Another venerable Clan design, the Thor would appear at a casual glance to be outmoded by
its tech type sibling, the Nova Cat. As mentioned in that mech's description, these two
make for the only pair of mechs in a game to share tonnage values and tech types. At a
glance, the Nova Cat appears to win hands down. It has better minimum and maximum speeds,
more total weapons slots, and more tonnage available to devote to weapons, armor, and
components. Well, I like the looks of the Thor better, so that is itself
justification enough to choose it, right? Well, that and versatility. The Thor has, of its total of thirteen, seven omni slots.
That's the second highest total in the game, falling by one behind the nasty, mean, scary,
one hundred ton Clan Daishi. The six remaining slots are split evenly between
ballistic, beam, and missile. The grouping of the slots is excellent; the non-omni
slots are grouped in pairs by type, while the omni slots are situated in two groups of
three, with one left to fly solo. The last omni slot can't hold anything larger than
a supporting weapon, but each of the two larger omni groups can hold any weapon in the
game, and the three type-specific groups can fit a good selection of supporting weapons.
Knowing that your opponent will be piloting a Thor tells
you virtually nothing about what payload to expect. This versatility is further enhanced
by the mech's ability to perform a full torso twist, four component options, and
acceleration and deceleration values greater than those of any other mech its weight or
heavier.
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Nova
Cat
