Just like with the charger, the assasin's main problem is that the core idea is so flawed that you must corrupt that idea to make it a good mech. Personally I would turn it into a missile boat by ditching the srm 2 and the lrm 5 plus 2 jump jets to replace them with 2 SRM 4s. That way it at least has a clear optimal range bracket.
I've done something like this in mw5; 2 srm4 racks, keep the laser, remove all but 1 of the jump jets and max the armour. In this configuration the name for the mech is apt; a competent raider that can hit hard, move fast, jump over walls and take a beating before retreating.
@@crazymcgee3604 my build is similar, a medium pulse laser, an lrm-5 and an srm-4. No jumping and near maximum armor. It is good for tank busting and vtols. Its decent against light mechs. Just stay around 200m away and circle.
The 4040-tonners are an odd bunch of mechs, and the Assassin is no exception. Like you mentioned, it's primarily a light mech hunter-killer, but is prohibitively expensive for its designed role. It's got good speed and maneuverability, with decent enough armor, but is so woefully under-gunned it is not considered much of a threat to anything heavier than itself. That said, it's good for smash-and-grab missions in which it can use its hand to quickly grab an objective and speed back to friendly lines.
The thing about the 40 tonners is that it's a mathematically cursed number in battletech. In some cases you lose payloads compared to 35 or 45 ton mechs, if you have jump jets you actually get arguably more payload in a 35 ton mech of the same movement rate, and if it's a non jumper you are better served just making it 5 tons heavier. The engine ratios don't match up to it very well if there is a graph between 35 and 45 there would be a dip at 40.
The truth of the assassin is that after star league and multiple succession wars, there was always a shortage of war materials in all house militaries, periphery forces and even merc companies. Even a bad mech like the charger is better than no mech at all. The assassin though is arguably designed with high technology in mind, it seems just as by introducing an XL engine would literally changes its abilities dramatically. You can argue that designing a mech with advanced technology in mind usually means a weak mech in actuality but thats almost every clan mech as well, the madcat would be nothing without its xl engine and endo steel weight saving structure but are considering amazing mechs non the less
Even just an MML-3 or 5 and an ER ML would be a huge upgrade. Mine has Endo Steele, a light PPC, 2 MML-3's, C3i, and a Light Engine. It does what it's supposed to do.
@@ogrehaslayers605 being a light command mech then yes it sounds like a pretty good setup. I would put either an xl or light engine and mount a large pulse laser and pack a good lrm or a set of srms so I either have combat ability in all ranges or that solid close combat punch.
In MW5 i like the base model pretty good actually (partly because its hard to get anything but a mechs standard variant) the only change i make is to swap jump jets for kore armor, and rip out the LRM 5 for another SRM launcher
I use my assassin as an advance scout and in battle I often have it break away from my main firing line to out maneuver the enemy formation, usually in a single turn sprint, And then use it's medium laser and SRM6 paired with the Maximum amount of jumpjets it can carry to quickly intercept and backstab more agile mechs. Which it has an advantage for doing because of the intercept system which allows it to ignore some of the target's evasive points. Aside from that it's great for hunting down vehicles and sometimes I even have it run interference and slow down an entire enemy heavy lance so the rest of my unit can afford to focus fire on the lighter enemy advance units.
I always find it bizarre that they gave the mech an LRM 5 and SRM 2 for it effectively doubles your chances of getting an ammo explosion. Great video as always.
The LRM 5 is good for harassing the enemy but does no real damage. The SRM 2 offers the possibility to use specializes ammo like inferno or flechette against vehicles or infantry. However, I would rip our all of these tiny weapons and give it a single large laser and better leg armor. A large laser can punch through the rear side armor of most medium and heavy mechs of this era and can (in theory) kill a victim with a single shot - giving the mech´s name some credibility...
in the computer game, this thing is a hillarious light and medium mech hunter. and also a very good pilot trainer. because it gets a better to hit chance. that means you can deal with the fast mechs easier and rack up more hits and kills which means more XP for the pilot. If you get really lucky, put a COIL into that thing. run up behind something heavy and just core it out because your own movement does not impact your own to hit chance as much because of the bonus you get. Alternatively, a large laser or pulse laser will do fine on this as well.
Yup, COIL assassins are great. They move enough that you can quickly start flanking heavier mechs, they hit hard enough with that massive accuracy bonus to cripple or erase light mechs reliably, and have enough punch to even be a worthwhile supporting blow to throw at front armor of heavier mechs. Master Tactician or Breeching Shot for assassins with M Coils. Coolant Dump for assassins with L Coils. That one new weapon the game ads solves all of the problems with the mech and turns it into something quite effective (perhaps even being the very best delivery platform for said weapon system) It really just needs the right weapon to make it live up to what it was designed to do.
i always thought that the assassin needed ff, endo or xl to really pack any decent firepower. and seeing as it was originally meant for sldf it made no sense to me why it didnt receive at least one of those upgrades.
There are ways the mech could have been improved without relying on lostech. Given it's speed, especially compared to most 3025 mechs, being able to flank and close in shouldn't have been difficult so ditching the LRM-5 for closer ranged weapons would have been ideal. Swap both missile systems for 2 SRM-4's and a ton of ammo or 1 SRM-6, ammo, and a 2nd medium laser would make quite a bit of difference.
At the real world time the Assassin was designed, Battletech only had rules for creating Mechs for the Succession Wars. Rules for Star League and Clans came years later. FF, Endo and XL were retrofitted into classic designs. Lore wise it goes the other way around. The Inner Sphere lost the technology to produce Star League Era technology, and the designs were modified to continue producing new mechs and keep repairing mechs in the field. To make sense of the Lore, you have to keep in mind when the rules for the game were created and released.
I guess it could be worse, imagine if it had an underlying defect it if was weighed down with heavier armaments it would blow the rotators out of its hips during a full sprint in heavy combat
Love this mech , my personal standard tech fix is to swap the LRM 5 for a SRM 4 , drop the SRM and ammo for a second medium laser and an extra ton of armour ........ fixes the mechs fire-power problem , gives a bit more armour and doesn't mess with the speed .
I'm one of those crazy bastards who actually likes my "Sassy," but not for its intended role. My Assassin is the lightest I.S. 'mech I have that carries both L and S range missiles...so I load both racks with alternate ammo and attack the map instead of the enemy's armor. Throw smoke or land mines out the LRM and use the SRM for inferno-induced arson, bounce around the map, and dare the OpFor to waste ammo trying to stop me. Maybe not the best way to go, but damn is it fun!
That's a pretty good way to go at it. Area denial with LRM land mine ammo. If not tossing more mine fields out. Ability to pop smoke to give a bit of basic cover for other units, especially none Mech units. and the options of I catch everything on fire as I desire at close range. Being a combined arms type I usually do it withe APC's, and IFV's, but a Assassin doing the same job works, and is way faster is cool.
@@kevinmulkey9774 Yeah, I'll admit vehicles are the more efficient (and probably smarter) way to go about doing alternate-ammo shenanigans, especially if you don't care about jump jets (which I admittedly have a soft spot for). Even after 20 years of B-tech I'm still getting the hang of combined arms though. ...plus, I like my Liao lance (Cyclops, "Hot Hammer," Vindie, and Sassy). There's just something about being able to say, "I made a lance out of pure crap and leftover parts, but all I gotta do is tweak my ammo loadout a little and I can still kill you with it" that adds a little extra flavor to my game, Lol.
honestly, while i dont like the assassain, i do like things like the hetzer. so i get it. besides, its a game! You having fun is what its all about. im glad to see another gremlin who gets this
I do agree, as intended it failed due to cost, but as its own design it is surprisingly effective. First off 7/11/7 is more efficient than 8/12/8, as both provide a +4 Move bonus to Hit TN; which was the Assassins' only competition during the Succession Wars from the Spider and Ostscout, so comparing the Assassin to these two mechs gives us the best comparison for its actual design. Secondly, the Assassin carries an LRM5+SRM2+ML w/ 4.5t of armor, while the Spider carries 2 ML or ML+Flamer, both w/ 3.5t armor, and the Ostscout only carries a single ML w/ 4.5t armor. Lastly, cost wise the Assassin comes in around 3.8 mC-bills, Spider around 3 mCs, and Ostscout around 3.4 mCs. So, within its niche it has 133% better range, 40-180% better firepower, 29% better or equal armor, and only costs 27-12% more. Now personally it does better with a LL and +1t armor instead of such an eclectic mix of weapons, but as a Scout/Skirmisher it is damned hard to kill, easily able to reach 12+ Hit TN against Average mechwarriors at Long Range, a range bracket which it can readily remain at due to it's speed, particularly within rough terrain. Now to bring this into perspective for non-Battletech players, you can't hit a Mech with 13+ Hit TN because you can't roll that high with 2d6, so if you're target is moving at all, or there is any cover on the map, the Assassin becomes untouchable.
I like the Assassin and have had some success with it on tabletop, but there is one mech that invalidates the mech. The Jenner has a similar movement profile and packs a lot more firepower, but costs half a million space pesos less.
I've knocked out many an assassin with mechs much lighter. In general I don't think it's a good design, even if you try to go full mech-fu with it. It' s just not armoured enough for its weight class, despite the speed. And the other targets it deals with are also fast. I don't think it does any job particularly great beyond basic recon, which is not always translated into game well imo.
Tbh, with 4/5 Assassin pilot jumping and engaging at that long range, while he is untouchable (technically), he is also... Useless. All he can bring to the fight is LRM 5, while having 11s to hit (4 Gunnery + 4 Long Range + 3 Attacker Jumped) without the terrain and TMM. So... Good luck with that. And if he's trying to fight, say, a Spider, well, Spider also has JJts and ability to gain TMM enough even without terrain to make it impossible for Assassin to hit it. Now what? Shoot LRM5s at a Centurion or HBK in hopes of rolling that 12 to hit? I mean, it's better than nothing and out of 24 shots some may hit. On close range, Spider-5V has actually more gun with two MLs dealing up to 10 damage, while hitting LRM5s point blank is not a given, so Assassin is left with ML and SRM2. Okay, let's say Assassin and Spider decide to do their "flanking" thing, jump behind someone, shoot all of the lasers and then punch for a good measure, because punching a Rifleman in the head from behind is always funny. Assassin only has 1 arm for that! While Spider can fire both MLs and punch with both arms. If it's pure IntroTech, you don't even get the option of switching ammo to something funny, like Tandem. Assassin can work, it absolutely does. But you have to slap some high tech stuff on it, to make it scary. And then the price starts to go up. I really don't like it.
I always thought of the assassin as a dedicated light hunter. In this context the weapons and speed make a lot of sense. There are not many mediums out there that can catch locusts and spiders at full sprint. So having "cluster" weapons makes up for the shit rolls you will get shooting and moving at the same time, especially the lrm-5. You will be pleasantly surprised how much damage you can do with an lrm in it's short range bracket. I usually field the assassin or raven as part of heavier support lances. Both of these mechs are great at keeping hover craft or light mechs away from your more lumbering Lance mates.
@@BigRed40TECH I agree with you when it comes to one on one gunnery duels with such mechs. A Jenner or Raven would mop the floor with an Assassin. But it's all in how you use your tools. Typically I find that most players either ignore my Assassin in trying to kill the scarier mechs of my lance, or try to stand and kill the Assassin. In both cases I've found the high maneuverability and versatile weapons to be a godsend. This is all just personal experience however, I've seen people get their Assassins killed turn 2, so I understand why people may not like them.
I think the Assassin is a victim of how paranoid the early designers were of making effective 7 jump mechs. While much maligned for being too fast for its weight, 40 tons is actually the ideal weight for a 7/11/7 mech. However, since tonnage is the most precious resource on SW-era designs, the fact that it spends tonnage on ammo for two different missile weapon systems means it's wasting too much weight on ammo. If you drop all the missiles for a single SRM6 with a ton of ammo and an additional ton of armor, it becomes an extremely competent backstabbing design, being able to open up the frequently-mediocre rear armor of the era with the medium laser then crit seeking the over-abundant ammo bins of the era with the SRM. Additionally even with the base 10 heat sinks it can maintain this fire pattern at a full jump for two turns in a row before it needs to break combat to cool down. It is still underarmored but with smart armor layout can take a PPC hit without going internal on any important location. If the design were built like this it would legitimately live up to its name and IMO it's a shame that the early designers seemed exceedingly uninterested in maximizing the potential of lighter weight designs, I assume out of fear of player frustration trying to hit a mech that can mount a credible threat and generate a +4 TMM at will.
It dosent have the greatest weapons load out, but I've found it's a good platform for some field modifications. Overall I'd rather have a Pheonex Hawk in most scenarios.
The one thing i do to increase it's firepower somewhat is replacing the SRM 2 and a couple of jump jets with a SRM4. Having those 2 extra missiles sure make a difference at times, and it's not like i use jump jets that often.
I just step the engine down, add the sixth jj, add a couple ML, remove the srm and upgun the lrm to a 10 with 2t of ammo. Remainder goes to armor. Heavy scout that can outmaneuver anything it cant out gun.
I actually don't really hate this thing. The 40 ton frame is the one optimized for that 7/11 move speed. It's not too bad for armament, containing essentially the loadout of a Shadow Hawk without the autocannon. However, adding that long range third weapon (3 tons) AND all the jump jets (3.5 tons) means it doesn't have enough left for good armor.
In Battletech (the turn-based game) I slapped a coil M Las onto one of my assassins for an early game fun of one-shot blasting lights (has targeting wooha that disregards 3 evasion pips) and even meds from behind. Never gets old.
It seems to be always a similar story with oversize-engined mechs. They become too heavy for their own good, while not having enough tonnage to fill any truly useful role in their own weight bracket. Larger engine forces compromises in too many essential fields. You have to either sacrifice armour, or firepower or both. There is a similar case with Cicada, which is a light mech in all but weight. Or a Dragon or Champion, which are both not exactly fitting the heavy mech moniker. With assaults we have so more wiggle room with weight - but we still got a Charger, or early patterns of a Banshee.
Best use I ever saw for an assassin was to incorporate stealth armor, ff, es, x-l engine, angel ecm, bloodhound ap, & a self destruct device. Locate and terminate the enemy commander with extreme prejudice using a suicide pilot. A 400 x-l engine can do amazing damage up close with the self destruct device.
Got it early in HBS Advanced campaign and fell in love with it after I spent a ton of money to make it work... With endo steel and light plating, XL engine and DHS, you can put 2 L las insulated, and 2 ER S las and keep it cool. 2x SRM6 would work too if you have the model with missile mounts. With the jump quirk it is deadly if there is an enemy who's back is not protected. It can work at distance relatively well too if the enemies are packed tight. Extremely fast, I paired it with a hero Spider and both just jump around and ruin OpFor's day.
In Mechwarrior 5 I’m using 2 of them with max armour and an LRM 10 / medium laser combo for tank / turret / VTOL clean up. They’re not great at the role, but they aren’t terrible either.
It could've been a different 'mech, but I distantly remember being able to fit six medium pulse lasers into something that looked an awful like one in the 2018 video game. That build was scary, I think it could alpha strike twice before it had to stop and cool off.
I got one in a campaign, stripped out the missiles and loaded it with I think 8 rocket 10 packs. It still wasn’t that effective overall, but it certainly kept the attention of everyone on the board while it was hopping around them.
Honestly, the easiest way to upgrade this thing? Tag beacon. That's it. You run it up on something, tag it, let other mechs blow the target apart. It still marked the mech for assassination.
Assassin is my Medium of choice for MW5. Dropping all of the missiles and upgrading the Medium laser to a Large gives you a great killer for VTOLs and armor. Swapping the mixed missiles (and a ton of ammo) for either double SRM4 or LRM5 lets you assassinate compromised mechs, or harass enemies into ambushes from lancemates. The armor is terrifyingly light but if you make a point of not engaging with battlemechs you've got no business with, taking hits isn't really a worry.
I believe any mech can be a valid favorite, even if there are objectively better options out there. In fact, some mechs are beloved because of how flawed they are. My favorite is the bushwacker because Mech Warrior 3 was my first introduction to Battletech and I like the aesthetics of it.
@@TheGreenKnight500 Eww, the Bushwhacker? What's there to love about ONE OF THE COOLEST MECHS IN THE FRANCHISE. :P It's easily in my top 10...plus, it's featured prominently in the cartoon as Ryder's ride, and they even added his specific Bushwhacker to MWO and MW5 as the High Roller (which is a great name for it). I spent real money on it, even. :P Also, I totally agree. There are plenty of people who love the Urbie and Charger (myself included) BECAUSE of their flaws, just as you say. (Does the Bushwhacker have any flaws though? I thought it was just a super solid design that in gameplay counters the Black Lanner). That's the magic of BattleTech. Whereas so many other franchises present a new weapons system and says "this is the newest and the best." BT will say "this is the M247 Sergeant York of its time, and it never gets better." Sometimes it's something like "This is the MBT-70 of its time, and it leads to the M1 Abrams of its time" like the Charger and the Hatamoto-Chi. It adds so much more to the franchise rather than saying "this tank is unchanged for twenty thousand years from its original STC," which is kinda boring and unrealistic. It's the fact that military procurement and all of the BS that feeds into it is a mainstay of BT that makes the weapon systems of its universe so much more interesting. As for the Assassin...its lore has less to do with it for me rather than its practical design. In my mind, mechs combine the flexibility and sustainability of infantry, the power and endurance of armored fighting vehicles, the height advantage of attack helicopters, and the skill and technical requirements of fighter aircraft all into one oversized space suit so that the relatively small crew of a relatively small spaceship becomes the equal of all such forces on a planet they are attacking. As suck, the Assassin takes elements of all of these weapon systems and combines them in a relatively balanced way, if favoring the aviation side of things a bit much in design language. I would actually call the Bushwhacker much the same, favoring the aesthetic of the attack helicopter a tad more than fighter jet, in contrast to the Assassin. The absolute finest balance of this design language is presented in the venerable Timber Wolf, which is why I think MechWarrior 2 captured the imaginations of so many people in 1995...because it felt familiar. I remember seeing the Summoner on the expansion's box and as a little kid thinking "that looks dumb" in comparison to the Timber Wolf (I grew up around fighter jets, tanks, attack helicopters, and naval ships...so from a young age these things were familiar). The one place the TBR fails in terms of practicality is the lack of hands...on a robot....which renders it less versatile in digging foxholes or performing non-combat tasks....but that reflects clan mentality, and leans more into the Air Force / aviation angel of BattleMechs rather than the more versatile Army / infantry / armored warfare view. The Assassin and Bushwhacker reflect the more practical elements of mech design, with arms and hands that can actually help prepare fortifications or lift supplies when not in battle. As such, the Assassin takes my top spot for BattleMechs, and the Bushwhacker is probably like fifth or sixth. The Timber Wolf is admittedly second (I joined the Air Force irl to fly after all...), the insanely practical Urbanmech is third (it deserves much more love in the lore...as it's probably one of the best designs in terms of geometry...it's basically just a tank that can jump, and is therefore a god in urban combat), fourth would be the Atlas because it's da biggest 'n da stompiest (not to mention it is a great interpretation of a "super heavy space suit," is well suited to assist outside of combat, "carries" an AC20 under its arm, forever shooting from the hip, and when used by a leader it sends the message of "I will protect you, and will be the last to fall"), ....I'm not sure what my fifth is, which means it might be the Bushwhacker. Yeah, I too have a lot of love for the weird yet practical arms on that mech, and its excellent low profile...it almost looks like a cousin of the Timber Wolf in profile.
One of the things I've come to like about BattleTech is how the creators would deliberately come up with poor designs. We see this again with the CGR-1A1 Charger, the BNC-3M Banshee, and the Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun.
@@BigRed40TECH Hole the Hetzer up in a building to support some Urbies, Vulcans, and Hatchetmen in city fighting and it's dangerous as hell, just make sure Quikcell didn't screw something up before the fight starts.
They can't all be winners and Battletech has had fun with that fact of military design history. And then making it possible for a captain to put one in the company anyway. Don't be mean to the Hetzer though. Like its Wehraboo namesake the Hetzer is a cheap panzerjaeger that can cripple or kill enemies on the cheap. AC 20 works on everything!
What I did in battletech was mount a COIL-M in the right arm and fill the rest with heatsyncs and a handful of jump jets for rough ground. Its great movement gave the coil a massive punch whilst also letting it get to the side of enemy mechs to one shot their legs off one by one, the aiming bonus was excteemely useful in ensuring this and the weight meant it can fire continusly without building heat.
In MWO I managed to fit a RAC-5 onto mine. I’ve got the most wonderful memory of being ‘chased’ into a corner by a heavy that didn’t realize what I had, turning around, and then BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I'm still trying to figure out what's up with the Assassin's cockpit. It looks like it has two canopies. The lore says it has a cramped cockpit, but why does it look like it has a window where the pilot's feet would be?
The aesthetics are unfortunate which doesn't help its image. Probably didn't help with the SLDF either. As someone who's home-ruled the fluff text before, the cockpit made it a no-sell to my fellow players.
I prefer using a Jenner or Raven. At 40 ton, my favorite mech would be Sha Yu. By the time you can put in an XL, FF, DHS & ES, the Assassin is still redundant because of Koshi, Uller, Puma & Cougar. It doesnt even come close to an Arctic Wolf or Dasher 2
I was with you until you started listing off clan tech. now I'm wondering if your attention lapsed during any Clan Invasion Primer where they mention that the Clans were fielding tech that was so superior to most of what the Inner Sphere had that the Inner Sphere was effectively at Battle Parity. The assassin was one of those poor unnfortunate mechs that was already at Battle Parity with the rest of the Inner Sphere... all before the Clans became a thing. OF COURSE you would want a Clan mech over the mediocre-at-best-and-already-obsolete Assassin. The only problem with Clan Tech is making any significant repairs to those mechs, because the shipping costs alone for those parts will cost as much as 2 Urbanmechs (Yes, the cost of repair parts + shipping = too damned expensive for your poor mercenary ass to repair that salvaged Clan Tech so you can either get bent or buy a Marauder already). Of course all of this presumes You're living in a time when Clan Tech is available to the Inner Sphere. Because everything Pre-Clan Invasion is an altogether different discussion.
"Fedsuns should have just reallocated money to Javelins." I think after what Russia has experienced in their invasion of Ukraine, that most of the world will be doing the same vs funding their armored forces. (kidding, kidding, I know the Javelin is a recon mech)
@@andorfedra Huh... I was thinking it would be great as a starter mech where the only thing it has to face are Vehicles, the Occasional Light Mech, and the rare Medium Mech. Basically what level 1-3 Missions in MechWarrior 5 wish they could be (if they were made by a Tabletop Gamemaster)
Most 40T mechs are a bit lack luster, especially in terms of bang for buck. At least in the eras I play (up to the Fedcom Civil War). The Whitworth and Cicada get some table time, but that's about it.
So far as I am aware, the one thing the assassin has going for it is its targeting system. I think in lore, it's supposed to give assassin pilots a leg up in a dogfight against fast moving light 'mechs. On TT though 3025 era, if I was to improve it? I think I'd remove all of the jump jets. 7/11 alone is respectable. Add a medium laser, 2 heat sinks, 3 tonnes of armour, and a second srm 2 launcher. Gives it much more punch, and staying power while remaining fairly cool.
Also I liked the Assassin in MW5 Mercenaries... but only the UAC/5 Variant. The other variants were... well, there are better mechs in that tonnage. ^^
i ended up maining the assassin in 4 player modded mechwarrior 5 i ran it with a medium laser and two SRM6 its, very fun alpha striking bigger mechs at close range
In the video game I strip out all it's weapons and early on Give it a Snub PPC, later on I give it a Coil-L It has low armour, so I give it a rangefinder with 125M range then keep it on the outskirts of enemy field of view and use it to harass larger mech or hunt and kill pesky small ones.
I've always thought with the right weapons and equipment mix the Assassin could be an excellent hunter killer, raider, or heavy scout. Just give it a heavier main gun like a ppc or large laser and some electronics. Expensive sure but the right equipment could make it more of an actual useful mech.
I think it's just got really limited weight to play with for those systems. Even dropping the LRM-5 really will just turn the Assassin into a medium laser boat, an underarmoured one, and if that's the case you'd be better off with the Hermes II 2M. It's just a really hard sell for me, personally.
@@BigRed40TECH The charger stock is garbage but can be modded into something useful, I've done quite well tweaking with endosteel for 2 large pulse, 3 mediums enough heatsinks to fire for a sustained period and move at 90 kph with full armor and all guns in the torso allowing you to use the large arms with shields as actual shields without losing anything if they're destroyed. In theory it'd also make a great melee fighter as I understand you can punch and shoot with all weapons not on that arm, so punching or kicking while firing 2 large pulse and 3 mediums.
The main issue with the Assassin is that it's given role is already filled by cheaper and more efficient mechs. It spends too much weight trying to be a a bug mech instead of living up to it's name. So it should stop trying to be a 40 ton wasp and start aiming for other niches like anti-scout, hit and run skirmisher and ambush back stabber. Honestly, downgrading the engine to a 240 is probably the single best thing you can do other than throw lostech/clantech at the problem. Yeah it switches to a 6/9 movement profile but it gains 4.5 free tons to help fix the armament issues, 10.5 if you strip off all the existing weapons as well. And I can think of a few loadouts that could help. 40 ton Panther: drop the Medium laser, LRM5 and ammo to add a PPC and heatsink and upgrade the SRM2 to a 4 with a bit left over for more armor. You get a loadout with better agility and mobility compared to the Panther (seriously, the walk speed is the same as the Panther's RUN speed. And about 3 more hexes in jumpjets if I remember right). Alternatively, drop the SRM and ammo instead for an additional LRM5 for a dimestore Griffin. Raining Harassment: dump the srm2 and ammo for an additional lrm5 + ammo and 2 additional medium lasers, a heatsink and additional half ton of armor. There's another I'm not sure of how well it would actually perform, but it seems interesting at least: 3 medium lasers, 2 SRM4s, 2 MGs with a shared half ton of ammo and 2 additional heatsinks. Would run pretty hot unless you changed to double heat sinks, but between the jumpjets and all the crit seeking potential, I don't think there are many mechs that would like dealing with it, especially if it was picking off a slower straggler.
When I play the Paradox Games version of Battletech, I either load it up with SRMs and a small or medium laser for "defense" or I just remove it all and use its computer to negate miss chance and slam 20 lrm missiles into a target.
While you have to bend the game rules in Mechwarrior mercs 5 to do it, I love equipping it as a long range head hunter with a heavy rifle and a C ER large laser, with 2 c srm 6s and a c heavy medium laser for backup. I like hunting heavy and assault mech cockpits
The Assassin like it's bigger cousin the 65 ton Exterminator just doesn't bring sufficient focus in it's weapon load out to make it truely effective even as a headhunter (ie command mech killer) Great looking mech but just not all that much better then any 20 tonner out there
I love it, it carries the same vibe as having your police force driving Lamborghinis. One of the coolest mech designs imo but is bad :(. Still use it though, rule of cool.
The base -21 design has potential to be a nuisance in 3025 era games, and I strongly prefer it over the spider. Not a bad platform for special munitions if you can get them. My personal favourite custom variant for 3025 era turns the so called 'assassin' into a short range knife fighter, with each side torso packing a medium and small laser instead of the missile launchers, whilst the arm mounts two machine guns and a half ton of ammo (felt more fitting to put the MGs in the arm than in the torsos). Remaining 1.5 tons of weight is pumped into armour, taking it up to a solid 6 tons. It loses out on the long range of the LRM, but becomes a real terror at short range and has the speed to get there. Can run + fire everything whilst remaining heat neutral, or jump and fire the small lasers/MGs without pushing the heat curve. The improved armour keeps it out of trouble long enough to disengage should it encounter heavier opposition. Could imagine this build really living up to the 'assassin' name if it managed to successfully infiltrate behind enemy lines and locate an enemy field base/command center. Has the speed to get in and out, along with the capability to shred any infantry units it finds whilst still having enough heavier firepower to fight off the bug mechs the fluff says the Assassin was designed to compete against.
I think a lot of these strange, outlier 'Mech designs came from the early developers refining the construction rules and seeing what you could do with them. "How fast can we make an Assault 'Mech go?" Answer, the Charger. "How heavily armed and armored can we make a Light 'Mech?" Answer, the UrbanMech. "What happens if we try and make a Medium 'Mech keep pace with Light 'Mechs?" Answer, the Assassin. When these 'Mechs prove underwhelming on the tabletop, they don't revise the design to make it competitive. . . they admit that it was a bad decision in-universe and that the 'Mech in question is acknowledged to be a subpar or outright bad choice. And like many BTech fans, I love that there are 'Mechs in-universe acknowledged as awful and having bad reputations. . . and sometimes, those reputations are underserved and the machine really is quite capable. For instance, the Blackjack.
I was listening to the video when something came to me. Comparing the Assassin to its intended competition or prey isn't accurate. What is more accurate is thinking of it as a lighter, faster Shadow Hawk that can better keep up with the 20-30 ton lights in a recon or light strike lance. That seems more useful than a supposed super-bug whose speed can often lead to it being alone and a primary target the turn after it backshoots a bigger target than itself.
With all the min-maxing talk and 'gamer hate' towards this mech in the comments, I'm sincerely glad Battletech originated from a time where this was no issue and actually interesting designs and the illusion of something bigger or more complex behind it than just some hilariously simple TT rules was a thing. I like to think that most mech designs had reasons for them being the way they are. Reasons not really reflected in those few construction and combat rules. For that I'm thankful. PS: Of course Star League engineers would've stuffed them with medium lasers and max armored them all, if their blueprints had max three digit numbers, little circles and simulations ran on 2d6..
I like all the mechs, but the Assassin is a spade, and you gotta call a spade a spade. I also intend to get x4 of them when they're released in plastic, because despite that, I build narrative forces.
I'm not sure if this maybe because I'm just waking up or I didn't hear it but what the wepoans on a default assassin? Edit never mind I just rewach it.
In novels and so on, humanoid mechs do manage things like that. Like, mechs with hands can and do drag their fallen mech buddies like military soldiers. I remember in second book of Grey Death Legion a guy who actually knew martial arts used it in a stinger to cripple then kill an enemy stinger like a stealth kill... Believe the pilot's name was Khalid. As for the pop out and gun, in game terms you'd have to use cover and claim partial coverage. I assume it'd come up more in hexless than traditional hex maps.
When ever I play with this mech I find it hard to make it work. I normally ditch the two of the jump jets and give it more armour. Not a good mech unfortunately :(
Assassin can be fixed with Lostech and Clantech. I like the concept, but 3025 tech is too limited. 40ton Mechs are in a really bad position, having neither the strengths of Light scouts, or Medium fighters. Its because of that that I like upgrading them to make the concept work.
@@BigRed40TECH Which is fair enough, I just think that one of the better parts of the system compared to most other wargames is the sheer freedom that the customization rules allow you.
If it contain no big guns, it's bad mech.. I give it a core 180 just to get a better loadout: 1 PPC 1 flamer and 1 random missile rack and maxed out all armor
So it does in fact not do what it says on the tin, someone call Comstar I heard the development team that made the Assassin committed false advertising and didn’t pay their phone bill
@@BigRed40TECH well not a medium mech my preferred choice of mech for assassination missions is the Firestarter their is something so reassuring about the certainty that 4x flamethrowers might just hit the target and the rest of his neighborhood
@@connorriggs1518 only if the target is unarmed and unarmored. otherwise you're just bound to piss them off and get curb-stomped by 360 tons of angry Highlanders. EDIT: I Don't have any personal experience whit this at all... ;D
i tryed this mach after i salvaged it in mech warrior 5 my first 40 T mech i was exited and then i realised i can not do much with and my standart jenner 35 T mech has more fire power. but i managed to use the mech as a filler if my other 40 T mechs are in repair but i have to pilot it myself to make it work the a.i pilots shreeeeeeeedddddddddddddd this thin regulary if i can i use my 40 T ciceda 5 X mech with 2 srm 4s and 2 medium lasers no jump jets true but this thing runns like hell.
The biggest tragedy of the Assassin is that it is by far one of the best-looking 'mechs the Inner Sphere has. Just look at that thing. Gorgeous design. Such a waste.
I agree, The Assassin is one of those mechs I would rebuild from salvage and stand it up as a good-looking statue in my front lawn... though I'd probably never repair the cockpit to remind people that I actually headshot the poor bastard who owned it before me. It looks that good.
This mech is kinda like the Cicada, but it does have better firepower. It's surprisingly agile and has good punch, but for its size it IS under-gunned. Simply put, it has too much engine and not enough weapons. Reduce it's engine to, say, a 200 and you could probably improve it. In its role it's terrible. 😒
The only load out I found workable was the ECM model with stealth armor and 2 srm 6s. The only other luck I had was with a long range version with a LLaser. Use range and natural cover and speed. MWO's version sucks assassin.
Oof. If I had any medium mech I hated most, it would be the Assassin. Terrible at everything it tries to do other than staying out of the way and lobbing a few missiles from weird positions. There is nothing redeemable for this mess of a "tactical" mech. It's not even an ideal recon mech stomping around seismic sensors.
I've always felt the Assassin had the worst name in Battletech, because it doesn't live up to it. Also the design is bad. Not horrible, just bad. The LRM carrier Locust is a bigger threat. The Jenner lives up to the name Assassin because it not only has the speed to get into an opponents rear arc, but also the firepower to threaten coring the enemy in one salvo. The Firestarter has a better potential to take out light, medium and even heavier mechs with bad heat management. And if you are going to call something an assassin, shouldn't it have some one-hit kill potential? Hunchback fits the bill with a possible AC-20 to the head. Panther's PPC and rock solid design would make a better 'Assassin'. Heck, anything with an AC-20 or Gauss would of been a better "Assassin". Or maybe a dedicated LRM boat so it can one-sidedly beat on opponents with indirect fire. Just being agile doesn't make you an assassin. More like a glass cannon, or an acrobat. Maybe the Assassin should of been named "Clown" instead.
If Battletech (PC game) is anything to go by, then the Firestarter is a better Assassin than the Assassin. Jump into rear arc and fire away. Literally.
Just like with the charger, the assasin's main problem is that the core idea is so flawed that you must corrupt that idea to make it a good mech. Personally I would turn it into a missile boat by ditching the srm 2 and the lrm 5 plus 2 jump jets to replace them with 2 SRM 4s. That way it at least has a clear optimal range bracket.
I've done something like this in mw5; 2 srm4 racks, keep the laser, remove all but 1 of the jump jets and max the armour. In this configuration the name for the mech is apt; a competent raider that can hit hard, move fast, jump over walls and take a beating before retreating.
@@crazymcgee3604 my build is similar, a medium pulse laser, an lrm-5 and an srm-4. No jumping and near maximum armor. It is good for tank busting and vtols. Its decent against light mechs. Just stay around 200m away and circle.
I got good use in the hbs game, early game with an Coil-ml+ 2x2srm no jj armor up
Congrats, you made a more expensive, worse Commando.
@@willdavis3802 but at least that's something other than "just bad".
The 4040-tonners are an odd bunch of mechs, and the Assassin is no exception. Like you mentioned, it's primarily a light mech hunter-killer, but is prohibitively expensive for its designed role. It's got good speed and maneuverability, with decent enough armor, but is so woefully under-gunned it is not considered much of a threat to anything heavier than itself.
That said, it's good for smash-and-grab missions in which it can use its hand to quickly grab an objective and speed back to friendly lines.
The thing about the 40 tonners is that it's a mathematically cursed number in battletech. In some cases you lose payloads compared to 35 or 45 ton mechs, if you have jump jets you actually get arguably more payload in a 35 ton mech of the same movement rate, and if it's a non jumper you are better served just making it 5 tons heavier. The engine ratios don't match up to it very well if there is a graph between 35 and 45 there would be a dip at 40.
The truth of the assassin is that after star league and multiple succession wars, there was always a shortage of war materials in all house militaries, periphery forces and even merc companies. Even a bad mech like the charger is better than no mech at all. The assassin though is arguably designed with high technology in mind, it seems just as by introducing an XL engine would literally changes its abilities dramatically. You can argue that designing a mech with advanced technology in mind usually means a weak mech in actuality but thats almost every clan mech as well, the madcat would be nothing without its xl engine and endo steel weight saving structure but are considering amazing mechs non the less
Even just an MML-3 or 5 and an ER ML would be a huge upgrade.
Mine has Endo Steele, a light PPC, 2 MML-3's, C3i, and a Light Engine. It does what it's supposed to do.
@@ogrehaslayers605 being a light command mech then yes it sounds like a pretty good setup.
I would put either an xl or light engine and mount a large pulse laser and pack a good lrm or a set of srms so I either have combat ability in all ranges or that solid close combat punch.
In MW5 i like the base model pretty good actually (partly because its hard to get anything but a mechs standard variant) the only change i make is to swap jump jets for kore armor, and rip out the LRM 5 for another SRM launcher
@@markfreeman4727 they are very common in MW5 aren't they? 😂
@@ogrehaslayers605 annoyingly so in some cases
I use my assassin as an advance scout and in battle I often have it break away from my main firing line to out maneuver the enemy formation, usually in a single turn sprint, And then use it's medium laser and SRM6 paired with the Maximum amount of jumpjets it can carry to quickly intercept and backstab more agile mechs. Which it has an advantage for doing because of the intercept system which allows it to ignore some of the target's evasive points.
Aside from that it's great for hunting down vehicles and sometimes I even have it run interference and slow down an entire enemy heavy lance so the rest of my unit can afford to focus fire on the lighter enemy advance units.
I always find it bizarre that they gave the mech an LRM 5 and SRM 2 for it effectively doubles your chances of getting an ammo explosion. Great video as always.
The LRM 5 is good for harassing the enemy but does no real damage.
The SRM 2 offers the possibility to use specializes ammo like inferno or flechette against vehicles or infantry.
However, I would rip our all of these tiny weapons and give it a single large laser and better leg armor.
A large laser can punch through the rear side armor of most medium and heavy mechs of this era and can (in theory) kill a victim with a single shot - giving the mech´s name some credibility...
in the computer game, this thing is a hillarious light and medium mech hunter.
and also a very good pilot trainer. because it gets a better to hit chance.
that means you can deal with the fast mechs easier and rack up more hits and
kills which means more XP for the pilot.
If you get really lucky, put a COIL into that thing.
run up behind something heavy and just core it out because your own movement
does not impact your own to hit chance as much because of the bonus you get.
Alternatively, a large laser or pulse laser will do fine on this as well.
Oh, ether of the available models of Assassin with Coils on board is flipping hysterical. Just run up to the target and go ZAP!
I used coils in a Grendel to the same effect. Needed to take at least 2 turns to cool down though.
I mean speed is fairly bad in HBS with evasion pips going away on misses only the COIL fixed thst
Yup, COIL assassins are great.
They move enough that you can quickly start flanking heavier mechs, they hit hard enough with that massive accuracy bonus to cripple or erase light mechs reliably, and have enough punch to even be a worthwhile supporting blow to throw at front armor of heavier mechs.
Master Tactician or Breeching Shot for assassins with M Coils. Coolant Dump for assassins with L Coils.
That one new weapon the game ads solves all of the problems with the mech and turns it into something quite effective (perhaps even being the very best delivery platform for said weapon system)
It really just needs the right weapon to make it live up to what it was designed to do.
i always thought that the assassin needed ff, endo or xl to really pack any decent firepower. and seeing as it was originally meant for sldf it made no sense to me why it didnt receive at least one of those upgrades.
They saw it as a redundant platform. :\
There are ways the mech could have been improved without relying on lostech. Given it's speed, especially compared to most 3025 mechs, being able to flank and close in shouldn't have been difficult so ditching the LRM-5 for closer ranged weapons would have been ideal. Swap both missile systems for 2 SRM-4's and a ton of ammo or 1 SRM-6, ammo, and a 2nd medium laser would make quite a bit of difference.
At the real world time the Assassin was designed, Battletech only had rules for creating Mechs for the Succession Wars. Rules for Star League and Clans came years later. FF, Endo and XL were retrofitted into classic designs.
Lore wise it goes the other way around. The Inner Sphere lost the technology to produce Star League Era technology, and the designs were modified to continue producing new mechs and keep repairing mechs in the field. To make sense of the Lore, you have to keep in mind when the rules for the game were created and released.
No point investing in polishing a turd when you can instead focus your resources on a more promising platform I guess
@@BraindeadCRY that's one of the best thing about BT, there are poor designs.
So far, my favorite demonstration of the assassin comes from Tex in his latest Steiner scouting mission. Ya'know the one with the broken moon?
I guess it could be worse, imagine if it had an underlying defect it if was weighed down with heavier armaments it would blow the rotators out of its hips during a full sprint in heavy combat
You mean like the Uziel, a mech with the weight of a heavy, the speed of an assault, the armor of a light, and the armament of a medium.
Love this mech , my personal standard tech fix is to swap the LRM 5 for a SRM 4 , drop the SRM and ammo for a second medium laser and an extra ton of armour ........ fixes the mechs fire-power problem , gives a bit more armour and doesn't mess with the speed .
Exactly what I did when playing in the late 80s. Fixes, or at least helps, it’s shortcomings.
I'm one of those crazy bastards who actually likes my "Sassy," but not for its intended role. My Assassin is the lightest I.S. 'mech I have that carries both L and S range missiles...so I load both racks with alternate ammo and attack the map instead of the enemy's armor. Throw smoke or land mines out the LRM and use the SRM for inferno-induced arson, bounce around the map, and dare the OpFor to waste ammo trying to stop me. Maybe not the best way to go, but damn is it fun!
That's a pretty good way to go at it.
Area denial with LRM land mine ammo. If not tossing more mine fields out. Ability to pop smoke to give a bit of basic cover for other units, especially none Mech units. and the options of I catch everything on fire as I desire at close range.
Being a combined arms type I usually do it withe APC's, and IFV's, but a Assassin doing the same job works, and is way faster is cool.
@@kevinmulkey9774 Yeah, I'll admit vehicles are the more efficient (and probably smarter) way to go about doing alternate-ammo shenanigans, especially if you don't care about jump jets (which I admittedly have a soft spot for). Even after 20 years of B-tech I'm still getting the hang of combined arms though.
...plus, I like my Liao lance (Cyclops, "Hot Hammer," Vindie, and Sassy). There's just something about being able to say, "I made a lance out of pure crap and leftover parts, but all I gotta do is tweak my ammo loadout a little and I can still kill you with it" that adds a little extra flavor to my game, Lol.
honestly, while i dont like the assassain, i do like things like the hetzer. so i get it. besides, its a game! You having fun is what its all about. im glad to see another gremlin who gets this
I love the idel animation for this mech from the Battletech video game. Has a lot of character.
I do agree, as intended it failed due to cost, but as its own design it is surprisingly effective.
First off 7/11/7 is more efficient than 8/12/8, as both provide a +4 Move bonus to Hit TN; which was the Assassins' only competition during the Succession Wars from the Spider and Ostscout, so comparing the Assassin to these two mechs gives us the best comparison for its actual design.
Secondly, the Assassin carries an LRM5+SRM2+ML w/ 4.5t of armor, while the Spider carries 2 ML or ML+Flamer, both w/ 3.5t armor, and the Ostscout only carries a single ML w/ 4.5t armor.
Lastly, cost wise the Assassin comes in around 3.8 mC-bills, Spider around 3 mCs, and Ostscout around 3.4 mCs.
So, within its niche it has 133% better range, 40-180% better firepower, 29% better or equal armor, and only costs 27-12% more.
Now personally it does better with a LL and +1t armor instead of such an eclectic mix of weapons, but as a Scout/Skirmisher it is damned hard to kill, easily able to reach 12+ Hit TN against Average mechwarriors at Long Range, a range bracket which it can readily remain at due to it's speed, particularly within rough terrain.
Now to bring this into perspective for non-Battletech players, you can't hit a Mech with 13+ Hit TN because you can't roll that high with 2d6, so if you're target is moving at all, or there is any cover on the map, the Assassin becomes untouchable.
I like the Assassin and have had some success with it on tabletop, but there is one mech that invalidates the mech. The Jenner has a similar movement profile and packs a lot more firepower, but costs half a million space pesos less.
I've knocked out many an assassin with mechs much lighter. In general I don't think it's a good design, even if you try to go full mech-fu with it. It' s just not armoured enough for its weight class, despite the speed. And the other targets it deals with are also fast. I don't think it does any job particularly great beyond basic recon, which is not always translated into game well imo.
Tbh, with 4/5 Assassin pilot jumping and engaging at that long range, while he is untouchable (technically), he is also... Useless. All he can bring to the fight is LRM 5, while having 11s to hit (4 Gunnery + 4 Long Range + 3 Attacker Jumped) without the terrain and TMM. So... Good luck with that. And if he's trying to fight, say, a Spider, well, Spider also has JJts and ability to gain TMM enough even without terrain to make it impossible for Assassin to hit it. Now what? Shoot LRM5s at a Centurion or HBK in hopes of rolling that 12 to hit? I mean, it's better than nothing and out of 24 shots some may hit. On close range, Spider-5V has actually more gun with two MLs dealing up to 10 damage, while hitting LRM5s point blank is not a given, so Assassin is left with ML and SRM2. Okay, let's say Assassin and Spider decide to do their "flanking" thing, jump behind someone, shoot all of the lasers and then punch for a good measure, because punching a Rifleman in the head from behind is always funny. Assassin only has 1 arm for that! While Spider can fire both MLs and punch with both arms.
If it's pure IntroTech, you don't even get the option of switching ammo to something funny, like Tandem.
Assassin can work, it absolutely does. But you have to slap some high tech stuff on it, to make it scary. And then the price starts to go up. I really don't like it.
Thank you for making the numbers more understandable to those who love the world and don't know the game or its rules yet.
I'm glad I found your channel. I'm really enjoying this series. It's really informative but also to the point
I plan on covering all of it too. :)
I'm glad you brought it up, because I think I'd take a Commando over an Assassin every time.
It's got teeth-punching power.
Every time? Your imagination of situations where JJs might be crucial is severely lacking.
@@tarron3237 I personally think the CMD is a better design, but there are circumstances where jump jets will be more useful, definitely.
I always thought of the assassin as a dedicated light hunter. In this context the weapons and speed make a lot of sense. There are not many mediums out there that can catch locusts and spiders at full sprint. So having "cluster" weapons makes up for the shit rolls you will get shooting and moving at the same time, especially the lrm-5.
You will be pleasantly surprised how much damage you can do with an lrm in it's short range bracket. I usually field the assassin or raven as part of heavier support lances. Both of these mechs are great at keeping hover craft or light mechs away from your more lumbering Lance mates.
I just think it's too little "better" than many of those lights unfortunately. Like, a Jenner or a Spider can be a real problem for an assassin.
@@BigRed40TECH I agree with you when it comes to one on one gunnery duels with such mechs. A Jenner or Raven would mop the floor with an Assassin. But it's all in how you use your tools.
Typically I find that most players either ignore my Assassin in trying to kill the scarier mechs of my lance, or try to stand and kill the Assassin. In both cases I've found the high maneuverability and versatile weapons to be a godsend.
This is all just personal experience however, I've seen people get their Assassins killed turn 2, so I understand why people may not like them.
I think the Assassin is a victim of how paranoid the early designers were of making effective 7 jump mechs. While much maligned for being too fast for its weight, 40 tons is actually the ideal weight for a 7/11/7 mech. However, since tonnage is the most precious resource on SW-era designs, the fact that it spends tonnage on ammo for two different missile weapon systems means it's wasting too much weight on ammo. If you drop all the missiles for a single SRM6 with a ton of ammo and an additional ton of armor, it becomes an extremely competent backstabbing design, being able to open up the frequently-mediocre rear armor of the era with the medium laser then crit seeking the over-abundant ammo bins of the era with the SRM. Additionally even with the base 10 heat sinks it can maintain this fire pattern at a full jump for two turns in a row before it needs to break combat to cool down. It is still underarmored but with smart armor layout can take a PPC hit without going internal on any important location. If the design were built like this it would legitimately live up to its name and IMO it's a shame that the early designers seemed exceedingly uninterested in maximizing the potential of lighter weight designs, I assume out of fear of player frustration trying to hit a mech that can mount a credible threat and generate a +4 TMM at will.
I run an upgraded Assassin with an LB-10X. It's great for getting at that back armor.
It dosent have the greatest weapons load out, but I've found it's a good platform for some field modifications. Overall I'd rather have a Pheonex Hawk in most scenarios.
Yeah I'd rather go up to a pheonex hawk or downgrade to a commando
@@andydogdad4349 is it just me or is the Commando designed to look like a pint-sized Atlas? it sure seems that way, and I only hope I'm not alone.
@@andorfedra ya know I always say my commando is my atlas son
To be honest, the 40 ton range is a crap shoot. There all either meh or not protagonist material. the Hermes 2 is just "the okest" of the bunch.
The one thing i do to increase it's firepower somewhat is replacing the SRM 2 and a couple of jump jets with a SRM4. Having those 2 extra missiles sure make a difference at times, and it's not like i use jump jets that often.
I just step the engine down, add the sixth jj, add a couple ML, remove the srm and upgun the lrm to a 10 with 2t of ammo. Remainder goes to armor. Heavy scout that can outmaneuver anything it cant out gun.
So, we should use the Assassin for meme builds only, is what I'm hearing.
I actually don't really hate this thing. The 40 ton frame is the one optimized for that 7/11 move speed. It's not too bad for armament, containing essentially the loadout of a Shadow Hawk without the autocannon. However, adding that long range third weapon (3 tons) AND all the jump jets (3.5 tons) means it doesn't have enough left for good armor.
It's purpose is to be a hunter killer against enemy lights spotting for the LRM lance.
In Battletech (the turn-based game) I slapped a coil M Las onto one of my assassins for an early game fun of one-shot blasting lights (has targeting wooha that disregards 3 evasion pips) and even meds from behind. Never gets old.
It seems to be always a similar story with oversize-engined mechs.
They become too heavy for their own good, while not having enough tonnage to fill any truly useful role in their own weight bracket. Larger engine forces compromises in too many essential fields. You have to either sacrifice armour, or firepower or both.
There is a similar case with Cicada, which is a light mech in all but weight.
Or a Dragon or Champion, which are both not exactly fitting the heavy mech moniker.
With assaults we have so more wiggle room with weight - but we still got a Charger, or early patterns of a Banshee.
Best use I ever saw for an assassin was to incorporate stealth armor, ff, es, x-l engine, angel ecm, bloodhound ap, & a self destruct device. Locate and terminate the enemy commander with extreme prejudice using a suicide pilot. A 400 x-l engine can do amazing damage up close with the self destruct device.
Cramped cockpit is a major flaw
Got it early in HBS Advanced campaign and fell in love with it after I spent a ton of money to make it work...
With endo steel and light plating, XL engine and DHS, you can put 2 L las insulated, and 2 ER S las and keep it cool. 2x SRM6 would work too if you have the model with missile mounts.
With the jump quirk it is deadly if there is an enemy who's back is not protected. It can work at distance relatively well too if the enemies are packed tight. Extremely fast, I paired it with a hero Spider and both just jump around and ruin OpFor's day.
But is it an Assassin at that point? XD
@@BigRed40TECH No, and it's glorious :D
Feels like it really should have had more electronics like the raven, but that wasn't a thing at the time.
The Assassin: the answer to a question nobody was asking. Because they knew it was stupid.
It is perfection.
But only in its failures. :P
In Mechwarrior 5 I’m using 2 of them with max armour and an LRM 10 / medium laser combo for tank / turret / VTOL clean up. They’re not great at the role, but they aren’t terrible either.
I once saw triple digit damage firing a large coil with this damn thing. I almost completely wrote it off because of its candy floss armor.
It could've been a different 'mech, but I distantly remember being able to fit six medium pulse lasers into something that looked an awful like one in the 2018 video game. That build was scary, I think it could alpha strike twice before it had to stop and cool off.
I got one in a campaign, stripped out the missiles and loaded it with I think 8 rocket 10 packs. It still wasn’t that effective overall, but it certainly kept the attention of everyone on the board while it was hopping around them.
Honestly, the easiest way to upgrade this thing? Tag beacon. That's it. You run it up on something, tag it, let other mechs blow the target apart. It still marked the mech for assassination.
Assassin is my Medium of choice for MW5. Dropping all of the missiles and upgrading the Medium laser to a Large gives you a great killer for VTOLs and armor. Swapping the mixed missiles (and a ton of ammo) for either double SRM4 or LRM5 lets you assassinate compromised mechs, or harass enemies into ambushes from lancemates.
The armor is terrifyingly light but if you make a point of not engaging with battlemechs you've got no business with, taking hits isn't really a worry.
Assassin 99 is a awesome tag equipted spotter for my longbow 12c. Stealth armor and melee. Plus as mentioned tag
I must say the ASN-27 does it's job perfectly.
MY FAVORITE MECH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EDIT AFTER WATCHING: Damn....I have an unpopular opinion on this one......
It's okay! I'm just doing my overview. You're free to like anything you like. I think the Assassin looks awesome at least, lol.
I believe any mech can be a valid favorite, even if there are objectively better options out there. In fact, some mechs are beloved because of how flawed they are.
My favorite is the bushwacker because Mech Warrior 3 was my first introduction to Battletech and I like the aesthetics of it.
@@TheGreenKnight500 Eww, the Bushwhacker? What's there to love about ONE OF THE COOLEST MECHS IN THE FRANCHISE. :P It's easily in my top 10...plus, it's featured prominently in the cartoon as Ryder's ride, and they even added his specific Bushwhacker to MWO and MW5 as the High Roller (which is a great name for it). I spent real money on it, even. :P
Also, I totally agree. There are plenty of people who love the Urbie and Charger (myself included) BECAUSE of their flaws, just as you say. (Does the Bushwhacker have any flaws though? I thought it was just a super solid design that in gameplay counters the Black Lanner).
That's the magic of BattleTech. Whereas so many other franchises present a new weapons system and says "this is the newest and the best." BT will say "this is the M247 Sergeant York of its time, and it never gets better." Sometimes it's something like "This is the MBT-70 of its time, and it leads to the M1 Abrams of its time" like the Charger and the Hatamoto-Chi. It adds so much more to the franchise rather than saying "this tank is unchanged for twenty thousand years from its original STC," which is kinda boring and unrealistic. It's the fact that military procurement and all of the BS that feeds into it is a mainstay of BT that makes the weapon systems of its universe so much more interesting.
As for the Assassin...its lore has less to do with it for me rather than its practical design. In my mind, mechs combine the flexibility and sustainability of infantry, the power and endurance of armored fighting vehicles, the height advantage of attack helicopters, and the skill and technical requirements of fighter aircraft all into one oversized space suit so that the relatively small crew of a relatively small spaceship becomes the equal of all such forces on a planet they are attacking. As suck, the Assassin takes elements of all of these weapon systems and combines them in a relatively balanced way, if favoring the aviation side of things a bit much in design language. I would actually call the Bushwhacker much the same, favoring the aesthetic of the attack helicopter a tad more than fighter jet, in contrast to the Assassin. The absolute finest balance of this design language is presented in the venerable Timber Wolf, which is why I think MechWarrior 2 captured the imaginations of so many people in 1995...because it felt familiar. I remember seeing the Summoner on the expansion's box and as a little kid thinking "that looks dumb" in comparison to the Timber Wolf (I grew up around fighter jets, tanks, attack helicopters, and naval ships...so from a young age these things were familiar). The one place the TBR fails in terms of practicality is the lack of hands...on a robot....which renders it less versatile in digging foxholes or performing non-combat tasks....but that reflects clan mentality, and leans more into the Air Force / aviation angel of BattleMechs rather than the more versatile Army / infantry / armored warfare view. The Assassin and Bushwhacker reflect the more practical elements of mech design, with arms and hands that can actually help prepare fortifications or lift supplies when not in battle. As such, the Assassin takes my top spot for BattleMechs, and the Bushwhacker is probably like fifth or sixth. The Timber Wolf is admittedly second (I joined the Air Force irl to fly after all...), the insanely practical Urbanmech is third (it deserves much more love in the lore...as it's probably one of the best designs in terms of geometry...it's basically just a tank that can jump, and is therefore a god in urban combat), fourth would be the Atlas because it's da biggest 'n da stompiest (not to mention it is a great interpretation of a "super heavy space suit," is well suited to assist outside of combat, "carries" an AC20 under its arm, forever shooting from the hip, and when used by a leader it sends the message of "I will protect you, and will be the last to fall"), ....I'm not sure what my fifth is, which means it might be the Bushwhacker. Yeah, I too have a lot of love for the weird yet practical arms on that mech, and its excellent low profile...it almost looks like a cousin of the Timber Wolf in profile.
One of the things I've come to like about BattleTech is how the creators would deliberately come up with poor designs. We see this again with the CGR-1A1 Charger, the BNC-3M Banshee, and the Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun.
The Hetzer is a god among vehicles! A trust testament to human engineering and military know-how.
@@BigRed40TECH Hole the Hetzer up in a building to support some Urbies, Vulcans, and Hatchetmen in city fighting and it's dangerous as hell, just make sure Quikcell didn't screw something up before the fight starts.
They can't all be winners and Battletech has had fun with that fact of military design history. And then making it possible for a captain to put one in the company anyway.
Don't be mean to the Hetzer though. Like its Wehraboo namesake the Hetzer is a cheap panzerjaeger that can cripple or kill enemies on the cheap. AC 20 works on everything!
What I did in battletech was mount a COIL-M in the right arm and fill the rest with heatsyncs and a handful of jump jets for rough ground.
Its great movement gave the coil a massive punch whilst also letting it get to the side of enemy mechs to one shot their legs off one by one, the aiming bonus was excteemely useful in ensuring this and the weight meant it can fire continusly without building heat.
It was my favourite mech and got me millions in the amount of salvaged mechs I got using precision shot to the legs...
In MWO I managed to fit a RAC-5 onto mine. I’ve got the most wonderful memory of being ‘chased’ into a corner by a heavy that didn’t realize what I had, turning around, and then BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I'm still trying to figure out what's up with the Assassin's cockpit. It looks like it has two canopies. The lore says it has a cramped cockpit, but why does it look like it has a window where the pilot's feet would be?
The aesthetics are unfortunate which doesn't help its image. Probably didn't help with the SLDF either. As someone who's home-ruled the fluff text before, the cockpit made it a no-sell to my fellow players.
I prefer using a Jenner or Raven. At 40 ton, my favorite mech would be Sha Yu.
By the time you can put in an XL, FF, DHS & ES, the Assassin is still redundant because of Koshi, Uller, Puma & Cougar. It doesnt even come close to an Arctic Wolf or Dasher 2
I was with you until you started listing off clan tech. now I'm wondering if your attention lapsed during any Clan Invasion Primer where they mention that the Clans were fielding tech that was so superior to most of what the Inner Sphere had that the Inner Sphere was effectively at Battle Parity. The assassin was one of those poor unnfortunate mechs that was already at Battle Parity with the rest of the Inner Sphere... all before the Clans became a thing.
OF COURSE you would want a Clan mech over the mediocre-at-best-and-already-obsolete Assassin. The only problem with Clan Tech is making any significant repairs to those mechs, because the shipping costs alone for those parts will cost as much as 2 Urbanmechs (Yes, the cost of repair parts + shipping = too damned expensive for your poor mercenary ass to repair that salvaged Clan Tech so you can either get bent or buy a Marauder already).
Of course all of this presumes You're living in a time when Clan Tech is available to the Inner Sphere. Because everything Pre-Clan Invasion is an altogether different discussion.
The baseline kit isn't great, but it's a good platform.
Its fast makes an okay scout or scout hunter. Its Not Strider or Charger bad but close. Fedsuns should have just reallocated money to Javelins.
"Fedsuns should have just reallocated money to Javelins."
I think after what Russia has experienced in their invasion of Ukraine, that most of the world will be doing the same vs funding their armored forces. (kidding, kidding, I know the Javelin is a recon mech)
@@gunraptor nah get the joke but you look at the 10F Id go after an assasin any day of the week in one
I don't get it. I know the assassin is a total lemon but I can't help but like it. Looks damn good and runs like a turbo javelin, especially the 101
That's cool. Everyone has their own flavour of lemonaid they like :D
If the mech has always worked for you then it doesn't suck.
Is it insane of me to say that the Assassin is my ideal Starter Mech?
Yes :P
I could see it working as a starter... if you want to play life on hard mode.
@@andorfedra Huh... I was thinking it would be great as a starter mech where the only thing it has to face are Vehicles, the Occasional Light Mech, and the rare Medium Mech.
Basically what level 1-3 Missions in MechWarrior 5 wish they could be (if they were made by a Tabletop Gamemaster)
I remember in MPBT Solaris and 3035, there was another variant that had more armor (traded with engine?) But i dont see that on sarna...
But the design tho! It looks so good =(
Looking good and being good = not the same :P
@@BigRed40TECH ikr, that's the saddest part =(
Most 40T mechs are a bit lack luster, especially in terms of bang for buck. At least in the eras I play (up to the Fedcom Civil War). The Whitworth and Cicada get some table time, but that's about it.
Should've called itthe Razor's Edge, because it walks that edge of usable and sucking for mechs
So far as I am aware, the one thing the assassin has going for it is its targeting system. I think in lore, it's supposed to give assassin pilots a leg up in a dogfight against fast moving light 'mechs.
On TT though 3025 era, if I was to improve it? I think I'd remove all of the jump jets. 7/11 alone is respectable. Add a medium laser, 2 heat sinks, 3 tonnes of armour, and a second srm 2 launcher. Gives it much more punch, and staying power while remaining fairly cool.
Also I liked the Assassin in MW5 Mercenaries... but only the UAC/5 Variant. The other variants were... well, there are better mechs in that tonnage. ^^
The UAC5 variant was made up for the game funnily enough XD
i ended up maining the assassin in 4 player modded mechwarrior 5
i ran it with a medium laser and two SRM6
its, very fun alpha striking bigger mechs at close range
Gosh, the 40 ton bracket really is pretty cursed, isn't it?
In the video game I strip out all it's weapons and early on Give it a Snub PPC, later on I give it a Coil-L It has low armour, so I give it a rangefinder with 125M range then keep it on the outskirts of enemy field of view and use it to harass larger mech or hunt and kill pesky small ones.
I've always thought with the right weapons and equipment mix the Assassin could be an excellent hunter killer, raider, or heavy scout. Just give it a heavier main gun like a ppc or large laser and some electronics. Expensive sure but the right equipment could make it more of an actual useful mech.
I think it's just got really limited weight to play with for those systems. Even dropping the LRM-5 really will just turn the Assassin into a medium laser boat, an underarmoured one, and if that's the case you'd be better off with the Hermes II 2M. It's just a really hard sell for me, personally.
It's a bad mech, but I love it. I do not know why.
It looks cool. About the only reason I like it
You don't need a reason, David. :)
Plenty of people like Chargers and Urbanmechs too. Just cuz its bad, doesn't mean its unpopular.
@@BigRed40TECH The charger stock is garbage but can be modded into something useful, I've done quite well tweaking with endosteel for 2 large pulse, 3 mediums enough heatsinks to fire for a sustained period and move at 90 kph with full armor and all guns in the torso allowing you to use the large arms with shields as actual shields without losing anything if they're destroyed.
In theory it'd also make a great melee fighter as I understand you can punch and shoot with all weapons not on that arm, so punching or kicking while firing 2 large pulse and 3 mediums.
@@kriegjaeger I only really play stock mechs with my buddies. No customs.
The main issue with the Assassin is that it's given role is already filled by cheaper and more efficient mechs. It spends too much weight trying to be a a bug mech instead of living up to it's name. So it should stop trying to be a 40 ton wasp and start aiming for other niches like anti-scout, hit and run skirmisher and ambush back stabber.
Honestly, downgrading the engine to a 240 is probably the single best thing you can do other than throw lostech/clantech at the problem. Yeah it switches to a 6/9 movement profile but it gains 4.5 free tons to help fix the armament issues, 10.5 if you strip off all the existing weapons as well. And I can think of a few loadouts that could help.
40 ton Panther: drop the Medium laser, LRM5 and ammo to add a PPC and heatsink and upgrade the SRM2 to a 4 with a bit left over for more armor. You get a loadout with better agility and mobility compared to the Panther (seriously, the walk speed is the same as the Panther's RUN speed. And about 3 more hexes in jumpjets if I remember right). Alternatively, drop the SRM and ammo instead for an additional LRM5 for a dimestore Griffin.
Raining Harassment: dump the srm2 and ammo for an additional lrm5 + ammo and 2 additional medium lasers, a heatsink and additional half ton of armor.
There's another I'm not sure of how well it would actually perform, but it seems interesting at least:
3 medium lasers, 2 SRM4s, 2 MGs with a shared half ton of ammo and 2 additional heatsinks. Would run pretty hot unless you changed to double heat sinks, but between the jumpjets and all the crit seeking potential, I don't think there are many mechs that would like dealing with it, especially if it was picking off a slower straggler.
not gonna lie, i do like the look of the assassin in MW5:M.
When I play the Paradox Games version of Battletech, I either load it up with SRMs and a small or medium laser for "defense" or I just remove it all and use its computer to negate miss chance and slam 20 lrm missiles into a target.
While you have to bend the game rules in Mechwarrior mercs 5 to do it, I love equipping it as a long range head hunter with a heavy rifle and a C ER large laser, with 2 c srm 6s and a c heavy medium laser for backup. I like hunting heavy and assault mech cockpits
The Assassin like it's bigger cousin the 65 ton Exterminator just doesn't bring sufficient focus in it's weapon load out to make it truely effective even as a headhunter (ie command mech killer) Great looking mech but just not all that much better then any 20 tonner out there
I love it, it carries the same vibe as having your police force driving Lamborghinis. One of the coolest mech designs imo but is bad :(. Still use it though, rule of cool.
The base -21 design has potential to be a nuisance in 3025 era games, and I strongly prefer it over the spider. Not a bad platform for special munitions if you can get them.
My personal favourite custom variant for 3025 era turns the so called 'assassin' into a short range knife fighter, with each side torso packing a medium and small laser instead of the missile launchers, whilst the arm mounts two machine guns and a half ton of ammo (felt more fitting to put the MGs in the arm than in the torsos). Remaining 1.5 tons of weight is pumped into armour, taking it up to a solid 6 tons.
It loses out on the long range of the LRM, but becomes a real terror at short range and has the speed to get there. Can run + fire everything whilst remaining heat neutral, or jump and fire the small lasers/MGs without pushing the heat curve. The improved armour keeps it out of trouble long enough to disengage should it encounter heavier opposition.
Could imagine this build really living up to the 'assassin' name if it managed to successfully infiltrate behind enemy lines and locate an enemy field base/command center. Has the speed to get in and out, along with the capability to shred any infantry units it finds whilst still having enough heavier firepower to fight off the bug mechs the fluff says the Assassin was designed to compete against.
I think a lot of these strange, outlier 'Mech designs came from the early developers refining the construction rules and seeing what you could do with them. "How fast can we make an Assault 'Mech go?" Answer, the Charger. "How heavily armed and armored can we make a Light 'Mech?" Answer, the UrbanMech. "What happens if we try and make a Medium 'Mech keep pace with Light 'Mechs?" Answer, the Assassin. When these 'Mechs prove underwhelming on the tabletop, they don't revise the design to make it competitive. . . they admit that it was a bad decision in-universe and that the 'Mech in question is acknowledged to be a subpar or outright bad choice.
And like many BTech fans, I love that there are 'Mechs in-universe acknowledged as awful and having bad reputations. . . and sometimes, those reputations are underserved and the machine really is quite capable. For instance, the Blackjack.
at least it looks cool
"Hey man, I might die like a moron, but I'll look cool doing it."
where is the cockpit on this thing?
i played MW5 but i never figured it out
Because NPC's need PPCs... but have no chance of being OPed.
I was listening to the video when something came to me. Comparing the Assassin to its intended competition or prey isn't accurate. What is more accurate is thinking of it as a lighter, faster Shadow Hawk that can better keep up with the 20-30 ton lights in a recon or light strike lance. That seems more useful than a supposed super-bug whose speed can often lead to it being alone and a primary target the turn after it backshoots a bigger target than itself.
Luke Skywalker: What a piece of junk!
Han Solo: She's got it where it counts kid. I've make a lot of special modification myself...
With all the min-maxing talk and 'gamer hate' towards this mech in the comments, I'm sincerely glad Battletech originated from a time where this was no issue and actually interesting designs and the illusion of something bigger or more complex behind it than just some hilariously simple TT rules was a thing.
I like to think that most mech designs had reasons for them being the way they are. Reasons not really reflected in those few construction and combat rules.
For that I'm thankful.
PS:
Of course Star League engineers would've stuffed them with medium lasers and max armored them all, if their blueprints had max three digit numbers, little circles and simulations ran on 2d6..
I like all the mechs, but the Assassin is a spade, and you gotta call a spade a spade.
I also intend to get x4 of them when they're released in plastic, because despite that, I build narrative forces.
How can something with such a cool name be that bad?
Well, undergunned, underarmoured will do it typically, yea.
The assasin is the BT equivalent of the fat kid in a black Pyjama with a Naruto-headband and plastic nunchakus 😅
Not even bad, it's sin is being only okay.
Well, at least it's not a Charger...
Isn't this the mech that also known to cripple pilots because it's ergonomics? Great video! Are you on Patreon?
I'm not on Patreon at the moment, but we do have a UA-cam membership program. :)
I have a permanent spine injury, so this may oddly add to the appeal of this mech to me.
I'm not sure if this maybe because I'm just waking up or I didn't hear it but what the wepoans on a default assassin?
Edit never mind I just rewach it.
It's in the video.
@@BigRed40TECH ya I it load out sounds almost like a javain I think. Though 2 SRM 6 is a common load out for mechs want missile shotgun loadout
Battletech makes me wonder, if mechs are shaped human like, can't they only show their firing wpn out of cover and shoot while staying protected?
In novels and so on, humanoid mechs do manage things like that. Like, mechs with hands can and do drag their fallen mech buddies like military soldiers. I remember in second book of Grey Death Legion a guy who actually knew martial arts used it in a stinger to cripple then kill an enemy stinger like a stealth kill... Believe the pilot's name was Khalid.
As for the pop out and gun, in game terms you'd have to use cover and claim partial coverage. I assume it'd come up more in hexless than traditional hex maps.
Lose the lrm 5, add another medium laser, another srm2 and 1 ton of armor.
Now it can reliably hunt down most light mechs and terrorize rear armors.
When ever I play with this mech I find it hard to make it work. I normally ditch the two of the jump jets and give it more armour. Not a good mech unfortunately :(
I have the assassin mech
I liked using it with inferno SRMs. Just to be annoying
Assassin can be fixed with Lostech and Clantech. I like the concept, but 3025 tech is too limited.
40ton Mechs are in a really bad position, having neither the strengths of Light scouts, or Medium fighters. Its because of that that I like upgrading them to make the concept work.
Even with Lostech and clantech, there are no official variants that are very impressive.
Swap the missiles and ammo for a LL/ERLL or 3xML and two tons of armor. Not a hard mech to fix.
True, but me and my crew in Tabletop only play stock.
@@BigRed40TECH Playing Battletech without mech customization is like cooking with no spice.
@@heirofaniu I try to play on the more authentic side. Battlemech customs are VERY rare in Battletech itself.
@@BigRed40TECH Which is fair enough, I just think that one of the better parts of the system compared to most other wargames is the sheer freedom that the customization rules allow you.
@@heirofaniu Sure, if I'm running or playing an RPG, that's something I always want to incorporate. But for pickup games? Stock only.
The assasin is Like a gaucci clutsh: expansive and useless but Stylist! 😅
How to die in style. lol
@@BigRed40TECH the 3050 Version in particular is sad af: a god damn valkyrie does a better Job in firesupport than the assasin 🤣
In MWO, this quickly became my favorite mech because it feels oddly similar to driving an Audi S4.
@@gunraptor I enjoyed my time in the Assassin in MWO, but only after it got modded. A lot.
If it contain no big guns, it's bad mech.. I give it a core 180 just to get a better loadout: 1 PPC 1 flamer and 1 random missile rack and maxed out all armor
So it does in fact not do what it says on the tin, someone call Comstar I heard the development team that made the Assassin committed false advertising and didn’t pay their phone bill
They'll send real medium mechs to assassinate you, like the Wyvern. lol
@@BigRed40TECH well not a medium mech my preferred choice of mech for assassination missions is the Firestarter their is something so reassuring about the certainty that 4x flamethrowers might just hit the target and the rest of his neighborhood
@@connorriggs1518 only if the target is unarmed and unarmored. otherwise you're just bound to piss them off and get curb-stomped by 360 tons of angry Highlanders.
EDIT: I Don't have any personal experience whit this at all... ;D
i tryed this mach after i salvaged it in mech warrior 5 my first 40 T mech i was exited and then i realised i can not do much with and my standart jenner 35 T mech has more fire power. but i managed to use the mech as a filler if my other 40 T mechs are in repair but i have to pilot it myself to make it work the a.i pilots shreeeeeeeedddddddddddddd this thin regulary if i can i use my 40 T ciceda 5 X mech with 2 srm 4s and 2 medium lasers no jump jets true but this thing runns like hell.
The biggest tragedy of the Assassin is that it is by far one of the best-looking 'mechs the Inner Sphere has. Just look at that thing. Gorgeous design. Such a waste.
I'd take the Cicada over the Assassin. And i'd take anything else over the Cicada. looks cool, though.
I agree, The Assassin is one of those mechs I would rebuild from salvage and stand it up as a good-looking statue in my front lawn... though I'd probably never repair the cockpit to remind people that I actually headshot the poor bastard who owned it before me. It looks that good.
This mech is kinda like the Cicada, but it does have better firepower. It's surprisingly agile and has good punch, but for its size it IS under-gunned. Simply put, it has too much engine and not enough weapons. Reduce it's engine to, say, a 200 and you could probably improve it. In its role it's terrible. 😒
first view!!!
That's Crabtastic!
@@BigRed40TECH haha
Comment for the algo
The only load out I found workable was the ECM model with stealth armor and 2 srm 6s. The only other luck I had was with a long range version with a LLaser. Use range and natural cover and speed. MWO's version sucks assassin.
Do you know why the SLDF never made a Star League Royal Assassin?
Amaris beat them to it.
What I learned about battletech watching this channel. Every mech I love sucks balls
I wish the Assassin were better, if that helps lol
Oof. If I had any medium mech I hated most, it would be the Assassin. Terrible at everything it tries to do other than staying out of the way and lobbing a few missiles from weird positions.
There is nothing redeemable for this mess of a "tactical" mech. It's not even an ideal recon mech stomping around seismic sensors.
While you described this mech, all I could think was a fat guy that thinks his weight gives him an advantage. Um, no!
This is a fat guy who can sprint. That's it. lol
I've always felt the Assassin had the worst name in Battletech, because it doesn't live up to it. Also the design is bad. Not horrible, just bad.
The LRM carrier Locust is a bigger threat. The Jenner lives up to the name Assassin because it not only has the speed to get into an opponents rear arc, but also the firepower to threaten coring the enemy in one salvo. The Firestarter has a better potential to take out light, medium and even heavier mechs with bad heat management.
And if you are going to call something an assassin, shouldn't it have some one-hit kill potential? Hunchback fits the bill with a possible AC-20 to the head. Panther's PPC and rock solid design would make a better 'Assassin'. Heck, anything with an AC-20 or Gauss would of been a better "Assassin". Or maybe a dedicated LRM boat so it can one-sidedly beat on opponents with indirect fire. Just being agile doesn't make you an assassin. More like a glass cannon, or an acrobat. Maybe the Assassin should of been named "Clown" instead.
If Battletech (PC game) is anything to go by, then the Firestarter is a better Assassin than the Assassin. Jump into rear arc and fire away. Literally.