Why Do We Love the Mad Dog?
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- čas přidán 16. 06. 2024
- Mad Dog MF Record Sheet: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6sv480...
Resources: 3050 TRO, 3050 Revised, 3058 TRO, Tukayyid 3rd Ed, Golden Century, IlClan Rec Guide 10, TRO Dark Age, Compendium
Thank you to Dwane Loose, Anthony Scroggins, Matt Plog, Łukasz Matuszek, Bishop Steiner, Flying Debris, Alan Blackwell, Chris Lowry, Dale Eadeh, Harri Kallio, Loston Wallace, Justin Nelson, Rick Harris, Franz Vohwinkel, and all the other BattleTech artists that have brought the IP to life through their amazing work.
BattleTech imagery and mech info remains the property of Topps.
Concept Art from Mechwarrior Online and game art from MW5 is owned by Piranha Games.
Imagery from HBS BattleTech and Mechwarrior 5: Clans Trailer
Some imagery/video from Pixabay
Background Music: Purchased rights to use from Fanatical
Intro Music: ABS Sounds - Hard Electro Synthwave - Rights purchased from Fanatical
#BattleTech #Mechwarrior #CatalystGameLabs #lore - Hry
The Vulture is one of those mechs that just looks right
Form and function.
I've got questions about where the missile reloads go though, based on the size of the missiles, the launchers and the 'mech's torso in general....
@@todddelevan9488They're in there somewhere around the omni; it's what gives omnimechs their mystique.
@@todddelevan9488clearly, the toes
@@ogrehaslayers605 a feature clearly borrowed from the Crusader!
The Slayer of the Black Widow definitely deserves a video of her own. I like to think that in another universe, an ancient, decrepit Joanna dies after beating Malvina Hazen to death with those steel-tacked gloves for disgracing the Clan.
If only...
Bonus points in that timeline? Horse is some how mixed up in it. They are coffin mates after all!
just started watching, i really hope the custom MF loadout is called the Mad Frog
Solid!!
Well, it is able to hop around with those jumpjets, so that's fitting.
Yes, it can even jump.
but where is the Plasma Cannon(s) for a real MF mech
The CT turret?
Alright the Mesopotamian copper joke got me lol
Glad someone other than I found it entertaining.
I'd heard about that one too. Made me snicker.
You love the Mad Dog because your credit rating couldn't stretch to a Timberwolf.
Times are tough.
I would rather have 3 Vulture than 2 Mad Cats.
@@topcatcoast2coast579 2 Timbys have as much armour as 3 Mad Dogs and only 12 less cooling. 3 Mad Dogs vs 2 Timberwolves gives the Mad Dogs fire superiority for the first turn, then they're overheating, they have to stop firing or stop running (hint, never stop running), then the Timbys rip one of them in half on the second turn and it all gets very messy. I don't remember ever playing that specific scenario, but anything vs a Star with 2 Timberwolves is in for an interesting time.
It's all about style, this Dog has good bite!
Sometimes it's nice to take the extra money to canopus
I still have a poster of the Mad Dog/Vulture I got back in 98 it's looking ragged, but I'll never get rid of it
Good as gold.
Oh Ea-nāșir, you’ll never live it down.
Alrighty.
they say you only truly die when noone speaks your name for the last time
in that sense, he has achieved immortality
So long as someone's name is remembered, they're still alive in some form.
And may _that_ man in particular live forever.
4:20 in... "Oh, Battletech times lines are silly sometimes..." Truer words have never been spoken.
Grain of salt and a suspension of disbelief.
In a setting so amazingly constructed, those moments when a Mech design takes more than a lifetime to be completed or it takes a successor state a hundred years to go "Hmmm... how about I replace one heatsink with a medium laser?" are like little gems of entertainment.
Why do I love the Mad Dog? Because from the waist down, it's a Timberwolf. (The programmers for the early iterations of the Virtual Worlds pods wanted to be able to recycle geometry when they could to save memory space. Thus the Doylest reason the Omnimech was born.)
Smoke Jaguar opted to provide the Clans the ultimate weapon. It is their legacy. The Mad Dog.
As far as legacies go, this is a good one.
Did not help them to win vs Comstar or save their clan though.
I could not resist. Big Fan.
It's also not an Orion,
It is a fantastic smoke jaguar legacy but it is hard to say that it is their ultimate weapon. So many of their mechs did so well such as the dire wolf, warhawk, and mist lynx also props to them for not inventing it but getting it to production first like a proper asshole.
Joanna to everyone, including herself: You have just made an enemy for life!
*Bitter mechwarrior shakes fist at sky*
Joanna is a severely underrated character
Truth.
lol, maybe Quikscell should sell a combat vehicle called the Ea-nasir-it would certainly fit them
Hmm.
"I'm pretty sure the armor is copper. And no, I didn't bother to check the quality."
What would it be armed with? Rocket Launchers disguised as LRM launchers?
@@h.a.9880 that's a good one, actually
Joanna is my favorite Jade Falcon and my favorite Battletech character in general. I would LOVE a vid giving her the attention she deserves.
I really like her character. She's just too grumpy not to appreciate.
Battletech is long-lived, but Ea-Nasir jokes are eternal!
Truth.
Sure, the Timber Wolf gets all the glamor shots and glory, but the Mad Dog was the real workhorse of Clan Invasion era. It was my first choice back when I played MechWarrior 2, and it's still a rock solid platform for when I want to play with Clanner tech for a bit.
Absolutely agreed.
Cheers for a classic clan mech overview :-) we love the vulture because of the 2 dirty clan large pulse lasers that are amongst the nastiest weapons on the battlefield :-)
They do tend to leave a mark.
the Mad Dog is, i think, the quintessential Clan OmniMech-using its advanced technology to be fast and well-armed, but only decently armored and frequently misusing the generous pod space to fit far more weaponry than it can actually cool or supply for long
on paper it has the firepower of an Inner Sphere assault and the speed of an Inner Sphere medium, but in practice it will often be degraded to having speed and firepower more akin to an Inner Sphere heavy, at many times the cost and logistical requirement
thanks for the video, MF!
Many of the variants would be better off with just one or two more heatsinks instead of that extra weapon you're not going to be able to shoot.
@@MechanicalFrog after a few rounds of fire during the Clan Invasion, a lot of Mad Dog variants are about on par with a contemporary Warhammer 7M (similar firepower, armor, and speed when you take heat into account), which wasn't even a particularly great LosTech upgrade to the old girl
I LOVE the mad dog, such an iconic design. Plus as a lover of missiles, a mech with big missile boxes make me happy.
Hard to find much wrong with it.
I failed to mention I was recently gifted an original first run Mad Dog poster from FASA. That treasure, along with another original, still in packaging lead Wolverine mini from the 80s, were part of a Christmas package.
Great score 👍🏿
Another Clanner mech I first saw in the Battletech cartoon. I cannot help but like this particular one other than the MadCat.
Most people say the Mad Cat is the most iconic clan mech and they are factually correct, but for me it was always the Vulture. For some reason images of the machine featured very heavily in magazine previews of Mech Commander (my introduction to the universe) back in the day and the design just stuck with me. Of course, it helps that it *is* a good machine, too.
Also, shoutout to Ea-Nasir.
I remember my first time jumping into a mechpod at a Jillians in Denver. The mech I picked was the "Vulture" (later learned it was called the Mad Dog).It felt satisfying when I rained down volleys and volleys of LRMs on the enemy mechs from a ridgeline. My brother was backing me up in his Hauptmann and just decimated the softened targets with an AC20.
The realization that led me to loving the Prime configuration is that Clan LRMs are some of the best SRMs in the game. Instead of trying to use them to wear down enemies at range or for fire support, I save them for crit hunting after the pulse lasers have punched some holes.
My absolute favorite clan mech.
I loved using it in MWO because no one expects the missile boat way in the back to be packing so much teeth
My favorite mech as a kid growing up in the 90s.
The art that was on reinforcements 2 boxset (and used elsewhere) went so hard, made it my instant fav in the early 90s!
A personal thank you from my Clan to yours for featuring a Hell's Horse configuration in appropriate colours AND Elementals. Well met, Trothkin.
I mean, they do need some love occasionally.
My second favorite mech next to the Kodiak. Glad to see this one.
The Config C was a fun mech to use in MW3 when you had MFB's to re-arm you.
Mechwarrior 4 intro cinematic. That's why I love this mech.
Love the Mad Dog. Torso-mounted missile pods I just can't resist. Have one painted up for my Beta Galaxy Wolves.
To quote the Martians from Invader Zim:
*"Because it's cooool."*
Form and function.
@@MechanicalFrog precisely. One of my fave heavies in MWO is a Mad Dog with an ERLL, UAC10, and a battery of SRM4s. It's heat efficient and absolutely shreds up close while still being able to reach out and touch, and it's a viable build in tabletop too!
I just remember seeing the intro to MW4 all those years ago and falling in love with the Mad Dog/Vulture in all its iterations
It has that classic beautiful look to it.
Joanna just bee deserving of a video including herself and other standouts from Jade Falcon!!! Thanks for everything. Happy Fathers Day (belated)!!
- Godspeed
Thanks for coming by. Hope your Father's Day weekend was stellar.
@@MechanicalFrog TY
The Mad Dog is one of those mechs that is living proof of the mystery of why there are not more clan 60 tonners. It fits the holy trinity of firepower, armor and speed for a heavy. We need more 60 tonners in the future.
My favorite variations are the F and a custom variation of the Prime I made in MWO. I took off the cLPL's for cMPL's, upgraded the cLRM 15 racks with Artemis IV and gave it much more needed LRM ammo tonnage. Love the balance of long range support while if any lights or mediums are stupid enough to get close, they get blasted by 4 cMPL's.
60 tons is a weird spot of being a heavy but 55's get almost all the same thing where as a 75 can be generally as fast with more armor and just as many weapons.
I gotta hand it to the designers, j adore the variant with a ton of SRM tubes. Its like duct taping a bunch of trench sweepers onto a giant robot of death.
It's just neat...
@@MechanicalFrog it could use more srms, though... ;)
The MadDog is the perfect example of Clan mindset during the initial invasion. Overgunned, undersinked, and without enough armor. But the shock, awe and overwhelming aggression won them great gains initialy.
never gave this mech love back in the day but seeing how it has remained useful thanks to that massive pod space......just impressive. also you gotta love the look!
Absolutely. Hard to deny the drawing power of all that room.
Thanks for the video. The prime config of the Mad Dog always truck me as some one wanting the Timberwolf load-out on a lighter frame.
I always liked how it looked like the evolved form of an Archer
Definitely some similarities there.
MechWarrior2: Mercenaries. The Vulture/Mad Dog was my favorite. The Timberwolf was on the cover. I'm contrarian. I always end up siding with the counterpart to the main character. The play style of dropping missiles before running up and face stomping was a fun bit too. I'm still figuring out the rules and mechanics for the tabletop. Havent played that yet. Sounds like this will still be one of my favorites. And whichever one in MW3 looked like it was permanently crouched in a metal turtle shell.
Worth noting that even when the LRMs run dry, you're still capable of throwing PPC-level damage downrange every turn with a 5/8/0 movement profile (with improved accuracy mind you) and, if someone _dared_ to close distance you could bring both of the medium pulses into the mix. It would push you into the red by a fair bit, even standing still, but it's more damage than an Awesome and... that's terrifying from a mech that's the same weight-class as the Rifleman and the Dragon.
Should have been called the Archer IIC, and should have been a fire support mech.
But it wants to be so much more...
There is no firesupport among true clan warriors. it's a concept fit only for those unable to win a proper duel; it is a freebirth's job, and we will not let them use our shiny omnimechs for that.
;)
I watch these ony my TV.. but dayum.. with headphones on PC. That beat just slaps like an AC20!
What a beautiful mech. And yes, Joanna absolutely needs her own video!
Came for the video. Stayed for the humour... especially the Ea-nāṣir reference.
A huge YES to a Joanna video! Please!
It would be fun.
Considering how the Legends book treats her she definitely deserves a video.
The Mad Dog was the 2nd Clan Mech tried when I first started getting in the BT universe. It's in my Top 5 Clan Mechs.
Hope the vid did the mech justice.
@@MechanicalFrog Yes. Yes it did.
I always loved the cut away view of the Vulture on the cover of the one TRO book.
Plenty of great MD art.
The Mad Dog was the original favorite battlemech of mine way back when I played my dad's copy of MechWarrior 2 and saw that mech on the cover of Ghost Bear's Legacy.^^ (And despite being an Inner Sphere free-birth scum myself, I call it a "Mad Dog" instead of a "Vulture" because I like dogs more than birds. Batchall me...)
These days my now favorite mech is the MadCat MKII, with the Bull Shark being a close second. But based on how they look, you can kinda see a pattern as to why I like all of them so much.^^
I'm very happy to listen to a more in depth review of my OG favorite battlemech. Keep doing what you're doing Mechanical Frog, we love you for it.^^
I just finished painting a Zeta Galaxy Mad Dog for Jade Falcon. And got say heck of a mech to paint. Pure hell on the table against me.
When the Mad Dog barks, the Inner Sphere listens. I think I'll use the MF variant on my father tomorrow on the tabletop. Keep up the great work!
The Mad Dog A is all kinds of fun with those SRMs.
Yeah it'll be a friendship tester. "Time to roll the damage on 30 SRMs..."
You work hard , and it is appreciated .
Thank you.
Taking the Prime config and letting the Mechtechs get their grubby hands on it, Downgrading the Large Pulse Lasers to Mediums, and using the leftover tonnage for more ammunition seems like a no-brainer.
I've always liked the look of the Vulture, but MW4 really took it to another level. That intro cinematic was one of the best. The MWDA Vulture followed MW4's design with the chin lasers, and one of the things I appreciate most of the CGL refresh is the nod to that chin turret with the sensor pod thing.
The Vulture is the Clan Omnimech Archer, and in turn influenced the Bushwacker's long, narrow torso with an XL, as well as the Avatar (one of Kurita's first home-built Omnimechs). IIRC the MW4/MWDA Vulture has been reclassified as a Mk II or Mk III, with the II supposedly being mostly an aesthetic change (and possibly moving the medium lasers from the Prime into the CT) and the III making a full suite of configurations based on that new design aesthetic.
Have a look at the Mad Dog D. It is roughly contemporaneous to MW4. Ever since MW4 there has been a long effort to match the Mad Dog to the MW4 aesthetic. I prefer the sleeker original, but that is what we get.
The Vulture/Mad Dog in MW4 is said to be the Vulture/Mad Dog Mk II produced by the Ghost Bear Dominion
The missile racks being so close to the engine always amused me
But it looks like a fighter jet with legs so you gotta love that
I love this mech. It's the first clan design I ever fielded on tabletop and it was always a consistent performer for me. Hell, in the last game I had, my Mad Dog scored the only two mech kills of the match; a Fire Moth early game and a Timberwolf later.
Lovin the vulture techno at the beginning
As a Mechcommander enjoyer, the Mad Dog was a go to mech pretty much as soon as it was salvaged. Tons of weapon space, fast and light. A great lance mate for the Timber Wolf you spent hours trying to salvage at the beginning of the game.
As a side note, heavy lasers were amazing weapons in Mechcommander 2. I would load up Blood Asps with heavy large lasers and just delete mechs.
The Mad Dog is my favorite mech, and one of the first mechs that introduced me to the setting.
Story time.
Back in the early 90s there was this silly little DOS game called Megatron (not to be confused with the Decepticon leader), which featured two mechs """borrowed""" from Battletech: the Vulture and Mad Cat. It was a simple 3D maze game with the objective of finding and blowing up the opponent with lasers & missiles before they did the same to you. Of the two, I always preferred the design of the Vulture and picked that one to play as.
Fast forward a couple of years and a little game comes out, called Mechwarrior 2: 31st Century Combat. Although the Timber Wolf was featured prominently on the box art, in the training mode it's the Mad Dog that greets you first (with the gruff instructor piloting it and constantly berrating you). And at the very end of training, you're given a Mad Dog yourself for your Trial of Position.
So the Mad Dog is the mech that earned you the respect of your instructor, and the title of Mechwarrior. That, combined with its iconic design, pretty much cemented it as my favorite.
I would always end up replacing the launchers for LRM-15s to add extra ammo and better heat management, along with some jump jets for mobility. It was dangerous at all ranges even against Assaults.
4:05 Smoked Jaguar was never known to for its lower castes. The warriors had a, “the beatings will continue until moral improves”, management policy towards them. I don’t blame them for taking that long. An upset warrior probably killed the lead designer every quarter.
The Mad Dog. AKA, the Budget Timberwolf. AKA, hell's hottest bastard when I load this thing up with ATMs, a few tons of ammo, ER Small lasers, and a prayer. You aren't everyone's favorite mech, but for a medium-speed striker lance, you're one of my first picks.
The mad dog looks as similar to the lupus as the hunchback does to the urbie.
Heh.
You really had me wondering what Ea Nasir had to do with the Vulture for a second there
Well, you see... it's a bit of a long story.
I will always remember that first mission in MW2 where you pilot a Mad Dog in the desert. I can't remember if it was the JF or Wolf campaign. I think the end goal was to scan the enemy dropship after eliminating all enemy mechs. Talk about nostalgia.
I've loved the maddog since I was a child, never knew it wasn't fire support 😂
The Mad Dog's a superb 'mech, its iconic and its configs and various models make it a real swiss army knife of a 'mech with a weapon for every role.
I used to use a personal load out, four ER Large Lasers, two in each arm, and the side torsos (and everywhere else) packed with 12 extra Double Heat sinks (48 heat comp total).
4-4-3 firing sequence and this is the fastest moving pseudo-Awesome of the Clan Invasion era.
next to the timby the Mad dog is definitly one of my favorite mechs
@T.ELE.GRAMMechanicalFrog like where?
That is a scam/bot account. Don't respond.
@@MechanicalFrog i figured.
The A config is just SCARY to me.
The Vulture/MadDog was my favorite Mech to use in MechAssault 1 and it's the most successful Mech in BattleTech, in the way of how many Clans were using them during the Clan Invasion
One of the most basic and effective mechs of the Clan invasion. Deadly and Simple.
One of the Mechs starring in Battletech game intros nearly as much as the Mad Cat / Timberwolf
Very interesting to see the Lupus, Avatar and Bushwhacker in the story of the Vulture/Mad Dog.🤔
I must admit that when I first saw the mech in black and white images my teens I didn’t see the cockpit up on top and thought the front plate down the ‘chest’ was the canopy!😅
A common misconception.
So many fun variants, though for dueling, I consider the I variant unique. Using the Capacitor enhanced Clan ERPPC, you hit with an AC20 at long range and twin Clan RAC-2s (and two tons of ammo) exploit the holes the ERPPC makes. Runs cool with the 15 DHS. May not be the most powerful, but in a 1v1 it can be effective. Me, I would probably ditch the twin RAC-2s for one RAC-5 with 6 tons of ammo guarded with CASE II, a targeting computer, and the oh so important emotional support ER Small Laser.
Little surprised you didn't do the cheeky mention of the Mad Dog Mk II.
The Mad Dog is pretty much the introduction of Pulse Lasers. Its the only first-gen Clan Mech that had them in the prime configuration.
Its got the usual flaws of the first-gen(not enough ammo, armor, heat sinks), but its fun.
It was on the cover of Mechwarrior 2 Ghost Bear's Legacy.
Its got several successors of various qualities.
The Mad Mod/Vulture MK II is kind of a black sheep. It was a model redesign around the early 2000s where the medium pulse lasers were moved to a chin rack. I also remember a 75ton version in the MekTek mod for Mechwarrior 4. That version had Gauss Rifles.
The Mad Dog Mk III downgrades the pulse lasers to get 80 long range missile tubes on a 60ton design, more than the LRM Carrier has.
The Mad Dog Mk IV is a Dark Age design with some new technology, but its much more of a brawler, downgrading to Short Range missiles even if it has 24 tubes.
Because it reminds us of our favorite wines of the 1980's.
"wine"
@@MechanicalFrog Morgan David made many "fine wines".
This has been one of my favorite mechs since I first laid eyes on it. Easily a top 10 in terms of looks and I do enjoy many of its configurations.
My favorite Clan Mech!
Such a beautiful mech. Thanks Frog.
My pleasure!
I can't wait to run one of these on MW5 Clans!
We love it because we like to make fwosh sounds while firing missiles and doot doot doot pulse laser sounds. Also it’s just an iconic design, the initial Clan Invasion heavies all look amazing (except for you Hellbringer, you know what you did).
Oh baby Vulture Time!
I took a Mad Dog D in one of Catalyst's GenCon tournaments. I gutted a Kodiak knocked out a Stalker II before I lost my ATM launchers...fun times
glad to hear that.
The cockpit placement is a bit silly but the mech just looks great. I love the narrow foward profile.
My favorite hvy omni mech from invasion era. Cheaper and better than a timby for the price. Gj on the video.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed.
Favourite visual design to me is the MW4 version, vs the original.
There's just this "refined" feel to it that I can't quite put a word to, and that last stand intro made it bad ass too.
And that chin mount moving always reminded me of things like the AH64D EOSS on the nose that follows the pilot vision.
First time i was aware of the IP at all was Mechwarrior 2. Clan wolf, they look cool. First mech the handed me was a Mad Dog. Love at first blast with those missiles. Always dig the symmetrical designs of battlemechs, this one will always be my favorite, closely followed by the Timberwolf
Excellent choices, both.
You can look at it now and see all the shortcomings it has, but at the same time... the context of the times it was first encountered by the IS would have been terrifying.
So you're telling me it hits like a 3R Marauder with those lasers doing Inner Sphere PPC damage, but it has archer-levels of missiles on top? But it's moving 5/8? And then, when someone got brave, (or desperate) enough to close inside the minimum ranges for those two mechs, they get the rather soul-crushing surprise that clantech LRMs don't have a minimum range.
Life is full of little challenges if you're an Inner Sphere mechwarrior.
60 tons. Enjoys the toughness of a medium, but the duties of a heavy.
Man I love the Vulture
The primary config is two mechs in one, it's a missile boat until they run out then it becomes an accurate sniper.
Good times had by all.
The Mad Dog- A mech so popular they made 4 versions of it. Like most of the original 16 Omnis, it's overgunned and undersunk or undegunned and oversunk. Still, the Mad Dog is a solid performer with a bit of modification or use of later era machines.
LOL The "S" config is an old friend of mine ... but I run it on a refit MAD-3R. 🙂
The Archer's less lanky cousin that I can't trust to not smash my poor mechs with way too many missiles.
How many missiles? All the missiles.
Mad Dog, meant to be an insult. Turns out just an accurate description.
Did you hear about the heroic Mad Dog that ran into the burning hangar to bite one more mechwarrior?
My favorite Mod is 6x SRM-6 Streaks and 3 ER Micro Pulse. I based this off of the Vulture Prime from the BattleTech Center Pods.
Great video! Thanks for making. So many cool mechs. Would love another planet video also :)
I'm doing the groundwork for the next planet video. So... "soon"
Great video! Love the Madcat and Maddog. Looking forwardto moe videos.