Dragon DRG-1N

Dragon DRG-1N is a Heavy-class 'Mech in Battletech.

Description
Originally designed to replace the Shadow Hawk, the Dragon 1N is a versatile, high speed Heavy 'Mech that trades firepower for speed and heat efficiency. While it excels at no specific roles, the Dragon 1N is passable at many.

Loadouts

 * The Dragon is pretty much best used as a dedicated meat shield and melee brawler. With the low available tonnage, you can't put any meaningful ballistic weapons on it, and without missiles it won't last long in a slugging long range match. However, put a few small lasers on it, plus a medium, and give it a pilot who can sprint long range and it can deliver quite the punch, especially with the right servomotors. However, long-term it's a wash. Sell it when better mechs come around.
 * As this is likely to be your first actual 'Heavy' mech, and with its high base speed, this mech is great for being a meat shield brawler style mech, capable of closing distances quickly and able to mount more armor than any Medium mech. Of course, maxing out armor does cut into the tonnage available for weapon systems. Give it an AC/10 and a pair of SRM/4's, with a single ton of AC and SRM ammo, and you've got a mech with enough punch to command respect, at least at the time you unlock access to it anyway. Yes, it will be upgraded, but it can be a linchpin of your Lance until you can put together a Cataphract or Orion.
 * The default loadout leaves the Dragon as little more than a slightly gimped Centurion that happens to weigh ten tons more. Adjust the build of either to match the other, and the only noticeable difference will be that the Dragon has a stronger internal structure score than the Centurion.  All things considered, the Dragon may well be the weakest heavy mech in the game.
 * For a meat-shield build, max out front armor, and load 2 x SRM6 w/ 2 Tons of Ammo, 2 x Medium Laser, and 4 Jump Jets. You have less than 1 ton left-over, which you can then put into a single Small Laser, or cut a few points of rear armor to free up enough weight for 1 Heat Sink, or the 5th Jump Jet.

Strategy

 * The Dragon 1N is a beefy machine that can take a serious beating but tends to be a bit light on weaponry. It moves fast for a heavy 'Mech, though, which makes it well suited to closing for Melee attacks against slower targets.
 * If you want to stock up on Dragons, you receive an unlimited stock of parts at Smithon after liberation.
 * The Dragon DRG-1N is essentially a heavy mech version of the Shadow Hawk. It has the same 140m max movement, 240m sprint and 180m jump but with 496 structure and 1245 armor compared to the Shadow Hawk's 456 structure and 1145 armor.  It's a small difference but being a heavy mech your turn to start will be in the 2 phase rather than the 3 phase of medium mechs.  The melee damage of the DRG-1N is 90 compared to Shadow Hawk's 85 and stb damage is also five points higher than the Shadow Hawk, 60 versus 55.  However, the load capacity of the DRG-1N is 13.44 tons at max armor compared to the Shadow Hawk which has 13.69 tons available with full armor.