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DeathwingCrusader wrote:For the IS to take on the Clans they need their own technological advantage rather than just numbers.

The new BattleMech Stealth Armor, developed by the Capellan Confederation, is one way to even the odds.

Give IS heavy 'Mechs stealth armor, XL engines, speed 5/8/5, Endo Steel skeletons, targeting computers, and decent weapons (all now available for the IS in the Tech Manual) and that will take away most of the Clan advantage at long range, which has always been the killer.

Won't work, at least how you want it. You'll never get Endo Steel, XL engine and Stealth armor on one design. It's all too bulky. Most stealth armored units are standard engine designs for more survivability. The Stealth Cataphract is the ONLY design I would consider capable enough to take on a Clanner of similar tonnage.

And in the end, I still don't want to get into a snipe fight with a Clan 'Mech. Their weapons still reach farther and hit harder. You want to fight Clanners are close range, knife fighting range. Yes their stuff is just as effective as always, but at least the IS is on more even terms than being at range.

Just a thought from a newbie, but would taking somethin light and adding an lbx ac or some machine guns for crit spamming work? You're bound to get lucky eventually, right?

edit: or, now that I think of it, somethin like a raven for the electronics, give it a narc, and have catapults in the back field with arrow IV's. (I'm in love with the idea of arty in every situation, so this may be a dumb idea. )

64mas wrote:Just a thought from a newbie, but would taking somethin light and adding an lbx ac or some machine guns for crit spamming work? You're bound to get lucky eventually, right?

edit: or, now that I think of it, somethin like a raven for the electronics, give it a narc, and have catapults in the back field with arrow IV's. (I'm in love with the idea of arty in every situation, so this may be a dumb idea. )

Idea 1: Enemy will probably kill you before you get lucky. Might win a game once in a while, but usually not. It might be a dice based game, but relying on luck in ANY game is a very frustrating way to play.

Idea 2: Works fine, until they kill your spotter. And it WILL get killed.

Artillery is good, but not really powerful in Battletech unless you have a LOT of it. It is useful against infantry, but most 'Mechs and vehicles can shrug off a few rounds of artillery before it becomes a concern. In that time, they move in close to your forces so that you can't hit them without hitting yourself. The only exception is a guided Arrow IV, but that requires TAGgers. And if the opponent knows you have them, they probably won't live very long.

The crit spamming idea works best if you have a can-opener too. You need something to remove the armor so that each round of the smaller stuff goes internal.

Usually you want a good lb-x autocannon or SRM launcher for that. Machine guns are really sub-optimal at that job.

DeathwingCrusader wrote:

Give IS heavy 'Mechs stealth armor, XL engines, speed 5/8/5, Endo Steel skeletons, targeting computers, and decent weapons (all now available for the IS in the Tech Manual) and that will take away most of the Clan advantage at long range, which has always been the killer.

I will translate that into : double heat sinked, target computer enhanced, flash bulbs.

Double heat sinks do not necessarily follow from XL engines, but they usually do. Decent weapons with targeting computers normally means one thing.
The stealth armour is just a gimic on top.


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Mattlov wrote:

Idea 1: Enemy will probably kill you before you get lucky. Might win a game once in a while, but usually not. It might be a dice based game, but relying on luck in ANY game is a very frustrating way to play.

Agreed on the MG armed crit seeking mech. Small lasers work better anyway, and are available in numbers wihout modding. Some Locust variants have an array of small lasrs as armament. fast tail chasers with small lasers is not a poor idea, even against clans, in fact the clans do exactly this with the Fire Moth.

Mattlov wrote:
Idea 2: Works fine, until they kill your spotter. And it WILL get killed.

Vey true if its a mech, less so if its infantry. Infantry are the best TAG carriers, cheap and easy to deploy covering prety much eveywhere.

I much prefer vehicles for artillery, cheaper, does the same job.

Mattlov wrote:
Artillery is good, but not really powerful in Battletech unless you have a LOT of it. It is useful against infantry, but most 'Mechs and vehicles can shrug off a few rounds of artillery before it becomes a concern. In that time, they move in close to your forces so that you can't hit them without hitting yourself. The only exception is a guided Arrow IV, but that requires TAGgers. And if the opponent knows you have them, they probably won't live very long.

What you can do with a guided Arrow IV you can do with an AC/20. The artillery Catapult is a great design for the background, but I dont think it works well in gameplay. By the time you have TAG teams and been i range for TAG you might as well have just walked up and fired. Again some leeway if you have infantry to spot for you.

Infantry are decent artillery spotters, but it takes battle armor to mount a TAG system of any kind.

And footsloggers are dead on the BT battlefield now. There are too many weapons out there that will tear them apart. Especially the new plasma weapons and the new flamer rules.

Side note, I'm having a hard time in NOT putting Plasma Rifles on every design I can think of. Damn it is a good weapon.

Mattlov wrote:Infantry are decent artillery spotters, but it takes battle armor to mount a TAG system of any kind.

And footsloggers are dead on the BT battlefield now. There are too many weapons out there that will tear them apart. Especially the new plasma weapons and the new flamer rules.

Side note, I'm having a hard time in NOT putting Plasma Rifles on every design I can think of. Damn it is a good weapon.

Well Battlearmour can certainly do.
Infantry can or at least could have support weapons. 1 per x men with x dependant on the usual tonnage of the vehicle/mech mounted variant.
Also good anti infantry weapons are poor anti mech weapons.


With plasma rifles I think you are using an edition beyond what I have available. BTech is not like warhammer in that not everyone is on the same page. A lot of us still play 3025 with old 3025 era rulesets.