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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:what is this EXT-7X heat curve and why is it "elegant" At range: movement (6 or 10) plus Stealth (10) + LAMS (7) is -3 or +1 depending on type, with full defensive suite. Up close: movement (6, ideally set up a run with MASC for a +3 to keep your AMM lower than a jump), deactivate stealth and LAMS, and you have the option for +1 (three VSPLs) or +8 (four VSPLs) or +12 (four VSPLs and MRM) at point blank range and excellent numbers. The +8 is my read as the most efficient option. Re-engage Stealth and jump away for 10 (movement) + 10 (stealth) and cool off for -6. This gets you back to no penalties immediately if you went to -8 (net +) and you can immediately dive in again if you set up a good run that gets you to +10, then cool down back to +4 to let you do a third time in a row if you need to. The third cycle gets you to +6 on your off turn, but you can use MASC to keep your mods high and still go in for an attack run and fire three VSPLs, which will take you to +7 and the cool down turn will get you back to +1 and no heat penalties, or you can fire four again and just disengage for two turns instead. The pattern is not as simple as an Awesome's 3-3-2 or a dedicated bracket firer's drop-in/drop-out weapon combinations, but it does have a pattern that results in high mobility, high offense that you can repeat indefinitely. The benefit is that on paper it burns as bright as the sun, so you start to get BV discounts on literally the second gun so it's cheap as dirt for a mech that can be putting out almost 30 damage at -3 to hit with good reliability.
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 18:42 |
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# ? Jun 4, 2024 15:58 |
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Strobe posted:At range: movement (6 or 10) plus Stealth (10) + LAMS (7) is -3 or +1 depending on type, with full defensive suite. That is a lot more in depth than my cursory glance of "charge in, shoot VSPs, jump out and cool off". But great explanation on the elegant heat curve. It also has a coolant pod! So if you find yourself in a good position, you can blaze away with everything for two turns.
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 19:08 |
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Got it. Same caveats as a typical striker that runs hot - needs long engagement time and plenty of space to be able to afford to do damage only every other turn, not getting hit by Plasma weapons or especially Flamers in the case of MVSPL Short range.
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 19:13 |
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GD_American posted:Are there any canonical training Mechs in the IS besides the Chameleon and Crockett? Trying to make a full 5000BV lance Not entirely what you're asking for, but the Kit Fox is usually the Clan preferred training 'Mech.
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 19:24 |
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Entire page of this thread has me being wrong 5 times in the past day. I am sorry for ever posting, you can safely add me to your ignore list Hey, don't worry, it's a learning experience!
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 20:39 |
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I will die of an ammo explosion before I remember that Exterminator has a coolant pod
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 21:01 |
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Same. I would be treating it like a full-healing item in an RPG. I'm imagining shouting "BUT WHAT IF I NEEED IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT" as I'm getting hurled skyward by my own ejector seat.
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 21:23 |
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Strobe posted:I will die of an ammo explosion before I remember that Exterminator has a coolant pod This obviously doesn't change poo poo about how you use it though.
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# ? Feb 23, 2024 22:35 |
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I didn't have the sheet in front of me, and assumed it had the worse equipment. Happy to be wrong!
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 00:07 |
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It doesn't really change how you use it at all, although the failure state is going to make your heat curve a lot spicier. In other news, it seems like the prepaints are going to have the plastic coloured to match the base, with only hilights and details tampographed on. That'll make repaints a lot easier.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 00:48 |
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Just dove into this and picked up the Beginner Set, the Game of Armored Combat Box, and the IS Urban Lance box. I like the lore of the Capellan Confederation and I want to make a somewhat fluffy list/lance/force (not sure the term). I’ve read that the Raven, Vindicator, Cyclops, Cataphract, and sort of the Catapult are classic Capellan mechs. Anything else stand out as classic Capellan stuff? How do y’all generally organize your collection with painting. I see a lot of groups of four mechs painted the same which I’m guessing is because that’s a standard Lance size, but do you end up with a bunch of differently painted groups of four mechs? Figure I’ll paint some of the other mechs another way, but I’m very new to this and I think the lack of guard rails like a lot of other wargames is throwing me off.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 04:59 |
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Do whatever you want. It's not really possible to go wrong with that. Most of what you've got is fairly generic, but the rest either has strong associations with the Capellans or is common in neighbouring states, thereby invoking the magic words: "battlefield salvage". My advice is pick a CCAF unit you like the colours or the history of and paint those until you get bored or something else catches your eye.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 05:10 |
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Placentaur posted:Figure I’ll paint some of the other mechs another way, but I’m very new to this and I think the lack of guard rails like a lot of other wargames is throwing me off. There're a couple of Capellan units with really fun canon colors like the Prefectorate Guard, House Ma-Tsu Kai, Sian Dragoons, and the various McCarron's Armored Cavalry regiments (which may not be Capellan for much longer). But most CCAF units just use boring jungle green and tan camos, so if you're not sure what unit to pick that's always an option.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 06:51 |
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Thunderbolt is also reasonably Capellan frequent, and there are several Hunchback variants that come out of that area of space later. Capellan forces later in the fiction also will sometimes deploy in what are called Augmented Lance's that are basically four of one kind of unit (i.e. Mechs) and two of another (like tanks or armored infantry). You can make anything look visibly Capellan by fielding them in Augmented Lances.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 06:53 |
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Placentaur posted:Just dove into this and picked up the Beginner Set, the Game of Armored Combat Box, and the IS Urban Lance box. If you're sticking to the 4th Succession War or thereabouts (from 3025 to the Clan Invasion), those ones except for the Cyclops are pretty Capellan. The Cyclops is definitely available to everyone so feel free to use it, though. Also look at the Charger (especially the beastly CGR-1A5, or the CGR-1L if you want a laugh), UrbanMech, Cicada, Clint, Blackjack, Victor, and Highlander. There are Capellan variants of various other 'mechs such as the Wasp WSP-1L, Crusader CRD-3L, Warhammer WHM-6L, and Marauder MAD-3L. If you go further ahead in time, the Capellans get so many original designs I can't even list them all. The Ti Ts'ang (really loving good), Men Shen (awesome), Jinggau, Duan Gung, Gùn, Yao Lien, Yu Huang, Lu Wei Bing, Lao Hu, Sha Yu,Tian-zong, Snake, Cossack, and I'm sure many others. They also get access to Magistracy of Canopus originals like the Agrotera, Calliope, Anubis, and Eyleuka. They also have access to all of the "common pool" IS OmniMechs: Owens (although they apparently lose it during the Dark Age), Strider, Firestarter Omni, Blackjack Omni, Black Hawk-KU, Avatar, and Sunder. (I list those because I just think they're neat and also because the Firestarter U and Black Hawk-KU G are my favorite units, and even though it looks kind of garbo on paper I've never been disappointed by the Blackjack E.) Arquinsiel posted:Do whatever you want. It's not really possible to go wrong with that. Most of what you've got is fairly generic, but the rest either has strong associations with the Capellans or is common in neighbouring states, thereby invoking the magic words: "battlefield salvage". My advice is pick a CCAF unit you like the colours or the history of and paint those until you get bored or something else catches your eye. Not incorrect but honestly not really a useful reply if someone wants to build a force that has a definite faction flavor BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 07:14 on Feb 24, 2024 |
# ? Feb 24, 2024 07:05 |
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Placentaur posted:Just dove into this and picked up the Beginner Set, the Game of Armored Combat Box, and the IS Urban Lance box. Is your goal to appreciate the canonicity of the machines in question as the primary objective, or do you plan to attempt competitive BattleTech with others at LGSes, for example? There's a few rules you may have to set for others playing you if you specifically want to run extremely flavorful CCAF, namely era, force power level (usually measured in Battle Value), and type of scenario. Also, to truly appreciate the different 'Mechs of your faction of choice, I honestly recommend just going to a place where you can play other peoples' 'Mechs and their corresponding record sheets, to get a feel for how certain designs' heat curves feel, and how their loadouts play into tactics. Anyone who's got BattleTech set up someone almost certainly will let you borrow their stuff. Or even proxy-mini stuff that you don't have, for the sake of learning. While I understand that a lot of folks are coming over from other wargaming systems, there's a lot of mechanics to get immersed in before committing to buying more miniatures for actual table play, The actual books for cookie cutter forces of any given faction are still in the works for 2024/2025, so in the meantime a lot of getting your feet wet is about just trying every different role of 'Mech there is out there. Baby steps.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 08:20 |
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PoptartsNinja posted:There're a couple of Capellan units with really fun canon colors like the Prefectorate Guard, House Ma-Tsu Kai, Sian Dragoons, and the various McCarron's Armored Cavalry regiments (which may not be Capellan for much longer). They'll keep SOME of the MAC. The 1st was rebuilt with ride-or-die Daoshen loyalists and the 2nd wants to put Danai on the throne. The other regiments? Not so much.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 08:48 |
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Placentaur posted:Just dove into this and picked up the Beginner Set, the Game of Armored Combat Box, and the IS Urban Lance box. If you want a full list of what units any given faction would normally have access to in any given era you can check out the masterunitlist, assuming the website isn't down. Which it frequently is. Xotl stopped updating his Random Access Table a few years ago, but should cover the frequency that a lot of mechs show up in for different factions. There are also tools for generating faction appropriate forces in the MekHQ part of MegaMek, but installing that can be a bit weird because of Java.
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 08:55 |
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BattleMaster posted:Not incorrect but honestly not really a useful reply if someone wants to build a force that has a definite faction flavor
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 16:23 |
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Kind of a weird question, but does anyone know if there's a way to change the armor diagrams in MegaMekLab to the classic Viper diagram instead of the modern one?
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# ? Feb 24, 2024 17:05 |
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Arquinsiel posted:I was aiming to avoid all the metals not currently in stock at $FLGS, so as not to introduce fetch quests. That's a cop-out and the original response was a non-answer. How about you can let them decide if they want to track certain minis down. edit: like they can also 3D print them or use tokens or proxies, so it would help if they knew what units to print out record sheets for so they can give them a try at least! If anything it helps a new player to have a limited decision space to pick units from until they get a better eye for things. Hell I've been playing for over 20 years and I stick to faction availability lists because otherwise I would never be able to assemble a force due to the sheer decision paralysis! BattleMaster fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Feb 24, 2024 |
# ? Feb 24, 2024 22:58 |
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You'll note that the post ended here:Placentaur posted:I think the lack of guard rails like a lot of other wargames is throwing me off.
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 00:33 |
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So I'm planning out my first miniature purchases in forever and the idea is a private training academy, a la Warner Mechwarrior Academy: https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Warner_MechWarrior_Academy Basically, a very for-profit college vibe, with roughly a company's worth of garbage at a roughly 3025 tech level. Thinking Chameleons, Stingers, a Hunchback, and a buncha Vedettes. Would it be annoying to field a lot of cheap garbage on tabletop, though? I'm genuinely not trying to zerg rush or strategize; I just like playing with crap. Other thought was a similar style school but for well-connected Lyran failsons, so that I could field heavy first-run expensive Mechs crewed by 8/8 morons
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 21:22 |
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Playing a horde of cheap trash is really viable and is a good shout for being a GM for a other players playing an OpFor. You will broadly have an advantage in initiative terms, but as long as there's a unit cap to keep you from really taking a crowbar to initiative it'll be fine. I would definitely not play 8/8s, though. Even at the worst I don't think I'd enjoy playing worse than 5/6s and that's even tough.
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 21:40 |
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Strobe posted:Playing a horde of cheap trash is really viable and is a good shout for being a GM for a other players playing an OpFor. You will broadly have an advantage in initiative terms, but as long as there's a unit cap to keep you from really taking a crowbar to initiative it'll be fine.
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 22:20 |
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8/8 just seems completely unplayable. Walking to shoot at a stationary target at close range still needs a 9. Holding still and shooting a stationary long range target is a 12. More than anything it would just not be very much fun to play, using any kind of mobility just shuts you down.
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 22:41 |
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And you might as well just go home if it starts raining
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# ? Feb 25, 2024 22:48 |
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Arquinsiel posted:Yeah, 5/6 is pretty much the lowest skill that's viable at all, and even then you will miss more than you hit. 6/7 is "it's my first day" level piloting, so putting them in an actual mech is risky, since they are more likely to fall over than not when rolling for almost anything that'd make them fall over. We tried a campaign where all the characters were completely green. Two pilots ended up with injuries after trying to walk through a stream. No one wanted to play a second session.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 00:35 |
I'm so bad at freehand, but it begins anyway.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 00:40 |
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blursed battlemech
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 00:53 |
Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:blursed battlemech I think I have official decals in my kit somewhere from Robotech RPG Tactics, too.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 00:55 |
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PhotoKirk posted:We tried a campaign where all the characters were completely green. Two pilots ended up with injuries after trying to walk through a stream. NinjaDebugger posted:
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 01:28 |
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So let's see- FRESHMAN LANCE- 1868 BV Stinger 3R (359) Stinger 3R (359) Stinger 3G (497) Valkyrie QF (653) SOPHOMORE LANCE- 3346 BV Vulcan 2T (642) Sentinel 3K (717) Centurion AH (945) Chameleon 7Z (1,042) FACULTY LANCE- 774 BV Warrior H7A VTOL (292) J Edgar Hovertank (MG variant) (482) So basically, a 6000 BV demi-company, which fits the whole theme of 2 training lances with dirt-common cheap designs overseen by a Headmaster flying around in the VTOL and a referee flitting about in the hovertank. I'm talking to a local kid about doing paintschemes, because I learned the hard way when I was younger that I am dogshit at painting and my hands shake too much to do fine detail. I'm thinking some kind of referee zebra stripe for the vehicles, and some obnoxious hi-vis safety scheme for the Mechs, with a bunch of big TRAINEE signage on them.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 02:21 |
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GD_American posted:So let's see- Those poor kids in Stingers.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 19:09 |
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At least they have a Medium Laser to defend themselves with. RIP that Sentinel pilot.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 19:44 |
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Arquinsiel posted:At least they have a Medium Laser to defend themselves with. RIP that Sentinel pilot. Oh god that's the downgrade isn't it.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 19:45 |
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Yup, the one that adds extra ammo for the AC5 and an extra half ton of armour instead of bumping the Small Laser to a Medium and adding another Medium to actually get some use out of the base 10 heat sinks.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 20:02 |
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J. Edgar Hoovertank
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 21:09 |
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Arquinsiel posted:Yup, the one that adds extra ammo for the AC5 and an extra half ton of armour instead of bumping the Small Laser to a Medium and adding another Medium to actually get some use out of the base 10 heat sinks. It ensures that there will be ammo to explode after the armor is (almost immediately) breached.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 21:15 |
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# ? Jun 4, 2024 15:58 |
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Really appreciate all the help in this thread! I feel a lot more confident and I'm excited to do a somewhat themed CapCon force. Definitely going to go through this thread and find some books to pick up to dive into the lore.
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# ? Feb 26, 2024 22:08 |