Recent Posts

11

BattleTech Miniatures / New April minis

« Last post by Luciora on Today at 11:46:00 »

Salamander 6S
Marauder 5D
Wolverine 7D
Ostscout 7K

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Off Topic / Re: Sore Thumbs III: What Non-BT Video Games Are You Playing?

« Last post by NeonKnight on Today at 11:40:26 »

long awaited mod for fallout 4 fallout london is officially postponed for few weeks while code is modded to be compatible with current fo4 update
i was waiting for this one too

Yet, as I do not play on PC (something that long I enjoy on my X-Box/PS5 so I can kick back in a recliner couch and play on my 65" TV). it is not available for Console, so....

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Clan Chatterweb / Re: Terra. Home to ilClan Wolf.

« Last post by BrianDavion on Today at 11:36:53 »

Also while there's huge libraries of other stuff, who cares? There's huge libaries of old TV and sure we all saw Gilligan's island reruns as kids but it was the new current stuff that was big. trying to keep your kid from seeing that is going to be pretty hard. I rememebr as a kid sneaking over to a friends house to watch terminator 2, which my parents thought was too violent for me

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Clan Chatterweb / Re: Clan Fire Mandrill: Monkey Talk

« Last post by Sjhernan3060 on Today at 11:23:11 »

I don't think it's anything quite like that or that deep. In fact, I'm not at all convinced there's any reserve pool at all.

Four primary sources of replenishment I can think of, none immediately same-day available. So if a warrior is sick or wounded or dead, that unit is just down a warrior in the short term.

1. FM: WC/CC tell us on page 18/17 respectively that primary training centers graduate new warriors every 3-6 months. So that's one source of replacements.

2. Existing warriors in other units/assignments. So a slot opens up in a front-line unit. That's a desirable assignment. Some warrior in a second-line unit gets to move up. We have numerous references that this kind of thing happens. A lot of it happened after big losses, like the Battle of Tukayyid for the Invading Clans as they rebuilt their toumans and the aftermath of the Refusal War for the Falcons and Wolves. It works in reverse too, with warriors no longer deemed to be of front-line quality slipping to a second-line unit.

3. An odd mention, warriors detached from line units that work their way back into the touman. The biggest category of which is participants in a Trial of Bloodright. Warriors participating in a Trial of Bloodright effectively get pulled away from their units. Sometimes they even have to travel great distances. The Trial of Bloodright itself can last a while, days, weeks. The rounds themselves aside, the entire affair is very traditional and ceremonial in nature, with ceremonies at the beginning and end. So at any given time, you have a slice of warriors detached, doing this kind of thing. Once they return (which might represent a kind of rolling, fairly predictable loss-to-gain of warriors) such warriors would be available to be plugged back into the touman wherever there is greatest need. There are certainly other forms of these detached warriors, like the tradition of a warrior escorting a fallen warrior's giftake to the genetic repository, or warriors detached to liasion with the lower castes. However in sheer numbers, I think Trials of Bloodright would represent a large rolling pool of people exiting and returning to line duty at any given time.

4. Bondsmen. Yup. I can definitely see some bondsmen getting their timetable for a return to warrior status bumped up if the Clan/Kindraa feels like it needs bodies and the bondsmen were already about 75%-95% there in terms of having earned it already.

Outside of those categories. I honestly suspect that until one of those helps fill the gap, the unit is just understrength. The Mandrills in particular have just never struck me as a Clan that had a deep reserve of anything. They've always been portrayed as being on the razor's edge of existence. With the daily struggle for survival that is much more obvious compared to some of the other Clans with deeper pockets of resources to draw upon.

Given this portrayal of the Mandrills, I could even see them having even less of a reserve capacity (whatever that might be) than most other Clans and whatever they are doing. After all, when we see a Kindraa take heavy losses in a single large scale battle/campaign/Trial the topic of their absorption or merger seems to come up pretty quickly. Like everyone just already knows they just don't have the reserve capacity of warriors or machines to rebuild back up to strength anytime soon. It never feels like the Kindraa has a lot of "extra" anything (warriors, machines etc.) to draw upon.

If there's an upside for the Mandrills it might just be the fact that they are so compact in terms of territory. A typical Kindraa isn't spread out across too many worlds. That could mean in turn that it doesn't take very long to plug in a replacement warrior. If any of the above sources (1-4) happen to be nearby (or the same planet even), the incoming replacements could be close by to start with.

All of this is largely speculative, but it's my best guess that I think jives with the canon facts we do have.


EDIT: I wanted to add, I think this line is very telling, from the Mick-Kreese page of FM: CC

The Kindraa Mick-Kreese has been pushing at Kindraa Beyi-Grant for years, probing for a soft spot that would allow the Mick-Kreese to steal a portion of their rival's strength. So far, however, this Kindraa has been unwilling to engage in all-out naval warfare, which would likely result in one of the two feuding Kindraa being Absorbed.

So the consensus is if these Kindraa engage in an all-out large scale fight, someone is getting absorbed, probably whoever emerges as the weaker one. They make it sound like it's all but a certainty. That to me adds to the idea that the Mandrill Kindraa just don't have any reserve capacity of machines or warriors. If a Kindraa takes heavy losses on a large scale, it's done, it's game over, unless they can absorb another Kindraa and recoup some of their strength that way very quickly and stand themselves back up again with their absorbed warriors and machines.

Compare that to other Clans that have taken heavy losses before, but then were able to rebuild if they could keep the predators at bay.

Another comparison that comes to mind is hard-luck mercenary units. Scraping by, scrounging equipment, living paycheck-to-paycheck, and if they take heavy losses one day and it isn't immediately followed by a massive inflow of money/salvage or other resources, it might just be game over for the unit. They might just have to fold. The Kindraa themselves would truly hate that comparison obviously given the Clan attitude toward mercenaries, but that's what it reminds me of.

That makes a lot of sense and also makes the mandrills habit of attacking bigger foes and then themselves even more frustrating

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Off Topic / Re: Retirement Job for Elementals

« Last post by S2pidiT on Today at 11:21:18 »

You either die young, or live long enough to become Kael PershawParty Robot.

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Fan Articles / Re: MotW: Gyrfalcon

« Last post by wantec on Today at 11:13:22 »

At first glance the Gyrfalcon looks like it might not fit with the 3050s Falcons, but is it really that far out of line? The Gyrfalcon 3 is basically a Summoner D with UACs instead of ERMLs & MGs. The Gyrfalcon 2 is pretty similar to a pair of Kit Foxes Primes. As-is the Gyrfalcon 3 is similar to a Vapor Eagle 2 with longer-range secondaries. In a circle of equals it should be able to win whenever it can dictate the range. On a more crowded battlefield it should be fine as long as it's opponent can't get in close on it.

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Off Topic / Re: Sore Thumbs III: What Non-BT Video Games Are You Playing?

« Last post by elf25s on Today at 11:01:18 »

long awaited mod for fallout 4 fallout london is officially postponed for few weeks while code is modded to be compatible with current fo4 update
i was waiting for this one too

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Ground Combat / Re: Clan Large Pulse Lasers

« Last post by OatsAndHall on Today at 10:19:54 »

Seems the GM should just not tell you what the senerio is going to be ahead of time hence encouraging eveyone to go back to balanced forces

He'll lay out the scenario but we roll to determine who plays what side of said-scenario. Depending on the dice roll, we may be defending a city or we may be attacking.

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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Mercenaries Kickstarter Discussion 6: the 1st 3rd Star League conversation

« Last post by MarauderD on Today at 10:09:07 »

I actually didn't mind the two waves. I got one load, and had stuff to work on while waiting for the second load to arrive. It did annoy a friend who'd elected to wait & get it all at once (in the 2nd shipment), watching me enjoy my stuff :)

But this time I'm totally happy to get everything at the same time.

I feel exactly the same.  After the first wave, I was able to paint up a few things and get my mind around all the new stuff in the second wave.  Truth is I still have like 50-60 mechs to paint from the Clan KS.  Now my pile of shame will grow.   

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BattleTech Miniatures / Re: Naval Aviation Themed Marauder

« Last post by MarauderD on Today at 10:04:11 »

This world could always use more Marauder.  Looks sharp, and I think worktroll's suggestions are sound.  Especially if this isn't a ComStar or WoB unit insignia planned for the future, warning lines would give just the tiniest splash of color that would help the white pop.

Good job!