Thanks for tuning in. Yeah, you know you are a legend when the other team need a nuke to take you out.

Ho ho ho merry Christmas and thanks for listening

Merry christmas buddy. I wish! But sadly can't sing, can't carry a tune...which is lucky for you guys!

I like both, so I will accept this comment. It is a tough little mech, probably more a slogger than the rifleman. But then a RAC/5 rifleman is just fun

Merry Christmas ya filthy animal!

Thanks for tuning in, you are technically correct. The best kind of correct. It is a target magnet which assaults always are. Sometimes though it is very much unwanted attention as they are slow and some what easier to hit

Thanks for tuning in. Its that usual thing of taking a dedicated mech out of its intended role really. Some of the later ones look good, like most 'mechs. I'd still happily play it on tabletop, all I need is the new mini and I am set to give it a bash

Thanks for listening! As they should be, its a fearsome beast not matter the variant you take

Thank for listening. Glad you enjoyed the chat, it was nice to has some things out and get them off out chests so to speak. I agree every 'mech has its uses, theatres and ranges. Which 'mech would you take over the Atlas for a generic fight?

@@battletopia I will keep it to 3025 IS assault mechs. I would go with either the Thug or Maurader II. The Thug has all the positive traits of its parent mech, the Warhammer (strong offense and defense, good heat management), with almost none of the weaknesses. The Maurader II has everything you want in an assault mech, with the added benefit of better-than-average mobility. The MAD II beats the Atlas in every category except for raw short-range firepower.

Thanks for tuning in. I missed the whole robotech thing so slowly catching up now. Thats a pretty cool thought though of this guy down in the deep doing some sneeky scanning

Thanks Derek, oh go on. It will be a laugh (for your opponent). You have to try atleast once don't you?!

@battletopia You raise a fair point! Maybe when the KS finally arrives!

Thanks for listening. See that's the great thing no matter how "bad" a mech is or how the lore reflects why it was made "bad" there are always fans of them and I love it for this!

Thanks for listening and glad you enjoyed it. All credit to Sean for his amazing writing, makes voicing all the easier! Yep, its a jack of all and master of none and even then only along a Sunday. What it does well is what it was built for, training. One of those shoe horned into a front line role it was never intended for, like the rifleman

Thanks for tuning in. I never got to play Cresecent Hawks, its on my list of games to get running on PC, I have seen some people porting it. Its not a world I want to live in if the Urbanmech is the second most powerful 'mech in universe....uggghhh

Thanks buddy, glad to be back!

Thanks for listening, and its because the Blackjack rocks! But yes, it should be a front line tourist really not overstaying it's welcome

Thanks for tuning in. I love that idea, I think we have similar styles. Everything is in the same range bracket, you aren't ammo reliant and best of all nothing to blow up when you get too hot!

@@battletopia It overheats every time you alpha strike so it's more an an emergency measure. Something like, "Oh, dear that Commando just moved into optimal SRM range. I should make that disappear." What really grabbed my attention was the Chameleon's 6/9/6 movement which is the same as my beloved Phoenix Hawk. That and similar levels of armor protection. Granted the Chameleon weighs five tons more so the Phoenix Hawk is more weight efficient. Still, not a huge difference.

Thanks for watching. Yep and fast enough to keep up with most of the Inner Sphere little buggers too

Thanks for listening. Sounds like you had the dice gods angered before you even began!

Thanks for hopping on the battle bus. Glad you like the beastie, it can be fun thats true. I can see it holding its own in the succession wars/ Yep, one of the starter hero mechs was the Chameleon (or so I am told)

Yesssss, sneaky back stabbing Blackjacks are my jam! These guys with their jumps can make all the difference, even with AC/2s. Thansk for listening

Seems fine to me

Thanks for listening. Yeah like most things in universe, it was made for a task, which it does well, then taken out of that role in desperation.

Thanks for tuning in, yeah it's a fine 'mech. Perfectly adequate, nothing flashy just adequate. It was never made for front line but can hold it's own for a while

Thanks for the kind words, means alot! I'm glad you enjoyed it, makes it all worthwhile

Thanks for listening..also you get it! If its so good why didn't the big man drive one!

Thanks for tuning in. How can anyone miss anything about an urbanmech! I always find it funny to be sitting in an eye of the atlas, offset like in a car

@battletopia on the one hand, I have the impression that from the Urbie's I have a better field of view. Is it true? I don't know, but it feels so. On the other, the Atlas's doesn't have the funny "slow/less slow" speed gauge xD

Thanks for tuning in, I'm intrigued how was he mistaken (or a mistake)?

Thanks for tuning in. It is a proper sledge hammer when it gets the chance

Thanks for listening dude. I agree assaults are a bold choice, and one I don't usually like take. You don't always get to pick your environment though do you, nor your deployment zone. I have used 3 Atlases to close a canyon entirely to a clan star or two. And they held firm for about 3 turn but then got nuked, so royally blow up it was funny. So they can have their uses at times but I still don't like it (but I own about 4 so take them sometimes)

@@jamesripley8031 I get what you’re saying, but your arguments about picking your terrain, don’t deploy in open terrain, don’t leave the atlas behind are kind of exactly what Kerensky had in mind and the advantage that he wanted. I think your mindset is focused around the terms of how the vast majority of battletech is played, an individual tabletop game with success dependent on a win/loss in that one single battle with just the assets on the table. In that sense, sure, absolutely, just park it deep in some woods, a canyon, a city or anywhere out of sight until your opponent gets tired of waiting or somebody has to go get their kids soon, so they end of closing and annihilated. But that’s very different from discussing the use of the atlas in a battle that is part of a larger campaign in a larger conflict set in the time and place that the atlas was designed. In those hay days of the SLDF, combined arms, artillery, and air support were all common assets and in full use, though they rarely see use in tabletop play. For the same reasons, your points are very valid for the succession wars, when air support, artillery, etc was not nearly as common, but that’s not the era we are discussing in the video. So in the lore world, at the time the atlas was developed, if you tried to camp in a forest or neighborhood or whatever and create a choke point, the opposing SLDF Royals would just chuckle, sit down, crack open some beers, and let the artillery corps flatten the entire choke point and any of your troops within until all that’s left is splinters and twisted scrap. In those SLDF days, any time you try to dictate the area of engagement or forcibly create a choke point or really try to create a static defense of any kind, you’re just making yourself vulnerable and predictable in your tactics, which is what kerensky wanted.

Some thoughts on that: 1. This is true and a good point, but it also hold true for pretty much any mech that enters serial production. So I think it’s entirely possible that Kerensky was smart enough to think that if his little ploy could provide some jobs and income that may help stabilize things politically and delay the war he doesn’t want to fight, what’s the harm? 2. I think this is a good point that I should have brought up, because it kind of supports my claim. If the whole point of the atlas is to tie up resources and other assets, why not send them to the periphery as well? Any hegemony vs house action would likely be more core-ward so getting those tied up assets as far away as possible is a double win.

@@peripherypaint6361 On point 1 I meant specifically the Atlas lines for the Atlas2. for example since the Hegemony didnt sell much tech outside of its direct forces Kerenky could now tell them "dont worry I have a counter for this mech already on the way sell it and finance my plans".

As far as why the great houses didn’t see the flaws, I think it’s a combination of factors. First, I think that Kerensky probably used the war games to kind of set up and engineer situations where the atlas would perform brilliantly in order to make it look better than it was. Second, the entire inner sphere at this point is not exactly known for making wise purchasing decisions. Looking specifically at the Assassin here. lot of it almost feels like eh, we got tax dollars to burn, and if we spend it on mechs at least it creates a lot of jobs which keep people happy and paying said taxes. Lastly, it was pretty rare for the house armies to have access immediately to new, “good” stuff straight away. Usually the house armies got leftovers, hand me downs, and surplus equipment from the SLDF/SLDF Royals, and when they were allowed to buy new stuff it was lukewarm stuff that purposely was made to be second rate compared to what the SLDF/Royals had. So when the house armies had the opportunity to buy the “latest and greatest” thing, they probably didn’t think any more about its tactical effectiveness than they did when they bought up Chargers or Cicadas, they just liked it because it was new and they felt like they were getting top tier equipment. As far as why they didn’t see that the Royal mechs were a counter to their atlases… that’s easy. Because at that point they were all friends, so the conversation would be easy. “Hey why are my atlases so short ranged and your royals so long range?” “Oh well, we’ll be operating in the field together, so your atlases have all the short range fire power; so we don’t need it and can focus on long range fire support.”

@@kirbyenoch1957 Pretty good explanations there thanks for replying.

thanks for tuning in, I too love anything below assault mech and especially anything that jumps! An atlas as a support mech makes sense especially if there is nothing better to do the job. How many LRM's did you manage to squeeze in? I think they Atlas is a red herring and is best used as a distraction on the field so happy to hear a proper grognard, such as yourself has had the same experience. Heavies and mediums do the heavy lifting whilst assaults are grand standing or getting their asses handed to them!

​@battletopia it ended up with 4 LRM 15s with art iv, 7 tns ammo, 11 dhs, 1 ml, 1 ll. .. sit in the back , soak counter fire and drop explosive rain​@@battletopia

I thought that the Atlas was introduced with 4th edition after those techs had been introduced? I could be very wrong! In fact thinking about it now, I think you’re right, didn’t it get introduced in TRO3025? Because remembering way back I think the atlas was one of my first pewter minis I had around 93 or 94, so I guess it had to be. I think my assertion in that regard still works, though, because you can also say that it still applies because when they retconned a bunch of badass SLDF variants to OG mechs, like the Warhammer, Marauder, etc, the Atlas is conveniently left off that list, for seemingly not much reason other than to keep it somewhat weak. It also still works because even by intro tech standards, it’s a pretty one trick pony that forces its commanders into using predictable tactics and dedicating excess assets to protecting it.

Thanks for tuning in...I would like to take credit but it is all Professor Kirby and his insanely big brain that makes it work!

I’m certain that was a factor… counter counter point, the atlas was built with basic technology so that it wasn’t too expensive for the great house armies to buy en masse and maintain themselves. Otherwise it would be much harder for the great houses to justify using the atlas as a cornerstone mech. The king crab, pillager, etc were made with basic tech with the idea they were just there to counter the atlas, and could be mass produced cheaply without costing the hegemony too much to match the production numbers of the atlas. Why spend $20mil to defeat something that costs $9mil when something that costs $10m works just as well to defeat that $9mil? Mechs like the nightstar, thunder hawk,and advanced versions of the king crab and pillager were meant to be the actual be all end all assault mechs and were worth the cost thanks to their universal ability, not just as a foil to the atlas.

Slaps Own Face "This is supposedly an Urbanmech. I'm not sure what it is meant to do."

@@nerag7459 *Slaps Urbanmech* It's a meme.

Hey dude, thanks for tuning in! I couldn't agree more! The awesome is the true weapon of war. In fact just yesterday I found the most evolved Awesome in the world the 11H. 3x Heavy PPC, clan double heat sinks so the thing can fire and run every turn and never break the heat scale...it blew my mind!

An UrbanMech is a terrifying weapon of war. Obviously.

Thanks for tuning in and Merry Christmas Fedrat 😂 also as a loyal Capellans citizen I will need your address for reeducation 👌.

Thanks for tuning in. I love brawling with these guys, the more SRM's the better as far as I concerned

Thanks for listening. Yeah ComStar doesn't have the best track record, although House Marik have a few of their own stories to tell. After all the best way to defeat a Marik is with another Marik. As a Word of Blake player myself, I agree ComStar = BOOOOO

Thanks for listening and welcome to the battlebus

Thanks for listening. As far as I am aware, Horse was a bigger guy but the suit inner layer is designed to wrap around its wearer. I guess elementals are just bigger to make their suits more powerful, but there is probably a bit of writing magic involved.

Ah but it is in Macros...looks around for lawyers.... Thanks for tuning in

Ah I see you too have offended the dice gods. Curse you fickle lords of the numbered cubes. But welcome onboard the battle bus, doing it the hard way!

Its is indeed my friend and that's why they come in swarms, or atleast should do. That way some will survive

Thanks for tuning in

Your Chancellor thanks you citizen for tuning in!