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quote:Katrina Steiner-Davion, on the other hand, is pretty much the snakiest snake you'll find outside the Draconis Combine's royal family. Yes. Yes she is. And that's why as a loyal Davion player for 20+ years I picked her side in the civil war. I, like many others, joined Davion back in the day because Hanse was a bad rear end, take no poo poo, balls out motherfucker. He did what it took to win, even if it was considered insane. Gotta break a centuries old stalemate? Married into another house for personal advantage. Get hosed with by Max Liao? Take half his god damned nation. Hanse was the epitome of a Successor Lord. What did Victor do? Ride on his daddy's coattails, surround himself with mary sues and generally putz around at the Clans while his realm (and father's legacy) fell apart. The majority of what he did was because he happened to be someone with a fancy last name who was in the right place at the right time, not because of his skill or drive. This is a man who, when confronted with the loss of the largest Successor state in existence, shrugged his shoulders and joined ComStar. The moron went as far as to not learn from the past and repeated Operation: Doppelganger on Joshua Marik and was surprised when it didn't work and he managed to lose (in a matter of weeks) nearly all the territory gained in the 4th Succession War! Kathrine, on the other hand, looked at her lot in life and said hell no. She spent her entire life crawling upwards - doing everything she could to go forward. She planned long ahead, forming critical alliances with major players such as Vlad Ward and Ryan Steiner. She talked her sister into literally handing over control of a quarter of the Inner Sphere to her. She assassinated her own mother for personal advancement. She stole her own brother's DNA to create a child with him for the explicit purpose of loving up Victor's legacy. Up until the writers force-fed her crazy pills near the end of the Civil War to make her a comic book bad guy, she was the epitome of the backstabbing, savvy, take no poo poo leader that a Successor Lord should be. Victor was a Steiner. Kathrine was a Davion. And that's why I sided with the ones who were obviously losing. Because I'm a Davion, drat it. And Victor is not.
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Jan 28, 2011 16:02
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WarLocke posted:Wait, wait, that first part is not crazy? She's a Successor Lord. Assassination of family members is a completely acceptable course of action if it gets you closer to the throne. When I say 'crazy pills', I mean near the end when she started doing things like saying "Let's ignore the full scale Clan Jade Falcon invasion", "Loyalty purges within my army embroiled in a bloody military campaign is a great idea" and "My troops are using Ares Conventions banned weapons for the first time in centuries? Eh, no big deal.".
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Jan 28, 2011 20:04
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TildeATH posted:I'd buy those Stickers/T-Shirts/Motivational Posters. As would I. A unicorn pony with a PPC for a horn sounds awesome.
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Jan 28, 2011 20:42
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WarLocke posted:New Hell's Horses totem mech spotted. As soon as they figure how to cram an ER PPC into the head. Well, let's look at options. What could fit in the head? We could shove in an ERLL or a Plasma Cannon. A pony-unicorn-mech with a horn that spews fire?
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Jan 28, 2011 22:28
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Felime posted:So, uuh, is there any way to get in touch with goons who play MegaMek? It seems like a campaign on that would be tons of fun. Most of us do play. It's just that I don't think any of us have been arsed to organize one lately.
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Jan 28, 2011 22:47
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Defiance Industries posted:Yeah, it's basically a Pocket Medium rather than a light, which put it in a weird place in 3050. More a pocket heavy. There's a couple designs like that, and they're all pretty good. Panther, Vindicator, Whitworth, Blackjack. 35-45 tons, 4/6/4 with a shocking amount of armor for their size and rather good firepower (Some versions of the Blackjack excluded). Honestly, some of my favorite mech designs. Efficient and effective.
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Jan 29, 2011 00:48
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PoptartsNinja posted:Lieutenant Barnes chortled into the comms. “Ha, got you now you snake bastard! Let’s see you get over the river with no leg armor!” For the uninitiated: One of the more interesting rules of Battletech is that water is bad for parts without armor. If a mech section which has no armor on it is submerged, all parts within it are flooded and effectively destroyed. This means the Dragon, if it walks into the river, will lose the use of all four leg actuators in the right leg. This is almost 100% certain to make it fall over and never be able to stand up again. If it manages to somehow stay up, it's going to suffer so many movement penalties that it's effectively immobilized.
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Jan 29, 2011 02:03
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Now, I think we should honor the duel. We're obviously winning, this is not a problem. However! If we're going to break it, I should point out something very important. The Vulcan has a jump of 6. It is 6 hexes from getting behind the Dragon. The Dragon has an open leg and is next to water. There are rules for pushing mechs.
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Jan 29, 2011 02:15
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Hob_Gadling posted:You could also jump on the appropriate side back hex and try to kick the leg out. But pushing it to rot on the riverbed sounds much more interesting. Exactly. If we're going to break an honor duel, we might as well do it and finish him in the most humiliating way we can. By crippling him with a river and letting him drown when he tries to eject. (And get a free Dragon in the process!)
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Jan 29, 2011 02:24
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Mukaikubo posted:On the other hand, who would we be fighting? Outworlders? Pirates? Anybody who was foolish enough to stray in range of our guns. And since we'd be Marik, that includes other FWL units.
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Jan 29, 2011 06:09
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PoptartsNinja posted:If I have my way, you will all come to hate Goliath Scorpions with pulse lasers and targeting computers. Oh, do I have bad news for you then. Total Warfare, page 143, Pulse and Rapid-Fire Weapons.
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Jan 29, 2011 16:57
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Agent Interrobang posted:Speaking honestly, I don't mind aliens. But they just don't WORK in Battletech, because the entire series is predicated upon endless, largely pointless feudal conflicts. One of the setting's appeals to me actually is that there ARE no aliens. It's still about man's cruelty to man - all the sci-fi trappings but without bumpy forehead peoples and such to distract. Fighting against other people rather than against generic stereotyped aliens gives it more impact.
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Jan 30, 2011 06:33
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Agent Interrobang posted:Speaking of which, to veer this back on-topic, has anyone heard any more news about the Harmony Gold bullshit surrounding the upcoming MechWarrior game? I can kind of understand if they're just griping about the Warhammer used in the trailer, but does anyone know if they were planning to have more of the Unseen mechs in the game? It seems a bit too hissy for them to be complaining this much about just one. From the information I've read and heard, it boils down to that Smith & Tinker wanted to use the Unseen (several of them), and Harmony Gold pitched a fit and a half despite not actually using those designs in any way in like 15+ years. So off to lawsuit land it went.
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Jan 30, 2011 17:42
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W.T. Fits posted:Again, the disdain for the clicky version puzzles me, especially after having read that blog post that paragon1 linked to which mentions that WizKids was founded by Jordan Weisman... the same guy who founded FASA. To add to what Axe-man said, also keep in mind the time period. MW:DA came about in 2002. Only a few years before, the great grand-daddy of all gaming companies, TSR, had been bought out by Wizards of the Coast. The foundation of the roleplaying community, now being run by the guys who's claim to fame was Magic: The Gathering. There was a lot of concern that WotC was going to turn D&D into something like M:tG - gronard fears, but still fears. Then FASA (another of the great early gaming companies) is bought out by a new young gun company, who promptly announce they're largely discarding the venerable Battletech line and remaking it as a collectable miniatures game with blind booster packs. It fostered a lot of bad blood in the old guard very, very quickly.
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Jan 30, 2011 23:00
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Dominus Caedis posted:Not to derail any further but WotC is actually releasing DnD: the Gathering as an optional rule that is mandatory for certain events. Like literally trading cards that you use in a DnD game. So the grognard fears were not unfounded. Arquinsiel posted:What you mean they didn't? To be fair to them, that was a fear in 1997 when the buy-out happened. This is 14 years later that they finally are, and well after WotC was bought out themselves.
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Jan 31, 2011 02:14
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Mukaikubo posted:Didn't a Duke Ian Dresari show up in one of the novels as helping to fight off a Draconis Combine attack on Kentares? I seem to recall something like that, but dimly. No, that was his brother Col. Peter Dresari of the 4th Davion Guards. Duke Ian did reappear in the FedCom Civil War though - he fought to defend Kentares against the 3rd Benjamin Regulars and got saved by the 10th Lyran. See though, this is one of the things I like about the current writers. They've been taking steps to bring into canon all the non-canon stuff, like the Mechwarrior games and such. I was actually pretty drat happy when I found that the Crescent Hawks are fully canonical now.
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Jan 31, 2011 05:43
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So half the thread goes "Kill the Hussar, it's weak but has enough firepower to murder all of you if he feels like it." Then nobody bothers to shoot the Hussar, instead opening up on the Spider which poses nearly no threat at all. Seriously guys. Kill the god damned Hussar. He can outmaneuver you, outrange most of you, and has ridiculous shooting skill. He's only peeled half the Vulcan apart and you've been lucky. If you do not put it down ASAP at least one of you will be walking home.
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Jan 31, 2011 07:05
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PoptartsNinja posted:K4 DRG-1G Grand Dragon remains in 2014 Pst. Poptarts. You did it again.
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Jan 31, 2011 07:06
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Artificer posted:Which mech has the highest chance of dying next turn? Spider or Hussar? Can the Vulcan afford to take another turn of fire from the Hussar? The Spider technically has a higher chance of dying. It has ammo and has been punched internal in two places. However, the Spider has almost half the effective range and firepower of the Hussar and is much slower. As for surviving another turn of fire? The Hussar does 8 points in a hit. The Vulcan has 7 points of armor left on his Left Torso. Which means that the next time the Hussar hits the Vulcan's LT, he will be rolling a crit chance versus the machine gun ammo there. And one more hit to the RT from either direction will destroy it, reducing the Vulcan's firepower to a single medium laser and a machine gun. At this point, it's likely to get at least two more shots, which means that it could also open up either of the Vulcan's legs or the CT. The Vulcan stands a not unreasonable chance of being destroyed or severely crippled on the next hit and is probably going to be shot at least twice more.
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Jan 31, 2011 07:12
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Okay, looking at the tactical situation a bit more, here's my advice: First, stop worrying about the Hussar running away. As Cthulhu notes, if he wants to there is no way you can stop him from doing so. He's MUCH faster than you and has a range lead. If he's going to leave now, there is nothing you can do about it. Second, presuming he isn't running away, at this point he is going to eat you alive from long range. The Vulcan and the Jenner need to get out of his LOS immediately. You're in no position to hurt him this turn, and he will murder either of you cold. Fall back behind that hill and let him come to you. Yes, the Jenner too. Aside from your CT, he can open your armor up in any location on a single hit. Including your head. Third, the Blackjack, while tougher, will not be able to win in a duel. You have equal range, but he moves two and a half times as fast as you and targets at two less. In practical terms, this means that you're going to have a to-hit of anywhere between 9 and 12, best case. If he's allowed to exploit the range, it isn't tough to make it literally impossible for you to hit. Meanwhile, while you're shooting at 10s, he's shooting at 6s. You will not win. Fall back into the brush. If you fall back, he'll be forced to engage at closer range. Rougher terrain means less movement modifiers. You only need one good salvo to cripple the Hussar, but you need him in close and slowed to get that salvo.
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Jan 31, 2011 07:32
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Agent Interrobang posted:It's down to the very odd way Battletech handles ammo explosions. You see, each notional 'shot' deals damage to the mech. Machine gun ammo comes in 100 shots per half-ton. Though to be fair, all ammo is dangerous like that. Autocannons hold about 100 points of damage per ton of ammo, SRMs pack about 200, LRMs about 120. The machine gun is skewed because of how many shots it has - it carries 400 points of damage per ton. And while you can fire off most other weapons fast enough to bring their explosive potential down, you will NEVER fire enough machine gun rounds off to have an appreciable difference in how badly it screws you. Exception: 1 ton of ammo, 20 machine guns. Then it works!
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Jan 31, 2011 07:45
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PoptartsNinja posted:It's one ton of .50 ammo. An actual, physical ton on a single belt-feed mechanism. It is a lot of armor-piercing bullets. A .50 BMG round weighs between 42 and 52g. So a ton of MG ammo is packing between 17,000 and 21,000 rounds of ammo. 
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Jan 31, 2011 07:49
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PoptartsNinja posted:It's a Clan honor thing. Sea Fox did something to piss the Snow Ravens off, the Snow Ravens overreacted and popped a serious black-quadrant mad-on for the Sea Foxes. For reference, the something was actually quiet minor - the Sea Foxes successfully defended a Snow Raven bid for some oil fields and insulted the Ravens a few times for good measure. A pretty minor incident.
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Jan 31, 2011 18:10
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KnoxZone posted:Nobody ever said that hitting that little bastard would be easy, but it is something that must be done. A single large laser hit might be enough to ruin it. Yes. Yes it would. 8 points will blow off the head or either arm, and leave the legs/side torsos with 1 point internal left. Only a direct CT shot won't break the armor. However keep in mind that the Hussar has no important components in the arms or side torsos. Half the mech is little more than ablative armor.
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Jan 31, 2011 20:42
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Axe-man posted:arghhh now i want to fire at the bastard, By my math, you have three positioning options. 1) Stay where you are. 0 movement mod for you. Range 9. You shoot on a 10. He shoots on a 6. (However, you are in partial cover and so somewhat protected.) 2) Jump to 0907. 3 movement mod. Range 5. You shoot on a 11. He shoots on a 6. 3) Run to either 0707 or 0807. 2 movement mod. Range 6. You shoot on a 12. He shoots on a 7. If you're gonna shoot, stay put and fire. But you've got about a 16% chance to hit, and he's got around 72%.
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Jan 31, 2011 20:53
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let me recount it
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:For the love of god, don't do this. Literally the most likely outcome is he punches a large laser into you, you miss him completely and nothing is accomplished, because your lancemates will be out of position. Yes, exactly. Engaging the Hussar this turn is a really bad idea at best. I was just demonstrating the best possible options. None of which are actually good. KnoxZone posted:I am highly skeptical that the Hussar will willingly walk into an ambush. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the Hussar happily ignores the trap and moves around to a different firing angle. I think the best chance at getting him would be to spread out over a large area and pin him in. A single large laser isn't that dangerous, even in the hands of a skilled gunner. Except that the single large laser IS a threat. And bluntly? It's already pinned in. If the Hussar wants to engage there's nowhere to go but towards the lights. Thanks to the hill and the forest, there isn't another good firing angle. And even with 2 gun, shooting through several light woods into partial cover isn't a good idea.
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Jan 31, 2011 21:53
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Gothsheep posted:I'm kind of curious...Does anybody know what the piloting stats of some of the major FCs are? You can find them piecemeal, mostly in older sourcebooks. They vary pretty wildly depending on the timeframe. In Tales of the Black Widow and 4th Succession War Atlas, Natasha Kerensky is listed as being a 4/3 pilot. In More Tales of the Black Widow and The Falcon and The Wolf, she was 0/0.
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Jan 31, 2011 22:43
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Pladdicus posted:PSH! I jumpjetted into the woods, JUST TO SEE WHAT THE MECHANICS ON JUMPJETTING INTO THE WOODS WERE! I live for danger! Mostly, I live to roll melee attacks! Bring it on! I'll kick that Hussar square in the FACE It may not be the tactically wisest maneuver, but I respect the guts. Which may or may not be smeared across the battlefield shortly.
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Feb 1, 2011 03:10
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Holy god drat, Pladdicus you are one lucky son of a bitch. Now give chase and kill!
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Feb 1, 2011 07:55
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Trast posted:Can mechs purge various coolants or fluids at will? I'm sure standing over the fallen mech and having an arc of oil landing on the Dragon's windshield wound be pretty insulting. The Dragon was defeated in an honor duel by a mercenary. There's like a 90% chance he's already committed seppuku. Kinda pointless to insult.
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Feb 1, 2011 17:51
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Fraction Jackson posted:In all fairness to the Dragoons, it's not really their fault that the WOB murdered the hell out of them, it's pretty well established that nothing post-3067 makes any loving sense, most notably how WOB managed to somehow become super-badass overnight and manage the logistical nightmare of a seemingly infinite number of multi-jump surgical strikes. Of all the problems associated with the Jihad, the one bright point I felt was the Battle of Outreach. It warmed my heart that after fifty nine years Wayne Waco got to be the one that killed Jaime Wolf. It was poetry.
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Feb 1, 2011 19:08
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You guys are amazingly lucky and/or good. That was one hell of a fight. I don't think anything didn't go your way! Also, concurring - Vulcan and Hussar for MVPs.
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Feb 1, 2011 21:05
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WarLocke posted:Wait what? Where does this happen? I thought I had all the pre-DA books! It's pretty blatantly stated in Dawn of the Jihad. Waco's Battlemaster was found as a smoking wreck just meters away from Jaime Wolf's Archer, both blasted and gutted. The two died in mortal combat, killing each other with their respective last breaths. Of all the bullshit the Jihad caused, that one moment was beautiful. I was glad to see Wayne Waco hadn't just faded and been forgotten by the writers.
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Feb 1, 2011 21:09
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A. Why in god's name would Hanse Davion give worlds back to the Snakes? And defying ComStar for minimal gain is pretty stupid.
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Feb 2, 2011 02:08
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F. Much as I like the Arkab Legion and the Marauders, the 17th is too awesome to pass up.
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Feb 2, 2011 18:07
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KnoxZone posted:They are the only Capellan unit worth a drat. The Big Mac would like to have a word with you. 
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Feb 2, 2011 21:25
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PoptartsNinja posted:I've got Heavy Metal. I just haven't looked into running a conversion. And no, I'm not talking about a medium 'Mech. Get Solaris Skunkworks. It actually allows you to export a design as a megamek file right from the dropdown menu.
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Feb 3, 2011 06:30
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Oh, it is so on now. Don't worry, nameless NPCs! Bunny Bear and I shall protect you! 
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Feb 3, 2011 14:40
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Time for a quick battlefield review! RFL-3N Rifleman  The Rifleman's one of the Unseen and has been around forever. Originally designed as an AA platform, in game terms it's a somewhat flawed design. It packs pretty decent firepower - out to range 15 it can rattle off 26 damage a turn - but has middling armor and major heat issues. With only 10 heat sinks, you start overheating if you do more than fire one large laser and move. Still, a classic and fairly standard design. HBK-4G Hunchback  The Hunchy's what happens when someone just wants a big gun. Another of the original crop of mechs, the Hunchback's slow for it's size but makes up for it with great armor and a god damned AC20. Not much range but it will murder the poo poo out of anything that comes close. A common phrase regarding the Hunchback is 'Bubble of Doom' - that AC20 is fearsome enough to act as an area denial weapon, creating a bubble of clear territory of 6 hexes around the Hunchback that nobody wants to enter. LNC25-01 Lancelot  The only mech in this match (so far) that's not from the original 3025 TR, the Lancelot is a mostly lost SLDF design. A heavy medium with a pure energy base, it was designed to minimize logistics. Of particular note is that the -01 version is LosTech! While the guns are all standard, the -01 has double heat sinks, and an XL engine! Meaning it can fire the PPC and both large lasers without gaining heat and it moves 6/9, as fast as a Wasp does! The XL engine, however, is really fragile and the Lancelot is dead if it loses one of the side torsos! CPLT-C1 Catapult  One of the two classic fire support designs (the other being the Archer), the Catapult pairs long ranged firepower with jumping mobility. She's a great machine, detracted only by the low ammo count. After 8 salvos, those LRMs are dry so they gotta count! WVR-6M Wolverine  Another of the Unseen, the Wolverine is a classic medium striker mech. Quick, well armored and (in this case) packing an energy-based loadout, it's a solid all-around mech with few weaknesses.
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Feb 3, 2011 15:15
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Cythereal posted:@Hunchbacks: if I remember my MechWarrior right, don't Hunchbacks have tinfoil for armor? The HBK-4G packs 160 points of armor, out of a maximum possible of 169 for it's weight. So... no.
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Feb 3, 2011 15:16
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