I like a little more speed in my brawler than I'm seeing as common in a battlemaster brawling load out so I am forgoing the heavy lasers so many people like and sticking with 4ML's with 4 SRM6's, should be crit happy.
This is how I started running mine after getting bored with LRMs and am really loving the throughput this Mech has. The Standard keeps you in the fight for a very surprising amount of time, 500 missiles is enough to put a significant dent or kill any number of Mechs that happen to cross your path, and the 4 MLas aren't so hot as to make them entirely unusuable during an extended engagement. Build after build after build, and I'm finally convinced; STD engines are the way to go with Battlemasters. EDIT: Also, I'm petitioning to change the name of this Mech to Splatmaster.
I have to agree with Serious. The side torsos on the Battlemaster look decidedly big, so using Standard engines definitely seems like the most logical way forward. Your OP is good. Stock speed. Masses of fire-power. Good armour too. With all this in mind, any alternative build anyone could suggest would purely be based on personal preferences. For me, the best compromise for the SRM launchers is the SRM4. However, your build looked so brutally effective from the outset that I couldn't bring myself to reduce the fire-power that much. I dropped Artemis, so that the missiles had more of a shotgun effect and put the remaining tonnage into more DHS and armour. I also added a further ton of SRM ammo and split the total between the side torsos, with each torso protected by C.A.S.E. Six tons of ammo gives 25 full salvoes. The ghost heat penalties for SRM6s seem quite low when compared to other weapons, so unloading all four launchers at once shouldn't be an issue.
damn this build is very hot! I recommend to fire in two SRM.Groups - Arms & Torso in Chain to avoid the Heat Penalty. I wish it had some Long Range Weapons. You can't really fire SRMS and the MLas together heat-effectively.
Or go slower and even more firepower up close. This one hurts, if you get close enough... if. I have since converted this to a 2x ERLLas setup rather than the 4x MPLas. Runs cooler, has much longer range. It is fun seeing them charge close to you and then you go BAM! With your volley of SRM6. GAME! This thing specializes into taking down big mech. Don't expact the damage ratio to be way up though, since you kill things to quickly when you are up close... a couple alphas and they are done. And yes... HEAT. be really careful. You might want to bring a couple coolant.
As the watchman said above Any variants on this are going to be tweaks for personal preference. Basically my variant drops the engine a touch and removes the AMS in exchange for 2 ERLLs for range instead of the med lasers, 2 more DHS, a bit more ammo and half a ton more armour.
I love this build. While a good alpha is a nice initial start to a fight against other heavies or assaults, I have found following up with chain fire works better for me and keeps my heat manageable. It is just like the dakka effect for jags and ctfs. If I'm hitting them with a constant barrage of srms they spend more time torso twisting or backing up then fighting me. And a constant barrage of missiles exploding against your window makes it really hard see what is in front of you. Unfortunately, in open spaces I get chewed to pieces.
The SRM6+A is pretty rough with current SRM hit detection. I thought I'd give this a shot with a pair each of SRM4s and SRM6, throw in an STD350 for the fourth heat sink slot and have a go at it. Comes out looking like this: I had a couple nice rounds yesterday, but, nothing spectacular. I'll try again this afternoon. Not a bad little fighter.
