Wolf's Dragoons alpha Regiment

 o/

I picked up the Stone Rhino on a whim from the FLGS along with several other loose mechs recently. I've always liked the model, but figured I'd never actually field it given that the base model clocks in at 3001 points with a 4/5 pilot! I've seen Screech use his only once in Alpha Strike, and he had to devote another mech just to guard it (it did barely manage to hobble off of the field that day).

This looks so much cooler than what it is actually capable of.

However after buying the mini for dirt cheap, I was looking at the Stone Rhino's page on Sarna and found that the Wolf's Dragoons' Alpha regiment had a unique, lostech-equivalent Behemoth during the succession wars that clocked in a much more reasonable 1703 points. With a Clan standard 3/4 pilot, it comes in at 2248 points, which is still pricey but far more reasonable than the Stone Rhino. As such, I needed to paint up a lance to go with it. 

This sculpt is a MASSIVE improvement!!

This is also the first mech to be stomping thru my new Autumn colored shrubberies. 

There were two mechs in my collection that were no-brainers for a Wolf's Dragoons force: The Firefly and the Hoplite. The Hoplite has always been one of my favorite mechs, even if the old metal sculpt looked like ass and didn't match any of its record sheets! Equipped with an AC-10, an LRM-5 and too many heat sinks, hell its basically a 55 ton Urbie.  

Looks kinda like a LAM. 

Instead it is just another example of the 35 tons of mediocrity that so many light mechs are. 

The Firefly is another odd one that really only works for the Dragoons, about the only other option I had for it was to add it to me fledgling Dark Cast Bandit star. An LRM-5, (3) medium lasers and (4) small lasers, yeah, terrifying...

I've never really been a fan of the mech, or any of it's variants. 

It irks me that the new sculpt of the Atlas is the Dark Age era The AS8-KE. I know Battletech really isn't WYSIWYG, but for fuck sake could they not opt got one of the multitude of LRM 20 equipped models? If they wanted to pick an oddball variant, how bout the one that is covered in SRM launchers? 

Its WYSIWYG now!

Thus, I made a custom one that swaps out the LRM-20 and its 2 tons of ammo for an LRM-5 and an AC-2, each with 1 ton of ammo. The few tons left over went to heat sinks. Regardless of the launcher size, unless it has Artemis IV fire control, I can't manage to hit with more than 3-5 missiles (at best maybe 7), so why waste the tonnage? As for the AC-2, I have a fondness for that generally useless weapon (just ask my old opponents in Tennessee) and so figured why not? If the AC-2 hits and all 5 LRMs connect as well, I'm still at the 7 points of damage, in 5 & 2 point groupings that the average LRM 20 cluster roll would most likely have given me anyhow. So its a wash.

Everybody should own at least one of these. 

Lastly, I rounded out the 'lance' with a Guillotine. This is an excellent all rounder that I seems to do well whenever it hits the table. Unfortunately for me, the last few times I've seen this mech on the table, it was shooting at me! The Guillotine will allow me to field a lance post 3028 as the Behemoth was lost during the battle of Misery. If I recall correctly, following the Clan invasion, the Dragoons reorganized their forces into stars, so I will likely add one more mech to allow for that. Probably a captured Clan omni.