OBT Forum

Not to rain on anyone else's parade, but the Atlas just... doesn't excite me.  Never has.  It's just a giant honking block of armor with 3/5 speed and half the firepower of an Archer.  Or roughly the same firepower as the Whitworth.  WOOOOOW.  Sure, it's got a LOT of armor, but unless one of the two players is defending a chokepoint, none of those 9" range guns on the 7-D matter when it can just be whittled down from range.  Okay sure, it's got a bulbous skull head?  Yaaaaaaay, skulls are totally overdone in miniature wargames.

And any variation on it that I would want, has already been designed.  Cheap and cheerful support 'Mech?  AS7-RS.  Expensive fire support?  AS7-K.  Less expensive version of the 7-K?  Atlas II and Titan II.  Super-heavy firepower on a pillbox?  Annihilator series.  Double boom-sticks?  Fafnir or Pillager series.  Triple boom sticks?  Thunder Hawk for total wretched excess.  ACTUAL useful fire-support at 100t?  Imp series.  Just as anemic as the Atlas but with waaaay more character?  King Crab series, or the Marauder II.

Plus there's the Berserker as a case study in how not to ever design a melee 'Mech.

I kept trying to get excited about the Atlas, but it just doesn't speak to me, at all, in the slightest.  I know it's "iconic", but I just don't see how it's anywhere as good as the other iconic 'Mechs in the game, or even just in the 3025 tech readout.  Without its quirks (and plenty of people don't use quirks) it's just utterly mediocre, which is not what you want in your expensive assault 'Mechs.  WITH the quirks, it's... slightly better than OK?  I guess it'll keep your commander alive and useful except for the occasional lucky head shot.

I guess I just don't use the 100-ton 'Mechs, not when there's so many more useful 'Mechs at lower tonnages.  But if I ever had to field a 100-tonner, I'd reach straight for the Clan second-line options: Jupiter 1 and Bane 3.  Pure delicious oozing cheese in a fire support package. Practically a "win" button for each.

And I admit I own an Archangel, but it came as part of a set, I swear.

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edit: I double-checked the BV, and I can field two whitworths for one 7-D atlas, which is a trade I would take every day, and twice on Sundays.  Even in alpha strike, which is much kinder to the 7-D atlas,  two Whitworths are still a decent trade (and the PV still works for a 2:1 swap).

Designing an effective Atlas is one of the harder challenges here in my opinion. The shortcomings of the AS7-K demonstrate that pretty clearly as critical spaces start disappearing pretty quick depending on engine choice. If you go with a 300 XL like that lostech upgrade has you get a lot of tons but just 12 free heat sinks. With all the weight available you run through those free heat sinks fast and using InnerSphere DHS cost 3 crits per 1. If you go for a 400 XL which is very possible as Bradshaw points out you get 16 free heat sinks but that gobbles up a lot of tonnage. If you designed this Mech using Clan tech it gets a lot easier. 

That's why the Menoetius by Clan Coyote won a Quicksilver contest.

Link below -

https://www.ourbattletech.com/forum/mechfactory/quicksilver-program-19-100-ton-zombie-omnimech/

Quote from: Hominid Mk II on December 08, 2021, 12:32:35 AM

But for all that, a cosmetic redesign to incorporate a skull motif could still make even a lowly UrbanMech seem a lot more intimidating to an opponent. Psyching out the enemy can be a serious force multiplier.

I almost named it Kael and used that bit for the one variant after a certain famous general from the 80s

Had to Google "General Kael" as it's a looong time since the one occasion when I watched the movie Willow and my memory isn't that good!

One variant of what? An Urbie?

Edit:
I'm guessing you're referring to this

https://www.ourbattletech.com/forum/mechfactory/post-your-urbanmechs!!/

. That opening pic is hilarious!

Was talking about the Atlas as he used the Skull helmet. Kurgan did as well and I liked his character better.

Oh, right.

Got to wonder if the Highlander franchise would ever have gotten beyond the first movie if Clancy Brown hadn't been cast in the role.

Edit:
And he was the only one of the three leading actors who had the good judgement not to return for the cringe-inducing sack of crap that was the second movie!

(nods)

Read that on Wikipedia a while ago. You can understand Christopher Lambert being enthusiastic - it was a chance to reprise his first major international role. But what was Sean Connery's excuse!?

Ah. That's actually the best excuse he could possibly have had. Fair enough.

Oh, well, if you get yelled at you can put half the blame on me. (Or vice versa.) Misery loves company and all that.