Battletech/Mechwarrior/ATOW

[hexed musk]

But I really start to question what a mech is bringing to the table once it gets in the high 40's in points before pilot skill.

[jaunty rain]

today's annoyance: pushback over the idea of using d12s instead of 2d6 in alpha strike

AS is seemingly full of linear costing despite the 2d6 curve so it's not like there's an elaborate and clever reason for the game to force me to use a tackle box full of 2d6 pairs

other stuff ought to be changed unless you, say, continued to use 2d6 to resolve crits, but in reality the only reason why people feel this way is because alpha strike is already trying very hard not to annoy anyone whose breadth of wargame experience is at most playing a GW game on top of CBT

[upper warren]

Not trying to annoy players is not a great position to be in marketing wise

[rugged citrus]

So after a bunch of talk about medium lasers being the 'most efficient' weapon (if you ignore every other consideration), a friend of mine made... this. I'm sharing this horror here.

I keep laughing when I look at it. I hate this 'optimal mech' so much.

[jaunty rain]

fast for an 80-tonner.

in terms of damage output per cost, CPLs are the most cost-efficient weapons i think

accuracy bonuses are undercosted

[wet nova]

I mean, the real 'most efficient' weapon would be small laser

1 heat, 3 damage, can't beat that ratio

which mean charger is already kinda in the right direction, it just needs more

[rugged citrus]

Apparently the huge engine was to cram in more heat sinks.

And then she took lasers out of the side torsos/arms to put them in the legs. And two in the head.

[wet nova]

leg laser

now that's cursed

[earnest copper]

Is that... 18 Mlasers

You've made the perfect warmachine

The only change I'd want to see is so I can alpha all of them every turn. Make it a 100 tons if you gotta.

Let me press the big red button

[wet nova]

it's only 54 heat

it can't be that bad for your mech

[upper warren]

circuitous tactical nuclear bomb

[rugged citrus]

The small cockpit to fit in an extra MLas too.

[cloud otter]

I'm gonna argue that the range really does matter here

but it is of course otherwise a very silly debate

[supple jetty]

I heard someone say micro pulse

[wet nova]

oh that would definitely improve small laser build

since micro pulse is just plain superior to small laser, as expected of clan bullshittery

[hexed musk]

Pilot this mech to die instantly

[hexed musk]

It is Hunchback hours

I want to paint the guncasing white but I also am terrified I'll fuck it up

Cause right now the shading on the gun is mmmmmm nice

I'm glad to be getting this guy done though, I have my first classic game on Friday and I want a mech who's shooting phase is done quick.

[upper warren]

I super don't recommend fighting at night during a tornado

1 hex runs and stupid high to hit mods

[jaunty rain]

lol

[upper warren]

Got a puma out of it tho

And some tanks

[copper wind]

as cool as they are in theory it's very sad that weather effects mostly just make the game awful to play

[upper warren]

Instant death on eject? Yes. No missiles? Yes. Making pilot checks even harder? Yes. Just awful

[hexed musk]

I mean in real life most weather conditions just make soldier's lives worse too

[upper warren]

It definitely was one of the worst games I've played hahaha. Last unit was on opposite side of map with a destroyed ankle spinning around. Had to force a victory

[hexed musk]

Ok but what made people brave enough to square up in an active tornado

[upper warren]

I would reason that if your goal is to do as much collateral to a civilian base, shooting at buildings while a tornado is ripping through the area might help adding to the collateral. Otherwise, no clue

[hexed musk]

Valid but like
You're also in the tornado

[earnest copper]

Let me refer you to the documentary song, Riders on the Storm. In this video essay...

[upper warren]

LMAO

[hexed musk]

wheeze

[copper wind]

in a battletech letsplay I followed there was a scenario set in a hurricane because they were trying to kill grounded aerospace fighters

was a cool premise. I think all the weather just translated to +1 on rolls while the vast majority of pilots on the field were 3/4 or better

[cloud otter]

Light weather can be fun, heavy weather being oppressive pretty much means 'don't do this' and that's... effective and sucks lmao

[hexed musk]

Switching tornado or hurricane behavior to be like a "+1 to rolls" for a minor malus and then a wacky rider like "take a crit roll on any armorless part" to represent flying debris striking internals could have been funny.

[upper warren]

Makes fast melee mechs really good tho. If everything is wiffing off you then it'd be easy enough to carve them up. It'd be the only reliable attacks. The speed penalty tho was atrocious. 1 hex move. Last time I bring heavys to a hurricane

[earnest copper]

Bringing a full lance of hatchetmen and mantis...mantises? Mantii?

[upper warren]

Mantisesii

I'm almost sure

(JK)

[earnest copper]

Yeah, mantisestii sounds completely right to me.

I think that's the periphery pronunciation

[rugged citrus]

Reminds me of the time in your campaign when I ran into a bunch of very basic combat vehicles and modded cattlemasters barely managing to trudge through a typhoon+flood.

Ended up telling them for a lot of reasons (including needing to fish some people out of the water) "hey, I'll pretend I didn't see anything, please go home".

Sometimes it's not mechfight weather.

[upper warren]

Perphery March education be like...

[upper warren]

Even the ultimate combat vehicle needs to take a quick holiday when the weather sucks

[upper warren]

[earnest copper]

Now, i am unfamiliar with the tabletop rules mostly... Is life support important? For the pilot?

Surely life support is optional

[upper warren]

They can hold their breath

[wet nova]

life support is only important if you are fighting in place inhabitable to human life

like vacuum

and underwater

[supple jetty]

or in hostile environments

[wet nova]

tornado

[upper warren]

Today is clear with light showers so the open canopy will give the pilot a nice scenic view between dry heaving fits from the PPC blast

[cloud otter]

not entirely true

without life support you start eating wounds if your heat ever goes beyond a few

[wet nova]

I mean, being boiled is pretty inhabitable

[cloud otter]

(uninhabitable)

Yeah, just wanted to clarify.

[wet nova]

english what the fuck

so inhabitable and habitable mean the same thing?

what the heck is the in- for???

[cloud otter]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8mD2hsxrhQ

[supple jetty]

root word is inhabit

you can inhabit this area

[wet nova]

ah

[upper warren]

Anyone know this dude's name?

[short rose]

Coud be a Hunchie of some kind?

[quartz jasper]

That’s a taurian elemental I think

Or uh

…are IS elementals still called that?

Well either way Im 90% sure that’s taurian… battle armour? Is that what they’re called?

[earnest copper]

That scale would make sense with the grass

[upper warren]

Would it be a protomech?

[short rose]

They are caled Battle Armour or BA, not to be confused with Power Armour (Light) or PA(L) and no one but like the ComStar, there related groups and disguised clanners (wolfs dragoons and The minasotians) relay use them and the second group use the far less

[supple jetty]

IS doesn't field protomechs

it's one of the taurian trinity battle armor suits

specifically the asterion variant on the right

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/a/a2/Asterion_TacOps.jpg?timestamp=20200818013635

[upper warren]

God damn those BA slap

[quartz jasper]

Yeah taurian designs are pretty uniformly rad as hell

It’s a real shame they’re some of the worst governments in the inner sphere

[jaunty rain]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/880527513879740466/1174088041091043428/hassanchop.png
From Deadborder on the battletech server.

[wet nova]

you could even just kinda imagine it spinning out of control as its rotor snapped, crashed into the ground, and then fucking exploded, killing all onboard

[upper warren]

That's some black hawk down stuff right there

Imagine if it was stacked on an enemy tank or something

I can't for the life of me understand why they put a table of generic lance/company/battalion/regiment elements in Campaign Operations instead of Interstellar ops battleforce

Like... It would make a million times more sense to put those tables in the book they are meant to be used in

[hexed musk]

First game of classic! Was going pretty well and then my warhammer ate 2 gyro hits and my hunchie blew up

[wet nova]

yup, that's battletech

[hexed musk]

Real good bit of fun though, and I beat that guy when we last played AS so I'm not mad

[upper warren]

BT is so funny bc you can spend turns just wiffing but then out of the blue is an engine crit or a head shot. Just all of a sudden, boom.

Like all that armor and luck will make it useless

[wet nova]

battlemech are the ultimate accumulation of all human knowledge condensed into the humanoid form, for better or worse

worse because sometimes people just take a hit at wrong place and then fucking die

[upper warren]

Question about OV in Alpha Strike, if the value is 0 (zero) then you can't overheat for extra damage (bc the unit lacks a value other than '0')

[jaunty rain]

yeah.

[upper warren]

Alrighty ty

[jaunty rain]

OV is fairly swingy because OV2, for example, means that you can overheat 2 for 2 more damage.

[hexed musk]

Real G's drive OV4 machines and always overcharge for max

[jaunty rain]

By Will9761 on the Star League server: The UrbanSheriff
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/883133868092301343/1174891485599121518/F0KdANBWwAEInfp.png

[upper warren]

You can cool down when that OpFor is good and dead lol

[hexed musk]

Direwolves, Novas, and Novacats were made for god's sleepiest boys

Shoot, take a nap, repeat

[upper warren]

In a single turn, no unit may receive more than 2 points of heat from attacks made using this special ability.

booooo!!!!

[jaunty rain]

Stood in for a guy playing as a Flashman pilot in a mercenary company. Got his Flashman down to 4 internal structure in the torso. 😌

But also we killed the assassination target.

[upper warren]

Noice

[upper warren]

I had no idea that TMM is applied even if the mech only moved 1 inch. I thought it was like the Quick Start and was based on 4 inch move increments

I also didn't realize that if you move under 1 inch you are still stationary

God that makes high TMM units really good

[hexed musk]

I thought it was 2 inches but thats splitting hairs

JMPW is an absurd trait for that reason, even a lil bunny hop makes units with that get 3~5 TMM really easily

There's a Saggitaire variant that gets TMM 3 on the jump as a 95 ton monster

Or the Gargoyle J that gets TMM 4 on a mech that deals 6/6/0 OV2

[jaunty rain]

the jump modifier is contentious to me too. i feel like you should overheat if you jump and shoot, with a +1 to your shooting

instead of the jump modifier being +2 but no overheat interaction

[hexed musk]

It's probably a little too good from experience

Small upside is that my beloved PHX-1 is actually usable lmao

[upper warren]

I'm starting to see how many mechanics they sacrificed to speed up play.

I just figured out how to apply Fog of War to TTS and now I'm thinking of all the ways you can play blind now

Suddenly that 48' range isn't so hot unless you get a spotter

[hexed musk]

There's a lot of optional FoW rules that I admittedly have no idea how they play

[upper warren]

I think even just having the option applied skews enough of the mechanics, but I also havent read through the FoW rules. BF and BFS want to use blip counters which has a bunch of mechanics tied into it

[hexed musk]

Having blips and FoW does make scouts more valuable than before too - though I've found good use of scouts in even the most vanilla deathmatch games to be well worth their cost

Any shots going at my 15 point stinger rather than my 60 point 2 skill Mad Dog is points value earned

[jaunty rain]

fog of war is cool but it's a nightmare optional rule even in classic

obviously in megamek it's fine because a computer is doing everything

[upper warren]

Damn, got cancelled on

[jaunty rain]

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/jagpanzer

[supple jetty]

hezhezhez

[jaunty rain]

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/rebel-anti-air-tank i like the partizan as well

[quartz jasper]

this looks too normal for a hetzer tbh

the hetzer is a criminal beast

[supple jetty]

yeah there isn't enough of a "lurks in alleyways" vibe to it

[hexed musk]

awwww mech fall down go boom

[jaunty rain]

Iron Wind Metals Black Friday Sale:

Hey everyone! I'm excited to announce the Iron Wind Metals black friday sale! Starting today, Monday 11/20 thru Monday 11/27, you can use code IWMBF23 to get 20% off any order $100 or more and save on all your holiday needs! The only exception is on resin products! - Zach

https://x.com/ironwindmetals/status/1726630689758650745?s=46&t=bD-qSsFE-4a8-qC6X69oqw
Okay, that's a good discount. 👀

They still won't compete with the plastics on cost, but the modern sculpts seem pretty good...

[hexed musk]

God the old sculpts are scrungly little boys

[jaunty rain]

some of them have absolutely horrendous kit engineering. The Mad Cat Mk. IV has a solid metal torso (you'd have to saw it to make it torso-twist) and 4 spindly limbs that all need to be pinned.

[hexed musk]

Holy shit

Also these dudes
I can't get over them

[jaunty rain]

lmao

rejected Tron rendering

in IWM's defense, some of them look like shit because they're pretty literal reconstructions of battletech's artwork, which (for much of its history) has been bad

[hexed musk]

That's exactly how I'd describe him
Yeah true

The modern lineart is such a glowup

[jaunty rain]

mhm.

[hexed musk]

My new favorite game is to show my girlfriend the new mechs and then their older renditions
The kraken/bane is perfect for this

[jaunty rain]

god the kraken

completely fucking incoherent drawing

[hexed musk]

This vs.

[jaunty rain]

asymmetric arms with symmetric loadouts

[jaunty rain]

look at the LEGS

[supple jetty]

augh

[quartz jasper]

he steppin tho

[supple jetty]

new shadow hawk vs old shadow hawk:

[hexed musk]

The unseen debacle and its rippling effects are so interesting to me.
Minor effect is how the catapult is the depicted IS missile boat despite being a in-lore rare design

Whereas the Archer's a dime a dozen canonnically but has only recently shown back up in the game due to the legal issues

[supple jetty]

ok but alternatively:

[hexed musk]

Ack
I'm replaying BT2018 and I'm getting sandblasted by those fuckers there don't jumpscare me like that

[jaunty rain]

honestly the catapult is way more interesting-looking than the archer

[quartz jasper]

The catapult is more interesting, yeah

I don't mind the archer though

[hexed musk]

I like the archer 😦

[upper warren]

The LRM and SRM carriers straight up ruined my carrier saves. All my hard work cored with swarms of srms

[hexed musk]

I had a vulcan last night survive 2 point blank srm carrier salvos and I was beyond amazed

[upper warren]

Give that pilot a raise! And new jumpsuit

[upper warren]

SBF isn't so bad, so much front loading of work tho with Lance+Company+Battalion composition. I'm glad CampOp has the generic forces table

It starts getting weird when you get into Unit damage tho

[upper warren]

Do any of you know about form fillable BF, SBF, ACS sheets?

[rugged citrus]

Initiative phase of this fight going great

[rugged citrus]

We're represented by the Marauder here.

Burned some rerolls on that disaster.

[upper warren]

lol

[vapid gale]

sometimes you just gotta hold the L and lose the initiative

[cloud otter]

Eh, strategic map shenanigans meant the advantage was ours by so much that it was worth burning 2 points out of our 8 Lucky.

[upper warren]

Archer and Bombardier really have the same look

[hexed musk]

Oh no kidding

It's an archer that ran into a wall

[jaunty rain]

god.

[upper warren]

The accordion legs make me laugh

Is it a precursor to the archer?

[jaunty rain]

the funny thing about accordion joints is that it's ultimately the Less Cool version of the "joint covers" that everyone does now

https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/sf1208139215e7b63/image/i1a0c74210942eb11/version/1470822154/image.jpg of course, real robot covers look pretty stupid too

[upper warren]

Looks like something from fear and hunger

[hexed musk]

Bad robots get stuck in the trash bag

[jaunty rain]

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/File:Manticore_silhouette.png what the fuck is happening.

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/0/09/Manticore_RGilClan_v31.jpg?timestamp=20230408010836 thankfully they unfucked it.

[hexed musk]

IDK why but that gives me horrer "sketch of la creatura" vibes
I can't put my fucking finger on it but it unnerves me

[jaunty rain]

imagine a driver having to lean over 90 degrees into the hull's shelf

[upper warren]

That is the most silhouette

[upper warren]

God damn I just built a whole ass combat unit from scratch. 3 companies worth of mechs and stats

All the friggin averaging and division

[hexed musk]

How i learned to stop worrying and love irregular play areas

[hexed musk]

We played 3 zone objective control, 10 rounds, 500 points ilclan era. A full company of the Terracotta Reavers Mercenary company engaged 2 stars of an unknown clan to take control of an abandoned ComStar fortification.

At the end of round 10 there was 4 mechs left, points were tied and it came down to total size of mechs destroyed - Clans won with 24 size worth of scrapped mech to 21 lost of their own.

[upper warren]

Got dam!

[upper warren]

https://jdgwf.github.io/battletech-tools/alpha-strike/roster/

Oooo

[hexed musk]

Oh sick
I just have an excel spreadsheet coded to autocost upgraded pilots

[upper warren]

Built like a house

[upper warren]

"Too Bold By Far" set up and ready

[upper warren]

It is a shame I am far too inept to import models into tts. No hatchmens or axmens in the asset bundles but I see a lot of obj files for 3d printing : (

[safe abyss]

Oh that's quite sad

Could probably rip some from Mechwarrior games though

[upper warren]

I tried to learn blender to create importable models into TTS but blender is pretty advanced for me right now and I couldn't get it to work. Lots of learning I'll need to do or I'll need someone to specifically walk me through a root process

[upper warren]

Alright Lads, once more, with feeling

[upper warren]

I think 12v12 is just wayyyyy too long, even with objectives, took us 2 hour just to get to round 4

We had to pause bc it was so late

8" is soooo sloooow for movement and damn we were missing a lot

[hexed musk]

Yeah 12 v 12 is going to take the same time as a classic game

I think the one I posted may have been 4 hours for 10 rounds. What skills were the pilots?

[copper wind]

yeah I wouldn't want to do big battles outside of megamek

[hexed musk]

AS is the game intended to be played with big battles and it is doable imo

With maps with plenty of cover rounds 1 thru 3 are mostly long range skirmishing, which doesn't take too long. Once everyone's in the brawl rounds will take some time. Once teams have been thinned down it speeds up again in my experience

[upper warren]

4->2

I think games might need to be scaled down or if 12v12 lean towards lights and mediums

[hexed musk]

I personally prefer 8v8's rather than the 12v12 I played

I find skill 4 pilots nearly useless in any fight beyond point blank

[upper warren]

I would rather have fewer machines that hit more often than more machines that hit less often. My luck is just, very bad.

And yeah I think I'll be scaling down encounters and upping skill to compensate

[hexed musk]

The Direct Fire Lance also is huge for sniper teams, getting to half range differences is a big deal.

[upper warren]

Yeah frfrfr!

[wet nova]

oh neat, looks likes we are getting more Recognition Guide

the teaser also said something about 'new new' stuff, so it might be implying that we might be seeing new technology!

might also be 100% post dark age units, the third Star League stuff or whatever

[upper warren]

Oh sweet! I might actually get back up to date on BT

[upper warren]

God damn Wolf's Dragoons got the shit kicked out of them

ilClan era is brutal

[wet nova]

oh yeah, that happened

[upper warren]

30 pieces of silver. Jfc, Alric, buddy what are you thinking

[earnest copper]

My sibling printed me a buncha mechs for Xmas!

Don't talk to me or my son

[upper warren]

Hell yes

[hexed musk]

oh yeah baby hellspawn representation

I know nothing about him except he showed up in MW4 as the first medium you salvage and I've never seen him in a game since

[upper warren]

Fr. The mf carried me for a long time

[hexed musk]

As a kid I was mad because the frame only has one slot sized hardpoints in MW:4V but when I replayed this summer I realized the error of my childhood ways

That mech can carry a lot of SRMs and medium lasers

[upper warren]

Streaks ftw 💪

[steep flame]

Created in 3141 by engineers at the Republic Institute of Strategic Combat as a possible platform for the experimental RISC Hyper Laser, the HBK-8XR is a fairly modest refit of a standard KaliYama HBK-4G. Chosen both for its robust and proven chassis, as well as its MechWarriors' traditional disregard for safety measures, the HBK-8XR replaces the KaliYama Big Bore AC/20 with a RISC Hyper Laser and upgrades the standard Lasers to equivalent X-Pulse Lasers. Due to the massive heat generation of the new weapons, the engine is upgraded to a Double Heat Sink model and a total of 17 Double Heat Sinks are mounted. While safety enhancements have traditionally been eschewed by Hunchback pilots, the volatility of the RISC Hyper Laser compromosing two prior testbeds led to the use of CASE II. However, the entire Hyper Laser project was cancelled shortly after the HBK-8XR itself was completed. Since then, the whereabouts of the lone functional HBK-8XR are unknown.

Behold, a ProtoMech
But probably cheaper, better armed, and doesn't require you to burn out your central nervous system

Designed as an ultra-light scout cavalry 'Mech in hopes of a large contract with the Capellan Confederation, the Earwig makes extensive use of weight-saving technology to achieve both high speed and firepower that would be respectable in a 'Mech twice its weight. With a top speed of 162 km/h, very few 'Mechs could keep up with it and the tiny Earwig prove a difficult target, a defense it would need as its two and a half tons of Paulina Light Ferro-Fibrous armor struggled to protect its lightweight Endo-Composite structure. Offensively, the Earwig is armed with a pair of Martell Medium Lasers and a Martell ER Small Laser. Plans were also made for a model (EWG-3L) emphasizing the scouting aspect of its role by trading a Medium Laser and the ER Small Laser for a Beagle Active Probe. Ultimately, sales of the Earwig were limited due to tepid interest in ultralight BattleMechs outside of special uses where terrain or environtal concerns made the use of heavier 'Mechs unsafe, as well as few MechWarrriors being willing to put up with its cramped Small Cockpit whilst having so little protection.

Commissioned in 3120 by a pirate lord somewhere in the Tortuga Dominion and soon copied by other pirate bands, the Amazing was built to resemble an Awesome AWS-8Q as closely as possible (though the many are adorned with various "intimidating" additions, such as gratuitous spikes) for as little cost as possible. Much like SecurityMechs like the Arbiter had been meant to intimidate pirates, the Amazing would be meant to intimidate defense forces into surrendering and bolster the morale of pirate forces and even have enough firepower to make an example of any scalywags who broke ranks. While limited by the industry available at what passes for Pirate MechWorks like Vengeance Incorporated to IndustrialMech standards of structure and armor, the Amazing uses a 240-rated fusion engine when possible, giving it the same speed as a standard Awesome. However, several examples particularly from the Rim Territories have been documented with a 160-rated fission engine, downgrading its speed to a plodding 32 km/h. Regardless of origin, the Amazing is consistently armed with three heavy rifles of crude make, shrouded to resemble PPCs and supplied with six tons of ammunition. Pirates of greater means have been known to employ bright blue-white tracers to try to keep up the ruse that the Amazing is actually a mighty Awesome. In the place of the small laser commonly found on an Awesome, the Amazing carries a machine gun. While the original was protected by 15 tons of heavy industrial armor, most examples instead use standard industrial armor.

Beginning design in 3032 shortly after the Free Worlds League gained access to the Helm Memory Core, Irian designers sought to create an all-energy weapon version of the Stalker, though the project only bore fruit in 3050. Built around a pair of Binary Laser Cannons that take the place of both the Large Lasers and LRMs on the 3F, the STK-4M packs tremendous long-range firepower. Backing these up in close-quarters combat are six Diverse Optics Type 20P Medium Pulse Lasers in the place of the SRMs and standard Medium Lasers used on the 3F. As a result, the STK-4M packs an enormous ammunition-independent punch, while 21 Double Heat Sinks barely fit into its chassis with the help of a Compact Gyro manage to keep it cooler than the 3F. Even with all this, the weight savings from the all-energy loadout allow the STK-4M to increase its protection to 15 tons of armor. The STK-4M project also yielded a variant for Stalkers that have been downgraded to the STK-4P standard by continual use. The 75-ton STK-4PM deletes a Double Heat Sink, reduces the armor to 13 tons, and replaces the left Binary Laser Cannon with a standard Large Laser and Medium Laser.

Unfortunately, by the time the STK-4M was complete, it was generally considered technologically obsolete as the Binary Laser Cannons were eclipsed by more efficient ER Large Lasers and Large Pulse Lasers and only a short run of 30 units was completed before resources were re-allocated to the STK-5M.

Ordered as an Assault-class companion to the new Quasimodo, the STK-9M builds on a design branch started by the STK-4M in 3032 and continued by the Variable-Speed Pulse Laser-armed STK-7M in 3074. However, only a prototype of the 7M was built before the 3079 dissolution of the FWL and ran dangerously hot. Using 24 Clan-spec Double Heat Sinks and a Composite structure to save precious space, the STK-9M is finally able to achieve an all-energy weapon design that simultaneuously almost completely resolves the long-running heat management woes of the Stalker series. Armed with two Large VSP Lasers and four Medium VSP Lasers, the STK-9M is capable of incredible damage at close range and still manages respectable damage at medium range. In part to compensate for the frailty of the Composite Structure, the STK-9M carries sixteen and a half tons of armor.

I'm particularly fond of the STK-4M.
I like a chance to use Binary Laser Cannons

[wet nova]

oh look it's Flashman and Urbie

[earnest copper]

Yeah! I hadn't seen the flashman before, had to look it up! Looking forward to painting these things

[indigo hinge]

https://vxtwitter.com/catalystgamelab/status/1736461308734677032?s=46&t=3NBsRHkxye8ClDog7lFx8A

[hexed musk]

This is my punishment for having a pile of shame still
My gf will not let me even dream of buying more robits rn

[jaunty rain]

paint those mechs!

[hexed musk]

Working on it....

[indigo hinge]

Careful though, I think I'll stick to my local store.

[junior zodiac]

Is there a type of battletech game for high level strategy? Planetary Scale i suppose.

[jaunty rain]

StratOps exists, but the I offer the standard caveat that it's adding even more rules to classic battletech.

[junior zodiac]

mm. I don't think i want to simulate the actual fights at all.

i will ponder this further

Seems Interstellar Operations works well without needing to do the mech fights on a granular sclae

[jaunty rain]

ah, nice.

[upper warren]

I think it's called Interstellar Ops Battleforce. It covers Battleforce (companies), Strategic Battleforce (battalions), Abstract Combat System (regiments), and Inner Sphere at War (grand strategy).

I think abstract is when you start using planetary sized maps

[supple jetty]

https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/heartbreaking-warhammer-player-killed-in-tragic-pile-of-shame-collapse/

[hexed musk]

Another lost soldier

I actually made progress on it last night though so feeling good

[indigo hinge]

Starting work on some BT minis, because why not make my own models instead of hunting down designs I dig?

[upper warren]

Sick!!!!

[indigo hinge]

Thanks. I planned on just getting some basic shapes blocked in first, but somehow I always find myself sucked into the black hole of detailing.

[indigo hinge]

"I'm gonna block out everything first, then detail later."
Me two hours later:

[upper warren]

It's looking good at least

[indigo hinge]

Cheers. Now for the limbs, and of course the main selling point.

[upper warren]

Idk what it is about your design but it's making me miss HAWKEN lol

[indigo hinge]

Hadn't heard of that, but that looks sweet.

I'm following this drawing of the Hollander. A few liberties here and there, but it's coming out pretty close.

[upper warren]

Oh I really like that Hollander

[indigo hinge]

Idem. Besides, the idea of mounting a huge gun on a tiny little guy is hilarious to me.

So I figured I'd try it, but I can't be bothered to find a mini for it.

[brazen charm]

Question

I am looking at my starter set LCT-1V (from "a game of armored combat")

I see 4 total heat sinks in the legs

The sheet lists 10

Where

Where are the rest (are they in the engine?)

[earnest copper]

yeah, engines usually have a bunch built in IIRC

[brazen charm]

Hey is BT's setting grimdark?

Or like

One second

Where doth it lie

[hexed musk]

Solid Grim imo
Things turn out good sometimes but for the most part lasting accomplishment of peace is fleeting

[brazen charm]

Ah

Well, there is war in wargames

So i guess you gotta keep the pain train going somehow

[hexed musk]

Thats the crux of it
But like, good things do happen

Technological stagnation has been broken and humanity is advancing once again, really, truly evil factions like the Smoke Jaguars, Jade Falcons, and Word of Blake have been defeated by concerted effort, and there are places where peace has been achieved - the Rasaulhauge Dominon successfully and (mostly) peacefully integrated two disparate peoples into one successful unity

[upper warren]

The kinda of campaigns you can run might vary the tone as well. In a little corner of the inner sphere you might be helping a collective of planets defend themselves or legitimatize their right of self governance. Or be a pirate gang out to wreak the weak. I dig Battletech bc it's such a big place you can set stories in.

From Reddit lol

[shrewd plover]

Upside down bird

[summer mulch]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/832649952471285841/1189208721780379709/20231226_145940.jpg?ex=659d53ed&is=658adeed&hm=b20ccdf77abda7a1b705b471dfdde008b46dfba874eb8d495e82d14807989a39& someone posted this in another server and I don't recognize it, anyone able to assist?

Fucking adore it regardless

[indigo hinge]

I have the same one, lemme remember. Peregrine, I think?

Yes, that would be the Peregrine, or Horned Owl, depending on who you ask.

[wet nova]

for something that thick looking, it's a surprise that it's just a 25 tonner

oh wait it's 35 ton, nevermind

[hexed musk]

Man that's still a heafty looking light
Then again I just got a Puma and he's a boxy lil boy so lights can be deceptive

[quartz jasper]

I agree with damian, I think it’s solidly just grim

[marble peak]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1020563332891156510/1189027491306807326/PureRef_6pkL8Os51n.png

[summer mulch]

I looked it up and they seem cool as hell

[summer mulch]

That's what I thought too, having done research I love that "friend-shaped" is part of the lore

[upper warren]

Looks like a Kapool from Turn A Gundam. Also friend shaped (but watch out)

[indigo hinge]

The gundam vibe is what drew me to it, too.

Especially considering it comes in the same star as the Vapor Eagle.

[sterile sleet]

Oh wow a battletech thread

Yippie

[summer mulch]

oh sweet

[sterile sleet]

I’ve always wanted to play a battletech campaign

However it is the smallest nerd hobby where I live

[indigo hinge]

Same here. Though it honestly goes for any tabletop game around here. There's no real animo for anything. The fact that I found Battletech at a local store does bring a sliver of hope though.

[sterile sleet]

Hell yeah, I don’t live close enough to any big cities to find a group to play in

However I am thinking of biting the bullet and buying a few lances to rope my dnd friends into it

[indigo hinge]

That's a good call. I might try that. But I still don't see em often enough either.

I tried googling for a local community for Battletech. All I found was a planet with the same name in-universe. Not what I was expecting honestly.

[brazen charm]

Something that confuses me

Actually lemme check the rulebook again

Wait nvm

Yeah ok that makes more sense now

I thought the whole head counted as like

A cockpit

[sterile sleet]

I love the “realism” of battletech, wars are won by artillery and the sacred art of budgeting

[upper warren]

Lol

[sterile sleet]

All hail the urbie

[upper warren]

I have played a few games on table top simulator and it worked really well. It was an Alpha Strike module but I'm sure Classic would work just fine

Megamek as an honorable mention but I haven't had to patience for port forwarding.

[brazen charm]

Suddenly wondering why i didn't think abt this but

Eh

Is the wider battletech fandom like

Transphobic?

Idk I'm just worried abt that

From what i searched they seem alright

[sterile sleet]

Nope?

[brazen charm]

Yippee!

[sterile sleet]

Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met

[brazen charm]

Sorry for asking i just-

[sterile sleet]

Nah its cool

It does give off that vibe

[brazen charm]

I can see it

[quartz jasper]

Every group has bad elements, but the proportion in battletech is relatively low

In my experience the awful places signpost themselves very clearly, which makes them easy to avoid

[jaunty rain]

wargaming is kind of terrible on average but battletech has had a wave of more conscious inclusion stuff

and their Community Congtent Creators are generally decent which helped it stick

[sterile sleet]

Luv tex

[upper warren]

Babbletech

[sterile sleet]

GET THAT URBANMECH LANCE

[hexed musk]

Just had a turn in alpha strike where I made 12 7+ rolls
And only 2 succeeded 🫠

Someone's getting a "promotion" to a Hunchback 2C

[upper warren]

Lmao

[shrewd plover]

Vehicles out yet?

Not yet right?

[indigo hinge]

Don't think so.

[indigo hinge]

Working some more on my Hollander. Just the gauss rifle left to install.

[earnest copper]

Xposting from #1171221956775907408 for my trans rights urbie

[hexed musk]

This machine dumpsters terfs

[indigo hinge]

Finally knocking out the first half of my AGOAC box, now with a basing scheme I'm happy with.

[upper warren]

Y'all be making me want to air brush again

[indigo hinge]

And here's the Hollander design before posing.

[upper warren]

Long boi

[indigo hinge]

It's happy to see you.

[earnest copper]

is that an ac90 or are you just happy to see me

[upper warren]

Long Tom envy

[hexed musk]

I wanna boop the snoot shoot

[indigo hinge]

It's a gauss rifle.

[earnest copper]

haha, I figured it was something like that! It also isn't how calibers work so calling it an absurd autocannon varient isn't even a good joke on my part

[indigo hinge]

Heh. Nah, the Hollander was made just to fit light legs under a gauss rifle.

[upper warren]

Always surprised it wasn't envisioned as a quad light

[indigo hinge]

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/dutchman-mech-miniature

There it is all posed up.

[upper warren]

Good pose!

[indigo hinge]

Cheers! I tried to stay close to the artwork, and keep it as dynamic.

[sterile sleet]

how dare you!

Beloved king crab is beautiful the way it is

[steep flame]

Oh, I love the King Crab
But this does kill the King Crab

Still better than Kerensky's overgrown Orion (which is in turn just an overgrown Shadowhawk)

[summer mulch]

Is BT modern plastic especially bad or good for painting without primer?

[supple jetty]

in general you want to use primer

[indigo hinge]

It's PVC, IIRC. You definitely want to prime that.

But yeah, as a rule of thumb, there's no case where you shouldn't be priming.

[summer mulch]

That's what I always thought but I heard someone say you don't really need to prime Citadel plastic

[jaunty rain]

🤨

Like, if you want to do a gundam kit style job painting your miniatures, then maybe you don't have to prime because you're just gonna use an oil paint marker to create not-the-plastic colours. You're still going to want to seal unless you want it all to rub off the next time you touch it. But no company makes model kits that do well being painted all-over with acrylics and without primer.

Reaper Bones or whatever apparently come (or came?) primed. A lot of serious model-makers don't like their primer but that could possibly be what you are remembering.

[summer mulch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS4bOtXeKGI Definitely said Citadel. I was very skeptical but Goober seems to agree? Anyway it's not something I'm in a rush to try but I thought I'd ask.

[jaunty rain]

His test is on a GW model but the company origin of the polystyrene itself probably doesn't matter. It's also worth noting that the airbrushed Vallejo paint was resilient with or without primer or sealant, while his brush-ons - granted, given nowhere near as much time to dry - smeared off basically immediately.

Airbrushing in general has a lot of advantages over brush-painting when it's a viable option. I'm confident that's more important than the brand for the paint as well, but you can find anecdotes about particular paint lines and types of paint in the comments.

[upper warren]

With air brushing you really need to plan the sequence of painting you'll be doing bc of the pens reservoir. As well as the mix of water to paint.

I wouldn't do detail work unless you're good with masking

[hexed musk]

Played a classic game with my BiL, 3 vs. 3
All 3 of my mechs died from ammo explosions

[indigo hinge]

Sounds like you had a blast.

[hexed musk]

Pilots did at least. I did blow one of my oponent's mech's ammo
But he was wise and just and had case for his loyal pilots

[indigo hinge]

Sometimes you can't seem to miss, sometimes Fortuna seems to have pissed in your breakfast cereal.

Meanwhile, work on the Jupiter continues. Torso and back are finished up, now for the legs.

[upper warren]

I really like it

[indigo hinge]

Glad to hear that! Hopefully the client will be just as happy.

[prime spruce]

how do i make a list of battlemechs with equipment that i want?

[jaunty rain]

oh god, wish i could help. Megamek has some fairly robust search refinement options but I don't think it lets you search for equipment.

[hexed musk]

It's cursed and a half measure but if you're looking for things like CASE, MASC, TSM, certain amounts of LRM, Autocannons, etc, you could look for the alphastrike keywords in the master unit list and see what comes up

Since units do translate pretty 1 for 1 in their special kit. Doesn't work for specific guns or certain things like targeting computers or superchargers though.

[jaunty rain]

Oh, does it work for traits like that?

[indigo hinge]

There's a Battletech channel in another discord server I'm in. I usually throw a joke about said piece of equipment in there and watch a whole line of unkowning suggestions pop up in the replies.

[hexed musk]

Yeah on the master unit list under the Alpha Strike filter section you can search for what traits you want

[indigo hinge]

It's leg day. And who knows, I might throw in arm day as well after a choccy break.

[indigo hinge]

And I think that's the static pose done.

[jaunty rain]

nice.

[indigo hinge]

And she's all posed up and ready to be printed!

[indigo hinge]

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/iupiter-mech-miniature

Now up on Cults.

[prime spruce]

i just checked the kodiak

so good

[hexed musk]

Took a phoenix hawk with a targeting computer and pulse lasers to a classic game as an escort for my awesome.
Jeez, no wonder people get mad at the Warhawk C. That phx-3PL did not miss

[wet nova]

hahahaha yes

the only thing your mechwarrior need to worry about is spinal compression from all the jumping

[indigo hinge]

Had the same with a vapor eagle. That thing kept hitting while jumping around, and when he got the chance to stand still, he executed two 'mechs through the chest in one volley.

[hexed musk]

I probably won't bring it again unless I know my opponent is playing for keeps. For the same reason, I'm probably going to avoid bringing mechs that efficiently carry long range head choppers.

The 9Q awesome is my style of efficiency: 4 ppcs and the heatsinks to use them. I dont feel the need to cheese out my opponents by bringing the hellstar, which does the same thing with ERPPCs and can roll 4 times to decapitate its target

[hexed musk]

Speaking of Vapor Eagles, why is the mini so large lmao
This is the VE next to a crossbow and an Ebon Jaguar, both heavies

[jaunty rain]

typical fasa/catalyst, hitting randf() for the scale of their minis

[upper warren]

Lol

[hexed musk]

To be fair, the crossbow is 60 tons and the EB is 65, but I think the VE is closest in size to my Warhammer.

[safe abyss]

We tried out a Hierofalcon recently in a classic game

It just kind of kills everything it sees

HAG/20 is no joke

[hexed musk]

Wait until you hear about the HAG 40

[safe abyss]

Horrid

I never want to have one pointed at me ever

[upper warren]

New Dragon art for the Dragon enjoyers

[hexed musk]

Jokes aside Grand Dragon is really quite excellent in Alpha Strike. 3 damage at medium range, good speed, and premium armor for the price makes it a very scary machine.

[upper warren]

As it kinda should be. I've never really felt much love for them but I'm interested now that you mention them for AS

[hexed musk]

I particularly like using dragons as leaders of cavalry lances formed from striker lights and mediums. Gives those lances some nice heft for prolonged fights

And dragons are really good at bullying other skirmishers off of objectives.

[teal crater]

May have spent most of today refreshing my memory on Rstats by playing around with a huge BT dataset

I pruned the wackiest things, and ended up with some data in the context of a late era, freely picked roster

Assuming BV is actually any good at measuring relative strength, you van see the clanners having some excellent value picks, but overall differences in BV/C-bill between clans and IS weren’t quite statistically significant

Overall found BV to correlate with C-bill cost very strongly

Gonna check out what this stinker is tho

And dumb me, the colours are the wrong way around here, but still

[upper warren]

🔥

[hexed musk]

Where does the mobile hpg the society made land

[jaunty rain]

looks vaguely logarithmic to me 🤔

maybe i'm being tricked by the colours

[teal crater]

Yeah, linear fit is good but that’d probably be even better

[teal crater]

Overall this is kinda crappy, because it’s all eras lumped together

Gonna look at invasion era next

[teal crater]

I may have just spent 60€ on mechs

Finally getting a Dragon of my own

Plus some clanner stuff

[hexed musk]

One of us
One of us

[indigo hinge]

Hell yeah.

I'm currently spending a few hours on some 'mechs.

The Hollander's barrel is half of the printing time lmao.

Can't wait for it to be finished after dinner and clean em up.

[indigo hinge]

There we go, my very own designs.

[jaunty rain]

Love to see it.

[indigo hinge]

Can't wait to prime and paint em.

[hexed musk]

I realized after my most recent 50$ purchase for a new binary of clanners that I had way, way too many half finished projects. Man, touching things up you haven't worked on for 3 months is hard.

[hexed musk]

I'm a big boy, I can go do edge highlighting again

[indigo hinge]

It just hits harder on BT minis.

We're gonna need a bigger 'mech.

[hexed musk]

Oh God oh fuck

[teal crater]

Did some more plots

These still include all eras lumped together, so it’s not terribly useful

But fun

[supple jetty]

what is this a plot of?

[teal crater]

Just battlevalue by weight class, no surprises here

[supple jetty]

average BV cost?

ah

then yeah not surprising

[teal crater]

But this was a bit more interesting

Battlevalue/C-bill by weight class

[supple jetty]

interesting

though I suspect what's skewing primitive is that primitive is kinda terrible and not actually that much cheaper in terms of c-bills

[teal crater]

Yeeah

[supple jetty]

and primitive BV values are imo ludicrously inflated

is this just mechs or are vehicles in there too?

[teal crater]

Just mechs, and I’ve exclided everythinh that was experimental rules, or missing key data

Next I wanna look at Succesion Wars era as a subset

And then Clan Invasion era

I did a rough sketch of how battlevalue/money has looked like across the eras already, but it wasn’t terribly interesting

I expect to start seeing some actually interesting info as I limit the data to timespans that were consistent in balance

[supple jetty]

I'm curious what the split of component bv costs is like

Since clan mechs are typically grossly overgunned

[teal crater]

Hmm true

[hexed musk]

What do you mean the loki 2 is overgunned? They only made ~60% of it shootas by weight

Dashi's a much more reasonable 50.5% gun

[teal crater]

gonna go pick up some endo steel from the post office today 👀

[indigo hinge]

Thoughts on my new battlemap?

[earnest copper]

Low complexity, sure, sure. I totally believe you, BGG

(it does seem less complicated than, say, COIN games but low bar haha)

[upper warren]

Oh my God 😮

[indigo hinge]

In the words of the creator, if you think the game is bad, just play another round and see if you like it better.

[hexed musk]

I'm still not convinced Campaign for North Africa isn't an extremely elaborate prank

[vocal pulsar]

It is tbh

[quartz jasper]

Me but with crabs

Love me crab

[hexed musk]

With all the psycho swayback variants 4 hunchbacks is a viable, if slow, lance

Don't get flanked though...

[indigo hinge]

This would be me with Hollanders.

Are they gonna hold their own? No. But I just like them. Quirky little design.

[jaunty rain]

"psycho swayback variants" snerk

the medium laser one is probably really good

[upper warren]

Kinda of a change in topic but I kinda wanna see the inner sphere map overlaid on top of the map of the Federation from star trek

[wet nova]

hm, just had a slightly annoying reminder that there's still a part of the Battletech fandom that's just full of bigotry

saw a video on CGL trying to impose more control over Battletech and I was like 'what is this guy on about'

Then I check their channel and it turns out they are vocally against CGL support for queer and LGBT stuff

maniac

[jaunty rain]

can't forget that a guy who wrote a book called "blue dawn" was part of their regular writing contractors until like, 1.5 years ago

[upper warren]

I'm afraid to ask... What was his deal?

[indigo hinge]

Yikes. That's... yeah no thanks.

[indigo hinge]

When in doubt, experiment.

Finding a good basing scheme for my clanners is a tricky job.

[hexed musk]

Iirc he was worryingly close to "actual nazi"
Not completely sure about that don't quote me

[earnest copper]

Nice, love the swampy bit. Gloss medium?

[indigo hinge]

That was just some Nurgle's Rot from Citadel.

Since, I've added transparent UV resin as well as some clear gloss enamel.

My favourites are the road and the raised rock formations. Gonna be a tossup between those two for my clanners.

[earnest copper]

Eventually I plan to get more into the uv resin for my next project, definitely leads to some fun results

[indigo hinge]

It's mostly a mess, honestly. If I want to do a more serious pour or something, I'll get out my two part resin instead. And use something better than tape to keep it together, heh.

I just couldn't be bothered to use that for a test, as I had UV resin standing right in arm's reach, for my printer.

[upper warren]

@indigo hinge vindication

[hexed musk]

Man chimeras are a throwback to mw4. Goofy little goobers - easy to pop.

[river wolf]

Partially correct. The best ones are those that are built around multiple big guns.

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/5/56/Awesome_BTRSAGoAC.jpg?timestamp=20190527181952

[upper warren]

That lone machine gun in the right arm... Like... Guys.... Why????

[river wolf]

Because what if infantry pop up on my right?

[upper warren]

In MW4 there were no infantry so it was so so so useless

[river wolf]

There in spirit

[hexed musk]

Awesome my beloved
The ilclan era one with 4 ppcs and dual heatsinks is a fucking force of nature

[upper warren]

I will always love anything that's just a platform to move banks and banks of missiles.

Macross Missile Swarm

[river wolf]

King Crab, Thunder Hawk, War Hawk Prime, HBK-4P, etc

Longbow

And we can't forget peak 'Mech form...

https://cfw.sarna.net/wiki/images/6/66/Yeoman.jpg?timestamp=20210123212842

[earnest copper]

God I love the yeoman

[upper warren]

I think I got enough on a long bow or something bigger which let me chain them through their reload cycle so it was just a forever stream of lrms

[earnest copper]

Everything a mech should aspire to be. Is it better that it has legs v treads? Fuck no. Is it cool? Fuck yes.

[upper warren]

Elegance

[river wolf]

It even has a bullseye right on the cockpit. It mocks you, knowing you can't hit it under all the steel rain.

[upper warren]

Maximum Target Saturation

Load em with infernos and you a walking war crime

[hexed musk]

where the FUCK is my archer appreciation at

[upper warren]

Afshfjkh

[hexed musk]

Been rippin 40 LRMs a turn since starleague

[river wolf]

https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/b76b/3jpsyzbvjkb5s1w6g.jpg

[hexed musk]

Or 30 if you like having the pilot not cooked well done

[upper warren]

Ironically, ripped straight from Macross

The OG Macross Missile Massacre

[hexed musk]

I also love long cyclops in the back there

[river wolf]

No ripped, they thought they had the correct rights. But also the Warhammer in Macross (the Tomahawk) has a ton more missiles as well.

[upper warren]

Didn't it also have missile banks in the side torsos like the archer?

Er

W/e it was in Macross

[river wolf]

Yep

[upper warren]

Argus...

[hexed musk]

Another certified mw4 trashmob
Solid boy though ngl

[upper warren]

It was one of those guys that just would fucking die.

I would think, this is taking a lot longer than expected

[river wolf]

I joke that the Argus is a unit of currency in MW4

The MC is solely responsible for eliminating the entire production run of Argus by the time the campaign is over.

[hexed musk]

Never really that scary, they had low dps. The fucking UZIELS were always higher on my threat radar

And cougars.

[upper warren]

Argus has the weirdest hotboxes. It's whole torso is squished together but it's arms are like just huge!

[hexed musk]

No kidding
And despite its pretty center of mass cockpit you just can't behead enemies in that game

I think in like, 5 playthroughs I've achieves maybe that many headchop kills

[upper warren]

Part of the reason I'm so bummed out we keep getting games set in 3025 or clan invasion is we don't get to see the weird post FedCom Civil War mechs

All those wacky WOB designs! Gimme!

[river wolf]

Yeah, it's time for the PC games to catch up.

[hexed musk]

A Jihad/dark age era game with a single starsystem scope ala MW4:V would fuck

[river wolf]

However I don't like the MW:DA style designs as much. They just look like cheap plastic toys in their designs. Exposed ammo linkages, really silly legs, oversized hands/claws.

[upper warren]

When Dark Age first released I was really expecting a Dark Age game to go with the tabletop and books but nooooo 😠

[hexed musk]

It was called the dark age because that's what they sent the fandom into

[upper warren]

Same, it was just like... This thing has only 1 ppc... And nothing else? It's 35 tones why is a panther better armed???

[river wolf]

They're also kinda stuck due to their branding. The Timber Wolf and Atlas are some of the few 'Mechs that have had somewhat of a penetration outside the BT niche. So going to 3100s you'll lose the iconic designs.

[upper warren]

I definitely felt like they hit my head with a rock after End Game

[river wolf]

Everyone just slightly familiar will be looking for HBKs, clan invasion Omnis, and the recognisable chassis.

[hexed musk]

I mean there's still a decent number of the OG frames in the ilclan era rocking around, you can still put an Atlas on the front, just have it surrounded by new guys

[upper warren]

Which is wild bc they came out with like 3 more Timber Wolves. Everyone loves timber wolves right? Here's 3 more!

[river wolf]

Yeah

[hexed musk]

To go with your 3 atlas's and 3 vultures and 3 enforcers (wait, where's enforcer 2?)

[upper warren]

This was one of the things that bothered me about DA. None of the new designs felt like they were a proper upgrade. I know the justification but still it just felt so underwhelming

[copper wind]

all the nu-timber wolves being sea fox marketing scams is pretty funny in universe at least

[upper warren]

@river wolf lots of "Look what they did to my boy 😭"

[hexed musk]

It feels like they didnt want to accept that powercreep as time goes on was how it was gonna go?
Idk dark age was weird. At least with ilclan (i am a bit of a shill) rec guides we're getting some really fundamentally well built mechs and variants

[river wolf]

Well also - from a video game design point - 3080+ era has a lot of extra tech you'd have to implement and balance.

Armor types, stealth, C3, an ever expanding pool of weapons with weird properties.

[hexed musk]

Enjoy balancing iATMs, nerrddddsssss

[upper warren]

I need to buy that book from my local game store they have a small but well stocked BT corner

[river wolf]

This expanded tech base also makes it harder to on-board new players.

[upper warren]

It made learn the game really hard compared to like Warhammer imo. The games took so long to begin with adding all the complexity was a mind bender. Forget trying to teach ppl

Ninjad

[river wolf]

Yes, but I mean for a potential video game. Same thing applies.

[upper warren]

Fr

[river wolf]

There's a reason the beginning box sets are all 3025 era ever since they had more than 1 era of tech.

[upper warren]

Even adding reflective and reactive armor to MW4 was like... Why would I do this?

[river wolf]

There's a market for it, see all the mods for MW5 that basically bee-line for more tech. But it's a much smaller pool than than already small pool of mech sim players.

Maybe it would work as a new game+ mode?

[upper warren]

Artillery: "you are so fucked on turn 7 hehehe, wait what do you mean it's already 9pm? Noo my long toms 😔"

[river wolf]

But that's a lot of work for an optional mode.

[hexed musk]

3025 -> reinaissance isn't too hard a jump, then you need to handle clan, but after clan its not so bad up to 3067
Fuckin who knows whats up past that though

[indigo hinge]

Ahh, victory.

[supple jetty]

The primitive tech mechs all being garbage didn't help eithrr

If you want to cheap out you bought vehicles and got good performance for the cost

Primtech is just overcosted

[upper warren]

Is the trade off that vehicles have bigger crew requirements? I think I got a demolisher in a mektek campaign but it needs like 5 crew

[hexed musk]

Gameplay-wise vehicles have far fewer hit locations so they get their armor stripped quick and cored
Not sure what else

[cloud otter]

Yeah, they're a lot more fragile and they're very vulnerable to motive hits, rolling for them way more often than a mech

By fragile what I mean is less 'they fall apart when you look at them funny' and more 'every shot from a given direction has a ~1/3 chance of hitting the same side and drilling through fast'

[upper warren]

So they are better plopped in the back out of range of most stuff?

[elder ridge]

It depends, SRM carries are capable of melting most thigns at short range if they get to it, and like to lurk in city and otehr ambush rich envioments, but like artilaery CV's do benafit form being off map

but 10x SRM 6's on a box for 816 points is not bad even if it kinda fragile and can only out run an urbie

[upper warren]

taking notes

[river wolf]

Note SRM carriers are super fragile and priority targets. They don't last long.

[supple jetty]

but they are good to park next to idk a pair of LRM carriers to dissuade light mechs

vehicles are useful when you need value

to give an example a desert scorpion from rec guide 33 costs 554, moves 5/8, has 32/20/20 armor and carries a large laser and a couple machine guns

which for the cost is quite good

in a 10k game you can take 12 of them and a pair of AWS-8Qs and that is honestly quite hard to beat

[summer mulch]

I dearly love the Awesome, especially its shoulders

[drifting surge]

My friend James got a HAUL of MW heroclix

For $90 apparently

[upper warren]

Omg

[hexed musk]

Those are some scrungly boys

❤️

[upper warren]

Those poor poor Legionaire pilots. Hearing loss and probably nerv damage from the vibrations of the head mounted RAC

I seem to remember the vehicles and battle armor didn't look too bad but the bigger the model that soft plastic really struggled

Was hard plastic really all that more expensive?

[jaunty rain]

i think the affordable tech was just not There

the modern plastic sculpts look good but they still have mold lines (which are sometimes difficult to remove thanks to pre-assembly) and can be deformed

i really hate pre-assembled mechs because like. they're machines. if you design the sculpt properly they should be very fun to pose

but i saw the limited edition rifleman pose and its armour panels clip into itself and it's just. ugh.

no satisfaction for the engineering-backgrounders like myself

[indigo hinge]

I love cluster ammo. One shot at a little roughed up Locust. Five engine hits, one gyro, and an ammo explosion.

[hexed musk]

Mmmm. Good salvage there.

[indigo hinge]

It's the seed match for a tournament that I'll be running against myself. Looks like it'll be more bookkeeping than battletech, but oh well. Spreadsheets are fun too.

[indigo hinge]

That's a mood and a half. As both a mini designer and engineer, it's a balancing act. Sure, the mechs shouldn't clip, but also, there's a certain dynamic vibe that you can't always get without a little cheating.

Maybe I just need to get better at mech design though. Making designs for Battletech has helped a lot with that. Especially now that I'll be trying to make minis for injection moulding.

[upper warren]

Sold out of their last ilClan technical

I cry

[teal crater]

Pretty sure that’s a waffle iron.

[steep flame]

Designed as a lightweight member of the popular Hatchetman and Axman series, the Tin Woodsman would use Triple-Strength Myomer to give Heavy 'Mech power to its two-ton Hatchet, while five Defiance Model XII ER Medium Lasers and a single Defiance C3S ER Small Laser, deliberately inadequately cooled by a mere ten single heat sinks would generate the heat to keep its TSM active. To help ensure it was able to close to melee range with its Hatchet, the Tin Woodsman was equipped with a powerful GM 210 Fusion Engine and protected with six tons of Durallex Super Medium Ferro-Fibrous Armor. While it excelled in trials, the Tin Woodsman was rejected due to its considerable cost - well in excess of the existing Hatchetman - and according to some sources, political pressure from Coventry Metal Works to prevent a possible competitor to their Commando Light 'Mech, though the latter has never been proven.

[steep flame]

Originally created in 3066 by Ulla's Urban Ulhan, a mercenary company unsurprisingly specializing in urban combat and UrbanMechs in particular, after seizing a large Clan Steel Viper weapons shipment in a carefully laid ambush. While most of the weapons were easily integrated into various 'Mechs, the Heavy Lasers prove difficult to find a home for due to their massive heat generation, until MechTech Leida Sepp recalled a SubUrbanMech UM-90 that she had been trying to mount an old Binary Laser Cannon in the place of the SubUrbanMech's PPC. Replacing the PPC instead with a Heavy Large Laser and the standard two Medium Lasers and single Small Laser with their Heavy Laser counterparts and cooling the completed 'Mech with fifteen Inner Sphere Double Heat Sinks freed up by modifying the company's other 'Mechs, what Leida dubbed the "UM-91 SubUrbanMech Escalade" prove an incredibly heavy hitter. In the following years, several other UrbanMechs would be modified to the same specifications. In 3084, the Urban Ulhan partnered with Clans Diamond Shark and Snow Raven to begin serial production of the 'Mech as the UM-91C. While its cost of just over two million C-Bills means it doesn't see as large of orders as more traditional UrbanMechs, it's become a popular choice to lead UrbanMech lances.

[teal crater]

Hey, does anyone know where the rules for bonusis from having a full lance/star reside?

I recall there being some, but can’t find them in my books for the life of me

[teal crater]

Okay found it! Campaign Operations

[indigo hinge]

What have I done?

[river wolf]

That's just a Yellow Jacket with more steps.

[uncut ferry]

Yo I’m gonna be playing battletech for the first time this Friday, any tips or thoughts on the game I should know about? Like what’s the gameplay/combat like?

[supple jetty]

hope you like dice

[hexed musk]

if you're playing classic, initiative matters a ton. The closer the mechs get to each other, the more it matters. For any mech that's capable of moving more than like, 6 spaces in a turn winning initiative often means you can flank a slower target and shoot them in the back. This goes double if you can wolfpack with another fast flanker.

Back attacks hurt like a mother fucker because armor is so thin there, so mind your movement once your mechs get close to the enemy.

[uncut ferry]

Good to know

[river wolf]

As mentioned above, initiative really matters.

If you have multiple units to control, move your back-field or slower units first to leave your front line and fast units last. This lets you position them against a unit that has already moved.

When you are rolling your shots to hit, start with the weapons that deal the most amount of single point damage first like PPCs, normal auto cannons, lasers and Gauss Rifles. Then, ending with the weapons that spread their damage (LRM, SRM, LBX auto cannons). So while an LRM-20 might do more damage than an AC-10, the AC will put 10 DMG in one 10 point brick. The LRMs get split up into 5 point chunks that can hit different locations.

Basically this can help you get more critical hit rolls. Big damage weapons make a hole, little plinks exploit it.

Try to keep your heat level under +4 unless you're going down or your To-Hit rolls are really low, like 6 or below.

Oh and woods are your best friends

Some Light 'Mechs are incredibly fragile. Never stand still, move as far as possible, moving more hexes = more defense. Pay attention to the movement brackets. Moving 7 hexes is as good as 9.

On the other hand, don't ignore some Lights. Some of them pack disproportionately large amounts of weapons for their size and speed. Great for hit-&-runs.

[supple jetty]

take as many fire moth Ps as you can for the one match you'll get before your group bans them

[upper warren]

Lol

[teal crater]

I may have made an impulse purchase

[upper warren]

Valid

[teal crater]

Was planning to put together a Ghost Bear Star anyway

Buuut the lights here don’t match their Invasion era list

So guess I’ll do another clan star too, what a shaaaame

[prime spruce]

KODIAK KODIAK KODIAK

https://tenor.com/view/kaden-bear-walk-gif-15031442544519350917

[upper warren]

Nice

[safe abyss]

ITS HIM
BIG BEAR BOY

[hexed musk]

The Kodiak's primary armament consists of devastating short-range weaponry
hm, lets see
namely the single Series II Ultra AC/20 occupying its entire right torso, and twin Streak SRM-6s situated in the left torso... The 'Mech supplements its primary weaponry with eight Series 2a ER medium lasers
my god

[elder ridge]

And it's one of the few claner mechs with battle fists as well

[hexed musk]

not sure who the fuck thinks it is a good idea to get fresh with a kodiak but the thing's ready for it, I guess

[elder ridge]

Telacom's debt colectors

[upper warren]

LMFAO

[elder ridge]

But also they are the same group that thought the best way to stop a hover deploy, as to park a lance of aerospace fighters in dropships fusion reactor

[teal crater]

Reads like a scene from a comstar briefing room pre-Tukayyid

[wet nova]

it also has a single er large, just to poke at someone at a distance

[hexed musk]

Or to overheat even harder

[steep flame]

If you're going to run hot like that, at least pack TSM

Just like my "Tin Woodsman" a few days ago
5 ER Medium Lasers are of course an entirely reasonable armament for a 'Mech with 10 single heat sinks

I actually considered running that one with an XXL engine until I saw the C-Bill price tag

[hexed musk]

TFW your cyclops pilot gets knocked out from an ammo explosion and eats dirt round 5, and sleeps the rest of the game off

[upper warren]

Status update: Dirt nap

[hexed musk]

We joked he was dreaming happily of Canopus cat girls. Better than the Vulture pilot, who ate 5 plasma rifle shots and skyrocketed straight into shutdown

He was sweating and swearing.

[upper warren]

What's everyone's line they will not cross in a rules sense. Maybe to put another way, where is your ceiling for rules complexity? What would be the floor?

Open question to everyone.

[sterile sleet]

when turns start taking hours

[hexed musk]

It depends on what I'm up for, but I'd say generally what Tacit said with a willingness to go more complex if I can put the game down and pick it back up later.

I.e. I can leave the battletech table where it is and return the next day.

[elder ridge]

I think for us, a big part of what is to much rues complexity is how long the rules take to exicute, but yeah when the turns take hours preaty much sms it up for us

[supple jetty]

when a willingness to read rules becomes a table balance problem

[hexed musk]

Oh, another one is if the rules are intuitive or well structured in the rulebook so that you either 1) only have to check once or 2) checking is quick

[upper warren]

Ok interesting. The breadth of rules is crazy to me in standard battletech, and with the timeline producing more crazy equipment with their own rules, I'm always curious where the line is for most folk

[river wolf]

Most IRL tables I've seen in my area play 3025 to 3065ish tech. Occasionally going above that in the timeline. Our local discords basic MM setup is 3060 and below.

[hexed musk]

Ive been playing some "anything goes" games with a fellow recently and they've been going well but I think there's an unspoken bit of sportsmenship between us

The scariest ilclan things brought to the table have been a 10Q awesome, a warhammer with plasma rifles, and a mk 4 vulture prime

[supple jetty]

you do need to balance specific stuff because things like iATMs, fire moth Ps, savannah masters, etc can really distort gameplay

say it with me improved jump jet large pulse lasers

[hexed musk]

side eyes the sagittaire I'm 95% done painting

I did use a spider with variable speed pulse lasers and that was a scary backstabber. 18 to the bum at -2 to hit is nasty

[river wolf]

Yeah there's always a little bit of gentlemen's agreement to not bring total cheese or gimmicks.

[hexed musk]

I will bring a turkina Z in an alphastrike game sooner or later just because having one goofy ass overkill machine in AS is less oppressive than classic

[upper warren]

Is the Nova CEWS as good as it looks?

[supple jetty]

given that it pops up on society mechs yes

[hexed musk]

Smoke jaguar time
This lil guy still needs his spots and cockpit done and a few touchups on the metallic parts

[upper warren]

Hey where do you find the damn ACS Space Maps

[sterile sleet]

Whats everyones favourite mech for me I’m stuck between the Dire Wolf and the Javelin (he’s just a little guy)

[hexed musk]

Puma update

Favorite mech? Honestly Cyclops. Not fantastic in classic but they do a ton of work in Alphastrike

[indigo hinge]

I'm still discovering new designs I like, but the Hollander is my solid favourite so far.

Is it practical? Who cares. It's a gun on legs.

[sterile sleet]

That is very cute

[supple jetty]

fafnir

the 5X is the most fun but even the stock fafnir hits

[hexed musk]

Fafnir is hilariously awesome but man it's technical loadout image is so goofy compared to the games

Games Fafnir: powerful weapons platform

Tabletop Fafnir: gun kiwi

[summer mulch]

Some of the illustrations really do a disservice compared to 3d objects

I think trying to pull off dynamic poses actually make them look worse

[hexed musk]

I'm talking a lotta shit bout someone's favorite ride though so I do have to add that the Fafnir was my favored tool of destruction in MW4:Mercs

[upper warren]

"Designing a mech around one gun has been successful, now let's try 2 guns"

[supple jetty]

the MWO fafnir looks pretty good tbh

[hexed musk]

Yeah thats quite noice

I saw a fafnir once in Mechwarrior 5 (modded)
I had about 4 seconds before my King Crab was boiled cajun style

[upper warren]

It's good the massive guns aren't down played. If you can see them it should instill the fear of God in you

[hexed musk]

Fafnir is perhaps the most blunt force instrument ever to apply 40 damage to an enemy's nads at medium range

Surpassing the king crab, which applies 40 damage to the enemy's nads at short range

[upper warren]

The perfect scout mech

Steiner does it again folks! 👏👏👏

[indigo hinge]

It looks like a pair of eyes staring at you. That's how I'd paint it, like some butterfly.

There's no official mini of it? Shame. I might have to make one myself.

[quartz jasper]

Honestly I think this looks pretty cool

[hexed musk]

I find it a lil rotund but like, it's far from a bad design. Its miles better than a lot of oldtech art

[hexed musk]

Done! This vindicator has languished in half-done hell since July, but he's finally ready to take his place on the shelf of completion!

[indigo hinge]

Tac droid is looking a little buffer than I remember.

[summer mulch]

tired of getting pushed around by jedi and/or sith

[hexed musk]

There will be no butlerian jihad

[teal crater]

Base coat coming together

[teal crater]

Now I just need to find a nice lore paintjob that I can pull off without buying too many more paints…

Maybe a hanseatic league one…

I got a nice popping red orange

And white and black

[upper warren]

Has anyone done a campaign? Like the Fronc Reaches or something similar? How was the experience?

[upper warren]

Playing through the Ace Combat games I really have to wonder what the later MechWarrior games would have been like with that kind of writing style

Even just the structure of gameplay and storytelling

[hexed musk]

I do have some hope for MW5:Clans with them returning to scripted missions.

[upper warren]

God that will be nice. MW5 really made me appreciate the bespoke campaigns of 4

Part of me really would like a game where you start out as a rank and file MechWarrior of a house and work your way up to something like "The Demon of the Roundtable" like in Zero, with a side narrative between missions like in 4

Idk. There is just something nice and fresh about this Kojima style of melodrama I'm ashamed the MW series lacks right now

[hexed musk]

Battletech is so, so perfect for that sort of writing

[hexed musk]

I mean, thinking about it, you can't tell me that the line
"My love, with this morsel I also give you the Capellan Confederation!"
Didnt come from an AC game

[upper warren]

Man... I can't believe they wrote that in 1988

[steep flame]

I need to reinstall MW4Mercs + Mektek some time

[steep flame]

A Draconis Combine refit of the Hollander III, making use of the many captured AFFS BZK-D1s salvaged in various states of damage. The core systems of the D1 were left intact in the standardized K1 refit, retaining the GM 175 XL engine and GM BZK-III Endo Steel chassis, as well as retaining the Full-Head Ejection System, Compact Gyro, and Supercharger, though the heat sinks have been upgraded to double heat sinks and the CASE II deleted as no longer necessary. The primary change was in re-engineering the armament around a capacitor-augmented Lord's Light 3 Heavy PPC in the right torso to give the classic Hollander punch and a Victory 23R Medium Laser in each arm to protect against enemies that got within the Heavy PPC's minimum range. The refit process also saw any remaining reflective armor stripped from the chassis and the 'Mech protected with ten tons of Durallex Ballistic-Reinforced Armor to counter the AFFS's well-documented preference for ballistic weapons.

[indigo hinge]

Did somebody say... Hollander?

Looks fun.

[steep flame]

Honestly when I started making the stat block, I thought it would come out running hotter
And when I considered using X-Pulse lasers instead of regular mediums, it did
But the Ballistic reinforced armor felt more thematic to the original reflective armor, and criminy is BRA heavy per armor point

[hexed musk]

The moment I saw it was a Draconis Combine retrofit I was waiting for the PPC

"...andddd yep."

[indigo hinge]

I have a Hollander LAM laying around somewhere. LBX-10. I'm tempted to make a model of it by adapting my Hollander sculpt.

[steep flame]

A new Marik refit of the Banshee using recovered Star League technology, the 5M uses an XL engine chassis to save an enormous amount of weight for a new arament consisting of six Diverse Optics Type 30 Large Lasers and the standard (if seemingly token) Small Laser, cooled by 20 Double Heat Sinks and protected by seventeen and a half tons of armor. Doubling down on the Banshee's reputation for speed and melee brutality, the 5M also replaced its myomer with Triple-Strength Myomer. However, the project, already unpopular due to its extreme cost that more than offset using any savings from using existing 'Mech chassis, was terminated during the Clan Invasion to focus on other projects.

[steep flame]

Okay, so I just wanted to see how expensive of a thing I could make that made some pretense of being useful in some capacity (without resorting to the 4 billion C-Bill Mobile HPG)

Developed by Clan Sea Fox in the 3140s for sale to Inner Sphere customers, the Kartikeya was a misguided attempt to produce maximum profits on a command 'Mech. Pitched as the ultimate in command utility and survivability, the Kartikeya was to use an armored 400 XXL engine to combine lightweight power and durability, while a Command Console and an armored C3 Boosted Master System would ensure the greatest control of the battlefield in even the most adverse conditions. To protect itself, the Kartikeya had 16 tons of Ferro Fibrous Armor and its armored Heavy-Duty Gyro would ensure that even heavy fire would not degrade its combat capabilities or rob its mobility and four armored Extended-Range Large Lasers would enable it to retaliate at any conceivable range and enable its Triple-Strength Myomer, giving even greater flexibilty to relocate to wherever would be most tactically advantageous or make an expeditious retreat if a battle prove unwinnable. However, not one single Kartikeya was actually ordered due to its eye-watering price tag.

[supple jetty]

400 XXL

christ almighty

[steep flame]

I forgot to even mention that it has an A-Pod in case infantry get uppity and Laser Heat Sinks for environmental flexibility
But yeah
This one is deliberately a bad idea

[supple jetty]

what's a 400 XXL even cost on its own?

[steep flame]

53,333,333 C-Bills before being doubled for the whole thing being 100 tons

Oh heck, I also forgot to mention the electronic warfare stuff in the fluff

[supple jetty]

I'm sorry what

the engine is 53 million c-bills?

[steep flame]

Yes
But also no
Because it's actually functionally 106 million

This thing is only about 20 million more than a Kodiak II, which also uses a 400 XXL

[supple jetty]

I'm asking what the engine alone costs without the mech

and the kodiak 2 runs a 400 XL iirc

[steep flame]

In that case, yes, 53 million C-Bills

[supple jetty]

not a XXL

[steep flame]

Kodiak is 400 XL
Kodiak II is 400 XXL

Or at least a Kodiak II variant in MegaMekLab

[supple jetty]

sarna says the kodiak 2 runs a 400 XL

like sure on the one hand a 400 XXL is probably enough to power a town and light enough to be easily mobile on the other hand do you know how many AWS-8Qs I could buy for 53 million c-bills

I could equip two lances with awesomes for the price of that engine

[steep flame]

Okay, so it's the Kodiak II 2

[supple jetty]

ah

[steep flame]

But yeah
A Kodiak II 2 runs about 118 million C-Bills

A XXL engine is by far the second most expensive component you can put in a BattleMech and the 400 XXL is the most expensive version of that

[supple jetty]

I can't help but struggle to count a mobile HPG as an actual battlemech component

like I know you can but it's 5B c-bills

[steep flame]

There is also technically a Mech that carries one (alt config Z)
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Septicemia_(Pariah)

[supple jetty]

the Z variants are society and therefore aren't real

[hexed musk]

The septicemia does look fucking rad though

[indigo hinge]

Trying out some antennae work.

[hexed musk]

Oooh
What are they made of?

[teal crater]

COOL!

I drafted up a basic 5k bv team for next week

Hanseatic Regional Defense Force 7
1st Battlemech Regiment
2nd Battalion “The nine-point deer”
2nd Company “Lübeck”
1st Lance

“SILVERBACK”
Awesome AWS-9Q 1,875 80t
Lieutenant Jaak Röhl

“SCHOLAR”
Catapult CPLT-C1 1,399 65t
Commander Marijona Kļava 5/4

“MATTOCK”
Wolverine WVR-6R 5/4 1,101 55t
Soldier Annemie Spalko

“TOCANDIRA”
Locust LCT-3V 490 20t
Lieutenant Yulfira Siregar```

[indigo hinge]

Old brush hairs from a big drybrush. Then I just give em a bit of black paint when they're done.

[hexed musk]

That's clever.

[earnest copper]

Tried to play battletech for the first time in person. The rules are... Just a bit much. We tapped out after the third round

[upper warren]

It's a lot!

[indigo hinge]

Time to make another 'mech.

[hexed musk]

Lookin suspiciously fafnir-esque.

[hexed musk]

If you still want to use the models you have, if any, Alpha strike is much easier to pick up.

[indigo hinge]

Spot on. Glad it's recognisable so far.

[upper warren]

I also rec Alpha Strike, it's got a quicker pace and you're making fewer rolls

[indigo hinge]

Time to make some more interesting bases for my clanners.

[steep flame]

As the Jihad was brought to a close, the NAIS sought to make a statement about Inner Sphere technologies that the Clans were as yet unable to replicate, and the researchers decided to add a layer of irony to it using the Rakshasa as a basis to create a "Timberwolf" the Clans themselves could not. In each missile pod was a FarFire MML-9 and a ton of LRM and SRM for each launcher and protected with CASE. The MDG-3A would also carry a pair of Plasma Rifles with four tons of ammunition and a single central Martell-V Medium VSP Laser. Though the engine had been downgraded to a GM 300 XL, speed would be retained by use of Triple-Strength Myomer and the considerable heat output of its weapons. Further showcasing technology the Clans did not possess, the MDG-3A was built on a Composite chassis and used a Heavy Duty Gyro, even if their durability characteristics seemed at odds with each other. The relatively fragile Compostite structure was protected by 13 tons of Kallon Unity Weave > Light Light Ferro-Fibrous Armor. 20 units were produced for evaluation and demonstration, but ultimately the MDG-3A was more of a concept 'Mech than anything else.

[indigo hinge]

And that's them all.

[sterile sleet]

Ooh

I wish I was knowledgeable to be able to name them all

[steep flame]

Aww, I had a design cooking and it turns out you can't use a partial wing and mechanical jump boosters
Well, guess I'll go for the jump boosters, even if they weigh more than just using jump jets. Or an entire Flea for that matter

[steep flame]

There ought to be rules for kicking someone with a 25 ton spring-loaded ram

[indigo hinge]

Marauder IIC, Supernova, Behemoth (Stone Rhino), Warhammer IIC, Wolverine IIC er, I mean Conjurer (Hellhound), Pirhana, Hunchback IIC, Vapor Eagle (Goshawk), Vixen (Incubus) and Perigrine (Horned Owl).

[hexed musk]

I just primed up my own clan striker lance, very excited to paint the peregrin and Vapor Eagle in particular

(Though I'm not over how fucking large the VE's sculpt is)

[sterile sleet]

oh I got the peregrine mixed up with the enforcer

[indigo hinge]

Same, those two roped me in.

[hexed musk]

I got that box and the heavy battle star with the turkina and ebon jaguar. Going to see if I can make a maximum aggression smoke jaguar list for AS.

I've posted my puma before, its a really fun and easy paint scheme

[indigo hinge]

It looks great, yeah.

I've just started painting my two boxes and I've already ditched my previous colour scheme for a new one. We'll figure this out as I go.

[earnest copper]

I have heard that and still might! For now I am shifting focus to finish my Adeptus Titanicus minis, as ive heard the rules are quite good

[hexed musk]

Didn't they kill the titanicus ruleset for legionare?
Regardless both rulesets interested me.

[vocal pulsar]

What's the best starter set for BT?

I'm curious

is it 'A Game of Armored Combat'

or Alpha Strike

there's too many sets

[elder ridge]

Alpha strike is a separate game meant for faster games with larger amounts of units.

[upper warren]

@vocal pulsar have you read the rules or are familiar with the game on a mechanical level?

[supple jetty]

alpha strike is substantially faster and easier to run

which can be a real advantage

[elder ridge]

Yeah the beginers box is the simplest you can get CBT AWUI, but the "a Game of Aroumord Comabt" is a bit througho

[upper warren]

If you're coming from trad stuff like 40k I recommend Alpha Strike, the game is plenty complicated imo

[vocal pulsar]

I've played some stuff on...the name escapes me, Mektek? The fuckin' virtual one

I wanna teach some kids maybe

[upper warren]

I was about to ask if you had tried mektek yet.

I think Alpha Strike is the way to go, but I'm biased for that game over Classic rules.

The minis and maps can be used with both classic rules and alpha strike so it's not a big deal if you don't vibe with one or the other rule sets

Alpha by default is played gridless using inches but there is a rule in the book that says you can play on hex by halfing ranges and movement

None of this is answered your question lol sorry

[vocal pulsar]

having skimmed the alpha rules I think they're Cool Mech Rules but they kinda remove anything I actually like about BT

hexes/locations/heat(to some extent), etc

I'll probably grab a game of armored combat at Some PointTM and try it out

[upper warren]

Heck yeah. Sounds good

[hexed musk]

AS does have very intuitive hex rules
Other problems are valid.

In terms of value/models in the box though both of the starter sets are fantastic and have no real duds for units. Except maybe the shadowcat but he's a classic boi, you can't leave him out.

[supple jetty]

the upside of alpha strike is that it's slimmmed down and can be played without consulting four different rulebooks and in the span of a day

the downside of alpha strike is that it's slimmed down and can be played without consulting four different rulebooks and in the span of a day

[upper warren]

A Game of Armored Rulebooks

[hexed musk]

Yeah, I've done a 3 lance vs. 2 star fight in a few hours with AS, which would take like, a weekend in classic.

[upper warren]

But yeah fr time man, it's about the time

But in classic you get those hilarious failing pilot rolls situations where a mech will kill itself

[supple jetty]

there's also the like, background radiation of random overpowered stuff like savannah masters and anything the society so much as glanced at

but that's usually not a problem with starter sets

[indigo hinge]

Yeah, what's up with the distinct lack of LAMs in these starter sets? How am I supposed to build out my mercenary force of Starscream's Seekers?

[supple jetty]

ikr

where's my Society Special starter set that's two and a half turkina Zs and a recommendation for a priest

[summer mulch]

Armored Combat comes with a bunch of cardboard proxies, which is very convenient

[hexed musk]

I don't know what your talking about, can't everyone rip 144 damage worth of STREAKs
/j

[steep flame]

Designed shortly after the end of the FedCom Civil War, the Winged Hussar was intended to wow crowds on Solaris VII with its dramatic and devastating leaping Lance attack, using a massive array of Mechanical Jump Boosters that can hurl the 80-ton 'Mech 180 meters and Triple-Strength Myomer and a Pitban 320 XL engine that allows it to make similarly daring charging attacks after firing its Magna Hellfire Heavy PPC, twin Defiance X5M Medium X-Pulse Lasers, and Defiance Model XII ER Medium Laser. With fourteen and a half tons of Durallex Light Ferro-Fibrous armor, the Winged Hussar could take a beating, even from rival melee 'Mechs like the Cudgel, whose similar weight and melee focus saw the two regularly matched up with against each other.

[teal crater]

Getting there

[upper warren]

That paint reminds me of solo wing pixie

With the one red wing

[supple jetty]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/744937024829522030/1210736749588774912/RDT_20240223_1657523780777685602357738.png?ex=65eba577&is=65d93077&hm=1f09b50d16f503467a34f383dcb4ce480cbe4252f8af159a04cd2b220a6479ae&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1820&height=910

[upper warren]

Lol

Omg

[hexed musk]

Done!

[upper warren]

Oh hell yeah

[hexed musk]

Glazing the cockpit is hard and I'm not good at it, but its starting to become fun. I have a star of these fellows (you can see the Timberwolf and Vapor Eagle out of focus) and I'm excited to get them fixed up too.

[hexed musk]

Played alpha strike with the new jagaurs. Solid game, but the weirdest moment was when the turkina fired 8 2d6 shots, missed them all, rerolled, and missed again

He only needed 8's!!!

[upper warren]

SAD!

[upper warren]

I didn't realize the remastered Battletech cartoon is on YouTube for free

https://youtu.be/luIKMpl1lfk?si=og_s17ALRjdXIoE5

People are so friggin talented

[hexed musk]

My girlfriend drew me god's strongest cyclops on a card for my birthday🥰

Just a lil guy

[safe abyss]

:0
I love him

Want to hug the assault mech

[indigo hinge]

That's so sweet. And... happy birthday, I suppose?

[teal crater]

hmm
I wanna paint a Ghost Bear Binary
but unsure what paintscheme to go for, a lot of the canon ones seems kinda daunting for a newbie

[hexed musk]

Looking through a lot of the ghost bear camospecs many are camo, which is way easiser than it looks

Consider looking for video tutorials for what you want, difficult-looking effects can be remarkably easy with the right technique

[indigo hinge]

Consider instead: Clan Ghost Bear Nonbinary. Paint em black, white, yellow and purple.

[teal crater]

Game day

Antagonized a Victor with a Veteran Locust, opening up its back for my Awesome-9Q’s four PPCs

[hexed musk]

9Q Awesomes fucking rip

[summer mulch]

What loadout does a 9Q have? I'm an Awesome fan but not accustomed to variants

[teal crater]

4x PPC
One small laser
Guardian ECM
And double heat sinks to keep it almost heat neutral

[hexed musk]

It can typically do a 4/4/3 volley pattern with the PPC's.

I've used one, it does shattering DPS at range and will. Not. Die

[summer mulch]

hella

[teal crater]

Super fun 5k vs. 5k game

Lost in the end with 4124 points vs. 4210

[teal crater]

My friend’s Wolf Trap was pretty scary

[indigo hinge]

Time for reinforcements.

My IS collection has just doubled. And I have a clan trinary now, too.

[teal crater]

What’s the one under the Warhammer?

[indigo hinge]

That's a Wraith.

[teal crater]

Uuuu! Nice

[hexed musk]

Teaching my coworker and their partner how to play tomorrow! Plan is a 3v3.
Them:

• Wolverine WVM-6M
• Locust LCT-1E
• Griffin GRF-1N

Me:

• Shadowhawk SHD-2D
• Vindicator "Avenging Angel" VND-1AA
• Valkyrie VLK-QA

Besides for my Valkyrie, my mechs have serious glass jaws but can put out some pain. Hopefully, my opponents will pick up on that and use the Locust and Wolverine to put close in pressure once my armor starts breaking. Meanwhile, if either he or his partner is a more cautious sort, they can take the Griffin and fire from afar, but they'll have to learn about heat.

[hexed musk]

Ok, update!
2 coworkers showed up rather than coworker and partner. Realizing how long it would go (we started late) I pared it down to the Vindy and ShadowHawk on my side and let my friends choose the Hunchy and Wolverine.

The poor hunch back couldnt hit anything at all, missing 3 6's in a row. The wolverine went crazy and hit nearly everything. As it was getting late we agreed to go to first dead mech after some cagey rounds with low damage delt overall.

Final round: Hunchback finally hits with the AC/20.
In the goddamn head of the Shadowhawk

Because we can't have nice things, the ShadowHawk got one more SRM salvo off and hit the hunchy back in the exposed left torso.

3 crits. Hunchback goes nuclear. GG, no re

ultimately, my coworkers were interested! Glad to be growing the game here.

[upper warren]

Always nice to see the insanity spice up a match

[upper warren]

It is wild to me how many times people say yes to a BT/AS game, and then cancel at the last min. This is people in my life not PUGs just sad and funny at the same time

[hexed musk]

Yeah it's rough

Battletech kinda requires buy in too for list building so canceling last minute is even more frustrating

[indigo hinge]

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/battletech-fiction-collection-catalyst-game-labs-books

Ya like books?

[indigo hinge]

Now the only question is: where do I start?

129 books is... a fair few.

[copper wind]

if wolves on the border is in that list, that one

[indigo hinge]

I'll have a look.

Can't help but read that title to the tune of Smoke on the Water.

Good news.

[upper warren]

That's a good one, lots of people praise it.

I personally like going through publishing order, but that means you're reading the really early stuff and the writing is not great.

[quartz jasper]

I think the warrior series is my favourite

[upper warren]

That's a great one to kick off the high politics themes with yeah!

[upper warren]

Question, when you imagine the world of the inner sphere, is it a cassette-tech aesthetic, cyber punk, or a mysterious 3rd aesthetic?

[quartz jasper]

I've always had it like

one step up from cassette-tech

[indigo hinge]

That's a tough one. I imagine it differs per planet, at least a little. I'm trying to figure out the same thing for my current project.

A set of lasercut buildings for Alpha Strike. Hopefully I'll actually get to cut them.

They're meant to represent some settlement on Gouderak, for my Gouderak Guardians, but there's little to no info on that planet.

[upper warren]

It is pretty wild that you can be a planet on jump ship trade circuit and be hella futurist then your celestial neighbor is like, mud and trucks, bolt action rifles, and leather armor

There was a book where the protag was a hunter who used bows and wore leathers. Battletech is wild

[indigo hinge]

They really went "Yeah, slap some guns on that."

[upper warren]

I'd loved to have seen a battle sleigh attached to a mega fauna mole or worm that can exit under ground

Dune reference not intended

[indigo hinge]

I've been thinking about types of megafauna that could impact play. Imagine fighting a bunch of neodinosaurs. Or just a stampede of them going around the board in a similar way to air strikes.

[upper warren]

A underwater scenario fighting mega large boas

[indigo hinge]

Hmm, or even a megalodon.

It could be very cool in a campaign scenario.

[upper warren]

Mega Mole; now you are in a depth 3 hole.

Enjoy pterodactyl bombers

God what was that show

I mean... Come on... How sick would this be

I'm already thinking about Far Country

[indigo hinge]

"Clan Jade Falcon bids two stars of battlemechs. What say you?"
"Tankylosaurs."
"Come again?"
AC-20 shell impacts
"Tankylosaurs."

Gods imagine if they made battle armour but for megafauna. Like high tech suits with stuff like rocket boots, and then sent those out in squads.

[upper warren]

Vibro Claws

[indigo hinge]

You. You're hired for the design team.

[upper warren]

We should do a Pilot.net April Fools campaign for BT like "Welcome to the California Nebula "