Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

I'm sorry, I know the 8T is an afront to god and everything that is good and just, but to make up for it I have a classic 8Q and whenever I go to a polar biome, that thing is allowed to let loose to its heart's content.
Maybe I just have to retool a Stalker into an Assault fire support mech, so I can retire the 8T for good.

Trust me, I get it. I never actually finished the campaign because I got an 8Q and was so disappointed I had to step away from the game. I found a good tabletop rebalance mod, but then they released a patch a broke it. Just haven't gotten back to it. The funny thing is, while I love the Awesome, I generally prefer using lighter mechs. The TR1 Wraith has a special place in my heart, even if it's a super specialized high-mobility backstabber. The Banshee-3M is probably my favorite assault, even though it's far weaker than the -S series. If I had to be a filthy clanner, I'd jump at Clan Nova "We love bad decisions and lost causes" Cat, just because the Nova Cat is my favorite clan heavy. For in game mechanics though, the 8T is the superior version, even though on tabletop the 8Q is better.

It really is the numbers they throw at you that make the assaults necessary and 3025 tech means your fast movers have a hard time carrying enough weapons to hurt assaults. Making the fast movers easier to hit didn't help either, since speed is life when you have no armor. Also giving the AC/2s more punch, since that was the traditional 3025 anti-fast mover weapon. It's really like they wanted to force you into having to run assaults, even though lore wise your core units should be mediums and heavies. I think waiting until the last DLC to bring in the Unseen played a part too. Marauders and Whammies were the heavy workhorses of the era, not as common as the 55-ton trio, but they should be your heavy hitters. You should also be drowning in Archers compared to any other heavy, they were the most produced mech, or at least heavy, if I remember right.

The Lyran Scout Lance is a meme, but even they'd have trouble fielding a lance of Atlases, never mind a tiny periphery merc unit. There's a reason the Lyran signature mechs are the Griffon and the Zeus after all, even if they do build a fair few Atlases every year. One of the sourcebooks had an exact breakdown of yearly Lyran assault mech production in the era and the Atlases were single digit if I remember right.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Trust me, I get it. I never actually finished the campaign because I got an 8Q and was so disappointed I had to step away from the game. I found a good tabletop rebalance mod, but then they released a patch a broke it. Just haven't gotten back to it. The funny thing is, while I love the Awesome, I generally prefer using lighter mechs. The TR1 Wraith has a special place in my heart, even if it's a super specialized high-mobility backstabber. The Banshee-3M is probably my favorite assault, even though it's far weaker than the -S series. If I had to be a filthy clanner, I'd jump at Clan Nova "We love bad decisions and lost causes" Cat, just because the Nova Cat is my favorite clan heavy. For in game mechanics though, the 8T is the superior version, even though on tabletop the 8Q is better.

It really is the numbers they throw at you that make the assaults necessary and 3025 tech means your fast movers have a hard time carrying enough weapons to hurt assaults. Making the fast movers easier to hit didn't help either, since speed is life when you have no armor. Also giving the AC/2s more punch, since that was the traditional 3025 anti-fast mover weapon. It's really like they wanted to force you into having to run assaults, even though lore wise your core units should be mediums and heavies. I think waiting until the last DLC to bring in the Unseen played a part too. Marauders and Whammies were the heavy workhorses of the era, not as common as the 55-ton trio, but they should be your heavy hitters. You should also be drowning in Archers compared to any other heavy, they were the most produced mech, or at least heavy, if I remember right.

The Lyran Scout Lance is a meme, but even they'd have trouble fielding a lance of Atlases, never mind a tiny periphery merc unit. There's a reason the Lyran signature mechs are the Griffon and the Zeus after all, even if they do build a fair few Atlases every year. One of the sourcebooks had an exact breakdown of yearly Lyran assault mech production in the era and the Atlases were single digit if I remember right.

Yeah, indirect missile fire is pretty strong in this game, no wonder the 8T is so useful. It can carry 2 LRM20s, 4 medium lasers, enough heatsinks to fire both LRMs without building up much heat and if push comes to shove, it can engage an enemy in close combat with the lasers and its amazing armor...

I own the old CBT Master Rules, where you'd have to decide between tagging, spotting and shooting. In the new rules, it's way more laid back, where you can try to tag and if that fails declare that you spot and still are allowed to fire your guns with a reasonable deduction to the to-hit number. In HBS BT, you have one unit with LOS to a hostile unit and everybody else can send down hellfire with a slight deduction to your hit probability that your pilot's weapons skill will very quickly eat up once you level them enough.

When it comes to the variety of mechs you encounter in the game, I mean, I can get that they didn't want games to be the same few mechs over and over again with only an occasional glance at something as wild and exotic as a Trebuchet... but currently, I own 4 Atlas', 2 Highlanders, 1 Annihilator, 2 Marauders, 2 Awesomes, 1 Warhammer and a prototype Raven just to name a few... This is clearly tipping to the other extreme, where rare mechs are too common. I can't really blame HBS for trying to give the player variety, but it is a bit too much.

I still enjoy the game, it's just a few things here and there where they dropped the ball.

Edit
Quick question to those that paint BT miniatures: I'd love to put insignias on my Mechs fitting to various successor states and possibly their regimental emblems, however the correct waterslide decals are hard to find and most often really fucking expensive, especially when you'd have to import them. Is there some smart work-around to make them yourself? Apparently, there's some glue-like stuff that one can use to transfer prints from paper onto a surface and then there's special paper to turn anything printed regularly into a waterslide decal... any experience with that? Trying to paint tiny logos would be really tedious...

 

[White Devil]

Well, I guess the game also has to play into player power fantasies. You outright get a fucking Atlas II at the end of the campaign.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

Edit
Quick question to those that paint BT miniatures: I'd love to put insignias on my Mechs fitting to various successor states and possibly their regimental emblems, however the correct waterslide decals are hard to find and most often really fucking expensive, especially when you'd have to import them. Is there some smart work-around to make them yourself? Apparently, there's some glue-like stuff that one can use to transfer prints from paper onto a surface and then there's special paper to turn anything printed regularly into a waterslide decal... any experience with that? Trying to paint tiny logos would be really tedious...

I'm not sure, most minis I've seen painted just focus on the unit colors rather than the insignias. They'd get pretty complicated depending on faction. I've never messed with it, but it's been a while since I've painted an minis.

 

[White Devil]

By the way, for anyone that wants to get into painting BT minis : Camo Specs is an invaluable resource.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

I picked up the 10 current ilClan era recognition guides to see what the Catalyst guys were doing in 3150 and the AWS-11H is one of the most horrific things I've seen the Inner Sphere produce. No mech should be able to walk, fire three PPCs and remain heat neutral. That said, the new artwork is damned good, I'm just sad about the renewed Clanner push on Terra. Also the Wolf Empire is bullshit.

 

[White Devil]

I picked up the 10 current ilClan era recognition guides to see what the Catalyst guys were doing in 3150 and the AWS-11H is one of the most horrific things I've seen the Inner Sphere produce. No mech should be able to walk, fire three PPCs and remain heat neutral. That said, the new artwork is damned good, I'm just sad about the renewed Clanner push on Terra. Also the Wolf Empire is bullshit.

I noped out of BT lore after Dark Ages, I have no idea how the story has advanced now. Tech got too crazy batshit too, but that really started during Fedcom Civil War and jumped the shark during the Jihad. I honestly think the whole idea of the Federated Commonwealth was a mistake.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

I noped out of BT lore after Dark Ages, I have no idea how the story has advanced now. Tech got too crazy batshit too, but that really started during Fedcom Civil War and jumped the shark during the Jihad. I honestly think the whole idea of the Federated Commonwealth was a mistake.

Catalyst is doing what they can with the shit show that is Dark Ages. I think they can do what they want in the post Dark Age timeline, but they can't get rid of it. Dark Ages was full of stupid bullshit, it's going to take a bit to get back to something vaguely sane. The Jihad, as I understand it, was a FASA thing that they were building towards and Catalyst just got stuck with it. I don't like the Wolf Empire because it smells of author fiat, much like the Fed Com had before their civil war and the Cappies got and some of their mechs are straight bullshit, like the Wulfen. Sure, 300 XXL engine so stupid cost and fragile, but 30 ton 10/15 movement with Stealth Armor? A variant has 14 double heat sinks and a clan ER PPC? Sure, it doesn't have a ton of armor, but that's a monster. Honestly, most of the newer IS tech is fine, just typically more specialized, but Clan stuff is always vaguely busted. Except Heavy Lasers, I like Heavy Lasers. Those aren't just massively OP with little downside, but high risk high reward weapons that feel right for the Clan attitude.

That said, a lot of the Recognition guides are just mild upgrades of old designs with newer tech and aren't particularly insane. The old unseen getting new, better art and the older clan designs just getting brought up to new standards. It's actually pretty nice, Catalyst is a ton better at mech design than FASA was towards the end.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

The good thing about Battletech is, you can play any setting in any era... I'm currently planning to cover late 4th succession war up until the FedCom Civil war with 4 lances exclusively set up for the Amaris Coup and the Liberation of Terra... Sadly, can't find official paint schemes (or at least colors) for house Amaris... I guess I'll go for dark blue and black with red highlights.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I have no idea why I hadn't been following this thread. Just a couple thoughts:

re: ghost heat.
Ghost heat was added to MWO because they were thick-headed dummies who insisted in every weapon being pinpoint accurate because "muh MLG" dreams of competitive play. If weapons had spread, or if torso weapons at the very least didn't have 100% on-the-fly adjustable zero, it wouldn't be a problem. Having your armor sandblasted by a billion MLas was annoying but manageable, what got players really buttmad was when those same billion MLas cored their 'mech in a single shot because they all hit on the exact same spot. Locational damage as a gameplay element becomes pointless if you can call shots with perfect accuracy.

Want to fix it in MWO? Add spread to arm weapons if your 'mech is not stationary, and make torso weapons fire parallel to each other, with infinite zero. It doesn't even have to be much spread, just enough that you can't hit every single shot on the same location.

re: balancing Clanners.
My play group was perfectly fine with the Clans (I even had a little Clan Ghost Bear binary in mini form I took out when people wanted a tanky OPFOR), but that was probably because we always ran a 1 star = 2 lances team composition rule. The IS side would always be allowed to bring 160% the tonnage of what the Clanners had, and vehicles counted for only 80% of their weight although they still took up a 'mech's slot in the force. We also played with zellbrigen, which meant the Clanners had to split their fire if the IS did as well... and if the IS player had any brains (or backseat generals giving them advice) it usually resulted in the IS having enough time to put their 'mechs into position to absolutely hammer one or two Clan 'mechs with concentrated fire for one shooting phase and hopefully disable them before the melee began.

We never did play with post FedCom Civil War-era gear, though.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

re: balancing Clanners.
My play group was perfectly fine with the Clans (I even had a little Clan Ghost Bear binary in mini form I took out when people wanted a tanky OPFOR), but that was probably because we always ran a 1 star = 2 lances team composition rule. The IS side would always be allowed to bring 160% the tonnage of what the Clanners had, and vehicles counted for only 80% of their weight although they still took up a 'mech's slot in the force. We also played with zellbrigen, which meant the Clanners had to split their fire if the IS did as well... and if the IS player had any brains (or backseat generals giving them advice) it usually resulted in the IS having enough time to put their 'mechs into position to absolutely hammer one or two Clan 'mechs with concentrated fire for one shooting phase and hopefully disable them before the melee began.

We never did play with post FedCom Civil War-era gear, though.

As long as you're balancing and playing smart, post Civil War tech isn't that bad. A lot of it is highly specialized and niche, it's really some of the mechs that feel broken, mostly Clan mechs mixed with IS Tech. The Wulfen, mostly by it being a fast Clantech sniper with Stealth Armor. The Hellstar but Catalyst made that one as a lesson in why they don't often make canon mech designs optimized. Also the Quasimodo, which is about half the weight, stands a pretty damn good chance at soloing one if you play smart. I think some of the Scientist caste mechs in the War of the Reaving were absolute monsters, but they lost and that's Clan on Clan violence, so it's not like real people were ever at risk from them.

Catalyst does a good job in avoiding making broken designs for the most part, at least compared to FASA. They just have to play by some of the stupid story beats FASA established, like the Jihad, and they have to include the Dark Ages. I think once they're finished with ilClan, things will settle back in a more Succession War style story beats.

 

[Corn Flakes]

As long as you're balancing and playing smart, post Civil War tech isn't that bad. A lot of it is highly specialized and niche, it's really some of the mechs that feel broken, mostly Clan mechs mixed with IS Tech. The Wulfen, mostly by it being a fast Clantech sniper with Stealth Armor. The Hellstar but Catalyst made that one as a lesson in why they don't often make canon mech designs optimized. Also the Quasimodo, which is about half the weight, stands a pretty damn good chance at soloing one if you play smart. I think some of the Scientist caste mechs in the War of the Reaving were absolute monsters, but they lost and that's Clan on Clan violence, so it's not like real people were ever at risk from them.

Catalyst does a good job in avoiding making broken designs for the most part, at least compared to FASA. They just have to play by some of the stupid story beats FASA established, like the Jihad, and they have to include the Dark Ages. I think once they're finished with ilClan, things will settle back in a more Succession War style story beats.

Well, that's cool! I mentioned that we never played with post-Civil War things as just a bit of information. I don't think anyone in my group had anything specific against it (even back then), it's just half the group were massive FedCom Civil War nerds, and the other half were fans of the Fourth Succession War to Early Clan Invasion period. So even though I have a couple of the sourcebooks in my stash, I never got to play with those toys.

I understand why people really hate the Dark Ages period, but I admit I'm softer on it than most because I wasn't playing the game at a time. Most of my interaction with the setting during that era was with the novels, and some of those were pretty good. Admittedly, it might just be my peasant taste in fiction speaking. By the time I got back into actually playing the game, it was the late Dark Ages period and most people had gone back to the classic 3025-3067 period. One of these days I'll find someone willing to take the time to show me the ropes with regards to the new tech.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

Well, that's cool! I mentioned that we never played with post-Civil War things as just a bit of information. I don't think anyone in my group had anything specific against it (even back then), it's just half the group were massive FedCom Civil War nerds, and the other half were fans of the Fourth Succession War to Early Clan Invasion period. So even though I have a couple of the sourcebooks in my stash, I never got to play with those toys.

I understand why people really hate the Dark Ages period, but I admit I'm softer on it than most because I wasn't playing the game at a time. Most of my interaction with the setting during that era was with the novels, and some of those were pretty good. Admittedly, it might just be my peasant taste in fiction speaking. By the time I got back into actually playing the game, it was the late Dark Ages period and most people had gone back to the classic 3025-3067 period. One of these days I'll find someone willing to take the time to show me the ropes with regards to the new tech.

The whole clicky-tech thing is part of where the hate comes from, the other is that the writing from the actual Dark Age period is...well, mostly bad because stupidity. You have multiple successor lords who aren't married, have no children, and are too old to have them biologically. Then you have Julian Davion who's literally insane, the Liao ruler actually believes he's a living god, the FWL fracturing, etc. A lot of the beats in Dark Ages require dumb story beats in the Jihad. The Pre-Jihadi era is just easier to deal with. I won't say more balanced, but the 3150 Era has a lot of new mechs, lots of updates of old mechs, and lots of new weapons and gear that while they aren't broken at a lot of rules and new considerations. Some of the Jihad era books add mechs for the older time periods that are pretty good and fit well, like the Hammerhands or the Icarus. My recommendation to any player is the MUL, as that'll let you know what's available when and what factions have it. As always, it's never hard and fast, but if you want to make formations that are faction based and time period based it is the official resource for it. Also Alpha Strike cards if you play the quick and dirty version of tabletop.

I haven't gotten a chance to play tabletop in a long time, to be fair, but I try to stay at least a little up to date with the trends in the game. I love the lore, but I love Sci-Fi where humanity's biggest enemy is itself and we just take our beefs to the stars.

 

[TerminalTryHard]

How do people feel about the novels in general? My only introduction into BT is through the HBS game, and I'm just curious about all this lore you all keep bringing up.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Some of the Jihad era books add mechs for the older time periods that are pretty good and fit well, like the Hammerhands or the Icarus.

I use a Hammerhands Miniature as a stand-in for a Warhammer, cause every Warhammer miniature looks atrocious (easily as bad as the redesigned Marauders). Even though I'm not a huge fan of the new somewhat rubbery miniatures, their designs are a lot better, especially when it comes to the Warhammer and Marauder.

And on that note, I really like the design for the Dragoon, but unfortunately it's pretty much only available for House Amaris in the very short era of the Amaris Empire on Terra and is canonically extinct later on.


2 LB 10-X autocannons and an ER PPC? That sounds pretty rad.

That's one of the few nice things with the new books, they fill in some small gaps with neat designs for older eras... not like there would have been anything wrong with working off of the designs that are available already, but a few new and interesting mechs are always welcome, as long as they don't retcon too much stuff.

 

[White Devil]

The good thing about Battletech is, you can play any setting in any era... I'm currently planning to cover late 4th succession war up until the FedCom Civil war with 4 lances exclusively set up for the Amaris Coup and the Liberation of Terra... Sadly, can't find official paint schemes (or at least colors) for house Amaris... I guess I'll go for dark blue and black with red highlights.

Wouldn't it be in The Periphery sourcebook?

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Wouldn't it be in The Periphery sourcebook?

I looked through a couple sourcebooks and I could find some infos on the military structure and strength, but no regimental paint schemes at all. I guess I'll give it another go on Sarna and a couple of the sourcebooks, like the Periphery one and Liberation of Terra, but I'm not really expecting much. The best I could find was the cover art of Liberation of Terra, that shows an SLDF Highlander stomping on a (presumably) Rimworld Republic mech, that one seems to be dark blue, maybe with a little hint of grey.

 

[White Devil]

I looked through a couple sourcebooks and I could find some infos on the military structure and strength, but no regimental paint schemes at all. I guess I'll give it another go on Sarna and a couple of the sourcebooks, like the Periphery one and Liberation of Terra, but I'm not really expecting much. The best I could find was the cover art of Liberation of Terra, that shows an SLDF Highlander stomping on a (presumably) Rimworld Republic mech, that one seems to be dark blue, maybe with a little hint of grey.

Camo Specs has an Amaris Dragoon mech on it, iirc it's dark blue or dark grey.

 

[More AWS-8Q Than You]

I use a Hammerhands Miniature as a stand-in for a Warhammer, cause every Warhammer miniature looks atrocious (easily as bad as the redesigned Marauders). Even though I'm not a huge fan of the new somewhat rubbery miniatures, their designs are a lot better, especially when it comes to the Warhammer and Marauder.

And on that note, I really like the design for the Dragoon, but unfortunately it's pretty much only available for House Amaris in the very short era of the Amaris Empire on Terra and is canonically extinct later on.
View attachment 1798334

2 LB 10-X autocannons and an ER PPC? That sounds pretty rad.

That's one of the few nice things with the new books, they fill in some small gaps with neat designs for older eras... not like there would have been anything wrong with working off of the designs that are available already, but a few new and interesting mechs are always welcome, as long as they don't retcon too much stuff.

You might like the artwork they used for the Rifleman in Recognition Guide 8. The -7N2 is pretty nice, 2 LB-10X, 2 Light PPCs, and 2 ER Mediums. 11 Tons of armor, XL engine is the downside, but it's put to decent use. The head only has 8 points of armor, but everywhere but the legs and rear armor passes the AC/20 test. 3 tons of ammo, so you can run two of slug, one of cluster, and it's protected by CASE II, so it's not a torso ending bomb. It's pretty tough for the Rifleman.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

The whole clicky-tech thing is part of where the hate comes from, the other is that the writing from the actual Dark Age period is...well, mostly bad because stupidity. You have multiple successor lords who aren't married, have no children, and are too old to have them biologically. Then you have Julian Davion who's literally insane, the Liao ruler actually believes he's a living god, the FWL fracturing, etc. A lot of the beats in Dark Ages require dumb story beats in the Jihad. The Pre-Jihadi era is just easier to deal with. I won't say more balanced, but the 3150 Era has a lot of new mechs, lots of updates of old mechs, and lots of new weapons and gear that while they aren't broken at a lot of rules and new considerations. Some of the Jihad era books add mechs for the older time periods that are pretty good and fit well, like the Hammerhands or the Icarus. My recommendation to any player is the MUL, as that'll let you know what's available when and what factions have it. As always, it's never hard and fast, but if you want to make formations that are faction based and time period based it is the official resource for it. Also Alpha Strike cards if you play the quick and dirty version of tabletop.

I haven't gotten a chance to play tabletop in a long time, to be fair, but I try to stay at least a little up to date with the trends in the game. I love the lore, but I love Sci-Fi where humanity's biggest enemy is itself and we just take our beefs to the stars.

Acktually That was Caleb Davion who was bugfuck nuts, not Julian. Not that it was much help. When Caleb finally croaked, Julian was on the other side of the Inner Sphere and had to make his way back.