Sleet and hail pounded against Guinevere’s cockpit as I followed close at Enoch’s side, my Lancelot trudging through the building snow with dogged determination and the creaking mechanical groan that the cold always brought with it. Vast snow banks had formed in the scant half hour we had been venturing up the slope, casting Kalidasa’s light in smudged puddles that shifted and spun across the ground. The howling wind and ripping precipitation blotted out the sky around us more and more with every passing moment, it had not been long before Ulrich had been forced ever higher to escape its grasping claws, a feat we could only dream of. The range’s hate came down upon us, greedily guarding the ancient secret that dwelled amongst its vast complexes.

Carver and Pauleen shared my trepidation at our situation. The pair’s monstrous machines bogging down in the driving snow all the same as myself and Quinlan. It was nearly too much for any ‘Mech to handle now. Feet upon feet of powdery snow building and swirling around us had driven our comms silent, seemingly for fear that one word at the wrong moment might bury us beneath the mountain’s anger.

Enoch, though, was far from worried at the loss of our aircover, or predicament. No, I could feel it in him, see it in the gait of Fang’s step as he pushed on at the head of our Star, the Seeker was excited. His Spartan swung from side to side, scanning every rock, cave mouth, and crevice that we passed for something, anything, to indicate a ‘Mech scale entrance into the Castle Port under our feet.

He stopped, the flat of snow sloughing from the top of his ‘Mech like a wave on the beach as he spun left, an arm shooting up to point at a drift with an open, yawning mouth at its top. “There! My vision guides us there. Yeoman Carver, Pauleen, investigate and carve a path.”

“At once, Seeker.” Carver grunted, a biting shiver in his voice as his and Pauleen’s Kodiaks waded through the snow ahead of us, stopping a few meters short of the drift.

“There is… Something, Enoch.” Pauleen affirmed, the chatter of her teeth abating rapidly as she and Carver raised their ‘Mechs fists up and on target, sending a deluge of laser fire into the piling snow. The snow yielded, but only just as they lowered their fists, their ‘Mechs radiating steam in the frozen air.

“Darius, Quinlan,” Enoch began, his Spartan striding a few paces behind the pair of Kodiaks, “lend them a hand, Quiaff?”

“Aff, and you, Seeker?” I asked, easing Guinevere around Quinlan’s Battle Cobra to take up position on Pauleen’s side.

“I will attempt to contact Ulrich.” He answered, his Spartan turning to face the muted sun as we set to work. “Great Father willing we will have Harbinger Analise, Footman Hansen and his recovery crew landing within the hour.”

—

The ice and snow were thick, steadfast and reluctant to budge even beneath Guinevere’s searing pulses as Carver and Pauleen pulled with all that their monstrosities could manage. Slowly but surely the shattering crack of splitting ice rang out across the mountain range around us, its echoes snatched away but for a whisper by the howling winds. Carver and Pauleen’s shoulders sagged as the heavy ice slabs fell away and slid down the mountain’s slope, disappearing into the white haze of the storm.

The door we’d uncovered was nothing short of tremendous. A sprawling expanse of metal clad in long flaking paint that heralded all manner of units that had once called the complex home. I reached up, tripping Guinevere’s comm set on to hail the Seeker. “Seeker Enoch, we are through the obstruction. Have you had any luck with Ulrich?”

“Aff, I have.” He returned, the soft return of his ‘Mech’s footsteps registering in Guinevere’s tracking systems as he approached. “The Harbinger and Footmen will arrive as planned. Has the door come open?”

“Neg, Seeker, we have saved the cracking of your prize for you.” The set fuzzed at my answer, static bursting on the line as the wind redoubled down on us.

“Perfect. Carver, Pauleen, Quinlan prepare yourselves, we will be there momentarily.”

Guinevere creaked in the wind as I awaited the Seeker’s approach, watching as the man trudged past in his machine before falling in at his side. The walk was short, if slow, as we trudged through the growing drifts. The Seeker’s gait had grown all the more excited, as much as he may have attempted to hide it, his Spartan all but plowing through the snow as we went.

He was nervous, and understandably so. Such an undertaking could make a Seeker, earn him a chance to seize a bloodname for his own. Earn glory and accolades for all those who had helped him reach his goal and cement them all in the remembrance.

It could also break them.

I had seen and heard far too many stories of Seekers returning home empty handed, or not at all. The sphere was, at times, not kind to those who held any morsel of hope in their heart. Centuries of fondling every rock the Spheroids could get their hands on had worn away much of the past’s glory and left behind bleached bones picked clean in the sun where one was lucky to find rotten meat, let alone anything of use. And yet…

And yet I could not help but feel his excitement all the same. Could not help but to bite at the growing feeling that his vision had led true, that all of our work and searching had led us to what we had sought. Had led us to glory and what may well be the find of a lifetime.

Enoch stopped, his Spartan barely a meter from the sprawling doors, the machine stock still as I watched them. Eddies of snow spun and danced around the ‘Mech’s feet, the howl of falling snow abated as the fine powder settled into every nook and cranny of the machine. The haze faded, new, burgeoning light spattering the Seeker and the wall before him as the storm at our back wheezed and fell still.

His arm raised, ferro-fibrous clad fingers dragging down the outside of the old iron with a whispering whine as fresh frost and ancient paint peeled away all the same, fluttering to the ground as the Spartan’s shoulder rose with the Seeker within. “Quinlan. Transmit the code.”

“Aff, Seeker.” The young ‘Mechwarrior whispered after a beat of silence.

Seeker Enoch stepped back, stopping a stride to my left as the doors grated and ground to life, whining and squealing on their tracks as they slid back into the walls of the vast mountain complex. The man advanced with a whisper as the door’s retreat stopped with a ground shaking clatter of ancient machinery.

“Destiny awaits.”

— Yeoman Darius, Escorpión Imperio, Seeker Galaxy Lancelot C Pilot. Kalidasa, Free World’s League, May 18th 3139.

—

Howdy ‘Mechwarriors and welcome back to another ‘Mech Overview! This week we take a look at an incredibly funny Cavalry heavy that traces its lineage all the way back from the 2580s on to the modern day in the IlClan!

The Lancelot is a weird duck in its weight class. Where some other IS cavalry heavies will endeavor to be more brick than hammer the Lancelot, at least on paper, is aiming far more for the hammer category and as such ends up sacrificing a good clip of its possible armor load to pack as much as it can for guns. Lancelots are often defined by acceptable enough armor, a 6/9 movement profile, and a whole lot of primary armament energy guns.

That said this is an IS battlemech with nearly 600 years of service life so there are a lot of variants that do a lot of odd things along the way with the platform so the Lancelot really can’t be drawn into a real box per-se. Really it’s a lot of similarly shaped dudes sitting around a table discussing the finer points of being a 60 ton cavalry heavy!

Maybe it’s a round table…

Who knows! All I know is it’s time to get into it and start poking around at what makes this weird lookin’ motherfucker tick!

Lancelot. Credit: Rockfish

Variant

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).

LNC25-01

Behold this absolute slab of A1 wagyu… Chicken?

Well it sure as shit ain’t beef.

The -01 Lancelot is a true Cavalry Heavy ‘Mech. Hailing from the distant past of 2581 the -01 represents an ancient pile of star league technology and design that is actually quite competent for its age. Packing a pair of standard Large Lasers, a PPC, and a Medium Laser this machine wants to run in and get to work on some targets all the while doing its best to dictate the engagement by using its 6/9 movement profile to kite it’s bigger, slower opponents into the right position for the rest of its force to come down on it like a hammer. Now, for cooling we’ve got a wonderful surprise for a machine this old: 13 double heat sinks! This means that popping off both LLs and the PPC we build movement up until you’re within 3 hexes where you should drop the PPC for the Medium Laser to sink out all your heat!

The Armor is…

Well I mean it’s there. It’s just not very much. I’ll lay it out because a lot of Lancelots carry this exact same profile: 14 on the arms and legs, 16 on the side torsos, 21 on the CT and 7 on the head. Also 10/16/10 on the rear? God that’s a lot of back armor. I understand that it’s because, as a Cavalry ‘Mech, it has a high propensity of possibly catching shots into the aft quarter but good god. Does it really need to be able to take a PPC on either side torso and a pair of LLs to the CT? It does lead to the kinda fun dynamic where, if your frontal armor is waning, you can flip the large lasers and go after some one with your back for a turn or two to try and soak some extra damage!

For 1,422 BV I honestly quite like the -01 Lancelot. It’s a perfectly cromulent fast cavalry heavy which is something I feel like we often lack in the space!

Liberty’s Rating: B-. It’s no world winner but I don’t know that I’d ever be terribly sad to have it around for its price! Shame the Reaches don’t get them, this thing is a peak Marshal Heavy ‘Mech build.

LNC25-01X

-01 2, X designation boogaloo!

This is a -01 with four changes:

The Large Lasers are now ER Large Lasers
There are 4 jump jets
The armor is ferro-fibrous, but the same amount of protection
The structure is Endo Steel

I’ll be honest I really wish that the tonnage bought with the structure and armor changes had gone into heat sinks and armor. It’s the same movement profile but now it can jump 4 which it wasn’t really wanting in the first place. Sure it can fire off the two ERLLs at a run with no heat but now the PPC is just… kinda there?

For 1,659 BV this is something I would be kinda annoyed about having in my hand, actually.

Liberty’s Rating: D+. It’s still a fast heavy with a usable heat profile but that is a pretty big drop in functional DPS that I am not exactly a fan of.

LNC25-02

Time, and various orbital bombardment campaigns, gets us all in the Sphere and the Lancelot is no different.

The -02 here is the one we all knew was coming: The Succession Wars downgrade.

The Combine apparently had a pretty good stockpile of -01s before the succession wars and as time went on they slowly but surely lacked the parts necessary to keep them up and running. This right here is where the Lancelot’s reputation as a shitbot comes from. Sure it only costs 1,236 BV and it still packs the same weapons load as the -01 but now it only moves 4/6, has the same ‘fine enough for a cavalry ‘Mech’ armor and only sinks 19 heat.

Rough.

Following the fire order it wants to do like the -01 before it will send the -02 up 7+Movement on heat which is not great when you don’t have any movement to spare in the first place. There are a few patterns you can work with mixing the weapons, like movement heat on the 3 lasers and just using the PPC as a slightly longer ranged plinker, but it’s still a drop in DPS that is rather disappointing, even if it obviously follows the price drop.

They say any ‘Mech is better than no ‘Mech but man is this a depressing fall from grace. I’d’ve almost rathered they dropped the PPC for either an ML, some more armor and heatsinks or another LL and a fistful more Heat sinks to give it something to work with but this is what we’ve got. It’s still usable but man is it sad to see a real Cavalry heavy fall on its own sword.

Liberty’s Rating: D+. Sad to see it but it still has a use as a 1200 BV shit can to throw at something, it’s unlikely to be instantly unmade without ammo but it won’t take long for it to fall apart.

LNC25-03

This is really how we’re doing this? Ok, sure, whatever, go off, Knight.

The -03 is an odd duck that is one of those weird ‘ok well the succession wars are on and we have to do something about this’ ‘Mechs that always confuse the shit out of me. Firstly, the armor has been buffed to AC/20 proof all over, though the rear is 7/10/7 now, which is a marked improvement. Second, the speed has spun down to 5/8 by the use of a 300XL engine instead of a 360. Third, the 13 doubles are now 10 doubles.

Then comes the guns…

The large lasers are AC/5s now? The one ton of ammo is in a CASE bay next to the engine in the left torso while the PPC continues to hang out in the right torso. So we are very negative on heat, like -3 firing everything off. I kinda see where this is going design wise and understand it as an oddball transition point that just ends up in ComStar stocks for a while after the lion’s share of them get whacked in the fires of the succession wars.

I also don’t understand why this?

Like yea it’s only 1,360 BV but what in the hell is going on here? Why did we ditch the large lasers? I assume the down engine path was done to fit the AC/5s and the armor but why not just do the speed change, keep the lasers, add the armor, and give it some other weird shit?

Strange.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. I mean it’s usable and AC/5s aren’t bad weapons I’m just befuddled how we got here, ya’ know?

Lancelot. Credit: Jack Hunter

LNC25-04

BLAKE’S BEARD, RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM? IN MY TELEPHONE COMPANY? More likely than you’d think!

The -04 is a ComStar rebuild in 3060 that sees use by both secular ComStar and the Word. It’s an odd but usable enough duck that has a mildly upgraded armor package that up-armors everything just a touch. Not to the levels of the -03 but still better than its old lineage. The old 6/9 movement profile is still present and looking at it I could be fooled into believing this was just an old -01X that got tooled up a touch for the ‘modern’ age.

Packing a pair of ERLLs and an ERPPC the -04 ditches its old Medium Laser in exchange for a C3i and uses the extra weight left over from the structure and armor swaps to buy an extra heat sink bringing the total to 14. This means it builds 1+movement on an alpha strike which is workable enough.

At 1,640 BV this thing wants to be one of your backline strikers taking advantage of its extra long range to be EXTRA ANNOYING in a C3 net. The price is liable to bloat fast and its only a pair of 8 pointers and a 10 point hit but I can certainly see some work getting done with a judicious use of restraint in its friends.

Liberty’s Rating: C+. It’s fine enough on its own as a cavalry hitter with some alright guns. In a tournament it can objective dork or harass, whatever you really need it to do while being resilient enough to take a little bit of punishment for a few rounds, the cool dood we wanted the -01X to be!

LNC25-05

INFANTRY GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUY!!! GO AWAY YOU FUCKER.

Yea, he’s been here. God forbid he keep his fucking hands off shit he shouldn’t be touching.

The -05 is a -01 that’s ditched 2 heat sinks and the Medium Laser to pick up 4 machine guns and a whole ton of ammo for them.

Christ.

This has made it go up 4+movement on an alpha which is uh… not great, but can still be played around in the right spaces. You’re gonna bounce from 6/9 to 5/8 a bunch but I believe in you, you can manage it. No the real problem here is the fact that that’s a full ton of ammo plopped square in the CT. That is a lot of ammo for those guns to work through, 50 turns to be precise.

The MGs are in the arms so anytime you have a possible shot with them you may as well fire them but you are never going to empty that bin, nor get it anywhere that it matters. The new playtest ammo rules won’t even save you because it has 20 total CT structure so if it pops you do.

For 1,365 BV it could be worse but it could also be way better… like the -01 they used to brutalize into this terrible form. In reality the best track to this goal was probably to drop that PPC for a third LL and use the extra tonnage for some more heat sinks so it could just run around as a weird infantry mulching Laser Awesome.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. It’s still usable but man is it a lot worse than the -01 before it. Stop breaking things to appease the infantry man, guys, he’ll never truly be happy until you build him a neutron wave gun.

LNC25-06

Oh there are computers up in this bitch, makin’ weird noises and shit… OH GOD DAMMIT, WHY DO YOU WOBBIE FUCKS KEEP DOING THIS?

Ok. Take a -04. Have it? Cool. Now, swap the ERPPC for a normal PPC. Drop 2 heat sinks. Swap your normal fucking cockpit for a small one and stuff the C3i up there with it. Also the Gyro is an XL now. So, what did we do all these weight saving actions for?

Targeting Computer.

Look, Targeting Computers are cool, I like Targeting Computers a lot. I do not like them enough to fuck the rest of the ‘Mech over to have them. This is 1,661 BV for a machine that has a PPC that it will probably never use outside of a C3 net because doing so in concert with the big guns will send it up 10+movement on heat.

Both ERLLs builds movement heat, which is a little annoying but workable, while one ERLL and the PPC is heat neutral on the run. I figure that’s probably your best bet and, in a C3 net where their relative ranges largely won’t matter, is probably for the best. But then I ask the question:

Why aren’t they both PPCs and then have some defensive armaments with the left over tonnage?

That’s what I keep coming back to with these ‘-01 but I fucked with it in wrong and stupid ways’ that we keep getting. Why didn’t you just pick one. Many of these Lancelots, despite often coming from the Jihad era, seem to have a bad case of new toy syndrome and its quite disappointing because the idea is there. The ‘fuck you I’m a bad bitch’ award is just within reach but so often they fail to truly just reach out and fucking take it.

Liberty’s Raging: D+. 1600 BV for a pair of fucking ERLLs with acceptable armor and movement heat is too much in my book.

LNC25-08

JUSTIFICATION

The -08 is, seemingly, the defacto justification for why the -03 exists. The -08 is a -06 that has had some fiddling done with it so that it can do what the -08 was attempting to do before it but in strange, and very funny, ways.

For one the armament is very reminiscent of the -03 with a pair of LB-5s, each with one ton of ammo next to them, and a PPC. The armor of the -06 has been down tuned, becoming light ferro-fibrous, to allow it the room to mount up its new toys.

The 10 double heat sinks are more than enough to eat the heat generated and leave the -08 -6 on heat on a running alpha strike. There is a mild issue here that all of these guns have a 3 hex minimum range but it’s fine enough to deal with when you realize one thing:

This fucking thing is only 1,162 BV.

That’s it.

I can forgive a lot of fucking sins, including a small cockpit, for that price. Paying to correct the small cockpit problem takes this thing up to 1,278, a BV I am all too happy to pay for a zippy weirdo who is just waiting for his moment to bathe an open armor plate in shotgun shells.

Love this weirdo. Shame the only ones to ever get it are the fuckin’ Wobbies. I should talk to the Force Marshal about making a secular version of this thing, shit’s cash and I know the boys’d love it.

Liberty’s Rating: B. Genuinely at this price and with this level of utility I love the -08 and regularly field it in my mercenary force because it’s just so nice to have around. A particularly enterprising Merc could keep this old girl alive… probably.

Hastati Sentinels Lancelot. Credit: Jack Hunter

LNC25-09

IT IS THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 3147 AND BROTHER I’VE GOT NEW TOYS. THE DRAGON BE PLEASED.

The -09 is a real weirdo of a ‘Mech for its time but I love it for what it is: A weirdo fuckhead Clan boat. The ERLLs? Clan. The old Medium Laser? A Clan MPL. The PPC? A Plasma rifle with 2 tons of ammo. The heat sinks? 15 IS Doubles. The Engine? Still an IS XL. The speed? Still fast as fuck boi at 6/9.

I changed my mind, the Force Marshal should be buying this fucking thing. It’s all my little Marshal heart has ever desired. Heat wise you’ve got a pair of pretty good profiles: The ERLLs and the MPL on the run are heat neutral while one ERLL, the MPL, and the Plasma are -2 on the run! An Alpha kicks you up 8+movement which is a bit much but still workable enough.

AC/20 proof armor, damned good guns, workable heat profiles and the capacity to be incredibly annoying to no end is a wonderful thing and I’m honestly willing to pay 2,099 BV for this absolute weirdo of a Cavalry ‘Mech. Honestly surprised Peri hasn’t ever tried to beat me to death with this thing.

Liberty’s Rating: B-. Holy shit that’s a sick Cavalry Heavy. I love it, and live in fear that I have brought it to Peri’s attention. The Temu stormcrow that will now haunt my dreams.

C

-01s are cool. Have you considered making them cooler?

Take a -01, and rip that dumb IS shit out of it. Cool, now put it on an endo chassis and stuff a clan 360XL in there with 16 clan heat sinks.

The guns? Oh, yeah: 3 cLPLs.

That’s it.

What? You wanted more? You are greedy, silly spheroid. Your hubris will be your downfall and the Scorpion’s victory.

This thing is 1,960 BV of ‘you aren’t allowed to have Light ‘Mechs unless I fucking say you are and I love it to bits.

Liberty’s Rating: B+. Lights are fake, simply choose that they aren’t real.

C2

CLAN INFANTRY GUY, FUCK OFF NOBODY WANTS YOU HERE.

The C2 is another harsh on the -01 but play sit a little closer to its chest. For one it retains the old weapon profile of two lasers and one PPC, a pair of cERLLs and a cERPPC filling in for them. It’s got the old movement profile plus a MASC to give it the occasional zip up to 12, unfortunately, and… a pair of Flamers?

Ya know, ‘cause what this pile of ER guns needed was flamers, not more heat sinks. The 17 double heat sinks are fighting a losing battle only sinking 34 against the C2’s alpha of 45-47 heat. You can knock that down to 39-41 if you drop the flamers but that’s still 5-7 heat up the scale firing off your bank of primary guns. You could bank it down every other turn by dropping an ERLL but at the price of 2,571 BV I really feel like I shouldn’t have to.

Liberty’s Rating: D. God that fucker’s expensive and fiddly for it. God dammit.

Final Thoughts

The Lancelot is an incredibly weird ‘Mech that, for the most part, got it right in one with the -01. Some of them stack up but largely they’re some real weirdos. If you’ve got the chance to run the -01, -08, -09, or C then you should! The -02 is largely fine and good to toss to the wolves as part of an expendable force but otherwise its heat issues make me sad.

Until next time! Fair weather, good seas, and happy running-fast-and-playing-with-laser-swords!

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