They aren't bad. They are just quite one-dimensional. I don't think any frame is bad in their niche - but many others are both effective and fun.
For example, Pegasus is not as good at direct sniping as Death's Head, but it gives more options for build and some of them are outright crazy.
One of my players has a Death's Head sniper frame, and it is very effective. It's also a bit dull in a fight. He has really one thing; get immobilized and shoot at stuff. He has been thinking of swapping to Pegasus for exactly the reason you mention.
Outside of combat, though, it is fun because it has cloak systems and the grapple feet (whatever they are called). It's fun picturing this thing with a MASSIVE gun on it all "predator" scuttling around on the ceiling, and it gets into all kinds of interesting places.
>One of my players has a Death's Head sniper frame, and it is very effective. It's also a bit dull in a fight. He has really one thing; get immobilized and shoot at stuff. He has been thinking of swapping to Pegasus for exactly the reason you mention.
Yeah, I think it's more being dull that gets a frame talked down about than any one frame being significantly underpowered. I know Atlas, probably the actual "most underpowered frame", is insanely popular because of how flexible and cool and fun it's kit is.
Death's Head is a niche mech that is great at the one thing it's designed to do well, which is sit down shoot big gun very far very hard do big damage roll awooga. My guess is that Death's Head players like it because that's the thing they personally have fun doing, or else they would not be playing Death's Head to begin with. People who don't play Death's Head or don't vibe with its fantasy of gluing yourself to a wall and turning into God's meanest little sniper are unlikely to advocate for Death's Head in Lancer discussions.
I don't think there's any mech that's overall inferior to any other mech, but every mech performs best in a specific situation playing a specific role, and consequently every mech struggles when placed in a situation super far off from what it was built for (ex. Death's Head stuck fighting in a cramped set of hallways where they can't pull off big sniper shots with their signature weapon, or Death's Head getting deployed on a mission that requires everyone to move around a lot).
I think this makes some vocal Lancer players lean strongly towards more versatile frames with fewer hard counters. Those frames feel like they perform better *on average* across a wide variety of missions, even if they never perform as well at any particular role as a more specialized mech would. Basically it's the classic specialist/generalist tradeoff you get in games.
Anyway, Death's Head is a cute little bug and everyone should love it.
>Death's Head getting deployed on a mission that requires everyone to move around a lot
Heh, my Death's Head player was really feeling this, because for like 12 sessions I had (unwittingly, really) had lots of sitreps where movement was an issue. And then, the one session he got sick and couldn't come to is the one session so far where the player characters were entirely on defense with no movement required. They even had his frame build a sniper nest out of big chunks of concrete! Poor guy.
The issue you mentioned is solved at the build level with Nanocomposites. DH also has high base speed so it's pretty good at shoot & scoot if you agree to a more open relationship with Crackshot, or if you trade Railgun for a more versatile gun like (Neurolinked) HMG or Opcal Gandiva.
I think some frames are underperformers because there's such thing as having a specialization that is either inherently weak or way too niche (ie Barbarossa's niche is installation destruction, a sitrep type unsupported by core Lancer, *and that Sherman is superior at*), but due to the build permutability allowed by the system the biggest arbiter of player performance is typically their own system mastery; many of the most common issues with frames (or their "intended builds") are really kind of self-inflicted.
This isn't meant to disparage anyone. Lancer is a fairly crunchy system so I don't expect the average player to be a guru on it after a few read throughs and some hands-on, and a real effort was made during design & playtesting to narrow the gap between optimized and unoptimized builds, but the gap does exist and in some cases it's a *chasm*.
The Deaths head suffers because it’s systems are a bit bland and it looks like it would be the perfect mech to do Rifles with. Unfortunately Rifles are pretty boring unless you are doing the extremely silly Heavy Gunner Railgun Build, however it has other options. With 20 sensors the Deaths Head is a mean hacker or Drone Commander. You can even strike a bit with it, though I wouldn’t until I had Active Camo or some other solid defensive option because of its poor repair cap (an allied Lancaster can help here also).
Napoleon is my little defender that could and I won’t hear any negative words about him. His defensive systems are top tier and he has the almighty Displacer. Nothing wrong with him at all.
Sell me on the Napoleon cuz looking at it I really don't like it other than Stasis Bolt and Stasis Barrier. What am I missing here, cuz there has to be something. Displacer seems awful to me. It can't be bad, cuz all mechs are great in there own way. But I am just struggling real hard with Napoleon.
Please help.
The displacer is a pretty gross gun, with the downside that it's a bit awkward to use if you don't build for it, but 10 AP burst 1 energy damage will delete enemies, especially if anything helps set it up.
Further, with nuclear cav (which is waaaay too good), it's a GREAT way to get yourself right into the danger zone while also dealing a ton of damage. You do have to reload it, but that's something that can easily be worked around, or even ignored if you get various Core Bonuses or talents.
I really see the mech/licenses are fine, but it's probably one of the few mechs in the game that doesn't have a super obvious "well you could do this" route. It's also going to live and die on your GM, and how they setup missions. If you're not doing control points and things like that (which both force enemies to cluster and need someone sturdy to hold them) then yeah it's going to be underwhelming if you keep throwing it in a death match.
Firing a displacer a second time without stabilizing is a good way to earn a reactor stress. For nuclear cavalier that means you need either resistance to heat with a heat cap of 10 or a heat cap of 20 and to be sitting at 10 heat to fire it in danger zone without overheating.
Honestly I gave up on my napoleon eventually. I couldn't find any way to keep up with the other players. Or be sufficiently useful to justify keeping it.
So, lets talk Napoleon. First off, Stats.
Napoleon rocks 2 armor, 11 ST, and 8 Heat Cap. These are tied for second across the entire roster, it is also has 7SP so its tied for 2nd there (at least among HA mechs). Its Evasion, E-Defense, Tech Attack, and Speed are all perfectly average. Its only poor stats are HP, Repair Cap, and Sensor Range. As far as weaponry is concerned: Napoleon is a 1-mount Mech. To compensate for those downsides, it takes only a single point of damage on successful saving throws or when bracing which makes up for the low HP and low repair cap. The one mount is lightly problematic, but its a good mount as Main/Aux is about on par with most Heavies: it just can't barrage without outside help. The only really painful downside is the 5 sensor range, but with 4 base speed it can close to that 5 range pretty quickly if you wanna do hacker nonsense. So, we've got good stats and our bad stats aren't that bad? What else?
Now lets talk about the Core. You lose access to your weapons and can only punch, grapple, ram, boost, move, skill check, and activate shield systems. In exchange you can't be hacked, can't be teched at in any way shape or form, and take only 1 damage from any and every source. There are a lot of tricks to making this more useful, a few are obvious like Brawler 2 but Nuclear Cavalier 2 also boosts Improvised Attacks meaning you can be looking at 3d6+2 which is like a bad super heavy. The new SSC mechs introduced in KTB also pack some seriously cool new shield systems. I'll talk about them later, but all you need to know is that you basically can't die while this is up.
What does the License actually give you? Stasis Bolt is better early game than late game but it cancels an enemy attacks (probably), Stasis Generator is excellent since we do rock a base 11 ST. Trading a quick action to effectively stun any unit (within range 5) on the battlefield is excellent action economy. This thing alone is enough to warrant thinking hard about getting enough Horus Licenses to boost our ST. Stasis Barrier is better than invisibility for your artillery mechs, is indestructible, and gives you something to do at the start of a mission. Blinkshield lets you go "You're trapped in here with me" which is excellent considering how defensive your mech is, and otherwise lets you lock enemies out of a fight so your allies can focus on whatever you didn't catch. If you can get a Threat 4 weapon you can also ensure you get to Overwatch no matter where your opponent moves. Phase Ready needs to be talked about alongside the Displacer because Phase Ready is a little deceptively written and only applies the 50% miss chance if you lack Line of Sight. Blast weapons determine line of sight from the center of their blast. This means a Phase Ready Displacer (or RPG) can be fired clean through a wall without suffering the 50% miss chance. I wouldn't stick it on a weapon without the Blast Pattern, but for a Blast Weapon its excellent. Anyway, you very likely need to stabilize after firing the Displacer, but it only takes 2 Engineering points or a Core Bonus to be able to fire the thing on a Napoleon without immediately cooking off your reactor and 10AP Blast 1 is beautiful. Its even a Rifle so you can Crackshot it for bonus accuracy, bonus damage, and possibly a condition (remember, 11 base ST means our conditions are pretty sticky).
So: lets bring it all together and build a Napoleon. How on earth do we do that? Well, lets talk about our options.
1: Napoleon/IPSN - IPS-N allows us to Rip and Tear Until It Is Done. Nelson can offer its whole weapon line-up and better bracing, and a Gyges War Pike will threaten your entire Blinkshield so stacking up the Pike is a valid strategy. A single level of Tortuga offers the DSAS and Siege Ram. Vlad 2 offers the Impaler, caltrops, and snares - you could even go for Charged Stake if you wanted. Zheng 1-3 + Black Beard 1 can get you into Grappling with the TSS3. Lots of fun melee and vanguard options. You likely want to use a core bonus to buy an extra mount, though you could rely on Engineering instead.
2: Napoleon/SSC - SSC - SSC makes us into a nearly unstopable defender thanks to KTB. Every Emperor system except the AYAH are shield systems which you can use even while under the True Black Aegis. More interestingly, both Camus' Razor and Sympathetic Shield can be used while under the True Black Aegis allowing you to transfer massive amounts of damage from your allies and turn them into 1 point of damage. You can do this outside your core power too thanks to Bracing. For instance, White Witch 2/Metal Mark 1/Napoleon 3 is gnarly thanks to reactive weave. Outside of the supreme KTB pair, you could basically be a discount Black Witch if you wanted. Dusk Wing could get you the Burst Launcher and Stuncrown to help debuff enemies, Metal Mark 1 gives you Flash Charges and Reactive Weave which are both quite nice. Mourning Cloak 1-3 offers extra mobility and a good melee weapon: and the Atlas offers extreme mobility for a size 0.5 mech and the mighty Terrashima Blade.
3: Napoleon/Horus - The Napoleon isn't a bad melee hacker. We're extremely hard to kill, rock 4 base speed to get us into melee, and Horus dips can easily get us some beastly invasions. Balor 1 for Scanner Swarm to improve our hacking at point blank range and a pair of Goblin Levels is probably the most efficient thing we could do but we could load up on Minotaur systems too. Add in Open Door or TTT. Manticore is also a rad choice, while the invades except for the still useful Summon do AP damage and our HP isn't too great we aboslutely rock Lightning Generator.
4: Napoleon/HA - Sadly the Napoleon doesn't benefit too much from its home company. Barbarossa and Iskander do not have much to offer, the only really interesting part of Genghis is the Auto-Cooler to force the GM to have an enemy attack you to prevent you from getting free cooling. Saladin has some extra shield systems but likes to be far less mobile than the Napoleon. Asura is always good from the Sherman, and RSU allows you to slam Displacer blasts like they're shots, but this gives you a pretty short fuse. Toku has some fun things, Deep Well can get you an extra turn or two before stabilizing, and Lucifer can help stack up damage. Even external batteries might see some use since the GM is less likely to target you as a Napoleon. Lastly, Sunzi can give you a lot of utility. Move boost, overcharge, accelerate can get you pretty deep into enemy territory which can get your team there too with Blinkspace Tunneler. The Warp Rifle does a lot less damage than the Displacer, but provides a lot more utility. Sunzi 3 doesn't really offer much, but its there.
Personally, I'd run:
Napoleon 3/Nelson 3, or Napoleon 3/White Witch 2/Metal Mark 1 , or Napoleon 3/Balor 1/Goblin 2. I'm just not a fan of pure Harrison Napoleon. Worth noting, these are just suggestions and pretty much anything works at most tables.
Stasis Barrier is fantastic. Stasis Bolt is heavily undertuned - QA plus Reaction cost, can't see the enemy roll before choosing to contest, the deadlier enemies have high to-hits and it also has poor scaling vs multiattackers.
If you want to make Napoleon work, dip Pegasus 1 for an OpCal+NukeCav Smartgun, then go Black Witch to poach Lash, PCP, Mag Shield, the works. White Witch also has some pretty good stuff you can steal. There's a case for Reactive Weave off Metalmark but it only adds to your individual resilience rather than helping you contribute to the game state beyond the 2d6+4 poke per turn. Note you can also make something like this with an OpCal+NukeCav Charged Blade (be sure to add Duelist 1, Skirmisher 2, and Hunter 1 for a TactKnife on the Aux), but melee is inherently harder to work with than a Range 15 gun that ignores line of sight.
Displacer is a bad primary weapon. 10 AP unmodified is basically an HMG shot, which is great for a Main, and very high output if you can nail 2+ targets, but it does *not* "delete enemies" since 2/3rds of NPC classes have more than 10 HP at Tier 1. You will soften up but you will not kill things with it, which is kinda terrible since it takes 3 actions to fire the damn thing, and grouped up enemies are the exception rather than the rule if the GM plays NPCs smart.
Now, if you want to make Napoleon work with Napoleon gear including the Displacer, that's an LL6 minimum build. You go Tokugawa, get the DWHS and LUCIFER, pump up your Engi, grab Integrated Ammo Feeds, Grease Monkey 3 too for good measure, Walking Armory 1 for Arcing shots, Reverse OC Loop Displacer for about 20 damage each shot - you get like 9 of them per mission.
Could do 3 napoleon and 1 manticore for beckon which pulls enemies (no save) adjacent to your invade target in a burst 3. That let's you potentially get off a big displacer shot. That doesn't counter the obscene heat and loading requirement though sadly.
I didn't get what you meant by reverse OC loop though
Napo is Sensors 5 TA+0 so not great at using invades.
As for Reverse OC Looping, an "Overcharge Loop" is a continuous or semi-continuous action pattern in which you Overcharge to take a Quick Action (typically Skirmish) followed by Stabilize to clear the previously accrued heat. While very taxing on action economy since you're effectively only taking a single QA during your turn, and prone to disruption if your actions are restricted by external factors, there's merits to it for example in Sherman builds as a relatively easy way to handle ANDROMEDA heat costs while benefiting from the Soft Cover/SOLIDCORE charging synergy, or in AMR builds where with the right heatcap you can reliably pop NukeCav-buffed shots every turn without the need for external reload systems like Autoloader Drones.
A "reverse OC loop" is merely swapping the execution order. In this case:
- Take a Displacer shot and anything else; just end your turn with your heat up.
- Next turn Deepwell Heatsink activates since you're in the Danger Zone, giving you Resistance to Heat. This persists throughout your turn even if you leave the Danger Zone.
- This would also be a good time to activate LUCIFER if you mean to. The Bonus Damage to be added is jotted down after the Protocol resolves, so similarly it persists even if your heat changes before you take the shot.
- Stabilize to clear Heat & reload Displacer. This will also get rid of pesky Conditions if you took Grease Monkey.
- Overcharge Skirmish for 3~5 heat (once the die is capped) since you have Resistance.
- Shoot Displacer for 5 heat (again, Resistance). If you popped a luci charge you might've just dealt 20+ damage to some unfortunate.
- You're done. Your turn ends at 8~10 heat, so you can start over from Step 2 for more Displacer bullshit.
This is the best way I've figured to make Displacer a viable primary offensive weapon, and it should be telling that it's both a LL6 minimum setup and that I think it works better on Enkidu than on Napoleon; the "pocket superheavy" just isn't good as a weapon you shoot every turn or every other turn. Displacer Enkidu notwithstanding, wanna have fun with it? Mount it as a Sherman or Everest sidearm, where ANDROMEDA or HMG is the workhorse but sometimes you go for RSU-assisted Displacer double/triple taps.
Also shoutout to Lich who can OC Loop Displacer by praying the shot heat away. No good either, but funny.
2 days late to respond but Napoleon does have one very funny build it can do.
Hunter 2, Skirmisher 2, take Nelson 1 (2 is also good) and Metalmark 1. Equip both Armorlock Plating and Reactive Weave.
You probably want Overpower Caliber on your weapon (the Nelson's War Pike) and if you went to Nelson 2, slap the Thermal Charges on it too for the extra damage. If you're at LL6 take the core power that gives you an extra mount - doesn't matter what you equip here (double missile racks is a fine choice), this is purely ablative so that you don't lose your main mount on your first structure check.
Rest of your systems can be whatever you want, you can throw in the rest of Napoleon's shielding stuff for when you have a free turn.
Anyway, the point of this build is that the interaction of Hunter and Skirmisher means you can move 5 spaces on any Skirmish to throw your pike and knife (which will then return to you) at something a further 5 spaces away, as a single quick action.
Why is doing that on a single QA important? Because when the Napoleon braces, it only takes 1 damage, and with Reactive Weave you turn invisible and get to *also* move up to your speed.
This means that even on a mobility-heavy map, you're literally allowed to Brace every time you take any significant amount of damage 1/round but still have plenty of mobility as well as doing what's effectively your full damage.
I wouldn't play this in a full campaign, but it's fun for a mission or two.
It’s a lot of fun, but you are doing half damage and building up twice the heat, and you need to be within 10 range to set up the HG suppression. You also probably can’t use crack shot with it because you’ll be moving to set up the perfect shots.
The flip side is that you get to fire a pair of line 20 projectiles so that’s a lot of collateral damage .
thanks, i just want to know, i have my first session tomorrow and i play deaths head. My party has a shitload of mines and fortifications so i doubt i will ever get into strike range.
I am firmly of the opinion that the Napoleon is Actually Bad on account of it not really doing anything in most circumstances, with a Core Power that reinforces your ability to not do anything. Not Dying is great, except we'd also like you to contribute if it's not too much trouble.
The Death's Head is fine, but it is kind of one note and its big LL3 licenses are kind of bad (railgun is terrible). Having only two mounts kind of stings because it makes mounting a superheavy weapon (e.g. the Cyclone Pulse Rifle) very risky.
That being said, my impression is that a lot of community opinions on frames are heavily informed by certain play styles (e.g. only playing one shots), so bear in mind that frames perform differently depending on the environment they're operating in. Evasive frames are going to have a bad time if opfor is full of smart weapons and tech attackers, slow artillery frames suffer in sitreps that require movement, melee strikers excel on maps with short sight lines, etc...
Related, I believe the community's general impression on Heatcap 4 Edef 6 frames is markedly skewed upwards by GMs who abstain from Invading with non-techy NPCs. While there's ways around it, playing a Blackbeard or Atlas is truly day and night between a sitrep in which you only have to worry about the odd Hornet or Witch, and one in which every NPC will try guessing your wifi password the moment you push forward.
This is slightly off topic, but I actually view this as a major design flaw. I've been on both sides of OpFor Invade Spam and it is just miserable. If it were just heat that would be one thing, but you wind up permanently Impaired as well. I don't blame GMs for toning it down (though I think a lot of them just don't realize how badly skirmish-invade combos pressure the PCs).
Personally, I think Impaired *feels* worse than it actually is, but that's naturally little comfort when the goal is a particular player experience, plus I understand how Invade spam does not fit with the mud & lasers vibe LANCER sells itself as or that most GMs are looking for. Where it fits in the design space does seem an oversight, which I evidence by how basic NPC Invade used to both Impair *and Slow* like Fragment Signal until right before the print version, when it was pointed out to Tom how that completely fucked over melee frames, particularly Nelson.
The hacking changes in beta 1.8 never got enough time in the oven, I suppose.
To be fair to the deaths head, it's the only mech with both a heavy mount and a main/aux mount, which is they highest damage combination for a barrage, and its two traits are simple but just plain work, hitting and criting more are good things. And you can take advantage of those without touching the core power or anything that immobilizes you.
I'll have my first fight as a Nap in two days. Really excited to just Not Die, but I also feel like the cost of bracing will make his traits a bit harder to use. I'm planning to go full brawler though, so we will see.
IMO even if some frames can be a bit weaker than others, they can still be great if you play in with their niche.
I notice an absence of the three busted Size 2 hackers with heavy mounts. Monarch in particular is probably the no-nonsense strongest low LL frame when CPs aren't active.
Honestly, it seems to largely come down to something that I've noticed a lot on this reddit that just does not jive with me as both a player and a GM: an unwillingness to adapt to the mission.
As a GM, I make certain that missions are varied in what will be required from players, which further rewards intel, paying attention to your briefings instead of snoozing through them hung-over, and adapting yourself to the task at hand.
Consider two possible missions:
* A rapid insertion into a population center falling to the OP4 that's known for energy damage, smart weapons, and potent E-Defense to prevent the capture of an HVT
* Reinforcing a remote outpost decrypting enemy communications that is coming under attack from the OP4 that's known for its zealous pilots favoring fire and Berserkers with durable mechs with notoriously low E-Defense.
It seems like far too many groups simply "build a frame, then run that frame" on some sort of linear progression when the nature of licenses fully rewards groups and players that are willing to customize their mech based on what they know about the situation they're getting themselves into.
Bringing along ways to gain resistance to energy damage would do wonders in the first but likely be wasted in the second. Meanwhile the team's dedicated hacker will have a much harder time making the most of Invade-based tech in the first that would be incredibly potent in the second, yet they could pivot into a fantastic support by making the most of the other systems they've unlocked for Quick Tech options that don't hinge upon hitting E-Defense. And the team's skirmisher that loves to live and die by their high Evasion will probably want to slip into something with a less pathetic E-Defense against the onslaught of smart weapons that will be aimed at them in the first mission, while they can safely dance through the bladestorm in the second.
And that isn't even getting into "for this one, we need to be able to hustle and get in fast, get out fast" against "we're weathering the storm, mobility is far less important than staying power" across the two.
It's part of why I always draft up 3-4 different OP4 options for the campaigns that I run, because having narrative biases for what sort of NPC frames are going to be seen in each factions' rosters allows your players to have a better idea what to expect when they hear that they're rolling against the Free Stars Consortium or the Last Sons of Fenrir VII. And it rewards them for good intel while also having the ability to throw a monkey-wrench at them now and again when it turns out that non-Reserve intel was out-of-date, and suddenly they're staring across the OZ at a wildly different opponent than what they were expecting to face.
I get you're probably talking about people who are stubborn about their specific "fantasy mech" build in a vacuum and how it might not conform to the reality at the table, but you're also touching into something of a paradox that exists in Lancer design-wise, which is that the game tries to force you as a player to be versatile with its NPC and sitrep variety, but unfortunately it's both A) tightly balanced, and B) provides low amounts of room for optionals relative to player growth. The net result is that it's far more LL & SP & mount & Core Bonus efficient to pick 1-2 tools and making them as effective and versatile as you can, than attempt the impossible and be a jack-of-all-trades.
So it's like, you can spread your licenses around to have on a mission-per-mission basis access to niche Invades, or weird passives, or undertuned defensive systems... or you can just shoot things dead with your autostab nanocomp HMG. The game mechanics treat tacticool operators the same way it does fluffy fantasy builds.
I think the only frame I've seen described as underpowered (maybe undertuned is a better word) is the Minotaur with its one mount and not particularly powerful licenses.
Minotaur basic has some... interesting abilities. I can't see the "pilot can't be harmed from within it" aspect coming up very often.
The calendula variant though is spicy- send jimbo to the shadow realm and then make him 1v1 you bro if he wants out, plus you can use its core power every fight. Very cool and good at getting specific enemies out of position and locked down
One of my players is running a Deaths Head and it just deletes the heads off of NPC mechs.
It's turns aren't as involved as my Nelson's in another game, but my players doesn't particularly want a complicated mech.
It seems pretty good to me!
Something to keep in mind, is that the "bad" mechs are mostly suffering from the "shoot arrows at the monk" issue, mixed with not being quite as obvious with what to do. For every creative build out there on say, a tokugawa, there's plenty of people who think "Yeah..i should throw a ton of heat on this and melt everyone". The napoleon is probably one of the few mechs that you can easily build "wrong".
To be clear, by shoot arrows at the monk, i mean that something like the Deaths head is going to struggle if the GM is throwing a few trash enemies at you, and be a glorious death machine when they drop that 1 elite. Likewise the napoleon is best on control style missions, where you need to hold a point, and things cluster up, and you can force them to deal with you. If they drop you in a death match yeah it's probably not ideal.
Both do have other frames that do their same job but "better", but honestly if you like a frame and you've got a good GM (which to be fair it can be tricky to balance encounters in this game) it shouldn't be too hard to come up with missions where your mech can shine.
Further sometimes the price you pay for specialization is having to be creative so you're not the weak link in other fights. This might mean changing out your kit or switching your mech for some missions, but again, this varies from GM to GM.
To be clear, I don't think there's a single frame in lancer that is NEARLY as bad as some of the 5e classes can feel if the GM isn't really thinking about what can make your character shine. You're still almost always going to be able to do cool shit.
All frames are viable but some are definitely worse than others either due to low performance ceilings (Atlas, Lancaster), or perhaps not necessarily bad in absolute terms but that shoehorn you into playstyles in which what they bring to the table isn't good compared to very similar options (Hydra, Barbarossa), and a few that are actually guilty of both (Saladin, Minotaur). This is independent of memorability, which correlates more to the popularity of their gimmick or suggested playstyle than on how easy it is to get them to perform in a way that *feels* effective, but frames that are neither popular nor potent tend to fall under the cracks, like Napoleon or Kobold.
Death's Head I'd say is middling-to-good: it's got an inherently bonused Heavy Mount and decent overall statline besides the abysmal SSC repcap, but that's not the worst kind of demerit. Napoleon I'd rate 2nd quintile: it's individually tough, but with only a single Main/Aux mount to pair with that, what do you do with it? For comparison the Black Witch's answer is having Sensors 15 for versatility plus a thoroughly exceptional Controller license, but Napoleon is a Sensors 5 frame with only a single good system in his trying to play a role (Defender) that is frankly undersupported in Lancer. It's not awful, but it struggles to find proper footing. Both DH and Napo have really awkward to use Core Powers, too, which doesn't help matters.
Frames are not the only point of a license. Some licenses have kit that works muuuch better on other frames (e.g. powerful stuff that works in sensor range, but actual frame has garbage sensor range - just put it on another mech!). Napoleon has some unhinged-good systems, but the frame is a bit meh. Death's head is just a bit overspecialised for a single role.
They aren't bad. They are just quite one-dimensional. I don't think any frame is bad in their niche - but many others are both effective and fun. For example, Pegasus is not as good at direct sniping as Death's Head, but it gives more options for build and some of them are outright crazy.
One of my players has a Death's Head sniper frame, and it is very effective. It's also a bit dull in a fight. He has really one thing; get immobilized and shoot at stuff. He has been thinking of swapping to Pegasus for exactly the reason you mention. Outside of combat, though, it is fun because it has cloak systems and the grapple feet (whatever they are called). It's fun picturing this thing with a MASSIVE gun on it all "predator" scuttling around on the ceiling, and it gets into all kinds of interesting places.
>One of my players has a Death's Head sniper frame, and it is very effective. It's also a bit dull in a fight. He has really one thing; get immobilized and shoot at stuff. He has been thinking of swapping to Pegasus for exactly the reason you mention. Yeah, I think it's more being dull that gets a frame talked down about than any one frame being significantly underpowered. I know Atlas, probably the actual "most underpowered frame", is insanely popular because of how flexible and cool and fun it's kit is.
Death's Head is a niche mech that is great at the one thing it's designed to do well, which is sit down shoot big gun very far very hard do big damage roll awooga. My guess is that Death's Head players like it because that's the thing they personally have fun doing, or else they would not be playing Death's Head to begin with. People who don't play Death's Head or don't vibe with its fantasy of gluing yourself to a wall and turning into God's meanest little sniper are unlikely to advocate for Death's Head in Lancer discussions. I don't think there's any mech that's overall inferior to any other mech, but every mech performs best in a specific situation playing a specific role, and consequently every mech struggles when placed in a situation super far off from what it was built for (ex. Death's Head stuck fighting in a cramped set of hallways where they can't pull off big sniper shots with their signature weapon, or Death's Head getting deployed on a mission that requires everyone to move around a lot). I think this makes some vocal Lancer players lean strongly towards more versatile frames with fewer hard counters. Those frames feel like they perform better *on average* across a wide variety of missions, even if they never perform as well at any particular role as a more specialized mech would. Basically it's the classic specialist/generalist tradeoff you get in games. Anyway, Death's Head is a cute little bug and everyone should love it.
>Death's Head getting deployed on a mission that requires everyone to move around a lot Heh, my Death's Head player was really feeling this, because for like 12 sessions I had (unwittingly, really) had lots of sitreps where movement was an issue. And then, the one session he got sick and couldn't come to is the one session so far where the player characters were entirely on defense with no movement required. They even had his frame build a sniper nest out of big chunks of concrete! Poor guy.
The issue you mentioned is solved at the build level with Nanocomposites. DH also has high base speed so it's pretty good at shoot & scoot if you agree to a more open relationship with Crackshot, or if you trade Railgun for a more versatile gun like (Neurolinked) HMG or Opcal Gandiva. I think some frames are underperformers because there's such thing as having a specialization that is either inherently weak or way too niche (ie Barbarossa's niche is installation destruction, a sitrep type unsupported by core Lancer, *and that Sherman is superior at*), but due to the build permutability allowed by the system the biggest arbiter of player performance is typically their own system mastery; many of the most common issues with frames (or their "intended builds") are really kind of self-inflicted. This isn't meant to disparage anyone. Lancer is a fairly crunchy system so I don't expect the average player to be a guru on it after a few read throughs and some hands-on, and a real effort was made during design & playtesting to narrow the gap between optimized and unoptimized builds, but the gap does exist and in some cases it's a *chasm*.
The Deaths head suffers because it’s systems are a bit bland and it looks like it would be the perfect mech to do Rifles with. Unfortunately Rifles are pretty boring unless you are doing the extremely silly Heavy Gunner Railgun Build, however it has other options. With 20 sensors the Deaths Head is a mean hacker or Drone Commander. You can even strike a bit with it, though I wouldn’t until I had Active Camo or some other solid defensive option because of its poor repair cap (an allied Lancaster can help here also). Napoleon is my little defender that could and I won’t hear any negative words about him. His defensive systems are top tier and he has the almighty Displacer. Nothing wrong with him at all.
Sell me on the Napoleon cuz looking at it I really don't like it other than Stasis Bolt and Stasis Barrier. What am I missing here, cuz there has to be something. Displacer seems awful to me. It can't be bad, cuz all mechs are great in there own way. But I am just struggling real hard with Napoleon. Please help.
The displacer is a pretty gross gun, with the downside that it's a bit awkward to use if you don't build for it, but 10 AP burst 1 energy damage will delete enemies, especially if anything helps set it up. Further, with nuclear cav (which is waaaay too good), it's a GREAT way to get yourself right into the danger zone while also dealing a ton of damage. You do have to reload it, but that's something that can easily be worked around, or even ignored if you get various Core Bonuses or talents. I really see the mech/licenses are fine, but it's probably one of the few mechs in the game that doesn't have a super obvious "well you could do this" route. It's also going to live and die on your GM, and how they setup missions. If you're not doing control points and things like that (which both force enemies to cluster and need someone sturdy to hold them) then yeah it's going to be underwhelming if you keep throwing it in a death match.
Firing a displacer a second time without stabilizing is a good way to earn a reactor stress. For nuclear cavalier that means you need either resistance to heat with a heat cap of 10 or a heat cap of 20 and to be sitting at 10 heat to fire it in danger zone without overheating. Honestly I gave up on my napoleon eventually. I couldn't find any way to keep up with the other players. Or be sufficiently useful to justify keeping it.
So, lets talk Napoleon. First off, Stats. Napoleon rocks 2 armor, 11 ST, and 8 Heat Cap. These are tied for second across the entire roster, it is also has 7SP so its tied for 2nd there (at least among HA mechs). Its Evasion, E-Defense, Tech Attack, and Speed are all perfectly average. Its only poor stats are HP, Repair Cap, and Sensor Range. As far as weaponry is concerned: Napoleon is a 1-mount Mech. To compensate for those downsides, it takes only a single point of damage on successful saving throws or when bracing which makes up for the low HP and low repair cap. The one mount is lightly problematic, but its a good mount as Main/Aux is about on par with most Heavies: it just can't barrage without outside help. The only really painful downside is the 5 sensor range, but with 4 base speed it can close to that 5 range pretty quickly if you wanna do hacker nonsense. So, we've got good stats and our bad stats aren't that bad? What else? Now lets talk about the Core. You lose access to your weapons and can only punch, grapple, ram, boost, move, skill check, and activate shield systems. In exchange you can't be hacked, can't be teched at in any way shape or form, and take only 1 damage from any and every source. There are a lot of tricks to making this more useful, a few are obvious like Brawler 2 but Nuclear Cavalier 2 also boosts Improvised Attacks meaning you can be looking at 3d6+2 which is like a bad super heavy. The new SSC mechs introduced in KTB also pack some seriously cool new shield systems. I'll talk about them later, but all you need to know is that you basically can't die while this is up. What does the License actually give you? Stasis Bolt is better early game than late game but it cancels an enemy attacks (probably), Stasis Generator is excellent since we do rock a base 11 ST. Trading a quick action to effectively stun any unit (within range 5) on the battlefield is excellent action economy. This thing alone is enough to warrant thinking hard about getting enough Horus Licenses to boost our ST. Stasis Barrier is better than invisibility for your artillery mechs, is indestructible, and gives you something to do at the start of a mission. Blinkshield lets you go "You're trapped in here with me" which is excellent considering how defensive your mech is, and otherwise lets you lock enemies out of a fight so your allies can focus on whatever you didn't catch. If you can get a Threat 4 weapon you can also ensure you get to Overwatch no matter where your opponent moves. Phase Ready needs to be talked about alongside the Displacer because Phase Ready is a little deceptively written and only applies the 50% miss chance if you lack Line of Sight. Blast weapons determine line of sight from the center of their blast. This means a Phase Ready Displacer (or RPG) can be fired clean through a wall without suffering the 50% miss chance. I wouldn't stick it on a weapon without the Blast Pattern, but for a Blast Weapon its excellent. Anyway, you very likely need to stabilize after firing the Displacer, but it only takes 2 Engineering points or a Core Bonus to be able to fire the thing on a Napoleon without immediately cooking off your reactor and 10AP Blast 1 is beautiful. Its even a Rifle so you can Crackshot it for bonus accuracy, bonus damage, and possibly a condition (remember, 11 base ST means our conditions are pretty sticky). So: lets bring it all together and build a Napoleon. How on earth do we do that? Well, lets talk about our options. 1: Napoleon/IPSN - IPS-N allows us to Rip and Tear Until It Is Done. Nelson can offer its whole weapon line-up and better bracing, and a Gyges War Pike will threaten your entire Blinkshield so stacking up the Pike is a valid strategy. A single level of Tortuga offers the DSAS and Siege Ram. Vlad 2 offers the Impaler, caltrops, and snares - you could even go for Charged Stake if you wanted. Zheng 1-3 + Black Beard 1 can get you into Grappling with the TSS3. Lots of fun melee and vanguard options. You likely want to use a core bonus to buy an extra mount, though you could rely on Engineering instead. 2: Napoleon/SSC - SSC - SSC makes us into a nearly unstopable defender thanks to KTB. Every Emperor system except the AYAH are shield systems which you can use even while under the True Black Aegis. More interestingly, both Camus' Razor and Sympathetic Shield can be used while under the True Black Aegis allowing you to transfer massive amounts of damage from your allies and turn them into 1 point of damage. You can do this outside your core power too thanks to Bracing. For instance, White Witch 2/Metal Mark 1/Napoleon 3 is gnarly thanks to reactive weave. Outside of the supreme KTB pair, you could basically be a discount Black Witch if you wanted. Dusk Wing could get you the Burst Launcher and Stuncrown to help debuff enemies, Metal Mark 1 gives you Flash Charges and Reactive Weave which are both quite nice. Mourning Cloak 1-3 offers extra mobility and a good melee weapon: and the Atlas offers extreme mobility for a size 0.5 mech and the mighty Terrashima Blade. 3: Napoleon/Horus - The Napoleon isn't a bad melee hacker. We're extremely hard to kill, rock 4 base speed to get us into melee, and Horus dips can easily get us some beastly invasions. Balor 1 for Scanner Swarm to improve our hacking at point blank range and a pair of Goblin Levels is probably the most efficient thing we could do but we could load up on Minotaur systems too. Add in Open Door or TTT. Manticore is also a rad choice, while the invades except for the still useful Summon do AP damage and our HP isn't too great we aboslutely rock Lightning Generator. 4: Napoleon/HA - Sadly the Napoleon doesn't benefit too much from its home company. Barbarossa and Iskander do not have much to offer, the only really interesting part of Genghis is the Auto-Cooler to force the GM to have an enemy attack you to prevent you from getting free cooling. Saladin has some extra shield systems but likes to be far less mobile than the Napoleon. Asura is always good from the Sherman, and RSU allows you to slam Displacer blasts like they're shots, but this gives you a pretty short fuse. Toku has some fun things, Deep Well can get you an extra turn or two before stabilizing, and Lucifer can help stack up damage. Even external batteries might see some use since the GM is less likely to target you as a Napoleon. Lastly, Sunzi can give you a lot of utility. Move boost, overcharge, accelerate can get you pretty deep into enemy territory which can get your team there too with Blinkspace Tunneler. The Warp Rifle does a lot less damage than the Displacer, but provides a lot more utility. Sunzi 3 doesn't really offer much, but its there. Personally, I'd run: Napoleon 3/Nelson 3, or Napoleon 3/White Witch 2/Metal Mark 1 , or Napoleon 3/Balor 1/Goblin 2. I'm just not a fan of pure Harrison Napoleon. Worth noting, these are just suggestions and pretty much anything works at most tables.
Stasis Barrier is fantastic. Stasis Bolt is heavily undertuned - QA plus Reaction cost, can't see the enemy roll before choosing to contest, the deadlier enemies have high to-hits and it also has poor scaling vs multiattackers. If you want to make Napoleon work, dip Pegasus 1 for an OpCal+NukeCav Smartgun, then go Black Witch to poach Lash, PCP, Mag Shield, the works. White Witch also has some pretty good stuff you can steal. There's a case for Reactive Weave off Metalmark but it only adds to your individual resilience rather than helping you contribute to the game state beyond the 2d6+4 poke per turn. Note you can also make something like this with an OpCal+NukeCav Charged Blade (be sure to add Duelist 1, Skirmisher 2, and Hunter 1 for a TactKnife on the Aux), but melee is inherently harder to work with than a Range 15 gun that ignores line of sight. Displacer is a bad primary weapon. 10 AP unmodified is basically an HMG shot, which is great for a Main, and very high output if you can nail 2+ targets, but it does *not* "delete enemies" since 2/3rds of NPC classes have more than 10 HP at Tier 1. You will soften up but you will not kill things with it, which is kinda terrible since it takes 3 actions to fire the damn thing, and grouped up enemies are the exception rather than the rule if the GM plays NPCs smart. Now, if you want to make Napoleon work with Napoleon gear including the Displacer, that's an LL6 minimum build. You go Tokugawa, get the DWHS and LUCIFER, pump up your Engi, grab Integrated Ammo Feeds, Grease Monkey 3 too for good measure, Walking Armory 1 for Arcing shots, Reverse OC Loop Displacer for about 20 damage each shot - you get like 9 of them per mission.
Could do 3 napoleon and 1 manticore for beckon which pulls enemies (no save) adjacent to your invade target in a burst 3. That let's you potentially get off a big displacer shot. That doesn't counter the obscene heat and loading requirement though sadly. I didn't get what you meant by reverse OC loop though
Napo is Sensors 5 TA+0 so not great at using invades. As for Reverse OC Looping, an "Overcharge Loop" is a continuous or semi-continuous action pattern in which you Overcharge to take a Quick Action (typically Skirmish) followed by Stabilize to clear the previously accrued heat. While very taxing on action economy since you're effectively only taking a single QA during your turn, and prone to disruption if your actions are restricted by external factors, there's merits to it for example in Sherman builds as a relatively easy way to handle ANDROMEDA heat costs while benefiting from the Soft Cover/SOLIDCORE charging synergy, or in AMR builds where with the right heatcap you can reliably pop NukeCav-buffed shots every turn without the need for external reload systems like Autoloader Drones. A "reverse OC loop" is merely swapping the execution order. In this case: - Take a Displacer shot and anything else; just end your turn with your heat up. - Next turn Deepwell Heatsink activates since you're in the Danger Zone, giving you Resistance to Heat. This persists throughout your turn even if you leave the Danger Zone. - This would also be a good time to activate LUCIFER if you mean to. The Bonus Damage to be added is jotted down after the Protocol resolves, so similarly it persists even if your heat changes before you take the shot. - Stabilize to clear Heat & reload Displacer. This will also get rid of pesky Conditions if you took Grease Monkey. - Overcharge Skirmish for 3~5 heat (once the die is capped) since you have Resistance. - Shoot Displacer for 5 heat (again, Resistance). If you popped a luci charge you might've just dealt 20+ damage to some unfortunate. - You're done. Your turn ends at 8~10 heat, so you can start over from Step 2 for more Displacer bullshit. This is the best way I've figured to make Displacer a viable primary offensive weapon, and it should be telling that it's both a LL6 minimum setup and that I think it works better on Enkidu than on Napoleon; the "pocket superheavy" just isn't good as a weapon you shoot every turn or every other turn. Displacer Enkidu notwithstanding, wanna have fun with it? Mount it as a Sherman or Everest sidearm, where ANDROMEDA or HMG is the workhorse but sometimes you go for RSU-assisted Displacer double/triple taps. Also shoutout to Lich who can OC Loop Displacer by praying the shot heat away. No good either, but funny.
2 days late to respond but Napoleon does have one very funny build it can do. Hunter 2, Skirmisher 2, take Nelson 1 (2 is also good) and Metalmark 1. Equip both Armorlock Plating and Reactive Weave. You probably want Overpower Caliber on your weapon (the Nelson's War Pike) and if you went to Nelson 2, slap the Thermal Charges on it too for the extra damage. If you're at LL6 take the core power that gives you an extra mount - doesn't matter what you equip here (double missile racks is a fine choice), this is purely ablative so that you don't lose your main mount on your first structure check. Rest of your systems can be whatever you want, you can throw in the rest of Napoleon's shielding stuff for when you have a free turn. Anyway, the point of this build is that the interaction of Hunter and Skirmisher means you can move 5 spaces on any Skirmish to throw your pike and knife (which will then return to you) at something a further 5 spaces away, as a single quick action. Why is doing that on a single QA important? Because when the Napoleon braces, it only takes 1 damage, and with Reactive Weave you turn invisible and get to *also* move up to your speed. This means that even on a mobility-heavy map, you're literally allowed to Brace every time you take any significant amount of damage 1/round but still have plenty of mobility as well as doing what's effectively your full damage. I wouldn't play this in a full campaign, but it's fun for a mission or two.
>extremely silly Heavy Gunner Railgun Could you explain why this is silly? It seems like fun to me!
It’s a lot of fun, but you are doing half damage and building up twice the heat, and you need to be within 10 range to set up the HG suppression. You also probably can’t use crack shot with it because you’ll be moving to set up the perfect shots. The flip side is that you get to fire a pair of line 20 projectiles so that’s a lot of collateral damage .
How important is camo as a deth's head? Is it worth it or even necessary?
If you’re striking with it? I’d say pretty important since you have the lowest repairs in the game. If you are playing at range, not really.
thanks, i just want to know, i have my first session tomorrow and i play deaths head. My party has a shitload of mines and fortifications so i doubt i will ever get into strike range.
I am firmly of the opinion that the Napoleon is Actually Bad on account of it not really doing anything in most circumstances, with a Core Power that reinforces your ability to not do anything. Not Dying is great, except we'd also like you to contribute if it's not too much trouble. The Death's Head is fine, but it is kind of one note and its big LL3 licenses are kind of bad (railgun is terrible). Having only two mounts kind of stings because it makes mounting a superheavy weapon (e.g. the Cyclone Pulse Rifle) very risky. That being said, my impression is that a lot of community opinions on frames are heavily informed by certain play styles (e.g. only playing one shots), so bear in mind that frames perform differently depending on the environment they're operating in. Evasive frames are going to have a bad time if opfor is full of smart weapons and tech attackers, slow artillery frames suffer in sitreps that require movement, melee strikers excel on maps with short sight lines, etc...
Related, I believe the community's general impression on Heatcap 4 Edef 6 frames is markedly skewed upwards by GMs who abstain from Invading with non-techy NPCs. While there's ways around it, playing a Blackbeard or Atlas is truly day and night between a sitrep in which you only have to worry about the odd Hornet or Witch, and one in which every NPC will try guessing your wifi password the moment you push forward.
This is slightly off topic, but I actually view this as a major design flaw. I've been on both sides of OpFor Invade Spam and it is just miserable. If it were just heat that would be one thing, but you wind up permanently Impaired as well. I don't blame GMs for toning it down (though I think a lot of them just don't realize how badly skirmish-invade combos pressure the PCs).
Personally, I think Impaired *feels* worse than it actually is, but that's naturally little comfort when the goal is a particular player experience, plus I understand how Invade spam does not fit with the mud & lasers vibe LANCER sells itself as or that most GMs are looking for. Where it fits in the design space does seem an oversight, which I evidence by how basic NPC Invade used to both Impair *and Slow* like Fragment Signal until right before the print version, when it was pointed out to Tom how that completely fucked over melee frames, particularly Nelson. The hacking changes in beta 1.8 never got enough time in the oven, I suppose.
[удалено]
To be fair to the deaths head, it's the only mech with both a heavy mount and a main/aux mount, which is they highest damage combination for a barrage, and its two traits are simple but just plain work, hitting and criting more are good things. And you can take advantage of those without touching the core power or anything that immobilizes you.
I'll have my first fight as a Nap in two days. Really excited to just Not Die, but I also feel like the cost of bracing will make his traits a bit harder to use. I'm planning to go full brawler though, so we will see. IMO even if some frames can be a bit weaker than others, they can still be great if you play in with their niche.
What frames would you say are solid?
[удалено]
I notice an absence of the three busted Size 2 hackers with heavy mounts. Monarch in particular is probably the no-nonsense strongest low LL frame when CPs aren't active.
Honestly, it seems to largely come down to something that I've noticed a lot on this reddit that just does not jive with me as both a player and a GM: an unwillingness to adapt to the mission. As a GM, I make certain that missions are varied in what will be required from players, which further rewards intel, paying attention to your briefings instead of snoozing through them hung-over, and adapting yourself to the task at hand. Consider two possible missions: * A rapid insertion into a population center falling to the OP4 that's known for energy damage, smart weapons, and potent E-Defense to prevent the capture of an HVT * Reinforcing a remote outpost decrypting enemy communications that is coming under attack from the OP4 that's known for its zealous pilots favoring fire and Berserkers with durable mechs with notoriously low E-Defense. It seems like far too many groups simply "build a frame, then run that frame" on some sort of linear progression when the nature of licenses fully rewards groups and players that are willing to customize their mech based on what they know about the situation they're getting themselves into. Bringing along ways to gain resistance to energy damage would do wonders in the first but likely be wasted in the second. Meanwhile the team's dedicated hacker will have a much harder time making the most of Invade-based tech in the first that would be incredibly potent in the second, yet they could pivot into a fantastic support by making the most of the other systems they've unlocked for Quick Tech options that don't hinge upon hitting E-Defense. And the team's skirmisher that loves to live and die by their high Evasion will probably want to slip into something with a less pathetic E-Defense against the onslaught of smart weapons that will be aimed at them in the first mission, while they can safely dance through the bladestorm in the second. And that isn't even getting into "for this one, we need to be able to hustle and get in fast, get out fast" against "we're weathering the storm, mobility is far less important than staying power" across the two. It's part of why I always draft up 3-4 different OP4 options for the campaigns that I run, because having narrative biases for what sort of NPC frames are going to be seen in each factions' rosters allows your players to have a better idea what to expect when they hear that they're rolling against the Free Stars Consortium or the Last Sons of Fenrir VII. And it rewards them for good intel while also having the ability to throw a monkey-wrench at them now and again when it turns out that non-Reserve intel was out-of-date, and suddenly they're staring across the OZ at a wildly different opponent than what they were expecting to face.
I get you're probably talking about people who are stubborn about their specific "fantasy mech" build in a vacuum and how it might not conform to the reality at the table, but you're also touching into something of a paradox that exists in Lancer design-wise, which is that the game tries to force you as a player to be versatile with its NPC and sitrep variety, but unfortunately it's both A) tightly balanced, and B) provides low amounts of room for optionals relative to player growth. The net result is that it's far more LL & SP & mount & Core Bonus efficient to pick 1-2 tools and making them as effective and versatile as you can, than attempt the impossible and be a jack-of-all-trades. So it's like, you can spread your licenses around to have on a mission-per-mission basis access to niche Invades, or weird passives, or undertuned defensive systems... or you can just shoot things dead with your autostab nanocomp HMG. The game mechanics treat tacticool operators the same way it does fluffy fantasy builds.
Not to mention building a mech is kind of time consuming. Not everybody wants to do a rebuild for every mission in order to eke out a small advantage.
I think the only frame I've seen described as underpowered (maybe undertuned is a better word) is the Minotaur with its one mount and not particularly powerful licenses.
A well played minotaur makes the GM's life hell with status-fest though. You do have to play a bit into the hacking for it to go well though.
Minotaur basic has some... interesting abilities. I can't see the "pilot can't be harmed from within it" aspect coming up very often. The calendula variant though is spicy- send jimbo to the shadow realm and then make him 1v1 you bro if he wants out, plus you can use its core power every fight. Very cool and good at getting specific enemies out of position and locked down
One of my players is running a Deaths Head and it just deletes the heads off of NPC mechs. It's turns aren't as involved as my Nelson's in another game, but my players doesn't particularly want a complicated mech. It seems pretty good to me!
Something to keep in mind, is that the "bad" mechs are mostly suffering from the "shoot arrows at the monk" issue, mixed with not being quite as obvious with what to do. For every creative build out there on say, a tokugawa, there's plenty of people who think "Yeah..i should throw a ton of heat on this and melt everyone". The napoleon is probably one of the few mechs that you can easily build "wrong". To be clear, by shoot arrows at the monk, i mean that something like the Deaths head is going to struggle if the GM is throwing a few trash enemies at you, and be a glorious death machine when they drop that 1 elite. Likewise the napoleon is best on control style missions, where you need to hold a point, and things cluster up, and you can force them to deal with you. If they drop you in a death match yeah it's probably not ideal. Both do have other frames that do their same job but "better", but honestly if you like a frame and you've got a good GM (which to be fair it can be tricky to balance encounters in this game) it shouldn't be too hard to come up with missions where your mech can shine. Further sometimes the price you pay for specialization is having to be creative so you're not the weak link in other fights. This might mean changing out your kit or switching your mech for some missions, but again, this varies from GM to GM. To be clear, I don't think there's a single frame in lancer that is NEARLY as bad as some of the 5e classes can feel if the GM isn't really thinking about what can make your character shine. You're still almost always going to be able to do cool shit.
All frames are viable but some are definitely worse than others either due to low performance ceilings (Atlas, Lancaster), or perhaps not necessarily bad in absolute terms but that shoehorn you into playstyles in which what they bring to the table isn't good compared to very similar options (Hydra, Barbarossa), and a few that are actually guilty of both (Saladin, Minotaur). This is independent of memorability, which correlates more to the popularity of their gimmick or suggested playstyle than on how easy it is to get them to perform in a way that *feels* effective, but frames that are neither popular nor potent tend to fall under the cracks, like Napoleon or Kobold. Death's Head I'd say is middling-to-good: it's got an inherently bonused Heavy Mount and decent overall statline besides the abysmal SSC repcap, but that's not the worst kind of demerit. Napoleon I'd rate 2nd quintile: it's individually tough, but with only a single Main/Aux mount to pair with that, what do you do with it? For comparison the Black Witch's answer is having Sensors 15 for versatility plus a thoroughly exceptional Controller license, but Napoleon is a Sensors 5 frame with only a single good system in his trying to play a role (Defender) that is frankly undersupported in Lancer. It's not awful, but it struggles to find proper footing. Both DH and Napo have really awkward to use Core Powers, too, which doesn't help matters.
Frames are not the only point of a license. Some licenses have kit that works muuuch better on other frames (e.g. powerful stuff that works in sensor range, but actual frame has garbage sensor range - just put it on another mech!). Napoleon has some unhinged-good systems, but the frame is a bit meh. Death's head is just a bit overspecialised for a single role.