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- Dec 7, 2013
Battletech - Also known as Trannytech
- Thread starter Frosted Snowflakes
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
Sorry Corn your wrong on that. Complete rules regarding the usage of jump jets.
So when you jump it adds a +1 to your movement modifier then you apply the next modifier if your using either weak or strong jump jets. So for example your piloting a Mech with TMM of 3 with JMPW1. So you go through adding the TMM of 3 plus the 1 for jumping then the negative for the weak jump jets.
So when you jump it adds a +1 to your movement modifier then you apply the next modifier if your using either weak or strong jump jets. So for example your piloting a Mech with TMM of 3 with JMPW1. So you go through adding the TMM of 3 plus the 1 for jumping then the negative for the weak jump jets.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
ETA: I'm definitely using an older rulebook here. Well, time to find the current edition.
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- Mar 31, 2020
the resources were somehwat clear if we take the FM 3067: for one there are the Terran taxpayers as well as the slowly growing Blake Protectorate. Those alone are several billions of people. Plus a Terra that is churning out weapons nonstop (unlike the nuzzled Terra during Comstar's reign). Then we have the embezzlement of funds from the FWL for HPG services which was already known in the fedcom Civil War novels. Heck Thomas Marik (the fake one) expected a bit of skimming but even he was suprised by 15% extra fees. Plus the subversiopn of the circinus Federation and also taking over the HPG's in the Confederation. That is a nice chunk of change. Though the hidden worlds and other stuff really sounds over the top
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- Aug 18, 2019
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- Apr 25, 2020
Would if I could, man. But MEGA hates my VPN and I ain't taking it off for love nor money.
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- Aug 18, 2019
If you can the whole current collection is 15 gigs. Could always get a thumb drive and download it at a third party residence.
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- Apr 25, 2020
It's fine, I found the new books through a different method. Just replaced my AS rulebooks, and I'll give them a full skim to see what's changed tomorrow.
Looked like a fine fool here for a moment, but at least I should be up to date now. I keep forgetting Alpha Strike is a newer ruleset, so it has gotten revisions more often than base BT.
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- Dec 7, 2013
Good luck. It either sells out immediately or you just have to get a pdf. The same guy that argues about this had a not earmarked to shit one that he competely forgot about that he sold me.
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- Feb 1, 2023
Which means WoB effectively has unlimited income but still limited means of production, so why bother taking that much money? I know we're getting into FASAnomics here, but if there's 10bn people in the Terran system alone and each one is taxed a mere 100 C-Bills per year, that alone is a trillion C-Bills. Plus all the other sources of income you mentioned.
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- Apr 25, 2020
Income isn't everything. Most of the worlds claimed by the Blake Protectorate early on were formerly Terran Hegemony worlds. They were already heading towards resource depletion back in the 2700s, and rare earth minerals don't grow back. On top of that, supply chains are a thing: planets are incredibly unlikely to be able to produce all the raw materials and intermediate products necessary for the high technology shit the Blakists spammed all over the place. So they would have needed an ungodly amount of dropships ferrying shit back and forth, as well as completely unlogged JumpShips going to and from their secret worlds, that nobody in the First Circle ever heard about and without a single leak or defection, for decades.
Yeah, I'm not buying it. The amount of shit the Blakists had was just a whole bunch of writers going "more = better" because they had a huge gap in the timeline to fill, they had to make it more interesting than just "and then the Successor States spent fifty years doing anti-insurgency operations", and they had to somehow explain how Devlin Stone turned the Inner Sphere's pie chart into a donut, when Wizkids clearly had no intention of explaining any of it when they made MWDA.
Yeah, I'm not buying it. The amount of shit the Blakists had was just a whole bunch of writers going "more = better" because they had a huge gap in the timeline to fill, they had to make it more interesting than just "and then the Successor States spent fifty years doing anti-insurgency operations", and they had to somehow explain how Devlin Stone turned the Inner Sphere's pie chart into a donut, when Wizkids clearly had no intention of explaining any of it when they made MWDA.
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- Oct 28, 2017
All this crap just to create the Republic of the Sphere...only to turn around and destroy the republic in the very new era after...what? Only a few in-universe decades?
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- Feb 1, 2023
I guess Weisman never really intended to fill in the gap between 3067and 3133, just provide a few big brush strokes like "WoB destroys everything, the RotS is formed, then Stone disappears and the Rots collapses" and that was that. But when FanPro and CGL had to fill in the gaps, they went for the Jihad as we knew it. So the blame isn't entirely on them, plus FASA had obviously been planning for WoB to do something huge simply because they had so many storylines and plot points that involved them by the end. The writers have said that some form of the Jihad was the next big story arc and we'll never know the details of it, but it may very well have involved hidden armies and nukes and slime and Rods From Gods because of a temper tantrum, and we'll never really know.
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- Aug 18, 2019
I've actually been enjoying the Ilclan stuff so far execpt for the whole Rasalhague Dominion crap that went on. Honestly they aren't even a Clan anymore.
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- Feb 1, 2023
I don't mind the ground-shaking plot lines and wars. The pie crust and political shenanigans and goings-on are great, but there's also a place for a good old fashion war where the outcome radically changes the landscape. I just want the events to make sense.
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- Mar 31, 2020
You forget that the Blakists weren't blacklisted from buying material from companies (except Blackwell who had a Dragoon ordered ban on selling to the Word) Also the Word often approached companies to produce Mechs according to their specifications and they also skimmed material and omni pods from the Free Worlds League. Though I agree besides that how were the Blakists able to produce a full line of 6 new Omni Mechs in total secret as well as turning their most fanatical members into basically terminators? Though in terms of raw mterials the lore states that the Terran belt has so much ressources it could feed Terra for centuries to come (of course the question would be if the Belters would be willing to mine so much)
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- Jun 4, 2018
It probably would've worked out all right -- I mean, the First and Second Succession Wars were pretty 'broad strokes' as well. But it would've required better foundation laying and groundwork than what we got.
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- Feb 1, 2023
The issue I have with that is there are only so many Mech manufacturing plants out there and if WoB puts in an order for a special model, that's a line that can't be used for someone else's orders and someone somewhere would have wondered why WoB needs yet another Mech run here and one there and one over there when they already have Terra and all those plants.
It would be like me asking Toyota to shut down their US Tacoma factory and produce a special edition just for me. When no other Tacomas hit the market, somebody is going to look into it.
It's just WoB has too many resources at its disposal and too many things going its way and no one seems to care, not even C* ROM, WolfNet, the Capellans or Lyrans, both of whom have an interest in them considering that they are tight with the Mariks.
Had the Jihad kicked off without them whipping out hidden armies of cyborg warriors and Omnis and the ability to fire asteroids at worlds, maybe there wouldn't have been so much objection to the whole thing, but that's not how it went down.
Which brings up a different point: why didn't WoB just hit the Clans? Their whole point was the Clans were THE threat to humanity. So why not just ignore the IS and hit the Clans, even if they just hit the JF, GB, and Wolf Clans? Use their hidden armies and Mechs and cyborg warriors and drive them out of the IS once and for all instead of their temper tantrum. Or bypass the IS and surprise attack the Homeworld Clans. Wipe them out at their base and call it a day. Or hit the AMC in the Chaos March and just beat the Goons to dust, since they are Clan and not to be trusted. Why be coy about it until after the new First Lord is elected? Use the JF incursion during the FCCW as the casus belli. Even if nothing else that would gain WoB some real goodwill from the Lyrans, FRR, and DC if it shows WoB is willing to help liberate those IS worlds.
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- Apr 25, 2020
My problem with the Blakists being able to do all that shit is that it opens up some really weird precedents. Or makes certain factions/entities look really fucking dumb for not having done the same or even better in the past. Like, what's stopping interstellar corporations like Boeing or GM from creating their own shadow armies parked on systems nobody has heard of since the Second Succession War? How come none of the Successor States, with industrial bases spanning hundreds of systems, couldn't pull off rearmament projects anywhere nearly as comprehensive as the Blakists did with 10% of their defense budgets? How come the Blakists are the only entity in the entire Inner Sphere capable of keeping a secret that large? If any Successor State could do even a quarter of what the Blakists did in terms of operational secrecy, they would have utterly crushed their neighbors in either Succession War.
In the end, the writers might attempt to justify it as much as they want, and try their hardest to make it make sense in-universe, but I still think it's just bad writing. It was clear during the last days of FASA that the Word of Blake were being set up to be an important player, sure, but if you're set on using weapons of mass destruction in a setting where such things had been nearly unheard of for over a century, you don't need hidden armies. If your entire purpose is to completely upend the setting's power dynamics, you don't need armies either. You need targeted, fulminating action. Nuke the Successor States and Clan Occupation Zone capitals and regional centers. Assassinate/carbomb generals and politicians. Deploy mass misinformation and/or long-term biological warfare agents. And if you really need 'Mechs because it's BattleTech and by God everybody is going to have stompy robots, hold them back for when you inevitably get hit in retaliation and make good use of your defender's advantage.
Ironically, the Blackout (as maligned as it was as a plot device) shows you how you can do it: target specific infrastructure through unconventional vectors and sabotage.
In the end, the writers might attempt to justify it as much as they want, and try their hardest to make it make sense in-universe, but I still think it's just bad writing. It was clear during the last days of FASA that the Word of Blake were being set up to be an important player, sure, but if you're set on using weapons of mass destruction in a setting where such things had been nearly unheard of for over a century, you don't need hidden armies. If your entire purpose is to completely upend the setting's power dynamics, you don't need armies either. You need targeted, fulminating action. Nuke the Successor States and Clan Occupation Zone capitals and regional centers. Assassinate/carbomb generals and politicians. Deploy mass misinformation and/or long-term biological warfare agents. And if you really need 'Mechs because it's BattleTech and by God everybody is going to have stompy robots, hold them back for when you inevitably get hit in retaliation and make good use of your defender's advantage.
Ironically, the Blackout (as maligned as it was as a plot device) shows you how you can do it: target specific infrastructure through unconventional vectors and sabotage.
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2020
From the description it sounded more like that the word actually financed the development of new Mechs with the caveat that the first runs were sold to them exclusivley and then it would be open for everyone. Yes if I were the host nation I would also raise questions on how they are financing it or why they need so much. On the other hand if someone offers to finance Mech development on their own dime then who is the nation to look a gift horse in the mouth? Plus let's not forget how involved the Blakes were with the Free Worlds League: BA development, Omni fighter development etc. Comstar was never so deep into a nations military complex.
On the other hand just look how fast Comstar managed to pluck the holes in their roster after Tukayyid. The Guards lost 40% of their men and women on Tukayyid (and most likely many more due to defections) but they rebuild within 15 years to almost pre Tukayyid levels. How does that work? Especially when you loose Terra not even halfway through and almost every nation is rebuilding shattered forces. Probabaly the reason it's called FASAnomics. And another example: after the FedCom civil war both the AFFS and the LAAF were depleted. but the FM 3067 gave a much more rosy picture for the AFFS then the LAAF in terms of manpower of each unit (and that only after a few months after the war had ended) I get the feeling the proofreading wasn't always the best