/btg/ - BattleTech General

Nope, in fact they should have a mix. I'd imagine commanders get the choicest rides, with the better warriors getting second-line Clan stuff, the rest getting whatever else they can cobble together. I picture the Dark Caste guys favoring Clan-born warriors, but being pretty open to recognizing anyone who performs. Basically Clan = a leg up, but not a guarantee. And as fun as they are to make, I honestly thing the PaF-type stuff with FCEs and everything would actually be at a minimum. Mostly for defending bases and as backup machines. At the time period we're talking SFEs aren't that difficult to get or maintain, and would probably be the preferred engine for retrofits and Frankenbashes. I think it'd be fun to do some second-line Clan machines with IS parts and SFEs in place of their XLs if they have them.

By Era Digest they had 8 trinaries split in 3 clusters.

Second line clan mechs? Ooh boy I want me one of these then. Even if it is Jade Wolf.

>Those thighs
THICC

The hell is that?

Okay I have a campaign and well, it's kind of weird.
I got this factory run by an eccentric billionaire. He got the normal building plans for Stingers and Locusts and planned on making a bug plant. One thing, he secretly got the plans for Spiders and Phoenix Hawks. With this he made "large" bugs, a 45 ton version of a Stinger that looks like a Stinger, and shows up on sensors as a Stinger, but it's got three times the armor, more than double the IS (naturally) and three times the weapons. The Locust was just a bit more robust with some better weaponry coming in at 30 tons.
The players have to figure out why a certain garrison protecting the planet is able to take just a bit more punishment than they should, as their ranks are filled with Locusts and Stingers along with the normal assortment of other mechs.
The PCs find out the hard way that a light lance of two Pixies and Stingers can just take a brutal amount of damage compared to having a pair of 20 ton bug buckets.
This campaign led to some twists and turns, a rebellious daughter of the owner of the company, some designer silly mechs and so forth.
tl;dr - A campaign investigating a new factory and a strange set of bugs turns into a larger campaign. Whadda ya think?

>not reading the objectively best TRO ever made
>not knowing every unit in the best TRO by heart

Given that the largest amount of Burrock joined the Dark Caste early on, though it can be implied others joined later during the absorption, which tactics would they prefer? The older, methodical "slow and steady wins the race" style with molasses assaults and heavy's or the newer quick heavy/medium/lights with big guns attached to them?

Well beggars can't be choosers, especially since they would be comprised of remnants of the Tanis affair as well as Dark Caste groups from the Occupation Zones. So whatever they have of their stuff from Tanis/the Society, and the stuff the bandits they hook up with have. Tactically, they'd have to adapt, so I'd imagine there'd be disparate opinions on how exactly to operate. I prefer fast, hard-hitters, and there's a strong case for that because raiding should be fast and hard-hitting, and not methodical or plodding. Need hands. Need speed. Need the ability to overwhelm defenses and cripple whatever might oppose you.

Not him, but some of us don't have autism.

Bullshit, you play Battletech
How can you seriously don't know mechs by TRO? You don't even need to know its name or stats, just which TRO said picture appears.

Non autistic people do enjoy battletech, you know.

And sorry, I just don't. If I care enough, I look it up online.

>Non autistic people do enjoy battletech, you know.

The game survived 35 years by sheer force of autism, every player in the fan base has its own type of autism

You can stop projecting now. K? Thanks.

Actually, read back up on Burrock tactics and found they actually have taken to continuously adapting their tactics as the other Clans got used to them and as their needs changed (i.e. The most current tactic is because they lacked material resources and because lights/mediums were more flexible). So the "Beggars can't be choosers" approach turns out to completely fit them.

>you must have autism to play battletech

>And did the Combine capture any of the Cat factories or were they all destroyed?

According to Feddieposters on the OF, the Nova Cats upgraded all of them to have much better output and all were captured undamaged.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense is expecting some to have been damaged in battle and others sabotaged by the Nova Cats as a final fuck you to the Dracs.

No solid answer because they don't want to advance the plot though.

No chance at all the Cats absconded with a factory.

Coolio. Once I get the free time to start consolidating I might make some kind of PDF or something we can contribute ideas to to flesh things out a bit. It's a bit freaky how easily this all seems to stitch together.

>Thinking about how this would work in relation to the other periphery states
>Remember the Taurian X Blood Spirit Tsundere meme state people were parroting before
>Taurians and Oberons
>Blood Spirits and Burrocks
>mfw

You must have a terrible memory or you don't care much about technical readouts. After a couple reads I memorize most of the units in the book

but which clan are we going to inflict on the canopians to go three for three in major periphery state/clan mergers?

I also remember one random madman suggesting Ice Helleons/Filvelt
Let's ride this idiocy train as far as it'll go

>my two waifu factions
>in one place
my body is ready

Well, they are Clan Authorial Fiat so why not the Star Adders?

Ah, but wouldn't the Cloud Cobras make more sense for Hypocrisy, The Faction?

>The Burrock/Blood Spirit Annihilation feud added with the Taurians disdain for pirates
Would the Periphery even make it out alive?

unfortunately they're literally on the opposite sides of the periphery from one another
though a breakaway group of burrocks settling in the Tortuga Domains, unaware that their mortal foes are in the TC now.... that could be fun

I actually like this idea
but when would the spirits leave the homeworlds?
when would they arrive in the TC?
could cause some really funny plot events if they leave early enough

Getting fucked over in the burrock absorbsion would work as a final insult to prompt the FUCK THIS WE'RE OUT reaction, probably with a few final chimp-out raids and maybe even a few drive-by nuking attacks on the star adders as they leave, just to bust their touman down a little.
That would have them arriving in 59?ish, just in time to completely fuck the impending trinity alliance out the window

>blood taurians get super butthurt and have a HELL IN A CELL NUCLEAR SMACKDOWN MATCH with clanners and pirates
hell, that'd be WAY better than the canon jihad/WoR plot for both of them

There are already "large" bugs though. The Assassin, Cicada, and Phoenix Hawk.
These are uptonned versions of - respectively - the Wasp, Locust, and Stinger.

If hypothetically they *did* somehow abscond with one, maybe one for making Shadow Cats and Nova Cats or whatever, would /btg/ bemoan it as fiat or be happy something escape the Rome-Bear vengeance that is the death of Clan Nova Cat?

I mean, I'd be fine with it, but then again I've never been one to get butthurt about factions, even ones I don't like getting factories for stuff. the local butthurt-about-the-periphery-guy might object, but who actually cares about what they think?

>Implying the Burrock/Blood Spirit hatred isn't so great that they defy all logic and use their pure hate drives to blitz right through so they can drop their hate nukes during their hate filled Batchall orgies
Do you even feud?

>local butthurt-about-the-periphery-guy
I don't know why, but this made me think about those old bud light Real Men Of Genius commercials

Moving factories requires a lot of effort, and usually six or more months even if they're designed to be semi-mobile. I think if the Cats had that kind of foresight and prep time they would have been bugging out of the Combine earlier and with a large(r) part of their military.

I figure you could pack up a factory faster, it'd just take a lot more time in setup and repairs when you go to put it back together

What is the origin of the name Andurien?

Another player at my LGS says it's French but it sounds German to me.

Not judging by what happened with other factions who needed to bug out fast or were using semi-mobile or outright mobile factories in the fluff.

But whatever works for you, I guess.

What's the fastest possible ground vehicle in battletech? assuming fractional accounting is allowed

I think someone managed to get a 2ton hovercraft up to something like mach 1.5...

I don't have it though.

1 ton hovercraft with the largest possible half-ton XXLFE

>arguing about a dead 30yo stompy robot franchise with a dead fanbase
>on a Laotian finger puppet and basket weaving imageboard
>not autistic

>In the 31st century, course races are fucking lit

this isn't it, but you reminded me of this hilarious attempt to construct a muscle car using combat vehicle rules
And the best part is, I could actually see it being a thing somebody built in setting, in the SL era, and was probably super popular among mechwarriors
the best part is that it's actually cheaper than IIRC most civilian cars in-setting.
plus you could remove all the armor to add a SL or RL-10 for pure Car Wars action if you're a total fucking madman who wants to out savanna master a savanna master swarm
it's actually where I stole the name from, a really old Car Wars design of mine

>If hypothetically they *did* somehow abscond with one, maybe one for making Shadow Cats and Nova Cats or whatever, would /btg/ bemoan it as fiat or be happy something escape the Rome-Bear vengeance that is the death of Clan Nova Cat?
Yes.
I mean, I'd be okay with it, but TPTB would never allow it. And someone would bitch. Someone always does.

Jesus. You set a hover skirt on that bitch and the sideslips would be >hilarious

>Jesus. You set a hover skirt on that bitch and the sideslips would be >hilarious

shut up and take literally all of my Kerenskys
aren't there optional rules allowing wheeled vees to do skids?

Initial D/10, would bring SL-variant. Or maybe a clam tech µPL variant for actually hitting shit with junk pilots in it.

there's also an XL model going 40/60 for a mere 23 grand, and an XXL Supercar model that goes 50/75 for 118,000

Nascar will never be the same again. Once this technology hits the periphery circuits, ratings will skyrocket. Get you prices locked in with C* now, we gun be rich.

how does damage from ramming attacks work again? I want to abuse the fact that they're like 10BV each to bring hundreds to a fight and just crash them into shit

I almost forgot about the supercharged variants, with the supercharged XXL topping out at 50/75[100]
unfortunately the supercharger precludes armament

>50/75[100]
fug, 100 MP is exactly 1080KMPH
literally sonic fucking supercar
[Eurobeat Intensifies]

Couldn't you pull the armor to make an ICE model?
That'd be fucking hilarious
Real fucking Detroit Muscle

>Only around 10,000 C-bills
Okay, are c-bills incredibly conflated or does every middle class family own a formula one equivalent car?

>Once this technology hits the periphery circuits, ratings will skyrocket.
>implying the periphery wouldn't be the first ones to look at XXLs and go HEY YEAH, PUT THAT UNDER MY DANGOL CAR'S HOOD, HOLD MY BEER AND WATCH THIS

What happens to a muscle care pulling 100 hexes if he uses the supercharging and it fails? Is it like a F1 crash? Also this had better be canon racing in the arena worlds with this nonsense.

>Instead of pistons blowing out of their cylinders due to supercharging, engines just go full critical
Car blew up on highway today, thousands dead. More news at 11.

>What happens to a muscle care pulling 100 hexes if he uses the supercharging and it fails? Is it like a F1 crash?
more like a kamikaze plane flying into an ammunition dump

it's almost like you fear death or something
>laughing taurians.jpg

>Driver accelerates in car
>Immediatly dies from G-forces
Is this why the IS is the way it is?

It's only at mach one, I'm sure the driver is fine.

Obligatory "that's not how fusion reactors work".

>Some peripherat realizes they can stick a booby trap in their car and throw a brick on the gas pedal
>WeDon'tNeedRoadsWhereWereGoing.jpg

Well, it's traveling 100 hexes, or 3km, in 10 seconds. That's 300 m/s. Now, you would think that since it reaches that speed over those same 10 seconds, it obviously has a nice and simple acceleration of 30 m/s^2 (only about 3gs), right?

But that doesn't take into account that the acceleration must approach 0 as it approaches top speed, nor does it account for the fact that it covers those 3km in 10 seconds regardless of if it was already moving 300m/s or if it was at a dead stop. This would imply that it does all of the acceleration in a single, massive step on a scale too small for BT to measure (so about 10m, give or take a bit). The forces from accerating to that speed in that distance would be so absurdly high that I doubt they could even remove the red jello from the metal bulkheads it is now fused to.

But G-force deals with acceleration, which if the tabletop is to be taken literally is immediate.

Then we will have to call upon handwavium technology to save ridiculous periphery racing. Because this is too fun to ruin with reality. Thank you for explaining it though.

there ARE advanced rules which make acceleration to top speed not instantaneous, so they're probably the better guide here

>The HVTs are very close to the LTV-4
>sarna.net/wiki/LTV-4_Hover_Tank
Which is probably why the LTV-4 was put in the Primitives series to start with. 30+ years of waiting for proper stats were finally rewarded.
Patience isn't very fashionable these days, but it sure comes in useful now and then.

Well almost none of the technology in Battletech makes any functional sense, especially battlemechs, so in universe the rule of cool is the the only rule in every branch of science.
>The laws of the 80s are now the laws of the universe

And on our left is the individual that does not know time. He's still trying to remember what the range brackets are for ERPPCs, and you'll have to continually remind him that the partial cover rules changed. Otherwise, if you need a glimpse into the past, this is the guy to talk to.

It's a Night Wolf.

RAMIREZ DO EVERYTHING.

>sound of no hand clapping intensifies

I wrote up some ideas. The Burrock confederation saves all heavies and assaults for commanders and those who prove themselves. Because production of small fusion engines requires little resources and lives in the periphery are cheap, protomech forces are huge and with a combination of basic vehicles which has replaced most light and medium mechs; but naturally all 'mechs are important.

Swarm tactics are used, arguably due to broken and scattered Ice Hellion warriors that make up a good portion of the touman.

How the clan invasion should have gone.

Weird that they only have the Clan fronts expanding.

But I guess if they allowed the IS factions to attack each other the capCon and Dracs would be wiped out in short order.

Nah, back when it was a free-for-all only the FedSuns kept attacking the ayy liaos, and the crap-caps kept trying to retake Sarna.

Curry-tatas kept attacking smokey the jags, Steiners kept getting their shit pushed in, and Marik was irrelevant.

Nah, PURPLE BIRD took several Liao worlds.

I think you missed the point. It was to make them look like a Locust or Stinger so that someone trying an invasion wouldn't be able to tell the difference an walk into a trap.

What 'mechs are in desperate need of a redraw?

Either nonsensically designed or just old.

Akuma. It's ugly as hell, and not even cool-ugly.
There's a massive amount of old 3055 mechs that are shit to the eyes as well.

I think you mean 3058, since 3055U came out and fixed most of the worst offenders aside from the IICs. Or are we saying that the protractor team is better than Plog?

Shit. I'm an old fag who forgot about the upgraded version. I rare open the old 3055 anymore because of how ugly so many of them were minus the stuff contracted out to what was that, Victor Musical Industries or something? I have ugly art PTSD.

>Akuma.
>ugly

I'm going to fucking slap you, user.

>Your mech gf is ugly too.
Come at me.

Not him but it totally is bro. Looks like an evil clown instead of a demon. I just can't take it seriously when I expect it to honk every step.

3067 does suffer from trash can barrel syndrome, and the TRO Akuma isn't all that good looking. Then again, that cover just makes it seem like a Spawn villain.

HONKMECH in BattleTech when?

We need a version of "It" from old writer King but in Akuma mech form. Dress it up as a clown. Have it terrorize little Clints and Hermes mechs. Then the Akuma turns into a 200 ton quad spider mech thing at the end which dies to a critical hit head shot.

Now I have an image of Clints gangbanging a Hermes. Thanks, thanks a lot. And an Akuma's face in a drain talking to an Urbanmech.