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No. 1 Juicy Boi posted:What's the best entry into the book series for a complete newbie to the word of BTech? I have a couple hours into the 2018 PC game but that's about it. I love lore though and had no idea how complicated this universe was. EDIT: misread, assumed you wanted rules. Sorry.
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Aug 18, 2021 05:11
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No. 1 Juicy Boi posted:What's the best entry into the book series for a complete newbie to the word of BTech? I have a couple hours into the 2018 PC game but that's about it. I love lore though and had no idea how complicated this universe was. If you're looking for a solid standalone novel I'd suggest Double Blind. It's set in 3058 IIRC so some of the politics might be a touch confusing, but it's Coleman's best novel by a mile. If you want to understand why the Clans are insane, read Way of the Clans (Legend of the Jade Phoenix volume 1) then do your best to forget that there are two more books in that trilogy (they're really bad). Wolves on the Border is the best book in the entire collection, it's also a standalone like Double Blind but portions of it may be confusing and is really best if you can immediately follow it up by reading Stackpole's Blood of Kerensky trilogy.
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Aug 18, 2021 05:11
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I recommend the House sourcebooks to start with, because they're free and they were effectively the start of a real story for the setting. You can download them off Sarna at the bottom of the page for each respective book. https://www.sarna.net/wiki/House_Kurita_(The_Draconis_Combine)
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Aug 18, 2021 05:44
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So I just properly read through Hour of the Wolf (I did a quick skim through last time to see the ending), and it seems wild that so many of the Jade Falcons has bought into Malvina's way of thinking. Alaric seems almost reasonable for a Crusader in his inner thoughts about saving people from Malvina, since I remember him being quite hardline from some of his earlier appearances in novels. Though at the end he did what seem like a hilariously dick move towards the Dragoons while still being reconciliatory towards the Exiles. Oh, and Devlin Stone just about failing every step of the way is funny to me considering what he pulled off during the Jihad. I must confess I have not been keeping up that much with the 3145s except for TROs and Field Manuals, but the above was what stood out to me (also it feels the writing is kind of bad for such an important event in the timeline).
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Aug 18, 2021 07:58
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Pardoe is a hack and it's clearer in Hour of the Wolf than in anything else I've ever read of his. It's a sourcebook trying really hard to be a novel and somehow manages to be both less interesting and have less significant plot points. It exists as it is to make a long form Risk reference that would have been better as literally anything else. IlClan was better at telling the same store more compellingly without even having an actual protagonist, it's kind of astounding.
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Aug 18, 2021 08:06
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Thank you, I did not realize the IlClan sourcebook is out. To double check, I went to re-read an older novel to compare (Lethal Heritage) - I know goons like to make fun of Stackpole, but it was much more enjoyable than Hour of the Wolf.
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Aug 18, 2021 08:38
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Stackpole's novels are actually pretty ok. They're not high art but they're serviceable and I have a lot of respect for anyone who can write several franchise novels (for different franchises) pretty much back to back and still produce a moderately enjoyable ride. Stackpole is bad at writing endings but so is Stephen King, it's not a fatal flaw it just means the final book in any trilogy (or series) he's writing will be the most disappointing. Pardoe is like a cross between all of Coleman and Stackpole's worst habits. Stackpole's power fantasy main characters, cardboard cutout villains, and inability to write compelling endings merged seamlessly with Coleman's inexorable "The first novel was the best, every subsequent novel has been getting steadily worse" downhill slide. With just a dash of Confederate apologia on top. Y'know. For flavor.
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Aug 18, 2021 08:56
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Woo!
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Aug 18, 2021 21:20
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I got a notification about a package coming to me but then I remembered I ordered some clothes for my newborn niece. Tricked by a baby.
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Aug 18, 2021 21:57
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Defiance Industries posted:I got a notification about a package coming to me but then I remembered I ordered some clothes for my newborn niece. Declare a trial of grievance against her.
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Aug 18, 2021 22:19
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Technowolf posted:Declare a trial of grievance against her.
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Aug 19, 2021 02:41
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It seems like you've consistently been a few days ahead of me on this, hopefully mine is coming soon 
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Aug 19, 2021 02:53
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I suspect they're distributing alphabetically by first name so I'm pretty close to the front.
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Aug 19, 2021 03:13
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You've made a powerful enemy today, Aaron Aaronson. e: More contentfully, With nominally the worst is over, the bandaid ripped off, I'm interested to see where they go with all this nonsense. Great, Wolf won and the clans have nominally fulfilled their birthright.....now what? Evidently it's coming down the pipe sooner rather than later, but they need something pretty strong to make this seem like a change of pace worth entertaining. Mulva fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 04:14
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Tamar Rising looks by all accounts so far like it's going to be available next month. After that we have no clue, yet. It's not yet clear what the scope of that book is going to be, either, whether it's the period of a handful of months during and after the Battle of Terra, or if it covers a handful of years and meaningfully advances past what we've already seen.
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Aug 19, 2021 04:43
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Foiled again by my surname being Zukowski
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Aug 19, 2021 04:46
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Mulva posted:You've made a powerful enemy today, Aaron Aaronson. they become farmers, just like the successful barbarians of old Or whatever happens in Tamar Rising I guess
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Aug 19, 2021 06:52
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PoptartsNinja posted:Stackpole's novels are actually pretty ok. They're not high art but they're serviceable and I have a lot of respect for anyone who can write several franchise novels (for different franchises) pretty much back to back and still produce a moderately enjoyable ride. Stackpole is bad at writing endings but so is Stephen King, it's not a fatal flaw it just means the final book in any trilogy (or series) he's writing will be the most disappointing. Yeah, sounds about right - though the Confederate stuff does not seem too obvious to me (though it could be me being from Asia, so different cultural context). And the IlClan book is such a better read than the Hour of the Wolf despite being source book rather than a novel.
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Aug 19, 2021 07:06
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Weissritter posted:And the IlClan book is such a better read than the Hour of the Wolf despite being source book rather than a novel. That's every sourcebook.
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Aug 19, 2021 07:54
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It's a few specific novels where Pardoe's Confederate apologia gets really egregious, everything with Archer "Stonewall" Cristofori. If one wanted to be supremely generous, Pardoe may just be the sort of person that lets his real-world interests bleed heavily into his writing. For some reason, I'm not inclined to be that generous.
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Aug 19, 2021 08:00
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girl dick energy posted:This is probably not a big deal to anyone, but I do want to apologize for being deliberately provocative about the 40k thing earlier. I was in a lovely mood and trying to pick a fight. No worries. I didn’t mean to come off as if I was speaking authoritatively on the subject. It was a disinterested person relating barely-paid-attention-to 2nd hand information. Let’s agree that big stompy robit gaems are cool and we can be robit gaem posting buddies.
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Aug 19, 2021 19:28
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Different topic: how no-go is it to talk about 3D printing minis for this game, seeing how officially licensed sets are balancing between “out of stock” and “out of print” labels on all the major online marketplaces?
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Aug 19, 2021 19:30
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koreban posted:Different topic: how no-go is it to talk about 3D printing minis for this game, seeing how officially licensed sets are balancing between “out of stock” and “out of print” labels on all the major online marketplaces? girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 19:32
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Well then, my Creality CL-60 just arrived. Is there a preferred place to pick up model files from to start printing minis?
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Aug 19, 2021 19:37
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There's a creator on My Mini Factory who has pretty much all of the PGI designs recreated and posed for 3D printing. They've made all their models available for free, so I don't think it qualifies as  if I say the designer's name is 'Matt Mason'Unfortunately, a few parts (like thin antennas) don't print especially well. PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Aug 19, 2021 20:19
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I’m a huge fan of the dog legged mechs like the Jenner and Marauder, which as far as I’ve seen in the HBS game and some digging on the wiki, don’t generally have those. The only roughly humanoid shaped mech I enjoyed playing in the game was the QuickDraw, mostly because I salvaged it early and it was squarely better than anything else on my roster for a long rear end time.
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Aug 19, 2021 20:23
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PoptartsNinja posted:There's a creator on My Mini Factory who has pretty much all of the PGI designs recreated and posed for 3D printing. Bought a 3D printed elemental point to throw in with a unit I was painting for a friend. Field medics don't have to deal with that many detached arms.
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Aug 19, 2021 20:38
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koreban posted:I’m a huge fan of the dog legged mechs like the Jenner and Marauder, which as far as I’ve seen in the HBS game and some digging on the wiki, don’t generally have those. The Jenner has traditionally had plantigrade / human-like legs (PGI made it and the Stalker into retrograde 'Mechs instead) and the Marauder has typical been a bird-legged design. There're a few 'Mechs of the digitigrade / dog leg type like the Vapor Eagle, Piranha, and Nova Cat, but they're relatively rare. It's a primarily (but not exclusively) Clan aesthetic.
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Aug 19, 2021 20:47
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Has anyone found some good Salamanders Battle Armor for printing? They're my favorite BA
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Aug 19, 2021 21:20
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Most of the fan made expansions for the HBS game add in missing mechs like the ones you mention. Also, speaking of the HBS game, someone has released via their patreon a free conversion of the Restoration Campaign into Battletech scenarios, complete with Roll20 sheets and Megamek maps: https://www.patreon.com/posts/51308940 sadly, they haven't put the expansion "campaign" that gets you a Bull Shark up yet
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Aug 19, 2021 21:20
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I got my plastic aeroplane today and a deck of backer cards that may just be the same ones that I already have.
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Aug 21, 2021 04:02
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DrPop posted:Has anyone found some good Salamanders Battle Armor for printing? They're my favorite BA I haven't found much good looking battle armor, 3D printed or not. Even 3rd party companies don't have very good ones
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Aug 21, 2021 09:09
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Did Catalyst ever say anything about printing a second volume for Strategic Operations covering the Battleforce and logistical rules? I only just realized I can't remember them explicitly saying they'd split StratOps up the same way they did TacOps.
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Aug 22, 2021 06:51
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Interstellar Ops is being reprinted, but split like TacOps was: two volumes. The orphaned Battleforce material from the old Strategic Operations will go in the volume with the SBF, ACS, and ISIF mass-combat systems that were already in IntOps; it will be about 330 pages. This is good because those later systems (especially SBF) really draw on Battleforce as a base, and so (assuming the integration is done well), things will be a lot clearer in addition to being all together as they should. Of course, like five people play those, but it's the principle of the thing. The remaining volume will be all the IntOps gear, essentially. The more "everyday" logistical stuff (small-scale campaigning) is already in the new revised edition of Campaign Operations.
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Aug 22, 2021 07:11
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koreban posted:Well then, my Creality CL-60 just arrived. Once you get the bits from MyMiniFactory, Cults3D and Thingiverse it's also really fun to start kitbashing mechs. Remember the keyword is American Mecha. Searching Battletech doesn't get you very far.
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Aug 22, 2021 15:40
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Does anybody have a good match for the Catalyst plastic bases? Are they available separately anywhere? E: nm/ found the Reaper plastic hexes after some digging and measurements. moths fucked around with this message at 13:14 on Aug 23, 2021 |
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Aug 23, 2021 12:07
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What are some good ways to run introduction games of CBT? Piloting a light mech at 3025 tech level on a relatively flat map?
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Aug 24, 2021 04:22
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If you gave high Gunnery skills to your pilots. 3025 has no to-hit bonuses, which makes it real easy for fast machines to drive up the 2D6 curve to the nigh-unhittable realm (4 base, +2 for running, +2 for medium range, +3 TMM = needing 11s to hit before any trees or cover enters). But with minimum cover and good base Gunnery (3 or even 2) you could get a decent fast-moving game and still hit, and with light-level armour the mechs would drop fairly fast from damage so it wouldn't turn into a tiresome slugfest. It would also give you the opportunity to scale up weight and firepower in later games and see the contrast as the game becomes less mobile but more shooty. That having been said, I'd more avoid rubble and water than hills. These add PSRs, which means dice rolls and more rules lookup, whereas hills offer interesting tactical choices in terms of positioning. Xotl fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Aug 24, 2021 |
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Aug 24, 2021 04:50
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Weissritter posted:What are some good ways to run introduction games of CBT? Piloting a light mech at 3025 tech level on a relatively flat map? Convention Boot Camp uses a Jenner JR7-D and a Panther PTR-9R on a single mapsheet from the boxset without water on it. Beginner Box matchup of Griffin versus Wolverine is probably fine, too.
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Aug 24, 2021 04:55
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Weissritter posted:What are some good ways to run introduction games of CBT? Piloting a light mech at 3025 tech level on a relatively flat map? 3025 55 tonner duel. The Griffin, Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, and Dervish are pretty comparable to one another.
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Aug 24, 2021 05:09
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