II. Armament

One will notice that this Mech is carrying enough power to tear up most any assault mech before they can even think about getting a second alpha strike off. Two of these bad boys coming at you mean you have just earned yourself a fresh mech or a break before the next drop.



That is the bad news. Here is the good news.
   

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  III. Big Stick

Do you notice that a good portion of the hard hitting weaponry is found on the Left Arm of the Thanatos? Let's call that the Big Stick. Remember this because we will discuss this later. Let's discuss the armor load-out on this mech. Below is the common load out for the Thanatos. First thing you may notice is that the legs have reduced armor as do the head and the rear torso. The reason for this is that the head is to damn hard to hit to worry about protection it, and the back hopefully is not towards the enemy. Now the legs, well that is the fee birth surats using the "Honor Shield" that has been developed in past editions of Mechwarrior. No one wants to be called a legger and everyone knows it. So, for the most part, legs are considered as off limits for the most part. So, what should we be shooting at? Allow me to offer some ideas.


   
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  IV. Vulnerable Areas

The left torso of the Thanatos (highlighted above in red) is the Achilles torso.  The arm protecting it from the side is smaller than the missile arm on the right, making it easier to hit from the side. It also helps that this smaller arm is the Big Stick I mentioned. If your shot misses, chances are you will miss either into the center torso, or even better, into the Big Stick. When you rip the left arm off of a thanatos, you are left with a big lumbering Chimera, weapons wise. This left torso should be your target when faced with this workhorse of the Inner Sphere. Two or three alpha strikes into the left torso (remember as you face the mech it is your RIGHT his LEFT) and this mech becomes a campfire. If you drop with a team of four, this means that if only two or three of you fire at the same time into the same spot, you have just eliminated one target.


   

When it comes to the legs, it is going to be up to the individual pilot and how you feel about hitting legs. Here is how I look at it; If someone comes up to me in a fight wearing a dress, because it is common knowledge that I will not hit a girl, then my honor does not dictate that I stand there and take an ass whooping. Will make the choice to smack that drag queen square in the melon. Same thing applies here. If a pilot is stripping off four tons of leg armor so he can carry more weapons than he should, I do not see honor binding me into not taking advantage of a tactically favorable situation, hence my call sign Evil Cloak.

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  V. Closing

Finally, we have the issue of the jumping Thanatos. The rules for hitting a jumping mech are the same as hitting anything else that is in the air. I know that may not be much help, but hitting flying targets is a while different subject that I do not wish to get into just yet. A little tip, jumping mechs tend to take a lot of leg damage, Hint Hint.


   

Anyways, when facing these monsters on the field, remember to stick close to your star mates, call your targets, and then strike at the same time in that left torso. With a little practice, you will find that these beasts do blow up easier than you might have thought in the past.

Now get out there and blow some SH*T up!

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