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PoptartsNinja posted:If it helps the odds of starting a fire with a laser are incredibly low. Wow, I didn't know. I gotta get on IRC when I get home. Anyway, as mentioned, I think I definitely came out ahead on being spared those three Warhawk shots, and am actually grateful.  But since I'm not at home yet with IRC yet, could someone give me advice on how best to serve the team, please? RA Rx fucked around with this message at 13:54 on Jul 25, 2016 |
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Jul 25, 2016 13:44
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vorebane posted:Well I said I thought it would be 5 turns but now I don't know what's going on. I'm calling it- it's gonna reach 500% and go boom. Bonus theory- it goes pinch-boom and EMP's the gently caress out of everyone instead of thermal explosion I'm pretty sure BT electronics are super hardened against EM pulses (something something computers got tougher not smaller) but it wouldn't surprise me if the NRWR found a way to make it work reliably
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Jul 25, 2016 13:57
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PoptartsNinja posted:Further fun with math: the smallest squad size in BattleTech is 5 guys, so you'd need 475 billion people to occupy every hex on a planet. Hold on, now. Drop ships don't just take up one hex, do they? They've got to take up multiple hexes. So, you can divide the number of infantry you need by the minimum number of hexes. Plus, I would assume that drop ships can't land on mixed-height areas, right? You've got mountains, swamps, places where the terrain varies. So, how much FLAT, OPEN land is available?
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Jul 25, 2016 14:05
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Of all the Mechs to receive no orders, the Atlas is the one that I least want that to happen to.
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Jul 25, 2016 14:15
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Paingod556 posted:I'm calling it- it's gonna reach 500% and go boom. Bonus theory- it goes pinch-boom and EMP's the gently caress out of everyone instead of thermal explosion Wrecking something with EMP is very hard to do in BattleTech. But fusion reactors are relatively soft targets for EMPs, so a good EMP may cause fusion reactors to generate extra heat or even shut down. Shutting everyone in this fight down all at once wouldn't be a huge thing by itself, but at that point it only takes a little extra to spring a really nasty trap on the clanners while they're scrambling to restart their machines.
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Jul 25, 2016 14:16
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I hope it's a giant space ion cannon and defensive EMF shield combo machine. You have to stay close to be inside the shield or you get your head ablated by a surge of near-lightspeed protons.
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Jul 25, 2016 14:23
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Alchenar posted:Of all the Mechs to receive no orders, the Atlas is the one that I least want that to happen to. On the other hand, at least nothing's gotten los to shoot him yet :|
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Jul 25, 2016 14:51
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Grasshopper checking in -- feeling a bit isolated on that island. Worth moving east with the rest of the crew, or fine to stay where I am?
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Jul 25, 2016 15:08
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Realistically it fucks with their targeting or missiles. Can't see it being some superweapln or shield.
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Jul 25, 2016 15:08
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Volmarias posted:Hold on, now. Drop ships don't just take up one hex, do they? They've got to take up multiple hexes. So, you can divide the number of infantry you need by the minimum number of hexes. That would protect you from the big ones, sure, but any pattern that would stop a Union from landing wouldn't stop a Leopard. They're not much bigger than a single hex and you can fit a lance of `Mechs in one without trouble. The infantry / battle-armor carrier version is even smaller.
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Jul 25, 2016 15:25
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Pattonesque posted:Grasshopper checking in -- feeling a bit isolated on that island. Worth moving east with the rest of the crew, or fine to stay where I am? I'd check and see if you have jumpjets in your legs- (The way the Mech is built, they could be in the L/RT or the legs- The cannon one has leg jets though, so you might as well). If you don't have leg jets, then there's a lot of -1 water hexes you can use, and there's some options about either jumping on the island to the west in to the woods/partial cover and pot shotting at things, or you could hop over to where the Mountain Lion is now, on the main island. RA Rx posted:Wow, I didn't know. I gotta get on IRC when I get home. Seems like the best bet is still to keep jumping south to try and put as big and ganged up a hurt as possible on the lighter star before the Assaults get in to clear shooting range.
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Jul 25, 2016 15:28
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I'm uncomfortable with what looks like our current strategy of 'face out in all directions'. It seems to me like our best bet is to go all in on one star when it comes into contact (almost certainly the north one) and then turn and fight the others.
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Jul 25, 2016 15:51
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Alchenar posted:I'm uncomfortable with what looks like our current strategy of 'face out in all directions'. It seems to me like our best bet is to go all in on one star when it comes into contact (almost certainly the north one) and then turn and fight the others. speaking of that, anyone have a link to the google doc where we coordinate orders?
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Jul 25, 2016 15:52
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PoptartsNinja posted:That would protect you from the big ones, sure, but any pattern that would stop a Union from landing wouldn't stop a Leopard. They're not much bigger than a single hex and you can fit a lance of `Mechs in one without trouble. The infantry / battle-armor carrier version is even smaller. But the Leopard is an aerodyne dropship, not a spheroid one - while it's got good (short) landing characteristics, it isn't capable of a truly vertical landing path.
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Jul 25, 2016 16:44
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Tempest_56 posted:But the Leopard is an aerodyne dropship, not a spheroid one - while it's got good (short) landing characteristics, it isn't capable of a truly vertical landing path. Not a controlled one.
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Jul 25, 2016 16:48
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Tempest_56 posted:But the Leopard is an aerodyne dropship, not a spheroid one - while it's got good (short) landing characteristics, it isn't capable of a truly vertical landing path. Yes, but the best pattern to stop a union is 1 squad per 9 hexes*, which would still require 52 billion infantrymen assuming all flat land hexes** etc, etc, which is still something along the lines of the combined total population of Tharkad, New Avalon, Luthien, Sian, and Atreus. *A net that wide would let a Leopard land anywhere it wanted without any trouble. **Most BattleTech planets do not have anywhere near Earth's levels of water.
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Jul 25, 2016 16:49
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Pattonesque posted:speaking of that, anyone have a link to the google doc where we coordinate orders? Here you go: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18F9dSQmYR8pXCKw39WmNp7DxScXzsiwIuh8WfOCvuSA/edit?usp=sharing
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Jul 25, 2016 17:20
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PoptartsNinja posted:Yes, but the best pattern to stop a union is 1 squad per 9 hexes*, which would still require 52 billion infantrymen assuming all flat land hexes** etc, etc, which is still something along the lines of the combined total population of Tharkad, New Avalon, Luthien, Sian, and Atreus. In theory you just need a single squad close enough by they could run under the dropship during its descent. Does it take more than one turn for the dropship to land? We'll make use of these millions of hole digging peasants yet.  Man, I knew Dadlas was going to have a bad day on this map, but I didn't think that day would start on turn 2. gently caress. Uncle Stevie, please install a 40k style "Machine Spirit" in our mechs that can perform very basic functions in the event the pilot is "disabled". 
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Jul 25, 2016 17:48
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Welp, any ideas on how Duncan is going to get the Dadlas out of this in one piece? He'll be eating a mine regardless of where he goes, but should he head north and try to take shots as the heavy mechs cross the bridge, or east so he can put cover in between him and the Death Star moving south, and maybe face off with that Warhawk? If things get too dicey up north at the bridge, he could move backwards to get cover from the plant (assuming he isn't flanked by the Warhawk and/or the mechs coming from the south), but he'll pretty much be committed in east until either he or the Warhawk bites it.
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Jul 25, 2016 21:10
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Zaodai posted:In theory you just need a single squad close enough by they could run under the dropship during its descent. Does it take more than one turn for the dropship to land? We'll make use of these millions of hole digging peasants yet. PoptartsNinja posted:Yes, but the best pattern to stop a union is 1 squad per 9 hexes...
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Jul 25, 2016 21:32
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Can we shoot the mines maybe?
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Jul 25, 2016 21:36
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Endomorphic posted:You might not have to do a static pattern; you see the dropship arrive somewhere just out of system, you observe the approach & orbit and can pick a likely continent, and sparsely cover it. Then observe the entry burn (do they bother with holding orbits?) and then fill out their target region; continue to observe their trajectory & more densely pack the more probable landing site. It turns it into something like John Conway's Angel Problem, which has harder math, but needs fewer people to stand in holes. You can land a DropShip a hell of a lot more quickly than you can move infantrymen.
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Jul 25, 2016 22:00
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Also as amusing as the theoretical math on How To Make Zaodai Cry: Infantry Edition is, could you not just hot-drop a couple jump-jet capable mechs with flamers, clear a landing zone (which will also be cleared of grass, light cover, and anything else that might grow) and call it a day like one dropship just flying low and popping out a chain of Firestarters or whatever and this is a non-issue to land an entire RCT or similarly sized formation?
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Jul 25, 2016 22:08
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Psion posted:Also as amusing as the theoretical math on How To Make Zaodai Cry: Infantry Edition is, could you not just hot-drop a couple jump-jet capable mechs with flamers, clear a landing zone (which will also be cleared of grass, light cover, and anything else that might grow) and call it a day Then you've still made them dedicate additional resources just to clearing a landing zone. I mean the Cappellans probably have plenty of guys willing to jump out of a moving dropship to shoot unarmed peasants with flamethrowers, but I don't know that the other houses have them in great abundance.  Endomorphic posted:Oh, that was the problem all along! There was a ComStar administration building in the way but really the Capellans just wanted to land. There was a bit of a delay while they figured out what they should do next - reroute to secondary site? Just abort? And in those precious moments of innocent pause, untold damage was done. Accidentally or something, yes. It was their charge attack against the building, not the infantry. 
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Jul 25, 2016 22:16
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Psion posted:Also as amusing as the theoretical math on How To Make Zaodai Cry: Infantry Edition is, could you not just hot-drop a couple jump-jet capable mechs with flamers, clear a landing zone (which will also be cleared of grass, light cover, and anything else that might grow) and call it a day You have found the one fatal flaw in the plan that requires 475 billion people to pull off.
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Jul 25, 2016 22:31
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Someone work out the cost of 475 billion of the worst possible infantry, tia.
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Jul 25, 2016 22:34
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Back Hack posted:Can we shoot the mines maybe? Looks like either Artillery (which goons don't have) or missiles (Which goons DO have, but which might have better things to do with their ammo) can clear minefields. Missile fire needs to roll a 5+ to clear the field though, it's not guaranteed. I was also wrong about the danger of mines earlier- Clan Arrow IV FASCAM missiles are (naturally) more dangerous than the IS version. The central hex has mines that do 30 damage, then 20, then 10 for the outer ring. If you were silly enough to walk in to the center hex, then the mines "attack," and on a 7+, you'd take 30 damage on the leg hit table. The middle ring needs an 8+ to damage you, and the outer ring needs a 9+. So it's not instantly lethal, but you really don't want to go charge through a ton of hexes unless you really need to. The mines have a chance to lose some of their lethality once they go off. It uses the same table, so a larger minefield is more likely to get reduced down a level, since it happens on a 7+ instead of the 8 or 9 smaller minefields need. Also relevant, mines never go below 5 damage strength unless they're actively cleared. Also also double relevant, one of the best ways to clear mines? Land a Sphereoid dropship on them 
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Jul 25, 2016 22:42
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Only needs to be 95 billion 5-man units.
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Jul 25, 2016 22:52
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The worst possible infantry unit is a 30-man platoon of 6 5-man squads of people wearing summer wear (shorts and tank-tops mostly). Since the game doesn't model shovel-wielding infantry, they're carrying improvised clubs that simply count as shovels. Theoretically a full 30 man platoon can do up to 1 damage to a BattleMech provided 15-30 of them are alive, and they can do so at a whopping maximum range of 0 hexes. Final unit cost is a very reasonable 242,879 c-bills. Since one platoon can be used to cover 6 hexes, you would need roughly 15,833,333,333.3 platoons to occupy every hex of a perfectly spherical Earth-sized planet. The cost to do so is the theoretically reasonable 3,845,584,166,666,667 c-bills. Assuming we're using the post Clan-invasion 3052-era c-bill (one of which is worth $8.70 in 2015 after compensating for inflation) that's $3.35*10^16 to completely occupy a planet with poorly-equipped militia carrying shovels and hoes. Every single person would have 6 whole meters of space to themselves to do with as they wished. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Jul 25, 2016 |
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Jul 25, 2016 23:07
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How much would it cost to supply a planet full of billions of people who exist only to take up space?
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Jul 25, 2016 23:12
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PoptartsNinja posted:You have found the one fatal flaw in the plan that requires 475 billion people to pull off. "the" flaw? Generous of you I mean how hard would you have to be dug in for that not to work? How many people would you need to fortify - oh I dunno, a mapsheet, not even a planet - such that this spectacular strategy of "drop a giant stompy war machine out of a spaceship" would fail? Zaodai posted:Then you've still made them dedicate additional resources just to clearing a landing zone. I mean the Cappellans probably have plenty of guys willing to jump out of a moving dropship to shoot unarmed peasants with flamethrowers, but I don't know that the other houses have them in great abundance. I feel like if any house or merc outfit operates a Firestarter, they know what they're getting into Psion fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Jul 25, 2016 |
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Jul 25, 2016 23:12
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Psion posted:"the" flaw? Generous of you 
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Jul 25, 2016 23:20
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I have a far more fatal flaw for this approach of blocking dropships from landing. Spheroid dropships do a considerable amount of damage to everything nearby as they come in to land. Any attempt to deny landings with infantry is ruined from the onset because no infantry unit can survive close enough to the dropship to block its landing. Aerodynes are a different matter, they don't murder everything below them as they land.
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Jul 25, 2016 23:28
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Wild Weasel: If they want to play with mines, I will show them mines. ...but from a safe spot. I am, after all, a cowardly little 40t mech.
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Jul 25, 2016 23:31
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Remmon posted:I have a far more fatal flaw for this approach of blocking dropships from landing. Spheroid dropships do a considerable amount of damage to everything nearby as they come in to land. Any attempt to deny landings with infantry is ruined from the onset because no infantry unit can survive close enough to the dropship to block its landing. Hey, we saw that front and center when the Capellans roasted an entire office building full of Comstar workers using a hovering dropship!
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Jul 26, 2016 00:13
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goatface posted:I hope it's a giant space ion cannon and defensive EMF shield combo machine. You have to stay close to be inside the shield or you get your head ablated by a surge of near-lightspeed protons. I'm kind of hoping this is a powerup sequence for a superheavy mech - or we're gonna see something funny like a deuterium-deuterium fusion reaction with a reactor shielding just so happening to shape like raygun for all those extra neutrons.
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Jul 26, 2016 00:44
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If I'm reading this right (which I'm probably not), Terrenblade can have his Grasshopper run into the water hex at 2626 to get out of LOS of all the mechs that are about to rain a million of missiles on him next turn.
Back Hack fucked around with this message at 04:38 on Jul 26, 2016 |
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Jul 26, 2016 02:14
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IIRC you have to walk into water hexes.
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Jul 26, 2016 04:20
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Pooncha posted:IIRC you have to walk into water hexes. Or fall, but that's not a particularly desirable option. You definitely can't run into them though.
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Jul 26, 2016 04:28
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He can jump, but I think that the Grasshopper has leg jets, so he can't get back out the same way.
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Jul 26, 2016 04:29
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