Finally, an actual fight.

I had been relegated to the second line for far too long, drudging through mud and ruts to clean up the last flagging forces and token resistances left behind by Star Colonel Moon and his 3rd Jaguar Cavaliers’ hammer blows. Hammer blows I should have been a part of. A precise tide of destruction, of the Clan’s superiority, that swept every world we had been tasked to.

Not good enough.

An old Supernova had been my only reward for my efforts in my trial of position. Falling short of the Cavalier’s expectations, drawing my trial too long, my piloting too messy, my aim too sloppy. My will far from strong enough.

One missed shot.

Commander Olthen had told me I was lucky to remain in the Touman. Lucky to get the chance to yet prove myself. Lucky to not be demoted and exiled to the worker caste. So I would make the best of the station, do all that I could to rise beyond where I had fallen. But now, here on this world when Colonel Moon had called forth reinforcements I would do what had to be done to prove myself worthy. We were ready, ready to destroy anything that came to stand against my star. 

For once these spheroid barbarians had heard reason and stood to us as equals on the field. A lone understrength lance stood ready to defend this pass, their commander accepting my call to Zellbrigen. They were lesser, dismantled and short of men and firepower. An Awesome, older even than Stormcloud’s immense bulk and piloted by a grizzled looking warrior who’d identified himself as ‘Juno’, stood ready to answer my call. Pershen had eagerly bid to pit his upgraded Guillotine against a Warhammer as Trianna and her Hellhound claimed the decrepit Lancelot that stood at the Awesome’s side. 

It astounded me, when REVIVAL had begun, to find so many machines that would fit better amongst the halls of a museum than on the field of battle amongst the Sphere’s armies. They fell like wheat to a sickle before our machines, when we were allowed to have the honor of engaging them, yet there were always more. Centuries of ancient machines stood, fighting and dying before we had returned and the Great Father only knew how much longer they would continue on.

Stormcloud’s reactor thrummed with anticipation underneath me as I brought her around the head of the pass, sighting her right-hand brace of lasers on the blood-red bulk of Juno’s ancient Awesome. The trio of lasers seared the air, cooking ozone and melting away the relic’s armor in glowing rivers and spattering volcanos. The beams tore furrows into its right arm as it let loose a trio of its own, screaming spears of lightning sailing over Stormcloud’s cockpit and into the valley wall at our back, showering us in shattered rock that clattered off the armor like hail on a Dropship’s hull.

A cacophony of howling missiles and roaring lasers from Pershen and Trianna’s engagements echoed off the canyon walls as I closed against the Spheroid before of me, the dull groan of effort from the engine below whispering in my neurohelm’s feed as the laser bank recharged. Stormcloud’s jumpjets wrenched my stomach as they sent us across the depression the Awesome had pivoted around, leaving us to hang in the air for a moment before gravity took hold. Juno ground to a halt, chest swinging skyward to track me as I fell to the ground, smoking right arm laying slack at its side, twitching and sparking. 

The Awesome shuddered, the stricken arm sending a shot into the dirt as the pilot let a pair of bolts loose from its chest. Alarms abounded in Stormcloud’s cockpit as a shower of sparks and arcing static blossomed across the viewscreen, showering glowing rivulets across rainhewn stone and driving us back a step. I charged forward, smashing through the treeline the cowering Spheroid had hidden amongst, closing the distance and letting loose another volley of brilliant lasers that seared glowing trails across the machine’s chest.

Stormcloud shuddered, the familiar clang of a shower of cannon shells meeting armor ringing through her frame as she belted out a warning alarm. “ALERT: DAMAGE TO REAR TORSO LOCATION.”

Her gait faltered as I registered the hit, glancing into the rear feed to spot a pitiful speck of a machine that had dared to interrupt my fight. A Clint crouched in the riverbed we had leapt over, steadying the gun arm at my back, sending another barking shot into Stormcloud’s right leg before bursting to its feet and bolting for cover. 

“YOU DEZGRA SURAT SPHEROID BASTARDS!!!” I howled into an open comm line, rage filling my head as I hauled Stormcloud’s vast bulk around to pin the offending ant into my crosshairs. “I WILL BURY YOU IN THAT HEAP OF SLAG YOU CALL A ‘MECH!!!”

Twin spears of light burst from her arms as I triggered everything she had into the fleeing coward, shearing down trees and scorching away tall grass in their wake before they finally connected in a blinding font of sparks and slag. Stormcloud cried, pained alarms blaring in my ears as her heatsinks sagged underneath the weight of the laser’s fury, groaning in protest at the load. The Clint slowed, thick ochre colored smoke billowing from the glowing hole our lasers were boring into its side.

“YOU DARE TO INTERFERE IN MY REDEMPTION?” I screamed, forcing Stormcloud to take a slow, grating step forward as I reached up to stave off her shutdown, dumping excess heat into the myomer before slamming another salvo of lasers into the stricken ‘mech.

The left arm went wide, carving free a shower of boulders that trailed the hobbling ‘mech as the other arm’s lasers bore into the open side, melting away more and more metal. They took a slow, grinding step, turning to hurl a pair of lasers and a chatter of shells in my direction, blasting away a few chunks of armor as a pair of sparking particles zipped past my viewscreen. A brilliant cast of light splashed against the wall beyond the rat, faltering lasers spraying slag and dusted rock into the air as the lasers bore through the torso and out the other side, sawing the Clint in half for its transgression. Stormcloud shuddered beneath me as her reactor let out a sullen, tired whine before crashing out into a shutdown from the titanic heatload I had forced into her. 

“Temper Temper, Commander!” Sean called out over the comm, a burst of laughter in his voice as he hurled his Phoenix Hawk into view, rippling off an ear shattering salvo of shells into Juno and his Awesome as he lined a shot on me. “Too much more of that and I might not be around to cover you the next time these cowardly dogs bite your ankles.”

“Thank you, Sean. Let’s finish this and push on. ” I grumbled, the roiling hiss of Stormcloud’s heat sinks breathing cold air filling my ears as I worked to coax her back to life. “Perhaps the Star Colonel will not think so poorly of my display.”

Great Father grant me strength.

– Star Commander Jerome, Clan Smoke Jaguar, 3rd Jaguar Cavaliers, Assault Star Zeta. Jeronimo III, September 3050.

—

Howdy Mechwarriors and welcome to another Mech Overview! This time around we’re looking at the Supernova! An absolute titan of a machine who’s sole and express purpose in life is to cut you down with more heavy energy weapons than should probably be legal to put on one ‘mech.

An evolution of the venerable King Crab that came about in 2846 from an attempt to put a whole pile of cERLLs into its claws, the Supernova is probably the closest we’re going to get to a King Crab IIC any time soon. Most Supernovas are absolute monster bruiser ‘machines that are happy to sit in your backline hammering damage into the enemy until its time to push in and finish the job.

Now, this is another Clan ‘mech which means I’m still tempting fate and my Clan Advisor keeps grumbling about how it pales in comparison to the Omni-mechs she has in the next bay over but I don’t care. I crave Clan Second Liners so I’m getting Clan Second Liners.

So, let’s dive in and see what we’ve got!

Chassis

The Supernova is honestly incredibly simple across all of its variants maintaining some staggering continuity we don’t often see on a Battlemech. I suppose purity of purpose and near perfection of form from the start will do that to ya. It did start as a crab after all, any carcinization from here is just bound to be funny.

So, what do all of these Supernovas share then? Well, let’s see:

• 3/5/3 movement profile
• Standard engines
• Standard Armor
• Big Energy Guns
• Thick Armor.

But how thick am I talking? The Standard, the thinnest of the bunch and the only one that breaks from what could be considered the usual armor profile, is clad in 14.5 tons of clan standard armor which is about 83% of the top end load it can take, giving it 26 armor on the arms and both side torsos, 30 on the legs, 33 on the CT, 9 on the head, and 8/10/8 across the rear arc. Every other Supernova is packing on 17 tons of armor which is just under 97.5% of what it can pack.

That’s a lot of armor, totaling out to 30 on the arms and side torsos, 36 on the legs, and 45 on the CT with the head and rear arc remaining the same.

This is a very thick armor profile for something that is five whole variants of “I’m behind 8 miles of ‘you can’t fucking hit me at this range’, try me you spheroid bitch!”. All but one of these things are terrifyingly durable snipers.

Variants

These mechs have all been reviewed based on a standard F through S scale, which you can find described on our landing page here (along with all of our other ‘mech reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).

Standard

CAN YOU HEAR IT? THE SONOROUS HOWL OF MY LASERS CRYING OUT TO YOU THROUGH THE OPPRESSIVE DARKNESS? WILL YOU ANSWER THEIR CALL? THEIR CHALLENGE TO YOUR LIFE’S CONTINUED EXISTENCE UPON THIS MEAGER PLANE? I AM THE LIGHT BRINGER, THE END OF THE DARKNESS AND HERALD OF ALL ENERGY WEAPONS TO COME!!! I AM THE FORTOLD BEHEMOTH OF LIGHT AND DESTRUCTION SENT TO CLEANSE THIS WORLD OF ALL WHO WOULD COWER IN THE DARKNESS OF THE AUTOCANNON!!! WORSHIP AT MY ALTAR FOR I BRING THE ETERNAL WARMTH OF FUSION AND EXCITED RADIATION!!! ALL HAIL TO MY BRILLIANCE!!!

The Standard is the tone-setter. The baseline. The real McCoy of Supernova land. The king of overheating checks and the light that warms my soul on a cold-cold Herotitan night. I’m sure you’re sat there at home, reading this and asking, ‘Liberty, you scream to the heavens about this machine being the lightbringer but what exactly is this ‘Behemoth of Light and Destruction’ armed with?

Simple.

Six Clan ER Large Lasers.

Now, this does come with a… small problem. Six ER Large Lasers builds Seventy-Two Heat. That’s a lot, seventy-four on a run and seventy-five on a jump a lot. That’s thirty-six separate double heat sinks that would be needed to control the heat from the guns, let alone the movement.

So, how many does the Standard have?

Oh. Twenty-Six.

This goes up twenty heat on an alpha strike without moving. Twenty-Two if you run, moving you from the 6+ shutdown zone to the 8+ shutdown zone. At least you have no explosives to kill yourself with!

At 2,801 BV this might seem like a genuine horrorshow of overheat-and-die land but the Standard doesn’t want to be doing that. What the Standard wants to be doing is finding a spot to park up in partial cover, or woods or something, to let off 4 heat negative lasers, or alternating between 5 one turn and 4 for the next two so it bounces from +8 to +4 to neutral, into something until it goes away.

Honestly, I dig it.

Liberty’s Rating: C+. Genuinely, this thing hates all machines before it and 4 heat negative cERLLs on an incredibly tough chassis that you can slam a hard salvo into something when you get the chance is nice to have.

Insanity Rating: A++. SEAR THEIR FLESH AND CHAR THEIR BONES!!! ENGULF THOSE WHO WOULD OPPOSE THE BEHEMOTH OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN A GLORIOUS FONT OF VIOLENCE, LIGHT, AND DESTRUCTION!!!

2

It’s not a phase, mom!!!

No matter what it tries to claim about this being the ‘real them’ the 2 is the Supernova’s emo phase. Black of heart and devoid of the warmth of the Laser that made it so colorful before the 2 has forsaken four of its lasers and ten of its heat sinks to pick up a Targeting Computer for the remaining cERLLs. Also four ATM9s with a total of six tons of ammo.

At least its heat neutral firing both cERLLs and a pair of ATM9s? Or heat negative firing off all the ATMs? This is a pretty funny loadout, especially for 2,741 BV, the cheapest the Supernova platform ever gets, but it does come with one fatal flaw:

Four of the six tons of ammo are in the legs.

Ok, but why?

I suppose if you park it into partial cover you stop having to really worry about it but good god is that not great. At least it comes with in built Clan CASE to save the rest of the ‘mech if it goes off?

Liberty’s Rating: C-. I want to love this thing but good god leg ammo is making me real sad here. Especially because it could be stuffing all of that ammo up into the arms and side torsos to make it less likely to just have a leg scream off into L.E.O.

Insanity Rating: B+. RAIN ATMS UPON THE NON-BELIEVERS. BREAK THEIR BACKS AND STAVE THEIR SHINS WITH KICKS OF A THOUSAND EXPLOSIONS!!! I AM THE AMMO DUMP THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!!!

3

I WILL SHATTER YOUR PLATES, SCOUR YOUR STRUCTURE AND GOUGE YOUR ACTUATORS! MY PARTICLES WILL REND YOUR END UPON THIS PLANE WITH FURY YOU’VE NEVER CONSIDERED! MY SOLUTIONS ARE PERFECT!!! MY AIM ETERNAL!!! I AM THE END OF ALL THAT YOU LOVE AND COST AS SUCH!!! STAND BEFORE ME AND MEET YOUR JUDGEMENT!!!

The 3 returns to energy land in a different way. Taking a 2 and dropping the ATMs, their ammo, before piling a few more heat sinks back in, bringing it to a total of twenty-three for a cool 46 capacity. These changes buy the 3 some good space to work with, both in tonnage and heat!

It uses this space to mount a pair of ERPPCs, a pair of ERLLs and a pair of MPLs. Also the Targeting computer is still here, and much larger now… and the price has ballooned to a wallet gouging 3,448 BV.

This is more than the cost of a Turkina B. If you’re set on spending this much BV on an assault and aren’t restricted to secondline mechs you should go grab that thing, much as it pains me to say it.

Liberty’s Rating: C-. A Turkina B but different gets a Turkina B rating. This is marginally worse.

Insanity Rating: B. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SCOOP THEIR HEADS FROM THEIR SHOULDERS, SEAR THEIR SOUL AND DESTROY THEIR RESOLVE!!!

4

MY LASERS SHALL SEAR AWAY YOUR FAILURES, THE ACCURACY OF MY HATRED CARVING AWAY THE INEQUITIES OF YOUR PATHETIC SPHEROID CHASSIS. YOU WILL FALL BEFORE THE RAVE CONTINED WITHIN MY HANDS, I WILL MELT RIVERS INTO YOUR ARMOR AND SIPHON AWAY ALL THAT YOU HOLD DEAR TO BURN IT UPON MY PIRE! I AM THE CLAN LASIC MACHINE THAT WAS FORTOLD, STARE INTO MY BEAMS AND REJOICE FOR THE CLANS ABHOR POOR EYESIGHT AND I SHALL CORRECT YOURS!!!

An inch from greatness.

The 4 takes a 2, strips out everything it had, stuffs two heat sinks in it to make it eighteen doubles. This is woefully underprepared for its new weapon load of four cLPLs, two Medium Heavy Lasers and two cERMLs. Also there’s still a targeting computer here. If this thing alpha strikes it shoots up to 28 heat, plus movement. This would be fine with range brackets but everything here wants to get in on the action. There’s a world where those two Medium Heavy Lasers are turned into Heat Sinks instead and it is so much better.

This is 3,158 BV for a machine that wants to sit still and sling cLPLs, lest it turn into a weird annihilator every other turn.

Disappointing.

Liberty’s Rating: D+. It doesn’t do what it wants, it just wants to burn out like a flashbulb before getting summarily beaten to death. 3/5 ‘mechs IMO really shouldn’t be playing with the heat line as dropping to ⅔ is an abysmal heat profile and, while it can still jump 3, it really will just suffer and die.

Insanity Rating: C+. THE VIBRATIONS FROM THE PULSE LASERS ARE TICKLING MY FEET!!! 

5

HARK FOR YOUR SALVATION IS HERE. I AM A PERFECT BEING OF LIGHT AND FORCE! THE CORRECTION OF THE SINS OF MY FATHER BEFORE ME! I AM THE STANDARD MADE WHOLE, RIGHT AND JUST IN THIS, THE WORLD OF THE FUTURE!!! BOW BEFORE ME FOR DESPITE ALL YOUR RAGE YOU ARE STILL BUT A RAT, TRAPPED IN MY PHOTONIC CAGE!!!

The 5 is incredibly simple.

Take a Standard. Do you have it? Good. Now, pull two heat sinks out of it so it sinks 48 heat and put it on an endo steel frame. Good. Now, use all of the extra tonnage on four coolant pods and extra armor.

Yep, that’s it.

Perfection.

This machine has 4 turns of looking something square in the face and hurling six cERLLs at it while only building movement heat. Outside of those turns it can fire four of them off and only build movement.

This is 3,075 BV, a pretty penny to be sure, but in a world where it doesn’t get shot in the head it will rain holy hell down on anything it gets in its crosshairs.

Liberty’s Rating: A+. I adore this thing, it is the true light in my heart and the eternal pilot light of my soul. You can count on the five to both cool your woes in the summer and light your hearth in the winter, a true partner for war. The machine that hates, and loves. We should all be so lucky to find such a partner.

Insanity Rating: S+. SEAR THEIR FLESH AND CHAR THEIR BONES!!! ENGULF THOSE WHO WOULD OPPOSE ME. MY FATHER IS THE BEHEMOTH OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, I AM THAT WHICH COMES AFTER, THE ONE WHO WILL SCORCH THE VERY SUN WITH MY BLINDING HATRED. ENGULF THEM IN PAIN, LIGHT AND FIRE! MY LASERS WILL OUTLAST THE VERY STARS THEMSE- oops… ran out of coolant pods… ENGULF THEM IN SLIGHTLY LESS PAIN!!!

Final Thoughts

I fucking adore Supernovas.

They are hateful. They are destructive. They are pyres in the night that crave little more than to be seen by the stars themselves and counted amongst their numbers. Are they expensive? Yea, sure, Clan assaults often are and I’m reckoning with that in my head, and my soul.

If you want to put a Supernova to work and you’re able to I’d suggest either the Standard or the 5, they are horror shows when you can take the moment to really lay up the shot and drive that full payload home on someone. Hateful.

Kill ‘em all. With beam and particle sear their soul from this plane and rejoice in the destruction you find yourself reaping on this barren world.

Honestly surprised we don’t have a few oddball options here like a 5 but with RHSS, some kind of IJJ pulse hell machine, or even something as simple as a 6 pack of LPLs with real cooling. You can do it.

I checked.

Until next time! Fair weather, good seas and happy lightbulbing!!!

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