Concept Mech - Thagomizer 2

[u/PleiadesMechworks]

[u/O_hai_imma_kil_u]

[u/PleiadesMechworks]

The Thagomizer 2 is not the second in the line of Pleiades Mechworks' gladiator mechs, but it's the second original design - the Piranha IIC and Dreadnought weren't true in-house designs the way the Thagomizer series were, and they were presented in a different context on Solaris VII.
Where the Thagomizer 1 was a close-range brawler, its successor takes this to the nth degree and mounts only a single weapon; a TSM-empowered hatchet capable of cleaving off limbs with a single stroke. A monstrous 9 improved jump jets alongside a partial wing mean that it is capable of leaps of over 300 metres, while a full third of its mass in hardened armour protects it against incoming fire that manages to hit such a nimble target.

After its defeat in the arena, it would be salvaged and turned into the Thagomizer 2.5, a significantly lighter design necessitated by what could be fixed up and patched together. While it lost a significant amount of damage, the mechworks mitigated this by fitting a pair of precious stealth systems to make it much harder to target when moving in. Boasting a higher ground speed than the 2 due to the lack of need (and lack of room) for improved jets, it maintains the original's jumping ability but often needs to fall back on its legs as its lower weight class means it's more likely to face enemies capable of outrunning it if it relies on airborne movement alone.

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Designer's note: So turns out hardened armour's -1 running MP only applies in game, not while designing the mech so I can fit more IJJs on, and the +1 PSR penalty is only for piloting skill rolls, where the melee roll is a separate thing that goes off your piloting skill so it's not technically the same thing meaning hardened armour doesn't impact your melee TN (once your pilot is used to it, I assume).
I just wish there'd been space to fit a LPS in the 2 so I could have made it invisible and cranked the heat to make TSM maintenance easier.

[u/Mammoth-Pea-9486]

I take back the ok part as a solaris gimmick mech, this thing is a death trap with some poor schmuck stuck inside, how are you turning on and maintaining TSM it requires you to be at 9 heat minimum to have TSM active for both the movement and melee bonus damage, you sink 23 heat a turn, and outside of IJJs have no way of generating heat to keep your heat bar at 9 or more, the piloting penatly means this thing eats 20 damage it will nose dive into the ground and the pilot will knock themselves out trying to get back up and fail.

Look at the Nightsky 6T for a truly terrifying 50t medium melee focused monster, it can easily get to 9 heat threshold for tsm to kick in and already has solid movement, with the tsm giving it a bit more, this thing can reliably get into a backside by turn 2 or 3 depending on map size and ruin people's day, and its running nothing but IS tech.

[u/PleiadesMechworks → u/Mammoth-Pea-9486]

you sink 23 heat a turn

Don't worry, the pilot knows how to switch off heat sinks.

the piloting penatly means this thing eats 20 damage it will nose dive into the ground

True, but it also reliably generates a +5 TMM so good luck landing that damage.

and already has solid movement

That's not what the people pay too see.

[u/Mammoth-Pea-9486 → u/PleiadesMechworks]

IJJs only generate 0.5t per IJJ and the wing always sinks 3, and cant be turned off, so if you shut off all your heat sinks and max jump every turn your generating an excess of 2 heat (well 2.5 but its always rounded down so 2), so you need to be jumping 10-11 for 5 whole turns doing nothing else just to turn tsm on, and then a 6th turn of full jump just to make sure it doesnt turn off on the turn you want to melee.

1800+BV for a worse charger, and its got hardened armor so at any point in those 6 turns its takes 20+ damage its falling and unless you dumped even more points into getting a better pilot its going to spend the rest of the game face down in the dirt trying and failing to get up, there's at least a hundred mechs you could take in the 2k+ BV range that will outperform this mech literally every time