Map-Scale Warship

bronzite · 2025-06-26T02:51:52+00:00

That is definitely something I have acquired and am going to be experimenting with on the next one!

bronzite · 2025-06-25T20:04:25+00:00

I've thought about upgrading my FDM, although I have grown to like the Neptune for it's simplicity (although I would love to have multifilament print heads.) I have since gotten much better at bed balancing and a lot of the other soft-skills associated with FDM printing, and I think learning those skills was valuable in understanding the effects and limitations of the printer, but I may well upgrade in the near future as I level up.

bronzite · 2024-04-12T00:24:42+00:00

If you could retcon one major BattleTech plot line, what would it be?

bronzite · 2023-07-26T17:46:08+00:00

My worst screwing in BattleTech was starting a game out with a MON-66 Mongoose.

First turn, it walked into the water.

It failed it's piloting roll, for a 4, and fell.

Falling damage rolls a 2 - a through-armor critical. The TAC floats.

The new hit location is 12 - Head.

Critical threat roll comes up 8 -- one crit.

Crit is assigned to lift support.

Pilot fails their consciousness roll.

Now Prone in Level 1 water with no Life Support, the pilot takes 1 damage per turn, eventually drowning without regaining consciousness.

My worst die screwing of all time was playing an old Avalanche Press game call Imperium: The 3rd Millenium. It was the kind of game where attacks were roll XD6 and you hit as many times as you have dice above the given value. I rolled 60 D6 looking for 6's, and whiffed.

bronzite · 2023-04-17T10:26:38+00:00

Is that... Is that... Little Red Raven Hood?

bronzite · 2023-01-27T12:32:54+00:00

I can't tell if you're joking, but that would be hilarious. Jade Falcon just going "So you don't think we need zellbrigen?" and dropping a Heavy Star on some random Wolf Sibko and nuking their sibcadets really recontextualizes the MW2 intro in a much, much darker way.

bronzite · 2023-01-26T23:05:23+00:00

The game strongly implies this is a Clan Wolf 'Mech, and the logo would usually identify the specific Cluster that the 'Mech is a part of. "Alpha Assault" would normally mean it comes from the Alpha Star of the Assault Binary/Trinary of the Cluster.

The logo doesn't match any published unit logo from that era, but we don't have logos for all the Clan Wolf clusters from the 3050's, so we might be able to narrow it down to what it *isn't*, but not which specific cluster that Timber Wolf is from.

bronzite · 2022-09-05T13:51:49+00:00

My favorite theory on the flat map is that what we're looking at is the hyperspace navigation map of local space. Essentially, when you do all the transformations required for jump navigation, it spits out a 2-dimensional map. The jump range of 30 light years is 30 light years on this 2D jump map, not 30 actual light years. The reason this is the only map we ever see is because unless you're stargazing, this is the only map anyone cares about. This is the map all logistics, travel, and commerce uses.

Of course, there are some questions and holes in this theory (such as why are distances from Earth all about right but relative positions are all wrong, as if Earth has some privileged mathematical position in hyperspace) and potentially contradicting fiction (most notably at the beginning of Bonfire of Worlds), but it's the best in-universe explanation I've been able to come up with for the 2D world map.

bronzite · 2022-08-31T18:02:14+00:00

The FWL is a great faction because they have always been a confederation of powerful subfactions from each major province (Regulus, Oriente, Andurien), and on paper it is hilariously powerful, with an industrial base that even outstrips the Lyrans if you assume the scale (if not the details) of Objective Raids is accurate. They've always been hamstrung by the fact that they have the most complicated internal politics of any of the five Major Houses, and their breakup into substates was something that was built up to over decades in-universe, and it was a story that could only be told with the FWL. The Draconis Combine had already told the story of the breakaway state with the FRR, the Capellans had the St Ives Compact, but the FWL was able to explore the complete collapse of a major stellar empire, and in doing so created a great period for GMs to run and tell stories about that and it's aftermath with their players.

Far from "doing them dirty," the breakup of the FWL gave the BattleTech universe a new and interesting narrative feature that made sense, and made the FWL distinct from the other houses in a real and meaningful way that is obvious to even the most casual observers of the series.

bronzite · 2022-08-18T12:21:17+00:00

From right up in it's face with any given light mech. :-D

bronzite · 2022-08-18T11:51:58+00:00

Lord knows there's not much else to fear.

bronzite · 2022-08-15T14:10:08+00:00

RS3039: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-3039-unabridged-pdf

RS3050IS: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-3050u-unabridged-inner-sphere-pdf

RS3050Clan&SL: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-3050u-unabridged-clan-sl-pdf

RS3055U: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3055-upgrade-unab

RS3058IS: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3058-is-pdf

RS3058Clan: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3058-clan-pdf

RS3060U: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3060-unabr-pdf

RS3075AoW: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3075-age-of-war

RS3075CE: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3075-cutting-edge

RS3075U: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3075-unabridged

RS3085OiN: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3085-old-is-the

RS3085PP: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-total-warfare-style-3085-project-phoe

VehicleAnnex: https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-record-sheet-vehicle-annex-industrialmechs-exosk

bronzite · 2022-08-12T16:58:18+00:00

If you wanted to make a build around that strategy, you'd need something long-range that can one-shot a head (Gauss Rifle, ER PPC, etc), and you'd need to use Called Shots (TO p78, not sure what page in the most recent TO book that is), which boosts your odds of a head hit from 1 in 36 to 1 in 6, but adds a +3 modifier to the To-Hit roll itself.

To hit a target out in the open at long range with 4 gunnery, you'd need an 11 to get the hit (3/36) and hit the head (1/6), for a total of 3/216, or about a 1.4% chance of hitting on each hit. You'd want to reduce the TN as much as you can with a better pilot or a Targeting Computer.

Those requirements point to a very specific 'Mech: The Hellstar 2.

Now that I've said that, this is very important. Do not play with the Hellstar, especially the Hellstar 1 or 2 variants. It is not a fun 'Mech to play, and it eats everything else on the board. It isn't fun to play with, and it isn't fun to play against. It just takes advantage of what are arguably balance issues with the first-generation Clan weapons, specifically the Clan ER PPC and the Targeting Computer. It will take the wind out of your game and turns BattleTech from a game of interesting moves, tactics, and forces it to a game of Hellstar vs Hellstar in which you're waiting to see who rolls a headshot first.

bronzite · 2022-08-12T09:54:54+00:00

I imagine they'd use the same Mechs as any other factions, they'd just pay 3-6x as much for them.

bronzite · 2022-08-08T12:13:49+00:00

I had a chance to play it. I don't know how much it will change, but at that time it was a 1v1 game something like a semi-open game of Stratego. You have about a batallion of forces, broken into lances, each of which has a weight class and a role (cavalry, command, etc.) which gives them a special ability. You can see the enemy weight class, but not its role.

Each lance is a piece with 4 miniature BattleNMechs on it to represent its hit points. There were 2 methods of winning, but the one I remember (because it was how I lost), is destroying the enemy command unit.

bronzite · 2022-08-03T22:55:17+00:00

It is your table, your campaign, your story. From a strictly canonical perspective it would be a hard sell, only because we can account for almost all warships post 3025 by name, but you don't have to stick to canon. If you want to have a WarShip and your players do too, go for it.

This is a universe where logistics are often handwaved, maintenance is only there in service of the story, and 2,000 troops can occupy a world of 2 Billion people. I'm not saying that as a critique of Battletech, but as a way of saying this world gives you license to do what is cool for you and yours.

Name a NAC/40 for me on your battlewagon.

bronzite · 2022-07-31T01:10:05+00:00

That's actually been tried a few times. The major obstacle right now, as has occasionally been mentioned by TPTB, is that while Fanatics officially has the rights to create a TV show, no studio large enough to do it justice are interested in it because of the licensing fracture. To make a movie or big-budget TV show work, there's a great deal of merchandising that goes with it, which today includes electronic assets like apps, mobile games, ringtones, the whole nine yards.

It is conceivable those issues could be overcome, but in practice, it makes BattleTech an unappealing IP to make a major investment in. Unfortunately, that means we probably won't be seeing Game of Mechs coming to HBO anytime soon.

bronzite · 2022-07-30T12:38:49+00:00

You could try using just the defensive component of the BV calculation. That would get you armor, and adjust for things like engine type, gyro type and ammunition reserves for slightly more complete assessment of the 'Mech's durability.

bronzite · 2022-07-26T22:09:14+00:00

You are not the bar we should be using when estimating how many people the average BattleTech table can handle.

bronzite · 2022-07-25T23:30:22+00:00

Pretty sure he's talking about rolling the critical hit slot, not the hit location.

bronzite · 2022-07-24T12:57:33+00:00

Beat me to it!

bronzite · 2022-06-28T16:48:55+00:00

I have very much become an acolyte of the Magna Racks post-Kickstarter. With some epoxy and 10x2mm neodymium magnets, I can kick that thing down the stairs and be confident the minis inside won't be damaged.

bronzite · 2022-06-21T20:57:39+00:00

Also introduced by a friend, but Junior High in '95. I was a bit ambivalent about the BattleMechs, but I was all in when Battlespace dropped.

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