BattleTech Mech Overview: Stinger

I brought my Stinger to an easy stop, crouching amongst the towering trunks of Herotitus’ wandering forests as the rest of my lance fell in and did the same a good way back. The old ‘mech’s systems were happy, gremlin free and fully functioning, for once. The constant garble of the ECM whispering through the background feeds of my Neurohelm were a familiar comfort amongst the relative quiet of the forest. As stuffy as the Stealth armor made the cockpit feel it was a necessary inconvenience for the order of the day.

In the distance the treeline shifted, uprooting itself and trampling away from something. Only one thing ever spooked them enough to get moving like that.

Clumsy ‘Mechs.

Pirates again. No doubt looking for the old depot on Marpessa. It always astonished me how they either never seemed able or willing to read a map, or a history book, to at least land on the right continent. More of them ended up stuck here on Weissholz, trudging through the wandering forests muttering curses about the trees on unsecured channels, or on Baccali stuck in the swamps dealing with the Scorpodiles. Neither were particularly fun times.

The Pirate lance trundled into view, a quartet of old, battered lights following the path of a long dried creek bed seemed none the wiser to my presence, nor the trio waiting in the wings behind me. The comm in my helm whispered to life, Vorgodd’s voice filtering in amongst the garble as the pirates passed. “Keiran, we good?”

“Aye sir,” I answered, slowly raising my ‘mech’s right arm to signal them to hold. “Another minute and they’ll be past us.”

The line fell silent as a thread of tension built in the air amongst my lance. Waiting for a fight tended to do that, even when you had the tonnage, surprise and home turf on your side there was always a chance for things to go wrong. All it took was one idiot pirate to be paying more attention than the rest of them.

Luckily none of these ones were. After a minute that felt like an hour they passed us by, reacting to neither me nor the ECM field that they’d certainly meandered through.

“Clear and past,” I stated, slowly bringing my ‘mech to her feet and signaling my lance.

“Give ‘em Hell, Marshals,” Vorgodd growled as the jump jets on his aging Clint roared to life throwing him skyward through the canopy, followed closely by Harhi and Kitty’s own trailing smoke plumes as I pushed out onto the creek-bed to join the fray myself, switching the master arm to ON on the Stinger’s console.

Showtime.

  • Mechwarrior Kieran Stoudenmire, Stinger STG-6L pilot, Colonial Marshals

Howdy Mechwarriors, welcome back to another Mech Overview! This time around we’re looking at the Stinger, one of the most populous mechs in the setting and another of the eternally present ‘Bug’ ‘mechs.

They’re cheap, staggeringly so in some instances and only two of them even crack the 700 BV mark at all, and it’s not by much. By some counts there are more stingers than there are assaults in circulation throughout the inner sphere making it a perfect mech to drop into any force where there’s a convenient ‘little guy’ shaped hole. Or, if you have a few dropships full of them you could run a company of them and still probably have space for some actual ‘mechs…

I wouldn’t fuckin’ do that but you certainly could!

Stinger. STG-5T variant. Credit: porble
Stinger. STG-5T variant. Credit: porble

 

Chassis

The Stinger is a 20 ton light mech that dates all the way back to the 2400s with the Terran Hegemony’s calls for scout ‘mechs and Earthwerks’ eventual bid for the contract with the original -3R. Stingers, usually, only do one thing, go 6/9/6, carry medium lasers and machine guns in some form and haul about just enough armor that they can think about their mistakes in life while their engine gutters out from underneath them and they fall over face first into the mud. Hell, just look at him up there, gettin’ at it and steppin’ to! So full of life and wonder… it’ll be a shame when a gauss round rips his CT out and leaves him broken on the ground.

That being said they do all have some form of place in the world, and your lists, even if a lot of them are a fair sight worse at doing it than other options.

And some of them fly or whatever but that’s weird and lame… just go get a Defiance or something if you wanna be Maverick.

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).

3R

The base model of the Stinger certainly sets the tone going forward. At an astonishingly cheap 341 BV there’s only so much that can be expected here. That being said, any ‘mech that costs that little has the ability to do something to make its cost back.

Moving at a respectable 6/9/6 the 3R is at the sweet spot of jump jets that gives as good as it gets with a 3 TMM and a 3 AMM that works just a touch better than a 5/8/5 as it gives you some more flexibility with placement and the capacity to, with at least a smidge of planning, end up in a wood or behind partial most turns. The armament isn’t anything to write home about with a singular medium laser and a pair of machine guns fed by… A full ton of ammunition in the CT? You’re unlikely to ever really lose a 3R, or any Stinger for that matter, to an ammo explosion but it’s still a lot of bullets to stuff into the little guy. The blistering heat generated by the laser and the jump jets are handled quite well by the standard ten single heat sinks, leaving you down 1 heat if you jump the full distance and push the not-so-big red button. Armor wise it’s thin, even by stinger standards, sporting 6 at its thickest on the CT and 4 on the arms and head. You can get head popped by a Clan ER medium, but at this price it really doesn’t hurt to lose it and it makes for a good list filler and somewhat maneuverable initiative sink at the very least.

Rating: C-

3G

Second verse, ever so slightly different from the first.

The 3G takes a 3R, pulls the MGs and the ton of ammo and uses it to get a second medium laser and an extra ton of armor giving it a little more ‘survivability’ and a bit more damage at range to make it more consistent. This will raise the price by 38% to 497 BV but when you’re this cheap anyhow it’s not all that big of a deal. It also poses some slight heat problems to take into consideration as now, when jumping the full distance and pushing the little red button, you’re two heat into the red. Not a big deal and it’ll either die horribly before it gets anywhere near heat mattering or you can just pull it back, sink out for a turn and call it good. Interestingly, four of the heat sinks have been moved to the legs so if you’re on a map with some D1 water and you don’t mind getting your feet wet you can counteract the problem and get partial cover if you’re alright with the PSR. Again, for the price, this makes for a good line filler and if it does much of anything you’ve probably made your investment back for bringing it in the first place.

Rating: C

3Gb

The 3Gb is the royal variant, getting all the fun bells and whistles that the Star League did their best to keep to themselves.

Unfortunately these new toys make it bump up to 674 BV which is kinda expensive for what it is. Now built on an endo-steel frame and sporting an XL engine the 3Gb packs a trio of medium lasers across the arms and the center torso as well as an emotional support small laser up in the head to keep the pilot warm during exceptionally cold patrols. Where the 3Gb makes most of the BV increase is from its new and improved movement profile, all those fancy weight saving features weren’t just to mount some extra lasers. Now moving at 7/11/7, the 3Gb has graduated up into the very happy club of building four TMM on demand while still only having the standard three AMM from jumping, a good place to be. This represents a good tick up in survivability for the 3Gb that helps keep the little dog in the fight, mechs that can jump 7 hexes have a very easy time of finding advantageous positions to couple with their already good TMM. It might not be the best shot for you but it’ll probably be an even worse shot for the other guy. Ten doubles keep the mech ice cold jumping the full distance and turning on the disco show. The price is starting to climb for something that still has the capacity to just spontaneously trip and die from a strongly worded letter but if you’re willing to pay the price and play it as the little shithead harasser/backstabber it has the potential to be then I think you could see some alright mileage out of it.

Rating: C+

3P

Ah, we’re entering the ‘little bastard’ zone. I love the little bastard zone.

The 3P is, by nearly all counts, just a 3G. Same heat sinks, same armor and same layout. Except the Medium Lasers are gone and it saves an extra ton on an endo-steel frame so it can mount up a singular light PPC to let it sling medium laser damage at PPC ranges. This puts it into an interesting place for mechs that I like to call the ‘little bastard’ zone.

Little bastards are mechs that have the ability to be annoying enough at range to chip in for some, at least vaguely, meaningful amount that will add up over time but are either so cheap and unthreatening as to not bother killing them over continuing to beat on the bigger threats or so annoying to actually get a hold of that the time and ammunition would probably be better spent elsewhere.

That being said, it will go up +1 on the heat scale if jumping the full distance and firing the LPPC off which is entirely manageable as you probably won’t see any problems from it for 8 consecutive turns of fire at which point the other guy will have probably decided he’s quite done with the 3P’s shit, the game will be all but over or the Stinger will be David standing there staring down a very annoyed Goliath.

Honestly, a dumb long range plinker with manageable heat and consistently good TMM for 489 BV is a good thing to be and the 3P does it quite well!

Rating: C+.

4G

So close to glory.

The 4G answers the call for a little dude with pulse lasers, using an endo-steel frame and an uprated XL engine it saves quite a bit of weight, enough to mount up a pair of MPLs for a modest BV increase to 541 BV while having incredibly reliable short range damage and a standard load of DHS to keep it crisp and cool inside at -5 heat, honestly a great idea.

Except they forgot one of the damned jump jets.

Unfortunately the 4G is still paying for the bump over ten hex movement by going 7/11 but does not have the capacity to always make use of it like the 6S as it is actually a 7/11/6 movement profile instead of 7/11/7. Now this certainly isn’t a death knell for the 4G as 541 is still incredibly cheap and has some very good use as a reliable backstabber and list filler. I just can’t help but feel that the mech would really feel a bit better with that extra jump jet instead of the half ton of armor which is mostly invested in the back armor anyhow. Even with my gripes it’s a valuable tool and it does have a purpose while still being filler.

Rating: B-. 

Kell Hounds Stinger. Credit: Jack Hunter

5G

THE LITTLE BASTARDS STRIKE BACK!

The 5G pulls a page from the 3Ps play book by taking a 4G, pulling the MPLs off of it, not fixing the movement profile, and mounting up an LPPC but this time with a capacitor for some bigger hits and DHS to eliminate the heat build! 614 BV sounds like a lot for a stinger with only one gun but that capacitor makes it capable of throwing full PPC damage every other turn while still being very cold jumping the full six or, if you don’t like the idea of snakes burning out your PPC just turn the capacitor off and use it like a normal, albeit more costly, 3P without caring about the heat.

It’s like a weird, shitty Panther!

Rating: C+ If you’re using the capacitor to get that extra damage per location, C- if not, at that point just go grab the cheaper one and let the little bastard brigade rein.

5M

We’re finally at the first post-helm refit, though it doesn’t come along until a good ways into the invasion.

The 5M is an odd one in my eyes. Built on an endo-steel chassis it’s buying some free weight to get us moving into more modern mech profile it still retains the usual 6/9/6 movement of the base model as well as the right arm mounted medium laser but has dropped the MGs and used the extra weight for a flamer and an AMS. At 432 BV it’s probably one of the cheapest AMS mounts in the game but that only really buys so much since an alright roll on an LRM 20 is still going to beat the poor thing half to death anyhow. If the AMS systems were actually capable of intercepting incoming missiles targeting friendlies then this would be an excellent little support piece but as it stands it’s really not that useful even for the price.

Rating: F. 

5R

Do you like rocket launchers and copious amounts of Periphery… stimulants? I sure do.

The 5R is, in my opinion, a very funny mech for what it is. Stacking up in use and M.O. to the Commando 4H but coming in at a clean 492 BV it does a similar mission profile for 199 BV less and it still goes 6/9/6 giving it a good mobility bonus over the 4H. Technically this is the highest alpha we’ve seen on any Stinger variant so far, even if it can only do it once. Weighing in at 35 possible damage that’s an alright punch for something this small, though it does send you up +9 on the heat scale. Once the periphery doohickeys are expended you’re back to basically being a 3R with ‘better’ armor and no MGs. That’s not a terrible thing to be after giving something an alright punch in the face. Hold the 5R back for a little while until you find the right target with some cracked plates or weak back armor and you just might be surprised what two boxes filled with RPGs can do! I know this thing will certainly start making an appearance in my Colonial Marshals forces!

Rating: C-.

5T

The very definition of cheap support.

The armor profile is a little odd, it uses ferro-fibrous armor and mounts up an XL engine to save a good clip of tonnage for something fun. And boy they made good choices on this one.

Two MML3s with the standard two tons of ammo may not sound like a lot but it is when you consider the fact that this little terror only costs 341 BV. It’s the cheapest stinger, coming in at 18 BV under the standard 3R model. For those of you still not convinced let me paint you a picture of a fully supported force for the mere price of 341 or 682 BV, that’s right you can get two of them for the price of a 6L and be pretty well off with it. MMLs can fire any munition of their relative tubes meaning you could, if you were a lil’ unhinged, load up Smoke and Incendiary LRMs for the purpose of covering your own pushes, throwing smoke in the other guys face or lighting up the woods they’ve decided to post up in to try and either force them to move  or limit their firing options. You could also load thunder or thunder-augment LRMs into it to spread, admittedly pitiful, 5 point minefields all about the board if that’s your thing but you really should be using bigger tube-counts for that.

If those options don’t appeal to you then I’d suggest just pulling the LRM can in favor of filling up with SRM-Infernos and using it as a cheap as dirt harasser who’s just here to hang out, bother heat intensive mechs, bully the shit out of vehicles or infantry and probably explode in a horrible fireball at some point. At 341 BV if it does literally anything meaningful from critting a weapon or letting you just sink initiative to putting the other guy in a bind heat wise it’ll have been worth it to bring along

Rating: B-. 

 

Stinger. Credit: Rockfish
Stinger. Credit: Rockfish

6G

Is that a pulse laser and a seven hex jump? Competency has smiled upon us this day!

The 6G is basically a 3R in layout again and that’s not a bad thing. Using an uprated XL engine and an endo-steel chassis we’ve got some pretty good weight savings to put to use and that wonderful 7/11/7 movement profile that’s always nice to see on a little light harasser or backstabber. The 6G uses this extra weight to be another 3R for the modern day mechwarrior of 3103 by mounting up a medium X-pulse, two machine guns with a half ton of ammo slotted into the CT and the usual ‘present’ amount of armor. For all of this you pay 503 BV, a familiar number come to think of it.

For the price point and the capability it’s found a way to the top of my list of which Stingers to pick. For the price of a 6M you get a lot more use out of the 6G and that’s pretty awesome.

Rating: B.

6L

Ah, time for some sneaky beaky work.

The 6L is a 3G with some interesting differences. For one it uses an endo-steel frame to buy some weight, switches over to ten double heat sinks instead of singles and mounts up a Guardian ECM in the CT! As well the jump jets have been stripped out which, I will admit, is somewhat sad, until you see why they’re gone. The 6L eschews the usual 6/9/6 movement profile for a blistering 8/12 making it equally capable of regularly earning that three TMM that the jump provides while also keeping the AMM down to a friendlier two. I’ve been using this thing as my go to for a little while now as a support element for the heavies in my Colonial Marshals lists to try and keep artemis off their backs or break any C3 nets I come across and I’ve gotta say it’s pretty good at it, it gets ignored a lot for not feeling like a threat until it annoys the other player enough to do something about it.

Now, I’ve always had a bone to pick with the 6L despite how much I use it as it’s really getting up there in cost for a stinger, sitting at 680 BV and… Well I’m gonna be honest with you, I’m an idiot. I was so focused on using the ECM to support the rest of my formation and the fact that those double heat sinks made it ice cold even in adverse conditions that I never noticed the 6L’s real gimmick.

Stealth Armor. 

This makes it even better at its role of being an ECM screen for your heavies as it makes it all the more annoying to actually put down at any meaningful ranges meaning the other guy either has to go back to ignoring it or possibly waste shots trying to put it down instead of shooting at the bigger things its screening.

Rating: B- if you remember the stealth armor, C+ if you’re dumb like me and play it for 5 or 6 games without ever turning it on. It does a fairly unique service for the price point with a surprisingly high capacity for survivability if you keep it moving and being a little bastard. Love this thing.

6M

The 5M was not taught its lesson and was allowed to persist, unfortunately.

The 6M is a 5M but with all that 3097 had to offer. An ER medium laser, an ER flamer and a laser AMS are mounted on an endo-chassis with an amount of standard armor and DHS now to handle the extra heat load from the new weapons, which it somewhat fails at. Firing the ER medium laser and the ER flamer after a full jump will keep you at -5 but if you have to spin the AMS up on top of that you’ll go up two heat, this isn’t a huge issue and is technically less than the 5M’s heat scale but it’s nice to see that some things never really change! In the end it suffers from the same overall issues that the 5M has while being 71 BV more expensive (up to 503 BV), which really isn’t all that much in the grand scheme of a list. Just like before if that AMS could do something to help the rest of your force it’d have a very good niche but as it is it’s just a waste of tonnage that could be a better armament or support system. Technically better than the 5M and the one to choose between the two but it’s still falling short of the mark set by some of the other variants. You could use it if you like AMS, and flamers but I certainly won’t be.

Rating: D. 

6R

Earthwerks is doing something right with this one.

The 6R is built on an endo-steel chassis with an even more uprated XL engine putting it in a very fun spot to be, especially for a mech that only costs 454 BV. Moving with an astounding 8/12/8 the 6R will just about always get to dictate its engagements, like the 7S can, but more importantly it can also pitch in with a little more firepower for its backstabbing attempts. An ER medium laser fills the role of the main gun with a pair of HMGs playing support, now this isn’t the most ferocious loadout we’ve seen, and the HMGs lack for range, but it’s certainly pretty acceptable for the price and movement profile you get with it.

If you liked the look of the 7S and don’t mind paying the 72 extra BV to field something with some extra guns that still manages heat just fine then I’d highly recommend trying out the 6R for all your little guy needs.

Rating: B.

6S

Man, it sure is cramped in here.

The 6S, costing an acceptable enough 478 BV, has some problems and odd choices. It has a small cockpit mounted for a bit of weight savings and to make any piloting checks harder which, in the context of a stinger, means you’re probably having a bad time anyhow so the small cockpit is somewhat the least of the pilot’s worries at that point. Now, the weight savings gleaned from the armor swap and the small cockpit are coupled with switching over to an uprated light engine giving the 6S a 7/11/7 movement profile which helps to buy back some good will for the small cockpit. Weapons-wise, it’s following the 3R’s example but with a Jihad era twist, an IS ER medium laser is paired up with a duo of LMGs and a half ton of ammo. This is all looking acceptable enough…but we’ve arrived at one of the odd choices that were made with the 6S.

MASC.

Now, I like MASC as much as the next guy; used in the right brackets it can be exceptionally useful and usually, in my opinion, 7/11 is one of those brackets. Having a 14 Hex movement is good and you’re not really provoking any large increase of BV as you’re already over the ten hex break point. On the other hand it already jumps for seven meaning it can always choose to hit a 4+ TMM and while that may cause some heat problems putting you at +3 heat per turn, if jumping the full seven and firing off the laser. I’d rather take three turns of fire before fading for a bit to cool off over the possibility of blowing out both hips in the first turn like an octogenarian. Then immediately failing the PSR because of the small fuckin’ cockpit, falling on my face and then waiting to be fuckin’ summarily executed by the Wraith that’s rapidly approaching my position.

It’s a good upgrade on the 3R that does a lot of the same stuff just a little better but I’d rather drop the MASC for some extra armor or another heat sink and some further BV savings but we can’t have everything we want.

Rating: C. 

7S

Oh boy, IJJs!

The 7S comes to us courtesy of house Steiner with a tweak to the standard movement profile of 6/9/6 by using Improved Jump Jets to move up to 6/9/8, giving us that coveted 4TMM while also building half heat from the jets themselves. The ten single heat sinks are perfectly comfortable eating the nine heat generated by jumping the full eight and lasering the enemy with the single ER medium laser. Unfortunately the armor profile has gotten… thinner. The 7S is very much so relying on TMM to save it which, at an eight hex jump, is quite likely to be honest, eight hex jumps let you do a lot of dictating on the engagement be it putting yourself in cover, in a stand of trees or just straight up behind the guy the 7S is probably going to be ignored more often than not because it’s genuinely not worth shooting at it since it only comes in at 382 BV. This thing is the epitome of what a mech in this profile should be, mobile enough that getting shot at has a good chance of wasting enemy fire, cheap enough that it’s damned near free to stick in a list even with some skill buffs and even if its not much it is still another gun in the fight. For the price and with this much movement it’s honestly hard to not be worth taking to fill your lines out.

Rating: B-. 

C

A clan stinger? In trainer paint? Hell’s horses what’re you doin’ over there?

As a clan rebuild the C isn’t terribly far off from the 3R in conceptualization or execution but it does some fun stuff that the original just can’t. Retaining the 3R’s traditional 6/9/6 movement profile and standard engine the C uses Clan endo-steel to save a good clip of weight alongside the lighter Clan machine guns and the far more reasonable half ton of ammo that feeds them from the CASE’d left torso. It’s not much but it is enough to buy a bit more armor and a small pulse laser to really give those other sibcadets what for. The medium laser has of course been upgraded to a clan spec ER variant giving it a rather interesting place of being a 20 tonner with a main gun that only slightly underperforms in damage against the IS large laser while being cooler and holding the same brackets for a relatively reasonable 592 BV… and also I guess the machine guns are there too. The 10 single heat sinks are not quite adequate for what this mech wants to do, firing off the medium and jumping the full 6 puts it to +1 which is fine and manageable, getting a little closer to involve the small pulse puts you up +3 which still gives you some time before you need to dip out and cool off. Granted it’s still a stinger so it’ll still just explode if someone looks at it wrong but at least it can go out making Kerensky proud, I suppose.

Racing: C+

C2

Two clan stingers?!?! In this economy?

The C2 takes the idea of refitting the ‘3R’ and turns it on its head by… removing the machine guns and replacing them with another laser. Ya know, fair, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. This one does, admittedly, have a bit of a heat problem, hitting the ever growing red button after jumping the full 6 will put you at +8 on your heat scale. This isn’t catastrophic but it is certainly limiting. You could drop the pulse laser and go up six, giving you two turns to be an annoyance before passing the aiming penalty and jumping out for a bit to cool off. Now carrying two Clan ER medium lasers the C2 is a 20 tonner that basically packs a pair of cooler IS large lasers and, heat problems or not, that’s an alright thing to be for 754 BV. As far as backstabbers and harasser Stingers go this is up there amongst the cream of the crop, it’s expensive for what it is but it’ll do the job pretty alright with a careful hand.

This is the most expensive canon Stingers get… Man these things are cheap.

Rating: C. 

Poor sinking and a high price tarnish it a bit in my eyes compared to the other C but if you’re alright with managing the heat and having one of your units regularly not contributing this is a fine machine that can do some good work, if not I’d just grab the normal C.

Now, before we finish up we’ve still got one version of the stinger to look at, the IIC. Clan Snow Raven made these little guys for the sole and express purpose of trying to get in well with the Outworlds Alliance by creating an upgrade package to the Alliance’s old Stingers to bring them up to a good clan spec. There are technically two variants of the IIC but only one has a canon record sheet which is unfortunate based on what we know about the IIC 2.

IIC

Who knew you could improve a weapon by sticking explosives in it!

The IIC retains the Stinger’s trademark 6/9/6 movement profile and uses a Clan endo-steel chassis paired with Clan ferro-fibrous armor to save a good clip of weight for the IIC’s size. This extra tonnage is, in my opinion, used damn well by mounting a pair of medium improved heavy lasers and a single AP gauss out in the arms protected by integrated CASE. Of note, this is the first time we’ve seen a Stinger that is capable of generating a PSR by weapons fire more than once with only one other, the 5R, being able to generate a PSR at all and that’s only once.

The IIC packs a single ton of ammo for the AP gauss mounted in the CT which is nice for crit padding at the very least. All of this on a mech that costs 730 BV while still just looking like a little guy tickles something in my brain that always makes me want to run them around the table like a little gremlin. A lot of people let this thing get behind them, conveniently forgetting that it has a pair of real guns that will happily rip the back armor out of a lot of heavier mechs. The standard ten DHS are more than capable of handling the heat the IIC can generate, only building +1 heat jumping the full distance and pushing the big red button overall very manageable.

I run the IIC quite a bit with my Rasalhague Dominion cluster and it never lets me down. I highly recommend the IIC if you don’t mind the inherent problems that come with improved heavies or AP gauss exploding when crit. It’s not often that you find Clan light mechs that can serve as some form of list filler and the IIC is one of the funniest of them.

Rating: B-.

Lyran Commonwealth Stinger. Credit: SRM

IIC 2

The IIC2, unfortunately, lacks an official record sheet and as such only so much can really be said about it. From what I can tell it’s mostly a normal IIC but with some changes made to be able to replace the AP gauss with an improved large heavy laser. This is done by knocking the movement profile from 6/9/6 to 5/8/5. I think it would end up somewhere around 1000-1100 BV but I’m not entirely sure until we get an official sheet. Either way, when we do get an official sheet I will probably end up running it, bad or not, because there’s something so comical to me about a Stinger running up to a heavy or an assault and screaming bloody murder before scooping its cockpit out with a 16 damage hit from the large improved.

Nobody gets out alive and that very much so includes the IIC2’s pilot. God I want this thing to have a real record sheet so bad.

Conclusion

Holy Hell that was a lot of mechs!

There are good Stingers, standard Stingers, bad Stingers and fucking stupid Stingers but all of them are cheap and that really helps justify bringing them along, even if just for the sole sake of extra ‘mechs on the field. Which one you take is certainly up to you and in the end few of them will actually be noticeable in your list’s BV so try them out! See which one works for your play style and have a good time scouting, backstabbing or ‘little bastard’ing with them! With none of them, currently, being less mobile than 6/9/6 they have a tendency to be annoying enough to be ignored and fragile enough to just implode if they get looked at wrong and that’s fine. It’s a 20 ton light ‘mech who’s here for a purpose.

That being said I’ve obviously got some favorites. From the aggressive functionality of the IIC and the 4G to the astounding level of support the 5T and 6L can provide for their respective prices and back to the reliable shitbox presence of the 3G and 7S there’s a Stinger that can fulfill whatever purpose you need out of a little guy.

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