Ancient relics were hard to come by, ancient relics that still worked were unheard of. She was the only one of her kind this side of the Periphery, let alone this side of the Sphere. A machine that by all accounts should have been a museum piece. A curio kept for posterity far from the savages of the modern battlefield and all the pain and destruction that came with it.

And yet here we were.

Centuries of wear and tear whispered and groaned through Six Iron’s joints and myomer bundles as we soldiered on through the gleaming ice and dancing snow that flitted through the ancient glacial gorges around us. The Mackie under me was far from new, and even farther from pristine. She bore the parts of countless other 100 ton machines my family had slain, salvaged, and made work.

The knee actuators of an Atlas, the torso bundles pulled from a King Crab, the cockpit salvaged from the remains of what little was left of my great-great-great grandfather's Devastator after it had been shot out from underneath of it. She was a hodgepodge of every assault that had ever followed in her footsteps and then some.

Spirit’s old Dalban Comline crackled to life, letting Abilene’s voice filter into my neuro helm from her Firebee a few clicks to my west. “Hanlan. I’ve got something. Bearing 077 from your position, moving fast on Kite.”

Pirates.

“Understood, Abilene. Keep an eye on them, Ardennais Lance and I will begin moving to intercept. Get yourselves somewhere useful and have the rest of Colt Lance in position to strike when we kick off.” My ‘Mech hauled over as I spoke, surveying the bearing Abilene’d given us before I brought her the rest of the way over to look at Rodney and his Ymir for a moment.

“Yea, Hanlan?” The surly older Marshal grunted, his primitive Ymir’s posture slack, low, and relaxed as he strode to my side.

“We’ve got company. You and Warmblood ready to get a move on?”

“Ready as we can be in this cold.” Rodney chuffed, the ‘Mech beneath him straightening up a little as Calen’s Icarus and Amy’s Thunderbolt trundled into view out of the blinding snow.

“Then let’s get moving.”

Marshal Hanlan Romer, Fronc Reaches, Colonial Marshal Mackie MSK-9HKR Pilot. Rockwellawan, Fronc Reaches, April 4th 3131.

—

Howdy Mechwarriors and welcome back to the Mech Review! This week I’ve once again escaped the Omni-mines and have ventured out into the brave… old world? Well, whatever it is this thing’s older than dirt and tougher than boots. In the bay today we have the first walking monster to ever step off a production line. The first big boy to grace the wings of a dropship. The OG Mech that the Star League shat out onto the then modern battlefield. The machine that changed warfare within the Sphere forever. The machine that set the world we know in motion.

The father of all ‘Mechs.

The Mackie.

Colonel Charles Kincaid, hallowed and respected be his name, would pilot the first ‘Mech to step onto a firing line and let slugs and particles fly. In this original test run Colonel Kincaid stepped up to the plate and wasted a quartet of remote-controlled Merkava Heavy Tanks. By some reports I have heard he may have punted over the last one which, if true…

Mad respect, happy to know stomping on tankers and the potent desire for physical violence has always been the trait of the ‘Mechwarrior.

So, what makes this old bucket so special? Well, let’s get our hands dirty and dive on in.

Mackie. Credit: Rockfish

—

Chassis

The Mackie is the statement of the Star League. A testament to the grandeur of House Cameron’s arrogance and the lengths of military expenditures that they so happily dove into to get ahead of the rest of the Great Houses in their day. They started with a full body 100 tonner; now, is it an efficient use of the size?

No.

But does it grow into something that genuinely picks up its mantle and soldiers on into the breach?

You bet your fuckin’ bippy it does.

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).

MSK-5S

Man… them OG ‘Mechwarriors must’ve been built real different to clamber up into these fucking things.

Holy fuck this thing is a bucket.

Clad in 70% of a 100 tonners armor load, 214 points, while moving 3/5 and packing a CT mounted Large Laser, a right arm AC/5, and a prototype PPC the 5S Mack is not exactly well armed by the standards of today but it’s not terribly expensive either.

At 1,401 BV its at least a pseudo brick that can take a bit of hammering before giving up its relatively large ghost. Now, this is hampered by the fact that the left torso is empty and the right torso is not but a singular ton of AC/5 ammo. CASE wasn’t real yet, in this house we stop existing in the fires of an ammo explosion like real ‘Mechwarriors.

Cooling wise we’ve got 17 Single heat sinks which gives us either the prototype PPC’s 15 heat and a run for heat neutral fire, the PPC and the AC/5 for movement -1, and the whole lot of it for movement heat +7. This is… surprisingly workable?

The armor is a bit weird but also serviceable if you’re just viewing it as the advancing brick, 24 on the arms, 28 on the legs, 20 on the side torsos, and 31 on the CT. All the rear torsos are given 10 pips of armor. This is also known as being a worse, slow, 3E Banshee for 21 less BV.

Liberty’s Rating: D. Honestly this is surprisingly functional? I don’t even really hate it. In about all cases I’d rather have that 3E Banshee but even still. In the weird world where this is what you’ve got I mean… why not?

MSK-6S

Guns get bigger, heat gets bigger, sinks get lesser… Wait, what?

Take the 5S. Rotate it in your mind palace. Now, remove the Large Laser, the AC/5, and 2 of the heat sinks. Do you have it? The big man with his bourbon barrel PPC arm?

Good.

Now, replace the missing guns and heat sinks with an AC/10 and a pair of Medium Lasers.

What was that? Heat problems? Movement heat with just the fucked up and weird prototype PPCs and negative a fair bit when you get close and give ‘em the AC/10 and bother laser barrels. The left torso is still empty and the right has two tons of ammo in it now but honestly this is better than the 5S at a paltry increase of 37 BV to a total of 1,438 BV.

Honestly, I dig it?

Liberty’s Rating: D+. I like big guns and for cheap enough bricks that just soldier on to try and get someone this will certainly manage the job… It’ll be hot doing it but it’ll do it!

MSK-7A

DEAR GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THAT RIGHT TORSO?

So, the 7A is the true brick. The man amongst Mackie men. A true blue ‘I’m going there and you need to stop me from doing it’ 100 tonner clad in 99% armor for the frame, as all remaining Mackies are. The 7A takes the venerable old frame and loads it down with armor, guns, and heat sinks to make a heavy, slow moving gun platform as all Assaults are truly meant to be.

Packing in a PPC, a pair of Large Lasers, and an AC/20 with 4 tons of ammo stowed in the right torso the 7A is a good fire support platform that comes in at 1,900 BV. Cooling wise you can efficiently ripple off the PPC and one LL to be at -1 even at a run or you can drop the PPC when you get in close and hammer off both LLs and the cannon for a solid 2+Movement heat.

I am begining to fuck with this. I love an AC/20 and I especially love an AC/20 with a good ammo load. The potential for this thing to just meander around a field slinging precision ammo at anything that dares to get to close while being an absolute bastard of a brick cannot really be understated. While there are plenty of things that can do the job just fine and dandy none of them do it with the kind of legacy an ancient Mackie carries.

Liberty’s Rating: C. Honestly? I can see some real use in this thing to get some work done and some ‘Mechs chopped down good and low!

Mackie Battlemech

Mackie Credit: Perigrin

(Sidebar: Look at that old Mackie Model. God I fucking love him. He's such a god damned doofus. Look at my little idiot son.)

MSK-8B

Things are beginning to take shape.

Take a 7A, rip out the Large lasers and use the gained tonnage to buy a couple things:

Another PPC
2 Medium lasers
The last bit of armor to make it 100% coverage
And CASE for the bomb.

These upgrades bring it to a clean 2,019 BV for a machine with some real longevity, fire slinging, and hate to give on the heavy. At range you ripple off 2 PPCs and go up Movement - 1 and when things get in close you drop one PPC to go up 2 + movement.

Now this? This I’m starting to love.

Liberty’s Rating: C+. This is a real, actual, good and usable frontline advancing brick. With its main death route dealt with and the damage scales a bit more balanced at range I quite like what the 8B is trying to do. Things are getting somewhere and you’re gonna love where we end up soon enough.

MSK-9H

8B but a little to the right.

The 9H is an 8B that has traded a heat sink to get a Beagle active probe. The right torso is now only explosives and that’s… well that’s about it.

Also the price went up 3 BV to 2,022. Peri uses this one the most and I think it might be because they never looked at the 8B? This really is like a -.25 8B.

Liberty’s Rating: C+ but like slightly less of a C+ than the 8B.

MSK-9HKR ‘Kill-Roy’s Little Buddy’

The Crem-de-la-crem of the Mackie Faring Cities.

The Kill Roy is the zenith of all Mackie design. Built for use in the Star League’s Desert Wars portion of the Martial Olympiad the Killroy is a special case unit amongst Mackies. Acting as a refit for the venerable 9H the 9HKR takes the old ‘Mech’s bones and gives it a new flair.

Retaining the double mounted PPCs in the left arm the Right arm has left barren and empty while the CT retains its usual pair of MLs. Add to that that we’ve swapped the 21 single heat sinks for 13 doubles and we’ve got a lot of tonnage. So, where’d that Tonnage go?

Simple: A pair of LB-10s in the side torsos with two tons of ammo a piece in CASE protected bays.

Heat wise you either fire off both PPCs and both LB-10s on a run for neutral heat or when you press in to 3 hexes or less you drop one PPC go negative on heat and fire off both MLs to make up the damage delta.

Honestly sounds incredibly fun.

For 2,162 BV this can be considered a bit pricy but for how much utility a good pair of LB-10s can give you I think it’s well worth it.

Liberty’s Rating: B+. I crave nothing more than for Colonial Tractors to decide to start rolling the ‘Force Marshal’s Little Buddy’ off the line this god damned instant. Give it to me, I need it to live.

Final Thoughts

Mackies are, despite their age, fucking sick. I’m gonna have to speak with the President about pushing on Colonial Tractors to get a line spun up to make some 8Bs or 9HKRs or something because this is perfect.

In all seriousness I’d love to see some modernized Mackies hit the scene. I think there’s plenty of life left for the old chassis that should have been breathed into it in the Dark Ages and whatnot when all the primitive lines spun back up for a while. I’d love to see what horrid things we could get up to with the Mackie’s usual body plan. Give me some real abominations, Catalyst, I’m begging you.

Until next time! Fair weather, good seas and happy stomping-on-tankers-until-the-armor-pops-ing!

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Tags: Battletech | mechwarrior | battlemech | Mech | Mackie