MechDB Misadventures, Part 11: Zombielator
I've already discussed what the ultimate zombie 'Mech in BattleTech (in the truest sense) could (and would've been), but now I have another candidate from the Inner Sphere: an Annihilator ANH-SC(LGD) "Stone Crusher) armed with six(!) each of Large and Medium Lasers, arranged as follows:
Above: An Annihilator Stone Crusher armed with six Large Lasers (plus six Medium Lasers) is a tempting proposition for a 100-ton Inner Sphere zombie 'Mech, but there is room for improvement.
If I were to double down on a zombie build with this one, however, I'd add a third energy hardpoint to each side torso just to have the arm-mounted weaponry (3 Large Lasers per arm) swap places with some of the side torso-mounted equipment (2 Medium Lasers and 1 Double Heat Sink), thus making its primary weapons less vulnerable to being blown off. The resulting configuration - with three energy hardpoints in each arm and side torso, plus one such hardpoint in the head and two more in the center torso - would have provision for up to 15(!) weapons in total, and I'll call it the SandBlaster (for its ability to sandblast other 'Mechs with just one alpha strike). However, as crazy as it is, I've come up with an alternate loadout that would push my proposed 'Mech variant even closer to its limit, using the configuration below as a basis:
Above: If this loadout had an additional energy hardpoint in each side torso, I'd fill them both with extra large lasers, increasing the heat load but also boosting its firepower massively.
With the additional side torso-mounted energy hardpoints, I'd stick a trio of Large Lasers in each side torso, then place a Medium Laser in the head (to complement the two already in the center torso), and finally fill all six arm-mounted hardpoints with Small Lasers, thus yielding a theoretical alpha strike damage output of 91.5, and making the 'Mech even deadlier at close range. It still retains the 19.2 tons of standard armor and 20 Double Heat sinks found in the original version. In short, either loadout for the SandBlaster would be an effective, if slow and heat-intensive, way to fight a prolonged, drawn-out battle, without having to worry about any ammunition dependency concerns (and a post-3067 Small Cockpit conversion could even free up a critical slot for an additional head-mounted energy hardpoint). However, if you want to go all in on offense, you could swap out two Double Heat Sinks and a ton of armor to upgrade the arm-mounted Small Lasers to the same Medium Lasers fitted in the head and center torso, providing a whopping 99 alpha strike damage - at the expense of shutting down (or even melting down) unless you stagger your shots.
As for the Stone Crusher that was the original subject of this post, I've come up with two more loadouts for it:
Above and below: Two more offense-oriented layouts for the Annihilator Stone Crusher - a PPC boat that runs even hotter, but carries almost as much armor and hits even harder still, as well as a Succession Wars-era laser boat that carries as many heat sinks as possible, at the expense of being even slower and having less armor (though not as little as the ballistic-oriented variants). If you want to use the latter in MWO, it's be better to upgrade to a 300-rated standard engine and remove 14 heat sinks - in that case, removing an additional heat sink and fitting an extra ton of armor may be considered.
In short, the Annihilator Stone Crusher, with its low speed and tall profile, is not for the faint of heart (and nor is my proposed SandBlaster variant, for that matter), but anyone with good heat management skills should get a lot out of the various zombie builds based on this 'Mech chassis.
