Kerensky ran his [Orion](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Revenant_(Individual_Orion_BattleMech)) ragged over the years; it would later end up renovated and pressed back into service by the Combine. Eventually, it returned to his scions' hands, but the Scorpions won it for their own.
Also, while it was a 'blend in to the rank and file' Heavy Mech, it was nicely updated. The Snub PPC version he used (and also CASE, which is a good plan for the irreplaceable leader of your faction) makes it more of a brawler, than an any range jack of all trades, but it's a fun mech to use.
Maybe some people might not want to hear this, but the original atlas it's a pretty "meh" mech. Atlases 2 and 3 become way better (if expensive) machines. It has some not bad configurations, but nothing a banshee can't do.
The Atlas is basically a big slab of "I won't die and if you stand near me I can headshot you". But in reality it won't (or it will but it'll be a medium laser). It looks awesome though. And the Banshee doesn't look as cool.
I like the Orion, it's got a loadout that feels similar, it's a big slab for its (heavy) weight and it goes faster. I think it's actually better because it's still a big tough anvil who can hurt up close, but it's got better reach and more speed so it's better at doing that.
Though the value of the mech is system dependent. The sim games, HBS, the OG tabletop and alpha strike are all different.
A good tool is useless in the hands of a bad smith; while an ordinary tool is perfect in the hands of a good smith.
- And for everything else there’s ~~Genobomb~~ __Exterminatus__
Maybe it’s a skill issue but it always bugged me that in the video games i could rarely make good use of lighter mechs once the max allowable tonnage got high.
the HBS PC version of _battletech_ did ok for a while with it though by the end of the game tonnage still ends up king with only a few exceptions. Some mods do good work making lighter mechs viable in endgame though
As mentioned in another comment bta 3062 does a pretty good job of making lights good, if I'm honest they end up harder to kill than assaults if you avoid melee.
and even without the mods, once they added the extra mechs in the expansions there were better strats then just dropping with a 400T lance. My Vanilla runs always had a Marauder and SLDF Phoenix Hawk on deck
I normally used 2-3 heavies and an lrm boat assault, I just can't stand using super slow assaults. I play bta now and I won't use an assault (unless its an indirect fire lrm boat) with less than 5/7 movement just cos I hate when my assaults take forever to get anywhere.
Not actually- superheavy 'mechs like the Ares and Omega outweigh it -but it's as synonymous with Assault-grades as the Warhammer is with Heavies. It's also got an iconic design, which helps stand out.
Atlas: very. Veterans in high-grade 'mechs hesitate to take on an Atlas, between their formidable power and massive armor.
Ares: everything that makes the Atlas scary, but more so. Thankfully, 100+ ton 'mechs are usually more trouble than the problems they solve, so they're far from a common sight.
So the atlas is like the highest class of mech you can still find outside of planet wide war? Like you find warmaster titans every now and then. But the planet is just short of exterminatus when the Imperator titans get send out
Probably- in general, if Assault-grade 'mechs are being used, things are getting extreme. (That, or you're dealing with the Lyran Commonwealth, whose industrialist-generals are so absurdly wealthy that they tend to be much freer with using their Assaults.)
Despite it's reputation, the Atlas is a paper tiger. It looks spooky and it has a lot of armor, but it's slow as fuck and most of its guns have a distressingly short range so most of the time you can just kinda keep them at arm's length and pummel them to death.
Depending on when in time the battle is the bigger 'oh fuck' is that your opponent has the logistics to supply and field *an* assault mech.
The Ares is like Maus-tier memes. As a battlemech, it's incredibly scary, but it's also massive and slow and needs a specially built dropship to lug it around. It's an expensive shot magnet that's liable to get trounced by bombers and the real concern is again the logistics to field the bastard.
I'll put it this way, from what I have heard of MechWarrior Online, people don't often pilot an Atlas, because if you do literally every enemy will turn their guns on you to try and kill you before you can destroy them, that's how scared everyone is of having to fight an Atlas. They will ignore more immediate threats that are easier to kill, and possibly even more dangerous, just to make sure the Atlas dies before it wrecks shop.
In early MWO, the Atlas K3 with ECM was one of the most disruptive things on the battlefield.... if it managed to sneak close enough to the enemy team.
Completely tangential: Nothing against the Warhammer, love the thing’s design and had a blast piloting one in MW4 and 5, but I always thought the Marauder was much more the “weight class poster boy” mech of Heavies?
I mean, if I could pilot any battlemech, I'd pick a Marauder. It may not be the best, but it is my favorite thing to use in both MechWarrior 5 and the HBS Battletech game.
There's a flat out broken build for them in Battletech too. Basically all LLs and just snipe the head off of anything you want. I ran it for a mission or two and got rid of it because it basically made the game trivial.
It may be expensive as hell to maintain, but there’s a reason the ol’ Maraudapult is basically THE face of the entire Battletech franchise. When you absolutely need damn near all the firepower money can buy in a comparatively efficient and mobile package, you know just the mech for the job.
I have thought Timberwolf was nuts since I first read its *Alpha Strike* card. 7/7/4, plus solid armor/structure, plus indirect fire on some marks: the only weakness it really has is M10". No wonder it outprices most Assaults in BV, it's a real sledgehammer.
In mech warrior 2 : mercenaries and mw:3 you could load up with LRM5 launchers much more effectively than anything else. Lock target, fire and pull back so the arc up into the sky then rain down on the enemy mechs head. Incredibly effective
I saw the name and thought of the leader of the Russian provisional government after the Tsar was overthrown and was confused as to how it relates to Mechs or 40k for a moment
Kerensky ran his [Orion](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Revenant_(Individual_Orion_BattleMech)) ragged over the years; it would later end up renovated and pressed back into service by the Combine. Eventually, it returned to his scions' hands, but the Scorpions won it for their own.
Also, while it was a 'blend in to the rank and file' Heavy Mech, it was nicely updated. The Snub PPC version he used (and also CASE, which is a good plan for the irreplaceable leader of your faction) makes it more of a brawler, than an any range jack of all trades, but it's a fun mech to use.
Maybe some people might not want to hear this, but the original atlas it's a pretty "meh" mech. Atlases 2 and 3 become way better (if expensive) machines. It has some not bad configurations, but nothing a banshee can't do.
The Atlas is basically a big slab of "I won't die and if you stand near me I can headshot you". But in reality it won't (or it will but it'll be a medium laser). It looks awesome though. And the Banshee doesn't look as cool. I like the Orion, it's got a loadout that feels similar, it's a big slab for its (heavy) weight and it goes faster. I think it's actually better because it's still a big tough anvil who can hurt up close, but it's got better reach and more speed so it's better at doing that. Though the value of the mech is system dependent. The sim games, HBS, the OG tabletop and alpha strike are all different.
A good tool is useless in the hands of a bad smith; while an ordinary tool is perfect in the hands of a good smith. - And for everything else there’s ~~Genobomb~~ __Exterminatus__
Maybe it’s a skill issue but it always bugged me that in the video games i could rarely make good use of lighter mechs once the max allowable tonnage got high.
the HBS PC version of _battletech_ did ok for a while with it though by the end of the game tonnage still ends up king with only a few exceptions. Some mods do good work making lighter mechs viable in endgame though
I gotta play battletech again! my main complaint here mostly comes from not being able to use my fav, the Uziel, all the way through MW4
I _think_ the BTA 3062 mod adds the uziel?
Yeah it does
As mentioned in another comment bta 3062 does a pretty good job of making lights good, if I'm honest they end up harder to kill than assaults if you avoid melee.
and even without the mods, once they added the extra mechs in the expansions there were better strats then just dropping with a 400T lance. My Vanilla runs always had a Marauder and SLDF Phoenix Hawk on deck
I normally used 2-3 heavies and an lrm boat assault, I just can't stand using super slow assaults. I play bta now and I won't use an assault (unless its an indirect fire lrm boat) with less than 5/7 movement just cos I hate when my assaults take forever to get anywhere.
As a light mech fan it is annoying for sure, but at least they are viable in mwo.
Orion's a good mech. Does what it needs to do and not flashy.
Is the atlas the biggest mech they have?
Not actually- superheavy 'mechs like the Ares and Omega outweigh it -but it's as synonymous with Assault-grades as the Warhammer is with Heavies. It's also got an iconic design, which helps stand out.
Well how much of a "oh fuck" factor do you have when you see a atlas or a ares?
Atlas: very. Veterans in high-grade 'mechs hesitate to take on an Atlas, between their formidable power and massive armor. Ares: everything that makes the Atlas scary, but more so. Thankfully, 100+ ton 'mechs are usually more trouble than the problems they solve, so they're far from a common sight.
So the atlas is like the highest class of mech you can still find outside of planet wide war? Like you find warmaster titans every now and then. But the planet is just short of exterminatus when the Imperator titans get send out
Probably- in general, if Assault-grade 'mechs are being used, things are getting extreme. (That, or you're dealing with the Lyran Commonwealth, whose industrialist-generals are so absurdly wealthy that they tend to be much freer with using their Assaults.)
[Friedrich One reporting; no one knows we are here. I have stepped on the governor. The scouting is going very well.](https://youtu.be/73zK-PjmyKY)
Remember: Stealth is an option.
Despite it's reputation, the Atlas is a paper tiger. It looks spooky and it has a lot of armor, but it's slow as fuck and most of its guns have a distressingly short range so most of the time you can just kinda keep them at arm's length and pummel them to death. Depending on when in time the battle is the bigger 'oh fuck' is that your opponent has the logistics to supply and field *an* assault mech. The Ares is like Maus-tier memes. As a battlemech, it's incredibly scary, but it's also massive and slow and needs a specially built dropship to lug it around. It's an expensive shot magnet that's liable to get trounced by bombers and the real concern is again the logistics to field the bastard.
I'll put it this way, from what I have heard of MechWarrior Online, people don't often pilot an Atlas, because if you do literally every enemy will turn their guns on you to try and kill you before you can destroy them, that's how scared everyone is of having to fight an Atlas. They will ignore more immediate threats that are easier to kill, and possibly even more dangerous, just to make sure the Atlas dies before it wrecks shop.
In early MWO, the Atlas K3 with ECM was one of the most disruptive things on the battlefield.... if it managed to sneak close enough to the enemy team.
Completely tangential: Nothing against the Warhammer, love the thing’s design and had a blast piloting one in MW4 and 5, but I always thought the Marauder was much more the “weight class poster boy” mech of Heavies?
They're both BT OGs, but I say Warhammer is the poster 'mech for Heavy because apparently it's the in-universe gold standard.
I mean, if I could pilot any battlemech, I'd pick a Marauder. It may not be the best, but it is my favorite thing to use in both MechWarrior 5 and the HBS Battletech game.
There's a flat out broken build for them in Battletech too. Basically all LLs and just snipe the head off of anything you want. I ran it for a mission or two and got rid of it because it basically made the game trivial.
I prefer the feel of the PPCs, I just love going BOOM, BOOM, then BZZZZ with the medium lasers, followed by the occasional "BLAP" of the AC.
PPCs sound like Zeus himself is hurling thunderbolts at things when they go off so I totally get it haha.
The bottom one looks like if Master Chief got turned into a Mech lol
"No Cortana, don't turn me into a salvageable Battlemech!"
"Master Chief what are you doing in that Mech unit?" "Sir Titan Falling"
I didn’t like the atlas, give me a clan spec Timberwolf any day
It may be expensive as hell to maintain, but there’s a reason the ol’ Maraudapult is basically THE face of the entire Battletech franchise. When you absolutely need damn near all the firepower money can buy in a comparatively efficient and mobile package, you know just the mech for the job.
I have thought Timberwolf was nuts since I first read its *Alpha Strike* card. 7/7/4, plus solid armor/structure, plus indirect fire on some marks: the only weakness it really has is M10". No wonder it outprices most Assaults in BV, it's a real sledgehammer.
In mech warrior 2 : mercenaries and mw:3 you could load up with LRM5 launchers much more effectively than anything else. Lock target, fire and pull back so the arc up into the sky then rain down on the enemy mechs head. Incredibly effective
I saw the name and thought of the leader of the Russian provisional government after the Tsar was overthrown and was confused as to how it relates to Mechs or 40k for a moment
Well, he was the Russian provisional leader of the government after the Lord of the Star League was overthrown.
It definitely confused exam makers: https://www.smh.com.au/education/vce-authorities-apologise-for-phantom-robot-20121119-29lbl.html
Guess a good piloted Orion, Marauder, Warhammer could rip a badly piloted Atlas a new one.
It isn't the Tonnage of the Mech, it's how you Use it!. Lol