UrbanMech
The UrbanMech is a oversized walking trashcan with guns strapped to it light, 30-ton 'mech produced to fight in urban areas, a deathtrap to most other 'mechs: debris limiting the maneuverability, maze-like structure of urban terrain allowing for multiple killzones in a small area, and the fact that it's still pretty easy to see a giant 'mech that often overshadows a building next to it, while infantry and vehicles are able to use the same buildings as cover. The UrbanMech was a solution to the problem of urban warfare, and despite the seemingly lacking characteristics, it is certainly capable in its role.
Overview
The UrbanMech was originally produced by Orguss Industries for the Star League Defence Force. Later, UrbanMech production was overtaken by Hellespont Industrials, mainly produced for Capellan Confederation. The primary role of the UrbanMech, as mentioned above (as well as within its name), is to fight within urban confines, where larger 'mechs and combat vehicles are inferior to infantry fireteams and light AFVs (Armored Fighting Vehicles). Its small size (around 10-11 meters), small silhouette, and ability to travel small distances using jump jets makes it a formidable and difficult-to-engage enemy in its designated environment.
But keep in mind, it is only dangerous inside it's designated environment. Outside of it, the UrbanMech's weaknesses are fairly glaring; it is considered (rightfully) the slowest BattleMech in existence: its top speed is 32.4 km/h, meaning that it's slower than the 100-ton behemoths (the lower speed range of Assault Class BattleMech is 55 km/h), and its armament, while formidable, can only stand what is effectively two minutes or so of actual combat before it runs out of ammo and has to rely on its flashlight to do any damage. This means that humpty-dumpty had better have a wall to fall off (or rather, to hide behind), to stand a chance, even against 'mechs of its own weight class.
that said Crunch-wise the typical light and even some of the lighter end mediums mechs don't have the armor levels needed to take hits from it's AC-10 that aren't in the Center Torso (and frequently can only take such a hit once if they can) and a head hit from the AC-10 forces a potential check to see if the dude in the other mech becomes a pile of hamburger splattered against their cockpit interior so even 100 ton enemies have to be leery against a well played Urbie ambush with that threat in mind because all it takes is one good dice roll from the urbie to ruin your day.
Also, the UrbanMech is one of the few 'mechs reintroduced by Wolf's Dragoons to the Inner Sphere during their "infiltration" mission (alongside the Flea, the Hoplite, and a few other designs that were considered rare or extinct in the Inner Sphere). The showcasing of the proper use of UrbanMechs gave a new lease on life to the previously forgotten and damned design.
Armament
For its role, the UrbanMech was armed with an AutoCannon/10 and a Small Laser. While the latter is nothing to write home about, the former is a weapon capable of making a considerable dent in a well-armored enemy of any kind. This does limit the UrbanMech's usefulness by tying it directly to its limited ammo count, as its Small Laser is incapable of doing much damage to anything beside infantry lying still in the open - something that isn't going to happen in urban combat. It's saying something that pretty much every variant either tries to make the most of it's limited ammo capacity, or swaps out the ballistic weapons entirely.
The Trashcan Collection
Despite the relatively straightforward concept behind the 'mech, there were numerous attempts in making the 'mech more capable in more varied environments:
- UM-R60L - The Capellans somehow found 2 tons of armor to remove from the 'mech, and stuck an Autocannon/20 on it, leaving it with even less ammo. For historical comparison, imagine a KV-2 turret on a T-70 chassis. Same results, just add legs.
- UM-R63 - This version of the UrbanMech uses a Clannerscum LB-X (shotgun) /10 Autocannon, as well as a Small Pulse Laser to support its primary laser. This is a clean upgrade to the Urbie's firepower, making it an even deadlier opponent. This is considered a standard Capellan version of UrbanMech after the general upgrade from the base version.
- UM-68 - Draconis Combine replaced the Autocannon with Dumb Fire Missiles. 30 of them. This possibly triples the damage output of a single shot, giving this UrbanMech a ridiculous Alpha Strike damage capability. On the other hand, such a small 'mech suffers greatly from the lack of ammunition, meaning that it is at most capable of launching two salvos before being forced to fall back.
- UM-69 - A Free Worlds League UrbanMech variant, using the latest of Clannerscum technology - Ultra AutoCannon/10, Extended Range Small Laser, and Ferro-Fibrous armor. And all that was lost is an additional Heat Sink (not the most important component for a 'mech that relies on a ballistic weapon).
- UM-R70 - The Federated Suns' version is quite a bit like the Free Worlds League one in the fact that it uses Clannerscum technologies. Ferro-Fibrous armor, Rotary Autocannon/5, and Medium and Small Extended Range lasers give it a great deal of staying power on the field, making it ideal for long-term engagements, such as defense of urban areas.
- UM-R80 - A very strange version of the UrbanMech. It replaces the Autocannon with a Snub-Nose PPC (a smaller, shorter-ranged PPC), Small Pulse Laser, TAG Missile Support System, Beagle Active Probe, and Guardian ECM Suite. It also has Improved Jump Jets, making it even more nimble and capable in traversing urban terrain. This makes it a great competitor to the Raven, especially due to being a capable combat 'mech in close combat.
- UM-R90 SuburbanMech - A hard upgrade to the UrbanMech debuting in the semi-official fan magazine BattleTechnology and popularized by the HBS video game that eventually made it into official canon. This spicy trashcan mounts a bigger engine; allowing it to finally go an acceptable speed on the battlefield, and replaces the Autocannon with a PPC and two medium lasers, keeping the small laser for flavor. It's a shockingly powerful variant, but its heatsinks are garbage.
- UM-R93 - A Dark Age variant that had a Plasma Rifle, an ER Medium Laser, and an ER Small Laser, supplemented with 12 tons of hardened armor. While this made it able to finally stand up to Medium Mechs, the sheer weight placed on the 'Mech effectively turned it into a semi-mobile energy weapons turret.
- UM-AIV - This version of UrbanMech exchanges its Small Laser for Extended Range Medium Laser and an Arrow IV missile launcher. This means that not only is capable of doing damage to most targets, but that it can also be called as artillery from a few miles away to join in the fun. Said missile launcher can also launch pocket nukes; making for... interesting scenarios on tabletop if one's willing to experiment. Did we mention that the variant was a fan-made version deemed canon on the spot at a gaming event by the game designers?
- UrbanMech IIC - Clan version of the UrbanMech. Uses Clanner weaponry: an Extended Range Small Laser, and an Ultra Autocannon/10. In addition, Clan technicians have been able to speed it up to 54 km/h - still slightly slower than most Assault 'mechs. Besides those two upgrades, this version is inferior to later Inner Sphere versions, amusingly enough. There is also a Blake Jihadist version of IIC, which replaces the Autocannon with Hyper Assault Gauss Rifle (which has the typical heavy kick of a Gauss Rifle with the rapid fire of an auto-cannon ) and the Small Laser with a Flamer.
- There are also rumors of some UrbanMechs being armed with Machine Guns instead of small Lasers. We have dismissed those claims.
Why do people love the UrbanMech so much?
The UrbanMech is the Battletech fandom's baby, having been a meme before the concept of the internet, and inevitably beloved by all who come across it in their Battletech education. But why? Why this little walking egg with a gun? Why not the Atlas or the Timber Wolf? An easy answer to why this poorly kitted out tin can with a rotary gun is so beloved by the UrbanMech community is simply that it fucking rules.
A much more detailed answer is that the UrbanMech is the perfect intersection between stupid and good. There are plenty of Mechs in Battletech that are either so good it's a wonder anyone plays anything else, or so bizarrely integrated into the story as bad with rules to reflect just how bad they are that they become stupid for how poorly they perform (the Charger springs to mind). The UrbanMech's entire schtick is exactly the crossroads between those two ideas; a mech that by all accounts is absolutely horrifically optimized to the point of near uselessness in any other context, but if given exactly the correct conditions and exactly the correct amount of luck (or even just swapping out its large gun for some other large weapon it shouldn't have) could possibly down Mechs twice it's size.
There's also one thing that helps the Urbie reach it's legendary status, one teensy little lore and mechanics detail that makes it truly a badass little design in spite of it's many... many... many flaws; It's survived further into the future than nearly every other kind of 'Mech in the universe. While that doesn't sound super impressive on it's face, you have to remember that Battletech's writers and fans frequently press the hard reset button on how good technology is with semi-regularity; and it has real consequences depending on how retentive your opponent wants to be about lore adherence: certain Mechs just don't exist as a viable option past a certain point in the universe because the factories and required internal components to make them just stop existing or get blasted into the earth they were put up on. The Assault class of Mechs has nearly gone extinct several different times because of this, with several Mechs flat-out becoming next to unusable relics or museum pieces because of just how rare or outdated they are, if they even still exist. But not the Urbie.
The Urbie showed up in the middle of the Star League era, and has made it all the way to the ilClan era with variants made nearly twice every two hundred years, meaning you can always play it. You will almost certainly lose it, but you can always field one. And all because the Urbie has its thing and rolls with it; Most other mechs aren't guarding cities, or checkpoints miles away from any real fighting, or even just a mining settlement. Urbies are next to impossible to kill because they're almost never asked to be frontline units, and only the truly brave would use it otherwise. While an Inner Sphere Atlas might be 80 years old and take hundreds of millions of C-Bills to make before it gets blown to smithereens by fighting a Clanner OmniMech, there are more than likely Urbies out in the Battletech universe that are almost a half-millennia old and probably cost less to maintain than most major industrial equipment even at the time it was made. The Urbie has been ignored by the ravages of time and universal bookkeeping by being easy to maintain and so good at the one thing it's actually built to do that it can't be truly be killed.
It is the perfect fictional representation of a weapon used in very specific situations far behind the lines that nobody pays much mind to or expects to use, only to suddenly become the fixture of stories for years to come when they gotta pull it out and actually use it, and against all odds it works. Combine that with looking a little something like R2-D2's final form, and you have the perfect mech to become Battletech's unofficial second mascot; the perfect little friend to usually get blasted off the table, but sometimes become your own little story in and of itself.
TL;DR
All hail our lord and savior UrbanMech.
Gallery
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He died for your sins. Of not making this page earlier.
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Free Worlds League UrbanMech.
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UrbanMech demonstrating its superiority with a pocket nuke.
