I am trying to decide on a good solid Heavy mech for my formation RD army. I tried out Headhunter, but his early low damage makes it rough and any of the 50% gear usually means I will miss the roll. The Mad Cat IV gets crazy damage, but the lack of IT hurts and defense drops fast.

I am using Drogo on him for the 10 IT attack value, but what do you guys recommend for gear?

Offensive or defensive gear?

PS I don't own IT for heavies.

Give me some ideas please.....................:grin:

Honestly? Every time I field the RD Thor, it is usually with no gear at all. It does not need any. It's cheap and lethal for a heavy. Capitalize on support or invest in another heavy. Play tactically. Gang up on a big opposing unit with both mechs before the opponent does so on your mechs.

Try this:
RD Thor/ Alberto
RD MadCat/ Drogo
3 RD Wraith BA
12point infy.

Use terrain, comrade.:)

isnt there an artemis IV for heavies, if so that might be a wise choice

Armor Piercing is a good equipment, to allow it do 3 damage standard at the start, even to armored threats, like Kurita and such...

yeah but for 44 pts? especially as the thor gains piercing of its own later.. i was thinking of concussion ammo... for 20 points less (you could get yourself, say, a pride for that 20 pts). put it on secondary, and you could be a serious threat to tanks and infantry.

My load out on the RD thor is usually


RD Thor
Yasu Akiyama
SU Evade


Yasu is 6 points cheaper than drogo for the same stats so I take her over drogo.

No equipment is good and AP would be nice at the start. Cost wise I like SU Evade which allows running and getting to that 3 slot which has the 9 IT attack.

I find more infantry to be much better then another mech so far. I do like the RD Mad Cat IV. Very nasty after a few hits, but I love my mini-Light mech infantry = RD Ravagers. 8 clicks of life with Heavy armor and an eventual 9 attack. These buggers may be slow, but if you fan out 5 of them with their lifespan and use the Vet CBA you can corner anything.

I use this setup so far, but I was hoping to add a better gear option:

Thor
Drogo
SU Evade

R10
x3 TGR

x3 Vet CBA
x5 Ravagers

x1 Sylph

Formation Faction Pride

600pts on the dot.

I can usually get off a TGR + Thor 14" shot at a 13 IT and 5 damage.

Artimis sounds good for that extra damage, but the % is low on rolling a 5 or 6. No gear is also nice since I could add more infantry like another Sylph etc etc.

During recent play I run into reactive armor a lot and AP at the beginning would be great, but the other poster was right....44 points is steep!

I'll play around with those options and see what I get.

Anyone have any experience with Supercooled Myomer RISC gear?

Being a Clan Wolf player, I admire the combat stats of the RD Thor. Try Inferno Flamers so that it can smash basers who try to keep it out of the fight. Another goodie is RISC Saturation Fire Mode, but then again I hate RISC Gear that fails half of the time.

Sometimes no gear at all and a good pilot is nice, just save the points for additional support units to maxiize your firing formation faction pride. I also think that RD doing a gang-up attack on a single target is frightening. A swift grappler can tie down an unfortunate enemy, then your RD mechs can get in close and close combat it to death.

Good luck with your games. I think I'll try out a fun RD-CW army w/ your RD Thor as the lead just to shake up my creative army juices a bit.

You bet that RD Madcat IV hits hard! After I smashed an RD army, all that was left was my Slayer and my buddy's RD Madcat. It was nerve-wracking to fire on an enemy that gets angrier and angrier w/ every hit. I may have beaten it, but I shall never forget the 8 damage I ate when it blasted me w/ its PPC Capacitor before dying. I mean, that really hurt. Big fun we sure had. :-)

RD is the ultimate faction for one on one battles. I learned that if you are facing an RD unit face to face, you will often end up losing if you have a traditional dial like SS/HD, SH/SH, DF, JF, ROTS, etc. Never tangle w/ a Bear by yourself.

Based on that, the Dominion player should maximize armies that specialize on always having armies that are great at isolating part of an enemy's build and then sending the rest of the RD force on a single exposed target. IMHO, if RD is great in 1vs1 battles, then I say toss TWO or more RD units against that one poor enemy. :-)

Hope my ramblings are useful, what can I say I am enthusiastic about strange dials too.

my RD army layouts usually consist of one mech, and a crapload of infantry with a few basers. I use the FP to dish out tons of damage from infantry, and capture enemy mechs. I rarely kill any mechs because I usually end of capturing them.

I do talk a lot of #### at my venue, but in all honesty I have earned the right.

One thing that makes me look back and laugh at is how everyone on the forum said that the RD sucks, and how everyone at my old venue said they were overpowered. I think that might be because I did a formation attack with 5 CBA and hit a CJF transport and the 3 infantry it had dropped for 5 dmg each in one shot killing them all.

Oh RD, how I love thee.

I like the idea of infantry support and the synergy that they bring to the table. I also like the idea of gearless or lean RD mechs+Good pilot w/ lots of support to bring out that firing formation faction pride. Never tangle w/ the Bear all by yourself because you cannot. Keep at it guys, it would be a grand sight to see ya'll humble them mix armies and those blasted Seka+Jack builds or BR Solly RISC APM coz variety is good for the game and you guys sure add to that.

ahahaha rawr brings up so many memories.

scoobyschmitty thinks i'm weird for getting all of the RD supporters saying it. And because I regularly say it at the venue. RAWR!



BTW, I love the up close and personal RD mechs. I've had Balder eat through other players support using basers and SU evade to keep mechs off my back while I do it. I also love inferno flamers.

Can't wait to get Odin and try it out with IT equiped.

Anyone have any comments on the RD Ravagers? I am trying to figure out why more people don't use these.

I have Inferno Flamers for Light and Heavies. I have never used Balder yet. I was successful in another battle against an all WH army with their Thor + Vixen + infantry and VTOL + Merc Faction Pride.

Capture Thor with Ravagers and destroyed Vixen with a well place formation shot from Thor and TGRs!

I would say use Inferno Ammunition or Decoy on the Thor. I have played with them briefly in Large scale battles where mechs are mostly played.

On headhunter, I have used Reengineered laser and Retractable blade for good results. I use his alternate card with the blade. I have had fun watching that SA go off and they end up taking the clicks instead.

I dont typically use H or A class mechs for normal events, but use M and L class and alot of support units.

My tactics are going to have to change again. I have been trying to use a heavy troops load w/ 2 R10 transports each filled w/ 3 Gnomes or 3 Ravagers to increase their speed.

I love the faction pride and the mass of troops, but overall the range and lack of first punch are causeing issues.

1 - The Thor is always taken as the real threat, (Even when the infantry is really nasty). Therefore opponents will hit hard all at once, (as they should) and nail the Thor for 5 and then 5 again etc etc. This still isn't horrible for the Thor because that means prime is there. The bad thing is it usually gets popped by a simple infantry of Bishop transport for the last 2 clicks because it's defense is so low.

2 - The Faction Pride can be easily canceled if I bring this basic army a lot. The design is set around the FP card.

I still want my little walking tanks = Ravagers and I love my Gnomes too, but I need to cut down on something.

I need ideas and which way to better load out and support the Thor:

Idea #1: Put Aiko in there w/ Decoy for a 23 Decoy defensive structure. At least you won't care if you get hit and it'll make it harder to be killed so easily at Prime.

Idea #2: Take out the heavy hitters and fast movers of the infantry, (Gnomes and Vet CBA repectively) and add Hermod w/ pilot and Inferno flamers. Having her on the field period should give pause to anyone. The Flamers allow a faster infantry death/vehicles and the shutdown potential is perfect!

The 2nd idea can probably fit 3 Ravagers and maybe 3 more infantry. If I added both the Thor design and Hermod I would be stuck with very little infantry and no use for the FP.

Any ideas out there?