How much do people keep all their Inner Sphere and Clan mechs in the same colour?
I can't remember the exact number but I think I have 30-50 mechs of each.
If I build lances like Nips does and then pick an army for a game with mechs from diffrently painted lances/stars will it end up looking messy?
Or do you think it's more important to have some varied display models?
If you want to paint different Lances in different color scheme go ahead! I often do this myself. When I do paint a bunch of Mechs the same I generally don't go over Company size (four Lances). I presently have five different color schemes I've been using.
Lore wise there are any number of reasons a force may have Lances in different schemes;
The force is made up of various militia forces.
A Company uses different schemes to differentiate between the Lances (for all kinds of reasons).
The Lances are from different minor noble houses.
They're an adhoc unit made up of Lances from different Companies/Regiments.
They're from a Merc company and don't give a shit.
Just cause.
Hell, if you want you can have the Mechs in the Lance be all different paint schemes. Just say their a small Merc company and Mercs are weird like that.
And of course, ultimately, no one at the table will care how they're done up. If that was a concern of yours.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Grinner has landed. I now know why the shipping was so cheap (small padded envelope). Now I need to get some time between puppy learning sessions (aka, teaching it to not destroy me or the house) to deploy it on the front line.
Edit: It really is nice to see Made in the USA on the back of the packaging. Also funny to me seeing Topps after I tossed a bunch of old common baseball cards the other week. The copyright shows 2021 on it.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
Welcome back to This Old 'Mech, were the salvage stacks reveal their most savory finds to those of us willing to dig.
Project Build All The Things brings a bit of lostech to the table today:
A mostly-intact OOP Banshee. It came missing an SRM rack, but I just happened to have an Unseen rack off an old Warhammer that I could fix this big boy up with. It's mounted a little off-center, but oh well; this Banshee model doesn't really allow for much room on the shoulder.
God, I love that PPC arm. It's so dumb, but I love it so.
Interestingly enough, the metal model is slightly larger in every dimension than the plastic that eventually followed it. I felt like I had to armor-up the plastic sculpt, but this metal one is just chunky enough to not feel too skinny. Also, the plastic model absolutely lost some detail in the foot area, which came as a bit of a surprise to me as I fixed up the metal sculpt; there's a whole foot pad on the pudding base that's just straight missing off the plastic sculpt.
GM: “you’ve captured the landing zone, you can bring in a reserve mech”
Me: drops in a Warhawk Prime, fires all four PPCS at an easy target, rolls 2s and 3s, then shuts down.
Me: “I would like a refund.”
So last nights battle did not go well. Easily the single worst engagement I've ever played. I did a total of 44 points of damage vs his 300+ not including damage from 2 ammo bins cooking off.
My poor Hatchetman.
This is the end of round 1 btw
P.S. Don't let the enemy Annihilator park on a level 3 hill overlooking the entire map. Absolute devistation.
Ah, an Annihi. I honestly thought you'd been focus-fired by a whole lance.
i couldnt get to him. Cyclops, Enforcer, Hatchetman, Commando. Slow force with the exception of the Commando. Left flank was all hills and sinkholes, right flank was screened by a Phoenix Hawk, Spider and a Panther. I rolled like garbage all night. consistently 1 under the required to hit. And did i mention i failed 5 out of 6 piloting skill rolls? All i needed were 5s. Couldnt get it. Pristine Orion took a TAC to the ammo bin. Hatchetman was still kicking but was fried by more ammo explosions. The Enforcer was a beast, getting sandblasted of almost all his armor, but could not hit shit and failed all but 1 piloting roll. Commando was a in the game till suddenly he lost both arms and his gyro. Dude was rolling 10+ with any dice he used every round consistently. There were some misses but easily more than half of his shots were hitting. Just an absolute bloodbath.
Kinda similar to my game tonight, a lot of slugging and damage and so many little dots filled in. I gained a HUGE appreciation for the Flashman tonight; 5/8 on a 75 ton frame. Huge armor, lotsa lasers, and the heat sinks to handle it. I seem to enjoy the heat efficient laser boats.
AvalonGuard on
+2
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited March 2022
Man, the potential spoilers keep falling out this year. Weird!
A sale listing on a distributor website shows a Northwind Highlanders Command pack as potentially dropping.
So obviously it'll have a Highlander, but what else do you put in Northwind command lance?
Don't you have, like, all the rosters?
After the release of the Dragoons box, my radar's been broke. They could reprint just about anything that hasn't been already (Blackjack, Archer, Rifleman), but do they include ClanTech? I'd guess not (maybe*). Do they add something that hasn't been put out in plastic yet? I'd guess yes, but outside of the Highlander I can't think of an iconic chassis they'd use.
*Mercs get access to common Clan rides according to the MUL as soon as the Civil War. It doesn't make sense maybe for a smaller outfit, but the Highlanders certainly rate highly enough and are big enough I could see them having stables for common Clan Omnis.
Nips on
0
Options
H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
So obviously it'll have a Highlander, but what else do you put in Northwind command lance?
Don't you have, like, all the rosters?
After the release of the Dragoons box, my radar's been broke. They could reprint just about anything that hasn't been already (Blackjack, Archer, Rifleman), but do they include ClanTech? I'd guess not (maybe*). Do they add something that hasn't been put out in plastic yet? I'd guess yes, but outside of the Highlander I can't think of an iconic chassis they'd use.
*Mercs get access to common Clan rides according to the MUL as soon as the Civil War. It doesn't make sense maybe for a smaller outfit, but the Highlanders certainly rate highly enough and are big enough I could see them having stables for common Clan Omnis.
Highlander IIC, maybe?
Besides that:
Loren Jaffray (Capellan Death Commando turned Highlander in Highlander Gambit & Impetus of War) piloted a Gallowglas and later a Penetrator.
William MacLeod (Highlander commander who participated in Task Force Serpent) piloted a Gallowglas and later a Huron Warrior.
Tara Campbell (featured protagonist for the Republic of the Sphere during the Dark Age) piloted a Hatchetman, and later a Battlemaster.
Jeremiah Rose (protagonist of D.R.T. and Main Event) shouldn't count, but he piloted a Shootist, Shadowhawk, and a Warhawk. Also briefly a customized Charger. His mother Marie, a Highlander mechwarrior who died in the War of 3039, had a Thunderbolt that was passed down to his younger brother Danny when Jeremiah left to join the Com Guard.
There's also the Black Watch battlemech created for the Royal Black Watch when the unit was recreated to protect the Lord of the second Star League. It's only tangentially related to the merc outfit in that the original Star League's RBW was mostly recruited from the best of Northwind's soldiers.
Gallowglas would be new for the modern plastics, but other than that there's kind of a dearth of Highlanders who have prominent roles in stories, and as such there's not really a lot of mechs that would be strongly associated with them. Based on their history, they'd probably lean heavily on inherited Star League-era Hegemony designs, then Capellan and later Fed Suns favorites.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited March 2022
I could see a Gallowglas based on the MUL, but not having new line art somewhat disqualifies it in my mind. Not that they couldn't sneak it in while I'm not looking. I'm calling it a strong contender.
(Also, why wasn't it in the Dragoon's box? FFS, they build it on Outreach and there's a WD-only Clantech version!)
Highlander IIc is out, I think, as it only propagates to the Lyrans and the Republic outside of Clan toumans. I could see it as salvage, perhaps. Also, I don't think it's had updated lineart, based on the MUL.
The Penetrator, Shootist, and Black Watch all have potential. All need new lineart (omg so badly). I don't think any of these three are wildly popular, but we're probably starting to scrape down into the B-tier popular 'Mechs at any rate, outside of Civil War designs or stuff that's appeared in a video game. (I'm thinking MW4 designs like the Osiris, Uziel, Thanatos, Mauler)
Nips on
+1
Options
H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
edited March 2022
IIRC the historic Gallowglas were warrior clans from western Scotland (where many Norse had settled and integrated with the local population, similar to Normandy) that were hired by Irish medieval lords as mercenaries, and resettled on their lands. They would go on to integrate more fully into Ireland, only to end up taking work for and against the lands of their ancestors.
So, particularly appropriate for the Wolf's Dragoons.
Also the -2GLS is pretty cool. Gauss Rifle, 2xLLs. I'd swap the MPL for a pair of SPLs or maybe a batch of ERSLs, to be a more effective back up array.
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited March 2022
Dag nabbit.
I'm reading Tamar Rising, and got all excited at a nascent stellar nation with a new parade scheme to possibly paint. And you know what the Tamar Pact picked?
Fucking red and black, like 40% of the god damn units in the Inner Sphere.
I'm reading Tamar Rising, and got all excited at a nascent stellar nation with a new parade scheme to possibly paint. And you know what the Tamar Pact picked?
Fucking red and black, like 40% of the god damn units in the Inner Sphere.
For fucks sake!
Make it Coral and Purple-Black
+1
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
I'm reading Tamar Rising, and got all excited at a nascent stellar nation with a new parade scheme to possibly paint. And you know what the Tamar Pact picked?
Fucking red and black, like 40% of the god damn units in the Inner Sphere.
For fucks sake!
Make it Coral and Purple-Black
But then it wouldn't be canonically correct!
+1
Options
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
I'm reading Tamar Rising, and got all excited at a nascent stellar nation with a new parade scheme to possibly paint. And you know what the Tamar Pact picked?
Fucking red and black, like 40% of the god damn units in the Inner Sphere.
For fucks sake!
Right!? And much of that 40% isn't just some rinky-dink factions that only grognard lore nerds know about, it is a lot of real high profile units that have red/black. Off the top of my head; Wolf's Dragoons, Kell Hounds, Draconis Combine, Black Widow Company and at least one of the clans (Blood Scorpion?). Now we got one more.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
0
Options
NipsHe/HimLuxuriating in existential crisis.Registered Userregular
edited March 2022
More Tamar Rising:
I hereby nominate the following 'mech for "Most Baller Name Among New ilClan Era 'Mechs"
Managed to get in my first TT game with the Clan mechs.
My Stone Rhino and Ebon Jaguar-Prime
vs Turkina-A and Timber Wolf-Prime
Final results:
The Stone Rhino,, Timber Wolf, and Ebon Jaguar all went down to engine destruction. The Turkina stood alone, but it had a solitary damage point left in the CT internal structure and a pilot with 4 wounds who was unconscious.
A few things cropped up...
*First, neither of us had realized that the rulebook that comes with the Clan Invasion box...isn't a full rulebook. D'oh. I was able to pull up the free quick start PDF from the two mech box, but that doesn't include a lot of important things, like heat, or physical attacks, or PSRs. So a few rules ended up getting fudged.
*My Kurita dice did not like rolling for Clan mechs it seems, especially when they're both Smoke Jaguar. I ended up swapping them out when I couldn't roll over a 6 after several turns.
*Combining Tukayyid maps doesn't work out all that well. We ended up having a level 5/6 wall across half the battlefield.
Thoughts on various mechs:
Stone Rhino
Did what I expected it to, hit like a mack truck and tanked a lot of damage, it was basically a head and left leg when it went down. I really wish that SPL was an ERML instead though.
Ebon Jaguar
I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about this mech after the game. It's obviously good at crit seeking with the LB5, LRM-10, and SRM-2. Unfortunately the aforementioned dice failures meant that it missed out on a lot of early crit seeking. But goddamn does this mech run cold. You basically need to take engine hits, and run every turn while salvoing to have any chance of building up heat.
If I was going to improve it though, I'd remove the Gauss Rifle for an LB-10X (swapping the ammo for 2 tons of LBX), and use the extra tonnage to up the SRM-2 to an SRM-6 with 2 tons of ammunition and really lean into the crit seeking role.
Timber Wolf
Hot like the sun, and can take a surprising amount of damage. My opponent figured it was going to go down at one point after eating alphas from both the Stone Rhino and Ebon Jaguar and chose to just alpha everything into the Stone Rhino. He ended the turn at 27 heat. Luckily for him no ammo explosions, but he did have to shut down for a turn.
Turkina
Took a lot of punishment, but if my crit seeking had worked out better those arms are super juicy. Gauss Rifle and LRM ammo in both means that there's a lot of opportunity for pilot damage, and losing a lot of offensive firepower quickly. Ended the game by kicking my Ebon Jaguar on its already damaged leg, and the hit was hard enough to not only snap off the leg, but also completely wipe out the tattered remnant of the right torso.
He had been incredibly lucky not to suffer more crits, as I only got two total crit rolls on the CT even after chewing through all but one IS point.
Nobody on
+6
Options
AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
Day 1 purchase, once it's available. Probably even two, one for the Davion Guards and one to kitbash into the custom SPACE POPE variant.
I got enough 40k bits to give it a nice pope hat and censer. I really can't wait as that Mech is probably one of my most favorite of the new designs. Hell, maybe one of my favorite period.
Shoot, I was thinking I was going to need to gin up some 3D printed parts for the censer and mitre.
Games Workshop! They're finally good for something!
Also, goddamn that song slaps. The lyrics are a little rough, but those instrumentals are *chef's kiss*.
"We are the true Sword of Light" I thought was a particularly good burn.
I wanna start kitbashing a bit more with Battletech. When those GW refugees came in they brought with them their love of kitbashing and I've seen some really cool things come from them.
I mean, why wouldn't some Periphery pirate bolt a mega-fauna skull on to his Mech?
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
Posts
I've been doing theme lances/stars. Though I tend to play lance only size battles.
I'm planning on "sister lances" that are visually unique but share some theme to build up a company if I need to.
... I should be painting right now ...
If you want to paint different Lances in different color scheme go ahead! I often do this myself. When I do paint a bunch of Mechs the same I generally don't go over Company size (four Lances). I presently have five different color schemes I've been using.
Lore wise there are any number of reasons a force may have Lances in different schemes;
The force is made up of various militia forces.
A Company uses different schemes to differentiate between the Lances (for all kinds of reasons).
The Lances are from different minor noble houses.
They're an adhoc unit made up of Lances from different Companies/Regiments.
They're from a Merc company and don't give a shit.
Just cause.
Hell, if you want you can have the Mechs in the Lance be all different paint schemes. Just say their a small Merc company and Mercs are weird like that.
And of course, ultimately, no one at the table will care how they're done up. If that was a concern of yours.
Edit: It really is nice to see Made in the USA on the back of the packaging. Also funny to me seeing Topps after I tossed a bunch of old common baseball cards the other week. The copyright shows 2021 on it.
Steam: betsuni7
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I'll try to get one when my puppy isn't sleeping on me, biting something, or someone.
Steam: betsuni7
I miss the photo stage for clean photos.
Steam: betsuni7
I think Iolo was asking for a pic of the puppy.
If not, then it's me. I'm asking for a puppy pic.
Here she is when we first brought her home four weeks ago. House is much more chaotic with more toys and no more potty area indoors.
Steam: betsuni7
Project Build All The Things brings a bit of lostech to the table today:
A mostly-intact OOP Banshee. It came missing an SRM rack, but I just happened to have an Unseen rack off an old Warhammer that I could fix this big boy up with. It's mounted a little off-center, but oh well; this Banshee model doesn't really allow for much room on the shoulder.
God, I love that PPC arm. It's so dumb, but I love it so.
Interestingly enough, the metal model is slightly larger in every dimension than the plastic that eventually followed it. I felt like I had to armor-up the plastic sculpt, but this metal one is just chunky enough to not feel too skinny. Also, the plastic model absolutely lost some detail in the foot area, which came as a bit of a surprise to me as I fixed up the metal sculpt; there's a whole foot pad on the pudding base that's just straight missing off the plastic sculpt.
Thank you for the puppy pic. I needed it today.
Glad my suffering could make you happy. Honestly, a year without a dog in my house was an odd feeling.
Steam: betsuni7
A Flea, nothing particularly special except for fitting it into a proper base. Gonna be an FLE-17 for this now-complete unit:
Pay your phone bills, or we'll bring the Peace of Blake upon you.
Me: drops in a Warhawk Prime, fires all four PPCS at an easy target, rolls 2s and 3s, then shuts down.
Me: “I would like a refund.”
My poor Hatchetman.
This is the end of round 1 btw
P.S. Don't let the enemy Annihilator park on a level 3 hill overlooking the entire map. Absolute devistation.
i couldnt get to him. Cyclops, Enforcer, Hatchetman, Commando. Slow force with the exception of the Commando. Left flank was all hills and sinkholes, right flank was screened by a Phoenix Hawk, Spider and a Panther. I rolled like garbage all night. consistently 1 under the required to hit. And did i mention i failed 5 out of 6 piloting skill rolls? All i needed were 5s. Couldnt get it. Pristine Orion took a TAC to the ammo bin. Hatchetman was still kicking but was fried by more ammo explosions. The Enforcer was a beast, getting sandblasted of almost all his armor, but could not hit shit and failed all but 1 piloting roll. Commando was a in the game till suddenly he lost both arms and his gyro. Dude was rolling 10+ with any dice he used every round consistently. There were some misses but easily more than half of his shots were hitting. Just an absolute bloodbath.
Kinda similar to my game tonight, a lot of slugging and damage and so many little dots filled in. I gained a HUGE appreciation for the Flashman tonight; 5/8 on a 75 ton frame. Huge armor, lotsa lasers, and the heat sinks to handle it. I seem to enjoy the heat efficient laser boats.
A sale listing on a distributor website shows a Northwind Highlanders Command pack as potentially dropping.
https://www.acdd.com/bt-northwind-highlanders-command-lance.html
So obviously it'll have a Highlander, but what else do you put in Northwind command lance?
Don't you have, like, all the rosters?
After the release of the Dragoons box, my radar's been broke. They could reprint just about anything that hasn't been already (Blackjack, Archer, Rifleman), but do they include ClanTech? I'd guess not (maybe*). Do they add something that hasn't been put out in plastic yet? I'd guess yes, but outside of the Highlander I can't think of an iconic chassis they'd use.
*Mercs get access to common Clan rides according to the MUL as soon as the Civil War. It doesn't make sense maybe for a smaller outfit, but the Highlanders certainly rate highly enough and are big enough I could see them having stables for common Clan Omnis.
Highlander IIC, maybe?
Besides that:
Gallowglas would be new for the modern plastics, but other than that there's kind of a dearth of Highlanders who have prominent roles in stories, and as such there's not really a lot of mechs that would be strongly associated with them. Based on their history, they'd probably lean heavily on inherited Star League-era Hegemony designs, then Capellan and later Fed Suns favorites.
(Also, why wasn't it in the Dragoon's box? FFS, they build it on Outreach and there's a WD-only Clantech version!)
Highlander IIc is out, I think, as it only propagates to the Lyrans and the Republic outside of Clan toumans. I could see it as salvage, perhaps. Also, I don't think it's had updated lineart, based on the MUL.
The Penetrator, Shootist, and Black Watch all have potential. All need new lineart (omg so badly). I don't think any of these three are wildly popular, but we're probably starting to scrape down into the B-tier popular 'Mechs at any rate, outside of Civil War designs or stuff that's appeared in a video game. (I'm thinking MW4 designs like the Osiris, Uziel, Thanatos, Mauler)
So, particularly appropriate for the Wolf's Dragoons.
I'm reading Tamar Rising, and got all excited at a nascent stellar nation with a new parade scheme to possibly paint. And you know what the Tamar Pact picked?
Fucking red and black, like 40% of the god damn units in the Inner Sphere.
For fucks sake!
Make it Coral and Purple-Black
But then it wouldn't be canonically correct!
Right!? And much of that 40% isn't just some rinky-dink factions that only grognard lore nerds know about, it is a lot of real high profile units that have red/black. Off the top of my head; Wolf's Dragoons, Kell Hounds, Draconis Combine, Black Widow Company and at least one of the clans (Blood Scorpion?). Now we got one more.
I hereby nominate the following 'mech for "Most Baller Name Among New ilClan Era 'Mechs"
The Doom Courser
[Edit] JFC, this book is name dropping Merc units left, right, and center. Crazy. I'd heard it was aimed as a revival of the Merc life, but dang.
Not really, no. I assume any new makes and models that show up were probably detailed in the RecGuide series, which I am wildly behind on.
C'MON, IWM, GIMME THAT SWEET SPACE-POPE-MOBILE!
Day 1 purchase, once it's available. Probably even two, one for the Davion Guards and one to kitbash into the custom SPACE POPE variant.
My Stone Rhino and Ebon Jaguar-Prime
vs
Turkina-A and Timber Wolf-Prime
Final results:
A few things cropped up...
*First, neither of us had realized that the rulebook that comes with the Clan Invasion box...isn't a full rulebook. D'oh. I was able to pull up the free quick start PDF from the two mech box, but that doesn't include a lot of important things, like heat, or physical attacks, or PSRs. So a few rules ended up getting fudged.
*My Kurita dice did not like rolling for Clan mechs it seems, especially when they're both Smoke Jaguar. I ended up swapping them out when I couldn't roll over a 6 after several turns.
*Combining Tukayyid maps doesn't work out all that well. We ended up having a level 5/6 wall across half the battlefield.
Thoughts on various mechs:
Stone Rhino
Ebon Jaguar
If I was going to improve it though, I'd remove the Gauss Rifle for an LB-10X (swapping the ammo for 2 tons of LBX), and use the extra tonnage to up the SRM-2 to an SRM-6 with 2 tons of ammunition and really lean into the crit seeking role.
Timber Wolf
Turkina
He had been incredibly lucky not to suffer more crits, as I only got two total crit rolls on the CT even after chewing through all but one IS point.
I got enough 40k bits to give it a nice pope hat and censer. I really can't wait as that Mech is probably one of my most favorite of the new designs. Hell, maybe one of my favorite period.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzOMNbNllJE
Games Workshop! They're finally good for something!
Also, goddamn that song slaps. The lyrics are a little rough, but those instrumentals are *chef's kiss*.
"We are the true Sword of Light" I thought was a particularly good burn.
I wanna start kitbashing a bit more with Battletech. When those GW refugees came in they brought with them their love of kitbashing and I've seen some really cool things come from them.
I mean, why wouldn't some Periphery pirate bolt a mega-fauna skull on to his Mech?