In our narrative campaign we managed to capture one and a fair amount of omnipod weapons. The commander was a Warhammer driver so twin ppcs, a pair of medium lasers and a pair of SRM-6s along with every clan heat sink we could salvage, a C3s and a guardian ECM. He carries a ton of infernos so we can try and overheat the notoriously hot running clan mechs for more chance at salvage, or melt down elementals lol

It’s a real fun mech. My partner pulled one out in a match and it obliterated my flanking Commando in turn one by ripping off its leg and scoring a TAC ammo explosion at the same time. Fortunately I had a RAC/5 Shadow Hawk who was up to the challenge, slaying it in a duel. The Shad came out of it as savaged as a mech could be while still living, it was a ton of fun.

Cauldron Born is my Favorite Clan Mech mainly for the reason that it and the Shadow Cat were the only Clan Mechs that didnt have a dual name and that the Inner Sphere name was used by the Majority of Clanners because Smoke Jaguar kept quiet about it.

When you mentioned the Ebon Jaguar in fiction I immediately jumped to two moments within the story of Trent of the Smoke Jaguars. In the first book of the Twilight of the Clans series he gets his Timber Wolf bullied by a Jaguar in a grand melee. And then later on in his story in the book Forever Faithful there is a really awesome moment where a group being lead by Trent is making a last stand. The Ebon Jaguar sanding alongside Trent gets blasted in the cockpit but gets back up and keeps fighting which was a really cool moment.

An example of an Ebon Jaguar in the fiction is the Eridani Light Horse anthology. In one of the later stories the commander of one of the ELH remnants pilots one.

This is, by far, one of my favorite mechs. I gravitated towards this design from the first time I saw it in Technical Readout 3058, and I try to make it a cornerstone of my MegaMek forces when I play.

Thanks for the video! Didn't mention the F configuration but it's probably the most optimal one-two ER PPCs, a targeting computer, 18 double heat sinks, and twin ATM-6 launchers is a scary combo, though three tons of ammo is a bit low if you want to mix types. Love the Cauldron-Born overall, though I kinda wish they gave production of it to the Alyina Mercantile League in the ilClan era to thematically parallel them moving beyond their Jade Falcon roots.

This thing is a beast. One of the best Clan Mechs hands down.

In video games, the Cauldron Born is one of my favourite clan Mechs. It's in my top 3 which include the Blood Asp and Mad Dog. Tabletop wise. I really want to get my hands on one of these machines. I've only started playing, and I'm doing Alpha Strike. But I'd love to get one of these and add it to my collection. Speed and Firepower. Can't go wrong with those.

First time I saw the Cauldron Born was in a Ral Partha catalog circa 1995. At the time I was only familiar with the MW2 lineup, so damn near everything was new to me, but the Cauldron Born caught my eye for some reason.

Adore this mech. I’ve been storyboarding a group of ex-Clanners who defected from Clan Coyote during the years of unrest prior to the Blood Scandal. They end up settling in the Taurian Concordat, and after the Clan Invasion they manage to trade for a trove of combined arms seized from the remains of Clan Smoke Jaguar. My Mary Sue character ends up piloting a Cauldron Born. We’ll see if he makes the most of it.

If you have the chance to jump into the pods at a con, just know that there are two mechs that make you an ace; The couldron born and the mauler with a PPC loadout. I was literally untouchable in the couldron born across five matches. Its fast, hits like a truck, and is low profile enough to get out of the way of incoming fire.

Well, it's not a tabltop experience but I practically used one during Mechwarrior 3 as soon as I got one. I settled on giving it 2 ER-large Lasers and 6 medium Pulslasers... witch made it essentially a Penetrator. The concentrated pulselaserfire on the leegs did pull the rug from under enemy mechs's feet and the ER-lasers could snipe and soften up my foes. Yes, the weapons were more like a penetrator - but, I fell in love with it's tender frame. Mechs double the height getting felled by this petite little murdermachine.12 out of 10, definitive waifu-material.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="884">14:44</a> as a Raven Alliance player and a fan of the Ebon Jaguar, I wholeheartedly agree with that statement Really wish it had jump packs, though

Love the video! I did the original illustration design for this mech when i was an OG FASA art boy back in the day so I really enjoyed seeing all the imagery together like this, very cool. :)

If I remember right, Trent was piloting one when he defected to ComStar in the Twilight of the Clans series. Game wise, I know it's in MW2 Mercs, during the Battle of Luthein. Oh, and I've had my head handed to me a couple of times by that damn H variant in BTA 3062.

Because the guns/missles form a rainbow of love which embraces us as we fight the dirty Spheroids. Cauldron Born is love!❤

Happy the new designs of mechs have them able to torso twist.

I remember this thing from Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries 😊 I always viewed it as the “Really big Bushwacker.”

Had the k'nex one, so i had to pick this up for my first mini.

I used to run a few variants based on the B Variant. All added four Jump Jets One replaced the ER PPCs with ER Large Lasers, another replaced the Large Pulse Lasers with the ER Large Lasers, and the third removed the TAG and Beagle Active Probe and the Medium Pulse Lasers for Jump Jets and two extra Heat Sinks.

Some other names who have piloted the Ebon Jaguar is Galaxy Commander Hang Mehta, And Trent. It is a common enough mech that comes up in the Twilight of the Clans series.

I love the Cauldron-Born because it was the last K'nex kit and first battletech product I ever owned. This nasty zombiemech has a special place in my heart and is the source of my bias for the unkillable warmachines.

Given Sea Fox's proliferation, I wonder if they have some uninhabited star systems they have created a zero-G manufacturing base within? It may well be that they found somewhere in the Close or even Deep Periphery that has raw resources and a good, safe, place to build an orbital factory (necessary for that pesky Endo-Steel)... it would be interesting if that could become some sort of storyline for a revived Aerotech with fleet actions! (I miss all those gravity wells)

I use 4 ER large lasers in MWO, and have had considerable success with a mech and play style I typically suck at. I generally just face hug people after some rotate-o potato and splurt SRM and AC20 in their face.

The Cauldron-Born Prime is a crazy blend of weapons but I'd argue it's better than it looks at first glance. The LB 5-X lets you fish for crits at range. The SRM-2 loaded with inferno or frags to neutralize infantry before they can close with you. The LRM-10 lets you join indirect fire missions with a Cauldron-Born B designating targets, or load it with infernos if that's your thing. It's not the hardest-hitting OmniMech, because the Smoke Jaguars already had plenty of options for brute-force heavy hitters, but it's their attempt at creating a utility heavy, an OmniThunderbolt if you will, and they came damn close to getting it perfect, because unlike a lot of iconic Clan OmniMechs it can alpha strike without overheating. Luthien stands because the Smoke Jaguars made its main gun a Gauss rifle with two minutes' worth of ammunition, rather than an ER PPC whose heat it could easily handle and a targeting computer for the works.

Now I hate to even ask as pronunciation came up with your chat with Red, but I always thought it was pronounced rye-star as it is rising star. I always found some of the Clan's abbreviated words like ristar ironic as they detest contractions. Thanks for the vid & definitely need a couple of these bad mama jammas

Love the ebon jaguar mech!

Cause it's a fantastic gun truck!

My favorite mech! Aah the Ebon Jaguar

I love using this Omni in my Clan Sea Fox force!

Because that mech is awesome.

*Heavy breathing from Efnysien intensifies* All Mabinogion jokes aside, the Cauldron Born is a very good chassis for its weight class. I'm more of an Assault-class nutjob myself, but I like the Cauldron-Born's flexibility and endurance.

My lancemate captured a Cauldron-born B. We left the left arm alone, but the right arm now has a Gauss rifle. This means he can fire 2x15 damage and 1x10 damage, while building zero heat aside from movement.

"Big honking gun arms aesthetic" proves once again to be top tier

One of my favorite mechs from mw4

Yippee, Clan 'mechs!

What a gorgeous mech sleek and smart

I love the Loki, right up to someone landing hits on it. This mech is a far better war machine

That is a nice amount of pod space, but I can see the problems caused by less armor if one is not careful. To say nothing of how more pod space can lure one into arming a mech past what its heat sinks can handle. Things to be aware of, I guess.

Star captain Trent piloted an ebon jaguar with his homeboy russou Howell

Way I see the cauldron born prime. Gauss is there to blast armor off foes during your approach. The lb5x and srm2 are for critting out structure. The Lrm 10 is fire support, and the mlas is there to poke from your backside.

I know the bushwhacker was designed from the advances afforded by studying a vulture, but the loadout reminds me more of a cauldron born. Little bit of errthang.

As a jade falcon. The ebon jaguar is one of my favorite platforms. It just gets it right and looks good backing up black lanners. Shame the later variants fail to understand the originals appeal of many multiple weapon systems being more then the sum of their parts.... As long as u remember the UAC-20

I love the more avian 'mechs and since Mechwarrior 3 I've had a soft spot for the Cauldron Born.

Great video! Looking forward to more videos!

The only interesting story I have about the Eben jaguar is when I found one after another in my Hunchback 4J, modified of course. Dropped the two LRM 10s for a MRM 40 was the big difference. Killed two EJs before having to fall back to my Lance and provided fire support for the last two EJs. Lost only one Lancemate. Took heavy damage thou.

For written fiction: the first battletech book that I was introduced to when my friend showed me the hobby, Redemption Rift. This book is the reason I got into the cauldron born in the first place. It's piloted by general Henry Kincaid of wolf's dragoons during the conflict between the kuritans and the davions in the dark ages

Funny how the Draconis thought the Cauldron Born was a nigh-invincible zombie when it still has an XL engine (I know Clans can survive losing one shoulder, but not both) and all slots in the head and CT are taken up by endo/ferro bits, and so, cannot zombie properly like 'mechs such as the Kingfisher. I guess the reason why they thought that way was because they initially assumed it was going to be a glass cannon like the Hellbringer but it turned out to have more complete armor coverage.

FINALLY, Frog's favorite Mech in the WDWL series!

My only experience was fighting against it, my house Davion against my friend’s jade falcon. Civil war era. It got to meet the hatchet of my hatchetman to its face whilst taking ppc fire from my 5D stalker

I find that TRO3058 is full of very underappreciated designs. And I can never shake from my head the aesthetic similarity between the Cauldron Born and Bushwhacker.

It may not be in fiction a lot but they put it in the back of novels a lot

Recently found your channel. Would love to see a video on the bushwhacker or the axe man. Keep up the fun videos!

Run mine with a Light PPC and ERLL in each arm plus TC. Each torso uses an lrm 5 and srm 4 turreted. Use emp and fascam on lrms. Infernos and tandem on srms. Case II protected. Head get chin turret and spls Light engine and supercharger for burst speed when necessary. Clan light active probe and IS predator Firecontrol. ECM and 3 more DHS fill out mech. Armor is Stealth base, null sig. Vs FF. Hefty on point cost, but sneaky sniper that can headshot or clear mined paths at range has its benefits. Use early as a control mech, scrambling sensors with light ppcs, and emps. TC help in legging or headshots on a shutdown mech. Would have gone with plasma, but ammo storage and limitations forced me to use the light ppcs. Srms and spls can control the CQ fighting pretty well too. Tandem is underestimated a lot in combat. That armored behemoth suddenly finding out there's stuff bouncing around inside his turtle's shell can make them panic.😊 Also no minimum range on lrms means that the aggressor might be facing a bit more pressure than expected. Being turreted they can both cover rear arc and sides very well. Often a final surprise.😊

Very cool I like the new versions

Thanks for the video.

haven't had the distinct pleasure/displeasure of facing a Ebon Jaguar/Cauldron Born myself though I do have a model I'll definitely try running it in my next BT game

Exodus Road had one in the grand melee for the bloodname.

Love it

I never knew anything about this mech. I was an old school pre-clan player. Still it looks interesting and I'm going to print a couple of them to try them out.

Not a mech I have come across. Interesting to try it out now. Cheers

The single greatest mech name ever. And not the Clan name. Cauldron-Born is just so evocative. Especially for a guy who _loved_ The Black Cauldron as a kid. My personal MWO loadout sports a single ER Medium Laser, and 4 ATM9s. It's disgusting and runs as hot as Ceridwen's cauldron itself.

I’ve only used it in Mechwarrior 3 and 4. Fast, hard hitting and I shut myself down every 2 shots. Maybe constantly Alpha Striking was a bad idea.

Ebon Jag is best boy.

Ebon Jag is one of the fun mecha i like to field. Far as Smoke Jag is concerned they can burn with all the cbils they're making. What im wondering is GB has substantial manufacturing resources in the Dominion. Maybe they stockpiling mechs and resources for when they inevitably have yo take down Alric. That would be fun finding out that Ghost Bear has three times the personelle and inventory than they displayed. Anyway keep up the good work.

The Prime,D,H, and the X are probably my favorite configs of the Cauldron-Born. I do wish there was more IS weapon equipped configs with the Capellans getting their hands on these...ah well. Regardless of that I do feel this is a really fun to use Omni that I'm not to much a fan of due to it being outshined by the Grizzly in my own opinion. (it'd be amazing with hand actuators but I'm extremely bias on that and I don't think the mech would be visually appealing with hands, unless it got hands akin to the Dragon/Grand Dragon/Awesome/Regent. Now that'd be awesome.)

I like mechwarrior 4's model allot more then the others ive seen it's like a jet on legs.

On the positive side love the Ebon Jaguar. I try to use it whenever I play clans and can find the space BVwise. If you are playing with quirks this thing becomes it IS namesake as it has the low profile quirk and will often only take half damage. Less than positive though I do not like Sea Fox. Loved them when they were Diamond Shark and just these odd merchants that occasionally sold clan-tech to the IS but now they are just the meme turned up to unbearable. They sell everything, they replaced comstar with the HPG network and writing the TROs.

Funny you mentioning the mech being produced by star adder. My Clan rp character piloted an H variant. Had it painted up in alpha galaxy, but in the black parts of it did a star field pattern much like the belly of the star adder logo. This bar none is one of my favorite Clan heavies and, like you, it had to do with the art. Sleek and aircraft like lot of fun to paint too.

I only ever wear black pants to battle. They can, however be made brown mid-battle.

I´m telling you, Sea Fox probably has some kind of high tech 3D printing technology developed that allows them to produce literally ANY mech they have the plans and the rights (though those are merely optional...) to! Jokes aside though, the Cauldron Born is a cool mech, i prefer the MWO/MW5 over its older looks, and i generally don´t like the "avian leg" because that is anatomically wrong, but the CB does it well enough to not look outright horrible.

"I'll leave it up to you to speculate [which one is MF's favourite]" ...If there's one with a plasma rifle, it's THAT one. Oh there isn't one... okay, ummm... I'm gonna go with the D? (I can never get behind the non-improved heavy lasers. -3 to hit is just a non-starter)

this should have 50,000 likes, not 30.

Here is a CB loadout for you: 2LRM20's and 2 LBX20's. That's all it has, but try and get close.

unfortunately the only experience ive had with a cauldron born on the table top is my Kodiak completely crippling it in one turn and then finishing it off the next before it could do anything. never got to see how it performs, kodiaks will do that

Cauldron born means something very different to my HZD brain.

Sea fox focusing on the macro play 😁.

Aff! Another good video

I've not run into this mech when playing. sounds like a nasty customer

I still have MW4 installed just to play in 3rd person. Le sigh for MWO.

Iam someone who s like this mech sounds cool i take it :3

Frog :3😊

Which of the new configurations could be favourite of a LPL loving author? Hmmm...

Something that bugs me with a lot of mech designs is their legs are on backwards. They're not digitigrade/chicken walkers, but just have their knees facing the wrong way, which doesn't seem like it's very good at letting the thing move.

Could be misdirection to the "trader" clan by the actual builders. "The markings don't matter, the serial numbers don't matter, the paper clearly says it is traded by clan sea fox. Build by it even." "But that system it's supposed to be build hasn't even a habital planet" "But there is a space port. Which also makes this technically true, as long as at least a bolt was changed. Speaking of which, do you have found any issues with so much as a bolt of this Clanmech? What am I talking of, of course you haven't." "No the only issue might be this could be from a clan we might not be allowed to trade with. Or that wants to trade with us." "But you don't have one with clan sea fox, which is why this mechs are clearly build by sea fox. I as a seller says so, you as the buyer says so, hell even the paper trail says so. So wehere is the problem?"

😂

I Prefer call it Ebon-Jaguar. And Im not even Vatborn

Not my favorite omnimech. Some good configs (A, F), but most seem to be somewhere between bad to absolute trash.

Exactly why I don't play in the ilKhan era, The world building skills of Catalyst's writers isn't worth 💩IMO.