/btg/ BattleTech General

Hopefully this spirit quest doesn't fuck the Cats over as much as the last couple did.

I've always loved MW2 Mercs' missions on New Ivaarsen. Snow, sunrises, sunsets, giant wind turbines to blow up, really nice music.

What are the Spirit Cats for story-wise in the FWL. Did the writers decide that the Burrs need to fight Purple Burd?

A questing galaxy of them got stuck in a forever-war on the planet Marik when they stubbornly made a point of keeping to the old Clan honor code and the Stewarts went full guerilla. After a while, out of sheer desperation, they made a deal with Oriente, which Oriente didn't deliver on, rules-lawyering that while they promised aid, they never specified what form it would take, or even when that would occur, talk to you clanner losers later.

In further desperation they made a deal with Clan Sea Fox, which went much better.

Meanwhile, while all this time consuming hellish self-fuckery has been going on, Clan Nova Cat and it's tributaries got themselves genocided outright by the Combine and Ghost Bears, making these retards the only members of the Nova Cat extended lineage still drawing breath. They then cash in their chips with Oriente to join the new Free Worlds League as the rulers of some planets called the Clan Protectorate, effectively a duchy, and everything works out for them in the end.

>I'm honestly not sure if that was an epic success for mysticism, or so much fail it finally came around in the other direction as win
>it was good though

That's not exactly right.

First, the war for Marik was pretty short, just a month or two. Second, they never made a deal with Oriente ahead of time. What happened was Oriente had launched an invasion into Marik-Stewart at the same time and had Marik in the crosshairs. Captain Gmilf wanted the world to legitimize her as proper heir to the FWL. Then the Spirit Cats mucked all that up. So she sent her oldest daughter there to haggle for stuff. It was a suicide mission pretty much, as apparently the girl was reduced to a worthless shell when her #MeToo fell flat in front of Duke Humphreys. The Spirit Cat commander already had the foresight to contract with the Sea Foxes from the beginning though and went with them instead. He pulled them in the way that clans can call for reinforcements to the next highest bid level and paid them with half his conquest.

The original plan was for Oriente to swoop in and just exterminate the Spirit Cats after the fighting was over, but the Sea Fox fleet put a damper on that. So instead they carved up the planet and Jessica put them on her kill later list. She figured as long as no other FWL faction had the world, then at least they were on an even playing field and didn't have a leg up on her.

Fun fact, that daughter who got a well-deserved knife through the back of her skull, magically woke up from her coma fifteen years later without the brain damage the doctors said she would have and went back to the Spirit Cats because she got wet for Mr. Second in Command with no Bloodname in the few hours she knew him like fifteen years ago.

Last, remember half the real Nova Cats were in Republic space and plenty of them fled to places like Marik after Fortress. This was the funny time when the Combine Cats were still alive and they shot the hell out of their Republic refugee kin on sight. The wheel turns does it not?

Okay, last last thing. The Spirit Cat commander worships Ian Davion as his spirit animal.

The Magic BattleTech Fairy God-Mother has transported you into the far future of 3150! SHe's given you the choice of where to go, who to serve (if any), up to and including picking a unit, and she's even throwing in the needed training you need (and curing anything that'd disqualify you), *and* your choice of mech or vehicle (even aerospace). The only stipulation is that you'll have to manage it on your own (so no need to pick the Ares, you'd be the lone pilot).

So, where do you go, who do you sign up with, and what do you pick for a ride?

>3150
No thanks

Take me to the Fleet of Blake and give me the Righteous Justice. That old Farragut thought destroyed actually misjumped and I have returned it to Blake's Chosen for the light and glory of all mankind.

I just want WoB to come back. They and old ComStar were the best.

Bush Wars 2 ideas:

1) Operation Scorpion
2) Operation Guerrero
3) St. Ives War

The Fairy God-Mother is willing to adjust. Where would you prefer?

***NEA***

I'd like to bump the above poster's request.

Please write an Aerotech QSR, or at least a Warship QSR.

Catalyst clearly isn't going to do it. You have the knowledge to do it. We have somebody ask how aerospace works every few threads. It'd help the community. Can you PLEASE do this? If you're as concerned about the need for disseminating game knowledge and helping new players as you say, then it should be no problem.

***NEA***

>Guerrero
Fuck no. That shitpile is literally impossible to untangle on the Capellan side of things. The FWL side isn't too bad, but the Capellan successes can only be explained through sustained ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You've got planets with full RCTs getting fucked by battalions or less, planets with multiple RCTs nearby not getting reinforced, and Morgan Hasek-Davion and Victor twiddling their thumbs because reasons.

Scorpion was an utter failure because the cat was out of the bag. There's nothing to cover.

St. Ives is the only viable option there and even that's going to be a case of "St. Ives held out until Sun-Tzu's Just As Planned levels hit maximum, and then they were fucked."

>That's not exactly right.
x2

Marik was a few months, Oriente approached the Spirit Cats there (intending to betray them/never deliver) because they were getting desperate, but yeah their main objective to keep any other ex-Free Worlds faction out of it. Spirit Cats had dealt with the Sea Foxes to get there, but went crawling back to them after they realized no Oriente help would be coming.

>Fun fact, that daughter who got a well-deserved knife through the back of her skull, magically woke up from her coma fifteen years later without the brain damage the doctors said she would have and went back to the Spirit Cats because she got wet for Mr. Second in Command with no Bloodname in the few hours she knew him like fifteen years ago.

That one was more like a few weeks. The Spirit Cat leader thought Juiletta was his waifu because her betraying him led him to a deeper understanding of his aforementioned spirit animal, Ian Davion (specifically, a person debased and reduced to the point where they have nothing remaining but their own strength), which got him off his ass and onto his knees to make that second deal with the Sea Fox to save his ass in exchange for half the planet. So he went to the GILF and demanded his comatose cougar, so he could cure her with Clan Science, which he did. She regarded herself as damaged goods at this point and decided that he, non-bloodnamed semi-vagabond Star Colonel that he was, was her husbando (also she was pushing fifty).

The FWL side is the only half that makes sense, but I'd like to see CGL try the CapCon side.

For Scorpion I just want to read a Rasalhague 3034 war style selection of ComStar uprisings on worlds across the Clan OZs and how each Clan deals with it. I always enjoyed Kai Allard-Liao's adventures on Alyina.

>Okay, last last thing. The Spirit Cat commander worships Ian Davion as his spirit animal.

What?

Ian Davion at Desolate Pass, to be specific.

Let's be honest. That sexy lady voice saying "HELLBRINGER" as you scroll past it in the select screen is so much better than "loki" popping up in the corner of your screen.

The man literally carries around a pouch of sand from Mallory's World muttering "What would Ian Davion do?"

But at least it's better than his old boss who used to run around chasing visions of a star only to be like "star, the star is talking, COMSTAR!" and then get his ass whooped by First Division.

Each game does have its pros and cons.

>The man literally carries around a pouch of sand from Mallory's World muttering "What would Ian Davion do?"

Important to note that *other* 'Cats think this is *retarded*. To the point of patiently trying to explain why Ian Davion a shit, Hanse much better.

To be fair, the way Ian Davion died is exactly what makes typical clanners get all misty eyed.

>attain loads of power through breeding and military prowess
>die gloriously and young in the cockpit of a mech at the hands of one of the best warriors in know space after littering the field with the bodies of his comrades

That's like a 12/10 on the clan boner scale.

Stop! My penis can only get so Kerect!

STONE. RHINO.

>Would you be willing to write a fan made quick start guide for aero? I mean we get people asking every couple of threads, and I'm sure that there are people who don't go on Veeky Forums who could really benefit from one. Heck, I'm the only one in my group who knows aero and a quick intro guide would help tremendously in getting my friends on board.

+1

>(also she was pushing fifty).

Rich people in BT tend to live pretty healthy until age 120, making her a young cougar at worst.

Not NEA, but...
>then it should be no problem
...that doesn't sound right. The mere existence of a need doesn't mean there aren't practical problems or that trying to address wouldn't violate the spirit of things.

Also, there's at least two other anons who profess knowledge of Aero stuff, and if you're interested enough to beg, well, where's *your* attempt? Give it a shot, man. Worst that can happen is you try to talk through each part of it here and nobody's actually interested.

Scorpion accomplished all of jack and shit in the OZs. The Clans seem to have shut it down even harder than the Feddies.

To a degree, with examples like Alyina showing how even ComStar conventional forces could overrun Clanner garrison to Teniente showing them getting involved in running battles with Clan mech forces.

That's why I'd like to read more on it. Even if it ultimately failed there's potential for fun gameplay. Like Kursk or the Bulge.

The story on Alyina was pretty good. With the Clan defeat on Tukayyid and Kai freeing the FedCom POWs the first time I read "Lost Destiny" I assumed there would be uprising in the OZs that would force the Clans out and they'd be unable to respond with their frontline forces decimated on Tukayyid.

Man, where is everyone recently? Threads have been ice-cold for awhile now. Does no one actually play BT anymore?

How well do the first-genetation protos stack up against IS lights on the table?

blainepardoe.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/the-twilight-of-the-clans-that-almost-was/

Went to my LGS looking for battletech stuff, only to be informed that a guy had bought literally ALL of it, including a large pile of WarShip minis.
NEA, if you're reading this, and you know of a man named Sam in the Toronto group, tell him to leave some for the rest of us, for fuck's sake

Fuck, is Meeplemart sold out?

That wasn't where I was, so I dunno

Eh, I think both works, but it would have been a clear improvement for the Gray Death Legion storyline.

Really, the Clans got beat by the Inner Sphere hanging on and hanging together long enough for time and politics to do its thing inside the Clans. Victory came when the Clans became assholes like unto every other asshole fighting over the corpse of the Star League That wasn't a certain outcome, though, and I suppose Exodus Road helped that along pretty well.

What do you expect, my dude? The game is in palliative care now and will never recover. We have no new product to discuss and there are hints that we might not get anything for another quarter at least.

Also this was a few weeks back, but since that place's used/old stock (which includes all their battletech) only changes when somebody checks out and they buy their collection, it's almost certainly still barren of BT stuff

Hey guys, need your help. Need to modify/upgrade some dropships for a campaign i am playing, but i know nothing about Aero. I am playing as the Marian Hegemony, so i need to mod common DS like the Leopard, Union and the like to the marian system. Any hint on how to group weapons, or how much speed/IS/armor is better?

that would have been really cool

Modifying DSes is a huge job and the Marians don't have the facilities.

But if you're going to go there the best moves are to max out armour, use (ER) PPCs, GRs, and LRM-15s with Artemis for range. Banks of MLs in close.

Group weapons to take advantage of rounding. 3 MLs do as much damage as 4.

Have 12 AMS per arc if you can.

how many mechs have "wolf" in the name?

MUL says 10.

I'm still sitting over here making customs. I've been wanting to make a cheap trooper but I keep making stuff that's too much like the Hound. I think I need to go lighter; 60 tons is gonna put me too close in payload. Maybe I'll do a 50 ton 4/6/4 and see what I can slap together with minimal SL-era stuff.

Also, I had wanted to start using ISERLLs more but god DAMN are they subpar. Better off with a vanilla PPC in most cases.

Looking for a sidearm for my mechwarrior in an rp campaign. Do I go with a handrocket or a nakjima? Character is a somewhat dishonored drac.

Nakjima, energy is better than ballistic, and it has longer range.

Portable 2-shot SRM launcher.

There's no kill like overkill.

I'm sure the authorities will be thrilled with me walking around town with a missile launcher

>somewhat dishonored drac.
You should do the proper samurai thing and get a wakizashi, and then use it.

>handrocket
If you ever get the chance to use something called a handrocket, you fucking take it, sir. There's no conversation here.

You're a Drac Mechwarrior, and thus above the law, and you're dishonored anyway, so who cares what people think of you, AND you're carrying a fucking missile launcher, so who's going to argue?

How many Clan Wolf fans?

Anyone else happy Wolves in Exile are finally dead?

Here's hoping the Dragoons buy it permanently next.

Marians canonically make AC/10s and large lasers for a pair of hovertanks they have- I would mount several of those for flavor.

Otherwise? Focus on thresholding, so use 10-point damage weapons a lot. As for speed, your dropper must be able to attain a thrust of 4 to escape the gravity of an Earth-level planet, so 3/5 or 4/6 will work. Spheroid droppers can land anywhere versus Aerodyne which need a runway, but Spheroids have to make control rolls for ANY damage taken on landing.
The more armor and SI, the better. Still, I would stay reasonably near the canon unit for those values- if you, say, bumped it from 35 to 45 and described the refit as adding more structural bracing I can accept that. Going from 35 to 60 I can't see happening.

I'm a gross wolf fan and I didn't like WiE.

I only like Clan wolf because MW2 and the cartoon started me on BT so anyone who hates Jade Falcon is ok with me, plus once I learned a bit more they have a cool story imho.

The wolves lost all their heart after the RW. WiE just followed the Kell Hounds around going "Yeah! What they said!" and Vlad's lot just followed the Falcons around going "Yeah! What they said!"

Plus they had to get wrecked to show that the Bears and Horses were SRS BSNS.

I still can't get my head around- and yet entirely believe- *those* were the Clanner assholes that won at life.

>also, what hovertanks were those?

>>also, what hovertanks were those?

The Gladius and the Fulcrum. The Fulcrum is the real "what the FUCK" one since it's a periphery tank in 3052 using XL, Active Probe and a few other goodies.

>*those* were the Clanner assholes that won at life.
>TFW Clan Space Jew becomes ilClan by buying Terra

I made a custom upgrade for the Striker-2D. It's meant to be a bodyguard for a Vindicator-4L and a Cataphract-4L. Any thoughts?

That's basically what his family tells him in the yearly Christmas card. His response boils down to "no u"

Looks decent, two questions, why a RAC and why are you body guarding a vindi?

Why a RAC? Why not a RAC? Original Striker had a AC/5, this feels like the logical upgrade.

Why guard a vindi? It's more of a mid range fighter, what with the LL and RAC, so it figure I can keep it towards the back and use it to pick off things that might want to hurt my back line.

For what it's worth, a Raven-4L rounds out the lance, I'll probably use it as a harasser.

Hmm. There's a chance we know who it is.

Fair enough, personally I'd make use of a UAC and the weight to other stuff as odd as it seems I could see MASC being handy on that build.

That's a pretty sweet lance for generalist duty.

You thinking Sam McLean too?

Anyway, yes, I saw all the pleading for an AeroTech QSR. I'll consider it. It's more work than you think, and if I'm going to do it I want to do it professionally, not just as a Word document or something.

>That's a pretty sweet lance for generalist duty.
Thanks, I honestly just sort of came up with it on the fly. The Striker is a personal favorite of mine, and once I saw that it is pretty much only made by the cappies I knew what I had to do.

I thought about the UAC, but considering that half the lance are snipers I thought it would be worth being able to throw down some heavy short range damage in a pinch.

Glad you are happy with it yea it really hits well. Eh, I can see why you want a RAC but I'd aim for a single more so or missiles. just my own autism.

...If you can figure out a way for me to help, I actually enjoy editing grammar, punctuation, and spelling. I can also lie like a rug if you decide you need some fiction or something.

True, but the Striker doesn't normally mount missiles so I didn't want to change it. As for damage, the AC/20 is 14 tons and 10 crits, whereas RAC/5 is 10 tons and 6 crits. So for 4 less tons and crits, I'm willing to take my chances on the 4 shot cluster table.

After finishing a mission during an ATB campaign there is a prompt asking if your side controlled the battlefield. What exactly does that entail, I cannot seem to find any mention of it (or I'm blind and dumb). Should it be only my units left alive, or am I good if I have completed the objectives?

Is it haram to use another factions mechs?

Possibly. Tronnas a big city and my frame of reference for it revolves around a hockey shop on Dundas and hating the parking near the ACC.

Read the brief in AtB. If your mission objectives state that the Defender controls the battlefield, and you're the Attacker, you get nothing. If the Observations say Winner controls the field, if you've completed your objectives, then you get salvage.

The mission will specify when it gave the victory conditions. What it means is if you get to salvage the battlefield, recover pilots, or have to abandon immobile mechs.

Derp, I did not see that, will they all have that?

Yes, though some, like the SLDF Cache mission have some specific rules, but I can honestly say I've seen like, 5 of these total in the 4 years the Shearington game has run.

Salvage is a core element of the setting. Some mechwarriors get bitchy about it, but when it's that or no mech at all they'll still be grumpy but get in the damn thing anyway.

So apparently with an A* rating, you can buy Clan mechs directly from the Factory and your employer.

>Eh, I think both works, but it would have been a clear improvement for the Gray Death Legion storyline.

I would say it is great improvement over the shitsow we got for them in the start of FedCom Civil War. Not jobbing to pretty much the whipping boys of Lyran space aka the Skye Separatists but get decimated to end a threat to IS. That's how you write off long time heroes, they should go out in a bang instead of whimper that was the defense of Hesperus II.

Even for Guards/Royal Guards units?

Well the Huncback IIC is easy one to salvage for IS as it has mostly standard parts and standard armor and they don't have the stigma Clanners have with it. Most IS pilots would be happy to pilot it. Archer C I can see a someone in IS having salvaged Clan weaponry and then sticking them to an Archer. Clan tanks mean garrison forces, so those Fulcrum are probably salvage as well. So in end someone made a raid to Clan space and came with alot salvage from the garrison forces.

Even for them. It's also a kinda status symbol if you can take out say a Griffin with a Panther and then you claim it as yours. It's Battletechs way of people going "Hah I have your stuff, come and get it back if dare so I can kick your ass the second time."

>energy is better than ballistic
Tell that to my AP loaded Revolver

EX loaded Martial Eagle here.
pic related

Hey /btg/ I'm playing an Against the Bot campaign. I'm doing well (not super hard to do against Princess) and I have a couple billion Cbills tucked away for Wise Investment. I was considering searching for and buying some jumpships and having them work as couriers. You know, go around transporting dropships for a fee, make some extra cash while the company does jobs, etc. I know MechHQ has the ability to add Assets that earn a set amount of cash on a given basis.

So how much do you think, on average, can a jumpship make in a high-traffic area of the Inner Sphere in a month, or year? I figure it's gotta be enough to cover the cost of maintenance at least, which from the Invader I already have for my troop dropships is ~3 million a month.

I realize I could just spend the 2 billion buying mechs and ASF and stuff, give the company a big growth spurt, but I don't want to get so out of hand that I end up with an entire extra regiment or something. And I like the idea of roleplaying the company expanding into less violent ventures for additional income, maybe even modify a couple Tramps to have some ASF bays to provide defense for the customers when in more... tumultuous areas of space.

That's exactly what it's doing there, there are two cockpit (Command Console) slots, one to represent the original cockpit, and the other for the command Console itself

>high-traffic area
Here's the thing that boinks you a bit, as high traffic means lots of other JS coming through too, so you have to keep your fees competitive.
With your three collars and averaging four jumps per month, you have to charge 250k per jump and collar to make your baseline.
For simplicity's sake let's assume that the occasional empty collar is evened out by the occasional express transport or hazard fee.
Now you may still need to save up some cash for dry dock overhaul fees, and in the time you're not in dry dock.

When you have that total you NEED to make each month, you can mark it up a bit, but not too much or other ships would be cheaper. Slap 5-10% on and you should be good.

...

Ah, yeah. I guess when I said high-traffic I meant enough traffic to be able to regularly fill at least 2/3 of the collars in the 7 days it takes to recharge. Enough traffic so that there's people looking for jumpships to get to another system, as opposed to the ass end of the Periphery.

So, going by your figure the total net profit will be ~300k a month. Oof. I suppose that is still a lot of money by the stands of your average person but when you regularly deal in weapons of war costing millions it's definitely a long-term profit sort of deal.

Thanks for the response user. Hmmm, I wonder how much I could make if I cut out the middleman and buy some Mules and transport the goods myself...

300k a month earns you a medium 'mech a year, and JS can serve for centuries, so it piles up. Coughing up the money and cutting out the middle man who has to add his own markup to pay his bank and his pension and his mistress will up your profits, IF you find a stable and profitable trade route/circuit. Hauling cheap shit through four jumps and back won't earn your upkeep. Try somethig like ores from a mining world to a manufacturing world, weapons from there to someplace they're bought, and foods/consumer goods back to the mining world. Three profitable jumps, rinse and repeat.