u/Fallenkezef

So I have been thinking. Like many of us, I do my own custom designs. For me, it's not about cheese, I just love gauss rifles and House Liao.

Liao has allot of AC/LBX 20 designs and I am not a fan of that gun but I love Gauss so most of my customs are replacing the AC/LBX 20 with a Gauss rifle.

There is precedent with the Comstar clanbuster King Crab after all. Also the Cyclops and Victor upgrades.

The joy of a gauss Thunder and a gauss Urbie can not be understated!

However, how easy is that to do in-universe? I am wondering about the practicalities of replacing such things in a merc setting.

My home brew 95th Skye Rifles uses cannon, Lyran designs. I created that unit over ten years ago. But I was thinking for a mekhq run, doing a Liao outfit with a similar love for gauss but without access to the Lyran designs.

Basing it out of St Ives helps, some FedCom designs where available during it's independence and they make the Pillager and Helios. However my mad mind has gone down this ac20 rabbit hole.

Could a merc unit do this kind of thing?

Ok, so you have to form a company based on the SLDF model of one Mech type. Doesn't have to be one variant but the whole company is one mech design. What do you pick?

For me it's the Highlander.

Star League Era: HGN-732 does everything you need. Guass and LRMs for long range, SRM6 and 2 MLs (3 if you have the 732b) for medium to close. It's the ultimate trooper mech.

Sucession wars: HGN-733 still does the job, sure you lose the guass but so does everybody else and the AC10 is a good weapon. The 733P gives you the same punch without the ammo dependency and the 733C is a great up-close and city brawler.

Fed Comm civil war and Jihad: You have some good variants and the 732 is back. 734 evolves the 733C with an LBX20 and streaks. 738 gives you a standard gauss and a heavy gauss for lineholding punch.

Illclan: The 740 is a nice evolution of the 733P, can supplement the others.

The Highlander is my go-to pick for a mono-company

Struggling to make Valdor work, can anyone suggest a deck or help?

What is the general consensus about the best outfit size for a mech hq campaign?

Company, battalion or something in between?

For long term manageability

Is there any news or even rumours about the future of this game?

So I know the Jing Gau was adapted by Hell's Horses. Can't blame them as it's a excellent design. I also learned recently there was a clan variant of the War Dog.

Does anybody know of other IS designs, post Clan invasion, that the Clans adapted into service with their own variant?