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Look, no one is coming to your house to sweep your Hellstars off the table. Play how you want to. For me, I want to engage with the theme of the game, not just the mechanics. Heck, there's a whole mega-faction in the game that takes great pride in fighting in a deliberately non-optimal way bidding for the honor of doing it by lowballing to bring the most nominally non-optimal forces from among their peers.  Which ironically they get away with for a while because individually their mechs and pilots are very optimal compared to the OpFor.
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Feb 8, 2023 20:53
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Strobe posted:We both know it isn't, but if we're going to be splitting hairs on my "please stop calling me an rear end in a top hat" request I'll just take the L and catch the next conversation. 
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Feb 8, 2023 20:55
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When I played the clix game with a bunch of friends we created custom mechs for each other by painting up 'mechs, creating pilot cards, and new dials. I got a Hellstar in Spirit Cat colors, which I still treasure to this day.
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Feb 9, 2023 01:37
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Half the time I just pick a lance of mechs that I think look cool. The other half I build a balanced lance meant to compete. But all my friends do this too, and since nobody says which they picked, sometimes it’s a blowout, sometimes it’s a tense fight, and sometimes it’s clownball.
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Feb 9, 2023 02:02
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I simply divide the agreed BV by 215 and bring that many Savannah Masters.
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Feb 9, 2023 02:05
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Owlbear Camus posted:I simply divide the agreed BV by 215 and bring that many Savannah Masters. A Star of Hellstars versus 71 Savannah Masters... who wins?
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Feb 9, 2023 02:15
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In BattleTech, being outnumbered is nearly always more dangerous than being outgunned. But the answer to that question depends on the battlefield.
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Feb 9, 2023 02:26
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Owlbear Camus posted:I simply divide the agreed BV by 215 and bring that many Savannah Masters.
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Feb 9, 2023 02:47
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My lance selection is basic as gently caress. I just pick a faction and browse Sarna for 4-5 mechs associated with that faction. Then I tack on an Urbanmech because I was dumb enough to buy that 12 pack. Turns out the CGL force packs are actually functional Alpha Strike formations! Who knew that "Battle" and "Command" are actually game keywords??
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Feb 9, 2023 02:53
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Marx Headroom posted:My lance selection is basic as gently caress. I just pick a faction and browse Sarna for 4-5 mechs associated with that faction. Then I tack on an Urbanmech because I was dumb enough to buy that 12 pack. cool enough u mean
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Feb 9, 2023 02:58
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Marx Headroom posted:My lance selection is basic as gently caress. I just pick a faction and browse Sarna for 4-5 mechs associated with that faction. Then I tack on an Urbanmech because I was dumb enough to buy that 12 pack. I figured they were. Once I get to that part of the rule set I think I'll create my own lances that fit under those definitions. I've kind of split up a lot of the lance and star packs among different factions for painting, so few have stayed intact.
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Feb 9, 2023 02:58
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I grab whatever RAT is appropriate and roll up twice the force size I plan on fielding, then I keep half of it.
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Feb 9, 2023 04:17
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i barely acknowledge that this game has any lore at all and use it as a vehicle to make shooty noises as limbs get blown off
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Feb 9, 2023 14:56
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the writing is usually really bad and contrived and the lore is usually like 8th grade level historical allegory lol. but there are lots of cool mechs and it's fun to watch them fall apart on the battlefield
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Feb 9, 2023 14:57
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:the writing is usually really bad and contrived and the lore is usually like 8th grade level historical allegory lol. but there are lots of cool mechs and it's fun to watch them fall apart on the battlefield I mean there's a hundred things I'd read before a Battletech novel these days*, but there's a corny 80s charm to the simple paint-by-numbers space opera setting. I am aware of the broad strokes but I don't need to read "Chet handsome squeezed the trigger on the control stick and man-made lightning erupted from the nipples of his towering AS-8Q awesome"esque Stackpole prose. I do wish they didn't have two Evil Inscrutable Orientalist Anxiety factions, or rather that the factions weren't written in a way that was so ham-fisted about it. It's a big part of the reason I'm contrarian about the Capellans and want to both rep them and headcannon them into something other than scheming Ming the Merciless guys. It's kind of funny, my daughter enjoys the game and wants a roleplaying wraparound to help engage with it, but just refuses to consume anything about the setting, even the dang primer, unless I spoon-feed it to her at the table. Conversely my son has almost zero interest in the game (though he said he's willing to play if he gets to pilot the Garfcher), but specifically asks me to read him Battletech stories now since looking for something different at bedtime I grabbed one of the boxed set novellas. *if you still read them that's cool, I'm not looking down on you-- I watch freaking Star Wars cartoons. We all have our guilty juvenilia pleasures, this one just didn't stick with me having been introduced at a less formative age.
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Feb 9, 2023 15:11
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Never underestimate the appeal of GIGANTIC STOMPY ROBITS doing what they do best.
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Feb 9, 2023 15:12
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It's still kind of wild to me it got a whole-rear end Saturday Morning cartoon. I guess it just "feels" like a niche grognard thing with all the hexes and tables and poo poo, even though it's had AAA studio game releases in the Mechwarrior series.PoptartsNinja posted:In BattleTech, being outnumbered is nearly always more dangerous than being outgunned. Put this in an HPG message to the invading clans and save everyone a lot of trouble.
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Feb 9, 2023 15:17
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The thing to remember about Battletech lore is that like all fictional wargame lore it exists first and foremost for the purpose of giving reason and context for the battles you're playing out on the table. Anything it does well beyond that is gravy.
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Feb 9, 2023 15:17
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PeterWeller posted:The thing to remember about Battletech lore is that like all fictional wargame lore it exists first and foremost for the purpose of giving reason and context for the battles you're playing out on the table. Anything it does well beyond that is gravy. Yep. I mean Hell, look at the yummy pie slice galaxy map at pretty much any given point. It's not laid out as a speculative space colonization thought experiment, it's presented first and foremost so any given space noble can attack the other. (Showing my daughter the 3025 map, she observed that Liao had only a tiny sliver and would definitely lose in the coming years, and she was tickled when I flipped it to the 3052 side and she saw how much they'd gotten stomped)
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Feb 9, 2023 15:21
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PoptartsNinja posted:In BattleTech, being outnumbered is nearly always more dangerous than being outgunned. Indeed. Those Savannah Masters might be scary en masse, but if you're on a map with dense forests or lots of elevation chances, it can be easy to find yourself getting into a traffic jam while your opponent has themselves a good old turkey shoot. Also with a force so dense with easily killed vehicles, artillery can absolutely ruin you since even completely boffed shots can land right in the middle of a pack of SMs and murder half of them.
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Feb 9, 2023 15:23
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Owlbear Camus posted:I do wish they didn't have two Evil Inscrutable Orientalist Anxiety factions, or rather that the factions weren't written in a way that was so ham-fisted about it. It's a big part of the reason I'm contrarian about the Capellans and want to both rep them and headcannon them into something other than scheming Ming the Merciless guys. I actually find the Draconis Combine to be the more face-palm-y of the two, if only slightly. That's probably because of the time Battletech was conceived and the Combine reading exactly like every other Japanese-labelled faction in eighties Cyberpunk. All that's missing is "Very upset at how WW2 ended" for it to complete the Triple Bingo of Japanophobia. By contrast, the Capellans reads more like old-timey Orientalism from 19th century British Jingoist novels. If you asked me to describe any Liao Chancellor, my default depiction would be "Fu Manchu as played by Christopher Lee." SirPhoebos fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Feb 9, 2023 |
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Feb 9, 2023 15:26
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Rorahusky posted:Indeed. Those Savannah Masters might be scary en masse, but if you're on a map with dense forests or lots of elevation chances, it can be easy to find yourself getting into a traffic jam while your opponent has themselves a good old turkey shoot. Artillery is the king of the battlefield, but like all kings it is capricious and deadly to friend and foe alike
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Feb 9, 2023 15:26
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SirPhoebos posted:I actually find the Draconis Combine to be the more face-palm-y of the two, if only slightly. DCMS general staff procurement meeting: "Do you think they'll get that we're the Bushido Samurai Guys if we give the mech a 5 meter long katana?" "I don't know, I'm not sure it's going to read." "You're right, it needs a giant fluttering sashimono as well." "I don't know, maybe that's too much? A real hat on a hat?" "No, and now that I think of it make the armor plates look like samurai lamellar." 
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Feb 9, 2023 15:30
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PeterWeller posted:The thing to remember about Battletech lore is that like all fictional wargame lore it exists first and foremost for the purpose of giving reason and context for the battles you're playing out on the table. Anything it does well beyond that is gravy. all the lore does for me is give purpose to the existence of our mercenary battalions to shoot at each other. idgaf what year it is or what the "contract" is for or whatever. it's just 2 merc battalions shooting it out. no judgement if you play in a certain year or with a certain faction/unit or read the books (okay, some judgement for that), but yeah, the lore is so loving 80s and bad i cringe just thinking about explaining it to a non-battletech nerd lol. the game also sucks, mechanically, in an extremely 80s charts-and-tables-and-buckets-of-dice way but thankfully modern tech has remedied that. big stompy robots loving own though
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Feb 9, 2023 15:31
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SirPhoebos posted:I actually find the Draconis Combine to be the more face-palm-y of the two, if only slightly. That's probably because of the time Battletech was conceived and the Combine reading exactly like every other Japanese-labelled faction in eighties Cyberpunk. All that's missing is "Very upset at how WW2 ended" for it to complete the Triple Bingo of Japanophobia. The one thing I'll give them credit for with the Capellans is they decided to make their space commies Chinese instead of Russian. At least they went with the second instead of first most obvious choice there.
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Feb 9, 2023 15:42
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I always tell folks interested in reading BattleTech fiction that it's mainly sci-fi pulp. It's meant to entertain, not to make you think. There are some actually decent novels out of the 100+ books that have been written, that deal more with character growth and personal conflict rather than just "THEY TOOK MY HOME PLANET", or "I AM AN HONORABLE WARRIOR". Like I said earlier, I really liked "Elements of Treason: Opportunity" because they took a 2D antagonist and had him grow into a fully-fleshed out character who's still devious but has more motivation now than just "I want power rahhh". It's actually funny reading Tamar Rising after reading "Opportunity" because in TR Duke Vedet Brewer is still written about like his old Dark Age persona of a 2D mustache-twirler backstabber (TR I think is from the Lyran perspective?). It's funny how a novel can show a completely different side of a character compared to a sourcebook.
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Feb 9, 2023 16:09
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:I always tell folks interested in reading BattleTech fiction that it's mainly sci-fi pulp. It's meant to entertain, not to make you think. There are some actually decent novels out of the 100+ books that have been written, that deal more with character growth and personal conflict rather than just "THEY TOOK MY HOME PLANET", or "I AM AN HONORABLE WARRIOR". Like I said earlier, I really liked "Elements of Treason: Opportunity" because they took a 2D antagonist and had him grow into a fully-fleshed out character who's still devious but has more motivation now than just "I want power rahhh". It's actually funny reading Tamar Rising after reading "Opportunity" because in TR Duke Vedet Brewer is still written about like his old Dark Age persona of a 2D mustache-twirler backstabber (TR I think is from the Lyran perspective?). It's funny how a novel can show a completely different side of a character compared to a sourcebook. I quite enjoyed the GDL saga. I read forever faithful next which was only okay, the constant hand-wringing about artifacts and monuments being torn down was a bit of  moment, since the author didn't explore the idea that maybe having a society that agrees to stop existing and caring about its heritage if it loses a specific battle is a really dumb and unworkable idea in practice, it seems to be more about how bad it is to tear down monuments and steal from conquered people...I've been sort of liking the Warrior Trilogy but holy poo poo do I feel like I've been thrown into the deep end here. I thought this trilogy was about a disgraced half-cappie who becomes a gladiator and that's really not the case, at all. There's an overcurrent of world-changing events, personal vendettas, this Kell guy magically used the force to not die, its a whole thing. I don't mind it but it really feels like someone took me out in his car, we did 100 on the highway for a bit and then he looked at me, winked, locked me in and riveted the pedal to the metal while screaming at me about a wedding everyone is mad about.
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Feb 9, 2023 16:36
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Forever Faithful will make a lot more sense to you if you check out the author's twitter feed.Owlbear Camus posted:It's still kind of wild to me it got a whole-rear end Saturday Morning cartoon. I guess it just "feels" like a niche grognard thing with all the hexes and tables and poo poo, even though it's had AAA studio game releases in the Mechwarrior series. PeterWeller posted:The one thing I'll give them credit for with the Capellans is they decided to make their space commies Chinese instead of Russian. At least they went with the second instead of first most obvious choice there.
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Feb 9, 2023 16:47
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:I always tell folks interested in reading BattleTech fiction that it's mainly sci-fi pulp. It's meant to entertain, not to make you think. There are some actually decent novels out of the 100+ books that have been written, that deal more with character growth and personal conflict rather than just "THEY TOOK MY HOME PLANET", or "I AM AN HONORABLE WARRIOR". Like I said earlier, I really liked "Elements of Treason: Opportunity" because they took a 2D antagonist and had him grow into a fully-fleshed out character who's still devious but has more motivation now than just "I want power rahhh". It's actually funny reading Tamar Rising after reading "Opportunity" because in TR Duke Vedet Brewer is still written about like his old Dark Age persona of a 2D mustache-twirler backstabber (TR I think is from the Lyran perspective?). It's funny how a novel can show a completely different side of a character compared to a sourcebook. Yeah, please don't take my comment to mean that it's all trash, and you shouldn't read it. I still read every Drizzt novel that comes out, and I've genuinely enjoyed the dozen or so Battletech novels I've read, so I'm not trying to shame licensed fiction or anyone who reads it. My point is more that we should just keep in perspective why this fiction exists and what its central purpose is. E: Arquinsiel posted:I have bad news for you about the Tikonov Commonality... Don't leave me hanging!
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Feb 9, 2023 16:49
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I like the giant robots Also they should give the cartoon series a new season, as long as it's still gloriously Saturday morning fare. None of this Surf Dracula poo poo.
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Feb 9, 2023 17:01
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You can thank the Dark Ages for that 'Mech, so that was WizKids. Our forums' own TG Xarbala did a good job rehabilitating that design into something decent looking. 
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Feb 9, 2023 17:56
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:TR I think is from the Lyran perspective? TR is weird because the introduction sounds like it is from Tamar's PoV but if it is they have an incredible intelligence service which has infiltrated every other faction at the highest levels, including the LC and Foxes. But they don't seem to be able to anticipate anything that anyone is doing despite that.
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Feb 9, 2023 18:08
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The setting is good actually. The novels are often bad but the setting is good.
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Feb 9, 2023 18:43
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I agree. The setting has problems, the biggest of which is the overwhelming whiteness of the successor states, but it's still pretty rad. The novels... I've enjoyed some of them, usually ones with smaller stories about merc companies or what not, but the bug plot novels are usually pretty dire.
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Feb 9, 2023 20:02
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Defiance Industries posted:TR is weird because the introduction sounds like it is from Tamar's PoV but if it is they have an incredible intelligence service which has infiltrated every other faction at the highest levels, including the LC and Foxes. But they don't seem to be able to anticipate anything that anyone is doing despite that. I feel like one of the BT universe quirks is that every faction from major to minor has a feared and storied intelligence service, and in all cases their agents are everywhere. it’s good for role playing campaigns and fiction but it’s as silly as anything else that keeps the setting wheels turning. just like all the storied mega elite regiments that win off screen but always lose when the heroes are around, some of them got to be the designated losers. If you’re in the battletech universe, look to your left. Now look to your right. Both of those people are sleeper agents.
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Feb 9, 2023 22:56
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That's not true. One of them isn't a sleeper.
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Feb 10, 2023 00:04
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No, one of them is a double-sleeper for the Blakists
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Feb 10, 2023 03:15
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ROM recruitment: “are you willing to read everybody’s mail???”
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Feb 10, 2023 04:53
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AI still slips up a little on the deep cuts. Powerful crew, eh? 
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Feb 10, 2023 15:45
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Just getting into Battletech, despite playing Mechwarrior since I was eight. I got the Clan Invasion starter set as AGoAC was sold out at my local store. I assumed since it said it had a rulebook I was ok but forgot to read the fine print that AGoAC is required.  Did I gently caress myself over or can I just download a copy of the core rules and work away just to get a feel for the game? To be honest I was gonna buy it anyway down the road, as my brother is picking it up alongside me and he likes clan mechs so I'm not too miffed about it.
School Nickname fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Feb 10, 2023 |
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