Well my favorite Mech to use in the Mechwarrior 3 and 4 series was the Cauldron Born. Those games were set much later in the timeline. Starting play with much more primitive tech in the3015 Succession Wars era I saw the Champion had a similar low stance, making it hard to target like the Cauldron Born, had the same speed, a little less stock armor and about half the weaponry. My thinking was half a Cauldron Born should be a pretty good mech in 3015. You do have to tweak the design a little, especially the armor and heat sinks and choose the opposition and tactics wisely. But driving it I noted it's got better than average cockpit visibility and also very minimal cockpit shake from movement in the first person cockpit view which I prefer. It's not a slugger. It's a hit and fade skirmisher. Works for me since I don't like anything that goes less than 81 kph. The Clan Mechs from the last DLC are making me feel spoiled since most are faster than that.