Mech Spotlight: Thunderbolt

[RasaNova]

No light/medium lance ever wants to see this beast coming over a hill at them...

There are 3 versions of this heavy mech - Battlefield slugger, a mobile variant with jump jets, and a long range sniper. How are the other merc captains using theirs? Let's talk loadouts & strategies!


Edit: The goal here is not to compare mechs or discuss which mech is best for what role. This is about the best ways to use the Thunderbolt.

All Mech Spotlights:

Centurion
BlackJack
Thunderbolt
Quickdraw
Shadow Hawk
JagerMech
Highlander
Grasshopper
Vindicator
Wolverine
Locust
Catapult
Orion

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Had great success with the following loadout: LRMx20, 1xPPC, 2xML, 3xJJ

I call it "The Poor Man's Highlander"

It was so successful I dropped my LRM boat and started running a second one of these.

[Great Mazinkaiser]

Still trying to score one... gotta make do with a Jager, Grasshopper, and Dragon instead...

[C4Warr10r]

A little too big and slow for my taste, but the TDR-5S, Thunderbolt is a great alpha-striker at the right time. It has armor, heavy firepower, and the complimentary weapons loadout to really be punishing in the hands of a good pilot. Tops, it could deliver 41 points of damage in single turn of tabletop. Not bad at all.

Customized, it can deliver even more by removing the superflous machine guns and adding more weaponry or heat sinks. A good pilot can ignore the minimum range penalty for the LRMs, and the penalty for long range on medioum lasers, giving it an average Maximum Combat Range of around 150 meters. Just short inough for it to inflict punishing 70T melee attacks if it wants to. Possibly with the addition of flamers.

However, it is not a terribly effective long-range combatant, as it doesn't have the mobility of jump jets or the ranged firepower of more dedicated designs. The large laser falls short, and a single LRM-15 on a lighter mech can match it for firepower.

The TDR-5S is also prone to overheating once it fires. It only has 15 heat sinks. Coupled with the 12 engine heat-sinks, it can only fire a full complement of weapons once before it is vulnerable to shutdown. If it moves enough to create an evasion penalty after an alpha strike, it can only fire the large laser, the LRM 15, and a single medium laser, maximum, without overheating.

Personally, I don't use it at all. The design doesn't have the hardpoints or tonnage for my strategy of weakening the enemy with LRMS and then overheating them with flamers and kicking them to death when they get a chance to shoot. But make no mistake, the TDR-5s and variants can be made into a solid mech, albeit a hot one.

[wendigo211]

Unfortunately the Thunderbolt gets outclassed by the other heavy mechs. The TDR-5SS is an okay laser boat, but the Grasshopper and Black Knight are better. You can use the 5S and 5SE as an LRM-boat but the Jagermech and Orion-V are better. You can use the 5SE as a brawler but its around the same level as the Shadowhawk (the Shadowhawk hits harder and is faster, but the Thunderbolt has another support hardpoint and can carry more armor), the Grasshopper is the best brawler in the game (Maybe the Banshee-3M should have that title, but I find it doesn't have as much useable tonnage). It's a solid mech, but it's not a particularly dangerous mech in the hands of the AI, or a useful one to the player.

['Strict]

Originally posted by Road Caesar:

Still trying to score one... gotta make do with a Jager, Grasshopper, and Dragon instead...

Jager is a lot better as a LRM boat though =)

EDIT: oh, just saw that the post above mine said the same thing....=p

[nilus]

Originally posted by 'Strict:

Originally posted by Road Caesar:

Still trying to score one... gotta make do with a Jager, Grasshopper, and Dragon instead...

Jager is a lot better as a LRM boat though =)

EDIT: oh, just saw that the post above mine said the same thing....=p

I wonder how mechs show up in the game. Because in my playthrough I have seen a ton of Thunderbolts. Way more then Jagers, Grasshoppers or Dragons.

Once heavies started showing up in missions I seem to mostly get Thunderbolts, Orions and Quickdraws.

[Neon Amish]

Are you moving around much on the star map? I believe model spawns are influenced by region.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Unfortunately the Thunderbolt gets outclassed by the other heavy mechs. The TDR-5SS is an okay laser boat, but the Grasshopper and Black Knight are better. You can use the 5S and 5SE as an LRM-boat but the Jagermech and Orion-V are better. You can use the 5SE as a brawler but its around the same level as the Shadowhawk (the Shadowhawk hits harder and is faster, but the Thunderbolt has another support hardpoint and can carry more armor), the Grasshopper is the best brawler in the game (Maybe the Banshee-3M should have that title, but I find it doesn't have as much useable tonnage). It's a solid mech, but it's not a particularly dangerous mech in the hands of the AI, or a useful one to the player.

That migjt all be true... I can't say, I don't have any of those others (except shadow hawk.) But that's really not the point of this topic. The real question is: You got a Thunderbolt. How do you make the best of it?

[salusa.secundus]

Originally posted by Neon Amish:

Are you moving around much on the star map? I believe model spawns are influenced by region.

Looks so, and some are generallyreally rare. Looks like in Assault Class Stalkers are ultra rare.

[RasaNova]

Originally posted by salusa.secundus:

Originally posted by Neon Amish:

Are you moving around much on the star map? I believe model spawns are influenced by region.

Looks so, and some are generallyreally rare. Looks like in Assault Class Stalkers are ultra rare.

If Thunderbolts are more likely to be found in certain systems, that would also be great info to have here! For what it's worth I'm fairly certain I got mine doing contracts in the early liberated region. (Wendry etc)

[Kel'Ithra]

My current tbolt forget the Variant is 1 PPC++ (+20stb dmg oddly enough), 1 LRM 15++ (+1 stab, +25% crit), 3 med lasers and 2 small laser. I can usually alpha thend spend a few rounds not using the ppc. or not using the lasers to keep her from overheating.

Did some 2 and a half and 3 skull missions.
1 had 2 tbolts and 1 orion
1 had 2 tbolts only
1 had 1 tbolt, 1 griffin, 2 shadowhawks, 1 locust, 2 spiders, 1 Orion.

As far I've seen Tbolt are common. Catapults are rare.... did fight 1 K2 so far.

Think tbolts are more common in Taurian/aurigan region.

[SpectralShade]

as heavies go, the thunderbolt have been my favorite so far in the 65T or lower class.

I always install jumpjets on my mechs, for the added mobility, and either variant gives me good armor and good punch.

I'm not sure why some people feel others are so much better, but maybe it's because I like to mix weapons, rather than go with a singleminded tactic of loadouts. Especially the dragon I was underwhelmed with and felt the thunderbolts outperformed those by a large margin.

Only reason I use a grasshopper instead of a thunderbolt after I got the grasshopper is because of the increased weigth class. Among the 65 tonners, though, the thunderbolt is king for me.

[Path]

The Dragon is garbage, though, so being better than it doesn't say much. The Catapult and Jagermech are both better as fire support (and the Orion V is a monster), and the BK and Grasshopper are better brawlers. It's not a bad mech but any means, but it's outclassed by many other heavies regardless of role.

[MinenSpecht]

Thunderbolt is a shrinked Battlemaster. Laser vomit FTW!

[Ruin]

I was already running a pair of Orions before I encountered a pair of these... I must say my heart lept for a moment with concern, given their visual similarity to the Thor, as I remember the Thor being absolutely devastating for their weight class...

Yes, I know there are no clan mechs in Battletech (yet), but for some reason, "Oh ♥♥♥♥, that's a Thor!" was the first thing that came to mind...

I was a little dissapointed at their performance when they each dropped in a single alpha strike...