There's something beautiful about how the Stone Rhino's base variant is bereft of clantech in all but weaponry, yet is still devastating. Shows that less really can be more in 'mech design.

I love the Stone Rhino because like Clan Smoke Jaguar, I choose violence.

The story I have is of a new player to Battletech running in a RPG campaign with her character in a Stone Rhino. The number of headshots she was getting made us check her dice to ensure they weren't loaded. Still she was running the base variant through the entire campaign, never upgrading despite everyone else doing so multiple times. Especially once they started getting reliable access to Clan and Blakist salvage. There is just something about the Stone Rhino that just works, if ignore the quirks.

This mech caught my eye from the first time I saw it around 30 years ago. Its crushing firepower and heavy armor have kept it a firm favorite of mine.

The base Stone Rhino would be greatly benefitted by an extra two double heat sinks, to allow it to fire its main weapons and move-it can't fire both large pulse lasers without overheating if it does anything else, though running and firing both large pulse lasers and gauss rifles for one turn at least won't give any penalties. The 8 has the same problem.

Because outside of that one major problem of the "poor performance" quirk, it's an affordable clan assault with solid performance. Also another reseen mech, with a configuration (5) perfect for thumbing the nose at Harmony Gold.

Honestly, I think the Stone Rhino MF is one that...I'm surprised is not an official variant. It plays to the strengths of the mech without demanding it keep up with the heavies. You could even move this thing to different spots in the back lines where the front is getting bogged down, then just secure kills on a few troublesome mechs, and reposition afterwards to ensure other fronts had the guaranteed punch to break through.

I didnt love the Stone Rhino until i painted one. Now I cant wait to get it on the tabletop.

My grandson! I'm so proud of the boy!

In the first tactical campaign for Battle Tech I ever played, I got my hands on a Stone Rhino. I equipped two ppc one in each arm and two gaus rifles in the left and right torsos. It was backed up with an Atlas AS7D and two Warhammers. I kept getting lucky and getting city maps that made it extremely easy for me to pick off everything that got sent at me. The only person who worried me because of how much they could soak was the guy in the Awesome, but that's where my Atlas was able to really earn its own. Any thing lighter than the Warhammers was picked off at long range from the Warhammers and Stone Rhino in one or two shots. Anything that was a threat to the Warhammers was focused down by everything that could hit it. This was also the same campaign where I designed my own atmospheric fighters. They had two engines, which did make them heavy, but their thrudt to weight/weapons to thrust ratios were insane. I made three different A10 models. Each one had a different main gun, but they all had mrm 6 or 8. But the Stone Rhino is one of my favorite mechs. Whenever I can I field one. EDIT For spelling.

The Stone Rhino felt like it could have been a great testbed for high tech artillery or at least giant artillery cannons, ala a 'Mech variant of the railguns of WWII. Something designed to park itself behind mountains and rain death on scout-pinged targets.

Even if it leaves something to be desired aesthetically, it does basically embody "big stompy robot" as its a beefy boy. 😆

My love of the Stone Rhino came from MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy. It really introduced me to things about Battletech I barely knew existed.... Like the Kodiak. God, I love Clan stuff.

I died at "succulent internal bits". And again at "emotional support small laser"😂 "No, not plasma weapons, though I'm glad your head went there first" -- Get OUT of my head, it's dark and scary in here! :D

The variant I run is a custom one. A UAC/5 in each arm with two tons of ammo each, as well as a Gauss Rifle (also with two tons of ammo each) and ERLL in each torso, it also mounts a C3S at the cost of Jump Jets, the intent is to run it with a second Rhino of the same variant an Omega variant with a C3M 3 HAG/20s and four UAC/5s and a Raven with a C3s as well as two Hollanders that while not equipped with a C3S, does mount Clan-Tech to save on weight for an Improved Gauss Rifle and effectively complete the direct-fire Level II.

MF version for sure is getting added to my megamek games. One of my favorite Clan assaults that not an old IS model with upgraded clan tech like highlander. Surprised the hags are not an official variant tbh.

I quite like the MF variant of the Stone Rhino, it's a good take to make something different but keeping the heart of the 'Mech Thanks for the video!

I like the Stone Rhino/Behemoth, and the MF variant is actually something I like, though I am wary about mounting the Gauss weaponry in the arms. The only real change I could argue for is stripping out the Jumpjets in it so you could upgrade the HAGS to HAG-30 models, but that's just because I suffer from both Vertigo and a fear of heights and suffer a +4 modifier to all pilot difficulty rolls as a result before anything else when Jumping.

I love the little "paper doll" showing the armor distribution. I don't know if it was in any videos before this because I usually am just listening to them while I drive to work. Which is why this comment is also a bit late. ^^' Stellar video as always. I wonder what's next?

I’ve had good fun with the standard variant of this mech. A buddy of mine and I had a head-to-head match with his Blood Asp vs. my Stone Rhino. It was a glorious fight, though I believe it ended in a draw. Good times. - Also, the new artwork for this beautiful monster is 10/10 in my opinion. It’s one of the absolute best art-redesigns to come from Catalyst.

Because the Stone Rhino's very close to the ultimate 'goalkeeper' 'mech. It's 100 tons of indomitable defiance, able to reach out and inflict grievous harm at long range and weather an obscene amount of punishment. Sit it on a forested ridgeline overlooking the battlefield and let it lay waste to whatever comes into view.

Ah yes, it's Big Red 40 Tech favorite battletech!

Love is a strong word. I love that it gives my artillery tons of practice.

I had a modded Battletech campaign where I didn't pay attention to the mission briefing and my squad encountered a Stone Rhino that I was not mentally ready for at all. Thankfully, RNGesus blessed my game by letting me land a headshot with a Clan ER PPC and that immediately relieved a lot of pressure from the fight. IIRC, I got a Long Tom from that Stone Rhino and immediately equipped it on my King Crab, just because. That Long Tom was a massive godsend for the rest of the campaign. XD

The Stone Rhino is a cool 100 ton death machine. Lore wise I find it fascinating that how it became a failed project from Amaris's mental breakdown to finally be adopted by the very same opposing Kerensky clan forces centuries later. Wish the clans could have adopted a 100 ton clan variation of the Rifleman 3 as well but I am happy with the Rifleman IIC. However I love the story of the firing line of Stone Rhinos that Clan Nova Cat formed to defeat an advancing line of mechs (forget which faction it was) but I can only imagine how scary that would be.

Visually, it's one of my favorite mechs. I've loved it ever since I saw it on the cover of the 3055 book.

I once cored a fresh highlander with the stone rhino 6. It really is a terrifyingly cheesey ambusher.

Even though i rarely pilot assault mechs in MWO, this is one of my favorites. I was shocked when i was in a match right after their release when one of them poptarted over the top of a hill and shot the mech next to me with a couple of HAG30s. You dont expect a mech that big to jump!!

Buddy of mine was facing down a stone rhino and tried to beat it jn a knife fight by moving behind it....he was shocked when it jumped for a DFA

Tes explained the ER small Laser in the head perfectly: Birds aren't allowed to shit on clan assault mechs, it's dishonorable.

The armor spread diagram is really nice. Also when this thing moves the "Furret walk" meme from Pokémon plays I swear

This is one of my favorite clan mechs and have fielded it many times against massive armies out numbering me and most the times winning

Stone Rhino 7 is basically a Marrauder II IIC (that is, Marauder 2, IIC version). Wonderfully over the top, but it pays off.

Stone Rhino is quickly becoming my fav on MWO

Stone Rhino 5, the Clan's version of the Malice. The 8 probably works as the anvil for the Hell's Horses Mongol Tactics, so maneuverability is not as important as accuracy with weapons. Your version is nice, and it does ask the question, why hasn't there been a HAG version for the Stone Rhino.

Stone Rhino: An Amaris Vanity project turned into a Smoke Jaguar Vanity project. Both less effective than just building another Atlas. Also the Marians made a battle armor that looks like a Stone Rhino Mini-me. Thanks for the video.

This thing is badass no matter how you slice it.

The Stone Rhino 5 is what happens when a Rifleman and Charger are very special friends, and have a very fat baby. Little known fact is that the 6 has the best PA system ever deployed by the Clans, as it is THE disco ball and disco isn't silent. Agreed, not as much fun as the "hero" heavies- this guy is the oversized sidekick, the brute of the star, a regular Fezzik.

Saw this posted in a battletech group. Nice video.

The Stone Rhino is a beast in most forms. I think it's one of the more underrated 100 tonners in the Clan inventory, and works well in assault roles.

We love it because the Smoke Jaguars have the right idea and we love the giant stompy mechs. Who doesn't love swatting coward mechs at all ranges!

I DID immediately assume you were going to put Plasma Rifles in there But the HAG is a great call

Used one of these guys during a game set during the Battle of Huntress; it positively demolished anything in its wake, sitting back and sniping the advancing lance of heavy/assault mechs. I like to think that after watching the last enemy, a Battlemaster, collapse after the Stone Rhino blew its legs off, the Rhino pilot let out an animalistic roar of dominance...before being carpet bombed, along with the Huntress Manufacturing facility behind it.

One of my first forays into digital kitbashing was to slap a pair of Stone Rhino arms onto a Timberwolf. I had also swapped out the torso missile launchers for some more (shorter) barreled weapons, CPLT-K2 style. While on my main record sheet for this frankenmech, I count those as Light PPCs, I do have a different record sheet where those are meant to be Plasma Cannons, which I'm sure Froggy would approve of. Surprisingly, it looks pretty cohesive visually, but I couldn't help but assign it the Hard to Pilot and Unbalanced Quirks for having so much laser barrel at the ends of its arms.

thanks forg a nice video to watch before i have to go to work mate thank you

Great video as always friend!!! LOVE the Stone Rhino since it's release! 3055 TRO cover art is still a favorite of mine!

I like how in MW5 with Mods like YAML you can have a serious rapid firing Gauss Rifles(basically Gauss with the fire rate close to AC5s)on the Stone Rhino

THERE IT IS

This beast is a picture of excess, and I am here for it. The Stone Rhino, despite its abysmal speed, is one of the deadliest mechs in the BT universe.

I brought the original ral patha version of this mech :-) it looked awesome but kept falling apart so i turned it into battle damage scenery thats still around today almost 3 decades later lol :-) a deadly mech and one of the only clan mechs ive enjoyed playing :-) yep its OP but its fun watching enemy mechs melt within just a couple of shots :-) great vid of a beautiful death machine :-)

I admit, I assumed the frog variant would have 4 plasma rifles. Not ashamed.

I've gone on record as saying how little I enjoy piloting assault mechs before, so when I say the Stone Rhino fully gets my approval, it's something special. Having sat in the cockpit of one since MechWarrior 4, I can attest to its effectiveness. It's slow and tall like so many other assault mechs, but it puts its firepower where it needs to, and can snipe as hard as a fully-kitted Marauder-2. It's ammo-dependent, but that's fine since it's designed to support and direct 4 other mechs. In my opinion, the Stone Rhino is effectively as close to a perfect union of Inner Sphere pragmatism and Clan tech superiority as you're likely to find from its era, at least on paper. In the lore, it's held back by the Clan's backwards economy (effectively a massive Guild based technocratic industry) greatly limiting its production to the point where the design was deemed too valuable by virtue of its rarity to deploy into combat. (Sarna covered this in their ongoing 'Bad Mechs' articles series. Definitely a case where the lore and the design's performance don't see eye-to-eye.) Good mech. Heavy mech. Shoutout to my old flame, the apocryphal and very non-canon fan version from MW4 MekTek that spinal-mounts a Naval-Grade Railgun on top of the thing. (that is, a space-navy sized armament, which is roughly an order of magnitude more powerful than its terrestrial mechs/vehicles in firepower.)

To me the Stone Rhino will always be an oversized Marauder, however I do not say that disparagingly.

Whenever I see one of these lumbering mistakes I wait to see that giant shiny cockpit window I am really surprised anyone plays it but I guess people just like the front seat view of a cockpit kill

That was fun, I tried to come up with a King Crab IIC based off the 010 design that went with them into exoduses. I basically came up with something very similar to your MF version.

When I first saw the art for the Stone Rhino, I thought it was the Marauder 2.

The jump jets were there for close range combat. 100 tons of death from above!

The Stone Rhino is one of the best looking Clan 'Mechs and the redesign with the huge dorsal cannons kicks ass. The variants are a mixbag for sure, the MPL one is terrifying, its a mobile Jean Michelle Jarre concert! As always, superb video and great stuff!

Gotta respect the variants laid out by the official Canon/stories/games. But, I love in real time version games like mechwarrior playing around in the mech bays with my own takes. That stone rhino with some tweaks could be sooooo juicy and fun to play with. My idea would be to drop the small laser entirely and add it's weight to armor. Drop 2 mpl and down grade 2 mpl to ml. With your spare 6t give another 1t to armor and 5t to dhs. Bringing your dhs up to 23 and your alpha strike heat to 46. Using the slightly more range of the MLS to hit weaker units like fliers and weak armor before the mpls can and then still be able to hammer down on opponents with the 10 remaining mpls for 70 damage per shot. Can also throw in the 2 MLS and still be heat neutral

Because it is a glorious monument to the vanity of man

Those sneaky Wolf’s Dragoons fielded one in the Battle of Misery in 3028

The Stone Rhino 5 makes me sad, it's like a Clan Malice before the Malice existed the Stone Rhino 2 makes me quite sad too, with its terrible heat curve

The Stone Rhino is a decent mech. Its lore is whats most interesting. I remember in the Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries Fan Paks that a lot of mechs got uploaded and the "Behemoth" and "Behemoth II" were brought in with a brand new "Railgun", not to be confused with Gauss Rifles. Superheavy mechs are still very limited and seeing that the Matar superheavy mech finally got rules was certainly interesting.

The Blazing Death that Plods :)

Amaris found a core containing the Macross series and discovered the Mac II Monster.

Nobody told me there was a Disco Rhino out there. Somewhere out there is a Smoke Jaguar who put way more emphasis on the former than the latter.

Ahh there’s my baby behemoth was my go to for the Ttrpg though there were some liberties taken in that regard sported gauss in left and right arms and the center torso packed ER pulse large lasers, didn’t go fast but it was good for fire support. Had a rotary ac in the nose , practical no but the whole thing was a what if Frankenstein design.

Just aesthetically speaking, I typically have a thing for mechs with helicopter- / jet-like cockpits, so I think Stone Rhino looks pretty snazzy!

My wife and I split a bunch of blind boxes a month or so ago. We fought a trial of possession for the Stone Rhino. I won the 'mech... but also a night on the couch. Worth it. :p

Ah yes, stone rhino! I really love this mech, but ... first time I used it (standard variant) got hit from the side on the first turn, location roll was 2, so crit on gauss rifle, which explodes, I loose half of my weapons, damage from the explosion throws the pilot unconscious ... I like it when stuff like this happens, even to me, so no biggie, I still love the mech

THE Beast arrives! Hell on two legs! Thank you, Frog!

I have to say, I understand why it was skipped, but the Stone Rhino 5 is a favorite of mine soley because of it's source. That's the loadout for the Keonig Monster, which is where I think the original miniature was derived from.

In our group there is an inside joke. We where playing some scenario games, and I was squaring off with a Stone Rhino with a Thud and a Valkyrie. I was dancing around it, keeping from getting a good shot on either mech, and then I thought I was clever and got my thud in its back arc. And then it jumped. I was shocked. “It has jump jets!” Was my response to seeing that 100 ton monster now jump behind my thunderbolt. And thus, our group got a new inside joke.

Why do we love it? The small pulse laser, obviously. I remember when I first got the ral partha mini many moons ago, that thing felt like a brick in my hand. If your opponent is winning you can definitely use it to give them a TBI and call it a victory.

I really do like the standard Stone Rhino, as well as the Stone Rhino MF. I also have a custom version myself; not really a surprise there. The Stone Rhino ISM is virtually similar to the standard one, but I dropped the Large Pulse Lasers for a pair of Improved Heavy Large Lasers and a Targeting Computer; everything else is like the Stone Rhino.

I currently have 2 CGL Stone Rhinos 1 painted in Smoke Jaguar colors and 1 in Ghost Bears colors 😊

I do indeed love the stone rhino

I contend that the Matar produced two descendants designs, the Stone Rhino, and the Bull Shark found in HBS' Battletech computer game. Overall, a great example of how bad designs can have good ideas for those clever enough to look for them.

Godamn, my head did head for plasma first XD

-Tex screaming in angerish

the stone rhino 5 is a MAC from Robotech, at least in theory.

This Mechs' design is just brutal. Nearly as brutal as it's cost in BV. Still, an enemy can't deny the battlefield presence of the Stone Rhino!

watching this vid I have learned that I painted part of my Stone Rhino mini wrong I should redo the cockpit wooops

why do we love the stone rhino? because slow is smooth, smooth is fast. what i tell my students anyway.

18:45 oh you lost your Big Plasma sponsorship 😀😄😁.

While I'm a fan of the Stone Rhino I feel that taking them and similar mechs too often is kind of like being fun police to your opponent

It has a very close profile to the MAC II Monster

I feel this thing's predecessor was built because Amaris didn't quite understand what "the SLDF juggernaut" was referring to.

...because even Highlanders can have nightmares.

The Stone Rhino is a beast of a Mech. It very tough, reasonably mobile for it´s class and packs the best weapons in the game. It only lacks a crit-seeking weapon. From a gaming perspective this Mech requires very little skill to play: Move into position, select the biggest target, tape down the triggers, wait until the dust settles...

Find it odd that the Behemoth from Wolf's Dragoons, Alpha Regiment, The Gurkhas, goes unmentioned... The conspiracy continues ;)

Nothing like a mech that can stomp a small town with one foot:) WHAPPOW!!

The Stone Rhino is basically the Clans' way of telling Amaris how much he sucks by making one of the greatest technological failures of his regime actually work.

So far, the original and II seem the best to me on paper with Gauss and large ER Lasers. Not a fan of the VIII removing jump as these are direct fire platforms that suffer if they can't get a direct bead on a target.

Gotta love a stone rhino and all its firepower once it can get into optimal combat 😂😅 if you haven’t done one yet will you eventually do one of Grandpa Mackie😂?

Really love the base version but kind of unbelievable how bad that most of the variants are. Would definitely roll in with the MF version!

It was a Froggian slip, calling it the Stone Rifle @7:58. It's ok. I can't imagine how many times a person has to go over a script. If anyone played Ghost Bear's Legacy, these mechs were terrible. Your best bet was to only put heat sinks in the arms, since they might last through the first engagement but not beyond due to the hitbox. Something along the lines of the 6, an energy weapons platform.

Feeding the algorithm

Meh, I prefer most of the second-line Clan mechs but I still wouldn't say no.

The Stone Rhino gets really confusing once you look at the Nightstar. Surely that would have been a more worthy mech to bring to Clan spec.