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How to update BattleTech's cultures and worldviews without burning down the pulp fiction aesthetic of the game or better yet How to burn down the pulp fiction aesthetic of the game
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Jan 25, 2022 21:45
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So I hear in Tamar Rising Clan Hell's Horses gets punked by the dregs of CJF left behind running their own micro-state? Is that correct? Because just sad lol if that's the case. Can CGL just let CJF die? I thought their goal since 2013 was to reduce and crush all the little split factions (Spirits Cats vs. Nova Cats, Exile Wolves vs. Wolves, etc.). Also why can't Horsies have ANYTHING nice?
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Jan 27, 2022 16:47
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Well you see Clan Jade Falcon is like the Noble Confederacy...
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Jan 27, 2022 17:04
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Taerkar posted:Well you see Clan Jade Falcon is like the Noble Confederacy... Pretty sure the Smoke Jaguars are Battletech's stand-in for the Confederacy. And the Fed Suns... somehow. I wonder what the Nova Cats would be? Poland? A state that at one time was super strong and then became a huge punching bag for centuries, had a brief glimmer of hope and then got genocided? Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 17:09 on Jan 27, 2022 |
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Jan 27, 2022 17:06
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:So I hear in Tamar Rising Clan Hell's Horses gets punked by the dregs of CJF left behind running their own micro-state? Is that correct? The blunt answer with no nuance whatsoever is yes. What actually happens is CHH takes basically all the territory that it wants but is rebuffed when it encounters resistance that by all rights shouldn't be there. Including crushing one micro-state into a fine paste. In both cases where they suffer setbacks (two different fronts nearly simultaneously) they go in overconfident and get wrecked. Once by a former Falcon micro state employing a bunch of mercenaries, of all things, and the other a still-Falcon micro state with a defense way more organized and well led than anyone could have reasonably expected. The Horses definitely hosed up in both cases, but it's not like there was an unbroken string of CHH humiliation going on. Also their really lovely old Khan is dead and the new one seems way less likely to gently caress up basic things.
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Jan 27, 2022 18:13
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Strobe posted:The blunt answer with no nuance whatsoever is yes. What actually happens is CHH takes basically all the territory that it wants but is rebuffed when it encounters resistance that by all rights shouldn't be there. Including crushing one micro-state into a fine paste. Yeah on the official forums, it was stated they they are in the process of "de-gooberfying" CHH. The obvious outcome is that the hinterlands are gobbled up between the Lyrans and CHH, assuming wither one tof them gets their poo poo together. The smaller states are just trying to kick the can down the road for 5 more minutes of existence.
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Jan 27, 2022 22:18
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If they want to do that, what they really need to go is let the Horses beat the Bears at something important. The Bears and Horses are supposed to be huge rivals, but in reality, it's a sad one-sided rivalry like the TC-FS. Unfortunately, the Bears are never allowed to lose (remember the Leviathan trial?) so they'll never get the fix they need.
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Jan 27, 2022 22:35
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It constantly boggles my mind that people will point out things that happened
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Jan 27, 2022 22:52
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I think it's funny that you think changes in line developers mean anything when they never go outside for leadership and just yank the chain. It's never meant any kind of change in direction, just a shuffling of chairs.
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Jan 28, 2022 00:15
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I have a paint and game session set up for this Saturday. I finally buckled and got a few of these for storage when I finally admitted that tossing all my painted minis with my unpainted minis might be undoing all of my squinty, shaky hand work.
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Jan 28, 2022 02:58
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Strobe posted:It constantly boggles my mind that people will point out things that happened BattleTech hasn't really changed since 2003, despite the best efforts of five line developers to do so.
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Jan 28, 2022 04:52
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Defiance Industries posted:If they want to do that, what they really need to go is let the Horses beat the Bears at something important. The Bears and Horses are supposed to be huge rivals, but in reality, it's a sad one-sided rivalry like the TC-FS. That's why I'd like to see a renewed Clan Invasion by the Homeworld Clans that is completely scorched earth and heads right through the Ghost Bears. F*ck them up and leave them crippled for an era. Every other Clan at this point has had this treatment, EXCEPT Ghost Bears. And no, Ghost Bears being bumbling fools in the Invasion Era doesn't count.
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Jan 28, 2022 14:15
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:That's why I'd like to see a renewed Clan Invasion by the Homeworld Clans that is completely scorched earth and heads right through the Ghost Bears. F*ck them up and leave them crippled for an era. Every other Clan at this point has had this treatment, EXCEPT Ghost Bears. And no, Ghost Bears being bumbling fools in the Invasion Era doesn't count. Seething Smoke Jaguar detected
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Jan 28, 2022 15:34
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TheDiceMustRoll posted:Seething Smoke Jaguar detected Actually I'm a genocided Nova Cat here. Actually a surviving Spirit Cat kicking it on Marik.
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Jan 28, 2022 16:56
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Actually I'm a genocided Nova Cat here. 
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Jan 28, 2022 17:15
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Bit of an odd question on the Total War book. Is there any difference between the last two ones? I can find the one with the older Atlas art but that's it. Me and some friends have all dove in and are loving it.
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Jan 28, 2022 22:37
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So long as it was published after 2003 or so it should be fine. If it was pre-2000s the rulebook would have the old firing arcs, significantly worse vehicle crit tables, and 'Mech weapons doing full damage to infantry (which is the easiest thing to check for if you're not sure).
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Jan 28, 2022 23:19
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Total Warfare debuted in 2006, anything that says that on the cover is "okay". Anything with an Atlas on the cover is last five years. Modern action Atlas is last couple years and most recent. The changes are usually subtle and more in line with errata and FAQ updates rather than wholesale changes.
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Jan 28, 2022 23:58
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https://bg.battletech.com/errata/ The TW errata doc at the above link shows you precisely what changed in each printing, and there's a small cover gallery there to let you identify printings (hover over each image) if you can't look inside to page 7, where the printing info is. Basically you want any printings with one of the last two images there: blue Atlas and newer. The 5th printing (first blue Atlas cover) made a ton of changes, while the ones that came after it are small iterations of a page or two of errata per printing. If you can get the latest, good, but if you need to save cash / can get a nice deal on an older one, it's okay to get the blue Atlas one. I wouldn't get any of the printings with the original covers unless you're getting one hell of a deal or have no choice, because you could be looking at up to 55 pages of errata.
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Jan 29, 2022 00:04
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Thanks for the clarity all. I'll hold off for the latest one for now as we're playing via the AGoaC book anyway.
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Jan 29, 2022 03:55
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If you're playing mechs only and for the conceivable future the BattleMech Manual is a good alternate, too.
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Jan 29, 2022 04:01
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Yeah, I'm biased, but the BMM is far better for mech-only combat than TW: far lower page count to wade through, yet more mech content, and specifically rewritten to be clearer and better organized.
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Jan 29, 2022 08:20
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Yeah I am aiming to get the BMM once it finally returns into stock, though it seems to be nightmarish to get hold of anything in physical copy at the moment, so I have the PDF Version for now. We're currently planning to stick with Game of Armoured Combat, go onto BMM and then maybe eyeball Total Warfare when we plan to jump up, though we are just enjoying Mech vs Mech at the moment. In my last game, my buddies Enforcer made exactly two shots with his AC/10. The first one critted and blew out the leg actuator and hip on my Jenner, causing it to topple, and the second shot took off the head of my Hatchetman. It owned.
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Jan 29, 2022 11:39
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I much prefer reference books in PDF anyway. Being able to find every reference to a term beats the pants off the index only having one entry for something.
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Jan 29, 2022 20:26
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So I hear in Tamar Rising that the Lyran Commonwealth continues to be bungled and mismanaged, and misses a huge chance to reclaiming any of the Falcon OZ. Why does Catalyst seem to think Trillian is this dumb? Or is this just a "We want a chaos march, big leaders must be dumb".
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Jan 30, 2022 20:25
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Just pirate/buy it already and find out, rebutting whatever weird takes you've heard in a game of internet telephone was only fun the first time
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Jan 30, 2022 21:55
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:So I hear in Tamar Rising that the Lyran Commonwealth continues to be bungled and mismanaged, and misses a huge chance to reclaiming any of the Falcon OZ. The book takes place over a surprisingly short amount of time, just barely over a year. The theme of the book seems to be "people who were already in place got to do whatever they wanted because stopping them is impossible in this span of time." It now takes like 3 months for you to get news and then issue an order to do something, unless you already have a command circuit in place to take care of that. So everyone got to do at best maybe three things. I was rather frustrated that the book ends after Roderick Steiner leaves for Arcturus but before he shows up, though. Who knows how long we'll have to wait to get actual closure on that.
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Jan 30, 2022 23:09
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Defiance Industries posted:The book takes place over a surprisingly short amount of time, just barely over a year. The theme of the book seems to be "people who were already in place got to do whatever they wanted because stopping them is impossible in this span of time." It now takes like 3 months for you to get news and then issue an order to do something, unless you already have a command circuit in place to take care of that. So everyone got to do at best maybe three things. Only a year? I guess that makes sense if Catalyst's goal is to just set up a new era and say "have at it", rather than try to advance the storyline. It would be nice if Battletech for maybe a couple years had a static universe so people could just lose themselves in a region. That gives more context for why the Lyrans don't do much. Speedy they ain't, but maybe not as blundering as others seemed to think.
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Jan 31, 2022 02:50
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I got myself some 3d printed fav mechs off Etsy to just keep around my desk and discovered they're resin when my gundam model cement did approxtimately nothing to base them until i broke out the superglue. I've never worked with resin minis before in my life, so any tips y'all have would be wonderful. Do the typical Citadel Paints still work fine on it?
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Jan 31, 2022 03:14
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Be sure to wash them in soap (dish soap is fine) and water before you prime, and rinse them carefully or any remaining release agent will keep paint from sticking. Otherwise acrylic paints work fine.
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Jan 31, 2022 03:19
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:It would be nice if Battletech for maybe a couple years had a static universe so people could just lose themselves in a region. Not commenting on Tamar Rising here—but I do want to voice a hope that there gets to be some way to help people get into the post-Jihad universe more easily. One of the problems with why the average Joe at the table can’t really explain anything past 3067 in more than just generalities seems to be how face-to-face BattleTech interactions have generally been difficult to retain since 2003, unless you’re at a dedicated gaming con or a regular monthly Demo Agent game. Demo Agents are hard to come by as well, since, you know, the whole volunteering thing. In a way, having so much new product that gives so many new options to play with is a little bit overwhelming. What I’m saying is, please Catalyst do a terrible thing where you force events down consumers’ throats with things like a “season” where Demo Agent games and related products flesh out real, line developer-intended examples of what it’s like to play in Insert Era Here. The more the word of mouth is spread about it the better
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Jan 31, 2022 04:21
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The current intent is to have less grand sweeping megawar where enormous amounts of state-level change occurs and more small-scale stuff where players can shape campaigns relevant to themselves. It's about making an environment for BT more applicable to playing a game rather than to constructing a fictional narrative. There's also a Universe Book of some sort in the pipeline to help bring everyone up to date on all factions, with a high-level overview. Combined with the new boxes, the dev focus has been about making the unwieldy good ship BT into something navigable.
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Jan 31, 2022 05:29
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PoptartsNinja posted:Be sure to wash them in soap (dish soap is fine) and water before you prime, and rinse them carefully or any remaining release agent will keep paint from sticking. Otherwise acrylic paints work fine. If they're 3d printed they won't have release agent on them. Just paint them, it'll be fine.
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Jan 31, 2022 06:13
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Flipswitch posted:Yeah I am aiming to get the BMM once it finally returns into stock, though it seems to be nightmarish to get hold of anything in physical copy at the moment, so I have the PDF Version for now. Catalyst has two problems: 1) Keeping things in stock 2) Meeting new demand But it's hard to poo poo on them for this, more than a few miniature companies have witnessed a spike in sales, spent big bucks for what they (assume) is a continuing trend, and then promptly died. Games Workshop nearly did this a few times. TSR actually died from doing this exact thing, although it was less "put out shitloads of product and hope" and more "this is the bestest selling RPG ever, lets hire 600 people". It took me many months to get a Battlemech Manual, but there is a guy on facebook selling his, two of them actually. He's Canadian, so I dunno if that helps or not. He may be willing to ship, I haven't had any interactions with the seller. TheDiceMustRoll fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Jan 31, 2022 |
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Jan 31, 2022 13:47
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Oh thanks mate. I'll contact that seller now. I've got a game this week so I'll have to get some pics for the thread.
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Jan 31, 2022 15:46
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Xotl posted:The current intent is to have less grand sweeping megawar where enormous amounts of state-level change occurs and more small-scale stuff where players can shape campaigns relevant to themselves. It's about making an environment for BT more applicable to playing a game rather than to constructing a fictional narrative. But wouldn't the Republic lurking behind its borders and occasionally launching bizarre raids all over the Sphere have been good for that kind of low level anyone-fights-anyone world? I miss them 
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Jan 31, 2022 20:54
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It's a tradition: Every turning of the age involves someone loving up Earth. Doesn't matter when, doesn't matter why. The end goal of every conflict is ultimately to gently caress up the status quo on Earth. I mean hell, the Sol system has actual immortals running around. If the area didn't get it's poo poo pushed in on the reg humanity there would have evolved to like, I don't know, giant energy beings by this point. And if they are giant energy beings why would they need Battlemechs?
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Jan 31, 2022 22:14
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Mulva posted:I mean hell, the Sol system has actual immortals running around. huh
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Jan 31, 2022 22:39
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Yeah it's just one of those weird things they threw in.....Interstellar Players 2? Like Sol has always had ridiculously advanced medicine, and people on Earth can wait to think about settling down until they hit 90. But the Belters? Yeah, they really jacked up their focus on genetic engineering to deal with the rigors of space. As a result, some of them just.....you know, don't meaningfully age. And have been alive for centuries. They don't even forget it, they keep rules for Belters being genetically engineered super-freaks in the A Time of War books.
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Jan 31, 2022 23:22
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General Battuta posted:But wouldn't the Republic lurking behind its borders and occasionally launching bizarre raids all over the Sphere have been good for that kind of low level anyone-fights-anyone world? I miss them It would have: there would have been an advantage to having a sixth major IS faction with a reason to be annoyed with everyone, a reason for everyone to be annoyed with them, and mutual access all around. I'm not sure ultimately why they decided the Republic had to go, and I have to admit to being less than thrilled with Hour of the Wolf / IlClan and how they specifically went. But I do like the idea of Terra being a poison pill and all sorts of chaos and anarchy developing as a result. And I generally feel that the two current line devs are good guys with a decent understanding of what the universe needs to thrive as a game rather than an excuse to write nothing but giant universe-shaking spine novels and then explore them as already-done deals via dry post-facto historicals (even if as a historian I tend to enjoy those, I think they're bad game products). But if we keep getting more of these micro-snapshot style setting and campaign books like Tamar Rising (and there are two more in the immediate pipeline), I'll be happy. I always liked the Hot Spots and Chaos March books.
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Jan 31, 2022 23:50
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