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Do people play with actually weak or intentionally flawed mechs these days?Most people I know play with hyper-optimized designs like the Hammerhead or Spider 9M and refuse to use anything that explodes, gets hot or isn't cost efficient
>>97187464>Do people play with actually weak or intentionally flawed mechs these days?Fuck no. The point of a game is to win. No one is going to intentionally handicap themselves in a competitive environment in the game of faggot cope like """lore""". If you aren't using the most optimal design for your PV or BV budget, you're only hurting yourself and proving that you don't belong in the game. Winning games is all that matters.
>>97187464Ancient law of Battletech. You get good by driving "shit" mechs. You haven't lived until you've used terrain to sneak up on an Archer with a Charger and ripped its heart out of the back of its chest with Kung Fu. You haven't Honored the Dragon until you've rolled up with a Panther lance and a distraction. You haven't fought for God and King Davion until you've brought a Jagermech-DG to a wall-o-steel fight and headcapped a Thunderhawk. You have to be bolder, craftier, read the maps better and know the rules better to be successful with junkier mechs, and they make you do that.
>>97187464I have been trying to play with the cyclops recently. It has left a smoking crater every time I've used it but did manage to get a few ac20 shot off before that
>>97187549Way too slow and too little armor to wade in. Run it like a C1 Catapult. Run your LRM's dry. Use the AC/20 as a bug swatter if you have to. Only come in close when the game has devolved to a cripple fight.
>>97187464>Most people I know play with hyper-optimized designs like the Hammerhead or Spider 9M and refuse to use anything that explodes, gets hot or isn't cost efficientThat is why players shouldn't be allowed to select their own lists. The ideal game or tournament is one where everyone builds a list to a certain battle value, and then all the lists are randomly distributed between the players. You see a lot fewer hyper optimized designs hit the board when you aren't guaranteed to be able to play it yourself.
>>97187464In my last game I got a rear laser kill with a Centurion.
>>97187593>Rear laser kill.Treasure that moment, Anon. It's rare.
>>97187585I would kill, and I mean that literally, pull the gun I carry, put it to his head, and pull the trigger, any tournament organizer who said I can't use the miniatures that I brought. Nobody gets to touch my stuff but me.
>>97187536In your experience, what's the most optimal ground force in battletech that doesn't have an obvious counterpick?
>>97187461Just saw the vid thumbnail. Refused to click it.
>>97187576I've been trying to use it as a bodyguard for my long range fighters but one or two fast mechs always jump out of the woodwork to get it
>>97187702Not him but everything has a counterpick if you use more than just mechs. Just mechs will be long range zombie hammers like the Awesome, Dual Gauss Monsters, Hellstar, etc. as well as Fire variants, pulse-jumpers, etc. C3i networks to fuck the previous two can be utilized but the BV tax on them makes it chancy.
>>97187752So you are just unlucky. Many such cases.>Battletech.tm
>>97187539>You have to be bolderNah. You do not be bolder with shit mechs. You tighten up the fundamentals. You do not give free shots. You always maintain good modifiers. You reposition if the terrain is not in your favor. If you are being "bolder" with "shit mechs" you are probably a BV abusing armor point slut. To which I would say. You can kill Dire Wolves with trash that moves 5/8 or faster, but men will die.
>>97187846Bolder means more willing to break from heavy tree parking to get shit done. You have to move and think.
>No mech with a shield and weaponized lanceAm I gonna have to custom this shit? Feels like a huge missed opportunity to not have this.
>>97187464I pick the best mechs in my faction collection for the role I need, BV allowing.I collect and paint mechs into factions based off a combination of whether it's manufactured in or commonly salvaged bythat faction and if I think it looks cool.So even when I'm using the best mechs I've got I'm still using lore flavored lists.And sometimes I pick a mech I just like, then build a lance around it to try and make it work.And also I sometimes just do fun stuff like "oops! All hatchets!" Or whatever is making me giggle that day.
>>97187752Cyclops probably needs a bodyguard. It's a battalion level command mech, so as much as love the big goober it's going to struggle to have a useful role outside of the one it was purpose built for.
>>97187951I always like to pair it up with a hunch back now you're facing 2 AC20s, that 9 hex death bubble keeps anything away.
>>97188012>look at what they need to mimic a fraction of our power
>Davion mechwarrior piloting family heiroom Blackjack feeling his machine's 'anger and hatred' toward particular Drac mech he's facing in the battlefield, which happens to be the mech that killed his great grandfather, the former pilotCan something like this happen in BT?
>>97187951I like that punching machine disguised as missileboat one
>>97188173I don't see why not. It could just be a feeling he has for one reason or another. Weird shit happens in the BT universe that may or may not be supernatural sometimes.
>>97188173A Davion MechWarrior can feel whatever he does in the heat of battle.Whether it's truly some sort of deep-seated resentment, somehow stored in the memory banks and transmitted via the neurohelmet, or just some dude having a strong feeling in the heat of battle...who can say?
>>97188173This sort of thing is what the setting is actually designed for.
>>97188173The targeting and tracking computers are supposed to be able to "learn" and interpret new enemy units, and then interface with the combat computer and diagnostic computers all throughout the mech, so if the T&T recognizes a specific enemy unit, that could theoretically cause some kind of emotional feedback as it rapidly fills in details it already knows from its last encounter. Especially on scuffed old systems that probably should have been reformatted decades ago and aren't working completely normally. It pulling those old files could dredge up a fragmented "recording" of what the neurohelmet picked up at the time and then spit it back out. It shouldn't do that, but cludged fixes on top of cludged fixes could result in some weird interactions.
>>97188020Wonder how many Hunchback IIC pilots died getting outranged or from not having enough ammo to really fight back.Also man do the current models look like they were made for kids. Why are they so bloated and rounded off? Maybe CGL was afraid someone wouldn't be able to paint without blowing up every panel and greeble
Wait, it was the ION Sparrow not the IRON Sparrow?
>>97188281If by "CGL" you mean "Shimmy"
>>97188281It's because the minis are shit quality and can't take much detail. They have to be somewhat gummy because the material is as well.
Why does the Striker have individual toes.
>>97188315You can't just ask that question.
>>97188347But I want to know.
>>97188302I think he ceased being director but CGL adopted his style as the official aesthetic for battletech and has all their artists copy it anyway.It really never looked good.
>>97188393There's something to be said for consistency in art, but I do miss the idiosyncrasy.
>>97187435I found out recently that mechs outnumber infantry in Battletech, does that mean that infantry are basically just used for clearing out specific special buildings?
>>97188393Battletech's art style goes to shit whenever they try to "up the detail", and that includes covering them with separated armor panels or infinity surface lines.
TRO:3055 Upgrade was the peak of battletech's artstyle and it's been all downhill from there
>>97188403I don't think that's true, but regular ass infantry are basically just slightly mobile landmines that cost a lot of money to transport anywhere. After a certain point, power armor infantry mostly take over on the front lines and for special forces jobs while regular infantry does stuff like MP work or standing on street corners during an occupation. Battle Armor squads are only four to six men depending on faction and more effective than entire platoons of regular guys, and they can ride along on omnimechs and then jump off wherever they need to be, in addition to being able to take APCs or copters.
>>97188425That makes me think, are there rules for suicide bomber infantry?
>>97188281>Wonder how many Hunchback IIC pilots died outraged.If my gun goes click before I die I'll be one of them.
>>97188403Oh yeah that thread. Isn't infantry counted as squads instead of individual soldiers? So that number of 20 is more like 100 individual soldiers or something?
>>97188425>that cost a lot of money to transport anywhere.This. Infantry is for defense unless they are some flavor of spec ops. Of course I never understood why the local lord never just pressganged a million citizens and issued them yellow coveralls and legally distinct M-16's while twirling his mustache at his hidden CiC that is burrowed into a volcano.
>>97188540>I never understood why the local lord never just pressganged a million citizens and issued them yellow coveralls and legally distinct M-16'sMostly because they scream and run and die when confronted with a mech. It's psychological.>t. Ideal War
>>97187464>>97187536WAACfaggotry does not belong in BattleTech.>>97187710>Just saw the vid thumbnail. Refused to click it.It's just a mediocre review of MechWarrior 5.
It's kind of fucked up thinking about infantry-mech combat. Even in the best case scenarios the infantry are basically just sacrificial bodies for something else to attack the mechs. In plain "we're just gonna find cover and launch missiles" you can expect mass casualties of dozens or even a hundred+ men just to try and take down a mech.
>>97188560>In plain "we're just gonna find cover and launch missiles" you can expect mass casualties of dozens or even a hundred+ men just to try and take down a mech.And yet the Mech will go down...
>>97188560I think morale will break even before that.Come to think of it, I can't fathom why someone would volunteer as an infantrymen in BT, except for some poor dispossessed dude
>>97188566Or not. Boy would you look stupid if you scrounged together the one platoon in the galaxy that will stay to the last man and you don't even beat them. It's even more fucked up because mechs are super easy to fix. Even some of the most crippling mission kill damage can just be tig-welded back together and thrown back into the fray next tuesday.
>>97188540Because even regular infantry gives up after a Firestarter or Vulcan runs over at 90 kph, punts the Lieutenant into a nearby building with enough force to break every bone in his body, and then buries half the platoon in white hot fusion reactor offgas. A million untrained civilians likely won't even make it to the battlefield before falling apart in confusion, and they definitely won't stand and fight after a bunch of them die for daring to point a gun vaguely in the direction of the professional military opfor.
>>97188602>because mechs are super easy to fix*Cries in MechTech*
>>97188560SRM and LRM troopers have a decent chance of doing something to mechs.But conventional infantry has largely been replaced by Battle armor once the IS got their tech at a respectable level.
>>97188585Most infantry can expect to never see an enemy mech in combat anyway. The mechs fight each other, the tanks fight the mechs, the infantry squats in a bunch of bunkers with orders to shoot at anything that gets close. Nothing bothers getting close to any of the bunkers except the one that's closest to the objective, and those guys are fucked or surrender.
>>97188560In B4 the standard replies of "Infantry should be the real threat of Battletech"
>>97188635Hell, was it even a week ago someone was bitching that sending Mechs to fight infantry is stupid BECAUSE Mechs don't have good anti-infantry options?
>>97188650There's so many mechs dedicated to that role I'm not sure which one to laugh with.
>>97188650The anti-infantry rule made vehicles worse at fighting infantry and invalidated a bunch of weapons that are even noted as being used for anti-infantry. It's more that this rule is stupid than anything else.This does compound the issue where light mechs designed to hunt infantry are pretty highly at risk of getting torn apart with return fire. Two machineguns on a light mech are basically a suicide bomb.
>>97188522>So that number of 20 is more like 100 individual soldiers or something?Not exactlyThe number being referenced is an understrength infantry platoon of only 20 men, not 20 platoons, 20 men total. They are considered a sufficient infantry contingent to support several lances of mechs making up 22 mechs total.
>>97188686With that many mechs, all the infantry needs to do is stop suspicious individuals skulking around the hangar and maaaaybe ride in after the fighting is done to sort out loot and/or prisoners. Using them in combat is pointless.
>>97188703Plus they're the Grey Death Legion, so they're likely training locals in Anti-mech guerilla combat.
>>97188703Yeah, from what it sounds like, mechs are sort of the 'default' soldier in the setting, they use mechs like we use infantry, and anyone stuck with a convee or actual infantry position is probably some retard reject that failed basic training.
Opinions on rocket launchers?
>>97188772Cheap, small, good damage to weight ratio. You won't find them outside of periphery shitmechs though.
>>97188400I wouldn't mind a unified aesthetic if they at least modeled it after an actually decent artist.But the problem is that CGL wanted the art to perfectly match the models, and the level of quality they want the models to be necessitates the art be far worse than it could be to match.
>>97188772AS THE CAESAR WILLS IT, WE SHALL CLEANSE THE FILTH FROM OUR LANDS. OUR ROCKETS WILL BLOT OUT THE SUN.But seriously they're fun. Look at the Marian Hegemony's take on the Longbow and quake in fear.
While we're talking about infantry VS mechs imagine a Battletech game where you play as an Elemental. Now pit you up against a mech solo and REALLY put that fear of mechs into people. It doesn't even have to be a good one, just a single elemental against like a Locust.
>>97188772Decent overall, though It seems like unless you're running something really tight on Crit Slots, there's never really any reason to not take RL10s over the RL15 or RL20. Like, I'd rather have 3 RL10s for 1.5 tons, effectively 30 rockets, over one RL20 which is the same tonnage with just the one, and at a reduced range too. Sure it means more heat overall, but they're one-shot weapons anyway so that's not much of a problem anyway.
Are mechs with a lot of renown in the setting supposed to be a lot more effective in-universe than we might be led to believe from their tabletop performance? The Atlas comes to mind.
>>97188802>You won't find them outside of periphery shitmechs though.
>>97188928The fluff assumes that the majority of battles are not piched deathmatches where both sides fight until they are forced to automatically eject or die in their cockpit. And ammo explosions are not nearly as common or devastating.
>>97188871I mean with protagonist Plot Armor, a Locust is a mini-boss at best...
>>97188928There's a lot of that and on the other side. Like mechs that are actually good but get dumpstered on in the lore.
>>97188871Almost every mech ever made has the speed to make it so the mechwarrior has to throw for the BA to win.
>>97188557>It's psychological.There's no rules for that in BMM, so it doesn't matter.
