, just know that you’ll have to do a bit of heat management if you don’t want it grinding to a halt before too long.

Rating: C-. There are better line pushing Marauders but if you prefer ERPPCs and LB/10s then the 9S will do the job with minimal enough complaint. 

Peri: So there are mechs that cost around 1800 that can actually sink the heat from 2 ERPPCs. There are even a lot of Marauders that can fire 2 ERPPCs without overheating for around that price. This is a pointless mech, really feeling like one of those Warhammer variants that is just “2 ERPPCs, an SRM-6, and some medium lasers”. It is just repetitive and pointless, and there is zero reason to use this instead of a mech that can actually sink its heat.

My Rating: D+

9W

Say what you want about the Wobbies, they make interesting machines.

The 9W has made choices about how it thinks a Marauder should behave. They’re strange choices but they’re not necessarily bad ones. It maintains the usual Marauder layout, putting an ERLL and an MPL in each arm and backing it with a snub-nosed PPC in the right torso alongside a C3i. This is all supported by 16 double heat sinks meaning you’ll build 2 heat at a stand still firing off both ERLLs and the snubby or building 10 on an alpha strike. Not bad.

Now, they’ve also mounted a few things to mess with the 9W’s survivability. A heavy duty gyro is paired with a down rated light engine giving the 9W a 3/5 movement profile and a gyro that won’t quite on you after a couple hits. Though it certainly starts to get hard to stay up right.

Unfortunately this new movement profile is not great for a mech that wants to be in the frontline spotting for its C3 net and getting in the shit. Luckily the wobbies thought of that and installed 5 IJJs meaning the 9W lands in the fun spot of having a 3 TMM and a 3 AMM while having a good capacity to dictate its engagement for a mech of its size. All of this for 1788BV is a pretty alright deal and, if you’re willing to do some heat management, would make a good spotter for a C3i equipped level ii.

Rating: B+ in a C3i net where it can be a good front line spotter/skirmisher to give your sniper elements good shots while having a higher chance of being in short range itself. B- on its own, heat is annoying but it’s got a good punch for the BV.

Peri: 3/5/5 movement is very funny, but there are better mechs that do this mechs job. The 9W mounts a lot of long ranged guns that don’t super want to be jumping constantly. Considering this is a Word of Blake design it really should have VSPs on it. If it had a pile of those instead of the kinda incoherent mix of sniping and brawling weapons that the 9W has, it’d be a lot better. As is there are just better 5 hex jumpers in this price range.

My Rating: C- ish?

9W2

C3i is dumb, you should use a standard C3 slave and a Guardian ECM instead…

That’s it, that’s the change. Same Armor. Same armament. Same machine. Different C3 and the capacity to protect its connection to the net. For 1875 it’s a bit more expensive than the 9W but being able to keep your connection alive on the fly is pretty great.

Rating: A- in a C3 net. B outside of it because having a Guardian ECM on your own is always nice, especially if you’ve got Artemis IV looking at you. 

Peri: Maybe a C instead of a C-

11D

The Silver Bullet gauss is back!

The 11D looks at the thought behind the 9D, says ‘yea, good idea’, takes the same frame and then mounts just about the same stuff. An ERPPC and a medium X-pulse fills out the arms backed by a Silver Bullet gauss rifle with one ton of ammo mounted in a CASE II bay. These are cooled by 17 double heat sinks meaning that firing both ERPPCs and the gauss on the run you’re down 1 heat which is nice. Acceptable machine with acceptable firing brackets and acceptable guns. It has exactly one problem: 2263 BV. Unfortunately, despite having less range, more heat and the same damage, IS ERPPCs are more BV than clan ERLLs so the 11D is more expensive.

Rating: C+. If you want the S.B. then you may as well take the 9D and save a few hundred BV, I guess.

Peri: This mech is redundant and expensive. SB Gauss is theoretically cool but is in practice worse than just saving BV and mounting an LBX-10.

My Rating: D+, too expensive and heavily redundant with other Marauders.

C

Even the clans like their Marauders so of course they made cooler ones. Then they found the great house’s museum pieces that they called a military during the invasion and decided they may as well make those cooler too!

The C is essentially a 3R with new tech and the same decisions. The PPCs are replaced with clan grade LPLs, the AC/5 with a UAC/5 and the ammo in the left torso is protected with a CASE bay… There’s still only one thing in there so if you get crit there it’s going to go off but at least when it does it won’t turn you into a crater.

These things, being lighter than their IS equivalents, shed some weight that was used entirely on heat sinks, bringing the C up to 19 singles meaning firing off the LPLs and double tapping the UAC puts you up 3 heat which is perfectly manageable for a mech with this much gun for 1711. It also still has normal medium lasers in it for some reason.

Rating: C-. It’s still just a 3R, but at least it’s just got cooler stuff now. 

Peri: The C is not one of the better C series refits. The Thunderbolt C pulls off the double clan laser thing a lot better than this, and the ammo bomb is still unacceptable, even if it isn’t instant death, technically.

My Rating: F+ish? Good guns but too expensive and prone to losing its entire left side for no reason.

 

The Omni-Marauder

In 3135 GM decided they should revamp the Marauder and see if they couldn’t put their near perfect machine just a little closer to its fabled possibility. It… kinda worked? There’s only two variants and it was incredibly expensive to build, the concept was there and they managed to do it but they used so much Clan-tech that it just ended up not being worth it for real scale production. Between the Clan XL engine, the ferro-lamellor armor and all the Clan weapons these things are expensive both in money and in BV.

Peri: Ferro Lam alone makes both of these pretty good actually, but the BR-OA is far and away the better of the two. Neither is actually that bad, even though they are extremely expensive, Ferro Lam on a 75 ton heavy is just massively strong and can make up for a lot of BV related sins.

My Rating: C+ for the O, B for the OA

MAD-BR-O

GUNS GUNS GUNS

GM, for the base variant of their test bed, mounted up a pair of cERPPCs, a pair of cERMLs and a HAG/30 in a CASE II protected bay. I’m not that big of a fan of HAGs, to be honest, though the 30 and the 40 are getting close to being where I’d want them to be due to their cluster tables. They’re just incredibly expensive for what they are and the presence of one here is a good clip of the reason that it costs 2836 BV. This is all supported by 17 double heat sinks so it will go up 2 on the heat scale when firing the ERPPCs and the HAG while standing still. Not terrible but perhaps a little inconvenient.

This is a lot of BV, even with the ferro-lam, for something that’s not an assault.

Rating:B-. This thing will kill. It will fuck up anything it comes across and then some. But dear god is that a lot of investment for something that is really only so much more survivable than a normal Marauder.

MAD-BR-OA

Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.

Now this is what a Marauder Omni should be. All the clan bullshit in the weapons department is gone and it shows. The OA drops a wild 709 BV down to 2127 BV solely due to its weapons choices. Eschewing all of the previous weaponry the OA mounts up a light TAG, a pair of plasma rifles with one ton of ammo each and a heavy gauss rifle in the RT, with two tons of ammo, that extends to the CT, protected by CASE II in both locations. 12 Heat sinks keeps the machine heat neutral at a run.

That’s it. That’s all it has. That’s all it needs.

Rating: A-. Honestly they could have made this the actual production variant with an IS XL engine and it’d be an astounding option. I need to put this thing to table with my GMGM at some point.

Custom Variants

GM’s perfect machine has a lot of odd choices along the way and there’s just as many Mechwarriors who have decided they should do something about it to make their own unique machines. Some of these things are… well they’re certainly mechs.

Bounty Hunter 3015

SLOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW

The Bounty Hunter is a storied figure in BT lore and for much of it they have their trusty Marauder keeping them safe, in one form or another. The 3015 drops the auto cannon, taking a full energy loadout of 3 PPCs and 5 medium lasers in its place, while also dropping the movement profile down to 3/5/3. The 3015 then spends the extra weight to mount 18 total double heat sinks to make it able to fire all three PPCs at will, be it running, flying or standing still. Going full alpha strike mode, for whatever reason, nets you 9 up on the scale when standing still which is really not that bad for 55 outbound damage in this era. All of this is clad in far more armor than its contemporaries enjoyed, making the 3015 proof against AC/20s as it trundles forward slinging lightning at its problems. The Bounty Hunter must’ve decided something they saw at Solaris at some point was really useful in their slow as dirt ‘mech.

Arm flipping.

The 3015, for some reason, lacks lower arm actuators. This means that, should something jump you, you can threaten it with both PPCs and two of the medium lasers.

At 1919 BV this is probably one of the best beat sticks of the succession wars era due to that armor, alpha and heat management… even if it is expensive.

Rating: C+. That’s a lot of damage and not a lot of heat but man its expensive. 

Peri: This is one of those mechs that really needs to be considered in its period. Within the context of the 3010s, 3020s, and 3030s this is a fucking abomination and is very, very strong. Once you hit the modern period it isn’t quite as good anymore, but it is still an adequate, if very boring, mid-line dork.

My Rating: A+ pre-3040ish, C after. Yes I know I am giving a split rating depending on period, something I say I hate doing, but this specific mech really, really changes in overall rating due to period, much more than most mechs do. I will not be doing this often, and in general what is good in 3025 is at least adequate later on. The 3015 Bounty Hunter is a fucking abomination in its time and still playable even today.

Bounty Hunter 3044

Same mech, same armor, same movement, same arm flipage! Now with an XL engine!

The 3044 drops the heat sinks from 18 to 15, swaps the arm PPCs for ER variants and replaces the right torso PPC with a Gauss rifle and two tons of ammo. This means that firing the main guns together builds 1 heat at a standstill. This is perfectly manageable for what looks like a good backline sniper. Unfortunately the 3044 takes a good step up over the 3015, going to 2103 BV to do something that other Marauders also do just fine and for cheaper.

Rating: B-. If you want a sniper with this load out and arm flipping doesn’t matter much to you just go get the 5S. 

Peri: Take a Caesar.

My Rating: C

Bounty Hunter 3138

Not as slow!

It’s a 3044 that goes 4/6/4, gets the lower arm actuators back and drops a medium laser for CASE. Oh and also the ERPPCs are Clan grade now which means you’ve got three head choppers for 2708 BV. This is very expensive. Incredibly Expensive. This machine lands on the Thunderhawk scale in a bad way. If you want three head chopper take that or your choice of Gauss truck because this ain’t it.

Rating: C+. It’s just so expensive for a job that other things do just as well for less. 

Peri: Very expensive, you can do so much better for the price. This sort of very expensive headchopperino just suffers from the Loki MkII F existing and clowning on it really hard.

My Rating: C-

SD – Douglas

3M with no gun.

The SD is a 3M that drops the AC/5 and replaces it with a heat sink, two SRM-4s with a ton of ammo and enough armor to make it AC/20 proof. Simple, effective, still cheap. At only 1459 BV the Douglas is a cheap front line brawler that has the ability to peck at armor and then exploit the holes that will eventually form while only building 9 heat when alpha striking on a run.

Rating: C-. A 9M side grade.

Red Hunter 3146.

Do you like fist fights? Do you want to get in close and start beating the other guy to death while the UAC roars its deafening defiance into the heavens? Whoever the fuck ‘Red Hunter’ is sure does.

The RH-3146 is an interesting idea in Marauder design that, at least at the basic idea level, I’m somewhat surprised wasn’t put together somewhere else along the line. Dropping the usual standard or ferro-fibrous armor that Marauders are clad in the RH-3146 is clad in ballistic reinforced armor, making it take half damage from ballistic weapons, rounded down. This means that it can actually take a Gauss rifle to the head and keep on going with the still glowing slug stuck in the armor.

The armament follows the usual pattern of Marauders with energy in the arms and a big gun in the right torso, in this case a UAC/10 with two tons of ammo in a CASE II protected bay. The arms are each fitted with a cERML and a snub-nosed PPCwith a capacitor meaning the RH-3146 has the capacity to throw two 15 damage hits with a short range of 9 hexes every other turn.

Unfortunately the RH-3146 has two drawbacks in design. A supercharger and 14 double heat sinks means it does not have the capacity to make full use of this output without building heat but it does give it a consistent firing order. Sending both snubs with capacitors charged builds 2 heat, putting the UAC/10 on double tap ontop of that pushes it to 10 with a run. This slows you down and makes next turns shots worse. But, with the snubs down until the following turn you will sink out all of that heat firing the UAC and the cERMLs!

This is a lot of firepower and pretty good armor on a mech with a 4/6(8) movement profile which means, unfortunately, the RH-3146 passes the 7 hex break point and gets a stiff uptick in BV for it despite not always being able to achieve it. This variant clocks in at a staunch 2509 BV.

Rating: C+. This machine seems incredibly fun and I would love to use it but dear god that price tag is just unacceptable. Going over 7 hexes is a rough break point to be at and I wish this thing wasn’t there. Damn you supercharger… damn you.

Conclusion

There are a lot of Marauders. There are good Marauders. Bad Marauders. Stupid Marauders and downright unholy Marauders. The range is gigantic on what a Marauder can do and there’s definitely one here to do what you want it to do. From shit bot heavy to hard hitting sniper to front line beat stick. If there’s not a Marauder here to do what you’re looking for then you’re either asking too much of it or you don’t actually want a Marauder.

Try them. You, mostly, won’t regret it.

Peri: You will regret it. Nearly every Marauder is mediocre at best, with a few being, instead, fairly adequate. The biggest and most potent issue is that the Marauder does basically nothing that you can’t get better somewhere else. Its iconic status draws people in and hooks them, making them mega-fans of this thing, and it does look pretty cool, but in every role, in every period, there is a better choice.

The Bounty Hunter 3015 is a bit of an exception there, it is a remarkably hateful mech within the context of its creation as an ultimate threat mech in 3025, and it really makes sense that that mech can murder any contemporary 3025 assault mech. The 5T is also really good if you know you are going to be playing a defense mission. There are still better choices but it performs really well within that context.

I also like the 3M just for being fairly cheap and looking scarier than it is. Marauders tend to get shot at a lot and die really fast, and they don’t have remotely as much protagonist energy as their reputation would suggest.