/btg/ Battletech General!

Gosh yes. Ignore Stalker 2.
Not all have DA upgrades but all have some serious Jihad layouts. Heck some of the clan tech ones still do fine.

In their later iterations? Most assuredly, maybe more than some straight DA designs. The introtech models? Not so much, except against minis game-style industrialmech&tank forces, which ain't saying much

Depends what they're fighting and what variant.

Yeah, having the latest greatest and tech is nice.

But having easier supply lines, or in some cases, parts commonality or simply easier and cheaper maintenance is a good thing.

For the most part I'd bet most clan-era designs would be viable into the 3100s with DHS and ER mediums in place of the regulars, and specialist ammo. Moreso if you did more involved refits.

I'll believe ilClan is coming out when I have a copy of my own.

It's been "totally coming out next year. guys" since like 2013 or something.

I don't think they've ever given a firm year even until last year, when they definitely said 2017.

Supposedly it's been written (and re-written) and pushed back a lot of times.

This is the hardest date they've ever given but I'd lay at least 90% odds on ilClan being pushed back to some other nebulous date so they can focus more on the 2nd and 3rd Succession Wars.

So we know why NEA isn't posting much ATM but what the hell happened to GreekFire?

Jokes aside, do we actually know what is going in IlClan?

Not really. All the news we have on it is old and may or may not be reflected in the final product.

As I understood it, ilClan was meant to be a metaplot supplement to cover the end of the Dark Age period and set things up for a time jump, resolving the current dangling plotlines and so on.

I'm not sure they're keen on a time jump any more though. One of the reasons they've been so afraid of releasing ilClan any way is they know it's the make-or-break point for the franchise. If they fuck up the game goes from "on life support, condition critical" to "palliative care."

We had a lot of regulars once upon a time but I think when the DW shit went down a lot jumped ship because it became no longer worth it. That or went user.

Either way, we have a small group of people who are adamant about us not being able to have nice things. Except Xotl, because he's bipartisanly awesome.

I already don't know anyone who kept up their interest through both the Jihad and the Dark Age. Most people I know just play via MegaMek, or play MWO as they wait for the new vidja.

Is the Urbanmech anything more than a meme mech? Is there any correct time to take an urbie?

I'm going to start running a battletech rpg for my group next week and one of my players is dead set on running the UM-R60L variant.

>he wants to run the AC/20 Urbanmech
If you don't hate him- throw him a CQC city map since that AC/20 is just as good as any other AC/20 on his slow, somewhat poorly armored mech.
If you hate him and want to punish his memes- give him a nice open field.

Fuck it, let him. It's a total meme mech, but let him be silly.

Depending on the composition of the rest of the group, it could be a terrifying ambush tool/bodyguard. Say you have a Panther you want to protect while it lays down fire support (assuming they all have Light 'Mechs), or a Valkyrie. Good deterrent. If they have a Mongoose or something similar, it can lead enemy units on a goose chase ending at the hidden Urbie. That kind of thing. It only having 5 shots is... pretty terrible though.

What time period are we talking? If it's 3054 or later, tell him that if he wants to meme he might as well go all the way and use a Hollander.
Otherwise I suppose he has the right idea.

Are there any other mechs with a similar appearance to the Warhammer, Loki and/or Thor? Don't know why but I really like how they look.

Hammerhands, I think.

Sure, let him try it.
He will get it out of his system and ask to play a different mech next time.
Hell, it could be a good story, him trying to get a new mech, various crazy hail Mary upgrades that need replacing per session...

Hammerhands. Battleaxe. Thor II. Loki II.

I think the Lament is kind of a Warhammer derivative.

Thank you all.

Don't forget the various phoenix versions and the IIC's + phoenix IIC's

Last I heard the group has one Griffin GRF-1N, one Panther PNT-9R, one Dragon DRG-1N, the Urbie, and a Firestarter F29-A. After completing 5 or so encounters they'll also have the option to convince their commander to come out of his 'mech piloting retirement and join them should the operation call for it. His in-repair mech is going to be covered under a tarp until he needs it, so that I can intentionally make it a 'mech that helps round out the party when the time comes.
> assuming they all have light mechs
I actually gave each 45 tons of mech. If they ended up using less, they could donate their excess to another player. It's relatively casual so I'm not really worried about battle value or anything, and they're not experienced enough to figure out how to minmax the hell out of the process.
We're starting in 3026.
> Hell, it could be a good story, him trying to get a new mech, various crazy hail Mary upgrades that need replacing per session...
That would be pretty tight. Despite his insistence in doing stupid meme shit he's one of the better roleplayers in our group. He could pull it off.

>Hell, it could be a good story, him trying to get a new mech, various crazy hail Mary upgrades that need replacing per session...

This reminds me of the Campaign I played where the DM started me with a lance of vanilla Urbanmechs and told me to deal with it. I never used the sprint rules so much in my life.

By the end of my second contract, I still had those four chassis plus a couple bugs and tanks, but keeping the Urbs in running order was not easy and I was down to customizing and frankenmeching two of them. One had swapped out a broken AC10 for an AC5 and an SRM6 that we pulled off a trashed Wolverine and another had the arms of a Javelin welded to it with a Vindicator's PPC jammed in the right torso. It looked like a mini hunchie.

Man, I love the old scrounger days of grogtech.

>a lance of vanilla Urbanmechs

This would be a fantastic plot for a unit of corporate security mercenaries. I mean, the Urbie is literally made for making slow circles around a protected factory or warehouse mercenaries. It doesn't look very fearsome but that is just good PR - who would want their security to go round in skull-faced giant robots or tanks the size of a house.

Add in a platoon or so of infantry and maybe those bugs as the rapid reaction force.

There's a mech (that someone will know by heart, but the name of which eludes me) that has what appears to be an AC/20 and an incredibly intimidating profile, but it's actually a Primitive Heavy Rifle or something along those lines with like a handful of shots.
Basically the most worthless mech you can imagine, but looks absolutely terrifying to the unfamiliar eye.

And just as I post that it comes to me
For only 1.6 mil C-bills, you too can have a fearsome looking guard mech that is even more worthless than an Urbanmech; sarna.net/wiki/Arbiter

Looks like Catalyst is having trouble keeping the website up. Maybe there's some cashflow issues.

Quick, check Lorens pockets for porches.

The Arbiter follows the old maxim of intimidation. How to make something more intimidating? Add spiky bits.

Hey, it has a big looking gun too.
A 30 ton Urbanmech can carry an AC/20- who knows what tricks this 35 ton (or 50 ton, can you really guess the tonnage at first glance with all that bulky looking armor) mech has hidden up it's sleeve?
Then it fires its 6 damage rifle at you and you struggle to hold back your laughter.

The silly thing is that you only save 35k Cbills with the Heavy Rifle as opposed to an AC/5. That's... well if you're already spending 1.6 million Cbills what's another 35k to get way more ammo, less heat, and specialty munitions? It's just silly. Not even FASAnomics can explain the reasoning behind the Arbiter. You can literally drown in bugs for pennies more. The psychology angle doesn't work either; they obviously advertise, so all it takes is one group of pirates seeing a vid for the Arbiter, and oops, there goes your rep. Or for a group to actually fight some, god forbid. It's just a stupid concept and the fluff that states they're selling like hotcakes and on backorder is just some form of really low-tier wank.

But it looks COOL. That's all that matters!
Also Able's Aces canonically used Arbiters armed with AC/5s so I think anyone remotely serious about using the chassis swapped out the ancient tech for a proper AC/5. It's just one of those fun mechs for when you really want to go full retard.

Sure, user, here's an Urbie that's 200% not a meme mech!

The H stands for Heresy.

>Not even FASAnomics can explain the reasoning behind the Arbiter.

It was made when all the proper states were literally churning out retrotech garbage from tractor plants. Having anything for sale at the time meant free money. It's a Quickcell-tier scam.

It's some sort of fat midget panther.

It's the bastard offspring of a Wasp that was reduced to confetti without losing the CT, and an Urbie that had its engine and AC destroyed.

Actually it dates to to the Jihad.

But it was made out in the bumfuck deep periphery on a world that can't do any better, they even run Scorpion and Vedette knockoffs with HRs instead of AC/5s because they just plain can't make AC/5s.

>that feel when you heard a company of Battlemasters is coming to your help, but it turns out it's a company of Cattlemasters instead

>it dates to to the Jihad.

That was what the comment about retrotech garbage was about, yes. Retrotech is a Jihad term.

>playing mekhq as mercs
>former lostech (er lasers, endosteel parts, etc) are rated as having a TN of Impossible
Do I have to improve my merc rating to get access to them or are they only available to house forces?

>a lance of vanilla Urbanmechs

Reminds me of the raid on Kathil.

Morgan Hasek-Davion had a lance of Urbies as his second to last line of defense, iirc. When some Death Commandos jumped over his frontline troops the whole lance opened up in a volley to wreck some Cappies.

For real, that fucker should never have been awarded after the shit he has pulled.

You might have the "restrict parts availability by mission type" option checked in the Campaign Options. Sometimes even common stuff like AC ammo becomes Impossible to get when on Outreach without a current contract.

It seems like after battle armor was introduced Jump Infantry disappeared from fluff.

Are they still used?

Anyone here still use them?

I believe the Jihad: FR intro story was about jump infantry men.

They are still deployed and I use them sometimes. There are many options in TRO 3085

I ordered the Attack lance alpha strike set. What do I need from the mediefire archives to start learning the game. The Wargame with hexes that is.

>There are many options in TRO 3085

>not posting best infantry
Get it together user.

You can download Introductory Rules from the official site or BattleMech Manual. The first covers exactly what the title says, the second covers basically everything you need to play with mechs

WoB were too fun for this world.

>Tau Zombies
Whelp, good thing I brought that Davy Crockett

>someone asks about regiments that disappeared
>Continuity Expert: "lol prolly destroyed or something even if there's nothing in the fluff about it"

bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=24173.0

I suppose we should be happy they ever get anything right.

Dracs get the short end of the stick. Look at the Sandval invasion during the FCCW: shoestring forces, but most of the AFFS regiments survive while they completely destroy at least five DCMS regiments. It's mind boggling.

And then the Feddie players complain that they totally lost that part of the war too.

Also, asking Oystein about anything is completely useless, his fuckups have entire star systems moving around or disappearing and he's the one whose big job in the Jihad was to keep track of WoB and FWLN WarShips.

Ask Munnin how that one worked out some time.

Goddamnit I told him not to ask on the OF because EXACTLY THIS would happen.
For fuck's sakes

Is that a six man squad of infantry? That's something like equivalent to a platoon of regular infantry?

Correct.

It's from 2012 though. And not the same list from earlier in this thread.

That aside, there's literally no reason to get your jimmies rustled by this. The units clearly dropped off the lists due to incompetence but since they've never showed up since asking for an official explanation is only going to get that type of answer from them because they aren't going to retcon units back into existence when that would fuck up the Twilight of the Clans, FCCW, and Jihad plotlines any way.

Not sure what other answer they could give though. I mean, the regiments vanished and that's that, and they're not going to be retconning in "The Secret Adventures of a Tenth of the DCMS" any time soon. It's the only logical explanation, even if it's boring and pretty skint on detail.

>"The Secret Adventures of a Tenth of the DCMS

My sides

fgsfds

Is the Manual in the media-fire? I can't find anything like it.

And what is the difference between the classic battletech introduction rule, and the battletech quickstart rules

mediafire.com/file/ddqwa9uqmtbr2nq/BattleMech_Manual_Open_Beta.pdf

This manual.

I don't recognise the middle one. Care to enlighten me?

From left to right: Templar, Akuma, Thanatos, Verfolger, Hellfire, Sagittaire and the Hauptmann.

Verfolger

Verfolger. Damn it, I was thinking that might be it, but I wasn't sure. Thank you.

I want to put together a reenforced lance/demi-company of 3064-era mechs that is entirely comprised of machines built explicitly for the mercenery market, nothing built for a house military.
Any suggestions?

>1st Lance
Marauder
Warhammer
Archer
Griffin

>2nd Lance
Stalker
Hunchback
Thunderbolt
Grasshopper

>3rd Lance
Demolisher
Brutus
Partisan X2

There, can't go more generic than this

Here's an expanded version of a lance I've used in the past
>Bandersnatch
>Gallowglas
>Lineholder
>Lineholder
>Cronus
>Koto
Nothing used by any house, done. If you want to go heavier, swap a lineholder for a Marauder II

Your options there are very limited, even stuff made by/for the Dragoons and Kell Hounds winds up going to other people.

And by "limited" I mean "non-existent."

By MUL:

>>Bandersnatch

FedCom/Fed Suns right from the start.

>>Gallowglas

IS General, 3062+

>>Lineholder

IS General right from the start.

>>Cronus

FWL, right from the start.

>>Koto

Only one on this list that actually stays Merc/S7 only.

All of the others show up in House forces either in the TR entry or novels before the MUL even existed as well.

Anyone have any advice on gluing up the legs on an Ares?
They don't want to bond, even after like a full minute with ZAG.

Different user, but when did the Banderenatch or lineholder show up in a novel? I'm curious

For what purpose. Some of the best designs are IS General, and limiting yourself to mercenary only is a good way to get saddled with industrials and similar.

Have you tried pinning them?

How would I go about doing that?
(I'm new to pewter minis)

When did the Cronus first appear? At first I thought it was a 3050s merc mech but then I heard it's been around for a while. Retcon?

The -3M Cronus has an intro date of 3031.

It appears in TR 3067 and is retconned in as having been used by the FWLM since the late SW period.

Lineholder is said to have been bought by the Suns in its TR fluff, don't remember the Bander source off the top of my head though. Either way the number of exclusively Merc 'Mechs is really tiny and not very effective in general. Even the Marauder II suggested before starts showing up in House units during the 3060s.

Sold *primarily* to Mercs, or widely available is much better.

>Sold *primarily* to Mercs,
As the OP, that's what I meant. Things *designed* and intended for the merc market, not the houses, even if they bought some

>playing Megamek
>my IS MPLs are doing THREE damage
What the fuck?

Are you playing with glancing blows or TacOps energy weapons?

>oh hey, a night mission. I've never tried one of those before
>thousandsofyearslater.png
so how do I get around night fighting?

I'm pretty sure I'm running TacOps Energy, but they're scaled to do 6 damage.
The mech I'm fighting doesn't get reflective armor either.

Go into Advanced Ground Movement, and the very last option is "No movement penalty for night/fog."

Again, are you playing with Glancing Blows? Matching the TN halves the weapon's damage.

Turn off light conditions in campaign options. No way to just disable night, sadly.

No, I'm not using Glancing Blows. My weapon is just losing half of its damage for no fucking reason, as if the RNG wasn't already stacked against me enough.

Jump jets.