The MechWarrior PC gaming universe features all sorts of deadly and exciting war robots, or BattleMechs. One of the most famous designs of them all is the Marauder. Although the this is not the biggest or toughest Mech, it is emblematic of the franchise. Within MechWarrior lore, everyone wants to pilot a Marauder.
The Marauder won over legions of gamers, and even many years after it introduction, this is an instantly recognizable and respected Mech that can turn the tide of any battle. What is its role in the MechWarrior lore, and when can PC gamers use the Marauder for themselves?
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The Marauder: When General Motors Gets Fancy
For many years, engineers across the vast Inner Sphere worked hard to design newer and better BattleMechs in an eternal arms race. Even during the era of relative peace during the Star League’s reign, everyone was eager to see what the universe’s top weapons designers would come up with next. The first-ever Mech, the ancient Mackie, set the stage for what was to come, and designs such as the Rifleman and Archer did their best to fulfill specific battlefield roles, such as fire support or providing anti-air fire. By the early 2600s, the wealthy General Motors company decided it was time to hold nothing back, and design the best Mech it possibly could.
Many weapons developers of the time restrained themselves when designing Mechs to reduce production costs and make the spare parts for these Mechs cheaper. However, General Motors designed the Marauder from the ground up as the Ferrari of Mechs — and it worked. No expense was spared, and right away, the SLDF and other military hardware buyers realized that the 75-ton Marauder was in an elite class of its own.
Even the Marauder’s mundane parts (such as its armor and communications systems) were top of the line, and the Mech had flexible arms that allowed it to fire in any direction and at any target. It also helped that this was a heavy Mech, meaning it was tough and imposing but also mobile enough to keep up with most of its smaller allies in battle. It didn’t take long for the Marauder to become an SLDF staple, and it saw plenty of action during the destructive Succession Wars in later decades.
Since the Marauder has a PPC in each arm (common weapons in the games and lore alike), This 75-ton Mech works best at medium to long range. Those PPCs run hot, so the Marauder can also use its autocannon 5 to keep shooting while cooling down. If the enemy gets close, the Marauder can shoot with two medium lasers, with one partnered with each PPC in its arms. All this, combined with adequate heat sinks and armor, made it a wonderfully balanced machine. It also had fancy comms equipment that allowed it to serve as a command vehicle and coordinate many of it allies during a battle.
Naturally, this popular and balanced Mech had plenty of variants with different weapons loadouts, and it inspired new Mechs along the way. The huge Marauder II, designed in the early 3000s, is a 100-ton assault Mech armed with two ER PPCs for long-range shooting, an LB-10X autocannon to hit the enemy hard at medium range and two medium lasers to balance things out.
Even the warrior Clans respected the Marauder enough to make their own variant, the 85-ton Marauder IIC. This is an all-energy Mech, wielding three Clan-tech ER PPCs for awesome firepower, plus two medium pulse lasers and four ER small lasers for short-range combat. Similar Mechs such as the Dragon Fire, Bandersnatch and Nightstar are more loosely inspired by the original Marauder, mainly in terms of their general shape and fighting style.
The Marauder in the MechWarrior PC Games
Despite its fame and reputation, the Marauder makes surprisingly few appearances in the computer games of the larger BattleTech universe. It did not appear in MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat, though its Clan variant, the Marauder IIC, did. It was also absent from MechWarrior 3 and MechWarrior 4.
The Marauder also appears in the multiplayer-oriented MechWarrior Online, along with related designs. All three Marauders are available for play, and gamers can either use the default weapons configurations or design their own, creating unique designs in a classic Mech chassis. This might even transform the Marauder’s combat role, such as morphing it into a front-line brawler.
The 2019 title MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries also features the Marauder, along with other classic designs from that era. Here, players can take command of any battle with this Mech and get the job done in true style. Within the lore, Marauder’s design is nearly 400 years old, but it’s still going strong to this day.
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