- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
Battletech - Also known as Trannytech
- Thread starter Frosted Snowflakes
- Start date
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Yes, although it gets kind of blurry. The Coyotes went more for the "communing with nature" side of things, while the Nova Cats stuck with the religious/mystical BS. Merge the two Clans together, add in some feather headdresses and you have an insultingly on-the-nose Native American stereotype ready to go.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Elemental Star? Is that really 25 models in that pack, or is just one model supposed to represent 5 Elementals?
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
One model represent 5 elementals, i have 2 of em from the clan box you can pick up. It comes with 2.
Pic of the box they come in.
- Joined
- May 25, 2013
My personal best time in BT is the orignal one.
I always dug the pseudo feudal setting. The Knight's in Mech's schitk.
Where technology is almost magic and its better to surrender the field and take the punishment then risk losing a mech because they're almost irreplaceable. Where the Star League was Camelot and the height of mankind's achievements and now everything's gone to hell because of human nature. Where no one would dare attack a Jumpship because they're 100% irreplaceable and without them even the mighty nations would fall.
All the new fangled tech they keep introducing diminished the setting to me. Making it just another stompy robot future wars thingie. I would love to know what the Helm memory core had in it that allowed a practically overnight renascence to occur in pretty much every field.
I know they have to keep pushing the timeline forward to sell more products but the clans just killed my interest in BT
Old Guard Best Guard
I always dug the pseudo feudal setting. The Knight's in Mech's schitk.
Where technology is almost magic and its better to surrender the field and take the punishment then risk losing a mech because they're almost irreplaceable. Where the Star League was Camelot and the height of mankind's achievements and now everything's gone to hell because of human nature. Where no one would dare attack a Jumpship because they're 100% irreplaceable and without them even the mighty nations would fall.
All the new fangled tech they keep introducing diminished the setting to me. Making it just another stompy robot future wars thingie. I would love to know what the Helm memory core had in it that allowed a practically overnight renascence to occur in pretty much every field.
I know they have to keep pushing the timeline forward to sell more products but the clans just killed my interest in BT
Old Guard Best Guard
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2018
I didn't mind the Helm memory core so much, but I hated the 2750 designs (the look of them). But the HMC should have been put in in drips and drabs. Or better still, no new tech, but suggest that hey, lostech is no longer a thing: we can build new neurohelmets, fusion engines, sensors, and gyroscopes and other gadgets...but the factories are still mostly rubble, and the people who know how to work them are a valuable war prize themselves. So not much has changed, just the odds that a House mechwarrior won't stay dispossessed very long are now better.
And the Clans suck.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2020
I never played the original; my introduction was the 90s boardgame reissue, with the plastic figurines. I remember the setting being pretty bleak, like Mad Max meets the Hundred Years War (weren't entire wars being fought over drinking water?), but I didn't like how rare and irreplaceable Mechs were. When I got back into Battletech/Mechwarrior in my teens, it was post-Clan invasion, and I wasn't bothered by the fact that Mechs were suddenly disposable. Just more stuff to blow up!
My only issue with the Clans is the fluff; all the ritual combat and gene communism stuff, seemed like an attempt to get back to the Dark Ages of 1v1 duels on the boardgame, instead of massive battles with hundreds of mechs going pewpewpew at each other. I also don't really like how unbalanced their Mechs are, but I redesigned a lot of IS mechs to use Clan-tier technology for my own pnp campaigns, so the balance issues weren't that big a deal, to me, at the time.
Is it true they "win" in the end? How long will that victory last? Is it going to be permanent, or will they make it so the ilClan falls apart in a couple of weeks?
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
The Helm Memory Core filled a lot of technological gaps that the Inner Sphere was already grappling with. The NAIS had already been built and they were trying to recover lost technology even before the HMC landed on every Great House's lap, courtesy of Grayson Carlyle. That shit would be either found or rediscovered eventually, and even scraps of LosTech could still be found and studied across the Inner Sphere. For example, Double Heat Sinks had already been re-developed even before the Helm Memory Core was found. The setting just marched on.
Personally, I'm a fan of the Fourth Succession War tech level. The base weapons in 3025 are just not varied enough for my tastes, and having samples of new tech like Streak SRM2s or LB-10Xs without the rest of the product range made the setting feel more like it was still developing. Every weapon type coming in exactly the same sizes always felt weirdly standardized to me.
As for the Clans... yeah, I like them but I'm perfectly fine playing the setting before they showed up. Regardless, the Inner Sphere would have reached their level of technology fairly quickly. Most of their shit had been originally developed by the Star League, they just refined it.
Personally, I'm a fan of the Fourth Succession War tech level. The base weapons in 3025 are just not varied enough for my tastes, and having samples of new tech like Streak SRM2s or LB-10Xs without the rest of the product range made the setting feel more like it was still developing. Every weapon type coming in exactly the same sizes always felt weirdly standardized to me.
As for the Clans... yeah, I like them but I'm perfectly fine playing the setting before they showed up. Regardless, the Inner Sphere would have reached their level of technology fairly quickly. Most of their shit had been originally developed by the Star League, they just refined it.
I tried playing massive battles in BT. It doesn't work. The Clan fluff was interesting starting out, but the more you look into it the more you realize they make even less sense than the rest of the setting.
The ilClan thing is going to fall apart pretty much instantly. The Falcons would never accept it, the Bears are already busy being a great power in the Inner Sphere with their Dominion, and no one else fucking cares that the Wolves got Earth. The Third Star League is going to fall apart the same way the First and the Second did: the setting requires permanent conflict and no one is going to budge.
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- Joined
- Aug 21, 2018
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
I prefer the 3040's tech level, since that's when the fun stuff like ER lasers and Gauss comes out. Things are definitely moving forwards, but there's no dumb-ass Clan Invasion with what might as well be magic for technology.
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2020
I hope so. When I was a kid, I always kind of liked Clan Wolf, because they were the Good Guys, and they had a ton of Mad Cats (also wolves are cool). But as I got older, I think I started to resent Clan Wolf - because they were the Good Guys, and they had a ton of Mad Cats.
I'm honestly not sure who to root for anymore. When I was very little, me and my pnp friends were mostly repping House Steiner, and our pnp campaigns tended to be about our characters fighting the Combine. Didn't really know any fluff, probably got the idea to base in Steiner territory from the SatAm cartoon...? But Steiner are jobbers now, and Wolf I resent. My inner weeb would have me supporting the Combine, but they're all about light mechs, which are terrible. And I really love Rasalhague for being weeb vikings, but they only existed for like ten years.
Are there any decent options left? What's the best faction (Clan, Periphery, or Sphere)?
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2018
I'm fond of most of the original five Great Houses. My HBS-BT kickstarter cap has a Draconis Combine logo on it. I also like how the Ghost Bears just moved in with what was left of Rasalhague, like a slightly overbearing fellow with a HUGE bank account and a willingness to help with the bills.
Most of the invading Clans have changed over time (which is what kicked off the Wars of Reaving, at least in part). I believe both the Wolf Empire/Clan Wolf, and the Ghost Bears allow for freeborns to challenge for the right to establish Bloodname houses -- this is very much an admission that those Clans, at least, do not want their trueborn bloodlines to stagnate too much. After all, what's more Clanlike than letting someone take a shot at the brass ring?
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
The one you think looks the coolest, I guess?
Seriously, everybody likes different factions in BattleTech for different reasons. I personally like the utter chaos that is the Free Worlds League, because despite sometimes not even being on the map, they always end up pulling through. But at the same time Steiner are cool for being the stompiest of the Great Houses, Davion can be fun with the whole chivalry gimmick, Kurita have more balls than brains half the time but Theodore was a badass, and Liao... okay, fuck Liao but these guys know how to run a good con. They wouldn't have survived so long bordering the FedSuns if they weren't good at what they do.
And despite the memes and the sportsball-style rivalries, you can like more than one faction just fine. I liked the Ghost Bears even before the Ghost Bear Dominion, simply because they were the most reasonable of the invading Clans and they had a gimmick I thought was interesting, being tightly knit along more than just honor or bloodlines. That they're currently the Inner Sphere's finest source of Elemental waifus is just a fun coincidence.
- Joined
- May 27, 2020
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2020
Ghost Bear's OK... I like Ghosts, and as a society they always seemed pretty based, plus I guess if they're all trying to assimilate with Rasalhague now that's cool. But I've never really liked bears as an animal. They're better than fucking Mandrills, and they might even be better than Wolverines (my favorite Clan next to Spaniel), but Bears-as-totem-animal don't do much of anything for me. Diamond Shark and Snow Raven, maybe, cool animals and decent fluff, though the Sharks are jobbers and Ravens never do anything fun.
And the only IS House I hate is Liao, but it's fun to kill communists so that's fine.
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2017
I quit reading the fiction back in the 90's, after the Clan Invasion and the Davion/Stiener wedding.
What's a good book to start on and move from there?
Or should I just be happy with my memories of Waterly eating a bullet?
What's a good book to start on and move from there?
Or should I just be happy with my memories of Waterly eating a bullet?
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
Just built a 55 Ton Tiger armed with Twin AC/5s on both shoulders, two SRM/2s with inferno's loaded in and two medium lasers jammed in the chest, base movement is 4 while running speed is 6 and it has jump packs at 3. Designed for hit and runs.
- Joined
- May 27, 2020
>55 ton 4/6/3
>Hit and run
What you've got there is a Shadow Hawk that downgraded its engine to jam in an extra AC. That's not a striker, it's a heavy Blackjack.
Here, have a quick & dirty of what you're looking for.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019