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Mukaikubo posted:I just spent several minutes trying to think of how to combine "Bullshit" and "Neg" appropriately to put in front of "You can be in mine." I'm surprised we're not making out already. We both love the Nova Cats, and we both think Hanse Davion could kick EVERYONE'S rear end FOREVER. Is there a BETTER basis for a relationship than Davions being awesome?
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Jan 25, 2011 05:50
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AtlantisMantis posted:Ah, the infamous Trial of Bow-chicka-bow-wow I like to imagine Clan marriage ceremonies are basically just Claw-Plach from Futurama.
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Jan 25, 2011 06:11
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Pladdicus has the right idea. Their lights can easily keep up with ours. Even if you spare the Dragon, the Kurita lights need to be taken out while you have the chance, since they can and likely WILL give chase, and in a light-versus-light running battle, the chasers have the edge since you'll be showing them your backs. Take them out now, then if you're still all green once that's done, go for the Dragon; if banged up, that's when you pull out.
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Jan 25, 2011 10:37
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Wait! I am from... history! An Abridged History of the Inner SpherePart 4 - Crazy Like A Fox Hanse Davion, nicknamed 'The Fox' for his cunning military mind and ambition, began conducting a series of military exercises in 3026. He discovered, to his surprise, that with proper organization and the integration of infantry and conventional armored units and artillery support into Battlemech platoons and battalions, he had the ability to quickly move massive amounts of firepower downfield, a practice that would form the basis for RCTs, Regimental Combat Teams. Additionally, with the increased resources following his alliance to the Lyrans, he had at his disposal a powerful fleet of jumpdrive-equipped transport vessels and military dropships. Realizing that decisive action would do him more good than waiting for the trinary aliance aligned against him to act, the Fox began to scheme. In 3028, Melissa Steiner and Hanse Davion married. At their reception, as he fed his new bride a slice of cake, Prince Davion made his famous declaration: "Wife, in honor of our marriage, in addition to this morsel I give you a great prize. My love, I give you the Capellan Confederation!" At these words, RCTs swarmed over the Capellan border from FedSun territory. Over the course of seven successive waves of troops and materiel, Davion had succeeded in seizing over half the Confederation's territory in a matter of months. The Fourth Succession War was on. Despite their territorial gains, the need for Jumpships to carry such massive amounts of materiel and troops required the subsidization of civilian craft. The FedSuns economy suffered as trade became limited to essentials only. The Draconis Combine took advantage of the troop redployments to raid worlds bordering the FedSun and Lyran halves of the Commonwealth, inflicting further economic harm. As 3029 dawned, it would be ComStar who moved to end the conflict, delivering an ultimatum to Hanse Davion: end the war, or ComStar would shut down all HPG relays in FedSun territory. The war continued for several weeks more as Davion assets cemented their hold on Capellan worlds, but Hanse himself was satisfied with his recent conquests and acquiesced. Arguably, it was the Free Worlds League who came off the best in the conflict, Captain-General Janos Marik taking the opportunity to occupy Capellan worlds on his side of the border under the guise of 'military aid.' With the Capellans almost neutered as a military threat, the next decade was largely spent as the various powers girded themselves for the next inevitable conflict. Federated Commonwealth forces begain joint exercises between Steiner and Davion-controlled units, cementing the RCT concept into official and standing doctrine. In response to Davion's blitzkrieg across Capellan lines, the Draconis Combine's Gunji-no-Kanrei Theodore Kurita restructured the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery. Command protocols and regulations were loosened up, and commanders were rewarded for personal initative more than honorable conduct. In a shocking move, Kurita signed an agreement with ComStar, ceding Combine worlds to independent governance, particularly in the Rasalhague district, in exchange for long-lost Star League military technology and Battlemechs to supplant the aging and undergunned Combine armored units. On March 13, 3034, the Free Rasalhague Republic, with backing from ComStar, declared independence from the Draconis Combine, with Theodore Kurita agreeing to pull all DCMS forces from the area. However, many traditionalist DCMS commanders refused to leave, despising Theodore for his progressive ways and refusing to acknowledge the newly-formed Kungsarmé as a legitimate military force. In a bold move to keep relations between the new Republic and the DC friendly, Theodore declared all DCMS commanders remaining in the Free Rasalhague Republic ronin, and dispatched loyalist troops into Rasalhague to assist the Kungsarmé in uprooting them. Though appreciated, the FRR was desperate for aid against the ronin, and made many hasty and ill-advised contracts with mercenary organizations. Though the ronin were driven out, the treasury was drained due to poor negotiation, and the people of the Republic learned to despise mercenaries. In 3039, Hanse Davion launched the second thrust of his bid for dominance. Steiner and Davion forces assaulted the Dieron district of the Draconis Combine, hoping that the DCMS had exhausted itself in Rasalhague. Though the first wave succeeded, the second wave would meet strong resistance, in the form of DCMS mechwarriors astride League-era Battlemechs. Theodore Kurita led his troops right into the jaws of the Commonwealth advance, gambling that Davion would not risk a protracted war against better-equipped troops; he hoped that Davion would believe he had more League-era equipment than he actually did. His roll of the dice worked, and Davion settled for a white peace. The War of 3039 changed little, and for the next ten years border skirmishes continued at a relatively stable and manageable pace. But all that changed on August 13th, 3049, when the Blood of Kerensky began to push across the Periphery, making first engagement against the Kell Hounds mercenary unit. The Clan Invasion had begun. Agent Interrobang fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Jan 25, 2011 |
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Jan 25, 2011 21:22
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Longinus00 posted:I wish the Capellan Confederation got a bit more indepth treatment. From the little lore I know they're kind of a blend of China and Israel. Unfortunately they border the protagonist faction (FedSuns) so the only time they really get written about is when bad things are happening to them. See above.  It also doesn't help that most of the books I've read basically cast Sun-Tzu Liao as sci-fi Fu Manchu.
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Jan 25, 2011 22:18
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Arglebargle III posted:However good the average IS citizen has it, the Successor States are supposed to be a negative force. They're consistently presented as a degenerate political system, clearly responsible for great evils and a definite decline from the days of yore. Except when the authors forget and start writing Mary Sues. I actually like the BattleTech setting a lot, but it seems like the authors sometimes forget that it's a fundamentally dystopic premise. Yeah, pretty much this. I like Battletech because no matter WHO you're rooting for, absolutely nobody is a 'good guy.' I don't like Hanse Davion because he's THE NICEST GUY NO REALLY HE JUST CONQUERS NATIONS WITH RANDOM BLITZKRIEGS AS A HOBBY, I like him because he's an entertainingly duplicitous and conniving bastard. Same reason I like Marthe Pryde.
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Jan 25, 2011 22:35
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Arquinsiel posted:To be fair, he *did* have some slight justification for it. Did he? I was pretty sure it was just the typical Davion motivation. "What, has it really been ten years since we stomped a mudhole into the Liaos? Let's do it again for old times sake."
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Jan 25, 2011 22:50
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Arquinsiel posted:Max kind of surgically reconstructed someone to look like Hanse, wiped the dude's memory and managed to replace Hanse with him at a critical point in the Davion-Steiner negotiations, very nearly costing the FedCom it's existance, killing Hanse and his friend Ardan Sortek and incidentally ruling the Federated Suns via a puppet. Huh, that's all news to me. Freaky. How have I not heard of such amazing ludicrousness before? I thought I was well-read on this poo poo.
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Jan 25, 2011 23:18
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Arquinsiel posted:There's also sentient aliens in that book and aerospace fighters carry drop-tanks so you can fly them aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way to the jump point. Oh god, ahahahahaha. Alright, I did not remember the MANCHURIAN AGENT DOPPEL-HANSE bit, but I do know that book.
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Jan 25, 2011 23:43
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Most of the Michael A. Stackpole books are pretty... I won't say 'great,' but definitely serviceable in providing big stompy mech action.
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Jan 26, 2011 01:48
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Oh, as a note, the next history update is on hold. As it covers most of the Clan Invasion, I'm not planning on talking about what actually went down until we see the Clans in action here. I want all the newbies to SEE just what Clan Battlemechs are like in battle before I get into why the invasion was such a huge goddamn deal.
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Jan 26, 2011 18:41
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PoptartsNinja posted:If you'd like, I could set up a quick one-off 'trial of position'... but that'd sorta dilute the "OHGODWHAT?!" I'd like everyone to feel. Yeah, no, save it for the completely unprepared reaction. I want to SAVOR people's first look at the sheer, unmitigated terror that a Star of Omnis can be.
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Jan 26, 2011 18:44
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Uh, no offense, Cythereal, but we've all been trying very hard not to mention THOSE. Mad Cats are common knowledge even to greenhorns, but not THOSE. Please do not spoil THOSE. PS: Mukaikubo, might wanna edit that quote. Agent Interrobang fucked around with this message at 19:06 on Jan 26, 2011 |
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Jan 26, 2011 18:59
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Cythereal posted:Edited my post accordingly. Radio silence about those... things... is in force. Thank you very much. It's merely that I want to see newbie player reactions to them. Mostly of the 'HOLY GOD WHAT THE gently caress JUST KILLED ME?!  ' variety.
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Jan 26, 2011 19:08
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Mukaikubo posted:Do I get an award?  Here ya go. I've got a couple of these things lying around after hit-and-runs in the Dieron district. 
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Jan 26, 2011 21:42
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WarLocke posted:This is going to be so drat sweet. Sure, people are going "Well they most be bad news if these guys who know BT are talking them up..." but when the poo poo actually goes down it'll be more like: Seriously. It's like being the first soldiers ever to come up against a platoon of arquebuses. "WHY IS EVERYONE BLEEDING AND SCREAMING?! WHAT BLACK SORCERY IS THIS?!"
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Jan 26, 2011 22:34
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Trast posted:Wait, so all of us people who have never been able to play Battletech but gaze into this thread with slackjawed awe could play with this Megamek? And we could play with Goons and be educated as to the way of giant robot awesomeness? Yup! Megamek is an awesome resource for just that reason: the basics boil down to 'can you position units on a hex grid, remember weapon ranges, and make sure you're actually facing what you want to shoot?' And the little summaries it gives at the end of each turn make it quick to learn what's actually going on mechanically. Alas, the interface can be mildly clunky, but it's easy enough to figure out after messing around a bit. And it even includes bot AI, if you want to practice against the CPU.
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Jan 26, 2011 22:59
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Yeah, an Alpha Strike from behind could cripple or even kill the Spider outright, assuming everything lands.
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Jan 26, 2011 23:33
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ShadowDragon8685 posted:stuff about dumb AI Pretty much all this. One of the default scenarios that comes loaded, a Clan Trial of Position, has you in a Stormcrow against two Novas and a Pouncer. Not only could the AI not kill me with three mechs, it got so freaked out by the fact that it couldn't get LOS due to terrain that it just kept futilely moving from side-to-side along the terrain blockage, while one of the Novas just... sat there, far outside its own weapon range, while I slowly tore it apart with laser-fire. It was pretty goddamn 
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Jan 26, 2011 23:55
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She, but your point stands. Even so, it will come as a surprise to some people, and will DEFINITELY be a surprise in narrative terms.
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Jan 27, 2011 00:56
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Gothsheep posted:Sorry. A name like 'Cythereal' is kind of gender neutral, and 'he' is typically the safer guess. No no, I meant I'M a girl. I thought you were referring to me, what with me calling 'SPOILERZ' and whatnot. I have no idea about anyone else.
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Jan 27, 2011 01:02
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Mukaikubo posted:I'm not sure if a "Fourth Succession War" per se has even broken out. Officially the 3028-3029 Davion Blitz, the Kurita response, and the Free Worlds League backstabbing the Capellans is considered the Fourth Succession War. It wasn't an IS-spanning free-for-all, but a WHOLE lot of worlds were attacked: Capellan space is more densely settled than any other region of the Inner Sphere. EDIT: derp de durr, misread. Yes, there hasn't been one we know of in THIS timeline. The official one is above.
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Jan 27, 2011 01:04
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Mukaikubo posted:E2: Look on the bright side! With Candace Liao dead, there's no way we'll ever suffer through Kai Allard-Liao being the best at everything, ever, and constantly being a whining insufferable guilt and doubt ridden tool to be even fun to read about! Oh my god, seriously. I don't care if the motherfucker can headshot an Atlas with a machinegun on a foggy night from unsteady footing. He's such a whiny, boringly-written douchebag that he doesn't even seem like an actual person. At least Phelan Kell has a sense of humor, even if it is the  kind that makes me wish Vlad Ward would kick him in the crotch.
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Jan 27, 2011 01:19
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Really, think about the leadership elements the Clans are walking into here. Caesar Steiner, Frederick Steiner/Anastasius Focht, Maximillian Liao, Theodore Kurita, Hanse Davion, Janos Marik and the REAL Thomas Marik, Morgan Kell. This is like an old-school Inner Sphere dream-team.
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Jan 27, 2011 01:33
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Edited it before you even posted, pal. It mostly slipped my mind because relatively little ever gets done by the Free Worlds League that is NOT some kind of weird civil war, so I kinda forget what happens in it.
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Jan 27, 2011 01:39
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WarLocke posted:Maybe I'm getting my alterna-history mixed up, but I thought Morgan is dead in PTN's timeline? Nope, Morgan's still kicking! He was implicated(somehow) in Katrina Steiner's untimely demise, and so he and the rest of the Kell Hounds fled to Davion territory, where Hanse welcomed them with open arms as a consolation prize.
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Jan 27, 2011 01:42
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Arquinsiel posted:VVVV that's actually slightly worrying really. I've been *highly* tempted to get my hands on a Kraken for my Jade Falcons. 10 UAC2 is fukken MURDER even without support. I loving LOVE Banes/Krakens. Both the original model and the Bane 2, though if I had to take my preference the Bane 2 wins out. 4 Ultra Autocannon-10s with 14 TONS of ammunition? HELL YES.
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Jan 27, 2011 02:26
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elitebuster posted:That...seems a bit much, unless you were planning on Rambo-ing an entire cluster of Omnimechs without resupply. Also, I hope to god that thing has CASE, because I could see a mech with that much ammo turning into a pinata with an M-80 inside. The Bane is a lineholder/area denial mech. It's basically designed to operate at long distances for extremely long periods of time with limited support, and to be so overwhelmingly powerful that nothing wants to come close to it. And yes, CASE is all but standard on Clanner mechs. Defiance Industries posted:E: new page. My character's ride in 3085, the Furillo-built Defiance. No, not the stock one. gently caress YES, I love the Defiance. I basically love anything in the Warhammer -> Thug design philosophy line, though. Agent Interrobang fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Jan 27, 2011 |
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Jan 27, 2011 02:38
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Short version: Open Source and the internet make it really hard to keep people from being uneducated sefs. Grayson Carlyle should totally be GNUs mascot.
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Jan 27, 2011 03:35
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Mukaikubo posted:Oh, that's why Comstar is going to be releasing lots of Lostech early, aren't they? Not necessarily the military losses, but as soon as they realize that one of the First Circuit has effectively been drained of all conceivable intel by a hostile force... oh dear lord. And the Clans are more likely to do it to her instead of Focht, because there's no chance they'll see Waterly as a warrior worthy of respect like they did Focht. Hoo boy. Oh dear god, you're entirely right. No wonder we're gonna need the Inner Sphere Dream Team this time...
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Jan 27, 2011 04:08
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Mukaikubo posted:Well I AM* the thread's Intelligence Minister. So does that make me the thread's Archivist Demi-Precentor? Cool, I love ComStar uniforms.
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Jan 27, 2011 04:17
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Linked for appropriateness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAh_A7N3_mc
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Jan 27, 2011 04:58
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If I'm good at nothing else, it's digging up ridiculously obscure music. I bet ComStar has a whole division for pirated MP3s. Permission to blare goofy comedy songs at stuck-up Kurita Mechwarriors is granted.
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Jan 27, 2011 05:15
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Oh, and be sure to play music from Macross/Robotech at LAM and Warhammer pilots, too! 
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Jan 27, 2011 05:19
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Defiance Industries posted:I can see Caesar's sons, Reinhardt and Karl, jumping a Savannah Master over a military blockade. Takashi Kurita is the Sheriff, naturally.
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Jan 27, 2011 06:12
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Defiance Industries posted:Well, she IS their cousin. It would be accurate. Myndo Waterly, DUH.
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Jan 27, 2011 06:25
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Maybe he's just rescinding his previous statements that you were too lucky because you got AMAZINGLY lucky this time? ... I will eat my hat if this is true.
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Jan 27, 2011 07:16
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Octatonic posted:Be careful with that Agent, some people have demanded Luckily, it appears I don't have to worry about this! I'm telling you, Vulcans are goddamn deathtraps.
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Jan 27, 2011 07:23
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on that and have had to wear ridiculous fruit-hats to amine conventions.
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All told, though, this is a pretty solid result. The enemy is down their highest-firepower mech after the Dragon, our Vulcan is hurt but certainly not out of the fight, and everyone else is absolutely fine. We have the Dracs at half firepower, with better positioning and better long-range firepower in the form of our Griffin. I vote next turn we keep up the pace. Let's teach these Kurita dupes what happens when you toss fresh meat to Morgan Kell's dogs.
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Jan 27, 2011 08:54
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Artificer posted:A question. Doesn't the Vulcan's lack of armor make it so that it is now supremely vulnerable to critical hits from, say, SRMs? The Vulcan should definitely fall back somewhat once Pladdicus stands it back up, but it can still keep shooting back with the medium lasers it has remaining. Right now the Dracs have bigger worries than a seemingly crippled anti-infantry mech: with that Jenner gone we have them significantly outclassed in terms of firepower. More than that, it is further hampered since the Dragon pilot is honor-bound not to go after anyone but the Griffin, thus leaving the enemy lights even more vulnerable.
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Jan 27, 2011 09:24
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