BattleTech

[Nerroth]

As it happens, there is a short fiction piece in the PDF-only Operational Turning Points: REVIVAL Trials, in which the process of bidding for the number of Clans to be sent to the Inner Sphere is observed by Khan Cassius N'Buta of Clan Star Adder.

Notably, the Star Adders not only argued that all of the Clans should take part in REVIVAL; when the question of how many forces each invading Clan should send was being argued, they bid their entire Clan Touman to further emphasize the point. When this was rejected, the Star Adders dropped out of the running, though they did serve as an OPFOR in order to even out any odd-numbered bidding forces during the Placement Trials themselves.

One might argue that the earliest seeds which bore such bitter fruit across the Clan Homeworlds during the subsequent Wars of Reaving were sown in the failure of the Star Adders to convince their fellow Clans to follow this vision of conquest.

But then, if the Spheroids thought the actual invasion was bad enough, think of how badly it would have gone for them had the Dragoon Compromise not happened. Were it not for the creation of Wolf's Dragoons, the IlClan Era might well have started a hundred and fifty years early...

 

[Unicron]

I seem to recall it was mainly the Steel Vipers who were banking on the "taint" doctrine and would have probably led a renewed invasion if they could have, with the Cobras and Adders allying with them more out of convenience than anything else. But I admit it's been awhile since I looked at WoR. My memory might be somewhat inaccurate.

 

[Unicron]

I'm hoping to get a digital copy of Tamar Rising soon, but I'm getting the general impression that the Lyran Commonwealth is kind of splintering in the way the Free Worlds League did after some of the issues related to the Jihad (and the instability of House Marik)?

 

[Nerroth]

Tamar Rising is mostly about the goings-on across the Jade Falcon Occupation Zone in the wake of Hour of the Wolf and IlClan. Which, yes, is more than tangentially related to the posture taken by House Steiner towards the JFOZ.

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Personally, I would have preferred it if all five of the Successor States looked more like the Free Worlds League internally.

The concept of a major star-faring realm having such cleanly-defined and centrally-organized internal sub-divisions as typically seen in the likes of the Federated Suns or the Lyran Commonwealth doesn't quite fit (in my view) with the logistical and communications bottlenecks that exist in this setting - nor, for that matter, with the conceit of neo-feudalism which BattleTech supposedly leans upon. Especially in eras when there is no reliable HPG coverage and/or a shortage of JumpShips to act as couriers.

Plus, I think it's healthier for a Great House faction to have more prominent sub-realms. Again, I refer to the FWL: regardless of the political status of, say, Regulus or Andurien relative to the old (or new) Parliament on Atreus, there is still enough of a distinct Regulan or Andurien identity to persist - as there are for Oriente, Tamarind-Abbey, or even several of the "independent" planets which exist in the League zone. While there are certain sub-divisions in other Great Houses (or at least had been historically), they seem to be much more easily overshadowed by their respective "federal" identities.

Actually, the more territory the Clans gain and hold, the more I'd like to see their realms given distinct sub-realm identities, also - to reflect the ongoing degree to which each Clan adapts to life amidst their Inner Sphere and/or Periphery subject peoples.

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So far as Tamar Rising is concerned,

Spoiler

even if one or more of the "post-Jade Falcon" realms to be found across the Hinterlands by June 3152 were to be absorbed by a neighbouring power at some point, it would be a shame if this merely led to their being replaced with more "generic" shades of blue (or orange). Although, given what TPTB are saying as of late, I suspect there won't be quite so much of a hurry to go in that direction story-wise.

 

[Unicron]

I was reading an interesting section of TR the other day which talks about how different worlds that had fallen during the Clan War reacted differently to the arrival of newer Clans, like the Hell's Horses, or to conflicts with House militaries who would prefer to "reclaim" them. Some actually came to prefer Clan rule and organization.

ETA:

Looks like the modern Battle of Tukayyid was updated, though I'm not sure exactly what was modified. But I was able to download it for free, so that works.

I'm kind of mixed on the idea of making every other state like the FWL. I think the League has been rather unique in surviving for so long with several mini-states as part of its historical makeup. I also tend to think at least in the early Succession Wars, less so in the late era, the noble Houses were seen as an anchor around which the nation could rally. This isn't to say, of course, that there aren't smaller sub-regions within a state or a lack of pilots or commanders who decide to go their own way, for better or worse.

But it would be analogous to much of our real history, where the major states often retained some measure of stability regardless of the level of technology or the complexities of waging full scale war against similar enemies. They typically didn't fragment unless they suffered a decisive victory by a superior power (as when the Ottoman Empire took much of the Balkans or the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed after WWI), or unless they were already suffering from strong internal problems that made it difficult to cooperate (as seen with Clan Fire Mandrill).

 

[Nerroth]

As noted in an earlier post, the Interstellar Operations sourcebook has been split into two volumes; both are available now.

Interstellar Operations: Alternate Eras covers most of the material needed to set a game in any of the BT game eras through to 3150. (The current IlClan Era is still too "new" to be covered in this manner, for the time being at least.)

Interstellar Operations: BattleForce includes the BattleForce-related material which had been extracted from prior editions of the Strategic Operations rulebook, as well as the relevant data from the original version of IO.

The "Quick-Strike" miniature rules which had also been in prior editions of SO have been removed - or rather, they have long since evolved into the stand-alone Alpha Strike game system.

 

[Nerroth]

CGL recently posted a look ahead at things for BattleTech over the next year or so.

Once again, there are IlClan-related spoilers for anyone who has yet to get caught up to this new BT era. But a few items of note are a new Alpha Strike box set; more IlClan-era novels; plus a new Kickstarter project in the works.

 

[FPAlpha]

Seen it last weekend and i am positively excited, especially about the Kickstarter, which i expect to blow up again until CGL has to admit that they have run out of ideas for stretch goals again

I'm not sure if i will get into the ilClan era tabletop wise, i have so many Mechs i got from the first Kickstarter that it will take me years to fully explore and use them on the hexmaps and i'm also more of a classic BT guy ( 3025) up until Tukayyid - everything after is just BT on steroids with millions of advanced systems and weapons and to me it loses a bit of the feel of original BT with the careful heat management and "old" weapons.

 

[Unicron]

It's certainly an interesting problem with having loads of advanced options - both Star League and newer designs. It can be challenging for players to know what to build. Kind of like how the goal of keeping a focus on ground combat (something the game is already well known for) led to several plot threads that resulted in destroying dozens of warships in all factions, rather than just keeping fleets more in the background.

 

[Nerroth]

For what it's worth, Alpha Strike factors some, if not quite all, of the more advanced systems of later (or in the case of the Star League Era, earlier) eras into the "base" stats provided on the Unit Card. Or to put it another way, some of them are baked into the conversion rules which enable a Total Warfare Record Sheet to be turned into an Alpha Strike Unit Card.

For example, if one compares the Unit Card for the Clan Invasion Era Timber Wolf D to that of its Dark Age Era descendant, the Savage Wolf Prime. In TW terms, the former has a Clan XL fusion engine, whereas the latter has a Clan XXL fusion engine. If one was to convert this to AS, there is a 'Mech Structure Conversion Table on which one can cross-reference the type of engine to the weight of the "Mech in question. But since the Master Unit List has conveniently prepared Unit Cards for these two units in advance, one can see that the former has four structure bubbles, while the latter has three.

Even Dark Age Era units which have more detailed rules to operate in TW terms, such as Clan Hell's Horses' QuadVees or the Republic of the Sphere's superheavy tripods, are relatively streamlined to use in AS terms.

And of course, even in the 32nd century, not everyone is making use of the latest in terms of 'Mech designs or weapon types. There are plenty of places, not least in the Periphery, where less-than-cutting-edge technologies are more common. Indeed, even in Clan terms, the type of units used by Clan Goliath Scorpion in the Hanseatic Crusade might not be entirely unfamiliar to those seen in the Inner Sphere or Clan Homeworlds in earlier times.

In short, there need not be as much of an impediment (in game terms, at least) to getting caught up to the IlClan Era as there might seem at first glance.

 

[Unicron]

I sometimes wonder if players ever use some of the setting expansion options (for lack of a better term) in splat books like the Interstellar Player series. I enjoy reading some of those sections from time to time, if only because I like some of the wackier options and conspiracy elements. Good for fun at least.

 

[Nerroth]

The second post-IlClan sourcebook, Empire Alone, is now available in PDF form; the print edition should hit the shelves next week.

It covers the same time period (though to mid-3152) as Tamar Rising, yet shifts the focus rimward towards the Free Worlds League, the Wolf Empire, and their surrounding factions.

Next up is Dominions Divided, which is set to cover the Federated Suns, the Draconis Combine, and the Rasalhague Dominion in this same period of time.

 

[Nerroth]

The third post-IlClan sourcebook, Dominions Divided, was released recently.

This time around, the focus shifts to the Federated Suns, the Draconis Combine, and the Rasalhague Dominion.

Much of the Davion/Kurita side of things in this sourcebook is dramatized in the also-recently-published IlClan Era novel The Damocles Sanction.

Between new sourcebooks, new "spine" novels, and new short stories (to include those being offered in Shrapnel magazine), there's a steady stream of new BattleTech fiction to delve into.

 

[FPAlpha]

Maybe too steady - it's hard to keep track when you are not a hardcore and exlusive BT fan.

Fortunately we have a guy at our gaming club who sums what's happening followed by endless ribbing and teasing between the various faction players ( i play Kurita and Ghost Bear) but everyone piles on the Capellan Confederation player

I love that the game is in an upward trajectory and successful and i have also gotten over myself and tried Alpha Strike, which i really like if you want to put more than 4 Mechs on the table and not have to reserve the entire weekend to play out a battle.

 

[Thestral]

Did any of y'all take part in the Mercenaries Kickstarter that just ended? I kept meaning to post here about it but never got around to it. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries/description

I've been getting way back into the universe partly because of it. I picked up the Fox Tales short story collection and tore through it (such fun, lighthearted stories, kind of young-adult-y but with a really good heart and fun characters, and I've always had a soft spot for the Kit Fox).

And then for a completely different mood I got the Battletech: Marauder collection which is... way too much fun in a spooky "ghost story" sort of way. Devoured those stories too.

Now I've picked up the "Founding of the Clans" trilogy, which apparently had the first 2 novels originally translated into and published in German back in 2004/06 but never finished.... but now have been.

 

[bdub76]

I play in a local group every Thursday. Did you participate in the Kickstarter?

 

[FPAlpha]

Did any of y'all take part in the Mercenaries Kickstarter that just ended? I kept meaning to post here about it but never got around to it. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-mercenaries/description

I've been getting way back into the universe partly because of it. I picked up the Fox Tales short story collection and tore through it (such fun, lighthearted stories, kind of young-adult-y but with a really good heart and fun characters, and I've always had a soft spot for the Kit Fox).

And then for a completely different mood I got the Battletech: Marauder collection which is... way too much fun in a spooky "ghost story" sort of way. Devoured those stories too.

Now I've picked up the "Founding of the Clans" trilogy, which apparently had the first 2 novels originally translated into and published in German back in 2004/06 but never finished.... but now have been.

I was very much hyped but when it was released and details came to be known i quickly figured it was far less bang for the buck than the initial KS, that doubled your loot so to speak. This was not the case anymore and the free stuff mostly was with merchandise and digital novels and i care little for both ( merchandise just takes up space somewhere in a drawer with me until i finally toss it out after a while).

It's basically just a pre-release for products you will get a bit earlier than regular shops and i can wait to buy the boxes when they appear in stores. I just odered the basic box through my local game store who did the retail pledge and reserved the big Mad Cat mech ( that is a nice goodie though, looking forward to painting that sucker).

 

[Thestral]

The merch seems fun, and some of the bonus force packs are a nice addition. I saw some commentary on the "doubling your loot" and hour the trouble is that Catalyst may have overdone it last time and hurt themselves a little, so dialing back this time. The digital novels are something I'll enjoy, at least currently I'm into it.

The big Timber Wolf is definitely a nice goodie, yeah!

 

[FPAlpha]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/...dMdILqi7JYxVIZEauBHER5wjahBVOxalIGvXZC8VdsSNs

Hell Yeah - Mechwarrior 5: Clans has been announced

And one of my all time favorite Mechs - the Mad Cat

 

[JoseNoodles]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/...dMdILqi7JYxVIZEauBHER5wjahBVOxalIGvXZC8VdsSNs

Hell Yeah - Mechwarrior 5: Clans has been announced

And one of my all time favorite Mechs - the Mad Cat

Oh Hell Yeah!

Edit: Though I kinda wish they would include Clan stuff in MW 5: Mercenaries, like having to fight off the Clan Invasion (like in MW2: Mercenaries).