BattleTech Mech Overview: Atlas II and Atlas III

Happy Holidays, MechWarriors! The Atlas, in all its skull-faced glory, is one of the most iconic Assault Mechs in BattleTech, but long-time readers will recall that the Goonhammer hivemind is not too terribly fond of most variants due to its habit of focusing on short-ranged weapons on a slow chassis. The base Atlases aren't the only variation on its concept, however! Today we look at the Atlas II and Atlas III to see if the sequels look more like The Empire Strikes Back or Attack of the Clones!

Atlas II. Credit: porble

Aww! Look at it! The Atlas II puts greater emphasis on the Atlas's "bunny ear" antennae (present on the lineart for the original, but often omitted in other depictions) and tries to make the skull-face angrier and just ends up kind of adorable, in my opinion. In its origins, the Atlas II was pretty much simply the Royal Atlas, but with a different alphanumeric designation than the usual Royal "b", and it followed a similar path to other Royal variants: disappearing from the Sphere with Kerensky, serving in Clan second-line forces, and eventually seeing revived production in the Inner Sphere during and after the Jihad. It also has the unusual distinction of having just as many unique variants as it has production variants!

Variants

These mechs have all been reviewed based on a standard F through S scale, which you can find described on our landing page here (along with all of our other ‘Mech reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).

Mercenary Atlas II. Credit: Jack Hunter

AS7-D-H

The basic Atlas II comes out of the gate fairly strong. Its arsenal skews considerably longer-ranged than the original Atlas with an LRM-20, two ER Larges, and an LB 10-X, plus an SRM 6 and two MPLs for close-in work (a loadout which later inspired the better-than-most AS7-RS configuration of the original chassis). It's still rocking heavy armor, a standard fusion engine, and tacks on CASE for more survivability. Its biggest issue is that even with fourteen double heat sinks, it runs a bit hot when it's firing its long-range weapons: It goes up 2+movement just firing the LRM and both ERLLs, and the LB-X tacks on another 2. Once you're six hexes or closer, though, you've got much better firing patterns, with the two ERLLs and the autocannon neutral at a run, and the SRM and both MPLs substituting perfectly for one ERLL as you close in. The crit layout is a little disappointing - the MPLs are in the left torso so you can't use them as backscratchers, there's ammo in both side torsos, and the arm guns are good enough it feels a little bad to drop them to punch - but it's a decent package for 2,169 BV. It's not as directly efficient and threatening as something like a Nightstar, but it's also happier in a point-blank brawl.

Lynn's Rating: B

AS7-D-H2

A rare Star League variant, extinct since the dawn of the Republic, the H2 drops the LB-X, both ERLLs, and one heat sink in exchange for a Gauss Rifle and an ER PPC. This brings it closer to Nightstar applications, and much closer to Nightstar BV at 2,340, trading the NSR-9J's second headchopper for the LRM 20, SRM 6, and the durability buff of the standard fusion engine. It builds heat at brawling range if it's shooting off everything but the LRM, and it now has explosives in three different locations with the gauss in the right arm and the missile ammo still spread across both side torsos, but I like it just a little better than the base variant.

Lynn's Rating: B+

AS7-DK-H

The Atlas II's modern revival from the RecGuides, we've got some fun with modern mixed-tech here, and this variant has proliferated more widely than its predecessors, landing on Inner Sphere General. The DK Crew's own Atlas II takes the original loadout, shoves in an up-rated XL engine to take it to 4/6 speed, upgrades the lasers to Clan-grade ERLLs and Clan-grade ERMLs (taking the place of the original MPLs), upgrades the LRM 20 to Clan-grade, keeps a normal SRM 6, and takes advantage of the unusual depiction of the original artwork's LB-10X autocannon to swap that for an Inner Sphere RAC/5. The side torsos are even more stuffed full of ammo, but the CASE has been upgrade to CASE II to help keep that XL engine intact. So we've got better speed and better guns, and we've only gone up to 2,599 BV, less than the Atlas C 2. The catch is heat. Donkey Kong has got the same overheating issue as the original Atlas II when firing its ERLLs and LRM. Now that it doesn't particularly want to drop its LRM as it gets to close range and the RAC/5 and ERMLs build more heat than the LB-10 and MPLs did, you're most likely looking at dropping both ERLLs for backup guns by the time you hit five hexes. Honestly, I do still like this for the price... it doesn't contain Kodiak violence, but it doesn't cost the Kodiak's BV, either, and being able to seriously compare the two at all should be considered a feather in any Atlas's cap.

Lynn's Rating: A-

Atlas II. Credit: Rockfish

AS7-D-H (Kerensky)

No, not that Kerensky. Good ol' SLDF Commanding General Aleksandr Kerensky drove an Orion; this Atlas II was the custom ride of his unbalanced son, the Clan's Great Father, Nicholas Kerensky. This is a pure Clan-spec upgrade of the original Atlas II, with the tonnage saved by the lighter weapons used to equip a second SRM 6, Artemis IV for the missile launchers, an Active Probe, an ECM suite, and five more double heat sinks. This leads to a vastly more capable Atlas II, with the particularly spicy ability to fire everything except for one ERLL while heat neutral on a run, but also drives the cost up to 2,777 BV. Even without a headchopper, I like this just a bit better than the Atlas C 2 in the same basic cost bracket; I'll admit that ol' Nicky K had better taste in mechs than he did in social engineering.

Lynn's Rating: B+

AS7-D-HT

Despite the normal-looking alphanumeric designation, the Hot Topic Atlas II is a Unique variant, being the canon version of the Kamea Arano's Atlas II from the Harebrained Schemes BattleTech game. Unfortunately, it's worse than a basic Atlas II in every regard, dropping the LB-10X and three heat sinks so that it can rearrange the weapons to a more OG-Atlas-like arrangement and shove an AC/20 in. This very bad set of decisions means that the HT costs 2,205 BV, goes up eight heat firing the ERLLs and LRM at a standstill, and has to drop both ERLLs when it engages its brawling weapons. I love you, Kamea, but going to battle in this mech is only a marginally better idea than the Kintaro.

Lynn's Rating: D

Hastati Sentinels Atlas II. Credit: Valk

AS7-D-H (Devlin)

The Atlas II that took Terra back from the Word of Blake, Devlin Stone's personal ride, also known as "Phantom," starts with the bones of a standard Atlas II, but goes to a Clan XL engine without increasing speed, buying it extra payload tonnage. It upgrades both ERLLs to Clan-spec, upgrades the double heat sinks to Clan-spec and goes up to 17 of them, upgrades to CASE II, doubles the amount of LB-10X ammo carried for some reason, combines both missile launchers into an MML 9 with Artemis, picks up an AMS and an Angel ECM Suite (with the latter particularly helpful when fighting Blakists), takes a Heavy-Duty Gyro, and armors every crit location in the head. This 2,491 BV mech is a little awkward, particularly on heat (significantly oversinked for the "fire everything except one ERLL" pattern, but undersinked for alpha striking), but it makes a lot of sense in context. Ironically, if you want to take this as your single unique mech in an MRC-compliant ilClan-era tournament, it's actually really easy to access by virtue of landing on the Mercenary MUL after the fall of the Republic, piloted by a Ghost-Knight-turned-merc.

Lynn's Rating: B-

Atlas II Conclusion

Maybe it's my love for LB-10X autocannons that makes me soft on the Atlas II, maybe it's the cute bunny ears and adorable lil angy face, but I do think this is one sequel that's solidly better than its predecessor. I don't expect to see it topping anyone's favorite Assault Mech lists on Friday, but it's a pretty good pull if you're looking for an anchor for your battle line and you want to use something Atlas-shaped!

Atlas III

The Atlas III is an outlier amongst the Atlases, originating from the Federated Suns instead of the Terra-owning superpower of its day (though they shared it with their Republic allies, and the DCMS and mercenaries have also gotten their hands on some). It's very much a WizKids-originated, 'Clix-first BattleMech, which often leads to, shall we say, oddities of construction. Let's see what this means for the big skull-faced boy!

Hastati Sentinels Atlas II. Credit: Jack Hunter

Much like the classic Tenacious D song "Tribute" didn't sound anything like the Greatest Song in the World, the Atlas III doesn't look anything like the Atlas II in the above picture, instead carrying a distinctive "hockey goaltender with a minigun" look which often provokes a strong love-it-or-hate-it reaction, and the awkward sculpt of its Iron Wind Metals mini doesn't help its case. Both IIIs flip their weight savings tech relative to most Atlas IIs, with an endo-steel skeleton and standard armor rather than the Atlas II's standard frame and ferro-fibrous; if I recall correctly this is marginally more efficient, but it doesn't make too terribly much of a difference.

AS7-D2

Isn't that a confusing alphanumeric designation for an "Atlas III"? The D2 is in the unusual position of being the Atlas III that was built first and the Atlas III that's most common, but not the Atlas III variant that's the "default" in artwork. It loads up a Clan HAG/30 and Streak LRM 20 alongside an Inner Sphere SSRM 6 and two MXPLs, with all the guns tied into a Spheroid targeting computer. It also carries an Angel ECM to deal with Kuritan C3 shenanigans, and tacks armor onto the cockpit to help protect its pilot. Heat-wise it goes up 4+movement firing everything, but when both missile systems are streaks that's not too terribly dangerous. There's a decent number of strong, accurate weapons on a tough frame here (with a standard engine paired with CASE II and the usual Atlas max armor), and I'm happy to report that the pulse lasers are on an arm this time around for back-scratching purposes, but you're paying 2,890 BV thanks to that targeting computer, and at that rate I'd rather have an actual Clan assault mech. The AECM is the only reason I could ever imagine taking this over a Regent (and even then only into specific OpFors), and with the Regent on IS General they need to be considered as peer competitors.

Lynn's Rating: C-

AS7-D3

The poster child Atlas III, this is the dedicated commander variant. Compared to the D2 it drops the HAG/30 and the TarComp in exchange for two more MXPLs (in the torso this time), a small shield on each arm, a RAC/2, and a Radical Heat Sink System. This... this is interesting. It's unfortunately caught in a superposition of shield rules at the moment: Under TacOps rules this has way too weapons obstructed by its shields and will never fire much of anything at full accuracy, but the shield playtest rules are very good for this mech. At long range, with its left arm shield raised, its RAC and SLRM are free to fire, and when the range closes it can choose between raising its right arm shield and firing the X-Pulses and/or SSRM (going up movement heat firing all four pulse lasers, or 4+movement if the streak locks) or keeping both shields lowered, popping the RHSS, and alpha striking. I think you can still grab significantly better assault mechs at 2,564 BV - within the Atlas family alone I'd say the DK Atlas II significantly outperforms the III D3 outside three hexes, for instance - but with the shield playtest I think this looks like a fun ride that does its intended job of providing extra protection to your force commander.

Lynn's Rating: D- out of TacOps, C+ with the shield playtest

Atlas III Conclusion

I usually like streak missiles and X-Pulse lasers, and an Angel ECM can come in clutch in the right situation, but I feel the weight-inefficiency of the Atlas III's payload means it gives up a little too much bite compared to other Atlases for its BV.

Final Thoughts

The Atlas II is a genuine improvement on the Atlas archetype, but the Atlas III is a bit of a questionable sequel. Both manage to stake out their own identities, though, which is pretty impressive when neither of them can even get away from the "AS7-D" designation!

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Tags: Battletech | Mech Overview | Assault Mech | atlas ii | atlas iii