We have a fairly long game of Battletech RPG based in the 3146 timeline and yes i do realize it is not everyone favorite age in the game it just fits our group best right now currently DM’d by a good friend who got me into Battletech currently it is me two family members and two friends and their autistic son they wanted to get him into something he liked and battletech stuck what my question is we have been trying to keep our game as lore friendly as possible we have made a couple of AU concessions but last night while playing i think we may have made a big mistake while playing our little merc group found a uncharted system to make our home/base and in the process we had given the name Winfield due to and im ashamed to admit we had looked at a very old star map that was a misprint ( didnt know that at the time ) fast forward to this morning i was looking at my current map and realized not only was Winfield a currently taken name but clear on the wrong side of the galaxy from where our campaign / game is taking place and ive talked to the dm and the other players but we are not 100% sure what to do do we just say F it and in game blame it on the hpg blackouts or do we retcon the games location and play on as we were always on this side of the galaxy ? [ EDIT ] we have decided to go the route of Winfield II as suggested by a member of the subreddit, as there are two Winfields already without any number's / sufix added to them and we also in character, may not have known of the already named other Winfield and since technically the universe would be 3d not 2d like we see on printed maps, we can forgive our geographical flubs. Thank you all for the ideas.

So I’m just now hearing that CGL released a new main rule book, and that some things are different. I don’t know exactly what, other than a brief example regarding ammo explosions. Is it like a new edition? Or is it more of a consolidation of some key info into one book?

Battletech’s rules have been largely the same for some 40 years now, and each book has been additive in nature instead of transformative. So I understand the frustration and resistance I’ve heard whisper of.

That being said, for someone who hasn’t seen or read the new book. Is it “New” Battletech, or just a more concise source of rules?

2nd Capellan Defense Force colors made from scratch by me :)

The recent update to the Medium-Range-Missiles got me itching to make a platform that does nothing else but to deliver huge clusters of MRM at breakneck speeds.

Plus in recent campaigns our group manage to use a salvaged Warrior Helicopter to great effect...

So I came up with this: the Hippo Attack Helicopter

(The original design features 2.5 tons of Ferro Fibrous armor, but I thought, that was too conventional... so I swapped it for 1.0 ton of Stealth Armor)

Hippo Attack Helicopter

Mass: 30 tons
Movement Type: VTOL
Power Plant: 160 XL
Cruising Speed: 108 kph
Maximum Speed: 162 kph
Armor: Vehicular Stealth
Armament:
     1 MRM 40
Manufacturer: Unknown
     Primary Factory: Unknown
Communication System: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking System: Unknown
Introduction Year: 3145
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-X-X-E
Cost: 4,460,000 C-bills

Type: Hippo
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Movement Type: VTOL
Tonnage: 30
Battle Value: 903

Equipment                                          Mass
Internal Structure                                    3
Engine                        160 XL                4.5
Cruising MP: 10
Flank MP: 15
Heat Sinks:                   10                      0
Control Equipment:                                  1.5
Lift Equipment:                                     3.0
Power Amplifier:                                    0.0
Armor Factor (Vehicular Stealth)16                      1

                          Internal   Armor   
                          Structure  Value   
     Front                   3         5     
      Side               3/3       3/3    
     Rear                    3         3     
     Rotor                   3         2     



Weapons
and Ammo              Location    Tonnage   
MRM 40                 Front        12.0    
Apollo MRM FCS         Front        1.0     
CASE                    Body        0.5     
MRM 40 Ammo (12)        Body        2.0     
ECM Suite               Body        1.5     

Features the following design quirks: VTOL Rotor Arrangement (Dual Rotors)

A few days ago I floated a non-serious idea for a one-shot super laser, which made me want to try and make real one-shot lasers. So after a few days of thought, here's my pitch for one-shot lasers, along with a peek into my thought process while designing them. If you're just here for the stats, jump to the end.

My first hurtle is trying to think of where, when, and how a one-shot laser would be useful. If its just a single use standard laser, it would be useless for Battlemechs. Vehicles couldn't use it because they'd still need heatsinks for it. But maybe battle armor could make use of it.

For those of you saying "Bookwyrm517! What about Chemical Lasers? They don't require heat sinks on Vehicles." To which I say: very astute of you, I was just getting to that idea. The Chemical Laser is basically what I need, except for one problem: even with one shot, they're still too heavy to be useful for most applications. I need a way to justify drastically reducing their weight otherwise most units would just take a standard laser. (Though one thing worthy of note: it seems BA can't take chem lasers. It doesn't seem like there's anything that forbids it, it's just that they don't appear on lists of BA weapons)

So here's my starting goal: make a couple one-shot lasers that are competitive in terms of weight and slots with standard lasers.

As a starting point, lets look at the standard lasers for BA. Both on their own are lighter than their battlemech counterparts, with a small weighing 300kg and a medium 500kg (0.3 and 0.5 tons, respectively). However, both need heatsinks that weigh 500kg each, which ends up making them heavier than their mech scale counterparts. Making one-shot lasers weigh only as much as their normal counterparts but require more heat sinks is a good start, but it's not enough to let them compete with other BA weapons like missile launchers.

So lets go to the opposite end. A small chem laser gets 60 shots per ton, which means each shot weighs about 16.6kg. That's almost equal to 1.5 SRMs (10kg/missile for BA). A BA SRM weighs 60kg per tube, so we're looking at staying below 70kg to stay competitive. I'm going to place the whole assembly at 50kg, or 3x the weight of the ammo, and work from there.

So now lets look at the One-shot Medium Laser. Medium Chemical Lasers get 30 shots per ton, or about 33.3kg per shot. Applying the same formula for the One-shot Small Laser, we get a weight of 100kg. Feels pretty reasonable, but I feel thats a bit cheap. A BA SRM 3 is 210kg for one shot that would do similar damage. Lets bump it up to 5x shot weight (or in other words, shot weight x damage): 166.5kg. Lighter than the SRM, but maybe too heavy? Lets loop back to it.

Now things get interesting: One-Shot Large Laser for BA. This has the potential to be brutal, as any BA weapons that do more than 3 damage have a caviate, be it limited ammo or a need for heat sinks. For an example, a IS MPL does 6 damage and weighs a total of 2800kg, while an SRM 4 weighs 240kg but has limited shots (and is a cluster hit). The formula I've been using gives a One-shot Large Laser that weighs 800kg (100kg/shot x 8 damage) which is... ok? It feels a bit on the light side to me. It feels quite out of place with the rest of the OS lasers. But I'll roll with it.

Lets try this: One-shot Small Laser at 50kg, set the One-shot Medium at 175kg, and the One-shot Large at 800kg. For slots, I'm going to say 1 for the OSSL, 2 for the OSML, and 3 for the OSLL. No heat sinks needed, of course. I'd like some people more experienced with BA to weigh in, but I think they're OK. Full stats will be at the end.

Now some might be thinking: "This is great and all, but I want to use these on a mech or vehicle." Don't worry, Ive been thinking about that this whole time. I present to you the One-Shot Laser Array.

One-shot Laser arrays basically take the Battle Armor weapons and mount a set of them all into a singular mount. They can then be fired one at a time, or multiple together in one shot like a RAC, usingthe cluster hits table. They each weigh half their standard counterparts, but have a limited number of shots. A One-shot Small Laser Array weighs 0.25 tons and holds 6 shots, a medium holds 4 shots, and a large weighs 2 tons and holds 2 shots. Like chem lasers they do generate heat when used on battlemechs, but they don't require heat sinks when used on vehicles.

So with my thoughts out of the way, lets list out all the stats.

One-shot Lasers were an devised as part of an attempt to bring some of the benefits of Chemical Lasers over to Battle Armor. Aside from problems with the loading mechanism, the lighter lenses and mirrors would deform or break after only a few shots. While the project was judged as largely impractical, the largely disposable one-shot cartridges were deemed useful enough to be placed into production.

Construction: One-shot Lasers do not require heatsinks

As examples of the One-shot Lasers became more widespread, various factions and groups attempted to port the technology back over to mechs and vehicles. While several attempts were made, the most popular form saw the cartridges placed in a rack and wired to fire either in sequence or a singular shot. While powerful and relatively cheap to produce, this arrangement suffers in accuracy when multipe lasers are fired at once due to the whole rack being aimed instead of the individual lasers.

Construction and rules: When firing a One-shot Laser array, a player may choose ​to fire the contained shots one at a time or fire multiple shots in a singular burst. If multiple lasers are fired at once, it is treated as a cluster weapon.

If installed on a vehicle, that vehicle does not need a Power Amplifier or heatsinks to use a One-shot Laser Array.

Ok, how did I do? I think this is usable, but I'm not sure if it's too weak or too strong. I am open to feedback, but the only thing I really care about is if people think it would be fun or not.

A gauss rifle does 15 or 20 damage (cant remember which) to the IS when it explodes, which instantly destroys the vehicle's turret and kills the vehicle as even a 100 ton vehicle won't have sufficient IS in the turret to survive the explosion.

Vehicles cant mount CASE of any kind in the turret (unless a new rule made that possible) so the usual method of avoiding gauss rifle explosions on mechs doesn't work.

I’ve been hunting for one of these, as I’m sure many of you have been, for years. I finally found an overseas seller and jumped on it. I’m feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning right now!

Real quick; I know chem lasers produce less heat and require an ammo source as a trade off. Past that the stats are largely the same. Tonnage, damage, range, etc.

That being said, vehicles like VTOLs (above) don’t track heat. So why did the designers choose chem lasers for the Red Kite’s armament instead of standard lasers and save tonnage for extra armor and/or weaponry?

This thing is packing 3 tons of chemical ammo for seemingly no reason given the alternative is a standard laser with the same stats and no ammo required.

I have to assume there’s some lore reason to this or maybe people like to ram mechs with it like a suicide bomb. Though truthfully I’m not even sure there’s rules to make the latter viable.

I've read recently Wolves on the Border. By the end on Planet Misery, the Dragoons started their attack on midnight. Michi suggested, because its dark. But Minobu said, they started on midnight, because their contract expired.

How time works in this franchise? How they manage dates? It would be a big coincidence, midnight on Misery is the same time like on terra.

Gray death legion trilogy once mentioned, their contract is in hours. Is this comon (too with long term contracts)?

Wolf Dragoons got 5 years with Kurita. They set a timer? Whole mercenaries got split on the front.

How does it work if they jump with ships (temporal fluctuation). The milky way is huge.

Im kinda confused.

Hope you like them.

Took about a day to finish these guys. They were a lot of fun. Theyre supposed to be house davion with their military greens but im not sure if I nailed it or not. Im a little bit unhappy with the end result but thats why we practice!

Which one is your favorite from the four? Id love to know

I printed and painted the Awesome in Legion of Vega colours (maybe the white is too bright, but I like it) before researching the sorts of mechs they'd actually have, but I figure the Jenners might make up for that oversight.

I've seen some other posts asking about how to make Scouring Sands more challenging. This is the second campaign I've run through it, and given the constraints I put upon myself, it was definitely a challenge!

To add challenge without playing with the PV percentages, I decided on a different kind of commander. Rather than a hardened mercenary, the one in charge was a sales exec. This particular sales exec was a 1980s stock broker, froze himself to escape a degenerative bone disease, and was thawed out in 3150. He immediately put his business acumen to work for Ostmann Industries, and found himself running a traveling demonstration/sales team.

Here are the constraints:

1. The only mechs available are Ost mechs. You start with a lance of them (one each), though more can be purchased down the line.
2. Vehicles are available, however, they must be picked based on name or some other silly quality, like something an unfamiliar idiot with a business expense card would pick out of a catalogue without reading the description. (Vehicles go on a separate expense account than the mechs, and are easier to write off.)
3. If a unit is destroyed, but rolls to salvage, it has to sit the next mission out due to being in the shop. [I started off with my prior campaign's rule of 'if it has taken structural damage, it sits the next mission out,' but I had to ease up on it, as that would have seen me going into several missions with a half strength force.]
4. When calculating expenses at the end of each mission, ignore the bit about vehicles only counting as half size. Ostmann Industries techs specialize in mechs, not vehicles!
5. When choosing missions, pick the option that an businessman would think would get him the best angle on a deal, not necessarily the best military option.
6. The purchasing/mission choice restrictions go away if the commanding officer is KIA in a mission. (The more reasonable subordinate takes over.)

Here was the starting list:

Ostmann Flagship Demonstration Lance

• Ostscout OTT-9S
• Ostol C
• Ostroc OSR-2D
• Ostwar OSR-3M

Armor lance

• Demolisher MkII
• Demolisher MkII
• Behemoth (Refit)
• Behemoth (Refit)

Air Assault Lance

• Balac VTOL (Hybrid)
• Balac VTOL (Hybrid)
• Karnov (BA Stealth)
• Karnov (BA Stealth)
• Achileus Flamer Squad
• Achileus Flamer Squad

Additional purchases

• J Edgar (X-Pulse)
• J Edgar (X-Pulse)
• Balac VTOL (Hybrid)

The missions were overall more challenging due to the lackluster units, as well as paying out the nose for destroyed vehicles and vehicle repairs. I had to skip giving my pilots SP after a couple missions out of sheer lack of funds.

I didn't have enough spare SP to purchase anything until the second to last mission, when I bought the two J. Edgars. Going into the last mission (19 in this case) and purchasing an additional Balac to replace a destroyed one, I was starting off with 400 SP. Finished the campaign with 1300 SP.

As far as unit performance:

The Balacs were the standout units. Maneuver plus high short range damage led to a lot of back shots on the dirty birds. There are a few missions I would have lost if it weren't for them.

The Behemoths were terrible and got destroyed in nearly every mission I brought them on. The Demolishers slightly less so. Both contributed to the very high expenses on account of the repair bills.

I had high hopes for the Karnovs and Achileus squads jumping out of them straight into anti-mech attacks, but they fell flat half of the time due to bad rolls. It was very much a one-shot attempt, since when the Achileus squads were destroyed, the roll to salvage them was pretty high and led to them being lost pretty easily.

Overall, despite (or perhaps because of) the terrible list, it was a lot of fun! It was significantly more tense than my first campaign, despite having a better grasp on how the card system works.

Gameplay-wise, the only fly in the ointment is that I forgot to use the edge abilities very often. Same issue as my last campaign.

So for those of you who want more challenge, use a lot of terrible units! That will test your tactical problem solving.

You know there will be a Locust. Of course being me, I can't resist that 47 damage ass remover called the Locust IIC Standard.

Frankly other than the pills I'm not a HUGE fan of how the freehand on this one turned out, but these were meant to be tabletop quality speed paints, not a crazy freehand showcase. Still might go back and redo the left arm one of these days...

Hello! I don’t know anything about BattleTech outside of a YouTube channel I follow started playing it (Games Night). This made me want to try it, if only alpha strike so I am a tourist.

I started printing some random mechs I found and am gonna try and figure it out with a friend, but if you all know good sources for beginners trying to enter, suggestions more than welcome!

I believe this is a Stryker proxy, I went with a modern German camo scheme, I’ll post the reference too. I think there’s a German inspired faction called Steiner but I have no lore knowledge which is kind of exciting!

Thanks for reading :)

Heaviest box yet.

Going to have to Jade Falcon these 'Mechs up some.

There is a lot of card. I am going to be reading for a while it seems. Looking forward to a game.

Honestly im so glad i found Battletech!
After GW’s attack on fandom creators I thought I wouldn’t find another series I could truly fall in love with the way I did Warhammer, and yet shortly after I was introduced to battletech by a YouTuber by the name Rageaholic. Since that day I haven’t looked back and I’ve enjoyed every bit of this hobby, from the lore to the games to even a few of the books!
The community has been super helpful and seeing all the amazing work some of yall do makes me hopeful that battletech will last for a very long time!
Happy Hunting my fellow Mechwarriors! Thanks for the Memories!

Built this reinforced lance for Toys 4 Totes tournament in Atlanta this weekend. Completed with custom pilot cards.

First time doing metal minis. I really love how substantial they feel in my hands. Though they do chip easily even with vanishing.

Big Red 40Tech's newest video checks out Curtis Militech first entry into Battlemech production. A medium design, a speedy mech with a 385 XL engine, seven jumpjets, decent armor and armed with a large pulse laser and 2 medium pulse lasers that help cancel out most of the effects of using jumpjets while on the offensive, after the destruction of its factory and the withdraw of the company from the military market, Hellespont Industrial took over the production. Here's the Wraith.

https://youtu.be/iaNU7Me0hUw?is=xliTHOYEhTo5AUJm

A few days ago I posted about buying some salvage boxes and building a makeshift force around whatever I pulled. The final pull from 4x Clan Salvage and 2x Combat Support was:

- Nova Prime (Black Hawk)
- Exterminator (EXT-4D)
- Horned Owl Standard (Peregrine)
- Kit Fox A (Uller)

- H-7 Warrior Attack Helicopter
- Patton Tank (Ultra)
- Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun (SRM)
- Manticore Heavy Tank

I will be honest, I am a bit of an Inner-Sphere purist, but given the heavy Clan mech presence I am considering a Clan origin. Doing some reading, maybe Clan Hell’s Horses?

Inner Sphere angle would come from maybe a Comstar Agent deployed to the periphery who became part of a periphery defense force against the clans, ultimately taking independence at a certain point after embedding with the locals and having lucky/successful engagements against Clan scouting forces.

Curious if anyone else sees a solid theme here to wrap these together? I’m thinking something to work for Clan Invasion Era and/or maybe something for recent.

Looking for a good read that isn't heavy on the battles.

Just something i threw together.