I do enjoy these neat little videos. I do hope you continue them, as I could see using them as little guides for new players who might be curious about a mech in particular (and I don't have time personally to lecture at length on the strengths/weakness of each). Although I do insist you have a thing for *weak* *rear* *armor* on your customization. >.
To be honest recommending and getting my videos into the hands of new people is probably best things you can do for me and the channel and one of the highest compliments you can give. Thank you. In thinking through the problem a bit I felt the only reasonable options for armor values for rear is 2 (blocks SRM) or 5 (blocks ML). Putting in 3 to block a small laser does not make sense to me as the opponent will likely have a medium laser in addition to the small, 4 makes a little more sense (2 SRM/Machine Gun/Flamer hits) but at that point I feel I'm exposing the more frequently hit front side too much. Not sure though. I'll admit having paper thin 2 armor is a liability. How much would you have if you had your way?
@@nerdyOveranalyzed It really depends on which mech and at what tonnage. But its more the fact the rear center torso has so weak armor. That's protecting the most important part of the mech, the engine. That's the single most expensive part of the entire mech. And you really don't want something breaking through to that and damaging it. Cause fixing it is likely to take a long time. And if you get really unlucky (coming from a CBT player) and someone rolls a triple crit on breaking through and you get triple engine hits...your engine is pretty much destroyed and your entire mech is now spare parts. Now, you're mostly doing light mechs right now (and armoring those things without getting into exotic stuff is *hard*) so you're gonna have weak armor no matter what. But I'd say around 5 if I can swing it. The basic Valk has 12 armor on the side torsos. I'd narrow that down to 10 (to keep out the PPCs/AC-10s) and move it to the back armor in some form. Hell, turn that LRM-10 into a pair of LRM-5s and that saves another ton to go somewhere.
@@revenvrake7412 Fair assessment! I'll run it through some games and see if it makes a difference. At some point I'll probably do a experimental version X2 or a final version. There have been a few suggestions for improvements on mechs that I actually end up liking better. Your comment on upping the rear armor being one of them. Thanks for letting me know about the issue!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed The metric for rear armor that makes the most sense to me is the ability to block fall damage from dinging internals, with the ct getting a few extra points to add insurance on behalf of the engine and gyro.
On a heavier, less mobile mech, you have an excellent point; especially a short-range brawler like a Hunchback. But if you let someone get behind you in your light mech, you deserve what happens to you. By and large, the armor on the back of a light mech is just there to prevent internal damage if you fall down.
As someone who's only starting battletech, these videos are really great for helping me start to get some context for all the information I find. They're well organized and helpful. Thanks. Any chance we can see a video about the crab or king crab?
I do like the RP aspects of these vids :) As you were describing the variant I was thinking "That's a fast Panther!" ... and so it was :D Very much enjoyed the lore reasons why the refit could be desired. For myself, I went a different route with my Valkyries in the Third Crucis Lancers - rather than a fast Panther, I made a slower Javelin by fitting two SRM6's.
Hello Nerdy. Having been a Merc for House Davion, I was able to get several Valkyries for my Mercenary Company. Although I kept a few 'stock', most I altered similar to your design. Yours loses half a ton of armor and a jump jet, to use the tonnage to swap the LRM and its ammo for a PPC. Mine is a bit different. Although I do dispense with the LRM and its ammo... I add a Large Laser, a 2nd Medium Laser, and an extra heat sink. All without losing mobility (downgrading jump range), or Protection (downgrading armor). Both are kept as per the 'standard' model. Although my version has less hitting power at range, and a bit shorter range than a PPC, I feel it is a good trade-off for the additional medium and close range firepower of the 2nd Med Las. The extra heat sink, pumping this Mech's cooling up to 12, allows a pilot to fire both Medium lasers and jump without generating extra heat. It also allows for the Large laser and one medium to fire, while still walking, and generate no additional heat. A full 'Alpha Strike' however, will severely impact the Mech's performance due to the addition of the 2nd med laser, and either running or jumping. But, I feel that if a pilot has to do this, he or she, is probably in a world of hurt anyway. F. Smedley, Chief Tech, Star Lions Corps, Mercenary Unit.
Heyo Smedley! That seems like a nice and reasonable build! I'll admit my PPC build is a bit ambitious. I'll keep yours in mind if the X1 doesn't work out.
This video brings back memories. I ran a a Valkyrie in an aToW+Total Warfare campaign (campaign like D&D, not like a wargame) We basically got trapped on a swamp planet and spent the whole time fighting veteran lances and getting picked apart. The techs had to chase small animals out of the increasingly large holes in our armor on a semi-regular basis. But me and that Valkyrie--I swapped a heat sink for a medium laser for it--we made it out, fairly unscathed too. Even after the GM dropped an Orion on our heads.
@@nerdyOveranalyzed haha it was so intense. Our GM had weather effects on every map, so there was always a +1 or +2 modifier to every shot, the enemies nearly always had veteran units even if we were just fighting a bunch of Galleons, we still managed to push them into forced retreats, but only after taking nasty damage. Our Locust got shot in the back early and had CT structure damage for the rest of the campaign, until a Vindy's LRM 5 finally did it in. Pilot made it though; he got a Griffin with a Wolverine leg grafted on it for his troubles. Other wild things that happened: 1. My mech got attacked by an alien jaguar. Not some mech named a jaguar that you feel like you need to look up on Sarna; this was Succession War era. No, this was an actual giant animal that clawed up my armor. My character had Animal Empathy, but reacted on instinct and kicked the Jaguar into a tree. She cried all the way to the next sortie. 2. One of our infantry privates decided to execute a Comstar robe. We covered it up. 3. One time our mechtechs put a jump jet in *upside down* and it fell off the mech and fired around our hangar like a pinball when it went off. 4. We had a mission where we had to intercept a VIP and extract him from a Humvee. We weren't able to take out its escort in time, so the Locust had the bright idea of *kicking the Humvee over.* The VIP actually made it, but he was pissed. Keep in mind *The VIP and the client were dating.* 5. Me and the Locust pilot met up later and did our own campaign in the Civil War Era. In that campaign, I GMed, and the players wound up joining up with pirates that had a hidden base on an abandoned mining facility in an asteroid field. Pretty decent place to hide out with the Maskirovka on their backs. In that succession war era game though...Our company had...lesse if I can remember... 1 mech lance with a Guillotine, Griffin, Phoenix Hawk, and me in the Valkyrie. 4 AC/10 Hetzer's 2 infantry platoons And I can't remember how many support staff. By the end of the campaign, we had to protect our dropship from a huge attack; set up turrets and got all our forces mobilized. We lost two Hetzers, but we took down an enemy Orion (a veteran! Again! Somehow! We were ALL regulars!) and managed to get out by the skin of our teeth. Couldn't salvage the Orion, though. We had to get out of there before Aerospace turned us into a crater. I can't believe the civvie Leopard even made planetfall for us without any guns, but we made it out of there. BARELY.
I've thought about the potential of pairing standard Valkyries with an SRM refit: swap out the LRM10 for a pair of SRM4s, using the extra ton for an additional heat sink. It would make for a solid bodyguard unit for the LRM Valkyries, with better endurance than the comparable Javelin (a laser and significantly more armor at the cost of some speed and SRM throw weight). Obviously once MMLs become available a swap to DHS and an MML7 would allow for 6.5 tons of armor and a ton each of LRM and SRM ammo for the launcher, even without using Ferro, Endo Steel, or other expensive tech upgrades. This gives you complete freedom to engage at all range brackets while jumping, without regard for heat and with the ability to hit extremely hard in what used to be your minimum range dead zone for the launcher. For ilClan refits, moving to a Light Engine on an Endo Steel skeleton allows for a boosted movement profile to 6/9/6, which keeps it on pace with PHawks, but by that point you're also looking at specialized enemy armor. Swapping to six tons of Light Ferro lets you replace the ML with a re-engineered version, which ignores the benefits of specialist armor and gives a slight accuracy boost, though you have to trip a few armor points from the MML/DHS upgrade (you still net out with more than the stock -QA carries). This one would be best done using a different base model that already incorporates the structure swap, such as the 3049 -QD or one of the Jihad or Dark Age variants.
Yeah, double SRM 4's is really good! Probably the highest efficiency SRM you can run. It'll work for sure! Unfortunately I can't comment on later era stuff as I'm still working through the Succession Wars era, but I'll probably swing this comment again once I get further along in history.
Thanks for his nice review of the Valkyrie. The "Man-eater" version is a good economy Panther that moves faster and won't go boom. With my old Davion-contracted merc unit of my misspent youth, I had 2 stock Valkyries. One was the #4 'mech of Alpha Company's fire lance. It did scouting duty when the lance was by itself or added onto the firepower when the recon lance was available to do spotting. the other was #4 of Bravo Company's command lance, where it helped provide well-positioned support fire for the other 'mechs (Phoenix Hawk, Grasshopper, Enforcer).
Great breakdown of the Valk. One of my favorite mechs> Fun fact: If you drop 1 ton of armor and 1 heatsink you can upgrade the engine to a 180 and add a jumpjet, making it a 6/9/6 and removing its one drawback of low speed.
I would probably do a refit with a large laser and an LRM 5. Still keep the range of the LRM 10, but removes the minimum range of the PPC. The laser can tag foes as they approach from range as well.
One possible refit to the Valkyrie is to simply replace the LRM-10 with two LRM-5s, making it run a little hotter but freeing up an extra ton that could be put into...say...another ton of LRMs, or an additional medium laser, or a flamer for engaging infantry.
I recently made an extremely late-era high tech Valkyrie. I love it, but it's indefensible from a budget standpoint unless you're a Solaris jock with a decent war chest.
Changing to the PPC also takes away the mech'sability for indirect fire, what about swapping the single LRM10 for 2 LRM5 and an additional ton of ammo? This would allow the Valkyrie to shoot more often. Biggest issue with my configuration is of course the higher ammo cost.
So I love the videos and the style, but for this ones refit why not a large laser instead of the ppc, you could add more heat sinks/ armor and it would help with the heat profile
Glad you're enjoying! While the large laser is much more of a reasonable choice heat management wise, I want to try this more ambitious design for two main reasons: 1. In a fair number of cases a hit with a PPC will instantly trigger a crit roll if hitting a light. 2. Many faster cavalry/skirmish medium mechs carry LL as a piercing weapon so packing a PPC keep it out of reach of these heavily armed and armored mechs. It might not end up working out though, in which case yeah I'll probably pack on a LL and call it a day!
Great video! However for movement rather than just comparing movement to another mech id also included the possible TMM the unit can generate with its movment
If you're running a fast recon/strike company, having a lance of Valkyries (presuming one can get that many) makes for a great light fire lance. And if you're using them in that role, you can actually trim armor to increase ammo load as they won't be engaging in close combat much anyway. As far as your Maneater goes... The heat output worries me. For a light 'mech it's mobility is already rather limited; not being able to fire it's main battery and run or jump without heat buildup will limit it's combat endurance. Removing armor will further limit it's longevity on the battlefield. I would have gone with a large laser instead. This allows you to run and fire the main battery continuously, or even to alpha strike while stationary, with no heat buildup.. Then the question becomes whether to use the remaining ton for another heat sink (allowing more use of the jump jets and secondary battery) or another ton of armor (for increased battlefield endurance).
I thought about doing Large Laser as well but eventually decided on trying a less mobile PPC build even if it is more ambitious! I felt while the LL would reduce heat issues it would bring it too close to the mediums and heavies I want it to be able to fight and result in bad trades. I think the design might work and need to run more field tests, but it might be a bit too ambitous!
Mind me asking what is your goal with this channel? I only ask because, based on limited experience with your channel I'm not sure and you are competing against some bigger channels in the mech review genre ( grimdark and Big Red as an example). My suggestion is as follows. Do what you do new, review and offer mech upgrades but focus more on the upgrade side. Do a build for 3025, 3050 and Ilclan with new technologies. The two I mentioned do mech reviews so to speak so I would also suggest Lance suggestions. Example being you'd run this Valk with say a Dervish, wolverine and Thug and why ect. Love what you are doing and hoping for your success.
Thanks for the feedback! I think a 3050+ year build would be really good, but I just wanted to start out with 3025 which was a more manageable data set and build my expertise from there. There was was someone else who also suggested lance compositions which I will probably do at some point as I did think it was a good idea. As for goals this inspirational video pretty much sums it up: ua-cam.com/video/fCkeLBGSINs/v-deo.html
@@nerdyOveranalyzed well with the exception of the theme song sounds like you got things sorted. However I will now have to challenge you to a trial of possession for your favorite shirt. Can't be blasting pokemon songs at me and not suffer consequences
Dang I didn't even think about that! Yeah that would actually work really well! I might actually try using it as an alternate build if the current experimental unit has issues.
Gotta say I'm not a fan of the refit this time around. Losing that 5th jump jet means you're only able to generate a +2 TMM defensively instead of a +3. 2 point of rear armor also makes me hesitant. You generally want at least one point of rear armor per 10 tons of weight (rounded up) so you can absorb fall damage without generating any crits. Generally what I prefer to do is replace an lrm10 with two lrm5s and use the ton saved on more armor, a heat sink, or another medium laser.
Fair points! I actually did not consider the drop from +3 to +2 on the defensive side, but I will keep it in mind for future scout videos. The purpose of the build was to trade defense and mobility for offensive power. Since the Panther had only 4 jump jets I figured it still left the new VLK build mobile enough to bring it's PPC into play. Having the extra heat generate off of the PPC also meant that the VLK couldn't jump and shoot consistently any more so I didn't consider it to be a problem from a heat point of view either. Thank you for mentioning the rear armoring though. Others have pointed out this low rear armor flaw as well. I'll be going back and reconsidering armor allocation for an experimental X2 design if the PPC build works out. Usually I try to over armor the legs to avoid falling all together and treat of any sort of fall as a "failure", but having armor to prevent crits is a good point. As for the splitting of the LRM 10 into two 5s I feel it's too I dunno... "efficient" of a swap if that makes sense XD? It is, as you pointed out clearly better than the original QA, but it doesn't change the design enough for it to be exciting enough for me to gibber-gabber about in a video, at least imo. Thank you for taking the time to write your response!
I dare you (not really) to do a video on the Charger. If only to see how other people wrap their heads around that piece of reality violating existence.
I would actually drop it to a 5/8/3 to keep the armor, a 4 jumo doesn't give much, no extra TMM... Also, with a PPC, the unit now has heat issues! 1 heat gain from running isn't that bad, but gaining 3 heat from walking and firing both weapons is rough. I might instead change the unit over to all missiles. 4 LRM 5s is a solid shotgun at long range, and you can rack some dead-fire LRMs to deal with enemies that get in close. Overall I am not a fan of the valkyrie really.
My group bans custom mechs , dont get me wrong your refit is cool and an acceptable in universe field refit . But we ban them because every mech ends up basically the same ie max heat efficiency on the weapons and Max armor .
Yeah, quite a few players end up not liking refits because they start to get "samey" after a while even though in-universe lore allows them. I'm working towards optimal builds for a merc run in MegaMek while at the same time trying to keep things nice and spicy as I go through the mech refits.
The only Valkyrie that can operate by itself is the Lyran MML version . All other Valkyries have to work with at least one friend , a role it excels at .
I see what yer going for with that custom build, but i believe your neglecting the true value of the lrm 10, Crit seeking. The valkyrie is particularly useful at confirming kills at a distance through critical hits. Maybe swap down to an LRM5 and a LL.
I'm not sure I agree, the LRM 10 generates 1-2 hit locations. It might be useful in an all scout battle but it seems completely underwhelming once mediums and heavies get involved.
@@nerdyOveranalyzed for locations, yes, but critical hits are based on how many hits the location takes, not damage. So the Lrm 10 can hit at least 2 internal components, whereas the ppc only hits one no matter what
@@nerdyOveranalyzed ya I also paint a lot fed sun mechs too to be fair sword light is very easy paint job do hell did most of them with tester. Though I mostly use army painter now a days.
I do enjoy these neat little videos. I do hope you continue them, as I could see using them as little guides for new players who might be curious about a mech in particular (and I don't have time personally to lecture at length on the strengths/weakness of each). Although I do insist you have a thing for *weak* *rear* *armor* on your customization. >.
To be honest recommending and getting my videos into the hands of new people is probably best things you can do for me and the channel and one of the highest compliments you can give. Thank you.
In thinking through the problem a bit I felt the only reasonable options for armor values for rear is 2 (blocks SRM) or 5 (blocks ML). Putting in 3 to block a small laser does not make sense to me as the opponent will likely have a medium laser in addition to the small, 4 makes a little more sense (2 SRM/Machine Gun/Flamer hits) but at that point I feel I'm exposing the more frequently hit front side too much. Not sure though. I'll admit having paper thin 2 armor is a liability. How much would you have if you had your way?
@@nerdyOveranalyzed It really depends on which mech and at what tonnage. But its more the fact the rear center torso has so weak armor. That's protecting the most important part of the mech, the engine. That's the single most expensive part of the entire mech. And you really don't want something breaking through to that and damaging it. Cause fixing it is likely to take a long time. And if you get really unlucky (coming from a CBT player) and someone rolls a triple crit on breaking through and you get triple engine hits...your engine is pretty much destroyed and your entire mech is now spare parts. Now, you're mostly doing light mechs right now (and armoring those things without getting into exotic stuff is *hard*) so you're gonna have weak armor no matter what. But I'd say around 5 if I can swing it. The basic Valk has 12 armor on the side torsos. I'd narrow that down to 10 (to keep out the PPCs/AC-10s) and move it to the back armor in some form. Hell, turn that LRM-10 into a pair of LRM-5s and that saves another ton to go somewhere.
@@revenvrake7412 Fair assessment! I'll run it through some games and see if it makes a difference. At some point I'll probably do a experimental version X2 or a final version. There have been a few suggestions for improvements on mechs that I actually end up liking better. Your comment on upping the rear armor being one of them. Thanks for letting me know about the issue!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed The metric for rear armor that makes the most sense to me is the ability to block fall damage from dinging internals, with the ct getting a few extra points to add insurance on behalf of the engine and gyro.
On a heavier, less mobile mech, you have an excellent point; especially a short-range brawler like a Hunchback. But if you let someone get behind you in your light mech, you deserve what happens to you.
By and large, the armor on the back of a light mech is just there to prevent internal damage if you fall down.
As someone who's only starting battletech, these videos are really great for helping me start to get some context for all the information I find. They're well organized and helpful. Thanks.
Any chance we can see a video about the crab or king crab?
Thanks man! I appreciate the feedback. I'll soon be done with the light mech class and be moving onto mediums. So the Crab will be coming up soon!
I do like the RP aspects of these vids :) As you were describing the variant I was thinking "That's a fast Panther!" ... and so it was :D Very much enjoyed the lore reasons why the refit could be desired. For myself, I went a different route with my Valkyries in the Third Crucis Lancers - rather than a fast Panther, I made a slower Javelin by fitting two SRM6's.
Hello Nerdy.
Having been a Merc for House Davion, I was able to get several Valkyries for my Mercenary Company. Although I kept a few 'stock', most I altered similar to your design.
Yours loses half a ton of armor and a jump jet, to use the tonnage to swap the LRM and its ammo for a PPC.
Mine is a bit different. Although I do dispense with the LRM and its ammo... I add a Large Laser, a 2nd Medium Laser, and an extra heat sink. All without losing mobility (downgrading jump range), or Protection (downgrading armor). Both are kept as per the 'standard' model.
Although my version has less hitting power at range, and a bit shorter range than a PPC, I feel it is a good trade-off for the additional medium and close range firepower of the 2nd Med Las.
The extra heat sink, pumping this Mech's cooling up to 12, allows a pilot to fire both Medium lasers and jump without generating extra heat. It also allows for the Large laser and one medium to fire, while still walking, and generate no additional heat.
A full 'Alpha Strike' however, will severely impact the Mech's performance due to the addition of the 2nd med laser, and either running or jumping. But, I feel that if a pilot has to do this, he or she, is probably in a world of hurt anyway.
F. Smedley, Chief Tech, Star Lions Corps, Mercenary Unit.
Heyo Smedley! That seems like a nice and reasonable build! I'll admit my PPC build is a bit ambitious. I'll keep yours in mind if the X1 doesn't work out.
This video brings back memories. I ran a a Valkyrie in an aToW+Total Warfare campaign (campaign like D&D, not like a wargame) We basically got trapped on a swamp planet and spent the whole time fighting veteran lances and getting picked apart. The techs had to chase small animals out of the increasingly large holes in our armor on a semi-regular basis. But me and that Valkyrie--I swapped a heat sink for a medium laser for it--we made it out, fairly unscathed too. Even after the GM dropped an Orion on our heads.
Ha ha ha, so you were a Valkyrie pilot? Nice. That sounds like a really fun campaign!
@@nerdyOveranalyzed haha it was so intense. Our GM had weather effects on every map, so there was always a +1 or +2 modifier to every shot, the enemies nearly always had veteran units even if we were just fighting a bunch of Galleons, we still managed to push them into forced retreats, but only after taking nasty damage. Our Locust got shot in the back early and had CT structure damage for the rest of the campaign, until a Vindy's LRM 5 finally did it in.
Pilot made it though; he got a Griffin with a Wolverine leg grafted on it for his troubles.
Other wild things that happened:
1. My mech got attacked by an alien jaguar. Not some mech named a jaguar that you feel like you need to look up on Sarna; this was Succession War era. No, this was an actual giant animal that clawed up my armor. My character had Animal Empathy, but reacted on instinct and kicked the Jaguar into a tree. She cried all the way to the next sortie.
2. One of our infantry privates decided to execute a Comstar robe. We covered it up.
3. One time our mechtechs put a jump jet in *upside down* and it fell off the mech and fired around our hangar like a pinball when it went off.
4. We had a mission where we had to intercept a VIP and extract him from a Humvee. We weren't able to take out its escort in time, so the Locust had the bright idea of *kicking the Humvee over.* The VIP actually made it, but he was pissed. Keep in mind *The VIP and the client were dating.*
5. Me and the Locust pilot met up later and did our own campaign in the Civil War Era. In that campaign, I GMed, and the players wound up joining up with pirates that had a hidden base on an abandoned mining facility in an asteroid field. Pretty decent place to hide out with the Maskirovka on their backs.
In that succession war era game though...Our company had...lesse if I can remember...
1 mech lance with a Guillotine, Griffin, Phoenix Hawk, and me in the Valkyrie.
4 AC/10 Hetzer's
2 infantry platoons
And I can't remember how many support staff.
By the end of the campaign, we had to protect our dropship from a huge attack; set up turrets and got all our forces mobilized. We lost two Hetzers, but we took down an enemy Orion (a veteran! Again! Somehow! We were ALL regulars!) and managed to get out by the skin of our teeth. Couldn't salvage the Orion, though. We had to get out of there before Aerospace turned us into a crater. I can't believe the civvie Leopard even made planetfall for us without any guns, but we made it out of there. BARELY.
I've thought about the potential of pairing standard Valkyries with an SRM refit: swap out the LRM10 for a pair of SRM4s, using the extra ton for an additional heat sink. It would make for a solid bodyguard unit for the LRM Valkyries, with better endurance than the comparable Javelin (a laser and significantly more armor at the cost of some speed and SRM throw weight).
Obviously once MMLs become available a swap to DHS and an MML7 would allow for 6.5 tons of armor and a ton each of LRM and SRM ammo for the launcher, even without using Ferro, Endo Steel, or other expensive tech upgrades. This gives you complete freedom to engage at all range brackets while jumping, without regard for heat and with the ability to hit extremely hard in what used to be your minimum range dead zone for the launcher.
For ilClan refits, moving to a Light Engine on an Endo Steel skeleton allows for a boosted movement profile to 6/9/6, which keeps it on pace with PHawks, but by that point you're also looking at specialized enemy armor. Swapping to six tons of Light Ferro lets you replace the ML with a re-engineered version, which ignores the benefits of specialist armor and gives a slight accuracy boost, though you have to trip a few armor points from the MML/DHS upgrade (you still net out with more than the stock -QA carries). This one would be best done using a different base model that already incorporates the structure swap, such as the 3049 -QD or one of the Jihad or Dark Age variants.
Yeah, double SRM 4's is really good! Probably the highest efficiency SRM you can run. It'll work for sure!
Unfortunately I can't comment on later era stuff as I'm still working through the Succession Wars era, but I'll probably swing this comment again once I get further along in history.
I've watched all of these so far, you're doing a good job and I like the things you come up with
Thank you! More coming soon!
Thanks for his nice review of the Valkyrie. The "Man-eater" version is a good economy Panther that moves faster and won't go boom. With my old Davion-contracted merc unit of my misspent youth, I had 2 stock Valkyries. One was the #4 'mech of Alpha Company's fire lance. It did scouting duty when the lance was by itself or added onto the firepower when the recon lance was available to do spotting. the other was #4 of Bravo Company's command lance, where it helped provide well-positioned support fire for the other 'mechs (Phoenix Hawk, Grasshopper, Enforcer).
You're welcome I'm glad you enjoyed!
Never thought I’d be sold on this mech, now it’s becoming a staple light. Well done!
Thank you for the faction usage! Very nice
Increnably good video!
Thanks!
Great breakdown of the Valk. One of my favorite mechs>
Fun fact: If you drop 1 ton of armor and 1 heatsink you can upgrade the engine to a 180 and add a jumpjet, making it a 6/9/6 and removing its one drawback of low speed.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed! Unfortunately I'm avoiding engine swaps because I want to keep the rebuilds cheap (less than 10% of the mech's total cost)
@@nerdyOveranalyzed Yeah. That totally makes sense, just something I figured out tinkering in MechFactory recently.
The Valkyrie is one of my favorite light mechs right next to the Raven. (Hope to see it soon on here my friendly Ooze Merc.)
Raven's quite nice! Unfortunately it only resurfaces in any significant way after the Helm Memory Core Renaissance. We'll get there tho!
My Build Valkyrie VLK-QA.
5/8/5.
10 SHS.
6 Tons Armour.
Weapons.
Medium Laser (x3).
LRM-5 (x2).
1 Ton Ammo.
Valkyrie VLK-QF.
-1 M Laser.
+1 Flamer.
yeet
Interesting point on it being a good assessment platform. Very insightful.
Thanks! Just tried to work out the second order consequences of it being very difficult to pilot!
I would probably do a refit with a large laser and an LRM 5. Still keep the range of the LRM 10, but removes the minimum range of the PPC. The laser can tag foes as they approach from range as well.
It brings you into LL range of heavier mechs
One possible refit to the Valkyrie is to simply replace the LRM-10 with two LRM-5s, making it run a little hotter but freeing up an extra ton that could be put into...say...another ton of LRMs, or an additional medium laser, or a flamer for engaging infantry.
Yep yep for sure. Splitting the weapons into 5s takes time but helps even out the accuracy and clear tonnage in some cases.
I recently made an extremely late-era high tech Valkyrie. I love it, but it's indefensible from a budget standpoint unless you're a Solaris jock with a decent war chest.
Changing to the PPC also takes away the mech'sability for indirect fire, what about swapping the single LRM10 for 2 LRM5 and an additional ton of ammo? This would allow the Valkyrie to shoot more often. Biggest issue with my configuration is of course the higher ammo cost.
A good refit for the ilclan era, dhs, streak lrms, and a heavy medium laser
So I love the videos and the style, but for this ones refit why not a large laser instead of the ppc, you could add more heat sinks/ armor and it would help with the heat profile
Glad you're enjoying! While the large laser is much more of a reasonable choice heat management wise, I want to try this more ambitious design for two main reasons:
1. In a fair number of cases a hit with a PPC will instantly trigger a crit roll if hitting a light.
2. Many faster cavalry/skirmish medium mechs carry LL as a piercing weapon so packing a PPC keep it out of reach of these heavily armed and armored mechs.
It might not end up working out though, in which case yeah I'll probably pack on a LL and call it a day!
Great video! However for movement rather than just comparing movement to another mech id also included the possible TMM the unit can generate with its movment
Noted! That is a big part of a light's defense! I will include it for the other scouts I do. thank you for letting me know!
Love your redesign! Always gimme a PPC.
Heck yeah! Hopefully it works, it does on paper at least
If you're running a fast recon/strike company, having a lance of Valkyries (presuming one can get that many) makes for a great light fire lance. And if you're using them in that role, you can actually trim armor to increase ammo load as they won't be engaging in close combat much anyway.
As far as your Maneater goes... The heat output worries me. For a light 'mech it's mobility is already rather limited; not being able to fire it's main battery and run or jump without heat buildup will limit it's combat endurance. Removing armor will further limit it's longevity on the battlefield. I would have gone with a large laser instead. This allows you to run and fire the main battery continuously, or even to alpha strike while stationary, with no heat buildup.. Then the question becomes whether to use the remaining ton for another heat sink (allowing more use of the jump jets and secondary battery) or another ton of armor (for increased battlefield endurance).
I thought about doing Large Laser as well but eventually decided on trying a less mobile PPC build even if it is more ambitious! I felt while the LL would reduce heat issues it would bring it too close to the mediums and heavies I want it to be able to fight and result in bad trades. I think the design might work and need to run more field tests, but it might be a bit too ambitous!
Mind me asking what is your goal with this channel? I only ask because, based on limited experience with your channel I'm not sure and you are competing against some bigger channels in the mech review genre ( grimdark and Big Red as an example). My suggestion is as follows. Do what you do new, review and offer mech upgrades but focus more on the upgrade side. Do a build for 3025, 3050 and Ilclan with new technologies. The two I mentioned do mech reviews so to speak so I would also suggest Lance suggestions. Example being you'd run this Valk with say a Dervish, wolverine and Thug and why ect. Love what you are doing and hoping for your success.
Thanks for the feedback! I think a 3050+ year build would be really good, but I just wanted to start out with 3025 which was a more manageable data set and build my expertise from there.
There was was someone else who also suggested lance compositions which I will probably do at some point as I did think it was a good idea.
As for goals this inspirational video pretty much sums it up: ua-cam.com/video/fCkeLBGSINs/v-deo.html
@@nerdyOveranalyzed well with the exception of the theme song sounds like you got things sorted. However I will now have to challenge you to a trial of possession for your favorite shirt. Can't be blasting pokemon songs at me and not suffer consequences
@@vandalnoire3844 SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT.
www.teeturtle.com/products/lab-experiment?variant=1399272407049
I'd drop the extra heat sink and add a second medium laser. Simple refit. Still fast enough as an anchor for a scout lance.
Dang I didn't even think about that! Yeah that would actually work really well! I might actually try using it as an alternate build if the current experimental unit has issues.
@@nerdyOveranalyzed Thank you.
1:52 Discount Dan will be more the happy to hook you up. Remember Discount Dan will always take your money.
lol thanks
Gotta say I'm not a fan of the refit this time around. Losing that 5th jump jet means you're only able to generate a +2 TMM defensively instead of a +3. 2 point of rear armor also makes me hesitant. You generally want at least one point of rear armor per 10 tons of weight (rounded up) so you can absorb fall damage without generating any crits.
Generally what I prefer to do is replace an lrm10 with two lrm5s and use the ton saved on more armor, a heat sink, or another medium laser.
Fair points! I actually did not consider the drop from +3 to +2 on the defensive side, but I will keep it in mind for future scout videos. The purpose of the build was to trade defense and mobility for offensive power. Since the Panther had only 4 jump jets I figured it still left the new VLK build mobile enough to bring it's PPC into play. Having the extra heat generate off of the PPC also meant that the VLK couldn't jump and shoot consistently any more so I didn't consider it to be a problem from a heat point of view either.
Thank you for mentioning the rear armoring though. Others have pointed out this low rear armor flaw as well. I'll be going back and reconsidering armor allocation for an experimental X2 design if the PPC build works out. Usually I try to over armor the legs to avoid falling all together and treat of any sort of fall as a "failure", but having armor to prevent crits is a good point.
As for the splitting of the LRM 10 into two 5s I feel it's too I dunno... "efficient" of a swap if that makes sense XD? It is, as you pointed out clearly better than the original QA, but it doesn't change the design enough for it to be exciting enough for me to gibber-gabber about in a video, at least imo.
Thank you for taking the time to write your response!
I dare you (not really) to do a video on the Charger. If only to see how other people wrap their heads around that piece of reality violating existence.
Challenge Accepted.
@@nerdyOveranalyzed Nice.jpg
I would actually drop it to a 5/8/3 to keep the armor, a 4 jumo doesn't give much, no extra TMM... Also, with a PPC, the unit now has heat issues! 1 heat gain from running isn't that bad, but gaining 3 heat from walking and firing both weapons is rough. I might instead change the unit over to all missiles. 4 LRM 5s is a solid shotgun at long range, and you can rack some dead-fire LRMs to deal with enemies that get in close. Overall I am not a fan of the valkyrie really.
A large Laser and two more heat sinks would work better then the PPC, because you can shoot more often without a minimum range.
maybe. My concern is that you'd take too much return fire from bigger mechs you're trying to hunt. Might work tho
@@nerdyOveranalyzed I was thinking that one could use both the Large and Medium lasers on a target for 13 damage, very helpful against other lights.
The Valkyrie is a " two at the price of one " discount Shadow Hawk.
I'm a little confused by your chart after the refit. A PPC generates 10 heat, not 4.
D: Typo unfortunately. Summary slide also reads incorrectly, the mech is 30 tons not 35.
@@nerdyOveranalyzed I mean I would kill for a 4 heat PPC, just kinda figured something wasn't quite right.
My group bans custom mechs , dont get me wrong your refit is cool and an acceptable in universe field refit . But we ban them because every mech ends up basically the same ie max heat efficiency on the weapons and Max armor .
Yeah, quite a few players end up not liking refits because they start to get "samey" after a while even though in-universe lore allows them. I'm working towards optimal builds for a merc run in MegaMek while at the same time trying to keep things nice and spicy as I go through the mech refits.
Panther of Jenner, fellow samurai?
I am indeed!
The only Valkyrie that can operate by itself is the Lyran MML version . All other Valkyries have to work with at least one friend , a role it excels at .
Don't forget your Battle Buddy!
I see what yer going for with that custom build, but i believe your neglecting the true value of the lrm 10, Crit seeking. The valkyrie is particularly useful at confirming kills at a distance through critical hits. Maybe swap down to an LRM5 and a LL.
I'm not sure I agree, the LRM 10 generates 1-2 hit locations. It might be useful in an all scout battle but it seems completely underwhelming once mediums and heavies get involved.
@@nerdyOveranalyzed for locations, yes, but critical hits are based on how many hits the location takes, not damage. So the Lrm 10 can hit at least 2 internal components, whereas the ppc only hits one no matter what
3x mml3.
Ditch the ML.
1.5 tons of LRM ammo.
1 ton of SRm ammo.
A 3 dmg medium laser 😳
RIP lol. I think there's a mis-heated SRM as well somewhere too. xD
Well this is embarrassing I painted most of my Valkyries as sword light....in other words Dracon is combined.
It's fine! Salvage chances are not included. It could totally be salvage loot from the Federated Suns! :)
@@nerdyOveranalyzed ya I also paint a lot fed sun mechs too to be fair sword light is very easy paint job do hell did most of them with tester. Though I mostly use army painter now a days.