/btg/ Battletech General!

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>>50804461
PART TWO!: -

Field Manual Comstar.PDF
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ja3z2n1goe12623/Field_Manual_Comstar.PDF
8604 - The Spider and the Wolf
https://www.mediafire.com/?3d9brfrkj9vnhka
Aerotech 2 - Revised
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ivqhzog2wyoegxo/Battletech_35011_-_Aerotech_2_Revised.pdf
hexpacks 2&3:

Battletech Hexpacks
http://www.mediafire.com/file/3o59kirzzz6znac/BattleTech_Hexpacks.7z
also introbox stuff:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/l22yrlkk9buzuzl/BattleTech_Intro_Box_Set.7z

Historical War of 3039
https://www.scribd.com/doc/23569748/35014-Historical-War-of-3039

Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries is coming, set during the Third Succession War.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz8Y1V8gy1A&feature=youtu.be

Heavy Metal Archive (OLD)
http://www.mediafire.com/file/8so68gbw3yga4cb/2016-12-11_HeavyMetal-Archive-OLD.rar

Fan made TRO 3063:
battletechreader.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-fan-made-technical-readout-3063.html
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/8o30486fony5f/Fan_TRO_3063

... also Butte Hold

...and chibi Archer

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Chibi Longbow...

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>>50804663
...and finally Chibi Rifleman.

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>>50804670
This is all sorts of adorable.

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>>50804461

Obligatory.

>>50804461
Now I want a tiny Warhammer Assault BA in the style of the MAD BA, because that's exactly what that looks like.

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>ywn have almost two companies of mechs just sitting around as reserves
I need to stop salvaging dammit.

>>50801406
>I remember before I even knew that Battletech had an RPG, one of my friends had all the technical readouts and we would read them together and pretend to be arms dealers using Microsoft Excel to make these huge spreadsheets and track dates and stuff to see how much money we were making selling to the Draconis Combine.

Young accountanttechs in action.

>>50805364
The one thing I love about the RPG is that you can do /exactly that/. You don't all have to play jock MechWarriors kicking ass across the galaxy. If you want to play a game of traders in the BT-verse, that's totally kosher and there's dozens of ways to spin that in.

>>50805357

>I need to stop salvaging dammit.

No, you just need to hire more pilots.

>>50805256
Wouldn't that pretty much be an off-brand Marauder with a rocket launcher in place of the recoilless?

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>>50805357
>Two Daishis and just a massive amount of expensive monsters.
What campaign have you been fighting to have come away with such a nice haul? You have Daishis IN RESERVE! Wow.
What are you currently fielding that you ignored Daishis and some of those heavy hitters? I need to know this.

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>>50805993
Daishis are too slow, but too fun to get rid of.

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>>50806069
>I have to kill fast but Daishis too slow

Sweet Omi Kurita, and I thought I was well off this time around.

>>50806310
Look in the "M"s and you'll see why...

>>50806069
An entire trinary of Mad Cats...
Almost an entire trinary of Ryokens...
Dat list
I'm not counting all that, but it looks like you have somewhere around two full battalions of piloted mechs on duty. Are you using a NASA super computer to play Megamek with all that firepower? What's the maximum number of participants you have done on a mission?
What campaign are you running?
>I am a little astounded.

>>50806069
>more Timber Wolf mechs than Clan Wolf had in Operation Revival
top kek

>>50804461
>>50804474
>>50804663
>>50804670
>>50805092
What's with all the macross in this thread, I thought you guys hated weeb shit

>>50806507
Some of the original unseen mechs came from Macross, Fang of the Sun Dougram and Crusher Joe. It's just a silly thing. Some of us love the old unseen no matter where they came from. My first experience with the art actually came from the 2nd Edition box set before I even knew what a Macross, Dougram or Crusher Joe was. I didn't even know what anime was.

>>50804670
I consider the Blackjack superior to the Rifleman
Also, is possible to make a Rifleman variant capable of emulating it's destroid equivalent (with torso missiles)?

>>50806377
There actually are 15 Ryokens, just one of my pilots was in a Centurion AH at the time I got it, so free upgrade! Also I have a full 108 pilots on active duty, with another 15 on reserve in case of KIA or serious injury, plus 14 ASF, and 10 stars of Elemental bondsmen.

>Are you using a NASA super computer to play Megamek with all that firepower? What's the maximum number of participants you have done on a mission?
Nah, just not throwing down every unit possible. As for the most I've used, 35 mechs on my side, plus 45 on the bot's. It took about 6 hours for the game to finish, even with individual initiative, because the bot just had so many units to use.

>What campaign are you running?
The "Holy shit, 60% salvage in 3050 with elite pilots against Green Clanners in A rated gear" campaign. My first 6 missions netted me a star of Omnimechs.

>>50806428
Considering since 3050, my unit has destroyed 15 galaxies worth of Clan forces, we're in some bizarre alternate timeline where the Falcons, seeing that these mercenaries JUST WON'T DIE, throw their entire IS touman at them, and lose all five galaxies in 3051.

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I don't mean this in a sarcastic or trolling way, but does it seem to anyone else like the Capellan Confederation has become the "main" faction of the story for BT now? Even looking at all their new toys in TRO 3145 it just seems like they are what the Federated Suns was in 3025.

A far, far cry from the beaten and demoralized force they were in 3025.

Do you guys think the trend of Liao ascending will quit any time soon?

>>50806826
Why shouldn't a nation be completely different after 120 years?

I didn't like them as a nation in the 3025-3063 era, but I did like their mechs for some reason. Catapults just have a special place in my heart, I guess.

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>>50806628

>Also, is possible to make a Rifleman variant capable of emulating it's destroid equivalent (with torso missiles)?

Sure, if you increase the tonnage and/or use Clan tech.

I prefer to keep it bad, mad, and still interesting because of that though. YMMV.

>>50806847
>Why shouldn't a nation be completely different after 120 years?
In BattleTech change often seems a hard thing to come by. The Suns, Combine and Commonwealth are culturally, politically and militarily rather stoic. Only the FWL changed as much as the Confederation, and it had to die first.

>>50806826

>Do you guys think the trend of Liao ascending will quit any time soon?

From a story and fan perspective it would be nice if things moved on to the FWL and Dracs for a while and for something to resolve what's going on with the Lyrans, preferably with them making some ground against the Falcons when Malvina bites the dust and all her stupid bullshit comes back to haunt the Falcons.

However, one of the company owners and primary writers is a mega-fan of the Capellans and Capellan fans are the second-largest group of fans overall. Given that it's hard to see them facing any major reversals or being shuffled out of the limelight.

>>50806847
just can't hate Ravens and Catapults

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>>50806507
>I thought you guys hated weeb shit

Some of us go back further than that, anon. BattleDroids/Battletech owes its origins to anime.

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>>50806847
>I didn't like them as a nation in the 3025-3063 era, but I did like their mechs for some reason. Catapults just have a special place in my heart, I guess.
I like their mechs, but what really got me into the faction is an admittedly weird bit of coincidence.

The CapCon is the only faction in all of BT I've ever found a character with either my last name or my mother's maiden name. I didn't even consider either surname to be particularly uncommon, but of the myriad surnames we've seen characters possess those of my own family never showed up.

So I decided to go Liao.

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>>50806628
I looked everywhere and only found the Archer (Spartan) and the Warhammer (Tomahawk) had torso missiles. The Rifleman (Defender) was mainly a direct fire gunner. Might you be thinking of one of the others?
Also a few months ago I made Macross versions of three of those four mechs and another of the Macross II version of the Longbow (Phalanx.) I needed Clan tech to fit all the torso SRMs and made it look animation perfect.

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Alright guys.
Year is 3039.

Your mercenary group has just successfully defending a yet un-named battlemech factory world from being conquered the enemy faction. No damage has come to the manufacturing lines but the cost has been extreme on your mechs and materials. Most of your pilots have survived but are now dispossessed.

Out of gratitude the company's board has agreed to issue your pilots new mechs as they come off the line. There are stipulations, however, you must:
A) Agree to use the company's designs exclusively for the next 20 years

B) Have the company logo integrated into your unit's insignia

C) Be assigned a PR team that accompanies you on your future missions. They will record your combat actions for sales purposes. You MUST keep them from harm and get them home even at the cost of your own personnel.

What planet did you fight on?
What company did you protect?
What designs are you using to refill your rosters?

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>>50806719
>where the Falcons, seeing that these mercenaries JUST WON'T DIE, throw their entire IS touman at them

I bet these two are the Khan and the saKhan of the Falcons in this AU.

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>>50807353
I would say Cosara, because I love Krebs in all forms, but then I'd also get stuck promoting Targes. Do we get to make recommendations due to field testing?

>>50807410
>Do we get to make recommendations due to field testing?
Yes but there is no guarantee that they will be listened to. On the other hand, you merc's field modifications and refits may make it into movies, commercials, and in various industry and hobby publications.

>>50807353

Gonna be hard to go past Defiance Hesperus there.

Archer, Atlas, Banshee, Enforcer*, Flashman, Goliath*, Griffin, Hatchetman, Sentinel*, Valkyrie* and Zeus. Not sure when they get the asterisked ones but the rest are a pretty solid core to work with.

If you really want to be a smart-ass about it, some Norse-Storm factory so you can go HUE HUE HUE and gausswall your way to victory.

Prescient knowledge would also favour Luthien due LAW but it's hard to imagine a scenario where Luthien would be under serious threat or relying on mercs for defence.

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>>50807353
First things first:

>NOT Quickscell

With that out of the way, I'm gonna say the planet is Wallis, the company is Ronin Inc, and see pic related to see what I'm gonna be using.

Also, let's see how many cases of "Defiance" you get.

>>50807502
how come fucking Defiance wasn't nuked from Hesperus yet? its literally the biggest Steiner factory and it survived a kajillion invasions.

at some point someone really must think: "fuck this shit nuke it"

>>50807904
>its literally the biggest Steiner factory

There's your reason. Everyone who comes calling wants to make it their biggest factory. Nuking the Myoo Mountains into the Myoo Crater would be counterproductive to that goal.

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>>50807904
>how come fucking Defiance wasn't nuked from Hesperus yet? its literally the biggest Steiner factory and it survived a kajillion invasions.

Maybe they defend it ever the moreso because of that. Nukes can be nasty!

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>>50807995
>We didn't attack a Lyran factory! We just used our nukes on the caverns below the factory! We totally obeyed the Ares convention!

>>50807229

That's reasonable, I found myself oddly attracted to the FWL simply because they named a planet after me.

>>50806554
Why I gave away my fanpro/wizkids box and rebought the older version 2nd hand.

Is battletech a war board game or a tabletop war game? How would you define the difference?

>>50809961
Yes.


It qualifies as a historical hex and chit, a miniatures game, and a reskinned naval simulation.

>>50809983
So it's both a board game and a miniature war game?

>>50809961
I would call it essentially a future-historical wargame, and also a board game that can but doesn't have to be played with miniatures.
It kind of lives in a weird category nearly on it's own, very little else quite like it

>>50810171
Wouldn't hero clix or heroscape be in a similar catagory though because of their uses of game mats and a tile based movement system?

>>50810171
When you intro duce it to people do you introduce it has a war board game or a miniature war game?

What do you guys think of the Ostroc?

>>50809028
K-Kendall?

>>50810404
Ost/10. The Ostsol edges it out because there's no ammo. If the Ostroc was a sniper to the Ostsol's brawler, it'd feel more distinct.

>>50806507
I don't know what I'm reading here...

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What's your favorite dead regiment?

I like the Kathil Uhlans.

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I can't figure out what the one with the pompadour is supposed to be. Help me out.

Also, post comics if you got 'em.

>>50810667
It's a Hermes II.

>>50810296
Nah, they only share the hex grid with battletech, which a shitton of games do. Only thing battletech has in common with heroclix is that there was once a miserable and evil battletech spinoff using that system.
>>50810317
A wargame 100%. Unless you're using the very rarely used gridless mini rules, miniatures are literally only in the game as tokens, comparable to the cardboard chits used in many other wargames

>>50806628
>Also, is possible to make a Rifleman variant capable of emulating it's destroid equivalent (with torso missiles)?
Given that the other designs with torsos like that have RLs in canon, yeah. Strip the MLs in the torso and give it a pair of RL-15s in the slots. The Defender just uses those for ammo storage though.

>>50807229
Well, my mother's maiden name is a pseudonym, father's is one of the most common in the world, and the great-grandparents are "Butson", "Cundy", and "Gorman". So...

>>50810404
>What do you guys think of the Ostroc?
It's okay. Gets better in the Civil War and Jihad. Prefer the Ostsol and Ostwar though.

>>50810983
>miniatures are literally only in the game as tokens, comparable to the cardboard chits used in many other wargames
Couldn't that be said about most other miniature wargames like warhammer or infinity?

>>50810983
>A wargame 100%. Unless you're using the very rarely used gridless mini rules,
Why would gridless mini rules for battle tech make it no longer a wargame? Did you mean to call it a boardgame?

>>50811028
>Gorman
How many drops is this for you, anon?

>>50811088
Yes. This guy keeps using the words together so I got slightly twisted
>>50811052
Well, battletech doesn't have WYSIWYG rules like warhammer and probably infinity(I don't know because I don't play it) have, and under the regular rules they don't matter for LoS, either

Can someone explain to me how infantry transport works? I'm trying to work out what sort of space and how much of it I need to move different types of BA around.

>>50811449
What particular aspect of it has you confused?

Also, is this for infantry bays in DropShips or infantry compartments in vehicles?

>>50811197
>How many drops is this for you, anon?
all four sets of great-Grandparents on Dad's side immigrated from Ireland, great-Grandpa Gorman was a Senator and judge in North Dakota. Family moved out West in the Dust bowl, most of us settled in Oregon and some went to Washington.

>>50811052
>Couldn't that be said about most other miniature wargames like warhammer or infinity?
In Infinity specifically the silhouette system they use means that yeah, technically they're counters. But the Warhams and most other minis wargames use the model itself for LoS.

>>50811449
Under normal rules, each BA takes a ton of transport capacity in a vee. Advanced rules make it so that you actually need the appropriate number of tons based on the BA itself, which makes hauling 'Zooches less fun and Nighthawks much more useful. Or you can just get an Omni, at which point things get weird.

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>>50806507
Because unlike other moeshit otakus made today, Macross was actually very good. Who doesn't love a space Top Gun with transforming mechs.

And it has kickass soundtracks.

>>50811733
Just say thirty-eight... simulated.

>>50810617
Kell Hounds

>>50807410
>but then I'd also get stuck promoting Targes.

Dude, *3039*. You'd have over a century before having that problem.

>>50806826
purple burd muthafucka

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>>50811814
Derp, right. I always was an asshole about that.

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>>50810617

Night Stalkers

>>50811473
vehicles. The range of weights is just confusing me - there are vees with 1 ton, three tons, 4 tons, 6 tons, eight tons, and so on. Which ones can I put my BA in? Can i take a unit with 3 BA to put in a 3-ton vehicle compartment? etc.

>>50812405 here, missed >>50811733

So there's no limit on dudes, just weight? So I can have one assault BA or four light BA in the same space?

>>50812426
In the stock rules, you can have 4 BA of any type in a single 4-ton infantry compartment. In advanced rules, you can only have however many BA will fit per tonnage -- so in that same scenario, 4 Mediums (1T each) would fit there, or 2 Assaults (2T each), or even 10 of the Exoskeleton/PAL type.

>>50812297
Intro date was 3081, so yeah. Technically 42 years, but I may have also missed the 20 year part of the sponsorship deal.

Are light mechs completely useless? It seems like vehicles could do all their roles cheaper and better. Kind of like how modern armies don't use light tanks anymore.

>>50812631
Light mechs are still tougher and have advantages like jump jets, moving through woods, etc. Basically, the motive types that can go fast have heavy limitations that Light mechs get around.

>>50812776
Does it really make sense to send a light mech to scout out an area?

Wouldn't a satellite, an aerospace fighter, a vtol, or simply a squad of commandos, always be a better choice?

>>50812837
Hyper Entropic Warfare pls go. Stay go, and have your entire planet turned into a shitty Xin Sheng ripoff.

>>50812901
what?

>>50812837
>Wouldn't a satellite, an aerospace fighter

Well, different planets have different atmospheric conditions so possibly there is cloud cover which could prevent that, but spysats should be the first choice in intelligence gathering.

>a vtol, or simply a squad of commandos, always be a better choice?

Definitely. VTOLs if you just need to see an area right now, Stealth BA or just regular special forces if you have time and need more intel than that.

>>50812837
>Wouldn't a satellite
Maybe, but they're EXTREMELY vulnerable to ASFs and not great for observing large areas, so they wouldn't be very useful except in certain specialist applications
>an aerospace fighter,
Rare, expensive and easy to kill with even a modicum of AA assets
>a vtol
Actually used for recon a lot, but still extremely vulnerable
>or simply a squad of commandos
Used sometimes, but very vulnerable to mech or vehicles, and also pretty slow-moving

>>50812837
Light mechs seem too expensive to risk on something like that.

Light mech regiments seem ungodly stupid as a concept. Look how the Daviob Light Guard got beat to shit and reduced to like a company tops at the battle of New Syrtis.

>>50812917

Hyper Entropic Warfare was the creation of a complete madman who thought he had the most optimal way to ever do in-universe battletech warfare.

iirc (And I could be wrong, it's been a long time) it involved a LOT of 'Wins hearts and minds' and Pulse Lasers, hot dropping into cities.

Because cityfighting is GREAT for civilians liking you.

>>50812837
Light mechs are more used in a kind of recon-in-force/harassment role.

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>>50812837

If you have those assets available, sure. There's a shitload of times you don't though.

Satellites - dependent on control of the planet, and even then they can be destroyed by ASFs.
ASFs - Gotta have 'em to use em, and many elements don't. Even if you do, recon requires established air superiority.
VTOLs - A very good option, and can be reasonably common, but they're incredibly fragile.
Commandos - Not all units have infantry support, and also remember that infantry are slow. A fast pace for long-distance ops for highly-trained professional infantry with full fighting loads is about 6.5kph, unless they're mechanized.

A light mech (we'll use a bug, the Stinger, as an example) can move 90kph through most terrain, and can jump over whatever it can't walk through. It can also take a few hits from light weaponry (or like 2 hits tops in a lucky spot from heavier weapons), and doesn't generally risk getting wrecked from taking those light weapon shots. It's reliable, it's rather cheap, it's fucking everywhere, and it gets the job done.

>>50812837
Considering how cheap cubesats are to make now, and the advancements in camera technology, I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't millions of them watching every square inch by the end of the century.

>>50812837
Light mechs tend to have much better electronic gear than most other units that you're suggesting.

>>50813072
Plus SRMs I think

Do the Davions manufacture the Awesome during the 3rd Succession War? I feel like I heard they do.

>>50813140
Banks of streak SRMs on slow assaults, in particular

>>50813159
I don't belive so, the awesome is just very common everywhere because shittons were built in the SL era and they very rarely get destroyed

>>50813160

Ah yes, the perfect tactic. Who ever could think of the deadly counterstrategy of 'Walking backwards with large lasers'

>>50812837
The problem with all of those is that a 'mech is noticeable. Even the lightest ones are pretty damn big and noticeable on a variety of sensors -- seismic, thermal, overhead, and it leaves wide, noticeable tracks. BattleMech treads tear up big patches of land. They leave lingering thermal signatures.

Satellites work well, assuming you have air control, otherwise you're just repeatedly hacking and taking control of enemy sats, or guarding any sats you place.

VTOLs can be noticed, but they're good (like a light vee) for inserting infantry or BA for longer term operations. Infantry can be inserted close and maintain stealth for a very long period of time, and have an operation time dependent upon their consumables.

ASFs would only be good if you use a light, disposable craft like a Boomerang and run it in high altitude hexes. Or if you can take a commercial/civilian craft and modify it to incorporate spy gear and fly it over known hostile areas.

>>50813182
Not the brightest fellow, the creator

>>50813182
Heh, so you think, friendo

*hyper entropicly jumps behind you*

Nothing personal...

*unleashes multiple banks of streak SRMs into your rear*

Too easy *smirks*

>>50813177
>they very rarely get destroyed
You know, I think the ONLY time I've ever actually seen an awesome completely destroyed was one of the idiotic and pointless LRM variants that had it's ammo pop. Every single other one I've seen go down was from a gyro or head or lost legs, or in one case to XL engine torso loss, all of which is completely recoverable damage

>Use this Redeem Code for 7 days Premium time!
>MechWarriorOnline_Gift_2016

yeah go fuck yourself, if i wanted to play a game that was kinda-sorta like BT but not really, I'd make sure it was at least fun

>>50813378

>I hate free things for games I don't play

>>50813197

Satellites and high altitude aircraft can never replace ground truth.
VTOLs are easy to shoot down.
Infantry can't cover as much ground as a fast light mech.
Hovercraft and fast combat vees are limited by terrain.

In fluff, light mechs still have a place.

>>50810983
ClickTech wasn't that bad. It made you use combined forces.
Though the 'pack' nature of the game and how much pure shit was crammed into each one made it very annoying.

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>>50814665
How is MW:O these days?
Last I played over a year ago it was a god-awful grind fest where if you didn't have an optimal load-out, you just got ass-fucked over and over.

>>50815911
>Though the 'pack' nature of the game and how much pure shit was crammed into each one made it very annoying.
Yes, that was the miserable and evil part.

>>50815984

It's gotten a bit better since. It's less about optimal loadouts and more about decent loadouts and piloting skill/game sense. Done some FW drops recently on the clan side - fuck me, these retards wouldn't understand teamwork and positioning if you smacked them with it.

>>50815984
Its still a grindfest, but it has slightly improved, if you were to come back, it will probally be to check the new mechs

>>50815911
the game was great, the marketing sucked

>https://battletechgear.com/

>Not a single thing is even close to meeting minimum order

The guy in charge of that over at harebrained is probably really sad.

>>50816035
On the plus side, the game was never popular enough to drive up the cost of shit worth using, so you could just buy a good list on ebay pretty cheap.

So if I actually wanted to get good info on playing stuff for the Jihad, what books would I want to look at?

>>50815527
>Satellites and high altitude aircraft can never replace ground truth.
Never said it would or could.
>VTOLs are easy to shoot down.
Yes, and?
>Infantry can't cover as much ground as a fast light mech.
Yeah, that's why I suggested using a vehicle to get them close to the spot.
>Hovercraft and fast combat vees are limited by terrain.
No shit. And?

>In fluff, light mechs still have a place.
Yes, and that's as someone else said, recon in force. Or as an element of a harassing/brawling unit.

what are the most common Davion mechs in the 3025 era? I want to make a unit of them.

>>50816271
Valkyries, Javelins, Locusts, Stingers, Wasps, Enforcers, Shadow Hawks, Dervishes, Centurions, Riflemen, Jaegermechs, Archers, Warhammers, Marauders, occasional Stalkers, Awesomes, Atlases and Cyclopes

>>50816066
>Done some FW drops recently on the clan side - fuck me, these retards wouldn't understand teamwork and positioning if you smacked them with it.

So they're roleplaying Clanners perfectly.

>>50816145
>https://battletechgear.com/

Well who the fuck wears a hooded tshirt?

>>50815984

As much as I hate to admit it, it has improved a lot. There's still some bullshit but there's much less Highlander Poptarting for Days.

Even the worst of the bullshit, the Kodiak, thankfully seems to be driven by morons 90% of the time.

They're also settling into a more reasonable release schedule for mechs and a more actually functioning FW.

>>50816569

I know, they should have marketed faction suspenders and glasses cases instead given the target audience of the game.

Looking at BA item weight in Tech Manual tables - what are the numbers in brackets for? For example, the LRM1 has weight listed as "60 kg [40 kg]"

>>50818858

One-shot launchers have their masses listed in the brackets.

>>50816205
Consider this: If you sit down at the table to play a game of Battletech, do you want to play with a single Crow as it cruises over scads of map sheets before it makes brief contact, tries to survive a round or two of shooting, and then flees again? Or would you prefer to actually play that phase of the game where you light mechs contact the enemy and try to hold their attention while your heavier forces move up to solidly engage them?

Most of the recon alternatives you mention just aren't that interesting to play on the tabletop. AToW or MW would be a hell of a lot more interesting in that regard.

>>50819289
>Or would you prefer to actually play that phase of the game where you light mechs contact the enemy and try to hold their attention while your heavier forces move up to solidly engage them?

Of course, this doesn't really work in BT EITHER, so I guess it doesn't make much difference...

>>50819344
It sorta does in a scenerio designed for it. Lights making contact would almost always be running into opposing scout/picket units, which would also be light, with both sides being in the interesting tactical situation of deciding to get stuck in and hope their heavier elements show up first, or trying to break contact and possibly surrender the initiative

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>>50812344
>dat ship

I kept looking and looking for a little PE-in-a-box signature, and only then thought about googling it. I bet Peter Elson would have done fantastic dropships and warships.

>>50815984
As a game? Much improved. Still doesn't feel like BT, but hopefully MW5 will address that(don't hold yer breath!).

The problem is that much improved doesn't equate to good. It's still more of a grind than War Thunder(let that sink in) and the pace is all weird.

>>50820549
Given the art of the Argo, I was hoping a total redo of aerotech was coming. Alas, it turned out to just be a large, spacelocked quasi mobile station of a dropship. Still neat.

I was hoping that the Argo would represent the "new normal" as far as what jumpships looked like and how they operated.

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>>50820621
forgot pic

>>50820621

It breaks way too many of the construction rules, and changing the rules to allow for it would open paths to madness best left unexplored.

I still think they should re-do the stats for everything so ships can support themselves and their crew properly on the DS front and WSes live up to their fluff.

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maps

>>50821341
Sweet.

>>50813095
Dude... BattleTech is the future of the 1980s, 2010s satellite tech never existed.

>>50821341
Nice.
Is that map pack 1 and 2?

>>50822555
Nope, definitely not map pack 1, I have all of those maps and I never found a copy of map pack 1.

>>50822504
Yes, but satellites are present in TRO:VA and strat ops, IIRC.

Hey /btg/

I will admit I haven't even read the introductory material in the OP and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Please spoonfeed me: Is the 25th Anniversary Introductory Box a good buy?

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>>50822998
>I will admit I haven't even read the introductory material in the OP and have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

Start by watching Robot Jox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUxDmKFCD2o

>Please spoonfeed me: Is the 25th Anniversary Introductory Box a good buy?

This one? Yes. It gets you the basic rules for the game as it takes place around 3025. Being able to understand and play with those rules will prepare you for all the craziness that goes on in /btg/. Additionally, you get a whole slew of plastic mechs to play with - FASA-specific designs (so not the original anime-inspired mechs) ranging from the lightweight Commando (only 25 tons) all the way up to the brutal Atlas (100 tons).

>>50822791

They are, and if you're a smart merc you'll buy the shit out of them, but they aren't as much of a factor in the fluff as was proposed either. In large part as he said, because BT is the future of a previous era and hasn't kept up that well with modern tech.

>>50823284
And with what tonnage am I going to load these on board my dropship? The lightest one in TRO:VA that's available before 3062 is 20 tons, and I hate making support vehicles to get one that's lighter.

>>50823332

I bought a Buccaneer to drag all that shit around and used it to string observation sats up.

I doubt they're implemented in ATB any way so there'd be no point. But for an in-person campaign they're great.

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>>50823223

Thank you for the detailed reply, anon. That video is hilariously great.

Yes, that's the kit I meant. I see that there are some different time settings and stuff so I guess I better read. But I read a few reviews last night and it looks like that is an alright starting point to learn how to play, as you said, so I think I'll get it.

If you wouldn't mind humoring one more question, though: I prefer the mechs that are either quad-movers or that look sort of like pic related. I assume this makes me a pleb, but more importantly, is it viable to run mostly these sort of guys? I'll just be playing casually with my roommates

>>50823526

Oh also I forgot to mention, one of them used to play BT so he actually knows what he's doing. He went home for the holidays though so I can't ask him any of this. Basically the last thing he did before he left was explain some of the very basic premises but I didn't get much useful stuff out of him, and now I'm trying to read up on the game which is why I'm posting instead of being productive. I do appreciate the help though so thanks anon.

Xotl, please come back. I have rage I'd like to share with you.

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>>50823526
>Thank you for the detailed reply, anon. That video is hilariously great.

Watch the whole movie. Achilles and Alexander get a rematch later on. Also, check out the first Patlabor movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCxKs9tYhn4

>Yes, that's the kit I meant. I see that there are some different time settings and stuff so I guess I better read. But I read a few reviews last night and it looks like that is an alright starting point to learn how to play, as you said, so I think I'll get it.

If you can find it for a decent price, it's a great buy. Want later more advanced rules? They're all up there in the OP. To start with, though, you're going to want to have a paper rulebook in your hadn to refer to as you go along. That it comes with decent-looking plastic mechs instead of a handful of cardboard standups is a huge plus!

>If you wouldn't mind humoring one more question, though: I prefer the mechs that are either quad-movers or that look sort of like pic related.

There won't be any quads in the box you're looking at, and I'm pretty sure the rules there won't make any distinction between two- and four-legged models.That's a bit too complex for the intro box. The picture you've attached is a Clan mech called a Warhawk (Inner Sphere designation is "Masakari"), a type of mech that began to appear later in the timeline of the game; something you'll experience when you move into the more advanced rules during the Clan Invasion era.

>I assume this makes me a pleb, but more importantly, is it viable to run mostly these sort of guys? I'll just be playing casually with my roommates

While I don't own it myself, I've heard that intro box you're looking at actually comes with two Clan mechs. Games set during the Clan Invasion era or later have these kind of things all over the place, but nobody in the Inner Sphere (where the game takes place in 3025 during the Succession Wars era) even knew that such machines existed.

>cont'd

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>>50823526
>is it viable to run mostly these sort of guys? I'll just be playing casually with my roommates

I wanted to mention that while the basic rules wouldn't cover what you'd need to actually have a Masakari in your games, it *does* cover basic construction c. 3025, which means you could build a mech that *looks* like the Masakari, and field *that* in your games. There is a whole other art to the engineering that goes into Battletech, on the order of which no other game except for maybe Steve Jackson's Car Wars even comes close!

>>50823583
>Basically the last thing he did before he left was explain some of the very basic premises but I didn't get much useful stuff out of him, and now I'm trying to read up on the game which is why I'm posting instead of being productive. I do appreciate the help though so thanks anon.

The basics that you'll need to glean from that intro set come down to:

- Initiative (Who goes first? Which mechs can I move, and when?)
- Movement and Terrain Effects (How far can I move, and what happens when I encounter woods, hills, or water?)
- Weapons Fire (What does this gun do, is my opponent in range, and what do I need to roll to hit him with it?)
- Damage and Destruction (Now that I hit, how do I make him fall down and stay there?)

That's really all you need to play the game starting out. Once you get the hang of how the mechs move around the map and shoot at each other, you round things out by injecting the rules for managing your waste heat level, engaging in physical combat, keeping track of limited ammunition, and the various things the pilots (called Mechwarriors) can do and have happen to them.

Everything else you see floating around in /btg/ is extra... but the more you want to learn, there it is out there for you!

>>50823845

>Watch the whole movie.
Alright, didn't realize it even was a movie (just assumed it was a TV show that'd be impossible to find lol). I'll do that then.

>If you can find it for a decent price, it's a great buy.

I found it for cheaper than the other game I was considering getting so I will pick it up. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't buying something dumb.

>Games set during the Clan Invasion era or later have these kind of things all over the place, but nobody in the Inner Sphere (where the game takes place in 3025 during the Succession Wars era) even knew that such machines existed.

Oh, okay. I looked at the models that come in the box set and I really like some of them so that's not a problem. I'll look into that other stuff on the setting too over the next few days.

>There is a whole other art to the engineering that goes into Battletech

Yeah, this was one of the few useful things I did get out of my roommate and is part of the reason I want to get into the game. Good to know it's possible to make mechs that look that way and will actually be compatible with the set.

Thanks for all of the information, anon. You've given me lots of good leads. I appreciate it.

I remember a long time ago there was a tally on all the "buckethead" mechs of Battletech. All I can remember at the Whitworth, Trebuchet and Hatamoto-chi for the samurai helmet. Are there any other buckethead mechs I can use for an all-buckethead company?

>>50822504
It was the future of the 1980s like 30 years ago. Have you missed all the more recent sourcebooks?

>>50824477
Some incarnations of the cyclops are pretty buckethead

>>50824477
Kabuto

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These are the only survivors after a single nuke strike on some Wolf mechs. Not pictured are the 11 mechs at ground zero. Get rekt furfags.

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>>50826056

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>>50824477
Commando, some of the incarnations of the Enforcer (pic related).

>>50824477
The Victor has a fair bullet head.

tfw your innocuous filler infantry squad starts murdering mechs left and right
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViXd_-b-iAU

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How many "Happy" mechs are there?
Enough to make a company with no duplicates?

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>>50826757
The Guillotine is really happy in both the IS (left) and Clan (right) versions. The IS Guillotine is the "Highlander-senpai noticed me!" (thx other anon) sort of happy, whilst the IIC is giving a hearty belly laugh.

>>50826832
The IIC looks like it's ao happy because it's 1/2 Awesome on it's mother's side

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I want MechCommander 3, the first one was excellent, but it was impressive how horrible the overall visuals managed to look in the sequel despite being proper 3D instead of sprites and how mediocre the game was in general.

>>50827807
It's coming anon, though it's looking like they lifted a lot of elements from the newer XCOM games.

>>50806554

I am amazed Catalyst hasnt gotten inspiration from Armored Core for thruster movement mechs. Something like a mech sized version of a flying gunship. Heavily armored like a Hind and takes hits well but maintenance hogs and flying bricks

>>50828196
That's called "an ASF in atmo". Like, with the bigger ones, you've actually got a good chance of surviving the PSR-induced lithobraking.

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Pop, pop, pop, watching muthafuckas drop.

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>>50828768

>>50828170
>Anon wants a RTS
>"hey, there's this TBS being released, they are almost the same thing :^)"

>>50828768
>>50828965
http://pastebin.com/hxhLcaBy
That's the two nuke strikes. The second nuke doesn't start until line 1793.

>>50828986
Mechcommander wasn't an RTS.

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>>50828768
>>50828965
>>50829066

>>50828768
>>50829066
>>50829273
STANDING

>>50816145
I feel sorry for him, the choices aren't likely his fault. The statue is a nice centerpiece, but a bit pricey. I assume hooded shirts are a weird upper west coast thing. The banner sets have 2 downsides. The first is that they are not selling them individually, and the second are changed designs. I like some of the banners, but not others, and certainly don't want to order all for some I want. It could have been an informal faction poll, too.

>>50816145
The problem is that they launched the first wave far too close to the deadline, with barely a month to meet a minimum quota. They're probably wagering on Christmas (or post-Christmas) sales going up due to people having funds and such kicked back to them.

>>50830932
>>50830077
They really should just sell the faction banners individually, but apparently that's too complex

>>50831023
It would be too expensive. Rather than paying $17 for each one you'd end up paying $25-30. By getting a set of 5, the printing of them becomes cheaper, since there's a static amount of each type.

>>50831180
Yes, but the cheaper the overall investment the more likely they are to sell. Paying $25-30 for the one you want is more attractive than paying $85 for one that you want and 4 that you don't. Is it more work? Yes. Is it a headache if you use Asian printers? Definitely. I'm not arguing that it doesn't make sense from a logistics side, but that it is less likely to generate profit.

>>50831180
>>50831390
Also, those who wanted these things had the option to get them during the kickstarter, which is likely to be the larger/more passionate market. I had friends make larger pledges to get the scroll when they would otherwise not have gotten one at all.

>>50831390
It may only appear more attractive, except these are limited-run items. Plus most BT players tend to congregate -- someone buys a set, then finds someone to pay $15 for a Liao banner that they don't want, etc. Even without that, it's a collectible item.

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Here... have a Thorn shooting up an Archer.

I'm shockingly bored, /btg/, and at a family gathering. Help.

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>>50834032
Fantasize about punching the shit out of Clanners in an Atlas

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>>50834032
When they try to talk politics, go on a rant about how Hanse did nothing wrong.

>>50834032
Storm down the stairs, brandishing wrapping paper cardboard tubes over your arms, like PPCs, and go "REACTOR ONLINE, SENSORS ONLINE, WEAPONS ONLINE, ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL. YOU DARE REFUSE MY BATCHALL, INNER SPHERE SURRATS?!"

Bonus points if you put on some sunglasses and say "ACTIVATING ENHANCED IMAGING".

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>>50834084
YOU WILL MEET ME IN A CIRCLE OF EQUALS, QUI AFF?

>>50834032
Let the liquor do the thinking bud

>>50834110
>qui aff

its aff and then responded to by qui aff in affirmation YOU FUCKING STUPID

>>50834420
But he expects you to say yes, not for you to ask him something. Did quiaff suddenly become something other than "question, yes?"

>>50834420
>>50834481

DOES MARCELLUS WALLACE LOOK LIKE A FREEBIRTH, QUIAFF?

>>50834572
...What? No!

>>50834572
N...neg?

>>50833519
YAY! I don't think I have that one for the collection!
>Gotta catch 'em all!

>>50834572
>>50834481
no no no this is how it works

"Hey we're going to play some battletech tonight, aff?"

Aff is basically a replacement for "right?" or "yes?"

qui aff is the response.

so the conversation would go

"Hey we are going to play battletech today, aff?"

"Qui aff."

>>50835975
ah fuck my bad its quiaff to aff and quineg to neg. not the other way around

KILL ME

>>50835975
You DOUBLE STRAVAG, YOU HAVE GOTTEN IT EXACTLY BACKWARDS

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>>50835998
I KNOW!

TO THE DARK CASTE WITH ME!

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These are some suspiciously well armed and high morale pirates I've been fighting. It's as if someone had hired a mercenary unit to raid Ruchbah.

>I bet the Snakes did this

>>50834075
but he killed 100 million Capelllans

that's fact, that's canon

he's literally 16.6 hitlers

What's the point of BA ECM?

>>50837120

FASA really couldn't into numbers.

To get that death rate the AFFS and Lyrans would've had to not just wiped out to the last every Capellan or Drac unit they fought, they'd have had to have exterminated a few million non-combatants on each world.

But the novels and SBs indicates almost no war crimes took place and certainly nothing of that magnitude.

They don't even say there was much in the way of economic upheaval so it wasn't starvation etc on captured worlds killing people off before reconstruction took place.

It's best not to think about and simply palm off as Capellan propaganda. "Uh-huh, yeah, literally one hundred million dead. Sure, buddy."

>>50837354

It has more applications on the RP side where you can give it to special forces dudes and they can do stuff like jam enemy bases while they assault them.

BT-wise the applications are a lot more limited. You can use them to give a 'Mech cheap ECM coverage while the BA ride them and so on but the 1-hex range really cripples its usefulness.

>>50837376
Depending on the population levels, that could just mean that less of a percent of their population died, which seems to be a very low number when a war totally crashes an empoverished command economy that's barely functioning...

>>50837521

I'm pretty sure that the Suns rolled in with humanitarian aid straight after their victories though.

There is a lot of fluff about how the captured Capellan populace immediately saw a drastic improvement in their daily living.

Also there's no fluff about economies crashing.

It was just FASA trying to come up with a big, impressive number to underscore how big the 4th SW was, especially compared to the stalemate of the 3rd. When you look at it any deeper than that it just falls apart completely.

>>50837394
A lot of BA designs seem to be gimped for "roleplaying" purposes.

Another question - which clans have access to flame resistant BA armor?

>>50837354
>>50837394
Hidden units and double blind, prevents active probes from sniffing them out.

>>50837677

I think it's on like the Afreet, Salamander, one version of the Golem and one version of the Ironhold. There might be others but I know less about the DA stuff.

So Falcons, Ice Hellions, Fire Mandrills, and Hell's Horses mostly but everyone probably has something in the Dark Age, just not as many as those.

>>50837677
Well, there's the Salamander, Ironhold, Golem, Afreet, Elemental, and the Oni with it (which is made by the Dracs). The Salamander is Clan General, so it's probably possible for any given Clan to make it. In practice, it's somewhat identified with Jade Falcon BA.

>>50837563
>When you look at it any deeper than that it just falls apart completely.
No it doesn't.

http://skiltao.blogspot.com/2016/09/what-4th-succession-war-implies-about_19.html

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>2/3 pilot takes an AC/10 shot to the head
>decide to pull her out of the fight
>out of nowhere, this son of a bitch appears, drives wildly so he ends up in the same hex
>does this

>>50837677
Pretty much all of them. The Mandrills first developed FRA along with the Salamander, and the Salamander becomes widely available rather quickly. The Flacons seem to have a particular liking of it though, making the FR versions of the Elemental, Afreet, and Ironhold.

>>50837829
BATTLETECH!

>>50837850
This is seriously the most "now you're playing Battletech" moment I can remember in a long time. At least Angela took that fucking Vedette with her.

>>50837816

>compare population sizes
>not military sizes
>ignore fluff about BT combat deliberately minimising civilian casualties
>ignore fluff about there not being much if any disruption to civilian life on captured worlds

I'm not saying you can't come up with ways to explain it, I'm just saying that according to the actual fluff for the 4th SW there's no way to make it work.

Also that changing things so that count is viable probably risks a 3039-style clusterfuck for fluff before and after, come to think of it.

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>>50837850
And for some reason I read that in the voice of the Genesis game's title screen.

>>50837738
>>50837726
>>50837686
A third question for you BA dudes - if I'm making BA, and I want to put a missile launcher in a quad turret, do I need to put the ammo in the turret as well?

>>50838034

I think that's the intent, but I don't recall them ever specifying it.

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>>50834420
>>50834481
>>50834572
>>50834576
>>50834598
>>50835975
>>50835990
>>50835998
>>50836067
Quiaff
Clan word used at the end of a question in which an affirmative response is expected.

Quineg
Clan word used at the end of a question in which a negative response is expected.

Neg
Clan abbreviation of "Negative".

Aff
Clan abbreviation of "Affirmative". Generally used in place of "Yes".

>>50838048
It is specified in fact, TM pg 171:
"On battle armor, missile ammunition cannot be placed in a separate location or weapon mount from the launcher for which it is being carried. Missile launchers placed on modular mounts must add any ammunition slots to those of the launcher when determining their total slot sizes for mounting."

>>50837376
The numbers fit given the scores of worlds and billions of people changing hands, you're just too much of a Davion fanboy to accept it.

Literally all it takes is a little planetary disruption to cause mass, if unintentional deaths. The Japanese invasion of China in WW2 caused 15-20 million deaths at least. And we know the Capellans were mass arming civilians with SRMs/Infernos to resist the Davions.

Literally all it takes is 5 or so worlds suffering, which we know they did, to reach numbers like that. Spread it around to maybe a million deaths per world due to combined combat casualties, disease, civil strife due to certain factions backing the invaders, etc, and it works. Tikonov enough was disrupted enough that it probably caused a few million deaths.

>>50837563
>I'm pretty sure that the Suns rolled in with humanitarian aid straight after their victories though.

Their campaign was on a shoestring logistics chain that was literally starving their own worlds to function. Even if they brought in some aid, which they couldn't, obviously it wasn't in time.

>>50837952
You're basing assumptions on how the 3rd SW was fought. The 4th was different.

What's funny is that his post actually mentions what you're saying he ignored, showing that not only are you butthurt and in denial, you're not even reading what he's posting.

>>50838663

>you're just too much of a Davion fanboy to accept it.

I'm not a Davion fanboy at all. The problem is that the fluff specifies that the things required to get those levels of lives lost simply didn't happen.

Again, you can explain it fairly easily through fanon but then you're going to have to come up with reasons the Clan war didn't knock off a couple of billion or why the FCCW didn't do that and more since the level of destruction it involved was far greater than the 4th SW or Clan Invasion.

You can argue how realistic things are but what it comes down to in the end is FASA (and FanPro, and CGL) rarely think things through past the broad strokes and often say things that just don't bear any level of scrutiny.

>>50838676

>Their campaign was on a shoestring logistics chain that was literally starving their own worlds to function.

The Warrior Trilogy actually points out that the problem was *luxuries,* not necessities and that mostly due to the Interdiction. There's a point in the novels where New Avalon holds a big party because the Lyrans shipped in a DropShip full of the latest tri-d movies, Solaris matches and so on.

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>>50834724
>YAY! I don't think I have that one for the collection!

I know you didn't because I never posted that one before. Also, I never posted this Defender/Rifleman and funny-looking Griffin, either.

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>>50837394
>It has more applications on the RP side where you can give it to special forces dudes and they can do stuff like jam enemy bases while they assault them.

But how can they be jamming us if they don't know ... if we're coming?

>>50838808
>The problem is that the fluff specifies that the things required to get those levels of lives lost simply didn't happen.
Ok, prove it says those things specifically didn't happen on any of the hundred of planets and moons in the 108 captured systems.

>>50838808
Luxuries on *New Avalon*, not the rest of the Federated Suns. The Golden Five not getting their caviar wasn't why the Suns' economy almost collapsed from the war and had to be bailed out by the Lyrans.

>>50838826
Never be an infantryman giving close combat support next to a Rifleman or other AC armed fire support machine. I wonder how many people have had brass or whatever the shells are made of dumped on their heads.
>Remembering something on /k/ about spent shell casing burning hands and some such a long time ago
Also another one for the collection! Cool! This one with action-grip Aqua-man Griffin.

>>50838982

It's BT, anon.

Warfare is specifically not supposed to impinge on civilian populations. Examples to the contrary are exceedingly rare compared to the number of total battles fought and are called out as such in the fluff. So you're asking me to prove a negative to begin with.

I mean, we can what if until the cows come home on this. What if shit actually tasted like chocolate ice-cream?

And, again, if you're going to say that the 4th SW killed that number of non-combatants, where are the casualty lists for the Clan Invasion which involved, what, at least half again as many planets and about the same number of units? Or the FCCW, which ran for longer, was fought on more worlds still, and probably chewed through as many commands as the 4th SW?

Shit just doesn't add up. Welcome to BT.

If anything the figures could be substantially higher and as long as there was fluff to the effect of actual disruptions to the civilian sectors it would make sense. But there is none so we're left with "lol, FASAnomics/FASnumbers" as per god damn usual.

>>50838850
Who is the Mexican sitting next to Lando?

>>50838663
He's being a dumb cuck and is obviously a Davionfag.

Spreading the deaths around to all the systems, it's less than a million death per systems.

More than 7 million people a year die from starvation on earth. 7 million.

So even if the planetary economies of a central economic system were disrupted, and only less than a million people died as a result, it's still more than 7 times better off than what we here on earth experience.

tl;dr he's an idiot

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>>50839049
>Also another one for the collection! Cool! This one with action-grip Aqua-man Griffin.

... and here's a Griffin that inexplicably does not have the LRM launcher.

>>50839177
A Dougram (Shadow Hawk) knocked it off. This is what I believe and am sticking to it. Also I love your pencil work. It reminds me of the fun art of some of the earliest Battletech fan books and stuff.
>9/10 would pilot shirtless with my GF in the installed rumble seat

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>>50839202
>A Dougram (Shadow Hawk) knocked it off. This is what I believe and am sticking to it.

Funny you should say that. I was watching an episode of Dougram just the other day where Crinn shot the missile launcher off an Ironfoot's (Thunderbolt) shoulder in pretty much exactly the way you describe.

>Also I love your pencil work. It reminds me of the fun art of some of the earliest Battletech fan books and stuff.

Thanks. It's funny how some of the fan books/magazines where as or more inspired than the official FASA products. For covers they could get guys like Jim Holloway, but until they got interior artists like Earl Geier (he did a lot of the artwork in the early Shadowrun books, too), so much of it was limited to really awful lineart traced from the original anime sources.

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>>50839202
The T-Shirt doesn't lie.

>>50838207
Your sibkin is known as the "Cavernous Anus" due to all the horses she fucks, quiaff?

>>50839055
There's no what if, it happened. You just don't want to accept it's possible. But yeah, what's the point in debating it?

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>>50839262
>For covers they could get guys like Jim Holloway, but until they got interior artists like Earl Geier (he did a lot of the artwork in the early Shadowrun books, too), so much of it was limited to really awful lineart traced from the original anime sources.

OK, for some reason this is stuck in my head, but as early as 1992, virtually all the art in the Third Edition boxed set rulebook was handsome Geier illustrations. Even early sourcebooks like Wolf's Dragoons (with a sexy Jeff Laubenstein cover - his illustrations in the other books are nice and clean, too!) are full of his stuff. Somehow, my memory just doesn't line up with reality.

>>50839591
>Awesome finds no joy in his job

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>>50839762
>sad-face awesome

I always assumed Duane Loose's illustration in TRO 3025 was the canonical depiction. He doesn't look happy there, either.

>>50839518
The point is that, even if it happened, it barely were enough additional deaths to make it newsworthy anywhere outside of propaganda.

>>50838207
Nobody gives a fuck about your bass ackwards conlang, clannerscum.

>>50840093
Won't disagree there. But it would be the Capellans to play up such a figure. They're basically the BLM of the BT universe.

>>50837816
Oh no, not you

>>50840519
not an argument

>>50840564
I wasn't arguing, just bracing for the onslaught of autism that that blog's author always brings with him

>>50840737
I don't think it's him, just a source that easily pops up on google. Blake knows I've seen and read a few articles from it.

Fuck off with the bitching and post mechs. Like, just put up all those designs you have that you haven't had a reason to post otherwise

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>>50841238

>>50841238
I would but I suck at designing mechs.

No coincidence I main FWL

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I have 2 question
What's a Clanner opinion on LAMs and LAM pilots?

Beside the "gameplay issues" that comes with them, do you like the concept of transforming mechs in BT? Would you use them?

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>>50841238
A mech with four legs can be built lower to the ground, right? You put the legs on the side of the body and now it can skitter around on little stumps without falling over.

But then, according to Btech rules, we have no arms. This is a problem, and turrets are lame and also not part of the mech rules. So, what do to?

Add arms! They'd be in the front, kinda like crab claws, or maybe in the middle for weight distro. They'd poke up and over like some kind of weaponized antenna, allowing the mech and its pilot to hide safely behind cover while the arms poke up and zap some fuckers.

Here, I drew a picture.

>>50841687
>What's a Clanner opinion on LAMs and LAM pilots?
I thought I read they thought they were dishonorable or some such. When they conquered the Drac plant that had Stinger LAMs they dismantled it as far as I remember.

>>50841687
>What's a Clanner opinion on LAMs and LAM pilots?
MIXING AEROSPACE AND MECHS? NOT IN MY CLAN.
Immurrabo et pendictibo ego vos, quiaff?

>>50841698
This will probably be shot down like my idea for six-legged mechs did. Extra location table charts, new record sheets, a cluster of stuff to deal with.
>You will never pilot the Guntank

>>50841687
The only LAMs the modern clans made were two seat variants because NO MIXING JOB ROLES. Tests showed that the Mech and ASF pilots fought over what to do, and who kills belonged to.

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>>50841238
I wrote a campaign of Mary Sue mercs so my ex-GF could play. Behold the horror of mix-tech gone wild!
>PS: Ex-Gf wasn't worth it.

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>>50841687
>What's a Clanner opinion on LAMs and LAM pilots?
Pretty much pic related. They HATE the idea of a unit that mixes the roles of aerospace and battlemechs.
I actually like the idea of LAMs, and would gladly use them more, at least in campaigns. Definitely sould stay the hell outta pickup games, though. And far, far away from clantech

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>>50841238
Here are a bunch of marauders for everyone's formation padding & OpFor needs

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>>50841687
>Beside the "gameplay issues" that comes with them, do you like the concept of transforming mechs in BT? Would you use them?
I would never use them if they irritate other players, but hell yeah, one of the things that got me in BT in the mid-1980s was the varying units like LAMs that were in the game.
>I even do mix-tech with salvaged LAMs for kicks and giggles
I live with no regrets.

>>50841864
The 2LL+GR model looks kinda interesting, but the others are pretty generic

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In 1992, it wasn't against the rules to give your LAM Endo-Steel internal structure.

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Were the writers screwing with us (and the Free Worlds) when they statted up this mech? How can a 100 ton mech be this bad?

>>50842202

This implies the writers were thinking about the FWL at all.

How to build a mech with max missiles?

>>50842202
The Banshee 3E would like to have a word with you

>>50842202
It was a mech written for NPC villains to use. What do you expect?

Play Lyran if you want to be a good guy.

How do tanks compare to battlemechs in battle?

>>50843892
Depends upon the era and the tank. Some tanks are suitable matches, if not more than equal to a 'mech, usually the later-era machines like the Challenger or Ajax. Many other times they're a cheaper alternative, made up for with numbers. A lance of 4 tanks can usually match a 'mech of equivalent size, and is usually cheaper and easier to field than a 'mech, barring some of the later models with more expensive technologies like XL engines.

>>50842076
MORE!

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>>50843892
>How do tanks compare to battlemechs in battle?

Generally, mechs have it over tanks, but it's all situational:

1). Mechs can survive non-lethal damage to body parts. Sure, nobody likes having an arm blown off, but it's not the end of the game if that happens. By contrast, destruction of any part of a vehicle is pretty much lethal - some more so than others (VTOL rotor blades, for example).
2). Tanks are susceptible to critical hits more often than mechs. Sure, you can score a head hit or through-armour critical on a mech by rolling a 12 or a 2, but on other results, tanks may also suffer motive system damage that can immobilize them even when the rest of their armour is intact!
3). Mechs can pretty much go anywhere, operating underwater, in the vacuum of space, in forests, rubble, ruins, and so on. Tanks, on the other hand are prohibited from entering some types of terrain. Hovertanks can't go into woods, wheeled vehicles can't enter rough terrain, and anything deeper than Level 0 water is off-limited to anything that can't hover over it or sail through it.
4). The only physical attack normally available to a tank is ramming. Mechs can do fun things like kicking, punching, and smacking things with trees.

All this being said, tanks do have one big advantage over mechs, one that >>50843986 alluded to: they're cheaper and easier to manufacture. For the money involved, a government would more likely be able to field a army of vehicles and infantry instead of mechs.

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So I want to get into Battletech but my friends don't play it, so I decided to play MegaMek instead. Is this good for a start?

>>50843892
SFE tanks compare quite well to mechs in 3025, and in later eras there are some extremely nasty XLFE tanks that can hold their own against contemporary mechs, but ICE tanks are generally trash unless you massively outnumber or outmass mech opposition

>>50844341

Those are some pretty decent starting pilots, how did you generate the lance?

>>50844423
I just looked through and saw what mechs I liked.

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>>50844341

Yes. Bonus points for the Akuma

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>>50844555
Can't argue with trips.

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>>50844341
>>50844520
Also, what's mekhq?

>>50844577
MekHQ is what you play Against the Bot with. You can run an entire mercenary unit with it.

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>>50844623
Regular megamek doesn't have bots?

>>50844577

Battletech campaign manager. Can be used to track an existing campaign, or to play your own generated Against the Bot (AtB) campaign.

>>50844638
Against the Bot is the name for the campaign mode. You play a merc unit, the bot plays your opfor, and you get every bit of AccountantTech from worrying about low ammo stocks and foot actuators for 55t 'Mechs, to repairing your 'Mechs after that unusually well-trained enemy lance plus reinforcements blows your giant robots into Swiss cheese.

>>50844682

This is especially common when the bot compensates for its lack of tactical acument with sheer tonnage and numbers.

>>50844682
Okay, so MekHQ is a bit different, and now I have no idea what I'm doing. How do I get started?

>>50807904
It was originally a Star League factory from their insane paranoia phase. Imagine Boings entire production supply chain built into a massive Norad like facility under the alps only it's also built out of whatever the crazy stuff the Star League used for Castles Brian. (I imagine it's carbon nanotube doped diamond fullerene or something crazy expensive like that, backing goold old fashioned hardened ferro concrete)

>>50844331
Most armies do. It's only elite armies that field more 'mechs than infantry and vehicles.

The cost involved of transporting, caring for, repairing, training, and simply acquiring 'mechs makes them a lot less practical on a logistics scale. Much of that gets outweighed by their greater tactical flexibility and function, but that's a hard sell to a lot of governments

>>50841729
>>You will never pilot the Guntank
Tracks on a biped, 4x MGs in each arm, big gun in each ST.

>>50842202
FWL assaults have historically suffered from Solid Heavy Syndrome from the introduction of the XL Engine up until the Juliano (pbuh).

>>50841294
Should really be using SHS

>>50841698
centaur mechs when

>>50842202
They wanted to make Optimus Prime and they didn't think about it beyond that.

>>50842342
Kraken 3

>>50845319
Juliano's only good if you run with Quirks

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>>50845367
>Should really be using SHS
Better?

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>>50813081
>Steiner

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>>50845387
Or this?

>>50845603
>4 ammo weapons
>no CASE

ya dun goofed

>>50845687
That's the joke.

Do mech ACs in BattleTech have HE shells?

>>50813159
Hell no. They just have Star League/early SW leftovers.

Do you all play AtB with retirement? It seems like it drains my pilots and kit too fast.

>>50846565
>Do you all play AtB with retirement? It seems like it drains my pilots and kit too fast.
No, because it's unrealistically bad for exactly those reasons. If it was every year-1D6 years, that'd be fine

>>50846565
Turn it off for contract completion, and GM mode the modifiers down.

>>50846581
Any suggestions on how much? And I've also heard people suggesting turning down the battle rate in contracts?

>>50846654

Tbh, I turn off retirement rolls, primarily because it's implementation is retarded. You can also turn down the battle rate if you're a newer player, as the ops tempo can be overwhelming for you (and your maintenance crews).

>>50846075
They basically are HEDP shells, a DU or otherwise special tip with secondary explosive charge.

>>50846748
But don't they have any shells for use against infantry and soft skinned vehicles like trucks or jeeps?

I'd imagine if it was shot at infantry it would penetrate too deep in the ground and explode without killing anyone and if it was shot at a soft vehicle it would just overpenetrate and do no more damage than the hole it caused and whatever it hit on the way through.

>>50846853
Lightweight vehicles are abstracted unless they're explicitly combat vehicles like a hover tank. As for infantry work, there are flechette munitions.

>>50846853
Yes, flechette rounds. But those are for infantry, and pretty much any unarmored vehicles. Think something like a jeep or cargo truck. They wouldn't work well against an APC.

There's alternate rules that make non-specific AP weapons perform worse against infantry. So PPCs, regular lasers, things like that don't do full damage but pulse lasers, machine guns, SRMs, etc. will tear them up. Reasoning is pretty much what you said. Trying to find where it's written down.

>>50846991
>There's alternate rules that make non-specific AP weapons perform worse against infantry. So PPCs, regular lasers, things like that don't do full damage but pulse lasers, machine guns, SRMs, etc. will tear them up.
They're the official rules as of TW.

>>50847042
Shit, you're right. We've always played with that rule before even TW.

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>>50847110

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I hate that rule.

The energy BT weapons are throwing around to do the damage they do (described in the setting or implied via maths to get the dots per ton results) is enough to badly injure, send into shock, or otherwise incapacitate infantry in large numbers even if they aren't being killed outright. That's what the after-game med and recovery rolls are for.

The new rules turn them into absolute tar pits to try and deal with, and God help you if someone is fucking around with custom platoon rules.

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Before the thread dies, what's the prettiest paint scheme you have ever seen on a mini?
I don't have the pics handy, but the real intricate stuff like the Hello Kitty Mad Cat or some tiger striping impressed the hell out of me for what some people can paint on such a small figure.

>>50847407
Just Inferno them.

I'll ask a simple question before the thread dies. Need 6 ASFs, IS. Prefer something that works well in space. This is going to be for close defense on an assault DropShip. What's recommended?

>>50847407
Is the M42B the best standard infantry weapon of the Great Houses?

>>50847802
You can make an argument for FWL units with 1200s, but other than that, not really.

>>50810667
plague of gripes drew that didn't he? i wish he still did more /tg/ related stuff instead of those stupid fucking mashup things.

>>50847407
Sure, they're throwing a lot of energy around, but you need to kill guys. And those guys are spread over a large area, dodging, hiding in every little nook and cranny, and generally trying their best to be hard to kill.

I don't think that infantry should be able to pump out 30 damage at range 28. But they need to be hard to kill and have some serious punch in one way or another, be it field guns, missile packs, squad weapons, etc.

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The thread is soon to end, so here...
>>50848178

>>50848269
Killing bump