/btg/ Battletech General!

I'm looking at an old map of the Inner Sphere and I don't see it. I'm talking nothing bigger than the CC at most as a powerhouse faction. Most of them should be the size of maybe a FWL member state. What time period/map are you referring to?

So is this an RPG or a miniatures wargame?

You don't see it because you're looking at the colors and not the divisions.

The Combine isn't some monoblock. It's Warlord Pesht, Warlord Dieron, Warlord Benjamin, Warlord Rasselhague and Warlord Galedon under the Coordinator. Each squabbling and plotting amongst each other. Then the world dukes and counts under them doing the same thing, then the big CEO's, then the planetary governments.

Same for all the other states.

And that's all ultimately futile because you're conflating intrigue and internal turmoil with open warfare among many smaller, more varied factions. I'd prefer the latter to the former. Functionally, the color IS the faction in more cases than I prefer, and that's my trouble with it.

Get it now?

Open warfare doesn't work because the first people who get their shit together are going to roll over everyone else, just like the states did back in the Age of War to form in the first place.

yeah sure

If you say so. The current model doesn't work either because there should be one faction, the FedCom. So what, handwaving only works when -you- want it to?

The current model would work if they weren't afraid of changing the status quo in the Inner Sphere. Your solution would make that behavior even worse. Pagespace problems would border on Homeworld Clan tier as well.

Yeah, and my model would work if things were different too.

Seems a pointless debate if you're going to go that route with it. To each their own I guess. Not like my fun ruins yours, or vice versa.

Replace the CapCon with either actual Space China or go full-on Alpha Centauri Human Hive. They feel more like a Fu Manchu caricature right now.

On a related note, does the Fed Suns really have any defining traits other than "we're the good guys/protagonists"?

>replace the multicultural state with a monocultural one
Moron.

>does the Fed Suns really have any defining traits

Read the house book. Short version is

>The underweight but extra professional military guys (back before the Fedcom)
>HEMA nerds
>The Freedoms
>Outback cowboys and their traveling spaceship schools
>Indian space marines, fighter jocks and shipbuilders
>Draconis March weebs and their eternal anime club slapfight with the Drac weebs
>The ancient House Hasek and their territories behaving more like a vassel state than a march

The original setup kind of was built around the 80's culturally at the most basic form. Just the basic overlay. The details are much more varied and fleshed out.
Fedsuns-the major powers of the western block mixed with 14th Century Anglo French
FWL-Mediterranean grab bag
Capellans-The Commies
Dracs-WWII Japs mixed with 80's Corporate Jap
Lyrans-West Germans

Also, the Capellans are supposed to be a caricature like the Dracs. Most of their population isn't even Chinese. They're just doing like the Germans did in WWII with grabbing some cultural icons of the past and using them for their own purposes. Japanese too really. All the samurai stuff they co-opted in WWII was staggering.

Even the Davions are a caricature of all the knightly stuff. Muh swords. Muh Avalon.

A war game

>So is this an RPG or a miniatures wargame?

Pure Battletech is a miniatures wargame, commonly played on hex maps and occasionally on open terrain (there are rules for both). Beginning with Mechwarrior, FASA published an RPG set in the Battletech universe, but I can't imagine that you'd punish yourself by putting the role-playing elemnts *first* and da stompy giant robots of deff *second*. There are other sci-fi RPG's out there if you want something like that.

Am I seeing right, but are those old Ral Partha sculpts of those mechs?

Having a bit of a problem with Megamek. Everything lists the Heavy Rifle as doing 9 damage, but when I tested a custom mech mounting one of them it only ever did 6 damage to whatever it hit.

Anyone know a reason why?

Pic related is the mech, tried to build a periphery version of the Broadside and went full retard with experimental tech. I might design it downards and make it a little less silly.

Rifles do 3 points of damage less against BattleMechs

>This is a problem
Considering that nobody goes for FWL because it can't be described in two words, where the first is "Space" and the second is a relatable historical faction according to the US, pretty much anything outside of the ambiguous whatcha-ma-callit that it has always been would be a better choice and wouldn't be consistently passed over by the authors over 30 years.

tl;dr, FWL was cool as an elevator pitch in 3025, but a footnote in any other era.

Personal Opinion: Space Greece. As with any other faction, if you need to say much more, people won't care about it.

>Am I seeing right, but are those old Ral Partha sculpts of those mechs?

Yes, they are all over 25 years old.

Ah. I guess for a periphery mech it'd still be handy as it's lighter and easier to get your hands on than AC/10s. Plus out in woop-woop you're more likely to be facing infantry and vehicles so the damage reduction isn't so bad. Maybe a lighter more simpler mech, 70t but with a heavy and two mediums?

If you have the PDF of tacops, it's all described there.

As said. All "Battlemech Rifles" do three less damage than listed against standard battletech armor. There's a reason ACs fire multishot and not just one big slug. BT armor is more durable against single shot big bore stuff, weaker against multi-hits, partially explaining the burst fire ACs and multi-missile launchers.

Technically, that's against a 'Mech with BAR-10 armor. Anything with Commercial Armor or Support Vees with BAR 8 or less will take the full 9 points. Or infantry.

ACs are dirt simple to make. Even places that lost most technology could still build them. Rifles are the equivalent of Muskets in a science fiction setting.

What I find strange is that things like the unfinished book movement are located in the Suns, not the FWL

>vehicles
Standard vehicles still use BAR10 bro

>Or infantry.
It should be noted that this includes BA.

>ACs are dirt simple to make. Even places that lost most technology could still build them.
Except the ones that can't, specifically New St Andrews and the Arbiter. Shit doesn't make much sense, but that's BT for you.

sarna.net/wiki/Heavy_Rifle
sarna.net/wiki/Light_Rifle
Reference 3
Tactical Operations, p. 337. "All rifles subtract 3 from their damage points when attacking any battlefield unit except conventional infantry, battle armor, 'Mechs with commercial armor, and support vehicles with a BAR less than 8. This can mean that the rifle inflicts no damage."

They're just fine against houses and civilian vees, also IIRC, they do full damage against IS

Generally speaking the heavy Rifle outperforms the AC 5 unless you need 3 or more, in which case the lack of ammo and extra heat becomes a huge hindrance

>Except the ones that can't, specifically New St Andrews and the Arbiter. Shit doesn't make much sense, but that's BT for you.

>New St. Andrews
>Space Scots
What a shock, they're fuck ups. Reminder than Glengarry's population thought computers and servants more advanced than peasants were disturbing. The only thing better would be if their planetary leader was Nicola Sturgeon in the Future or whatever.

So, like the Nova Cat civilians.

I like the Tikonov idea. Very nice.

I don't think Romanian gypsies are all dead or sterile though.

Has anyone noticed the butt thrusters on those elementals and how it makes them look like they have plump, grabbable asses?

>elementals
>plump, grabbable asses

You just reminded me of the DA novel I was just reading.
>Merc guys just come off a mission where they were betrayed by their contractor and have half their force destroyed
>Bunch of clanners defect from their nutjob commander and show up at the mercs doorstep looking for a temporary alliance to get offworld
>Infantry commander is a smoking hot elemental from the Horses OZ
>Also a crack intelligence officer
>Absolutely intrigued by everyday IS customs to the point where she does things like trick the CO into a picnic for a secret briefing just because she's never been on one before
>Her and the Merc CO fall in love and are adorable together like a couple school kids
>All during their mission to hunt down Blakists remnants on a bumfuck Jade Falcon OZ backwater in 3136

It's almost Star Lord tier of someone's crazy campaign story and I'm loving every minute of it.

what book?

>I’m so metal I piss mercury, edition
This also applies to taking a dump full of spent uranium.

Wolf Hunters. It's really more like five or six semi-related short stories welded together than a single book. Lots of cool locations too. Like the tank assault on underground and dome cities under a sulfur sky. Or the city fight on the dying icy world. Solaris. Galatea. Terra. Loads of people and places.

That looks like one of my tranny girlfriends.

Anyone know where to get a good map for map based campaign?

Why would you offer this information, Chris Chan?

What scale? Full planet, a continent, a single region, or what?
The Turning Points, and TTS have planet-scale maps include, for example.

Correction: one of your "boyfriends"

And fuck off and die for enabling that degenerate culture. You and everyone who doesn't do the moral thing and stone those freaks into oblivion should get AIDS.

So you spend your days stoning people who you dislike? How are you not in jail, again? Or do you not actually follow your own advice to avoid retribution by society and thus, by your own logic, deserve AIDS as well? Pick one, faggot.

Some of us are in civilized countries where stoning godless homosexuals and transexual human wastes is a legally protected activity.

You can't tell me that this game wouldn't be hugely improved is every canopian player (trannys), clan player (incestual relationships), and capellan player (loli-loving peodos) were dragged from their homes stoned to death.

>Some of us are in civilized countries where stoning godless homosexuals and transexual human wastes is a legally protected activity.
Name me the country where murdering someone because you dislike them is a legally protected activity.

In this tranny case, Saudi Arabia.

...

Ugly short hair... ugh. Why can't female elementals look like my animu waifus with muscles?
I am so kidding right now.

Continent to planet

Sadly.

>Blakist remnants
>3136

u wot m8

Wobbies are alive and well even today, user

THICC

>Goshawk II release soon
*Ice bird noises intensifies*

Nah, I got it right the first time. My boyfriends don't identify themselves as girls.

*gives user a kiss on the lips* Come and bomb me motherfucker :D

I know it's easy to bait people, but could you at least bait them in ways that are more Battletech related? I mean I guess wanting players who like a faction you don't to die is pretty Battletech, but like, your cake needs more frosting bro.

At least the fake girlposter earlier pretended to be talking about the game. Keep your bait topical else it outs you as a rank amateur.

Okay, so where are the worlds that are still "unspoken for" in terms of potential areas to make new factions or have pirates operating from? I know a bunch of RWR stuff vanished off the map on the Deep Periphery side of the Rim Collection. Also, what happened to the worlds that got rolled in the initial Clan Invasion? Some are still in the occupation zones but others just kinda dropped off the map.

tl;dr - where would you go to look for new worlds? Points for ex-RWR stuff since they had hidden production facilities and whatnot and that'd be a prime spot for a new small Periphery faction/pirate faction.

If you're talking about planets on their way to/from the Pentagon Worlds, most of them are dead systems or barely occupied, used as recharge/storage sites on paths to/from the worlds to the IS.

I imagine some of the worlds that were rolled over are so savagely ripped apart that there's nothing there, so it's just a recharge/storage station anymore. And some of the worlds on the outer Periphery were originally colonized during the Terran Hegemony days, but forgotten/lost when the SWs happened.

Given that every map I've seen so far shows the IS and other territories from above and doesn't really hint at the 'sphere' being spherical at all, but a fat disk...

Above and below the plane.

>Outer Periphery
That's what I mean, mostly. I feel like there's a lot of potential on the far side of the Rim Collective since it pretty heavily implies that there were a lot of caches and secret production facilities out there that fueled the war machine for the RWR back before the coup. Those couldn't have just vanished completely; look how important factories are right now, even in the current age in the game. Nobody would ever let that go to waste.

I've wondered about this myself but always thought it was assumed that the Inner Sphere took up its entire portion of the galactic arm it's on, top to bottom. Anything outside it was too sparse to be of use or even probably have planets or systems as we know it. At least, in the portions of space you're talking about.

kinda hard to show elevation without cluttering the map excessively, I'd say. How else would you show all the houses, except from 'above'?

>How else would you show all the houses, except from 'above'?
How about below?

>best clan
>best totem
>best clan characters
>best bloodnames
>gets killed off early on to prove the situation is serious
>define a generation of mechwarriors/players
>post-annihilation writing is a mess because something has to be fought over
RIP in peace Jaguars

Nova Cats were second best clan but lol they died too

Out of curiosity, anyone here design Jaguar mechs? Variants of existing ones or maybe new designs for if the Jags had survived past 3060?

Our galaxy is a disc, yes.

>fake
Cheeto-breath, girls play BT. Get over it.

Your galaxy is a disc.

>Nova Cats

Why does anyone like the nova cucks?

>Jag 'Mechs
So... fat Assaults with tons of pod space? Kinda boring if you ask me.

Oh I know they do, my gf plays. But you're not a girl. You're pretending to be for (You)s. So here's your last one. Now go back to being user because your words matter more than your trip, gender, or anything else. Learn that and maybe you can be a useful poster someday.

>telling user to become user
user, you are confusing me

>pretending you have a gf
user...

Lasers, fluff, and the fact they're like Goliath Scorpions except interesting fans do stuff.

>final version of BattleMech Manual will include RE Lasers
>CA will write a small phrase about it

Guys, let's help campaign user create the weapon line

>Re-Lasers
"Only the developers of this weapon know the true meaning behind their name; they were flippantly dubbed 'Re' for the sound the head engineer on the project made when the department head initially denied his request for funding to develop an initial series of prototypes."

Do you think this laser is weak? It can destroy lives!

Way too long. Also, not funny.

"Why?"

To you, maybe. But yeah, it's too long.

Wait what? Xotl is that you? Are you trying to tell me about something I missed?

Why would you assume that? I could just log on to IRC if that was the case. Speaking of which...

What? You are not writing the Re Laser one liner? I am shocked and disappointed

Well I did miss that the fact that new weapons are coming was announced. My initial line needed to be overhauled anyway. It was "At least they're cheaper than Clan ER-PPC's."

I'm writing, I just was unaware everyone else knew about the update, and thought that I'd spilled the beans somewhere.

RE Lasers, the mechanically separated chicken of the BT universe.

or

RE Lasers, with technology so nice, they re-engineered it twice.

or

RE Lasers, return of the revolution 3, this time it's personal.

or

RE Lasers, like the jalapeno pizza you had for supper last night, you will be tasting the effects twice.

or

RE Lasers, now with less Milla Jovovitch, if that were even possible....

or

RE Lasers, The Search for More Money

Kill me now before I spread. Just head shot me. Please.

I'm using the introductory box with a friend for a game. We're both kinda new to it.

What would be a good and balanced match to use against a Dragon/Panther duo?

A Hunchback and a Whitworth

>So is this an RPG or a miniatures wargame?
Neither, it's a hex-and-chit boardgame that happens to have accessory rules for using minis and playing RPGs. It goes from simulator-level single-player all the way up to full-on interplanetary theater operations depending on what modules you slot in, but the basic format is just a squad-to-company level skirmish game.

Quickdraw and Spider

Isn't the FWL supposed to be Space Austria-Hungary?

Are there any writefags around here? Battletech could certainly use it and /swg/ has a few, so I was wondering

>technology so nice, they re-engineered it twice.

lol

I've heard the FWL described as Space America: a virtual melting pot, far from homogenized.

Why do we hate re lasers?

Pretty much yeah. Just with a different mix of cultures.