Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[Capsaicin Addict]

Having read Hour of the Wolf, let's talk about the Wall.

Yeah, initially, it looked like bullshit space magic. But it has a serious weakness: it uses K-F cores to drive it, and in the words of Devlin Stone, it goes through them like candy. Hence the smaller size of the Fortress Republic, and then down to Terra itself. It was completely unsustainable over a long period. Sure, it works... for a time. But while I don't know the details of K-F core manufacturing I'll bet you hard cash they don't have the capacity to manufacture them in substantial quantities on Terra or even in the Fortress. And every K-F core you pull out of a Jumpship to run the Wall, is one less Jumpship you have for transport capability.

As @Corn Flakes so correctly points out, claiming Terra may be meaningful to the Clans, but to the rest of the Sphere? Expect a big 'meh'. It's hard for us to grasp (since, you know, we're all currently on Terra) but I bet a citizen of one of the Successor States is probably a lot more interested in the capital of their state than 'mythical Terra'.

Spoiler

And why Devlin Stone was surprised Julian Davion didn't send help, when the Federated Suns is desperately trying to pry the Combine off them, is beyond me. Stone must've gone retarded from that time in cryogenic suspension.

I have this great image, post-Terra, of a Wolf ambassador demanding the Rasalhague Dominion acknowledge the Wolves as ilClan. 'Okay, you're the ilClan.' 'Well, we order you to--' 'Nah brah, go fuck yourselves. We've got a nice thing right here and unless you want to argue by a Trial, you can take your orders and stick 'em up your ass.'

I suspect the Wolves, even reunited with the Wolves-In-Exile, are going to find themselves in the exact same position as the Republic of the Sphere. Congrats, Alaric Ward: you won the booby prize.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

That's the entire point, yep. It's less "the Clans won! Oh, no!" and more "they captured Terra, big fucking whoop". Nothing Alaric and the Wolves do will last if they can't navigate the politics of the Inner Sphere. Terra is the Cradle of Humanity and a highly industrialized planet, sure, but it's still one world in the great scheme of things. The House Lords are by now almost a thousand years removed from their Terran ancestors. If they can capture Terra for themselves, it's a wonderful prize. If they can't, they're not going to get too hung up about it.

Conquering Terra is a bit of a monkey paw wish in BattleTech, anyway. Narratively, claiming Terra as your holding or your capital results eventually in you being extinct. The Hegemony is gone, ComStar is gone, the Blakists are gone, the Republic is going... going... gone. The Wolves must be sweating right now.

Unless, of course, some space-furry pushes a stroyline that boils down to "OC-character-do-not-steal is best Clan of all and he is now ilClan and his Clan is the best there ever was and everyone was afraid of him and his clan and they conquered Terra and my OC said some cool shit and everyone was afraiderer and they took Terra and they made super scary new mechs and they weighted 200 tons and they could do shit no other mech ever could and then my OC went 'har har I am the best' and everyone agreed and then they conquered everyone else but it's okay cause my OC is a total badass in all regards and especially politics, where everyon respects him and they make him the new ruler."

Just add giant chainswords and gore, and you get modern Warhammer 40k lore.

 

[TFT-A9]

Unless, of course, some space-furry pushes a stroyline that boils down to "OC-character-do-not-steal is best Clan of all and he is now ilClan and his Clan is the best there ever was and everyone was afraid of him and his clan and they conquered Terra and my OC said some cool shit and everyone was afraiderer and they took Terra and they made super scary new mechs and they weighted 200 tons and they could do shit no other mech ever could and then my OC went 'har har I am the best' and everyone agreed and then they conquered everyone else but it's okay cause my OC is a total badass in all regards and especially politics, where everyon respects him and they make him the new ruler."

Just add giant chainswords and gore, and you get modern Warhammer 40k lore.

Fuck the Space Wolves tbh

At this point I'd almost welcome a huge retcon going back to about 3048 or so and branching off from there to make the Clan Invasion less retarded and just kind of rein in all the stupidity that's accumulated over the years.

 

[Techpriest]

The third star league is unlikely to claim dominion outside of terra and its surroundings for very long. If you have any interest in history, you’ll note who Alaric is named after.

 

[TFT-A9]

The third star league is unlikely to claim dominion outside of terra and its surroundings for very long. If you have any interest in history, you’ll note who Alaric is named after.

Having the title of ilClan turn to ash in his mouth would be a decent way to go forward from the current trainwreck.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Yeah, initially, it looked like bullshit space magic. But it has a serious weakness: it uses K-F cores to drive it, and in the words of Devlin Stone, it goes through them like candy. Hence the smaller size of the Fortress Republic, and then down to Terra itself. It was completely unsustainable over a long period. Sure, it works... for a time. But while I don't know the details of K-F core manufacturing I'll bet you hard cash they don't have the capacity to manufacture them in substantial quantities on Terra or even in the Fortress. And every K-F core you pull out of a Jumpship to run the Wall, is one less Jumpship you have for transport capability.

Exactly. It's not as stupid as it sounds because it builds on a long-standing issue K-F Drives have: they interfere with one another. You can't take an assembled K-F core through hyperspace using another K-F drive. So it's still an ass-pull, but it's a consistent asspull with previous precent. And, as you said, it comes with a price. It was a barricade that required constant maintenance, not an insurmountable wall.

Having the title of ilClan turn to ash in his mouth would be a decent way to go forward from the current trainwreck.

That seems to be where they're going with this. Most of the Clans in the Inner Sphere have already accepted that the whole race to Terra was stupid and mostly integrated (Escorpion Imperio, Raven Alliance, Rasalhague Dominion, Spirit Cats in the FWL). The ones that were still going for it (Jade Falcon, Wolves and Hell's Horses) are getting a hollow victory and hopefully they'll re-structure into something less stupid with Alaric's victory ringing hollow and Malvina Hazen dead.

 

[TFT-A9]

Exactly. It's not as stupid as it sounds because it builds on a long-standing issue K-F Drives have: they interfere with one another. You can't take an assemble K-F core through hyperspace using another K-F drive. So it's still an ass-pull, but it's a consistent asspull with previous precend. And, as you said, with a price. It was a barricade that required constant maintenance, not an insurmountable wall.


That seems to be where they're going with this. Most of the Clans in the Inner Sphere have already accepted that the whole race to Terra was stupid and mostly integrated (Escorpion Imperio, Raven Alliance, Rasalhague Dominion, Spirit Cats in the FWL). The ones that were still going for it (Jade Falcon, Wolves and Hell's Horses) are getting a hollow victory and hopefully they'll re-structure into something less stupid with Alaric's victory ringing hollow and Malvina Hazen dead.

I'd be kind of happy with the HH being the first to realize this and setting up the Wolves/Falcons for a good old fashioned combined arms buttfucking, then laughing their asses off as they go find a nice place in the Periphery to do... whatever they do in their free time.

 

[Balr0g]

I'd be kind of happy with the HH being the first to realize this and setting up the Wolves/Falcons for a good old fashioned combined arms buttfucking, then laughing their asses off as they go find a nice place in the Periphery to do... whatever they do in their free time.

From what I understood is that the Horses first helped themselves to a huge chunk of the Falcon OZ since the Falcons took everything to attack Terra. And after that the Horses are also rushing to Terra after Alaric won. Now I think from the top are the Horses coming while from below are the Capellans rushing in. We probably get a wolf-horse alliance to halt the Capellans and once Daoshen dies the Fedsuns might swoop in to bash some Capellan heads. Not to mention I bet that some Republic forces will move to the Fedsuns and join the Suns

 

[Corn Flakes]

I'd be kind of happy with the HH being the first to realize this and setting up the Wolves/Falcons for a good old fashioned combined arms buttfucking, then laughing their asses off as they go find a nice place in the Periphery to do... whatever they do in their free time.

I'll be honest, it brought a smile to my face to see the Horses get a win for once. That they also fucked the Green Chickens over in the process makes it all that much sweeter.

From what I understood is that the Horses first helped themselves to a huge chunk of the Falcon OZ since the Falcons took everything to attack Terra. And after that the Horses are also rushing to Terra after Alaric won. Now I think from the top are the Horses coming while from below are the Capellans rushing in. We probably get a wolf-horse alliance to halt the Capellans and once Daoshen dies the Fedsuns might swoop in to bash some Capellan heads. Not to mention I bet that some Republic forces will move to the Fedsuns and join the Suns

That's just like the Davions. Everybody else gets fucked over, but they benefit from it. Actually, how's the Combine-Suns border these days? I know there was action there but I haven't been following the play-by-play.

 

[Balr0g]

I'll be honest, it brought a smile to my face to see the Horses get a win for once. That they also fucked the Green Chickens over in the process makes it all that much sweeter.


That's just like the Davions. Everybody else gets fucked over, but they benefit from it. Actually, how's the Combine-Suns border these days? I know there was action there but I haven't been following the play-by-play.

The Combine actually took New Avalon and also killed the pope of the New Avalon catholic church. But thanks to the Republic aid (Operation Eruptio) the Fedsuns were able to retake several planets in the Draconis March including Robinson which basically means the combine forces are stranded within the Crucis March. And with Operation Cerberus they have three March capitals back in their hands.. Though I am not sure what Julian will do next the Fedsuns military is still reeling from the losses of the Palmyra disaster. Thta's why I think that the Republic forces that surived tghe Wolf attack might join the suns. Heck maybe they take some of their tech with them giving the Suns a boost

 

[Snekposter]

Having read Hour of the Wolf, let's talk about the Wall.

Yeah, initially, it looked like bullshit space magic. But it has a serious weakness: it uses K-F cores to drive it, and in the words of Devlin Stone, it goes through them like candy. Hence the smaller size of the Fortress Republic, and then down to Terra itself. It was completely unsustainable over a long period. Sure, it works... for a time. But while I don't know the details of K-F core manufacturing I'll bet you hard cash they don't have the capacity to manufacture them in substantial quantities on Terra or even in the Fortress. And every K-F core you pull out of a Jumpship to run the Wall, is one less Jumpship you have for transport capability.

As @Corn Flakes so correctly points out, claiming Terra may be meaningful to the Clans, but to the rest of the Sphere? Expect a big 'meh'. It's hard for us to grasp (since, you know, we're all currently on Terra) but I bet a citizen of one of the Successor States is probably a lot more interested in the capital of their state than 'mythical Terra'.

Spoiler

And why Devlin Stone was surprised Julian Davion didn't send help, when the Federated Suns is desperately trying to pry the Combine off them, is beyond me. Stone must've gone retarded from that time in cryogenic suspension.

I have this great image, post-Terra, of a Wolf ambassador demanding the Rasalhague Dominion acknowledge the Wolves as ilClan. 'Okay, you're the ilClan.' 'Well, we order you to--' 'Nah brah, go fuck yourselves. We've got a nice thing right here and unless you want to argue by a Trial, you can take your orders and stick 'em up your ass.'

I suspect the Wolves, even reunited with the Wolves-In-Exile, are going to find themselves in the exact same position as the Republic of the Sphere. Congrats, Alaric Ward: you won the booby prize.

You know, I preferred it when fucking around with hyperspace shit had some seriously unintended consequences. Like with the Manassas.

 

[Balr0g]

You know, I preferred it when fucking around with hyperspace shit had some seriously unintended consequences. Like with the Manassas.

Or as hinted in the Is Players when it was described how hyperspacejumps could alter the personality of some people or how ships appeared from whatever timeline.

 

[Corn Flakes]

You know, I preferred it when fucking around with hyperspace shit had some seriously unintended consequences. Like with the Manassas.

Or as hinted in the Is Players when it was described how hyperspacejumps could alter the personality of some people or how ships appeared from whatever timeline.

Unfortunately, it can't be 40K-levels of unreliable since a single JumpShip can carry whole regiments of BattleMechs and having one of those vanishing mid-campaign can change the course of a war in stupid ways. Even a common Invader-class JumpShip loaded with Leopards would lose you a whole company of BattleMechs.

There are still misjumps, but I think after the travesty that was Far Country, they decided they didn't want to risk it too much. Even the Manassas was iffy. I'd much rather see misjumped ships just reappear completely wrecked somewhere else because the K-F field became unstable mid-jump.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

Unfortunately, it can't be 40K-levels of unreliable since a single JumpShip can carry whole regiments of BattleMechs and having one of those vanishing mid-campaign can change the course of a war in stupid ways. Even a common Invader-class JumpShip loaded with Leopards would lose you a whole company of BattleMechs.

There are still misjumps, but I think after the travesty that was Far Country, they decided they didn't want to risk it too much. Even the Manassas was iffy. I'd much rather see misjumped ships just reappear completely wrecked somewhere else because the K-F field became unstable mid-jump.

They may very well, but with how long it takes to charge a jump, who the hell is going to go search every inch of that 30 light-year line to find out where the missing JumpShip went?

 

[Corn Flakes]

They may very well, but with how long it takes to charge a jump, who the hell is going to go search every inch of that 30 light-year line to find out where the missing JumpShip went?

I'm fine with them never being found again. Either that or let the Explorer Corps/Interstellar Expeditions find the ice-cold wreck 200 years later. Either way, everybody is dead.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

You know, I preferred it when fucking around with hyperspace shit had some seriously unintended consequences. Like with the Manassas.

Who's to say there won't be repercussions down the road?

While BT hyperspace has never been as finicky as the Warp of 40k, it'd be interesting if the level of fuckery used to sustain the Fortress had some side effects. Like, maybe travel through the former territory is difficult because of strange eddies or spacetime twists in the region.

 

[BlackDragoons]

That's the entire point, yep. It's less "the Clans won! Oh, no!" and more "they captured Terra, big fucking whoop". Nothing Alaric and the Wolves do will last if they can't navigate the politics of the Inner Sphere. Terra is the Cradle of Humanity and a highly industrialized planet, sure, but it's still one world in the great scheme of things. The House Lords are by now almost a thousand years removed from their Terran ancestors. If they can capture Terra for themselves, it's a wonderful prize. If they can't, they're not going to get too hung up about it.

Conquering Terra is a bit of a monkey paw wish in BattleTech, anyway. Narratively, claiming Terra as your holding or your capital results eventually in you being extinct. The Hegemony is gone, ComStar is gone, the Blakists are gone, the Republic is going... going... gone. The Wolves must be sweating right now.

You forgot Amaris in there.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Who's to say there won't be repercussions down the road?

While BT hyperspace has never been as finicky as the Warp of 40k, it'd be interesting if the level of fuckery used to sustain the Fortress had some side effects. Like, maybe travel through the former territory is difficult because of strange eddies or spacetime twists in the region.

If that happens, I want it to fuck the Capellans over as they try to carve into what's left of the Republic. For no other reason but "fuck Liao".

You forgot Amaris in there.

I did, yes. In my defense, I had forgotten his Amaris Empire was even a thing, that's how comparatively short his reign was. You know what they say: a fool and his interstellar holdings are soon parted.

 

[Solid Snek]

That I know of, there are no creatures described in the setting that are large enough to be dangerous to a BattleMech.

I wouldn't say the creatures need to be large enough to be dangerous to a Mech. If they were, then you'd want to hunt them from orbit with a capital ship. Rather, there might be creatures who are dangerous to infantry and armor (I want to say several planets have been depopulated due to such things), so you send in a bunch of rednecks with Mechs to take care of them. Some pilots will, of course, want to make the hunt a little bit more fair, which is why they'd strip off their armor and focus on melee combat or Mech-sized longbows. But it's like Predator; you're hunting for sport, not struggling against an equal foe.

Welll for a "party Mech" you might think of the Daedalus

I mean you could convert the storage area into something else. But a real Mech? that would be hard.

Yeah, that's sort of what I'd envision as the base for a Club Mech. Slap a sealed observation dome on top, have a swimming pool, a bar, and some staterooms instead of cargo pods. Put a few Jump Jets on it so you can move the Mech into nice, scenic spots, and have it go on stompy tours around trendy garden worlds (or even stompy tours around slum planets, if you manage to book enough trustafarian hipsters).

Maybe you could have several of them organized as a PARTY LANCE, all loaded up togther on a converted Dropship (a de-militarized Leopard, maybe, or even better a Monarch with half the ship converted into Mech bays). Like the Mechs, the Dropship would have plenty of luxury accomodations - a casino, dozens of hookers, nightly Mech bay raves, and maybe some of those Battletech arcade pods? - and again, as with the Mechs, much of the Dropship's extraneous gear (like armor) would be pulled away to make room for even more hookers and observation decks. Fly the ship around the planet on an itinerary: Day 1 you're at the tropical equator, Day 2 you're in the polar tundra, Day 3 you break out the environmentally-sealed Club Mech and party on the moon, etc etc.

For added cheek, you could land on some planet that lacks any anti-mech-capable defensive forces, then just basically let your clients do whatever they want, regardless of local law and custom. The local gendarmes might not appreciate you letting a bunch of drunk, toga-wearing, corporate heirs stomp all over their sacred ancestral burial lands, but what are they going to do about it? Throw rocks at your 80 ton Mech?

 

[Snekposter]

If that happens, I want it to fuck the Capellans over as they try to carve into what's left of the Republic. For no other reason but "fuck Liao".

Look, as much as I hate the Cappies as any other red-blooded Davion supporter, they have enough well-deserved issues without space-time itself deciding to fuck them over. Anything short of that I'm fine with, but the universe fucks them over enough already it doesn't need to begin fucking with them directly like that.