The ancient Stalker shuddered and shook beneath me as we ground to a halt and surveyed the base in the valley below. The sensors were less than useless as they spat out ghost after ghost, biting on every fake trace the twisting morass of dust and toxic fumes that laced this desolate rock’s forsaken face spat out. Why the Scorpion Empire would set up shop here Major Collum couldn’t, or wouldn’t, tell us- but whatever they had would be more than worth the effort.

“Lieutenant, what’ve you got?” Yavin grumbled, his ruddy Archer stepping into view on my left as I peered down at the dimly lit depot.

“Looks like a fistful of tanks, couple of industrials, maybe a star of light ‘Mechs.” I answered, sending a notification back to the Major and the rest of our company to make way to us. I’d have words for the scout lance that they’d managed to miss a facility like this. “That ‘Mechbay look bigger than it should be to you, Sargent?”

The man paused, his Archer panning across the facility as Karrie’s Axman trod into view. “That’s… an Assault class bay? Out here?”

“What in the hell is the Major getting us into?” Karrie asked, the familiar rattle of her launchers loading whispering in her commline.

“I’m not sure but I’m not a fan.” I grumbled, fiddling with the old Spar 3c tracking set hanging over my head before letting out a frustrated growl, smacking an open palm against the old machine’s side. “Damned sensors still won’t give a clear read.”

“Not that they’d help us much at this point. Whatever it is, we'll just have to get eyes on.” Thompson laughed, holding up his Victor’s gauss arm before continuing. “And when’n we do I’ll be happy to knock the uppity Clanner on his ass courtesy of Collum’s Crushers.”

“Have to deal with it either way. Better get back and wai-” I started, taking a step back only to be cut short as the head of Thompson’s Victor disappeared in a flash of particles and arcing lightning.

“THOMPSON!? F-FUCK, TARGET UP!” Karrie shouted, her Axman running left, sending a heavy flight of missiles down on the lumbering brick of armor and weapons that had stepped from the shadow of the hangar only a moment before.

I stopped, planting my feet and doing my best to lay the Stalker’s boxes on target as Yavin scrambled to the right, narrowly dodging the trail of a gauss slug. “Put rounds on and back down, we can’t take this fight for long.” The Stalker howled as the missiles flew free, a symphony of thrusters and flaming trails that fell like a hammer on the strange machine’s armor, covering it in blossoming explosions and kicking up dust and dirt around its feet.

“Mercenaries.” A static filled voice barged into our comm channel, overbearing Yavin’s response as the man scrambled back, laying a flight of missiles that billowed smoke and sputtering fire a few yards short of the advancing ‘Mech. “I am Star Colonel Gemen of the Scorpion Empire. You have entered a restricted area and are ordered to disperse at once or be destroyed.”

“Eat shit, Clanner!” Karrie growled, her Axman flying skyward on a plume of plasma, axe held high as she came down towards the waiting ‘Mech.

“Karrie No!” I shouted, watching my friend throw herself into the jaws of death as the Star Colonel took a step back and hauled his ‘Mech’s arms skyward.

“Destruction it is.” The man growled, pouring fire into Karrie’s Axman as my Stalkers targeting system shouted about new contacts in my rear.

I’m gonna kill the Major if I get out of this…

— Mercenary Lieutenant Michael ‘The Hammer’ Holtenet, Collum’s Crushers Mercenary Company. Unidentified Asteroid, Deep Periphery, Scorpion Empire, May 11th 3145.

—

Howdy ‘Mechwarriors and welcome back to another ‘Mech overview! This week we get to go on down to the land fill and look a- Wait, what? That’s not a garbage truck? Oh this is a fire support ‘Mech?

Huh, ok.

This week we’re taking a look at the timeless boxiness of the Stalker series! Originally a Star League design this big brick was also a good friend and longtime mainstay of the Free Worlds League and, of course, the Lyran Commonwealth. Not quite as versatile as some of the other options for firesupport ‘Mechs that abound throughout the ‘sphere the Stalker is a big brick with a purpose and an acceptable intent of how to manage it.

There are a lot of Stalkers, 16 to be specific, that span from the time of the Star League all the way up to the modern IlClan era! That’s a lot of toys to look through between the normal versions, the II, the named ones and… this random one that’s 75 tons instead? Odd.

Well, let’s get into it and see what we’ve got!

Stalker. Credit: porble

Chassis

The Stalker is a very consistent machine in that it knows what its here for: Long Range Fire Support. Every Stalker is trying to do some version of this function in one way or another. Sometimes as a missile boat, sometimes as an energy boat, but always with a focus on a primarily long ranged armament backed up by a healthy short range engagement envelope usually comprised of SRMs and/or a bevy of medium lasers.

Stalkers are, as a rule, quite well armored and make good use of their relative tech bases for the time they’re built in, even if a lot of them have a craving to be a bomb at any given moment. The one thing they all share is that they go 3/5.

Slow, like a real garbage truck!

Peri: Quick note here about Stalkers, the majority of them are absolutely packed with ammo, so this is one of the mechs that benefits from the current playtest ammo explosion rules the most. Stalkers are tough enough to walk off an ammo explosion with the new damage caps, which makes them quite a bit better on the whole.

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).

STK-3F

Old, tried, and true.

The 3F is a baseline, almost platonic, Stalker. The original really doesn’t have anything wrong with it, other than the explosives and mildly poor heat management.

Armament wise we set the tone for what Stalkers are meant to be doing:

An LRM10 with their respective ton of ammo, and pair of Medium Lasers, in each arm.
A large laser and an SRM with its ton of ammo in each side torso.
20 single heat sinks.

This layout means you go up 26 on a running alpha strike, which is fine as that is not what this ‘Mech is for. At long range you want to be dropping both LRMs on target with one Large Laser for backing. Once you get in closeish you drop the LRMs for the LLs to go to 18/20 heat on the run and then at 3 hexes you build movement heat hammering off all the short range guns.

Honestly for 1,559 BV this is a great price to pay for an 82% armored 85 tonner that has mostly real gun for every range. The 3F is liable to contribute something every game even if its just getting beaten to death on the way across the table while it does its best to support the rest of your formation.

Liberty’s Rating: C. I’m a sucker for a good, cheap brick of armor and mostly useful guns and this thing very much fits that bracket. No notes, except for maybe some CASE, bigger launchers, and some DHS but I’m sure we’ll get there!

STK-3Fb

Oh boy! We’re there! That was fast!

The Royal is, as they often are, just a 3F+.

Swapping the 20 single heat sinks for 17 doubles, ditching the SRM launchers, and picking up an ECM suite, and some armor. Now, with all this freed up weight the 3Fb does some real good overhaul work on the primary armament!

Becoming a full blooded support platform the Fb swaps the LRM10s and LLs for Artemis IV equipped LRM15s and ERLLs! Note that it only builds movement heat firing off the long range guns which is a pretty great thing to be for a big box that wants to park up on the hill and hammer down hate on targets the rest of the force is sweeping on.

For 2,029 BV we’ve gone up in price a bit but the ability to eat an ammo explosion and keep going does a lot to boost the Fb’s survivability over its intro tech counterpart. Add to that that the full brunt of its laser volley, for when the opponent is ‘under the gun’ on the LRM boxes, is only 2+movement heat wise which is not bad at all.

Liberty’s Rating: B-. A very competent fire support brick that can defend itself and take a beating for a while while still costing a reasonable enough price is absolutely fine by me!

Stalker. Credit: Rockfish

STK-3H

BIGGER BOXES FOR BIGGER HITS

Large Lasers are lame. You should get rid of them so you can have bigger LRM boxes.

That’s it, that’s the change. This is a 3F that has dropped the LLs to pickup LRM20s instead of 10s. Same secondary armament, same heat sink load, same ammo load. That said this thing is ice cold at long range since it’s -6 on a run with both LRM boxes, and it has an actual chance to empty the boxes in a game as it will only take 6 rounds to dump them all down range.

For 1,624 BV this is honestly the Stalker I most often trot out with my Colonial Marshals, it’s cheap, still tough, and once the boxes are empty it wades in and starts hammering things down with the secondaries.

Love him.

Liberty’s Rating: B. Cheap, useful, and good on heat. What more can a Periphery cowboy need? (It’s separation from supply lines, good god this thing is bad for a protracted campaign and the Force Marshal is upset at me for my constant resupply requests)

Peri: The 3H is one of the better introtech shitbox LRM mechs. It can pretty rapidly dump its ammo and then wade in to close combat with its significant close in firepower. If your opponent tries to dive it to stop the LRMs before you can empty them, you shoot them with your close in guns. By the time 6 turns have passed a lot of mechs are going to have been pretty badly damaged, and the 3H is very frequently going to be basically undamaged, having hung back to lob LRMs for most of a game, and if it is fighting half of an enemy assault/heavy mech, it is going to be eating pretty good, even with introtech guns.

Peri's Rating: B+. Has a really good and intuitive play pattern and can really clean up messy late games.

STK-4N

LRMs are whack, you should get rid of one… for reasons.

This is a 3F that’s down an LRM, up six single heat sinks, and shifts some armor around.

Those six heat sinks means that at long range you can rip the LLs and LRM10 while being -6 heat, or -4 on the run, and at short range you can fire off all the little guns and run at –4, or pitch in one of the LLs for +4 heat.

It’s 1,558 BV, one less than the 3F. If it appeals to you take it, it’ll be better on heat most of the time which is good, but it does lose that other LRM which is unfortunate. Up to you.

Liberty’s Rating: C. 3F sidegrade gets 3F sidegrade rating.

STK-5M

STOP PUTTING FUCKING NARCS ON BIG LUMBERING LRM ‘MECHS. GOD DAMMIT. WHY IS THE AMMO DOWN THERE? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE???

Look, I know that it has SRMs and they benefit from the NARC too, I get it, I do.

BUT.

NARCs should not be on the thing with the LRMs. It should be on fast zippy guys with SRMs to plonk a round on target to spot for the LRMs. Add to that the fact that they decided the best thing to do with the two whole fucking tons of NARC ammo was to stuff it in the leg.

This machine craves to explode when Elementals get near it. I can hear my Clan advisor salivating at the idea of getting her battle claws on an STK-5M from here. This is bad, don’t encourage her.

Now, it is still a Standard engine ‘Mech using los-tech to make itself better so it should have CASE so if any of the ammo goes off i- Nope, no CASE.

To get here we’ve dropped 3 heat sinks, converting the rest into doubles, and dropped one LL to make the other an ERLL. The extra floating weight has been sunk into armor which is nice but does not correct for the late onset exploding-kneesitis that the 5M has developed.

This is only 1,655 BV, which is nice at least. But honestly I’d probably rather have the 3H or the 3Fb, given the chance. The heat load is only so much better than the 3H, it has more ammo, and now we’ve got explodey knees. Disappointing, really wish the Mariks would stop selling these things to the Force Marshal, they’re getting the Curiassiers killed.

Liberty’s Rating: D. It’s still usable but anything with exploder knees isn’t really acceptable.

Peri: This is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the playtest ammo explosion changes. Not having ammo just instantly killing you is extremely valuable, and without it this is pretty bad.

STK-5S

Ok, but why?

The 5S is a 3F that has had nothing change about it except the fact that it has an XL engine in it now so it could free up the weight to mount a pair of IS LPLs, CASE in both side torsos, and an AMS.

Cool?

It’s still got 20 single heat sinks so the long range complement of LRMs is good and fine, happy to sprinkle out some long range damage at -10 heat, but the short range has become… complicated. Everything that isn’t the LRMs wants to be firing at 3 hexes now.

That’s 41 heat plus movement… with a possible extra hanging 1 from the AMS activating.

Fuckin’ Toasty.

At least it’s only 1,423 BV? So you can cook your ‘Mechwarriors in cost effective manners?

Jokes aside there are workable fire patterns here but just about always the correct choice is probably going to be movement heat on the LPLs and throwing the other shit out on worse shots just to dump waste heat.

Liberty’s Rating: D. I’d usually go easy on something like this for still being a cheap brick but with as much ammo as it has and still packing an XL engine with relatively poor heat management it really has a chance to just fall apart at any given moment if something goes mildly wrong, even with the upcoming playtest rules.

Stalker, Big Kev's Brigade

STK-6M

GASP! The foot ammo! It’s gone! The Mariks figured their shit out, I think…

Honestly? They kinda did. Coming in at 2,029 BV this is the exact same price as the Fb, and it’s a good sidegrade to it I kinda like.

Going the same route as the Fb the 6M bumps the armor up a touch, swaps 20 singles for 18 doubles, and ditches the SRM pack for some general upgrades. The LRM10s are now Artemis IV guided 15s, there is one IS ERLL in the CT instead of one in each side torso, and now 5 IS ERMLs strewn about the place. As well the Mariks splurged on CASE for the two tons of ammo in each side torso!

I dig it. The Force Marshal should start buying these instead of the 5Ms.

Liberty’s Rating: B-. Fb sidegrade gets Fb sidegrade ratings.

STK-7C3BS

That’s a mouthful… My brain says that the terrorists should have been here with a weird ass designation like that but nope, it’s the Fed Suns!

Ok, I’ll be honest, this thing is horrifying and I love it. Taking a normal 3F the fedsuns have made a horrid long range support platform that hates you by trading out the entire loadout, and its heat sinks, for some real fresh fire power.

Our primary long range complement is now a pair of ERPPCs mounted up in the side torsos, forcing the 7C3BS squarely into energy sniper territory over missileer. Backup wise we’ve got 4 MPLs, a pair of MML5s, with two tons of ammo total in a CASE II bin in the right torso, and a small VSP in the head for emotional support.

Also a C3 Boosted Slave! For… activities!

Keeping this firepower in an acceptable heat set we’ve got 18 double heat sinks for a total of 36 heat sinking capacity. Now, if you alpha strike on a run you can run the heat band up to 21 on a run which isn’t great but is certainly manageable considering dropping one ERPPC gets you back down to 6. That said there are also square bands here. Building movement heat with both ERPPCs and MML5s at long range you’ve got some pretty acceptable hits to throw down range. Once the fight closes you can drop 27 heat, on a run, worth of fire into something with the 4 MPLs, SRMs out of the MMLs, and the SVSP.

Honestly, pretty workable, and for 1,712 BV I just might have to start using this thing more!

Liberty’s Rating: B+. Cheap and effective long range support platforms are an old friend for me and this thing will certainly fit the bill.

Peri: This is a very strong assault mech. Extremely so. This is probably the least Stalker feeling Stalker due to the PPCs and extremely reduced missile complement, but in exchange it is just really good at being an assault mech. You pay not much to get a very rugged mech that outputs perfectly decent damage with good armor. The only real downside is just that it is 3/5/0, but even then, at 1712 this is just a phenomenal assault mech.

Peri's Rating: A

STK-7D

7C3BS plus! Let’s go!

Ok, the 7D is a 73CBS that makes four changes: The SVSPL is a normal Small Pulse now, the MMLs are Streak SRM 4s, the CASE II bay is now just a normal CASE bay for the one ton of SSRM ammo, and it has a fucking GARGANTUAN targeting computer in the left torso.

I love this. This is hilarious, angry, and for only 1,872 BV… honestly this is an astounding price for the capacity for both long and short range violence it has, especially with the improved functional heat efficiency of Streaks over the normal MMLs.

Guess I know what my Mercenary Stalkers are gonna be from now on, should talk to the Force Marshal about picking up a few of these… Pirates won’t know what hit ‘em.

Liberty’s Rating: A-. Love it, cost effective support platforms that have no end of hate in their heart for things that have the gall to get near them will never not amuse the shit out of me. New friend acquired.

Peri: This and the 7C3BS are basically tied in my brain, they are both very strong assault mechs that want to be doing the same thing. The 7C3BS is a bit tougher due to the CASE II, but the 7D does quite a bit more damage. Take whichever you can afford, but I have a slight preference to the 7D.

Peri's Rating: A

Davion Heavy Guards Stalker. Credit: Jack Hunter

STK-8S

Oh, what’s this button d- AH SHIT, HAUPTMAN! SEND THE RECOVERY VEHICLE!!!

The 8S is an odd duck of the Stalker family, taking a normal Stalker 3F’s frame and ripping everything out leaves a clean base to start off with. Of course the engineers over at Defiance think they’re funny and as such stuck 16 double heatsinks and a Light Fusion engine in it so they could get even more tonnage to play with. 41 of them to be specific.

What did they do with all this tonnage?

A pair of ERPPCs, a pair of ERMLs, a pair of MPLs… and a Heavy Gauss Rifle with three tons of ammunition.

Beeg boolets.

With 32 total heat sinking this either gives you the space to go up 20 heat on a running alpha strike, stay flat on the move with both ERPPCs, flat with both ERPPCs and the HGR when standing still, and some combination of the sub guns will let you try and brush little bastards off if they get to close.

For 2,020 BV this is still a fine price, even if I’m a bit worried about the HGR kicking off in the CT and knocking it on its ass. Lord knows this thing will be funny, if a bit difficult to use with that minimum range.

Liberty’s Rating: C. I can feel the siren call of eating shit off of failed ‘oh no I shot a gun while moving’ rolls. That said it’s always funny when an HGR lands on target.

Kell Hounds Stalker. Credit: Jack Hunter

STK-9F

I’M GONNA CLAN! I’M GONNA CLAN IT UP ALL OVER THE PLACE!!!

Do you like… hardened armor? Do you like Clan LPLs? Clan LRM 10s? Clan SRM 6s? CASE II on their ammo?

Well, that’s good because so did the designers of the 9F, a machine with the ‘same’ amount of armor as the basic 3F, except for the fact that it’s hardened and therefore will take forever to put down. 13 double heat sinks isn’t quite enough to go hard in the paint at things but it does allow you to sling both LPLs and one of the LRM 10s at targets at will. The rest of the guns feel a little wasted when compared to the presence of the LPLs but I can see a few spots for use of them. When you get close the best thing to do is probably just to lean on the LPLs and an SRM or two to get the work done. Unfortunately the LPLs are torso mounted and thereby cannot flip but you can get the cLRMs and 4 IS MLs pointed backwards so it’s alright I suppose.

Oh yea, there’s also a Targeting Computer on here. 3/4 movement profile or not this thing is going to be annoying to put down and at 2,469 BV it’s really not a bad price for something with acceptable heat management options and a metric fuckload of armor. Really you probably want to be buying a 4/4 pilot here to offset the hardened armor which would knock you up to 2,716 BV… That’s still a lot of armor for the price though.

Liberty’s Rating: B-. I hate things that make good use of Hardened armor and honestly this might be one of them, god this thing would be annoying to actually put down.

Peri: This is a perfectly cromulent assault mech, but as big dipshit hardened armor bastards go it is not the best one. It is perfectly adequate, but it does its damage a little slowly and 3/4 movement is extremely dire. You functionally can't really turn while keeping TMM, so deployment is incredibly important. If you aren't using the hardened armor, you are wasting the mech, so it can't hang too far back, but it also can't really move to get in close to provoke things into shooting it either. Something like a Viking IIC makes much better use of hardened, but this will still be a right motherfucker in the right game, if you can position it perfectly.

Peri's Rating: C

—

So, we should address the elephant in the room: That one that’s 75 tons for some reason. There’s a Stalker variant, the 4P, that’s down ten tons. In universe this is justified as a longevity measure meant to take some weight, and strain, off of long serving chassis that need some help to keep getting by in their service. So without further ado, here it is:

STK-4P

Man, that diet plan really worked out, didn’t it!

So, what do we do to lose the tonnage?

Easy, drop the engine size to maintain a 3/5 movement profile as a 75 tonner, ditch some armor, and lose an LRM10… That’s really it. Well, and losing structure points of course but that comes with the territory of losing tonnage in the first place.

This is the same loadout and heat profile as the 4N but instead its 97 BV cheaper at 1,461 BV.

I mean I’ll take it?

Liberty’s Rating: C. Weird 4N gets weird 4N rating.

—

STK-3F Stalker. Credit: Valk

Also there was an attempt at making a new Stalker, the Stalker II! I’ll be honest this thing looks to be the predecessor of the 9F which is kinda funny.

Stalker II STK-9A

Oh god it’s still slooooooooow. And without claaaaaaaaaaan toys. Truly a disappointment.

Take a 9F, and rip everything out of it. Cool, now stick a compact gyro, a total of 10 double heat sinks, and a Torso Mounted Cockpit in it. Clan guns are lame, and stupid, and as such we are going to use the only two weapons a true IS ‘Mechwarrior could ever need!

8 IS Medium Lasers
2 ELRM 10s

Oh…

Uh. Well, that actually sounds like it sucks though. At least the 2 tons of ammo are CASE IId? How much is this thing? 2,261 BV? Ok well that’s fine, just have to buy down to 4/4 to offset the arm-

Oh yea, torso cockpit.

4/3 to offset the piloting malus. 2,713 BV to make it have a normal PSR roll. Cool.

Just go take the 9F instead.

Liberty’s Rating: D. Look it’ll be annoying to kill but with what it's packing this is nowhere near an acceptable price and if you don’t pay it it’ll be taking PSRs on 8s all fuckin’ day and we all know how annoying that’s gonna be.

—

Named Variants! Of course there’s named variants! There couldn’t not be named variants! That’d be fucking ridiculous.

STK-3F (Jagawen)

ENGULF THEM IN MISSILES AND FLAMES! SEAR THE BODY, SCORCH THE SOUL!

The Jagawen takes a normal 3F and says ‘LRMs are fucking lame and so are you’ and drops both of them in exchange for 6 more heat sinks and another pair of SRM6s.

This is 1,570 BV and absolutely hilarious.

I love he.

Even if it’s a Draconis Unique ‘Mech from 3028 it’s great and hilarious and I love him.

Liberty’s Rating: C+. Kinda wanna use this thing as a custom Marshal or something. Idiot machine, I love it.

Peri: The fact that this somehow can almost manage its heat is an affront to god and also extremely funny. I have never used this in my life and the poor range is a killer but in a good game this will absolutely rip someone up for that price.

STK-3F (Jamison)

Why… Why is this one so expensive? GOOD GOD WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?

Ok, so. I’d been wondering why there wasn’t a full tilt Clan build Stalker and here it is, even if it is a Wolf’s Dragoons unique, in all of its ‘fuck your shit’ glory.

This is a pile of Clan hate in one ‘Mech with 18 clan double heat sinks, a pair of cLRM20s, a pair of cLPLs, 4 cERMLs, and a pair of cSSRM6s. Heat wise you’re -2 heat on the run with the LRM 20s and both LPLs which is enough to earn a lot of fear on its own. Toss in that you’ve got most of a Kodiak here that can ripple off the ERMLs, both streaks and both LRMs at short range and only go up 6 on a run where both streaks lock and you’ve got some real good ‘you should stay over there’ options.

This is full on an actual Clan assault, and for that you pay full on Clan Assault Prices: 2,707 BV. Honestly I think it may be worth it though, it’s going to take and dish some damned good hate in its time on field and just keep going until it’s beaten apart the rest of the way because of the SFE and CASE protected ammo.

I dig it.

Liberty’s Rating: B. Very good but very expensive. Get what you pay for.

STK-4N Stalker. Credit: Valk

Final Thoughts

Garbage trucks stay garbage trucking and I love it. I’ve gotta start using Stalkers more, I’ve always kinda viewed them as these big junky shitbuckets that want death but I can see the use cases for them. I’d like some more heavy box missile boat ones, or even just a full on normal C refit variant to crop up but otherwise they’re doing pretty great! Gonna have to get some use in with some of these now!

Until next time! Fair weather, good seas, and happy exploring-the-zone-ing!

Peri: Stalkers are cheap fire support mechs that can really do some work up close, and they tend to be pretty tough to. They are best used as finishers, hanging back and providing fire support early and then closing in late to rip up anything that survived fightign your frontline. In this role they are competing with mechs like the Nightstar, but they are always going to come in much cheaper than something like that just due to all the heat discounts.

Use more Stalkers.

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Tags: Battletech | battlemech | Mech Overview | Stalker