u/Gailim

So have been running a new campaign recently with no imports. I hadn't played the main story in years, so I wanted a refresher before the new DLC. After I finished, I caught the bug again and kept playing till 3047, where I am pausing till CR.

anyway... one of my side goals for this run was to play mechs I didn't normally use. I am a big fan of the Battlemaster and it has always been my go-to fast assault, but this time around I wanted to give a fair shake to some others, and by far the Charger has been the standout.

The 1A1 is, of course, garbage. This was actually the first assault I managed to salvage in the game years ago and I spent way too much time trying to make it good at...anything...

I think that experience may have soured me a bit on the whole chassis. I also think I skipped over the 1A5 because it's default config seriously skimps on armor. To me, half the point of heavier mechs is fit more armor on them, I aways like to run them at max armor (shaved down to the nearest half ton). I think I filed it into the same category as the Cyclops (another mech I have slightly more respect for after this run). The 1A5 kinda rules. Max the armor, drop the AC/20 down to an LB 10-X (you should have at least one before it shows up in 3023) and you have a tough, fast (74 kph after speed upgrade), punchy mech that brawls with the best of them.

The 1P5 was also a nice surprise. initially it had many of the same issues as the 1A5, but after a few tweaks I found a very nice arena build. Just swap the AC/5 for an ultra, drop the SRM-6s down to 4s (ideally infernos), and drop the axe down to a sword then bam, a fun arena mech that can do all four damage types. I ran this until I finally snagged an HGN-VEST.

Of course there is also the otomo 3K-S, which... yeah it's good. But it's an otomo, so that kinda wasn't a surprise.

I am sure the regular 3K is good too, but since it's a 3049 mech, it now has to compete directly with Clan mechs which... no.

So this run was a lot of fun. Have I converted anyone to the cult of charger? Did any of you dismiss a mech chassis before later finding out it was much better than you thought?

I was doing some AX at the remains of Titan Oya since it is right next to the CG.

I noticed something extremely strange. every interceptor that shows up just spontaneously dies early into the fight.

so far it has happened to 1 Cyclops and 2 Basilisks.

I had only managed to kill one heart on the first two interceptors before it's health immediately drops to zero. on the third interceptor (pictured), I didn't even get through the first heart.

I am playing in solo so there are no other players around bombarding it with mod shards, and no weird network issues.

is this a known issue? has it happened to anyone else?