So this is the mutant strain of Shocklite that Hornblower and his crew (and I use that term loosely when I talk about a set of pilots that model themselves on 19th Century British Naval practices... just be very very careful if you get invited to any of their parties...) captured and came back with.
But to give it a proper designation that you may recognise, what we are actually talking about is the captured beasty, the Banshee.
SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!
No, that's not me fan-girling, its the sound of the 'shee riding the wind... or more precisely the sound of a decent incoming barrage from one of the things.
Now so far I've only got mine up to level 24, but its already starting to show some marked difference from the other missile mechs at lower tonnage. For comparison purposes, we really need to be looking at its parent the Shocklite, plus the next Niode missile mech, namely the Dread.
For starters, the Banshee seems to be activating missile mounts at 1 per 5 levels, the same as the Dread and better than its progenitor the Shocklite that can only do so 1 every 7 levels. This means its going to have almost the same weight of metal throw as the Dread does at a similar level, minus one port since it started with one less to begin with.
Unlike the Dread that uses vertical movement for distance bracketing on its target (allowing for hits on following lines), the Banshee uses lateral movement for its area effect like the Shocklite but does it better, giving not only splash damage to those in the vicinity but having enough concentration of fire to give it a small chance of delivering direct damage to an adjacent target as well.
The one big difference is that there appears to be a velocity regulator on the launch controls; You can lob a missile in a slow arcing trajectory then follow up with a flat high velocity shot so that both munitions arrive on target at the same time for double damage. Takes some getting used to though. It's also possible that the velocity variation accounts for a slightly higher damage output than either of the two older mech types.
Speed wise the chassis is looking faster than the Shocklite, but as with all low tonnage mechs it is a bit cramped for extras. Level 23 and you will finally have a single equipment slot in all categories.
One final thought. Its going to be interesting to see what these are like when they get into battle, because the way it's tracking at present if used in conjunction with those new high speed missile systems, this could be a rival for mechs like the Nephilax. Maybe those Kings and Queens of the Mountain are going to have time called on their domination of the 40 ton brackets.
Submitted by David McCallum #701548