Zerglings. Savannah Masters are the BT equivalent of Starcraft's Zerglings.
Now if only someone would do an actual Zerg rush with them. Some Kuritan dude tried zerg rushing with bug mechs, but those were clearly still too big and expensive for a proper Zerg rush.
Like watching a pro wrestler fight thirty middle schoolers. Eventually one of those little bastards is gonna Skibidi six seven you at the knee and it'll be like blood in the water.
Imagine planning a raid with just Savannah Masters (SM) on an enemy world.
“The dropship can hold 16 battlemechs and up to 32 vehicles. Well, normal vehicles. We loaded it up with 128 SMs.”
“That’s great! They’ll never know what hit them.”
“Um, sir. The dropship has space for 48 people to run the mech or vehicles. We need to make room for 80 people to live for the duration of the trip. Also food, and parts for them.”
That... happened in one of the Warrior Trilogy books. I forget which battle, but at one point a whole bunch of Davion troops (who weren't really that loyal to House Davion if I recall) got swarmed by Savannah Masters in some swamp.
That would be the Fifth Syrtis Fusiliers and it happened to them when they landed on Sarna. Of course, it didn't help that they set off for Sarna just after they learned of the death of Michael Hasek-Davion and pushed ahead of the rest of the invasion force because they were out for blood.
I lit my friends up with 72 Savanah Masters and Gabriels. I had to buy a round of pancakes at IHOP the very next day in order to assage some feelings. It's been well over a decade and if either of those vehicles get brought up I still get a lot of deserved grim side-eye. You do not cull the herd,the herd culls you.
His reasoning was that he could jump into a light woods hex an be safe because the vee's couldn't enter it. Even needing 9s,10s,and 11s every one in 7 hexes gave him the Pink Floyd treatment. Gotta say it was a hell of a show. After that round I just pressed delete on 3 mechs a turn. Didn't help I kept winning initiatives. Like i said nothing but cold anger that next morning.
I buy what I find in the "wild" so I can really randomize my units. Local lgs had those packs so that regiment became the 3rd Herd. 1st reg heavy and assault. 2nd wheeled urban fighting. 4th mobile arty. 5th A.P.C.
The gun shoots too much too expensively and too quickly. You've only got 60 seconds of firing time loaded into a package that doesn't have radar. You're right about the props, but the warthogs can't really do this job well because they're just, well, outdated overkill for that task.
Underkill for what they were originally designed for, overkill for this job. Plus giving them the radar that helos have (and helos can do this job) that would let them see and intercept drones costs as much as buying a new F-35. Which has a gun, the marine corps one hovers and can absolutely slow down enough for this.
Honestly, the best plane for this in the U.S. arsenal is either the OA-1K Skyraider II or a Harrier with gunpods.
Fill the skies with prop planes, harriers, or swarms of even cheaper Ukrainian-designed interceptor drones.
Like I get that the big gun and dakka are cool and all, but that plane was never a good idea in the first place (the Aardvarks killed about 1,000 more vehicles than warthogs did in desert storm with zero friendly fire) and its day is long past.
But big gun go BRRRRRT means people want to keep them around?
But yeah, the best thing to take out a shahed is a laser, but the second best weapon is anything with a propellor or rotor and a machine gun.
Even in its hayday the idea/design of the warthog is studid af or atleast ignorant of its intended enemy.
Its effectivly a modern hs-129 ground strafing plane. Big and compared to its peers incredibly slow and only works if the enemy has no air superiority or AA.
And guess whats one of the main reasons there are so few planes and helicopters directly over the front in ukraine (modern aa excluding) right now? Exactly. The soviet doctrine of "we will never have air superiority against nato, so give every odd numbered soldier an igla/manpad" - thus both sides having a shitload of them.
And now look again at the A-10. A slow as shit, giant direct approach strafing tankbuster plane only viable if nothing contests the airspace or no aa is present, meanwhile your enemy is "all the aa is present everywhere and anytime".
But big gun go BRRRRRT means people want to keep them around
I made a Savannah Master IIC for the Ice Hellions once, made it an omni-vehicle with 1t of pod space, and one of the configs was just a pair of front mounted A-Pods. Basically just a heat seeking claymore mine. :D
Didn't a crew of, I want to say a Harasser, actually do that? IIRC, they jumped their hover tank off of a parking garage and straight into the cockpit of an enemy Mad Dog.
No terror quite like watching your entire lance of lights and mediums throw everything they have at an SRM carrier and seeing the impact RNG scatter the shots all over it instead of coring it out.
I played a game where both me and my opponent brought SRM carriers. They ended up facing off against each other at close range. Needless to say, neither of us had SRM carriers after that turn.
After action report: Opfor closed into BO sniffing range as did friendly forces. Friendly and enemy SRM Carriers engaged, engagement lasted 30 seconds. Post action scouts confirm presence of 2 equally sized craters and a nearby forest fire.
Not to mention secondary explosions from chain reacting ammo bins. Bog standard SRM Carriers carry four literal fucktons of missiles and next to no safety mechanisms. They're gonna cook off for a good long while.
Iv gotten custom decals from deathraydesigns.com before, they have a no copyright policy but not sure if its a blanket policy or just they wont make decals that PGI already does. If they wont then bedlam creations is a good option. The guy takes an eternity to get them to you but they are good decals in my experience.
What can be said about the hetzer? Sure it gets about half a mile to the gallon of ethanol. Sure you have to buy 5 of them to have enough working parts to build 1. Sure quickcell is now sending you spam fliers in the mail. Sure you're more likely to convince the crew to run at the enemy with sharp sticks before climbing into it. Sure it makes a great football for mechs.
But God damnit the little bugger is hauling a giant gun and he aims to misbehave... well, when the targeting system is working at least.
I have had the SRM variant do horrible things to my mechs. My Wolverine lying on its back with no functioning leg actuators despite no armor breaches staring into the crater that used to be my Locust sort of horrible things.
I like to think of the Hetzer as the Urbanmech of tanks. I probably think about Urbanmechs far more than is healthy though. I likely need therapy for it.
Yeah, bounce to the outside to get out of the line of fire, jump over a hill to put some terrain between you and the OPFOR and HOLYFUCKINGSHIT there is an SRM carrier sitting there when you land.
Yeeeeah, you're about to get a bucket load of attention from me one way or the other. Typically followed by "everything and the kitchen sink" being thrown at you, if I don't like what I see.
Long range power sander, or short range life ruiner. Both are priority targets.
I'd always imagine an SRM carrier to have an ice cream truck bell to camouflage engine signature in urban warzone and cause PTSD in mech warriors in any warzone.
The version with 4 streak SRM-6 (plus one ATM-9) is even closer to the SRM carrier concept. Although it could add two or three more streak launchers instead of the ATMs and mgs to make opponents hate you even more when the streaks hit and you have to start rolling hit locations... LOTS of hit locations.
Let me introduce you to the LRM Carrier C and the SRM Carrier C. Upgrade to Clan launchers, used the saved weight to put them in a turret, add more bubbles of armor, make those bubbles hardened, and go 4/6.
I felt the wrath of the srm carrier in a recent game. Both the scouting spider and frontlining thug were crippled after one volley each. No matter how you stack the TMM or how tanky you think you are, 10 srm launchers will hurt you
I made the mistake of letting one get to 9 hexes from my Marauder the last game I played. Suffice to say, when you have 10 SRM-6s thrown at you, it only takes a few launchers to connect for some serious pain to be applied.
Mech or Vehicle am a supporter of ripping all of the cringe cowardly LRMs out of something and filling it with SRMs. Catapult or Longbow full of SRMs in Mechwarrior is the Mech version of Funny Business
In the computer game, one of my go-tos is an Archer loaded up with SRMs, and a couple of MMLs for the token LRM ammo I do my best to expend as the Archer closes in to punch faces with SRMs.
Unless you are faster than it, and have good sensors. Then they are fairly easily dispatched. But if either don’t know they are there, can’t get away, or otherwise have to close with them … hope you have your techs a bonus because they’re going to be putting in work.
I hate the 6 LRM 10 launchers in MW5. Sometimes you round a corner, and one of them is vertically scaling a wall and removes your CT before you know what happened.
They are Hetzers. Basically an AC20 on wheels. At least once you put it together they become an AC20 on wheels, because the company who mainly makes them will cut any corner to make money. A favourite tactic of the Quicksell Company was shipping them in a box unassembled, often missing pieces. And no you did not often get instructions.
*Me, the first time finding an SRM carrier in HBS Battletech*
"Oh, it's a chunky, cute vehicle that moves slowly; let's stomp on it to save ammo. "
*Finish turn, it moves and gets two squares away from me, fires everything on my face*
Grasshopper destroyed, pilot killed, it got 0 damage. I am almost out of long-range weapons, the mission is pretty much lost now, and I can hear the voice of my mother back in my head repeating itself again and again: "Remember, there is no such thing as a small enemy..."
It's one thing about BattleTech vehicles is that your all-purpose main battle tank is pretty bad. They are basically we didn't have mechs so we have tanks.
The Challenger MBT is everything wrong with the concept. Tell me in what world that is a better vehicle than an Alcorn for mixed forces.
MBTs including the venerable Manticore (extra awesome if you just do a clan tech swap. LPL, Upgraded missile racks) are basically for warlords and nobles that have money to burn but don't have access or political pull for Mech factories.
I do like that a lot of them have fusion engines which lets them move a little bit faster and carry energy weapons which is good for prolonged multi-purpose engagements.
Vehicles are kind of like hunchbacks. If you don't respect them they're going to bury you in firepower. If you shoot to take out the vehicles then you are letting the enemy Mechs get an advantage on you.
I learned about these things in hbs battletech and have had nightmares of any sensor hit in that tonnage range since. Triple gauss below the tree line is terrifying.
I really like the SRM hetzer. 5 SRM6s, enough ammo to shoot them aggressively, and decent armor/mobility to actually use them. They can hug hills to get up close and they do a ton of damage. Less swingy than the AC20 Hetzer, but when you get a good volley it's a ton of damage.
This one time i misread something while playing mechwarrior and thought it said 60 LRM which while punishing is survivable, I closed the distance and got immedietly hit in the face and cores by those said 60 SRMs
I don't think you can qualify an SRM carrier as "Funny business".
Hetzer fits. Demolisher might be a better fit for panel 1. Rommel doesn't really fit for Panel 3 as it has a random LRM: Zhukov might fit better. Something like the Fulcrum or Maxim works for "The Funny Business" better
Patton is the generic "good" tank with decent firepower, mobility, and good armor that you can basically never go wrong with, and none of those other options can do 120 damage in bottle rockets in 1 turn
Also the Zhukov hasn't gotten new art in like 30 years
514
u/Stretch5678 I build PostalMechs May 17 '26
Option 5: WITNESS ME!!!