/btg/ - Battletech General

Building a clan wolf star atm.

Why is the Ice Ferret so fuck huge compared to everything else?

FASA, FanPro, CGL, Ral Partha, and IWM can't into scale.

Or maybe it's a performance art piece about how the Ice Ferret is the single most common Wolf 'Mech in the Invasion era.

Wolf cucked the sphere. Alaric did! He took a Wolf army to Terra. There was NO ONE left to cuck, da wimmiz was his.

Honestly, at this point I'm writing off the scale variances as being differences in the 'Mech's electronic signature and the ease of targeting them. That's why it's so much easier to get line-of-sight in minis play against a primitive Longbow or a modern Thor instead of a "perfected" Invasion-era model, right?

>So even if the fluff says that they do it, simple logic demands that they don't, or the game universe falls apart.

There's a lot of stuff that just doesn't add up between what a piece of fluff will say and what will make sense or even mesh with other fluff. It can be a hassle.
I guess it's kinda good CGL is laying off solid numbers and stuff anymore.

>He took a Wolf army to Terra.

I don't see it making much of a dent in Terra. I find it a miracle they even have a capable fighting force left after battles against the Republic, Lyrans and Free World's remnants.

Also looking at that map, if the Jade Falcons are rampaging in Lyran territory, who or what exactly is guarding the Falcon Occupation Zone?

>who or what exactly is guarding the Falcon Occupation Zone?
The Hell's Horses and all the people our beloved Khan has shat upon to get where she is..
SURELY THIS WILL END WELL.

Are a decent number of the Wolf troops bondsman or impressed militia or something? Vehicles and regular infantry too.

>SURELY THIS WILL END WELL

Is the Cameron line the spokes-dynasty for that then?

I'm curious to know what those malcontents Malvina's dumping off in that one location are doing.

I'm surprised that's actually stopping their Rasalhague neighbors or the Horses, unless neither of them are particularly interested in Jade Falcon territory.

Did all the Great Houses get an even copy of the Gray Death Memory Core?

Welcome to the game, here's a Locust, try not to die?

Even if they didn't, espionage ensured that many had a partial, if not mostly complete, copy of the reconstructed core that was undergoing study by engineers and technicians in each of the Great Houses.

Specifically, I believe the Combine acquired it when Grayson Carle exchanged a copy of it with a Combine Warlord in exchange for aid.

The Free World's League and Capellan Confederation got it through espionage I believe, while the Federated Suns either got it through espionage or from their Lyran partners when they formed the Federated Commonwealth.

If you replace the word Regiment with Division, the Battletech universe starts to make more sense.

If you ignore hard numbers the universe makes even more sense

Sort of. Fluff is inconsistent, especially with the shitstorm of retcons regarding tech recovery.
The original idea seems to have been roughly that the level of overall knowledge was more or less even, but the rate of putting the tech into production and common use was a bit more haphazard

The FWL's was actually (maybe surprisingly?) personally sent to Janos Marik and Hector Stewart by Grayson Carlyle.

If the FWL got anything through espionage, it's because the other party wanted them to get it. SAFE is too incompetent to actually succeed at stealing anything, never mind sensitive data.

If you ignore the numbers, the fluff, the writers, and the fans, it's one of the best games ever made.

Not really, it's more dependent on the era (and what author's forget to fact-check). SAFE's pulled off some coups before.

That makes sense since you are not ignoring the rules

...

Which is the best of the post-3050 Warhammers?

the -8D looks like absolute trash but it's a great all-rounder stats-wise, as is the -8K.
my personal favorite canon models are probably the -10 and -11T, because I'm a heavy cavalry kinda guy

>the -8D looks like absolute trash
>2 ERPPC and some close-ranged weapons
>max armor, oversunk
>trash

I meant appearance-wise. the thing is hideous, but it's performance is excellent (kinda like the Cestus and Dragon Fire. maybe it's a FedCom thing)

>(kinda like the Cestus and Dragon Fire. maybe it's a FedCom thing)
More like those two are lost in the shuffle of the incredible assaults the FC got in the same book.

>More like those two are lost in the shuffle of the incredible assaults the FC got in the same book.
yeah. I just meant that they look bad, but perform good.
honestly, I do like the FedCom, but man, 3058 was one fuck of a lopsided TRO.
given the choice, I'd have retconned it to give factories for more than a few of those mechs to the dracs and FWL, make those mechs IS general instead of all FedCom all the time.
I kinda wish 3058U had actually done that, rather than just adding in a few FCCW/early jihad references and replacing the Fulcrum's fluff for no reason

Battlebump

>I don't see it making much of a dent in Terra.

The magic of the Dark Age novels, man. Terra was basically defended by one old drunk guy with a bolt-action rifle in the DA fiction. CGL has reversed that as much as they can.

I also believe they've walked back the canon aspect of the Alaric vs Stone battle.

Yep. The Wolves bulked up their numbers on paper by listing what amounts to planetary militia as line forces. Their actual combat troops, the sort of stuff that makes the grade for everyone else's FM lists, is like a third to a half of that. And their proper combat forces are badly beaten down after the battle with the Lyrans and the FWL.

>I'm surprised that's actually stopping their Rasalhague neighbors or the Horses, unless neither of them are particularly interested in Jade Falcon territory.

The Wolves relocated to the FWL/Lyran border in the Dark Age to get away from like 90 years of repeated assreamings from the Falcons, Horses, Bears, and Lyrans.

Utter newb here, does anyone in /btg/ own any of these models?

ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/battletech-c-1/miniatures-c-1_3/vehicles-c-1_3_6/20743-mobile-headquarters-p-550.html
ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/battletech-c-1/miniatures-c-1_3/vehicles-c-1_3_6/20308-morningstar-city-command-vehicle-p-551.html
ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/battletech-c-1/miniatures-c-1_3/tanks-c-1_3_5/20751-long-tom-artillery-p-472.html

If so, would it be possible to see some better photos? I am interested in how they look painted, and how big they are.

camospecs.com

This is excellent

There are some mechs, particularly ones licensed to StarCorps to produce, that I'm surprised aren't IS generals. Somehow the Capellans always get them even when their leader is a nutcase.

>even when their leader is a nutcase

Maybe that's the reason. Better to hand 'em over than see the Death Commandos coming in to steal anything that's not bolted down.

Too bad they haven't damn updated in forever. Be nice to see more stuff.

>First time playing BattleTech
>Playing with two friends
>One has a ton of experience with it and DM's for us
>Basically teach as we go type deal
>Once we're done with the mock one we actually try our hand at it
>First attack on one of my friends and I roll a crit on his ammo supply, which was housed in the torso

lol a solid hypothesis

I mean if I had Death Commandos coming after me in their latest mechs, the Coleman PRCH-BX-750K, I'd be afraid too.

You got the "Now You're Playing Battletech!" experience right from the off. One day it's you brewing up your opponent's ride with a first shot ammo crit, the next you fail a 3+ PSR to enter a shallow river, faceplant and breach the head.

BT can get kinda magical like that.

To be fair I made the shot after flailing around in depth 1 water like poorly made automaton baby

>given the choice, I'd have retconned it to give factories for more than a few of those mechs to the dracs and FWL, make those mechs IS general instead of all FedCom all the time.

I've done that with a handful of mechs in my games. I usually try not to stray from the fluff too much but sometimes things just work better.

hm.. those are a tad too many rotaries

>One day it's you brewing up your opponent's ride with a first shot ammo crit, the next you fail a 3+ PSR to enter a shallow river, faceplant and breach the head
AND ONE DAY YOU FEED
ON A TREE FROG

Any pictures of the latest minis? Curious if the Centurion is any good.

I've always felt the Devastator would be a better Drac 'Mech- they were the first to get GRs and they love their PPCs. Swap the Cerberus to the FWL from TR 3058 (I always forget it's a Drac one, the FWL has their own Cerb variant, and at 4/6 it fits in with their fast assault mentality). Nightstr stays FS, Lyrans keep the Thunder Hawk.

Spreads out the dual gauss monsters a lot better.

I also unfuck the Cerberus as follows.

Those are MGs. The Pirahna is hilarious.

>too many rotaries
IMPOSSIBLE!

What about the Capellans?

This makes me wonder, is there any lore about how mechwarriors feel about those who use mechs like the Pirahna, do they hate them because they mass slaughter PBI or look down because they don't fight mechs or no lore about it?

The Russian ones? Sure, let me post some for you...

I'm still waiting for my local post to process my package, which contains a centurion among many others. I'll be posting stage by stage images of those once I get them.

>12 MGs
>in addition some Laser weaponry

the heat/ammo management on that thing don't seem feasible to me

>200 tons
thats not fair play

Pretty sure 'Mechs explictly designed for Infantry are frowned upon by everyone, but they have a purpose.

>not wanting to burn up your MG ammo as fast as you can so you don't KB

I'd imagine the mechwarriors who have had the pleasure of dealing with hordes of grunts with lasers and rocket launchers would feel indifferent or be pleased with slaughter.

On the other hand those who primarily fight other battlemechs and have someone else do the grunt slaughtering for them would feel disdain or contempt for their actions.

Pragmatic ones might feel a pang of regret with the mass slaughter of people considering how easy it is in a battlemech, but would come to realize it's just another facet of war they have to deal with.

They have the Pillager, Stealth Pillagers, and Stealth Marauder IIs.

They're not hurting for dual Gauss platforms the way the FWL and Dracs are.

Not much lore about it. However since the greatest honour is to be won by fighting other 'Mechs 1v1 and the Piranha is made for either pack fighting or slaughtering infantry I think we can come to the obvious conclusions there.

...

Those aren't new at all, I'm talking about the all-American pewter ones.

I know I would be iffy about the people who ride Gunapults or Vulcans or Firestarters for preference. I think one of the old sourcebooks (maybe a TRO) had a vignette about some Firestarter pilot who really, really likes to light fires and burn people. Or that mercenary/bandit group who practically live for torching shit.

I did similar with some of the 1st gen IS omnis the Dracs made. Never made sense to me that the CapCon and Lyrans get free production to rides like the Avatar but the FWL was solely excluded despite being a technological and economic partner.

The FWL got the Owens and Firestarter. Strider too I think.

But the FedCom (surprise, surprise) got the lot between them.

Right. So I just added the Avatar, Sunder and Blackhawk-KU to their lists.

I actually can't find that they got the Firestarter for production. They did get the Blackjack and Strider.

Blackjack and Owens at Irian Technologies, Irian, Strider and Blackjack at Shiro from Irian (p. 131 HB HM).

I may be misremembering because the FWL got a config for the Firestarter, but I'm pretty sure it was mentioned as not just being exported to but also built in the FWL. Either way they have some.

it was a Davion Scarecrow pilot in the 3145 TRO who asked reporters if they'd rather send one hundred soldiers to die or send a mech to do the same job.

i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m579/mccross90/Centurion Omni/Image_zpsr9jc16lf.png

I think he means that one. But I don't think it's been released yet.

Uh... hm. am I wrong thinking that it looks like the concept art for a childs toy rather than the avatar of a 50 ton, several meters tall warmachine?

Seriously, it looks like the sort of toy you give your 5-year-old nephew with which he makes "PEW PEW" sounds with.

>implying that ain't battlemechs

Fair enough, I suppose.

Looks like a Dark Age Centurion.
Didn't IWM already make those?

you see, the main difference is only that the pew pew machines are smaller and you number crunch with them to show how superior they are. in the end you just pew pew and say yours are the coolest because colour and faction

Is there a video online of that fundraising game CGL did recently? The one where people could donate money to repair mechs.

>Implying "For fans, by fans" isn't a good idea
It's like you want quality.

hyper rpg has a channel on youtube that has that game, their own battletech show, and updates on the battletech game they are developing for the pc

How is this any worse than all the other stacked cardboard box designs?

The Warhammer has arm cannons in the same configuration, and just as many flat panels and bullet traps.

It isn't perfect, but it's not really any goofier than the alternatives. Granted, the old Centurion has a charm of its own, but it's hardly an impressive or sensible-looking death machine.

The proportions on the one in the album just seem sort of off

I dislike the head, but I'm going to cross my fingers it was done that way so it could be cast properly in pewter and will look better painted up. Centurions are just one of those machines I can't do without, been crossing my fingers for a decent revamp for literally decades.

>Implying "For fans, by fans" isn't a good idea
Path of Exile was made by "Hardcore Diablo Fans".

Their definition of "hardcore" seems to be "grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind grind"

Aside from the fact that the mini looks barely anything like the art, either the White piece from 3145, or older DA material, the Centurion Omni already had a perfectly serviceable cast that *didn't* look like someone started with the original minis proportions and just slapped on features.

Where? I've never seen another version of it.

Sorry, by cast I meant the plastic mini. It's not a great sculpt, but it's a damn sight better than that mess.

I know scale creep is a thing, but that doesn't even come close to fitting on a normal hexmap.

Why does everyone in this galaxy have such a fetish for inventing stuff that is DIFFERENT but never actually improving anything? Will anyone ever build something that is simply an objective improvement?

A lot of parties are looking for that next big thing. Either to grab it for themselves, or to kill whoever made it so that nobody else can get it.

Comstar pretty much did this for centuries to ensure it's position as galactic verizon wasn't threatened.

Because it would unbalance the game, duh.

There was a plastic one?

Real answer? The game prides itself on allowing you to use (almost) all of your original stats for things, regardless of era. Adding technology upgrades like slimming Ferro Fibrous and Endo Steel crits down, or reducing the weight of weapons, would bloat the game even more than it already is. It's a practical decision, but one that makes everyone in the current fluff look like fucking idiots. If we take the original fluff, where the IS got their shit together with Double Heat Sinks and so on in less than two years, it's just as bad, if not worse. By the late 60s, the IS should have been closing the tech gap better than LFF and HFF and Ecomp. By the 3100s, Clantech proportions should be higher than 10-20% (That tech rating has disappeared in the 3145 FM is hilarious though), yet the IS powers still cannot into mass producing tech they were garage kitting 60 years ao.

Pretty sure that user means the plastic DA Centurion.

ya guys have Alpha Strike Companion? Can't find it in OP's links (checked both - am I derp?)
Btw, sharingdude#2 - the amount of stuff you have is overwhelming and I'm really thankful for sharing, but the folders&subfolders there are a mess, searching for anything is a pain :-/
Or is there a smart way to use that, some search options etc. of which I am not aware of?

It's in there somewhere.

I downloaded it myself something like 2 months ago.

Ahh, I forget clix miniatures were a thing. Not out of grognard rage or whatever, just lack of familiarity.

I really like the MWO centurion design though. Can't imagine Yen Lo Wang looking like the old design any more after exposure to that.

Apparently, I am a retard. It is in the first one (the better/simplier organized one), just not next to the "normal" Alpha Strike. Thanks for the tip, man.

Going to chance my arm at the Irish nationals even though I havent been playing long. Is there anyone here that is going?