BATTLETECH: The Urbanmech 

Try not to think about it as the slowest, least mobile Battlemech. But as the fastest, most mobile turret!

Remember, it's called a trashcan not a trashcant. Kermit voice for the win.

Hearing the Kermit voice, I was sorta expecting a tangent about diving into the belly of a dragon to save your father with nothing but an Urbie to aid you.

They might not seem like much, but in my experience Urbies tend to fight like they're the third monkey on the ramp to Noah's Ark.

Fun fact; the Battletech PC game has an achievement for killing another mech with an Urbie DFA: Humpty Stumpty.

Can you imagine showing up in the afterlife courtesy of an Urbie? "So what happened to you?" "I don't wanna talk about it."

Many BattleTech players don't understand the origin of the Urbanmech and what it was built for. The Urbanmech came with the CityTech Expansion, where the battles were in cities with brutal skidding rules and damage when you ran into buildings. Moving fast usually meant you broke your mech. Also, C-Bills were introduced as a method for pricing mechs. Most of us would pair up mech lances by weight, but C-Bills introduced the concept of balancing lances by cost. As stated, the Urbanmech was both very cheap and moved slow, which in some games made it really good if it was used in its intended environment and you played by C-Bills.

The UrbanMechs main advantage is its stealth capabilities, and by stealth capabilities I mean "The enemy has so many other viable targets on the battlefield they're just going to ignore the UrbanMech(s)". That is... until one sneaks up (albeit very slowly) behind them with it's AC20....

My brother&I used to play Battletech together, sometimes for entire weekends at a stretch. I fell in love with the clans, while he read the novels&just chuckled at me&my omnimech combinations. I once changed a Dire Wolf to my fave weapons&boasted to him that I would savage anything he deployed against my mighty configuration. He simply said "anything? Really!" I could only scoff&nod with way too much confidence. He simply noted what my configuration cost&asked if we could fight in the city. I had an active probe, so I foolishly agreed. So I marched my 100 ton Omni mech up to his city. Detected 6 mechs. So in I went, pulse lasers just a humming for some flimsy inner sphere mechs to light up. Because of the way city fighting works. I could only see 1 of the mechs at a time. So I laughed when I realized my 1st target was an Urbie. I shredded the thing with 2 large pulse lasers targeting its right arm. Easily overflowing the arm location&sinking a critical into the adjacent torso. Knocking out the squats main weapon. I laughed again. We ended the turn. My brother asked me if I wanted the good news or the worse news 1st? I said good news. Which was that I could now detect most of his garrison force. Which was 10 more Urbies in range of my active probe. The worse news was that I couldn't detect the other 9. He figured out that my 1 Omni could pay for 22 Urban mechs. Which is what I was facing. I got savaged. The pinnacle of clan tech. The best I could imagine using said tech. None of it mattered against waves of the little bastards, since I could at most, only target&maybe kill one or two every turn. Their speed didn't matter. They were already where they needed to be, just powered down&waiting. Their individual weapons&armor didn't matter. The entire point of an urbanmech is that it's a mobile weapon platform, that every city on every planet can afford, and realistically would. Just to accumulate them. Rethinking them as the most ridiculous infantry force over a long enough timeline. My brother just looked at the Urbie&saw where Elementals came from. I saw, like most, the wrong thing.

Most people - "the fuck your doing, are you stupid, why do you field Urbies? “ Me - "huehuehue, AC 20's go brrrr" (laughing maniacally while fielding 16 Urbies against a single Mad Cat).

Nice

Kermit the Frog does BattleTech is not the humor I wanted, but the humor I needed

When you get ambushed by an urbi and a phoenix hawk, no matter which target you pick you're going to have a bad time. It's not a good mech, but it is perfectly willing to ruin your day for a fraction of the cost.

The Urbie isn't actually a battlemech, it's a very ambitious turret living its dreams

Never thought about Kermit as a mech guy. In hind sight, it kinda makes sense.

FYI, there was a semi-official LAM UrbanMech a few years ago, as part of an April Fools, if any of y'all are feeling extra heretical today.

The Urbanmech is one of the best rear-echelon guard dogs you can buy. Nothing says "hello fellow light Mech pilot, your day is going to suck" like suddenly having four Urbies show up babying the HQ vehicles you thought you could handle unimpeded. Remember, a lance of Urbies is really just an Annihilator that can crossfire you from four different angles.

The Urbanmech best strength is the pure flex factor. One of my favourite HBS Battletech moments is when my Urbanmech in the beginning of the battle got a really lucky shot and shot the head off a shadow hawk. Even if the pilot had survived the embarrassment is too much

The Urbie is just fun. In a one-off game, a lance of Urbanmechs against two mediums in an urban setting can be really enjoyable for both players. If used as slightly mobile ambush turrets, the Urbanmech is very effective. In literally any other role, it's going to come up short.

The Urbanmech is what an upgraded R2D2 astromech aspired to be.

This mech is extremely effective in its intended role of being a joke.

Wow...did not know Kermit liked Battletech. Mind blowing.

I was thinking the best way to implement urban mechs in an urban environment is to dig pits in cities and put them on hydraulic floors store them underground. when an enemy mech pops up deploy the urbanmech's huge AC and shoot them in the back or hide them in buildings. they are REALLY dangerous in large packs hiding in cities.

I think my favorite model of the good old Urbie is actually the URM-90 SuburbanMech. I like the ammo independence and long range firepower provided by its PPC, which help to offset its low mobility if you have to use it outside of ideal terrain. On the other hand, unlike most UrbanMechs, you have to watch your heat in it, especially if alpha striking. Regarding the original design, what I find strange is that TRO:3025 makes mention of a machine gun that the URM-60 didn't have. I wonder if, instead of the superfluous eleventh heat sink (you will never, ever generate enough heat in a URM-60 to overheat), it was supposed to have a machine gun with half a ton of ammunition for it?

I gave one of these a gauss rifle, giving it serious long-range punch. It still hurts a lot up close, too. A lance of these, fighting other light mechs or vehicles, are brutal. With the Gauss I can cockpit-snipe bigger mechs as well as pulverize Locusts and Javelins. I call it UM-R357. Magnum.

I find it amazing and hilarious that he did a Kermit impression the ENTIRE video lmao

i often just destroy the right arm to remove the cannon, and leave it nearly harmless, and leave it to the mercy of my lancemates, however, i must note that to a light mech such as a locust, a pair of urban mechs makes for a considerable threat in the close quarters confines of a city. their strength lies in numbers, especially in city environments, and given how cheap they are its really easy to take advantage of this strength.

Honestly with unlimited torso twist, a lance of urbanmechs in a city is a dangerous thing. Though if your shopping for autocannons any urbanmech out in the open is an easy way to acquire one.

I recall in Mech Commander 2, I used to turn Urbies into essentially discount Hollanders by mounting a Light Gauss Rifle to them, and they were light enough that I could bring a bunch of them and just make the enemy's life a bit of a hell. They were little better than sniper turrets, but for defense missions they were quite useful. The bestest angy trashcans.

There must be a fanfic somewhere where an urbanmech jumpjets into the middle of a fray with the pilot screaming leroy jenkins and then Last Starfighter-style does the death blossom maneuver while rotating 360's

Remember, it's a trash can, not a trash can't. My favorite change to this 'mech is to replace the AC with a PPC, change the small laser to a medium, and add more armor.

I love running the Capellan variant of this thing. Someone coming around a corner just to discover they're missing a few components due to encountering a light mech with an AC20? Priceless. Disregard that one game where I was outgunned and almost lost to a tank...

I feel out of all the mechs from battletech ir mechwarrior the urbanmech would be somewhat the easiest mech we can make today possibly minus the jump jets

I like the urbanmech, but not for gameplay. I think it's existance is great as worldbuilding. Much like nations still using the FT-17 as WWII rolled around, plenty of planetary militias have these because it's all they can afford. It's (a bit) better than nothing.

Don't forget that the Urbanmech can rotate its torso 360degrees. Its not much, but it does add to its urban fighting capabilities.

A guy I know on one of the Battletech community groups, posted that he just bought 10 Urbanmech lance packs (so 40 Urbanmechs in total) and is planning to field an Urbanmech army, simply because they're so cheap and he can. I keep hoping he posts footage of it, the turn order alone would be a sight to see.

I like the Urbanmech. It performs in its intended role well enough, and even if you're not too fond of it, you don't have to pay much for it. Astute pilots can use the mech's Extended Torso Twist to keep faster opponents (i.e., all opponents) in their sights. Further, if more intimidating ally mechs are nearby, enemies are likely to dismiss Urbanmechs and focus on the greater threat. This tends to be a sound tactic...but every so often, these enemies wind up with the Urbies' oversized guns trained on their rear arcs. You can't ask Urbanmechs to win a battle by themselves, but maybe...if you're fighting in dense terrain or a city...you can use them to surprise the hell out of someone who isn't paying attention. And that's a lot of fun.

Everybody gangsta, until their Atlas gets cored by a walking trashcan.

This video is perfect in 1.25x for that perfect Kermit experience really damn good! Good job bear good to hear that you are well :) Best mech ever xD

Good to see you back bear hope you’re recovery wasn’t to hard

I used an Urbanmech to DFA an Atlas once. Freaking hilarious.

The Urbie is an amazing mech when you realize it's a hyper specialized designed. It is intended to defend cities, not towns, not jungles, cities. It's slow because it's intended to hold the line, not outflank anything, in areas with extreme cover. Peak behind a building, fire, lean back to having an entire skyscraper between you and return fire. It's jump jets are for jumping over buildings, again to safety of total cover. Someone made a joke comment about hiding inside a building, Kool Aid Manning through the wall, and shooting an assault mech in the back of the knee then jumping over another building to safety. That sounds funny, but seriously, that is exactly how an UrbanMech is intended to be used. And they are cheap as a factor of their design. Urbies are pack animals. Yeah, the FireStarter can jump in to flank it. Can the FireStarter survive the coming onslaught of point blank AC10 fire from the seven other Urbies?

I'm very new to Battletech. Really enjoying these videos. There's a bewildering variety and you turn them from mere names into personalities. I love the range of quality between mechs. Adds to verisimilitude because it mirrors the real world so well. It's like watching tank development in the World Wars, every country just throwing @*$(# at the wall to see what stuck. Some hit the jackpot, with others it was more like hitting the chamberpot. It's also typical of military hardware being ordered by politicians and bean counters rather than engineers or pilots. The people who know what's needed and/or possible often aren't the ones making the decisions.

That Kermit voice is excellent, I am sure vast quantities of helium were consumed in the making of this video!

Urbies, in my eyes, are swarmers. They're cheap, disposable, and decently armed. This means I can field shitloads of them at once and overwhelm anything my enemy can throw at me. When garbage day comes, kiss your loved ones farewell, because you're off to the great landfill in the sky... eventually.

Aren't you going to go into the hero archetype that the Urbanmech aspires to be and starts with cleaning his roo- oh wait you're Kermit

Urbanmech alone may not seem much, but full lance of them is hella firepower on the budget. I just checked on MegaMek game that to match the BV values of Urbanmech and Panther, Urbanmech gets to have veteran MechWarrior (3 gunnery skill, 4 piloting skill) while Panther has green MechWarrior (5 gunnery skill, 6 piloting skill). 1 more thing going for Urbanmech is its weapons have field of fire in all directions as its arms can flip to rear arc.

All I could think while listening to this was “I bet Kermit stuffed gonzo into one of these and pushed him into Solarus after he caught a whiff of gonzo’s bacon smelling sniffer.”

I just played some MW5 and I want to say, rounding the corner of an urban street in a light mech and finding the barrel of an urbie's AC10 can signal a bad day for a locust or especially a flea. And the 360 degree rotation means that however you try to flank it you will find that barrel staring you down. I mean, sure, its not a good mech, but its a scavenger. Its job is to take out the beat up remnants of the attacking force that made it to what they thought was an undefended civilian population. Definitely needs another weapon though. Replacing the extra heatsink with a medium lazer would make it significantly better. Edit: the Urbies best feature is that its where it needs to be to defend the town because you took all the better mechs to go fight elsewhere.

how did covid turn you into EVERY sesame street character

The ability to speak like Kermit for a video is raw talent! Yes, Urban mechs make for great jokes, or ablative armor for more important units (ablative armor that can sometimes pull off a DFA on an unsuspecting pirate medium mech....).

I know nobody generates forces of the old house based random tables anymore but when we played 3025 with random Mechs, was one of my favorite lights to get in many scenarios It actually has weapons and armor unlike, the locust, stinger, wasp,spider, etc I'd prefer a panther but still it was a decent roll on most tables

I can't even begin to imagine how much this must've killed your throat to make, but damn if the Kermit impression isn't spot on.

Now just remember they made a fast one with a UAC 5. Nothing is more terrifying than an urbie that can move fast and hit just as hard.

Loved this video, your voice-over was epic and I'm glad you're showing the battletech universe a lot of love. Thanks for the work you do buddy!

Never made sense to have SL and not MGs to deal with infantry

When playing MW5 the Urbie can be a real pain in the ass when fighting against it, especially in the early stages of ones' career or campaign. The burstfire AC/10 that they carry can wreak havoc on light and lighter medium Mechs.. And when adding the "Yet Another Mechlab" mod there's even a variant with twin AC/2-BF's wich should not be underestimated. Sofar i haven't kept any Urbie's i've salvaged, they're just too slow for my fighting style, but as i'm typing this comment i'm thinking to change that somewhat and experiment a bit since with the aformentioned mod you can also swap out the engines. Something to think about. In the Battletech VG however there's sadly no such thing as far as i no and thus no real reason for me to keep the Urbie around so they just keep on ending getting sold or scrapped.

You mock the Urbie, but we ran some events with it at our local games store and the thing shreds most things it encounters when in groups, and is quite useful in combined arms groups. they are 'just' durable enough to be able to survive long enough that they tend to not be ignorable. This is ultimately their best trait, they do to much damage to ignore but are not easy enough to swat away without drawing fire that would be better used elsewhere. Case in point, the SRM Carrier is both a more dangerous, faster, and more expensive target that is immediately prioritized for destruction...but if you pair it with some UM-60Ls that make it their express business to get in your rear arc...well now you have a Morton's fork of SRMs or AC20. It works surprisingly well in urban close quarters combat, especially if you use its quirks of extended torso twist and low profile.

Well its dirt cheap and good for garrison or paying others with. Also a good use is to keep hot blooded rookies on a short leash, from rushing off and dying. Good for training folk teach them patience in positioning. Outside of that see them a lot used them would take almost any other mech....heck even a tank, but often you can find space for this mech. Also nice Kermit voice pretty good.

never heard "angry waste bin" before lol

THAT KERMIT VOICE !!! You, Sir, made my day 🤣🤣🤣 Thank youuu~~

Darn, covid really did a number on your voice! 😂

Damn, listening to Kermit the frog at 2x speed is an experience lol. Can't say I agree on the take though. Fun video nonetheless!

When starting with an Urbie in Battletech(HBS) I find myself changing the AC down to an AC5, adding ML’s and armor. This is similar to the PPC “Suburban” variant where it at least has a sniper option in case the terrain demands it. So this way wether the PPC or the AC5, it can pick off turrets or retaliate against other typical longer ranged light forces like Condors, Vedettes, Locust LRM variant. I once did a babysitting mission with 2 newbie pilots in urbies and I was able to park them on a hill while my skilled pilot flanked forcing the enemy to make hard choices. The urbie positions were not just higher ground, they had forest cover and they did alright in this role. The last round of ammo was the last one needed.

Everyone: "you have to be the be worst mech I've ever heard of" Urbanmech: "But you have heard of me!"

"The Ministry of Silly Mechs (MoSM) strongly endorsed the deployment of the Urbanmech" Minister Hurbie, ca. 3052

"One of the worst mechs in the history of BT" How dare you, Kermit?! Heresy, I tell ya!

I dont understand how no Great House thought to take the UM-R60L, take the AC/20 and single heat sink out of it, and slap a gauss rifle on it, then it gets solid damage at amazing range.

Urban Mech has a role and it excels at it's role. It handily mulches vehicles and light mechs from ambush. Can also serve as a reliable support for slow moving vehicles an example being a solid nope for light runner mechs to try and stomp on your Schrek PPC carrier

I strapped a Gauss rifle to the UM-60L, gonna be honest, I'm terrified of it now.

This video kinda needs a kazoo soundtrack.

More voices in the choir, I love it! I must say that while I disagree about the Urbie, I'm loving all of the videos that are coming out.

YES MY ENGINE COMPLAINT HAS BEEN ADRESSED, WHY JUST ONE MORE TON, JUST ONE MORE IS ALL IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN TO INCREASE THE SPEED. THATS IT

Nothing more clearly shows how battletech is both a game and a fully realized universe. From a military budget and specialization perspective the urban mech makes perfect sense. Home guard units, militias...etc. In a game sense...your probably only ever gonna use it for the memes.

"They filled me full of trash, So I filled them full of lead."

Gonna sound really weird but in this video the narrator's cadence makes him sound like kermit the frog.

Whenever my squad plays MW5 together we always treat these with as much caution as hazardous waste bins, at least until we remove the cannon

The glorious UrbanMech , my regular go to mech especially the ArrowIV version , the plasma is nice too

Hope you get well soon, love these videos.

Last night I field tested a HBS Batteltech BEX lance that included a very cheap-to-drop Urbi refitted with nothing but LRMs and twelve turns of ammo. The enemy never saw it, but felt it every turn for those twelve turns. Even out of ammo, it provided me a throw-away mech on initiative, forcing at least one enemy to commit to movement before my actual scout then pinged them for the two heavies of the lance. Mobile enough to stay out of sight, an LRM turret that is adds punch with minimal drop cost.

You do know the Urbie is the larvae form of the Anhilliator.😂😂😂

I can't keep a straight face throughout this XD Very nicely done!

The kermit voice had me giggling the entire video... xD

The Urbanmech An Autoturret on legs, with a meat-assisted targeting system.

UM-AIV also just bombed a bunch of the Kell Hounds and Wolves out of existence.

New to the channel, but glad to hear you are feeling better!

Everyone laughs at the clown, until the clown starts blasting! The Urbanmech can be part of the "Lethal Joke Character" trope, if used wisely.

I like the whole concept of the Ubranmech. Yes, it is slow. Yes, it looks like a mobile trashcan. Yet it is small and small enough to fit between city streets. To which it will take out the biggest mechs by kicking their knees out from under them. Can't shoot when you are face down on the ground. I personally view the Urberie as a Mech used for more civil service protection. A Mech used to put put fires, riot control, or light defense line force. I mean would you as a rioter throw a rock at a Mech with a cannon that could make you disappear? And said cannon is just a water cannon. Perfect for urban use. Even if some can do it better....but Urbie is cheap.

The little Kermit sipping tea in the corner had me dead

As I try to find sleep in my sweltering apartment, (the AC died after office hours), I thought I wasn't going to like this video. As the walking trashcan can be devastating in the MW5 video game. Because of it's never ending ammo bin and it's unseemingly long range for the weapons it carries. But I'm glad you went the route that you did, and your impression of Kermit was pretty good.

I didn't know I needed Kermit and Shaggy mixed together in one voice in my life but I do now

A movie of the same era had a little trash bot that looks a lot like the urbie, but with a distinct (rather cute) face (and a tongue). The movie is called Ice Pirates. If you like campy sci-fi, it's worth a watch. On useability -- In HBS's Battletech, Urby R60 is on the list for randomized mechs when you opt-in or start a new Career. I got one as a starter, so I dropped the AC to an AC5, plus some armor and a couple of lasers. Jumps and fires every turn. It's like a little Vindicator. Seriously, it was one of my top mechs for quite a while. I was running with the more parts difficulty (only 5, but still) and it took a lucky Grasshopper drop to really make me consider shelving the little urby.

Perfect voice thematically for an Urbanmech video.

Oscar the Grouch might get mad but I say we change his trashcan's name to the "Kurmimech" from here on.

I just imagine some rich guy spending too many C-bills on over tuning the Urban mech like they do with "sleeper cars". Because I think mech rally racing should be a thing.

The Urbanmech is the Hi-Point of mechs. The idea was to equip forces that normally wouldn't have any mech support with at least something.

Everybody laughing until that AC/10 lands a hit and suddenly you remember that, no matter the platform, it's still a bloody AC/10. Even better if you fail to recognize it's the Urbie variant with the AC/20. The Suburbie is really funny, though. When you except a brrt and what you get is a pop-and-sizzle and you realize this is an e-trashcan you're fighting. I keep a collection of these babies in every one of my HBS Battletech games. Like, I never sell ANY of the three variants. My meta is that my mercs occasionally have little games with the urbies :D

for some reason, the narration on this video reminds me of kermit the frog. which is weird because this is oscar thr grouch's mech

The only way for the Urban mech to be a threat is for them to move in large packs in cities...at a ratio of at least 3 urban mechs for every 1 enemy mech deployed. Then you throw in infantry with rocket launchers as well as technical machine gun truck watching their flanks.

The Urban mech. Best piloted when used less like a slow as fuck mech but more as a highly mobile turret.