Mech Spotlight: Zeus

[RasaNova]

This is a mech that doesn't get a lot of press. It's not the most popular assault by any margin, and I can understand why. It has limited hard points, and it could easily be argued that the Orion fills the same role while having more diverse weaponry and higher initiative. But what the zeus does, it does well while looking good doing it.

I've had one in my primary lance for a long time... But if I'm being totally honest, part of it is because I don't have many assault mechs yet, and I just like the way it looks! A streamlined sci-fi image, it really is more like a giant robot from the future than a stompy brick with guns. It makes a fine long range striker with its default loadout but it can still fit multi roles.

On mine I stripped off the lasrs, LRMs and heat sinks. Gave it max armor, an AC20 with 2 tons of ammo, SRM with 1 ton of ammo, and max jumpjets. That's only 2 weapons, but it delivers a powerful punch. It will either knock down 2 targets set up by the stalker, or deliver a finishing blow with called/precision shot while having near 1500 armor to tank with.

So never mind what mechs might be better... How are you using the Zeus? Give us loadouts, screenshots, tips, tactics, & fashion advice!

All Mech Spotlights:

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

[Nine-ball]

Yeah! Mech Spotlight!

The pride of the Lyran Commonwealth and one of its premier assault mechs, the Zeus was so enamored by all the attention that it forgot the "assault" part of its job. It takes on the fire support role, a really big Shadow Hawk that can't jump.

Not that it's bad at the role. The LRM-15, AC/5, and Large Laser can do a respectable amount of damage at good ranges. It is is slow, but not overly, and is fairly well-armored, though not for an assault mech.

In PC Battletech, the Zeus suffers from a bit of an identity crisis with its hardpoints. Not quite enough missiles to be an LRM boat, not quite enough free tonnage to be a real sniper like the Awesome. It actually works better in the opposite of its canon role, beefing up armor and short range firepower to turn it into a brawler.

Ironically, despite being named the Zeus, it cannot hurl lightning. The original protoypes mounted a PPC, but design problems forced the Commonwealth to substitute it with an AC/5. In stock configuration, it's an almost poetic complement to the Battlemaster, mostly produced in Davion space, foreshadowing the marriage of the two great houses.

Despite the minor problems it suffers from, the Zeus is still a mech House Steiner can be proud of. Especially during orbital drops. There are two ways to do them - the wrong way, and the Steiner way, which is just the wrong way with lots of assault mechs.

[wendigo211]

Zeus is a little bugged right now. It can only mount 3 jump jets, but it should be able to mount 4 (it has a 320 rated engine). It also has the same free tonnage as the Black Knight and the Orion. Given it's one initiative phase slower than those mechs, it doesn't have a ton going for it right now. I guess it can mount more armor than the 75s, so that's something to aim for if you're using it.

[Pherdnut]

It looks kind of neat and has some cool paint schemes. Those are the nice things I have to say about it.

[Lack of Stuff]

It has a cool name. That's all I got.

[Pherdnut]

Originally posted by Pherdnut:

It looks kind of neat and has some cool paint schemes. Those are the nice things I have to say about it.

For the record, I field a Banshee 3M regularly.

[Streitross]

best place to find zeus mech ?

[Veritas]

It's bad.

[RasaNova]

I get it, Zeus isn't terribly popular. But the goal of thse spotlights not to talk about how bad a mech is, or what you should use instead... the point is to discuss how to make the most of it! So for those who are not fans of the Zeus, that's fine. But lets say that's what you have. How would you use it? As I described above, I've had good luck using it as a tanky finisher.

[Luke]

Originally posted by jonietad:

best place to find zeus mech ?

The Grave Robbing story mission.

But you're probably better off taking one of the other mechs from that mission.

Of the assault mechs with 120 base movement, Zeus and Victor have the most usable tonage with full armor. The Zeus's arm-mounted missle hardpoint is always nice to have for a sniper, if you load it out that way.

But: Battlmaster is all around better with more versitile hardpoints, more total armor capacity, and more raw usable tonnage so if you armored it identically to the Zeus it would go the same speed and have more space left.

Zeus is a great mech, though. undervalued, I think.

[wendigo211]

If you wanted a skirmisher you could try something like this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1395999221

If you wanted to go long range, you could try this:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1396006357

I'm not enamored with either configuration, but it should be good enough until you find something better.

[Luke]

Originally posted by RasaNova:

discuss how to make the most of it!

I'd go sniper, but thats just my playstyle. Long range weapons, mix of LRM/AC/PPC. Use the speed to keep in a good range band.

On the other hand, it could easily go the other way. Use the speed to close, and load up on armor. max out the medium lasers and put a SRM six-pack on the arm. With any remaining space, stick the biggest AC you can on the other arm. Get in close and cut it up.

I tend not to like compromise designs that do a little bit of everything. That is why you have four mechs, you can have four specialized designs. But that's just me. Other people I think do really well with mixed-role designs.

[Legowarrior]

The Zeus does seem to do more melee damage than the 80 ton Victory.

[rtaalt]

The Zues is cleary bad. It has the weight of 320 engine same as a Victor yet its stats say it moves as slow as an Awesome at 3. If it moves 4 its stats are listed wrong, if it moves 3 its tonnage is way short. Either way no resonable Assualt Mech should ever move for than 3 Without an Extra LIght Engine or Tripple Strength Legs. Why no 2-3-2 A Mechs or Quads? The 200 Class engine gives an extra 7.5 tons when you factor in Gryos and JJs over the 300. When I first played BattleTech in the Late 80s the Scorpion was my first and all-time favirote Mech.

[Legowarrior]

The Zeus should be 4 movement. Hopefully its an oversight that will be corrected soon.
As for 2-3-2 mechs, none existed during the time period that the game is set. Actually, I don't know any mechs that move that slow.

[Humor Tumor]

I've had fairly decent success with this loadout

LRM10
Med Laser x3
AC/10

And I made up the extra tonnage with more armor.