Will there be alternatives to standard bipedal mechs?

[onlysane1]

Most forward facing knee jointed mechs are humanoid, and most reverse knee joint (Chicken-Walkers) have a horizontally orientated torso (sort of aircraft fuselage shaped torso) to them. However, I feel we can't forget about our Humanoid/Chicken-Walker hybrids too.

Mechs like the Cataphract are an amazing example of a Humanoid body/Chcken-Walker legs. Such an ugly thing of beauty .

Or, the Jenner is an example of the other way around, with it having Humanoid legs/horizontal orientated torso. I'm less of a fan of this config, but the Jenner is definitely timeless.

With all the different mech models I'm sure Paradox has plenty of DLC opportunities

 

[Exemplar Voss]

And both the Scorpion and the Goliath are decent fire support mechs.

Eh. The scorpions has a single all or nothing and a single big box of sandpaper, angling for two different range bands, and its made of paper. For fire support, I'd rather have a griffin and I hate the griffin.

For its weight class, the goliath is reasonably armored, and the weapon loadout isn't entirely terrible. It has the virtue of not being a banshee.

 

[MeiSooHaityu]

With all the different mech models I'm sure Paradox has plenty of DLC opportunities

Plenty of opportunities, sure, but It will be HareBrained Schemes that will come up with a post launch strategy, and not Paradox. Paradox is publishing BattleTech, and is helping with testing and localization (and now forum hosting), however HBS still controls BattleTech and what direction they will go in post-launch whether it be expansions, sequels, or any other forum of post-launch content.

 

[Kovax]

Even though the Goliath has the ppc installed in it's "turret-like head" the rules have it in the RT which is annoying.
Lateral movement can go some way to making it harder to go around, but not much.

Lateral movement is no help if you lose initiative. The opponent may not have the movement points to get completely behind you, but getting just past you on one side or the other isn't that difficult. Normally, it's not that beneficial for them to do so, because you both end up torso-twisting and firing your full weapons arrays at each other anyway. With a quad, it's screwed for that turn.

 

[TaurianMerc]

Lateral movement is no help if you lose initiative. The opponent may not have the movement points to get completely behind you, but getting just past you on one side or the other isn't that difficult. Normally, it's not that beneficial for them to do so, because you both end up torso-twisting and firing your full weapons arrays at each other anyway. With a quad, it's screwed for that turn.

But if you've allowed yourself to get in the position where the enemy can flank you in one move you deserve what you get!
Why have you let him get that close? Where are the rest of your mechs (lets not take these things out of context)

 

[Ozymandious]

The scorpion isn't a pounder its a flanker. You keep range and use side step to run rings aroundem while maintaining your face to them. This was one of my favorite tricks TT. It doesn't have the armor to slug, its designed to survive by speed and maneuver. I really don't understand why the lack of a torso twist would be considered a negative on a mech that should not stop moving unless its donky kicking the last of the opfors center torso.

 

[Ozymandious]

For a bipedal mech to circle it must waste lotsa movement on facing changes, a quad sidesteps half the time for free so in a turning battle it effectively has twice the movement of a similar 2 leg mech. My math may be off but you get the idea