'Mech of the Week: UM-R* UrbanMech and UrbanMech IIC

So, obviously, this week we're talking about the UrbanMech. Dating back to the original Tech Readout 3025, the UrbanMech is one of the oldest 'Mechs in the game. It's also one of the most simultaneously loved and reviled of all BattleMechs in the game, most often referred to as the Urbie by fans and detractors alike.In-universe, though, the UrbanMech isn't quite so old, first reaching production in 2675 by Orgus Industries (anime fans are now chuckling), when the Star League was looking for a 'Mech that would be a cheap city combat unit.It’s interesting to note that, at one point in time, Orgus (spelled “Orguss” at the time) was also responsible for the Phoenix Hawk, though that's no longer the case as of Tech Readout 3039, which changed the manufacturer to Earthwerks, and the chassis type from Orguss Stinger to Earthwerks PXH. The manufacturer themselves lost an ‘s’ in their name, presumably to decrease the resemblance to the anime name. That said, Tech Readout 3050 Updates still spells it “Orguss”.Now, 2675 is a particularly odd time period for the Star League to be looking for a new city fighter. That's because only 15 years earlier, in 2660, the Star League had commissioned the "ultimate urban war machine", the Wyvern. Why, then, build the UrbanMech? Because, at 1,464,125 C-Bills (or equivalent in other currency), you can buy 2.3 UrbanMechs for the cost of one WVE-5N Wyvern. In fact, at that cost, only the Hornet (151, 152, 161 and 171) and WSP-1 primitive Wasp are cheaper in C-Bill cost than the UM-R60 UrbanMech. And they're not as heavily armed."How heavily armed?" you ask? Well, like many light 'Mechs of the era, the original UM-R60 UrbanMech carries a small laser. However, its primary weapon is an AC/10, backed by 10 rounds of ammunition. An eleventh heat sink, often speculated to have replaced a machine gun, is added both for crit soaking and for keeping the UrbanMech going in the event of engine damage, fire or direct attack by Infernos.Armor on the original UM-R60 is similarly heavy for a 30-ton light 'Mech, with 6 tons of standard armor plating spread around. Forward armor consists of the maximum 9 points in the head, 11 points CT, 8 in each side torso, 10 in each arm (protecting the guns), and finally 12 in each leg. Yes, there's more armor in each leg than the front CT. However, this is in no small part due to 8 points of armor CT rear and 4 in each side torso rear. There's not much more room for extra armor here, with room for 2 more in each leg and side torso, and 1 more in the CT.So, heavy weapons, heavy armor. Cheap as heck. What are you giving up, then? Speed. The UM-R60 UrbanMech is "I can outrun it on a bicycle on a good day" slow, with a top speed of only 32 kph. At 2/3/2, the Urbie is painfully slow for a light 'Mech. Actually, 2/3/2 would be pretty damn slow for an assault 'Mech. Jump jets will certainly help it leap small buildings in a single bound and get around a city better, but this is not a fast 'Mech by any stretch of the imagination.Keeping in mind, then, the slow speed, heavy gun and decent armor pretty much tells the story of how the city-fighting Urbie was meant to function: while a Wyvern might function on the offense and defense in a city, the UrbanMech is a defensive platform. You have to be insane to use it as an offensive platform...which means that it will undoubtedly happen from time to time. This is also where anther feature of the UrbanMech comes into play: it doesn’t look threatening.I mean, let’s face it: the UrbanMech looks like a cross between a trash can with legs and R2-D2 with a pituitary problem. It doesn’t look like a big, mean, scary-looking BattleMech, and as a result, equipping your militia units with them won’t necessarily scare the pants off the locals. That you’re also lacking in anti-personnel weapons meaner than a small laser is also a benefit here: the UrbanMech is obviously here to be your cuddly local defender, not a tool of oppression, right?Somewhere along the line, someone must have misread “harmless-looking” as “armless-looking”, because that’s the next thing the SLDF and Orgus tried. This did not end well, as the armless Urbie proved to be mostly harmless Urbie, dying far too easily to weapons fire. This worked out well for no one, and the harmless armless UrbanMechs died in droves, becoming essentially extinct.Things sit quiet, then, for the Urbie, until the Star League Civil War, where the poor ‘Mech took it in the shorts, reportedly dying in droves. The early Succession Wars added insult to injury, with the production line on Marcus destroyed in 2857.Amusingly, production of the Urbie didn’t die there, though, because in 2849, the Clans introduced the UrbanMech IIC.For whatever reason, Clan Coyote looked at the humble UrbanMech and said, “Moar, plz?” The results were interesting: speed increased to 3/5/3, thanks to a bigger 90-rting standard engine. The 11th standard heat sink vanished, the small laser got upgraded to the Clan extended-range model, and the AC/10 was swapped for an Ultra AC/10 and a second ton of ammo. This, folks, is a good, solid upgrade.In the Inner Sphere, meanwhile, Capellan desperation became the mother of invention and, in 2925, they began to refit some of their UM-R60s to the new R60L spec. Dropping two tons of armor (instead of that 11th heat sink and a ton of armor), the R60L has only 6 points in the arms, side torsos and head, 8 points in the CT and each leg, and 3/4/3 points on its back. What does it gain? An AC/20 with a whopping single ton of ammo. I could have lived with the loss of two tons of armor if they’d swapped that extra heat sink for another 5 shots. Sadly, they didn’t. Of course, with armor that thin, your UM-R60L may not live long enough to use 10 shots, given the attention that Imperator Zeta autocannon will bring.We have to wait a bit before we get another Urbie variant, until 3050 in fact, when the Capellans get around to their next refit package, the UM-R63.Keeping the same armor as the original R60, the R63 drops the original’s AC/10 for a shiny new LB-10X shotgun, using the spare ton to add a small pulse laser to the left torso, which reportedly replaced the machine gun there."The what?"Yeah, the machine gun. Rumor has it there was a machine gun armed version. No, nobody seems to know anything about it, and you’re free to speculate wildly, but it certainly would be easy enough to drop the eleventh heat sink and add a machine gun for all your infantry and protester massacring needs.I really want to like the R63, but with only one ton of ammo for its LB-10X and 11 single heat sinks, what seemed like an oddity on the original seems inexcusable on the Urbie R63: it really, really should have carried a second ton of ammo, so you could mix slug and cluster rounds. As it is, if deploying your Urbies as a lance (which you should), you either need to mix cluster-carrying R63s with slug or standard AC Urbies. Personally, I’d rather have the versatility to carry both on the same LB-X platform.By 3063, the Free Worlds League decided they wanted to get in on the act, and decided to start refitting at least some of their Urbies to the new UM-R69 standard. Swapping the AC/10 for an Ultra AC/10, the small for an ER small laser, carrying only 10 heat sinks, and swapping to 5 tons of ferro-fibrous armor, the UM-R69, while vaguely resembling a IIC, doesn’t add up from the description. Why? Because it only has one ton of ammo. Yes, you’re missing something: a small pulse laser, making this Urbie more of a refit of the UM-R63 than the R60. With only 10 rounds for your Ultra/10, you end up having to really shepherd your double-taps carefully, and while anti-personnel capability is handy, I think I’d leave that to my infantry and vehicle support, and take another ton of ammo instead. That said, even firing single-burst, you’ve got a better range curve than most other Urbies, save the similar IIC, making this and the R63 the long-range snipers of the bunch.Armor is a bit thinner than the standard Urbie, especially on your back, but not as bad as the 60L, so this is definitely a ‘Mech you don’t want to stand and fight in: take your shot and get under cover. Hopefully that building you’re hiding behind is insured. The good news, though, is, thanks to the Jihad, the good news is the R69 is hardly an FWL exclusive, hitting the IS and Periphery General lists, per the MUL. Yay!Now, stepping forward two years to 3065, we step back a number to the UM-R68, the Draconis Combine’s answer to how to refit the Urbie. Like everyone else, they decided that an AC/10 just wasn’t sufficient anymore. Unlike everyone else, they have MRM launchers, and they decided the Urbie was the perfect platform to put an MRM-30 on with two tons of ammo, for a grand total of 16 shots, giving your DCMS civil defense garrison pilot the Urbie that, so far, has the highest potential damage and the best endurance. Since this isn’t a ‘Mech they wanted to spend much money on, the armor didn’t get upgraded, nor did the small laser, though the DCMS was kind enough to throw in a small pulse laser in the left torso, once again making it look like the UM-R68 is a weapons refit of the R63.Not wanting to be left in the cold, and wanting to show that they’re willing to splurge more on their Urbies than others, perhaps, the Federated Suns unveiled their UM-R70 in 3066, near the end of the Fed Com Civil War. Upgrading the armor to six tons of ferro-fibrous, thus maxing out the armor and wasting only 2 points, the R70 emphasizes forward combat, with your center torso able to stop a gauss rifle, though only once, and leaving no armor remaining. Like almost all our Spheroid Urbies so far, 11 single heat sinks support the heat load. Unlike the other post-Clan Urbie refits, the Fed Suns didn’t bother with a small pulse for anti-personnel use. In fact, keeping with the armor changes, they emphasized anti-‘Mech capability, dropping in their signature RAC/5, with a relatively adequate two tons of ammo, an ER medium laser in the left torso, and an ER small laser in the left arm. The R70, then, is designed to sandblast your ‘Mech with 5-point hits from beyond 9 hexes, and to try to do so for as long as it can.The Clans, however, didn’t sit still, and the Hell’s Horses decided it was time to try something new with the UrbanMech IIC by 3070. So, meeting it simple, they swapped the autocannon for an HAG/20, for another sandblaster Urbie, and a flamer instead of the ERSL, for enhanced urban renewal through the flames of purification, keeping the armor of the original, and the 3/5/3 movement of the IIC. By the end of the Jihad, this version doesn’t seem to have caught on with anyone else, which is somewhat surprising, given the range curve on the HAG/20.Now things get weird. Remember how the UrbanMech factories were supposedly gone, and all the Inner Sphere ones were refits of old Star League Urbies? Record Sheets 3085: Old is the New New introduces two new Urbies, one of which could be a refit, but one, the UM-AIV of 3072, that can’t, thanks to its Endo-Steel skeleton.Used, according to the MUL, by the Cappies, the Taurians, the FWL, the Fed Suns, mercenaries and, of course, the Word of Blake, the UM-AIV is an impressive design, keeping the armor and movement curve of the original, at the expense of only carrying 10 single heat sinks. With that said, that’ll probably be sufficient because, as its name implies, it probably won’t be moving much when using its primary weapon, an Arrow IV launcher with two tons of ammo. How did it accomplish this? Besides the Endo-Steel, we also have a 60-rating XL engine (what), as well as an XL gyro and small cockpit. Like all Spheroid Urbies, CASE is absent, but our small laser is, too, upgraded to an ER medium laser.My understanding is that there’s quite a story behind this guy, involving GenCon, ItsTehPope and the Lord of Nukes himself, Herb. I’m not going to tell it, though, in the hopes that one of them will pop in to share, but, from what I gather, this Urbie was spawned to let Herb, and the Blakists, have a nuclear Urbie. Muahahahahahahahahaha! Even better, this bad boy goes IS General, Merc and Periphery General in the Early Republic era, so everyone gets to join in the fun!Now, what would an artillery Urbie be without a spotter Urbie? I’m glad you asked, because 3076 gives us the new gold standard for the Urbie, IMO, the UM-R80 UrbanMech. Initially limited to the Cappies, their Taurians and Canopian buddies, the Wobbles and mercenaries during the Jihad, this one also ends up everywhere by the time the Republic era starts. Armor, heat sinks and 60 Leenex fusion engine are still the same as the original R60, as is the standard internal structure, but the old jump jets are gone, replaced with three improved jump jets, for better mobility that, amusingly, costs the same in terms of mass as going 3/5/3 would. Weaponry is heavily revamped again, though, with the traditional small laser still in the left arm, and an SPL in the left torso. The autocannon, though, is gone, replaced in the right arm by a snub-nose PPC and TAG unit. Rounding out the gear, though, is a Guardian ECM suite in the left torso and a Beagle Active Probe in the right torso, turning the UM-R80 into an electronic warfare ‘Mech that can spot for its Arrow IV slinging brethren, ferret out hidden units in the city better than ever before, and provide ECM coverage for its compatriots, all without worry of its ammo running out. This is, perhaps, the first Urbie where it actually pays to slug it out.So, as I’ve implied, using an Urbie isn’t as straightforward as other ‘Mechs: you don’t have the mobility of other light ‘Mechs, but you don’t have the armor of bigger ‘Mechs, so taking advantage of cover, both full and partial, is paramount. In a densely-packed city, this is certainly easier than in the open, but on maps with large quantities of water, hills or forests, you may also find some success: I’ve used water to great effect to cover the advance of a UM-R60L, for example. In the open, though, your limited movement will leave you a sitting duck in most instances, though the UM-R80 and the Clan IIC variants may find some luck screening 3/5 assault ‘Mechs. Never operate alone: keep your lance or star mates nearby to provide mutual support, forcing anyone trying to flank you to take fire from your buddies, too.Taking down UrbanMechs is all about exploiting their low movement. Artillery barrages where they get caught in the area of effect is one way, of course, but if you can outmaneuver them in their urban environment to flank them and take away their cover, their low movement modifiers leave them highly vulnerable. Keep in mind, though, that most Urbies tend to be heavily armed and armored for their size, and can flip their arms around to provide full field of fire, so if you’re going to flank them, it’s best to make sure the units you’re using can take a hit.The UrbanMech has somehow become a kind of unofficial Battletech mascot for those who love it. Maybe it’s that it looks like Artoo on steroids. Maybe it’s that everyone likes to root for the underdog. Maybe it’s the feeling of satisfaction when you can troll your opponent when the humble Urbie takes down something far bigger than itself with its heavy weaponry. Perhaps it’s all those things.So, what are your thoughts on the UrbanMech?