THE ATLAS | The face of the franchise & the BEEFIEST mech ever built | Battletech Lore
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- Опубликовано: 6 авг 2024
- Generic greetings. Today on SCI we're covering the Atlas, the most iconic mech in the entire setting and some would say the face of the franchise. It's giant, mean, tough and ready to fist anything that would come close. So settle in as i regale steve with stories of the beefiest mech ever built~
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0:00 Intro
2:17 Bad Memes
2:34 More Intro
3:02 History and Design
10:19 Firepower/Stats
15:00 Why are they numbered?
16:42 Interesting Variants
18:16 Atlas 2/3
22:10 Fun facts
23:55 Wrestlemania
26:21 Outro 
Развлечения
Game designer here.
If I ever wrote a weapon for a game of mine, named it DEFIANCE and didn't make it comedically terrifying, I'd deserve to have my license revoked.
Or, just hear me out, it starts out as weak, but does the SC2 void ray thing, but to an insane degree. Starts out tickling, but melts everything 3 enemies deep right before the reactor overheats.
There is a Defiance 'Mech in Battletech. It's Defiance Industries attempt at upgrading the Warhammer. Which worked. It's a better Warhammer. But at the cost of 2 and a half Warhammers. But Defiance industries at the time of designing the Defiance were playing politics. And they did so poorly. Getting some Mercs sent to their HQ basically. And the Defiance got passed over for a big military contract. For the Fafnir, which is another Defiance Industries product. Which is heavier than the Defiance. More heavily armed, yet for some reason cheaper.
@@JPG.01 never fails to use Bureaucracy to create a bridge between projects, mechwarriors, companies, and contracts out of Bureaucratic Walls.
A little fun fact. While the Atlas is a favorite of the Lyran Commonwealth it is mostly produced in the Federated Suns. This is the main reason why they have an Atlas III and not by the Lyrans
Because Dakka.
I thought the Lyran's favorite was the Zeus?
@@garlicbread529 Zeus is their most mass produced Assault but they consider it light for its duties XD
@@Axzealot thier will always a Zeus in a lyran lance and command plain and simple.
Oh yeah? I bet those Federated Suns weenies never built a scout atlas...
I picture an Atlas picking up a Javelin and then throwing it like an actual javelin into another mech.
The way to balance the Atlas-3 is, to pickup a light mech with the other hand and hold it as extra armor in front of it.
So basically it picks up a hoplight
So basically a shield. A "meatshield" if you will....
A mechshield!
When you need to pilot a Macho-Man-Randy-Savage sorta metal monster into combat.
Expect the unexpected in the Kingdom of Madness! Ooooh yeah!
@@Mechabang oooooh yeah!
Da creme of da crop will rise to the top'ah!
Nah, that's a Charger with hardened armor and all weapons replaced with a head-mounted flamer.🤪
The TF Heavy laughter coupled with the Atlas combat footage was brilliant.
An Atlas with a hatchet would be terrifying. It could potentially one shot any mech, or sever arms with one chop.
You can get an Axe-Atlas in MW5 and that is absolutely the optimal way to use it.
@@stormsurge2103I just looted one from the arena, am gonna trick it out w/ masc and a 400xl engine/ assault greatsword which I think is heavier than the axe and does more damage.
Itll probably sprint for about 81kph 😅😂
In tabletop a friend had an Atlas with TSM and a mace. It was terrifying.
It's a canon Mech effectively: The Berserker. 100 tons, hatchet, Class 400 XL engine and MASC. So it's as fast as a Banshee, and goes up to as fast as a Charger once that MASC is activated. While still having Atlas levels of armor. Also it has ECM, an anti-missile system, a head-mounted flamer (just so the Poor Bloody Infantry don't feel left out) and two large pulse lasers and an ER PPC to have some fun while rolling in.
And then there's the variant with a light engine, C3 unit, tripple strenght myomer and a massive brace of ER medium lasers in palce of the large pulse lasers, so it can activate that TSM very reliably.
Made, of course, by the nice people from Defiance Industries.
"That mech is so ugly, that it is beautiful..."
-some mechwarrior
Aw man no mention of the Steiner Scout Squad?
*accordion intensifies*
ruclips.net/video/fLLHP3icECM/видео.html
Wait, they scout with THAT?
@@justanabramspassingby indeed sir. Look up the Steiner Scout Squad adventures. Shits hilarious.
It is a joke.
The Lyrans have a bad habit of appointing inept commanders for political reasons, and also enough industrial infrastructure to rival two or three other great houses at once.
End result is that they have a doctrine of attrition and just keep producing heavier mechs in greater numbers than anyone else.
So they compenste for operational ineptitude with oversized mechs than just outgun everything else.
Hence the Steiner Scout Lance, 400 tonnes of stompy mechs.
@@justanabramspassingbyYou probably won’t see, but in one of the mechwarrior games there was footage of ‘mechs attacking a city, one of them being an Atlas. The news anchor covering the footage says that the city was attacked by a contingent of ‘light ‘mechs’. So since then the Atlas has been considered a scout mech, and since the Steiners have more money than god, everyone says the Steiner scout lance is just 5 Atlases
Your Atlas wrestling commentary earned you a sub.
Well done sir
That Macho man at the beginning was actually really good.
The other face of the franchise: The Urbanmech!
Ahh, the Atlas, literally my favorite mech and the one that got me into battletech, nothing says assault, like 100 tons of armor with enough fire power to say "fuck you" to an entire lance of mechs while you smoke a cigar inside your Deaths head cockpit .
Besides the got me into battletech, all of that is true for me
Love the Samurai Jack pictures thrown in!
Playing Dragon's Gambit co-op on mission 7.
Suddenly Atlas out of nowhere.
[screams internally]
Me: ATLAS! Everybody shoot it!
23:57 All I can think of is a Battlemech wrestling tournament in the Lyran Commonwealth arenas...it is glorious
The Atlas is what made me dislike assault mechs, slow as a snail and mostly a short-range combatant. My introduction to the setting was Mechcommander 2 with very open terrain, which made it practically worthless.
Then I swapped out the weapons and made a pseudo-Atlas II and my opinion changed. That thing was a monster, anything that got in the range of the AC10 and the ER lasers just died.
I still prefer more mobile and lighter mechs that can decide the combat range. Still, I can't hate the ugly thing. It stomps things.
"we don't engage in no fair fights" Did Steve slide an El-P lyric in there when no one was lookin?
The mech getting force-fed its teeth by an Atlas in that picture is a warhawk. Dire Wolf arms usually have stubbier gun barrels where as that looks like the ERPPCs employed by warhawks. Still impressive
Well...... It WAS a Warhawk..... Now it's salvage. lol
The fact that it's a Warhawk makes it even more nonsensical. Why the fuck would a Warhawk pilot EVER let an Atlas get that close? You're faster, you have more firepower, your guns have longer range, your targeting computer allows you to make called shots so you can literally core an Atlas with two salvoes before he can even shoot back even if you're both running straight towards each other at maximum speed (well, he'll get a salvo of LRMs off, but that's it). Seriously, what the fuck are you doing in melee range?
At least a Dire Wolf can't outrun the Atlas. And it doesn't come with a targeting computer standard in every configuration, though given the absurd firepower it brings to bear it would probably rip an Atlas apart in about the same amount of time
@The PirateMongoose you're right, but if I had to guess meta wise, rule of cool, and in lore, that pilot's best skill was outrunning commonsense. That or it's a cool propaganda pic
@@D3rpp00l stupid thing got in close instead of maintain distance and let the quad er ppcs do the talking.
@@thepiratemongoose8965clanners are pretty crazy, and smart atlas pilot can try to bait him into coming into a cramped city where it's alot harder to keep range. Before tukkiyid clanners impressions of the innersphere was very low so they seriously believed that they needed to keep moving forward and steam role the opposition. Their thinking, by intent by fasa, was meant to be alien by design and most players who play clan usually play it wrong. They don't just give up their code of conduct just because of a single, or sometimes multiple infractions. To give up on it is to give up on kerensky and most would just kill themselves before, and some probably did especially early clan invasion and prior.
It seems to me that the Atlas is the A-10 of the 'Mech world. That is to say, the Atlas is built around and for it's weapons.
The atlas is a generalist mech. It has good armor, decent weapons, par speed. If you want a battletech a-10, you're looking at the Annihilator, or the Bane. Bunch'a gunbeds on bricks
Atlas doesn't have a horrific friendly fire record though...
The Atlas is more a "I am still breathing and I am about to make this EVERYONE ELSES PROBLEM" mech then an A-10 like mech. It wasn't built around any weapon or idea other then that.
@@averywhitaker3513 Eh, if you want Mech built around a bigass gun, it's the Hunchback or Hollander.
Or the Mechbuster or Lightning or Transit, for aircraft.
@@magni5648 hell yeah!
Annie and bane are my favorites of the hundred tonners that fit the bill. But the hunchback and Hollander are great too
So in battletech extended mod i rigged my atlas with ecm and best melee mod i can find and flamethrowers. He just runs into enemy formation to punch out enemy mechs and occasionally overheat his victims
Finally! I was wondering why there wasn't a video yesterday! But then again with Steve chained in the basement begging for food does take priority...
I love me personal atlas I used in MW5. Jump jets, stupid amount of armor, and 10 medium lasers. It wasn't fast, or flashy, But disco death mode was fun then I punch things in the face really really hard
DFA works very well when you're using an Atlas.
May I recommend the college short film Mechwarrior: Age of Destruction here on RUclips? It has an Atlas III among other mechs beautifully animated, kicking the crud out of each other.
A long long time ago, in Mechwarrior 4, I used to run an Atlas that had all the normal weapons replaced with 4 large lasers and an SRM 6. The rest of the weight, I put into armour and most notably, engines. It was the best performing mech I've ever ran in the multiplayer lobbies my friends and I used to run. Yeah, it was an Atlas that could run. At 65km/h on a flat surface.
that fear line. I remember playing mechwarrior 5 and the first time I saw an atlas on the field, it rolled out from behind a heavy wall that kept it off sensors. As soon as I saw that skull I went full "S**T S**T S**T! FALLBACK!"
The MadCat used to be the poster boy of the franchise but my favorite IS assault mech will do
''Say hello steve!''
.........
I believe the face of the franchise goes to Timberwolf. If not they both share that honor.
Up to 3rd edition the Warhammer Graced the cover of the Battletech game box (Ironically with many of the MBR-04 Destroid Tomahawk's UN Spacy Markings from Macross). Then the FASA/Playmates, then Harmony Gold/FASA lawsuits happened, and by 4th edition, enter The Timberwolf on the 4th edition Game box cover. May have ended up there anyway, The Timber Wolf is a powerful and popular mech, but, one must not forget that the timing Warhammer became an unseen at a similar time probably had something to do with it.
List of Battletech poster boys.
Atlas, Timber Wolf (esp if you are Clan player), Warhammer, Battlemaster, Bushwacker.
Depends on when- as mentioned in other comments, Warhammer and Atlas dominated the early art, while the Marauder was often the pinnacle of the sourcebooks and literature. The MadCat showed up ~early 90s with the Clan Invasion. After the shitshow that was Jihad/DarkAge/Early IlClan, I have zero idea what is the current face of the IP, although the Atlas maintains a popular and distinct presence in both canon and non-canon art; it's face is still the logo for HBS' Battletech video game.
Y'all make very good points. That's part of why I was open to having it being shared. Especially since Timberwolf gets decked every five seconds in the mechwarrior intros 🤣
@@vldreck1 Don't you mean Mad Cat? :)
Good God, you channeled teamfourstar Nappa for a minute there
Need to collaborate with Tex from Black Pants Legion. Guaranteed the epicness of his voice with your ideas would have battalions of artists scrambling to depict if not animate these glorious scenarios.
18:10 I always put max jump jets on my assaults to minimize the chances of them getting flanked and to basically be able to ignore terrain when traversing the battlefield. But there are better loadouts for long-range Atlases than 2 PPC and 1 Gauss. My current favorite is 2 LB2X, 2 LL, 2 ERLL, LRM15+LRM5. I also put in 1 ERSL and 2 MG to deal with any rude strangers or birds who want to get into my personal space. Seriously, washing bird guano off is a real chore.
Unfortunately, the only vehicle capable of carrying an atlas is the Heavy Battlemech Recovery Vehicle, and to do so, it reduces its top speed from 64kph to 32 kph, slower than the Atlas riding it. Now theoretically if you had the time to equip a Battlemech Recovery Vehicle (50t version of the 70t HBRV) with Lift Hoists, you could carry around an Atlas at 64kph, roughly 10kph faster then it's top speed, but understandably it'd be impossible for it to fire from atop it as the recoil would likely topple the precariously balanced mech and vehicle alike.
Also, on the table top an Atlas' punch only does 10 Damage, so depending on where it hits, a Stinger could very well survive the first blow.
Wait, 1:20, Steve is a real person? I've watched 4(?) videos with no Steve and was convinced it was just a running gag, lol, like that old video series from The Onion that goes "I'm ____ , filling in for ______, who [ridiculous excuse here]."
There is an atlas version that has a huge hatchet in one hand too for more close combat insanity
2:27 - Oh dude, once when played MW5 I hit a fucking FLEA with the Battle Axe from the Atlas. The thing fucking crumpled.
I love the cracking and 'sploding sound whenever my dual UAC/20 King Crab cores out an Atlas in a single volley
This is why I am a Crab pilot. King, normal, or Hermit- I love me all the Crabs!
The Atlas is the in-game equivalent of if Andre the Giant was a giant robot...
It's big and imposing, slow but powerful, and it packs one hell of a punch while being somewhat hard to take down. But if you take it to the ground it'll be pretty much over. It's highly revered and widely acknowledged as one of the greatest ever, but everyone knows it has flaws and how to exploit them. Just...
Don't let it close. Under any circumstance. If it closes you probably haven't taken out the mechs trying to flank you and it's going to grab one of those little mechs and beat you with it...
You need to do an entire video on Solaris Seven and the Mech Arenas.
AS7 DDC has ecm so that smack down you mentioned in the city would be even more of a surprise execution.
The Atlas and the Highlander are my favorite Assault Mechs.
The gun on the Atlas 3 is a RAC 10, also the right arm has a heavy mech shield which serves to counterbalance the weight of the RAC on the left. I have the original dossier from Wizkids when they came up with the thing back in the early 2000's. Not sure if they changed it later on but this is how they explained it back then.
Nope its a RAC 2 not 10. There is a variant that replaces the RAC with a clan HAG 30
@@smokey_mcbong Not even a RAC5?
@@DIEGhostfish Not that I am aware of. Officially anyway.
I love the Atlas! I was once playing the Battletech ttrpg with a group and when we were all rolling what mechs we’re starting out with from the RATs we got 3 lights and 2 mediums… then I rolled an Atlas lmao. Best part was my character was supposed to be done back country hick so I decided he found it buried in his crop field then piloted it for the planet militia and had a locust leg for a leg actuator
These just get better and better. I think 2 am is a good time to develop scripts and even better without coffee, or too much coffee.
Everybody knows that the real face of Battletech is the good old Urbanmech
The Atlas can punt Urbanmechs all day.
@@Dragon_Werks nah urban hunts atlas
@@Dragon_Werks you would think, but trust me infantry and a pair of urbies is basically invincible
Oh lawd almighty, it's Big Daddy Soup Stock comin' off the top rope with a steel chair!
The mech at 14:37 is actually a Masakari/Warhawk.
Cool video. More please. I also appreciate the Atlas's hands 👐 rated E for Every Mech'
1/10, No Steve "hello"
The Atlas is one of the most dominant mechs to ever walk the battlefield. Excellent job
It's definitely one hell of an assault mech, but personally prefer the king crab or highlander
The RAC5 isn't considered a very good weapon on the tabletop, it has a high jam chance. You generally have to fire in bursts of 5 and because of the cluster table only 2-3 of those shots hit plus they scatter in different locations meaning you don't get armour penetrations. Its sometimes better than an AC10 but not as good as an UAC10, AC20, or Gauss.
I'd dare to say a max armor urban mech with traits would be more beefy. No where as much punch but arguably more beefy.
17:36 I absolutely LOVED that version of the Atlas. What's more terrifying than an atlas? What if ... *IT CAN FLY?* AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Honestly when I first played that mission all those years ago as a kid it was unbelievably terrifying when that guy just bloody jumped out of the base right in front of my lance. He blew off an arm of one of my mechs *mid flight* with the gauss rifle no less. And then proceeded to disrupt my entire lance because he landed right in front of them.
Kodiak always looked like a clan ATlas to me but i bet there's an atlas IIC
I wanna hear this guy be an anchorman and announcer for Solaris 7 arena games. Make him a rival for Duncan Fisher!
You should do a video on the clan elemental which is a really strong guy in power armor. Where one took on a Atlas in a one vs one fight, and Won.
20:41 ... This reminds me that in MWO I decided to make a Uziel Mech who's entire armament is 2 RAC/5's. It's basically a cockpit sandwiched between the two massive guns with enough ammo to blot out the sun and some tin foil to pretend it has armor. ... Arms? what are those?...
To be fair, unlike the Atlas III, I did balance out the "Full Potato" by giving it one in each torso ... or more accurately making each of it's torsos a gun.
Remember the mantra of soldiers everywhere: "I hate fair fights."
"Steiner Steiner, uber alles"...
-- Usually the last thing heard before your Mech lance gets the ever-lovin' crap scouted out of it.
Ask Tex and his team to animate it..
Also, am I remembering wrong or wasn't there a 'armored suit' (the Elemental) called Toad? I believe I recall such a thing.
The Elementals wear a battle suit into combat. The Inner Sphere nicknamed them Toad's because they have jump jets and hop towards them.
I ran a 65 ton Jagermech DD with 2 RAC 5s, 4 Light MG. 3 medium lasers and ams. I called it The Shredder and unlike the Atlas it could move.
There’s a companion atlas 3 with a hag 40 Gauss cannon. No shields but a real hole puncher
Also if it needs to punch someone then it can.
My favorite mech ever, it’s a juggernaut of terror.
Just discovered your channel. Am enjoying your content. Please keep it up.
Any chance you could put up your podcast on RUclips Music? Hope you like this suggestion. Thank you.
Genuinely surprised that the RAC is only 5 on the Atlas III. With all the hyping you did with it i thought it would have been a RAC10 or something unrealistic.
If Atlas is the Armor... Then Mad Cat is the hammer
The Atlas is just a Zaku and you can never unsee it now
No wtf are you on
@@heymay724 what are you on
@4:19 If you had to pick a mech to represent the entire IP you'd have to pick the Atlas.
...Timber Wolf/Mad Cat laughs at your 'distinctive' mech.
I don't think it's ugly. I think he's an endearing muscleman with a skull face... like Skeletor!
15:00 That's a Warhawk, not a Direwolf. It's jowl-armor plate is seen under the violating fist and the heavy brow armor is over the forearm. The image is just an astronaut decking the shit out of a bloodhound for being in the way.
Steiner Scout Lance incoming!
Ah yes, the rac...2 a big (not) gun capable of coring an assault mech in... 6-7 turns. (Thats 60-70 seconds for yall outside of the tabletop.) And that gun jams more often than a rock band.
The scoutiest of scout mechs.
Next up, the Highlander? The Griffin? The Phoenix Hawk? The Catapult? Or maybe the Thunderbolt?
You call atlas ugly but it is one of the best looking assault mechs.
The mad cat was the face of the franchise for years, and some might say that it still is. My favorite cover is the Warhammer from the old box set.
I had Marauder II like this Atlas from 17:36. Except it had also some lasers. MAD-5B
Idk why this doesn't have more views, ffs the rifleman video has more views at time of writing this comment
"BUILD ME AN ARMY OF ASSAULT BATTLEMECHS WORTHY OF MORDOR.. "
🖐🏻💀
Fields of AC20 urbies scare me more than a Lance of atlas
Thanks for the video.
Hello there Insanity.
There is a reason for the 'Steiner Scout Squad' videos!
Also, that's an Atlas punching a Warhawk, my man.
Someone probably said it already, but that's a warhawk getting punched, not a dire wolf!
This ducklly loving choice of ❤ warming language with the one hit middle finger barge?? is something to my ear, exept honey. Have fun.
Unit designation and company designation 😊
A couple of corrections:
* The torso mounted medium lasers are mounted in the rear. A few pilots have remounted them to point forward, but most keep them rear firing because of light and medium mechs.
* ALL autocannons are automatic firing, hence the term autocannon. There are no "semi auto cannons". Read the lore and the novels instead of relying on Wikipedia.
* That image of the Atlas punching the Clan assault mech... That's a Warhawk/Masakari, NOT a Dire Wolf/Daishi.
Eh, there's a few that may be borderline. Looking at you, Tomozuru AC/20. That thing's stated to be a 200mm gun. 100kg is about right for a shell that size, so it'd fire two shots in a 10-second tabletop turn. Aka 12 rounds a minute. Which mind you, is pretty nuts for a bloody ~8-inch gun still.
This is why the Atlas is my favorite.
Mine too.
Why did Steve not say his classic opening? Did the audio break or something?
Actually for me being a grognard from the 80s, the Warhammer is the iconic Mech.
14:52 Not a Dire Wolf, my dude. That's a Warhawk aka Masakari.
Do a video on superheavies, stone rhino, or the current year-range or face me in a trial of refusal. 😂😂😂
Did Steve said hallo?
But the face of the franchise is the MAD cat?
STEVE IS BACK!
I was going insane trying to remember where ive heard his voice before...
quick question, why do you call Aleksandr Kerensky the soup stock guy?
Steve! :)
The Atlas throws Urban Mechs like grenades.