Right!
I am officially making a declaration here.
The Unification Army can pog off if it thinks it's going to re-posses my Banshee.
So there!Now it's taken a while to be able to have the opportunity to use mine in anger, but I have now, and I must say I'm impressed. You can take this as an after action report of sorts.
Let's go through the numbers first (otherwise Patrick will have a hissy fit if I don't do the obligatory stats).
900 Ferrite, 600 Bioptics and 55 Niodes for a 30 ton mech that starts as a dedicated missile slinger up to around lvl 50, then starts bringing in ice tech to mach it a hybrid. As it gets more powerful, Splash, Freeze, Fork and Crit-kill are built in along with a hefty speed injection to offset what is to all intents and purpouses a platform for the two slowest weapon types there are.
The thing is, those are just numbers on the screen readout.
You want to know how it actually performs, and let me tell you, this thing punches above its weight.
I've seen it in action at both low and high levels. At low levels it is a lighter but more sturdy version of the Dread, capable of going toe to toe with Namtars and Wargs but certainly outclassed by the likes of the Smilodon.
Still, being able to take on an opponent almost twice its weight is nothing to be sneezed at, especially by what to the bulk of the player base is a very light mech.
Ah, but at higher levels.
I love it! I want more! The Unification forces had better watch out, because while they are pratting about on Srixin, it is my opinion that we should be raiding their factories for as much of a stockpile of these things as we can, then giving them all to me!
I tried my own Banshee out in a 40 ton formation and ran a scouting mission. Now for newer pilots, 40 ton specialists at the levels I fight at may as well be Red Ant fights. They are fast, dirty and if you are hit you are dead.Here is her first shot in anger.
That's two 40 ton mechs taken out by a 30 ton one.
Now in a 40 ton formation, you very rarely find mechs other than mainstays like Nifthels or Holmes, expensive toys like Keradons and Orcus, war prizes like Zadoks or Mountain prizes like the Nephilax. You just don't drop anything lighter than 35 tons in unless you have been a jammy git and got yourself a Novum or you are desperate to fill in slots with anything you have.
Guess what?
I reckon that there's something else that's viable now.
I just wonder how far above it's weight it can hold its own?
Submitted by David McCallum #701548