Out of the entire battletech universe

[zepper]

What is the strongest mech ever? The best mech? the one to conquer them all?
(other than the urbanlord ofc)

[Hexidecimark]

In terms of the best single combatant, probably the Omega, equipped with insane firepower and armor. In terms of the strongest 'mech produced, probably the Ares for its deployment strategy being to drop in a lance or more of itself, while also employing a radical heatsink system in some configurations permitting alphas of comically high danger.

In terms of the most effective regular 'mech, I'd have to say it's a tie between the Osteon as above or the Triskelion. The Triskelion is a 75t battlemech with 2xLRM-15 and 4xER-Mediums, but it's a tripod, so its 5/8 (85Kph) movement is often able to outdo lights, and it can torso twist omnidirectionally. It's dangerous in more scenarios than nearly any other 'mech, and really feels like a newline timberwolf.

[Don Montega]

The Summoner OFC, when the simple fact of not sitting in one can kill a long standing elite Mechwarrior. Summoner is love, Summoner is Life. I find your lack of jumpjets disturbing!

[Stinger]

Savannah Master, clearly.

[Hexidecimark]

Originally posted by Stinger:

Savannah Master, clearly.

It is the master of the savannah, and for less cost than an AMS, a very wise investment.

[Watcher Rat]

Since this thread got revived again ;) I did think of another lore example...technically speaking, the deadliest mech ever fielded in a single engagement was the eternal meme, the Mackie itself. It was the first mech ever fielded, and when a lance of 4 Mackies were sent out on their first engagement, repelling a Draconis Combine invasion, they slaughtered the entire armored and infantry push, almost completely on their own.

Only 1 tank survived, along with the people on the dropship they came in on.

Oh course, this was the first time mechs were ever used in combat so they only went up against tanks and infantry, but it's likely that no single lance of mechs were ever responsible for as much lopsided death and destruction as they were in that single battle.

[Stinger]

Originally posted by WatcherRat:

Oh course, this was the first time mechs were ever used in combat so they only went up against tanks and infantry

Tanks with evidently very primitive armour, at that. Try doing the same feat in a museum-piece Mackie versus just a lance's worth of Demolishers ;)

[Harukage]

That is not fair, pit Demolishers against an Atlas and let's see.
There is a reason why Clans in their Star structure equal 1 mech to 2 combat vechicles as a single Point ( also 2 aerospace fighters, 5 combat armor infantry and 25 conventional infantry ). Considering that clan tanks > IS tank, just like everything Clan. Do the math.

[Stinger]

Originally posted by Harukage:

That is not fair, pit Demolishers against an Atlas and let's see.

Just one Demo is an existential threat to any mech, Atlas included. Realize that there's two AC20s shoved in the inverted bowl it calls a turret, it's going to take, at most, three straight hits on the same section of an Atlas to pop structure. A second Demo is plenty enough to make anyone, whatsoever, with two brain cells to rub together reconsider being in the general vicinity of said pair.

Also, this is just the Demo, a treaded Hunchback and filler for any ol' city-fighting tank lance. By comparison a Behemoth isn't just a threat to a mech, it's an entire mech torso tipped onto its stomach, given tracks and an angry crew told the general direction of the enemy.

[Harukage]

Oh, but Atlas is not a big slow stompy mech like this game depicts. Or like any other mechwarrior game, that downgraded mechs for more arcade shooter feeling. It has an agility of a human body and can twist and turn fast enough to spread or alltogether avoid the damage. The longer the distance to a shooting enemy the more effective onboard electronics adding a pilot at evasion are. Also it has whole 8 different structural points it can be damaged at.
And what about tanks? They have a grace of a brick, and are usualy slower than post-helm recovery mechs with more advanced engines. Very predictable targets for targeting computers. Yeah, they have a lot of armor, but beneath it is just 1 structure holding everything, from ammo to crew compartment. Destroy it and tank is done for. Better still breach armor and shoot some plasma to burn crew alive. Not to mention tanks don't have gyros, and concussions from heavy enemy fire is too often a thing.

[Stinger]

Originally posted by Harukage:

It has an agility of a human body and can twist and turn fast enough to spread or alltogether avoid the damage.

..is Beyblading your torso around like an epileptic chipmunk not entirely a thing of the video games? In Total Warfare you don't often get repeat hits on the same hitzone anyway, so nobody really bothers with doing the weird belly-dance ritual. About the only time where mechs on tabletop feel in any way elegant is in melee, since they don't need a run-up to do damage; and if initiative favours the tanker, ramming can very much go in a metal box's favour.

And I admit to referencing MegaMek, but, uh, looking at the Behemoth's record sheet in here I see a whole five structure zones to deal with. And why would tanks have gyros anyway? They don't make piloting skill checks in regards to "staying upright" when hit, because they're a box on the ground, even Battletech admits they're inherently stable enough not to need to.

In fact, since I'm looking at MegaMek, easy comparison point: Battle Value 2.0 rates the AS7-D at 1897 BV, and the Behemoth's armoured variant at 1406 BV. The tank lags behind for sure, but not by all that much. That is to say, a duel between Atlas and Behemoth can genuinely go to the tank, somewhat readily even.

[Harukage]

Man. You should read some of the Ishan's comments. He mentioned multiple times how mech movement is represented in novells. Kai Allard-Liao was doing karate chops and flying kicks on his Centurion ffs. Or just... read damn books. With the way myomer works to replicate muscles, there is nothing wrong with mechs twisting torso to the side to avoid damage.

[Stinger]

'kay, so a skill 0/0 book protagonist can do human martial arts with ease. Don't book protagonists have to survive a pretty unusually long time, and be ridiculously inhumanly skilled compared to the average soldier in order to have much of an interesting, setting-impacting plotline? Not so true about the average 4/5 chump or 3/4 "i survived a campaign once" that most tankers will actually face. And again, TW displays a Battletech where swinging your torso around side-to-side is of modest benefit at best, since, again, weapons fire is a matter of sandpapering random locations until something goes pop.

[Watcher Rat]

Originally posted by Stinger:

Originally posted by WatcherRat:

Oh course, this was the first time mechs were ever used in combat so they only went up against tanks and infantry

Tanks with evidently very primitive armour, at that. Try doing the same feat in a museum-piece Mackie versus just a lance's worth of Demolishers ;)

I mean, there is a reason that Mackie is kinda a meme answer ;)