If it had agility, people would be whining about claners with melee attacks. :p

Meh, I like the Panther but the MBT, well. Hmm its elite...could it have an ability like Liao for the elite members as well. We shall see.

Ah Sir Quid is right 10 clicks. just with all the twos and low defense it looked short. I'm used to my DF&SH MBTs with 21 Defense, and a few clicks with 4/5 damage follow by a few more with 3.
Optical Illusion. Sorry.

Uhhh... Am I smoking crack, or am I really seeing a 120 point 'Mech with 4 Pulse and a 10 Attack?

I don't care if the range is only 12", that's a potential of 8 damage, which is enough to render useless or destroyed every other 'Mech in that price range (100-130). And, if the unthinkable happens, and JF gets 12" range Infantry, that can be dropped into formation with this thing, then even your fatties will no longer be safe.

Yes, I realize that 12" range is going to hamper it somewhat, but still. I find myself wondering if that last cigarette I smoked was perhaps laced with PCP or some other form of hallucinogen that is affecting my perception of the world around me, and causing me to believe, in error, that the Green JF Panther can do 8 clicks, twice.

I think I need to lie down for a while.

- GhostPony

Ghostpony, it's well known that smoking is bad for you. Looks like Clan Jade Falcon knows how to upgrade a captured Inner Sphere 'Mech. I guess that machine is equipped with a Clan large pulse laser.

tell you what . i'm going to take great pleasure in capturing and bypassing a gyrfalcon then alpha striking the rest of its support while my force sits and collects vc 3 and laughs as as i crash the g-ride into everything in site

Well, one of the rumored faction abilities for Clan Jade Falcon is improved defense against infantry. They have an anti-personnel device called A-Pods, which have a tendency to shower infantry that tries to climb a 'Mech with shrapnel. But at the moment nothing is official, since the faction abilities for CJF have not been made public yet.

So what if it can pulse for 8? What are the chances your going to pull that off? Only a newer player wouldn't realize the potential for damage it could do. Still pulse isn't exactly a guaranteed hit the second time with that +2 defense.

Anything less then 20 defense on a mech is unplayable imo. I've seen what a lone 10-20ish 2 dmg point infantry can do to mechs with that low of a defense... Not exactly worth the x8 point investment.

You guys are looking at that panther all wrong. In a combined arms environment it's awesome. 8 clicks at 12" that won't shutdown? How many other mechs can you name that can do that? Jumpjets for mobility, mid dial IT, absofreaking-amazing heat for 120 points. Gang up on it and you've over committed, ignore it and get your kiester kicked in.

Base/break and obliterate your opponents.

It seems that people happily ignore the existence of combined arms tactics and the proper use of support units when it comes to the actual use of the JF Panther.

Several things that impress me about these two units.

And these tie into the fact that it gives us an insite into the Jade Falcon abilities.

Panther mech is realisticly only a 4/6/4 which roughly translates into a 6-7 speed mech in clicks The fact that it's an 8 speed mech for CJF means that they have above average speed. Additionaly the tank supports this by going 9 it self. That is very nice.

Two they suffer from Average to low defense and what seems like shortened life dials. Check out all 3 mechs, not the most incouraging. But that is quite all right they make up for it with attack values, dmg, above averge speed and heat dials.

Trust me I am a hard core kitty player and a might jealous of that panther. Just hope SC gets one.

Next up is that the panther only costs 120 points. It no doubt has an 18 defense, but what does it bring to the table. A 10 attack battlemech, with jumpjets and 4 dmg pulse out to 12 inches. Additionaly it drops into IT after a few clicks. Extremely impresive for a 120 point unit.

If we still had 300 point matches this guy would be on of thee best units to take, the fact that we do 450 is even better, because you can run twins and still have very decent support to mkae those base, flank and spank. And the neat thing is, with a 10 attack you don't need to flank as much.

As for the Tank itself, theory and this is strictly my theory is that CJF suffer in the balistics area. Yup. This is shown by the 0/4 inch SRM's where others have 0/6 and the 2 dmg on the MBT.

Needless to say, I love this panther. I have always been a fan of the panther and look forward to letting this monster roam around.

-BA

Now, without knowing the JF abilities it's hard to judge, but as it stands it's nothing to write home about.

It's not good, but it's not bad either. I personally think you'd be better off with some of the Raider's / Mjolnir + support, or a couple of VTOLS, infantry drop, tank drop, ...

But it's inexpensive enough to be semi-playable, so that's something ...

so!!! peterson (firestarter)
has lest range lest damage and also costs 120 points!

give me the JF panther any day.

Reading all the posts, I do have to agree that the offensive POTENTIAL of the JF Panther is unparalleled when you compare it to other mechs in its point class. However, I still would not consider it usable at the moment because 2 damage takes away all of its power, and it hits a repair marker. After taking 2 damage from an infantry, a ram, a scout VTOL, or arty, it has become a glorified 120 point infantry piece: 3 energy damage out to 12 w/ 8 IT, 17 defense, and 7 speed w/ JJ.

And then there's all this talk about combined arms tactics being able to support it, which I don't understand. Versus a balanced combined arms army, an army containing this Panther as the centerpiece would be fighting at a disadvantage from the start because of its mediocre stats (damage potential aside). I could use combined arms tactics and risk a scout VTOL or an infantry drop (which cost much less than the Panther) to threaten and/or deal 2 points from beyond the Panther's firing and charging range. The reward to risk ratio (here the ratio of the point value of the Panther itself to the point values of the units sent after the Panther) is so high that it I would be glad to throw away 30 or so points in order to permanently take away the one thing that made the Panther so good: it's damage potential. It's a good support piece, but there are better support pieces for less points right now.

That's not exactly a fair comparison. Anything looks good compared to Pyro Peterson. Would you take the Panther over the 119 point BR Raider, which has a 14 range SU 4 damage AP, same speed, no repair ticks, same life, 20 defense, and a better heat dial (only downside is a 9 attack)? How about the 119 point BR Lego? How about the 114 point BR Raider MkII with its 9 speed Evade, 11 attack and 20 def w/ reflective armor?