Courtesy of Eldoniousrex
“Zeke! ZEKE! Bring the camera!” Michelle Baldwyn shouted at her cameraman, but not too loud lest she spook crowd members who understood they were about to be filmed. “The duel’s starting!”
Although technically illegal under the laws of Ashio III, the underground ‘Mech dueling ring nonetheless drew a crowd, and with it, commerce. Normally the betting would give roughly equal odds to two former DCMS MechWarriors, but today’s battle was something special.
“Here it comes,” Michelle pointed up at the enormous doors leading into the warehouse. As they creaked open, she could spot the olive-drab hull of a Champion as it rumbled through to stand in the middle of the building. Her source had been right: the SLDF were dueling ronin. This would be the story of a lifetime.
For a moment, Michelle forgot to badger her cameraman to ensure that he was discretely capturing the moment the SLDF deigned to fight a masterless Kuritan MechWarrior. The sleek curves of the Champion were so much more aerodynamic than the squat and brutal Hunchback that was to be its opponent.
But then, she remembered she was here for a story, not a bootleg ‘Mech gladiator video. “Keep rolling,” she pointed to the crowd, “I’m going to see if I can get some interview audio.”
The crowds were already starting to shout and throw betting slips at the ferroglass that was all that stood between them and high-explosive death. Most understood that a direct hit would vaporize the bleachers, but the crowd was so confident in the abilities of the pilots who fought that they still came to watch the show. So far no mass-casualty events had been reported, but then again, there wasn’t a lot of reporting going on at these events. That’s why Michelle was there, after all.
She sat down beside a man wearing corporal stripes on a jumpsuit with an SLDF patch on the shoulder.” Excuse me, sir? Could I talk to you about today’s match?”
The man turned a grizzled face, took one look at the microphone, and then waved dismissively. “Fine, but no names.”
“Thank you, sir,” Michelle nodded, aware that the SLDF had forbidden participating in these honor duels. Whoever he was, he’d be court-martialed for just being inside the warehouse. “What can you tell me about the match?”
The corporal shrugged. “Our guy has the advantage of speed, but I don’t know if that’s going to matter much in this warehouse. The ronin, he’s got a big cannon and more armor.”
This surprised Michelle. “It sounds like the SLDF MechWarrior is outmatched.”
“Yeah, well, the SLDF doesn’t exactly like to advertise when they put their money on the wrong horse. Oh, the Champion ain’t bad for some armored recon or tactical maneuvers, but a one-on-one slugfest like this?” The corporal spat.
“Then why did the SLDF pilot agree to the duel?”
The corporal shrugged again. “Pride, I guess. We’re supposed to be the best.”
A klaxon sounded and the match started. There were several stacks of boxes that gave the ‘Mechs some semblance of cover, but as the corporal predicted, the confined space rendered the Champion‘s speed advantage useless. Several deafening booms from the Hunchback‘s autocannon later, and the fight was over. The Champion lay on its side, several smoking holes leaking fluid onto the ferrocrete foundation.
“That was faster than expected,” the corporal remarked as he left, tossing a balled-up betting ticket to the floor.
Michelle quickly clambered down the bleachers back to where Zeke had set up his hidden camera. “Did you get it?” she asked excitedly.
“I did, but…” Zeke turned the camera to reveal several inches of shrapnel sticking out the side. “Thing saved my life!”
“FU-” Michelle’s scream was cut off by a secondary detonation in the dead Champion, hastening the retreat of every bystander still in the building.
Audio courtesy of Nate from BungleTech: A BattleTech Podcast.
After over a century of resting on the laurels of the wildly successful Locust, Bergan Industries debuted the aspirationally named Champion in 2602. Three times the mass of the Locust, the Champion sought to fulfill a Star League Defense Force requirement for a heavy recon and fast striker ‘Mech.
The Champion‘s main rival for the bid, a modified version of the venerable Griffin from Earthwerks Incorporated, achieved a similar performance profile but with greater firepower and a lower price. However, in the face of heavy lobbying (and perhaps more than a few bribes from Bergan executives), mere cost efficiency and superior performance meant the Griffin hardly stood a chance. The Star League placed an initial order for 200 Champions.
Even before the SLDF agreed to an initial order of 200 CHP-1N models, League engineers noted the Champion to be underarmed and undergunned compared to similar ‘Mechs in its weight class. Despite these flaws, the Champion proved popular with SLDF MechWarriors, especially during the First Hidden War.
In 2650, the Star League High Council announced an arms restriction that limited the size of each member state’s military. The Draconis Combine had long had the largest standing army of any Great House, which meant the Edict of 2650 hit the DCMS hardest. But even as many former MechWarriors lost their livelihood, the Combine allowed those of noble blood to retain ownership of their familial BattleMechs. This led to a new wandering ‘ronin’ class who found work wherever they could, be that as mercenaries, personal bodyguards, and in a few cases, gladiators, issuing challenges to other MechWarriors to retain their fighting edge.
For decades, the SLDF garrisons in the Combine stood above the constant fighting between ronin, but in 2681, a SLDF MechWarrior fought and lost to a former member of the DCMS. This began a long series of losing duels, often resulting in the deaths of SLDF pilots. Restoring the pride of the SLDF was secondary to preserving the lives of its MechWarriors as the SLDF quietly enacted the Advanced Combat and Maneuvering Skills Project in 2682, better known as the Gunslinger Program, of which many graduated pilots sat in Champions.
Even after their advanced training program, these Champion pilots failed to achieve more than an even record during the First Hidden War. It was perhaps this generally lackluster performance that eventually saw the Champion sold to member states where their numbers would steadily dwindle following the destruction of Bergan’s factories on New Earth during the Amaris Civil War.
Initially, the CHP-1N came armed with an advanced Artemis IV fire-control system guiding an SRM-6 and an LB 10-X autocannon, backed up by two Medium and two Small Lasers. A top speed of 86.4 kph was achieved through its aerodynamic profile and large Vlar 300 engine, and eight tons of ferro-fibrous armor provided protection. The CHP-2N would forgo the Artemis IV and LB 10-X in favor of a regular SRM-6 and 10-class autocannon as those components became lostech during the Succession Wars. It would also lose access to ferro-fibrous armor, further reducing its protection.
During the height of the Star League, however, several Champion refits were made available. The CHP-1N2 was a common modification that swapped the 10 single heat sinks for doubles, and the CHP-1Nb, produced for the SLDF’s Royal regiments, replaced the ‘Mech’s entire armament with a Gauss rifle and an ER PPC. There was even an attempt by Bergan to convert the aerodynamic Champion into a Land-Air-’Mech, but problems with the conversion technology kept the Champion land-bound and the project was eventually scuttled.
The Champion population continued to shrink until the Clan Invasion when ComStar revealed the CHP-3N on Tukayyid. This variant replaced the original engine with an Extralight version that allowed the CHP-1N to mount two additional Large Lasers while upgrading to double-strength heat sinks. Following ComStar’s victory, Bergan Industries restored its New Earth factory and produced the CHP-3P in 3061. This version of the Champion mounted four ER Medium Lasers (two in each arm), an Ultra Autocannon/10, and an Improved NARC Missile Beacon. An Improved C3 Computer also allowed the CHP-3P to serve as the nexus of a C3 network making it an ideal leader for Word of Blake fast-response Level IIs.
Even the early Clans had a variant of the Champion before the introduction of the OmniMech. The Champion C, first built in 2867, upgraded the CHP-1N to Clan-tech standards, replaced the engine with an Extralight version, and added five jump jets for added mobility. The Medium Lasers were replaced by Medium Pulse Lasers and two ER Medium Lasers, and the Small Lasers were upgraded to Small Pulse Lasers. Additional armor made the Champion C a formidable opponent, although it was quickly overshadowed as OmniMechs proliferated in the late 2800s.
Today, the Champion is a footnote of history. The New Earth factory was once again destroyed during the Jihad, and no new Champions have been produced since 3078. Any Champions seen in the ilClan era are either walking museum pieces or trophies taken from former Word of Blake zealots. Perhaps even a few true believers survive alongside their 60-ton machines.
And as always, MechWarrior: Stay Syrupy.
Appreciate this series and all you do.
I’ve been a big fan of the Champion ever since Mechwarrior 3, and even I have to admit it’s got flaws for days. Taken in the perspective of an IntroTech 60-tonner, it’s not terrible, but it definitely sits somewhere in the bottom half of the selection available at the time. It would’ve been asked to stack up against the Dragon, Ostroc, Ostsol, Quickdraw, and Rifleman, and you could easily make the argument that any of those would’ve been preferred their given roles.
The biggest mistake was probably the small lasers. There is honestly no good reason for this thing to be within a hundred meters of an opponent and it could’ve saved weight for more armor. The other mistake was probably not installing more weight saving technology, but at that level of wishful thinking, you’re going to have to rebuild the Champion from scratch.
I also always thought of it as sort of the structural reverse of a Cataphract: a long fuselage body on human-jointed legs.
I’m not really sure about the design: it looks like a strong BREEZE could knock it over! It’s aerodynamic though! I can see why someone thought it would also make a great Land-Air Mech! Seeing their performance stats, I’m not sure which is the worst though, the original or the LAM….
yeesh, y’all found a real stinker this time. not even the CHP-3P can make up for this thing’s reputation.
it lacks armor, armament, and as we saw in the story, is TERRIBLE in cqc environments, being outclassed by a mech 10 whole tons lighter. plus that design is horrendous. and i’m the guy jumping to defend other bad Mechs!
Love the “Bad Mechs” series in general and the champion was always one of those.
There is a secondary issue and that is that your new articles are not appearing AT ALL in the sidebar or top of page when you post them. If i click thru directly to news they show up. This display bug is long running on Firefox browser. With chrome shooting themselves in the foot you may see more people using Firefox again.
thanks !
That’s a known issue with the site. For some reason, it keeps displaying the second most-recent article instead. No idea why. *shrugs*
Probably an array problem, first position in an array is zero. If you stack all articles by number of access and ask for number one, you actually get the 2nd one because 1st one is zero, not one.
Cosmetically I really wish they got the LAM to work, it just makes so much sense. Mechanically this thing is pretty awful. I drove it for a while in MW5: Mercs and its fine for raid missions but for 60 tonners the dragon and quickdraw are better because they are either way better armed or way more durable for the same speed and can both punch.
Honestly, I think the biggest problem here is a pilot taking a mech, any mech, against a Hunchback in the confines of a warehouse. I feel like that mechwarrior really deserved what they got.
AH-… he does have a point folks. AC/20 go BANG.
One should take the “fuselage” part of the chassis and make it into of all things, drum roll please, the Champion 60-ton Aerospace Fighter!!! I know, but it would probably work better than the Mech or the LAM versions both! Besides, being on the business end of a Hunchback’s AC/20 autocannon is a fitting way to kill this thing! Of course, ANY Mech, I don’t care HOW advanced, of ANY era, being on the business end of this autocannon, is going to HURT VERY BADLY, if not outright destroyed!
this one isn’t even bad. it is a Dragon built for close up combat rather than ranged skirmishing.
hate to say it, but it is just bad. if it’s being outdone by a 50-ton medium in it’s “Intended” environment of cqc, then it’s bad. I’m normally defending these poor things, but the champion is just… uhg, this thing SUCKS
Ah the Champion. Another tech demonstrator from TRO 2750, the Champion suffers from a lack of firepower and armor to be a real skirmisher/brawler. Only the 3P, Royal and C versions are decent. The Champion really needs Endo or an XL engine to mount another long to mid range gun (ER Large Laser comes to mind) with DHS, and the small lasers removed for CASE/more armor. Sadly no one went this route, and the Champion suffers for it.
Except that, with only 8 tons of armor, no hand actuators, and no jump jets, it is arguably inferior to the Quickdraw in the CQB role.
The Champion is an interesting concept thoroughly used later by the Clans, a heavy ‘Mech with the speed of a medium. Now of course, the Champion is a light heavy, and the speed is a slow medium ‘Mech, but the concept is still there. A 60 tonner with a standard 300 engine is about as far as you can push a non-Clan design – engine weight starts to increase exponentially once you climb above a 300, of course. Any increase in speed is absolutely not feasible – a 60 tonner with a standard 360 engine would have enough room left for maaaybe 4 tons of armor and a couple small lasers, (and no I haven’t *actually* crunched those numbers…) And when you bump the tonnage up to 65, we’re talking about a 325 engine, up to 70, a 350 engine, same issues. So a 60 tonner moving a 5/8 is about the best you’ll do with standard Inner Sphere tech.
One big, big flaw is that of the small tonnage left for weaponry, most of it is dedicated to an LB-X autocannon, which is a bad main anti-Mech weapon. The +1 target modifier is nice, but then you have 10 or less points of damage scattered over the enemy, with no big gun to punch a hole in the armor for crit seeking. The backup weaponry? Yet another ammo-reliant scatter weapon, an SRM-6. This thing needs ranged weaponry so it doesn’t have to get up close, with its paltry armor and the only weapon that reaches past 270 meters is that buckshot autocannon. At least it has 2 tons of ammo for its main gun. I never understood ‘Mech designs that dedicate 10+ tons to weaponry it can fire 5 or 10 times.
What you said is true as long as you’re only considering standard engines. Remember that the SLDF also had the Lancelot, another 60 tonner with a 360 XL engine—which actually weighs less than a 300 standard— and a 6/9 movement curve. And a flashbulb loadout to boot.
The reason mechs with LBX Autocannons often have two ammo bins is so they can have one with buckshot and one with solid shot.
Hey Sean, 4th paragraph:
“and in a few gases, gladiators” Gassy gladiators?
On topic, my first experience of the Champion was in MW3, where I wrote it off as a bad mech for all the reasons described above.
8 tons armor. Which means you need to keep moving. Crit-seeking weapons if you load the LBX cluster rounds.
Should be effective against slow vehicles in open terrain, and / or paired with piercing-weapon mechs such as Ostrocs / Ostsols / Enforcers / Panthers / Hollanders.
Not for use against “the big boys” being real actual heavy mechs like Warhammers, Marauders, T-Bolts, Black Knights etc., not even the Grasshoppers and Guillotines which many consider lightweights without “knockout” weapons.
I wouldn’t take this thing against Shadow Hawks or original-spec Wolverines. Those mechs will outlast it, outjump it in tricky terrain, and wear it down with their middling but varied weapons. The Champion can close to use its lasers and SRMs but it lacks the armor and heat sinks to slug it out turn after turn.
Anything with four medium lasers, or multiple large LRM racks, are going to seriously trouble the Champion because that 3-5 5 point hits per round are going to hurt.
So many mechs made to fill out “heavy recon” roles. Probably because the customer is always wrong, but they do sign the checks.
Yeah is not amazing but in mw5 it’s pretty decent. LBX 10, 2 medium lasers, 2small and srm6.
I bought it early on a whim, liking it mors than the centurion.. makes mince meat of any hunchback.. but it’s a videogame
I like to think that the thought process that led to the attempt to turn the Champion into a LAM was identical to why Top Gear picked a Reliant Robin to try to turn into a psuedo space shuttle: “It’s kind of pointy at the front.”
Honestly, the Champion’s appearance would make more sense if the LAM had come first.
In MW5: Mercs, I load the Champion up with a heavy rifle instead of the AC, and put most of the weight savings into armor. It’s not bad that way, though of course most other heavy ‘Mechs in that game will hit harder. It’s nice to have the speed during beachhead missions, though.
I don’t know much about pen and paper but on the video game Mechwartior5 mercenaries the Champion is actually my favorite heavy mech. Tweaking the load out is a matter of fine tuning but I have a half dozen different variants I run. I never stop moving in combat and that extra speed with armament heavier than most Quickdraws or Dragons seals the deal for me. I’ll take the Champion up against anything short of 85 tons with confidence.
The Champion is a pretty mediocre design, especially in single combat.
However, I want to acknowledge the design, in its intended role as a cavalry / striker / heavy recon unit, is actually good when deployed in large groups and favorable odds as the Star League would have done. LB-X cannons and SRMs are great for making holes and exploiting them.
My biggest irk concerning LAMs is that the premise is they’re all based on converting preexisting Mech designs into transforming flying Mechs! Why isn’t there in the Battletech universe at least ONE LAM design that was designed to BE a LAM in the first place right from the start?
There were a few purpose-built LAMs, albeit one was a prototype (the Screamer) and the other three were WoB exclusives (Yurei, Pwwka, Waneta).
Using preexisting designs makes sense if you look at it from the way that RL armored vehicle development works. Taking a proven chassis and attempting to rework it for other roles is assumed to be less expensive and more reliable, though I hasten to add the key word is “assume.”
I don’t recall the Champion being part of the representative of the Gunslinger program, IIRC it was the Warhammer that was the poster child.
The Champion was a mediocre mech that was well liked by its pilots due to its agility. It was basically a heavy scout and was VERY decent for its time. Don’t forget that its likely competitors in 2750 were mechs like the Shadow Hawk or the Phoenix Hawk, both of which it outguns, or the Griffin, which is a closer match but also outguns. Even “Trooper” type mechs like the Enforcer compares favourably with it in firepower. I see it as something meant to be a hunter of lighter mechs and a scout for heavier mechs while the Lancelot or Warhammer functions like the heavy hammers of the unit. Of course if you compare it with post-3050 designs, it’s definitely bad but for the time period for when it was developed? It was decent and good enough as a hunter of medium mechs.
I thought the poster boy of the Gunslingers was the Marauder. and i’d like to say that post 3050 is just death for “meh” designs, but post helm-memory is when they take a bad turn (or get upgraded obscene amounts)
Did some checking and BOTH mechs, Warhammer and Marauder were mentioned as Gunslinger favourites so we both are right. And yes, post 3050, average mechs can’t cut it any more due to the increased specialization.
My theory is that during the times of the Hegemony and Star League, their units were more used to fighting as whole formations, which meant mass numbers of mechs pounding on a few designated targets, which was how things like the Shadow Hawk even remain valid because let us be honest, as a solo combatant, the SHD is… crap. Many mechs pre-3050 have a selection of weapons that cover all ranges with low firepower and that only makes sense if you can mass fire.
There are two mechs which do not exist whenever I gamemaster an RPG campaign, just because I find them extremely ugly one is the Champion, the other is the Guillotine.