/btg/ Battletech General!

Actually yeah that's the one he made, I just checked my saved images. Quit while you're ahead, asshole.

>tfw TPTB probably intend for him to die childless and the rudderless Regulans be quietly integrated into the League where they won't cause trouble or be significant.

It's a shame because he's easily the best leader the Regulans have had in the last couple centuries. Of course if he lived to VSD age as a key player, and had a couple kids it would be excellent. So strange how the early fiction has proper feudal people with lots of kids but the DA is rife with childless lords.

I appreciate you looking out for people ripping off stuff, but it's a spurdo meme, chill out.

I mean, he did just marry the old MoC chick, forget name atm. With MoC medical science, they can probably cook a kid up no problem.

He could have cooked up a kid at any point. Even a tech D world has that technology. That's what makes it so strange. Same thing happened with Vincent's kid. The guy was married to a barren woman and instead of looking at some medical shortcuts, he was content to just leave it alone. Worse, the advisors were trying to get him to take a mistress to make a child and were pissed off he was loyal to his wife. That was their solution instead of looking at fixing the problem with tech. It might make sense if there was some stigma against heirs made by invitro or something but I can't find any references to that effect. Hohiro II pissing about is one of the major reasons the Black Dragons staged a coup. They considered it a dead line anyway. They were just hastening it along.

I guess what I'm getting at is it confounds me that kids are treated as less than essential by any noble family, much less a ruling one. They're all about legacy so children and securing the line is absurdly important. This is reflected in the old material but not in the new.

It isn't AtB specifically, it's MegaMek in general. I've had many a match where one or more kills failed to be assigned.

Yeah, I've seen this behaviour before but now it cheated me out of two kills in a row, and I'm fairly sure the post-battle screen (the "Winner: Team 1" one) showed the kills correctly. I wonder where the wires are crossed between MekHQ and Megamek.

On the other hand, I probably shouldn't bitch about this when I just kicked someone in the shin so hard his chest exploded and the pilot flew clear out of the battlefield.

The problem's in MegaMek. I don't use MekHQ and it still fails to assign kills in the after battle report. It's frequent enough that I started writing down kills when they happen.

>Tfw no dominant Hell's Horses mechwarrior to take you bondsman and sit on your face

What do you think has happened in the Kerensky Cluster since the Wars of Reaving? Do you think the homeworld clans will ever be relevant again?

Has Hairbrained Schemes posted any guides for using their new weight class based turn system in table top?

I know they're using it in DFA, would be interested if they posted playtest rules somewhere

Possibly? It looks like the Homeworld Clans may be preparing another Invasion, based off of the information in ISP3, but their numbers are just too few to really do well. Especially since they've got approximately 20 or so Galaxies at the end of the Reavings. Even assuming they expanded to 30, they could probably take down one or two Clans at most, less depending on if they hit the Bears first.

Lights go first, then mediums, then heavies, then assaults. Just alternate one mech per player until you clear out the weight class. Ignore the fact that this means that an Urbanmech has better initiative than a Charger.

>What do you think has happened in the Kerensky Cluster since the Wars of Reaving?

More Just As Planned for the Star Adders.

>Do you think the homeworld clans will ever be relevant again?

Probably not any time soon. Given how badly pasted everyone got in the Reavings for them to challenge the Invaders they'd need to build bullshit WarShips and other naval assets and go hog wild on WMDs and bioweapons.

We already had that plotline though, it was called the Jihad and I hope they don't go back to that well in the near future.

do you have to roll initiative every phase then if both sides have lights, mediums, etc?

You roll once for each side, not for each weight class.

Hey /btg/ my group is advancing our campaign to the dark age soon, and I need some advice.

I run a mercenary unit which is big on using older usually Introtech mechs that have been retrofitted. Will these be able to hold up in Dark Age, or should I start collecting new mechs?

I'd roll every turn to see who has to move their units first, anyway.

Also, MegaMek devs, the new .PNGs you're using for units are blurry as fuck and are generally terrible. The crisp .gifs are superior.

If you can refit them with enough current tech, sure. If not, well, good luck.

They'll hold up, but it depends on the chassis and how they've been upgraded. Some of the best mechs for mercenaries are from 3055 and 3058, after all. If your guys are rocking 3050s era tech, then you're probably gonna get stomped. If there's a smattering of Clan tech, possibly not.

I recommend using the tables that came with the box set in conjunction with megamek so you can learn the rules without having to rely on fickle humans.
There's also a local game locator online somewhere that I'm sure some user can source.

The way we've been playing has allowed most of my mechs to jihad variants, if not 3085 upgrades. I've also gone semi-legit working for Lester. Also have quite a few blakist mechs in storage.

What clantech upgrades would be needed to bring me up to speed, keeping in mind my force is 30ish mechs total?

Why even live

1: do you have a grasshopper/other laserboat with SHS
2: If so, give it DHS and use the saved tonnage to max out hardened armor
3: Win

ER and Heavy PPCs to Clan ER PPCs, ER Large Lasers to Clan, Snub-Nose PPCs to Clan LPLs and GRs/LGRs to Clan versions are the ones that stick out the most.

I would recommend LRMs as well but the ammo could be a pain in the ass there. At least energy weapons don't need it and the GR should be easy enough to take care of.

>The way we've been playing has allowed most of my mechs to jihad variants, if not 3085 upgrades.
Then you're basically fine. It's not like DA is some big tech divide, there's mainly just a few new toys is all. The biggest thing is Clantech is becoming a bit more common.

>What clantech upgrades would be needed to bring me up to speed
Whatever you can get your hands on? I mean, obviously ER PPCs and LPLs are godly, but given Clantech overall being just better means it's hard to go wrong without going into early "C" refit silliness.

The main thing is that the Sea Foxes are straight up selling that shit now, including full mechs.

>Tfw no dominant Hell's Horses Elemental to take you bondsman and sit on your face

FTFY

I feel like commonplace mixed tech hurts the uniqueness of the different factions in the Dark Age pretty much because it is strictly better

There has long been a stigma, especially in the League against cybernetics and other life altering technologies. Most of it is played down over time as writers forget. And I could see it being worse after the Jihad and Clan Invasion.

Just my 0.02 C-Bills.

Why CLPL over snub nose? Also does clantech have separate ammo from IS weaponry?

Also should I get clan ferro or clan DHS, what about clan engines?
I have already bought 2 clan mechs, but I'm waffling about buying more, because I don't want to compromise the theme of my unit.

>Why CLPL over snub nose?
10 points of damage at 20 hexes with a -2 to hit. For the same tonnage.

>Also does clantech have separate ammo from IS weaponry?
Yes, though I ignore the limit on GR rounds, since it's a magnetic slug no matter what.

>Also should I get clan ferro or clan DHS, what about clan engines?
While Clan construction options are outright better than their Spheroid counterparts, you also have to be able to get them in quantity, or else a lot of your mechs will end up as hangar queens because you're out of Clan FF and the engine is slagged. So for a merc unit, I'd skip them unless you're exclusively fighting the Clans and have good salvage percentages.

>Why CLPL over snub nose?
Same weight, space, heat, but the CLPL has greater overall range and does 10 damage for all of it, and the to-hit bonus means it has the same accuracy as the snubbie out to and beyond 9 hexes.

>early "C" refit silliness.
Explain pls

Do any Clan or WoB omnifighters rival the Eisensturm?

Separating ammo shouldn't be an issue because the other members of my campaign who've been using mixtech for much longer than me haven't been doing it.

Also what about using blakist mechs like Celestials? I know I'm working for the Regulans but given that I lost 85% of my company fighting the WoB and am now on retainer for purges I'll probably get a pass.

Slapping 1:1 clantech weapon replacements on 300 year old captured Spheroid introtech machines for garrison forces without upgrading the single heatsinks.

Stuff that was already critically undersinked like the Rifleman is particularly funny.

Oh that is funny. If the weapons are one for one, and iirc Clan weapons usually weigh less, what's done with the extra tonnage?

Left underweight. No armor upgrades or CASE either.

>Separating ammo shouldn't be an issue because the other members of my campaign who've been using mixtech for much longer than me haven't been doing it.
Just because other people do it, doesn't mean it's okay user. I let my players use Ballistic ammo to their heart's content cross tech lines, but missiles are different party entirely.

>Also what about using blakist mechs like Celestials? I know I'm working for the Regulans but given that I lost 85% of my company fighting the WoB and am now on retainer for purges I'll probably get a pass.
Canonically just about every Celestial ever built that didn't go with the escaping Shadow Divisions was destroyed. The Regulans wouldn't look kindly on you using them, and IMO, it could constitute a contract breach due to their extreme hateboner.

Nothing. All of the C variants are underweight. Some drastically so.

Closest WoB one is the Striga, which drops 10 tons and has the same movement profile. Less armour and pod space for weapons though. For the Clans it's basically Hydaspes or bust.

>Also what about using blakist mechs like Celestials?

Celestials went extinct after the Jihad because they were basically living reminders of the atrocities committed by the Manei Domini. Generic WoB 'Mechs still survived but not the Celestials.

Single heat sinks IIRC.

The first instance of Clan second line mechs shown was the Twycross scenario book, and consisted of various introtech mechs refitted with Clan weapons and nothing else and identified by having no model number and just a "C".

So a common problem they suffer is they can't handle the heat of the ER lasers they now have. An extreme example is the Rifleman C, which swaps its LLs for cLPLs, so now it has even worse heat issues. The Archer C uses ERMLs, so now it overheats when just using the lasers the same way it does with the LRMs. Not all have this problem, like the Victor C uses ERMLs, but swaps the AC/20 for a GR so it still handles the heat fine, and others just leave the lasers alone and only swap other weapons.

Later "C' mechs that appear are often better as well, and some are actually full on Clantech, like the Hoplite C and Champion C.

Why is the Flashman such an uncommon mech?

Other than being ugly

Originally just a ComStar machine but retconned in as a replacement for the Unseen.

People would rather just use the Unseen, mostly.

>fewer than 500 Flashmen were still operational at the start of the First Succession War. Their heavy use during this fighting saw many destroyed and production of new 'Mechs abruptly stopped in 2796 when Renault-Prime Industries on Wasat was destroyed.

> No armor upgrades or CASE either.
The Marauder C being an exception there. UAC/5, CASE and it swaps the PPCs for LPLs so better accuracy and range for the same heat and damage, and it leaves the MLs alone.

Oh, that's a shame. I've liked it and the Black Knight as introtech machines that could take more of a beating than most of the Unseen

It's a TRO 2750 mech and should be functionally extinct outside the Comguard. At least before TRO:3039 handed Defiance Hesperus a line. Fuck that book, seriously. It need the 3025R treatment.

3039? Is it that bad?

All the 3039 material basically ruins any of the mystique of Operation Rosebud or the Comguard at the Battle of Tukayyid as well as fucks up tech recovery from the limited push in the 3040's we saw in the later FASA era scenarios like the Big MAC book to a giant swath of stuff in the 3030's that makes the Clan Invasion absurdly less impressive and aweing.

Basically, they fucked over some really good core parts of the post-4th War in a really bad move to replace the most common machines in Battletech, then didn't even have the decency to step away from it when they found out that was a terrible idea and we get the halfassed mess that is TRO 3039.

It amazingly invalidates Teddy C3's 3039 strategy completely.

What was his original 3039 strategy?

The mechs the DCMS received from ComStar were unknown in the IS for centuries, and the attacking AFFS and LCAF had no idea how to react to those units, especially the odd upgraded version that had lostech on them.

This had to be retconned however because the AFFS wasn't at an advantage

No, that was just the general writing of H: Wo3039.

It was one of the things that helped the Dracs in the original fluff but when you read the detailed battle reports there it's page after page of of "AFFC unit X cruised to an easy victory over DCMS unit Y, then the Dracs tried a counter-attack that achieved literally nothing, then Hanse rolled on his random reaction chart before launching Wave 2 and the dice said he had to give up and go home because reasons, so they did. Oh, and even though the AFFC destroyed over a quarter of the DCMS for minimal losses in return, the Dracs actually won the War of 3039."

The whole book is a turducken of stupid.

>Also what about using blakist mechs like Celestials?
No longer built, uncommon when they were, and extremely rare now. Plus if you have one most folks will gun for you thinking you're a Blakist or a Blakist sympathizer.

I was surprised the first time I read it. I thought here will be a moment when the DCMS get a small time to shine, a light in the darkness for them that is the 4th Succession War and everything after the War of '39.

But instead, like you say, the DCMS gets beat like a prostitute holding out on her pimp, left in the alley bleeding and proclaims victory.

What are the best pieces of Battletech fluff to read?

You mean novels or the books?

The Field Manuals barring the boring Lyran and Federated ones are fairly ok, its fun reading about some of the regiments and military stuff.

Most of general Batttletech fluff is awful nonsense (hence how we get two yellow peril factions menacing the dull main hero faction) but the stuff about the mechs and the people using those mechs are always fun.

Actually, the Feddies proclaim bitter defeat.

Which makes dicussing the War an exercise in frustration because the text straight-up shows the Dracs getting fucked sideways and then right at the back there's one sentence saying "oh but they totally won, lols."

So Drac fans rightfully complain that the whole think was a one-sided stompfest instead of the even battle that caused Hanse to blink depicted in the original fluff, and then the Feddie players bitch that smashing the Dracs harder than anyone else has and enjoying a net gain in territory is actually a massive loss because hey, check out what it says at the back of the book.

I try to stay clear of that part and just point out how unrelentingly stupid the whole affair is.

Wolves on the Border.

>You mean novels or the books?
Either. Preferably books, but things that cover the major events of the setting.

>Also, MegaMek devs, the new .PNGs you're using for units are blurry as fuck and are generally terrible. The crisp .gifs are superior.

100x this.

Read the Warrior Trilogy.

I like certain novels but for loads of enjoyment, the original Housebooks, the blurbs in the TRO's like deployment, the shortstory collections like Shrapnel and Battlecorps Anthology (skip Vol 1, it's mostly a Star League snoozefest), and then the Jihad books with their news articles.

I find that stuff the most fun anyway. It's got all the things that make Battletech varied and strange. Also the old Merc Handbook and Periphery 1st edition. The info might not be super accurate in the second but the flavor is hard to beat.

Other people will give you some good novel recommendations. Outside the usual suspects, I'd include the ones that follow Taskforce Serpent during Bulldog and since nobody ever recommends DA stuff (mostly for the horror show that is the first 8 or so books), I'll throw in the FWL reunification trilogy.

Gray Death stuff except for Dying Time is pretty good.

Well, is there any good stuff about the Amaris Civil War? I don't know about it beside the general plotline, and it sounds like an interesting campaign for some fluff

The original House books had some blurbs about it, but the Liberation of Terra duology cover the Hegemony War in its entirety.

I keep having a feeling there is another faction out there, maybe towards Clan space maybe not that will have it's ties with either the SLDF or the Clans. I don't know if we ever got a definitive answer on what happened to Nicky K's wife nor an answer for whom the Green Ghosts represent but I haven't found any so... prolly in the same pile of mysteries as the fate of the Wolverines.

The OG Star League sourcebook (just about the rarest in real life but we got a pdf scan in the OP links) has a lot of info. Then there's these that are more recent The Star League Sourcebook is a little more fun and outlandish but less detailed. Still worth it for moments like one of the Camerons bulldozing the Alamo on Terra for his summer home in downtown San Antonio and the surviving Camerons bumrushing Amaris in the throne room when he's getting ready to execute them all.

Oh son of a bitch.

I'm playing an AtB campaign, a St Ives security job against the Cappies, and I wondered why the hell the enemy morale doesn't go down from High despite me winning every battle so far. In fact, their morale went up to Invincible.

Turns out I looked at the "Allies" and "Enemy" ratings cross eyed. It was the enemy who was Veteran, not my allies. I think I've been fighting a fucking Warrior House. Less of the beer, I think.

>Just because other people do it, doesn't mean it's okay user. I let my players use Ballistic ammo to their heart's content cross tech lines, but missiles are different party entirely
We GM by committee, so I just got done talking to the others. Apparently they have been separating ammo, but they increased the availability of clan munitions and decreased the price a bit so they could get their hands on it more easily. I never noticed because I was only playing IS.

>Canonically just about every Celestial ever built that didn't go with the escaping Shadow Divisions was destroyed. The Regulans wouldn't look kindly on you using them, and IMO, it could constitute a contract breach due to their extreme hateboner.
>Celestials went extinct after the Jihad because they were basically living reminders of the atrocities committed by the Manei Domini. Generic WoB 'Mechs still survived but not the Celestials.
>No longer built, uncommon when they were, and extremely rare now. Plus if you have one most folks will gun for you thinking you're a Blakist or a Blakist sympathizer.

That's really unfortunate, because I only took those as salvage and sold the rest because I really like those designs. Talked to my friends, they agreed to let me trade out the celestials for 50% of their C-Bills in other WoB mechs. So I got myself a Grand Titan, Legacy, and an Albatross.

no, no, more of the beer

this should be good

>moments like one of the Camerons bulldozing the Alamo on Terra for his summer home in downtown San Antonio
[Incoherent Texan Anger]

>bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=53535.msg1288814#msg1288814

IWM is only making newseen based on a very slowly growing list of what Catalyst 'approves'.

>bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=50763.msg1288938#msg1288938

At a rate of one per quarter.

I mean, we wouldn't want to make a new aesthetic that's proven interesting to new players too quickly now.

>Less of the beer, I think.
Nah. If you can bully warrior houses with beer, just think what you could accomplish with bourbon!

Since IWM is only making the metal versions, it makes a bit of sense to keep that slow so as not to cannibalize sales of the (presumably impending) Alpha Strike plastics of the shimseen

The writers really hate America, and Texas in particular. Not that I can blame them.

Well, they are really making America great again killing everyone murrican

Hey, apropos of nothing (especially if my PCs are reading still), but where are the record sheets for the various Society units found? IIRC the Pariah is in RS:3075, but what about the Osteon, Cephalus, and the various ProtoMechs? Are they only found in Wars of Reaving?

>away from computer and can't check

Texas is nice if you're not some arctic flower that wilts when it gets 110F outside. Problem is all the old FASA folks were Washington State and so forth.

Don't forget the WoR Supplemental. Also, the Pariah was only in TRO:3075 because nobody knew it was a Society machine at the time.

making a medium mech, should I give it 4LPPC and targeting computer or 6LPPC?

4 LPPC can probably be handled a lot more easily heat-wise, and 4 L-PPC+TC is only 15 tons to the 6 L-PPC's 18 so you'll have room for more stuff.

Can always strap a Capacitor onto at least three of them if you want too.

>WoR Supplemental

Don't have that; is it in the PDF collection in the OP?

Secondary question because I haven't used one in like 5 years and Sarna isn't helpful, what are the positive effects of the Null-sig system? It generates 10 heat/round, and does...what?

>Don't have that; is it in the PDF collection in the OP?

Should be. If not I'll upload my copy.

Null Sig works like an advanced form of Stealth Armor except it's a kind of ECM camo that screws up targetting and IFF stuff. Just gives you a flat target modifier bonus IIRC. Rules should be in TacOps I think.

10 heat/round and adds a +1 at medium range, and a +2 at long. You can't be picked up by APs other than Bloodhound.

Nullsig is in TacOps. by the way.

The real punchline there is the fact that it stacks with Chameleon to make a double-stealth monster of a mech.

>Nullsig is in TacOps. by the way.

Aye, as I said, away from my computer and PDFs. And bookshelf.

Ah, thank you. That's what was screwing with my head - null-sig and LPS stack with *identical* bonuses. +1 at medium range, and a +2 at long. It was the identical part was why I couldn't remember the damn thing.

Cephalus is amusing.

None of it

Archers with SRM-4's!

I can't use MegaMek. It doesn't support Windows XP. So I'm kinda screwed in that area until I can get my gaming PC fixed.