- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
Well, now that its being remastered in HD by that same guy, we can enjoy the fine aromas and taste of high-grade, well-aged milk all over again. Once more into the cringe, my brothers.
Battletech - Also known as Trannytech
- Thread starter Frosted Snowflakes
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2015
You guys are going to make me miss my army of Grasshoppers I painted up with rust and battle damage to represent a small Periphery world.
Long live ComStar's 1st Army, the Bear Maulers.
Long live ComStar's 1st Army, the Bear Maulers.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2020
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2015
After priming, I would paint stripes of silver in places. Then I'd dab those stripes with water and stick rock salt to them to stick. After drying, I'd prime once more, do my regular painting, inkwash, then flick the salt chunks off. Give it a try.
They were to represent Trellis Fief of the Fiefdom Military Forces. The group so poor, that they swap out parts and parade their mechs in enemy territories in hopes of fooling the other idiot lords that they have more than six mechs.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
You know the thing is old and crunched through about five generations of VHS when even the AI upscaling looks like an impressionist painting.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
To be fair, given the low quality already present, impressionism is the best we were ever going to get. Just think of it as extra cringe to enjoy unfettered by the rose-tinted goggles of nostalgia. Do you dare refuse muh butchall?
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Adam Steiner becoming Archon was one of my favorite things in Catalyst's Jihad lore. I'm just picturing him reminding people, from the Lyran throne, flanked by Griffons, that Information is indeed ammunition. I'm a Leaguer, the Jihad and Dark Ages were a rough time for us, have to take joy in the little things.
I'm not going to lie, a reinforced lance of Grasshoppers sounds stupidly and amusingly fun. Also probably more effective than you'd think.
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2019
There's nothing stupid about a 70 tonner with JJ and 65kph move speed, never mind 6 of them. Not when its got a LL and 4 ML for primaries and an LRM-5 to annoy people at long range, and enough heat sinks and armor to stay in the fight for a while. If you wanted something to stomp on some Bugs its hard to beat the Grasshopper.
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Especially in broken terrain, with LoS breaking features. It's a great choice to round out a 4/6 movement battle lance. As a League who likes fluffy lance builds, run an Orion as the commander's ride, maybe a Marauder or Warhammer, and then a Thunderbolt? That's a nice, flexible heavy lance.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
and
I absolutely love it. With all the decked out royal guard this and parade unit that, it's always really cool to see someone playing something down to earth with a bit of irony.
This post alone inspires me to put together some humble Periphery lance. Some poor schmucks stuck in rusty old shitboxes, paycheck bouncing after paycheck, but goddamnit, someone has to defend home, no matter the cost, not matter the odds.
I assume the rock-salt will make the paint look chipped? I usually do that with a piece of foam, that I dab on the mini, but this sounds like it's worth a shot to get a different effect.
As for my ... uh... force composition, there's no House or Nation that really clicks with me. I don't like the Capellans and I don't like Word of Blake, other than that, I am really open to all other houses... which has the downside that I own a very wild hodgepodge of mechs (then again, since I'm the only one thus far to play BT in my circle of friends, I'm going to supply mechs for me and whoever plays with me, so there's an advantage to that)... but recently, I stumbled over the Free Rasalhague Republic 2nd Freemen and I absolutely love their paintscheme (admittedly, it's their parade paintscheme, but hey).
I mean, just look at that:
Upper arms and shoulders are silver, lower body and lower arms are green with red runes, around the hips the paintscheme takes the shape of a treeline in front of a dusky nightsky that darkens the further up the mech you go with stars painted on it. That looks pretty fucking cool, if you ask me.
I will definetly have to paint a lance in that scheme, just to see how it'll turn out.
In general, I kind of put together mechs without caring much for the official background, but I started to get into it more and more and assigned each lance to a House that would fit the best. Unfortunately, I had already started painting, so I was stuck with a red Fafnir (which look cool, but isn't exactly screaming "Steiner")... luckily, I stumbled over the Skye Guards, which use a red paintscheme (I only have to redo the arms in black, which will also look rad).
BT knows how to deal with awkward old media. They don't declare it non-canon, they just make it something awkward within the canon setting, ie turning the silly cartoon into an in-universe propaganda series. That's genius.
Official canon also contains a mech called "Daboku" that looks like the Mauler, but predates it to fit into the timeline of the cartoon where the Mauler appeared, even though it wasn't really around yet. It gets even better, according to Sarna.net:
This little tidbit is a nod towards the toyline, where the Mauler had a feature that would fling the pilot from the cockpit when struck in the chest.
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2018
This is highly accurate. ComStar are scary people.
Also I love the Steiner Scout Squad shorts
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2015
They are a canon unit from Novo Franklin. My first book in the game was Field Manual: Periphery. It was because my friends had ALL the other books except that one, so I bought it and read it. Fell in love with most everything in that book because of all the backwater nonsense. Even the Hanseatic League and Nueva Castille, sill as it is.
Side note, anyone interested in playing the Hansa vs. Goliath Scorpion scenario?
Trellis Fief had unique scenario rules that I loved, too. Roll for each mech. On a certain roll, the mech starts with one critical hit scored (even though they still have full armor) to represent the fact that the parts are being cannibalized to keep the Trellis mechs up and running. I would just say "My mech is limping its way towards you to punch you in the face."
All Grasshoppers? Well, the flag of Novo Franklin is this:
Re: Rock salt. I will often start with Duplicolor's Hot Rod Red auto sandable primer when I use metallics. Add what I call the Jesus ink wash (one part ink, two parts Pledge Floor Finisher, three parts water, few drops of black paint), and it penetrates the salt, it adds a rusty coloration to the battle damage. I'm stuck in a part of a country that isn't known for its miniatures community, so I haven't gotten back into the hobby. I may order some mechs and Reaper paints one day to take the hobby up again.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2018
Fun fact: those Mechs that flank the Lyran throne are not for show. On at least one occasion an assassin has burst in, only to find out that yes, they are piloted and have full loads. Splat.
Black Pants Legion is the cure for many things. I cannot stop laughing at Tex.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
That is kind of cool. And I now imagine some minor Periphery Warlord copying this... with Urbanmechs.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
I'm gonna be honest with you, Urbies would be ideal for that. Big ol' dakka gun, comparatively short design, doesn't have to move so the dismal speed makes no difference, and it's not humanoid. You could even dress them up as part of the decoration. Someone hostile shows up, snap the torso to them and just track.
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- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
Ideally, it would be the LB-10X version. A group of assholes breaks open the door and two blasts of shrapnell turn them into red mist and a huge smudge splattered down the next 50 feet of hallway in front of a giant hole that used to be the doorway. Any lone wolf attack would just be stopped by the small laser.
I'm actually surprised I haven't found any official rules for improvised shrapnell ammo for regular ACs. You could balance that easily by reducing the ammo per ton and by giving a penalty on the cluster table and it would fit very well with poor armies that can't afford to upgrade their standard ACs, yet want the slight benefit of cannister shot to fight soft targets or increase hit probability.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
I like your thinking but, somehow, I don't think mech-sized shotguns would be a good idea in close proximity to VIPs.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
I mean, I didn't even mention the Arrow IV Urbanmech... Speaking of which, what would the damage be for a nuclear tipped AIV missile? According to the fluff, it carries a 500t warhead, so my guess is "remove all units from the field"-damage.
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2018
When someone tells the weapon to surpass Metal Gear nuke Urbie to push the button the pilot should either be excited or scared shitless. Get told to hammer a target of opportunity and it's all "fuck yeah" but if you're firing a nuke to cover a retreat then you know it's going to be a long day.