I haven’t mentioned tripod benefits/penalties, but those will come later in Part 2. Face it, Superheavies are slow and ground-bound unless they get shoved off a cliff. Likewise, MASC, TSM, AES, and Superchargers are not allowed. No type of jump jet, jump booster, or UMU can be installed. Modular Armor may not be used, nor can armored components. Armor can be any type, but Stealth Armor (along with Chameleon LPS, Null-Sig, and Void-Sig have no benefit on a Superheavy. The engine can be any type, as long as the engine is a fusion type. For the structure, the options are standard, Endo-Steel or Endo-Composite, all IS versions. While Superheavies can only be constructed of Inner Sphere tech base, there are examples using Clan weapons. With standard ‘Mechs a 10-point hit would generate a crit chance, but on Superheavy ‘Mechs that no longer happens.Ī few more construction bits. It may not seem like much, but it reduces the list of head-capping weapons down to weapons dealing 16 points or more: 20-class autocannons, Thunderbolt 20s, Heavy Large Lasers, Heavy Gauss rounds at short or medium range, Improved Heavy Gauss Rifles, Heavy PPCs with capacitors, and Clan ERPPCs with capacitors. On all Superheavy ‘Mechs the Head has 4 points of structure, meaning it can have a max of 12 points of armor. Internal structure increases as expected, but the big difference is the Head. Actuators, the gyro, and head components occupy twice as many slots for a Superheavy as for a standard ‘Mech, but it works out to the same number on a record sheet. For example, a pair of IS Double Heat sinks occupy 4 Superheavy critical slots, not 3. If an item requires an odd number of critical slots, say 3 for an IS Double Heat Sink, that extra space is lost. For example, two Medium Lasers can be placed in a single crit slot, but a Medium and a Small cannot. Two single-crit items can be placed in the same slot, but only ones of the same type. That last rule may sound strange, but a benefit of Superheavy ‘Mechs is that the critical slots hold two crits instead of just one. When a Superheavy suffers a critical hit everything in the slot rolled is hit and it only counts as a single hit. A physical attack by a Superheavy ‘Mech has a +1 to-hit penalty due to the cumbersome nature. Enemy attacks have a -1 to-hit against Superheavies, and anti-‘Mech attacks by infantry receive a -2 to-hit. In combat, Superheavies tend to suffer more drawbacks than benefits. Despite the larger size, Superheavies using the ‘Mechanized infantry & ProtoMechs rules cannot carry any more units than a standard ‘Mech. However, Superheavies have an easier time moving through woods, jungle, rough, rubble, and building hexes, subtracting 1 from the MP cost to move through the hex. Even friendly ‘Mechs and vehicles cannot move through a hex occupied by a Superheavy ‘Mech, they must move around it. When it comes to stacking limits, only infantry may occupy the same hex. Movement-wise, Superheavies move like normal ‘Mechs, with a few exceptions. Bigger than standard ‘Mechs, Superheavies stand 3 levels tall, only receiving partial cover from hills or buildings 2 levels tall. Among those you can find bipeds, tripods, and quads. Superheavies can be constructed as IndustrialMechs or BattleMechs, and Superheavy BattleMechs can be constructed as Omnis, but Superheavy IndustrialMechs cannot. This won’t cover every little difference, but enough to allow us to better judge the design and performance of these beasts. To start with, a little summary of the unique differences of Superheavy ‘Mechs. Today’s Part 1 will cover all the current biped Superheavy ‘Mechs. Despite my desire to keep it all in one colossal, text-heavy, over-sized MotW, I have split it in two. The 3 ‘Mechs each only have a single variant (one does have a variant in TRO3150’s New Tech, New Upgrades, but there’s no record sheet). Why so many in a single article? Well, they’re a bit unique, kind of like the QuadVees. I must be a glutton for punishment or something, because today’s colossal-sized ‘Mech of the Week article began as one super-sized article covering 3 ‘Mechs and an OmniMech. ‘Mech of the Week: Superheavy ‘Mechs (Part 1)
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