@@PeachDragon_ We needed the Comguard when the ilKlan debacle reached its peak... But crappy wri- I mean, the WoB Jihad put any remnants of the Comguard to a swift grave. With fewer joining the Lyrans and FedCom at the behest of the GoaT Focht.
My favorite Clan Omnimech. The adrenaline hungry speed obsessed jump junky Jenner Jocky in me looks upon this heavy mech and says "It's a bit tall, but I can see me driving this."
They forgot to mention the Thor M Model. Which was used in the BattleTech cartoon which it was armed with 1x ERPPC 1 SRM6 Streak and 1x LB10X with 10 shots
Laser Reflective Armor can also protect from PPCs-despite its name, it halves all energy weapon damage, and it's much more common than superheavies or a Blue Shield system (plus is from the late Clan Invasion era, way earlier).
And if you REALLY wanna say "mechs should go bang bang bang not pew pew pew" to the enemy, you can COMBINE those two systems, if memory serves. In-universe, you'd have to be an an extremely lucky, and extremely well-off mercenary to do such a thing. So well off, that you have a SPARE Quasimodo just laying in storage that you can go scavenge the Blue Shield system off of (I used the Quasimodo as the mech in this example because it is the only mech covered on this channel to date with such a system installed).
@44R0Ndin so if you have a blue shield and laser reflective armor, dose that make PPCs do only 3 for IS 4 for clan? (not including the other ppc varietys they have)
Wait, I though Reflective was only for lasers. Doesn't change my general purpose cheese durability build strat though. I've been thinking about how to get maximum protection on a mech agains ta broad range of threats to really just be a cheeky @r$3. Not as a viable mech, but to generally just be an annoying idea. So far, ballistic resistant armor, AMS, ECM, blue shield, and TAG for anti-laser Arrow IV rounds. Possibly also a cowl to restrict the odds of an ERPPC bolt hitting the face.
The summoner is so good, and its configs tell the story of how clanners love to fight. But i see what's coming through the flames, the ultimate expression of brutality, maneuverability and malice! The Executioner cometh.
Clan Jade Falcon: The Summoner isn't just an upgraded Thunderbolt, it's a totally different and superior machine. Also Clan Jade Falcon: We caved and built the Thunderbolt IIC.
The Summoner is the only mech worthy of the best TrueBorn warrior ever produced…Nicolai Malthus. You cannot reject any batchall issued from a Summoner.
The Summoner gets overshadowed by the Timberwolf. The Timberwolf is 5 tons heavier and has that slight of an advantage over the Summoner. It might only be 5% better but it makes a difference. It isn't just the tonnage though. A lot of the Summoner's configuration are really light on ammo. Getting rid of some of the ammo based weapons and adding on additional energy weapons and heat sinks would give the Summoner more sustained performance, but that isn't a Clan priority. Clans focus on short bursts of power rather than fighting prolonged engagements.
If we're comparing alpha strikes, yes the 2 LRM15's on the Timber Wolf Prime will achieve near damage parity and far outstrip the range of the 6 SRM4's on that one variant of the summoner, while also having a smattering of other weapon systems as well, and a few more points of armor. But what it lacks in "by the numbers" performance, it more than makes up for in "intimidation factor". Because when you see 24 SRM tubes open their covers while it's pointed anywhere near you, it matters not how hardened of a mechwarrior you are, you start paying attention. And sometimes, paying attention to the "scary" Summoner with it's 24 SRM tubes is all that is needed, the Summoner doesn't even have to fire (If the clans are piloting it, it WILL fire if it has ammunition, but this tactic doesn't depend on that for success). If anyone was in doubt about the Clan's superiority in tactics, know this. They specifically codified some tactics that were so effective and so destructive that they were considered "dishonorable". I'm not sure if "distraction gambit combined with a flanking maneuver" is one of those tactics, but it's EXTREMELY effective. Make the enemy pay attention to the "Shiny/Dangerous" thing, and while that has their attention, you get the majority of your forces into position to end the battle as quickly and decisively as possible. If you can do that every time and nobody catches on to the fact that you've had that as your tactic the entire campaign, then you're in a quite favorable position.
That and BV. The Summoner is one of the worst of the original omnimechs. Sucks to be a Falcon, as the Hellbringer and Kit Fox probably round out the worst list.
Y'all know you're not restricted to those configurations, right? The advantage of the Omnimech is that it's customizable to any configuration within its Crits/podspace restrictions.
I first came across Mechwarrior 2, my first, at an old arcade where I was set up to face my dad 1v1 in a game we never played before... we almost went summoner to summoner, but ended up Timber Wolf to Timber Wolf. That said with the speed and jump jets it's like a mini-Highlander.
The weird thing is, in MW2 a Summoner often felt tougher to deal with than a T-wolf. I don't know if it was a hitbox discrepancy or fudged Armor allocations for the sake of _artificial difficulty,_ but they were **always** applying more Pressure
First time you see one in MW3, your lance consists of you and one other, who if you're really lucky, you've got the orion (and lancemate in what was your bushwacker) from the previous campaign map. Otherwise its probably you in a 55 ton Bushwacker and your buddy in a Strider.
The Summoner, for when you want your range bracket to be "yes". Incidentally I absolutely adore the Mech Assault version called the Thor. Level 3 machine guns were unironically one of deadliest things in the game.
I keep getting this thing mixed up with the hellbringer, similar silhouettes compared to other clan mechs of that era. Fantastic vid, thanks for the memes.
Hey, if it's a tried and tested design, keeping it around can be a good use of resources. I'd say a high low mix, but even compared to the Hellstar, there is no way to call a Thor low.
The times I have used a Summoner, It always has given my opponent a hard time. It’s maneuverability makes it a fun mech and great addition to the toolbox.
Will have to rewatch as I missed the beginning but while the content is appreciated, I still don't like this mech. Party because it's Angry Parrots and I can't stand them but mostly because it just falls short of pretty much every other Clan heavy mech out there. Well, except the Hellbringer - that puppy has *issues*! Despite all that, it's still an iconic mech that I remember seeing in the TROs in the early 90s and I'm glad you covered it.
Thanks for this nice video! It's always a joy to sit down with a good drink (coffee at this time of the day, it's midday here - maybe whisky later tonight when catching up on the other videos) for a good reading of BattleTech lore. 👍
This is was a really satisfying video to watch, almost as exciting as the Axman. The references to the animated series were the best part. Although many people in north America aren't big fans of the Animated Series it was the only introduction media in other countries for years. Continue with awesome job. Each time you cover a mech from the animated series we dedicate time in my board games community to watch it together(I'm in charge of the translation). I can't imagine how cool the Mad Cat video is going to be, my community is looking forward to it.
@@BigRed40TECH For a kid friendly 80's toyetic cartoon, you could do worse. And some of the overall ideas are solid story beats. With the 80's show revivals and the reinvigorated interest in Battletech, I could see a modernized remake being considered.
When this mech hits the field in MW5/6 the JJ's are going to be AMAIZING! Great Vid BigRed, you properly adjusted my rose colored glasses without breaking them. : )
A blade, honed to a monomolecular sharpness, yet hardened to the point where it was blunted by the stubborn refusal of the Inner Sphere to accept defeat. And a phone company. Pay your bills, space weirdos!
As long as the fight follows batchall rules: a Commander would choose a star of Thor / Novas in a city or canyon map, but a star of Mad Dog / Stormcrows on open terrain.
Great vid! The Summoner is a fun mech, one I admit I tend to forget about, until I see it, and go "Oh yeah! That thing is pretty cool" despite having the toy of it as a kid and loving its aesthetics. Really does tend to get overshadowed a smidge. Side note: Cannot WAIT for the Executioner vid. My buddy was and is a huge Ghost Bear guy and he always used the Executioner with the Hankyu to great effect in our card games. I also enjoy the Executioner, for like the Charger, it is HUGE and moves WAYYY faster than you want it to. I like the bully mechs.
The Thor was always one of my favorites. People always underestimate the value of jump jets. It’s Prime is also the only Clan heavy from 3050 that can jump and fire all its weapons and not go up on the heat scale.
Well after the redesign that updated the majority of the mechs a lot of them look kind of samey. There are only so many ways you can move around blocks with rounded corners. While a lot of the old stuff looked dumb or just goofy they were a lot more distinctive.
I really felt this way with a bunch of clan invasion mechs. Mad dog/ Vulture played like a combination of a Archer and Rifleman, Timberwolf/ Mad Cat well obvious.
I never really fought these things that often as I rarely fought against Jade Falcon. Whenever I fought them out was almost always a captured unit or one that was taken during a trial of possession in towards the end of the clan invasion. They were always strong units but in the situations I encountered them in they were used primarily as harassers and did that job well.
Since I’m early I have to say - just found your channel recently and really enjoying your content. I had no idea there was such a renaissance of Battletech, especially in UA-cam (battletube?). Also, do you have any videos that explain some of the stuff unfamiliar to us old Sokol fans (Dark Age, ilClan era? Anything after....I dunno, Fedcom Civil War?)
The C and Q are by far the best. Though i would make slight changes. For the C i would swap the streak srm 6 for a regular class srm 6. Taking 1 ton saved and adding more ac ammo and then either using the last .5t for either srm ammo or armor. For the Q id drop the heavy small laser and mabey the medium for more ammo. Rather rely on the srms that are more protected by being housed in the torso instead of the arms and be able to spam them more.
Such a shame it seems to underperform in MWO. But that might just be because of the TTL buffing that PGI did to cater to scrubs. Also, will there be mention of Khan Garth Raddick in the EXE video?
The annoying thing about Jade Falcon is that they apparently don’t know how falcons live or hunt. What makes a falcon a falcon is that they exclusively use their sharp beaks for hunting, and never it’s talons. This is what separates falcons from hawks and eagles who indeed DO use their talons for offense.
When ii first played Mechwarrior 2 the Summoner was actually my number one favorite. But eventually the Timber Wolf won out for favorite mech. But if I can use a Timber Wolf then I Summoner even time.
I like the MWLL version it is the same but with 3 LRM-5 instead of the single LRM-15 that lets it full auto chainfire the LRM 5 for a constant cockpit rocking on it's target.
Definitely a good baseline if you just need a heavy that's usually got all the range brackets covered and can do fast response jobs, personally i did like the AA Gauss variant but how much better it is than an ER-PPC. Kind of hard to say as you have all that heat and need to use it somewhere. The Executioner should be pretty interesting as its one of those mechs that will have old clan boomers going 'its the best mech' and everyone else making shrieking noises about sending them back to garrison duty away from the nice people.
The summoner, the sword of the Falcons which brings victory to the clan and death to all its opponents. May the sword of the Falcon forever be grasped in its talons and may the new generation of warriors that come to wield them shatter their opponents and lead Jade Falcon back into the glorious power it should always be.
I just ran this guy in the prime config in my last game. He did good but was out-shines by my piranha. The silly dakka-fish really came out to play with a casual double medium laser headshot on a hellion and refused to slow down after that.
The only thing really holding this back is the standard structure otherwise it would have the same available tonnage for weapons/armor as the Timber Wolf after they both get their XL engine. The additional 25 points in engine power needed to keep the Timber Wolf at speed just eat up all the added tonnage. This also means that the Thor II erases the last margin for which the Timber Wolf could claim meaningful superiority as a platform.
This ‘Mech was criminally underused by me for a very long time when I first started playing BattleTech. I could not wrap my head around the ignorance of the Prime, A, and M only having one ton of ammo for their ballistic weapons but having two tons for their missile weapons (especially the Prime and M with their LBXs). The D was boring because it was very overused, being pretty much the only configuration used by the clan players in my group at the time. This left the B and C configurations. I love them and work very well together, but they quickly became boring being the only two I used. It was not until many years later with the addition of so many other configurations and the creation of Alpha Strike that I actually began to use it again.
It wasn't until I started to play the tabletop that I started to like and respect the Summoner. Personally out of the three iconic Clan mechs, I'd put it at a solid second place right after the Timber Wolf and before the Mad Dog. That being said though, why no mention of the M configuration? I know it's kind of a meme about the cartoon but, it's still a pretty good loadout for those who want to brawl with the mech.
From HQ'S POV. *_Headquarters (HQ): This is HQ to any available units. We have ‘Mechs down at NAV GAMMA. Bravo Cadet reports four Summoners on site. Bandits are hostile. Repeat, bandits are hostile!_* *_Alpha Assault (AA): HQ, this is Alpha Assault. I'm on my way, bearing: zero-two-five!_* ... *_HQ: Alpha Assault, this is HQ. What is your situation?_* *_'Microphone transmits live silently then suddenly buzzes.'_* *_'Foreboding silence.'_* *_HQ: Alpha Assault, this is HQ, what is your situation? Please comply._* *_'Foreboding silence continues along with buzzing.'_* 🥶
Though the simile is in-exact (because of OmniTech), I always considered that if the Madcat/Timber Wolf was heir to the Marauder/Catapult lineage, then the Summoner/Thor was the later sibkin of the Warhammer and Thunderbolt.
They can also benefit from targeting computers (though can't make aimed shots), and are somewhat cooler-running and don't have to deal with ammo cook-offs (though the guns themselves can explode catastrophically).
They also have greater odds to do full damage at short range brackets, which is nice on mobile platforms. Stacking them on heavier mechs makes them good area of denial machines, in the same way that no mech wants to go toe to toe with a King Crab. HAGs are also serviceable AA weapons.
Isn't funny? In Battletech the Hellbringer is sub-par and the Summoner is top-tier. However in MWO the roles are reversed. Then again there are "balancing rules" in MWO that make no sense, that Battletech has not.
Battletech doesn't account for pinpoint focused accuracy of massed lasers and how high up the physical location of a weapon on the mechs chassis affects its balance. The summoners low slung arm mounted weapons are a liability vs hellbringers high torso mounted weapons when they are peaking over hills.
@@404cp I mean, I definitely agree that there are factors that MWO takes into account and allows for that others don't. Heck, name one other digital format where lights can actually do the job of harassing and scouting. Normally players will trade out lights for mediums for heavies for assaults. MWO is one of the only formats that really lets them shine and earn respect.
I see the Summoner as similar to Indian tulwar sabre. The tulwar’s grip is tight, and the disk shaped pommel and guard restrict the user into a hammer-grasp. That hammer-grasp essentially forces the user into delivering a devestating drawing-cut with every successful strike. In a similar way, the built-in heat sinks and jump jets of the Summoner dictate how the mechwarrior should fight. If you are not jumping every turn to build up TMM, take advantage of the terrain, and dictate the range, you will pay the price.
I'd argue maybe also use 1 ton for a capacitor, but I tend to emphasize firepower in a lot of games I play (not actually battletech, I'm busy with other things).
I picked up the 3rd edition in the early 90s and I made some mech. I don't remember this whole "heatsinks in the engine" stuff. It was 10 sinks in the engine and that was it. Did it change or did I miss something back then?
Excellent iconic mech. 10/10 Would invade the Inner Sphere again.
Swift like the Falcon's Talons :P
Considering how the jade falcons always come second, maybe this time you’ll be luck
Well played sir, well played...
10/10 would kick you in the teeth at tukkayid again.
Comguard baby, gone, but not forgotten
@@PeachDragon_ We needed the Comguard when the ilKlan debacle reached its peak... But crappy wri- I mean, the WoB Jihad put any remnants of the Comguard to a swift grave. With fewer joining the Lyrans and FedCom at the behest of the GoaT Focht.
"If you see a Falcon not in a Summoner, Hellbringer or Kit Fox, double your caution."
An infamous quote when regarding the Jade Falcons.
Seeing a summoner, anywhere that isn't deep jungle or mountains makes me laugh.
Shame the Kit Fox on tabletop is pretty anemic for the size of the guns it carries.
Or a Night Gyr for that matter.
@@AsuraBossYes it is, but then again the clans, especially Jade Falcons are completely minimalists.
The summoner feels like what the Griffin wants to be very badly when it grows up.
The Summoner is the Tuxedo of Battlemechs. It never goes out of style
I'd say that about the Warhammer...and the Warhammer IIC if you really want to glam it up.
@@Marc_AraujoIf I was an aging Clanner, I'd choose to die in a Warhammer IIC...going out in glorious style.
Would the atlas be a sundress then?
My favorite Clan Omnimech.
The adrenaline hungry speed obsessed jump junky Jenner Jocky in me looks upon this heavy mech and says "It's a bit tall, but I can see me driving this."
Literally me when i first got in the 'pit of one today in Mexhwarrior 5 Clans
They forgot to mention the Thor M Model. Which was used in the BattleTech cartoon which it was armed with 1x ERPPC 1 SRM6 Streak and 1x LB10X with 10 shots
I don't end up covering every model in these videos, there would be just too many to go over tbh. It wasn't forgotten, it just wasn't displayed.
One the best and most memorable mechs ever
Watching one of these dome that Timberwolf for the first time in the MW2 intro video is a core memory.
💯
Summoner and Timber Wolf have been my standard for Clan machines ever since I first watched the intro of Mechwarrior 3.
me with the Mad Dog!
“DIE CLANNER!”
jokes on me, im a Ghost Bear fanboy.
Laser Reflective Armor can also protect from PPCs-despite its name, it halves all energy weapon damage, and it's much more common than superheavies or a Blue Shield system (plus is from the late Clan Invasion era, way earlier).
And if you REALLY wanna say "mechs should go bang bang bang not pew pew pew" to the enemy, you can COMBINE those two systems, if memory serves.
In-universe, you'd have to be an an extremely lucky, and extremely well-off mercenary to do such a thing.
So well off, that you have a SPARE Quasimodo just laying in storage that you can go scavenge the Blue Shield system off of (I used the Quasimodo as the mech in this example because it is the only mech covered on this channel to date with such a system installed).
@44R0Ndin so if you have a blue shield and laser reflective armor, dose that make PPCs do only 3 for IS 4 for clan? (not including the other ppc varietys they have)
@@boneshaman8912 you round down, so it's 2 for the Inner Sphere and 3 for the Clans or a heavy PPC.
Wait, I though Reflective was only for lasers.
Doesn't change my general purpose cheese durability build strat though.
I've been thinking about how to get maximum protection on a mech agains ta broad range of threats to really just be a cheeky @r$3. Not as a viable mech, but to generally just be an annoying idea.
So far, ballistic resistant armor, AMS, ECM, blue shield, and TAG for anti-laser Arrow IV rounds. Possibly also a cowl to restrict the odds of an ERPPC bolt hitting the face.
I thought that was just a bug in some video games.
The summoner is so good, and its configs tell the story of how clanners love to fight. But i see what's coming through the flames, the ultimate expression of brutality, maneuverability and malice! The Executioner cometh.
Clan Jade Falcon: The Summoner isn't just an upgraded Thunderbolt, it's a totally different and superior machine.
Also Clan Jade Falcon: We caved and built the Thunderbolt IIC.
We would not of used contractions this is freebirth slander
The Summoner is the only mech worthy of the best TrueBorn warrior ever produced…Nicolai Malthus. You cannot reject any batchall issued from a Summoner.
PHBBBBBT in airstrike
I'd take Star Captain Joanna over Nicholai Malthus's ass any day.
You can’t reject any batchall. Period. You sound like a freeborn.
The Summoner gets overshadowed by the Timberwolf. The Timberwolf is 5 tons heavier and has that slight of an advantage over the Summoner. It might only be 5% better but it makes a difference. It isn't just the tonnage though. A lot of the Summoner's configuration are really light on ammo. Getting rid of some of the ammo based weapons and adding on additional energy weapons and heat sinks would give the Summoner more sustained performance, but that isn't a Clan priority. Clans focus on short bursts of power rather than fighting prolonged engagements.
If we're comparing alpha strikes, yes the 2 LRM15's on the Timber Wolf Prime will achieve near damage parity and far outstrip the range of the 6 SRM4's on that one variant of the summoner, while also having a smattering of other weapon systems as well, and a few more points of armor.
But what it lacks in "by the numbers" performance, it more than makes up for in "intimidation factor". Because when you see 24 SRM tubes open their covers while it's pointed anywhere near you, it matters not how hardened of a mechwarrior you are, you start paying attention.
And sometimes, paying attention to the "scary" Summoner with it's 24 SRM tubes is all that is needed, the Summoner doesn't even have to fire (If the clans are piloting it, it WILL fire if it has ammunition, but this tactic doesn't depend on that for success).
If anyone was in doubt about the Clan's superiority in tactics, know this. They specifically codified some tactics that were so effective and so destructive that they were considered "dishonorable".
I'm not sure if "distraction gambit combined with a flanking maneuver" is one of those tactics, but it's EXTREMELY effective.
Make the enemy pay attention to the "Shiny/Dangerous" thing, and while that has their attention, you get the majority of your forces into position to end the battle as quickly and decisively as possible.
If you can do that every time and nobody catches on to the fact that you've had that as your tactic the entire campaign, then you're in a quite favorable position.
That and BV. The Summoner is one of the worst of the original omnimechs. Sucks to be a Falcon, as the Hellbringer and Kit Fox probably round out the worst list.
Y'all know you're not restricted to those configurations, right? The advantage of the Omnimech is that it's customizable to any configuration within its Crits/podspace restrictions.
@@jasonashman9534 Depends on the rules at your table, some tables you ARE restricted to the configurations listed.
@@44R0NdinI prefer the "in-universe" setting to the tabletop; it's much more grounded 🤷
I first came across Mechwarrior 2, my first, at an old arcade where I was set up to face my dad 1v1 in a game we never played before... we almost went summoner to summoner, but ended up Timber Wolf to Timber Wolf.
That said with the speed and jump jets it's like a mini-Highlander.
The weird thing is, in MW2 a Summoner often felt tougher to deal with than a T-wolf. I don't know if it was a hitbox discrepancy or fudged Armor allocations for the sake of _artificial difficulty,_ but they were **always** applying more Pressure
still remember using this to fight that spider mech in MechAssault 2, kept getting rekt by it XD
First time you see one in MW3, your lance consists of you and one other, who if you're really lucky, you've got the orion (and lancemate in what was your bushwacker) from the previous campaign map. Otherwise its probably you in a 55 ton Bushwacker and your buddy in a Strider.
Loved the Malthus references!
The Summoner, for when you want your range bracket to be "yes".
Incidentally I absolutely adore the Mech Assault version called the Thor. Level 3 machine guns were unironically one of deadliest things in the game.
I keep getting this thing mixed up with the hellbringer, similar silhouettes compared to other clan mechs of that era. Fantastic vid, thanks for the memes.
Ah yes, Hell's Horses home for retired Omnimechs.
Hey, if it's a tried and tested design, keeping it around can be a good use of resources. I'd say a high low mix, but even compared to the Hellstar, there is no way to call a Thor low.
@@bthsr7113 That is one of the reasons I love the Horses. Tactics aside, they have an eye for vintage designs
The times I have used a Summoner, It always has given my opponent a hard time. It’s maneuverability makes it a fun mech and great addition to the toolbox.
Perfect timing. Just pulled one from a random box 2 days ago....NOW PEOPLE CAN DARE TO REFUSE MY BATCHALLS!
SAY THE LINE:
"YOU DARE REFUSE MY BATCHALL?!"
One of my favourite clan mechs, I love the unique hoof-like feet and mismatched arms
Will have to rewatch as I missed the beginning but while the content is appreciated, I still don't like this mech. Party because it's Angry Parrots and I can't stand them but mostly because it just falls short of pretty much every other Clan heavy mech out there. Well, except the Hellbringer - that puppy has *issues*!
Despite all that, it's still an iconic mech that I remember seeing in the TROs in the early 90s and I'm glad you covered it.
The first mech I ever played. There will always be a place in my heart for the Summoner.
Another hit. Great work big red!
The real Summoner is the mechs we cored along the way.
Thanks for this nice video! It's always a joy to sit down with a good drink (coffee at this time of the day, it's midday here - maybe whisky later tonight when catching up on the other videos) for a good reading of BattleTech lore. 👍
This is was a really satisfying video to watch, almost as exciting as the Axman. The references to the animated series were the best part. Although many people in north America aren't big fans of the Animated Series it was the only introduction media in other countries for years. Continue with awesome job. Each time you cover a mech from the animated series we dedicate time in my board games community to watch it together(I'm in charge of the translation). I can't imagine how cool the Mad Cat video is going to be, my community is looking forward to it.
I hate the animated series myself XD lol
@@BigRed40TECH For a kid friendly 80's toyetic cartoon, you could do worse. And some of the overall ideas are solid story beats. With the 80's show revivals and the reinvigorated interest in Battletech, I could see a modernized remake being considered.
When this mech hits the field in MW5/6 the JJ's are going to be AMAIZING! Great Vid BigRed, you properly adjusted my rose colored glasses without breaking them. : )
Badass. Phenomenal work as always :D
Really summons up the clan philosophy well. It is cutting edge for now, but it will slowly dwindle as the fight drags on.
A blade, honed to a monomolecular sharpness, yet hardened to the point where it was blunted by the stubborn refusal of the Inner Sphere to accept defeat. And a phone company. Pay your bills, space weirdos!
*Nikolai Malthus likes this*
As long as the fight follows batchall rules:
a Commander would choose a star of Thor / Novas in a city or canyon map,
but a star of Mad Dog / Stormcrows on open terrain.
Thanks for another great video, I enjoy both your short and medium form content the most.
Great vid! The Summoner is a fun mech, one I admit I tend to forget about, until I see it, and go "Oh yeah! That thing is pretty cool" despite having the toy of it as a kid and loving its aesthetics.
Really does tend to get overshadowed a smidge.
Side note: Cannot WAIT for the Executioner vid. My buddy was and is a huge Ghost Bear guy and he always used the Executioner with the Hankyu to great effect in our card games.
I also enjoy the Executioner, for like the Charger, it is HUGE and moves WAYYY faster than you want it to. I like the bully mechs.
The Thor was always one of my favorites. People always underestimate the value of jump jets. It’s Prime is also the only Clan heavy from 3050 that can jump and fire all its weapons and not go up on the heat scale.
Nice one Big Red. Tyvm.
My favorite mech of all time!
Always reminded me of the Orion with that cockpit.
YOU DARE TO REFUSE MY BATCHALL??!!
this video is too great to watch it in my sleepy state. Have to watch it later, give some respect
I think it looks like a combo of the Thunderbolt and the Warhammer.
Well after the redesign that updated the majority of the mechs a lot of them look kind of samey. There are only so many ways you can move around blocks with rounded corners. While a lot of the old stuff looked dumb or just goofy they were a lot more distinctive.
I really felt this way with a bunch of clan invasion mechs. Mad dog/ Vulture played like a combination of a Archer and Rifleman, Timberwolf/ Mad Cat well obvious.
The Hellbringer seemed the closest analogue of the Warhammer. Devastating weaponry and dubious armour for weight.
Good going, Red. Praise Blake.
JADE FALCON MONTH CONTINUES
Beautifully done. Best of all-Big Red-40TECH ends it by beating everybody to the punch with a Nicolai Malthus reference! 🤣
I never really fought these things that often as I rarely fought against Jade Falcon. Whenever I fought them out was almost always a captured unit or one that was taken during a trial of possession in towards the end of the clan invasion. They were always strong units but in the situations I encountered them in they were used primarily as harassers and did that job well.
The real star of the show makes an appearance at the end to steal the glory from the Jade Falcon Summoner. Like Melvina had her glory taken from her.
Since I’m early I have to say - just found your channel recently and really enjoying your content. I had no idea there was such a renaissance of Battletech, especially in UA-cam (battletube?). Also, do you have any videos that explain some of the stuff unfamiliar to us old Sokol fans (Dark Age, ilClan era? Anything after....I dunno, Fedcom Civil War?)
Information is Ammunition!
The C and Q are by far the best. Though i would make slight changes. For the C i would swap the streak srm 6 for a regular class srm 6. Taking 1 ton saved and adding more ac ammo and then either using the last .5t for either srm ammo or armor. For the Q id drop the heavy small laser and mabey the medium for more ammo. Rather rely on the srms that are more protected by being housed in the torso instead of the arms and be able to spam them more.
Loved the Video, I still remember this one from Mechwarrior 3
A very useful and sometimes overlooked platform, the Thor is. The very useful background character everyone certainly relies on without realising it.
Another great video. Legacy mech for sure.
I remember the opening scene of mechwarrior 2 where a summoner shoots a timberwolf in the face with a ppc
Praise Blake!
Such a shame it seems to underperform in MWO. But that might just be because of the TTL buffing that PGI did to cater to scrubs.
Also, will there be mention of Khan Garth Raddick in the EXE video?
The annoying thing about Jade Falcon is that they apparently don’t know how falcons live or hunt. What makes a falcon a falcon is that they exclusively use their sharp beaks for hunting, and never it’s talons. This is what separates falcons from hawks and eagles who indeed DO use their talons for offense.
Jade Falcon not exactly basic falcon from biology perspective.
Your forgetting that the animals on their worlds are very different to ours.
I'm a big fan of the F for being on the cheaper side of the Summoner and consistent damage with good heat management.
When ii first played Mechwarrior 2 the Summoner was actually my number one favorite. But eventually the Timber Wolf won out for favorite mech. But if I can use a Timber Wolf then I Summoner even time.
I just remember this thing scarring me to death in the MW3 opening cinematic when I was like 7 lol
I like the MWLL version it is the same but with 3 LRM-5 instead of the single LRM-15 that lets it full auto chainfire the LRM 5 for a constant cockpit rocking on it's target.
Definitely a good baseline if you just need a heavy that's usually got all the range brackets covered and can do fast response jobs, personally i did like the AA Gauss variant but how much better it is than an ER-PPC. Kind of hard to say as you have all that heat and need to use it somewhere. The Executioner should be pretty interesting as its one of those mechs that will have old clan boomers going 'its the best mech' and everyone else making shrieking noises about sending them back to garrison duty away from the nice people.
I love the Executioner :)
The 70 ton weight bracket is so good, the summoner had no choice but to be awesome.
The summoner, the sword of the Falcons which brings victory to the clan and death to all its opponents.
May the sword of the Falcon forever be grasped in its talons and may the new generation of warriors that come to wield them shatter their opponents and lead Jade Falcon back into the glorious power it should always be.
I used this in a game of alpha strike this weekend. It's a really good mech at all weapon ranges.
The thumbnail art for these are so awesome! Are they A.I. generated?
No.
You wish AI could render the BT aesthetic, they get fed too much anime and or the really cheesy side of western stuff to generate anything BT-looking.
Oh look, it's the Paul McCartney of the Clan Invasion.
Tho the Thor is not among my faves I do enjoy playing it on tabletop. In MWO I have a hard time getting a good feel for it.
"WE GOT SUMMONERS!" -- MW2 timber didn't make it, best intro ever
I just ran this guy in the prime config in my last game. He did good but was out-shines by my piranha. The silly dakka-fish really came out to play with a casual double medium laser headshot on a hellion and refused to slow down after that.
The only thing really holding this back is the standard structure otherwise it would have the same available tonnage for weapons/armor as the Timber Wolf after they both get their XL engine. The additional 25 points in engine power needed to keep the Timber Wolf at speed just eat up all the added tonnage. This also means that the Thor II erases the last margin for which the Timber Wolf could claim meaningful superiority as a platform.
Agreed. I always wished for internal updates on the Summoner and a C-ECM. That'd make it a real horror to fight with this mobility.
This ‘Mech was criminally underused by me for a very long time when I first started playing BattleTech.
I could not wrap my head around the ignorance of the Prime, A, and M only having one ton of ammo for their ballistic weapons but having two tons for their missile weapons (especially the Prime and M with their LBXs). The D was boring because it was very overused, being pretty much the only configuration used by the clan players in my group at the time. This left the B and C configurations. I love them and work very well together, but they quickly became boring being the only two I used.
It was not until many years later with the addition of so many other configurations and the creation of Alpha Strike that I actually began to use it again.
For when they dare to refuse ur batchall.
This was my 1st omni in modded battletech by HBS. I have a sentiment for it. Tho I ran mine as a pure lrm platform with 4 erm lasers as backup.
It wasn't until I started to play the tabletop that I started to like and respect the Summoner. Personally out of the three iconic Clan mechs, I'd put it at a solid second place right after the Timber Wolf and before the Mad Dog. That being said though, why no mention of the M configuration? I know it's kind of a meme about the cartoon but, it's still a pretty good loadout for those who want to brawl with the mech.
Just didn't have a slot for it. There were configs I plainly found more interesting
@@BigRed40TECH I get ya
From HQ'S POV.
*_Headquarters (HQ): This is HQ to any available units. We have ‘Mechs down at NAV GAMMA. Bravo Cadet reports four Summoners on site. Bandits are hostile. Repeat, bandits are hostile!_*
*_Alpha Assault (AA): HQ, this is Alpha Assault. I'm on my way, bearing: zero-two-five!_*
...
*_HQ: Alpha Assault, this is HQ. What is your situation?_*
*_'Microphone transmits live silently then suddenly buzzes.'_*
*_'Foreboding silence.'_*
*_HQ: Alpha Assault, this is HQ, what is your situation? Please comply._*
*_'Foreboding silence continues along with buzzing.'_*
🥶
The summoner really fixed the Thunderbolt's cockpit problem
My favorite clan mech.
Anytime I am reminded of the glory that is a clan omnimech my Mechwarrior5 PTSD flares up, shutdown warning and all. 🙄😐😑😐🥺
Love this Mech!
The Hag 40 is really the LS swap of the battletech universe.
"Does it fit? Stick a Hag in it!"
They would shove one in a Flea if they could get away with it.
Though the simile is in-exact (because of OmniTech), I always considered that if the Madcat/Timber Wolf was heir to the Marauder/Catapult lineage, then the Summoner/Thor was the later sibkin of the Warhammer and Thunderbolt.
Last night chat, we burned that MFing chat down.
Excited for the Executioner! I feel a very underrated mech.
Video's up! I enjoyed making it.
Pardon my ignorance, but what makes Hyper Assault Guass weaponry so deadly? Id it just that its a bigger LRM, or are there things im missing?
LRM-40 that can't be AMS'd?
They can also benefit from targeting computers (though can't make aimed shots), and are somewhat cooler-running and don't have to deal with ammo cook-offs (though the guns themselves can explode catastrophically).
They also have greater odds to do full damage at short range brackets, which is nice on mobile platforms. Stacking them on heavier mechs makes them good area of denial machines, in the same way that no mech wants to go toe to toe with a King Crab. HAGs are also serviceable AA weapons.
Isn't funny? In Battletech the Hellbringer is sub-par and the Summoner is top-tier. However in MWO the roles are reversed. Then again there are "balancing rules" in MWO that make no sense, that Battletech has not.
Battletech doesn't account for pinpoint focused accuracy of massed lasers and how high up the physical location of a weapon on the mechs chassis affects its balance.
The summoners low slung arm mounted weapons are a liability vs hellbringers high torso mounted weapons when they are peaking over hills.
@@404cp I mean, I definitely agree that there are factors that MWO takes into account and allows for that others don't. Heck, name one other digital format where lights can actually do the job of harassing and scouting. Normally players will trade out lights for mediums for heavies for assaults. MWO is one of the only formats that really lets them shine and earn respect.
I see the Summoner as similar to Indian tulwar sabre.
The tulwar’s grip is tight, and the disk shaped pommel and guard restrict the user into a hammer-grasp. That hammer-grasp essentially forces the user into delivering a devestating drawing-cut with every successful strike.
In a similar way, the built-in heat sinks and jump jets of the Summoner dictate how the mechwarrior should fight. If you are not jumping every turn to build up TMM, take advantage of the terrain, and dictate the range, you will pay the price.
The OG omni cavalry mech!
I run my summoner with 10 missile hardpoints ones narc and it gets a TAG and a medium clan heavy laser, runs fast and jumpjets decent
In mw5 the lbx autocannons are the ultimate dps monsters as far as i can tell
Happy berd noises
Never got to get round watching this
Re upped with ya tonight red 😯
So what I'm seeing is that if you employ it like a jump medium, good times ahead.
The Thor Prime definitely needs Endo Steel internal structure. Use 1 ton for an additional ton of LB 10X ammo, put the rest into additional armor.
I'd argue maybe also use 1 ton for a capacitor, but I tend to emphasize firepower in a lot of games I play (not actually battletech, I'm busy with other things).
@@bthsr7113 The issue there is that PPC capacitors were not a clan invention and thus not a thing for the clans during the invasion.
Clan Weeb Falcon most iconic omnimech
I picked up the 3rd edition in the early 90s and I made some mech. I don't remember this whole "heatsinks in the engine" stuff. It was 10 sinks in the engine and that was it. Did it change or did I miss something back then?
Cool nice clan mech.
That Q is terrifying
If you see a Falcon (Jade Falcon) not in a kit fox, summoner or hellbringer, double your caution.
Looks like a Thunderbolt, but it’s more akin to the Warhammer. Several configurations really lean into that.