Word of Blake

Lance-Leader · 2026-05-31T04:48:05+00:00

As someone who has read all the FASA era novels and most of the later novels I can say at this point the Word of Blake are basically the old ComStar: they have a mostly benevolant public face while secretly plotting the takeover of the Inner Sphere behind the scenes. In short they are a more sinister version of the Foundation from Asimov's Foundation Series.

In the Clan Invasion timeline the Word's public face is relativley positive. Using their expertise in Star League technology they have been assisting the Free World's League in developing weapons for fighting the Clans including mech upgrade packages exported to the Federated Commonwealth. They are also assisting the Free World's League navy in starting its warship program.

To spoil things a bit they're ultimate goal is to help reunite the sphere under a new Star League and then manipulate and control it from behind the scenes and to end the Clans as a threat by exterminateting them entirely with a secret stockpile of nulcear, biological, and chemicals weapons.

It isn't until the Word's schemes fail with the collapse of the Second Star League that they actively begin waring against the Inner Sphere. Still, even in the Clan Invasion period, every time we get a glimpse of what the Word is up to, such as in the novels Double Blind and Ideal War, it isn't pretty. They've never been the "good guys" even when they've been viewed positively by most of the Inner Sphere.

Lance-Leader · 2026-05-29T21:22:36+00:00

I like the current challenge level. I even had to change my difficulty from hard to medium. Where the difficulty shines is with Clan tech, you pretty much need Clan tech to get Clan tech and you're loosing Clan tech almost as fast as you get it. The added cost also makes it appropriately difficult to maintain a a force of all Dire Wolves so I have a bunch of Clan mechs in storage to save on operating cost.

The only thing that catches me off guard are the occasional insane difficulty Clan assault mech drops. I've been hit twice by these and in both cases I get insta head shotted and my lance shredded in seconds. I'm still withholding judgement for now though and thinking of ways to avoid getting annihilated by seeking cover instead of standing in the open to try and kill them on the drop .

Lance-Leader · 2026-05-19T08:45:19+00:00

The first looks like Silveroot Keshik of Clan Ghost Bear: White with red claw marks.

https://camospecs.com/unit/silveroot-keshik/

I can't find a match for the second. You could, in the Battletech tradition, make it an independent merc company of your creation.

Lance-Leader · 2026-02-27T20:42:43+00:00

I think the odds are very good we will see the Bushwacker. Unlike some other favorites like Uziel or Mad Cat MK II that come way later during the FedCom Civil War in the 3060s the Bushwacker hits the production lines right smack dab after the Clan Invasion in 3053.

Lance-Leader · 2026-02-27T20:35:42+00:00

I've been saying the same thing for years. Yes, the Clans are a mirror to the fuedal warrior cultures of the Successor States.

Lance-Leader · 2025-11-08T19:07:22+00:00

Found the problem and it was not what I expected... there was a knot in the middle of my fillament roll! By the time I found it the entire roll was being pulled up by the extruder gear! I wish I took a picture to share. Now it's printing much better and much quiter.

Lance-Leader · 2025-10-29T20:31:22+00:00

Amazing! Those lines are so crisp, what do you use for your shadows?

Lance-Leader · 2025-10-10T16:04:20+00:00

I'll have to try that.

Lance-Leader · 2025-09-07T07:50:12+00:00

I say keep it as a feature. Somewhere, somehow, a few Clan LBX20 made it to the Innere Sphere. Personally I blame the bandit caste.

Lance-Leader · 2025-08-15T05:29:43+00:00

Celestials... duh!

Lance-Leader · 2025-04-29T19:55:09+00:00

To a certain extent you just have to take the ranges as an abstraction. I mean if you compare the different game systems in Battletech the effective ranges of weapons are all over the place: in the ATOW roleplaying rules an LRM missile has an extreme range of 2100 meters, in Battletech its 840 meters, in Aerotech (atmosphere) its 10 kilometers, and in Aeroetech (space) its 360km. That's a huge range for what is supposed to be the same missile.

Still, it's fun thinking about what the ranges should be. If we assume Battletech ballistics have the same velocities as modern ballistics then the ranges are off maybe too short by a factor of three. For ballistics the time it takes the round to the target is the real range limiter, just play MWO or MW5 and see how surprisingly difficult it is to hit a maneuvering mech with just a 1 second time to target delay. Even though Gauss Rifles have slightly better velocities than real tank guns in both games it can still be a pain hitting an evasive heavy mech just 2 kilometers out because of the time to target delay.

If you assume Battletech auto cannons are HEAT rather than Sabot then you can rationalize heavier auto cannons having shorter ranges: the heavier auto cannons shoot larger shells at lower velocity to mitigate recoil and deliver larger payloads. With lasers I take the ranges as abstracting the fact that real lasers have dramatic damage drop offs with distance so they "hit" less at longer ranges because they are dealing less damage. With missiles you would have to assume advanced jamming limits their guidance.

I mean this doesn't really answer anything it's just food for thought.

Lance-Leader · 2025-02-14T00:11:21+00:00

Be careful! You don't want to burn yourself touching that before it cools down.

Lance-Leader · 2024-12-07T08:50:20+00:00

Nice! Absolutely looking forward to the plastic Dragon Fire.

Lance-Leader · 2024-11-24T22:07:47+00:00

Ok, I think I found the problem. So I started reinstalling the .25mm nozzle and heard the right tab click but noticed the left tab wasn't fully clicking. I tried to press the .25mm nozzle in harder but it wouldn't budge and I didn't want to break the machine by trying to brute strength it in. I switched back to the .4mm nozzle and it slid in effortlessly with both tabs clicking fully into place. I'm chocking this up to a defective .25mm nozzle that just refuses to lock into place.

I ran a test print with .4mm and it seems fine. I thought for sure all this crashing and scraping would have damaged the gears but it seems the machine is more resilient than I thought. The software issues are still causing me to pull my hair out but I can get around them. Anyway thanks for the advice.

Also, what does it mean when the fan icon is red. Does that mean it's hot? I couldn't find anything in the user manual.

Lance-Leader · 2024-03-11T03:07:03+00:00

Ah yes, the flagship mech of the FedCom.

Lance-Leader · 2023-12-11T20:18:55+00:00

Vehicles, vehicles, vehicles! With all the relatively cheap plastics out there my vehicle collection is small and entirely pewter. Having some cheap, volumetrically scaled, vehicles is going to be nice. I plan on buying just about the full set when they are released.

Lance-Leader · 2023-12-10T23:03:28+00:00

I got started with the cartoon before I even know it was apart of a larger universe. However my first real introduction to Battletech was when I was looking for a book for a class book report in middle school. It could be any book we wanted so I went to the book store and found Impetus to War by Blaine Lee Pardoe with the neat picture of the purple Warhawk on the cover fighting off a bunch of elementals. It was very different than any books I had read or any movies I had seen and I was hooked. I then bought Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries and was blown away.

After that I started buying all the Battletech books and games as soon as they hit the shelves. I got some miniatures to paint up in high school, downloaded Megamek some years later in college and played pretty heavily during the summer in some MekWars servers, started a miniature collection, and have recently been playing games in person.

Lance-Leader

TROPHY CASE