/btg/ Battletech General!

I pick better friends.

Seriously, these guys are never great people who just happen to transform into total cunts whenever you play BT. They're weak, self-centred assholes first and foremost, one manifestation of which is their need to win in a stupid boardgame, regardless of what sort of enjoyment their opponent has. I'd avoid knowing such people at all, let alone gaming with them.

You might find that others in your group agree with your opinion on him; if so, maybe you can toss the guy.

Muninn got some new job with insane hours

Most of these dont work when its 3025. Ive noticed with the rule changes various infantry in wood/building are total beasts that slaughter mechs and take like no damage unless you happen to have inferno/mg but then pair that with a bunch of camping tanks and you cant get close enough to use those.

I just don't understand why you wouldnt wanna play with mechs in BT. If you want inf and tanks go play WH40k or Flames of War.

Some of us like taking on the big fat bastards and wrecking them despite all the things designed to give them the win.

I missed it. Has he mentioned (without divulging his power level,) what he's doing for work now?

I get that, but god damn does it make for a boring game. I'll give the win just to spare myself the boredom of watching someone move a billion infantry one damn hex at a time.

QQ more.

I fucking hate people who get pissy about people using gauss walls, jumpy fuckers, etc. without laying down any rules beforehand. You think that playing with shit units for lulz is fun; I think doing my best to win vs someone else trying to do the same is fun. Stop being a cunt just because someone is using perfectly valid units. Hell, your bitter ass should be happy the Steiner player is putting Mechs on the table, or that the FWL player is using Archers instead of LRM carriers.

How is saying "watching you move a swarm of infantry one at a time isn't fun, have the win brother" being cunty? How is monopolizing on game actions not being cunty?

BT is a terrible game to adopt a ultra-competitive "win at all costs" attitude towards. There's too many ways to capitalize on efficiency at the expense keeping the game to reasonable time lengths. Most people have no interest in dealing with all that bullshit, so if you can bring yourself to do it, you can win some easy games because folks don't give a fuck at that point.

It's like chasing fatties. Yeah, it's easier and the result is consistent, but you probably shouldn't feel too good about yourself either.

He's an economist who does a lot of contracting, iirc, but what he's working on now, no clue.

Cool. We get all types around here. I like the more mature demographic we get here sometimes. Minus the grouchy crap posting from time to time.

Does anyone know much about the Battletech pods? I have been try to do some research on getting some. Looks like some went up for sale a few years ago but beyond that I do not see any. Would Virtual Worlds be willing to produce some again? I assume whatever production processes they used are gone now.

If unable to buy any what do yall thing the cost would be to have some built? Also What kind of company or group should be contacted for something like this?

JW, your best bet is to talk to MechCorps in Houston and see what they do -- they have the largest collected number of operational pods in the country, and they regularly take them on tours. I'm sure they can get parts or such to keep them running. They can probably tell you where to get some, or how to build them, or have some sort of resources about them.

Speaking of, has anyone been to MechCorps lately? I'll probably be down in Houston July-ish and I haven't been in a pod since I was in one in Modesto back in '09.

Who maintains the fucking booru? Tag the goddamn artists or don't bother.

There is over 11,000 pics, and I am working alone, trying to hold down other work and responsibilities, PLUS I don't know every artist. I have been doing my best with the limited time I have. It's a big freaking job and I could use all the help I can get.
Check the stats on the site. I've done a lot so far, but there is only so much time during the week. I make no excuses and only ask for some more help.

Take this. You could tag "i can fly" but not that it's pretty clearly an FD piece? bgb.booru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=6060

Thanks, I appreciate it. When I get back to my home computer I'll put that in there.

Found "that guy"

My players managed to salvage this almost completely intact thanks to some failed PSRs. Now what do I do?

Paint it purple and pink. Name it George. Put a smile on it's front torso. Have fun!

Paint it red and gold with a lion on it.

You know you can make a profile and do some tagging yourself. Just use a throwaway email. No personal information is required for a profile.

Also since there is another thread on Veeky Forums with this, anybody have any stories playing Mechwarrior or the table top of stupid character deaths? Not bad rolls on the dice, just stupid deaths.

Is Clan Wolf still any good or have they gone full retard?

>My players managed to salvage this almost completely intact thanks to some failed PSRs. Now what do I do?
Pic related.

Seriously, though. If you're not prepared for them to salvage it, don't fucking put it on the table. Next time remember that enemy aces should have Edge to keep the really stupid deaths off.

If you're playing with lostech, then make maintaining it a bitch. Seriously no two bit merc group would have techs who would know how the hell to maintain the sensitive capacitors of a gauss rifle. Also successor states should be falling all over themselves to procure it.

If you're not playing with lostech then this is on you. Like said, you shouldn't give you PCs anything you don't want them to have. You could have the mech have some sort of biometric lock and the PCs have to earn the key, or have it worth a ton on the market/ a bribe for someone like comstar.

Let 'em run wild with it until it breaks down. Gives them the chance to have some fun, without violating the overall spirit of the era (assuming you're talking the lostech era here).

Bonus round: Have ROM pay them a visit asking where they got it and having them mention that the PCs sure have some pretty knees and it would be a shame if anything should happen to them.

If a later era, well, that's harder without being cheesy.

This is a wargame with thousands and thousands of different units, an incredibly rich backdrop to simulate, books worth of optional rules, and a scale that ranges from two people punching each other to controlling entire states engaged in all out war.

And yet somehow for you saying, "People should lay out ground rules for how they're going to play," crosses the line of socially acceptable behavior for the game.

The issue is people who purposely abuse the set value of rules to make the most minmax army possible at the cost of fairness and fun. If you can't understand whats wrong with that, it means you are "that guy".

Yeah, reasonable people understand this as a given, and have probably done already that. Asses take this, consistently work to make the most broken force possible within those limits, then get mad when you point out that they're missing the point. It's pretty autistic: "beep boop, activity was within authorized parameters; unable to understand butthurt".

To be fair, sometimes it is the fault of the other guy though, who just sucks so bad that he doesn't realize that he actually is facing a fair force, but the skill differential between the two sides is so big the loser just whines that the other guy was being "unfair". I knew a guy whose definition of "cheesy" was "anything that I lose to".

It's the Dark Age, user.

Guess.

Go on, guess.

The only factions that haven't gone full retard are the Bears and Capellans, with Julian in the process of unfucking the Feddies.

>still good

Clan Wolf went full retard after the Refusal War. So more like got good.

In the Dark Age, they neatly reacquire the Exiles and all the Wolf name units except the last of the Steel Wolves. Have the new Black Widow on their side. Took all the interesting worlds of the Marik/Steiner border. Sacked Tharkad. And are well on their way to Terra now that Stone being the dipshit he is, let down the fortress.

All at the cost of being led by the VSD/Kat incest tube baby. This could have been you, Feddies if Vic just gave her the dick.

Exiles got wiped out by the Cockfalcons.

>they neatly reacquire ... all the Wolf name units

I probably seem autistic for thinking this but that's something I wish had happened a long time ago. Way too many Wolf named units buzzing around. The Dragoons should have bought it in the Invasion, or at least permanently in the Jihad. Lingering on just seems dumb. And the Exiles *definitely* should have bought it in the Jihad. As Wardens it would have served their purpose and tied up their story well.

On a different note, how much of the Wolf touman survived the Refusal War?

I just checked. They're still around, just badly mauled. I got confused because all the wolves in the Republic were from exile worlds and places like Arc Royal but just always went on about wolf this and wolf that without any mention of being exiles. Plus a bunch were written like Vlad wolves.

Pretty sure the latest book describes them all as dead.

Eleven proper clusters and a couple garrison clusters.

I was just looking at the back of Falcon and Wolf and I forgot Phelan really did take about half the fucking clan with him. Bears should have fucked the Wolves in the ass and some opportunistic homeworlders should have pounced on both them and the Falcons after that. It's insane they survived.

I mean sure the Jags had a bunch of paper tiger clusters, but they still had several times that force before Bulldog.

The latest book is TRO:3150 and says they're still alive and manufacturing stuff. Malvina hit them at home on Arc Royal in 3146 though so they're even worse off than the meager forces they have in FM:3145.

Ironically all the Jag clusters were retconned away from being understrength so everyone in Bulldog could haul off sweet salvage.

Anyone have that spreadsheet pic of Wolf clan mechs from Revival btw?

>nova cats are dead
>even civilian survivors got spaced by ghost bears because Ben Rome is still butthurt about that leviathan trial years ago

>wolves in exile are still alive

Why god?

Because the Nova Cats in Exile are still alive too.

Trying something for AU building. Call them out and I'll run this in the background so it doesn't mess with the thread. Independents can't expand but can be taken.

Why not play the old Succession Wars game for something like this?

Who exiled them?

Or do you mean the Spirit Cats?

I'm game to try this. But thread when?

I was just going to have anons just call a faction and planet in this thread and afterwords run it in the background using all the posts numbers that come after. Thought this way was best to prevent gumming up the thread.

Spirit Cats are Nova Cats. They're just the ones that lived in the Republic. Radick was one of the prefecture governors who went rogue.

Actually, I'm trying to think of any governor who didn't go rogue. Replacements like Tara Campbell don't count.

I guess I'll start it out by calling the Outworlds Alliance, homeworld Alpheratz

Although, it might be fun to run this with just completely made up factions, like everyone posts faction names and star locations until you have ten

If anyone else wants that, I can try that as well

>To be fair, sometimes it is the fault of the other guy though, who just sucks so bad that he doesn't realize that he actually is facing a fair force, but the skill differential between the two sides is so big the loser just whines that the other guy was being "unfair". I knew a guy whose definition of "cheesy" was "anything that I lose to".

Reminds me of the gausswall guy that insisted that C3 was cheesy.

Sure

*punches "that guy"*

I'll have no truck with minmax bullshit at my table. If you have to mixmax wank, do it with your ilk.

Okay, here is the new blank version. Go nuts but try to keep it believable.

After a bit if advice in a AtB campaign I'm playing

Should i run specialist lances or general ones(mix of weights etc)

In 3057, will Clans always wreak my shit by deploying more and better mechs and pilots?

Is clan tech worth the extra money you pay?

Should i consider adding vehicles, aero or battle armour to my 22 mech strong unit?

ok, put me down as spinward baronies, starting from ridgebrook

Duchy of Dirk, starting from Zebebelgenubi

Allied Free Worlds, starting from Odessa

Outlands Republic, starting from New Samarkand

You are gonna need to modify the jump limit thing somehow or else remove a bunch of outlying worlds that are more than one jump from anything, or just declare the outer TC a minor nation, call it the Lastpost Bestposts or what have you and count them and the far out independents as already done

>Should i run specialist lances or general ones(mix of weights etc)
I prefer to maintain lances of the same general weight class, so that everything performs about the same. Also note that some missions will end up spreading your forces out if they have wildly different move speeds. It's no good to bring a 3/5 mech in a lance of 6/9+ if the 3/5 unit won't arrive for 4 turns.

>In 3057, will Clans always wreak my shit by deploying more and better mechs and pilots?
If you start in that timeframe and face off against Elite/A (that is, frontline Omnimechs), then probably. Unless you have clan tech of your own, go for Regular/Green and C or D rated units.

>Is clan tech worth the extra money you pay?
Absolutely. Paying for it is a booby prize, since a good rule of thumb is that you're still paying 2.5x what the item or mech is worth even at 3060. At any rate, Clan tech is very much worth it.

>Should i consider adding vehicles, aero or battle armour to my 22 mech strong unit?
That's up to you. Vehicles and BA have strengths that you can leverage properly, and are cheaper. Aero is a bit more expensive, and if you've never played with ASF before, they can be hard to use.

Terran Hegemony II: Electric Boogaloo, starting on Terra.

Oh wait, I can't have Terra? Fuck that, gimme Hesperus II. Goddamn pinko commies and no Terra.

Zaporozhian Hetmanate, going from Black Earth

Could we get the existing choices indicated on the map so that new people know where to place themselves so we don't en up with like 80% of the map taking) forever to fill in became nobody started even NEAR there?

>Starting less than one jump from another player
It's going to be funny if somebody gets taken out first round.

Nothing's marked, and I can't have the best factory world.

>implying that matters in this strange alternate universe

One guy is on the far end of the Capellan March. One guy is basically on top of Skye
One guy is on the far periphery end of the Steiner/Drac border
And one guy has Hesperus

Steiner space is already pretty clogged up.

Somebody should pick like Wyatt or something.

Gimme New Taurus Alliance, centered on Taurus (or whatever the name of their homeworld is).

Taurians will rise again!

>another guy starting basically on top of another player
This game will be pretty crazy. I can already tell.

Emirate of Kafiristan, from Wisconsin

Blue Valkyrie's Republic on Elidere. I want Ander's Moon or the approximate location thereof.

Kingdom of Numenor, centered on Numenor.

Ok, there we go. All posts below this one will now be used for expansion. Will post updates when I can.

Blue Valkyrie's Republic on Elidere goes for Misery!
(That's how it's done, right?)

At least add a small circle around the planet so that the zones can be spotted.

The rules state how it works, intended for it to use peoples post number (any post) to determine planet and number of planets taken (i.e. 33 so AFW takes 5 surrounding or nearest planets randomly). We can change it to a full thread thing if people are ok with the thread getting gummed up.

Okay I think I got it. Does my first Blue Valkyrie Republic post count, or this one?

or does every post count, to keep the thread from being us calling faction names?

Both, just go about your business as usual. Post a topic, have a jolly.

Every post, don't want this thread to get turned into just risk.

Every post, even this one

It's based on all posts, not related ones. Just post normally and it'll sort itself out.

Riskanon, please post up the chart every now and then so we can see how we're doing. Especially if anything interesting happens.

A new thread just for risk should be created desu. And then add some different rules to make it more friendly to active postings.

I actually like the passive risk idea, because it completely eliminates the factionfag elements that would plague a conventional battletech risk, and it only needs one person, the OP to run properly

Posting for Risk and...

Got a question for the assembled.
Got a bunch of guys that want to start a unit, most likely a house unit in the early 3010s. They specifically want as many unseen as possible. Are the old scenario books like Fox's Teeth and Gray Death Legion a good place for examples of decent unseen early succession war companies?

they're decent, but honestly more than 8-9 unseen in a company is probably a bit too much.
The problem with some of the really early stuff is that at the time the unseen were literally it in terms of canon designs, so they're not quite the best sources

>Got a bunch of guys that want to start a unit, most likely a house unit in the early 3010s. They specifically want as many unseen as possible.
Two full unseen lances is plenty and perfectly fluffy. Add in a third lance of other introtech stuff and you've got a solid and totally functional 3010s company on your hands. You *could* stretch to a full unseen company, but it'd both be boring and kinda sue-ish, since it doesn't happen much in fluff outside extremely old, now-overridden, sources.

Will do, next one is probably going to be tomorrow though (made sure to mark the post where I am) once I'm out of the hanger[spoiler/]

As a heads up though The Numenor ain't doing too hot

>Got a bunch of guys that want to start a unit, most likely a house unit in the early 3010s. They specifically want as many unseen as possible.
Cool.

>Are the old scenario books like Fox's Teeth and Gray Death Legion a good place for examples of decent unseen early succession war companies?
-ish. The Fox's Teeth and Black Widow Company were both written for BattleDroids. TRO 3025 didn't come out until around the time of Sorenson's Sabers, so it any book after that are going to be a better balance of Unseen and non-Unseen than the stuff before (GDL, Snord, Fox's Teeth, and TotBW). The earlier books only included the Boxed Set Unseen.

Also, keep an eye on the OPFOR in later books for suggestions. There are some pretty cool things in there

Thanks a bunch. I have them started near Terra and am going to give them pretty much a situation where many of the house notables can end up in their inventory, like for a messed up light lance being an Enforcer, a Vindi, and two Commandos just because.

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