Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

Looking over the PDFs, it's an interesting design, but 10 and a half tons of armor on a 100-ton Mech means it's probably only going to get one or two volleys off before it gets shredded, much as its predecessor did.
 
SITHRAK! said:
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.
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Speaking of RP faggotry, here's a very autistic question for people:

How flexible is the lore when it comes to mercenary companies and military organization? Are merc companies essentially free to screw with the Lance/Company/Regiment structure? Or do merc units almost always adhere to Inner Sphere doctrine?

(also, if a merc company WAS to do away with the traditional lance structure, what would happen? Is there any real in-universe reason why, say, you gotta field four Mechs at a time rather than 6-8, aside from "game balance"?)

Reason I ask is because I'm playing through this BTE campaign, and I'm really finding it hard to stick to lore-friendly unit structures. Especially against the Clans, I found myself bringing at least a Star's worth of Mechs; now my unit is back in the IS and I'm not really seeing much reason to change.

I've got 17 pilots currently, which doesn't divide evenly by four. I'm also using my company commander in every fight, so instead of having a Command Lance, I'm basically having the commander attach herself to each lance in cycle; five Mechs each fight, minimum (three to four heavies, one to two mediums). However, now that I've got a ton of Mad Cats, I usually find myself bringing four to five heavies (one Marauder plus everything else Mad cat) and two to three mediums. TLDR; I'm almost always using six Mechs per engagement (which I believe is considered a demi-company?) and often using eight. Both of these are problematic, since my commander is not attached to any Command Lance - my deployments are either one commander plus a ghetto "Star", or one Commander plus whatever seven Mech pilots would be.

Also, my understanding is that the typical company has three lances - 12 pilots, plus however many extra shmucks nobody cares about. I've got 17; one lance and five men too many for a company. I could try and shuffle things around a bit - like maybe put all of my Scout pilots into one lance and call them an "auxiliary lance" - but I only have like three trained Scouts right now, which wouldn't be enough for their own lance.
 
Solid Snek said:
Speaking of RP faggotry, here's a very autistic question for people:

How flexible is the lore when it comes to mercenary companies and military organization? Are merc companies essentially free to screw with the Lance/Company/Regiment structure? Or do merc units almost always adhere to Inner Sphere doctrine?

(also, if a merc company WAS to do away with the traditional lance structure, what would happen? Is there any real in-universe reason why, say, you gotta field four Mechs at a time rather than 6-8, aside from "game balance"?)

Reason I ask is because I'm playing through this BTE campaign, and I'm really finding it hard to stick to lore-friendly unit structures. Especially against the Clans, I found myself bringing at least a Star's worth of Mechs; now my unit is back in the IS and I'm not really seeing much reason to change.

I've got 17 pilots currently, which doesn't divide evenly by four. I'm also using my company commander in every fight, so instead of having a Command Lance, I'm basically having the commander attach herself to each lance in cycle; five Mechs each fight, minimum (three to four heavies, one to two mediums). However, now that I've got a ton of Mad Cats, I usually find myself bringing four to five heavies (one Marauder plus everything else Mad cat) and two to three mediums. TLDR; I'm almost always using six Mechs per engagement (which I believe is considered a demi-company?) and often using eight. Both of these are problematic, since my commander is not attached to any Command Lance - my deployments are either one commander plus a ghetto "Star", or one Commander plus whatever seven Mech pilots would be.

Also, my understanding is that the typical company has three lances - 12 pilots, plus however many extra shmucks nobody cares about. I've got 17; one lance and five men too many for a company. I could try and shuffle things around a bit - like maybe put all of my Scout pilots into one lance and call them an "auxiliary lance" - but I only have like three trained Scouts right now, which wouldn't be enough for their own lance.
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Mercs can do whatever the fuck they want, but they tend to stick do the 4-12 Lance-Company structure because most dropships have berths and doors in multiples of 4. So you could have the smallest unit in your company be a 7 'Mech reinforced Demi-Company, but that's going to make the logistics of bringing units dirtside a lot trickier. Instead of bringing your entire strike force in a Leopard (the most common IS Dropship, 4 'mech capacity), you'd need something like a much rarer Hamilcar or Lion (8 'mechs) and "waste" one 'mech bay, or a considerably more expensive company- or battalion-sized dropship.
 
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A_Callow_Youth said:
Oh, don't worry, we got even more fucking insane.
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My only response:

there-is-a-point-where-we-needed-to-stop-and-28450045.png


Shades of 'Gausszilla' here.
 
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I don't know what I started. But I'm glad my insanity is being passed on.
 
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A_Callow_Youth said:
Oh, that wasn't you the whole time? I suppose this is what waking up and realizing that's not your wife on the other side of the bed feels like.
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Yeah I think the last post I saw of that was case that shit then I went to bed, got up and went to work. I checked the thread earlier this morning and saw all the posts. One of my response was asking how much in cbills the Rifleman X cost and that was it.
 
Speaking of nuttiness, I remember a Kurita (?) Assault mech, 95 tons, kitted for scouting, medium/heavy mech armor and light mech mobility.
Had 6xSL as only armament. Surprisingly good against Elementals. Ringing bells with you fucking autists?
 
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SITHRAK! said:
God bless you my son. Once had a game where we bought loadouts on the basis of weapon tonnage. What I lost on these bad boys I made up in Hollanders, and my regular opponents declined to ever use the weapon tonnage buyout ever again.
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Yeah, that sounds like the kind of terrible idea that somebody would try exactly once. Congrats on actually finding a use for the damned thing, though.
 
A_Callow_Youth said:
Yeah, that sounds like the kind of terrible idea that somebody would try exactly once. Congrats on actually finding a use for the damned thing, though.
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Pre-BV buys were a psychological mind game of their own. We agreed or bid on tonnage, C-bills, armor weight (that’s a bad one)) etc. The Locust and IIc really shone no matter what scenario we played. Odd, that.
 
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SITHRAK! said:
Pre-BV buys were a psychological mind game of their own. We agreed or bid on tonnage, C-bills, armor weight (that’s a bad one)) etc. The Locust and IIc really shone no matter what scenario we played. Odd, that.
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The Locust IIC is criminally underrated. It can make assaults cry by getting into the rear and then alpha striking while they are unable to move enough to keep them in their sights or attempt to melee. It can seriously fuck up any other mech in its weight class and outrun many mechs that mount as much potential damage. It’s also relatively cheap point and tonnage wise. It’s only downside is range, but it’s fast enough to close against almost everything.
 
Techpriest said:
The Locust IIC is criminally underrated. It can make assaults cry by getting into the rear and then alpha striking while they are unable to move enough to keep them in their sights or attempt to melee. It can seriously fuck up any other mech in its weight class and outrun many mechs that mount as much potential damage. It’s also relatively cheap point and tonnage wise. It’s only downside is range, but it’s fast enough to close against almost everything.
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Or you use the Solitaire from the Diamond Sharks. A 25t Mech which carries heavy lasers, even the largest one Now if that guy manages to get in your back and fires

Oh while you talk about Gauszilla: that was a Clan Annihilator with 5 Gausrifles. Has anyone ever seen the specs of this thing? I can't wrap my head around how the hell this Mech actually looks like on paper.
 
Solid Snek said:
Speaking of RP faggotry, here's a very autistic question for people:

How flexible is the lore when it comes to mercenary companies and military organization? Are merc companies essentially free to screw with the Lance/Company/Regiment structure? Or do merc units almost always adhere to Inner Sphere doctrine?

(also, if a merc company WAS to do away with the traditional lance structure, what would happen? Is there any real in-universe reason why, say, you gotta field four Mechs at a time rather than 6-8, aside from "game balance"?)

Reason I ask is because I'm playing through this BTE campaign, and I'm really finding it hard to stick to lore-friendly unit structures. Especially against the Clans, I found myself bringing at least a Star's worth of Mechs; now my unit is back in the IS and I'm not really seeing much reason to change.

I've got 17 pilots currently, which doesn't divide evenly by four. I'm also using my company commander in every fight, so instead of having a Command Lance, I'm basically having the commander attach herself to each lance in cycle; five Mechs each fight, minimum (three to four heavies, one to two mediums). However, now that I've got a ton of Mad Cats, I usually find myself bringing four to five heavies (one Marauder plus everything else Mad cat) and two to three mediums. TLDR; I'm almost always using six Mechs per engagement (which I believe is considered a demi-company?) and often using eight. Both of these are problematic, since my commander is not attached to any Command Lance - my deployments are either one commander plus a ghetto "Star", or one Commander plus whatever seven Mech pilots would be.

Also, my understanding is that the typical company has three lances - 12 pilots, plus however many extra shmucks nobody cares about. I've got 17; one lance and five men too many for a company. I could try and shuffle things around a bit - like maybe put all of my Scout pilots into one lance and call them an "auxiliary lance" - but I only have like three trained Scouts right now, which wouldn't be enough for their own lance.
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The Wolf's Dragoons and Natasha Kerensky organized the Black Widow Battalion around these funny oversized companies called "trinaries" during 3035, and Comstar uses sixes as their standard organization method. As @Corn Flakes said, only thing stopping you is transport logistics. Although you could take something like a Hamilcar or Lion and convert those three Mech bays into CV bays and run some weird-ass Nova. As for drops of eight, that's two Leopards which isn't exactly rare since that drops down a heavy and a scout lance, but doesn't exactly work in your case given the mere three scouts, but you could fit that in with an 8-mech dropship and drop the commander and a lance as a Command Star with an attached Scout formation. For a "company level" drop you could then disperse the Scouts across the three lances to make mixed Stars using the scouts as attached forward observation units for the Heavies. Trouble is you've got those extra two hangers-on that don't fit well.
 
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Corn Flakes said:
Mercs can do whatever the fuck they want, but they tend to stick do the 4-12 Lance-Company structure because most dropships have berths and doors in multiples of 4. So you could have the smallest unit in your company be a 7 'Mech reinforced Demi-Company, but that's going to make the logistics of bringing units dirtside a lot trickier. Instead of bringing your entire strike force in a Leopard (the most common IS Dropship, 4 'mech capacity), you'd need something like a much rarer Hamilcar or Lion (8 'mechs) and "waste" one 'mech bay, or a considerably more expensive company- or battalion-sized dropship.
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Snekposter said:
The Wolf's Dragoons and Natasha Kerensky organized the Black Widow Battalion around these funny oversized companies called "trinaries" during 3035, and Comstar uses sixes as their standard organization method. As @Corn Flakes said, only thing stopping you is transport logistics. Although you could take something like a Hamilcar or Lion and convert those three Mech bays into CV bays and run some weird-ass Nova. As for drops of eight, that's two Leopards which isn't exactly rare since that drops down a heavy and a scout lance, but doesn't exactly work in your case given the mere three scouts, but you could fit that in with an 8-mech dropship and drop the commander and a lance as a Command Star with an attached Scout formation. For a "company level" drop you could then disperse the Scouts across the three lances to make mixed Stars using the scouts as attached forward observation units for the Heavies. Trouble is you've got those extra two hangers-on that don't fit well.
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Ah, OK. I'm not really sure what the fuck the mod's explanation is - apparently I do have eight bays on my Leopard, or at least enough room and power for 600 tons of up-to-eight Mechs. The mod says it's lore-compliant, so there's probably a reason for that, maybe?

Also, I should add that my Scouts aren't really "scouts" in the traditional sense. They've only recently started fielding proper, dedicated scouting mechs; prior to that they were mostly just running around in medium/light-heavy fire support mechs while my tankier pilots handled the "getting shot in the face by Clanners" duties. Now that I've acquired enough Mad Cats that I can pull some of them off the front line and turn them into dedicated missile boats, now's when I'm starting to go back to actual Scout Mechs.


Incidentally, what would people's recommendations be for an effective Scout Mech? I need something that's fast, has stock jump jets, is tanky enough to survive a round getting shot at by a Daishi, and maybe if possible mounts ECM or a Beagle. I need this Mech to spot for my main firing line, which is mostly Heavy snipers and LRM boats. If there is any way to get a Mech like this WITH a Clan UAC/20, that'd be extra awesome!

(previously, I was using a UAC/20-armed Ryoken, but the Ryoken can't fit jumpjets and had no ECM or beagle, so I've switched over to a Dragonfly. The Dragonfly has more than enough speed and jumpiness, but I don't trust a forty ton Mech to run out and spot Clan Stars.)
 
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