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[BattleTech] Death From Above! New starter boxes coming NOW FINALLY YAAAY
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I seem to recall the rules requiring at least 10 heat sinks on any mech (if the engine is so light they aren't built into it, you have to account for the discrepancy), but I can't point you to anything specific offhand. I could go check my 4th Ed construction rules later on (also the Battletech Master Rules if people want).
I'm thinking if it were a thing, it would be pre-"Battletech Compendium".
Having to allocate tonnage for underweight engines is a MWO thing, I think, although I seem to remember the way it's calculated it comes out the same anyways. But in tabletop you wouldn't be able to fit 10 heat sinks on a 5 ton Savannah Master if you had to account for that weight.
So today I managed to steal some time, graciously provided by my in-laws visiting to see Baby Nips, to finish a project that I've been sitting on for a bit.
One of the reasons I pre-ordered a Glowforge was to build tiny Stompy Robots, and now that I've had some time with mine I attacked this: Project Rebuild A Hussar's Stupid Legs.
This is a Hussar:
I bought one off of eBay a while back for cheap. I love the stats on paper, but BOY OH BOY did I hate those legs. I mean, look at ' em! They're spindly, and limp looking, and most importantly they don't have any hips. Thus, no torso twisting. But as far as I could read, there's no statline for it where the "No Torso Twist" Quirk is applied to it. Even more damning, there's official art of variants of it, that have a hip socket!
But those legs, while functional, are also ugly. They also deviate from the reverse-knee look of the original, that I actually like a lot.
So I stewed. And I searched. And then I found someone's art rendition that was good: it kept the reverse-knee joint, but also gave the damn thing hips and some notion that it could torso twist:
And thus my mind was set: I was going to use my Glowforge to model and cut some new legs, and make this Hussar fig of mine less dumb.
After a few hours of working on the art, and then a few hours of fiddling with cuts and assembly, here's my new shiny Hussar.
Now that's a 'Mech that looks like it breaks 150 kph while torso twisting! For a first effort in Stompy Bot manufacturing, it's not perfect, but I'm happy with it.
Funny thing about clear acrylic: it makes for fabulous material for 'Mechs that mount a Chameleon LPS cloak.
Steam: betsuni7
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are smarter than one man. How's that again? I missed something" Lazarus Long
I capped off this particular story arc last weekend. It was pretty neat.
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Blizzard: Ianator#1479 / 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 / FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
Box sets this year! Timeline advancement!
Robotech Tactics wave 2 is dead. (So many stingers/wasps to build still)
We have a release date April 18th!
That may also explain what I was coming here to ask about. I was at Guardian Games in Portland and noticed a complete lack of Battletech products, which then got me realizing I rarely ever see anything BT tabletop related in the wild. Is Catalyst just keeping quiet in anticipation of the new box sets and models or is BT just generally really badly marketed?
Headmaster of the PAX West 2018 Triwizard Drinking Tournament and organizer of the The 2018 Start of Term Feast!
(Most of what follows is my sense of it, from paying attention to CGL's movin's and shakin's over the last several years)
For CGL, it's that most of its Battletech products:
1) Don't have very large print runs.
2) Don't have a lot of releases in any given year.
3) Are available in distribution channels, but generally not carried by brick and mortar stores for lack of a dedicated playerbase, because...
4) At least until the push with the new boxed sets this year, doesn't have a good entry product for new players to grow the existing (small) playerbase.
5) And oh yeah, CGL basically doesn't have a marketing budget. At least that we see outside of certain conventions.
What would they market, and to whom? Until this year, the target demo has been the existing playerbase, basically all of whom are tuned in enough to know what's in the pipe and what's available. Hopefully with BATTLETECH (PC) coming out this year new players will be encouraged to try the tabletop game, and the launch of the new Intro Box sets will provide that starting product to point new players at.
Somewhat related, a gripe of mine: Because CGL doesn't seem to have much headroom for a centralized, company-run Organized Play program (despite having a moderately healthy network of Demo Agents), their only real new player outreach doesn't have a strong core of events to attract players. To my understanding, it's left to Demo Agents to schedule whatever kind of events they would like to run, and barring the yearly Worldwide Event there's no real guiding hand from CGL. And even with those the last several years worth of Worldwide Events have been designed, published, distributed, and run by Demo Agents with only a modicum of oversight from CGL itself.
Our own Calamity Jane is officially a Mechwarrior!
(posted with her permission, of course)
Even if not, that's baller.
https://bg.battletech.com/books/upcoming-releases/
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are smarter than one man. How's that again? I missed something" Lazarus Long
...Looks like our jobs just got a bit more complicated.
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Blizzard: Ianator#1479 / 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 / FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
"Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are smarter than one man. How's that again? I missed something" Lazarus Long
New models look great.
I’m a bit annoyed that there are 9 new models but only 8 come in the big new starter, you have to grab the other starter and get a bunch of redundant stuff if you want the whole set.
Hate to disappoint, but based on the new releases blurb this looks more like an updated collection of the existing core+companion rules than anything. Sort of like the Battletech Manual CGL released last year.
Headmaster of the PAX West 2018 Triwizard Drinking Tournament and organizer of the The 2018 Start of Term Feast!
RageCon in Reno, NV.
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Blizzard: Ianator#1479 / 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 / FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
That's fucking pretty.
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Blizzard: Ianator#1479 / 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 / FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
I am the slowest painter, I swear.
Wait, did I miss something? Or is this just the new starter sets?
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Blizzard: Ianator#1479 / 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 / FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
The new starters, these mechs are the old starters.
We are thinking of doing lance on lance next, any recommendations on good force compositions for a relatively balanced match?
BV2 system:
Hunchback (HBK-4N: 1087)
QuickDraw (QKD-4G: 1192)
Charger (CGR-1L: 980)
Raven (RVN-SS: 904)
total: 4163
Dragon (DRG-1N: 1125)
Vindicator (VND-1R: 1024)
Sentinel (STK-3L: 717)
Orion (ON1-VA: 1298)
total: 4164
The Charger -1L, however, is kinda weak sauce. It's got a LL and 2xML, but only has about 5.5 tons of armor. That's...the max a 20 ton 'mech can carry. On an 80 ton chassis. So. Yeah.
Using all of their original configurations:
Atlas
Assassin
Whitworth
Cicada
vs
Dervish
Jagermech
QuickDraw
Enforcer
Basically a protect the assault composition versus more of an all rounder list. Hopefully it is fun.
Things like effectively using your skills and facing and position are things that will 100% make-or-break matches for you. I haven't seen anything where one single wrong move doomed someone, but this is absolutely 100% a tactical combat game.
They have added the swoopy camera when mechs take their movement. That's a big cinematic upgrade from the backer beta skirmish mode at least.
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