The Battletech: Mercenaries kickstarter is starting to land at people’s doors, and the Goonhammer offices (a very real place) are abuzz with excitement. We’re digging in and have just barely managed to get a few things painted.
This week we’re doing a rapid-fire set of Mech (and vehicle!) Overviews to cover everything included in the core box – the Flea, Firefly, Chameleon, Starslayer, Quickdraw, Ostsol, Caesar, Devastator, Galleon, and Maxim. We’ll be releasing two of them a day, so keep checking back to see the new mechs.
Our full review of the contents of the box is coming soon – we want to get some games in using the new BSP vehicle rules before we render judgement, though you can go back in time and see our take on the beta rules here.
Flea
The Flea is a tiny little Locust analogue, much beloved for being very friend shaped. At 20 tons, it has basically no armor, a few weapons, and runs quick.
Our full Mech Overview: Flea is here.
Firefly
The other light mech included in the Mercenaries box, the Firefly is nearly the opposite of the Flea. It’s a fully armored 30 ton mech with quite a few guns, but it pays for that by being one of the slowest light mechs around.
Our full Mech Overview: Firefly is here.
Chameleon
Initially a training mech, the Chameleon has a wide variety of lasers to encourage trainees to learn how heat management works. The Succession Wars pushed it into a combat role, not the best place for the base model, but some of the later variants work out fairly well.
Our full Mech Overview: Chameleon is here.
Starslayer
You may remember the Starslayer as one of the first mechs you get in MechCommander 2. A 50 ton medium laserboat, it has a lot of overlap with the Crab, including the 5/8/5 movement profile. While the base variant is nothing special, it does have some interesting later versions.
Our full Mech Overview: Starslayer is here.
Ostsol
Somewhat smooth and egg-shaped, the Ostsol is a fast energy armed heavy. While it does typically end up with a couple lasers pointing out the back, it’s broadly fairly well armed and armored, with some later variants making interesting use of TSM.
Our full Mech Overview: Ostsol is here.
Quickdraw
Another fast 60 ton heavy much like the Ostsol, the Quickdraw has a loadout mixed between energy and missile weapons, and is rarely particularly coherent, well armed, or well armored. It’s a very common mech that’s continued to get new variants up into the modern ilClan era.
Our full Mech Overview: Quickdraw is here.
Caesar
Built off the design of the Cataphract, the Caesar is an invasion-era 4/6 heavy mech. Generally it doesn’t do anything particularly flashy, but it’s a good simple trooper rocking a couple long range weapons with some good backup.
Our full Mech Overview: Caesar is here.
Devastator
A real wide boy, the Devastator is a 100 ton assault with a pair of gauss rifles and a pair of PPCs – oodles of firepower backed up by heavy armor. Peri calls it one of the best assault mechs in the Inner Sphere. Later variants can get pretty weird – some of them are moving a 100 ton mech at 10 hexes a turn.
Our full Mech Overview: Devastator is here.
Galleon
The Galleon is a fast light tank that splits its firepower between a turret mounted weapon and a couple side weapons. For many variants this means you’ll never get full firepower on a single target, though some later variants have the side weapons in sponson turrets that let you engage everything directly to the front or rear. With little armor, it generally plays like a worse light scout mech, though is at least very cheap.
Our full (and first) Vehicle Overview: Galleon is here.
Maxim
A heavy hover transport, the Maxim shuffles a full infantry platoon around the battlefield at 8/12, eventually upgrading to move battle armor around instead. It’s usually got a very mixed weapon loadout – primary armament is a fairly even split between LRMs and SRMs, so it’s never quite sure what it should be doing.
Our full Vehicle Overview: Maxim is here.
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