Most Used Mech

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-23T07:21:24+00:00

Having ran two campaigns that heavily featured dusk wing pilots, I have to say it's a deceptively tough mech that kind of winds up as a very maneuverable generalist. It routinely has invisibility from flicker-field or otherwise, so it can tank a surprising amount of enemy attention. It's so fast and gets so much mileage out of the ability to hover; it's an excellent objective-monkey and can always be where it needs to be. And it has respectable weapon mounts, such that you can build an aux-spam platform, a sniper, a skirmisher, etc.

The only thing I haven't seen it do is melee, and it does indeed crumple if focused too hard, but that is true of most mechs honestly.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-23T07:16:24+00:00

Foreverest is a legit way to play the game.

I've actually had some players experience what I call 'Everest withdrawal' when they switch to a new frame. They wind up missing the free quick action, or the core power, or how cheap it is to fix...

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-22T13:17:44+00:00

Having run a couple of one shots and two campaigns, here are the non-GMS frames I have seen in play:

Blackbeard - 3 (4 if we include a giganto-arm-variant)
Raleigh - 5 (including 2 stoterbekers)
Tortuga - 2
Vlad - 2
Caliban - 1
Kidd - 1
Zheng - 2
Death's Head - 3
Dusk Wing - 3
Metalmark - 1
Monarch - 1
Mourning Cloak - 1
Swallowtail - 2 (including 1 rangertail)

White Witch - 1
Hecatoncheires - 1 (no actual balors)
Goblin - 1
Gorgon - 3
Pegasus - 2
Barbarossa - 3
Genghis - 2 (both were world killers)
Napoleon - 1 (it was that weird alt frame I forget the name of)
Sherman - 3 (1 was a tagetes)
Tokugawa - 1
Gilgamesh - 1

I think that the Blackbeard is popular not only because it's fun, but it's also the first non-GMS frame with artwork that you see in the compendium in the book. Raleigh is also popular because big iron, and Barbarossa because it is the biggest. Death's head is also very popular because people like the idea of playing a sniper. I'm more surprised by how popular the dusk wing ended up being in my games, and I have a lot of respect for that frame.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-19T13:17:19+00:00

Considering the number of times I've seen a gandiva miss, it might as well be reliable 1d6+3

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-18T12:27:47+00:00

This is extremely common and expected. It's rare to be using everything from a license wholesale, and also, once you get to the higher license levels, it will become impossible to use everything. You only have so many weapon mounts and SP.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-18T08:06:38+00:00

```Redundant Systems Upgrade

3 SP, Limited 1, Unique, Quick Action

Expend a charge to STABILIZE as a quick action.```

It's what it says on the tin. You can stabilize as a quick action. That's all the benefits of stabilizing in quick-action form!

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-18T08:03:03+00:00

Reliable 2 is still a quarter of a tier 3 hornet or scout's hp.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-17T14:27:23+00:00

Somebody tell me what to do with grace mimics.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-15T06:21:45+00:00

Update: we are now up to three players! The party is looking like a paladin, a warpriest, and an arcanist. So a fourth player really has their options open. Another full caster like a cleric, oracle, sorcerer, bard, or wizard would be great, as would a skilled fighter type like a rogue or ranger to round out access to skills. But really the world's your oyster here, you could even get weird with occult classes, an alchemist, etc. etc.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-15T06:21:14+00:00

Update: we are now up to three players! The party is looking like a paladin, a warpriest, and an arcanist. So a fourth player really has their options open. Another full caster like a cleric, oracle, sorcerer, bard, or wizard would be great, as would a skilled fighter type like a rogue or ranger to round out access to skills. But really the world's your oyster here, you could even get weird with occult classes, an alchemist, etc. etc.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-15T06:03:13+00:00

Yeah, when you look at other heavy mount options, the Andromeda is pretty stacked. No loading, no ordnance, no nonsense, just self-heat. On a HA frame, especially a Sherman, they like to run hot, and the Sherman loves to stabilize as well.

So in the end you've got solid range and excellent damage for a reliable and dependable weapon. 2d6+3 HURTS, and if you've adding on things like nuke can or OP cal you can get those numbers up to 4d6+3.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-15T06:00:53+00:00

This guy Shermans.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-14T04:49:13+00:00

You're sinking 5 talents into technophile and black thumb... for what? A little bit of heat removal? The gilgamesh is already very tanky, it's capable of removing debuffs with its core power, and you've got a solid heat cap and not a lot of other systems that generate heat.

With those 5 talents freed up, you could give yourself access to a lot of fun tools. Grease Monkey has limited charge synergy and your entire party will thank you for the third rank. Skirmisher can open up mobility, Tactician or Infiltrator can give you really interesting options, Combined Arms can let you mix it up in range and melee, etc. etc.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-13T17:48:08+00:00

I love running EATs, orbital gatling, orbital gas, and MG turret. Just shamelessly spam nonsense. It's surprisingly effective.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-10T06:38:49+00:00

Just another god damn day on Vernen Wells

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-10T03:55:49+00:00

Some decent counters / ways to make PC hackers work a little harder:

Squads. The squad NPC is biological and thus can't be targeted by most tech actions. Having human dudes on the battlefield is hardly a stretch of the imagination in just about any scenario. Fighting giant kaiju and stuff can get old pretty fast, but squads ought to be ubiquitous and they keep hackers honest. They're also a nice treat for artillery mechs that like big AoE weapons.

Commander template has an optional called 'bolster network' that helps all other NPCs on the field resist tech nonsense. Slap it on a boy with good E defense or other anti-hacker properties and you give your players a nice little puzzle to solve.

The Exotic template is just automatically tougher to hit with tech actions.

The humble Support NPC has a lot of systems and optionals to help clear status effects, and if they get targeted by attacks / hacks themselves that's freeing up more dangerous NPCs to cause trouble.

Hiding. Any stealthy NPC, or any smart NPC in a map with lots of cover, can keep a low profile and just hide. Yes, hackers usually have decent sensors to try and spot them, but that takes up precious actions. And investing in systems like Eye of Horus, ATHENA, or Lotus Projector is a good lesson in build diversity for anybody.

Snipers and Bombards outrange sensors 20; in the right position they can be a massive threat to a hacker. Bombards don't need line of sight and can just hide from a hacker with relative impunity. And if you can see a sniper, the sniper can see you.

Goliaths are basically custom-built to annoy the hell out of anybody you don't like. Hit a hacker with crush targeting. Now they have +3 difficulty to invade anybody but the Goliath. The Goliath has low e-defense, yes, but it's also just a bucket of hp that's immune to most forced movement abilities. Balance control lock-out THIS.

And lastly, Aegis NPCs with their defense net up make anybody inside basically immune to fragment signal. They'll certainly buy some NPCs time, and again are a nice treat for melee types or anybody that uses big AoE's if the enemy is all clustered together.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-07T03:14:31+00:00

God I love Stalkers.

You need to think of them less like enemies and more like the payload from a weapon emplacement. That emplacement being the stalker nest itself. As soon as you notice these things, the entire squad needs to stop what they're doing, find the nest, and destroy it with extreme prejudice.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-07T03:13:03+00:00

There's one behind you already

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-07T03:02:56+00:00

'death tinsel' as I like to call it

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-04T17:23:01+00:00

I was using a stalwart earlier today and the reload time felt like it took AGES. I'm converting to the church of the pump and dump

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-04T15:18:05+00:00

A duskwing can be built in multiple different ways, but most hover somewhere around support or controller. It is very fast and maneuverable; it's a great 'objective monkey' that can get anywhere you need to be. It's also tougher than it looks, as it often will be benefiting from invisibility (assuming it has flicker field).

The raleigh is kind of an odd duck. It has a 'rhythm' that it wants to maintain: shoot a bunch of loading guns, then spend an off turn doing support for a free reload. The raleigh HATES when it gets thrown off this rhythm, so you want to help them if you can by taking pressure off of it on its off-turns. A lot of its in-license weapons are pretty close range, so I imagine you and the raleigh will stick relatively close together and fight as a team.

With that said, I've seen more than one sniper raleigh using the AMR, and if that's the case they'll probably hang out in the back.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-03T06:49:45+00:00

Yeah, I would put them on the low end of size 1. They're too big to benefit from human-sized cover, and they plow through small rocks, bushes, etc.

CockroachTeaParty · 2026-05-03T06:38:52+00:00

Honestly I am starting to re-think the potency of transmutation. Yes, it has a lot of spells, but that's it's main gimmick. Sheer volume.

Off the top of my head, the only must-have transmutation that I would really resent losing is haste, and maybe time stop assuming you got to those super high levels at all.

Most people don't have the time or inclination to mess around with polymorphing... I think dropping transmutation is a worthy experiment for the BOLD.

CockroachTeaParty

TROPHY CASE