/btg/ Battletech General!

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First with warning.

>>51414920

Good discussion topic from the previous thread:

>What are your favorite physical features on various mechs. This doesn't have to be an entire design, just features. Like you like the stocky legs of an Archer with the old "X" on the sides, or the missile box "ears" of the Catapult and Mad Cat.
>It's like asking if you like a girl's rack or eyes, or whatever. What floats your boat aesthetically?

Who has the best selection of Heavy mechs among the Successor States and Periphery Nations?

>>51415450
The SLDF. Don't play a faction for the mechs, play it for how much you like them. Anything else is being a powergaming faggot.

>>51415450

Federated Suns.

Same answer for battle armour, tanks, all classes of 'Mechs, and ASFs after 3086 since that's when they get the Eisensturm.

>>51415507
Don't say that, my main 2 IS are
Steiner, I like both faction and mechs
Cappies love mechs hate faction.

>>51415507
>>51415538

I also mean "varied" when I say "best".

As in something for nearly every role.

>>51415620
in that case the answer is gonna be FedSuns in the IS and the Taurians in the periphery

>>51415620

Suns gets both the widest selection and best stuff in every category except WarShips, anon.

Taurians for early Periphery and then the Outworlds Alliance or Magistracy later on for that area.

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>>51414686
Let's be honest, AK is mostly to blame for that feud. And where is he now? If he didn't get booted like NEA, then there's a seriously lopsided application of the code of conduct.

>>51415074
I don't know why we're taking a receipt as being proof of a single damn thing. A receipt can be faked just as easily as a screenshot.

should I do an image dump so I can get this thread to autosage too?

>>51415895

>And where is he now?

Promoted and given additional responsibilities.

What did you really expect was going to happen?

>>51415917

Please. Now that the OF is here to defend their idiotic decisions, let the thread die. It's either going to devolve into even more OF drama, or bullshit faction shitposting as a result of a completely reasonable question (>>51415450) anyway.

>>51415895
>If he didn't get booted

Promoted, actually. And he continues to spew stupidity everywhere on the OF he goes.

The moral of the story is that if you work for CGL, you're signing a loyalty oath to never, in any way, criticize anything they ever do, for any reason. It doesn't matter what you do for them, nor how much you defend them, nor how much you help them: if you disagree with a beemer in public you're toast.

>A receipt can be faked

Depends on it it's printed on normal paper or on carbons or acid paper. With that said, there's literally no part of any of this that couldn't be faked by somebody determine or bored enough. There's no possible way to sort it out, so the sane thing to do would accept that CGL is basically a shit company that will allow somebody to steal $750,000 and get away with it, but will fire somebody who goes out of their way to defend the company if/when they have a disagreement with someone who is proven to be objectively wrong.

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MWO style Thanatos. Now with actual legs, and actuators!

>>51416156
I love you, new art anon

>>51416156
Great stuff.
I'm going to be upset if that's one of the four mechs they add for the era change.
Speaking of which:
What are your predictions for the picks?
I'm thinking Sunder and Mad Cat Mk II at least.

I'm the one who originally questioned DW's account last thread, and I'm sorry I ever did so, because fuck this shit is awful.

Please make the hurting stop.

>>51416235
I would vote against those two. We have unfucked versions of both, he should redesign really shit mechs such a Ninja-To

>>51416259
You shit your bed, now you have to lie in it.

But let's get off that shitride, and answer the most pressing question of our time: How do we fix the dracs?

>>51416292

>dracs

Whats wrong with them exactly?

>>51416321

They have gunnery issues, because they can't see well through those slanty eyes.

Oh, and yellow skin indicates chronic jaundice.

>>51416292

>How do we fix the dracs?

We don't. There's too much shit there that is bound up in other plotlines and trying to untangle it is like trying to deal with the Gordian Knot.

The only real hope of a solution is that they do a timeskip after resolving the 3145 nonsense, give everyone a suite of competitive designs, and write fluff where factions win by being smart or badass rather than their opponents herping derps for decades at a time and letting them win.

>>51416285
Not design wise, I'm talking about what MWO is adding this summer.
I just realized I didn't clarify that, my bad.

>>51416354
Better MREs and optics coverage in their health care, then. Problem solved.

>>51416292
Get rid of the Black Dragons.
90% all of the dumb shit Kurita has done post SS is their fault.

>>51416407

The Dracs were quite able to shit the bed until the Clan Invasion without their help.

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>>51416235
Inner sphere tends to get shafted with poor designs more reliant on nostalgia rather than actual usefulness in game terms. Could seriously be anything, from Thanatos, Osiris, Argus, Fafnir, Legacy to Viking and even to Vanquisher.

As for the clans, it's a toss up between Fire Moth, Arctic Wolf, Cougar, Nova Cat, Blood Asp, Mad Cat mk II and possibly the Black Lanner.

Personally I'd love to see the Bandersnatch and the Cerberus for the Inner Sphere, and the Blood Asp and Nova Cat for the clans.

Those would fill critical roles in both tech bases, mainly multiple high caliber ballistic capable 75 tonner and 95 tonner for IS, a 90 ton omni (because PGI fucked the HUElander IICs capabilities and the Supernova is gonna be superdisappointing) and a 70 ton battlemech for an alternative to the super limited Summoner.

>>51416431
Yes anon, that's why I said POST SSW.

Who was likely worse overall?

Claudius Steiner or Hohiro Kurita (the one that was Takashi's father)?

>>51416456
I'd bet on the Nova Cat desu

>>51416478

Yeah, but I really don't hold out any hope of the Dracs not doing the most counterproductive shit at any given moment even without their influence.

It's basically the Drac trait. "What's the absolute dumbest thing we could do right now? Right, let's get started on it!"

>>51416292
>Fix MRMs
>Retcon availability of DHS refits and upgrade percentages
>Let MadDrac retcon them some factories for 3058 SL shit
>Give them the HB:HL treatment, retconning most of their lolwarcrimes crap to being 1st/2nd SW only, with 'muh samurai bushido' eventually becoming basically the classic 3sw "honorable limited warfare" thing.
>Make the BDS not clinically retarded
That fixes most of the not plot related idiocy

>>51416548
You right

>>51416431
>The Dracs were quite able to shit the bed until the Clan Invasion without their help.

The Black Dragons existed before that. They just weren't called that. Hell, they inducted Teddy into their little club in 3018. It's one reason they were so fucking pissed when he went all reformation. It wasn't just an upstart changing things, they saw it as the deepest betrayal.

>>51416488
Hohiro died like a bitch to a hog. So him.

>>51416779
Did he?
Like a literal hog?

>>51416851

"Rasalhague" is also made fun of as "Rasalhog".

>>51416851
His Wrasslehog bodyguard killed him. It's basically the opening scene to Heir to the Dragon. Takashi shows up all covered in blood and little Teddy asks "A battle? Were you killing Fedrats father?" He literally uses fedrats, it was great.

Then Takashi shows him the scene and is all "If you are the Coordinator, you can't be weak or this will happen to you too."

And Teddy instead of crying like a little eight year old bitch goes "I want revenge." Classic example of back when the dracs reveled in being hardasses. Man I loved it. Plus wrasslehog really was best as a Drac state. All the plotting and the nobles and samurai. Way better than the Black Dragon shit that replaced it.

Is there a new boxed set out? I read that some were available in January.

>>51416548
DHS were actually already retconned against the Dracs. We'd need to retcon the retcon.

>>51416548
Looks good and makes sense, but
>with 'muh samurai bushido' eventually becoming basically the classic 3sw "honorable limited warfare" thing.
feels like it'd kinda make them feel too generic. They need SOME samurai weirdness, just not full retard

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>>51416947

Speaking of the early books, how much of a threat was Duke Ricol Hassid?

They painted him as significant threat to the Commonwealth, yet his machinations wind up being unraveled by the Grey Death Legion and later he seems somewhat diminished after the 4th Succession War.

Also, how did he get away with owning his own Behemoth anyway?

>>51417169

>Speaking of the early books, how much of a threat was Duke Ricol Hassid?

To the Gray Death, pretty big. To any of the major powers? Laughable.

>Also, how did he get away with owning his own Behemoth anyway?

DropShip? They're not that rare. Unusual but he's really righ so whatever.

The thing I'm still mad about is him being a Black Dragon when his established identity before the Jihad was of opposing the hidebound traditionalist bullshit of the Combine and working to strengthen it through reformation and pragmatism.

But when only like five Drac characters have any sort of name recognition in the fanbase and you need someone to be the big bad evil guy, well...

>>51417228

>him being a Black Dragon when his established identity before the Jihad was of opposing the hidebound traditionalist bullshit of the Combine and working to strengthen it through reformation and pragmatism.

I thought he was using them to his own ends and nothing more?

Likewise, I thought he was just going along with the reforms because they guaranteed him a place of authority and or power?

>>51417108
They need to be full retard but with the skills to go with it. Like the old fluff where some would duel clanners in the invasion and win in their 3rd war shitheaps. Sure, most got stomped, but I want to see some of that old Sun Zhang magic.

Plus we need more of the old Dieron Cowboy Samurai or the Former Outworlds Amish Samurai or the Azami Arab Samurai.

>>51417169
>he seems somewhat diminished after the 4th Succession War
He was already falling out of favor in the Imperial Court of Luthien by the end of the 3rd War. It's why he made his move when he did.

Also, he was a Duke of 5 worlds. That's basically one level under a proper Warlord. He had a good amount of money and influence because of that. Puts him in the top 25 or so people at court anyway.

>>51417228
>when his established identity before the Jihad was of opposing the hidebound traditionalist bullshit of the Combine and working to strengthen it through reformation and pragmatism

He was more out for himself than anything. He wouldn't have helped the Rasalhague independence movement otherwise. He's always on the side that seems to give him a way up. Teddy's reforms seemed to offer that at one point, and later on a Black Dragon shakeup of the existing power structure did.

>>51417295

>I thought he was using them to his own ends and nothing more?

Nope. He was Ruby, as close to a leader as they had at least during the Jihad and a key figure leading up to that point. Also the one who ensured his "heir," arch-traditionalist and counter-reformer Kiyomori Minamoto was in position and had the support to effectively rule the Combine in place of Hohiro.

>>51417304

He gets retconned into a True Believer for the BDS during the Jihad.

After two day of gruelling hiking, I have discovered that Australia has thoughtfully made cell reception available at the top of their tallest mountain. Thus, I am able to observe Australia Day weekend by joining in the national pastime - shitposting.

>>51417038
>We'd need to retcon the retcon.
That's what I meant, yeah
>>51417108
>They need SOME samurai weirdness, just not full retard
I'm going to agree and also agree with
>>51417304
>They need to be full retard but with the skills to go with it.
They absolutely need to be full of samurai sillyness, it just shouldn't be in the form of lolwarcrimes.
They should do things like release prisoners with no ransom if they sign a document "on their warrior's honour" not to ever fight the dracs again, but also behead them and confiscate their mechs if they go back on it
Death-duals and sepukku on a moments notice should absolutely stay, along with all the dueling stuff

>>51417432
Sometimes I forget how retarded the Black Dragon and Council of Gems writing is in the Jihad.

>Be Diamond, President of LAW and one of the most influential nonmilitary people in the Combine
>Cripple entire state and influence by destroying pristine LAW Luthien, the whole reason Luthien was called the Black Pearl of the Combine, the sprawling factories that survived unmolested since the fall of the Star League
>Get found out as a Black Dragon later and hung out to dry by the rest of the Gems

I mean holy shit, on what planet does that make sense? And why would any Black Dragons destroy both one of the most sacred traditional places in the Combine (the Imperial City) and their ability to make war?

No fucking sense at all.

>>51417571

One thing I've never been clear on is whether the DA fluff even required the main LAW complex to be destroyed or not.

I mean, shit, since the Dracs gave the district they relied on economically along with pretty much every other factory world over to the RotS you'd think the first job of the continuity savants like Roosterboy and MadCap and Alex Knight would have been to say "Maybe don't blow up LAW, you guys, they're gonna need that."

But no.

>>51417687
>One thing I've never been clear on is whether the DA fluff even required the main LAW complex to be destroyed or not.

It required the Imperial Palace to have been burned down (the modern one in Sword of Sedition is mentioned as a reconstruction because of that), but didn't say anything about LAW being destroyed.

>>51417571
all this when they could have just said WOB did it, wtf

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Someone mind explaining why the Combine are disdainful of Medium Mechs when they were, and still are, the back bone of most House armies?

>>51417782

The section above that in FM:DC says they consider mediums a poor compromise between the speed of a Light and the firepower of a Heavy.

Please to ignore how the premiere Light of the DCMS is the Panther and their premiere Heavy is the Dragon.

>>51417781
That was the original implication, until someone realized the fleet they parked over Luthien were the moderate Expatriot Blakists instead of the 6th of June nutjobs. So they had to reconcile that.

Unfortunately, they did this with a battlecorps story that made the Black Dragons out to be the real culprits.

The whole thing could have been avoided by either not destroying LAW in the first place or by sending a different Blakist fleet to Luthien. If they would have sent the Expatriots to New Avalon instead since they hated the Davions, they could have done the Siege of New Avalon and freed up the other guys for Luthien.

>>51417837

The Combine is the exception to that "most mechs deployed by the Sphere are mediums" statement then?

>>51417782
Confirmation bias. In the 3020's, the only medium they make is the P-hawk-1K. So mediums are both uncommon and the only one they make in any quantity is inferior to both the Panther and the Jenner in the field. That colors their opinions on the weight class.

>>51417916
3039 retconned that though. Really, nobody should be using any sources for pre-Clan Invasion discussion published prior to TRO 3039. They just confuse the issue.

>>51417882

It depends on what you mean by "most."

By the fluff, across all realms, *most* 'Mechs will be a Wasp, Stinger, or Locust. Those are by far the most numerous types.

It's just that the average overall weight of 'Mechs winds up being in the Medium range, probably around the 40-ton mark in early eras and moving to 50-55 tons in later periods.

>>51417881

Regardless of whether they were "good guy WOB" or not, WOB blowing it up to deny the Dracs a major asset still makes a shit ton more sense than "loldracs."

>>51417960
TRO:3039 is a hot mess. Really, nobody should be using anything with 3039 in the title for reference. I can't wait until they publish a new TRO:3025U with the Shimmyseens to fix it.

That said, TRO:3039 does not give them any more medium production in 3025. It only gives them a new Wolverine line by 3039.

So no, that was not retconned.

>>51417960
Echoing other anon, even the most current sources still have the Dracs only making Pixies for their mediums.

>>51416156
Speaking of artist, does anyone know what happen to Eric Ou @ Eriance @ Amuscaria that did majority of artworks for the fan made TRO?

>>51418382
He's said he's busy with school when I've tried to commission him for /btg/RO. I'd love to get him if possible, he did some great pieces for 3063

>>51418500
Too bad his deviantart and pixiv accounts have been closed. Drat, should have save all his mech works!

>>51417228
He was in the BDS before the Jihad. He instigated the moronic attack with the Alshain Avengers that lost all those regiments, a warship and woke the Bears.

>>51417432
>retconned
Nope, his membership was long established.

Guys! GUYS! What if, what if we give quirks to every single variant of every mech in the game, and put it in one book. And until CGL does that, we pester the devs because we are physically incapable of using our best judgement on the basis of quirks applied to weapons. Do they apply to alternate configurations' weapons? Could they?

>>51417881
Where is it said they're the Expatriates? Turning Points Luthien?

And did they ever flesh out any other Blakist task forces as being mostly members of one faction? Because the True Believers, who were the majority, seemed to just disappear.

>>51416388

We were only using the Mechs from the Introductory Box and the Record Sheets from 3039, so there were no Clan Mechs. The only Clan Mech the Introductory Box set came with is the Mad Cat and it's Record Sheet isn't in 3039.

>>51419219
As if half the devs aren't literally this guy.

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>>51416456
I have a feeling their going to introduce IS omni mechs and bring in the Sunder and Avatar.

>>51419219

That should have been done within 6 months of the Quirks coming out in the first place. Make it a $5 PDF download.

There's no point at all in creating official rules and then trusting players to adjucate between themselves what should apply to what.

>>51419167
>>51419191

Yes, but before the Jihad shit he was supposed to just be using the Dragons to further his own interests.

Which was retarded enough since he fought with Takashi over how ass-backwards he wanted everything to be any way.

>>51419243

If they were one of the original ten Divisions it'll be in FM:C*. Otherwise you might need to try Blake Documents or TP: L.

Honestly I have no idea one way or another, I stopped paying attention to the clusterfuck on Luthien the moment the Second Sword of Light declared for the Black Dragons. That was dumb enough by itself and everything after it happened made it look like genius-level writing.

Hi /btg/ never posted here before. I took a circuitous route into battletech starting with the mechwarrior games as a kid and kind of rediscovering it with MWO a couple years ago (and presently). And then I started reading up on factions and history on Sarna and recently picked up the classic beginner set for table top. I'm totally hooked and love the lore.

So I have a friend that likes to make maps of fictional universes (Star Wars star chart, Dante's description of hell etc.) and I asked if he would look into a Battletech star chart for the 3052 era. I didn't realize what I was asking. THERE ARE SO MANY STAR SYSTEMS. This glorious bastard has tediously gone through and relationally mapped about every damn star in the Inner Sphere (FASA wasn't big on exact coordinates from what he tells me). I realize there are some existing detailed star maps, but his whole thing is making beautiful prints of these maps once they're finalized and I think it will look great on the wall when I'm hosting a tabletop session in the near future.

So there's some room on the side for flavor text, and I figured I would make it look like a communique from a high ranking ROM agent regarding Operation Scorpion planning/intelligence. I could sneak his name on there as the sending party to give him credit. The main thing is I want to use the side bar to do a summary of faction strength (Clan Wolf: x Galaxies, x WarShips etc.) for all Invading Clans and Inner Sphere powers. I know I can comb through Sarna but I don't have any technical readouts and I'm pretty green with this universe other than reading a lot about faction history. Is Sarna the best place to look or would you guys recommend other resources to get an accurate count of top level force strength for each faction in 3052? Thanks in advance.

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>>51419355
>the Second Sword of Light declared for the Black Dragons

>>51419521

Sarna is terrible and the closest information we have on troop deployments for that year is in Objective Raids, which is a book filled from top to bottom with all kinds of bullshit.

I would seriously just stick with the map. Anything else is going to be fanon'ed to a reasonably logical degree at best, or chock-full of idiotic things that have been retconned decades ago at worst.

>>51419688
You can blame that on the Dark Age novels, like many extremely retarded moments. The number of throwaway lines offhandedly mentioning bizzarre shit that happened in the Jihad 50 years prior, that did the dumbest shit is in the dozens.

>>51419243
It's in the Battlecorps story. Pretty sure it's in one of the anthologies, but I can't track down the name.

Wait, found it. Eye of the Beholder in Anthology 3 Weapons Free.

I never realized Ben was responsible for that particular fuckup. Too many years of smacking dracs in the face with bear dick I suppose.

>>51419851

"But I'm actually a Drac fan really, the Bears are my second-favourite faction after them!"

Well, he didn't directly say that but if you criticised what he was saying at the OF or what he cut-and-pasted (sorry, can't say "wrote" with a straight face) in the books that's what he'd come back with, sometimes with Herb backing him up.

>>51419521
>Is Sarna the best place to look or would you guys recommend other resources to get an accurate count of top level force strength for each faction in 3052? Thanks in advance.
Unfortunately, nothing of the sort exists. We have accurate numbers for 3050, exceedingly dubious ones for 3054, incomplete numbers for 3058, but nothing for 52 itself, and any attempt at interpolation would be a nightmare of a clusterfuck of a mess and fanon anyhow

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It feels unusual to see the Draconis Combine being talked about much here, so...

What's your favorite Kurita:
>mech they produce
>variant of a mech they don't produce
>vehicle
>aerospace fighter
>battle armor
>historical moment

https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-battlemech-manual-open-beta

...why are they charging $10 for a beta version .pdf?

>>51417837
Speaking of the Dragon, what's the best use of one? As in, the introbox one.

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>>51420769
>Speaking of the Dragon, what's the best use of one? As in, the introbox one.

Pretend it has a PPC instead of an autocannon and shoot stuff with it!

>>51420716
>mech they produce
I like the Orochi and the Omni Blackjack, and some of their DA designs are nice too
>variant of a mech they don't produce
Always liked their Warhammers and Shads
>vehicle
I honestly can't think of any that stand out much to me
>aerospace fighter
Stinger LAM
I don't really do aerospace, but I like the look of the Saber
>historical moment
ONE BULLDOG WASN'T ENOUGH

>>51420716

>>historical moment

I once read Takashi supposedly hammered metal from his first mech into a drinking cup with his own hands.

If that isn't a monument to an iron will, then I don't know what is.

>>51420769
>what's the best use of one?

Selling it and buying a good Mech. 4.95 million Cbills will buy you a Crab-20 and a million CB worth of parts.

>>51420769
Do the PPC refit and play it like a fat, groundbound griffin

>>51420769
Get people to play with quirks. It's actually quite good that way

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Anyone else here notice a discrepancy between the number of DCMS regiments listed in the 20 Year Update, what's lost in action in the Clan Invasion handbook, and then what's reported leftover in Field Manual: Draconis Combine?

There's several regiments mentioned as destroyed in the invasion in FM:DC that aren't listed in combat during Operation Revival.

webm related, Drac culture

>>51421103
>Implying you can get a Crab on the open market
That's like prying a Grasshopper away from its owner, except even rarer.

>>51421257
Yes, about a dozen disappeared clean in that time, around Objective Raids.
Don't ask about it on the OF because they'll give an idiotic answer and make it canon, fucking us all

>>51421257

Yes, it's been discussed a number of times in these threads.

The culprit, unsurprisingly, is Objective Raids where several dozen regiments disappear for the Dracs and FedCom. The battle reports from the Clan books (JFSB, WCSB, Invading Clans) don't account for losses so heavy, it's just poor fact-checking like so much of that book.

No explanation is ever offered for this and headcanon of regiments being ground down into dust isn't supported by canon either. The Clan front wasn't active enough to justify the better part of a hundred regiments ceasing to exist in the space of three years.

And yes, this isn't hyperbole, it's literally that bad. It's also what we're stuck with since the writers of the Field Manual series used OR as their primary source.

>>51420716

>>historical moment

When the Combine welcomed, with open arms, the son of the man whom had tried his hardest to destroy them in 3039.

>>51421410

I prefer the bit where Kai Allard-Liao's ex-girlfriend cucked the Dracs out of any novel representation in Operation Bulldog at all.

>>51421410
Takashi's REEEEEEEEEEEEE was legendary, especially when he found out Jaime Wolf was in the same force.

>>51420726
The reason is the survey, which, while very helpful to CGL, has also thrown a wrench in the Manual's pricing. In order to incentivize the survey, they give you a 5$ off coupon at the end of it for the Catalyst webstore. It's assumed people will generally use that for the Manual, which would make the usual beta-to-final path only 5$.

Basically it was decided that they didn't want to give away the Manual for five bucks, so they detached the beta from the final.

Serious question.

Do each variant of the Mechs have their own models or can I, say, use the Atlas AS7-D from the Introductory Box Set as an Atlas AS7-RS from the 3039 Record Sheets?

>>51421671
There are certain variants that have their own miniatures, but for the most part, the chassis is more important than the variant, so your AS7-D is the only choice if you want to get close to the AS7-RS.

>>51421671
There are some specific variants models, but usually the one that gets the TRO picture is the only one.

You can use whatever you want though. People proxy all the time. Like I may need a few thors but I only own one so I'll use thunderbolt minis for the others.

Kitbashing your minis to specific variants is fun too.

>>51421718
Ugh. I hate kitbashing. Did too much of it when playing Orks in 40k.

>>51421707
>>51421718
Thank you both for you replies though.

>>51420716
Not a drac fan, but the battle for Luthien was pretty epic

>>51421863

>not a drac fan

Well, yeah. If you're gonna list being saved by the Federated Suns as your favourite historical moment for them...

>>51421863
>the battle for Luthien was pretty epic

Takashi telling everyone from his son to Hanse to get fucked and driving his Grand Dragon into battle against frontline clan omnis while the Sword of Light rallied to him was great.

>>51413476
Same anon.

Got to play a full game tonight. Awesome. Same forces as last time because we wanted to play the game. They focused on my Atlas again. It was only when my Hunchback took out my brother's Awesome that they realized that the Atlas wasn't as big of a threat as they initially thought. So they focused on the Hunchback and then went back to trying to take out my Atlas, which they eventually did.

They more or less ignored me after that, turning on each other with the 'threats' removed. My Commando got behind my friend's JagerMech and got a lucky shot and boom went the AC Ammo along with the rest of of the JagerMech. The same turn, my Zeus removed the Banshee from the battlefield. I was eliminated from the game during the next turn though. They decided I was just too big of a threat to be allowed in the game.

Next time we play is going to be a 2v1 game. 10500 BV for me, 5250 BV each for them. It's because they both refuse to take me on alone.

>>51421671
Most variants don't even have art, let alone minis. So an Atlas mini can be an Atlas of all models, barring the Atlas II and Atlas III.

And I personally wouldn't care if someone were to use the AS7-D mini to represent even the II or III as long as they only field just one kind, or at least make the minis visually distinctive enough from each other with their paint schemes.

>>51415512
Combat VTOLs don't seem very popular in the Inner Sphere.
Cal-Boeing of Dorwinion builds Ferrets and Martens for the Federated Suns.
Lockheed/CBM builds Warriors for the Lyran Commonwealth.
The New Earth Trading Company supplies Karnovs to just about anyone.
Michaelson Heavy Industries builds Sprints, Cavalry and Yellow Jackets mainly for the FedCom but also for the Chaos March and Draconis Combine.
Blackwell builds Peregrines for anyone silly enough to buy one, and Kestrels for Wolfs Dragoons.
The planet of Buenos Aires was thought to be testing anti-'Mech VTOLs in the 3020s, but it's hard to say what (if anything) ever came of it.

>>51421257
Yeah. The Clan books only report losses partway into 3051 or 3052, and since the Truce of Tukayyid was never a ceasefire, Objective Raids assumes losses continued at similar rates up to 3054.

Like >>51421389 says, subsequent books all endorse Objective Raids' figures; and, whether or not you personally think those figures are reasonable, >>51421367 is right that an official clarification is liable to make things worse.

>>51422856
>subsequent books all endorse Objective Raids' figures;
>an official clarification is liable to make things worse.

The correct solution is to invalidate all sources stemming from Objective Raids (incl. that book) and restart the entire fluff from circa 3048, getting it right this time.

>>51423137

And then have another fifteen years of bitching about how hard the FCCW dicked over the FedSuns because another forty or so regiments need to bite the dust before the Jihad? Or try to explain how the Chaos March and Xin Sheng happened when the FedSuns' missing regiment list is larger than the entirety of the CCAF for the time?

I mean, I wish it had been done right the first time but going back to try and paper over the cracks is just going to fuck things up even worse.

>>51423137
It makes sense for losses to continue until TR:3055 and TR:3058 production starts up.

>>51423435

It doesn't, though.

After Tukayyid the Clans basically sat still and did nothing except succumb to infighting. The Dracs were mostly hiring mercs to feed into the Jag meat grinder, they weren't sending their own troops. And the FedCom just turtled up.

Sure, there were low-level raids on both sides, but not enough to explain where 70+ FedCom regiments and almost 20 Drac ones disappeared to.

And remember that Objective Raids was set in 3054. Are you seriously going to argue that in the two years *after* the Truce of Tukayyid the Clans destroyed more IS units than they did during the actual Invasion?

There seriously isn't any way to explain what happens in OR except to say that while the author meant well it wasn't fact-checked well enough to be released, much less used as the foundation of the Field Manual series.

>>51423377

I didn't say paper over the cracks, or try to explain anything. I said go back to just before the Clan Invasion and do it entirely over, correctly this time. What part of this was confusing?

>restart the entire fluff from circa 3048, getting it right this time.

>>51423377
>>51423507
>>51423575
out of the missing regiments, how many were extant in 3025? if the bulk of the disappearing units first showed up in 20YU, than the easiest fix would be to retcon them into never having been formed in the first place

>>51423575

It depends on what you mean by "correctly" though.

3039 tech retcon is in? You need to vastly increase the size of the Clans and their bid forces to make the Invasion any kind of logical. Clan haters are still going REEEE over shit from the 90s, can you imagine tripling the size of the Invading Clans?

And that's just for the next most immediate plotline. Once the Truce happens, what comes next? Does the CapCon get belted like a red-headed step-child since the Capellan March literally has enough troops to do it all by itself even if New Avalon objects? Or do we get an even more nonsensical Xin Sheng since it made no sense for the Suns to allow its holdings to splinter off or be captured by the Capellans. Guerrero still probably happens largely as written because Katrina wants to make Victor look bad. Then there's Bulldog/Serpent where the IS will need to send a larger force to deal with the much more powerful Jags. Etc etc etc.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for unfucking things to the extent it's possible but if you want to go back to 3048 and do things "right" all you're going to get is a shitstorm of pro- and anti- faction faggotry for your troubles.

OR pisses me off as much as the next poster but too much is based around it now. The only thing we can really do is suck it up and move on.

>>51423610

>out of the missing regiments, how many were extant in 3025?

Basically all but the Ghosts for the Dracs and FedCom RCTs for that side.

Unfortunately it's retardation all the way down.

>>51423691
>Basically all but the Ghosts for the Dracs and FedCom RCTs for that side.
>Unfortunately it's retardation all the way down.
cockknuckles. I was hoping there'd be a decent fix

>>51423656
>3039 tech retcon is in?

He said to do it right, not double down on the retard factor.

>>51423656
>It depends on what you mean by "correctly" though.

Nothing ever published for battletech after the 20-year update counts.

You ask about TO:3039? Never happened - they can start over and actually consider the impact of giving factions those Mechs instead of just trying to fill Unseen-shaped holes. The Clan invasion? Maybe never happens. The Truce can be on different terms. Guerrero can be completely different. Serpent might or might not happen, depending on whether the Outbound Light even triggers an Invasion at all or gets back to the IS with word of the Clans.

When I said "restart", I meant RESTART. Because this?

>The only thing we can really do is suck it up and move on.

That will never, ever, happen, and you know it. It's utterly out of character for this fanbase to do that.

Hi, new guy here. Have barely played at all but just read through most of Total Warfare and the Quick Start Rules. Still have some questions, if anyone would be so kind as to give a confused new guy some answers.

Are there standard point values for games? Think 40k at 500, 1000, 1850 and so on...

On top of that, any rules for making a force? Neither book had much to go on for that...

Are we supposed to use units as they come out of the TROs? No messing around with weapons, gear and so on? I know TechManual is a thing but a friend who played tells me that's the realm of broken games and munchkins, not what I'm looking for.

Is MegaMek good for playing if you are super new? No real way for me to play IRL. Any sort of friendly community for it? Maybe even some campaign stuff someday since I've heard about that being a thing.

Thanks for at least reading this to whoever takes a look at my confused mess of a post.

>>51423794
>Are there standard point values for games? Think 40k at 500, 1000, 1850 and so on...
nah, not really
>On top of that, any rules for making a force? Neither book had much to go on for that...
bring whatever you want, subject to any agreed restrictions you have with the other player
>Are we supposed to use units as they come out of the TROs? No messing around with weapons, gear and so on? I know TechManual is a thing but a friend who played tells me that's the realm of broken games and munchkins, not what I'm looking for.
it entirely depends on who you play with.

>>51423794
Playing with strangers, use TRO units and canon variants. Custom machines are for campaigns and friends. Otherwise people will think you are a faggot.

Megamek is good for anybody, but helps new people get a handle on how the game works as well as range bands and modifiers. What it doesn't help with is things like memorizing hit location rolls or determining physical hit numbers which are important for regular table play.

BV is usually a ballpark set by people and era. 3025 mech lance v mech lance match would be maybe 5K BV. 3058 might be 8K for the same thing. You get a feel for it as you play. That sort of thing is laid out at the beginning of a match by both people.

>>51423846
>>51423871
Thanks!

>>51423717

The biggest problem you're going to face here is how massively superior the FedCom is to everyone else.

As in, from the 20-YU the AFFC is just over 268 regiments. The Capellans,(30), Dracs (99) and FWL (72) are at a 67 regiment disadvantage combined.

Without some massive shake-ups to that paradigm the only logical conclusion is FedCom wins, GG no RE.

Fixing *that* requires going back to at least 3025.

And then you're going to have to deal with the pro-FedCom side arguing (correctly) that with their advantages the only reasonable outcome is everyone else getting pwned, and the anti-FedCom side arguing (correctly) that the FedCom smashing everyone else flat is fucking lame.

There's no real way to win and you're only going to cause yourself misery by trying. Hence my position of "it's moronic, but it is what it is, I ain't touching that shit."

>>51424116

Then the clear answer is a complete 100% reboot of the game universe.

>>51415507

But anon, what if I like Light Mechs and speedy Mediums AND the Taurian Concordat, who have been murdered down to barely nothing?

Unless they finally got around to remaking the Hyades Light Infantry from their Jihad death like was vaguely possibly suggested.

>>51416292

Tone down their ultra-weebness in favour of generally being a warrior-militant nation that believes might makes right, but that warrior honour matters.

Trying to tie an IS state too closely to just one earth culture is what turned the Capellan Confederation from interesting into painful shit.

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>>51424259

The Capellan Confederation was never good.

>>51424294

Don't worry. Your mother was.

>>51423656

>OR was just a hypothetical ComStar doc detailing what the galaxy would look like with less mechs
>Every bit of fluff after that is just a hyper autistic ComStar simulation of what would happen if the clans had invaded with less mechs
>There is actually good BT fluff happening in the real BT world and we just need to wake up from the simulation

>>51424185

This is honestly probably the best solution. Battletech fluff was built on shaky ideas and FASAnomics and despite all the good patchwork and paintjobs done later, its still a dubious foundation.

Thing is, the giant robots are cool, and that's what most people care about.

>>51424358
Nah, just need some numbers and stuff altered, like the Jumpship number retcon they did. Even the bullshit about regiment numbers in Objective Raids was probably a soft retcon. If you look at the 3030 numbers for the AFFC after the 4th SW, it's much more reasonable than 20YU. OR cut things back down to size. The book might be trash but it had the right idea.

I'd say.

Trash the 3039 material
Put out some official retcons for some force sizes in the late-3040's
Downsize the fuck out of planetary populations except capitals

And that's a good enough bandaid to keep everything trucking pretty well.

Is it odd to have an obsession with just a single Mech or is it fine that I insist on fielding a Hunchback in every game I play?

>>51424610
>is it fine that I insist on fielding a Hunchback in every game I play?

Only if you're a Marik. Kalidasa REPRESENT!

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>>51416212
I love you /btg/. Have a hellfire.

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>>51421664
>Basically it was decided that they didn't want to give away the Manual for five bucks, so they detached the beta from the final.

What's in there that is so worth it?
Most good games just straight up make all the rules required free of charge.
Even the fucking GW has made the rules free to download for AoS and seeing where the Wh40k is heading, that one in the near future as well.
Warmachine, Infinity, Malifaux, X-wing,... And CGL charges people $5 for an unfinished one and possibly more for the real deal?

>>51424947
Basic rules (the intro booklet) are free.

>>51424947

charging for unfinished content is CGLs entire business model

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>>51424891
>Not holding 2 laser guns like the ballsy original/10

>>51424960
So what's in there, anyway?

Is it some sort of replacement for the likes of the old Tech Manual?

>>51424980
I'll be sure to fix that if I clean it up. Wrote a note down next to the doodle to remind me.

>>51424995
It's just game rules and introtech plus a little universe fluff. No star league gear or construction stuff. Same as all the old Box Set intro books really, going back to 1st edition.

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>>51424999
Heh, nice.

Kinda makes me wonder how would Alex handle mech guns with more barrels in his design style.
And I mean actual designs, not just the lego bolted on to make all the bullshit fit since it has zero design work behind it and it's just 3D artist putting the generic guns to certain places and extruding some geometry to bolt it on.

>>51425035
So the only point to buy the thing is some minor fluff?

>>51425078
>free
>buy the thing

>>51425158
I was talking about the new Battlemech Manual.
Did we happen to change the "book" in question at some point in the discussion?

>>51425167
>>51424960
>>51424995
>>51425035

>>51425196
This >>51424995 is referring to the new BManual in comparison to the free ruleset.
Hence why I'm asking if it's some sort of replacement.

>>51425273
My bad. My reading comprehension must be failing me. Been up for like 20 hours on 4 hours of sleep. Time for bed I suppose. Sorry.

>>51425273
It's not a replacement. Just like the Battletech Compendium wasn't a replacement for the Intro Box Set book or the Master Rules weren't or Total Warfare wasn't.

Box set books have always been the core rules and some basic fluff. The bigger books are a separate line that adds more eras, tech, specialty vehicles and such.

The new Battlemech Manual is basically a replacement for the Battlemech parts of Total Warfare.

So they're replacing the massive Core Rulebook line with unit-specific stuff that mirrors the old Battletech/Citytech/Aerotech kind of releases from the 80's.

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Bloody hell but Megamek is a kill-stealing bastard. This is the third time this campaign when it decides to randomly deny me a righteous kill. I wonder what the hell triggers this behaviour.

>>51425061
Alex does handle them nicely, his older pieces and doodles have shown he can design unique weapon housing for different types of guns.

For MWO, the so-called "cancer boxes" are there to help with streamlining the modularity process as well as the ease of identification at range.

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>>51425342
Gotcha.

Is there anything new/interesting in it? The only thing I could kind of make out is that it has quirks galore.

>>51425373
Yes, sweet canon quirks by the boatload is the best new thing in the whole book. Plus some minor changes to existing systems like backtracking to the 2008-2013 version of C3 and who rolls on the crit charts and stuff.

But I mean I don't know what else you would expect? Battletech is 99% the same as it was in 1985. If you flip through the 2nd Edition intro box book, you could play a 3025 game against anyone today without a problem. So any new version isn't going to be revolutionary. When they go that far off the deep end, they call it a new game like Mechwarrior:Dark Age or Alpha Strike.

>>51421410
Wasn't that because in the original version of the War of 3039 the Dracs did well?

>>51421552
eh?

>>51421863
would have been better without the mercs

especially since the Luthien scenario pack has the Kuritas defending the planet with a half dozen veteran regiments, eight reserve battlemech regiments, two omega combined-arms regiments, loads of militia, and should have been able to call on a dozen more regular regiments.

but gotta give the goons and hounds the credit

>>51425423
>the Dracs did well?

They always pulled it off by the skin of their teeth, but it was because they were tenacious and clever, with Teddy in his prime fighting the Fox in a way Prince Davion had never fought Dracs, plus extra regiments, plus machines not seen on the battlefield in three hundred years, plus some of them with Star League tech.

That last one was particularly scary because one thing a lot of people forget is the Dracs were about the only State who still hoarded some Star League military gear. Their most elite units still used full body Star League cooling suits when everyone else was reduced to cooling vests and some of their aero pilots had the holographic -1 piloting helmets of the same vintage.

Imagine knowing that and then seeing supposedly extinct shit with ERLL's and such on the battlefield. You'd suppose the Dragon had finally opened up their vaults of last resort and emptied their Lostech contents onto the battlefield as a final trump card.

The problem is the later material just shows their ass being beat and then Hanse mysteriously stopping.

>>51423377
>>51423507
What FedSuns regiments went missing exactly?

>>51424403
>Downsize the fuck out of planetary populations except capitals
I'd agree to this. And bring back the water issues and stuff.

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>In the years after the Clan invasion, the Alextep family has vastly expanded their Games to include a wide range of sports and opened the competitions to MechWarriors from Solaris and well as mercenaries looking for a break from the backstabbing politics of normal Inner Sphere life. Now a 12-day event held every local summer, the Games are part ’Mech show and part talent competition, but one which emphasizes more piloting skill and finesse than kill ratios. MechWarriors taking part in the Games are expected to compete in a variety of sports “upgraded” to BattleMech scale, including baseball, football, hockey, and chess. Unique BattleMech-based “talent shows”, parades, and pageants round out these festivities.

This is why I love Inner Sphere.

>>51425506
>That last one was particularly scary because one thing a lot of people forget is the Dracs were about the only State who still hoarded some Star League military gear. Their most elite units still used full body Star League cooling suits when everyone else was reduced to cooling vests and some of their aero pilots had the holographic -1 piloting helmets of the same vintage.
I'm not arguing with you, but citation? I don't think I've ever heard this.

>>51425568
Off the top of my head, the gear itself is first mentioned in the Personal Gear section in the back of the original TRO:2750. The mention of them still having limited reserves of that vintage stuff is in the original Housebook Kurita I think. Pretty sure it's said in multiple books though. I swear it's in a couple novels as well.

Fun fact, did you know the standard Star League Mechwarrior Medipack was also developed by the Kuritans?

>>51424891
bretty good. Would actually make a model of.

>>51417782
Their first medium was the Gladiator, which is a solid design... but the first time a unit of Glads went into battle, it got royally BTFO by Lyran-built Mackies. The Dracs have had PTSD about mediums ever since, and they laid out a rationale to support that emotional reaction (as laid out by >>51417837 and >>51417916).

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>>51424891 (and >>51416156)

These look absolutely sexy! I have a hard time wrapping my head around the newer MWO-style aesthetics, though... probably has a lot to do with what got me into Battletech.

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>>51426774
It's all about taking the original silhouette, adding cuts and paneling then mixed with mechanical components. underneath the armour plating to give you the impression that there's a complex machine underneath all that steel.

What are some pre-Jihad mechs the Dracs make that don't suck?

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>>51426774
At it's core, it's simply taking simpler Dougram shapes and giving them a Gundam Unicorn/Thunderbolt (higher budget 2D mech designs) detailing with avoidance of round elements.

Taking 80s anime designs and turning them into proper 2000s ones.

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>>51426839
>Taking 80s anime designs and turning them into proper 2000s ones.

I (unintentionally) took a stab at it, but I wasn't moving enough in the direction that >>51426802 describes... too much of the old ideals and not enough of da new-fangled worky bitz.

>>51426825
Hitman, Venom, Daimyo, Komodo, Naginata, O-Bakemono, the Owens is a good light EW mech and only sucks at being an omnimech, and the other first gen omnis other than the Strider have at least some decent configs. Katanas are alright though the original Crockett is still better.

>>51427201
Also the Gunslinger.

>>51426774
Really nice. I like.
>>51426802
My OCD wants that antennae in the middle of the head, but besides that this is very good.
>>51427132
Also very nice. Left shoulder is a little out of perspective I think, but I like it very much.

>>51425423

>eh?

The novels make it look like Operation Bulldog was done completely by the AFFC with the Dracs jacking ff impotently in the background.

Wendy Harmer/Karmer (I forget the spelling) from the Davion Guard, the chick Kai was with as a cadet, literally gets a chapter all of her own where she pilots a Devastator into battle and thinks about what life has been like since graduation. Dracs get nothing.

>>51425511

IDK, and I'm not going through the 20 Year Update and OR line by line to find out. All I know is that the regimental count at the start of the force list says a bunch of their regiments stopped existing.

>>51427201
>>51427223

>venom and gunslinger
>not suck

Uh...

>>51427374
>IDK, and I'm not going through the 20 Year Update and OR line by line to find out. All I know is that the regimental count at the start of the force list says a bunch of their regiments stopped existing.
I went through and couldn't find any not accounted for.

Found a bunch missing with the Dracs though.

>>51427436

20YU: 268 regiments, 1 Btn.
OR: 187 regiments, 1 Btn.

>>51427269
>My OCD wants that antennae in the middle of the head, but besides that this is very good.

Need to get that symmetry in there somehow.

I initially tried to have the communications antenna in the middle of the head with the EYE camera just underneath it, but to me this asymmetrical solution looks more interesting.

On a different note, /btg/ does the Verfolger hold the PPC in its arm, or on the shoulder?

>>51427609

According to the TR stats, PPC in arm, LB-10X in torso.

Neither of them look the way those weapons are usually depicted though and I have to wonder if the original loadout wasn't something like an LPL in the arm, an ER PPC in the torso, and then a bunch of MPLs and DHS to fill in the rest.

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>>51427609
*Asymmetry, I mean.

Also forgot the accompanying doodle. Goddamnit.

>>51427534
All accounted for. OR must do the math on damaged units and mercs that left service.

>>51427652
These are really nice, anon please do an akuma next!

>>51427657

>OR getting anything right, except by accident.

I kinda doubt it but I'm all out of fucks to give. 81 regiments is rather a lot though.

Since it's been asked a lot, I wrote up a blog post that goes through and shows just what the BattleMech Manual does. Should help people decide if it's worth it to them:

http://bg.battletech.com/news/news-and-announcements/what-is-the-battlemech-manual/

>>51419312
>Wasting a ppc and autocannon ammo on light infantry while a mech flanks you at point bank range.

>>51427652
That one turned out rather well, yes. You're doing good work here.

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>>51425556

>mfw mech hockey is canon

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>>51425556
That 'Mech chess always makes me think of this.

>>51427747
I'll do it later. I need to focus on the one that shall be my contest entry for now.

Also the amount of unfinished, unrefined scribbly doodles I've already accumulated is starting to become overwhelming.

>>51427755
I can only guess that one list took account of expanded regiments and OR didn't.

>>51428561

Even that doesn't explain it since in every other source reinforced regiments are still counted as one regiment, and there actually aren't that many to begin with- Brigade of Guards, mostly.

>>51425556
There's illusions of 'mech olympiads as well, making the machines do stuff like handstands and more. Basically testing the pilot's "meld" with the machine and running competitions of skill.

It's stuff like that that helps to give flavor. One of my elite pilots in my merc unit is a gypsy from the FWL-periphery border that did those kinds of things as an attraction.

>>51428582
Maybe mercs flight after the Clan War. I only counted House units.

>>51428000
I really miss the rules on death from aboves abruptly terminating into a story about clan diamond shark

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What if Justin Xiang had defected to the Confederation for real, outed Alex Mallory as a spy (maybe quietly) and revealed Hanse's plot to Mad Max?

I'm curious what kind of AU this could spawn.

>>51428739

brb, adding Clan Mongoose tales to the end of every fourth rule.

>>51428796
Yes, just as I have foreseen. All Mech factories will be owned and maintained by Clan Happy Merchant..

>>51428290
Fair enough. These all look great though.

>>51419255
As you get more games under your belt, you can start branching into other mechs and tech. Download either SSW or MML from the OP. Both will be able to generate mech sheets for practically every canon mech and variant that there are exiating record sheets for. Although keep in mind that there are also non canon sheets, from stuff like Mechforce UK and the like.

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>>51428611
>Basically testing the pilot's "meld" with the machine

Battletech runs on Patlabor-style where the pilots gets better as s/he clocks in more hours in the machine as it slowly adapts to him/her, right?
Not like in Gunbuster where piloting the mechs meant training balance and handling until you got great at it and then it didn't matter what kind of machine you stepped into (kind of necessary since Noriko would have to get into Gunbuster at some point).

>>51428786

FedSuns still have like a 3:1 advantage or more against the CCAF, and Takashi is a moron so fewer than 5 regiments can secure the entire Drac border.

CCAF is still screwed.

>>51424403

For Battletech fluff to be good from a total rehaul perspective....

1) Get more reasonable population levels to represent the number of regiments, as mentioned.
2) Make the Inner Sphere a more politically dynamic place. i.e. - don't have five big factions dominating everything. Have more places like the Hogs and St. Ives to start. These will be places to fight over.
3) Stop with the silly and pointless space nobility being shoe-horned into every nation whether it makes sense or not. Having a lineage of Kuritans makes sense. Having a lineage of Captain-Generals or leaders of a Communist regime requires amazing pretzel logic. It gets especially absurd in some of the Periphery nations, like the hereditary President of the OA.
4) Add in more periphery nations so that the periphery actually looks like it could have given the IS a fight in the reunification wars. More Periphery nations also increases the way for IS powers to fuck with each other via the Periphery.
5) Tone down the clan's bullshit tech a little, but when they invade, have all the clans invade, or at least have back up clans moving in to hold areas as soon as the frontal clans move in, giving them more threat of numbers.

>>51429487

Unfuck aerotech. Make it neat. Make it not mechs in space.

>>51429487
>Tone down the clan's bullshit tech a little

They should buff IS tech a little, actually.

>>51430105
>>51430137

Both good suggestions.

Keep them coming /btg/ and we can make our own unfucked Inner Sphere with hookers and blackjack.

>>51430311
Blackjack Omnis you mean

>>51429487
I like all these ideas and would also suggest independent, neutral worlds existing in the IS; like Solaris VII being actually neutral rather than a lyran planet where anyone from other nations is free to show up for some reason, and so that things like vehicles that are used by everyone being only built one place make any fucking sense

>>51430137

IS tech is fine, it's just that a lot of the 3050 'Mechs got lolsorandumb upgrades rather than sensible iterations.

Imagine a universe where the upgraded Marauder got 12.5 tons of Ferro, two ER PPCs, an ER Large, a pair of MPLs, and 7 DHS or the Wolverine-7K was the standard upgrade model for everyone, or they weren't doing so many XL/SHS 'Mechs. A world where the ARC-4M was the sort of upgrade given to every machine rather than that being the exception to the rule.

>>51430105

Can't do it. Air power inherently obsoletes ground forces. The only reasonable way to include aero and not invalidate Mechs is to remove aero completely.

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>>51430355
Nice dubs and keks.
Have a BJ pic (non omni) also, I see the double entdra in this.

>>51430425

Maybe as a setting thing battlemechs are able to get some sort of effective and easy to use AA. That would also go to explaining why they are such a key part of combat - aerospace fighters are super vital, but battlemechs can negate them and create a "safe zone" for invading tanks and infantry.

>>51429487
>>51430311
Mostly a personal preference thing, but here:
In addition to the existing major factories, dozens of tiny 'cottage industry' shops turning out 2-3 mechs a year exist, sometimes producing a handful of otherwise OOP designs, but mostly just the standards stuff. The quality level varies wildly, with some turning out low-quality mechs for dirt cheap, and some turning out extremely high quality bespoke machines
(I feel like having mechs that come from individual 'smiths' with unique attributes fits the whole neofeudal 31st century knights style, plus it's great from a roleplaying perspective)
The idea is that particular shops could impart extra quirks, positive or negative, on their mechs, just to add even more variety(if you want)

>>51430569
That's pretty cool.

>>51429198
I meant from a story telling perspective. Assuming every FedCom enemy doesn't have to be an idiot.

>>51430137
I disagree. I think the Time to kill being longer adds to the game, but that's just me.

>>51430488

Battlemech's would make great platforms for putting AA weapons like SAMs. They're taller than the surrounding terrain so they'd not have a hard time picking up on incoming aircraft. And they're fairly tough too. Its like having a walking building or tower

>>51430488
I mean, as the rules stand now, one good AA machine per company reduces the threat of airpower by quite a bit, and if any of the others have LBXs or ACs loaded with flak, it gets reduced even further

>>51430488
>>51430671
>>51430756
If we're doing a reboot, it would be very easy to just add a one ton one space SAM that doesn't do much damage, but forces a control roll with penalties, and a bunch of simple refits to put them on existing machines (I've got a lot of MG/SRM-2 to SAM refits in mind, and they'd add some actual utility to bugs)

>>51430886
That's not a bad idea.

>>51430425
Nyet. I want atmo air power to be weak af, weaker than it is now. I want space combat to be like The Expanse.

>>51428796
Change "clan mongoose tales" to "random excerpts of Steele novels" and "every fourth rule" to "in the middle of every ruletext" and you've got a piece of art

>>51430886
>>51431021
An even simpler thing (though I like the SAMs) would be to just add SAM LRM ammo. Owing to the ubiquity of LRMs and the fact that most have multiple tons of ammo, it's a dirt simple fix. It even gives the Locust-1M a reason to exist

>>51431152
>It even gives the Locust-1M a reason to exist
Don't be insulting best girl like that.

>>51431152
You've never played against a 1M swarm have you?

>>51431124

I'm going to assume you meant famed romance writer Danielle Steel. Let's watch:

Death From Above
A MechWarrior piloting a jump-capable ’Mech can leap onto their target, bringing the full weight of their machine crashing down on the victim’s head. This type of attack, known as a death from above, or “DFA”, is extremely difficult to execute and always results in some damage to the attacker. Sometimes, if you aren't sure about something, you just have to jump off the bridge and grow your wings on the way down.

Damage
Every weapon does a specific amount of damage, defined as Damage Value, which appears on record sheets as well as under the Damage Value column on the appropriate Weapons and Equipment tables, beginning on page 118. We are always better than before when those we love inflict wounds upon us. Follow the step-by-step procedure outlined in Damage Resolution below to determine the effects of damage.

Playing the Game
A BattleTech game consists of a series of turns, each being ten seconds of real time. This chapter breaks down how to play a game of BattleTech from start to finish. Never lend your car keys to someone you gave birth to.

Seem legit.

http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Picaroon

>35t
>medium aerospace fighter

What am I missing?

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>>51431300

Loling hard irl

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>>51428838
Okay, so I lied. I had an Akuma among my pile of half-doodles, so I decided to fully doodle it.

>>51431432
Holy shit! Thank you sir! Hopefully one day you can go back and clean up all of your doodles

>>51431432
That looks so much better, art anon you are a hero.

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>>51431432

>>51431093

1 point of damage can kill an ASF in atmo. You can't get weaker than that without removing them completely.

Also, can you expand on the Expanse?

>>51424294
My GF asks if AFFS means "Ahh For Fuck's Sake."

>>51431537
It does, you see the AFFS you gonna get Hansed.

How stupid would I be if I replaced an Urbanmech's AC/10 with a PPC?

>>51430569
>SL-league era mechs are prized because they can actually take standard parts

Would be pretty hilarious.

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>>51431672
I made one with 11 small lasers, so it works.

>>51431672
It's pretty bad, and I'm a PPC whore.
Problem is really I've found urban mech means that need to be urban to have any use and min range kills it.
Someone posted one with one LL it was pretty cool.

>>51431432
The legs are nice, but the upper body is a mess.

Is there a pre-clan invasion dropship that can carry 8 mechs? I'm looking for something between a Leopard and a Union.

>>51431537
Armed Forces of the Federated Suns

>>51431766
Oh crud, I should have given it the nickname of Urbie-Bukkake.

>>51431871
bukkake?

>>51431988
Because it sprays its hot load all over your HD.

>>51432000
yeah I googled it and wish I hadn't

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>>51432025
Information is ammunition, anon.

>>51432000
You motherfucker I just coughed up milk all over my laptop.

>>51432095
Well, in this specific case the ammunition is something completely different, but I get your point.

If you were casting a JAV actress in a BT-themed porno who would you pick?

>>51432130
uhhhh
I don't know any off the top of my head
Preferably one with semi-normal boobage and that doesn't sound like a car shifting gears when moaning.

>>51432130
Anri Okita as Omi Kurita. They even sound kinda similar.

>Premium Kurita Honor IV:The Keeper of House Honor

>enemy headshots my 100 ton Assault two rounds into combat without hitting any of the other damage zones on the mech
Tabletop games in a nutshell.

>>51432130
Remember that short story in 25 Years of Art and Fiction? I want Kaede Matsushima as that Hatamoto-Chi driver who ends up as the bondsman to that Smoke Jaguar who piloted a Stormcrow (IIRC).

>>51432243
As much as I love Anri, I think she's too boobalicious to play Omi. Omi was described as slim during that sauna scene with Victor.

>>51432153
>I don't know any off the top of my head
Kind surprised.

>>51432025
It's always my pleasure to strip you of your internet virginity, bud.

>>51423794
6K BV seems pretty common for the IRC

>>51432322
Her boobs got bigger.

>>51432333
I can't into JAV for the censorship and above gearshifting thing

>>51432683

The censorship basically makes it plummet down to the plebiest of tier on its own. Jesus Christ Japan its 2017. The porn arms race is the most important arms race in history and you were supposed to be a front runner.

>>51432749
I do like their written porn as you don't tend to get a decent plot out of western or JAV, but I'm a weirdo who needs context to get off.

Don't we have a Discord server?

>>51432901
https://discord.gg/n9DnKGX

Thanks. Whoever does the next thread should remember it.

>>51432901
I just started using this, I'm joining. I had no idea there was one.

>>51431796
Anyone?

>>51432953
NEA will sort you out when he pops his head in, I don't have my books handy.

>>51431789
Yeah it is. Need to put myself a reminder to clean it up.

Is there anything wrong with how the Combine makes assault mechs?

I keep hearing poor things about the Hatamotos, Maulers and Akuma.

Likewise, how is the MRM-30?

>>51432953
None that I'm aware of. You could conceivably convert a Buccanner or Seeker to handle what you need, though (especially the first, since it was originally designed to be a mech transport but lost the competition).

>>51433105
MRMs suck, the whole fluff of them doesn't match their real use. Again combine gets shit on. Thankfully have all those SHS to keep the heat down...

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>>51433105
Too many SHS beasts.

Though to be honest, it's the only way a fight is fair for the enemies of House Kuritan. Draconian MechWarriors are objectively the best in the Inner Sphere.

The only two lance carrier as far as I know is the Hannibal, which is a FWL design from the late 3050s.

>>51433105
Never heard anything bad about the Akuma, but for the others, its mainly how DC keeps using SHS on designs clearly meant for DHS.

Also MRM-30 is pretty good, the high volume of fire helps offset some of the inherent weaknesses of being an MRM. I tend to rip out the obligatory C3 and replace it with Apollo once it becomes available.

>>51431383
Fighters have only 3 weight classes

How do I use the Atlas well in 3025? What should I partner it with for a really effective assault lance?

>>51433214
The Atlas is the slow inexorable juggernaut which marches down the field, firing its LRM until it gets into range to let loose it's short ranged arsenal.

Either pair it up with a faster brawler like a Victor, or a long range supporter like a Banshee-3S.

>>51433214
Make it the lance command 'Mech (if you use quirks, Atlas has Command 'Mech), then put it together with something with a long reach, a nasty close-in bastard, and a multipurpose one. Say, Atlas, Awesome, Victor, Thunderbolt. This gives you 325 tons of earth-shaking Lyran scouts.

>>51433214
Thunderbolts are an excellent lancemate for most assault mechs, and the atlas is no exception.
A specific lance that's worked very well for me is thud/thud/stalker/atlas

>>51433214
Atlas, Stalker,Awesome,Thunderbolt
It's a complete deathbrick lance with extremely nasty firepower at all ranges

>>51433253
I agree but the victor always seems to scare even vet players to focus on it only.

I love that combo.

>>51432953

There's nothing that carries exactly 8, no.

4, 12, or 36 is all. Leopards could be refit to carry 6, otherwise it's time to do custom work or carry them as cargo rather than in bays.

>>51433105

MRMs are terrible, the Hatamoto doesn't get DHS for like twenty years because reasons (and when it does it loses mobility), the Mauler wastes 26 tons to do 8 damage, and the Akuma whilst a beast totally lacks CASE on a very ammo-heavy design.

>>51433337
>victor always seems to scare even vet players

All power comes from the barrel of a gun, and the Victor has the biggest. As a Drac player, I have an extremely dishonorable love for the Victor.

>>51433374
The base intro tech Atlas has an AC20 as well.

>>51433404
Yep, but the Victor is basically a giant jumping gun. Paired with a good driver, it's death on two legs at close range. The Atlas might have the skull face, but it lacks the mobility.

>>51433404
Yeah, but it can't jump over hills and buildings and heavy woods to jam that AC into your CR(r) like the victor can

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>>51431300
>We are always better than before when those we love inflict wounds upon us.

Remember, ladies... if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

>>51432911
>>51432939
Added it to the pastebin.

>>51433428
>>51433441
This is true if an Atlas gets behind you, you dun goofed.

>>51433559

>This is true if an Atlas gets behind you, you dun goofed.

The Lyrans somehow make it happen.

>>51433616

First for non-Capellan Stealth armour.

After the Stealth Stealth was retconned to being a canon rumour any way.

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So I saw the discussion about missing regiments in Objective Raids and how the forces were smaller than in 20 Years Updates and decided to compare and do a count. Thought I might answer the anons who asked.
For the missing FedCom regiments I found:
>1st, 5th and 26th Lyran Guards
>3rd, 4th and 11th Lyran Regulars
>5th and 17th Donegal Guards
>17th and 39th Avalon Hussars
>4th and 8th Deneb Light Cav
>8th Crucis Lancers
>1st Chisholm's Raiders
>1st New Ivaarsen Chasseurs
For a total of 15 missing regiments.

For the Draconis Combine I found:
>5th Alshain Regulars
>36th and 42nd Dieron Regulars
>31st and 33rd Galedon Regulars
>9th Sun Zhang
>4th An Ting Legion
>4th and 9th Ghost
For a total of 9 missing regiments.

Pretty bad on the part of whoever wrote Objective Raids.

/autism

>>51433928
Did you attach the wrong gif anon or is an anime girl mashed in someone's crotch related to this in some way I don't get ?

>>51433994
She's the tired researcher from Shimoneta, and after comparing sourcebooks for hundreds of regiments I felt similarly tired.

>>51433338

What are the problems with the Combine's range of Heavy and Assault mechs then?

I hear they don't get as good as the Lyrans or Suns do in that category, save for the Victor.

>>51434389
>I hear they don't get as good as the Lyrans or Suns
No one does, except Capellans later on.

>>51434389
They lack hardhitting weapons on most of their designs, opting for crap weapons (Mauler), bad dissipation (Hatamoto line) or a reliance on cluster weapons (Naginata).

>>51434389

Mauler gets no torso twist as it's new quirk, making it even worse.

>>51432982

Don't bet on it. He was saying yesterday that a ton of work just landed on his lap. I think he's writing fights for 4-5 different shows pretty much all at the same time.

>>51435008
Writing fights for shows? What kind of shows?

>>51435008
Television shows. He's a fight and stunt coordinator and expert for film, stage and television

>>51435121
>>51435082

>>51435121
That... is kind of awesome. I'm impressed.
Does he take his talent and choreograph BT fights?

>>51425411
>>51425373
Also the new and easy to do rules for Battlefield Support. 5 pages to cover getting air strikes, artillery, counter-battery/AA work, and minefields. Also simplified smoke and fire rules that DON'T require 15minutes at the start of each turn to figure out what's going on.

Someone was talking about writing up Battletech lance and company tactics a few weeks ago, did anything happen with that?

>>51435493
That was NEA, see >>51435008

>>51422119
Same anon.

My game just increased to 3v2. My Battletech group gained two members! YAY! 5000 BV each for the 3 player side, 7500 BV each for the 2 player side.

>Playing AtB
>mekHQ won't let me start the game in megamek for some reason
Does anyone know why this is?

For later...
New thread.
>>51435658

>>51435514
That's a shame, I'd like to step up my game from simply using firing lines, focusfire, and jump brawling.

>>51425373
They put up a link today explaing what's new/different:
http://bg.battletech.com/news/news-and-announcements/what-is-the-battlemech-manual/

>>51435735
Same here, but them's the breaks I guess

>>51435746
Does this link work for anyone?

>>51436157
It's not working for me.

>>51436157
Nope: their page is down again.

>>51435643
Right date? Lance is actually deployed? If special mission single mech deployed?