/btg/ - BattleTech General

...Yeah, I used to like the Wolves and Ghost Bears, but my only real exposure to them was the vidya and pre Civil-War novels.

Having read what they do and the bullshit that goes on after, I generally only tolerate Hell's Horses.

>Plus they're basically all white. You can't have pride if you're white.
Hardly, for one they have the actual Japanese.

And they have all the Scots and Irish in the Isle of Skye. Those people aren't white either.

My guess is he'll knock off old man Stone and declare victory, but he'll be revealed to not actually be a valid clanner and it will all be rendered null and void.

>über sue stone vs über sue alaric
>whoever wins we lose

My headcanon was that the whole ilClan shit was just a farce. Someone, most likely the falcons get all their shit together, punch through in an obviously unsustainable attack, land a couple of clusters of Terra and cream their pants in joy, only to have the other clans go "lmao who gives a shit, we are the TRUE ilClan, youre just freebirth posers"

Or if we're already deep in über sues, have the Fidelis take Terra for reasons and reveal themselves as Smoke Jags for maximum WTF and reee.

Da TRU ilClan!

An inner sphere freebirth Federated Commonwealth commander and nobleman was bidding in the defense of Twycross , a known shithole.

"Before this battle begins you must get on your knees and worship Victor Ian Steiner-Davion the most highly-evolved being the universe has ever known, even greater than Hanse Davion!"

At this moment a brave, trueborn, bloodnamed Jade Falcon warrior who had served 1500 tours of duty and understood the necessity of Operation REVIVAL and fully supported all military decision made by Clan Jade Falcon stood up and held up an ERPPC

"What is the battle value of this weapon?"

The arrogant commander smirked quite freebirthly and smugly replied "228 you stupid clanner"

"Wrong. It is 412. If it was 228 and battle value as you say is not real... then we should play by weight now"

The commander was visibly shaken and dropped his PPC and copy of TechManual. He catapulted out of his Hatchetman crying those spheroid crocodile tears. The same tears spheroids cry for the "lower castes"(who today in live such luxury that most own refrigerators)
when they jealously try to claw justly earned honor from the deserving trueborns. There is no doubt that at this point our commander wished he had pulled himself up a bondcord and become more than a savashri freeborn spheroid.
He wished so much that he had a clan ERPPC to shoot himself from embarrassment, but he himself had petitioned against them!

The warriors applauded and all registered bondsmen that day and accepted Clan Jade Falcon as their lord and savior. A falcon named Turkina flew into the room and perched atop the Star Leage flag and shed a tear on the ERPPC.
The Remembrance was read several times, and Kerensky himself showed up and recreated the Star League across the Inner Sphere.

The commander lost the battle and was executed the next day. He died of the surat freebirth AIDS and was tossed into the lake of fire for all eternity.[his genetic material was NOT needed]

Seyla

9.5/10
Should be Neg instead of wrong, Quiaff?

The world would unironically be better off without whites.

>imperialism
>colonialism
>slavery
>both world wars
>the holocaust
>threat of nuclear war

How can one race be so cancerously destructive?

/rant

Sorry.

That would actually be pretty cool.

The Jags were fun.

Don't bring that bait here, also you are completely off base with all of those statements.

So back to mechs.
I'm just starting to use/learn artillery, any tips what are the fun kinds?

Post the Marik one.

Arrow IV is a good simple option, and pretty versatile at that. Otherwise, others are best mounted on vehicles.

>I'm just starting to use/learn artillery, any tips what are the fun kinds?
arrow IVs for on-field usage/ being the only artillery worth mounting on mechs can be fun, but embracing your inner soviet and bringing an entire battalion of Thumpers off-board is also excellent

I thought all the canons have a "sawed" off and some mechs mount em?

Any kind of ammo I should focus on or is it just that simple of what you need is what you want?

which book has the construction rules for superheavy mechs?

The Artillery cannons are direct fire only, so you're not going to use them in the same way. Instead, you use them like you would use a grenade launcher in an FPS.

Interstellar Ops has the most recent version. They were published (IIRC) twice before, but IO has a bunch of errata added from all the questions the earlier version generated.

Most of the tube artillery has similar functions across each type: basic, homing, minelaying, smoke, and illumination, with more specialized versions in Arrow IV. The biggest difference is range and damage. Long Tom does the most damage and goes the furthest, but costs more and is really only found in vehicles or fortifications. They also have their own splash damage profiles depending upon what ammo you're using out of them.

Don't forget that even LRMs can be considered artillery -- it's more of a rocket artillery, when used indirect, but using a munition like Swarm can be really nasty when launching indirect.

Since most artillery systems are bulky, heavy, and only get a few shots per ton of ammo out of them, they tend to not be put into 'mechs much. Vehicles are a prime candidate for them. Another fun thing to consider is that mechanized infantry can tow Sniper, Thumper, and Arrow IV launchers, giving you a semi-mobile artillery platform if you want to bring it with you.

Artillery cannons are direct fire only, artillery pieces fire offboard or across maps. Artillery pieces can't fire on targets within its own map.

alright thanks.
somebody mentioned the idea of 3025 superheavies last thread and I want to design some to see what they'd actually look like

Not the place for this race baiting, race war crap.

Anyway, around Dracs, never relax!

What if Kurita married Davion?

Kurita marries Liao?

They get assassinated when they try.

RIP Omi Kurita.

I think drakensis wrote a story about that?
TL;DR CapCon gets fistfucked worse than in canon

Ghost Bear absorbs Wolves or vice versa?

Nobody likes crusader wolves.

err... sorry. Ghost Bear absorbs Jade Falcon?

I doubt they'll get absorbed. Probably Abjured and have to head out into the Periphery. They already survived one attempt at Absorption.

Oh. Uh...maybe? I kinda hope not. Ghost Bears as the ilClan really leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Ghost Bears ally with Davions?

Davion needs a lev 3. Because they don't have enough bad things happen to them.
Fuck I'm pouring a beer.

Cause it looks like FWL is going to die for sure.

At this rate, it seems more likely that we'll see a chain reaction.

First, we'll actually get to see the chicken bone defense in action. Clan Jade Falcon will destroy the Exiles but wound themselves in the process. Butthurt that the Imperial Wolves take Terra, they spend much of their remaining strength trying to refute that claim.

Then, what's left either gets absorbed by the wolves or the Hell's Horses, or has the sense to sue for peace and politically backs the ilClan. Imperial Wolves might leave the falcons be, because when they're not led by a maniac they're fun to fight and because a political vassal is worth more than absorbing a bunch of washed up birds.

Lyrans are also kind of iffy at this point.
Ya done fucked up Stieners.

Well we did A goof with a civil war and B were bad guys.
I really thought they were gonna become a super state steam roll a house then have some odd split. Nope, went retard and now suffering for 10+ years now.

really?
Jade Falcon is going to waste its time on wolves when they could be feasting on the guts of the Lyran's entire empire?

>I cant even find wolves in exile on this map

We know from TRO 3150's shameless cockteasing that Arc Royal falls to Clan Jade Falcon, devastating the exiles and hounds.

FM3145 doesnt even treat Clan Wolf in Exile as distinct from the Lyran Commonwealth.

So are imperial wolves going after Lyrans or FWL? Or both?

God, I cannot fucking follow this lore, there is so much crap going on all the time

I know this is gonna label me as a grong and wrong and bad, but kill off all the minor states, and push back on clans. There's a shit ton going on, hell pre clans things were crazy busy enough.
No one really cares about space Rome, it's boring imho.

It kind of looks like the cappellans and dracs are sticking thier probiscuses in davion in an all too sexual manner.

Why is Davion such a mary sue?

Neither. The Imperial Wolves have all their frontline shit pointed like an arrow at the Republic. The Lyrans have been taught their lesson, they have a peace treaty with (though still engage in friendly trials against) the FWL.

After teaching the Lyrans not to fuck with them, the only reason the Wolves bothered to attack was to fuck with the Falcons. Falcons are taking hesperus? not anymore! Falcons are taking Tharkad? Not this half they aren't.

>all the time
>last plot update happened 4 years ago

I wonder why that 3145 has ComStar in control of the Chainlaine Isles..

Again

Not too sure about that, user.

While it's true you won't be able to fit significantly more guns on to them due to SHS slot limitations, you can still do things like staple the firepower of an Archer onto that of an Awesome with 50% more armour than that of an Atlas, and this was just with some quick messing around at the 150-ton mark. If you were to sit down and really try to optimise you could do a lot better.

The real issue in 3025 will be the piles and piles of armour. Things like the Marauder II are already a pain in the ass to kill since they pile it on and have energy weapons, and that paradigm could be exploited pretty badly.

Very quick one here.

Liao marrying into either Marik, the TC, or Kurita would have been much better than the goddamn Xin Shit we got. Personally I like the idea of them marrying into the TC, but it would have only worked if the TC had been raiding them a ton before hand, and it was more of a peace brokerage than anything else. That way it basically buys Liao time, since now the Davs had to pay attention to two fronts. Kurita would be more likely though, since before Xin Shit magic the TC hated the Cappies, and the Dracs had less reason to hate them. A marriage instead of the Kapteyn Accord would have made a lot more sense since the Dracs actually took the agreement far more seriously than the Burd, and so the potential for an actual alliance was higher. The idea of a unified "Asian" state appeals because the franchise was always going to treat them like stereotypes anyway, so you might as well roll them into one and run with it. At least you'd get some nice stories out of the rocky relationship and the possible fall. A Liao/Drac civil war would be crazy fun.

This is how I feel about it, too.

A lot has changed, but it's also been a 60 year timejump since the Jihad period. Things will change.

I prefer something like this, anyway. Old eras were the adventures of Davion and everybody else. Since the Jihad, every faction is involved and nobody's pulling an FWL-style sitting-on-the-sidelines for close to their entire existence.

Speaking of what-if mergers, I remember from like a year or two ago somebody suggesting the MoC being basically forced into the FWL as a member state after the andurein crisis, and it honestly seems like it'd be a cool idea

Sure, why not. Personally I like the idea of either: a hyper-balkanized Inner Sphere so there are plenty of cool factions, or an Inner Sphere with only 3-4 major players, so we can have big ass fuckoff wars on several fronts. So yeah, fold the MoC into the Burds. Maybe they start making moves on the Marians too.

i love this meme

I personally like balkanization, but only when it's combined with proliferation of Having Nice Things

The next era is shaping up to be an era of Having Nice Things, then they will skip to 3250

The IS is boring...

BT setting needs a fucking soft reboot at this point

you're boring

Boring but free

When the Jihad hit, i was expecting a balkanization like Medron Pryde`s Human Sphere. All the Houses broken in at least 3-4 factions.

Dude...

I just figured it out.

Its Survivor, but with one of the 5 IS houses getting kicked off the island.

We tried that already, it's how we got the Dark Age
Yeah, that was one of the three decent ideas that the guy ever had l

To stop the pointless discussion about lore, here's a 150ton sniper artillery superheavy.

Actually, delete 1ton of ammo, and put another ER laser in the LT for 30 heat 30 damage alpha strike.

Lore is pointless? I mean I can agree that fanboyism is pointless, but the lore is at least somewhat integral to the game, unlike the veneer of lore in say D&D or Pathfinder. Well, I mean if you just straight don't care about factions and unit availability and all that I guess the fluff matters for shit, but at least they made an effort to say "yeah, you don't get to have that, faction X".

Your 'Mech shoots things and has too much ammo. I find Superheavies boring, personally.

Relax, m7, just pulling your leg.

I'd actually want to see more specialized superheavies like this one, the ones that would be good for scenario objectives. Like, imagine 2-3 of those with 3 support lances engaging in positional warfare over a city of some sort, and your mercs need to put them down. It's an anime waiting to happen.

To me, Superheavies are best used as... well, you're kind of suggesting it already. Centerpieces of a thematic force as a sort of "boogeyman" unit that does one thing and does it to the gills. A Superheavy with a single Long Tom system and a bunch of point defense weapons could be cool too, I suppose. The sort of walking "ultimate warcrime" that would make Blake himself shed a tear of joy.

And don't sweat the lore thing; I just think it's odd to call chatting inanely about it "pointless" when it's just not your bag or whatever. But I really do think Superheavies are kinda boring. I get why people like them though.

I have something similar with quad thumpers somewhere, let me find it

So I'm thinking, a hunchback very close to a sway back, but just an LRM 5 stuffed on some how because I have a growing mine fetish.

From targe-madcat prime how good is my idea?

Replace some ammo with clusters and flechette for warcrimes, some ammo with those homing projectiles, and I'm sold.

So what, like 7 MLs, an LRM5, and a ton of ammo? Fattest Thorn ever, that's what that is. Personally I think it'd be better with twin LRM5s and 6 MLs.

I'd thought mines had a chance for a crit roll, but I don't see anything about that in TacOps. If they did I'd say they could be useful in playing toecutter, limit your target's mobility so you can get on them with the AC/20.

Looking over the smoke missile rules, you'll get one hex of light smoke for three turns...if you can get an SRM6 on it, you can fill a three-hex-radius circle with heavy smoke for six turns. Might make closing a lot easier.

That's not a bad idea to split areas to cover.
I hadn't even thought of smoke.. I like where this is going.

You know what I don't get?

Everytime the Inner Sphere makes an innovation, the clan comes up with their own version.

Why wouldn't they?
Clan X pulse lasers when?

Those already exist. ER Pulse, without the X, they're not as cool.

Never, they do ER pulse lasers.

well, except for the cool/useful ones. And most of the ones they've been given been in circulation for a while.

That's how arms races work though. If an enemy develops a capability, you try to mimic or improve it yourself.

Surprised the Clans don't make their own version of a PPC capacitor. A 20dmg ERPPC seems like the sort of thing they'd want.

Where have you been? The Clans make their own now.

I was always told it was incompatible with CERPPCs.

Again, where have you been? They've had Capacitors since the print TRO:3145 gave them to them in 3101. That came out in 2013.

Fuck you too buddy. So I've been under a rock, no need to be a twat.

So are you retarded, or is Sarna wrong?

The PPC Capacitor is an extra component that can be added to any type of Inner Sphere Particle Projection Cannon. Its main purpose is to inflict more damage on an enemy in one shot. However, this comes at the expense of significantly raising the heat generated by each shot.

Inner. Sphere. PPC, not CERPPCs.

Clans may make their own capacitors, but they still are incompatible with Clan PPCs so far as I've read.

>So are you retarded, or is Sarna wrong?
If you have to ask, then it's the second. The tech upgrade note was asked about on the OF (unfortunately the OF is continuing its pattern of being terrible, and isn't up), and Xotl confirmed it as working on Clan ER PPCs. The Battlemech Manual applies this to their weapons as well.

What is the battletech equivalent of slavshit surplus?
Like in terms of mechs manufactured by X

is there anything with a max range of 3 or 6 that does a ton of damage?

Hunchbacks?

AC20s? 3/6/9.

anything from before 3050 thats not starleague tech.

You know, I hate to sound obstinate, but giant robots, dinosaurs, all that shit, will never NOT be popular, cause to kids, its all new. They are experiencing it for the first time, so the way I figure, battletech, robotech, mecha, they will always be popular, in one form or another.

Heavy small lasers? I mean, the biggest singlepoint damage you'll get is a Heavy Gauss or AC/20, but they have a bit more range than 3 or 6 hexes.

Star League intro tech.

>Seen hundreds of years of service
>Made in prodigious amounts by a collapsed empire
>Still valued for its ruggedness and used by militaries all over

No, they have a max range of 9.

I'm talking something where you have to get in close.