Classic Battletech Is Awesome: the Thread!

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**beast_gts**

Gitzbitah wrote:
What I won't do is go find pictures- there's too many updates, and kickstarter's interface is not friendly enough for that.

One of the weaknesses of this KS is their photography skills and image management. Anthony Scroggins' Patreon has a lot of the sketches and renders on it.

Original Lance Pack list:

Spoiler:

**beast_gts**

And an group shot of the IS renders:

**Charistoph**

Gitzbitah wrote:
Oooh! Another chance to salivate I mean research over the impending glories of the kickstarter.

So Inner Sphere Assaults in the kickstarter, by package
Direct Fire Lance
Atlas, Marauder II

Heavy Lance
Banshee

Fire Lance
Longbow, Stalker, Zeus

Batlle Lance
Nightstar

Urban Lance
Victor

Support
Cyclops, Thug

Comstar Command Level II
King Crab, Highlander

Comstar Battle Level II
Crocket

All told, 13 new plastic sculpts of Inner Sphere Assault Mechs. What I won't do is go find pictures- there's too many updates, and kickstarter's interface is not friendly enough for that.

And when did those become available to purchase?

They may have been in the Kickstarter, but for general sale? The heaviest Inner Sphere mechs outside the starter boxes have been the Warhammer and Marauder.

I look forward to those new boxes coming out, but until then, the only way to get the new inner sphere mechs on Assault weight is to pretend that Marauder is a Marauder II.

**Gitzbitah**

Ah, my apologies then, Christoph, I misunderstood your question. You are correct that none of the force packs presently at retail include Inner Sphere Assault mechs.

**infinite_array**

I finished the rest of my generic mercenary force.

I wanted to have a company of armor to accompany the mech company, as I like how Alpha Strike seems to allow for an easier combined arms experience.

The main punch of the armored company is a lance of Manticores.

Close range support is covered by a lance of Bulldogs and SRM carriers.

Another mixed lance of Galleons and LRM carriers. Galleons scout and spot while the LRM carriers add to the long range fire of the Manticores.

And a pair of Warrior helis for long-range recon.

**aphyon**

In regular classic battletech armor is no joke especially using the max tech rules.

Our davion player runs a mean C3 lance with the 3 variant ajax assault tanks and a manteuffel as a spotter.

One of the guys is currently working up his hells horse combined arms star of tanks, aerospace and vtols. should be fun to see on the table.

**H.B.M.C.**

MaxTech?

That book's 24 years old! I think things have progressed since then.

**Nurglitch**

Superseded by Total Warfare, first published back in 2006.

**Charistoph**

Nurglitch wrote:
Superseded by Total Warfare, first published back in 2006.

More like Tactical Operations. Total Warfare (gameplay rules) and Technical Manual (construction rules) are the modern equivalent of the Battletech Compendiums.

**aphyon**

H.B.M.C. wrote:
MaxTech?

That book's 24 years old! I think things have progressed since then.

Incorrect the only difference is a change to the damage chart for vehicles. mostly moving the 4 locations for motive critical hits from location #3 on each side for a grand total of 4 to 3 per side for a grand total of 12 making vehicles almost instantly immobilized and not worth taking.

Even the rules in total warfare explained that they re-did the vehicle damage chart to make them purposely LESS effective to focus more on the mechs, even going so far as to recommend using the old rules for players that want to make vehicles more effective such as max tech level 3 charts.

**beast_gts**

TL;DR - the multi-part Black Knight “Clanbuster" "will go on sale later today, Thursday, June 10"

Spoiler:

**AduroT**

So here’s a somewhat random question. Is there a term for the style of cockpit/head that looks more like a helicopter or airplane? Such as what you see on the Madcat or Puma?

**aphyon**

AduroT wrote:
So here’s a somewhat random question. Is there a term for the style of cockpit/head that looks more like a helicopter or airplane? Such as what you see on the Madcat or Puma?

There is no name designation it is just a matter of your taste in mech design.

Head over to https://camospecs.com/factions/

and browse the gallery.

**Chillreaper**

AduroT wrote:
So here’s a somewhat random question. Is there a term for the style of cockpit/head that looks more like a helicopter or airplane? Such as what you see on the Madcat or Puma?

If you're using the Mech traits rules, some of the Mechs with that style of cockpit have the Weak Cockpit trait. This basically means that they have one less point of armour on the head.

**Nurglitch**

AduroT wrote:
So here’s a somewhat random question. Is there a term for the style of cockpit/head that looks more like a helicopter or airplane? Such as what you see on the Madcat or Puma?

I think it's called a 'canopy'?

**beast_gts**

ComStar Command Level II - King Crab, Highlander, Black Knight, Exterminator, Sentinel & Mercury

Spoiler:

**Gitzbitah**

Absolutely gorgeous, I love what they can do when they have a uniform design team.

In anticipation of ilClan, I've started collecting Jade Falcon Dark Age and later mechs and the variation in style is huge. Something like the Pinion (fat guy in a little coat) standing next to a work of art like the Jade Hawk is quite jarring.
I think it's forever altering my aesthetic.
Heck, between the Matador and Jupiter I might actually grow to appreciate Minecraft.

**Eilif**

Interesting to see the somewhat more uniform designs.

I like the aesthetics but its a rather recent development though, yes? Hasn't wildly disparate Mech designs been a hallmark of BT forever?

**H.B.M.C.**

Disparate 'Mech designs? Yes.

Quality of sculpts and the scale of the sculpts are the actual issue there. IWM has always been all over the place with scale, even if sculpt quality has been improving.

Also worth pointing out that artwork has also suffered from this, with some 'Mechs getting a basic sketch in a 300 year old Technical Read-Out book, and a mini that vaguely kinda resembles that art, and then nothing for a decade.

This recent effort to redesign everything without changing the aesthetic, but instead rationalising everything (combined with making all the plastic minis in scale with one another) has improved things greatly. Not only does it make everything look better, but it also makes the game an easier sell to new people.

**Manchu**

That last point cannot be overemphasized.

The product is so much more credible to new players to have everything looking like it actually comes from the same IP. I have always found that one of the crucial elements to enjoying a sci fi or fantasy setting is immersion and the unified aesthetic sensibility of the new plastic range extensively contributes to that.

**aphyon**

Got a fun little test game in tonight

One of our regular players is diving into the game and wanted to test out a fully mechanised combined arms clan force without mechs so we threw him up against 2 inner sphere tank lances.

The table

The battle

**Manchu**

Looking super cool!

Who makes those mats?

**aphyon**

Those are the 10-15mm scale mats that scale pretty well-

i get them in 4X4 so they can fill an entire 8' table but you can get them in various sizes.

Front line gaming

bocage

https://store.frontlinegaming.org/frontline-gaming-flg-mats-15mm-bocage-4x4.html

tablewar fat mats

for the urban mats

https://tablewar.com/collections/fatmats/the-f-a-t-mat%C2%AE-4x4

**AegisGrimm**

Damn. That Urban Zone mat is awesome!

**Eilif**

AegisGrimm wrote:
Damn. That Urban Zone mat is awesome!

I was about to say the same thing. So well done and so applicable for a wide variety of games.

A while back I painted a large scale-agnostic grey urban mat but the mat above is still really tempting.

**AduroT**

No hexes?!

**Nurglitch**

https://www.tinywargames.co.uk/ will put hexes on any map you want. They do some really great stuff.

**AegisGrimm**

AduroT wrote:
No hexes?!

There are several ways to play Battletech on an open table (a couple that are not Battletech-branded, but still excellent ways to have mech-on-mech combat that you can just theme in the BT universe). Although I see that Tablewar also has a section of the store that sells clear printed sheets that allow you to overlay black or white hexes onto any battlemat.

**H.B.M.C.**

Nurglitch wrote:
https://www.tinywargames.co.uk/ will put hexes on any map you want. They do some really great stuff.

You can also use these on any existing mat.

**Nurglitch**

Tinywargames.co.uk will add the grid or hexes to the Matt of your choice for free.