So I’ve done a whole bunch of these design articles, and they’re all laser-focused on some specific or other (plus my unavoidable tangents and scope creep). But does any of what I advocate have practical applications on the table? Let’s find out!

It’s the late 3050s, and there are plans being set in motion for Operation: BULLDOG. We need to build a new ‘Mech using what we’ve learned about the Clans to give our pilots a fighting chance. Specifically, we’re going to look at building a medium or heavy Brawler that can go toe-to-toe with Clan Brawlers and not instantly die. So, first, we need a stand-in for our opponent. Something that shows off a lot of the strengths of Clan ‘Mechs. Whatever we build has to be good to go by 3058.

The Clans have a lot of advantages, but some of their biggest are speed, range, and Streak SRMs. The Linebacker D has a lot of these: 4x Streak SRMs, 2x ER Medium Lasers, and it’s a 65 ton ‘Mech that moves 6/9. So this is what we’re building to kill.

Normally, when building out a ‘Mech? I start in a specific step-by-step process.

Depending on the ‘Mech’s role or intended use, something might jump higher on this list. So how do we make these decisions?

What we’re looking at in a competition between a Linebacker and our hypothetical “Linebreaker” is a race to see who can deal 3 engine crits first. Clans have that beautiful XL engine with only two slots in a side torso. If we use an XL in our Inner Sphere ‘Mech, we’ll give the Linebacker a head-start on this race. So that’s out.

Next, we’re at a damage disadvantage. Clan tech just hits harder than Inner Sphere tech, so if we want to out-last this Linebacker? We need to fit more armor than our opponent and/or we need to hinder their damage output.

So we’ve learned two things: this ‘Mech has to be as survivable as possible and it has to use a Standard or Compact Fusion Engine.

Remember how I said based on design goals some considerations might cut in line? This is one of them. Clans have a lot of really great energy weapons, and they all have exceptional range. We want to counter that, so this is getting Reflective Armor right at the start of the design process and taking max, or as close to max, Armor points as possible. This’ll help us close the distance without taking internal hits.

Clan ‘Mechs are fast and Compact Engines are heavy. So we’ll need a Standard Fusion Engine in this build, but to make up for the lost speed from not having an XL engine? We can add a Supercharger very affordably. This’ll help us get the speed we need to close, but once we’re in our brawling range we won’t need to keep making activation rolls.

We’re building a zombie ‘mech intended for a long-duration slug-fest with a Clan ‘Mech. That means we want something enduring that can stand up to punishing damage, and that won’t be put out of commission prematurely by a Through-Armor Critical hit. This will also help supplement our ‘Mech’s armor value since even with Reflective Armor, we’re asking a lot here. We’re going to take Reinforced Armor for those reasons.

Going back to our very first article on Internal Structure, 60 tons is one of the best tonnages to use Reinforced Structure. So we’re going to build this ‘Mech to the 60 ton size.

This is an endurance fighter, and if it falls down and can’t get back up again that’s a huge problem. If we can afford it, a Compact Gyro will be a huge benefit here. For now, let’s leave it as a Standard and see what comes up in later steps.

Back to our original mission statement, we wanted something that could run up in the face of Clan Brawlers and keep them occupied. So survivability is our top priority here even above damage dealt, and we have a chance to hugely impair one of the biggest sources of damage the Clans have: Streak SRMs.

Firstly, we’re installing an Angel ECM. As a big tanky distraction, it’s going to be closing with enemy ‘Mechs. That ECM field will disrupt any attempt to fire Streak weapons through it. This defends our “Linebreaker”, but it also protects the lance it’s fighting with.

Secondly, Linebackers are firing 4x Streak SRM 6s. Hopefully all of those won’t hit every turn, but if we mount a pair of AMS systems we can drastically cut down on the damage those systems deal to us. So those are going in the side torsos, and the ammo is going in the head. 1 ton of AMS ammo will last us probably half a game of BattleTech at 6 turns of interception or so. By then we either need to have destroyed the enemy’s SRM launchers or tank the remaining hits.

Thirdly, we need our weapons, Heat Sinks, and crit padding. Making this an energy boat will eliminate the risk of death by ammo explosion. Plus, Medium Lasers are just generally very good. We’ll mount a pair of Mediums in the side torsos. Then, so we can get in a couple extra hits on the advance, a pair of ER Medium Lasers. In the arms, we’ll mount a pair of Medium Pulse Lasers. Arm-mounting them helps them with their field of fire, and we won’t need those until we’re right up in the enemy’s face.

Fourth, but also third, we’re fitting this with enough Heat Sinks to be relatively efficient. We do want Heat Sinks as crit padding to prevent critical hits on side torsos overflowing into the Center Torso. That said, we still don’t want to go too far over 10 heat sinks since the more heat sinks we add the less efficient our weapon loadout becomes.

After all the work completed above, I’ve got 1.5 tons to spare. That’s just not enough to add another weapon and heat sink unless I want a small laser. It’s not enough to go to a compact engine, even if I drop the Angel ECM. I’m at 200 out of a maximum of 201 points of Armor. I elected to spend that tonnage on going from a Standard Gyro to a Compact one, but this is really free tonnage that could be spend anywhere you wanted.

This is the design process I went through when building the Fext, seen here:

While I was working on this article, I wanted some art for the ‘Mech. So I went through MekBay’s search function looking for 60 ton ‘Mechs relatively close in loadout to my original build. To my surprise, the Ostsol came really close to what I had built! So I decided to treat this as a very complicated Ostsol refit and gave it the same quirks that are present on Ostsols and used the RG:ilClan v14 art for it.

And that’s how I make ‘Mechs using all the nonsense spreadsheets I’ve made for myself, and all the advice I put in the design guides. So you tell me! Did all that research pay off, or are my numbers just not supported by the outcomes?

I will admit that it is a little slower than the Linebacker it’s designed to counter, is that a problem? If you take this and charge it at your opponent’s back line to cause grief, are their faster 65 ton brawlers going to avoid you? For me, I see that as unlikely. But I also tend to just run into fights when I play.