/btg/ Battletech General!

first for CGL are fags

>>51611891
Tell me something I don't know.

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I'm not a grog but 90% of my fav mechs are intro tech.
Is this wrong /btg/?

>>51612262
WoB rebuilt the Martinson factory on Caph but what mechs is was producing was never fluffed out.

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>>51612425
Same here. I am an old grog, and I do like a lot of the new material, but the old stuff just is great.
>>51612429
>CGL
>competency
Pick one.

This hobby leaves me tired sometimes.

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Using the Star League navy from just before the Amaris coup as a basis, how many squadrons/fleets of SL ships would it take to destroy a Leviathan II?

>>51612622

You can do it with 3 McKennas and the right support ships and ASF.

It's also the last time anyone *had* 3 McKennas and the right support ships.

It is possible to do it with less if you are very lucky or are in a high-speed engagement. But 3 McKennas is pretty much the minimum acceptable level of force since that roughly matches the relative amounts of incoming and outgoing damage each way.

>>51612622
One of those big 25-collar carriers loaded with Vengances or Titans could do it, as could a Mckenna ot maybe Farrigut squadron with good fighter carrier coverage

>>51613034
>One of those big 25-collar carriers
Potemkins?

>>51613098
Yes, that's the one. Dunno why I blanked on the name

>>51612425
>>51612469

Well, Introtech is the original.

Nothing ever beats the original.

By the time of the FedCom Civil War, are most machines on Solaris using Introtech level of technology or more modern things?

>>51613618

the serious competitors will be running upgraded models but the lower-level ones will still be in Intro gear.

>>51613618
Machines in Solaris are running cutting-edge stuff usually. During the FCCW there are even Clan machines in use there. Stable owners can afford one-off specials or paying for the bleeding/scabby edge, especially if it means they get returns from bets and recognition.

>>51613618
Virtually all machines are going to feature at least some SL tech, with rare and prototype tech showing up in some of the big-name outfits

>>51613618
Basic SL tech refits (DHS,CASE, maybe pulses and LBXs) are going to be absolutely ubiquitous, and higher-tech stuff common. Even Clantech and prototype gear is going to make regular appearances

>>51613989

>prototype gear is going to make regular appearances

Is that how some Inner Sphere militaries test new equipment?

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Mission question for the new thread.
Do you ever do any one-shot stand alone missions with existing characters that have nothing to do with any running campaigns?
For example: - I had a nut manage to get his hands on an old Wolverine, upgrade the HS to DHS, strip the SRM and ammo along with the two other HSs for three MPLs and was part of a terrorist group that wanted to ruin a holiday parade. The PCs were just basically running security along with some militia and had to stop this nut with a pair of 35 ton augmented Panthers.
The mission was basically a race against time to stop this nut and his supporters before he could do tremendous civilian damage to fulfill the sick goals of the terrorist mob.
This was long before I knew SPLs could be more devastating against infantry or civilians so it was under old rules.
Do you have any one-shot missions that went well?

>>51614152
No because people only play my Battletech campaigns out of pity so they die quickly. Yours sounds fun though.

>>51614275
Dude we like your campaigns. Speaking of, when's the next session? if you aren't drew, uh, nvm i guess

>>51614109
Manufacturers, yes. Militaries not quite so much

>>51614278
Never because I plan on necking myself. Not Drew though so your campaign is safe.

>>51613205
>This is what grogs actually believe
How's your Motorola StarTac, Macintosh, and Ford Model T doing, anon?

The original is always made to be improved by newer versions. BT, like or not, is better now than it was before

>>51614365

Well, better is subjective to some.

Also, hasn't balance gone out of the window since 3025?

>>51614365
>>51613205
Ate we going to argue that opinions are objective again? Because that's always fun.

FFS, let's not get into era discussions. There's room for everyone.

>>51614275
>Yours sounds fun though.
I do like a good campaign, but I also dabble in making television episode style scenarios like this just for a fresh change of pace. Characters and their equipment can insert as needed. I would balance things as needed. It's kind of like a random episode of Patlabor or something along that line.
What kind of campaigns are you dealing with?

>>51614473
Well said.
But my favorite era is better than your favorite era.

>>51614344
Necking yourself is bad. We need good people to BattleTech with. Keep your chin up, you run good campaigns.

>>51614474
None now. Last one died. Was a basic bitch affair anyway. Players prefer simple vee and Mech stuff.

>>51614566
Gotta keep your chin up to get the rope on. Not looking for a pity party. Was just quipping.

>>51614689
>Not looking for a pity party.
Not offering one, waste of time, just providing another viewpoint. I've been there too. Keep trucking, life's pretty cool at the end of the day.

>>51614152

A few years ago I ran a one-shot where the players were a small merc outfit, tasked with recovering a small, out-of-the-way island base during the war of '39. Glassing the island wasn't an option because Reasons. So, after naval support targeted the strongpoints the players hot-dropped onto the island. It was close-quarters the entire way through with artillery support coming in from both sides and infantry clearing out the warehouses one-by-one. The players missed a lance of Pikes on the drop and half their infantry got wasted when it tried to land.

Both sides were using '39-tier weaponry. CASE was readily available along with DHS; they had two MPL and an LB10-X. Game was comfy, and easy to run.

>>51614799

Wet navy, I should mention. The planet was over 90% water and there were destroyers and PT boats everywhere. Storms made it difficult to control spheroid dropships, so they jumped out of two not-C5 Galaxy transports from ten thousand feet.

Reposting my previous critique of thanatos guy's latest picture.

>>51607599
>Its still not as highly contrasted as the background. It stands out cause it doesn't look like its in the same lighting as the room its in.
>Its missing the deeper shadows and stark florescent lighting. Feet especially, and there's no shadow of it on the floor which is also jarring.
>Same goes for the texture. The room has these dark wary marks all over but the mech only has a slightly cloudy texture too it.
>As for the design, it think for a combat vehicle it's retarded to have a window on it either way, so i guess the smaller looks best if you want to stick to the glass cockpit design.

>>51614506

But I don't have a favourite era Anon.

>>51615603

Then your opinion is at the bottom of the totem pole. The only thing worse than having an opinion which is different than mine is not having an opinion at all.

>>51615637

So you're topping then? Okay with me.

So I recently saw the Battletech Universe Guide PDF from the official site and is it just me or are the Mech pictures in the part where they provide mech profiles simply UGLY? I mean if that was my first contact with BT I'd probably never get into stuff with such ugly mechs

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>>51614977
>Its still not as highly contrasted as the background. It stands out cause it doesn't look like its in the same lighting as the room its in.
>Its missing the deeper shadows and stark florescent lighting. Feet especially, and there's no shadow of it on the floor which is also jarring.

Still heavily work in progress. I'm still working on fully filling out the colour layers and fleshing out the shapes.

Wear and tear generally comes last in my work process. However, here's a version with lighting and shading layers added for contrast.

Warning, full size image, but from there one can see that it's still in a really rough state. I have perspectives to fix, layers to clean up, shading and highlights to correct, paneling to implement.

>As for the design, it think for a combat vehicle it's retarded to have a window on it either way, so i guess the smaller looks best if you want to stick to the glass cockpit design.

It's battletech, man. Cockpit windows are a thing.

Otherwise every mech would look like one of the mechs in Titanfall.

>>51615637
My opinion is that the hobby is better served by fostering a view that all eras have something great about them, and being nuanced in BT enough to prefer different eras on different days based on different moods.

>>51616212
>It's battletech, man. Cockpit windows are a thing.
This.
Of course, people tend to think of the transparent armor which is only slightly weaker than battlemech armor as a plate glass window from an A-Team episode..

>>51616221
I agree.

The only era I don't like is 3039, and that's mostly because I'm too mixed up by all the retcons.

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>>51614152
One shots have been the only things that have went well. Pretty much as soon as someone says "I'd like to play this as an RPG", the gaming group starts living on borrowed time.

I set up my second intro box to be themed after Sword and Dragon - not with the Foxes' Teeth and Sorensons' Sabres, but the regiments they were from - the 7th Crusis Lancers and 5th Sword of Light...

I made a scenario for running at cons. Two sets of eight mechs, and player teams had to divide their set between two missions without knowing what the other guy brought. Mission scores between the two missions were totalled to tally a winner, so if they intentionally went ape and put all their mechs on one board, that pretty much guarantees a perfect victory for the opposite team on the other board.

In Mission:
A) Davion is defending a weapons cache in an urban area. Kurita is Attacking.
B) Kurita is defending their mobile HQ (Under GM control). Davion is attacking. Area is a River Valley.

In both cases, players can earn points for killing a mech, but not for mechs that flee the board.
Also, in both cases, the Attacker can get more points by keeping the objective alive and running the enemy off the board than they could by just blowing the target up.
As a result, it's also possible to spoil-sport the objective as the defender, trying to blow it up instead of letting it get captured, and reducing the number of points the other side could win.

Have the Lyrans ever had a better military than the Suns?

>>51616814
No.

They have also never had a better military than the FWL.

Or the Dracs.

>>51616814
How do you mean better? Better machines or better troops? Because they always had the first and not the second.

Alternatively, you could count Melissa running the Fedcom for a few years as better since that's a Lyran in charge of both those militaries.

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How bad was the defeat of Barbara's Marauder II's?

The Project Pheonix TRO suggested word of their defeat damaged the reputation of the Marauder II mech and that the survivors of the Mercenary Command were thrown into the Jade Falcon's Labor Caste due to the abysmal fight they put up.

How is it that a Veteran Mercenary Command was destroyed so easily and gave what amounted to "shit showing" exactly?

Was Wizkid's trying to get rid of them or something?

>>51617454
IIRC they just air dropped a galaxy of elementals on them. I suppose the implication is that the unit was so absurdly overspecialized that they could be swarmed in that way, and the Falcons had no respect for anyone who would fight in such an obvious one-trick pony style, on top of being mercs and having a connection to Wolf's Dragoons.

>>51617454
http://www.battletechuniverse.org/hpguplink/viewtopic.php?t=2799&view=newest

>dat Oystein shitposting
>dat bitchslapping

>>51617507

>IIRC they just air dropped a galaxy of elementals on them.

I thought it was only a Cluster?

>>51617569
Maybe, I can't quite remember. A shitton of elementals, and nothing else.

>>51617768
Well hell, now that link says it was mechs too. So much for my shit memory, although I could have sworn I came across such a elementals-only ref just a few days ago.

Guys, are there any premade mercenary forces for MekHQ for those among us too lazy/unexperienced to make their own?

>>51617454

CJF hit the Barber's Marauder IIs with the 125th Striker Cluster. That was it. The rough composition in play was ~2 Trinaries of Mechs and 2 Trinaries of Elementals. The Mechs engaged the MADs and damaged them, and essentially baited the damaged MADs into point-blank-range Elemental ambush. Oh, and the total CJF casualties were something like 1 Star of mechs and *less than* one star of Elementals.

Think of that what you will.

With all that said, yes, there was some dev-level confirmation several years back that they were wiped out specifically because they were an entire unit explicitly running Unseen variant MAD IIs (they'd have to get all new machines to change to the Reseen versions, which would have strained belief).

ALSO: Oystein also claims that CJF Strike Clusters are composed exclusively of heavies like T-wolves. Someone should probably point him to the CJF phone book, pg 70, where the 1st Falcon Striker Cluster is composed of 55 Mechs:
1 Mad Cat
8 Thors
9 Lokis
2 Ryokens
1 Black Hawk
2 Dragonflys
3 Fenris
4 Pumas
19 Ullers
3 Koshis
2 Dashers

Yeah. About that fact-checking. Strike Clusters are *totally* dominated by heavy Mechs, right?

>>51618166
>CJF hit the Barber's Marauder IIs with the 125th Striker Cluster

124th Striker. Sorry.

>>51618166
>19 Ullers
19 Ullers
>19 Ullers
19 Ullers

>laughingspheroids.webm

>>51618166
>19 Ullers

I knew they liked them but holy crap

>>51618282
Say that to Configuration A, and not online, fucker.

>>51616886
Everyone's had a better military than the Dracs.

>>51618404
Ok, you bring 1 Config A Uller and I'll bring 1 Marauder II, whatever config Barber's Marauders was running, and we can have it out like gentlemen.

>>51617005
I thought Lyran troops got the best training money could buy.

Hey /btg/ battletech newbie here with some questions and I figured you guys were in the know. I really want to like MWO but their game is ruined by its shit freemuim design. What are some good mech games? I really like building my mechs and fiddling with builds.

>>51618578
MW4 with the mek pack

>>51618578
The new Battletech game from HBS.

>>51618569

>I thought Lyran troops got the best training money could buy.

Not at the command level.

As efficient as their logistics train may be and as well trained as their personal are, their officers and commanders are the reason they tend to do poorly.

Since a commission can essentially be bought (and often times is), the quality of the people directing the military can be poor.

This is one of the reasons the better leadership in the Alliance and Commonwealth tend to be found in Mercenary Commands.

>>51618578
if you like mech customizing then MW2 and MW3 are good for a closer to tabletop rule-set (with a few oddities) and MW4 is good if you dont care about how close it stays to the tabletop rules.

>>51618545
Except the Elsies

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>>51618166
>19 Ullers

I am at a loss for words.

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Things you can say about your mech, but not about your girlfriend.

>>51618970
She's a frigid bitch. Wait...

>>51618970
She's tons of fun

>>51618970
I have one.

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>>51618970
She's constantly on all fours.

>>51618970
High maintenance
People bet on the outcome of our fights
Only gets hotter the more punishment she takes
She gets more attractive with age
You can buy her at auction
Doesn't mind if I go to work in my underwear

>>51618970

Goes down on me all the time.

>>51618166
Falcons are just badass.

>>51618927
Operation Götterdämmerung?

>>51618166

Compared to the usual level of Oystein fact-checking, that is near perfection.

At least he knew what faction and units were involved.

>>51618970
Put a new XL engine in her. Massive weight loss.

>>51618970
>she's 55 tons and a seven years old, but I still love her

>>51618166
>>51618189
I take it the 124th wasn't in the phonebook for specific analysis?
>yes, there was some dev-level confirmation several years back that they were wiped out specifically because they were an entire unit explicitly running Unseen variant MAD IIs (they'd have to get all new machines to change to the Reseen versions, which would have strained belief).
I've also heard that the Fighting Urkhai got done in for copyright reasons as well, since they got done in a really arbitrary and nonsensical way in FM:U(but I repeat myself), which was around the time of the LoTR movies, wasn't it? Was there ever any confirmation of this?

>>51619952

>Fighting Urkhai

Weren't they the jokers that (very stupidly) tried to use a Pirate Point to arrive at the Taurian capitol, getting 2/3 regiments blown away before the third one decided to take revenge and rampage across Taurus?

I could never understand that myself or what would have possessed them to make such a grievous error as showing up over a Taurian world with Davion marked ships.


Also, was the Jihad their way of getting rid of excess Mercenary Commands? They all but destroyed many of the ones left over from the classic era of Battletech.

What mechs does the FWL have with a gauss rifle? Not LGR, full gauss.

>>51620181
What era?

Also, War Dog.

>>51620213
3145, but I'll take anything produced after 3050

>>51620181

Tempest and Cerberus are the ones that spring to mind.

>>51620163
>Weren't they the jokers that (very stupidly) tried to use a Pirate Point to arrive at the Taurian capitol, getting 2/3 regiments blown away before the third one decided to take revenge and rampage across Taurus?
>I could never understand that myself or what would have possessed them to make such a grievous error as showing up over a Taurian world with Davion marked ships.
Yes, hence the "arbitrary and nonsensical" comment about their deaths.

>>51620163

>I could never understand that myself or what would have possessed them to make such a grievous error as showing up over a Taurian world with Davion marked ships.

'Cos they didn't? The Urukhai came in telling the Taurians they wanted a new job and only sent a small delegation to negotiate. The Protector was looking for a causus belli to kick off an invasion of the Suns as a pre-emptive strike to stop the all-out assault that the Suns were so clearly planning what with being balls deep in the FCCW and fighting Cappies.

>>51620181
>>51620225
Carronade's a 3145 one
There are two Orions with one
Tempest
Albatross 3ur has a full one in place of the LGR
Goliath
Perseus
Trebaruna

I'm sure there are a few others, but not too many

>>51620257
>>51620280
That's what happens when you're written by loren coleman and he doesn't like your

>>51620339

I wonder who didn't like Waco's Rangers then.

>>51620339

Totally in character for the Taurians if you mean that.

But the mood at FASA/FanPro at the time was such that all the wink-and-nod units from other IPs had to go, they were scared about the Unseen situation repeating itself. And not unreasonably, really. The other option was them just vanishing but you can imagine the bitch fit that would be thrown over that. At least this way they got an end to their story.

Is the IS LPL the worst "big" weapon in regular use?

>>51619952
>I take it the 124th wasn't in the phonebook for specific analysis?

*looks through the phonebook again*

Oh, well fuck me. It is. Dammit.

OK, so the 124th is much heavier (I may do a Mechs-by-type breakdown after dinner), but crucially, it's still got a fuckton of lights and mediums in it, and the 1st Striker Cluster definitely runs light-heavy. So regardless, those are all that's needed to disprove Oystein's rather specious claim that Striker Clusters are built around almost entirely fast heavies and fast assaults.

> the Fighting Urkhai got done in for copyright reasons

Sort of. If wasn't that New Line Cinema sued or anything. There was a concentrated push late in FASA, and early in FanPro, to systematically remove any trace of anything which the game licensors didn't have complete copyright control over. Basically, if by some legal bullshittery they MIGHT get sued over something someday, they wanted that something gone. Incidentally, this is why the TRO3055 Unseen by Victor Musical Industries got kicked; even though FASA had paid legally for that artwork, the very fact that another company had done it at all was sufficient grounds for its removal. The Fighting Uruk-hai (much like Team Banzai), were simply additional casualties of that effort.

Which is goddamn dumb, because homages are a thing.

>>51620163
>was the Jihad their way of getting rid of excess Mercenary Commands?

That was one of the stated side benefits, yes.

>>51620367
There was a general drive to wipe out most of the old B-lister merc regiments in the late 90s and early 2000s. But as for why they were turned into complete retards from nowhere in the Coventry book? Dunno, probably goon-related

>>51620427
>get incredibly paranoid about other people suing you
>have one of the if not the biggest corruption cases in gaming history anyways

>>51620427
>wasn't that New Line Cinema sued or anything. There was a concentrated push late in FASA, and early in FanPro, to systematically remove any trace of anything which the game licensors didn't have complete copyright control over. Basically, if by some legal bullshittery they MIGHT get sued over something someday, they wanted that something gone
that's pretty much exactly what I'd heard before. Makes sense

>>51620427
To be fair about Team Banzai, they were almost explicitly the film's cast somehow pulled into the 31st century. I can see how that one might get people antsy, though the fact that the rights for Buckaroo Banzai are fucked all on their own probably doesn't help.

>>51620280
That didn't happen.

>>51620339
>written by loren coleman
Do you have any facts to back this up or are you just memeing?

>>51620557

>I didn't read the FedCom Civil War Handbook or FM: U.

>>51620238
Note that the Cerberus, as the FWL's only dual gauss monster, is actually total shit. 197 points of armor out of 293 is ridiculous.

>>51620707

The other one they get from the IS general list is the Gunslinger, also from the Dracs.

No real surprise both are shit though.

>>51620671
Then read them.

>>51620656
He's actually right. The Tauriwn Concordat sections of both FM:P and FM:U are credited to coleman alone

Let's change subjects before deadborder goes off again.
So, Crusaders. How do we design 3050+ variants that aren't terrible but still keep the essence of the design?

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>>51621201

>>51621201
Endo, de-torsobomb, add CASE and two MLs.
There, simple.

>>51621201
But anon suck is the major point of the design

>>51614365
So exactly when is the new Battletech cartoon coming out? The new toy line? New console rpg? New mechwarrior single player campaign game? Tell me, which con near your will have a 200 man tournament soon?

Seems like the new shit has some milestones to reach before it can claim to be even half as good as the original.

Stop talking shit scrub.

>>51621201
I hate to be That Guy but some designs have to be terrible.

>>51621304
>>51621329
The thing about the crusader is that it wasn't *supposed* to suck, it's just that the people designing a lot of the 3025 stuff didn't know how bad torsobombs were

Is there a standard letter to add onto the end of an IS unit code if it's a mass-produced Clantech refit?

>>51618653
lol. Ignore this.

Actually, no. If you a newbie, this might be dumbed down enough to get your started and hooked. Just remember that this is babytech and nowhere close to the real thing and you should be fine.

Tell me about... the Chippewa.

Thoughts on it? Favorite variant?

>>51621387
No, as the IS aren't producing ClanTech refits in any real numbers (The Wolf Empire refits coming out of Kalidasa not withstanding), but usually you'll see the letter C appended to the unit code to denote such a refit. Like "TDR-5S C" or whatever. Or not, as the Caesar CES-5D shows.

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>>51621201

I like the CRD-8S myself.

It's not too shabby on firepower.

Needs CASE though.

How prevalent IS clantech in IS forces by the Dark Age?

>>51621411
>Tell me about... the Chippewa.
I like the variant where the Lyrans retired it and replaced it with the Eisensturm.

>>51621448
Like 15% or so? Maybe as high as 20% for the dracs?

>>51621448

Reading the novels it seems like at least one item per Lance if not multiple 'Mechs are Clan.

But I guess those are the face units and probably better than the rest.

CGL is reluctant to give figures for that stuff due to the shitstorm caused by FM: U and the Field Report series, I think.

>>51621481

>tfw not sure if someone is trying to give a legit answer or if Kit has finally discovered /btg/

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>>51621201

I've actually had fair success with this.

The problem is that it's really hard to differentiate a Crusader from a Catapult, stats-wise. 65 tons, 4/6/x, good armor, 2 LRM-15s, secondary weapons.

This is heavily undersinked in theory, but in practice, I've found that you run the LRM bins dry, then go brawl and it works quite well. ML spam would be more efficient, but again, Catapult.

>Yes, I'm OK with XLs on units intended for fire support first and foremost.

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>>51621446

>>51621523
10/10 breddy gud

>>51621523
>The problem is that it's really hard to differentiate a Crusader from a Catapult, stats-wise. 65 tons, 4/6/x, good armor, 2 LRM-15s, secondary weapons.
I feel like the LRM+SRM combo is the hallmark of the Crusader, and that they generally don't junp .

>>51621536

Lovely.

However, I'm largely in the dark about the value of C3 as I've never made use of it.

>>51621520
>tfw not sure if someone is trying to give a legit answer or if Kit has finally discovered /btg/
Huh? I'm the former, why did you guess the latter thing? Does some official forums guy talk like that?

Hi /btg/! Lurker here, I'm scrolling through megamek right now and am wondering what it means when mechs have the -UK designation at the end i/e Battlemaster BLR-1C2-UK

>>51621610
MechForce UK. It's a magazine, so they're not official units.

>>51621610
It denotes fan designs from the Mechforce UK group, of which a ton are included in Megamek for whatever reason

>>51621589
C3 is relatively over-costed. IMO in its current form it's best used as a campaign tool to either make a group of enemies scarier, or give your PCs a leg up.

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>>51618578
>What are some good mech games?

Commander Harrison, can you confirm charlie zone clear? I have an *invasion* to go to!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzWP-C8oDPw

>>51621597

Yeah, he'll barge into threads where people are discussing whatever to say there's about a 15-20% chance of it happening even and especially if hard numbers are available.

>>51621589

Worth it if you're not balancing by BV. Not worth it if you are.

Does anyone here have any good experiences to share about Extended LRMs? They seem a little heavy for their damage compared to other long-range ballistic & energy weapons. But that huge medium-range bracket makes me wonder how the heavier missileboat 'mechs would perform if they replaced some of their regular LRMs with the extended versions.

Does the extra range generally make up for the heavier weight and bigger crit space?

>>51621780

Great for vehicles and super-heavy 'Mechs. Acceptable replacements for artillery weapons up to and including Arrow IV. May have a place on LRM-heavy designs like the Archer, Viking, or Longbow.

Ultimately most people don't play on a large enough combat area for their extra range to really be worth the weight. May as well have a larger tube number of normal LRMs.

The lack of specialty munitions doesn't help much either.

>>51621780
BattleTech is a game that is fundamentally designed around getting close to the enemy. ELRMs are designed to stay far away from the enemy.

If you can find a way to reconcile the two, they can be merely mediocre.

IME the biggest problem is that when you have a huge range band like that, you also have to worry a lot more about two random hexes of trees lining up and blocking your LOS and things like that.

If they had specialty ammo like normal LRMs, they would be good.

Personally I would say that ELRMs should just be an ammo type for a normal launcher.

>>51620412
Yes. I can't imagine any situation where the LPL is the best choice for the job. The MPL isn't particularly good, either. The SPL was total garbage until it became an AI weapon, now it's okay. Notice, these are specifically the IS models, the Clan ones are all perfectly acceptable.

>>51621706
I hated that bitch. Who left the soap opera bitch in charge of a military operation?

>>51621920
I tend to agree, and due to it's output it's not even as good as mlp's for back stabbing.

>>51621910
Making them their own ammo type would probably help, desu I love me some mines and those are where I want the extra range, I want to empty the mags at max distance giving a nice field before you can even fire your LRMs at me.

>>51622005
>not as good as mlp's

>>51622005

>I tend to agree, and due to it's output it's not even as good as mlp's for back stabbing.

I tend to view it as something you use against lighter, faster movers with low armour. So great to use for designs that bully lighter 'Mechs (Wraith, Wolverine-K, Lightray) or do bodyguard duty (Grand Titan).

Like a lot of weapons it kind of just gets tossed on a lot of the time though. What's the point of it on the Tempest, for example?

MPLs are great for backstabbers however.

>>51621920

What about the X-LPL?

Would the LPL be good for killing elementals, or are the equivalent weight of MPLs or even MLs be better?

>>51622067

X-Pulse lasers are like RE Lasers, a solution to a problem that doesn't actually exist.

For that era, at that tech level, with that kind of gear access and cash to throw around Clan weapons are just as available.

>>51622067

LPL is pretty shit for killing Elementals, they need 11 each to die and it only does 9.

Infernos or Plasma Rifles are the answer, for that tonnage and range.

>>51621910
Problem is there's no real suitable drawback you can give them short of making there be an insanely high minimum range value or a significant penalty to cluster hit, without completely negating the bonus you get.

ATMs, for example, have drawbacks and bonuses for the three ammo types: damage, range, or versatility, pick one.

>>51620280
>The Urukhai came in telling the Taurians they wanted a new job and only sent a small delegation to negotiate.
Yeah no. Negotiators don't usually arrive at pirate points in multiple Overlords. Bash the Taurians on something real.

>>51622116
The SXPL is fantastic for getting your PBI-killer a few more hexes of breathing space for one measly point of heat, upgrading an MPL to an MXPL is practically free on a lot of mechs, and the LXPL is...
well, it exists.

>>51618965
>trashcan is not an urbanmech

9/10

>>51618965

That office is too nice.

I suspect that Atlas may be embezzling.

>>51622058
>What's the point of it on the Tempest, for example?

Bodyguard duty, just like the Grand Titan. It also has one fo the FWL's rare headcappers.

>>51622283

It's literally what happened though. The inability of Taurian posters to accept it is mystifying.

>>51622526

Yeah but with the MPL battery and SRMs it already has close range covered. Should have been an ER PPC.

>>51622730
Calling someone a "Taurianposter" isn't an argument. It's a "he said she said" situation. All the accounts of it are written IC. Literally it's the Urukhai claiming they showed up in a few Overlords and a pirate point and were totally just negotiators. Yep, that's why they came in at a point aggressors do instead of the regular jump points. You're probably trolling but come on.

>>51622762
No variant of the Tempest has MPLs.

>>51622806
He was referring to the Grand Titan.

>>51622891
>>What's the point of it on the Tempest, for example?
>Bodyguard duty, just like the Grand Titan. It also has one fo the FWL's rare headcappers.
>Yeah but with the MPL battery and SRMs it already has close range covered. Should have been an ER PPC.

>>51622806

Meant MLs, yes. Like I say though it has a lot of damage at close range already.

>>51622787

No, it's literally the Urukhai sending *a* single Jumpship to try and negotiate a deal with the Concordat while the rest of their force, blacklisted and expelled from the Suns like a year ago were in transit and looking to link up with the deal-making pathfinders.

Taurians just went full REEEE over someone showing up in their system, declared it the first move of a FedSuns invasion when they were busy smashing themselves in the FCCW, and used it as a pretext to launch the attack on the Suns that Shraplen had been wanting to do for a long time.

The Urukhai, by the account in FM: U, don't even go on the offensive until Shraplen ordered them attacked. At which point, yes, they did fight and the rest of the unit was out for Taurian blood.

Could easily have been avoided but Taurian paranioa is a thing.

>>51622937
>No
Says them. The fact *multiple* Overlords were present and destroyed speaks otherwise. You disagree, that's fine. Just don't pretend on IC account is canon over another.

>>51622971

Cite your source. Include a screencap from the PDF(s) in question.

>>51622937

You too.

>>51622986
It's mentioned in the FCCW sourcebook and FM:U. I don't care enough to dig them out for pictures, the point stands there are conflicting accounts. Him sperging out about "Taurian posters" doesn't change that. If he can find a canon ruling on the OF, power to him.

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>>51622986

From FM: U. Mention of Overlords is on p. 192.

From an OOC perspective it's pretty clear that the Urukhai were legit there to negotiate a new contract. They didn't make any actual threatening moves until Shraplen ordered them destroyed, even though they'd already said they were looking for a job. We also know that they were seriously pissed at the FedSuns after their rough treatment in the Civil War and since the Taurians were the nearest nation with a hate-on for the Suns that would have seemed the logical place to go to get a contract that would allow them rest and refit in a quiet area of space.

IC the Taurians are going to claim it was totes the vanguard of a Davion attack because it's what they always do but fuck me, can we just drop the god-damn "well IC-ly..." bullshit for a second and focus on what did happen instead?

>>51623115
>They didn't make any actual threatening moves
Jumping in at a pirate point uninvited with armed vessels is a threatening move.

>even though they'd already said they were looking for a job
They claimed that *after* the fact.

If they wanted a contract, they'd have gone through conventional means both negotiation-wise and jump-wise.

Believe what you want.

>>51623115
>can we just drop the god-damn "well IC-ly..." bullshit for a second and focus on what did happen instead?

m8 you realize you're debating information where the truth is only known ICly right?

>>51623169

>Jumping in at a pirate point uninvited with armed vessels is a threatening move.

You realise this is exactly how the Dragoons first appeared, right? And is how other merc units have negotiated for contracts in the past?

The Taurians just went off the deep end because it's what they do. They're prone to paranioa and Shraplen wanted to start a war. That gave him the opportunity, even though it would have been smarter for him to sign the Urukhai on.

The only ones saying they weren't there for a job is the Taurians. Of course they're going to blame Davion aggression and a sneak attack. It's what they do for everything. Can't find a sock after doing the wash? Davion spies, trying to rattle you before the inevitable invasion. Don't get a raise that year? Davion manipulation of the stock market so your company doesn't have enough money for it.

>>51623185

Even in the pro-Taurian section it says Urukhai prisoners who were subjected to intense interrogation kept saying they were just there for a job.

I know how the Taurians reacted to it.

>>51623235
>You realise this is exactly how the Dragoons first appeared, right?
Not an argument. They could have been shot down too, but they weren't.

>The only ones saying they weren't there for a job is the Taurians
He said she said.

At the end of the day, nothing in the canon supports your assertion. It's all IC hearsay.

If they'd wanted a contract they'd probably have gone through the proper offices, not shown up in Overlords making literal HIGH SPEED RUNS at a apparently paranoid state's capital.

>>51623255
>Even in the pro-Taurian section it says Urukhai prisoners who were subjected to intense interrogation kept saying they were just there for a job.
I have it open and don't see that. What it DOES say is that POWs told the Taurians that CapMarch Command had gotten a secret path through the nebula. That's it.

Another fun fact of "he said she said", the Taurian section claims they took prisoners while their opponents claim everyone was lined up and shot.

Anyone have the Hesperus II turning points pdf? The link I found in the OP isn't working.

>>51623305

>If they'd wanted a contract they'd probably have gone through the proper offices, not shown up in Overlords making literal HIGH SPEED RUNS at a apparently paranoid state's capital.

Look, I'm not going to argue that it's dumb but it seems pretty clear to me that it's the authors trying to make lemonade out of two directives from above; that the Taurians start a counter-productive war with the Suns and that all units potentially infringing on other IPs be written out of the game.

In an ideal universe the Urukhai would have gone to Outreach and and HPG'ed the TC about it, but they were given a limited timeframe to GTFO the Suns and had their own pride hurt because after faithfully serving the Suns they were hung out to dry and blamed for the conflict with the Dracs.

OTOH, two Overlords, max, since it's specified that they only had a pair of DSes, is nowhere near enough force to take on the Taurian capitol, even for a smash-and-grab raid. There's literally no way to make it work, it's too heavily defended in space, air, and ground forces.

The TC acted how it did, but the Urukhai just being there to negotiate a new contract is a hell of a lot more credible than "ZOMG DABION INBASION!"

>>51623413
I dunno man. I'm not a Taurian player, but whichever way the real thing went down at the end of the day the Urukhai definitely brought it on themselves by acting so moronically. I mean Taurian paranoia is a known trait in-universe, right? There's no way it seemed like a good idea.

But hey, people do dumb shit in real militaries too so I guess it happens.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr6zQLvPMpw

What are some good mechs for police duty?

>>51623514
If a Drac? Firestarter.

>>51623514
Phoenix Hawk? The machine guns are necessary. Decent speed and armor in case something happens.

>>51623476

>There's no way it seemed like a good idea.

They wanted to really stick it to the Suns and thought that going to work for the premiere Suns-hating nation would be a great start on that. They were also way closer to Taurus than they were to any of the major hiring worlds. A courtesy HPG would have been helpful I guess but maybe they felt it would prompt the Suns to try and block their movement or do something else.

It's just kinda clumsy really. If I was magically installed as the God-King of the BT line I would have just had the Urukhai wiped out to the last in combat and then the Taurians would have been tempted to reclaim rightful Bull clay in the Pleiades when the units stationed in the area were shifted to cover the Capellan march, with a real or trumped up political movement in the Pleiades to be under Taurian rule. The SL hadn't been dissolved yet, they could have even argued they were securing it like the Lyons Thumb and agreed to have it mediated at the next Whitting Council where they could be confident of a motion passing that would have given them the Pleiades. Then have that be the fracture point for the Jihad confrontation.

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>>51623563
I got you.

>>51623514
Marshal.

There's no overt rules for rubber bullets in MGs, but it can be done. Load flamers with water and SRMs with tear gas and you have a perfect police 'mech.

>>51623599

Marshal has an energy flamer though.

>>51623514

Piranha. Arctic Wolf. Heleopolis.

Give those protestors what for.

Seriously though the basic Stinger is up there. Non-lethal ammo in the MGs, can use the JJs to flee if things get out of hand rather than racking up needless casualties.

>>51623668
>>51623599
has an lrm not srms too

>>51623599
>There's no overt rules for rubber bullets in MGs, but it can be done.

If there's no rules for it, then it doesn't exist. That's the entire point of having a canon. You don't get to just make stuff up and expect anyone to take you seriously.

>>51623793
That doesn't detract at all from what I said, though. They're two separate thoughts. I'm sorry that reading comprehension isn't high in your list of priorities.

>>51623819
>autistic screeching
Fix'd.

>>51623842

How does pointing out the 'Mech you're recommending completely fails to have the features you're saying it does not detract from what you're saying?

>>51623599
>There's no overt rules for rubber bullets in MGs,

I swear there were rubber bullet (or "non-lethal") rules somewhere, but it might be in one of the RPGs. Still, the conversion rules should still function. I do get that that isn't really an "overt" rule, though.

>>51623889

Well, I suppose that was the inevitable outcome of playing MoC. BRB, finding a rectal-cranial inversion tool for optimal SJW-ing.

>Alternate punchline: "aww, but I don't work for Randall anymore."

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>>51623702
Couldn't we replace this with various character archetypes, and have various doubles be famous female characters like Melissa Steiner and Natasha Kerensky?

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>>51623932

Probably. The real issue would be finding actually good artwork of said characters. Because almost all the official artwork of named females in BattleTech is *terrible*. When pic related depicting a pin-up who's supposed to be one of the most attractive women in the Inner Sphere is one of your game artwork high points...

>It amazes me that for a universe as evocative as BattleTech's, the art has always been so bad. I mean, even accounting for the "late 80s/early 90s no-budget effect"...damn.

>>51623702
>>51623932

So which of those is Steiner? Kerensky the tomboy slot you figure?

>>51623986

But they have her with her tits almost out. That makes her totally hot and shit right?

The 80s were a very different time.

>>51623987
Kerensky the tomboy slot you figure?

Probably. Cassie Suthorn would also be a good choice. Melissa Steiner gets the Nerd slot (real nerd, not fake nerd). Isis Marik get the Dumpy One. Omi gets the career girl. Katherine Steiner should probably get the Class Rep. I want to say maybe Katana Tomark as the Uppity slut.

The real question is whether to classify Kali Liao or Victor Davion as the Slut.

>>51624045

...what tits?

>>51623986
>It amazes me that for a universe as evocative as BattleTech's, the art has always been so bad. I mean, even accounting for the "late 80s/early 90s no-budget effect"...damn.

I hear ya. Being an old fart, I was big into FASA's stuff even including their foray into Star Trek and the like. I may be wrong with my memory, but wasn't Laubenstein (I think) pretty good at some character art, and I think Dana Knutson kind of ass-on-toast? I remember so many Battletech and Star Trek character portraits that were so lackluster it was silly.
What are those two doing these days anyway?

>>51624066
What number would someone role to get the bogus result of being with Katherine Steiner or a clan female elemental?

>>51623702
Rolling
>>51624066
VSD, duh. Or maybe Mad Kat, although she's more of a brocon than a slut.

>>51624066
>Isis Marik get the Dumpy One

Watch your fucking mouth

>>51624066
>Isis Marik get the Dumpy One
Thera says DELET THIS

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>>51624074

They aren't great but but for the time the only way it could have been more indecent is if the nips were showing.

Living in a world where we can call up pretty much any conceivable fetish and number of performers is pretty cool but it wasn't always that way.

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>>51624066
I was thinking Callandre for slut, Aletha Kabrinsky for tomboy or fatty

>>51624131
>>51624145

We don't blame you for taking offense, Eagle-anons. What helps you develop a thicker skin to mild faction-based ribbing is actually having your faction written about.

>>51624186
thiccque

>>51624066
Malvina Hazen and her pet?

All the non-lethal talk got me wondering. Sure you can load SRMs with tear gas rounds, but how do you keep a BattleMech scale SRM from fucking some anarchist up when it lands in rioting crowd?

My inner Drac says you might as well go whole hog and load up some infernos instead.

>>51625455
I'd wager they're airburst, similar mortars of the same type. Not that that's perfect, but I doubt they are like grenades or canister rounds.

>>51625455
>but how do you keep a BattleMech scale SRM from fucking some anarchist up when it lands

Nothing says SRMs *have* to be impact fuses. A VT proximity fuse that detonates 5 meters above the ground and drops a heavier-than-air CS gas onto protestors from above the head and moving down, is a lot more efficient that having an impact fuse go off at ground level, scuffing up your pavement, and dispersing inhalant 3 feet below the target's olfactory centers. Plus, by using a higher-up dispersal method, it'll cover a larger area and be less prone to hugging any dips in the ground level and being mostly ineffective.

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r8 my cheap ass pre-Dark Age merc market/rank filler.

Got to the thread too late to do the Crud challenge. I guess I still could though.

>>51625706

rip me

Does anyone play with "No TACs"? The constant flow of random crits is really starting to bug me.

>>51625922

I do, I just treat rolling 2 as a regular center torso hit. Its too easy for a mech to be crippled by a random gyro hit that still has all its armor. Floating criticals is hardly better it just causes hip or side torso ammo to be hit. And is even more dice rolling

>>51625922
Nah, I like TACs. I feel like 'Mechs are already too good compared to other ground forces so being able to be headcapped as well as TACed feels about right on balance. Less than 3% chance of either one happening.

>>51625599

Is it meant to have SHS? I suspect yes since TSM but even so. You could make the armour Ferro for 9.5 tons, give it DHS and turn them off for heat tuning, and up the MML to a seven or have three MML-3s with something else, an extra SL or whatever. Or upgrade from the LL to an (ER) PPC, I guess.

>>51626460
>>51626502
My big beef with TACs is how absurdly punishing they are for big weapons. Nice HGR, too bad it's gonna get shot out in two turns. Sweet MRM 30 (heh), boom, that's gone too.

Probably the biggest frustration for me is the way in which something like a mace or an axe can be gone after one crit. It's absolutely moronic that a medium laser or SRM can slag your sword so hard it's totally useless.

I'm actually enjoying Alpha Strike a lot more these days, because the abstraction gets rid of all the stupid bullshit.

Are AP Gauss rifles good for killing Elementals, or just regular infantry?

>>51621411
Personally I think it's garbage.

>>51624066
>Isis
>dumpy
Did you even *read* the books?

>>51626502
>>51626460
>>51627205
Personally, I can't fucking stand "Limb Blown Off"

I was just playing a match where I had an Arcas, a squad of Thunderbird BA (LBX), Sylph Advanced or whatever, the one with the myomer booster, vs a Grasshopper, Buccaneer, and a...can't remember what the third was. Anyways, I had killed two of the spheroids, at the cost of my two BA squads. And I was about two-thirds of the way through the last one, the Buccaneer, with only a couple of scratches on my Arcas. I had outplayed the other guy, big time, leading him around chasing the Arcas while getting BA attacks in, and then when he chased the BA the Arcas would bounce in and kick some ass. The most damaging attack was a hatchet hit from the Buccaneer to my arm. One more volley of SRMs and he was done.

And then, out of nowhere, a TAC gives him Leg Blown Off and my mech, otherwise 100% functional, can't even turn in the hex it's in to kill him.

When I run campaigns, I house-rule out this shit.

Also gyro TACs are way too crippling. I feel like the first hit should give +1 or +2 to PSRs, and then the next one could give either +2 or +3, and then the third one destroys it. For being the kings of the battlefield, mechs spend entirely too much time flopping around on their ass.

>>51627231

Just regular infantry.

>>51627657

Floating crits are an optional rule everyone has to agree to. So there's that.

But gyro crits are way too funny to house-rule like that.

Is a hammer dulcimer a string instrument or a percussion instrument?

>>51625922
>>51627657

In megamek, i play with no TAC and expanded criticals. Expanded crit scale prevents golden bb's and srms from resulting in limb blown off.

Hurr.

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>>51628071
Uploaded wrong version.

>>51628014

Faggot

>>51628155
Very good. It looks like something that would be in a professional product.
Would pilot naked with my waifu on the streets of London kicking WoB ass.

>>51628396
Your waifu's a Wobbie

>>51628491
WHO BLABBED!?

>>51628155
oh god I just realized I drew a blushing smiley face on the nose of the mech.

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>>51629261
Onii-chan are you taking me to the mecha fireworks festival after piloting school today?

>>51628155
Visually it's nice. There are a couple scale problems. The people and the observation room are too small or the mech is too big. It should be about six or seven people tall. You've made it more gundam-size relative to them so it's too big.

Then on the opposite end, the giant diamond plate texture on the floor makes it look too small. The size of the floor panels and bolts also are too big relative to the machine. Looks like you started with some kind of normal human size scifi corridor as the base reference?

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>>51629377
Yeah, the scale seems off because I kinda lazily rushed the background.

On it's own, like how I started it, the scale is still okay. This is still MWO scale, where mechs are humongous.

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>>51621279
>CRD-5G
It's just a Catapult that can't jump. It's functional but boring. 6/10 because at least it's cheap.

>CRD-4G
Quad Streak-2s is certainly different, and a Beagle on a fire support unit seems a waste of tonnage. Nice low BV for a Mech of its size, though. 4/10

>>51621536
>CRD-11Sb
Barely a Crusader. OK with jets, but I hate the idea of completely chucking the whole point of the Mech (LRMs backed with SRMs) out the window. It's a decent design, but it's just not a good Crud. 7/10 base score, make it a 6/10 for being a totally different Mech that's just <named> Crusader.

>>51621523
>CRD-4S
That's certainly different. It's like a marriage of the WD Archer (LRM15s over SRM4s) and the Archer with the twin LLs, on a chassis 5 tons lighter. It certainly feels like a Crud. LRMs at range, and LLs over SRM4s at close range is a good set of brackets and capabilities. There's even room for specialty ammo for the LRMs. I actually really like this one, and I wish this was a canon 3050 upgrade. 9/10. It's not a 10 only because it has an XL on a 4/6/0 frame, which I don't think is ever justifiable.

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With Battletech being just a copy of the Japanese "3D simulation games", I kinda wonder.

Did Japanese ever release a game that could be reverse-engineered to contain Battletech but with better rules and such?

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>>51630636
>Did Japanese ever release a game that could be reverse-engineered to contain Battletech but with better rules and such?

Well, there was Power D.O.L.L.S., but visuals aside, it wasn't better than Battletech.

>>51623702
>>51623932
The problem is that battletech characters are invariably grab-bags of cheap-drama pathology rather than extremely generic 'cute' traits like anime characters

>>51630636
Battletech was more popular in Japan than either of the Dougram games, because it wasn't a copy but legitimately better. More grit and crunch. Less clunky LoS. Better variety and balance.

Also, no. Because the Japanese import almost all their tabletop stuff from the West.

>>51630706

They're both so generic and simple you could probably do an easy swap.

>>51621201
Best Crusader is Grand Crusader

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>>51630709
>Because the Japanese import almost all their tabletop stuff from the West.

They did not back in the day.
The 3D simulation games were a big thing back then started with a Gundam game and continued well into every franchise imaginable back then.

It's fun when you look at the Warhammer 40k legacy that way.

You know, so you have this series, right? Starship Troopers, great book.
>Okay, but what does this have to do with mah 40k?
Wait a bit.
Okay, so Japanese love the crap out of sci-fi robots so they make an anime from it called Gundam.
Runaway success.
>What the fuck are you on about?
Wait a bit.
Okay, so this franchise makes it fucking big and gets everything from toys to table top wargames.
And this game is so popular it defines most of Japanese wargames going forward.
And one of this games is Battle of Stanley from Dougram.
>What is this...
And this game gets a licensed release by a company in the US which subsequently copies the game wholesale to make Battledroids.
This game turns out to be quite popular into the late 80s and as such, Games Workshop takes notice.
>Finally!
Continuing the tradition of ...ahem... "inspiration", they copy the game's mechanics and ideas but change up the rules to not require a printed battlefield because, well, rulers are cheaper so as to save on costs.
This game gets the name Adeptus Titanicus and slowly starts adding stuff to fill out the space with other units which finally transforms it into the form you know as today's predecessor, Epic 40k.

>>51631504
>And this game gets a licensed release by a company in the US which subsequently copies the game wholesale to make Battledroids.
You mean legitimately improve it. Periscopes for LOS is janky as fuck and only someone who's never used them would argue they're good.

>>51631598
It was a gimmick made for that one game.
As I said, there were fucktons of these games made over in Japan and this along with miniatures on the field were what Dougram came up with to set itself apart from the crowd.
Someone who had seen enough anime to come out and license designs from the series that never but scratched the US shores must have known enough to see that no other games were doing it and it was just a gimmick.
It's not improving, it's leaving out the more stand-out portions.

>>51631770
>It's not improving, it's leaving out the more stand-out portions.
>periscopes
>stand-out
wat

>>51630692
Those thicc thighs.

>>51631804
Meant to say specialty or whatever.
Sets it apart from the other ones.

>>51630706
>The problem is that battletech characters are invariably grab-bags of cheap-drama pathology rather than extremely generic 'cute' traits like anime characters
Anon, don't you like gambling with your penor? It's like a BT version of Monster Musume with more danger. Will you or won't you end up with someone with borderline personality disorder?

>>51630811
It's so ugly though. It's like a chimney with cruddy arms and legs. Typical Comstar crap.

>>51631504
>It's fun when you look at the Warhammer 40k legacy that way.
Dude, 40k came literally after all that. Their main reason for starting up Warhammer in the first place was because they lost the bid to produce DnD miniatures to...wait for it...Ral Partha.

Battle of Stanrey came out the same year as Battletech as well.

The dougram games don't have hardly anything in common with battletech that they don't with all the other hexchit games of the period.

Sure it seems like a lot today when hex and chit games are almost dead and Battletech is the ceolocanth from that time, but that shit was popular since the 70's in...wait for it...WESTERN games.

>>51631951
>hex and chit games are almost dead
Other than BattleTech, what's still alive? Is there anything even close to the same level of life as BattleTech?

>>51630253
>CRD-5G
6/10 because it's cheap? Have you seen the 3050 variants? This a direct competitor that doesn't explode when you look at it funny.

>CRD-4G
Inferno Streaks plus Beagle can add a -1 through woods with TO.

>CRD-11Sb
It's a Crud 8S that doesn't have thin armor, though it trades the HGR to do so. And it has SRMs to actually get work done close in.

>>51631968
>Other than BattleTech, what's still alive?
Battletech is pretty dead by board game standards.

>>51631951
>but that shit was popular since the 70's in...wait for it...WESTERN games.
Not with giant robots.
The rules are far too similar between the two not to have been a clear "inspiration" to say nothing of the fact Battletech itself is mostly Dougram inspired as a setting.

>>51631982
>6/10 because it's cheap?

No, it's 6/10 because it's boring and functional. It also has the benefit of being cheap in CB compared to the 11-12 million CB everyone else's stuff is throwing around.

>Inferno Streaks plus Beagle can add a -1 through woods with TO.
Not helpful.


>It's a Crud 8S that doesn't have thin armor
And the Crud 8S isn't really a Crud, as I outlined. It's a totally different Mech called a Crud. Would you be OK with a Marauder with LRMs in the arms and a half-dozen lasers scattered all over the torso, or would that be a totally different Mech that is just CALLED a Marauder.

>>51632009
>Not with giant robots.
Nobody said they're not related. Both are based on the old historical chit games. Battletech much more closely so. Saying Battletech is a copy and and inferior one is just plain retarded though.

I mean come on. We have the pdf of Stanrey available for everyone. Take a look at it. Even if you can't read Japanese, you can still work out that the rules are even further apart than Alpha Strike is from regular BT.

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>>51632069
>Would you be OK with a Marauder with LRMs in the arms and a half-dozen lasers scattered all over the torso
.... Yes? Admittedly, the LRM isn't in the arm here, but I've played enough jury rigged games that I've seen Marauders with LRM-5s in place of the MLs.

>>51631968
Most of the survivors moved to full miniatures rules. The rest are pretty much all also old FASA properties.

Ironically, Battletech tried to do this in 2001 with the OG Dark Age game but couldn't drag the grogs away for Magic level collectable nonsense. Did very well on it's own for awhile though.

Is anyone else watching the HBS Q&A stream?

>>51632639
No. Link? What's going on?

>>51632670

It's NGNGtv's Twitch channel. Won't let me post a direct link.

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Inspired by MechCommander, and since the upcoming HBS game seems to do the same, I was wondering what Mechs you might assign to these pilots based purely on their callsigns.

Treat them as mercs.

>Catastrophe
>Dilemma
>Arsyn
>Homeslice
>Mother Chucker
>Cut Throat
>Frostbyte
>Knockout
>Domino
>Justice
>Luna
>Headmistress

>>51632782
>Mechcommander
You will reload that one mission fifty gajillion times to somehow try to get that early Mad Cat.

>Domino
Can't not think of that fat freak from Running Man so put him in an Atlas so the actuators can handle his fat ass.

>Headmistress
We only have industrial mechs with whips (if I remember right) so maybe something with a hatchet. Axman.

Implying no Rooster. Really? No Lynx? No Gunman?

>>51632840
>somehow
I got it my first playthrough.

Looking back one of my favorite fluff things about MC that was canonised was Bondsmen Militia. Crazy yet cool.

>>51632870
>I got it my first playthrough.
I would have kept a spare save game on that to never go through that aggravation again. The dice lords from planet cube love you.

Did you know some anon got all the pilot audio from the first mechcommander game and extracted it into files you can mess with? It's in the pastebin I think.
>Rooster quips coming out of your computer all day ev'ryday

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/btg/ I need all your Blake-related materials. Artwork, quotes, tales of Blakist glory on the battlefield, etc. I am playing in an AToW campaign where we will be ROM agents.

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>>51633267

>>51632782
Headmistress of course gets a command 'Mech, like a Battlemaster or a Marauder. Even better, give her bodyguard's the callsign "Schoolboy" or "Prefect". Justice gets a Marshal or a Gunslinger, if the year allows it. Arsyn's ride is a Firestarter, and since he/she has that kind of callsign, it's painted in some edgelord way. Knockout gets a big, maybe undergunned 'Mech for double-fisted action (Charger? Banshee?) and the Melee Specialist SPA.

>>51632782
>Catastrophe
Charger (because reasons)

>Dilemma
Cossack

>Arsyn
Vulcan (the joy of flamers with the hilarity of being a Vulcan pilot)

>Homeslice
UrbanMech (couldn't help myself)

>Mother Chucker
Quickdraw

>Cut Throat
Spider

>Frostbyte
Wraith

>Knockout
Zeus

>Domino
Archer

>Justice
Wasp (because Wasps need love, too)

>Luna
Assassin

>Headmistress
Axman (because she sounds like someone out to defend "Her Home Planet")

Is it piloting/gunnery or gunnery/piloting?

>>51632782
>Catastrophe
Crusader
>Dilemma
Rifleman-D
>Arsyn
ML Firestarter, Ironically
>Homeslice
I dunno, maybe a Shad?
>Mother Chucker
Longbow
>Cut Throat
Atlas, with cosmetic neck damage that he refuses to fix
>Frostbyte
Something hot-running. Maybe a Thud?
>Knockout
Modified SRM brawler Archer
>Domino
Grasshopper (for those moments where you make like three guys fall down from a DFA)
>Justice
Awesome
>Luna
Phoenix Hawk, maybe the LAM model
>Headmistress
Marauder or maybe cyclops (it's a command ride)

>>51633523

G/P.

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>>51633267

>>51627657
>Also gyro TACs are way too crippling. I feel like the first hit should give +1 or +2 to PSRs, and then the next one could give either +2 or +3, and then the third one destroys it. For being the kings of the battlefield, mechs spend entirely too much time flopping around on their ass.

Funny you mention that. I was just testing out a TRO mech with reflective armor that took a Gyro TAC through 20+ points of CT armor and then flailed itself to death in one turn of trying to get out of the enemy gang-bang circle.

In other news, reflective armor is terrible.

>>51628061
I'll have to give that a shot. As I do TRO playtesting, the HUGE swings from luck get kind of annoying and make it hard to accurately assess how good something is.

>>51628155
Looking good

>>51631968
If you're into actual wargaming, then about a million hex and chit games are out there, probably the most well-known being Advanced Squad Leader, which is huge and has rules that make BT look like Snakes n' Ladders and yet is somehow possibly easier to play.

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>>51626777
Is turning heat sinks off and on tournament legal? Cause that was the aim here; tournament legality/simplistic. If so I might rethink what I've done but I also was trying to keep a mind for value as well, with minimal bells and whistles, keeping it affordable. It's kinda how I like to do most of my designs. I'm also not sure about switching the MMLs around but I guess if I went DHS I'd have more wiggle room and more heat to play with, and if deactivating HS is a tourney-legal thing then I have very little to worry about. Though, if it's a tourney-legal thing, howcome folks go through so much trouble to heat-tune TSM machines when you can just lightswitch heat sinks?

Thanks for the feedback though. Glad someone thought it interesting enough to comment on.

>>51632128
>missles on a MAD
REEEEE-it's fine. Honestly I'd rather do something like pic related, but I'm an introfag so I do introfag things. I guess I just made a MADapult or a MADersnatch or something.

>>51633267
I just finished reading the epilogue of Target of Opportunity and there's a good quote from Patricia Harwell when talking about Tucker.

"He will do his duty to Comstar and serve as he is ordered, as our family has for centuries."

Also a fun fact, Tucker basically wanted to create his own Comstar faction after sabotaging the Blessed Order. So for him, getting brought into the Republic was all according to plan. Also, Knight Holt basically said he was kidnapped just because Comstar refused to share access to him even though the Republic didn't have dick to do with running HPG's. The only thing she had was that he was "a Republic citizen". It was Sorenson who okayed the whole second operation thing. I haven't seen where the exarch had a hand in anything yet.


Also I found out that Clarion Call is an old Blakist thing. So we know Fortress was made by them. Tucker also knows how it works because of finding old records on Freedom Station.

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>>51633911
>Clarion Call is an old Blakist thing

BT will never have a better faction

Also Muninn these sigs are mint, you should make more

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>>51633267
>tales of Blakist glory on the battlefield

You should ask NEA about the various happenings at conventions over the years, since the WOB basically went undefeated over the period Cincy was running them and the authors weighted the scenarios more and more against the WOB to try and force them to lose. Pic related is my favorite of the stories he's told.

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>>51633811

Oh, that's some nice reflective and/or ferro-lam armor you got there. Be a shame if someone were to... crit it.

#BAstronk

>>51633984
I like how the time they shot down a dropship with an infantry dude at the Dieron event got cannonized in TP:Dieron. It's kind of funny how that battle is the Blakists totally wrecking face against superior forces but since they're supposed to loose in the end you get a "but after three months they were eventually overrun" tacked onto the end.

How's this for a Blakist level II?

KTO-19 Kintaro
BJ-2 Blackjack
GRF-3M Griffin
SCP-10 Scorpion
TBT-7M Trebuchet
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk

>>51634246
Is that from an era around 3050?

>>51633984

Beautiful.

>>51634246
Needs more nukes

>>51634246
the scorpion seems slightly out of place, and a unit comprised entirely of the same weight class is pretty unusual. Besides which, it's faster than all the other units there. Perhaps an Ost or maybe Thunderbolt instead?

>>51633523
Depends on the source. Some of the early books have Piloting / Gunnery, but anything printed in the last twenty years have Gunnery / Piloting.

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Regarding that Ben post

https://benhrome.wordpress.com/2017/02/06/dominus-rising/

Check this out, it seems the post-jihad2 would be crazy, and those madmen would actually remove Terra from the equation

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>>51634843

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>>51634885
I can't copy the text somehow, so sorry for the images

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>>51634927

>>51634843
>>51634885
>>51634927
>>51634949
I'm glad that faggot quit

>>51634246
The only thing that doesn't make any sense is the BJ-2. The rest is pretty good but I'd give it more of a mix than one level of upgrade and an old star league mech. Like have something older, something phoenix from the 60's etc.

>>51634843
>>51634885
>>51634927
>>51634949

That honestly sounds like terrible garbage.

>>51634349
Mid to late 50s, yeah. How viable are any of them past that era? I know tech moves fast in the 60s.

>>51634599
I'll get a nuke Urbie then.

>>51634634
I know mixed lances/stars/level IIs are the norm but I thought a similar tonnage would be practical. What's wrong with the Scorpion?

>>51634843
Berith is shit. There were way better MD than him, but we've got to name our shit after that asshat I guess.

Hey guys,

I'm getting into Megamek and am fairly new to the fluff, which I have started learning looking at the field manuals.

And I have to say there seems to be a lot of straight up fighting honor stuff, which doesn't really suit my style. Which faction/regiments should I be looking at if I want to play as people who like hiding in woods with smaller mechs shooting at range and zipping away giggling into the landscape when the enemy arrives?

>>51635057
Full AI would have been a massive mistake anyway. It's one of the core tenants of the setting, like no aliens and no spaceship shields.

>>51635063

Sounds like you want classic Capellans.

>>51635063

RIP Hyades Light Infantry ;-;7

>>51635115
>>51635323

So the things that I want are dead and gone it sounds like.

>>51635063
FWLM, bring only Locust-1Ms.

>>51635063
Mercenaries take this route fairly often. Combat damage = profits lost.

>>51635337
No. You just fight like a two bit merc or a pirate. Plenty of those to choose from.

You want no honor? Try the WoB. They make the old Capellans look like choir boys. Besides, Capellans had lots of that honor crap with their Warrior Houses.

>>51633871

>Is turning heat sinks off and on tournament legal?

Yes, and has been for a very long time. I hesitate to say "forever" but at least back as far as the 2nd Edition Compendium.

The reason people tend not to do it is that you have to deactivate them in the End phase of each turn, and if anything goes wrong you might wind up with a lot more or less heat than planned.

>>51634843

While the original post was "how my self-insert character was going to be the most important dude since forever" that shit is other fanwank from someone else posting on his blog.

But Ben did confirm that CGL still has fucked up finances and hasn't improved there despite statements to the contrary from Loren.

>>51635635

>despite statements to the contrary from Loren.

You mean the guy who wrecked their finances via illegal shit is trying to handwave it away to this day? Say it ain't so, anon.

>>51635019
What's wrong with the Blackjack? It's my character's ride.

>>51635724
Sun's factory production for the Suns army, bro. It's not a refit kit. No idea why they give it to mercs and robes in the MUL in the early years.

>>51635635
>>51635678

>that CGL still has fucked up finances and hasn't improved there

As long ago as that happened, they should have been recovered from that by now, so that leads me to believe something else is going on.

>>51635854

Well, there's two schools of thought there. First, is that no, they haven't recovered, because the financial blow is what took out a lot of their decent content creators, leading to inferior products that don't sell as well as their old stuff. The second is that Coleman's house needs some more repairs and renovations, and possibly a swimming pool.

>>51635854

Shitty products, shitty sales, and Coleman never having paid much of it back (which is OK, because he's Randall's bestie and titans of the industry OK'd it) and the Leviathans misadventure would explain it all.

>>51635635
>>51635678

Haven't their finances always been fucked?

I was reading of complaints about that occurring long before Coleman and what not. Maybe not as bad, but it was an issue before then from what I'm understanding.

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>>51635063
>>51635063
You are a dezgra cur.

And we handle dezgra curs with ortillery.

>>51635063
>I'm getting into Megamek
>And I have to say there seems to be a lot of straight up fighting honor stuff, which doesn't really suit my style. Which faction/regiments should I be looking at if I want to play as people who like hiding in woods with smaller mechs shooting at range and zipping away giggling into the landscape when the enemy arrives?
>I'm getting into Megamek

That's obvious. People that do this shit irl tend to get punched.

>>51636000

Or shoes thrown at them.

>>51635592
>You want no honor? Try the WoB.

To be fair, while the Word likes nukes and nerve gas, and all sorts of shady shit, they definitely weren't afraid of brutal slugging matches. In fact the Word style is more "We fucked up everything around you and now we're here to fuck you up too."

Optionally, "Congratulations on beating us, here's your glow-in-the-dark prize."

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>>51636050

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I wish the woobie mechs, battle armors and aerospace fighters were around the Dark Age. They were too cool to be ignored forever

>>51635592

>Capellans had lots of that honor crap with their Warrior Houses

Which was thankfully gotten rid.

new thread

>>51636145

>>51635949

>Haven't their finances always been fucked?

Well, they weren't super duper rich like Wizards of the Coast or whatever but they had enough money for Coleman to be able to steal 800K or so. Which is a fair chunk of capital that could have been spent on writers or production runs of boxed sets.

That's why its proven so damaging in the long run- it took out the money they could have used to grow SR and BT, a lot of the good staff they had elsewhere quit (the BT side not so much since they're all friendly with Coleman) and the story plus CGL being a shit employer is widely enough known in the industry that their only source of new writers is the OFs for SR and BT, but getting into that club is a popularity contest rather than about writing skill or game knowledge.

>>51636131

Well, technically speaking, their Bolla design, part of the incomplete Serpentus series of machines, was adopted by the Republic.

However, in relation to the Daemons, Spectrals and Celestials nobody wants them due to the stigma and, perhaps above all else, most individuals lack the implants to use them effectively.

Kind of like the situation with Protomechs, few are going to volunteer to undergo the process to use them effectively when there are much safer alternatives in traditional machines.

>>51636169

>CGL being a shit employer is widely enough known in the industry

Isn't that normal for a game company?

I haven't exactly heard sterling things about Games Workshop or Privateer Press over the years.

>>51635808
Clearly must be for sale on the open market. Some mechs are.

>>51636255
Games Workshop may treat their employees like red headed stepchildren, but they always pay on time.
CGL inherits and continues a history of not paying people they hire.

>>51636277
Except it's specifically not in the fluff. My bet is MUL fuckup.

>>51636133
Read By Temptation and By War. That shit is still going on.

>>51636334

>That shit is still going on.

Well, a least their regular Military isn't going that route.

>>51636353
Warrior Houses are still a decent piece of their military and some of the highest profile units. They're the boys you call to lead invasions if the MAC is occupied. You don't have to like them, but the position they occupy is about like the Sword of Light for the Dracs or the Brigade of Guards for the Davions. They're not irrelevant.

>>51636000

>People who show tactical acumen get punched.

And I was wondering why this game seems so ill of late.

>>51636565

It's also a game, and you have a responsibility to ensure that it's possible for your opponent to enjoy playing the game as well. That's why spam lists like "all the Savannah Masters" and "all the infantry" also are on the "punch in face" queue.

There's a middle ground, where you can show good tactical sense, and still maintain a game which is enjoyable for your opponent. Veering to either extreme makes you a shit player, anon.

>>51636565
>>51636600

Gamemanship is a pretty big thing to remember. I can win, sure. But what is that win worth if I don't ever get a game again because no one wants to play against me?

>>51636432

I am aware of that.

However, it seems odd ever reading of the Confederation being merciful or honorable after the the Fourth Succession War.

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>>51635808
>It's not a refit kit.