Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[Fatboi Gus]

The lore and universe always seemed really fun and it wasn't nearly as stupid and over the top as 40k despite obviously still being pretty crazy.

I'm more of a Battletech lore tourist but what makes it so enjoyable and fun, in my opinion, is that it's entirely believable. Is it insane? Yes, but insane in a way that's entirely consistent with human nature and history.

 

[RSU 1741]

Currently from what I read online it seems the Wolves control Terra and Devlin Stone lost and was also a Federated Suns plant at the same time?

I remember hating the Capellans immediately but liking the Republic of the Sphere since it came off as relatively very normal.

Btech's lore is pants-on-heads retarded. I personally still like it, if not for the books (they're some of the worst genre fiction ever made) but for the ambience, it has that 80ies low-effort charm. One needs to understand that it wasn't built to go on and on for 40+ years, probably the development cycle would have ended in the early 90ies or something. In Btech pretty much nothing makes sense (economics, politics, warfare) but we're here to shoot giant robots with vaguely racist stereotypes and by Blake we'll love it.

The Dark Age/Republic was another example of the writing being dictated by market planning: the Blackout was essentially a reset needed to sell a new system (Clicktech) while trying to kill off Classic. This explains the timeskip, the creation of the Republic after a genocidal war, Stone as a new messiah, most original factions being offscreen and only smaller "remnants", lower tech level... everything had to be justified and so you got the Jihad were a bunch of technocultists conjured armies out of thin air and blasted into pieces a shitton of Protagonist and not!Protagonist factions and in the end you got the Republic. Think of it as the End Times for Fantasy, just far cooler because the Blakists are awesome. Stone is also a Blakist plant because if it's hypertech and mind-control it's them.

Then Clicktech died and they had to crawl back to Classic: the kickstarter had enormous success, and the writing is borderline decent nowadays (Dominions Divided was crap tho) but you gotta consider that Protagonist Factions (if it has Wolf in the name) are always going to win even if they lose. Enjoy the ambience, I'd say.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Pre-MechClix BattleTech's lore didn't make sense in terms of how real-world conflicts work, but it was at least mostly internally consistent. The people in the setting were all humans, they had human motivations, and while the way the setting works requires a lot of very far-reaching assumptions (starting with why would anyone use big stompy robots instead of tanks, and ending at why fight battles on the ground at all when space is the ultimate high ground), everybody was playing by the same rules. Literally, since all units are built using the same construction rules and all fights are fought using the same combat rules.

That's what drew me (and I suspect a lot more people) to the setting. The lack of technological ass-pulls, the consistency in rules, the fact that even if the Davions were clearly the authors' pets everybody delivered and received regular ass-kickings, and that the setting was actually well designed for eternal conflict. Compare it to Warhammer 40,000, where the lore bends over backwards for the sake of Games Workshop's overpriced plastic sales. Sure, they have some very good novels (and whole cycles) published by Black Library, but the good lore happens in spite of the game. Because if the market research team tells the design team that Orks need a new range of vehicles that go completely against the Orks' design concepts then by the Emperor the design team is going to make those new vehicle models, throw them to the intern writing the lore, and it's all canon now. BattleTech's lore might have been rocky in places but until MechClix at least it was more or less coherent.

Post-Clix... yeah, I'm sticking with the FedCom Civil War. I love how the pie chart map got broken up and there are more avenues for brushfire wars and mercenary shenaniganry, but Jesus Christ on a pogo stick these writers don't know how to write compelling characters. Or conflict, for that matter. It's not unsalvageable (they managed to mostly salvage the Jihad period) but it would require some pretty intense staff turnaround first.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

Post-Clix... yeah, I'm sticking with the FedCom Civil War. I love how the pie chart map got broken up and there are more avenues for brushfire wars and mercenary shenaniganry, but Jesus Christ on a pogo stick these writers don't know how to write compelling characters. Or conflict, for that matter. It's not unsalvageable (they managed to mostly salvage the Jihad period) but it would require some pretty intense staff turnaround first.

The new IlClan stuff is what really gets me. A lot of Dark Age stuff was dumb, like how everyone somehow has one heir, maybe, and no spares, which is insane, but every IS Clanner just being like "Well, the Wolves have done absolutely fuck all for us, but they're squatting on Terra, guess I better fuck over the groups and people who have helped." I get that they're all kinda tarded, but the only part of that that really makes sense is the Dragoons getting pissed and deciding to fuck the "Wolf Empire" over.

Honestly, Pre-Jihad is best, but I do like the new, more consistent artwork.

 

[not william stenchever]

Although I do wonder if an IS mechwarrior ever Bachalled a Clanner for that ass. Bonus points if it's a madman in a Charger.

The Charger in question must be given the nickname Fuck Machine or something equally silly if successful.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Honestly, Pre-Jihad is best, but I do like the new, more consistent artwork.

I'm bored of the post-Jihad artwork. It's certainly higher quality and way more consistent, but in a way it's too consistent. Maybe it's a holdover from my times playing Magic the Gathering, but I like seeing a world through the eyes of different artists.

BT's design bible is now so incredibly comprehensive that there are no 'Mechs with interesting or unique shapes or details anymore. They're all extremely beveled, and not even in a fun way like the Victor Musical Industries WeebMechs. Meanwhile, the old art was inconsistent, but it made the 'Mechs and vehicles look at lot more varied. Like they were made by multiple different manufacturers each doing their own thing.

 

[StevieLasVegas]

Yeah, as much as the quality control was all over the place in Classic, at least the artists had different designs for the same mech that gave them personality. Best example for me is the Marauder, where in the past there seemed to be about 10 different designs for the heavy class alone. Now they all have the same design across the heavy class, the assault class and the IIC variant.

 

[Snekposter]

Although I do wonder if an IS mechwarrior ever Bachalled a Clanner for that ass. Bonus points if it's a madman in a Charger.

You can declare a batchall for anything and with just about any conditions so long as the other side is willing to accept. I'm sure we're all familiar with that emwattnot comic about the mercenary group's new Elemental bondswoman and her very unusual recruitment circumstances. More seriously, "If you can survive climbing in bed with me I'll submit" is the sort of bold claim an Elemental might actually make in jest, and there's plenty of Spheroids who would call them out on it. Either you get a new bondswoman, or you get death by snu-snu. Win-win.

I remember hating the Capellans immediately

The only sane and reasonable response to them.

The Charger in question must be given the nickname Fuck Machine or something equally silly if successful.

More like "Fisto", considering the most likely way they won was by punching the Clanner's mech to pieces.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

I'm bored of the post-Jihad artwork. It's certainly higher quality and way more consistent, but in a way it's too consistent. Maybe it's a holdover from my times playing Magic the Gathering, but I like seeing a world through the eyes of different artists.

BT's design bible is now so incredibly comprehensive that there are no 'Mechs with interesting or unique shapes or details anymore. They're all extremely beveled, and not even in a fun way like the Victor Musical Industries WeebMechs. Meanwhile, the old art was inconsistent, but it made the 'Mechs and vehicles look at lot more varied. Like they were made by multiple different manufacturers each doing their own thing.

Fair, in a way it's swung from one side to the other, Loose's designs were a bit too rounded for my tastes, but either's better than the TRO:3067-era weird Alien looking mechs. And the Yeoman. I miss the Wraith, but Curtiss deserved a nuke for that thing.

 

[Moja Zemlja]

I wish CGL took more inspiration from PGI's designs because they're almost all really cool and some are even better than the newer CGL artwork.

 

[Snekposter]

I wish CGL took more inspiration from PGI's designs because they're almost all really cool and some are even better than the newer CGL artwork.

Yeah, I'm a massive fan of the PGI Marauder.

 

[Bassomatic]

I'm back from my first table top night in a while since holidays got in way. Such nice time to see everyone.

Also dice gods sure made thunderbolts (the weapon not the blessed 65 tons) deadly tonight.

Didn't do much of the event for mwo but that new commando is freaking FUN!

 

[Bassomatic]

ac20 on things people don't expect one. LMAO
L M A O.

I ran a bushwacker with one, and no one bothered to ask my stat card ignoring the IS XL mech.

 

[JJLiautaud]

ac20 on things people don't expect one. LMAO
L M A O.

I ran a bushwacker with one, and no one bothered to ask my stat card ignoring the IS XL mech.

I once ran a king crab with twin UAC-20s and man thats fun.

 

[Abella]

One of the funniest things I’ve seen lately at all of the LGSes I go to are 40k rapefugees picking up battletech, trash talking people for playing clans and then spending money on 4 copies of a single force pack in order to build a meme atlas lance that winds up eating shit because they don’t really know how to play.

I was playing a 400 PV game of alpha strike last weekend using a jade falcon binary with a battlemech star and a star of toads. Guy had the comstar command level II and Hansen’s rough riders packs, which I think is over 400 but whatever, I just wanted to get a game in before taking my wife to work. The guy kept spouting a bunch of /tg/ faggot tier speech and calling me a clanner. I wound up beating the guy because he spent all his time trying to destroy my mechs while the toads were working on the objective. I told the guy good game and he just glared at me.

Is this what the tabletop game is going to be like?

 

[BlackDragoons]

Massive image dump. Catalyst is pulling another coupe and pretty much got rid of the person running the Demo Team that was composed of volunteers of the community. They own the Discord as well that was created by them for them.

 

[Abella]

Massive image dump. Catalyst is pulling another coupe and pretty much got rid of the person running the Demo Team that was composed of volunteers of the community. They own the Discord as well that was created by them for them.

This is pretty disappointing, I was looking forward to taking a few people to one.

 

[Balr0g]

I played some of the old Mechwarrior games on PC and got into the lore through the Dark Age books. And it took a while to figure out who was what and what the fuck was going on but I still enjoyed what I read. Currently from what I read online it seems the Wolves control Terra and Devlin Stone lost and was also a Federated Suns plant at the same time?

I remember hating the Capellans immediately but liking the Republic of the Sphere since it came off as relatively very normal. The lore and universe always seemed really fun and it wasn't nearly as stupid and over the top as 40k despite obviously still being pretty crazy.

Devlin Stone was actually either a Blakist plant or at the very least a Blakist trained operative. Which is not really believable when he didn't go full scorched nuclear earth during the Republic's last stand on Terra.

Right now we have a IS in turmoil with the Wolves holding Terra and Alaric actually sending out a message "I own you bitches" while he certainly doesn't have the manpower to back up this claim

 

[StevieLasVegas]

Massive image dump. Catalyst is pulling another coupe and pretty much got rid of the person running the Demo Team that was composed of volunteers of the community. They own the Discord as well that was created by them for them.

Wow. CGL is trying to dethrone GW on being a scummy company to their customers.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Massive image dump. Catalyst is pulling another coupe and pretty much got rid of the person running the Demo Team that was composed of volunteers of the community. They own the Discord as well that was created by them for them.

Fucking hell. That's why if you're ever doing any kind of fan content anywhere, you really have to self-host and have a single dedicated admin that holds the keys. This shit is insane.