Why Do We Love The Locust?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 10 фев 2025
- Today, we spend some time getting to know the Locust!
LCT-1MF Record Sheet: www.dropbox.co...
Resources: 3025, 3039, 3050 TRO, Project Phoenix, Brush Wars, Shrapnel #13, Legends, First Succession War Sourcebook, IlClan Rec Guide 16. BattleTech Nova Booklet - Locust, Mechwarrior 5.
Thank you to Dwane Loose, Anthony Scroggins, Matt Plog, Bishop Steiner, Alan Blackwell, Chris Lowry, Dale Eadeh, Harri Kallio, Loston Wallace, and all the other BattleTech artists that have brought the IP to life through their amazing work.
BattleTech imagery and mech info remains the property of Topps.
Concept Art from Mechwarrior Online is owned by Piranha Games.
Some imagery/video from Pixabay
Music: Newtone-Ghosts of Time (Cinematic Sci-Fi Action Trailer) - Permission to use purchased through Fanatic.
#BattleTech #Mechwarrior #CatalystGameLabs #lore
Correction: Locust C's were still in use in Clan toumans at the time of the Clan Invasion. They were even deployed on Tukayyid.
Pretty sure the locust c record sheet is in the BOT supplemental
672BV is a lot for a Locust but really important for filling out that Clan list.
I can see Frog piloting his Locust C at the Battle of Tukayyid probing ahead of the Falcon Guards 😎.
"Oh, you're a state? Where's your locust production line? Yeah, thats what I thought, walk away."
Well played... well played...
Yup
I have stingers in production.... Out worlds are mostly mountainous and forested...
@@OmniMontelStingers? They are doomed now... :D
We specialise in production, repair and refit of urbies
My favorite feature of the locust comes after 3010 when they started including a small printer that automatically prints your will when one of its legs gets disabled
Convenient... You can pin it to your coolant vest with a bobby pin.
@@sinjin8576 Jesus Christ loves you
I was showing my 7yo daughter the various mechs I'd printed up, and she fell in love with the Locust, especially when I told her it was the fastest mech I had. Her paint job is a gloriously blotchy blue-green with gold, with a big red viewscreen. It's not standard Marik Militia colors, but it'll do just fine. 😀
Cherish it.
When my daughter was very small (maybe 2 or 3?) she wanted to play "nobots" (clickytech) with me. At the same time there was a Transformers miniature game that had spring loaded missiles and melee weapons that we collected together. Then, sometime between preschool and first grade she came home with an art project that was a silverish vaguely humanoid figure on a piece of red paper. I had old film cannister lids for eyes, little bolts for shirt buttons, and various other bits of mixed media for details. She'll be 21 this year and I still have the nobot art she gave me stashed away.
my daughter is 5, she plays BTA and is looking forward to TTBT that I will start teaching her soon. She really really loves physical attacks ... she loves kicking them and watching them fall to then cry out "Welcome to the Floor!!!"
Parenting done well.
Ah, the Locust. The original "Gotta go fast!" mech. It's all fun and games until you run out of room to keep running.
Don't get cornered. **Writes that down**
Then you have to tip toe
Alacrity is an imperative
The Locust 1E is one of my favorite units. It's where I earned my nickname "Droptop". Behind the controls of "Gump", there have been shenanigans of the highest order. It's deployment has taught two fellow players the value of Lights.
Excellent that it's still teaching.
That’s a fun variant to mess around with in MechWarrior 5 too. It’s like a drive-by laser attack.
My favorite Locust is 'Roadrunner' piloted by Russel Madison. An ER Medium Laser in each arm, and an ER Small Laser in the head, has MASC, and moves 14/21 [28]. Good luck to the coyotes trying to keep up with that!
I am a fan of the emotional support small lasers...
Fast as fast can be 🙂.
Meep meep!
I'm fairly new to tabletop Battletech, where can I find the record sheet for this variant? Sounds fun to field on tabletop.
@@DoomStarRequiem Heya, and welcome to the game! You can find it in Starterbook: Wolf and Blake.
The Locust is easily one of my all time favorite mechs. I often ran one with XL engine, DHS, ECM, stealth armor, 1MPul and 2Spul. I loved running up behind an Atlas for a back armor shot and whispering "He touched the butt!"
It's a fun wildcard mech for sure.
I'm glad you included some in-cockpit footage. The Locust is one of the most fun (and stressful) 'mech to pilot.
I'm terrible at it, but an attempt was made. I'm much more of a Heavy mech person.
I'm glad that MW5 added recon missions so i have reason to but my locust boots on.
And Locust is always going to be my number one recon mech.
I've learned to never underestimate the Locust it can be either a annoying pest nipping at your soft backside or a useful scout spotting for your missile boats
No one expects the Locust MVP.
Kick assault mechs to the ground.....
100%. I love using it with NARC and Flamers in support of a Catapult Lance.
My favourite thing about the Locust is that it's one of the few mechs with the Compact ’Mech quirk. Being able to fit 8 mechs into a Leopard dropship is quite fun.
One of my favorite Late Succession Wars uses of the Locust is as the Hunter-Killer pair of a "standard lance" (2x Heavy/Assault, 1x Medium, and 1x Light) with a Archer or Longbow out of LOS and Locust as the spotter. Add the other two members of the team, say a Marauder-D and Wolverine-M, and you have a dangerous nut to crack.
The first mech that teaches you that speed has a value all of its own , and there's a variant that does anything you want except carry artillery
Absolutely.
I just started playing this year, and our tables refer to the Locust as Godslayers. Twice we've had them get behind an assault mech and score a solo kill. The 1e I had got behind an undamaged Daishi and both mlaser hit head, the crit roll was cockpit. Best salvage of my life.
That had to be frustrating for the Dire Wolf player. heh
You didn't put a plasma rifle in your custom variant. I'm proud of your restraint.
Not for lack of trying.
The LCT-1Vb shows how good a Locust can be. But the LCT-1V can be a damn nuisance to mechs that have been damaged or the long range missile boats when suddenly outflanked.
Quite true. The 1Vb is special.
A swarm of locust is a threat of biblical proportions.
Fact Check: True
Certainly scarrier than a swarm of Cicadas running around and donking off of everything.
No one is scared of a Cicada.
@@MechanicalFrog I did read somewhere that two locusts can fit in one drop bay or drop pod. If games operated by drop space you could have something quite terrifying. Going by clan doctrine you could potentially be fielding ten locusts and fifty elementals.
@@MechanicalFrogMy Mom on a camping trip would prove you wrong ;)
(She got one stuck in her hair and absolutely flipped out, talking running around the campsite screaming.)
Oh, the Cicada *mech*, right...
A while ago I created a horrid abomination of a Locust variant that started as a 1V, but I stripped out almost all of the armor, reduced it's speed, swapped it's frame with clan endo steel, and threw in an XXL engine all for the purpose of putting an AC20 on a Locust with 1 ton of ammo.
It was the most expensive Locust I'd ever seen, and it could easily die to a single small laser. I loved it.
Biggest advantage of a locust:
The ability to stuff 2 in a single mech bay.
Though I'm sad for you if that occurs on a Union dropship.
The Locust is a light mech that I have admired for a long time. Like so many of its other 20 ton breathern, it is dangerously versatile and deceptively lethal in the right hands and with the right loadout.
I haven't run across very many people who don't like it.
@@MechanicalFrog eh, I prefer the Flea. So cute.
The Locust is my 7 yr old son's favorite mech. In MW5 the Hero Locust PB with ECM is by far his go.
I'll have to try the ECM in MW5.
@MechanicalFrog I've seen people be skeptical if it even works and it definitely does. Enemies take a significant accuracy penalty and far fewer LRM vollies hit you and your Lance.
Pirate's Bane rocks.
very based
@@bryy2053 In the 400 ton missions, I def like to give at least an upper tier heavy ecm (cataphract or archer) with my Nightstars, Higlanders, and Atluses (Atli?)
The locust is a true classic. 8/12 was so fast back in the day. I always loved the version with 2 LRM 5’s. Even less armor but with speed and range you could plink away at enemies and be a real pain.
While I'm not personally a big fan of the 1M, I understand why people do like it.
@@MechanicalFrog The only way to improve the -1M is to take a JumpShip over to Steiner space and buy a -1S instead.
@@MechanicalFrog My custom Refit of the -1M downgrades the Medium to a Small Laser for that extra half-ton of armor, because the -1M should not get into Medium Laser Range if it can help it.
3V has been my go-to mech for the tabletop. Working as a pair, one is always aggresive while the other tends to be more cautious. The aggressive ones' greatest moment was getting behind a King Crab that had lost its gyro. A swift kick actually caused the machine to topple over. Didn't win the battle, but still a great moment.
The animation Mechwarrior: Bulldogs has the best showing of a Locust.
A fun one, for sure.
The Locust is kinda like a classic 70s VW Beetle: no one really wants to drive one, but everyone smiles when one drives by. 😂 ...now I need to paint a locust up as Herbie the Love Bug Mech!!
Agreed. Make it happen.
But what about Herbie the Urbie?
@@DonaldWWitt😂
My favorite thing about the Locust is how hard it hit in Mechwarrior 1. I used a locust through the whole campaign because you could run behind heavy and assault Mechs and shoot their legs out from under them with the machine guns that fired nonstop.
I liked it for the same reason, but it was so short that at close range you couldn't get a cockpit hit on a Battlemaster :)
I just like the Locust. Especially after my son's frustration with them in MW5, lol. The 1V will always be my favorite. The LCT-1ISM uses Clan tech for the internals, armor (FF), and engine (which is an XL). Heat sinks are Clan DHS. It carries a Clan Light Tag and 4 clan MGs with 400 rounds. Its main gun is a Medium Re-Engineered Laser.
My favorite custom variant isn't quite custom: it's a Locust-1V that mounts the arms of a Stinger (minus the Medium Laser in the Stinger's right arm). It's called the "Gun Angel"; Bishop Steiner did a drawing of it, too.
It's amazing how much of a part of my weekly YouTubing this channel has become.
I hope this is a good thing. :D
locusts and dashers, the best ankle-biters with a proper build and competent pilots who know how to make them scary
Locust will always have special spot in my heart.
It was one of the first mechs i saw as my first encounter with Battletech was Crescent Hawk's Inception game.
That 3M reference totally caught me off guard, good one sir. Loved it.
The one variant of the Locuat I find most interesting is the LCT-1L. It is one of the few Mechs I know of from the IntroTech era that features Triple Strength Myomer. While this feature is reliant on the burst fire machine guns rule to actually get that heat up; the thought of a Locust running up to a mech and kicking it with the might of 40 tons seems fun. I have yet to give it a try so the effectiveness in battle is still on paper for me.
Kick... kick... kick... headbutt.
You can disable heatsinks so you don't necessarily have to use weapon heat for TSM.
In MegaMek I use the coolant failure rule so every TSM design gets oversinked so I can turn on more heatsinks as coolant fails, makes TSM more fun for me but might be too much micro for most.
Oh that did actually not occur to me. Thank you for letting me know :D
thanks for the video!
the MechFrog variant is scary
my favorite showing of the Locust is as the sorta-protagonist of the excellent MechWarrior: Bulldogs animatic by D.C. Bruins on Renegade HPG
I recall it. Great animation.
The Locust sticks eith me in memory not because of its performance as a speedy light mech, but because one was the catalyst to shit hitting the fan in The Periphery.
Long story short: Your average Locust is probably a nusiance at worst to a decently equip lance, but still a giant biped to civilians.
That situation in the Periphery is what the art at 6:18 is depicting I'm pretty sure.
I used to play Battletech as a kid in the 80's. I'm so glad to find people still interested. I'm getting back into it. Think I'll even paint a mini :)
Welcome back to the fray, Mechwarrior.
Don't forget the 6M! Possibly the fastest production mech in canon, it makes the 7M look sluggish in comparison. I brought one out to one of the big official Mercenaries kickstarter events last March, and hilarity ensued - I hit play on the William Tell Overture every time I activated the MASC, skirting the edge of death and surviving nearly unscathed through my primary match, and got an early release Viper (Black Python) for my efforts.
It's probably one of my favorite variants too. 14/21[28] is just ridiculous. I've only used it in megamek so far, but just dropping xmec battle armor wherever I want to is too cool.
A lot of people malign the machine guns on the older Mechs, but they don't hold the locust back - and if you're using the rapid fire machine guns advanced rules, it is perhaps one of the best mechs to use them on, though it does make the mech a lot more toasty.
"ABM" isn't enough, you need to HAAAT. Haul ass at all times.
Joking aside, I love the "strength, utility and fun" bars with the frogified armor diagramm.
As for the Locust, that Mech is a tough little rascal, hard to hit and hitting hard, when the stars align.
The way I see it, the Locust either manages to harass much heavier Mechs by zipping about and evading fire like a Grammaton Cleric or it gets an AC20 right in the face. Either way, you get a great story to tell afterwards.
Short but glorious lives...
@@MechanicalFrog "Predators don't die old" is the motto of the Mechwarrior after all.
Ahh the Locust, the most heavily produced battlemech in Battletech Lore. Hard to imagine a single army, even among the Clans, that doesn’t have at least one!
Good to have a few dozen around.
Love your videos man. "The Locust should really run." Damn thing better run, they really fly apart when you catch them with an AC 20 shot. You learn to target them after getting shot in the back a few times.
I prefer all my Locusts to be raised Free Range. Run!
First thing that came to mind was my favorite lore tidbit about the Locust. That fact that their pilots are usually chosen from the insane and the suicidal, in either case usually they were on copious amounts of drugs during every deployment.
Light mechwarriors live short but glorious lives.
I enjoy the 3V twin MGs and twin Medium Lasers always a good succession wars mech to have.
A little bit of zap and a little bit of ratatatatat.
I approve of this. Go! Run! Be free!
The locust I made in the Battletech video game had two lrm 5’s and all the armor on the front so it could take a single hit. Nothing like a crazy fast indirect firing sniper that technically does damage.
I introduced my boyfriend to battletech, and it took forever to get him to not pilot a locust in the videogame format or in MW5
"There are other battlemechs, you know..."
No...
The locust 3V variant is my go-to version of my favorite battlemech. Having that extra laser to back up when the machineguns run out is quite helpful.
_"Move fast. Speed is one of your main advantages over large competitors."_ - Sam Altman
Always be Zooming.
I know a lot of folk would laugh at this, but I am a fan of the 1M version with 2 LRM 5s and a medium laser. I hate losing 3 tons or armor, but in a light lance, this has a nitch role of Fire support that can run away. Run 3 of them with that energy version as a spotter and for 80 tons you have a nasty little lance.
Personally, this version tricked out in Clan gear with Clan weapons kind of solves that armor problem because this can easily bring back that missing armor (or even more) with even a extra ton or half ton of additional ammo. I do agree that CASE is a waste in a light mech, as the real issue is not getting internal damage versus just having that entire location vaporized.
That 1M got a fierce "Nope" from me at first. Then I realized that between Indirect Fire, high speed, and the ability to be in the next area code over meant that taking fire in a 1M means you're not using it correctly. Also, the 1M's stats in Alpha Strike are pretty solid.
It's still one of my favorite mech of all times the Locust. I have a friend who was an awesome tabletop Locust pilot. This one time at a gaming con, he took his Locust and ran it down a line of enemy battle mech and had them all turned their backs to us. All the eight battle mech offloaded on him trying to hit him, and he only got hit by one SRM 2. So the next time we played, they tried to bar him from playing a locust. He had a good reputation for playing with a Locust.
Locust 1Vb, quick little bugger, heat efficient, still packs a decent punch. my small favorite so far.
Still rather new to the game.
Also, The Penetrator. It looks like a carfront on legs, with attitude. And i love it.
From Sweden with Love
- Kami
I'd have probably gone with standard medium lasers- ease the heat curve and undersink it for that single engine hit.
But the ERs are fancy!
@@MechanicalFrogAnd if you have DHS, 2 ER Mediums are heat neutral. Fire them all day, every day, if needed. Even at full sprint. It's not a great loadout, but it is useful in most every situation, right?
Locust really is my favorite mech. I am one of those insane people who have the locust as a main. In Mechwarrior 5: Mercnaries, Pirates Bane became my ultimate Locust and I feel like I want to share the sheer insanity that is what I built. Just keep in mind the game is heavily modded to add a bunch of things, including Clan Tech. Gonna try to be in depth so going to be wordy.
Locust LCT-PB (C)
Tonnage - 19.8
Armor - 187.95
Alpha damage (no melee) - 33.55
Weapon Heat / s - 1.48
Alpha heat - 5.4
No Jump
Weapon range - Max 220m/286m / Optimal 110m/143m
Structure - 75
Damage / s - 12.79
Cooling heat / s - 1.3
Heat capacity - 48
Speed (km/h) - 162 or 324
Sensor range - 1625m
Quirks - Compact Mech (-50% Upkeep) / Narrow Profile (15% Change to completely avoid incoming fire) / Cramped Cockpit (-7% to Torso twist rate, Turn Speed, Acceleration, Deceleration)/ Locust (-20% to Weapon Cooldown, Weapon Heat Generation) / Weak Legs (-2 Leg Armor) / Pirate's Bane (Weapon Heat generation - 20% / Energy cooldown -10% / Machinegun damage +50%) / Locust Hero Armor (+5 Armor to each Torso / +9 Armor to each Leg)
Weapons - 4 Heavy Small Laser (C) / 2 Heavy Machine Gun (C) / Laser Anti-Missile System (C)
Armor Spread - 31 Head / 31 Center Torso / 25 Left/Right Torso / 13 Left/Right Arm / 25 Left/Right Leg
Okay, now for the fun bits. What the hell did I put into this thing.
Engine - 200 XXL
Double Heat sinks
Ferro Armor (C)
Endo Steel (C)
Gyro Ultralight Stabilized
Head - Cockpit Small (+1 Critical Slot / -1 Ton / -7% to Torso twist rate, Turn Speed, Acceleration, Deceleration) / Active Probe (C) / ECM (C) / Sensors Sniper (Enhanced IR/Thermals, Sensor range bonus +500m) / FCS Ballistic ( -20% to Ballistic Spread Radius, +20% to Ballistic spread distance, +10% Ballistic projectile speed modifier)
Center Torso - 2 Heavy Machine Gun (C)
Right Torso - L AMS (C) / 2 Heavy Small Laser (C) / MASC MK 1 (C)
Left Torso - 2 Heavy Small Laser (C) /SuperCharger Mark 1 / C3 Client Unit
Left/Right Arms - N/A (Room for Endo and Ferro) I use it as spaced armor.
Right Leg - 1.5 tons of Heavy Machine gun ammo
Left leg - 2 Light Heatsink (C)
The biggest thing some of you might have noticed is that everything is Clan, that insane speed I put up top and that I put both MASC and a SuperCharger in this thing. Both MASC and a SuperCharger is crazy I know for tabletop, but in Mechwarrior it is quite useable. Sense the button is the same for each, they are used in conjunction. Because of this, the speed goes absolutely insane at 324 Km/h. So fast that the legs should be flying off at the seams. I built this thing to be FAST and boy does it work. Allowing me to move across the battlefield in no time at all. Thanks to all the additional weight I get I managed to bump up the armor to Medium levels giving this thing a chance at taking hits. With this baby I have been able to fight Assaults. The cost of this one mech could buy you multiple Assault Mechs with quite the insane repair bill. It is absolutely insane and not viable for ANY tabletop board, but boy do I love it.
Somewhere in my stack of stuff is a Locust refit. Base model is an LCT-5W. The "lore" is that the unit was captured and repaired, but the C3i was destroyed. So the techs cleaned out the electronics compartment and stripped everything but the MASC to install three clan-tech medium pulse lasers. The armor is a bit thin but the movement profile is fast at 9/14(18) and the alpha is 21 points with -2 to-hit bonus. Which helps a lot when you're trucking along at full speed. :-) Great back-stabber and scout.
I won't turn down Clan Medium Pulse Lasers...
I just like the Locust as a friend, but the one on screen at 6:30 is pretty darn cute.
One of the best pieces of BT art
The Locust: the Pulp in a glass of Mech Juice. There is always a bit lying around. Thanks for the video.
Artistically put.
I love all the modern CGL scults but the Locust in particular is *chef's kiss*, such a great light mech.
100%
Hello Mech Frog
When I started playing Battletech in 1984, I quickly 'fell in love' with the Locust Mech. Fast, reliable, cheap, and highly maneuverable, it was amongst the fastest Mechs available in the game at the time. And, I would often field as many as I could against opposing forces. This was before 'Battle Value' was established, so balancing was done by Cost of the Mechs in C-Bills, which let me field dozens if the 'enemy' fielded Heavy or Assault Mechs.
I very quickly grew a hatred for the MGs and the variants with various missile systems. The Mech's armor is far too thin to protect that vulnerable ammo bin, which is a major weakness of the missile carrier variants.
To deal with this, I would remove the LCT-1V's MGs and ammo in favor of either a second Medium Laser and a heat sink, or two additional Lasers. Even though the three Medium Laser Locust generated +1 heat 'on the run' while firing all weapons, it was well worth it in most cases. One can opt to just not fire one of the three Medium Lasers for one turn of combat to reduce the heat load and cool the mech off. But usually, with all the maneuvering of the high speed Mech, there would be ample opportunities to cool off by not firing any weapons at all.
The LCT-1E was a favorite of mine, but I would mount the Medium Lasers into the side torso locations and the Small Lasers in the arms.
The LCT-3M almost always saw me alter it a bit. I would replace the standard Heat Sinks with Inner Sphere Double Strength Heat Sinks (IS-DSHS), which would allow the Mech to 'run and gun' all day without overheating issues. And yes, I would remove the CASE and a single Small Laser, in favor of a 2nd ER Medium Laser.
The LCT-5M usually saw me remove two of the four Small Lasers in favor of a 2nd ER Medium Laser. The Heat Sinks would be replaced with IS-DSHS. Otherwise, used 'as is'. I eventually figured out that the Mech, with 10 DSHS could actually use three ER Medium Lasers, run, and not generate heat, so that became my 'common' variant for this particular Mech.
When able to lay my hands upon the LCT-7V Locust Mech, I would not alter anything about it. It was, to me at least, a 'perfect' design for a fast light scout Mech. One armed enough to deal with most other Light Mechs if necessary, but really should run from anything it finds. Although, with those Magshot Gauss Rifles, raids on Infantry held depots would not be out of the question.
The Locust LCT-7S is a favorite of mine. Although, again, I alter it a bit. Remove the MGs, ammo, and CASE. Replace with a 2nd Clan ER Medium Laser and an 11th IS-DSHS. Both lasers are mounted in the Center Torso, and the two heat sinks that need locations are mounted to the Left and Right Torso (one each). This Mech is quite fast, reliable, maneuverable, and well worth the time and expense to alter it to the LCT-7S-GL variant.
As to the LCT-1MF variant. All I have to say is: YOINK!
I once used Locusts and Urban Mechs as point defense for artillery and snipers. The nice thing about the Locust is it was fast enough to scout and forward spot for the artillery.
Huge fan of Locusts and IICs. Bergan Alshain are the IS production line for my favorite of the latter (the Ghost Bear 8). Bergan is also the production line for Kodiaks in the IS.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up the 1L, as it was Bergan's test bed for TSM.
So many good picks.
In our Mechwarrior ttrpg game (succession wars era), I had a custom variant of a Locust. I mounted 3 meduim lasers, and it was one of the funnest mechs I ever ran. Yeah, it could get hot, but as a hit and run backstabber, it was amazing.
I always feel Locust should be cheap and cheerful
This is a fair request.
My wife and I had our first game of battletech end in her Locust 1e using speed and terrain to out play my Griffin the whole match. the only damage it took was after it had landed the killing blow on said Griffin.
Looks like it's still teaching lessons today.
Reliable, effective, and ABUNDANT
I confess to having never had much love or use for the Locust. I got into the tabletop just after the Clan Invasion began, thus my high speed TAG equipped troll mech is and will always be the Firemoth. Hurtling past a Locust at 200kph will never get old, but good luck with the turning a corner on the next turn.
I miss the days of Pyron and his Swarm on MPBT. Good times in locusts
"How many Locusts?"
"All of them..."
My favorite Locust story revolves around the 1M variant. I witnessed that little biest destroy an Atlas. The Atlas player had the opinion Assaults are the best solution for everything. So an experienced player took out the 1M and destroyed the back armor of the hulking assault mech. It wasn't all that dangerous to the tiny Locust once the LRM 20 ran out of ammunition. It was a glorious battle.
locust always performs well whenever i use it, and its a fun mech too. locust my beloved ❤
The Locust is one of the most fundamental mechs in the game. In fact, I would argue the Locust 1E is the essential light mech for any new player to get to know; it exemplifies the entire weight class and how it should be used, and I adore it. Incredibly fast for a Succession Wars design, surprisingly durable thanks to its armor and speed, and well-armed enough to be a serious pain the moment it gets in someone's rear arc. Which it *will* do.
Good stuff, as always, Frog!👍 I must admit I don’t have a Locust for BT, just a big-scale model one I haven’t finished painting yet!😅 must get it done.
Keep on with the great vids!
One always needs a few Locusts running around. Free range, of course.
The last two variants are an excellent example of how Recognition Guide Vol.1 : Classic is well a classic TRO I believe
I did not know about the Locust 5V, as a Capellan/St Ives player I must say that it turned my head. Pairing it up with things like Marauders, Marauder 2s (Capellan version has 2 gauss rifles & an er ppc), Warhammers, Pillagers or the Night Star to dash forward and crit seek after an armor breach seems quite good.
Give it a try and I hope it performs.
Notin' quite like a locust to put some hair on your chest... and few near misses to burn it off again.
favorite mech I've ever piloted in vr
My favorite to use currently in mw5. Pirates bane got me more into it and I decided on the energy Locust with 2 S laser and 2 MPulse . As long as the mission is low enough to make dropweight with 2/3 other big mechs I have a good time. Oh yea I'm thinking of starting a new career in Liao territory so I can start with this chassis and be a 100% pure Locust career pilot
The Locust was indeed in my first merc unit, and I remember when I was caught in some weird mazelike canyon, turned a corner, and encountered a mech twice its weight. Making a quick decision, I charged at the 40-ton medium (don't remember the type). Just ran at him, firing as I went. Since the canyon was too narrow, I decided to ram him...one piloting roll later, from both me and the other player, and his mech was on the ground and I was sprinting for safety. It wasn't a kill, and I kinda lost that contract (with caveats attached), but I will always remember that as the moment I fell in love with Battletech and the Locust.
That's awesome. Great Locust story.
I enjoy using and modifying the 1M. I swap out the LRM 5s with SRM 4s to put the smack down on other Battlemechs are near point blank range.
My variant replace the mg's with 2 medium lasers. I use it in slash then zoom away tactic. Speed is armor.
To be honest, considering the speed at which they operate, I wouldn't be surprised if multiple planets in the Battletech universe have Locust speed derbies (Complete with live weapons fire). Live fast, die young. My hat's off to you blazing meteorites of the battlefield.
I'd pay to see that.
As someone who works at Scotch Tape Central, I had a nice giggle about your thoughts on the -3M. :D
Eagerly awaiting the Cease and Desist letter.
I was wondering if anyone else would catch that.
Brilliant mech that i have loved for years :-) a lance of locusts are a threat and easily underestimated :-) great vid as always....i cant give any game wins of the locust however there are so many its hard to pick one that stands out....it is a mandatory light mech when building a company and theres a reason for that :-)
Cheap and shockingly useful. It's always good to have a few Locusts running around (on your side)
Whatever weird strategy you are into, there is a Locust variant for you.
My unit had a -1E at the start of the clan invasion was heavily damaged at one point and repaired with salvage ECM Suite (c), ER ML (c) and TAG (c) we eventually found a replacement clan xl engine to up its speed... it was used (purely) to call down the rain ... if it was threatened at all its pilot was giving standing orders to RUN... as we could not afford to replace the hardware or guarantee that we could find the salvage to repeat the modifications.
( it was painted to match its name - 'Forrest' )
Rolling a 2 for hit location is the Locust's fav hobby. Especially in 3025 before CASE it could easily kill a much heavier mech whose ammo bays were brimming with bullets. Lost a Marauder turn one to my brother's locust in one game that way
Would love to see your take on some of the dropships. Recently found files for a Condor that I'm printing atm to be the start of an infantry division with armor support
Point tournament. First match -I bring out my 20 Locust Swarm. 5 lg laser variants 5 double lrm 5 variant.
Enemy had 6 mechs and 2 LRM carriers.
"I forfeit. I don't have the ammo for this. "
Judge is relieved as he won't have to officiate a match with 20 mechs on a side per turn.
Twenty minutes into next match guy rage quits because of leg damage from mines slowing his mechs so the 5x lg lasers can snipe at his mechs 1 at a time. While my other 10 std E variants do circle of death.
My 5 lrm locusts used 1 ton each of fascam to seed the field.
Then last ton to use swarm for aoe damage on his clustered mech.
I lost 1 reg locust to pilot error/failed role after last burst of ammo exploded from heat build up from engine crit +5 heat and me running and doing alphas.
Rest had average total 8 to 9 dmg from lucky roles. None disabled.
Any that had movement impeded moved out of LOS and slowly regrouped opposite mine fields to bait his 2 mediums into chasing.
4 minefields. Those mediums got led by nose through all of them.
After that I was told to restructure battalion.
So I went 5 lrm locust 5 sniper lg lasers. 3 oscouts tag. 6 lrm carriers- 3 with fascam and swarm in half and reg in other 3
And two pike ac2 spitters.
I was still 15% below point total allowed. I could have added 3 panthers, but I didn't have models.
There were objections, but when I showed my jumpy jumpy 35 mech wasps and stinger battalion, all painted and each with prepped stat sheets. They shook head.
First time anyone placed in tourney using lights.
I lost a couple matches on points, barely because they changed terrain at last second. Which is poor officiating. Crowd knew it too.
Tourney had favorites and I'd made one quit in a tantrum in my second match.
Shrinking table/map size was irksome.
But I brought out 2 mobile HQs to add ecm coverage and mortars to mix. Still inside point max.
Next day 10 mech max, attrition rules.
I still went with 10 locusts 2 LRM 2 lg laser 6 E variants.
Lasted 4 of 5 rounds with 7 locust on field and repairable.
After that attrition became a problem. As I always got matched with opponents with the most mechs on table.
Didnt do day 3 as I had to return to duty on ship.
Never got my prizes from tourney, as they said I had to be present to receive them. Regardless of being active duty...
That organizer never got invited back to local cons after that.
Hampton Roads having army, navy and air force bases in area.
I had fun though. Someone sent me a drawing of an opponent pointing and laughing at my swarm.
Moments later showing a raving, hair pulling rage tantrum as his 3 remaing mechs huddled trying to cover rear of each other from the rodeo of death.
My swarm had giggle bubbles, while his mechs were cringing and cowering. Sobbing tears etc.
It was framed and put in my sponsors game workshop.
If it's still open these 30 years later. I'd smile knowing that moment it etched in time.
I think you might be the best example of why I don't play competitive BT. :D
For MW5 my precious little gem is my hunter- killer LCT-1M that swaps out the LRM 5's for SRM 4's. With the med laser, that is a 21 dmg alpha strike.
21... dang respectable for an IS 20 tonner
The Locust is the crotch rocket of battlemechs- ridiculously fast, compact, cheap, easy to fix. So many good variants- 1V, 1E, pulling the MGs for MLs, twin MLs and a CT flamer (or TAG)... And don't even get me started with what can be done with endosteel and clantech ERLL. Normally despise XL engines in a light mech as I think it's great way to turn money to smoke, but the -5M is a fun zoomie bug, and the 7S looks to be the same even if from the ilClan period. But my favorite is a homebuilt model I saw a few years ago- it's creator called it "Knuckle Dragger" with a pair of Stinger arms. Looked awesome.
Every single battletech fan alive would be over the moon to receive a locust.
I haven’t played tabletop yet but using one for the first time in mechwarrior 5 was fun.
Felt like I was driving a coked up machine gun mounted cartel Ferrari.
Fairly accurate.
My favorite battlemech next to the Vindicator.
A locust video? its not even my birthday :D
this mech is my baby, and the only reason the marauder is second place. just love it. my favorite story for it is when playing against friends, i once knocked out their longbow with a headshot critical for the medium laser before scampering off to safety as fast as my skinny long legs could carry me. Its rare my locusts make it to the end of the match, but when has glory every waited for the patient?
its also a pretty fun light cavalry mech. like you mentioned, running through a break in the line and causing chaos behind the lines. very high casualty rates, but invaluable for keeping the line broken until your heavy units can show up to exploit it. and no light mech pilot will ever turn down such a mission! None ive met anyway
16:24 couldnt agree more haha. definitely gonna need to try out the MF variant!
Happy unbirthday!
@@MechanicalFrog here to let you know ive used the mf locust quite a bit over the last year!
its feats include boiling a wolverines cockpit off, doing multiple solo raids with only minor damage, jumping narrow canyons, and bullying every light and some mediums. all in mw5, since i dont think sprinting and kicking off a boulder is a strategy in the tabletop lol! its become a favorite variant, and is often the basis for my custom rebuilds. you gave me a lot of fun with this variant, and helped cement it as my favorite mech
I really like the old "Thunder Rift" era art for this thing, the old miniatures not so much.
I think every force I have painted has 1 or more of them.
Great variant, though the 7V is my go to these days.
Nice frogy mech thanks. Leona
Glad you like it
I have my own variant of the Locust with an armament loadout inspired somewhat by the 1E. It has two medium lasers and two magshot gauss rifles (selected due to shared range brackets) linked to a targeting computer, a 180 XL engine to bring its movement profile up to 9/14, ten double heat sinks, an XL gyro and endo-composite structure to save weight, and stealth armor paired with an Angel ECM suite. It's a bit fragile, but tha'ts only a problem if it gets hit in the first place, and since it can run and alpha strike with its stealth armor active without overheating...good luck with that.
Alternatively, if you want something cheap, there's another one I came up with with two magshot gauss rifles and a medium X-pulse laser, endo-steel, ferro-fibrous armor, and triple-strength myomer, while using the same standard engine and single heat sinks as the basic 1V.
The LCT-1VB was my fist mech I made in MWO and got my first 6 kills streak in, it's so fun and can pack a pouch if played right 😁
Locust, the real urban mech!
I'd definitely take a Locust over an UM.
I made a nasty Locust with all kinds of fun stuff: Endo, 10 DHS on a 160 XL. 3 Martells per arm and one in the chin (yes, SEVEN Martell Mediums). Have a 3-gun version with one medium per arm and a large in the chin, and a 2-medium per arm, 1 medium in the head with a TC in the CT.
There one model that can go above 200 mph, it goes so fast that I think in the lore they could not hit those speeds for a while until new myors was made to handle those speeds.
And add to that someone made that said model to pack 9 smell laser or 6 med size one to really make sure you kill the user of that other mech and make him or her into cosmic ash
Call me an interstate weigh station because I'm here for those scales.
Well played.
Some people just don't appreciate the true beauty of the Locust.
If my 432 BV Locust can keep 1600+ points worth of the opforce's
mechs busy then it doesn't have to fire a shot to help me win.
I've always thought the variant with a medium and 4 smalls should have been canonized.
It was published in several fanzines and unofficial sources.
There's of course to many variants to cover, but I'm surprised you didn't include
the strangest early variant. The LCT-1M.
Because I don't like the 1M. **sulk**
I'm actually partial to the 7V2, good reach and the same speed as the 7V, it packs a good punch and stays a difficult target outside of most weapons short range.
Really surprised that you didn't mention the insane speed of the 6M. With a 14/21(28) movement profile it would be near impossible to hit as it can regularly have a +5 to hit modifier and when the MASC kicks in, +6 to hit. Add in the fact it mounts the maximum protection for its size and mounts an ER Medium in each arm and an ER Small in the head make it well armed. If it has one flaw, the small cockpit makes maneuvering on urban or rough terrain more difficult with the +1 to pilot skill checks. So look both ways before crossing the street for a Locust sliding at high speed. Oh, and of course the XL Engine and Gyro as well, probably going to be destroyed by those high speed slides.
A Friend of mine is a big Locust Fan. Because they were hard to get in the late 90s I gave him my Locust from the 4th Edition of the Game of Amored Combat Box. Because he is an awesome fellow he did give me a Viper / Dragonfly Omnimech, so I again would have a fast runter. Just one not as cool as the Locust (but with a certain punch)