Shadow Hawk, or should we call it Dougram? Well, that was the real name of this mech, in it's unseen form glory. Anyways, this is an impressive mech! Each one comes with a combination of hardpoints. The missile hardpoints are sometimes located in the head and body area, so basically msot of thsoe are made for SRM/streaks. The giant ballistic is located high up at the LT comes with 1-3 hardpoints, and can be quite impressive, given that there is enough tonnage to hold an AC20. It is great to see those guns fire from the cockpit. The energy hardpoints are a bit weak relatively, with the exception of 2D2 theya re all located in one hand, and there is only 2 of them max. The mech is tall, reasonably agile, and all with JJ. The Variants! 2H 1E3M3B. The Ballistic specialist. If you want multiple big guns like 3x AC2, you should look into this mech. Another one would be 2x AC2 + 1x AC5, or any combination of those. The energy hardpoint is weak though, at best you can get an LLas on. Beloved SRM/streaks for backup, as usual. Or, on the flip side, you can go heavy on missiles, and use 3x MG. 5M 2E2M2B. A more balanced approach. arm your 2x ballistic and go to town! This is the more balanced Shadow Hawk if you only need 2 ballistic hardpoints. 2D2 2E4M1B. If you want only a single ballistic, look no further! Hardpoint for your big gun, 4x missile hardpoints!, and hardpoint in each arm. You can even focus on streaks and SRM, using your energy and ballistic as backup if you want! I love this mech. .
Well, I love 2D2 for the many styles and builds you can do with it. 2H is great also for AC5/2 mayham, and other multiple ballistic stuff. 5M though, the extra energy hardpoint on the same arm isn't going to do much, not to mention the reduction in missile hardpoints. HOWEVER, the extra JJ is useful, esp if you want to jump snipe. I have only finished elite with the 2D2, currently working on the Hero mechs I get from the sale.
They are all great, each variant on it's own way, allthough I find the 5M to be lacking a bit. Not that the 5M itself is bad, but contrary to my hopes the LRM20 it carries originally is hosted by a 10-size launcher, so it isn't that well-suited for a jump-capable medium LRM boat. Additionally, the 5M isn't very unique when compared to the other two variants. It can't do a loadout which is very specific just for this variant: all of them can be done with one of the others as well despite maybe double ballistic and double energy. On the other hand it got the perfect layout for carrying ONE big gun on it's left side while all of the complementory weapons are on the right side, leaving one part of it's firepower unharmed when one of the sides is lost. All in all it ultimately might have to leave my garage to free up the mech bay. I am not sure about this at the moment, though. I needed to play around a bit with the 2H until it catched on. Double AC5 + ERLL was the first loadout working for me, but triple MG + triple SSRM2 + ERPPC also works pretty good. And don't get me thinking about that deadly Vedrfolnir... I was hesistant about it at first because of it's ammo dependency, but when you finally get the hang of that build... wow! The 2D2 makes for a great flanker and light hunter, rivaled only by the KTO-18, which packs even more punch but lacks the JJ in comparison. It's also possible to do a jump-capable SRM zombie or a very potent bodyguard-style mech with LBX, Streaks and ML.
Hi, Shadow Hawk is on Trial, My first Impression of the trial mech is that it's a punch! a ppc with 2 ac5 so Punchy that in frozen city, i hid inside the dropship and a dragon show up and decided to make love with me in it 1 v 1 full health. i killed him. i have ping of 270 btw. i dont know why but man this is one hell of a good mech right there.
