Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[RomanesEuntDomus]

If you are playing in the 3080 may I suggest the Yasha? It's a Combine VTOL (though available in the entire IS) and it carries a heavy PPC. Same power as a Gausrifle but no ammo. And the Yasha beats the Yellow Jacket in terms of speed. Or if you are more for a sneaking VTOL the Spectre variant is also nice: a light Gaus rifle plus Stealth armor on a VTOL Oh and if you ever go to the Dark age the Combine have a VTOL with a PPC and 2 Thunderbolt 10 launchers: the Kamakiri. Or it's sub variant, the Shi Kamakiri: a VTOL with a heavy Gaus rifle. Plus it carries reflective armor

I'm not that interested in anything post FedCom Civil war and not a huge fan of stealth armor. Still, thanks for the recommendations.

Is the Pinto any good? Looks pretty neat on paper with high topspeed of 160kph and 3 MLas plus an LRM5, looks like that thing could zip across the battlefield and lay waste to it until it gets hit by a cloud of shrapnell

 

[Corn Flakes]

Is the Pinto any good? Looks pretty neat on paper with high topspeed of 160kph and 3 MLas plus an LRM5, looks like that thing could zip across the battlefield and lay waste to it until it gets hit by a cloud of shrapnell

The problem with the Pinto is that you really don't want to be anywhere near the enemy's Short Range bracket with a VTOL, and with 3 x MedLas for main armament that's precisely where you're going to be with that thing since you'll want to be within your own short range bracket as well. Sure, you can have a juicy +5 speed modifier on that thing if you go flat-out with it, but if you're intending to fire your weapon more than once every two turns you'll have to slow down or become the most furious ping-pong ball in the Inner Sphere as you desperately look for targets to bounce off. And even if you do have that +5 and slot behind an enemy for that juicy back shot... again, most of the enemies' friends' cluster weapons are going to have you at short or medium range, and that rotor is mighty fragile.

So the Pinto isn't quite as "efficient" as the Yellow Jacket. But a small pack of them zipping around the battlefield can work great as harassers. Just, for the love of God, Blake and Kerensky, don't overcommit these things. Because the moment they stop to take that one last shot, they're hosed.

If you want something with less raw damage output but more survivability, try the Cyrano's Royal variant. You get an ER Large Laser going at ludicrous speeds, more armor, twin AMS for that gatling gun cred, and a TAG for all your lurm and Arrow IV needs.

 

[Snekposter]

I'm not that interested in anything post FedCom Civil war and not a huge fan of stealth armor. Still, thanks for the recommendations.

Is the Pinto any good? Looks pretty neat on paper with high topspeed of 160kph and 3 MLas plus an LRM5, looks like that thing could zip across the battlefield and lay waste to it until it gets hit by a cloud of shrapnell

Its named the Pinto. I think that says it all.

 

[Urbanmech]

So how do lasers work against people in the BT universe? Like say a Elemental crashes into a room full of soldiers does a SLaser sweep, are the soldiers cut in half or is it War of the Worlds vaporized?

 

[Corn Flakes]

So how do lasers work against people in the BT universe? Like say a Elemental crashes into a room full of soldiers does a SLaser sweep, are the soldiers cut in half or is it War of the Worlds vaporized?

Depends on the writer. I personally lean towards "cut in half, messily" and "piles of gore scattered all over the room", since there are descriptions of laser weapons blowing off limbs. These imply the instant vaporization of tissue is a rather violent affair.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

So how do lasers work against people in the BT universe? Like say a Elemental crashes into a room full of soldiers does a SLaser sweep, are the soldiers cut in half or is it War of the Worlds vaporized?

Depends on the writer. I personally lean towards "cut in half, messily" and "piles of gore scattered all over the room", since there are descriptions of laser weapons blowing off limbs. These imply the instant vaporization of tissue is a rather violent affair.

Here's a particularly evocative description of an SL-equivalent sniper weapon from an old BattleCorps novel.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

I've been milling around the Killer Bee thing and I like the idea of painting stuff in their colors more and more. I don't have a faction using a yellow paint scheme so far, so it'll add a nice splash of color to the Skye Guards' red, the Legion of Vega grey, the Davion green and the Steiner blue.

I was looking into possible combinations, now I was wondering, are VTOLs treated like a regular vehicle (ie: do they replace a groundvehicle in a lance) or are they treated like AeroSpace assets and a pair is its own airlance that is teamed up with a regular lance?

On a sidenote, I'll paint one of my Saladins in bee stripes, the juxtaposition of the AC20 being the stinger is just too great not to do it.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I was looking into possible combinations, now I was wondering, are VTOLs treated like a regular vehicle (ie: do they replace a groundvehicle in a lance) or are they treated like AeroSpace assets and a pair is its own airlance that is teamed up with a regular lance?

VTOLs are conventional Combat Vehicles, so technically they can be used to replace a ground vehicle in a vehicle lance.

In practical terms, though, Lances are pretty flexible so VTOL are used piecemeal to augment existing ground or 'mech lances. You can have a 'Mech lance composed of 4 Mechs, plus 2 VTOLs to serve as scouts or fire support, for example. Of course, if you have enough of them you can make a full air lance of VTOLs (and induce a Pavlovian salivation reaction on every Rifleman jockey on the planet).

 

[Balr0g]

I was looking into possible combinations, now I was wondering, are VTOLs treated like a regular vehicle (ie: do they replace a groundvehicle in a lance) or are they treated like AeroSpace assets and a pair is its own airlance that is teamed up with a regular lance?

In all the lore books the VTOL is usually part of the ground forces. Aerospace wings are a group of it's own. You can have either sort your VTOLs in the dedicated lances (like for example tank hunting with the Cavalry or sniping with the Hawk Moth) or you create a sort of combined arms unit where the VTOL is simply part of the team. I assume that scout VTOL like the Sprint are suually part of the artillery unit or part of the HQ unit as a means to provide accurate details or fire guidance via TAG or C3 slave units

 

[BlackDragoons]

New RecGuide was posted yesterday and 2 new mechs where posted, the Regent and the Kontio. The Regent is litteraly shitpost canonized, the mech was originally called the Awesomann because it was the combination of an Awesome and a Hauptmann, and the Kontio is just pure badass. https://www.deviantart.com/shimmering-sword/art/Awesomann-Mech-361422375

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

New RecGuide was posted yesterday and 2 new mechs where posted, the Regent and the Kontio. The Regent is litteraly shitpost canonized, the mech was originally called the Awesomann because it was the combination of an Awesome and a Hauptmann, and the Kontio is just pure badass. https://www.deviantart.com/shimmering-sword/art/Awesomann-Mech-361422375

The Regent literally mentiones the Space Pope as a notable pilot. What the fuck am I reading

The design looks amazing, though.

 

[Corn Flakes]

New RecGuide was posted yesterday and 2 new mechs where posted, the Regent and the Kontio. The Regent is litteraly shitpost canonized, the mech was originally called the Awesomann because it was the combination of an Awesome and a Hauptmann, and the Kontio is just pure badass. https://www.deviantart.com/shimmering-sword/art/Awesomann-Mech-361422375

These are fucking awesome. Crazy, particularly the melee-centric Clan 'Mech (really shows how far their doctrine has changed since the invasion), but really neat. And I like that the Awesomann retained the cigar laser in three of the configs. That it's also a canon HAG-40 boat is just a bonus. I've been looking for one of these to play around with.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

The Regent literally mentiones the Space Pope as a notable pilot. What the fuck am I reading

The design looks amazing, though.

"Your Excellency, the MechTechs are preparing your holy chariot now, and they wish to know if you prefer to slaughter the Kuritan heathens with the Ultra Autocannon or Hyper-Assault Gauss Rifle this day?"

 

[GLUE SNIFFER 9000]

These are fucking awesome. Crazy, particularly the melee-centric Clan 'Mech (really shows how far their doctrine has changed since the invasion), but really neat. And I like that the Awesomann retained the cigar laser in three of the configs. That it's also a canon HAG-40 boat is just a bonus. I've been looking for one of these to play around with.

An improved heavy gauss and a HAG-40 is a really mean combo, especially if you can get in short rage for the +2 on the HAG's cluster roll. If both shots can hit, it should be really easy for it to start fishing for critical hits.

 

[Corn Flakes]

An improved heavy gauss and a HAG-40 is a really mean combo, especially if you can get in short rage for the +2 on the HAG's cluster roll. If both shots can hit, it should be really easy for it to start fishing for critical hits.

The C-config is an absolute meme and it looks like it's going to be a fun one to plonk down on the table just to watch the other guy's reaction. Hell, I might add one of these to my Post-Jihad Dominion Trinary (they're my Ghost Bear Trinary with some fancier gear), just for kicks and to see how much heat it's going to attract while the rest of the star moves in for the kill.

Sure, you're out of luck when it comes to backup weapons, but here's something funny: neither Gauss is arm mounted. In fact, the arms are completely empty. And that's an OmniMech. There's nothing stopping you from fitting Lower Arm and Hand actuators to both arms and just going full Rock 'Em Sock 'Em with two 9-damage swings per turn against anything that tries too hard to exploit your minimum range. And since there's a good chance you already peppered them with at least two LRM-20s worth of cluster hits and likely also a 22-damage slug to the frontal arc... let's put it this way: if any of the HAG cluster hits landed on the head, a good punch to the windshield will require the salvage teams to clean up what's left of the enemy pilot with a high-pressure hose.

 

[GLUE SNIFFER 9000]

Oh, now that'd be a really funny idea and forcing the piloting checks would be a great way to set up a brutal round of shooting the next turn.
I don't think adding the actuators actually adds any extra tonnage, and it could be something that'll catch someone off guard.
The 3/5 movement would be able to get you into melee against most 'mechs trying to take advantage the minimum ranges of those Gauss weapons.

I wonder if you downgrade the HAG 40 to a 30, would you have enough tonnage for MASC or a Super Charger? 3/5 is fairly good movement for a 90 tonner, but being able to jump to 4/6 could be pretty funny too.

 

[Snekposter]

"Your Excellency, the MechTechs are preparing your holy chariot now, and they wish to know if you prefer to slaughter the Kuritan heathens with the Ultra Autocannon or Hyper-Assault Gauss Rifle this day?"

Serious Sam 4 already beat these guys to the punch with a giant stompy, blasty Popemobile, I'm afraid.

 

[Bassomatic]

The Regent was mentioned as such on my thursday TT night "This looks like something Basso makes when he's had too much to drink"

Friend of mine has a 3d printer and said he's gonna try some rougher first presses and might not be too pretty so will only use for friendly play, I'm going to grab some mechs I just never use. First on order for the " I have no idea why" I'm getting a Snake and since friendly can use any of varients on table, the Alexi is kinda a interesting niche. The Snake is just not a good mech tho.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I don't think adding the actuators actually adds any extra tonnage, and it could be something that'll catch someone off guard.

They do not! Apparently it's all factored into the structural and armor weight of the 'Mech, which makes no sense but the bookkeeping is a lot simpler like that.

The 3/5 movement would be able to get you into melee against most 'mechs trying to take advantage the minimum ranges of those Gauss weapons.

That's the idea, yes. And even if the enemies are within minimum range you can still fire at them just fine. Sure, you'll take a penalty to your to-hit roll but it's not like you're going to be overheating or wasting anything but ammo. You could even fire at a more distant target behind the 'Mech you're trying to melee, and then just turn to bitch slap the guy after the shooting phase.

I wonder if you downgrade the HAG 40 to a 30, would you have enough tonnage for MASC or a Super Charger? 3/5 is fairly good movement for a 90 tonner, but being able to jump to 4/6 could be pretty funny too.

You can't fit a MASC as pod in an OmniMech, it has to be part of the base design (see: the Shadow Cat), but you can fit a Supercharger. You don't even have to do a whole lot of downgrading, with a 14.5-ton Standard Engine, the Supercharger would weigh only 1.5 ton. You'd have tonnage to spare for more ammo if you wanted to. Although you'd lose on the sheer memes of slapping someone with a potential 8 x 5 cluster table shots.

 

[not william stenchever]

Clergymen aren't supposed to spill blood so when they go to war they bring maces. Think of the battlepope's HAG 40 and improved Heavy Gauss as bludgeoning implements.