Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[BlackDragoons]

So had a pretty awesome game on Saturday, did 2 v 1 at 8000 BV points. Me and my friend played, he played with a Thunderbolt and an Awesome while I stuck with a Catapult and a Wolverine. Our opponent fielded an Awesome, Raven, Wolverine and a Marauder.

Catapult pulled a game playing save buy Alpha striking my opponents Awesome in close range combat, rolled double ones twice and pretty muched Cored his ass.

 

[SiccDicc]

Playing MW5 and it's... Fine. I don't hate it as much as others here but it's definitely pretty bland compared to what it should be. The lack of customisation is the real killer, but it's also rather unpolished - it doesn't seem like there's much depth to most encounters. The only time it feels cool is occasional encounters where I'm running into a huge number of mechs and supporting vehicles with my own lance and allied mechs. Seems like war then, even if that isn't the lance v lance or company v company tactical stuff MW is known for.

What I'm wondering is: are there any lesser-known mech sims that have come out in the last ten years that might be a better alternative? To my knowledge MWO is the best thing we have (also flawed, I know). What I'd really like would be a new Heavy Gear game since I liked the balance that struck between being a stompy robot and infantry a bit better than Mechwarrior games but lol Heavy Gear Assault was such an incredible clusterfuck...

Unfortunately I think Heavy Gear is kind of dead in the water. There was Daemon Ex Machina, but I don't know too much about it.

Daemon Ex Machina I enjoyed, but it's definitely more anime than Armored Core and that's because its design and story comes from the same guy behind Macross, I think. Although it did have former Armored Core devs on it. It has a demo, though, so you can give it a shot. You do get to create your own MC, though, and actually exit out of your mech occasionally and give said MC upgrades along a cybernetic outline. You lose your human appearance, though.

But if you want customization, it's lacking. For that I'd recommend MASS. They also have a demo you can give a shot.

 

[Snekposter]

For some levity in this thread after the prior deviancy and now seriousness.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Forgot to post my record sheets of my mechs. My Wolverine got blasted pretty hard.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

Forgot to post my record sheets of my mechs. My Wolverine got blasted pretty hard.

Oh, hey, I recognize that Catapult 'Prime'.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Oh, hey, I recognize that Catapult 'Prime'.

Shutup.. >_>

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

Shutup.. >_>

In more seriousness, as anon said, 0/6 is a big risk, especially on something like a Catapult. As long as you can stay out of the line of fire, it works pretty well, but the moment you start making PSRs, things can start going very poorly very fast, and the fact that the C1 has low ammo and the medium lasers means that it needs to get into the fray to keep itself effective over the course of a game. If I were going to commit to doing something like that, I'd probably do it in a C4 or an Archer, so I could leverage the extra ammo to just spam indirect fire.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Beggars can't be choosers when trying to put armor on a Mech.

View attachment 2238700

(from Citytech, 1st Edition)

OH GOD PLEASE GOD NO.

This sounds so fucking awesome, I now want to make a junk-scrounger Lance or company with various bits of random logos slapped all over the mechs.
Don't you know how massive my backlog is even without that project? There's no less than 12 unpainted mechs standing on my desk right now. And then there's the recently aquired Saladins, three VTOLs, a couple artillery pieces...

 

[BlackDragoons]

In more seriousness, as anon said, 0/6 is a big risk, especially on something like a Catapult. As long as you can stay out of the line of fire, it works pretty well, but the moment you start making PSRs, things can start going very poorly very fast, and the fact that the C1 has low ammo and the medium lasers means that it needs to get into the fray to keep itself effective over the course of a game. If I were going to commit to doing something like that, I'd probably do it in a C4 or an Archer, so I could leverage the extra ammo to just spam indirect fire.

Yeah I didn't worry about the close combat till late game, I placed the Catapult on an island to provide missile support. Was pretty effective and peeled the Awesome from the main battle.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

Yeah I didn't worry about the close combat till late game, I placed the Catapult on an island to provide missile support. Was pretty effective and peeled the Awesome from the main battle.

I... I don't even why the Awesome is over there. Did he seriously go for a swim half the game so he could try to close on you?

 

[Corn Flakes]

Oh, man. Those paper maps are hitting me right in the nostalgia. My group has played with modeled terrain for such a long time.

 

[BlackDragoons]

I... I don't even why the Awesome is over there. Did he seriously go for a swim half the game so he could try to close on you?

He took a couple of pot shots at me, missed a shot and skimmed my paint job. Too far away for his PPCs to get a decent hit so he decided to go for a swim to nail my Catapult.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

He took a couple of pot shots at me, missed a shot and skimmed my paint job. Too far away for his PPCs to get a decent hit so he decided to go for a swim to nail my Catapult.

Between the Awesome and the Marauder, he's got 5 fucking PPCs in that lance, he can get 2 hits and force a PSR with that.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Between the Awesome and the Marauder, he's got 5 fucking PPCs in that lance, he can get 2 hits and force a PSR with that.

He was rolling hot against the Thunderbolt to the point he headshotted the sonnabitch with a PPC, but whenever it came to the Marauder he kept missing shots.

 

[SITHRAK!]

Was there no balancing system implemented at all?

The way I was playing it in college back in ‘91 was that a game tonnage was agreed upon, then each player submitted a ‘bid’ for how many tons they would take of their share of the tonnage. Lowest bidders got to take Clan tech up to their tonnage bid.
It was pretty cool as a mechanism.

 

[BlackDragoons]

The way I was playing it in college back in ‘91 was that a game tonnage was agreed upon, then each player submitted a ‘bid’ for how many tons they would take of their share of the tonnage. Lowest bidders got to take Clan tech up to their tonnage bid.
It was pretty cool as a mechanism.

Before the match did you proclaim your batchall?

 

[SITHRAK!]

Before the match did you proclaim your batchall?

We were tabletop gamers, not roleplayers.
Effectively, the process meant you could guarantee playing IS by bidding your full tonnage. If you wanted to play Clans, you had to seriously consider not only how low you were willing to go, but also how low everyone else was like to go.
It was extremely effective and led to a few bloodied clan noses, I can tell you.

 

[BlackDragoons]

We were tabletop gamers, not roleplayers.
Effectively, the process meant you could guarantee playing IS by bidding your full tonnage. If you wanted to play Clans, you had to seriously consider not only how low you were willing to go, but also how low everyone else was like to go.
It was extremely effective and led to a few bloodied clan noses, I can tell you.

To be fair you folks where already RPing since Clans already commit to bidding there forces to proclaim honor and glory.

Also side note, behold God Fucker: Rifleman IV.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

To be fair you folks where already RPing since Clans already commit to bidding there forces to proclaim honor and glory.

Also side note, behold God Fucker: Rifleman IV.

Strip the extra DHS, put some CASE II on the torsos.

 

[SITHRAK!]

To be fair you folks where already RPing since Clans already commit to bidding there forces to proclaim honor and glory.

To be fair, it was a commonly used balancing technique in widespread use within the community at the time. RP’ing a TTWG is for faggots.