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 Mattlov wrote:
I wasn't a fan of the PP Crusader Hands and head, but liked the rest of it. The Archer was good. The Thunderbolt was fantastic, also the mini was a pain to assemble. The Marauder II may have been the best of them.

Actually, yes, the Thunderbolt is another really good one. Bitch of a thing to build (not as much as the Marauder standing on one leg!).

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Mattlov wrote:
I wasn't a fan of the PP Crusader Hands and head, but liked the rest of it. The Archer was good. The Thunderbolt was fantastic, also the mini was a pain to assemble. The Marauder II may have been the best of them.

Actually, yes, the Thunderbolt is another really good one. Bitch of a thing to build (not as much as the Marauder standing on one leg!).

I had to pin, like, everything on the one metal nuT-bolt that I got Z_Z

Don't remind me. Plus mine came missing the base an the sculpted feet on it. Had to gs one.

M.

Had to pull up the PP TRO to remind myself what these redesigned mechs even look like - and ugh, about the only one I liked was the Battlemaster (and Locust). I’d definitely take the originals on all the others. Nothing beats the original Warhammer, for me.

Though the recent redesigns I’ve been seeing around look much better - are those MWO or Catalyst versions? I seem to recall the new starter is going to have a bunch or the redesigned unseen?

 Stormonu wrote:
Though the recent redesigns I’ve been seeing around look much better - are those MWO or Catalyst versions? I seem to recall the new starter is going to have a bunch or the redesigned unseen?

The Battletech Beginner Box will have redesigned Griffin and Wolverine.
The BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat box will have redesigned Awesome, BattleMaster, Catapult, Commando, Locust, Shadow Hawk, Thunderbolt, and Wolverine.

3D Renders

I can't remember if they are modified prints of PGI's work or just very good recreations.

Either way, I'm loving them. Here's to hoping my income upticks to buy both sets.

How do those scale to the old Ral Partha mechs? Well, maybe I shouldn't say old. I hadn't placed an original 85 Marauder next to the what, an 88 re sculpture? since the early 90's. Love the new locusts. They are obviously way larger but that's not an issue for me. Must get some of those locusts.

I want Catalyst to redesign the lance packs and put a Locust, Locust, Stinger, Phoenix Hawk one!

M.

 Miguelsan wrote:
I want Catalyst to redesign the lance packs and put a Locust, Locust, Stinger, Phoenix Hawk one!

M.

Hm. I might want multiples of that one.

 Charistoph wrote:
I can't remember if they are modified prints of PGI's work or just very good recreations.

Either way, I'm loving them. Here's to hoping my income upticks to buy both sets.

PGI and CGL have different artists for their Nuseens.

I may be wrong, but I think that the PGI stuff predates the Battletech artwork (I was a pre-order person for MWO, so that's going back a few years).

They obviously share some stylistic cues, but that's probably due to what's fashionable in the world of mech design in the 21st century. I was initially a bit disappointed when I found out that CGL weren't just going to license the MWO designs, as they're so good; but having seen the results, I actually prefer CGL's designs - especially the Awesome, Shadowhawk and Battlemaster.

 Carlson793 wrote:

 Stormonu wrote:
Though the recent redesigns I’ve been seeing around look much better - are those MWO or Catalyst versions? I seem to recall the new starter is going to have a bunch or the redesigned unseen?

The Battletech Beginner Box will have redesigned Griffin and Wolverine.
The BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat box will have redesigned Awesome, BattleMaster, Catapult, Commando, Locust, Shadow Hawk, Thunderbolt, and Wolverine.

3D Renders

Spoiler:

good looking Mechs

 Miguelsan wrote:
Don't remind me. Plus mine came missing the base an the sculpted feet on it. Had to gs one.

M.

If you buy it legit from a store or from IWM and it has a flaw, send an email to Melissa. They will fix it.

I bought them at the Warstore but as mailing stuff to Japan is always a fuzz, I fixed it myself and called it a day.

M.

I just hope that:

A). They do a new series of Lance Packs.
B). They don't complain duplicate 'Mechs from the starter boxes.

 Mr Morden wrote:

 Carlson793 wrote:
3D Renders

Spoiler:

good looking Mechs

Yeah, at first I was worried about my long-time-favorite Awesome getting a new look, especially since it was never Unseen and thus didn't require it. Then I thought about how much the look of the Corvette has changed over 65 years, and how much the Battletech universe is a matter of salvage what you can to repair what you have. Now I'm okay with it.

I am really liking the look of those new mechs, I'm by far the most excited about new Battletech sculpts that I've been since the early 1990s.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I just hope that:

A). They do a new series of Lance Packs.
B). They don't complain duplicate 'Mechs from the starter boxes.

Sort of. There will be no release of these box set 'Mechs outside of the box set. Could you get lance packs later down the line? Maybe. But the ones in the box will only ever be available in the box if Catalyst does what they want to.

Ok, so, some time ago (like, a month :p), I got a cheap fdm 3d printer to have my very own Star Trek replicator ^_^. Or to start fiddling around with all the printing stuff at home thing, one or the other. Anyways, the fdm printers are really great to do stuff like terrain, inserts for boardgames, actual stuff that works and all that, but the definition leaves a bit to be desired for miniatures. But I though that hell, printing a mini costs peanuts, so might as well try to do minis with it!

So I did.

The first test was a TBolt, because why the hell not:



(There it is, after a whole lot of cleaning up). Not bad, to be honest, not bad at all. I used the "Extra detail" settings from the printer, and the results were encouraging.

Not really perfect, though, to be honest:



It is an extreme closeup, and it looks much better in person, but there certainly is a lot of banding.

Then I tried something bigger:



Those were done at the "Medium Quality" settings, and even though with all that black it doesn't show much, when primed, well...



It is kinda weird. But probably good enough for scenery.

Then I tried to do something bigger, and I made a 30k Rhino:



Which I believe looks pretty fething cool, if I say so myself.

After that, I started fiddling around with the advanced settings (layer height, retraction, heat, travel speeds... theres a lot of those ^^), and to test it I made a goblin. A tiny, tiny goblin:



Seriously, it's tiny:



The extreme closeup shows a lot of defects that I should clean, but 1) I didn't even notice them with the naked eye, and 2) look at those tiny bands! That's leagues better!




After painting it with the crappy, dried paints and the broken brush I had where I was, the bands were mostly not there:




So of course, the next step would be something bigger and much cooler. Like a Wolverine:



The only postprocessing I did to that one was removing the supports. After a pass with blue primer, it looked like this:




And after a couple passes of washes and drybrushes, it looks like this:



Once the fine sandpaper I ordered arrives, I'll probably be able to get the next ones much cleaner, but honestly... this is very encouraging

It is clearly a tad too big as-is, though ^^. But look at the detail level when compared with other mechs:

Very nice.

OK, this seems like one of those sort of questions that I should know the answer too but it's had me scratching my brain over recent days. Can anyone give a reasonable general ballpark figure for the ratio of Trueborn to Freeborn Clan Mechwarriors?

I know that in part the answer would be "Depends on the time period and which Clan and what sort of unit" since for example the Falcons and Wolves were desperately short of personnel following the Refusal War so their make-up in 3058 is likely to be different from what it was when they crossed the Periphery in 3050, but what I'm after is a broad general feel for roughly what the percentages would be like across the Clans as a whole around the mid-late '50s. I'm thinking that it'd probably be somewhere greater than 50/50 with Freeborn Mechwarriors generally having a tougher time due to the prejudices against them, so somewhere between 75/25 or 66.6/33.3 overall, with numbers of Freeborns being noticably higher in second line and Garrison Clusters and lower in first line units. Does that sound reasonable?

Logically speaking, it should be on the ballpark of 90/10 or more most of the time, simply because warrior créches were being taught how to fight from the crib, and being "made" on exowombs allows to just increase production as you see ft.

 Albertorius wrote:
simply because warrior créches were being taught how to fight from the crib, and being "made" on exowombs allows to just increase production as you see ft.

Unless I've missed something in my readings of the fluff Trueborns are still "Born" as babies and have to grow naturally, so it only really allows you to increase production with about a 15-20 year lead time. If your Clan experiences sudden heavy losses, such as the Falcons and Wolves did in 3057 or some other Clans did at Tukkayid, you have to turn to other sources which basically means promising Freeborn teenagers and young adults or rushing captured Bondsmen through their Trials of Position, since IIRC even as a Trueborn if you wash-out during Warrior training you don't get a second chance, ignoring the special case of Aidan Pryde. Unless you dramatically lower training standards for the Trueborn Sibkos, but even then there's a good chance it'll still take quite a few years to catch up.

10% Freeborn seems reasonable for First line units, it seems a bit low for an overall average to me though and I'd expect a higher ratio in Garrison units.

 simonr1978 wrote:

 Albertorius wrote:
simply because warrior créches were being taught how to fight from the crib, and being "made" on exowombs allows to just increase production as you see ft.

Unless I've missed something in my readings of the fluff Trueborns are still "Born" as babies and have to grow naturally, so it only really allows you to increase production with about a 15-20 year lead time. If your Clan experiences sudden heavy losses, such as the Falcons and Wolves did in 3057 or some other Clans did at Tukkayid, you have to turn to other sources which basically means promising Freeborn teenagers and young adults or rushing captured Bondsmen through their Trials of Position, since IIRC even as a Trueborn if you wash-out during Warrior training you don't get a second chance, ignoring the special case of Aidan Pryde. Unless you dramatically lower training standards for the Trueborn Sibkos, but even then there's a good chance it'll still take quite a few years to catch up.

10% Freeborn seems reasonable for First line units, it seems a bit low for an overall average to me though and I'd expect a higher ratio in Garrison units.

That's why I said "most of the time", yes. That said, even suffering heavy losses, clan trueborns enter combat at a quite early age, IIRC. Plus, they should still have a large number of trueborns in second line units and the like, and even in rejects.

OTOH, the clans being the clans, if they have to choose between taking in freeborns and doing a second trial for trueborn washouts, I'm pretty sure they'll go for the trueborns most of the time.

The Falcon Guard books made it pretty clear that if you fail your Trial of Position, that's it, there's no second chance. Also, whilst the Clans do favour youth, there's still a bit of a limit. Even though I mentioned 15-20 years, I can't imagine them sending 15 year olds into combat even with their screening and training. Realistically, I would have thought 17 would be the lower limit, even if it'd be what we consider child-soldiers these days.

 simonr1978 wrote:
The Falcon Guard books made it pretty clear that if you fail your Trial of Position, that's it, there's no second chance. Also, whilst the Clans do favour youth, there's still a bit of a limit. Even though I mentioned 15-20 years, I can't imagine them sending 15 year olds into combat even with their screening and training. Realistically, I would have thought 17 would be the lower limit, even if it'd be what we consider child-soldiers these days.

I'm pretty sure that when faced with the kind of casualties that would make them look towards freeborns, that policy would be turned pretty fast, or they would be treated just like freeborns for induction. Remember that the percentage of trained freeborns will probably be nelligible, and training to be a mechwarrior takes years, so if you need to bolster your ranks right now, well... you might not have much of a choice.

As to age, well... I wouldn't really rule out them sending children. It is a time-honored tradition in warfare, after all.

Actually, it probably varies a lot between Clans. From the Jade Falcon books, they're pretty rough on their freeborns, but you get a small handful serving in frontline units and slightly more in second-line and provisional garrison clusters. The Smoke Jaguars were on the far end of the extreme though with little to no freeborns. On the other end of the spectrum, Clan Wolf managed to scrape up enough warriors for 5 regiments to create Wolf's Dragoons. Prior to Tukayyid, the Diamond Sharks staffed their second-line units with freeborns and after the sacrifice of a cluster during that campaign, their policy changed to allow freeborns into front-line units. I suspect freeborns would also fill out a lot more of the conventional vehicle crews as well. I'd guess the actual ratio of trueborn to freeborn is closer to 60/40 with adjustments depending on the particulars of the Clan and what type of unit it is. A more progressive clan will probably have more freeborns.

At least Clan Ghost Bear recycles failed warriors where those that fail their first trial get the opportunity to retry in a second branch. Their senior Khan was an aerospace pilot that initially failed his mechwarrior trial. In their case, I suspect they have a higher ratio of trueborns, though by the time they became the Rasalhague Dominion, I suspect the ratio is probably closer to 50/50.

I think Clan Diamond Shark also allows their older warriors to retire to other castes, but leaves the option open to recall them back to service as a reserve to staff second-line/garrison units.

Thanks to both of you for your replies, I really appreciate your perspectives on this.

I'm digging those Leopards Albertorious. Go for a Union and you'll have me at your house knocking on the door with a bunch of Euros!

M.

 simonr1978 wrote:
The Falcon Guard books made it pretty clear that if you fail your Trial of Position, that's it, there's no second chance. Also, whilst the Clans do favour youth, there's still a bit of a limit. Even though I mentioned 15-20 years, I can't imagine them sending 15 year olds into combat even with their screening and training. Realistically, I would have thought 17 would be the lower limit, even if it'd be what we consider child-soldiers these days.

A Clan warrior can face his Trial of Position as young as 16, but most occur at the age of 18. Most Clanners are "combat ready" and capable of using a 'Mech in combat at Inner Sphere regular (Gunnery 4 Piloting 5) by age 14-ish.

Clan training is BRUTAL. There's a reason sometimes not even a single member of the sibko makes it to the Trial. A Clan like the Steel Vipers rarely sends more than 1 out of 100. A "gentle" Clan might send as many as 5. Out of 100.


As for freeborns, as you said, depends on the Clan. Many Clans that are fine with freeborns populate their second-line Clusters with them. In any Clan other than the Hell's Horses, you can bet a vehicle pilot is probably freeborn. Unarmored infantry, like a base MP? Freeborn. In a Clan that is okay with freeborns, I would expect a front line Cluster to contain no more than 5% freeborns. A second line Cluster might be as much as 1/3rd of them. But I doubt in ANY Clan there will be as many freeborns as trueborn in any unit other than something seen as "unworthy" of a trueborn.

Pretty much, the Warden clans like Clan Wolf trends to be a higher ratio (Wolf's Dragoons were all Freeborn but Natasha), while Crusaders trend lower (Smoke Jaguars never let Freeborns fight, but Horse was allowed in the Falcon Guard). There are some exceptions, of course.

Hell's Horses, as mentioned, have Mechwarriors who fail their first Trial, go through Vehicle Piloting Trials next. They are somewhat of an oddity in this. I remember another clan allowing a second Trial for Trueborns and success their would put them in the second line much like many of the Crusaders would put dezgra, solhama, or other Freeborn personnel.