Howdy. CGL recently released a set of new record sheet packs for the Jihad, Dark Age, 3145, and 3150. Included in there are a few new and exciting variants of various older mechs. Last week we took a look at Record Sheets: Jihad and Record Sheets: Dark Age, and this week we’re going through 3150. All the new sheets in Record Sheets: 3145 are also in Dark Age, so we’re skipping over that one.

This article nearly drove me mad. They released a huge amount of new mechs in this record sheets PDF. A lot of them are bringing old mechs up to the “Modern” IlClan standard, and overall it is a fun mix of new toys and mechs to play around with. Anyway, there is no point in stalling. Here is all 37 of the new mechs in Record Sheets: Technical Readout 3150.

Variants

Gotterdammerung GTD-20C

Appearing at first like a simple clan tech upgrade to the base Gotterdammerung, the GTD-20C is a pretty great upgrade. It brings up all of the weapons to clan standards, and while slightly under-sinked good bracket firing will remove that weakness. The best part of this mech is it’s armor though, being Ferro-Lam. Ferro-Lam reduces all incoming damage by 20% without any increase in weight or any bad secondary negative effects. For 2285 this is a pretty good bargain. It might not hit as hard or be as fast as other mechs in it’s price range, but the added durability from Ferro-Lam should compensate for that. A.

Gotterdammerung GTD-30S

After the extreme changes of the 20C, the 30S is a much more boring refit. It swaps the medium lasers for Medium pulse lasers, adds an ER Flamer (which I wasn’t aware was even a weapon in this game), and swaps the LRM-15 for an SRM-6. This basically makes it a small, higher tech Battlemaster, which for 1574 BV is a pretty great deal. B.

Jack: I ran this in a game last night and it worked great. It has 4 points less armor in each torso location compared to a Battlemaster, and more armor in the legs. Very durable little brawler, and with ammo in the head there’s minimal worry about crits.

King Crab 009C

Honestly a very underwhelming mech. It carries two HAG/20s, 2 plasma rifles, and 2 small lasers, for 2652 BV. I am not a fan of HAGs, I see them as being massively overpriced for a cluster weapon, performing similarly to a Clan LRM-20 while being much more expensive and much heavier. All in all there are better King Crabs. C-.

Kodiak II 3

Interesting mech. It comes in at 2238, cheap for a Clan assault mech. It carries 2 MRM-40s with Apollo FCS, which removes their accuracy penalty, as well as an LBX-20 Autocannon. This gives it a pretty scary 100 point alpha strike, and will sandblast the entire enemy mech something fierce. I am unsure how good this is because MRMs are strange weapons, but it seems good. Solid B, good damage and durability.

Hollander BZK-G2

This is a Hollander with a Light gauss rifle instead of a normal one. This removes the entire point of having a Hollander, and is an affront to the Lyran Commonwealth. Use a standard Hollander. D-.

Venom SDR-9KE

This is a fast mech that jumps 10 hexes, but has almost no armor and only an ER medium laser and an ER Flamer (what even is this thing?) to defend itself. It does have a ton of Mine Layers though, which is interesting and potentially hilarious if you can get good use out of the mines, but I wouldn’t recommend this mech unless you just really want to mess around with mines. D+.

Icarus II ICR-2R

This is a meme mech. It costs 2776, and can only actually do damage to enemy mechs with a single ER Small Laser. The massive BV cost comes from 2 TSEMP’s in the arms, with AES’s to boost their accuracy. TSEMP’s are stupidly fun, having a chance to shutdown any mech they hit and causing all sorts of other weird effects on target even if they don’t shut them down. In addition, having 2 TSEMP’s lets it alternate fire and potentially keep a single mech locked down indefinitely, if you are lucky, which is stupid as hell and I love it. The issue is that 2776 BV is so, so much for a medium mech.  D+ in terms of actual practical use, but this is probably an A++ in terms of sheer fun factor. TSEMPs are fun, you should use one if you never have.

Watchman WTC-4DM2

This is a 40 ton little goober, with the same movement profile as a Griffin and some fun weapons. It carries a Large RE Laser, which is a really fun weapon, 2 ER Flamers (I guess this is the book where they are giving us mechs with ER Flamers), and 2 Magshot Gauss Rifles, which are little anti-infantry gauss rifles. For 1063 BV I actually really like this mech, it is basically a jumping Large REO SpeedLaser and honestly that is a perfectly fine thing to be. C+.

Goshawk II 4

This mech is overpriced and underwhelming. It costs 1936 BV, which is a fucking lot for a 45 ton mech, and it carries a Plasma Cannon (Fun, but only does heat damage with no regular damage, unlike the Plasma Rifle), a Streak LRM-10, and an Improved Heavy Large Laser. These are all fine weapons, and it jumps 7 hexes, but honestly there are better mechs to spend your BV on. C-.

Hatchetman-7D

I don’t have a ton to say about this. It’s a Hatchetman with 4 ER medium Lasers and a Targetting computer. It’s still lightly armored and suffers from being a melee mech that just doesn’t have enough tonnage to throw into the grapple to make any decent damage happen. C.

Bombard BMB-016

Making my job very, very hard, this mech is a ball of weird technology and insane choices. It is a 50 ton mech, moves 2/3/0, has a Chameleon Light Polarization System, 2 light gauss rifles, 2 medium lasers, and TSM. Oh, and Compact heat sinks, which are a thing. This is a complicated and convoluted mech but basically you overheat, then go heat neutral, barely move but still have huge to hit penalties because of your fucking invisibility cloak, and then shoot 2 Light Gauss Rifles forever. I don’t think this is very good at 1247 BV, but it is honestly such a weird mech that I don’t know what to think about it. Tentative C?

Enforcer III ENF-6R

I am a huge fan of the Enforcer 3, it being one of my favorite post clan invasion medium mechs, and this variant is like, its fine? Its 1694 BV for a 5/8/5 movement profile and an ER PPC, Rotary AC-5, and ER small laser. A bit pricey but honestly fine. C+.

Hunchback HBK-6P

I love Hunchbacks because they are weird janky mechs and this is possibly one of the weirdest and jankiest. It carries 6 light PPCs and 2 medium lasers, which is an alright amount of firepower for 1374 BV, and it carries a Radical Heat Sinking system to help it sink all of that heat. RHS is basically MASC for your heat sinks, you can sink extra heat every turn but at the risk of damaging your mech if you use it too long or too often. I like this mech, it’s one of the better Light PPC mechs I have seen so far and RHS is a fun system. I give it a B-, fun but not fantastic.

Huron Warrior HUR-WO-R5L

The Huron Warrior is a mech that I have always really liked for some reason, and this is a really fun variant. It carries a Snub Nosed PPC with Capacitor, a Gauss Rifle, and an ER Flamer (This is the book of the ER Flamer, long may it reign). This is a decent mix of weapons, but the best part of the mech is it’s Stealth Armor. Stealth Armor makes mechs really hard to hit. The mech manages it’s heat OK, though less good than I am really happy about. You will end up slowed down every other turn if you want to fire the snub PPC with Capacitor every time it is off cooldown, which is slightly obnoxious, but the Stealth Armor should help mitigate the problems that would cause. It is a hair expensive at 1780 but it is very usable, a solid C+.

Lineholder KW2-LH1O

This is a middling 55 ton medium mech for 1606. It has a C3 master, which is interesting simply because C3 master mechs are actually pretty rare, so it has a niche as a pretty cheap center for a C3 force, probably a lighter one. B-, any C3 master mech is good and this one is pretty cheap.

Brahma BRM-6T

Oh god I had to break out the rulebook for this one. So, the Brahma BRM-6T is a mech with a Targeting computer and a decent mix of weapons to use with it, even if it is undergunned for a mech that costs 1642. The weird ass thing about this mech that I had to break out the rulebook for is that it has Tracks. Like, tank tracks. It can, at the beginning of any turn, decide to move it’s full walking speed as if it was a tank. If it does this, it can’t be knocked over by gyroscope or leg actuator crits, and it just…. Moves like a tank. This is really, really strange and of heavily dubious usefulness, but it is sick as hell and basically makes this mech a Guntank, which is cool. I’d rate this somewhere around a B-? It has decent weapons and the track gimmick is really fun.

Helios HEL-7L

This is a 60 ton heavy mech for 1459 BV. It carries a couple of light PPCs, a gauss rifle, and two MML-5s. It is also a C3 slave, which is interesting. More C3 mechs are always welcome, and this is a fine mech to hang back at a distance with and plink away at things for a reasonable price. B-.

Tempest TMP-4M

This is a 65 ton mech with iJJs that let it move at 4/6/5, a Gauss Rifle, 3 medium lasers and a Snub PPC. It is overly expensive at 1937 BV and unless I am missing something is a shockingly mediocre Gauss caddy. C-.

Tempest C

Now we are talking. This mech carries some clan grade weapons, with a Clan LPL, a Clan Gauss, an ATM-9, and 3 Inner Sphere grade Medium Lasers. This is an interesting mix of weapons, and for only 2179 BV this is a pretty good deal, all of the weapons here are good, 4/6/4 is a good movement profile, and it is rugged enough, with its only sin being an XL engine. B+.

Caesar CES-5D

The eyes of the mighty Caesar are upon you. This mech is overpriced beyond all belief and is genuinely a terrible deal. It costs 3123 BV and for slightly more BV than a Hellstar you get a 70 ton heavy with TSM, a Supercharger, talons for extra kick damage, 2 clan Medium Pulse Lasers, a Clan ER PPC, and a HAG/20. This is a combination of a wide range of overpriced pieces of equipment, and it’s greatest sin is that it doesn’t have a good heat neutral firing pattern while running, which means it can’t maintain the 9 heat required for optimal TSM use while also using it’s supercharger, both of which it is paying out the ass for. 42 damage kicks are funny as shit but this is a bad mech, D+.

Hercules HRC-LS-9003

This is another mediocre inner sphere heavy mech. It’s 70 tons with an ER PPC, UAC-10, and a medium pulse laser, with an anti missile system and angel ECM, both of which barely ever come up. It is overpriced at 1794 BV and honestly I have nothing to say about it other than that it is vaguely fast at 5/8/0, C-.

Hercules HRC-LS-9004

This is nearly identical to the above mech, trading the medium pulse laser and angel ECM for a Blue Shield, which you can toggle on to halve incoming damage from PPCs. This is a potentially interesting tech piece, just like any mech with a Blue Shield, but it is pretty specialized towards fighting PPC mechs and is otherwise unexciting and overpriced. C-.

Orion C

You have my attention CGL. The Orion is one of my favorite mechs and this does not disappoint. It costs 2343, somewhere around the price of a Mad Cat, and moves 4/6/0, which is somewhat slow. However, it carries a pretty good weapon loadout. It has 3 ER Medium Pulse Lasers, a weapon which I hate marginally less than the ER Large Pulse Laser, they are still worse than normal clan pulse lasers (and by a lot), but they are not terrible here. It also carries a Gauss rifle and a Streak LRM-15, both pretty good long range weapons. The best part of this mech though is that it has Case II, a standard engine, and Ferro-Lam armor. We went over Ferro-Lam above, and the damage reduction combined with protection from ammo explosions and a harder to crit engine means that this mech will frequently fight until the pilot dies or the mech is completely and totally destroyed. I recommend trying a mech with Ferro Lam out, they are very, very good. B+.

Penetrator PTR-7D

Sharing a name with a boss from Demons’ Souls, the Penetrator is an interesting mech. It costs 2106 BV, somewhat pricey, but it carries 2 Snub PPCs with AES, which boosts their accuracy, and 6 medium pulse lasers. Honestly 6 MPLs is just a metric shitload of MPL, and this gives you pretty good mid-ranged skirmishing potential with the Snubs, which can swap to a pretty nasty short ranged pulse salvo if anything tries to run up to you. It also carries reflective armor, which halves the damage it takes from laser weapons at the price of being more vulnerable to damage from melee attacks and falling over. It’s interesting and I kinda dig it, C+.

Awesome AWS-11V

The Awesome AWS-11V asks the bold question “What if we took one of the most cost effective assault mechs in the game and made it really, really suck?” It costs 1855 BV, somewhat high, and has many, many sins. For one, it carries a befuddling and terrible mix of weapons, an inner sphere ER PPC with a Capacitor which puts out fucking 20 heat every time it shoots, a Light Gauss Rifle which, for nearly the same BV and tonnage, does about half the damage of a normal gauss rifle out to a slightly longer range, a single ER Medium Laser, and then, most offensive of all, it carries an Extended LRM-15. The Extended LRM-15 is in my humble opinion in the running for the title of “Most unusable weapon in the entire game”. It has a short range of 12 hexes and can reach out and touch people 38 hexes away, which sounds great, but it has a 10 hex minimum range, weighs a huge amount, puts out 8 heat a shot, doesn’t streak so you are at the mercy of the cluster table, and it’s range is excessive for 90% of games, because you really shouldn’t have open sightlines for 38 straight hexes. Indirect Fire exists but this mech is terrible at Indirect fire, as it only has one LRM. It also has only 12 double heat sinks, meaning it can only sink 24 heat, while its long range weapons put out a total of 29 heat per turn, meaning it is constantly overheating if it wants to put out the maximum DPS. I know the ER PPC with Capacitor only needs to be fired every other turn, and the mech can cool down between shots, but the price you pay is that if a light mech gets on top of you you have the maneuverability of an urbanmech with no jump jets. On top of all of this, it has a Compact Gyro, which weighs a lot more than the normal one but takes up less space. So, what did the wise designer decide to do with that extra space in the center torso? Why, pack it with 3 tons of ELRM ammo, of course. So it has a massive ammo bomb in the center torso, albeit protected with CASE II, which as it turns out is way better than I thought it was and keeps it from dying instantly the moment something tickle-touches it’s CT. Its still a problem, because there really isn’t any reason or need to put ammo in the CT. The mech suffers from bad, overpriced weapons, questionable heat management, an extreme problem with being killed by light mechs, and it just hurts every part of my brain. They massacred my boy. Took him out back and shot him dead. F+, it’s got a headchopper but every part of this mech gives me a migraine.

Hatamoto-Kaze HTM-27V2

Its a Hatamoto Chi with 2 ER PPCs and 2 MML-5s. It is a big 80 ton assault mech with good durability, ok weapons, and a C3 slave. At 1725 it is fairly priced, I kinda like it, it has good heat management. A generically good C3 payoff, B-.

Striker STC-2L

This is a fun mech. It is an 80 ton assault with 2 Plasma Rifles and 3 medium lasers. It has decent armor and speed, with the fun part of the mech being that it has Heat Dissipating armor, so it takes reduced heat from like, inferno SRMs and Plasma Rifles. It is a fun, flavorful mech that wants to fight with fire, but unless you have a sicko in your local group who loves Inferno SRMs or something it’s mediocre. C.

Battlemaster BLR-6M

Costing 1958 BV, the 6M carries a Heavy PPC and a Thunderbolt 15. Thunderbolts are sick as hell, being basically modern ATGMs, you just shoot a single giant missile at the opponent instead of a swarm of small ones, and that 15 damage hit at near-LRM ranges really hurts. The Heavy PPC and Thunderbolt work well together, and the 6M does ok on the Thunder Hawk-Hellstar Index of Headchopper Efficiency. It’s a fun mech. Solid B.

Battlemaster C 2

Speaking of good Battlemasters, CGL has been absolutely spoiling us with good Battlemaster variants lately. This is a non-hero/unique mech version of the Red Corsair, which is a very, very good thing to be. It costs 2538 BV, and carries 2 Clan ER PPCs, 4 Clan ER Medium Lasers, a Clan Large Pulse Laser, and a pretty solid 17 Double Heat Sinks. It is well armored, has no XL engine, and is just a big slab of Clan energy weapons and armor. It’s good, and I am not really going against the grain by saying that. It compares well to nearly every other 2500-ish BV assault mech in the game, trading some of the headchopping power of something like a Thunder Hawk 7S for more flexibility and better DPS at short range. Solid A, it is a good mech and it is a badass mech to stick your commander in.

Shogun SHG-3E

The Shogun SHG-3E is an over-priced version of an Archer. It is 85 tons, carries 2 LRM 15s, 2 Streak SRM-6s, and a Snub Nosed PPC, for 1988 BV. It costs too much and is generically meh, I don’t have a lot to say. C-.

Shogun C 2

As the above, but even more expensive at 2914 BV. All the weapons have been upgraded to Clan standards, with 2 Streak LRM-15s, 2 Streak SRM-6s and a Clan ER PPC. It also has Ferro-Lam, and while Ferro-Lam is very good I kinda don’t think this mech is super worth it, because it is costing a huge amount and there are just better mechs at this BV. C-.

Orochi OR-3K

Its a 90 ton IS assault mech, it has a good amount of armor but an XL engine, and it carries a mix of weapons I am not fond of for a pretty high price, at 2029 BV. It has 2 Silver Bullet Gauss Rifles, which take the 15 damage and long range of a Gauss Rifle, which is super nice and good, and ruins it completely by turning it into a cluster weapon, removing it’s ability to head chop and making me sad. It also has 2 IS ER Large Lasers, which I am not super fond of but are fine I guess. Its mediocre and will disappoint you by not being as good as a mech with 2 normal gauss rifles. C-.

Yu Huang T-H12GC

This is more interesting. It costs 2298 BV, and carries a Clan ER PPC, an Inner Sphere Gauss Rifle, and a Medium VSP. More interestingly, it has a C3 Boosted Master, which means that it can serve as a pretty decent head of a C3 force, with nice long range weapons that can take excellent advantage of the C3 bonuses. I give it a B+, its a good C3 master.

Cerberus MR-7K

Giving me Deja Vu for the mech we just looked at, this mech is a 95 ton assault that carries 2 Gauss Rifles and 4 Medium X Pulse lasers, with a C3 Slave. It is a perfectly fine payoff for a C3 lance and like, it’s ok at 2182 BV. C+. Oh, it also has Anti Penetrative Ablation armor, which basically makes it less likely to take Through Armor Criticals. Which is nice, but it’s still a C+.

Pendragon PDG-3R

This mech is certainly one of the mechs of all time. It is a C3 master computer mech with 2 RAC-2s, an ER PPC with Capacitor, and 3 ER Medium Lasers. It is a fine commander and payoff for a C3 force at 1991 BV, and it sure is one of the mechs that has ever been released. C.

Devastator DVS-10

Overpriced but kinda cool, the DVS-10 carries 2 Large Random Encounter Lasers, and 2 Medium Resident Evil Lasers. RE lasers are good, and this is a 100 ton assault mech that can run fucking 10 hexes because it has MASC and a Supercharger, and honestly it looks like a lot of fun. It is 2204 BV, and I honestly kinda like it a lot because of the speed, the fun weapons, and the general cool look of the Devastator. Solid B.

Omega SHP-5R

The Omega is a 150 ton superheavy mech. That is all some of you need to hear, but let me continue. This variant carries 2 LBX-10 ACs, and 3 Heavy PPCs. That is a lot of Headchopper, and it also comes with a C3 slave and ECM. Putting this abomination into a C3 lance sounds really, really spicy, and it actually does pretty well on the Thunder Hawk-Hellstar Index of Headchopper efficiency. It is slow as hell, sorta janky, and covered with a disgusting amount of armor. I love it. B.

Oh, also it kicks for 30 fucking damage, which rocks.

Conclusion

Nearly 15% of this article is just me complaining about the Awesome 11V. I was not ready for the amount of new mechs that had released in this one, and honestly, most of them are firmly middle of the pack, with a few gems like a new Omega variant, the Battlemaster C 2, and the Orion C. The Brahma variant with tank treads is also cool, and I hope we get more oddball, messed up mech variants in the future. Even the middle of the pack variants of mechs are giving new options to mechs that, up until now, really don’t have many variants. A lot of mechs languish in a vague space of having only 1-3 variants, not really having nearly the flexibility of something like an Awesome or Orion that has been around the entire lifetime of the game and has a variant for everything. These odd, Star League era or post-Clan Invasion mechs getting more variants is awesome, and I am always happy to see it.