/btg/ Battletech General!

First for incest coulda saved the FedCom

If I have room, should I always have an elbow and a hand? Even if I never intend to punch and have no weapon in hand?

And where the crits say roll again, does that mean the attacker re-rolls over and over and over until they hit a crit with something in it? Like if I have a Med Laser on the Left Torso, and nothing else. Do they just eventually get a gimme that the Laser is destroyed?

I'm trying to understand why you'd ever put something on an arm instead of packing everything you can into the torso for higher armor and less chance of a specific weapon getting hit because it's alone on the part.

>>51254255
Arm-mounted weapons get a better fire src.
And, if you lack both hands and lower arms, you can flip your arm guns and fire backwards

>>51254369
fire src?

Does having a lower actuator give +1 to shots with weapons on that arm?

>>51254436
Firing arc is what he meant. And no, lower arm and hand actuators only let you make punches with better TNs.

>>51254446

Hand actuators let you use trees for clubs though.

>>51254475
You need two hands to use a tree, I think.

>>51254475
You can loot shit with a hand too. Mostly useful for 'mercs and "holy shit everyone is poor" succession wars games though, where you can have the great fun of blasting people with a 'mech so you can steal a water tank, some SRMs and a few pallets of MREs.

>>51254255
>If I have room, should I always have an elbow and a hand? Even if I never intend to punch and have no weapon in hand?

Functionally not much reason not to have them unless you want flippy arms. And some extra critpadding doesn't hurt. Also, even if you don't want to punch, pushing can be handy sometimes. Also if using certain TacOps rules, getting up from a fall becomes harder without them.

>And where the crits say roll again, does that mean the attacker re-rolls over and over and over until they hit a crit with something in it?

Yep. If a critical hit is inflicted, then something eligible WILL take that hit, and if the location in question is empty or everything there has already taken hits, the the crit will transfer just like damage does. This is why empty side torsos are risky, as any crit automatically goes to the CT.

>I'm trying to understand why you'd ever put something on an arm instead of packing everything you can into the torso
Firing arcs. Arms weapons have a a wider arc than torso guns alone, especially when combined with torso twisting. Most notably you can torso twist and hit something behind you, or if both arms lack lower arm and hand actuators, flip your arms to the rear.

Also remember that critical hits are inflicted per slot, not per item. So stuffing multiple things in one place does decrease the chance of it taking a crit, but if the result is 2 or 3 locations, a single hit could destroy multiple things.

ANd then there;s the simple realities of construction. If carrying multiple big guns, you probably aren't going to be able to fit everything in the torsos, especiallt considering there's things like jump jets which can;t be fit in arms, and legs only have a little space. And when using Clan tech or CASE II, sticking a ballistic weapon and it's ammo all in an arm means that an ammo explosion just pops that arm off and doesn't hurt anything else, especially handy when using an XL.

>>51254513
This is one of those annoying things about construction limitations. CASE not being able to put in arms is fucking maddening when it already has a heavy disadvantage compared to the clan version.

I'm not a drac, but their "death to mercenaries" thing was spot on. I can't think of an aspect of the fluff that hurts Battletech more than huge merc units.

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>>51254513
Intro rules are pretty restrictive.

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>>51254748
That color scheme is a pretty good idea for posting TROs. It reads well and is easy on the eyes. I think I'll give it a go myself.

As for the actual design, jokes aside, it needs ammo. Drop two Medium Lasers and you're good there. Also, I'd sub the SRM4 for an LRM5, and that way you have a "long range arm" you can punch with in melee without having to choose not to fire some of your short range weapons. Lowering the ML count to three will also make it feel a touch less cheesy, in my opinion.

Also, are we posting Introtech? I can't decide if the Commando, swapping the SRM4 for an LRM5, is better than this or not, given how useful jump jets are. The loss of the ML in comparison is a bit of an issue too. The increased armor is nice, however, as it can tank a PPC shot to the front torso, which might gut a Commando.

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>>51254475
Knocking people for six is always fun.

>>51254503
>steal a water tank

Oh, Space 80s and water raids. When did they put out the explanation that water raids were actually pirates stealing spare parts and other stuff for their existing purifiers and not, say, draining water towers?

Also, not all bandit 'Mechs need hands. My optimum raiding force would probably be Leopard or a Union with the heaviest, nastiest 'Mechs to fight any opposition and a Seeker with a lance of hand-equipped and/or specialist 'Mechs (anti-infantry, anti-vehicle) for the actual looting part. The rest of the Seeker would be filled with tanks or hovercraft, a lot of Space 10-Ton Lorries, and infantry.

Whilst the battle lance keeps the defenders busy, the Seeker gang hits the objective, the infantry and the 'Mechs load the loot on the lorries, and everyone drives off with much more stuff than just a few 'Mechs carrying containers.

>>51254903
>drop TO two Medium Lasers
>Lowering the ML count BY three
Tired.

>>51254742
Smaller units make good sense and are good from a gamest point of view. It's the fact that the Kell Hounds are a fucking nation and pretty much every 'merc unit you hear about ends up owning whole planets that is absurd, fluff wise.

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>>51254318
Like dis.

I sweep high-wear areas with a flat black, then do a lighter sweep of a silverish metallic. The black outline makes the silver pop more.

>>51254971
Agreed. Anything over a Company in size in the mid to late SW era, and anything over a battalion in any other era is getting silly, in my opinion. A few notable, "pet" merc outfits having a few battalions to their name is fine since you are going to have players who want that, but most of them should be pretty rag-tag. Now, this is just 'Mechs, mind you. A merc unit with three lances of 'Mechs that also has the same number of vees is fine too. In fact, the main company being augmented by vees is even better, since they are so much cheaper, and for most of what mercs would do, are idea, since they aren't going to be doing frontline work most of the time. Mercs are for shoring up your reserves, and garrisoning planets when your national armed forces make a push. For that, vees are ideal. Mercs should never be super-rich anyway. They can be well-off, and good at their jobs, but aside from the aforementioned "pet" units for the purposes of dramatic fiction (your Goons and Hounds, and all that), they should be always in the black, at best.

>>51254991
Not that anon, but that does look damn good. I might experiment with it in some of my paint schemes when I get around to my next batch of 'Mechs.

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>>51254742
>He says this while irl, mercenaries account for more than ten percent of the USA's boots on the ground in the Middle East. It's good for morale when no soldiers are dying, just "contractors". And how would you even categorize triple umbrella? They don't make more money than Walmart, but they pull in billions. Incredibly influential, wealthy mercs are certainly a real thing.
You are always free to dislike what you want, but why don't you post about the aspects of the fluff you enjoy instead?

i hate hating everything - Grumpy Smurf

>>51255069
>dislike = hate
I think this is where too many people trip. I know this was intended to be bait, but it actually reveals a painful truth.

>>51255031
Thank you my kind sir.

I will say that it's easier to do with a thinner but well-covering paint. GWs metallics tend to be too thick. I use Vallejo air.

Just a comment about all the kvetching lately. It's really is getting weary after 30 years to listen to the same old gripes over and over. Guys I love you all (in the not gay way not that there is anything wrong with being gay) but can't you talk about the good part of the game?

>>51255236
Well, what do you want to talk about anon? Some designs got posted earlier in the thread, there's been some mini-painting talk, tree clubs and Locust golfing sort of came up... what's on your mind?

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MOAR MISSILES.

>>51255236
I really like Target of Opportunity so far. You could tell Herb and co. were really gearing up for the Jihad since they released DotJ the year afterward. Everything really starts to mesh together well. It just has that wonderful mix of old school Btech plus Dark Age chaos and combined arms. And I usually don't even like Pardoe books that much. Plus it's the only full Comstar novel I think ever written, instead of just shared chunks of bigger plots.

My only main bitching is that the combat obviously still pulls too much from the DA CMG with shit like running in a mech causing it to overheat and all the obvious references to DA unit names like the infantry. I actually rolled my eyes when they did a tank drop with a J-27. Which sucks because everything else feels so Battletech. Now I think I finally understand what people used to complain about when they said they could hear the dice clattering in some Stackpole books.

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>>51255343
MOAR LASERS
The CML Ontos is way more scary but this feels more practical to me. More like something they'd actually print.

I can't really say anything that 180 SRMs don't already say for themselves.

>>51255423
Chemical lasers get rid of power amps, they still need heat sinks.

>>51255461
What? No they don't.

>>51255461
I thought they behaved like ballistics on vehicles. SAW doesn't require mounting any heat sinks and it usually auto-allocates them for weapons that require them. Is it a bug?

Working on a Clan star (3055), want to deploy a Masakari, which do you consider the better configuration?
So far I'm favoring the F config

>>51256045
No real point in driving one if you're not driving the Prime or the C. It's like driving a Gauss Vulture. Sure, it's a decent machine, but it really doesn't feel like a Vulture anymore.

I know the irony in saying that about an omni, but it is what it is.

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I can't wait for my limited-edition Atlas statue!

>>51255543

AFAIK the only ammo-using weapon that also requires heat sinks is the Plasma Rifle. Maybe he's confusing the rules with that?

Looking more at Combat Manual Mercenaries... who wrote this garbage?

>The Free Worlds League is a collection of loosely allied nation-states which often have their own policies toward mercenaries. Overall, it is accurate to say that the Free Worlds League is somewhat distrusting of mercenaries, due in no small part to House units often being bought off with empty promises or outright bribery. If their own troops are so dishonorable, how far should mercenaries be trusted?

This is flanderization gone wild. Especially since the book seems to be set in 3050 during one of the strongest periods of federalization in the League's history. Even in 3025 it was described as a federation, not "loose alliance of nation-states".
And literally where is the shit about their House units coming from? Or mercenaries? Free Worlders didn't have a rep for distrusting them, they were *fascinated* with mercs to the extent it caused a fashion age. The blurb seems more rooted in the attitude Thomas Marik *eventually* took in the mid 50s after he formed the knights than with the merc-heavy League of 3050. Plus its utterly wrong in how the League uses mercs, claiming most are relegated to the periphery when the most cursory glimpse at 20YU (as well as common sense) has most on the FedCom and CapCon borders.

I'd heard on /btg/ that their factchecking is getting bad but geez.

>>51256790

They keep promoting factionfags to their writing team and dumping more and more of the fact-checking proof-reading off onto the fan base.

Sad to say but the cronyism in the BT side of things has been noticeable for a long time and is only getting worse.

>>51256790
We could probably quibble over a few details but looking at the book now I can see what you mean.

What's the point of the Combat Manual series anyway?

>>51251145 →
>IMO the single biggest hole in the Marik ASF lineup is a light ASF that is even moderately capable/survivable. Because the Cheetah is terrible at actually fighting - disintegrating when something sneezes near you isn't terribly helpful. I'd give them the Centurion for that role. Basically the Cheetah becomes a 1st-shell interceptor/recon bird, while the Centurion takes on a 2nd-shell interceptor/dogfighter role.

Silly question, but what are the "shells" you speak of?
Would you recommend any others besides the Centurion to replace the Cheetah? Asking only because I see it's originally a FedSuns bird and so probably hard to get a hold of the schematics. But you'd probably know more about that than me.

And how do Corsairs stack up? I saw the Regulans have some and wondered if they were worth getting/building more of (AU-wise).

>>51257053

>What's the point of the Combat Manual series anyway?

Alpha Strike mostly I think.

Also supposed to be a "new, fresh look" at the houses for BT, but that seems to be a very secondary role.

>>51257078
Corsairs are nice. They're the classic backbone of Davion Medium Aerospace. They're one of my favorite jack of all trades fighters.

>>51257053
Field Manual Lite for Alpha Strike

>>51256790

>has most on the FedCom and CapCon borders.

Well, on the note of them being in the Periphery, couldn't the League have posted the Com Guards on their borders with the other Successor States instead of Mercenaries?

>>51257661

Why would the League have any say in where the Com Guard went?

>>51257701

Well, they could have worked an arrangement out similar to the one Sun-Tzu worked out, where he was allowed to choose where the Com Guards were posted.

>>51257707

That happened after the WoB schism and IIRC after they took Earth. ComStar and WoB were engaged in a bidding war to have control of the CC's HPGs. Also another instance of Xin Sheng magic since nobody else got to dictate terms like that.

Before that, the ComGuard went where ComStar said.

Not that it matters any way, the ComGuard were neutral so they wouldn't have fought CapCon or Lyran attackers.

>>51255015

>Mercs should never be super-rich anyway.

Weren't some like the Big Mac and Storm's Thunder rich by nature of owning operations or having a share in them?

>>51246328
The unfucking of the Shiva is going to be complicated. It's heavy and uses both XL and FA, which makes it quite expensive. It has a lot of firepower available to it, but it's severely under-armored for its weight class. On most of the configs that's a liability as it's a direct-action fighter, though with a lot of range. It also only has average speed for that weight class, making that difficult.

The only config that seems to really negate that is the -OB config, which is designed for long-range bombardment via swarms of missiles.

Stripping out some of the basic heatsinks and reconfiguring some of the configs to use better grouped weapons (like swapping the LBX-20 with an LBX-10 on the -O config) will free up enough tonnage to either give it a faster engine or better armor.

Curious, but are more than a few of the major factions in the Dark Age heading for Civil War by 3150?

It seems like every Great House (except maybe the Confederation) is and that the Jade Falcons are as well.

>>51259303
Limitations in the quality of writing staff.

>>51259412

But it does improve the Republic's chances of resurgence dramatically doesn't it?

They'd only have to fight Clan Wolf with (possible) aid from the Dominion.

>>51259303
>except the confederation
You kidding? One of the Warrior House heads goes Thích Quảng Đức on the steps of the palace in TRO 3150. Good odds on the incest getting out and starting a civil war. Honestly, the states safest from civil war are the Davions because they've got an existential threat that's holding them together rather than tearing them apart, and the FWL because they've already had their civil war, and the nuLeague seems to be getting Regulus back by 3150.

>>51259958

Isn't it still in the air as to whether or not Eric Sandoval will give up power to Julian Davion?

Likewise, isn't the League likely looking at a fight against Andurien and the Magistracy should the League come knocking for that break away state? They also have to worry about reintegrating Regulus, which could prove a violent affair given how they've acted in the past.

>>51259303
The Combine already had their Civil War/Coupe. The ruling family got assassinated and the granddaughter of that Sakamoto guy from the TV show took the throne and became the puppet of Black Dragon Sakamoto, Warlord Benjamin.

Caleb headed off a Civil War by pushing his father out a window. Julian coming back should be pretty uncontested.

The League is picking up pet clanners like a Drac in Bulldog. Half of them are camped on Marik itself. That can't end well. Otherwise, they're pretty much in the constant state of balkanization/civil war they've been in since the 3070's, minus Tamarind Abby, Graham Marik, and Oriente getting the band back together.

>>51260043
> reintegrating Regulus, which could prove a violent affair given how they've acted in the past.

90% sure the Regulan Fiefs are still independent. They just got thrown off Atreus because GMILF Halas-Marik showed up with clanner warships and told them she was the only one allowed to pick over the bones of Marik Stewart.

>>51260283

Actually, the lore implies that there is a growing rift between the current Coordinator and her Warlord over the Combine military.

The lore also puts it in to question whether or not Erik Sandoval will actually hand power over to Julian when he reaches New Avalon.

>90% sure the Regulan Fiefs are still independent.

As of 3150, they were forced to reintegrate with the League due to sanctions launched against them after Lester had Jessica whacked for her antics.

>>51256168
>hooded Tshirt

Kill everything. Leave no-one alive.

>>51259958
>Honestly, the states safest from civil war are the Davions because their poor are too damn poor to do anything

fixed.

Can you play as pirates in an AtB campaign?

>>51260398
Do we have anything about 3150 that isn't TRO:3150? Because a lot of this stuff is quite different than the state of things in 3145. I'd like to check it out.

>Lester killed the Captain GMILF
Based Lester finishing the job. Wait, does that mean that little witch Jessica was the one who put all those sanctions in place and is ruling the League? Oh please god tell me she's still not buddy buddy with Danai.

>>51260502

>Based Lester finishing the job. Wait, does that mean that little witch Jessica was the one who put all those sanctions in place and is ruling the League? Oh please god tell me she's still not buddy buddy with Danai.

Yes I believe she is.

However, it was the Sea Foxes that implemented the sanctions.

Quite personally, I think Jessica Marik had it coming given whom she was antagonizing.

I'm surprised she didn't get it sooner with her stunt of having a hotel bombed and making it appear the Blakist were behind it.

>>51260540
>I'm surprised she didn't get it sooner with her stunt of having a hotel bombed and making it appear the Blakist were behind it.

He killed her two oldest children for that one. He just didn't know that she had thrown them aside to groom her youngest to rule.

>>51260540
>the Sea Foxes that implemented the sanctions.

>The legendary Marik merchants getting cockblocked by Clan Space Jew
Combine this with Lester's rant about the history of Regulan trading in Pandora's Gambit and that must have been one terribly bitter pill to swallow

For mechs, is a Small Pulse Laser better than a machine gun for killing infantry?

>>51260571
>>51260610

To be fair, doesn't Regulus technically have some bargaining chips in this new League?

As I understand it, wouldn't they have both a well trained military and Ronin Inc, one of the largest military production sights still left in League space?

Most of the other League manufacturers from what I've heard were lost to the Republic in the years after the Jihad and then to the Wolf Empire after HAMMERFALL.

>>51260610

>Lester's rant about the history of Regulan trading in Pandora's Gambit and that must have been one terribly bitter pill to swallow

What did he say in essence?

>>51260859
The usual Regulan "We roamed the stars from the Rim Commonality to The Rock. The Hansa and the Jarnfolk were nothing compared to us." followed by "And now I'm reduced to crawling on my hands and knees to Terra just to get my merchants an audience with new contacts while Anton postures and Jessica plots like the traitor-spawn she is."

That second one is barely paraphrased. The Regulans were being ostrasized by the rest of the League economically decades before sanctions.

>>51260949
>"And now I'm reduced to crawling on my hands and knees to Terra just to get my merchants an audience with new contacts while Anton postures and Jessica plots like the traitor-spawn she is."

Didn't they spoil relations with Terra and Stone when one of their operatives killed a high ranking Blakist (thought to be Nammah) on Terran soil and accused the Republic of having Blakist sympathies?

>>51261101
They wouldn't be wrong. I'm like 80% sure that Stone's a Blakist plot.

>>51261101
Pretty sure that happened under Titus, not Lester. Now Lester is still super anti-Blakist, about the only ruler left that is, but he's not retarded about it.

>>51261193

Well if he was, perhaps he is with the Blakist sect that was more moderate than the fanatical mad men that would over take the organization?

I recall some like Trent Arian being a relatively decent Blakist who frowned on individuals like Cameron St. Jamais and his Toyama faction.

>>51261391
Sorry bud. All that super secret stuff was all 6th of June which was the secret extra radical sect of the Toyamas. Think how far down the rabbit hole you have to be to make St. Jamais look like a reasonable dude.

>>51261458

>Think how far down the rabbit hole you have to be to make St. Jamais look like a reasonable dude

As far as I'm aware, only the Master and Apollyon could do that.

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>>51261548
Even a regular man can make that journey under the right circumstances.

>>51260667
They can be. A MG can also be switched to rapid-fire mode potentially giving it higher damage than a SPL.

>>51261781
Rapid fire has no effect on infantry death. It's one case where it's just a waste of heat and ammo.

MG does 2D6 to infantry
SPL is the same

MG has the advantage of generating no heat. SPL has the advantage of also being able to set fires, a very handy thing to be able to do against entrenched infantry.

Did the Burrocks contribute anything to the Clans like tech, mechs or anything? What was their composition like touman wise?

>>51262087
ded/10

>>51261969
It does on non-infantry units.

>>51260502

This explains some of it:

> Entry from the Picaroon fighter.

>Major Shardae Nangwaya: Major Nangwaya is the cold-as-space commander of the fighter wing attached to the Regulan Fiefs’ Eighth Regulan Hussars. An elite-grade pilot, she has flown fighter craft of every weight class, and counts among her kills over two dozen enemy fighters, six small assault craft, and three DropShips. She favors the Picaroon for its speed and the focused power of its heavy PPC. While capable of air-to-ground operations, Nangwaya prefers her fighting in space, and came to see the Sea Fox-led interdictions of the Regulan Fiefs as an affront that could be best solved by Regulan space power “and a lot of nukes.”

>When the worsening of the economic sanctions against the Regulans sparked the assassination of Captain-General Jessica Marik and a brief war between Oriente and Regulus, Nangwaya thought her realm’s time had finally come—especially when the RSMC re-authorized the Eighth Hussars’ access to tactical nuclear ordnance. Her hopes dashed by the Regulan surrender in July of 3148, she and much of her wing went rogue, taking their fighters, a DropShip, and an unknown number of Alamo-class atomic warheads. None of these warriors have been seen since.


One can only wonder what they plan to do with the atomic warheads given their anti-League stance.

>>51261969

More importantly, SPL has the advantage of not having a ludicrous amount of explosive ammo.

>>51262429
>One can only wonder what they plan to do with the atomic warheads given their anti-League stance.

Blowing a couple Aimags worth of Arcships out of the stars would be a good start.

>>51257097
A shell in that sense is basically the layers of a gobstopper - if you want to get the center without cracking your teeth, you have to lick each one

Anybody else having a crap problem downloading the most recent releases of MegaMek from Github? I can't download anything from there for longer than a few seconds. I can't get the recent releases of MegaMek, HQ and lab.

>>51261458
No, they had their own secret stuff. Nothing stopping another sect from being sneak yo.

>>51262829
The part where all the ex-ROM sneaks were Toyamas kinda does.

>>51261193
>>51261391
>Stone turns out to be a Blakist plot
>it's a deadman switch devised by Trent Arian and triggered when St. Jamais killed Blane

Fund it

>>51255423
Make the background the same color as the tomorrow theme's post box.

How should I play if I've never played a real game before? Are there people willing to teach on megamek or is it SMASH KILL BURN -DC?

>>51262866
If that were true, sure.

>>51262866
Obviously non-ROM followers perpetrate it.

Two unrelated clan questions:

1) Is the wusun ASF good? If not, are there any white burd planes you would recommend?
2) I heard somewhere that Diamond Shark/Sea Fox is run by merchants rather than warriors (even having a Merchant-Warrior hybrid caste). How does that work? And how would you make on in AToW?

>>51256790
oh lawd

Hell, I remember one of the books talking about how CG's sometimes used big numbers of Mercs to make up for not having enough federal troops.

>>51260043
Not clear on Andurien - they may decide to go back to teh FWL when the CC gets too pushy, they might just go their own way as the CC disintegrates into paranoia, they might become a permanent member of the Greater Southern Sphere Co-Prosperity Sphere, they might make some deal with the FWL...

>>51260283
The Clanners on Marik are supported by a Marik and the League has no real reason to have an issue with them, given their support of internal League operations and their excellent performance in trials against the Wolves.

>>51260540
Jessica is the mom, her daughter Nikol is likely the new CG. No news on Danai and her.

>>51260674
I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.

>>51261225
I mean, he kinda was. He put a "significant" portion of the Regulan budget towards anti-Blakist operations even in 3145. Even if there were still Blakists causing issues, they're not in Regulus.

>>51262897

There's people willing to teach around here. Pop into the IRC and ask. I'm usually down to teach if I'm not busy with something else.

>>51263030
>Even if there were still Blakists causing issues, they're not in Regulus.

He literally killed a big cell of them in the Fiefs just seven years before the Blackout.

>>51263030
>I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.
>Wuffs removed with nuclear fire and angry Indians
beautiful

>>51263108
Were they really Blakists or was that a cover story for killing domestic enemies? Never read the Derp Age books.

>>51263110
While that would be pretty sweet, I'd rather get Kalidasa back in one piece.

>>51263030

>I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.

Given how fond Regulus is of splitting the Atom, that could go poorly for everyone involved.

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>>51263030
>I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.
Please spare my 1st.

I wish the writers had figured out more to do with Regulus than [angry nuking noises].

>>51263128
Yes, really Blakists.

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>>51263110

Civilization approved.

>>51263162
>I wish the writers had figured out more to do with Regulus than [angry nuking noises].

Lester is pretty well written in the novels. He's very thoughtful and deliberate.

>>51263166
>>51263128
I'm pretty fucking impressed. That's like finding active actual Nazi cells in the 90s. WoB ROM definitely deserve their rep, if they can keep cells active so long without a government to back them.

>>51263258
There's even some Neo Blakist groups way later. Not to mention segments of Comstar going old Comstar again until they were wiped out in 3141.

Don't forget a full quarter of the Blakist army fucked off to deep space at the end of the war too.

>>51263258
In my opinion either they were actually getting support from a shadow government in the Republic, or there is a Blakist state in the near-Periphery running these ops.

>>51263342
When they let loads of WoB vets rejoin ComStar after the Jihad I'm surprised we didn't see a return to "old" ComStar even sooner.

>>51260667
A SPL doesn't require that you mount the biggest subnuclear explosive in the game in your mech to operate.

How do I Drac in 3025? Clan invasion? Beyond?

Did the introduction of clan Mechs ruin the tabletop game or was it just long time players over reacting

>>51263347
It's pretty damning when Malcolm is talking about the Blackout and how it happened, and the people who caused it knew not just how HPG's worked on a ridiculously excellent level down to the terminal coding, but knew Comstar procedures and practices in regards to the stations inside and out.

He still couldn't pin down the actual people though, and he was the guy trying to rebuild Comstar into the power it was in the early 31st century. Poor bastard got annihilated for it too. Still don't get why though. It doesn't seem like something Levin would order. I think the answer is in Bonfire. I need to read that soon.

Longshot here but I recall a blurb in one of the early Jihad sourcebooks where some Clan fighters, from the Snow Ravens, I think, try to intercept something in the periphery and get btfo. Near Dante, I believe, and it's after they're working in cahoots with the Outworlders.

Anyone remember that? Or know what it was?

>>51263483
After reading "Double Blind" I wonder if perhaps a "main" Blakist faction in the Republic either leaked his order's doings to the Republic to have a rival eliminated or to throw Levin off the real Blakist's trail.

>>51263483
>Poor bastard got annihilated for it too. Still don't get why though. It doesn't seem like something Levin would order. I think the answer is in Bonfire. I need to read that soon.
IIRC they snatched the HPG kid genius from the Republic WHILE INSIDE THE FORTRESS. As you can guess, the Republic responded in force by tracking him down and dropping several regiments on the ComGuard.

>>51263586
HPG kid genius is literally a Comstar Adept who works directly under Malcolm. I don't see how they can steal him. Hell, his sister works with him.

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>>51263545
Give praise to Blake!

>>51263483

>He still couldn't pin down the actual people though, and he was the guy trying to rebuild Comstar into the power it was in the early 31st century.

Since the Lyrans were propping them up before things went to crud with their situation, I'm surprised ComStar didn't try and re-invent itself or rebuild then.

As much as people fear a reborn Blakist power, I imagine an armed Comstar wouldn't have been too severe a problem beyond the Republic's borders.

>>51263428
>How do I Drac in 3025?
Panthers and Dragons, as far as the eye can see.
>Clan invasion?
Panthers, Dragons, and Hatamotos, as far as the eye can see. Also, conserve all your precious DHS for the air force.
>Beyond?
Absorb a Clan, then kill them for fun and profit. On second thought, skip the profit.

>>51263464
I wouldn't say it was Clan tech so much as high tech in general. The TTG is pretty well balanced around introtech, and the addition of options that allowed units with high mobility to also do damage fucked with the paradigm. Unfortunately the Clans are almost always played incorrectly, in that most players never use Zell, so they just dropped a binary against a company and skullfucked a mech a turn.

>>51263162
>indian nation
>hungarian shield
>egyptian ankh

man, what a mess

>>51263495
A quick look on Sarna says that when the Ravens held a council in the system, an unknown jumpship jumped in right on top of a Nightlord-class, then sent out a trio of pocket warships that took out a few ships before they were destroyed. That's from Jihad Hot Spots.

Doesn't seem like the attackers were ever identified, though Field Manual: Periphery says the Word secretly annexed the planet in 3062.

>>51263464
Introducing the Clans with nothing but roleplaying as a counterbalance fucked things up for a while. Remember, BV didn't exist until well after the Clans were added to the game.

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>>51263620
BLAKE VULT!

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>>51263769

BLAKE ELEISON

>>51263769
>those light effects on the swords

hnnnnnggg

>>51263690
Don't they also field Jenners quite a bit?

>>51263769
>>51263798
Where are these from?

>>51263108
Source? It was probably FWL agents masquerading as WoB, since Jessica pulled that trick at least twice iirc.

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>>51263428
>Beyond
Your forces must consist entirely of literal weeb mechs. Their swords folded over 9000 times will cut straight through filthy Davions.

>>51263945

Signatures for the official forums, I'm guessing.

>>51263690
Thanks.

>Panthers and Dragons, as far as the eye can see.

I assume this is in addition to the -K variants of introtech units

>Also, conserve all your precious DHS for the air force.

Any particular reason?

>Absorb a Clan, then kill them for fun and profit. On second thought, skip the profit.

What about the Battle Armor? Dracs seem like they have some good ones.

>>51264042
>I assume this is in addition to the -K variants of introtech units
You would think, but no, there's literally Kurita formations made of nothing but Dragons and panthers

>>51262429
>Regulan space power

What do they even have in 3145? I thought they nuked two of their major production centers

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>>51263945
>>51264034
Yeah, a series of sigs I made for the OF. They were slightly aimed at someone in particular, who was a strident atheist and anti-WoB.

>>51263968
The same book where Jessica tries the fake WoB thing. He mentions it right before he leaves Regulus to determine the truth of the attack. Lester is so good at spotting WoB that he figured out Jessica's thing was a fakeout in less than two weeks of investigation even though the planetary duke just assumed WoB.

But since he felt obligated to go investigate it himself, he was away from Regulus when Jessica launched her incursion into Marik-Stewart.

Not like he cared about Anton much, but her killing ten thousand of his citizens in an act of terror and most of all raising a false alarm on the WoB pissed him off so much he had Janos and Julietta assassinated in retribution.

>>51264111

Well, as I recall, the Regulans had a space force considerable enough for them to pursue their mad campaign of indiscriminate destruction against the Blakists towards the end of the Jihad.

So I assume they must maintain a substantial fleet of Pocket Warships that can project their nuclear arsenal wherever it is needed.

Is BT more about the pantheon or the gameplay?

I get the impression most people are just lore jocks and the game component is just something some people do sometimes so no one really cares about balance or playability.

>>51264185
The gameplay is what draws people into the setting.
Lets be honest, the lore is so dense you'd have to have a good reason to wade into it.

>>51264185
Both, honestly. Campaign and scenario play is where the thing really comes to life. If you're just thinking in a competitive or balance mindset, then you're missing out on half the fun.

Even pickup games benefit from a little fluff and story.

>>51263714
Such is human culture 1000 years after today

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>>51264185

>pantheon

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

The lore is better than pretty much all of the games. You can either play the tabletop game/MegaMek - both of which are clunky, un-intuitive. TT has the worst models ever and even more boring terrain. TT also suffers from being nearly impossible to find people to play with, same for AToW.

The video games never straddle the enjoyable line of a narrative experience that immerses you in the setting and the multiplayer fun of blowing up robots with your friends. You either get a fun campaign that you play once, alone, and probably don't revisit, or you get an arena shooter where you get to enjoy chaos and destruction but there's no depth or meaning to any of it.

Maybe the BattleTech game that HBS is coming out with will find someway to get all the fun aspects into one experience but it's way too early to tell.

Who knows what the fuck will happen with MW5.

If somebody was fucking smart, they'd remake MW2:Mercs - make it look nice, add some features, add some fluff, and give you a way to play with friends. This will never happen.

>>51264128
>the bloody red light behind the sword

Dude

Ace

>>51264330
Some of the older minis are pretty ass but I wouldn't say worst ever by any stretch.

>>51264330
>being into BattleTech fluff

I honestly don't understand. It's so badly written and contradictory

Just look at how many arguments go on here and on the OF with people screaming past each other because both of them have pages backing them up for trivial details

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>>51264364

>>51264167
Pretty sure he's talking about how they had a couple production sites and two and a half fleets destroyed by Blakists. By the time of the Scourge, at some places they were just dumping a hundred missiles out of single PWS and setting them to all target and engage at once.

>>51264370

If I'm going to put up with all the logistical b/s of a tabletop experience, I at least want good minis and terrain. BT has neither, and has a ruleset full of tables and charts. Nobody likes referencing tables and charts during a game. People being attracted to the TT game are a rarity.

>>51264411

Most fluff is badly written and contradictory. However BT fluff centers around military conflict, political intrigue, provides people with a way to engage in cultural fanboyism, and despite it's absurdities - is comparatively down to earth (grittier if you like buzzwords) than most sci-fi alternatives.

>>51264477
>Nobody likes referencing tables and charts during a game.
Then learn the charts?
Problem solved

>>51264411
Because it's pretty decent as far as genre fiction goes and people argue over trivial details because most of the rest fits together alright compared to other stuff despite incongruities and mistakes made over thirty two years of publications. Plus the depth and amount of material. There's literally more material in Battletech than the old Star Wars EU.

>>51263020

Wusun
>can't remember it, let's go to Sarna for a refresher
>"The OmniFighter's Primary Configuration is geared towards fighting an enemy in range ranges."

Looking at the TR, it's a Medium fighter with the speed of a Light, and pretty decent armour. The pod space is good too. Basically you're looking at an airborne Stormcrow here.

The Prime looks like it was tailor-made to go after DSes and WS, a Squadron of 5 fighters (seriously holy fuck why do the rules recommend 6+4 Squadrons for the Clans rather than 5+5?) can dump out 23 Capital damage per turn. Only problem is the range; with the speed it has it should be able to run down and pummel light fighters too.

The A is a similar concept to the Prime, it just uses LRM-15s and MPLs instead of S-SRM-6s and ER Mediums.

B is a flying HAG-40, which I'm sure is hilarious as fuck on paper but with just 12 shots is going to get itself into more trouble than it can get out of if it tries to take on heavier units.

The C is a bit oversinked and is another bully for Light fighters or larger craft.

As a platform it has a lot of potential but they didn't do the smart and obvious thing like giving it configs with 2 ER LLs in the nose, 4 ER Mediums in the wings, 2 ER Mediums aft and 6 DHS or the like which kinda gimps it.

>>51263428

>How do I Drac in 3025?

Panther, Dragon, Charger.

>Clan invasion?

Panther, Grand Dragon, Hatamoto.

>Beyond?

Panther, Grand Dragon, Hatamoto.

I hope you like SHS and losing, anon.

>>51263464

Definitely the latter. That they're still bitching about it over twenty years later demonstrates that pretty clearly.

>>51264525
>most of the rest fits together alright compared to other stuff

Know how I know you're joking?

>There's literally more material in Battletech than the old Star Wars EU.

Doubt it. Really, really doubt it.

>>51264585
>Doubt it. Really, really doubt it.
Check it yourself. It's true.

Also
>Implying any other powerhouse settings fit together any better
Come on now.

>>51263020

>1) Is the wusun ASF good? If not, are there any white burd planes you would recommend?

Sorry, ADHD'ed on other posts there. The Wusun is OK but the older Batu, Turk, and Visigoth are still quite serviceable. Get as many Hysaspes as you can though.

As for the Sharks, the Warriors are still at least nominally in charge but listen to their Merchants quite a lot about what things are worth fighting to capture for other trade opportunities or use by the Clan. That gives them a really strong logistical base and when Warriors leave active service they often go into the Merchant caste as well. The Merchant Caste was used as a reserve a bit in that regard, with warriors who could pass a ToP allowed to rejoin active service at a lower rank.

In terms of AToW it's probably one of the best ways to handle a group that wants to play Clan but doesn't all want to play Warriors. Warriors should just take some skills out the merchant archetype, or possibly the merchant skill set if they retired and made a comeback.

>>51264680
where would you even look that up lol

Maybe if you're ONLY counting actual novels. But once you start including comics, video games, movies, and so on, BT is BT-FO

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>>51264585
Luke, did I ever tell you about prostitutes. A prostitute is a being who provided sexual services in exchange for payment.

Prostitution was known to be abundant on planets such as Keyorin, Brentaal IV, Arcan IV, and probably many other worlds throughout the galaxy. It could even be found on planets such as Coruscant, mostly confined to brothels or other seedy entertainment venues such as the Outlander Club.

She was a good friend

>>51263921

Not anywhere near as much as Panthers or Bugs, but yes. And more than anyone else did.

>>51264042

>Any particular reason?

IC because they needed their oversinked Slayers to be even more oversinked because reasons. OOC so their forces would look dangerous on paper but be gimped against the FedCom.

>>51264779
>movies
>EU
Anon...

And if you include Sourcebooks, which is like half of BT material, it BTFO the rest. Not like BT didn't have a bunch of games, comics and even a TV series either. It's just not as big a brand, hasn't ever been. But the amount of words written about Battletech in official publications does exceed the old Star Wars EU by quite a margin.

>>51264844
>IC because they needed their oversinked Slayers to be even more oversinked because reasons. OOC so their forces would look dangerous on paper but be gimped against the FedCom.

Does BV balance this out?

>>51264987
Not particularly.

>>51264875

>And if you include Sourcebooks, which is like half of BT material, it BTFO the rest.

>300+ full-length novels, not counting Junior titles, comics, Art Of, technical guides, RPG stuff, etc
>less material than BT

Anon, I...

>>51264798
da fuq

>>51264875
there were certainly EU shows, and I think there were some EU movies as well.

And Star Wars has shitloads on shitloads of things like Tech guides, alien guides, like 10 different RPGs, multiple tabletop wargames, the life story of everyone who ever appeared on screen expanded into a trilogy...

>>51265005
Fug. I was hoping to branch off into a faction that's not Davion. What's left? Purple birds?

>>51264987

>Does BV balance this out?

Nope.

I mean, you do get a BV reduction for overheating but it's not enough to make up for the lack of DHS and sensible design philosophies.

>>51265080
It's Wookiepedia autism

>>51265094
Kurita is still fun.
They get some really nice toys in DA, but it really depends what you want from the faction. I main Cappies, because I like underhanded tactics and whatnot, and they get some cool stuff in DA as well. As far as optimization goes, clans are hard to beat.

>>51265094
Nobody gets as much stuff as Davion
They have magic warehouses that let them get everything

>>51265180
>what are the death commandos getting mechs from anyone at any time out of thin air

>>51265203

Still not a dozen or so regiments of bleeding edge tech out of nowhere just in time for the Jihad.

Meanwhile the Lyrans and everyone else grow by fuck all in that period because they're constrained by far more sensible writing.

>>51264798
One of the best /tv/ memes

That and cunny. And ASR.

>>51265203
One unit's special rule is not the same as 3/4ths of all IS designs being part of their fielded forces
>>51265222
Not gonna try to defend that, but it's not like there haven't been similar discrepancies with every other faction at some point in lore

>>51265129
>>51265180

I read some of the mechwarrior books as a kid, not knowing that they were connected to a game. I've played a little megamek, but I've found a nearby tabletop group and I'd like to pick a faction for actual tabletop play.

I don't really want to play Davion because of the designated protagonist thing

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>>51265180

>Nobody gets as much stuff as Davion
>They have magic warehouses that let them get everything

The Capellans can contend with them there in the Dark Age:


> FM 3145

> Sarna and Tikonov Commonalities

>Early attempts to bolster the Republic’s defenses by reactivating BattleMech production lines on Nanking and Tikonov have backfired, as the Capellans have overrun both worlds and their output is now supplying the CCAF. Kallon-made Riflemans and Wolverines are now pouring into the Liao Guards and Cháng-Chéng, and the Tikonov Guards have made procurement of large numbers of Koscheis and Thunderbolts a point of pride. Long-time local manufacturers such as Hollis Incorporated and Tao MechWorks have recently ramped up production, but it appears that our past close scrutiny has kept output low until now. Increasing numbers of the older stealth Crusader indicate it may be back in production alongside the CRD-8L on Styk. House Liao has been lukewarm about adopting ’Mechs captured at New Hessen. Capellan forces have adopted a number of Rooks into frontline service, but captured Blades, have allegedly been shipped off-world to training units.


And in the Capellan 3145 Read Out:

> The Capellan Confederation Armed Forces have proven themselves more adept, more devious and more powerful than any pre-Blackout analysts suspected. Much of this success has come from carefully-hidden production facilities that never quite shut down, but the Liaos have also succored from the factories and stockpiles they’ve captured on Republic and Federated Suns worlds. The largesse of Victoria, New Syrtis, Tikonov and other worlds now feeds the Capellan war machine.

>>51265291
Absolutely true, Cappies get a bunch of cool shit in DA and Davion gets their face pushed in.

It's fantastic.

>>51265286
What era are they playing usually?

>>51265435
I don't know. I have to make it up to Memphis.

t. North MSanon from a few threads ago

>>51265403

Speaking of what House Davion got, is there any reason they got so many Artillery and long ranged units in their 3145 TRO?

Was there some shift in their military thinking in recent times?

>>51265476
They're on the defensive, which is unusual for them.

>>51265476
Yes, they went full defensive in the 3100s.

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So my wife wanted an assault energy boat with the caveat that it was also a zombie mech. This is what I came up with. I feel like this could pair well with a missile boat.
And yes I know the layout is more in line with say a Fafnir than an Awesome, but we like are custom sheets to use minis we own.

>>51265601
Why go RHS and coolant pods? You don't have enough guns to need both at once with the offensive guns. Also, ditch the LAMS, it's just a way to make you waste cooling capacity. Go with ECM instead.

>>51265403
You identify too much with a faction in a poorly-written tabletop wargame

Go outside and live a happy life, anon

>>51265730
Either that or I'm shitposting.
Guess which one it is.

>>51265664
It so if she needs to alpha multiple rounds consecutively she can alternate between RHS and coolant pods at least 5 times.

>>51265749
The problem is that it's impossible to tell. See also: MadCap, Ben Rome, Medron Pryde, FedComGirl, and innumerable others.

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>>51265403
>Absolutely true, Cappies get a bunch of cool shit in DA and Davion gets their face pushed in.
>It's fantastic.
>Author fiat is bad when it happens to everybody else, but when it happens to *my* faction it's "fantastic"

>>51266315

That is probably the single truest image ever posted on 4chan.

I mean, he's still clearly shitposting, and you shouldn't fall for the bait, but that doesn't make your image any less objectively correct. It applies to every faction argument in existence.

>>51266352
Remember, revolution also means to go around a circle...

>>51266315
Not that guy, and I agree with what you're saying, but there is a third possibility:

If out-of-thin-air BS is going to happen, thank god the love is being spread around.

>>51266787
>If out-of-thin-air BS is going to happen, thank god the love is being spread around
I am that guy, and that's pretty much how I feel about it

So I know up to around the jihad lore pretty well and I know the newest stuff they've put out (Era Report DA and 3145/50 TROs) but I'm not entirely clear on what happened in between. How did the republic come about and what's their deal beyond taking everyone's land and putting up a wall?
If you don't have time or patience to explain, could you direct me to a sourcebook?

>>51266787
Ever since BT changed hands from FASA to WK/Catalyst, and we've had the Dark Age and then Jihad, I get the feeling that writers have been doing all kinds of "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" with regards to material.

>>51265222
What are you talking about? What dozen regiments?

>>51265259
>Not gonna try to defend that, but it's not like there haven't been similar discrepancies with every other faction at some point in lore
There haven't been. The only two that stand out are, surprise surprise, factions with patron authors (i.e. Capellans and Canopians)

>>51265291
>>51265749
>>51266315
Those still aren't magic warehouses, they're factories.

>>51267112

Don't the Ghost Bears and Jade Falcons also stand out?

>>51267141
something something Leviathan II

>>51267141
Maybe, I've never really been into the Clans. But from what I can recall about the Ghost Bears don't they have to suffer losses to get magic rebuilding of units? They never do anything.

>>51267042
Do you think, one day, there will be a reforging of the universe?

Taking all the things people really liked over the last 30 years, and retelling the universe with all the things that are inconsistent with the likable stuff dropped.

>>51267180
They don't get a huge spike in forces, but they get what NEA will tell you(correctly) is the most ridiculous aerospace asset in the entire lore.
>>51267188
Honestly it wouldn't be a bad idea but the Grogs would lose their fucking shit at the very idea of it.
You'll see shortly, I think.

>>51267031
The Republic is the old Blake Protectorate rebranded as the Terran Hegemony 2.0 and run by a mysterious man with no past who busted out of a concentration camp on Kittery in the Jihad and formed a cult of personality around him. VSD latched onto him as a convenient figurehead for a new Coalition and killed all well most of the Blakists.

The units got so buddy buddy in all the fighting that a bunch of them defected to Stone, just like the Comguard did for Victor after Bulldog.

And so in the power vacuum with the Houses the weakest they've ever been, Stone starts his new state in what was basically the old Chaos March. With Victor and Duke Allard Liao's son as his toadies, he also allies with the Davions to form a solid power block. Then while everyone is still rebuilding he strengthens his realm and nabs all the core worlds he can.

Davion hands them over in a long game where they figure they can always take them back later if the state collapses or alliances change, and why pay for reconstruction when somebody else is willing?
Dracs play a similar game for the most part but losing the Azami made zero sense.
Marik has them taken away by force but can't get their shit together to properly contest it.
Steiner figures why not make Skye somebody else's problem?
Liao did not give up easily and fought several hot wars and a continuing low level brush war for their worlds for the full fifty years after the formation of the place until the Blackout and has been on an almost 3rd Succession War level of moderate war and successful invasion since then.

That's the story of the Republic in general from it's formation to the Blackout.

>>51267140
Not them but the warehouses are mentioned in HB:HD as a source of old tech machines mothballed in the 3050's and 3060's that they drag out for upgrades to replenish losses from the FCCW. Mind you, this sort of throwing production and freebies around willy nilly is endemic to the Handbook series in general. In the same book, you get a Grasshopper line out of nowhere with no explanation that makes no sense. Not to mention the Dracs handing over a Warship hull for free to be carted all the way to the Capellan border for completion by pre-retard George Hasek.

Same stuff happens in HB:MPS with factories.

I haven't gone through the others as thoroughly yet. I hate slogging through all that when I already read the original housebooks and field manuals and it's 90% the same material.

>>51267188
So basically what people hoped the Star Wars canon reboot would bem

>>51267089

Every freaking time, I swear.

The FCCW was supposed to have reduced the AFFS to half or less of its pre-war size. In FM: U they are larger than that to the tune of around a dozen regiments, and this is credited to boneyards on places like Nova Zemlya that have had a crash-refit program started to bring out a ton of 3067-tech units and rebuild the AFFS.

Most other factions don't even grow that fast over a period of *decades* which is why, for the last 14 years since FM:U came out people have pointed to how stupid it is.

>>51267188
>retelling the universe with all the things that are inconsistent with the likable stuff dropped

Seems about right.

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>>51267389
And then people will say that Liao and MOC are the only factions that had any author fiat on numbers.
To be honest Liao's at least made a little bit of sense as "They just marked them off as losses they didn't actually take during the jihad"

>>51267485

I wouldn't even mind if other factions had boneyards like that they could call on, but lore-wise it made no sense because everyone was desperate to keep any 'Mechs they could in circulation rather than leaving a dozen regiments rusting quietly away on a world within easy striking distance of their enemies.

And to that list you can add the Jade Falcons, who had Elias Crichell's magical foresight sibkos and 'Mechs out of nowhere to rebuild after the Refusal War while the Wolves with their supposed unbeatable fiat got dick all.

>>51267485
>And then people will say that Liao and MOC are the only factions that had any author fiat on numbers.
Nobody says that. People just keep ragging on them because people still try and defend their bullshit, while everyone already acknowledges the dumbness of the suns stuff, so there isn't really much reason to keep bringing it up

Are there any Jihad novels?

>>51267278
Except with no ties to, nor any of the endearing features of, the Terran Hegemony.

>>51267334
It isn't endemic to the Handbook series in general, only select factions get free stuff. And the Covenant warship predates the Handbook series.

>>51267561
see
>>51267112

>>51267579
>Are there any Jihad novels?
None.

>>51267583
>Camerons
>Endearing

One Amaris wasn't enough

>>51267485
No one says Liao and MoC are the only ones. Situations like the MoC's Magic half dozen regiments simply make even less sense.

>>51267619
see
>>51267112

>>51267603
Speaking as the person who wrote that,
I mean to say "only other two" in response to the Davion reference.

>>51267603
Guy says
>(i.e. Capellans and Canopians)
i.e means "for example", not "this is an exhaustive list of everything in the category of things that I'm talking about"

>>51267607
Fug. Why did they stop? Looking for new Mechwarrior/Battletech novels in Barnes & Noble was a highlight of my childhood.

>>51267635
See
>>51267638

>>51267579
Battlecorps Anthology 4: Fire for Effect is pure Jihad short stories. The compilations after that also have a few stories scattered in there.

>>51267638
Fair enough. You have my apology then.

>>51267650
I think it had something to do with at first the absurd-sounding but true belief by the dark age guys that they genuinely wouldn't need to detail the jihad because nobody would care about the stuff before the DARK AGE when it came out.
Later on I believe that it had something to do with the horrific clusterfuck that is the Battletech IP rights

>>51267603
>>51267635
If you read that post as a response (logically) to the post he's responding to, he's rather obviously not saying exclusively Capellans and Canopians. He's saying not EVERY other faction besides the Suns have had similar discrepancies.

>>51267661
Is ok. I play Capellans for the record. I meant to point out not everyone has gotten the Coleman treatment with beneficial discrepancies. Take the ever popular purple birds, for instance.

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>>51267703
Maybe not in terms of numbers, but every faction has had their share of author fiat. It's pointless to debate.
Lets talk about mechs.
Is the Guillotine as good as it looks? I don't think I've ever had an occasion to field it and I dig the hell out of the aesthetic.

>>51267733
poor burds

>>51267749

SHS are a pain in the ass, it could have like 12 more tons of weapons for the same heat dissipation.

Can still be fun though.

IIC is a major upgrade because it does something with the tonnage gained back from DHS.

>>51265094
Way back before the Dark Age of Technology, I mained Davion. These days, I squawk with the purple birds, because having an Endless Bag of IWIN Buttons gets goddamn old after a while.

But yeah, you probably want to skip Kurita. They literally existed primarily to provide OPFOR for Steiner and Davion to gang up on.

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>>51267799
At least Kurita is good for the waifus.

>>51267749
>Is the Guillotine as good as it looks? I don't think I've ever had an occasion to field it and I dig the hell out of the aesthetic.
It is very nasty in 3025, but like the grasshopper, it's effectiveness drops off a lot in later eras

>>51267696
It had to do that RoC didn't want to continue the line as distributor after Wizkids got bought out I think. It's why all the new stuff has been straight published by Catalyst.

They really need to do some more novels though, and at least get Bonfire of Worlds in regular print. I haven't even been able to find a print copy of BCA Volume 6 and that came out for Gencon I think.

>>51266945
You like a bad guy faction. Deal with it.

>>51267848
Oh man. Any proper JAV with that gal?

>>51267848
>>51267867
I too need the sauce

>>51267849
I found the best way to make the grasshopper relevant again was to give it DHS and use the saved tonnage to put in hardened armor.
I think I gave my friend PTSD with that thing.

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>>51267848
Steiner gets all the cute blondes.

>>51267867
>>51267872
That's the Coordinator's daughter, she doesn't do DAV. You have to slay a Clan to get her attention.

>>51267610
>implying stone's republic isn't worse

>>51267911
I wonder what leaked nudes look like in 3050

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>>51267749
>Maybe not in terms of numbers, but every faction has had their share of author fiat. It's pointless to debate.

Send a little of that magic our way, will ya?

>>51267934
Why do you think I said one wasn't enough?

Somebody should really make a "The Rimworlds Shall Rise Again" picture. Some guy with a beat to shit old Phoenix painted like the Amaris Dragoons with a pair of shark jaws strapped to the cockpit.

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So the Lyrans created the Gotterdammerung as a replacement for their Thunderbolts.

However, is the 75 ton machine actually superior to the 65 ton machine it was meant to replace and which one is likely to win if you throw a lance of one against the other?

>>51267848
>>51267867
>>51267872
>JAVfags

Pedos please go

>>51268067
>implying she isn't hella cute
You're objectively wrong

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>>51268037
Maybe you'd have got some if you hadn't funded terrorists

>>51268066
The Gotterdammerung has a hilariously bad problem with empty side torsos. You have some ERMLs to pad your CT, but it's still a problem.

Also, the LRM15 could really use another ton of ammo, although it would just blow up, because hey, no crit padding.

>>51268066
I bet the quartermaster corps love it when "replacement" designs show up and even after decades still haven't actually replaced the original mechs.

Like the Eisentsturm. If I were the Archon, I'd literally just manufacture the -R3 and Omni versions and relegate every other aerospace fighter in the LCAF/LAAF to militias or sell them to mercs.

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>>51268098

>>51267848
Post more dracs

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>>51268098
>implying Blake's holy warriors weren't redeeming humanity

>>51268084
>hella

A pedo and a west coaster? Could it get any worse?

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>>51268151
>West coast

>>51268124
>I bet the quartermaster corps love it when "replacement" designs show up and even after decades still haven't actually replaced the original mechs.

>TFW the Hellspawn was a miserable failure and the Dervish outlived it
>The line survived the Jihad
>GM Talcott actually shut it down

That will never not be delicious justice.

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Emperor's Teeth, it took forever to get the legs not to look weird! Plus, I took it off the pad this time when I scanned it so there isn't a shadow over it. The first WIP sketch was tagged under "bad scan" on our booru.

>>51267891
>I found the best way to make the grasshopper relevant again was to give it DHS and use the saved tonnage to put in hardened armor.
That's solid, as is using the tonnage for IJJs. I think I've got my takes on the two ideas around here somewhere

>>51268107

What could be done to improve it then?

>>51267749
Think of it as a Grasshopper with a SRM-6 instead of a LRM-5. Good times.

>>51267945
>nudes
They 3d print people to fuck and then decompose them when they get bored if it.

Purple Birds Rule!

We're the Purple Birds and we rule!

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>>51267891
>>51268308
Found em

>>51268187
"hella" is west coast slang

>>51268534
>it's region specific
Nah, it's exclusive to douchebags of all locations.

>>51268534
I live in NC and people use it pretty often

>>51267642
No.
e.g. is short for exemplī grātiā , "for the sake of an example" or, in less archaic wording, "for example"

i.e. is short for id est, "that is"

>>51268648
This isn't to say that he wasn't using i.e. in that way, just to show that that way is improper and that you'd want to use e.g.

Anyone else more than a little confused by the Com Guard organization method?

I know the Greek alphabet represents force composition, but sometimes those compositions seem random. Is a division at full strength only when it has six Level IIIs?

I get that when a division has a designation like Iota, theoretically it's supposed to have 112 mechs. But what about the Levels below it? When you have Level III-beta, Level III-omicron, Level III-kappa and Level III-iota, does it mean each of those is suppose to have 1/6 of what a Level IV with the same designation would have? Or is it only 1/X mechs, with X representing the total number of current Level IIIs in the Level IV?

Does anyone use Enhanced LRMs? How useful are they?

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>>51268134
>Post more dracs

I could just hear someone trying to explain... "Really! They're named after the months of the year, but in English!"

What are the most common Purple Burd mechs in the Dark Age?

Would it be unreasonable from a fluff perspective for a 4SW Merc unit to have a lance of Vindicators?

>>51269191
How fat are you, anon?

>>51269330
I don't see any reason why not, presuming they've worked for or against the CapCon in the past (probably against)

>no posts on the OF's Inner Sphere board in 4 days
>tfw /btg/ is more lively that the official fan site

>>51269897
/btg/ allows for fun

>>51269897
I've seen more and better BT discussion here than in other sites. In other groups, there's tons of shitposting along the lines of "look at how <real world event/device/invention> is just like BattleTech!".

The fact that a recurring topic on 4chan is actually more germane than official sites, fan-run groups and boards, and more is *really* telling of the quality of the fanbase.

>>51270003
Ease of entry, quite honestly. I don't go anywhere I have to log in/sign up anymore. It's just not worth having yet another username/password to remember to ask a dumb question that I'm sure I'm just misunderstanding the wording on.

>>51270003
>The fact that a recurring topic on 4chan is actually more germane than official sites, fan-run groups and boards, and more is *really* telling of the quality of the fanbase.
I know a fair number of battletech people who are good guys, but who just don't use any online stuff because the OF is trash, the other sites are jokes, and they don't know about this place and are too thin-skinned or vulnerable to b8 anyhow.

>>51267848
>>51267867
>>51267872

Kana Kurashina

>>51268067
>JAVfags

>Pedos please go

What kind of low quality bait is this?

>>51269897
Well, of course. Most things stop being lively in advanced stages of cancer.

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>>51270115

State-sponsored bait.

>>51268317
Honestly? Invest less in being tough, and it'll actually be tough. Just drop the engine to a SFE instead of a CFE, and then rearrange things to pad the side torsos. I would probably drop an ERML, among other things.

One issue with the Gotterdammerung, and other mechs that put ammo in the head, is that IMO while damage doesn't transfer to the CT, you just lost two sensors if the ammo went, and at that point you're pretty much out of the fight. So ammo in the head is not as good as it might seem at first.

>>51268977
It's about the ratio of mechs to other unit types, generally. There's no formal system for Level III units, the system AFAIK only fully applies to Level IV

>>51268981
They're not BAD, but they are too heavy on the whole. Having a larger sweet spot for your LRMs is quite nice - but you might as well just use Clan LRMs, if you're really in need of that. And no faction really deploys them in anything approaching large numbers.

>>51269237
See FM3145 pg 215-216 for the RATs, which are a good place to start.

>>51270256
>One issue with the Gotterdammerung, and other mechs that put ammo in the head, is that IMO while damage doesn't transfer to the CT, you just lost two sensors if the ammo went, and at that point you're pretty much out of the fight. So ammo in the head is not as good as it might seem at first.
If the ammo in the head goes, your SENSORS and not the biggest issue, Muninn. The pilot seems slightly more critical to safe operation of the mech.

>>51262897
>tomorrow theme
The default one? I haven't ever messed with themes and stuff on 4chan. I assume this is a darker theme I've seen in some screen shots of the site?

>>51270305
Torso cockpits, son

>>51270373
Check the bottom right corner of your browser, you'll find a little box says Style and has a drop-down, Tomorrow is a dark grey color scheme that's easily the best one available.

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What is this battlemech?

And in skunkwerks, how do I get one of those shoulder mounts some mechs have? Like madcat mkii's and their missile racks?

>>51270433
Legacy, friendo

And usually those are just stuffed in the side torso.

>>51270433

That's called a side torso. whether it's embedded in the pectoral region, or sitting on the shoulder, it's a side torso.

>>51270433
That's a Legacy, a very solid WoB assault mech. And those "shoulder mounts" are just torso or arm mounted weapons, mech depending. Usually torso mounted.

>>51270421
Oh shit, I was blind and now I see. The default theme is easy on the eyes too, but this is pretty sexy. Thanks mang.

>>51270458
>>51270457
>>51270464
Oh, ok. But what is the 'turret' button for?

>>51270487
/btg/ is here to help. More than the rest of the BattleTech fandom, at least.

>>51270508
Turrets are a dfiferent thing entirely. They create turret mountings on the torso they're equipped on that allow 360-degree facing of any turret mounted weapon. Another anon can give more detail on their functionality. I believe you can find more details in TacOps.

>>51270305
It has a torso cockpit.

>>51270433
Legacy

For shoulder mounts, there are tickboxes that say "Turret"

Click them, then right click items to bring up the menu and add them to the turret

A lot of mechs that LOOK like they have stuff mounted on top of the shoulder either have it in the arm or in the torso without being in a turret.

>>51270521
Shoulder turrets aren't actually 360 degrees, iirc. The head blocks the hex to the left or right.

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Among introtech, medium lasers or srm-6's appear to be the most bang for the buck.

There's so few real options after engine and armor that it seems more like filling up as much space as you can and whatever fits is what you put.

>>51264477
>Nobody likes referencing tables and charts during a game.
Um, I do.

>>51264006
I still think that the Roku is a hilarious roach of a mech.

>>51270991
>Another mech with no ammo for an ammo weapon...
Why must you hurt my OCD? What have I ever done to you?

Also SRM-4 is better than SRM-6 for ammunition usage and I think number of missiles hit on average.

>>51270991
So... a lighter Swayback with an SRM2 and no ammo? Why, might I ask?

>>51271181
It's got 8 M lasers and the srm2 has 50 ammo.

Am I wrong in thinking the ammo weapons don't come with 1 full magazine?

>>51271208
What's a swayback?

I've been operating on the assumption ammo caches were for ammo on top of what the weapon came with.

>>51271218
I repeated this in MegaMek and it is a ton short so no ammo bin. ... ... MUH OCD!

>>51271237
Variant of a Hunchback with loads-a-lasers. I think it is the 4P version.

>>51271262
Ok, I took the srm off and put 2 more heatsinks on.

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>>51271349
>2 more heatsinks...
THAT'S STILL 46 TONS ON A 45 TON MECH! MAH OCD!

Hell with this. I'm going to go color code my Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms for a few days.

>>51271218
The only systems on a BattleMech that come with ammo in the game are the Remote Sensor Dispenser and all One-Shot weapon systems (including Rocket Launchers). Everything else must have ammo assigned to it to function. If you are using Solaris Skunk Werks, the ammo count it displays when you highlight a weapon is just to tell you how big the ammo lot is for that weapon, per ton allotted. So an AC/5 would say 20 shots, which is how many a ton of the ammo gets you, but you still have to assign a ton of ammo to the 'Mech.

>>51271397
No it's not? Skunk is telling me it's 45. You have an extra something.

>>51271397
You're the type of person I always liked giving a bowl of Skittles, Reese's Pieces, and M&Ms to during the holidays. Yes, all in one bowl.

>>51271416
Well that's misleading as fuck. Clear now though.

If I put one box though, everything that fires that ammo will pull from the same box, right? 4 AC5's and one @ac5 will share the 20 ammo, and I'd only be able to fire the whole group 5 times, yea?

>>51271437
That's right.

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>>51271417
I copied your mech exactly down to armor placement and got 46/45. You didn't add ammo.

>>51271436
You... MONSTER! lol

>>51271475
I just tried this in Solaris Skunk Works and came up with 46 as well.

Getting really close for a new thread.
For later...
>>51271528

>>51271510
It won't even let me export it to text for clipboard because it is overweight.

>>51271397
Dude, read the fucking rules before you try to design something

>>51271669
OCD InSaNiTy 46

Equipment Type Rating Mass

Internal Structure: Standard 75 points 4.50
Engine: Fusion Engine 180 7.00
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Heat Sinks: Single Heat Sink 20 10.00

Gyro: Standard 2.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00

Armor: Standard Armor AV - 152 9.50

Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass

SRM-2 CT 2 1 1.00
4 Medium Lasers RA 12 4 4.00
4 Medium Lasers LA 12 4 4.00
@SRM-2 (Inferno) (50) CT - 1 1.00
Free Critical Slots: 24


You do the math, jackass. The guy designed a mech without ammo and it comes one tone overweight. Don't be a douche and keep up with the thread.

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>>51271475
This is the exact layout.

>>51271475
>>51271510
You guys are putting more armor on it than it shows.

>>51269361
>How fat are you, anon?

Han Solo owes me a lot of money.

>>51267892
Post more Steiners