Resources for the video: Master Unit List: www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6725/malice-mal-xp www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6683/malice-mal-xt www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6726/malice-mal-xv www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/6727/malice-mal-yz Ironwind Metals Malice: www.ironwindmetals.com/index.php/categories/cat-battletech/cat-bt-bm/product/battletech-20-5107/category_pathway-2 TRO Dark Age: store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-technical-readout-dark-age Record Sheets: Dark Age: store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheets-dark-age Background outer Space Art was done by the artist, Starkiteckt: www.artstation.com/starkiteckt

Fun fact: a Malice actually killed Alaric Ward, but Clan Wolf plot armour is so powerful that the entire setting rewrote itself to make the Malice a joke, thus saving Ward.

Me 5 minutes in “wow big red doesn’t like this one” Me 10 minutes in “yikes, he likes this less than clan wolf” Me 15 minutes in “damn, this thing sucks”

Devlin Stone: Hey guys, we're going to basically rebuild the Terran Hegemony Everyone: Cool, so we're going to avoid the worst excesses of that nation, right? DS: (Silently glances at the Malice) E: We're going to avoid the worst excesses of the Hegemony, right? DS: I'm just going to go for a quick nap, I'm sure you'll be fine

You know you made a stinker of a mech when you cover it on Autocannons and even House Davion goes “yeah, we’ll pass”

Big mech, lots of guns, this is sure to be a great mech. *Looks at stats* Oh no… OH NOOOooo.

Damn Red, you truly ripped this mech a new one! With a smarter weapon loadout, a 64kph assault with almost 40 tons of weapons space at max armor is very valid. Its the weapons choices that are baffling to me

You know...with that weight distribution, you COULD fit four Plasma Rifles into this thing, each with 20 shots, and 20 freezers (IS) to keep it cool. THAT would be a scary ass thing to run into.

"Hey buddy, I heard you like Jagermechs, so we put a Jagermech in your Jagermech so you get double the Jagermech!"

The sad thing is that the Malice looks cool and could have been outfitted to be an effective, deadly and more cost effective design.

Ahh, the Malice. That thing honestly has a very special place in my heart. It can probably be credited with getting me into Battletech (never played any Mechwarrior games, as I didn't know about them), when I came across the cover art for the Field Manual 3145 by Anthony Scroggins on Deviantart, back in 2013 I think, and I was in love at first sight, with these thick, heavily armored legs, the almost bunker-like cockpit, and the four, long-barreled weapons that made it appear like something right out of Metal Gear, it just looked amazing. I looked deeper, wanted to know where it came from, and, before I knew it, I had spent 10 hours on Sarna, ordered about 300 Euros of books, material, and miniatures (including a Malice, because of course), and was SEVERELY sleep-deprived. Sure, the Malice might not live up to its looks in terms of performance, and come from a period even I myself don't enjoy all that much (I prefer the Succession Wars and Clan Invasion. Preaching to the choir, I know.), and it might not even by my favorite Mech in the setting, that title goes to the King Crab, but, to me, more than even the Atlas, the Mad Cat, or the humble Elemental Battle Armor, it springs to my mind immediately when I think of Battletech. And for that alone, for the fact that it introduced me to this amazing game and universe, it has my love and appreciation, despite being an utter dumpster fire in the game.

As a Pro-Capellan factionalist, I approve the wise decision implementing this design's production & distribution within the Republic of the Sphere, especially in Prefectures IV-VI [Edit] We love fireworks too!

A cool design that burns as bright as an Alpha Striking Nova Prime. Always loved the look of the militarized box designs.

The YZ does have a saving grace! Between the TAG and those sensors, it makes a great artillery spotter if you want to drop Arrows on your own mech and have it survive.

I had to pause the video when I read your bullet point "-The Embodiment of Hubris" so I could have a good laugh and thank heavens I did, because the derision just kept escalating to a truly hilarious degree.

Well that was ruff, but look at this way Red… at least you got this Mech out the way and never have to cover it again 😅

Just thought of another thing to say about the Malice: You know how sometimes a "nerd" in a movie will get a "Hit me" sign taped to the back of their shirt? Well, it's simple really. The Malice, in all its variations, has a "Crit me" sign, on both of its side torsos.

Quad LB 5Xs could be really annoying if the enemy happenst to ignore it while chasing more worhwhile targets and unlike the Jagermech this can take a hit or two, BUT this can be replaced by Partisan tanks under most circumstances.

This analysis is both pointed and hilarious. Well done. If I had been tasked with designing a 100 ton 'mech capable of closing with most assault and heavy 'mechs and some mediums, I'd have gone with Clan missile systems, probably a pair of big LRM launchers and a bunch of SRM tubes (not Streak so you can put out even more missiles for its low payload tonnage). The slap in CASEII, run up to the enemy as fast as you can while dumping lurms, and then press your second trigger and cackle madly as you do your best to imitate an SRM carrier.

Ah the Malice on of my favorite mechs designs but one of my most hated in terms of weapon loadout. Why did one of the coolest Mechs had to have such a terrible weapons loadout.

No one would ever commit the folly of the Draconis Combine and the Charger, ROS Procurement and the Malice look out guys hold my beer…

You hit the nail on the head at the end. The Malice isn't a player' Mech. It's a low level boss fight for one of the RPGs, it's a loot sponge to give players access to good salvage at a moderate challenge. It's a dungeon boss.

"Maybe enemy pheasants will notice." After the Roc, could you design a Pheasant battlemech for the Capellans or the Mariks?

I played the MAL-XT once: I personally think it's the worst 100 ton machine i ever fielded be a fair margin. And the YZ is the most outrageous case of 'new toy syndrome' in mech form I ever had the displeasure to lay eyes on. Stil:, Thanks a lot for taking it on!

I think its not a joke that the Malice was sold a lot to Mercs and Republic forces. At this time new Battlemechs were rare at the start of the Dark age wars.I mean they basically modified any Industrial Mech with weapons and Armor like a Gurilia fighter Today does with a Toyota Pickup. So if you think about it that they drove Industrial mechs against the Jade Falken invasion on Sky i say the Malice would have done way better.

Is it coincidence that Devlin Stone stepped down in 3130 prior to the production of the Malice in 3132? Perhaps Devlin was hoping when the Malice would be better when he was woken up in the future.

Malice: 28.8m C-Bills Rifleman: 4.86m C-Bills “Sign me up, said the mercenaries…” The commanding officer for my Davion space merc unit: Wait, wut?

Damn, Red. Tell us how you really feel about the Malice. I think the mech is in a corner crying after this video.

"Are we going to give this thing PPCs?" "I was thinking AC5s." "A pair of RAC5s seems pretty solid." "No I was thinking quad LB5Xs." "... why"

The Malice seems to be the Battletech version of a sports car or Lamborghini, it's meant to look like it can do a lot or look pretty. But the minute you try to "open her up", everything just falls apart.

The malicious Malice maligning the morose Malice mech pilots

The only possible explanation is the office had a contest to see who could make the worst mech! The variants we got are the winners!

If there’s anything that mechs like the Malice has shown, it’s that the player’s ability to perfectly and objectively understand the performance of all equipment and weapons is a superpower on par with phantom mech ability.

I applaud the Republic for coming up with a worse waste of a 400 engine than a Charger.

"Sir, I have a great idea!" What is it?" "You know that Rifleman III that Amaris made? What if we did that, but a LOT shittier, and charged a fortune for it? Then convinced the Republic that it was a great and highly useful tactical asset, and for some reason Mercenaries will love it, despite it being worthless?" "... Oh. My. God. You're a genius!"

"You pilot that thing? You're braver then I thought"

"I want it to have an autocannon." "Sounds great boss, what else? " "Another one." "Sure thing, what other weapons?" "Another one." "..." "Another one."

I've never seen such bitter hatred... so perfectly articulated.

But, but, but the Malice has spirit! That’s what really matters in battle, right?! 😮😂

I am an old school player. Never played a game in Dark Age or Ilcan. That said, I can imagine a merc unit picking up a couple of these as salvage, and rebuilding them with smaller engines and gauss rifles. Now wouldn't that be quite the surprise for those assuming they knew what they faced? Heh...

I remember seeing the mini and saying to myself: Wow. This should be COOL. MOAR DAKKA. And then I read the sheet and then squinted. Like... Squinted like I squinted at a SRM carrier sheet the first time. So much potential, wasted. This is the LCS of the Battletech world.

One of my favorite new mechs

"There's a sucker born every minute" -P.T. Barnum

Always happy to learn more about the utter failures of the RotS. This was a VERY entertaining video, Red. Somehow it got past me and I missed it AND never heard of the mech either. Thank you!

Feels like the made a very big, very expensive bully. "How many waves of 4 jenners can you take on? Every 5th wave is a dragon" type deal

This makes the Charger look like a sensible investment

Maybe enemy pheasants will notice... You've found the true purpose of the Malice. Upland bird hunting.

These are available to the Capellans in ilClan, though only the XV I would even consider, much better in AS but not stellar. In Classic the XV could be useful with precision ammo vs speedy boi TMM shielded raider mechs. Also available if special ammo used for AS

God, I wish this one was good, it looks so cool! Guess I'll just have to hope the rule of cool carries it through battle, 'cause I'm using it!

It's also worth noting that any mech without arms struggles to stand up, so any penalties to PSRs is really bad news. Don't trip, Malice!

Never has a Battlemech been giving a cool name only to be fucked over by their loadout been so cleanly embodied in the dark age era as the Malice. Poor bastard.

sounds like someone looked at the annihilator and thought they could speed it up, at the cost of damage output. in terms of design conceptually i get where they were going for. gotta love battletech for designing these sub-par machines alongside the better designs. sometimes something just doesnt work out. shame its not properly reflected in the lore, if i can believe your explanations.

Well this will be a fun objective raid or targeted kill target…big scary looking but not that dangerous.

I know some mechs can be lemons, but WOW this is one hell of a lemon mech.

Dude another great video I listen to you at work all the time and now the other guys do as well quickly gentlemen to the bearcat there is Sweet Lore and content about to be dropped

If you could sum up the Republic of the Sphere with a single Mech, it would be this one.

Oh this is going to be a mean one 🙂.

Great video of a really bad LOL. An excellent production at any rate. Keep up the great!

Geez this was SCATHING! 😂

The mechwarriors who bought it: OMG it's fast, it's big, and it has shotguns, shotguns are always very powerful. I'LL TAKE YOUR ENTIRE STOCK!

The HPG going down stopped everyone from cancelling their Malice orders.

Honestly i kind of want to make a version of this that replaces 3 of the LB5xes with a LAC5, RAC5, and UAC5 because clearly the problem is that it didnt have enuff dakka.

It looks so good though! Thanks for the video, really enjoyed it.

What does the 400xl weigh? 24.5 tons. Heck putin a standard vlar 300 for a savings of 5.5 tons and 6 crits add a super charger

This premise seems like it was reverse engineered from a clan blueprint, but they were missing a bunch of parts. So 3 CUAC10s became 4 LBX AC 5s, and 4 heavy medium lasers became 4 regular ass medium lasers. But, even then, the firepower would've been anemic and inflexible for a 100 tonner by even succession wars standards, barring the "wumbo" setting on UACs.

Excellent review. Enjoyed it. Tho I haven't personally played the Mallice, a friend played one in a game and just used it for long range sniping where as I was using a lament . With the lament I'd do the heavy punching and he'd go crit fishing. Otherwise his Mallice was quite ineffective

Be careful guys. One of the techs in my Merc team left our Dropship unlocked. Someone bloke must of seen the Malice and broke in.. When I got back, they left three more!

“Okay boy, I think I need to explain how this works. You want to know why we buy the damn things? Simple, ya sell that ridiculous engine at a nice mark up then you replace it with something you salvaged out of a busted Atlas or something like that. There you’ve pretty much broke even. Replace those pop guns with some real weaponry and you have a budget line breaker. And that is how a merc does things.”

RoS Procurement Officer: "Congratulations on your recent promotion Major. Is there a new battlemech you were hoping to get in?" RoS Assault Pilot: "Well, I have been wanting to get some seat time in an Annihilator." RoS PO: (flatly) "We have the Annihilator at home."

The Malice, otherwise known as "GOD MADE ME UNFINISHED" Otherwise also known as "Why the LBX-5 might be the starting point for good lower numbered autocannons, but man are they only good at best paired and only on medium 'mechs." To further elucidate the point, the Ultra series and the LBX series of autocannons are pretty shit in the 2 and 5 damage ranges, with the exception being made for the Ultra-2 and the LBX 5 imo. The Ultra 2 because it provides a natural upgrade to all skybroom platforms, while the LBX-5 is really good on ballistic reliant skirmishing platforms. Meanwhile the Ultra-5 and LBX 2 are both just wastes of tonnages. In my personal opinion, the post Helm Shadow Hawk would have been a lot scarier and a lot longer running if it instead had an LBX-5 instead of an Ultra-5. Anyone on the discord can @ me if you want me to explain further there.

Thank you for going through that to make the video, I have been trying to work out if the Malice is meant to be good and just eneded up with bad rules or if it's meant to be a point about the RotS

Looks like something an MWO player would make

Oh man, I can see how Mech distribution works before a battle: Okay Pilots, we have 4 Mechs. The Marauder is mine, so left is a Catapult, a Hunchback and a Malice. You three take straws and the shor... I mean the Winner becomes the Malice! After some thrilling moments... Okay, the Newbie gets the Malice! :D Also... I have some kind of Déjà-vu with this mech. I played some Mech related Games in my 42 years lifetime, and two of them were from the Metaltech Earthsiege Series: Part one with Addon and Earthsiege 2. There were some Mechs, or Hercs as they were named there, with a similar shape and Weaponage, but way lighter and more effective. But because this Games are PRETTY OLD, the Hercs weren't so detailed in the simulation as they are today. Heck, they tried to be a competition to Mechwarrior 2 and 3 which not gone well. That Series had 4 more Games playing in that Universe. 2 Strategic Games called Missionforce Cyberstorm and Cyberstorm 2, and 2 more... stranger games with simulation in mind... but forgot the names. xD But they had not much to do with the Simulation heavy Earthsiege Games of once. And yeah, i know, you only can give "Mechs" a limitation of shapes until they look or feel like "Copys" of some other Franchises, but this one? Yeah, for me it is a Earthsiege Herc Inspired Mech. xD

I'd say it's useful to compare it to the Warhammer WHM-6R, which has very comparable abilities at a fraction of the cost... using only introtech. Really, though, I'd say the biggest issue with the Malice is more a problem with how poorly balanced the lighter autocannons are, costing far too much mass for meagre damage output. That still doesn't answer why the designers decided to mix an XL engine with excessive quantities of ammo not protected by CASE, but the Malice would be much more effective if the LB-5X was an even remotely weight-efficient weapon system. EDIT: Playing around with Meklab, another flaw reveals itself in the Malice. It's past the tonnage break-even for 4/6, even with endosteel structure and XL engine. It'd have one ton more available for equipment+armor if it dropped down to 95 tons, and for cost-performance, it should really drop down to the 75-85 ton range.

The Malice, when a Charger 1A1 (or any Charger for that matter) is a better option.

Great vid! I find it kinda funny cause this mech would probably do well in mechwarrior; ESPECIALLY with burst ACs

Happy Lyran General noises in the background!

When I saw the promotional art, I thought it was Metal Gear Rex without the reverse joint legs.

Ah, I see! This mech is the Charger of the Republic/Dark Age Era!

I'm sitting here and I'm having issues just trying to figure out how to make this thing viable without either: A) saying screw it and clantech'ing the damn thing and making an already expensive boondoggle even more expensive Or B) stripping it down to the frame and completely rethinking it's weapon loadout. Literally the ONLY thing I'm not at odds with are the quadrack of ER mediums. I have 2 ideas on the second option: 1) Drop down to a 300 standard engine which slows you down quite a bit but opens up something like 7 tons of weight and swap two of the LBXs for ERPPCs and heatsinks to let it open up armor and critfish from range. Add case in either side torso then spend any remaining weight and space on ammo or heatsinks. 2) say screw it, keep the 400, strip 2 LBXs off and swap the others for RAC5s, triple the ammo, add 2 Medium pulse lasers and 4 more heatsinks. You will die, but IT. WILL. BE. GLORIOUS (yes, I'm aware that is 240 shots of ammunition, but we came to dakka and die gloriously and 20 turns of maximum dakka is fine) If you're an absolute psychopath, swap the lasers to clantech and now the ER mediums and the RACs have a complete overlap in their effective ranges... and are heat neutral if you don't move.

With friends like us making suggestions, you sure don't need enemies 😂 Great job covering a less than stellar design.

Ferro-Lammelor armor on the YZ? Jeez, did some Snow Raven or Sea Fox consultant get a job in the Republic and decide to help create the Battlemech equivalent of Wimp Lo? "We designed it wrong, as a joke"

I named my cat after matron malice …. Now I find out there is a mech named after my cat🤣

Love the cool mechanism intro

Its Alpha Strike stats make it usable, but a Succession Wars Grasshopper or Guillotine gives it trouble. And the AS rules sure as hell don't save the YZ.

The MAL-YZ is the "12" on the volume dial. There's a very good reason the volume dial only goes to 11. In fact, even 11 is too much. So I'll gladly take a MAL-YZ, but I'll have my mechtechs work on it first before I ever let anyone of my lance pilot it. Trade off the remote sensor dispensers and Angel ECM and modular armor and the coolant pods all for MORE NORMAL DOUBLE HEAT SINKS. (most of them going in the side torsos for crit padding, the rest going in the engine or arms). OK, one exception, modular armor on the head makes sense usually, 1 crit slot and 1 ton to literally just about double the armor on the head (making it immune to pilot death by Clan ERPPC or other "head-clippers", one time at least). I'll take a -1 to PSR and a lower speed if it means I'm immune to head-shots. And boom, now you have a perfectly viable mech, that won't kill its pilot, to the contrary it's actually more likely to SAVE the pilot thanks to the 1t of modular armor on the cockpit location making it immune (once) to headshots. Ferro-lamellor armor is super neat too, since it renders LBX cluster ammunition utterly impotent, meaning that OTHER malice's can't touch you unless they brought solid ammo. It's amazing how just a few little tweaks here and there can make or break a mech, isn't it? I didn't even touch the engine and I made a better mech, just think what I could have done if I switched to a Light 300 fusion engine, or a "normal" Clan XL 400 engine? Sure, I'd have to probably drop the head modular armor, but losing that means that the mech can go the full 64kph again, and if I have to lose some heat sinks I'll just trade the Clan ERLL's for Clan (non ER) LPL's.

To be fair, in-universe ACs (particularly the small ones), as well as LRMs, have always gotten more credit than the TT rules would suggest they deserve. It's almost a tradition for under-gunned ballistic-boats to be wuldy popular in lore.

Maybe it was a case of corruption sucking money out of the government, and mercs kept buying it when it went on fire sale to part it out at a net profit, possibly with those XL400 engines ending up in brand new Malice units. They should make a MAL-DG (Downgrade) version with a 300std engine, 2 regular AC/5s, 2 regular PPCs, 2-4 IS MLs, case, and AMS. Turn it into a well-armored fire-support mech to stand with traditional 100 tonners. The idea being, this is what's left after the 400xl and LB-5Xs have been sold for a profit, so you can't sell the built-in double heat sink system or endo steel. You'd have other variations based on the same concept.

A Malice once insulted Red's mom.

Republic of the Sphere: Together, we will forge a future as bright as the glory days of the Star League. The Military-Industrial Complex: Have you heard the tale of the _Baron?_ RotS: No, why? MIC: Oh, no reason. Don't worry about it. Hey, you want a new 'mech?

To paraphrase the old song. Malice? Malice? Who the Eff is Malice? :D

Damn, this thing is a meme on legs, more than the urbie 😂😂😂😂 Jokes aside looks like the Juggernaut from C&C Tiberium wars, except it doesn't carry 4 long Toms on its back

For the MAL-XT: pull out the autocannons, and put in 6 Light AC/5's and add two more Medium Lasers and more Double Heat sinks. For the MAV-XV: Rip off the heavy lasers and replace them with ER medium lasers. For the MAL-YZ: pray, it is the only thing you can still do while you are still alive!

I'm probably seeing things but that Republic of the Sphere emblem in the thumbnail really resembles a highly animated weasel at my screen resolution

Nice to know they still make tractors in the future :-) cheers for the overview of a mech ill avoid if i ever play the dark ages :-)

I am sensing just the slightest hint of dislike for this mech... :D Fun video, sometimes we just gotta point and laugh at a failure that possibly in part destroyed a regime.

KRL Variant, the MAL-K1-A "Arezzo" Malice. Has 2 KR Drillz AC8s on the lower left/right arms, 2 KR Sparkz ERLL(10 Dmg/10 Heat ERLL and it deals 2 heat damage on a hit) on the upper left/right arms. Its structure is KR RACS(Republic Adv. Composite Structure). RACS takes up 8 crits, which 2 must be in the CT, but it ignores the first critical hit it takes each game and reduces the chance of additional crits. Its basically a more durable structure, while still weighing the same as Clan Endo, OP? Yes, yes in deed. Its protected by max armor points of RAPA III(16 points per ton, but has 50% damage reduction from all sources), any fractions are rounded down. It is cooled in part by the Integrated Coolant System. It takes up 2 crits in each side torso and each side weighs 2 tons, but gives the mech 8 tons worth of DHS cooling. Further, the mech has CASE II for the ammo, 2 KR variant Laser AMS, which take up 0.5 tons each and it finishes it off with an advanced ECM suite. It rounds all that out with a 400XL engine lol. If the Malice is garbage, it's pilot, Lord-Knight Legionnaire Coleman Mitchell doesnt know it. The one down side to all KRL tech is it is quite expensive, is not exported to any ally nation, only built in house. Sooo, damage does hurt, as we cant so readily replace it, which is why KR equipment is built with durability and survival in mind. KR AC8, 8t, 3 crits, 12 rounds per ton of ammo and it can fire twice in a single turn each turn, with no jam chance. Its basically fed by a 120mm belt feed. Each AC carries 3 tons of ammo. The shells have armor piercing qualities due to their higher velocity paired with their large size, given they are smaller than a AC10, but more punchy than an AC5, damage per shell equal to a Large laser, but their higher rate of fire allows them to put out tremendous damage in short order. Also fools the opponent into thinking they are facing a smaller caliber weapon, until their armor shreds off in record time. And never knowing anything about the Malice, in the clix game, given its HUGE guns and typically high Armor Piercing damage, as well as good-extreme range, I always assumed the thing was armed with Gauss Rifles. My own variant is a mix

Me, while spending most of my gametime in the mechlab: I can fix her....

If the Malice had either a XL 350 or XL 300 with that in mind I have to Two options you can pick from 1) Triple UAC/5's, Large Laser and Twin Medium Laser's. 2) Twin RAC/5's, Twin Large Laser's and either a Medium Pulse Laser or Twin Medium Laser's

A 100 ton assault mech that can move at 64 KPH? Good. Medium range fighter? Nice. 4 ER MLs? Tried and true back-up. So what are we looking at for weapons? Quad RAC2’s? MRMs? ER Large lasers? Quad LBX 5 autocannnons… *Headdesks* Please tell me they at least have some form of CASE.