/btg/ Battletech General!

haha butte hold

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Stupid autosage

>>54038935
>QUICK, /giantrobotsgeneral/, I need an assault with jump jets and a sword/hatchet that can shotgun shit with its torso slots and ax people questions in physical phase, especially in urban scenarios.

.......

>>54039776
If you're OK with customs and with your players hating you, then you might want to look at this.

>34-point hatchet hit
>LB-20X with ample, CASE'd ammo
>25 tons of hardened armor, which also helps protect against crit chances against the LFE
>5 Jump is about as good mobility as an assault Mech can get
>Head-mounted TAG *and* a C3i system, so those LRM boats you're talking about? Yeah, enjoy ignoring the range, indirect fire, spotter's movement, and target movement penalties to your LRM fire.
>It's not terribly difficult to mess with your heat fine-tuning using the X-pulse lasers, plus, well, short-range pulse lasers in a city
>remember, Hardened Armor PSR penalty does *not* apply to physical attacks - physicals are just an attack roll that use your Piloting Skill.

Only real downside is BV2 with a competent pilot, but if you want a "boss" battle anyway, then loading this up with a 2/4 pilot or thereabouts should be able to cause a fair number of outsized problems for your players.

(Not the least of which should be the four-ish, Blakist, C3i-equipped LRM carriers on the other side of the city.)

>>54039823
Thanks, anon. I'm actually playing with a hypothetical 100t dual LBX 20 dude with a snub PPC and a tag right now in MekLab. Jump 3 and no place for a hatchet, but it looks pretty menacing on paper. Also costs less and can be used pretty early in the timeline.

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Came up with this guy. Pretty vanilla with all its 3058 tech. Considered swapping ECM for C3 and maybe replacing med lasers with something more specialized.

>>54039823
I tried to make a mech made of, not mech shotguns, but actual shotguns. In addition to energy weaponry, hatchet and TSM it had four arrays of four HMGs simulating bundles of actual shotguns. I called it the STREET HITLER SHIT-1S.

SSW refused to even process it, preferring to crash rather than entertain me. I felt more embarrassed than I thought I could.

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>>54040264
>tfw testing this, and the VERY FIRST shot fired by king crab was a gauss crit to HD

>>54040465
Hail to the King, baby!

>>54039720
Is that a Kintaro?

>>54040775
Javelin

>>54040799
Not what I was expecting. Thanks though.

>>54040465

That's what you get for not going with the hardened armor one.

>>54040811
There's no CT weapon, or arm weapons. There are two SRM-6 in the side torsos though. How does that say Kintaro?

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>>54040647
>Hail to the King, baby!

Groovy.

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>>54041375
I can't believe I remember this.

>>54041734
>kek, those 4 med lasers

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>>54041734
>chainsaw

Groovy.

>>54041734
them quirks.

>>54045079
Now, that is a nice looking Urbie.

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What are some good 3025 helicopters?

>>54046668
>High Energy

Thanks, Trump.

>>54046668
For me, it's usually something home brewed.

>>54046668
Warrior H-7 is probably the most ubiquitous, with the C variant (LRM) being the best of them in that era. The 'Goons have the Peregrine, but that's exclusive. There aren't very many VTOLs, really.

>>54046668
>tfw a 2017 helicopter with a shitty experimental laser still has more range than any mech in 31XX

>>54046760
Nice. Any particular city it's supposed to be, or just "generic ruins?"

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r8 my pre-clan Draconis donut steel mech

Why is the thread so dead?

>>54047906
Thinking about it now, it looks like something Blakists would make. Still, pre-clan ERPPCs.

Something to consider the next time you hear the name "Kerensky":

https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/36561433/
http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=58015.0

Any ex-military anons care to chip in their two cents on the recipe for a COMPLETE CLUSTERFUCK that is A.S. Kerensky's personnel jacket?

>>54048007
That makes sense. That ESPECIALLY makes sense later, when Kerensky becomes idolized both by clans and by some IS fanatics. He's basically BT's version of Lenin.

>>54048007

The funnier part is the dipshit criticising the generals who wanted to reinforce Luthien when Theodore wanted to send spoilingattacks into Clan territory instead.

Yeah, you guys are totally 1337 armchair generals. Let's just let the biggest training, logistical, and manufacturing centre the Dracs have fall to the Clans because hurr durr muh fronts in a 3D environment, amirite?

>>54047906
Well, looks like a slightly more optimized Maelstrom. It'd be nice, but DC doesn't get that level of toy.

That aside, it's quiet because it's a summer tuesday, far from and to of any new releases for BT I suppose.

>>54047266
>Any particular city it's supposed to be, or just "generic ruins?"

"Supposed to be"? M8, I took that picture in Detroit last week!

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Hey guys, you know what I really like?

The Centurion Omnimech. Let's make Omnipod packages for the little guy! He's so cute, and deserving of more screentime~

I mean, seriously. 24 tons of pod space at 50 tons, good maneuverability, and BA carry capacity. I really want to see some good taxi designs, yo.

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>>54048950

one of the moderators of the pizzagate forum on voat is named VictorSteinerDavion

>>54049896
Victor Steiner-Davion did 9/11. Mech fuel can't melt ferro-fibrous beams. Wake up, sheeple.

>>54046737
Is 6 hexes the ideal weapons range for the H-7C? I feel like it is, but I wonder how the math would come out accounting for cluster hits and damage.

>>54048950
>>54049930
It;s times like these that I really love this general best.

>>54039720
Maximum derp here - how do I run megameklab? I can't find it in the git folder, just megamek itself.

>>54050947
https://sourceforge.net/projects/megameklab/files/
If you want to open and edit an existing mech, and you have megamek, use "open from cache" option. If you want to save your mech for further use in megamek, save it to a file to megamek/data/mechfiles folder. If you use the same name as the existing mech (like Atlas and a variant name AS-DERP1 or something) megamek will automatically use the existing mech sprite (atlas in this case).

>>54049896
The Venereal Space Disease. How appropriate. Whatever VSD touches, turns into shit and irritation.

>>54046760
>Jupiter pilot is like, fuck, this is a shitty hellhole. Why did I drop here again?

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>>54046760

>>54051010
>https://sourceforge.net/projects/megameklab/files/
So despite the name, MegaMekLab is not to be found in the git download?

>>54051813
Some anon probably mixed up the >>> part when he made a thread. It's just megamek.

Also, if you're just getting into giant robots and shit, I would recommend MekWars (aka MegaMekNET), which is a persistent 3025 server for PvP with a dynamic campaign, aerotech battles etc. It's a good way to start playing after you learn about movement, shooting, and other basic stuff..

>>54051884

Playing against other players is generally the best way to improve your skills. The bot, while a good introductory tool, gets you into some really bad habits if you only ever play against it.

>>54051884
No, the MegaMekLab repository from the git page literally lacks MegaMekLab, and has MegaMek instead.
See: https://github.com/MegaMek/megameklab

>>54052121

Just get the MekHQ download. Yeah, it's a bit bigger, but unless you have the hard drive space worries of the 90's you won't care.

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>>54049175
Inspired by my favorite Centurion variant.

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QUICK /btg/, tell me the name of YOUR mercenary company!

>>54053168

Personal AtB unit, or like in a campaign?

>>54053528
Any of them just to save the dead thread.

>>54053540
Wallen's Vanguard, a bunch of SLDF descendants who end up in situations way over their heads, though I tossed out their involvement on Outreach, trying to prevent Condition FERAL.

The other one is everyone's favorite, Shearington's Shatterers. Otherwise, I've got several redshirt units that exist solely to appear as fodder.

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>>54053528

White's Wardens. Haven't done much with them, though.

Krav Mecha, lead by the melee specialist Moshe Luz.

RPG Campaign is The Hangmen. Formerly Harrigan's Hangmen, it got shortened when he retired.

>>54053168
Night Mares. FWL's deniable and disposable assets.

Hey guys, im a bit new to the battletech universe. I'm being asked to join a tabletop campaign. Anyone know where I can get a .pdf of BattleTech: Strategic Operations for free?

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>>54053816

I advise you to read the OP.

>>54049175
Kinda struggling for a interesting sort of niche that isn't already done, aside from slapping a plasma rifle and mg/flamers/srms on there for mobile warcrimes BA carrier. I'll give it a go later.

>>54053871
I did, I looked into the PDF folders, and I found rules that I think are for the tabletop? Or am I just confused and stupid.

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>>54053922

So, if I have this right, you checked the Mediafire, looked into the Rules folder that contains a link to what you were looking for, and then posted here asking about it?

http://www.mediafire.com/file/n90c5ctkn49wevt/Strategic_Operations.pdf

>>54053690
>Krav Mecha
I love it. I image Space Jews in melee 'mechs. Sounds hilarious.

>>54053891
Yen Lo Wang in 3145 omni-ese?

>>54053922
The RPG is just a way of playing the tabletop with more focus on individual characters. So yes you want the tabletop stuff

>>54048007
>Any ex-military anons care to chip in their two cents on the recipe for a COMPLETE CLUSTERFUCK that is A.S. Kerensky's personnel jacket?

I have nothing to add that Trace already didn't. That rapid rate of ascention (most likely as a result of the Houses recognizing a "ristar" and promoting him out of grade to help neuter the SLDF) absolutely makes him incompetent for his position. It's not his *fault*, per se, and I find it likely that he would have been able to learn the skills if they were presented to him in something even approaching a sane manner.

But as it is, his service record is completely borked, and literally anybody else you care to name in a similar situation would have done the same or even worse, because most people would think that they're awesome for being promoted that fast and would completely stop listening to subordinates, which is something that Kerensky didn't really seem to fall victim to. *Nobody* succeeds in that sort of situation.

>>54054665
I dunno, the SLDF seemed like it ran itself by the time Kerensky got command. They just needed someone to sign the checks and tell Star League Council what's up.

Why would 80% of military follow a conman's deranged dream then?

>>54054752
For the purpose of plot.

There's no real rational reason for people to decide to haul ass.

Another update!

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=57997.0

>>54048007
Honestly, this changes my opinion from him being incompetent to actually doing reasonably well all things considered

>>54054837
Lets get our hack on!
New Story Update!

http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=57997.0

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>>54054855

>>54054855
Shill your stuff on the OF. They like that kind of thing. Here it's just like being stabbed repeatedly in the chest.

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>>54054902
>http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=58015.0
>>54054875

I'll tell you secret.
I like being bullied

How viable is an assault with 3/5/3 and 4 snubbies?

not very.
with snubs you have to get close enough to hit.

>>54055237
Outmaneuvered/10. Good luck getting the best damage range in it.

>>54055267
BUT WHAT IF urban battles?

>>54055274
Anything over a 4 story building and you still have to walk so, Outmaneuvered/4.

>>54055237
It's better with 2 Snubbies and 4 LPPCs.

>>54055335
better yet, 6 Light PPC's with capacitors and coolant.

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>>54054855
>>54054837

>non-ComStar personnel knowing how HPG shit works
>ComStar personnel telling people outside the organisation how HPG shit works

Fuck.

Off.

Do you need to install the coolant system to use cooling pods? I don't remember that ever being a thing.

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>>54049175
Maybe I'm just giving the Vulpes too much of a hard time. But it's fun to make fun of it.

>>54055692
I can't imagine that every single HPG uplink is owned by comstar. There must be a few here and there owned by someone else. Also, the clans have their own HPG network. There are undoubtedly spies inside comstar, especially at the lower levels.

>>54055737
>I can't imagine
Obviously. Your lack of imagination is a continuing problem.

All IS HPGs are ran by Comstar, deal with it. Clans get to run their own HPGs because they left the Inner Sphere before Comstar existed.

Kill yourself and expunge the shame you bring upon your bloodline.

>>54055737
>I can't imagine that every single HPG uplink is owned by comstar.
Congratulations, your imagination is wrong.

>Also, the clans have their own HPG network.
Objection! Relevance?

>There are undoubtedly spies inside comstar, especially at the lower levels.
>Tyronelaughingfor70billionyears.png
Sorry, I don't have the image at hand, but someone should.

>>54055715>
>RAC5
>Dual ER Large lasers

I dunno, seems more like an Enforcer variant.

>>54055737

Read the lore, you syphilitic little shit-gremlin.

All HPGs are in the hands of ComStar, how they work is kept strictly secret by ComStar, and the Clans aren't even in the picture. ROM slaughters would-be spies by the truckload and a grand total of ONE enemy agent has ever gotten anywhere in infiltrating ComStar.

>>54054752
Presumably he was very charismatic, even if he didn't know what he was doing.

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Go Speed Racer
Go Speed Racer
Go Speed Racer, Go!

>>54056016
Well, it's not terrible.

>>54056016
But coolant will only give 50% bonus to double heatsinks...

>>54056016
Try a Radical Heat Sink?

>>54055871
>What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Sandhurst, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Clan Wolf, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in honorable warfare and I’m the top gunner in the entire Comguard. You are nothing to me but just another Locust. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on Tukkyid, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the HPG Uplink? Think again, Davion. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across Comstar and your dropship is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. My dropship can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the Elite Comguard and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the solar system, you little Davion. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury with my lance of level 2 mechs all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.

Anybody ever tried designing playable superheavies?

Any cool GM vs players stories about boss battles?

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>>54039720
okay, there.

it can fire 4 PPC's with capacitors and 2 without, then take a turn to fire 2 without and cool off.

>>54056688
Why do you keep deleting these stupid mechs? Better yet, why do you keep posting them?

>>54056470
Challenge accepted.

>>54056700
nm, i'm done.

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>>54056688
YOU WANT CLANTECH!
FUCK OFF!
GO PLAY WITH TOYS I GIVE YOU!

>>54056470
The key to it is using the most weight saving stuff you can since they get double crits. Endo, XXL engines, XL gyro, and so on.

Go 2/3 or 3/5. You're already a walking artillery target so that's about as slow as you want to go. You can tack a supercharger on to help with that.

Don't go full 200 most times. 150ish to 175 seems to be the sweet spot for chassis.

Usually, I just do stuff I can't do with regular mechs like mount full scale long toms in the body or have iHGR's in the arms as close fuckoff guns (Emperor Crab anyone?) or put a subcap missile launcher on one just because. That's the real novelty of it. Or make it into a campaign plot machine like a command center with every electronic aid known to man and a mobile HPG.

My advice is just do stuff you can't with regular mechs, because regular mechs are better mechs.

>>54056825
Hm, two sniper artilleries in hands look really easy to use. Only 22 heat too.

>>54055737
unless you're talking to medron pryde, they DO own every single one outside the clans

Holy shit, 1 cruise missile is 25 ton. How do I even put one on my meme mech.

>>54058404
100t Omni? Should be able to have two.

>>54058404
The same way a fat chick keeps fitting in jeans she used to fit well in 50 pounds prior, use a crowbar and some elbow grease.

>>54058451
The launcher alone is 55 tons for the Cruise Missile 50.

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ugh. megameklab refuses to actually add even 1 ammo, even though I put it in

>>54058521
That's because you can't mount a CM by RAW, since there's nothing in a SH's rules that lets it ignore the No Mechs limitation.

>>54058451
A hundred tons is a launcher and two missiles for a Cruise 50, the smallest one.

>>54058562
Well, at least the possibility is there. I mean, tonnage-wise.

>>54058504
>>54058566
Well sheeit.

>>54057163
well, anyway, i put in on the new forums too.

https://community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/8812/comments/163752

>>54056825
>XL gyro
Superheavies are heavy duty gyro only, somewhat confusingly referred to as superheavy gyros in DA stuff.

Are all superheavies tripods or only the canon ones. Can you build giant bipeds or quads?

>>54059935
Only two of the current superheavies are tripods, the Ares and the Poseidon. The others are all bipeds, and you can make a quad.

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Am I a bad fan for not particularly liking Duane Loose's mech art designs?

>>54060285
You're only a bad fan if you want all mechs to look like they're from one artist and time period or if you play with 3039 retcons.

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>>54060285

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Whoa Black Betty Clanalana!

>>54060285
I'll tell you secret, its not really his designs, its how he made them. You know how hard it was to program 3-D graphics in the 80's on an Amiga?

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>>54061144
I can imagine. And yeah, I get that it isn't so much the designs themselves, a lot of them don't look that bad in actual pieces of artwork or modern renditions. There's just something about his pieces that rubs me the wrong way, but I can't seem to put my finger on it exactly either.

Honestly, mega meks ought to be more like a mobile command bridge staffed by at least a dozen people, there to coordinate the battle...

>>54061542
That's basically what your dropship is for. Except it also has a fucton more armor and guns, the best repair bays you'll get outside a dedicated refit facility and can fly into space.

>>54061542
You're talking about the command section of a DropShip, or a MHQ. A 'mech's command cockpit can coordinate local battles, but lacks the C&C capabilities like a holotank in a DropShip.

I tried to properly replicate one in a Fortress but the most I got out of it was the extra sensor suites and 15 or so tons of Communication Equipment.

>>54061659
You can hook up a lance or a company to c3? Do you need double c3 masters or triple? can't remember

you remember that mission in MW2 where they loaned you a stalker? You remember that fucking tertiary objective of destroying the dropship and how hard it was?

>>54061826
You can hook up to a company, no more. You'd need at least 3x Masters to do that, but I never talked about C3 in my post.

>>54061853
Or in MW2, when you'd face off against the hovering Broadswords. And how they'd just pummel the shit out of you, and how much it took to kill them. I gave an AAR a few months ago here about a mission my merc unit had, where 3 Overlords + a Fortress + some defense turrets used enough combined laser and PPC fire to completely reduce a Masakari to a puddle in a single salvo.

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>>54061826
You can hook up to three nodes to a C3M, Slave or Master
The Company commander needs a pair of Masters (three hookups for his own lance, one for each Lance leader, one to hook up to his own secondary Master) and each Lance leader needs one. There's a lot of reasons why C3i is just plain better...

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YOU SNAKA WOMAAN!! YOU DISHONA MY FAMILY!! YOU TAKE MY CHILD, YOU TAKE MY HOUSE, YOU TAKE MY HONOR!! NOW...
(Brandishes Katana) YOU DIE!!!

>>54062101
6 is good for 2 scouts and 4 artillery.

>>54062035
if i used more than 3 of the same weapon on that game, it would crash.

>>54062035
fucking hell I hated those god damn things. You had aim for the engines but it took so long you wondered if you were doing any damage.

>>54062101
If he wins... hes not..
hes not going to.. rape me.. is he?

>>54062101
NO FWAIR! YOU BWING WINGER!!

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Picture this song, but with construction mechs instead of women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKhXgcfGuE0

>>54062383
I never had that problem in MW2 or MW2:M.

>>54062355
So how did you join the Yakuza?

Well, I became a stock broker, started doing a lot of cocaine, got busted, went to work for an automotive repair company, winded up getting busted with a truck full of consumer electronics..

AWWWWWEEESOOOOOOOME!!!

>>54062383
>>54062574
Yeah me either. I think the only bug I ever saw when playing them was a "phantom 'Mech" that was shooting me but I couldn't see nor hit it, but it rendered just fine after I reloaded the mission. Windows crashed more than MW2: Mercs.

>>54062861
Mercs got REAL buggy towards the end. The weapons started copying themselves or something, I'd end up with mechs over the weight limit with thousands of ammo.

>>54062684
WHIIIITE NINJA!!

Don't you ever get tired of people celebrating the most shallow aspects of your culture? Isn't there some point at which an offense demands retribution?

Don't you hate the Honkanese?

>>54063210
every time that happened the game would crash whenever I alpha striked. Sometimes loading a clean save would do it, sometimes it wouldn't.

I fucking beat the clans in MW2 in that initial encounter, but it took several tries and I was beat to fucking hell. Usually you'd end up surrendering cause you had to. You could tell they really didn't have much planned if you won.

>>54063274
I always stuck with the catapult. Man i loved that thing. But the bombadeer didn't have its cockpit vulnerability.

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>>54062383
The only bug I'd get in Mercs was every few missions, the computer would customize my mechs for me by tearing out every heatsink but one, and replacing them with duplicates of weapons already on the mech. Usually it complied with tonnage, but doing contracts and suddenly experiencing the Rifleman lifestyle wasn't the most fun.

...despite that, it's still my favourite of the series. None of the MW titles were ever as creative with what could be done with the franchise, or had pre/post mission fluff as compelling.

>>54065768
This. And the music and voice acting was hands down the best of the series.

>Good morning! How's it feel to be strapped into a walking nuke reactor at six a.m.? Bet you're sorry you didn't studied harder in school, eh?
>Hit that throttle. You'll be killing people before breakfast today. Soldiers, mostly. Maybe some civilians. This is a real combat mission so don't go soft!

Where do you guys get portraits for your mechwarriors?

>>54064837
>Dat tripod swagger
I always really appreciated this walk animation.

>>54055737
Just joining in and saying that:
1. ComStar has an absolute stranglehold on HPG usage, because basically the entire IS economy runs on ComStar's respected neutrality, and the Houses are too busy piledriving each other around known space anyway
2. You don't just infiltrate the science fiction offspring of Freemasons + AT&T who probably have uncountable secret religious handshakes, especially when their tech is not only well-beyond your own to the point of causing pure awe in onlookers, but you also rely on it to continue piledriving your asswipe neighbors anyway

>>54067321
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=10836.0
I use this.

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>>54067529
well, unless you're Hanse, then you occasionally piledrive the phone company as well as your asswipe neighbors.

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>>54062383
I had a "problem" where the robutt I bought early on would mysteriously pop a ton or two of free space between missions, basically allowing me to strap on more and more armor, heat sinks and medium lasers completely scot-free. I eventually gave up on the game. It just wasn't cool.

Is there an information on how different nations regard homosexuality? Asking for a friend.

>>54069050
Nobody gives a fuck, is the short version
The long version is that there's surely a planet somewhere that is butthurt about it, but beyond that nobody gives a fuck

>>54069050
>>54069132
Just for you though, now everyone hates fags, and it's all your fault.

>>54069132
Good. Now my future lesbian BT fanfiction is officially canon.
>>54069153
That will only add drama to it.

>>54069132
Are there any official sources mentioning this though? Because I imagine that in a society where political marriage and noble blood is important not producing offspring would not be regarded positively.

>>54069050
I imagine the clans and house kurita are the most likely to give you a same-gendered Butte Hold. Better hope you don't get taken as a bondsmen and passed around that elemental star.

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>>54069050
I don't remember anything right now, but I'll look it up just for you sweetie. In the meantime, here, have a Wolf's Dragoons excerpt.

>>54069230
Well, people actually don't give a shit about nobles with no kids, because battletech is like that, so that's doubtful

>>54069230
>Because I imagine that in a society where political marriage and noble blood is important not producing offspring would not be regarded positively.
Funny enough, there are TONS of nobles in the fluff who don't have any kids and nobody has a problem with that.
Like titles passing to a second cousin because NOBODY closer has any kids is not uncommon.
The feudalism aspect of battletech is really barely a thing outside of a handful of early 3025 products and edgier moments of the DA

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>>54048007
The idea of the meritocratic clans worshiping a man who not only lacked birthright, but who also got into the upper echelons of military command by complete accident is brilliant. Well, would be brilliant if I didn't already know that it was just the result of FASA/CGL not knowing what the fuck they were talking about, and not the result of clever writing or foresight.

>>54070397
I concur. It is important that we do not forget that despite this pattern is utterly hilarious, we are still dealing not with authors of long-reaching subtlety, nor even lucky amateurs, but highly industrious twits that simply produce such volumes of fiction that by connecting enough of the dots finding one J. Edgar Hoover in the deck is inevitable.

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bump

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>>54072471
I love the shimmyseen marauder.

>>54070397
Well, it's not entirely true that he lacked birthright. The Kerensky family/name carried weight as Defenders of the First Lord.

>>54069050
They don't give much of a fuck at the lowest levels on many worlds depending on the dominant religion, but being a feudal system where claims and rights are passed by blood, it's unthinkable for the elite.

Clanners are a bunch of free love furries though.

>>54069932
>TONS of nobles in the fluff who don't have any kids and nobody has a problem with that.

When you live to be a hundred and thirty before you die by natural causes, nobody freaks out if you haven't had a kid by fifty. They start to get antsy when you hit about eighty though. See Prince Lester.

How do we tastefully add aliens to BT?

>>54073620
Already happened since the very beginning. They're the strange and mystical natural fauna that wants to kill you.

Spacefaring aliens can suck a dick.

As a guy who likes big robots, what attracts people to the Battletech bots?

To me their so slow, and with such an emphasis on just heavy weapons and very little usage of any appendages, even for traversing terrain, that they barely seem like mechs at all. Just big tanks with legs.

Since I like getting interested in franchises, maybe somebody could prove me wrong?

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>>54073650
>They're the strange and mystical natural fauna that wants to kill you.

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit ... it's the only way to be sure.

>>54073797
Nukes are a violation of the NAP.

>>54073724
>Just big tanks with legs.
You got it buddy, that's exactly what BattleMechs are. What were you expecting?

>>54073724
They are big tanks with legs that can kick the shit out (sometimes quite literally) of regular tanks without legs.

Dumb /a/ poster.

>>54073724
Just look at the speeds of scout mechs to disabuse you of your notions, or any of the old fluff for melee combat.

>>54073724
Good hard sci-fi about giant robots is hard to find.

>>54073724
>big tanks with legs
That's what they are and that's what I like about them. And really, it's just the Heavies and Assaults that feel that way, and rightfully so. A medium 'Mech cruising along at 85kph is going pretty fast, actually. Sure it's not Gundam fast, but it's not using jet propulsion either. I prefer the weighty way the Jump Jets in Battletech work as well. Light 'Mechs are my favorite and they are pretty damn fast. 100+kph is common, which is over 60mph. That's almost freeway speeds. And as far as the appendage thing, they fight in physical combat all the time. It's very common, and they are very able to punch and kick easily.

I mean ultimately, you like what you like. Nobody is going to convince you if you haven't already found something you like about it. And that's fine. I like my stompy metal bawkses bristling with guns, and you like whatever it is you like. Did you come from /m/ perchance?

>>54073845
>>54073825

Right but whats the apeal? Even with Mechs with the suspension of disbelief of balancing physics to me the apeal of mechs is the wieght, and heavy metal.

Im not even a /a/ fan. I find their mechas a betrayal of the principle of mechs. They might as well be regular sized people.

Whats the apeal of just sticking 2 legs on a tank? How does it make it better then a regular tank (Even in a fantastical suspension of disbelief way)

>>54073724

The video games largely portray them as lumbering.

The actual game stuff doesn't, up to and literally including having a planet where people go to do 'Mech breakdancing competitions.

>>54073866
>I mean ultimately, you like what you like. Nobody is going to convince you if you haven't already found something you like about it. And that's fine. I like my stompy metal bawkses bristling with guns, and you like whatever it is you like. Did you come from /m/ perchance?

I just try to like new things and understand the stuff I don't. Broadening my horizons and the like. Not from /m/

>>54073929
Fair enough. Good on ya.

>>54073915
>The video games largely portray them as lumbering.

Ah. Thats cool. So like in the roleplaying games and in the novels their more agile and capable of dodging projectiles for instance?

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>>54073650
Hunter's paradise scenario when?

>>54073724
There's mechs that are fast, mechs that melee, and mechs that use their appendages they just aren't the iconic heavy/assault mechs that tend towards the "walking tanks" that you described. Hands are definitely useful in the game, I've had matches where my enforcer, a handless mech has flailed around hopelessly for an entire match, or knocked itself out trying to remove attacking power armored infantry.

>>54073889
Battletech mechs are incredibly flexible and versatile. It just takes a skilled pilot to bring that out of them. The clunkier it is, the more the default mech DI computer is in control. People who are good at piloting can take more direct control. You pilot a machine for a couple decades and it even begins to walk like you.

>>54073946
Most mechs are faster than most land vehicles. Like, dude, literally compare the speed of a (non-hover) tank and a mech. Most tanks can cruse at like 50kph, and that's a speed of an assault, and a light can go 2-3 times that speed.

>>54073946

A lot more agile but not to the point of dodging projectiles, Matrix-style. Ordinance in BT usually hits at least the speed of sound so getting out of the path of incoming fire is unusual to say the least, especially with homing munitions.

>>54073620
Battletech vs xenomorphs when?

>>54073978
Not so much talking about the speed as the agility. If an assault mech can for instance strafe and thus at least dodge an enemy projectile that could justify to me the reason why it would even need legs.

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>>54073724
>As a guy who likes big robots, what attracts people to the Battletech bots?
Granularity, "real robot" aesthetics, and my massive mechaboner for the Holy Trinity of Miyatake/Kawamori/Okawara. Plus, there's no other game out there that lets me blow an enemy bot's arm off, pick it up, run him down and beat him to death with it - then jump up and down on the pilot after he ejects. Or throw him into the wall of a building, as the case may be.

>To me their so slow
*they're
This is partially an artifact of the computer games and partly the DRASTICALLY compressed ground scale. If you actually do the math, though? A Locust the size of a Space Marine is moving somewhere between sixty and >a hundred and fucking forty< inches across the table every ten seconds. Compare that to Warhammer's one-minute turns. Shit gets fucking insane. Even big, slow things like the Awesome are still capable of moving ~2 feet every turn in-scale. This is why I occasionally play in the backyard, rather than on a hexgrid or using the bullshit Alpha Strike distance conversions.

>and with such an emphasis on just heavy weapons and very little usage of any appendages, even for traversing terrain
...Okay, so you need to read scenarios. Especially a lot of the older ones. Hands are critically important to pirates and raiders for grabbing shit. If you compare the mobility of 'Mechs to tracked or hover vehicles, the game system also makes legs a major factor in movement; TacOps adds a bunch of rules for climbing/grabbing/throwing things (even other 'Mechs..) that are simply too much to keep track of without experienced players or a GM.

>they barely seem like mechs at all. Just big tanks with legs.
That impression changes post-haste once you get into the fiction, or reading about things like the Martial Olympiads and BattleMech Soccer (which is both a real thing and the Best Thing).[sorry NEA, I come from Washington state and hockey is for frozen-footed jagoffs from Cincinatti]

Anyway thanks /btg/

Now Im at least mildly more interested in Battletech mechs. Where is a good start? Im not a total begginer when it comes to mechanics, but I do want to start slow at least money investment wise.

>>54074009
Game rules wise, legs let you get through impassible terrain like deep mud, swamp, heavy rubble, thick forest and so on.

You don't need crazy lightning fast dodging to justify limbs.

>>54074042
The best thing to do is read some of the fiction, which we have all the rule and sourcebooks for free in the OP folders.

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>>54074009
Most BattleMechs are at least theoretically capable of everything a human being is - limited by construction (in the case of shit like the Nova, which has combined hips/shoulders) and pilot skill/integration with their machine. Quads can pull off some insane shit, but it takes someone with a screw or two loose to get the most out of them. Unless you want to do what the Society did and pump custom-grown tube-babies full of combat drugs to reduce them to a completely bestial level and then hardwire the pilot's brain into the 'Mechs.

More importantly, 'Mechs can do things like peek around a corner with a head or gun, crouch, kick shit without sustaining massive motive damage, bro-fist, and (as >>54073915 rightfully points out) breakdancing. Or just help reload the other units in the lance and stock up the DropShip, depending on your needs.

>>54074187
>>54074071

I get it.

Again thanks /btg/

Recomendations for the Fiction? Il be in gencon. Maybe Il try the "Try playing Battletech" Sets.

By the way on a scale, is battletech a pretty expensive hobby or less?

>>54074411
If we get a new Introbox, it's cheap. $60 will get you into the hobby with plenty of 'Mech minis and a rulebook. Right now, it's a bit more expensive. Lance Packs are your best buy, and sometimes you can get them for $10-11 USD a piece. They come with 4 miniatures. The quick-start rules are free on the CGL website, and we have a trove in the OP you can root through with sourcebooks and rulebooks in it. The Battlemech Manual beta is also out, and if you just want to play with giant robutts, that's all you need. And it's a complete rulebook, so grab that.

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>>54074031
>Plus, there's no other game out there that lets me blow an enemy bot's arm off, pick it up, run him down and beat him to death with it

At least in English.

>>54074411
If you'll be at Gencon that's good timing, as they've promised the Battlemech Manual as one of the new releases for that show. It's a good mix of intro and advanced, and is a good way to get introduced to the game in a way that gives you enough complexity to make it worth sticking around, without flooding you with the full infantry/battle armour/protomech/ aerospace/vehicle rules.

As far as expense, no, BT is fabulously cheap. You only need about two books to cover almost every unit type in the game plus a host of advanced rules. Small force sizes mean low model counts and costs. to 4-packs of the most common mechs at moderate quality for 10-20$. Metals are typically expensive like GW, so that can get pricy if you really get into it, but overall BT has never been a game where people give a shit about WYSIWYG, so you can use paper counters or whatever (there were two box sets of cardboard counters representing most mechs that were made a while back and are still floating around in second-hand channels).

>>54074476
>If we get a new Introbox, it's cheap. $60 will get you into the hobby with plenty of 'Mech minis and a rulebook. Right now, it's a bit more expensive. Lance Packs are your best buy, and sometimes you can get them for $10-11 USD a piece. They come with 4 miniatures.

Jesus thats fucking peanuts in comparison to the Minis Games Im used too. This might make for a solid secondary hobby.

>>54063210
That only happened if you hit repair all and reload all. When you reloaded, it'd reload a full ton of ammo on top of whatever was left. It didn't properly count out shots like MW3 did.

So sorry for asking further, but there is allot of battletech to go over.

Whats the "Current" battletech and whats "Currently" happening. If it has been released for a while, what is the BattleTech manual for?

>>54074927

The BattleMech Manual was released in a pdf-only beta form a few months ago, to gather feedback and make it better (which it's done: I'm looking at over 300 changes). GenCon is supposed to see it formally released in its final form, and in print.

>>54074984
So what is it? Is it an add on? Core rules? To what?

>>54074509
>At least in English.
If you know about one in Japanese I'm all for it. As far as I know though, Gundam Senki doesn't have that. The Dougram "Battle Of" games and DUAL-Magazine scenarios lack it as well. Mekton theoretically allows you to get strappy with severed limbs but it's a GM adjucation situation (and an RPG), plus Senki is the only translation of a Mekton-compliant gameset to JP that I'm aware of.

>>54074411
>on a scale, is battletech a pretty expensive hobby or less?
It's only a little more expensive than Frostgrave and cheaper than almost every other major F/SF game on the market. Model quality's better than Heavy Gear but the individuals run about twice as expensive. I highly recommend Aries Games in the US (it's run by a fan and has a lot of the IWM web-exclusive shit) or Ral Partha Europe in the EU. If you like the "Unseen" original anime designs, I can point you in the right direction; if you want MWO stuff there's a couple Russians putting them out as well.

Overall prices:
Single minis ~$7-20 depending on size and retailer
Plastic 4-packs 8-20
Robotech Tactics boxes (Archer/Longbow 4-pack, Warhammer/Rifleman 4-pack, Phoenix Hawk LAM 3-pack) are about $30 in person and 15-20 online. Minis are high-detail but low-quality because they're basically just half-size 1/144s instead of a dedicated wargaming sculpt.

Mechwarrior Dark Age minis are really, rreally cheap but generally incompatible.

Oh, and at Gen Con Catalyst and IWM often have heavy sales on minis.

>>54075042
>If you know about one in Japanese I'm all for it.

Sadly, I wouldn't know about any.
You can bet your ass it exists considering it happened in the show, but whether it's some tough to nail down fan-work or simply a Jap-exclusive RPG, we're most likely not going to find it.

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>>54075016
>>54074984
>>54074927
It's a new product, a 'Mech-rules-only core book that's basically a re-creation of the old Master Rules books. Designed to be easier to use and cheaper than the current line, and it cuts a lot of the cruft out of the Total Warfare books. Effectively it's the newest edition of the rulebook for BT.

>>54075016

In the product line as a whole, the Manual bridges the gap between the Introductory Box Set (mechs only, basic rules only; does what it says on the tin) and Total Warfare (TW; 300-page rulebook covering every element of core gameplay, including a host of non-mech unit types).

The Manual has all the core rules for mechs. It also has a bunch of the most popular and easy to use of the advanced rules (instead of having to pick and choose through 370 pages of Tactical Operations, the advanced rules book where they were taken from). The idea behind the Manual is that it's designed from the ground up for play at the actual tabletop, as streamlined and clear as possible. Total Warfare has a bit of a reputation for being not so great in terms of access to info; a major goal of the Manual was fixing that.

Overall, you get a tweaked 150-page guide to the most important unit in the game. If you want a real in-depth look, I wrote a blog post explaining it and comparing it to TW:

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

So whats going on in the Dark Ages?
Whats the overall metaplot?

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I know a couple people were asking what the "mystery 'Mech" in "The Spider and the Wolf" was supposed to be - did a little digging and realized it's supposed to be Mechwarrior Tomlinson's Stinger. The original 'Mech is an Iota Legioss Striker from Mospeada. http://www.mahq.net/mecha/mospeada/mospeada/afc-01i.htm

>>54075832
Yeah, the ATAC, I think it's called from Southern Cross (or the middle part of crap-Robotech if you prefer) is in there, and the Bushman from Dougram as well. Kind of neat. I think pencil bro made a mock up of the Bushman weeks ago too.

>>54075688
Since the early 3080's, there's been a general drawdown in forces not seen in the whole history of the Inner Sphere. There's less mechs in the early 3100's than there were in the Maddest Max days of 3000. It has been however for the most part, a time of peace.

Stone puts himself on ice in 3130, handing over power in the Republic to his old friend Redburn. In late 3132, somebody uses a secret SHPG network within RotS space to instigate the old Blakist Clarion Call protocol, knocking out 90% of the HPG grid in the entire Inner Sphere.

Without communications, power localizes with the more powerful regional governors and planetary legates, who immediately set about making their own splinter states out of local Republic forces. Some are nominally aligned with the Republic and some outright rebel against it. Forces are so scattered and disconnected, even a paltry force of Steel Wolves is able to land on Terra itself unopposed in the sky.

As the Republic flounders, it's old enemies begin once again to march to war on a scale not seen since the Jihad. True fuedal states hold together through the sworn fealty of their people rather than the military dictatorship of the false Republic. The first to move are the Capellans, who have never truly laid down their arms, only lessened the scale of their crusades. Then the Falcons come. Then the Dracs.

It's a territory grab reminiscent of the First Succession War, but with the Prefecture Governors guiding their people instead of everyone getting warcrimed to shit.

Then in the middle of everything in 3135, a conspiracy that dates back to Stone's years as Exarch is uncovered within the Noble Senate. Exarch Levin dissolves the Senate, and sets off the Republic Civil War.


1/2

>>54076205
2/2

Comstar works with all its might to fix the HPG network to no avail and bleeds to the edge of bankruptcy even as sections of its own people try to reclaim the reputation and authority of the old days.

In the middle of no less than three invasions and a civil war, to stave off the total destruction of the RotS, Exarch Levin initiates Fortress Republic, putting up a magical bullshit jump barrier around Prefecture X at the very core of the Republic and abandoning everyone outside the walls.

This puts the feeding frenzy on the corpse of the Republic into overdrive, with even staunch supporters like Julian Davion ditching the Republic to instead fight the Falcons in Lyran space or folding into the surrounding successor states. Even the Bears move in.

The FWL wars upon itself to reunite even as the Wolves bite deep into the best manufacturing territory they own. They make peace to sort out their own problems and the Wolves gangbang the Lyrans with the Falcons.

The Kuritans, viewing their current Coordinator as weak and not aggressive enough, wipe out his entire family and put a bastard child on the throne, puppet to the Black Dragon Warlord of Benjamin. The Nova Cats side with the loyalists in the civil war and are likewise exterminated.

Under the safety of Fortress, Levin nationalizes Comstar, finishes the last of the Senate Loyalists to unify his state and ramps up military production for the wars to come.

The predictions people had at the beginning of the Dark Age about large campaigns being unable to continue due to lack of communications has been proven extremely false. If anything, it reduces the defenses of states terribly because the old staging areas on the border are no longer able to concentrate force where they need to in a timely fashion.

And in all this time, nobody has heard from the Clan Homeworlds in the better part of a century.

Now the year is 3150. Stone has awoken. The Wall has come down. And greedy eyes look to Terra.

>>54075016
It's Total Warfare, mostly. With the following changes:
-All Aerospace, all vehicles, all infantry and battle armor has been cut. If it's not a mech, it's not in there.
-Diagrams have been redrawn to be easier to understand.
-Layout has been changed so that you aren't tearing your hair out trying to find a rule in the middle of a game; the primary reason why some people refuse to use TW.

So if you have Total Warfare, you don't ACTUALLY need it. It's still the same thing on the tin. Any rules changes seem to be shown as optional. However, you're less likely to scare people off with a 130 page rulebook than with a 400 page rulebook, and it's considerably lighter - especially if it ends up being softcover.

Myself, I'll be getting it for bringing to the LGS. The weight and space savings will be appreciated.

>>54076205
>>54076436
thank e sai

How do people conduct large campaigns without HPG uplinks? Do they use messenger ships?

>>54076561
As far as I know, the Black Box faxes are still a thing, and there's been something like a century since building jumpships stopped being lostech.

So yeah, a combination of faxes and courier ships.

>>54076205
>>54076436
were any factories decommissioned?

>>54076561
Clanners do it by using the Mobile HPG's on their Warships.

States use a combination of pony express messenger ships and their classic spy networks in addition to the 1/10 stations being used for transmission of orders.

>>54076583
Black Boxes are super uncommon, to the point Katana Tormark was gifted a pair from the Combine that dated back to the War of 3039. Davions should have the most advanced ones since they were still making newer better models in the 3060's but there's no mention of it in the DA material I've read so far.

>>54076594
No decomissioned, but retooled to produce Tractortech. The most infamous example probably being Kalidasa, and the second being Achernar.

>>54076646
>>54076665
>>54076583
Are there any warden clan factions left?
Who are the primary aggressors?

FWL: Civil war, truce to fight Burrs
CC: Attacks or continues to attack (blank)
DC: Successful Coup (kills nova cats)
Lyrans: Defend from Wolves and Falcons

So whats going on with Davions?
Sucking pena colladas on there south african mech plantations?

>>54076791
Bears pretend to be, but they're still the total faggots they've always been.

Probably the only real wardens left are Wolf-in-Exile, and they're down to using child soldiers just to stay alive.

>>54076865
And the WiE get BTFO with the Kell Hounds on Arc Royal, so...

I can see why Liao invaded the republic. They honestly should have ceded their capital in return for peace.

Kind of a bonehead move if you ask me.

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>>54076205
>In late 3132, somebody uses a secret SHPG network within RotS space to instigate the old Blakist Clarion Call protocol, knocking out 90% of the HPG grid in the entire Inner Sphere.
Clarion Call only knocks out ~60-75%, the Green Ghosts (unit in green colors with insignia based on the Fallen Clans from the Reavings mixed with a Blakie broadsword) mount attacks on the rest. ComStar reactivates the Com Guard clandestinely despite the unit being made illegal, initially manages to hide their involvement by executing several witnesses including various Republic officials.

>>54076583
>>54076561
>>54076646
The Black Boxes still exist but the authors keep "forgetting" them until someone brings them up.

>>54076831
>So whats going on with Davions?
>Sucking pina coladas on their South African mech plantations?
They're getting viciously DP'd by the Caps and Dracs, after Rapey McRape Von Davion contracted a severe case of writer-itis (and got handsy with the Raven Alliance's totally-not-a-Queen). Julian Davion is currently gathering a Multi-National Coalition (tm) of perfectly ethnically, nationally, and sexually diverse assistants from Tumblr to Go Take Back His Realm (tm) and then probably fuck the lone survivor of the Kell Hounds so hard she shits Phantom Mechs for a week to re-populate her unit. Oh, and they killed all of one of the March Lords' families off-screen just as a quick "fuck you". And the 'Goons signed back on with the Kuritans because a magical lesbian told them too.

Did I mention Natasha Kerensky's clone is in charge of another one of the factions?

>>54076831
First Prince Harrison Davion was a close ally of the Republic and took his son Caleb and his Champion Julian to VSD's funeral, working on new alliances and gave the Republic backup of the entirety of the First Davion Guards in the fighting during the civil war on Terra.

In that time he decided to remove his son from the line of succession and make Julian the heir to the throne. Caleb didn't take it well, not at all. He tossed old Harry-bear out a window, then basically exiled Julian who had no idea what was going on.

Things went pretty well for Caleb for awhile after that. He banged his dad's old squeeze, the Snow Raven Khan every day and she liked him better than his daddy. Then he survived the horrible fighting on New Hessen and banged the Capellan incest princess. He capped off the whole thing with the cherry of incorporating the Swordsworn back into the Davion fold and getting Tikonov and a shit ton of two Republic Prefectures with several working HPG's.

Then things went bad as the easy picking Republic worlds dried up. The Caps turned their attention to their ancient enemies on New Syrtis and took the March capital. The now Black Dragony old school Dracs readied to do the same to their own ancient foes on Robinson.

Caleb prepared a grand campaign like the Davions of old on the world of Palmyra and gathered as many forces as he could spare to hit the Dracs and hit them hard. All that was left was for the Snow Ravens to lend their assistance. Instead, McKenna betrays him and drops a ton of Dracs right on top of him. Just goes to show, even clanners get jealous no matter what they say. You don't tomcat around when you're fucking the woman in charge of the biggest combat warship fleet left in civilized space.

Caleb's biggest problem wasn't being crazy. He actually made that work for him pretty well. His biggest problem was buying into the Davion legend, and it killed him as sure as it did Ian back in the 3rd War.

1/2

>>54077126
I've never seen any mention of the Green Ghosts after the Jihad. Ghost War just says some teams blow up some stuff with commando type raids, and not a major percentage.

Comstar wasn't involved in it either. That's what was driving them so nuts. Buhl's group was just trying to get back to being old 3025 Comstar. Levin didn't even care originally when he found out about the Comguard at Wyatt. Remember Comstar were based in Australia at the time. During the Civil War, he asked for their help, and they killed the fuck out of the rogue Knights and loyalists in North America. Doesn't seem Levin went into exterminator mode until Liberty Station. And I honestly don't know how much of that was McKinnon yanking Holt's chain.

>>54077169
So now the First Prince is dead, and the new First Prince conveniently elected Julien Davion is stuck waaaaaaaaaay the fuck out in Lyran space across about three different enemy territories. And the only classic march capital in Davion hands is their actual state capital of the Crucis March at New Avalon.

>>54077126
>because a magical lesbian told them too.

The deceased Dykelord Dieron or a different magical lesbian?

>>54077022
Sian has been the capital basically forever. Liao was just minor. It was more wanted as a cultural vanity thing. Liao doubled down on it after Sunny "died" there. Stone was also a total asshole. It's kind of funny when you see how many people worship him in universe but he basically hated with all his might any of the old systems. Nobility, states, comstar, he despised them all and treated them like trash.

You know who really got fucked over? The FWL. They lost almost half of their good manufacturing. Irian, Stewart, Kalidasa. I mean holy shit. It would be like Lyrans losing Hesperus, Arc Royal and Tharkad.

Okay, so wow, i didn't get that the republic took a bite out of everybody. (like staring into the universes asshole)

Man that map was hard to find.

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>>54077552

>>54077323
dear anon, ALL lesbians are magickal.
Some just shouldn't be let out into the daylight

>>54077552
>Man that map was hard to find.

It's right at the bottom of sarna's page for the state. This is it>>54077560

What's harder to dig out are the ones between 3132 and 3145. I think I got a 3135 one from the old DA promo material somewhere.

they should hire the guys who made Sarna have their team redo the website, and start charging a 5 dollar subscription to Sarna.

Sarna has about a million technical problems. Its ads won't stop loading, its search engine can barely find anything, most of the data is in tables instead of in an sql database.

Trying to learn how to use infantry in megamek.

At the risk of sounding like a total idiot, how does one swarm/leg attack? I move my BA into the same hex as a mek then try to "fire" those attacks and the fire button is still grayed out.

What's going wrong?

>>54077704
I don't think you can move then swarm. The mech has to come to you.

>>54077704
You can't move and swarm in the same round

>>54077721
>>54077732
Okay, but what about leg attacks?

>>54076205
RotS: BTFO'd by Capellans, Falcons, then Dracs
RotS: Scandal, Civil War.
RotS: Fortress Republic, The Wall (We call that space magic, all science fiction has space magic or else it wouldn't be science fiction)
RotS: Burrs
FWL: Civil War (2 civil wars at once? bad luck!)
FWL: Wolves
Kurita: Coup
Nova Cats: BTFO'd
RotS: Annex phone company
RotS: Finish Civil War
Stone: Wakes up just in time to crap his pants.

>>54077782
that part where BOTH the RotS and the FWL were having a civil war confused the fuck out of me.

>>54077704
i think they have to specifically be anti-mech infantry to make leg attacks and swarm.

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This triggers me so much. Even MWO tube-filled suits are better designed. If your entire cockpit is melting you DO NOT want to sit naked there. You want to have an enclosed suit that won't allow external heat to pass it. Did they think people in Sahara just go around naked instead of using heavy robes?

>>54077891
Fuck you, we sell those as posters to Japanese kids.

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Yeah, lady, imagine wearing an actual heat-isolating suit right now. Would be really great, huh?

>>54077918
Its just a tasteful image of woman in a bathing suit, piloting a 40 ton anthropomorphic death machine.

Oh, and the wolves are being lead by Victor and Katherine's tube incest baby

>>54077964
I hope he and Stone kill each other.

women are important to the war effort, so we allow them to sit and pose in mechs and tell other people they are pilots.

What? They have civilian postings. Just the other day I met a female major. She was head of our office at aunt aubbery.

>>54077974
Plus, you know, fucking sand niggers and boat people. Those chicks wrack up an impressive amount of kills.

What was the book for Admin/Command/Logistical/Transport crew? Kinda stuck staring at my MechHQ screen for 40 minutes straight.

>>54077990
nothing against their culture or anything, but kids in warzone sure do grow up fast. You got thirteen year olds participating in honor duels and shit.

You ought to have at least 20 years on this earth before you decide to throw your life away.

>>54077891
Coolant vests had a shitload of volatile and toxic chemicals in them, and doubled as flak vests. It's also a near direct reference to Mad Max, you plebian.

>>54077997
There's an AtB guide in the OP.

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>>54075966
>I think pencil bro made a mock up of the Bushman weeks ago too.

I put just about everything (the Legioss LAM is there as well!) up on the booru, and even tagged it all!

>>54078040
I read the guide, it's just the fact that I can't grasp what those people do in-universe and which ranks they should have.

>>54078050
Cool beans.

>>54078062
Admin determines how many lances you can have, Command is for Command Rights on a contract, Logistics for logistical support on same, and Transport checks for transit costs. Currently MHQ seems to just check for the highest skills, rather than a dedicated person to do that with. Of course, with the way HR personnel gain XP, your admins can become experts in all four arms incredibly quickly.

>>54077126
I still think there should be an official Mexican Atlas. Commaro's Bendehos should get a custom refit kit for a baller mech, or a single atlas factory that produces nothing but Atlases wearing sombreros, but people are too afraid to touch "the machine" to change it.

Battle Sombrero, GO!

>>54078135
fuck, sorry, i forget you guys are at work.

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>>54078135
Sunset Riders-themed merc company when?

>>54078159
Never, otherwise we'll be expected to have chicks with polished coin nipples from DC properties as pinup art.

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>>54077990
>>54077974

I think the whole point of pin-up art is that its supposed to be tasteful. You can tell some of the people who draw pin-ups here draw way too much porn.

>>54078159
Those are some very flamboyant cowboys.

>>54074187
>'Mechs can do things like peek around a corner with a head or gun, crouch, kick shit without sustaining massive motive damage, bro-fist, and (as >>54073915 rightfully points out) breakdancing. Or just help reload the other units in the lance and stock up the DropShip, depending on your needs.

Yes

Just don't be the asshole in the middle of a pick-up game demanding that you should be able to do XYZ thing that the rules don't in any way support.

If you want to houserule it, at the very least discuss that sort of thing before the game starts.

>>54078310

Fuck you, I like it.

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>>54078339
Rules support A LOT of things.

Hey, You know Palladium made the robotech rpg, but during southern cross they had this really weird thing about mechs only fighting in melee in underground matches, where they were connected to pain sensors that matched the damage the mech received.

It was all set in the jungles of vietnam.

>>54078629
Since Solaris is no longer a thing, maybe they could do that?

>>54078629
Good for you and them? What's the point?

>>54078629
I remember that, it was called Mecha Su-Dai, and sometimes mechs fought crazy zentraedi, who used motherfucking C4 knuckledusters to even the odds
Palladium Robotech was great

>>54078717
>dynamite fists to even out weight disparities
Now that's an idea worth stealing for solaris

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What's /btg/s opinion/personal preferences on the various armor types?

>>54078159
What 'mechs would each one pilot?

I would totally do up a lance in their colors if I had any painting skills.

>>54079578
Wolverine, Wolverine, Rifleman, ..Champion? something with an LBX.

>>54078717
or those staves that had missiles mounted on the ends

>>54078040
>It's also a near direct reference to Mad Max, you plebian.

Making references to shit movies isn't something to be proud of or to emulate. There's nothing redeemable about Mad Max and nothing worth emulating. Casting Tom "Can't act" Hardy in the lead role saw to that.

>>54079530

Is it Standard, Stealth, Clan Ferro, Ferro-Lam, or Hardened?

If not, then it's shit. Not a single one of the other types is worth using on a Mech.

>>54079530
>>54079979

Ballistic-Reinforced though.

In general I would avoid Reflective or Reactive. Reflective I can see a use for on very fast, very long-ranged 'Mechs but the chance for Reactive to just blow up isn't really my thing.

Heat-Resistant is fucking pointless since there's a cap on external heat already. If there wasn't maybe there would be a reason to use it, but no.

Anti-Penetration I don't know much about. I think it helps prevent TACs or some shit? If so, maybe on vees or ASF if it can even be fitted to them. I remember reading the rules and going "lolno" to that for 'Mechs though.

Last but not least is the one that halves damage from physicals. Great for Solaris, questionable if not useless everywhere else.

>>54079979
>>54080336
Why is reflective bad? I'm surprised there isn't a larger group of clanbuster or clan mechs that have it, given the clans superior energy weapons and disdain for melee.

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>>54074411
>You can probably start playing right now for the cost of whatever printer toner and paper you need to get started. So much of the stuff is already available to be pirated, and miniatures are a suggestion, not a requirement.

...but let's say that you want to play the normal, expected game at the LGS. You'll likely need
-Rulebook (~40$, not sure of new BMM's price)
-Hexmaps (~30$ for a good-sized Hexmap Compilation. Compilation 1 is best. There are cheaper options by buying PDF maps from the CGL website, but then you have maps that look like they were printed and scotch-taped together with a shitty at-home printer.)
-Record sheets (Most folks still use Solaris Skunkwerks for mechs. You can also buy PDF record sheets from Catalyst. If you do, be CERTAIN to buy the more expensive "Unabridged" series. Twice the price for like... five times the content. Record sheets sold in packs that correlate with TRO books by year. You can't one-at-a-time things unless you're doing MML/Skunkwerks).
-Miniatures: Most matches are between 3-8 units per side. Max is 15 per side. Average price for minis is about $25 for 4 in alpha strike plastic lance packs, or $13/mini if you buy single pewters.

The introbox gives you everything you need for home games, though most people treat it as a $60 for 24 mechs lancepack. It's also OOP and therefore getting scalped for stupid amounts online. It won't fully equip you for any-era matches at the LGS

>>54077629
Agreed, but mainly because I think it's killing book sales.
Why by product when you can wiki your high-mount obscure mech to spam the MWO forums to get added to the game?

>>54080682
>Hexmaps (~30$ for a good-sized Hexmap Compilation. Compilation 1 is best. There are cheaper options by buying PDF maps from the CGL website, but then you have maps that look like they were printed and scotch-taped together with a shitty at-home printer.)

CGL's complete inability (from incompetence, I'm sure) to get new hexmaps printed is absolutely mind-numbing. As a failure of a company's mission, it ranks JUST behind their inability to keep the Intro Box in something resembling print.

I know the excuse is, "but we can't get more art!" That's bullshit. Reuse art from prior maps, for fucks sake. How fucking hard is it to port over "hill" art, or two kinds of "forest" art from maps that were printed 30 years ago?

>>54080934
They did that with their fancy map pack sets. They just happened to sell like crap because you can usually pick up a bundle of old maps for way cheaper and all the big boys use their own modular ones whether it's Heroclix or a wet erase chessix mat. Plus the fact that all the standard series maps can just be pulled from megamek and printed on a piece of cardstock for a dollar.

Don't get me wrong. I loved the high quality thick maps that came in the 25th anniversary sets, but I'll never pay $30 for just two maps and some counters like the plain map packs were no matter how interesting the counters are.

>>54079845
Could work.

>>54079951
You do know there were Mad Max movies way before Fury Road, right?

>>54080934
I think someone last thread had mentioned that the hexmaps were just too expensive to produce. I agree, though, that we need more.

As for the intro box I think they produce a set number for a couple of years and then put out a new one. So it being out of stock is possibly and intentional thing.

Not to say CGL hasn't done some truly incompetent shit.

>>54080336
>Anti-Penetration I don't know much about. I think it helps prevent TACs or some shit? If so, maybe on vees or ASF if it can even be fitted to them. I remember reading the rules and going "lolno" to that for 'Mechs though.

For ground vehicles hardened is still probably better if you can make the weight for it, since it gives the same anit-crit bonus and they don't suffer MP loss. VTOLs and aerospace can't use it though, so APA can be handy for them.

Hey, for one of the official guys here like Xotl. Can we get an official ruling on doubling up the the RISC Laser Pulse Module with the RISC Hyper Laser? The rules seem to indicate that you treat the Hyper Laser like a standard laser, and there's no reason not to strap the pulse to it for an extra ton since it explodes on the same rolls anyway.

>>54079951
>Making references to shit movies isn't something to be proud of or to emulate. There's nothing redeemable about Mad Max and nothing worth emulating. Casting Tom "Can't act" Hardy in the lead role saw to that.

>Thinking art from the 1980s is referencing a 2016 movie
The ORIGINAL "Mad Max" movies, from 1979 and 1981. The ones where everything was imploding in a post-apocalyptic nightmare, like the Succession Wars were for the Inner Sphere?

>>54074509
What's the reason he is doing that ? Because if the right hand is still operational that's really stupid way to hit someone to the face.

>>54082292
The left arm got zorched by a 'Mech-taser, and maybe he figured he might as well get *some* use out of it.
(But then again, this is a man who knowingly fell in love with an enemy pilot: Shiro's long on decency, but he ain't exactly a genius.)

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>>54080934
>I know the excuse is, "but we can't get more art!" That's bullshit. Reuse art from prior maps, for fucks sake. How fucking hard is it to port over "hill" art, or two kinds of "forest" art from maps that were printed 30 years ago?
Shit, I've hand-painted mats that were better than some of the stuff from FASA and I'm not even an artist. It's not like (say) Battlemaster Battlemaps isn't out there >right fucking now< making a new 4x4 mapset-equivalent every couple of months or anything. Nossir.

I mean, with Catalyst's current record paying freelancers, any self-respecting artist is gonna demand 20-30% up-front. That might be a barrier for the poorfags busy trying to license yet another goddamned worthless property to make into a fucking card game or shitty 1990s-level bard game (WOO WE GET SPELLFIRE 2.0. WHAT THE FUCK IS NEXT, BATTLE CATTLE?), but not to any respectable company.

>>54081026
>I think someone last thread had mentioned that the hexmaps were just too expensive to produce. I agree, though, that we need more.
It's not so much that they were too expensive to make, it's that sales crashed compared to their outlay (which is why there are still copies of the more recent two still unsold). The overhead on the boardgames is pretty high, but if they'd printed more conservatively and had any idea where to go next I think the series would be in a lot better shape.


>>54082292
>>54082517
This. Shiro's a decent guy and a Hell of a pilot, but he's a massive fucking liability. He's the sort of person who would - and should - have washed out in boot if over 30% of the Human race hadn't died in the space of the last six months or so.

>>54080495

Reflective takes double damage from physical attacks, falling, and AoE. I think AP ammo fucks it up too.

I don't think the benefits outweigh the disadvantages, YMMV.

>>54082292
I mean, using your arm as a club does give you more force behind your hits and also greatens your reach.

But in the end, it really is done to look cool (and it succeeds 100%).

>>54081026
>I think someone last thread had mentioned that the hexmaps were just too expensive to produce. I agree, though, that we need more.

Yeah, I think the main issue is that while Catalyst says that the maps are too expensive to produce, the biggest issue is that they keep printing the same ones. Mapsheets don't wear out that quickly, and although I think the wizkids printrun was vastly clearer and better to use than the older fasa maps I picked up second hand (Never leave undefined hexes that need to be arbitrated in a game played as 1v1), those FASA maps didn't need to be replaced, either. The maps I have from some guy who probably bought them while I was still in the womb are still just as good today.
They need to fucking make new maps, especially now that BMM is including Jungle Hexes, TacOps rules are becoming the new norm, and so many are jumping ship to minis rules because the hexes are getting stale to them. Hell, even reprinting them on hard cardboard didn't do us all that much good since those cardboard tokens end up hiding whatever's underneath...

>As for the intro box I think they produce a set number for a couple of years and then put out a new one. So it being out of stock is possibly and intentional thing.

I think you're right, it's an economy-of-scale thing. Tooling up a factory to make those minis costs a fair chunk of money, so they want to be sure they do a big number of them at once, let those sell out, and then do another big batch again.

The issue I've been seeing is that once that sold-out point happens, it takes them forever and a day to get the ball rolling on producing those new boxed sets - to the point that there are scalpers and pricebots selling them for Forge World Titan prices. It'd probably be cheaper to simply buy the starterbox roster in pewter at this point.

>>54073724
I'm late for the party with this reply, but I greatly enjoy the internal workings of the game. The figuring out of what exactly the object I've been handled is, what are its applications, and how can it match the situation they find themselves in. Like matching blocks of non-euclidian geometry into ever-mutating holes on a puzzle box.

>>54082292
Oh he was in full panic mode at that point if I remember correctly. Like the other anon said, powered down in a combat zone with an enemy ace, just spastically jammed a fuse into place to get things going again, out of beam sabers, fuck it why not?

Oh and those tubs you always see on zeonic ms faces are one of the main heat sinks for who knows what reason.

>>54082517
And yelling it over comms won him that battle no less.

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>>54073946
>dodging projectiles
Battletech, like a lot of minis games, is thematically very similar to World War II themed games. Although mechs are the highest technology available, it often feels like you're firing through iron sights with the short ranges and reduced accuracy.

So while you're not flash-stepping your way out of a PPC burst, running at top speed and into tree cover is likely to give you a good bit of protection compared to "Modern style" games where range is effectively infinite and missing at 2 kilometers away is (supposedly) unheard of.

As for the clunky tank aesthetic, that's been popularised largely in part to the Virtualworld pods and later Mechwarrior PC games, which due to technical limitations really did operate more or less like a tank, but western audiences actually preferred it that way. Usually though, novels tend to feel a lot like an old Dougram episode or Front mission game (Less the rollerblading), though there is way more damage absorption before either side kicks the bucket.

>>54081694
Did you check the OF? You're not getting an official ruling from somewhere not, y'know, official.

>>54081694
>>54085704

Anon is right: if you want an official ruling, throw it up on the OF's Supplementary Rules forum and we'll tackle it.

update!

https://community.battletechgame.com/forums/threads/8812/comments/164229

>>54085704
This.
For all it's faults, a ruling from TPTB on the OF is going to be a fuckton more trustworthy than any anon on 4chan.

Just don't hang around once you're done.

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>>54085729
It's the fanfic guy again. Don't follow the link. It's not patch notes.

>>54085960
I'm just waiting for him to add My Little Pony, Danny Phantom, Sonichu or Shadow the Hedgehog to show he really is messing around.
>Sanic is fast, but can he jump 240 meters like an Ostscout? Let's find out and see!

new thread; no fanfiction
>>54086010

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>>54085960