BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Game Systems => Ground Combat => Topic started by: Major Headcase on 11 September 2018, 22:24:53
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Hey guys I need some assistance please...
I long time ago I glimpsed a hover tank online that now I cannot remember the name and/or identity of...
It was a light hover tank, REALLY fast! With (I think) 2 Medium Pulse Lasers and a Targeting Computer. Clan... I think... maybe??
I looked through the vehicles list on Sarna but none of the names clicked.
Anyone know what machine I'm remembering????
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http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Minion
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I'd guess maybe you mean the X-Pulse Pegasus Hovertank. But really, we don't have much to go on.
Check this link (http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Filter?Name=&HasBV=false&MinTons=0&MaxTons=40&MinBV=&MaxBV=&MinIntro=&MaxIntro=&MinCost=&MaxCost=&HasRole=&HasBFAbility=&MinPV=&MaxPV=&Role=None+Selected&Types=19&BookAuto=&FactionAuto=&SubTypes=42) out. I bet your tank is on that list.
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(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQG1PJMa6GNa7nDzLW3Ct1ukUJadcG64QSq-kFExHuHxZ-AXsvd)
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(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcQG1PJMa6GNa7nDzLW3Ct1ukUJadcG64QSq-kFExHuHxZ-AXsvd)
LOL!
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Was it the Cizen?
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Cizin
Fast, medium lasers, targeting computer
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I think Sartis had it right on the first try. Minion fits the 2x MPL + TC (other variants swap out the TC for TAG or C3 Slave). It's also light at 20 tons.
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Just discovered the Minion. Nice package and weird fluff. It highlights how fast it is and that it is a city fighter!?
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Hovercraft are not city fighters. Drifting into buildings is bad.
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Thanks!! Minion it was!
How did I forget a name like that??
I will need a full company. I will paint them yellow and blue. And their battle-cry shall be...
BANANAAAAAAAAA!!!
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Hovercraft are not city fighters. Drifting into buildings is bad.
no turret and a highly vulnerable motive system make for bad times when a lot of the shots are coming from inside the buildings
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Minion top speed 151kph (or 95mph). Hover drift, hmm. I'd buy it if you could vet the pilot. I'm trying to imagine a Minion on something like a 32nd century city road system. For a small, dense town, not so much. For a big city, though, 94mph isn't so crazy for brief stretches on a wide blvd.
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I mean drifting in the less technical sense of the word. Mainly the risk of sideslip is pretty dangerous in confined spaces like cities.
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I mean drifting in the less technical sense of the word. Mainly the risk of sideslip is pretty dangerous in confined spaces like cities.
Hover drift is real. These are made on Tikonov, which may or not actually have infrastructure with freeways and fragile service stations and glass-front shops and thinboard structures for this thing to spin out in like a Blues Brothers movie. To get a unit not much bigger than an APC in position to light-up a street with TC'd MPLs, especially because you can displace lickety-split? Maybe a little bump now and then is worth not having BattleArmor land all over you. Just a theory.
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I mean drifting in the less technical sense of the word. Mainly the risk of sideslip is pretty dangerous in confined spaces like cities.
You have to invest in the right Driving skill. the Takumi SPA helps, as does the Eurobeat Audio System. The minion, commonly known as the Itsuki, can handle well in the tight confines of the city when a Driver of this level is added. It handles even better in snow when chasing a sort-of girlfriend.
I'll stop now.
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Most of our games are badlands and arid environments, due to terrain collection, with small urban outposts. Few congested "city" type environments. So the speed and slipperiness of the hovers won't be a big deal I think.
Although it might be fun to chase my opponents lance of Jenners through city streets and take odds on who plows through a storefront first?? 😁
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Hovercraft are not city fighters. Drifting into buildings is bad.
Waiting for the Hellbie story to come about HOW bad buildings are for hovercraft...
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Maybe.
Mobility in a city can be a big deal. As with VTOLs the cruise speed can be more important than the flank speed.
Hovercraft can be effective because of their ability to cruise around a road system at relatively high speeds. Remember everyone skids on roads at flank.
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Yeah, but not everybody is automatically killed if they skid into a building.
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Well don't go at flank speeds.
A hovercraft mins out at what? 8/12? So it can move around as fast as any wheeled or tracked vehicle without any risk of losing control. Don't get greedy. Simply don't use flank speed and you are still more mobile than any other vehicle in a city.
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A Minion is a 9/14, but still, with only 28 points of frontal armor and less on the sides and rear, going that slow makes me nervous. That just strikes me as asking for a hostile BA squad to pop out on one of your sides and go for motive hits. Hovers just feel too vulnerable in any situation where they're boxed in for me to be comfortable using them.
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I can definitely see your point. Infantry (or SRMs on legs) make life in a city uncomfortable for any vehicle.
For me in a city vehicle play is all about positioning. Get yourself where you can do the most smashing with the fewest people smashing you in return.
That may mean crawling up into an indirect fire position or sitting just outside a cross roads. But importantly the vehicle is never on point. That is the job of infantry and Mechs. They can wear an ambush. The tank is always the supporting unit.
Is a tank in a city going to get hit more? Maybe. You can't get the defensive mods up but you have a lot more cover. But a hovercraft can position itself faster than any other tank. That is very useful.
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I am no military expert, bvut tanks in city fighting tend to be more static than in open country AFAIK. They tend to advance at the speed of infantry, and provuide mobile howitzer firepower to deal with enemy resistance points. So, being real fast not a huge factor there as opposed to be able to shrug the return blows is ...
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Ah the Minion, how I love you.
Nothing like a spotter that hauls arse & comes in 2 spotter variants for my needs & a skirmisher model for when I don't have any combo tech options to rain in fire from afar.