r/battletech • u/StatsPilot • 9h ago

Tabletop Classic Tabletop Long Range lobber preference

My group is playing an Amaris War era campaign. The good guys are naturally the SLDF.

For the next game, it's recommended to either bring speed or range. My question is: what would the advantage be to bringing an Archer over a Catapault? The archer has LRM 20s to the Catapaults LRM 15s, but not even enough heat sinks to shoot and move. Both are the same speed, but the Catapault has jump jets.

I turn to the wisdom of the crowd if I might be missing something.

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u/jaqattack02 8h ago

Why would you bring either of them when you can grab a Thunder Hawk and lob hypersonic metal slugs at them instead?

2

u/StatsPilot 8h ago

We have a set list to pick from and Thunder Hawk didn't make the cut sadly. I do agree though, direct fire magnetics are the way

3

u/jaqattack02 8h ago

Of those choices though, I'd probably take the Catapult. It's at least got the 4 MLs facing the right direction as backup weapons.

2

u/Metaphoricalsimile 7h ago

If the Archer didn't put its two front-facing lasers in the arms it would actually want to use its famous battlefists in close combat, but as-built two lasers and a kick is usually going to beat two punches. It's really not as optimized as people think it is. I think it's just rare for an IntroTech mech to actually have full armor, and it also looks very good, so it makes people feel good.

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u/135forte 6h ago

Yes, the lasers are the backup. We definitely don't use our 4/6/4 to close to brawling range with the LRMs being something to fire on the way in . . .