/btg/ Battletech General!

This is one of those annoying things about construction limitations. CASE not being able to put in arms is fucking maddening when it already has a heavy disadvantage compared to the clan version.

I'm not a drac, but their "death to mercenaries" thing was spot on. I can't think of an aspect of the fluff that hurts Battletech more than huge merc units.

Intro rules are pretty restrictive.

That color scheme is a pretty good idea for posting TROs. It reads well and is easy on the eyes. I think I'll give it a go myself.

As for the actual design, jokes aside, it needs ammo. Drop two Medium Lasers and you're good there. Also, I'd sub the SRM4 for an LRM5, and that way you have a "long range arm" you can punch with in melee without having to choose not to fire some of your short range weapons. Lowering the ML count to three will also make it feel a touch less cheesy, in my opinion.

Also, are we posting Introtech? I can't decide if the Commando, swapping the SRM4 for an LRM5, is better than this or not, given how useful jump jets are. The loss of the ML in comparison is a bit of an issue too. The increased armor is nice, however, as it can tank a PPC shot to the front torso, which might gut a Commando.

Knocking people for six is always fun.

>steal a water tank

Oh, Space 80s and water raids. When did they put out the explanation that water raids were actually pirates stealing spare parts and other stuff for their existing purifiers and not, say, draining water towers?

Also, not all bandit 'Mechs need hands. My optimum raiding force would probably be Leopard or a Union with the heaviest, nastiest 'Mechs to fight any opposition and a Seeker with a lance of hand-equipped and/or specialist 'Mechs (anti-infantry, anti-vehicle) for the actual looting part. The rest of the Seeker would be filled with tanks or hovercraft, a lot of Space 10-Ton Lorries, and infantry.

Whilst the battle lance keeps the defenders busy, the Seeker gang hits the objective, the infantry and the 'Mechs load the loot on the lorries, and everyone drives off with much more stuff than just a few 'Mechs carrying containers.

>drop TO two Medium Lasers
>Lowering the ML count BY three
Tired.

Smaller units make good sense and are good from a gamest point of view. It's the fact that the Kell Hounds are a fucking nation and pretty much every 'merc unit you hear about ends up owning whole planets that is absurd, fluff wise.

Like dis.

I sweep high-wear areas with a flat black, then do a lighter sweep of a silverish metallic. The black outline makes the silver pop more.

Agreed. Anything over a Company in size in the mid to late SW era, and anything over a battalion in any other era is getting silly, in my opinion. A few notable, "pet" merc outfits having a few battalions to their name is fine since you are going to have players who want that, but most of them should be pretty rag-tag. Now, this is just 'Mechs, mind you. A merc unit with three lances of 'Mechs that also has the same number of vees is fine too. In fact, the main company being augmented by vees is even better, since they are so much cheaper, and for most of what mercs would do, are idea, since they aren't going to be doing frontline work most of the time. Mercs are for shoring up your reserves, and garrisoning planets when your national armed forces make a push. For that, vees are ideal. Mercs should never be super-rich anyway. They can be well-off, and good at their jobs, but aside from the aforementioned "pet" units for the purposes of dramatic fiction (your Goons and Hounds, and all that), they should be always in the black, at best.

Not that user, but that does look damn good. I might experiment with it in some of my paint schemes when I get around to my next batch of 'Mechs.

>He says this while irl, mercenaries account for more than ten percent of the USA's boots on the ground in the Middle East. It's good for morale when no soldiers are dying, just "contractors". And how would you even categorize triple umbrella? They don't make more money than Walmart, but they pull in billions. Incredibly influential, wealthy mercs are certainly a real thing.
You are always free to dislike what you want, but why don't you post about the aspects of the fluff you enjoy instead?

i hate hating everything - Grumpy Smurf

>dislike = hate
I think this is where too many people trip. I know this was intended to be bait, but it actually reveals a painful truth.

Thank you my kind sir.

I will say that it's easier to do with a thinner but well-covering paint. GWs metallics tend to be too thick. I use Vallejo air.

Just a comment about all the kvetching lately. It's really is getting weary after 30 years to listen to the same old gripes over and over. Guys I love you all (in the not gay way not that there is anything wrong with being gay) but can't you talk about the good part of the game?

Well, what do you want to talk about user? Some designs got posted earlier in the thread, there's been some mini-painting talk, tree clubs and Locust golfing sort of came up... what's on your mind?

MOAR MISSILES.

I really like Target of Opportunity so far. You could tell Herb and co. were really gearing up for the Jihad since they released DotJ the year afterward. Everything really starts to mesh together well. It just has that wonderful mix of old school Btech plus Dark Age chaos and combined arms. And I usually don't even like Pardoe books that much. Plus it's the only full Comstar novel I think ever written, instead of just shared chunks of bigger plots.

My only main bitching is that the combat obviously still pulls too much from the DA CMG with shit like running in a mech causing it to overheat and all the obvious references to DA unit names like the infantry. I actually rolled my eyes when they did a tank drop with a J-27. Which sucks because everything else feels so Battletech. Now I think I finally understand what people used to complain about when they said they could hear the dice clattering in some Stackpole books.

MOAR LASERS
The CML Ontos is way more scary but this feels more practical to me. More like something they'd actually print.

I can't really say anything that 180 SRMs don't already say for themselves.

Chemical lasers get rid of power amps, they still need heat sinks.

What? No they don't.

I thought they behaved like ballistics on vehicles. SAW doesn't require mounting any heat sinks and it usually auto-allocates them for weapons that require them. Is it a bug?

Working on a Clan star (3055), want to deploy a Masakari, which do you consider the better configuration?
So far I'm favoring the F config

No real point in driving one if you're not driving the Prime or the C. It's like driving a Gauss Vulture. Sure, it's a decent machine, but it really doesn't feel like a Vulture anymore.

I know the irony in saying that about an omni, but it is what it is.

I can't wait for my limited-edition Atlas statue!

AFAIK the only ammo-using weapon that also requires heat sinks is the Plasma Rifle. Maybe he's confusing the rules with that?

Looking more at Combat Manual Mercenaries... who wrote this garbage?

>The Free Worlds League is a collection of loosely allied nation-states which often have their own policies toward mercenaries. Overall, it is accurate to say that the Free Worlds League is somewhat distrusting of mercenaries, due in no small part to House units often being bought off with empty promises or outright bribery. If their own troops are so dishonorable, how far should mercenaries be trusted?

This is flanderization gone wild. Especially since the book seems to be set in 3050 during one of the strongest periods of federalization in the League's history. Even in 3025 it was described as a federation, not "loose alliance of nation-states".
And literally where is the shit about their House units coming from? Or mercenaries? Free Worlders didn't have a rep for distrusting them, they were *fascinated* with mercs to the extent it caused a fashion age. The blurb seems more rooted in the attitude Thomas Marik *eventually* took in the mid 50s after he formed the knights than with the merc-heavy League of 3050. Plus its utterly wrong in how the League uses mercs, claiming most are relegated to the periphery when the most cursory glimpse at 20YU (as well as common sense) has most on the FedCom and CapCon borders.

I'd heard on /btg/ that their factchecking is getting bad but geez.

They keep promoting factionfags to their writing team and dumping more and more of the fact-checking proof-reading off onto the fan base.

Sad to say but the cronyism in the BT side of things has been noticeable for a long time and is only getting worse.

We could probably quibble over a few details but looking at the book now I can see what you mean.

What's the point of the Combat Manual series anyway?

→
>IMO the single biggest hole in the Marik ASF lineup is a light ASF that is even moderately capable/survivable. Because the Cheetah is terrible at actually fighting - disintegrating when something sneezes near you isn't terribly helpful. I'd give them the Centurion for that role. Basically the Cheetah becomes a 1st-shell interceptor/recon bird, while the Centurion takes on a 2nd-shell interceptor/dogfighter role.

Silly question, but what are the "shells" you speak of?
Would you recommend any others besides the Centurion to replace the Cheetah? Asking only because I see it's originally a FedSuns bird and so probably hard to get a hold of the schematics. But you'd probably know more about that than me.

And how do Corsairs stack up? I saw the Regulans have some and wondered if they were worth getting/building more of (AU-wise).

>What's the point of the Combat Manual series anyway?

Alpha Strike mostly I think.

Also supposed to be a "new, fresh look" at the houses for BT, but that seems to be a very secondary role.

Corsairs are nice. They're the classic backbone of Davion Medium Aerospace. They're one of my favorite jack of all trades fighters.

Field Manual Lite for Alpha Strike

>has most on the FedCom and CapCon borders.

Well, on the note of them being in the Periphery, couldn't the League have posted the Com Guards on their borders with the other Successor States instead of Mercenaries?

Why would the League have any say in where the Com Guard went?

Well, they could have worked an arrangement out similar to the one Sun-Tzu worked out, where he was allowed to choose where the Com Guards were posted.

That happened after the WoB schism and IIRC after they took Earth. ComStar and WoB were engaged in a bidding war to have control of the CC's HPGs. Also another instance of Xin Sheng magic since nobody else got to dictate terms like that.

Before that, the ComGuard went where ComStar said.

Not that it matters any way, the ComGuard were neutral so they wouldn't have fought CapCon or Lyran attackers.

>Mercs should never be super-rich anyway.

Weren't some like the Big Mac and Storm's Thunder rich by nature of owning operations or having a share in them?

The unfucking of the Shiva is going to be complicated. It's heavy and uses both XL and FA, which makes it quite expensive. It has a lot of firepower available to it, but it's severely under-armored for its weight class. On most of the configs that's a liability as it's a direct-action fighter, though with a lot of range. It also only has average speed for that weight class, making that difficult.

The only config that seems to really negate that is the -OB config, which is designed for long-range bombardment via swarms of missiles.

Stripping out some of the basic heatsinks and reconfiguring some of the configs to use better grouped weapons (like swapping the LBX-20 with an LBX-10 on the -O config) will free up enough tonnage to either give it a faster engine or better armor.

Curious, but are more than a few of the major factions in the Dark Age heading for Civil War by 3150?

It seems like every Great House (except maybe the Confederation) is and that the Jade Falcons are as well.

Limitations in the quality of writing staff.

But it does improve the Republic's chances of resurgence dramatically doesn't it?

They'd only have to fight Clan Wolf with (possible) aid from the Dominion.

>except the confederation
You kidding? One of the Warrior House heads goes Thích Quảng Đức on the steps of the palace in TRO 3150. Good odds on the incest getting out and starting a civil war. Honestly, the states safest from civil war are the Davions because they've got an existential threat that's holding them together rather than tearing them apart, and the FWL because they've already had their civil war, and the nuLeague seems to be getting Regulus back by 3150.

Isn't it still in the air as to whether or not Eric Sandoval will give up power to Julian Davion?

Likewise, isn't the League likely looking at a fight against Andurien and the Magistracy should the League come knocking for that break away state? They also have to worry about reintegrating Regulus, which could prove a violent affair given how they've acted in the past.

The Combine already had their Civil War/Coupe. The ruling family got assassinated and the granddaughter of that Sakamoto guy from the TV show took the throne and became the puppet of Black Dragon Sakamoto, Warlord Benjamin.

Caleb headed off a Civil War by pushing his father out a window. Julian coming back should be pretty uncontested.

The League is picking up pet clanners like a Drac in Bulldog. Half of them are camped on Marik itself. That can't end well. Otherwise, they're pretty much in the constant state of balkanization/civil war they've been in since the 3070's, minus Tamarind Abby, Graham Marik, and Oriente getting the band back together.

> reintegrating Regulus, which could prove a violent affair given how they've acted in the past.

90% sure the Regulan Fiefs are still independent. They just got thrown off Atreus because GMILF Halas-Marik showed up with clanner warships and told them she was the only one allowed to pick over the bones of Marik Stewart.

Actually, the lore implies that there is a growing rift between the current Coordinator and her Warlord over the Combine military.

The lore also puts it in to question whether or not Erik Sandoval will actually hand power over to Julian when he reaches New Avalon.

>90% sure the Regulan Fiefs are still independent.

As of 3150, they were forced to reintegrate with the League due to sanctions launched against them after Lester had Jessica whacked for her antics.

>hooded Tshirt

Kill everything. Leave no-one alive.

>Honestly, the states safest from civil war are the Davions because their poor are too damn poor to do anything

fixed.

Can you play as pirates in an AtB campaign?

Do we have anything about 3150 that isn't TRO:3150? Because a lot of this stuff is quite different than the state of things in 3145. I'd like to check it out.

>Lester killed the Captain GMILF
Based Lester finishing the job. Wait, does that mean that little witch Jessica was the one who put all those sanctions in place and is ruling the League? Oh please god tell me she's still not buddy buddy with Danai.

>Based Lester finishing the job. Wait, does that mean that little witch Jessica was the one who put all those sanctions in place and is ruling the League? Oh please god tell me she's still not buddy buddy with Danai.

Yes I believe she is.

However, it was the Sea Foxes that implemented the sanctions.

Quite personally, I think Jessica Marik had it coming given whom she was antagonizing.

I'm surprised she didn't get it sooner with her stunt of having a hotel bombed and making it appear the Blakist were behind it.

>I'm surprised she didn't get it sooner with her stunt of having a hotel bombed and making it appear the Blakist were behind it.

He killed her two oldest children for that one. He just didn't know that she had thrown them aside to groom her youngest to rule.

>the Sea Foxes that implemented the sanctions.

>The legendary Marik merchants getting cockblocked by Clan Space Jew
Combine this with Lester's rant about the history of Regulan trading in Pandora's Gambit and that must have been one terribly bitter pill to swallow

For mechs, is a Small Pulse Laser better than a machine gun for killing infantry?

To be fair, doesn't Regulus technically have some bargaining chips in this new League?

As I understand it, wouldn't they have both a well trained military and Ronin Inc, one of the largest military production sights still left in League space?

Most of the other League manufacturers from what I've heard were lost to the Republic in the years after the Jihad and then to the Wolf Empire after HAMMERFALL.

>Lester's rant about the history of Regulan trading in Pandora's Gambit and that must have been one terribly bitter pill to swallow

What did he say in essence?

The usual Regulan "We roamed the stars from the Rim Commonality to The Rock. The Hansa and the Jarnfolk were nothing compared to us." followed by "And now I'm reduced to crawling on my hands and knees to Terra just to get my merchants an audience with new contacts while Anton postures and Jessica plots like the traitor-spawn she is."

That second one is barely paraphrased. The Regulans were being ostrasized by the rest of the League economically decades before sanctions.

>"And now I'm reduced to crawling on my hands and knees to Terra just to get my merchants an audience with new contacts while Anton postures and Jessica plots like the traitor-spawn she is."

Didn't they spoil relations with Terra and Stone when one of their operatives killed a high ranking Blakist (thought to be Nammah) on Terran soil and accused the Republic of having Blakist sympathies?

They wouldn't be wrong. I'm like 80% sure that Stone's a Blakist plot.

Pretty sure that happened under Titus, not Lester. Now Lester is still super anti-Blakist, about the only ruler left that is, but he's not retarded about it.

Well if he was, perhaps he is with the Blakist sect that was more moderate than the fanatical mad men that would over take the organization?

I recall some like Trent Arian being a relatively decent Blakist who frowned on individuals like Cameron St. Jamais and his Toyama faction.

Sorry bud. All that super secret stuff was all 6th of June which was the secret extra radical sect of the Toyamas. Think how far down the rabbit hole you have to be to make St. Jamais look like a reasonable dude.

>Think how far down the rabbit hole you have to be to make St. Jamais look like a reasonable dude

As far as I'm aware, only the Master and Apollyon could do that.

Even a regular man can make that journey under the right circumstances.

They can be. A MG can also be switched to rapid-fire mode potentially giving it higher damage than a SPL.

Rapid fire has no effect on infantry death. It's one case where it's just a waste of heat and ammo.

MG does 2D6 to infantry
SPL is the same

MG has the advantage of generating no heat. SPL has the advantage of also being able to set fires, a very handy thing to be able to do against entrenched infantry.

Did the Burrocks contribute anything to the Clans like tech, mechs or anything? What was their composition like touman wise?

ded/10

It does on non-infantry units.

This explains some of it:

> Entry from the Picaroon fighter.

>Major Shardae Nangwaya: Major Nangwaya is the cold-as-space commander of the fighter wing attached to the Regulan Fiefs’ Eighth Regulan Hussars. An elite-grade pilot, she has flown fighter craft of every weight class, and counts among her kills over two dozen enemy fighters, six small assault craft, and three DropShips. She favors the Picaroon for its speed and the focused power of its heavy PPC. While capable of air-to-ground operations, Nangwaya prefers her fighting in space, and came to see the Sea Fox-led interdictions of the Regulan Fiefs as an affront that could be best solved by Regulan space power “and a lot of nukes.”

>When the worsening of the economic sanctions against the Regulans sparked the assassination of Captain-General Jessica Marik and a brief war between Oriente and Regulus, Nangwaya thought her realm’s time had finally come—especially when the RSMC re-authorized the Eighth Hussars’ access to tactical nuclear ordnance. Her hopes dashed by the Regulan surrender in July of 3148, she and much of her wing went rogue, taking their fighters, a DropShip, and an unknown number of Alamo-class atomic warheads. None of these warriors have been seen since.

One can only wonder what they plan to do with the atomic warheads given their anti-League stance.

More importantly, SPL has the advantage of not having a ludicrous amount of explosive ammo.

>One can only wonder what they plan to do with the atomic warheads given their anti-League stance.

Blowing a couple Aimags worth of Arcships out of the stars would be a good start.

A shell in that sense is basically the layers of a gobstopper - if you want to get the center without cracking your teeth, you have to lick each one

Anybody else having a crap problem downloading the most recent releases of MegaMek from Github? I can't download anything from there for longer than a few seconds. I can't get the recent releases of MegaMek, HQ and lab.

No, they had their own secret stuff. Nothing stopping another sect from being sneak yo.

The part where all the ex-ROM sneaks were Toyamas kinda does.

>Stone turns out to be a Blakist plot
>it's a deadman switch devised by Trent Arian and triggered when St. Jamais killed Blane

Fund it

Make the background the same color as the tomorrow theme's post box.

How should I play if I've never played a real game before? Are there people willing to teach on megamek or is it SMASH KILL BURN -DC?

If that were true, sure.

Obviously non-ROM followers perpetrate it.

Two unrelated clan questions:

1) Is the wusun ASF good? If not, are there any white burd planes you would recommend?
2) I heard somewhere that Diamond Shark/Sea Fox is run by merchants rather than warriors (even having a Merchant-Warrior hybrid caste). How does that work? And how would you make on in AToW?

oh lawd

Hell, I remember one of the books talking about how CG's sometimes used big numbers of Mercs to make up for not having enough federal troops.

Not clear on Andurien - they may decide to go back to teh FWL when the CC gets too pushy, they might just go their own way as the CC disintegrates into paranoia, they might become a permanent member of the Greater Southern Sphere Co-Prosperity Sphere, they might make some deal with the FWL...

The Clanners on Marik are supported by a Marik and the League has no real reason to have an issue with them, given their support of internal League operations and their excellent performance in trials against the Wolves.

Jessica is the mom, her daughter Nikol is likely the new CG. No news on Danai and her.

I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.

I mean, he kinda was. He put a "significant" portion of the Regulan budget towards anti-Blakist operations even in 3145. Even if there were still Blakists causing issues, they're not in Regulus.

There's people willing to teach around here. Pop into the IRC and ask. I'm usually down to teach if I'm not busy with something else.

>Even if there were still Blakists causing issues, they're not in Regulus.

He literally killed a big cell of them in the Fiefs just seven years before the Blackout.

>I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.
>Wuffs removed with nuclear fire and angry Indians
beautiful

Were they really Blakists or was that a cover story for killing domestic enemies? Never read the Derp Age books.

While that would be pretty sweet, I'd rather get Kalidasa back in one piece.

>I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.

Given how fond Regulus is of splitting the Atom, that could go poorly for everyone involved.

>I'm hoping the FWL gets around the reintegration problem by throwing every single regiment of Hussars at the Wolves.
Please spare my 1st.

I wish the writers had figured out more to do with Regulus than [angry nuking noises].

Yes, really Blakists.