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Marx Headroom posted:I always got the impression battlemechs required special training to pilot. Prole uprising would be like Coupons & Deals trying to launch a B-2. I liked how Dougram (the anime the original BattleMaster, Griffin, Shadow Hawk, and others was from) had an excuse why the main character was so young and yet still entrusted to pilot Dougram - as an army cadet who defected to the prole uprising, he was the only one with any amount of training to pilot it. In BattleTech, an untrained pilot will have 8/8 skills which is essentially useless. Armed WorkMech pilots are most likely to be civilian pilots trained to use those things for their normal use during peacetime, especially in the case of a militia force. Anyone with actual BattleMech training is most likely former military, but they could also have gone to one of those (usually predatory) private schools give you some basic pilot training in exchange for usually too much money. There might be mercenary or bandit forces that do their own training but my understanding is that would be rare and they usually recruit people with existing training. As far as armed WorkMechs go, you're most likely to find them as part of a poorly-equipped backwater militia that usually fights pirates who are not much better equipped. You'll also find bandits who use them to shake down people who have even worse equipment. Use of them in a large-scale battlefield is rare enough that the times it happens were pretty notable and disastrous. Uses of them in uprisings is rare because they are no match for average non-backwater militia forces, let alone the proper BattleMech forces - even a small one - that a local lord would have. Rebels are more likely to hire mercenaries or use conventional forces. A few notable in-universe uses of WorkMechs include the War of 3039 which was already mentioned, the Pentagon civil war where there was an abundance of weapons and construction equipment and Star League-trained pilots but not always functional units to give them (and were no match for the newly-formed Clans), and the scenario presented by MechWarrior: Dark Age where a bunch of fanatics and bandits with poor equipment fought each other in a rare situation where there was no one with better gear to come and sweep them away. A couple of examples of armed WorkMechs in their proper environment include the story in Total Warfare: Back End of Nowhere where some farmers try to defend themselves from a BattleMech armed bandit, and the this RPG scenario that involves arming a WorkMech with what little garbage equipment you can scrounge up to try to help settle a local dispute between two families.
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Jun 13, 2023 19:22
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Nebalebadingdong posted:are prole uprisings with commandeered or jerry-rigged mechs a thing in battletech or is this just a fever dream im having? What everyone here said, but also let's give you a time and place for a common occurrence like that: There's an entire era of BattleTech that's now representative of that kind of thing--the beginning of the Dark Age in 3132, specifically on worlds in a perimeter closer to Terra in the (soon to fall) Republic of the Sphere. A Sphere-wide comms blackout effectively decapitates Republic leadership indefinitely, leaving many hidden cells to instigate and motivate proles to take matters into their own hands. There had been a huge disarmement of all forces within the perimeter after the Word of Blake Jihad WMD-fest, and the most readily available "armored" (but poorly) equipment for various factions rising up were civilian-grade things like the aforementioned IndustrialMechs. Just as a warning though, in case you were looking for it--not a lot of those uprisings were particularly socialist in nature, or even anti-feudal, to say the least. Imagine Draconis Combine-aligned cells literally waiting decades to stab their prefecture governors in the back in the name of ethnic and cultural purity. Sidesaddle Cavalry fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Jun 13, 2023 |
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Jun 13, 2023 21:27
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If I was writing for CGL I'd have a prole uprising being armed and secretly co-opted by Blakist cells. That way you can have your ramshackle army decked out with converted industrial mechs plus WoB mech variants (minus the fancy WoB gear like C3i) can come back for the IlClan era. You could even throw in some Solaris VII mechs and Protomechs for good measure.
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Jun 13, 2023 23:57
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It's a thing I find a little weird in gray death book 2 people seem to switch out mechs and I thought it took a real long time to do that without being mega hosed up by headaches or straight up killed with you do that.
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Jun 14, 2023 00:01
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They already played the "WoB arming people" card on Melissia, WoB support seems like it's more small arms and light vees these days.ilmucche posted:It's a thing I find a little weird in gray death book 2 people seem to switch out mechs and I thought it took a real long time to do that without being mega hosed up by headaches or straight up killed with you do that. If you have all the right access codes and equipment you can do it in a few hours. It's also probably something that hadn't been formalized yet at that point. Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Jun 14, 2023 |
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Jun 14, 2023 00:03
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BattleMaster posted:\ but they could also have gone to one of those (usually predatory) private schools give you some basic pilot training in exchange for usually too much money. oh crap I completely forgot about this nugget. Hits a lot harder now that for-profit colleges are such a known scam, huh? I AM A PHOENIX! (Hawk pilot) (simulator experience only) (with massive student loans)
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Jun 14, 2023 06:24
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GD_American posted:oh crap I completely forgot about this nugget. Hits a lot harder now that for-profit colleges are such a known scam, huh? -How many missions have you done? -48…simulated. 2 actual…including this one 
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Jun 14, 2023 09:16
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GD_American posted:oh crap I completely forgot about this nugget. Hits a lot harder now that for-profit colleges are such a known scam, huh?
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Jun 14, 2023 14:08
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So I’m planning a sort of goodbye game as I’ll be leaving Berlin and my first BattleTech buddies behind in a few weeks. I was thinking of a chaotic Grinder game where people can bring a list of 4 mechs/5000BV and you get points by crippling enemy mechs and holding objectives (which randomly become active - to keep the players having to move). I also want to spice it up even more by having a secret list of wacky poo poo that’ll earn you points if you’re the first to do it. Here are a couple of ideas I came up with in a couple of minutes Kill a fully intact mech with one headshot Cripple a fully intact mech in one shooting phase Cause a critical hit to your own mech by whiffing a kick Charge a bigger mech with a smaller mech DFA! Push an enemy mech off a cliff Push an enemy mech out of bounds Willingly run out of bounds yourself Bludgeon an enemy mech with a torn-off limb Kick someone in the head when they’re down Skid into an enemy mech Alpha Strike with more than 3 weapons and whiff everything Alpha Strike with more than 3 weapons and hit with everything Have your pilot faint Overheat enough for a shutdown roll Have the only light mech against only heavies and assaults Punch with a mech that has no arms Again, just a quick list I came up with thinking about it for the first time. Y’all have any other good suggestions? a cyborg mug fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jun 15, 2023 |
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Jun 15, 2023 19:44
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punch the head off a mech kick the head off a mech punch crit an engine/cause an ammo explosion
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Jun 15, 2023 20:02
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ilmucche posted:punch the head off a mech drat, those should’ve been obvious, thanks! Some more Two mechs kick each other, both mechs fail PSR Have all enemies focus fire on your mech in a shooting phase and survive Use a PPC as a point-blank weapon Use LRMs as a point-blank weapon Use up all of your ammo for one weapon Cripple an enemy with a rear-facing weapon Bring a pilot with worse than 4/5 stats Bring a mech that’s ill-suited for the format (Ostscout, Raven, UrbanMech, Annihilator…) Bring an old as hell/totally obsolete mech (Mackie, Swordsman, primitive variants etc.) Edit: Basically just cool or dumb poo poo you can do or that can happen in BattleTech lol a cyborg mug fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Jun 15, 2023 |
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Jun 15, 2023 20:14
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Do damage to all three rear torso locations on a Mech.
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Jun 15, 2023 21:27
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The infamous “beat a mech with its own arm/leg/weapon” that I’ve heard about before in Classic 
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Jun 15, 2023 21:30
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"use an improvised weapon" in general is such a rare occurrance it might as well be a unicorn. If someone rips up a tree to make a club, reward that.
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Jun 15, 2023 21:31
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Do damage with a torpedo.
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Jun 15, 2023 21:42
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sweep the leg i.e. kick a mech and have it die or have the pilot KOed that turn via falling over
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Jun 15, 2023 21:51
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Kill a 'Mech with a Charge Kill yourself with a Charge Same for DFAs. They're both uncommon enough anyways Speaking of torpedoes, kill a' Mech with internal flooding in general Kill a 'Mech while standing on one leg (or two legs if you're a Quad)
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Jun 15, 2023 22:26
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Is this what savannah masters actually look like? They're like slimmed down fire stingrays from f-zero. I love them.
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Jun 15, 2023 23:25
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yup, here's their latest official art 
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Jun 16, 2023 02:05
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So a Savannah master can’t climb a hill, right? Certainly not a two level change hill, though I don’t even know if tracked vehicles can do that.
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Jun 16, 2023 02:08
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Vehicles can't make 2 level changes, no, and 1 level changes cost them 2 mp
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Jun 16, 2023 02:10
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Additionally, each Combat Vehicle type has different restrictions and interactions with various types of terrain. For example, Hovercraft can't enter any woods at all, and can enter water hexes but travel on the surface of the water. Total Warfare page 52 (or thereabouts, it may vary depending on printing) has the full list of terrain including restrictions and exceptions.
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Jun 16, 2023 02:19
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I'd describe vehicles as being like rock, paper, scissors; except wheeled vehicles just get screwed if they touch any surface that isn't concrete.
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Jun 16, 2023 02:24
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apologies if this has been posted already, but there's a fundraising raffle for The Trevor Project with a bunch of battletech stuff as raffle prizes here 100% of the money goes to TTP (minus the usual processing fees, unless you opt in to paying those as well, which imo you should), every $5 is a raffle entry, instructions on that page for where to send donation confirmation for raffle entry PoptartsNinja posted:I'd describe vehicles as being like rock, paper, scissors; except wheeled vehicles just get screwed if they touch any surface that isn't concrete. rock, tissue paper, scissors
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Jun 16, 2023 16:40
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DFA your target in a mech without jump jets.
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Jun 16, 2023 20:18
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a cyborg mug posted:Two mechs kick each other, both mechs fail PSR Two mechs kick each other, both hit, both fail their PSR. Two mechs kick each other, both miss, both fail their PSR. Other fun ones: DFA and crit your own ammo from the fall damage. Kill yourself with heat the same turn you kill another mech. Kill a pilot while leaving the mech combat-ready. Two mechs headshot each other in the same turn. Take out two mechs with split firing. Called shot: head. Beat a mech with your own blown off limb.
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Jun 16, 2023 22:02
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"Found the Stairs": have a mech destroyed by a collapsing building after falling in a basement.
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Jun 16, 2023 23:41
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Hey guys I know very little about Battletech other than that Mechwarrior exists and the Mad Cat is hands down the coolest (and coolest-looking) mech. So on a friend’s recommendation I bought the Wolf’s Dragoons box so I could paint a Mad Cat. And then the Mercenaries Kickstarter happened and I backed it specifically to get the big Mad Cat so I can paint it and do the “don’t talk to me or my son ever again” meme, with the intention of selling off the rest of the pledge rewards. And then I got to thinking, could I use my box and play a game? So my local game shop said “sure you can” and I played a short game with my Mad Cat. And then I painted the other 4 mechs from the box. And then I played a second game yesterday. And then on my way out of the shop I bought the ComStar Command box because the King Crab looks neat and I like crustaceans. And now I’m watching Tex Talks Battletech lore videos and reading Sarna.net, and I don’t think I’m going to sell off the Mercenaries stuff from the Kickstarter. Have I hosed up? And if so, how badly did I gently caress up?
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Jun 17, 2023 06:22
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It's not 40k. You can have a perfectly good time with it just dipping a toe. On second thought, I've seen pictures of your Transformers collection. Yeah, you mighta hosed up.
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Jun 17, 2023 06:24
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Don't feel pressured to keep any minis for 'mechs you don't care about or don't like the look of. Since the game doesn't require you to play with WYSIWYG minis (or even use minis at all) you can play whatever you want without having to keep a mini specifically for it. If you actually like every single 'mech you've purchased and can't wait to paint them all, yeah you hosed up because you'll just want to buy more.
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Jun 17, 2023 06:31
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What is the market like for selling off mechs? Also I’m already eyeing the ComStar Battle Level II box because it has a Crab in it and I think it’d be funny to pair it with the King Crab and make Team Crustacean Supremacy.
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Jun 17, 2023 06:52
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Xenomrph posted:What is the market like for selling off mechs? The Crustacean Sensations!
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Jun 17, 2023 07:18
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Shrimp battle armor. Lobster tanks. Crayfish VTOLS.
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Jun 17, 2023 07:55
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Gonna say it again, I was super disappointed that the Hermit Crab didn't have one configuration where it was covered in Modular Armor.
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Jun 17, 2023 08:00
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Atlas Hugged posted:Shrimp battle armor. Are those real things
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Jun 17, 2023 08:00
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Xenomrph posted:Are those real things No, the only other crab (or crustacean in general) is the Hermit Crab, which is 25 tons.
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Jun 17, 2023 08:02
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Xenomrph posted:Are those real things BattleMaster posted:No, the only other crab (or crustacean in general) is the Hermit Crab, which is 25 tons. They're as real as you want them to be.
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Jun 17, 2023 08:37
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Xenomrph posted:What is the market like for selling off mechs? Carcinization is actually a thing in Battletech
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Jun 17, 2023 10:22
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Kesper North posted:Carcinization is actually a thing in Battletech Tell me more
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Jun 17, 2023 16:23
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There’s a market for selling individual mechs, but turd-rear end stinkers* usually sell for less. *Opinions vary on which non-Charger mechs are turd-rear end stinkers.
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Jun 17, 2023 16:40
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