Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[White Devil]

Did they change the aiming system in the past 4 years or so? I could have sworn I was a better shot with AC/10s.

I also got annoyed that over half the 9 matches I played boiled down to half the team running in circles around the map, while the slower "Mechs got picked off by the other team's fast Mechs. Maybe that was me just being unlucky with team comps but going from "wait, where did my team go?" to "holy shit why am I surrounded?" within five seconds, multiple matches in a row, was really fucking jarring.

That's called NASCAR and it's been meta for like six years.

 

[Balr0g]

I never said the Wolves couldn't be arrogant as hell at times. They really did inherit that part of being a Kerensky. When you're top dog (wolf?) for so long, the highly unexpected (like say, the WoB tossing nukes around like it was the First Succession War) can really bite you on the ass. Should the Wolves have rebuilt and refurbished some local plants? Sure. But short of the unlimited nuclear warfare the WoB decided to wage for the sole purpose of knocking the Inner Sphere back down to Third Succession War levels of tech and industry (if not all the way back back to the Age of Terra) they probably had enough supplies in depot to buy time for reinforcements and resupply, and almost assuredly had plans to rebuild those facilities in case of total war.

The nuking of Tamar might have been mitigated with the supplies from the Homeworlds but they got the triple whammy of being forced of their Homeworlds in Clan space, a full blown Horse invasion of their holdings (the biggest loss would be New Oslo where the Wolves just had build a Mech factory) and the nuking of Tamar. That ate theit depots faster then anything else forcing the Wolves to pay high prices to the Sharks for new material while also ramming through a reindustrilization programin their own occupation zone

 

[Snekposter]

That's called NASCAR and it's been meta for like six years.

To be fair TT is the same way. One of the most dangerous things you can face is a Saladin because at top speed you're going to need all the help you can get to land a shot before it zooms into AC/20 range and then right back out again. At its cruising speed of 8 hexes its going to fuck you hard with a +3 to your gunnery roll, +4 if it moves all 12 in a straight line right at you. And that 12 gives it 5 MP to spare on turns to stay within that +3 bracket of 7-9 hexes moved. That means you need a 7 to hit, if it winds up inside your short range and you haven't done anything like say, move. Assuming you don't move and its moved at least 10 hexes (so its made two turns while closing the range) and you're in medium range for its AC/20, its at a mere +2, or 50/50 odds. Meanwhile you're looking at an 8 to hit, which are not good odds since that thing only needs a single good shot from its AC/20 to royally ass-fuck you. Possibly literally since even an Awesome only has 19 rear armor on its CT, and you really don't want that exposed. Especially since you can have two Saladins and change for the BV of a single AWS-8Q.

The nuking of Tamar might have been mitigated with the supplies from the Homeworlds but they got the triple whammy of being forced of their Homeworlds in Clan space, a full blown Horse invasion of their holdings (the biggest loss would be New Oslo where the Wolves just had build a Mech factory) and the nuking of Tamar. That ate theit depots faster then anything else forcing the Wolves to pay high prices to the Sharks for new material while also ramming through a reindustrilization programin their own occupation zone

Like I said: only some really, really unexpected shit could fuck over the Wolves. As to the Sharks...

You don't see them complaining about the Wolves being forced to pay through the snout for basic items, now do you?

 

[Balr0g]

Like I said: only some really, really unexpected shit could fuck over the Wolves. As to the Sharks...
View attachment 3699990
You don't see them complaining about the Wolves being forced to pay through the snout for basic items, now do you?

Feels like the current timeline with Alaric granting the now Foxes the majority of battlefield salvage on Terra only to have them sell the Wolves left in the Empire said gear at a premium. Let no one say the Foxes don't know capitalism.

 

[Snekposter]

Feels like the current timeline with Alaric granting the now Foxes the majority of battlefield salvage on Terra only to have them sell the Wolves left in the Empire said gear at a premium. Let no one say the Foxes don't know capitalism.

If you give the Foxes anything, they'll find a way to sell it back to you later as a profit. It doesn't matter if its a literal steaming pile of shit, because soon you'll be wishing you had some fertilizer and lo and behold, Clan Sea Fox has a nice deal on some freshly composted manure for you.

That, and Alaric is descending into total dumbassery now that his immediate life goals are satisfied just like dear old Mom did. Seriously, what the fuck did the Foxes even do to get salvage rights like that considering they weren't even present? Was there just so much wreckage he needed it hauled away yesterday so he could start rebuilding?

 

[Balr0g]

That, and Alaric is descending into total dumbassery now that his immediate life goals are satisfied just like dear old Mom did. Seriously, what the fuck did the Foxes even do to get salvage rights like that considering they weren't even present? Was there just so much wreckage he needed it hauled away yesterday so he could start rebuilding?

Considering how much regiments Stone had managed to assemble on Terra plus the basically entire toumans of Clan Wolf end Clan Jade Falcon I would assume Terra is the biggest trash heap in the IS (not to mention the ruins of several mega cities courtesy of Malvina Hazen). Plus the literally space junk yard now orbiting Terra with all Republic Warships and space stations turned into floating debris plus the wreckage of the Jade Falcon fleet. I think only Clan Wolf has a few Warships left operational over Terra plus one or two Falcon ships. I guess Alaric thought that paying the Foxes with "junk" for transportation services plus help for rebuilding the HPG was worth it. And let's not forget Terra has the most military factories in the IS. If the assault didn't turn them into rubble and Tucker didn't unleash the full might of the angry nerd I would guess Alaric can produce quiet a nice selection of Mechs.

Also Alaric is really dumb for driving the Dragoons away. And what do the Dragoons do? Steal Wolf troops and sack the capital of the Empire. Really smart. Plus apparently sending out the message "Bow to me!" to very nation and clan. As if he can even dicxtate that. Empire Alone already ended with the Free Worlds tearing into the Empire and allegedly with the coming Dominion Divided we get a Ghost Bear civil war over deciding what to do with the IlClan

And a funny side note: the Falcons lost an entire Galaxy in Japan. The entire continet swallowed a full galaxy of Clan troops and at the end of the IlClan trial there was apparently no communication with Japan. This happens when you destroy an anime studio: kamikaze those filthy Clanners!

 

[Corn Flakes]

I did say Alaric is quickly heading towards turning into Katherine Steiner with a Clanner ego. His narrative role of finally getting the setting rid of the Republic of the Sphere is complete, he must now be disposed of so we can go back to blaming the Capellans for everything and watching the Inner Sphere's most popular spectator sport: Free Worlds League Civil War.

 

[Snekposter]

Considering how much regiments Stone had managed to assemble on Terra plus the basically entire toumans of Clan Wolf end Clan Jade Falcon I would assume Terra is the biggest trash heap in the IS (not to mention the ruins of several mega cities courtesy of Malvina Hazen). Plus the literally space junk yard now orbiting Terra with all Republic Warships and space stations turned into floating debris plus the wreckage of the Jade Falcon fleet. I think only Clan Wolf has a few Warships left operational over Terra plus one or two Falcon ships. I guess Alaric thought that paying the Foxes with "junk" for transportation services plus help for rebuilding the HPG was worth it. And let's not forget Terra has the most military factories in the IS. If the assault didn't turn them into rubble and Tucker didn't unleash the full might of the angry nerd I would guess Alaric can produce quiet a nice selection of Mechs.

Also Alaric is really dumb for driving the Dragoons away. And what do the Dragoons do? Steal Wolf troops and sack the capital of the Empire. Really smart. Plus apparently sending out the message "Bow to me!" to very nation and clan. As if he can even dicxtate that. Empire Alone already ended with the Free Worlds tearing into the Empire and allegedly with the coming Dominion Divided we get a Ghost Bear civil war over deciding what to do with the IlClan

And a funny side note: the Falcons lost an entire Galaxy in Japan. The entire continet swallowed a full galaxy of Clan troops and at the end of the IlClan trial there was apparently no communication with Japan. This happens when you destroy an anime studio: kamikaze those filthy Clanners!

I was sort of guessing that Terra was indeed one giant scrapyard, but still... in BT gold is worth its weight in salvage, not the other way around.

I did say Alaric is quickly heading towards turning into Katherine Steiner with a Clanner ego. His narrative role of finally getting the setting rid of the Republic of the Sphere is complete, he must now be disposed of so we can go back to blaming the Capellans for everything and watching the Inner Sphere's most popular spectator sport: Free Worlds League Civil War.

And yeah, Alaric is going full retard now that he got what he wanted. Kinda like how mom went full dumbass once she took power over the FedCom, then once she was fucked over to nothing in the Clans managed to somehow climb back up through some suspiciously convenient deaths. And then went full dumbass again once she had gotten what she wanted. Christ, that woman was so fond of killing people in her way and also so damn dumb once she got there you could confuse her for Gul Dukat.

 

[Balr0g]

I did say Alaric is quickly heading towards turning into Katherine Steiner with a Clanner ego. His narrative role of finally getting the setting rid of the Republic of the Sphere is complete, he must now be disposed of so we can go back to blaming the Capellans for everything and watching the Inner Sphere's most popular spectator sport: Free Worlds League Civil War.

So who is gonna kick alaric the idiot out of the timeline? Daoshen the mad? Julian the one-legged? Yori the bastard-Kurita? Or someone unexpected: the now civil war free Free Worlds. At the moment the League is gorging itself on the empire which has basically no defense for it's vast holdings.

 

[Corn Flakes]

So who is gonna kick alaric the idiot out of the timeline? Daoshen the mad? Julian the one-legged? Yori the bastard-Kurita? Or someone unexpected: the now civil war free Free Worlds. At the moment the League is gorging itself on the empire which has basically no defense for it's vast holdings.

There's always the possibility of some Wolf ristar getting lucky, or Alaric dying in a freak stray-gauss-slug-to-cockpit-while-officiating-a-trial accident like Nicholas Kerensky. You know, thematic irony to book-end the Clan age.

Or he could keel over dead of a heart attack due to being a genetic inbred. Thanks, Katherine.

 

[Balr0g]

There's always the possibility of some Wolf ristar getting lucky, or Alaric dying in a freak stray-gauss-slug-to-cockpit-while-officiating-a-trial accident like Nicholas Kerensky. You know, thematic irony to book-end the Clan age.

Or he could keel over dead of a heart attack due to being a genetic inbred. Thanks, Katherine.

Well there is Tara Campell the second in command of the Falcon cum Blackwatch Galaxy. Would fit for an empire to have the ruler die by the hand of the personal guard

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

Decided to reinstall MWO, realized the heaviest Mech I have on my account is an Ilya Muromets, confirmed I have no idea how the current meta works, got my ass handed to me.

So, basically the same as last time I tried to play MWO.

My understanding is that it’s uber-sniper heavy right now, which is boring as shit so I mostly just brawl in that Atlas I’ve mentioned a few times now. Considering changing the MRMs to SRMs and using the freed up tonnage for bigger lasers so I can at least poke at range.

 

[BlackDragoons]

One of the new starter kits just arrived at the store and I bought it up. Extra Griffin is nice and on top of that a Vindicator.

Plus more paper standies.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

One of the new starter kits just arrived at the store and I bought it up. Extra Griffin is nice and on top of that a Vindicator.

Plus more paper standies.

My local store had a comical stack of them today. Why the fuck are the alpha strike rulebooks still out of print?

 

[Snekposter]

Or he could keel over dead of a heart attack due to being a genetic inbred. Thanks, Katherine.

I wish it was that easy. Sadly it takes decades of consistent inbreeding to fuck you over, and the Clans for all their faults are very good about weeding about genetic illnesses out of their warriors for what are very obvious reasons of every Trueborn being massively inbred as a result of using only Bloodnamed DNA for the next breeding cycle of cannon fodder. The Warrior Caste is one giant genetic bottleneck kept (mostly) intact by the efforts of the Scientists.

And I may just be horribly sleep-deprived, but now that I've actually put it in writing like that, the Scientists going "Fuck this shit, we're in charge" with the Society makes a whole lot of sense...

 

[Balr0g]

I wish it was that easy. Sadly it takes decades of consistent inbreeding to fuck you over, and the Clans for all their faults are very good about weeding about genetic illnesses out of their warriors for what are very obvious reasons of every Trueborn being massively inbred as a result of using only Bloodnamed DNA for the next breeding cycle of cannon fodder. The Warrior Caste is one giant genetic bottleneck kept (mostly) intact by the efforts of the Scientists.

And I may just be horribly sleep-deprived, but now that I've actually put it in writing like that, the Scientists going "Fuck this shit, we're in charge" with the Society makes a whole lot of sense...

Also the Society scientists had several cocktails dealing with trueborns.. Heck they nearly wiped out an entire bloodhouse (The Tseng bloodline) of the Bears just as a last "Fuck you" after getting wiped out by the Adders and Horses in Bear Space. They even had a "Kill all trueborn" Virus at hand but never deployed it. I am just curious how this whole IlClan era will go down because at the moment I don't see Alaric winning anything unless deus ex machina comes to the rescue. Though I have seen some hints for what is set: House Liao might get a civil war plus some border conflict with it's Canopian allies. The Bears will most likely go through a civil war of their own and currently the Bears have the biggest army in the IS. The Combine is stretzched thin and might get drawn into this as well. The Lyran Commonwealth has more factions to deal with then the old Free Worlds League and the Suns are busy dealing with the remnants of the Dragon's Tongue and occupied New Avalon.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I wish it was that easy. Sadly it takes decades of consistent inbreeding to fuck you over, and the Clans for all their faults are very good about weeding about genetic illnesses out of their warriors for what are very obvious reasons of every Trueborn being massively inbred as a result of using only Bloodnamed DNA for the next breeding cycle of cannon fodder. The Warrior Caste is one giant genetic bottleneck kept (mostly) intact by the efforts of the Scientists.

Yeah, I know. I was just being silly. Just a little jab about how Alaric has got DNA from two Inner Sphere freeborns on top of his trueborn DNA, and how it was all done hush-hush. One wonders how many scientists Katherine intimidated/sucked off to get that little scheme going on.

I am just curious how this whole IlClan era will go down because at the moment I don't see Alaric winning anything unless deus ex machina comes to the rescue. Though I have seen some hints for what is set: House Liao might get a civil war plus some border conflict with it's Canopian allies. The Bears will most likely go through a civil war of their own and currently the Bears have the biggest army in the IS. The Combine is stretzched thin and might get drawn into this as well. The Lyran Commonwealth has more factions to deal with then the old Free Worlds League and the Suns are busy dealing with the remnants of the Dragon's Tongue and occupied New Avalon.

That's all good news to me. It's an Eternal War setting. The more war, the better. I've said it a few times but the best thing about the post-Dark Ages setting is how it did away with the pie chart map. Factions have a lot more enemies to play with (including internal enemies) than just their immediate neighbors and the occasional periphery border-hugger.

ETA: that's also the reason why a functioning Star League can only be a temporary arrangement.

 

[BlackDragoons]

So if you folks haven't heard you can now get your hands on not 1...Not 2 not even a lance but a whole company of Urban Mechs!

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store.catalystgamelabs.com

 

[Snekposter]

Yeah, I know. I was just being silly. Just a little jab about how Alaric has got DNA from two Inner Sphere freeborns on top of his trueborn DNA, and how it was all done hush-hush. One wonders how many scientists Katherine intimidated/sucked off to get that little scheme going on.

Probably not a whole lot with a pitch like "I want to try combining my cunning with the prowess of Victor". Its not really how you're supposed to do things but one can hardly say such an experiment didn't bear fruit given that so far Alaric has indeed displayed his mother's cunning and his father's ass-kicking prowess. He's also inherited her post-victory dumbassery followed by Victor's absurd belief that things will just work out politically after making dumb choices. The fallout of this is going to be hilarious to watch, assuming the writers actually go places with him instead of handing out idiot balls left and right.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Probably not a whole lot with a pitch like "I want to try combining my cunning with the prowess of Victor". Its not really how you're supposed to do things but one can hardly say such an experiment didn't bear fruit given that so far Alaric has indeed displayed his mother's cunning and his father's ass-kicking prowess. He's also inherited her post-victory dumbassery followed by Victor's absurd belief that things will just work out politically after making dumb choices. The fallout of this is going to be hilarious to watch, assuming the writers actually go places with him instead of handing out idiot balls left and right.

I'm hoping the whole taking over Terra blows up in his face.