Tell The World That We Tried (Battletech CYOA) (Complete)
- Thread starter Valles
- Start date
consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
Except that a 55 ton 5/8 doesn't have more payload. It's only when you try to put jump jets on a 60 ton design that that size and that speed becomes inherently dumb.
Every speed has an optimum size for each engine type. Granted, sometimes said optimum size is still pretty frikking lackluster compared to dropping speed by one and going up ten to twenty tons.
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
You have, actually. Going from 55 to 60 tons means the jump jets that are appropriate for your mech are twice as heavy. For mechs that are theoretically supposed to sit in the cavalry role, this is kind of a problem. (Quickdraws...)
VhenRa
MechWarrior
- Location
- Auckland, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Amusingly, they would have likely been EARLY Dash-3Rs. The MAD-3R only was introduced at the end of the First Succession War. Before that everyone was still building -1Rs and -2Rs.
Thats why I like pulling the JJs off a Quickdraw and using it for sinks and armor. Those 5 tons are valuable. If you are willing to go a little more extensive... or franken a 4G and 4H Quickdraw into one machine... swap the MLs forward at the same time.
slybrarian
Creature of Fable
- Location
- A Far and Sunless Land
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm not saying that I choose mechs primarily for aesthetics, but except for my beloved Stormcrow I often choose mechs for the aesthetics. (And lasers. Also, how many dice I have to roll when shooting.)
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consequences
Not A Nice Person At All
- Location
- Jerkville
I pick mine based off of a graph stretched out on a four dimensional hypercube based on the metrics of effectiveness, nostalgia for really old computer games, nostalgia for that one time I scored multiple head shots with the design during a random pickup game, and nostalgia for that time a novel protagonist used it. Aesthetics is mostly limited to 'does it look like a spindly joke that would collapse under its own weight?'
Huh, I thought I was being sarcastic, but that does actually almost completely explain my criteria.
Mech choice is characterization, just as much as how they're used is. Sophitia has a Centurion because its design elements suited her inspiration. Reyes certainly has lots of something, be it experience or missile tubes. The last permanent member of the command lance had to have an Atlas as an exercise in contrast. Asha's running a Marauder is intended to highlight her intention to restrain and 'stand back' from things...
And because the MWO redesign is really cool looking.
We're talking about ridiculous stompy robots, here - cool factor is not to be underestimated.
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- Location
- The deathworld-in-miniature that is Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Personally, with my preference for flashbulbs and keeping custom variants at least within shouting distance of their stock cousins, my favourite 3025 mech is the Black Knight. Sure, it's mostly extinct outside of ComGuard use. And sure, when they downgraded from Star League tech it lost a lot, and part of what it lost was any decent level of armour for a 75-tonner, in favour of keeping all the guns, leaving it ridiculously overgunned in trade for thin skin. But damn does it look cool, and with some relatively minor tweaks, you can have a 'mech to be reckoned with.
Ditch the SL, pull the two LLs for another PPC where one of the LLs was, move the arm PPC into the other vacated LL slot, and shove an ML where the PPC used to be. Now you've got two PPCs for holepunching at a distance, five MLs for when they close, enough Heat Sinks to mostly keep you cool (firing both PPCs and walking/running generates heat, but not enough on the first blast to put you in speed or targeting penalties, and firing all five MLs once they close actually cools you down), and you freed up enough tonnage to go from 11 tons of armour to 13 and a half, which is almost max for a 75-tonner. If you want more gun, you can trade a ton of armour for another ML (or a 'Mech flamer for anti-infantry work, if you must) and still run cool so long as you don't actually run, but I think the extra ton of protection works out better.
Sure, you don't have JJs, and sure, you're not at the optimum tonnage for your speed, but holy hell is it fun. You've got the long-range punch of a Marauder or Warhammer, minus the AC/5 on the stock MAD-3R, and more infighting ability than a Davion Battlemaster. You're entirely energy-based, heavily armoured, and run quite cool for a 3025 design, and all without turning the 'mech into something it's not. Having it anchor a mixed heavy/medium lance can be really effective, especially in combination with an Archer or a Catapult that it bodyguards (for Archer, either flip the rear MLs forward on the base 2R, or take the 2S or 2W - any of those can contribute to the brawl once they've spent their LRMs).
Ditch the SL, pull the two LLs for another PPC where one of the LLs was, move the arm PPC into the other vacated LL slot, and shove an ML where the PPC used to be. Now you've got two PPCs for holepunching at a distance, five MLs for when they close, enough Heat Sinks to mostly keep you cool (firing both PPCs and walking/running generates heat, but not enough on the first blast to put you in speed or targeting penalties, and firing all five MLs once they close actually cools you down), and you freed up enough tonnage to go from 11 tons of armour to 13 and a half, which is almost max for a 75-tonner. If you want more gun, you can trade a ton of armour for another ML (or a 'Mech flamer for anti-infantry work, if you must) and still run cool so long as you don't actually run, but I think the extra ton of protection works out better.
Sure, you don't have JJs, and sure, you're not at the optimum tonnage for your speed, but holy hell is it fun. You've got the long-range punch of a Marauder or Warhammer, minus the AC/5 on the stock MAD-3R, and more infighting ability than a Davion Battlemaster. You're entirely energy-based, heavily armoured, and run quite cool for a 3025 design, and all without turning the 'mech into something it's not. Having it anchor a mixed heavy/medium lance can be really effective, especially in combination with an Archer or a Catapult that it bodyguards (for Archer, either flip the rear MLs forward on the base 2R, or take the 2S or 2W - any of those can contribute to the brawl once they've spent their LRMs).
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Speaker4thesilen
Superpower: Common Sense
- Location
- Noneya Business
Take a Centurion. Strip all the weapons off. Replace with your best LRM-10 and two LRM-15s. Add ammunition and heat sinks. Use your best heavies to illuminate targets. Do not be afraid to blow up the ammo crates if you can take out one or two enemy Mechs with them. Profit.
Ivan the Not-so-Terrible
AH MEW CHEEKI BREEKI I V DAMKE
- Location
- Mikonyan’s USSR
Glorious Flashbulb Master Race
dirty ammo explosion peasant
Lasers, more lasers, a butt laser, and a head-mounted flamer for dealing with those annoying mortals who don't have a BattleMech.
dirty ammo explosion peasant
Lasers, more lasers, a butt laser, and a head-mounted flamer for dealing with those annoying mortals who don't have a BattleMech.
- Location
- The deathworld-in-miniature that is Australia
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Not in 3025! They had to strip it out for the 7K monkeymodel, along with one of the Large Lasers, all the freezers, and the XL engine. the 7K is a lot slower than the 8K, but even more durable, since they didn't sacrifice armour protection and it hasn't got an XL in it the get critted into uselessness.
Well the roles of the 7K and the 8K are very different. A 7K is a typical 4/6 heavy with a flashbulb load out, a line mech that has a tendency to roast pilots with low self control alive. A 8K is speedy enough to be a commander/backup muscle for a scouting lance and heavily outgun most everything a scout lance would engage.
I can consistently manage a perfect run by having a Dragon with an AC/20 simply sprint though the valley to the west, engaging nobody, and park it to wait the arrival of the two ammo trucks.
Then after that's done move it back to help Precision Strike the rush of mechs. The LRM Centurion is a good choice to tote along, though should be supplemented with more other mechs with more LRM tubes and AC10s.
The only thing to mind is to pull the attacks far into the left, while you sit in the cover of the woods, and out of range of the missile towers.
Urbanmech - > Flashman -> Mackie
Unlimited Trashcan Works?
I'm wondering if she'll ever get a Jump infantry Platoon. Nothing quite like seeing a man with a jetpack land on your cockpit place a shaped charge, jauntily wave at you and zoom away. Too bad their so squishy and and anyone with a MG's is going to turn them into skeet.
Don't forget the Imp.
The Blackwings have several jump infantry platoons, actually - Moses Rosenkreutz and his people. Asha's reluctant to use them aggressively for, well, exactly the reason you pointed out yourself.
unless you're in an urban or jungle setting you don't use infantry too aggressively in BT. You set ambushes where an enemy push runs into kill box of a platoon with shoulder mounted SRM's launching a salvo before vanishing. Whilst Jump platoons pull hit and runs on enemy rear elements and the odd bit of tank hunting/artillery spotting when you finally get some field gunners. Combined arms whooh!
That said that sounds like a nice conflict point between her and Moses, wasn't he the big guy she had to stare down in the initial meeting?, over her under utilizing him and his while she points out she's reluctant to put people not behind armor in harm's way. To which I can only imagine him replying they don't do this kind of thing for a living to be safe. She probably also won points from him for that helping stop that pirate raid. Footsloggers love when mechjocks and treadheads get some time in their boots.
Also for shame Ms. Blackwing you have jetpacks and you haven't taken on for a spin?
That said that sounds like a nice conflict point between her and Moses, wasn't he the big guy she had to stare down in the initial meeting?, over her under utilizing him and his while she points out she's reluctant to put people not behind armor in harm's way. To which I can only imagine him replying they don't do this kind of thing for a living to be safe. She probably also won points from him for that helping stop that pirate raid. Footsloggers love when mechjocks and treadheads get some time in their boots.
Also for shame Ms. Blackwing you have jetpacks and you haven't taken on for a spin?
slybrarian
Creature of Fable
- Location
- A Far and Sunless Land
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah, infantry is best used either defensively in situations where you can prepare ambushes or defensive positions, or paired with fast transports for rear-area shenanigans. Otherwise you only bring them along to fulfill secondary objectives like capturing a person or place, hiding at the rear of the battlefield until enemy mechs and armor are gone.
The Bushranger
In the Danger Zone
- Location
- TSAB Asura
"What do you call flying infantry on the battlefield?"
Spectrum
Tell me a secret~
- Location
- Behind you~
If you're feeling especially cheeky/desperate, if you mass enough infantry in an area with rifles and have them all focus fire on one poor stupid mech to walk into range, there's a pretty good chance they'll headcap the guy from scatter just by wound stacking.
Also in general, if the mech only has lasers or maybe only one SRM, it can't really do much about infantry if they've in forests. They can be a very cheap, if callous stall. (Give them SRMs instead if they're supposed to actually threaten it and you only have a coupl eof them.)
Flamers are nasty in general, but are a poor choice in most circumstances because they are short range weapons. This isn't much of an issue when engaging in close confines, but when engaging at long range or against an enemy not particularly vulnerable to heat stacking (like a mech loaded with ballistic weapons and a lot of heatsinks) it's not that useful. Which then makes clear how you are supposed to back up an SRM equipped infantry ambush; with a medium to short range ballistic weapons brawler. It doesn't even need to be all that heavy as a mech, it has to be heavy enough the enemy doesn't want to close in to engage the infantry, forcing them to choose between retreat, getting flattened by swarms of SRMs at range or closing in and getting smacked by AC volleys and punches.
As much as I love melee mechs, the Atlas is the wrong choice for that.
A shame the Berseker is too many decades in the future. 100kph, firebreathing 100 tonner swinging an axe in people's faces is ever so much fun.
Find room a supercharger, and it goes up to to move 12 (4/6 standard, +2 for MASC, +2 for supercharger, +2 for sprinting) Makes for fairly spectacular charging attacks, for whatever those are worth.
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
I got to wondering how big BT's hardware is given some of the things said here and in False Prophets, and found this size comparison chart elseforum:
Is this actually accurate? I didn't realize they were so shrimpy... (By comparison, your average Macross variable fighter is 15m, ranging from 11m for the VF-9 Cutlass or Mylene's custom VF-11 Thunderbolt II up to 25m plus the upright gunbarrrels for the VB-06 Koenig Monster, which for those who aren't familiar with the newer material is a HWR-00 Monster II successor that turns into a space-shuttle-like aircraft as well as a fully humanoid mode with the guns pointed straight up from its backpack; the iconic VF-1 Valkyrie is tied with the VF-4 Lightning III and VF-5000 Star Mirage for second shortest at ~12.5m plus head lasers.) Hang on, I'll grab the comparison shot for those too.
Note that the VF-9 is not included here unless it's standing at the back jumping up and down and waving and still completely invisible. Poor little guy gets no love.
Likewise, 64kph is mentioned as being a "respectable" top speed, which, well, I can only disagree with, but is it something reasonable to expect of a medium-ish or light-heavy unit hoofing it?
edit: Rehosted Macross image, since it didn't seem to be working when hotlinked. This version also has D&D stuff added on the side/in back as it was modified for use in a crossover RP, but whatever.
Is this actually accurate? I didn't realize they were so shrimpy... (By comparison, your average Macross variable fighter is 15m, ranging from 11m for the VF-9 Cutlass or Mylene's custom VF-11 Thunderbolt II up to 25m plus the upright gunbarrrels for the VB-06 Koenig Monster, which for those who aren't familiar with the newer material is a HWR-00 Monster II successor that turns into a space-shuttle-like aircraft as well as a fully humanoid mode with the guns pointed straight up from its backpack; the iconic VF-1 Valkyrie is tied with the VF-4 Lightning III and VF-5000 Star Mirage for second shortest at ~12.5m plus head lasers.) Hang on, I'll grab the comparison shot for those too.
Note that the VF-9 is not included here unless it's standing at the back jumping up and down and waving and still completely invisible. Poor little guy gets no love.
Likewise, 64kph is mentioned as being a "respectable" top speed, which, well, I can only disagree with, but is it something reasonable to expect of a medium-ish or light-heavy unit hoofing it?
edit: Rehosted Macross image, since it didn't seem to be working when hotlinked. This version also has D&D stuff added on the side/in back as it was modified for use in a crossover RP, but whatever.
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