64 replies to this topic

[I_AM_ZUUL]

Throat Punch, on 27 January 2017 - 05:20 PM, said:

It wasn't nuclear. It was naval grade autocannons and lasers.

"[Galaxy Commander] Perez ordered his Galaxy's WarShip, the Sabre Cat, into low orbit around Turtle Bay. When it hung over the city of Edo, Perez fired the huge vessel's laser and autocannon batteries again and again until nothing remained of the once-proud city save piles of smoking debris."
— Invading Clans: A Battletech Sourcebook

oh yeah... makes it even less damning from their point of view. I remembered it as nuclear but it was just ship to ground

[Metus regem]

I_AM_ZUUL, on 27 January 2017 - 05:26 PM, said:

oh yeah... makes it even less damning from their point of view. I remembered it as nuclear but it was just ship to ground

Remember, mushroom clouds are just a trait of large explosions....

[L1f3H4ck]

http://www.battletec...erseGuide-1.pdf

From the official Battletech site. A nicely condensed guide to the history of the Inner Sphere and its factions.

[Ted Wayz]

Liao >>>>>> Comstar > Clans > All other IS factions.

All you need to know.

[El Bandito]

Alan Davion, on 27 January 2017 - 12:41 PM, said:

The Free Worlds League and House Marik, while stronger than Liao militarily speaking, have the unfortunate habit of being stuck in a seemingly never ending, on again off again civil war, so they're not really a huge threat to anyone.

That's in the past. In 3050's the FWL is stronger and more unified than it has ever been, and is commanded by one of the best leaders of the Inner Sphere--fake Thomas Marik. FWL is currently churning out mechs for the other Houses to fight the Clans so its industrial output is at maximum level. In 3057 Thomas Marik managed to take back all the worlds his predecessor had lost to the Fed Suns in the 4th Succession War. He had also created the Knights of the Inner Sphere, an elite unit modeled after the Knights of the Round Table.

FWL's current peaceful attitude does not stem from weakness, but from wisdom of its leader, who believes that general peace can be achieved among the Great Houses. Which is unfortunate, as such docile behavior is not considered novel worthy.

Edited by El Bandito, 28 January 2017 - 11:26 AM.

[SuperFunkTron]

Alan Davion, on 27 January 2017 - 01:17 PM, said:

My best advice would be to follow this link here

These are fan-made Army Reports on the IS factions, intended as primers mostly. If you want the really detailed stuff, you're going to have to head over to http://www.drivethrurpg.com/index.php and buy the actual Battletech rule/source books on the different factions.

Right now CGL is working on new source books for all the factions, under the title of "Combat Manuals" . They have books for Mercenaries and Kurita out right now, and the others will come when they're ready.

So I've started putting a spread sheet together based on those 5 army reports to get an idea of how the mechs look in relation to their clans. Because its 3025 it doesn't show everything we'd like, but is a great aide in the model system I'm working on that I hope I can some how present to PGI. Even if they would need to wait for CGL to release the all of the battle manuals so that the numbers match. I just really hope that the manuals address the preferred variants and battle tactics so coming up with ways to quirk the factions would be a little bit more clear, even if the quirks are incremental.

That reminds me, has anyone taken a look at the Mercs combat manual yet?

Edited by SuperFunkTron, 28 January 2017 - 11:25 AM.

[I_AM_ZUUL]

Ted Wayz, on 28 January 2017 - 08:42 AM, said:

Liao >>>>>> Comstar > Clans > All other IS factions.

All you need to know.

Comstar is the most evil garbage there possibly could ever be..... Capellans are just incompetent!!! They were so incompetent and crazy that they were close to no longer being a foil for the Blakists evil plans of making everyone fight each, that Comstar impregnated Romano Liao with Hanse Davions seed. Sun-Tzu Liao is really Hanse son just like Victor... needed the Federated Suns cause they are just so much better than the Capellans could ever dream of bring!!!!!!! just saying

Edited by I_AM_ZUUL, 28 January 2017 - 02:21 PM.

[TELEFORCE]

I don't think Clan Smoke Jaguar does get a fair shake just for the one incident at Turtle Bay. As others have said, it was a one-time incident with those responsible being harshly dealt with by their own Clan. Orbital bombardment is actually abhorred by members of perhaps the most savage of the Clans.

[RestosIII]

TELEFORCE, on 28 January 2017 - 04:50 PM, said:

I don't think Clan Smoke Jaguar does get a fair shake just for the one incident at Turtle Bay. As others have said, it was a one-time incident with those responsible being harshly dealt with by their own Clan. Orbital bombardment is actually abhorred by members of perhaps the most savage of the Clans.

"One time thing", solely because Clan Wolf basically strong-armed the other Clans into not using their warships for the rest of the invasion.

[SuperFunkTron]

I am looking at this great assignment chart I came across in the battletech forum but I need a little help deciphering a few things.
https://dl.dropboxus...ables%209.1.pdf

edit:

As I was typing this I think i just put together why there are two 3-digit number sequences in the D1000 column (please someone confirm that those are number ranges).


My biggest question out of this is, "can the number of each mech available in each faction be determined from this document?" Realized exact numbers don't exist anywhere. Figu

Another question only vaguely related to this document, "Is there a website other than sarna that provides information regarding each of the mechs?" To be a little more clear, I'm looking for something like the short data entries on Sarna or the old CCG cards. Its not necessary, but would be nice to be able to have a cross reference to the massive lists of mechs and provide some story behind the mech (in this case, a sentence may be story enough).

Last pressing question for now, "Are the filtered lists on MUL accurate in relation to mechs that were exclusive to factions and mechs that were widely available? Also, does MUL have any resource giving the number of mechs in each faction?".

I've now got an idea for 2 3different models of Faction Specific mechs, each a little more in depth than the previous, and I'd like to eventually share it with you guys for feedback and discussion of their viability, but I'd like to be as accurate a possible from the get go. I'd really love to have PGI start layering the lore into FP, even if it is only a little at a time to help ensure balance.

Edited by SuperFunkTron, 28 January 2017 - 06:20 PM.

[Alan Davion]

SuperFunkTron, on 28 January 2017 - 11:22 AM, said:

So I've started putting a spread sheet together based on those 5 army reports to get an idea of how the mechs look in relation to their clans. Because its 3025 it doesn't show everything we'd like, but is a great aide in the model system I'm working on that I hope I can some how present to PGI. Even if they would need to wait for CGL to release the all of the battle manuals so that the numbers match. I just really hope that the manuals address the preferred variants and battle tactics so coming up with ways to quirk the factions would be a little bit more clear, even if the quirks are incremental.

That reminds me, has anyone taken a look at the Mercs combat manual yet?

I, and probably a lot of people bought the Mercs manual when the Beta version came out, which allowed us all to download the full version when it became available. That's a great marketing tactic by CGL.

Let people buy the first version, get feedback from everyone that read it, fix any problems there might be, and then give everyone that bought the first version the fixed version for free as a thank you for helping them.

That said the Mercs manual is great for providing a detailed history of merc use from the Star League all the way to the Clan invasion, it's got rules for force building, including overviews of damn near all the big name Merc units from the Crescent Hawks to the Wolf's Dragoons.

It also includes a mini TRO for some of the new versions of the old "Unseen" mechs. Particularly the Locust, Ostscout, Shadow Hawk and Warhammer. They're breaking up the new versions of the Unseen mechs across all these new manuals.

For instance, the Warhammer, Marauder, Griffin and Shadow Hawk are featured on the cover of the Mercs manual, while the Wolverine, Locust and Phoenix Hawk are featured on the Kurita manual. I haven't bought the Kurita manual yet so I don't know which mechs are in the mini TRO for that book.

EDIT: Okay so I just bought the Kurita manual, the mini TRO covers the Wasp, Phoenix Hawk, Wolverine and Battlemaster.

SuperFunkTron, on 28 January 2017 - 05:08 PM, said:

I am looking at this great assignment chart I came across in the battletech forum but I need a little help deciphering a few things.
https://dl.dropboxus...ables%209.1.pdf

edit:

As I was typing this I think i just put together why there are two 3-digit number sequences in the D1000 column (please someone confirm that those are number ranges).


My biggest question out of this is, "can the number of each mech available in each faction be determined from this document?" Realized exact numbers don't exist anywhere. Figu

Another question only vaguely related to this document, "Is there a website other than sarna that provides information regarding each of the mechs?" To be a little more clear, I'm looking for something like the short data entries on Sarna or the old CCG cards. Its not necessary, but would be nice to be able to have a cross reference to the massive lists of mechs and provide some story behind the mech (in this case, a sentence may be story enough).

Last pressing question for now, "Are the filtered lists on MUL accurate in relation to mechs that were exclusive to factions and mechs that were widely available? Also, does MUL have any resource giving the number of mechs in each faction?".

I've now got an idea for 2 3different models of Faction Specific mechs, each a little more in depth than the previous, and I'd like to eventually share it with you guys for feedback and discussion of their viability, but I'd like to be as accurate a possible from the get go. I'd really love to have PGI start layering the lore into FP, even if it is only a little at a time to help ensure balance.

As far as the part in bold here, no, there is no resource for how many mechs a specific faction could have due to the fact that they have literally THOUSANDS of them. Tens of Thousands maybe. A Battlemech Regiment is a minimum of 108 to a maximum of 180 mechs, and every major house as at least several dozen regiments easily.

I wouldn't worry too much about the MUL, as that's a literal metric shitton of data to pour through and it can get overwhelming pretty easily.

Edited by Alan Davion, 28 January 2017 - 07:41 PM.

[SuperFunkTron]

Alan Davion, on 28 January 2017 - 07:19 PM, said:

I wouldn't worry too much about the MUL, as that's a literal metric shitton of data to pour through and it can get overwhelming pretty easily.

I graduated to using the Assignment tables . It is helping a lot in terms of sorting out mech percentages on a mech per 1000 basis. I'm even including the individual variant so that info could be further analyzed eventually. The only thing I can find for the clans right now is their weight class distribution by faction (i.e. kurita has a 40, 20,30,10 weight class distribution from light to assault). That info for the clans could help with the faction character and quirking idea, but I don't need it for the Faction specific mechs fortunately.

In relation to the Mercs manual, am I correct to assume that the mech assignment tables are different for every merc unit?

[I_AM_ZUUL]

RestosIII, on 28 January 2017 - 04:51 PM, said:

"One time thing", solely because Clan Wolf basically strong-armed the other Clans into not using their warships for the rest of the invasion.

yeah by for all intents and purposes teaching the other Clans that the IS were basically untrained dogs not civilized people... cause Clan Wolf had Natasha and Phelan in very important advisory roles. So they could explain to the rest of the Clans that while what CSJ did on Edo made total sense to all of them from their societal viewpoint, it was not the proper way to deal with the IS misbehavior. You do not punch children in the face when they misbehave even if it is the appropriate response to another man who says or does the wrong thing.

[Alan Davion]

SuperFunkTron, on 28 January 2017 - 08:45 PM, said:

In relation to the Mercs manual, am I correct to assume that the mech assignment tables are different for every merc unit?

Actually no, there are no random assignment tables in the Mercenary book. However, each section about a specific unit will give a general description of what that unit has in its overall force.

For example, I'll use my favorite merc unit, the Gray Death Legion. The Merc manual lists the GDL as having a reinforced mech company in overall command, a standard mech company if you're playing pre-3029, and two full battalions if you're playing post-3029.

Pre- or Post-3029 is important because that's when the GDL found the Star League Storehouse and Library on their landhold of Helm when they were working for House Marik for a short time.

They also have a company of vehicles, two aerospace squadrons, and one infantry regiment.

The sections where these are described also say what sort of unit is primarily in said formation. For example, it says that the GDLs mech battalions are primarily made up of Medium class mechs. So if I were to make a percentage split there I'd say each battalion would be something like...

10% light mechs, 60% medium mechs, 20% heavy mechs and 10% assault mechs.

With two battalions totalling 72 mechs, figure that comes out to 8 light mechs, 43 medium mechs, 14 heavy mechs and 7 assault mechs.

That's my thought on that at least.

[SuperFunkTron]

Alan Davion, on 29 January 2017 - 07:19 AM, said:

10% light mechs, 60% medium mechs, 20% heavy mechs and 10% assault mechs.

With two battalions totalling 72 mechs, figure that comes out to 8 light mechs, 43 medium mechs, 14 heavy mechs and 7 assault mechs.

That's my thought on that at least.

Thanks for the info. It looks like they may keep it intentionally vague so its not overly structured, but showing the number of each weight class is pretty helpful.

Edited by SuperFunkTron, 29 January 2017 - 09:38 AM.

[Alan Davion]

SuperFunkTron, on 29 January 2017 - 09:37 AM, said:

Thanks for the info. It looks like they may keep it intentionally vague so its not overly structured, but showing the number of each weight class is pretty helpful.

Keep in mind that's a quick and dirty personal opinion on the subject. The numbers can and should be altered depending on player, or GM preference, depending on the situation at hand... As well as the resources of the individual players.

The Combat Manuals and the units listed in them are sometimes introducing new rules. For instance, I was just looking through the Mercs manual, one of the units, known as the Killer Bees, states that the Mech company must contain only Light or Medium Mechs, and the Aerospace squadron must be only Light class fighters.

Another good example, the 21st Centauri Lancers states that the Command Company gain access to the rare "Star League Royal Variants" of the Battlemaster, Marauder, Stalker and Thunderbolt, and that 1/3 of the Company, i.e. 4 Mechs or 1 Lance, must be Grasshoppers.

Pairing the Random Unit Assignment tables from the Army Reports with the Forces and Rules from these new Combat Manuals would certainly make for some interesting force compositions.

[SuperFunkTron]

Alan Davion, on 29 January 2017 - 06:33 PM, said:

Keep in mind that's a quick and dirty personal opinion on the subject. The numbers can and should be altered depending on player, or GM preference, depending on the situation at hand... As well as the resources of the individual players.

The Combat Manuals and the units listed in them are sometimes introducing new rules. For instance, I was just looking through the Mercs manual, one of the units, known as the Killer Bees, states that the Mech company must contain only Light or Medium Mechs, and the Aerospace squadron must be only Light class fighters.

Another good example, the 21st Centauri Lancers states that the Command Company gain access to the rare "Star League Royal Variants" of the Battlemaster, Marauder, Stalker and Thunderbolt, and that 1/3 of the Company, i.e. 4 Mechs or 1 Lance, must be Grasshoppers.

Pairing the Random Unit Assignment tables from the Army Reports with the Forces and Rules from these new Combat Manuals would certainly make for some interesting force compositions.

That gave me a very interesting idea for for how to handle the mercs beyond the initial idea. I'll have to make sure to consult with you more when I get around to them.

[Alan Davion]

SuperFunkTron, on 30 January 2017 - 08:10 AM, said:

That gave me a very interesting idea for for how to handle the mercs beyond the initial idea. I'll have to make sure to consult with you more when I get around to them.

Shoot me a PM whenever you're ready. I can also be found over on the Official Battletech Forums.

I might not have the answers you seek, due to not having all the official and/or unofficial rulebooks, however I am slowly collecting them, but between the Official BT forums and the MWO forums, you can probably find someone that would have the answers you need.

[Metus regem]

Alan Davion, on 30 January 2017 - 08:22 AM, said:

Shoot me a PM whenever you're ready. I can also be found over on the Official Battletech Forums.

I might not have the answers you seek, due to not having all the official and/or unofficial rulebooks, however I am slowly collecting them, but between the Official BT forums and the MWO forums, you can probably find someone that would have the answers you need.

Just to expand on this subject, if you have an android phone/tablet, there is a free app called "Mech factory", it contains PDF readouts for all the mechs it currently has loaded in it (and most TRO's are already loaded into it), it also contains most rules as well.... Did I mention it was a free app, that gets regular updates?

[SuperFunkTron]

Metus regem, on 30 January 2017 - 08:40 AM, said:

Just to expand on this subject, if you have an android phone/tablet, there is a free app called "Mech factory", it contains PDF readouts for all the mechs it currently has loaded in it (and most TRO's are already loaded into it), it also contains most rules as well.... Did I mention it was a free app, that gets regular updates?

I came across that app about 2 years and remember reading quite a bit of it, but didn't have the ideas I do now since I assumed MWO would take it on themselves. I'll take a look at that and see if it can help with these models. I'm currently basing it on 3050 and using only 2 or 3 factions from each side to build it (doing the rest for each TRO year is way too much on my own), but the concept will be easily applicable to later dates in the timeline as well.

Thanks for the tip on Mech Factory, I'll take a look at that today