Awesome

Why it earns its tonnage

The whole design comes down to one decision: no ammunition. Every gun on the 8Q runs off the reactor, which means there's nothing in the torso waiting to blow when a lucky shot finds a crit, and nothing to run out of three turns into a long fight. That's why it gets used in sieges. It'll sit there and keep pouring particle fire at the same target for as long as the heat lets it.

The heat is the thing you manage. Twenty-eight sinks sounds like plenty and very nearly is. Fire all three while walking and you're three over each turn, which you can carry for a while and then can't. The habit most pilots fall into is two PPCs every turn and the third when the shot's worth it. That's not a flaw so much as the price of carrying that much gun on eighty tons.

The armour's the other half. Fifteen tons of it, better protected than a BattleMaster, and the rear plate is thick enough that getting behind one isn't the free kill it is on most assaults. The small laser in the head is there for completeness. The battlefist on the left arm is the real close-in weapon, and eighty tons behind a closed fist is a fair argument.

Four centuries of nobody wanting to change it

Technicron originally built it on Savannah for the Star League, and it spread through every House army before the League fell. When the Succession Wars started, the Free Worlds League held onto the Savannah factory, which made them the only realm that could build new ones, and that's why you still think of it as a Marik machine. Lycomb-Davion had been building them too, on Demeter, until the Capellans destroyed that line early in the First Succession War.

Later Technicron partnered with Irian BattleMechs Unlimited to open a second line on Irian, and here's the part I like: neither company was willing to change the design. For centuries the answer to "can we improve the Awesome" was a polite no. It took the Helm Memory Core and the Clans turning up to finally shake loose the AWS-9M in 3049.

After that it moved quickly. The 9Q was ready in time for Operation Guerrero, and the Jihad-era 10KM came out of a joint venture between Irian Technologies and Alshain Weaponry, locked into a contract so tight even Irian couldn't find a way to sell it to anyone else. In the Dark Age the Scorpion Empire, of all people, built a Clan-tech version and put four ER PPCs on it.

Two attempts were made to retire it. George Hasek designed the Templar specifically to replace the Awesome in the AFFC's assault corps, and the Regent later borrowed half the Awesome's bones. It's still in service anyway.

How these are rated

Every verdict below is against other Awesomes available in the same era. Two of the late variants fail the Trap test to the same machine, which is worth a look further down.

Only the Trap tier is calculated. It is worked out from the variant data rather than decided by me, which means it is falsifiable: to argue with it you only have to name something the cheaper machine gives up. The other three are my opinion and you should treat them that way. 2 of the 16 Awesome variants fail the Trap test. The full rating scale is here, including what it deliberately does not measure.

The variants worth arguing about

All 16 are in the table further down. These are the ones that change how the machine plays.

On the table

Piloting one. Find a spot with a long view and cover on your flanks, and settle in. You're too slow to reposition often, so pick the ground carefully the first time. Fire two PPCs every turn and save the third for when it'll kill something or you're cool enough to afford it. If someone closes in, remember the fist.

Fighting one. Don't trade shots with it at range, you'll lose. Get round the side, because it walks three and turns slowly, and hit the arm or side torso it's leaning on. Against the XL variants from 3049 onward, a side torso ends it. Against the 8Q, bring enough friends to outlast twenty-eight heat sinks.

What I see go wrong. Pilots alpha strike every turn because three PPCs feels like the point. Four turns later they're shut down in the open with their rear to an enemy light mech. Two guns, every turn, is the whole trick.

Against OpFor Command

If you run solo games with our AI opponent, the Awesome is overwhelmingly a Sniper: 11 of the 16 variants carry that tag.

• The engine will hold it at range and let it grind, which is exactly how the design wants to fight.
• The AWS-8R and AWS-8T are Missile Boats and will sit even further back.
• The two AWS-10KM fits are Juggernauts and the AWS-9M is a Brawler, so those will come looking for you.

A good choice if you want a solo scenario built around breaking a defensive position.

All 16 variants

Damage figures are the Alpha Strike short, medium and long values. BV is Battle Value 2.0.

Where and when you can field it

Availability for the AWS-8Q by era, straight off the Master Unit List.

Related designs

Other machines that do the same job

Take it to the table

Common questions

Stats on this page are generated directly from our variant database, which is reconciled against the Master Unit List for Battle Value, introduction dates and per-era faction availability. Alpha Strike damage values are the standard card figures. If you spot something wrong, tell me and I will fix it.