Nah. It’s good in whatever context. 
100 tons with an AC/20 on each arm, and they look rad as hell.
The other 100-tonner aside from the Atlas and Atlas 2. They come stock with two AC/20s and they’re super cool.
Love the shadowhawks, so versatile. Even though I have assault class mechs, I still use at least one shadowhawk each mission as a spotter and flanker.
For those that love Shadowhawks, what is your preferred load out? I am still in the early game (just finished the prison) and nothing I have done with my Shadowhawk has totally clicked yet.
One AC, one LRM (or go SRM for short-range punch), and then throw in M/S lasers and cooling. Almost full armour (1000-1080) and jumpjets (my general rule has been to always push armour up and never leave home without at least some jump capability).
It’s a versatility role so you’ll never have the SRM-boat potential of a Kintaro but you’re also able to do just about anything in the 55T role with it (and switch it up in the field). I can hang back and take snipe shots, join in with destabilising with a few missiles (when I’m just on the edge of knocking something over), or unload a bit of closer dmg with the lasers. Oh, and I can use multi-target to do all of that, in the same turn, while in the middle of combat. All without losing mobility or creating a glass cannon.
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So, there’s a couple ways to go with the shadowhawk that are pretty good (man it feels weird to say this). It has high melee damage for its weight and support hardpoints, so you can stick some small lasers on there and make it your punch mech, with full armor and jumpjets and whatever you have on hand while it gets into range, melee or DFA equipment if you have it.
The other way is a close range brawler, with an ac5 or bigger and as many SRMS as you can fit because srms are extremely good at damage/ton. Also remember depending on what your fit looks like 2 SRM4s is less heat than a 6+2 because…reasons. Fill it out with as much front armor as you can and then slap on some mls/heat sinks/jump jets.
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So do you tend to keep it in a medium range to long range role? I have trying to use it to fill my close range gap with an AC and SRM and, while it is going ok enough, I feel like the rest of the lance is doing the heavy lifting.
I think I will refit with an LRM and shift roles a bit.
So ideally that’s hitting a lot around 250m (where the M lasers are online and an AC is still good) but as noted above, you’ve also got a lot of melee potential.
I generally was using a SH towards the front of any attack with looking for melee tackling of any Lights trying to break for my rear lines, point-blank M/S lasers on top of that for the short range potential engagement, keeping an eye out for the longer shots (as initiating combat as part of the sniper line thanks to having the AC available), and having the missiles to assist another 'Mech which was planning on knocking someone down.
At no point did I ever think the SH was the best at any of the roles it did, but I kept one in my lance up until almost the very end of the game (and played a lot of the mid-campaign with two in my lance) because it could be doing all these things and was good enough at all of them to be my pocket versatility. You can’t spec a Centurion the same way and keep the mobility; lots of other options simply lack hardpoints to pack a bit of everything. You couldn’t catch me out because it didn’t matter what you came at me with or what the mission became, the SH was going to be taking an active role or filling a gap that my more specialised 'Mechs didn’t have the potential to.
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AC2, LRM5x2, M laser x1. Full jump jets, couple heat sinks, max armor. Doesn’t do a lot of total damage, but it can snipe, assist in knockdowns, and help finish off knocked-down mechs. The rest of the time i’m using my pilot with sensor lock to spot for my artillery or flanking.
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Mine are currently both stock, and act mostly as mid-range damage soaks and spotters for my artillery mechs. The ACs give them some significant punch though, and their full arsenal can do a ton of damage and leave some weak points for my tactician missile boats to exploit.
I gotta say that the Thunderbolt is just extremely #aesthetic to me and I always try to bring one
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The thunderbolt is just a solid early heavy in general. A lot of the heavies up until about 70T in this game are kind of bad either due to being over-engined but being held back anyway because of the initiative system (Quickdraw, Dragon) or not having the good variant (Catapult) but the thunderbolt owns.
I also just have to disagree with anything that fits an AC/2 on principle. Sniper range or not its 25 damage at 6 times the weight of a medium laser before you even factor in ammo. HBS did what they could to it without upsetting TT grognards too much but it’s still just a disappointment of a weapon.
I gotta say that I’m actually happy that they’ve included some 'Mechs that are just outright bad, like the Banshee, the Cicada, and (bless its heart) the Urbie.
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The dragon may not be good but I will always love it for singlehandedly killing the last three mechs to win Smithon for me the first time around.
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I will hear no slander against the urbie. It’s trying it’s hardest and it answers important questions such as “What if you put a 14 ton gun on a 30 ton chassis?” and “What if a light mech could headcap an an assault?”
I love the trashcan but it’s still bad even if AC20 urbies are hilarious when they manage to pop something.
I just finished Smithon for the first time. I restarted it when I realised that the trucks were going to be an objective and I’d run the wrong way round the base, but then managed to get all the objectives without anyone dying or having to reload. The sightlines are a bugger on that level; I couldn’t find anywhere satisfactory to hide and kept getting whacked by long distance weapons. That’s my tactic, god damn!
Very satisfying to curbstomp then core the last two enemies though.
I got to thinking, and I realize this is very important information. If battletech had an equivalent to jackass it would have to be centered around urbanmechs, right?
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So…Dekker finally ate it. In a random Battle Contract no less.
But…the entire battle was going pearshaped so I quit out.
