Armored Fast Extraction 'Mech Options
- Thread starter HonorKnight
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Thought you might want to see this little chart:
So it would take 18 heat sinks for a Firestarter to truly be able to jump continually. You'd have to drop all weapons and 2 tons of armor (or just drop 1 ton of armor to have just 1 point of heat buildup) for those 18 heat sinks. An AoD pilot's max jump in a Firestarter would generate 67 heat, so 23 heat sinks. You'd literally have to drop your armor down to 1 ton to pull that off (or 2 tons of armor to have just 1 point of heat buildup). You're probably better off accepting at least some of the heat buildup, and doing more sprinting than jumping
Armor, no, because we're not talking stock here. FireStarter and Jenner have the same 7.5 tons max armor, and the CDA-3C has more at 8.5 tons max armor
Heat, sure, any time you get a slower engine and fewer jump jets, you're going to have less jumping heat and you'll free up more tons that you can choose to invest in heat sinks. That would be handy if leapfrogging through the rocky mountains, but hopefully there will be plenty of wide-open spaces to sprint through instead of jumping 4+ turns in a row, which would require a lot of heat sinks to avoid overheating damage.
As a side note: hooray for a third confirmed Canopian on these forums! We can form a mini-faction with @Packrat.
Why I'm a Canopian: https://community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/10975/
I'm still waiting for a Sign... waiting for the Word of Kiva...
Well researched as always @HonorKnight. I should've clarified my statement about the armour - I misleadingly compared a modified FS9-H (2 MLs, 14 HS, max armour) to a stock CDA-3C and JR7-F (which, unless I'm very much mistaken, carries 7 tonnes as standard).
My favourite 3025-era light 'mech. Luckily with the FS9-H's hardpoints it should be relatively easy to recreate in the game (which I've done in the beta, both in the classic 2x ML, 2x SL, 2x MG configuration as well as my personal favourite - 2x ML and 4x SL).
Well, I'm there more for the personal liberties and the great parties, but to each his own (imho that should be the official Canopian motto). As a merc I worship Boudica (as outlined in my post on ComStar).
My favourite 3025-era light 'mech. Luckily with the FS9-H's hardpoints it should be relatively easy to recreate in the game (which I've done in the beta, both in the classic 2x ML, 2x SL, 2x MG configuration as well as my personal favourite - 2x ML and 4x SL).
Well, I'm there more for the personal liberties and the great parties, but to each his own (imho that should be the official Canopian motto).
As a merc I worship Boudica (as outlined in my post on ComStar). 
They do. Angel of Death also increases the maximum jump distance by 25%, with a heat penalty applied accordingly. A pilot like Paradise might seem like just the right choice for an extraction mission, but because of his relatively low Guts and the possibility of overheating the 'mech maximum jump distance should be used sparingly.
Sounds like a job for Vindicator. Max armor, heatsinks for days, and when piloted by an Angel of Death, top tier jump capabilities. Of course it only has one hand, so you don't get second chances, but redundancy is just planning to fail.
As much as I like the Vindicator its speed is a significant limitation. If I were to use a medium I'd much rather pick the GRF-1S - it has the same number of sinks as the Vindy and one more jump jet, in addition to increased ground speed. Armour is very similar at 9,5 tonnes, but one could be tempted to drop the LRM-5 launcher and its ammo for such a mission to add a heatsink or two and/or max the armour to 11,5 tonnes. It also has two hand actuators, so that's a bonus lore-wise, and unlike the Cicada it can actually defend itself. The Phoenix Hawk could have been a prime choice among the mediums, but we're not getting that in game (yet) so that's purely academic.
True, but you also have to remember that Paradise was a Beta pilot. We probably won’t see a pilot like that right off the bat. This thread has me considering the possibility of keeping a dedicated extraction pilot on the roster. Get them AoD, max Guts and only used for extraction missions after that point.
Jordan's "Extraction Spider" is great in early missions - I hadn't heard about it until last week, somehow - and I've been trying it. I literally flip the bird to my monitors and cackle early on.
Late game, it can be much more difficult, because even up-armored, the enemy has a tendency to blow off legs, jump jets, and torsos (including the center). Extraction-specific mechs still have a pretty good place with all that, even said. I wanna try a Buddy Battlemaster, stripping it of most weapons and adding jumpjets, so that the rest of my lance can provide covering fire while it jumps away (with the front towards enemy).
Can't say as it'll hold up, but it's worth a shot. Hell of a heavy-ass beast to use solely for extractions, but when ya gotta run...
Edit: Maybe a Kintaro...
Late game, it can be much more difficult, because even up-armored, the enemy has a tendency to blow off legs, jump jets, and torsos (including the center). Extraction-specific mechs still have a pretty good place with all that, even said. I wanna try a Buddy Battlemaster, stripping it of most weapons and adding jumpjets, so that the rest of my lance can provide covering fire while it jumps away (with the front towards enemy).
Can't say as it'll hold up, but it's worth a shot. Hell of a heavy-ass beast to use solely for extractions, but when ya gotta run...
Edit: Maybe a Kintaro...
Interesting. Eventually the JJ equipped Banshee is the ultimate extraction mech.
I should try that. I've never bothered with a Banshee, not even in skirmish, because damn, they stink on ice. For that purpose, though... that's pretty rad.
You guys, this is what the Charger is made for. Almost as fast as a Commando, almost three times the armor of a spider AND can smack aside anything in its way with ease. You can even trade out the lasers for Jump Jets if you need them.
Well, what I said WAS tongue in cheek but apparently I'm not wrong!
Okay, I know we don't have the Scorpion Quad in BATTLETECH, but a near-weaponless, up-armored, 6/9 movement, 55-ton Mech. BATTLETECH Mechlab-blessed with 6 Jump Jets... would to me make an excellent extraction Mech.
Perhaps the best blend of Fast, Jumpy, lots-o Armor and Internal Structure I can think of...
...GOSH this is ALREADY fun!!!! : )
Thought you might want to see this little chart:
So it would take 18 heat sinks for a Firestarter to truly be able to jump continually. You'd have to drop all weapons and 2 tons of armor (or just drop 1 ton of armor to have just 1 point of heat buildup) for those 18 heat sinks. An AoD pilot's max jump in a Firestarter would generate 67 heat, so 23 heat sinks. You'd literally have to drop your armor down to 1 ton to pull that off (or 2 tons of armor to have just 1 point of heat buildup). You're probably better off accepting at least some of the heat buildup, and doing more sprinting than jumping
Are these heat numbers the base for that much jump or the heat generated by that much jump in the beta with its global heat increase?
Yep, absolutely true. I was thinking more of what's off the shelf with little to no modification.I may be over-estimating the FS's jump range as I ate like a million MP DFA attacks from what seemed like ludicrous distances; that certainly colors my opinions.
I'm not super familiar with TT style mechlab modifications, so I wasn't taking into account JJ restrictions based on engine class, etc. For the light class I still like either the Jenner or Firestarter as they're already pretty mobile in the stock loadouts - not a lot of mechlab time required to push them into the 'absurdly maneuverable' stage.
You guys, this is what the Charger is made for. Almost as fast as a Commando, almost three times the armor of a spider AND can smack aside anything in its way with ease. You can even trade out the lasers for Jump Jets if you need them.
I'd be genuinely fascinated to see how the Charger holds up in the BT mechanics - having that huge movement range combined with an assault-class melee attack would probably draw a ton of attention (and fire) away from the rest of the lance if you needed a bait mech to keep the actual VIP mech safe.
I think the Charger would kind of really suffer to the Initiative mechanics. It's not actually fast enough to play with shoot-and-scoot lights, and its armor coverage, although high by Light standards, is not actually high enough to withstand the firepower of PPC-armed, jumping mediums and heavies, which can basically target it with impunity.
I think it would need a special quirk that let it go in the Heavy initiative pass, stacking with the pilot ability.
From the beta with the 1.5x global heat increase. That's why the rounding is weird, +7, then +8, then +7, because really each increment is +5 times 1.5 with the rounding that results. I haven't heard anything to suggest the heat factor has changed since the beta.
Also, heat is based on distance jumped, and nothing else. The chart is the max distance you can choose to jump for that number of jump jets. If you have 8 jump jets but you jump a distance that could have been jumped with 4 jump jets, that will only cost you 37 heat. But the point of extraction 'Mechs is to be fast, so you probably won't be making a lot of small jumps like that.
This is the chart I made during the beta of the exact heat costs for jumping anywhere on flat terrain starting from the 0 (for all distances attainable without AoD). My favorite little quirk here is that if you jump 5 dots in a straight line, the sixth dot is heat-free. They really should have used a sliding scale instead of these breakpoints.
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