Why the Blackjack?

[Alozar]

So why does the character start with a blackjack? Is that a favorite of one of the Devs or something?

[wwiiogre]

It is an average mech. It has jump jets, long range auto cannons and 4 medium lasers. Once you armor it up a bit it can really pepper a target from distance. Not a bad starting mech. Not a great starting mech.

Chris

[Isha]

You get a vindicator, shadowhawk, spider, and locust to choose from as well.

[Isha]

Originally posted by Forsaken Sith:

Originally posted by Jason:

You get a vindicator, shadowhawk, spider, and locust to choose from as well.

Oh excellent, glad to hear. OPs post made it sound like you were forced to start with the Blackjack.

I think I phrased that badly. After the tutorial your mech pool consists of the mechs I mentioned plus the blackjack you start in. As far as I've seen you're not tied to it.

[Alozar]

I am on the fence about the Blackjack. I hated it in TT due to the AC2. With increase of damage to match the Md Laser it is at least somewaht useful now. Does not have the armor to be a front line combatant. Treat it like fire support and it should do ok.
Not sure what you would drop to add armor without neutering it.

[AbsynthMinded]

You'll be in progress to build more Mechs and redevlop your entire lance over time. The Blackjack in tabletop was what I considered a Jack of all trades. It offered interesting load out options when using the Omnimech.

[wendigo211]

Prior to the damage upgrade to the ACs, you probably could have argued the Urbanmech was an upgrade. While it's somewhat better now, it's still not great. I dunno what to do with it, probably sell it once you get the chance.

In the meantime, here are a couple options.:

1. Drop all the medium lasers and extra heatsink and give it large laser. The large laser, with the two supporting AC2s should make a decent fire support mech, at least for its weight.
2. Get rid of the medium lasers to upgrade the twin AC2 to twin AC5s, you could probably drop the extra heatsink for some more ammo

You're losing close/medium range firepower, but its never going to be great at that range anyway. Better to be good at one range than mediocre at all ranges.

[Volthar]

Originally posted by Alozar:

I am on the fence about the Blackjack. I hated it in TT due to the AC2. With increase of damage to match the Md Laser it is at least somewaht useful now. Does not have the armor to be a front line combatant. Treat it like fire support and it should do ok.
Not sure what you would drop to add armor without neutering it.

Dropping one of the MLs for extra armor might be worth it. But really, the range on the AC/2 is so good that if your target can even see you, you're probably doing it wrong. I played around with the Blackjack during beta and with the AC/2s, you can still get 80-90% accuracy shots well beyond visual range. And it runs cool so you can jump and shot every turn to keep the range optimal.

It's an excellent sniper that packs a nasty punch at short range but can't take a hit. I like the Blackjack but I'm not sure that a sniper is a particularly good choice for a player's starting mech. Not that it really matters since you aren't tied to your starting mech.

[MAD-3R_Marauder]

Originally posted by Alozar:

I am on the fence about the Blackjack. I hated it in TT due to the AC2. With increase of damage to match the Md Laser it is at least somewaht useful now. Does not have the armor to be a front line combatant. Treat it like fire support and it should do ok.
Not sure what you would drop to add armor without neutering it.

I have seen similar comments on the armor of the BJ a couple of times and, quite honestly, it kidna baffles me.

I mean sure, it doens't have Atlas or Awesome level armor but hey, it's a 45 ton mech.

For comparison,
Vidicator - 9 tons (144 points) of armor
Blackjack - 8.5 tons (136 points) of armor
Pheonix Hawk - 8 tons (128 points).of armor

More importantly, the _maximum_ armor a 45 ton mech can carry is 9.5 tons.
So the BJ is just 1 ton short of max armor.

I don't know, to me it is a perfectly fine support mech. Just don't rush it into close combat - that's not what it was designed for.

Note: Those armor numbers are for TT, in Battletech the rear-armor is de-coupled from the front armor, so all mechs can carry quite a bit more armor - if you sacrifice other stuff



Alternate builds I could see me trying:

1 x AC/5 (1 ton of ammo), 1 x LL, 3 x ML, 11 heat-sinks
AC/5+LL generate 39 heat, 3 x ML create 36 heat, 11 HS can sink 33 heat per turn


2 x PPC, 14 heat-sinks (hot as hell, but might be a lot of fun)
37.5 heat per PPC, 42 total sink capacity - as I said, runs hot as hell :)

2 x LL, 2 x ML, 16 heat-sinks
2 x LL generate 60 heat, 2 x mediums generate 24 heat, sink capacity: 48


Note:
1. Heat nunmbers are from the beta with a general heat modifier of 1.5. All the heat numbers above are already adjusted for this modifier.
Be aware that his modifier might be changed in the released game.

2. Jumping generates 7.5 heat per dot jumped, so jumping a lot will really ruin your heat management.

3. Hey, what can I say, I like playing with numbers and have the time to do so - until the 24th, that is. :)

[You dare to refuse my batchall?]

If it's the mech your commander starts using, then use it at range. I don't know if the game will let your main character die or just get injured, but you want to hve your leader lead from the back. Long range ac2s work in that aspect. Like Wendigo said, maybe drop the medium lasers for a large laser.

[chronobomb]

Cohh Carnage ran it with 2 AC/5 over 2 ML's in his stream. The only downside that he did not correct for a long time was it's paper thin armor. He finally removed the JJ's to armor it up. It had his highest damage output for most of his campaign.

Unfortunately it had the knickname "the Coffin" by that point as it was frequently targeted by the AI.

[Veritas]

It's pretty straightforward to refit/build in case you lose an AC2 and is overall a flexible medium.

[Chef Godzilla]

Originally posted by chronobomb:

Cohh Carnage ran it with 2 AC/5 over 2 ML's in his stream. The only downside that he did not correct for a long time was it's paper thin armor. He finally removed the JJ's to armor it up. It had his highest damage output for most of his campaign.

Unfortunately it had the knickname "the Coffin" by that point as it was frequently targeted by the AI.

I would say the only downside to the mech was Cohh's positioning. He kept having a lightly armored fire support mech go all Leeroy Jenkins - how many times did he say something to the effect of "I gotta keep this thing in the back so it doesn't get shot up" and then the following turn charge it to the front to take a shot at something? If he kept it far enough back it would rarely have been shot at for the thin armor to be a real issue.

[Chef Godzilla]

The Blackjack is an alright starting mech - not optimal but not bad either. It's good enough at what it does to get you through the first few missions. By the time you're facing stiff enough opposition to need something better you should have had the opportunity to find something more beefy.