/btg/ BattleTech General

joined the SLDF and got abjured

where have you been?

Yeah, the idea of a mech that can drop a shitload of damage on a passing fighter every other turn (since it generally takes fighters that long to turn around and hit again) is actually fairly solid. I've made this rifleman based off that concept, because nothing says "fuck you" like 4 shots that are all decently likely to beak a fighter's threshold somewhere.

Armor and such is less than it could be, but I designed it to be a class D refit of the classic rifleman that you could do in a dropship.

Attached: Rifleman RFL-9X.png (653x909, 41K)

/btg/ DESIGN CHALLENGE!

Make a clan version of an old Inner Sphere mech that no one would think they would have an interest in.

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They already have an Urbie and Ostscout IIC. What more could we do?

Assassin.
Phone posting or I'd do it, but junky mech.

Vulcan? Hermes II? Whitworth? Excalibur? Centurion?

The Hector, or any of those other old Age of War mechs

Cronus IIC

Any S7 mech made Clanner.

Noble Quickdraw-kun.

Any Amaris mech.

Charger?

Cataphract

Is there an inlore explanation for why mechs are usefull?

They can take massively more damage and operate in a much wider range of terrain than vehicles

They only need 1 crewman
Something something myomers
They interface with the driver's brain to move so they can be fairly agile

Yes, go back a couple threads to read the lengthy shitstorm there.

Short version:
• Transport/raiding logistics (one 'mech can load/unload itself and help steal/move cargo)
• Better all-terrain mobility
• Manpower and training requirements are lower
• Mechs have a significant morale effect on both pilots and the enemy, and a potent propaganda/symbolic use.
• Fucking space magic
• 'Mechs are more rugged and more likely to avoid a mobility kill than a vehicle.
• Unlike fighters, they can help hold territory in an aggressive combat action. Unlike (most) infantry or vehicles they can survive firebombing and NBC attacks, and mount operations in Ares violation zones.

They may not be the best at any one task, but they're an excellent all-purpose war machine.

The way warfare was restructured in the BT universe in the late Age of War also supports 'Mech warfare. With its limited, mostly raiding actions and its emphasis on avoiding wholesale destruction, 'Mechs became the most effective tools. Once they were institutionally established, even the unlimited shitstorms of the Re-U war and SW1 weren't enough to completely unseat them. In the late SWs, the Sphere returned to a similar attitude as the end of the Age of War, and again that makes 'Mechs a better tool.

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When all factors are considered, they are the most transport tonnage-efficient, beachhead-deployed war machines that there are by an obvious margin.

I like that pic.

I wish Clan Wolf wasn't condemned to carry the idiot ball eternally since the Refusal War.

>The way warfare was restructured in the BT universe in the late Age of War also supports 'Mech warfare. With its limited, mostly raiding actions and its emphasis on avoiding wholesale destruction, 'Mechs became the most effective tools. Once they were institutionally established, even the unlimited shitstorms of the Re-U war and SW1 weren't enough to completely unseat them. In the late SWs, the Sphere returned to a similar attitude as the end of the Age of War, and again that makes 'Mechs a better tool.

This is why I miss the Nova Cats. They saw their trouble coming about a generation away (After the Combine/Dominion War), and with all the tech in world but demanding resource budget they had to get ready for that inevitable day of reckoning.

So sure, they had Omnimechs. But they also had stuff like city-fighting assault-weight tanks, stealth suits, and even ICE self propelled artillery.

You want to see what an inlore faction builds when given the ultimatum of building the most non-BS, national warmachine they possibly can with no tech limit (but human resource and c-bill savy) in order to prevent their own genocide? It'll look like the Dark Age Nova Cat Touman

>of course they lost and all died, but useful data there

>every vision their leaders had put another nail in the coffin

Should have just allied with the Smoke Jaguars and defeated the 2nd SLDF. Inner Sphere would never have stood a chance.

In their defense, the Black Dragons turned out to be *self defeatingly* hysterically racist xenophobes, instead of the usual Dai Nippon pragmatic version.

Here, have another Clan Wolf pic.

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But didn't the BDS fuck over the Cats so they bore the brunt of the Ghost Bears attacks?

Favorite Clan Wolf mech?

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So in the Classic era, the FWL is building 500 mechs a year... and 325 aerospace fighters.

What does this mean for the FWL-based merc?

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That's pragmatic, entirely sensible hysterical racist xenophobia- getting your nation a better class of meatshield and making sure the noh-theatre patronizing still-filthy-gaijin stay weak enough not to get any ideas. Inciting mob violence against 'Cat sibko compounds in the aftermath though...

One that glows in the dark

Means you might actually get some of that air support your employer promised.

Mad Cat Mk III LAM

you sonuvabitch

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Yes, because magic

>They only need 1 crewman
Also because magic

Meaning, software. But really the one-mechwarrior/one-mech thing isn't a selling point, while a bottleneck it isn't the most important one.

Really, the be-all-end-all for why Battlemechs are a thing is the setting's take on interstellar transportation. One Jumpship transports one to six dropships that is going to carry either a platoon to a battalion's worth of vehicles with supply space as a rounding error afterthought. People that are serious about attacking other planets build Battlemechs. People that are serious about defending planets build tanks. (People that are actually serious about defending planets and not would-be planetary conquerors that are all sour grapes about not being able to build Battlemechs build Manticore MBTs.)

Think about the shear amount of non-AFV tonnage it takes to get an AFV into a fight and keep it going. For their combat-power, Battlemechs are much more forgiving.

Also mechs' all-terrain ability makes them VASTLY less vulnerable to artillery than tanks, which is a huge advantage

Uh, I think I'm gonna need you to come in on Sunday and give me stats on that, user. Also did you put your cover sheet on your TPS reports?

Will they ever reboot Battletech?

Probably not

But the Dark Age was such shit.

Isn't it theoretically possible to build a tank with a neurohelmet so only one crewman is needed inside at a time? Also later tanks have onboard reactors like mechs do. What makes the reactor/neurohelmet/one pilot setup so efficient for battlemechs? The humanoid form? The myomer which works best in a humanoid form and makes efficient mech movement possible?

Why not just get the best of both worlds and work on improving quad mechs?

It grew into itself, once people started ignoring the Republic.

>the JIHAD was shit
>just an incomprehensible fluff bonfire
>best and most useful as a smoldering wreck in the far distance

The Jihad was great, even though the execution was hamfisted. It could have been legendary...

I had to give two Riflemen for my new recruits once because the other option would have been Stingers and the Riflemen barely won that argument. Only one of them died like a bitch two missions after that. The other one survived very long time, even got DHS because fuck that thing was undersinked otherwise and that was huge improvement.

Yeah basically the closer it is to human form the beetter/easier the connection works.

Incidentally, this is why there are quad mechs but not hexaped mechs. Can't pilot two extra limbs.

Maybe Charger....oh nevermind they allready got enough underarmed Assaults as it is.

Clan Wolf 3049-3057 are objectively the heroes of the setting.

It was, but they still won't reboot it
The Jihad suffered from a lot of problems, but most of them had a lot to do with the DA, and the rest with the writers.

Timber Wolf or a Summoner just to fuck with the heads of Jade Falcons.

If I like House Stark is Clan Wolf the faction for me?

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>The Jihad suffered from a lot of problems, but most of them had a lot to do with the DA, and the rest with the writers

In my opinion Jihad had several more problems on itself, one being that it was time when Herbert went "No Fun Allowed"-mode and killed off almost all quirky or otherwise fun people.
Then there is overall "Fuck everyone who did anything in the past Eras"-attitude in it, Especially VSD gets hit with this quite badly and his main job the entire era is basically failing at everything he does. Then there is the obvious Ghost Bears wankery and their Plot Ships that save everyone. Also the BDS makes their first return this era because why the fuck not, everyone else is allready holding idiot balls why not add the retard squad in the mix aswell.
Also 16 years for the Great Houses to bring the pain to back to the some uppity wannabeComstar, when the god damn Clan Invasion and FedCom Civil War combine lasted only half of that time.

So what is the post-Dark Age Inner Sphere like? Did they finally get rid of the Great Houses?

>one being that it was time when Herbert went "No Fun Allowed"-mode and killed off almost all quirky or otherwise fun people.
>Then there is overall "Fuck everyone who did anything in the past Eras"-attitude in it, Especially VSD gets hit with this quite badly and his main job the entire era is basically failing at everything he does. Then there is the obvious Ghost Bears wankery and their Plot Ships that save everyone. Also the BDS makes their first return this era because why the fuck not, everyone else is allready holding idiot balls why not add the retard squad in the mix aswell.
Yeah, that falls under "the CGL authors are factionfag edgy retards and that made the Jihad worse"

It is when Ulric Kerensky is running the show, so around 3049-3057, after that they fall from grace harder than Katherine lusted after VSDs dick.

>Did they finally get rid of the Great Houses?
lolno

>So what is the post-Dark Age Inner Sphere like? Did they finally get rid of the Great Houses?
We don't know yet. We have hints of 3150, which is just 5 years from the last real fluffbook. Those hints are very much "houses are still there" and it's unlikely that would change in just 5 years.

Also, you should be asking if they finally got rid of the clans, which are the cancer of the setting.

I actually had no problem with the Clans when they were, y'know, Clans, and not just refugees in the Inner Sphere/Periphery who were just basically mercs with heraldry.

You wish, Randall did try to eliminate FedSuns with petty much killing off all Draconis and Capellan March leading nobles and almost killing off Davions aswell. Lyran Commonwealth is Periphery level fucked though and FWL was long time split more ways than Master was after Regulans where done with him. Capellans are still Xin Shenging and Draconis Combine are back to being retarded samurais.

The Purple Burd flies again, Andurians are the Liao-lover Perihery State they probably always were at heart, Steiners Steinered themselves into a crisis, the Jade Falcons are carrying out the whims of (legitimately) psycho-bitch larping Genghis Khan if your research was skimming the cliff notes while drunk and tired and making progress, Katrina Steiner-Davion finally gave her family the middle finger like she always meant to and the result in a Clan State in the middle of the inner sphere calling itself the "Wolf Empire" leaded by her and Victor's son. Dracs gotta Drac, Liao's gotta Liao (and Liao's gotta Liao Liao-Centrallas), Davions had a wild ride being lead by a first prince who was a tanker instead of a mechwarrior and literally believed everything House Davion told everyone about House Davion. A Nova Cat did something non-retarded because his mancrush on the eternal undying spirit of Ian Davion told him to.

When you look back on it, it's really a hoot. Their is that cancerous mass plot tumor in the center called the Republic of the Sphere but it's literally impossible to travel to it because of Blakist Space Magic.

I like the mercs with heraldry a lot more than the United Fursona Interstellar State- hell, I actually *like* the mercs with heraldry. And the splintered Fursona Intersteller States.

Hypothetical naval battle time:

It's 3067. FedCom stays together (wizard did it). All the warships of the Suns and Lyran half destroyed during the FCCW are around. So they have two Mjolnirs, seven Avalons, and twenty-four Foxes.

Fighting over Hall, they encounter the massed Free Worlds navy, which has four Zechetinus, seven Zechitinu II's, two Essex's, three Impavidos, ten Eagles, two Aegis's, four Agamemnons, one Black Lion, and six Theras.

No warship carries more than one aerospace carrier dropship with it.

Which fleet might win?

If you were the admiral of one of the fleets, what would your strategy be?

NEA and WarshipAnon, I summon you

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oh and the FWLN has a Vincent lol

Six Thereas just bring way too many fighters to the table for the FWLN to lose.
Shit, their fighter groups could kill the whole damn FCN without really needing any WarShip support

A short-lived IIC conversion; it fell by the wayside with the disappearance of physical combat from Clan doctrine. A few still appear in ramshackle shape among Dark Caste warriors.

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>Why not just get the best of both worlds and work on improving quad mechs?
The Society discovered that if you pump enough Feralize into a VDNI-enabled vatbaby, they can do >horrifying< shit. But quads in general require you to - literally - wrap your mind around a different mode of movement. That's partially-patched with software, and the more-stable platform makes up for some of it as well. But the Sphere in general has been frosty towards quads throughout the majority of its history.

Also a short-lived conversion, it was intended to bolster the forces of the Wolf's Dragoons once the Invasion began, but when they went dark in 3020, the plan was scrapped, and the few dozen that had been built were trialed for and won by Clan Blood Spirit.

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No, you should join the MoC so you can keep sucking dicks

Sure but that's a corner case of a corner case.

haha ok :^)

Not really. Da Burrs really had a bug up their asses about the Nova Cats after they defected and tried to take the Rasalhague away from them. The curb stomp was coming regardless, and nobody beats the Bears, so...

Means that almost all of it is going to replace battle damage or machines that are too worn out to serve, so good luck getting anything yourself.

Canon production numbers have a lot of issues with them. In wartime they don't keep up, in peacetime they'd let states expand more than they did in the story told. It's why they've been taken out of newer books in favour of happening at the speed of plot.

The Jihad FASA planned and the one we got were entirely different. Weisman decided to have it be a massive conflagration that wrecked a ton of shit rather than being a temper tantrum and CGL had to justify it.

There are issues, but by and large they did a good job in polishing the turd they were handed. Problem is that they've fucked around ever since.

No. House Stark is on the rise again, that shit ain't ever gonna happen with Clan Worf.

>the HOR SEMEN
k

>six Theras

FWL wins, GG no RE.

If FWL, swarm the enemy with fighters.

If FCN, jump out and never look back. Except that, well, you just know they're going to dive in close and trigger suicide Jumps.

What WarShip user said. For the same reasons.

How useful are helicopters in MegaMek? Should I be buying dropships in MekHQ too eventually?

Like, seriously. Just on Theras, the FWL force can devote over 36 fighters per FCN vessel. Add their internal complements and a few Vengeance or Overlords modded for carrier duty and you're pushing past 60 per WarShip.

It's not even close to a fair fight.

In a straight fleet battle the FCN probably has the edge since the FWLN ships' armour is generally pretty crappy but they're going to lose a lot of Foxes screening the Avalons and Mjolnirs.

Even if you don't get a union or something bigger, you might want at least a Drost or some sort of dropship to move your mechs and equipment around and not be 100% reliant on your contract employer.

I typically just GM add one in, and then add a huge loan in the form of an asset worth negative cbills and which adds negative cbills per month as 'payment'. I occasionally reduce both once a year if I'm ever flush with cash.

It helps in your MRBC rating as well.

Breakthrough (Defender)

x3 LRM Carrier
x1 SRM Carrier
x1 Gladiator 1R

x1 Allied Leopard Dropship

vs.

x2 Grasshoppers
x1 Orion
x1 Quikdraw

x2 Scimitar
x1 Scorpion
x1 Galleon

x1 Hetzer
x1 Warrior VTOL
x1 APC (Hover SRM)
x1 Vedette

x1 Centurion Aerofighter
x1 Lightning
x1 Cheetah
...Holy shit they won. Holy shit they *survived*. No maas. No maas. Don't want to rematch. There ain't going to be no rematch. It's a Purple Bird Miracle.

This reminds me my next venture into AtB is going to be an all-vehicle Merc company. I want to see if I can pull it off. I doubt it though; the number of repairs I'll have to do will be staggering. Well, that or all Urbies. I haven't decided yet. I DO know what I'm naming my Urbie Merc company though: "Waste Disposal Services"

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>This reminds me my next venture into AtB is going to be an all-vehicle Merc company. I want to see if I can pull it off.

I don't get paid much. 7 battles, and I've an LRM carrier with permanent body damage, and two destroyed AC2 carriers. The reason the losses stopped is that after 4 battles I got that primitive mech which has gone through ten tons of armor repairs so far.

Vehicle salvage is an indispensable source of stabilizers and sensors. Two of those LRM carriers were fixed up from immobilized. I think the next time I'm put in a position where there is a substantial enemy to fight and I don't control the battlefield afterwards I'm taking the loss.

Also... well... tankers *die*. One of those AC/2 Carriers was on its second crew when it was gently killed (the second crew was laid up for a month, but none of them actually died).

>I altered the time scale for parts buying/re-attempts by an order of magnitude
>I think I'll recommend that for everybody

I dunno how "ghetto" I will be starting out. I think Xotl's RAT has vehicles on it too, so probably there. I imagine I'll end up with a couple of Scorpions, maybe a Vedette, and a Carrier or Patton or something for the bigger command ride. Sounds like a rough time, even against bugs.

>How useful are helicopters in MegaMek?
They're kinda "meh", unless you're playing double-blind. Hard to hit, but extremely fragile and useful mostly for harassment.

>Should I be buying dropships in MekHQ too eventually?
I use the rules in the Mercenaries' Handbook and roll for it in meatspace, then GM mode the results. I'm pretty sure there's an option for it somewhere in MHQ, but I can't find it.

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SRM Carriers are unbelievable. I got the one I did as a replacement and it has no-foolings won two duels against heavy mechs (a Catapult and a Thunderbolt). But they're amazingly fragile. Ambush hunters.

Wew lads here we go time for tukayyid. 3 stars of 5 mechs, 5.0 intensity, 1 month, 0% chance of victory. I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up with zero mechs by the end of the month.

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But do your pilots have any SPAs? And what are your skills? I still think you could eke a draw out this, possible a win. Unless the Hand of Focht descended on that table anyway.

New phone edition, so the photos aren't MAXIMUM JPG.

Well, when last we left the Silver Hawk Irregulars, we had successfully managed to recon all of the enemy mechs well enough to figure out what each model was, and get a fair idea of the skill of their pilots. All that remained was to evacuate all of our forces off the board without losing anything before the rest of the Fedcom RCT could catch up with us.

SHI forces are on the left hand side of this picture, and the only real damage that we've taken this fight is a couple of our Wolverines have been chewed on, and in return, we've savaged the Green Zeus and put some chip damage on the Centurion, the red Phawk, and the white armless PHawk (although it is on the ground due to being a wobbly model and a crease in the map sheet making it fall over, not due to dmg)

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Two of our players were out, so it was just me and a friend vs the GM/OPFOR CMDR, so it was taking a little longer to take each turn than it should have due to each player needing to manage 8 mechs.

On the first turn of today, we continue to retreat in good order, our heavy/assault force to the south moves a little north and slightly towards the board edge, but stays on the hills enough to keep the enemy honest, and we rain fire down on the Green Zeus. The threat of 7 PPCs+Stalker&Orion keep the enemy from wanting to cross make the dangerous river crossing of the River Valley map, and the enemy Centurion puts itself up on the hill, where he'll stay for several turns. We don't put much fire on him this turn as we're still focus firing on the Green Zeus, but he'll stay put there and be an easy target in the future.

The enemy Devastator continues his pattern of missing TN 7s with his gauss rifles, so the intel report we deliver to command is going to have a wildly innaccurate conclusion as to the gunnery skill of that pilot.

Up to the North, two enemy PHawks have chased our Wolverine Lance out of the city and the enemy heavies and fire support lance start to move into the city. The Wolverines and PHawks can't really hurt each other, I think the best TN was an 11, but the Wolvies have the heatsinks to actually take these shots, and the PHawks don't. They try anyway, but are starting to run hot and the Wolverines definitely get the better of the exchange.

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I'm going to reboot it, and half of you would probably hate it because everyone's a critic.

I'll send a big dang ol PDF to them and see.

I would literally mug you for that Ostsol mini. Also, is that one of the ceramic Leopards next to the IWM mechscale one on the shelf in the back?

Only if they want to kill the franchise.

After winning initiative for two turns, we lose it this turn when it starts to matter again.

All of our mechs are now outside the range of the Devastator, so he has to come off his hill, and due to that lvl 2-4 plateau on the north end of River Valley, he doesn't actually have line of sight to any of our mechs. justasplanned.jpg Unfortunately, the Green Zeus that we've been focusing on isn't quite dead yet, and is now out of line of sight thanks to that same plateau.

That Centurion is still standing still, and while the AC10 is annoying, pretty much all of our assaults and heavies shoot at it, but mostly just scatter or miss. Our Orion and Whammy put 30 points of damage into that Thud, but Thunderbolt is a brick though, and it just tanks it and passes the piloting check like a champ. Return fire is mostly ineffectual, save for a lone large laser from the Ostsol that tags the Whammy. We're now out of range of the LRM boats up north and in an attempt to close back into range, the white Archer skids on pavement, crashes into a building and falls over, taking plenty of damage from the fall, the skid, and the collision.

Enemy Phawks spend the turn trying to cool down, bu the Wolverines are still putting damage on them, our Locust has run off the board.

Also, I forgot to mention, but last turn the Red Phawk revealed that it has MASC, so that was a new piece of intel that we hadn't had before. It's hiding behind the lvl 4 hill though, so nobody shoots him, despite how close he is to our main force.

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