Power is a goal. Pleasure is eternal. Welcome to Canopus.

[Dread Moores]

I really think a whole lot of the Davion stuff was consolation for the Davion outcry after 3085. It was a little overboard in Prototypes, particularly considering the number of TROs that have already read like TRO: FedCom. I hope I'm wrong on the motivation, but currently, I'm a little disappointed. Particularly about the Heavy LRM carrier.

[Moonsword]

What happened with the NLRM carrier is Johnston was building testbeds back in XTRO Boondocks.  This is the rationalized form of that.  Flitvelt is also getting them if that makes you feel any better.  Ordinarily, I'd say the Canopians have a good chance of getting their hands on the specs but given their alliance with the Capellans, that's hit or miss.  One note - the ammo supply apparently isn't any better than a standard LRM carrier's.  The round listing is wrong.  It's a very solid fire support platform, definitely, but the situation isn't as crazy as it looks.

[Maelwys]

Ah, Boondocks. I was checking XTRDavion, wondering why I couldn't find it. I'm just surprised they're able to put it into production without all the political/lawyery wrangling that seems to happen with alot of the other designs.

[Moonsword]

Ah, Boondocks. I was checking XTRDavion, wondering why I couldn't find it. I'm just surprised they're able to put it into production without all the political/lawyery wrangling that seems to happen with alot of the other designs.

We don't really know what the terms Johnston may or may not have struck were and some of those deals have been tossed - look at the remarks in the Aeron's writeup about the Federated Suns' attempts to block use of the targeting computer.  Besides, between the retaking of St. Ives, Sovereign Justice, and the Happy Taurian Hour with special guest star Mr. Nuclear Bombardment, I tend to doubt a lot of people in the Federated Suns are overly inclined to care what anyone in the Trinity Alliance thinks these days.  The fact that the Canopians are, at worst, dupes in those situations doesn't really factor into it, I'd imagine.

EDIT: I'll admit that the only reason I have some of the facts at hand that readily is I was looking at the heavy LRM carrier article earlier while doing updates.

[False Son]

I really think a whole lot of the Davion stuff was consolation for the Davion outcry after 3085. It was a little overboard in Prototypes, particularly considering the number of TROs that have already read like TRO: FedCom. I hope I'm wrong on the motivation, but currently, I'm a little disappointed. Particularly about the Heavy LRM carrier.

Same stuff, different day.

Woo hoo... DC got a new Wolf Trap...

[M-Rex]

Sidebar:

How in the heck does one open the TXT file in Excel 07?  Every time I try, it's buggered as all get out.

End Sidebar.

[Moonsword]

Which TXT file?

[Maelwys]

How in the heck does one open the TXT file in Excel 07?  Every time I try, it's buggered as all get out.

Its a Comma Separated Value file. If you open up Excel, and then tell it to load the text file, it should give you a "Text Import Wizard" which allows you to fiddle with how its shown (even gives you a nice little preview). First step is to make sure to tell Excel its delimited, then on step 2, make sure the comma is selected, and then on the third step, just tell it text so it doesn't try to format the numbers. That should handle it.

[M-Rex]

Disregard.  I figured it out.   :)

[Maelwys]

So some new toys for the Magistracy recently. Reunification Wars gave us a nice new Fighter, which is a little odd. Unfortunately production was destroyed during the fighting on Canopus, but the fluff does hint that a few have survived.

Prototypes also gave us a new "Armed" IndustrialMech (poor Vampyr, it continues to toil in anonymity) and an interesting 'Pocket Warship" that the MoC apparently built for themselves, but couldn't repeat the process (which makes me think they scavenged/bought a Vengeance and were able to fix/build it up over a long time).

So this makes 2 DropShip mysteries for the MoC.

[Moonsword]

That would be my guess on the Vengeance.  Add in a little bit of overplaying the mysterious rumor card, serves several conspiracy theories.  Retrofitting a single DropShip hull really isn't something that bothers me particularly.  Neither does scratch-building one and taking fifteen years or longer to do it.  The Dictators are a more interesting question in my opinion.  Either they're building them or they found hulls somewhere and refit them for active service.

What it all suggests to me is that the Canopians have some DropShip yard facilities they haven't bothered to publicly disclose.  Not an illogical decision on either front.  Their forces are expanding, so they're going to need more yard support even for routine maintenance.  And as far as keeping it quiet, if someone knows where it is, they know where to send attack forces.  The yards' output either isn't that high, they're concealing more of it than we know about (we know they're being shy about answering questions about the Dictators), or the yard can't readily handle construction or large aerodynes.

[Maelwys]

I was thinking maybe a SLDF boneyard for the Dictators, but it seems like an odd place to be. It might make some sense. Pick up the hulks, start refitting them, stripping Hulk A in order to find parts for Hulk B and C, though the phrase "pristine" makes me somewhat discount that. On the other hand, that would make sense. A boneyard would have the facilities for stripping the hulls, so it stands to reason that they would be able to use the facilities for refurbishing them, but not actually building them.

On the downside, its been done with Gabriel :)

Anything good to say about the Deep Lord?  ;D

[Moonsword]

I was thinking maybe a SLDF boneyard for the Dictators, but it seems like an odd place to be. It might make some sense. Pick up the hulks, start refitting them, stripping Hulk A in order to find parts for Hulk B and C, though the phrase "pristine" makes me somewhat discount that. On the other hand, that would make sense. A boneyard would have the facilities for stripping the hulls, so it stands to reason that they would be able to use the facilities for refurbishing them, but not actually building them.

Actually, if they're willing to spend the time and energy on the project, I can see it.  Look at some of the restorations people do on classic cars.

Anything good to say about the Deep Lord?  ;D

Yes, actually, even two things:
A) Someone was paying attention to the fact that ballistic and missile weapons generate heat on IndustrialMechs.  See the Arbiter for what happens when you don't.
B) In a close range engagement operated smartly, a lance of Deep Lords has surprise and a decently heavy mace going for it, and they're not helpless outside of that environment.  Pirates are not going to like it very much.  Especially if the people buying it are also buying things like Partisans or already have something else to provide some long-range fire support.  Against a serious combatant, no, they're not going to fare well.  That's not really the target market's normal threat, either.

[False Son]

Anything good to say about the Deep Lord?  ;D

Everyone buys it.  From a tax revenue standpoint, awesome.

[Maelwys]

Actually, if they're willing to spend the time and energy on the project, I can see it.  Look at some of the restorations people do on classic cars.

Sure, to a rather large expense. Then again, economics in BT are economics in BT so anything is possible I suppose.

Yes, actually, even two things:
A) Someone was paying attention to the fact that ballistic and missile weapons generate heat on IndustrialMechs.  See the Arbiter for what happens when you don't.
B) In a close range engagement operated smartly, a lance of Deep Lords has surprise and a decently heavy mace going for it, and they're not helpless outside of that environment.  Pirates are not going to like it very much.  Especially if the people buying it are also buying things like Partisans or already have something else to provide some long-range fire support.  Against a serious combatant, no, they're not going to fare well.  That's not really the target market's normal threat, either.

I'll keep that in mind and look over it again. I just keep seeing that rifle. Oh well, I guess if your arming future potential bandits, you might as well arm them to a lesser extent than your army :)

Everyone buys it.  From a tax revenue standpoint, awesome.

True. Heavy industry is heavy industry.

[Moonsword]

Well, first, it's a heavy rifle, not a medium, and second, it's not being deliberately used by a major power to arm a reasonably common combat vehicle that's fusion powered and thus has any number of better options, some of them cheaper.  Between those two items, I'm a lot less bothered than I am about, say, the Demon Medium Tank.

[Maelwys]

Yeah, the heavy rifle is a bit nicer.

Now that we're seeing the Rifles pop up all over the place, might be time to ask if they want to ditch the X rating for them. Its kind of silly at this point.

[Moonsword]

So are medium and light rifles.  Personally, I regard the availability scores as broad suggestions at best.  They don't really give you enough information to be useful anyway.

[Dread Moores]

But clearly all era and availability ratings should be interpreted completely literally! Rifle cannons existed exactly in 1950 and all that!

Oh wait, sorry. Wrong thread. ;)

[Ian Sharpe]

Mostly useless against federal kit but still useful for suppressing the serfs?  Sign me up!  Whoops.  Um, its for pirate defence.  Honest. 

[Moonsword]

Mostly useless against federal kit but still useful for suppressing the serfs?  Sign me up!  Whoops.  Um, its for pirate defence.  Honest. 

For suppressing their vehicles, yes.  They're about as useful as standard autocannon rounds against mobs (read: not very).

[Ian Sharpe]

Good enough.  I don't expect much more than technicals.  Same with most pirates.  Mechs and assorted crap.  And MGs are common anyway. 

[Marveryn]

Well, she's Durachi Roy of Joyz, not Durachi of Roy :)

Its possible that the more traditional ranks are "sub-ranks." So you can have a Durachi Count and a Froness Count. Perhaps relatively teh same amount of wealth/power, but one comes from a founding family, the other made their money through business.

remeber nobility tend to hold a dozen titles particular as they grow older.. for instance defender of the faith, price of wales , duke of normandy so forth

[ANS Kamas P81]

Now now, it's not quite so bad as it might seem.  We get Dola exports, and that will improve once the Capellans start filling out their units.  An 8/12/8 with good armor, two lasers, a big knife, and a really big ECM pack is not something to sneeze at.  Now, the real joy we get are those Thunders.  Half the production goes to the Canopians, and that gives us a mobile fast-cav 4/6/6 with an eighteen-hex twenty-point boomstick, great self-protection (max armor and CASE II!), and a decent laser battery backing it up.  Matched with Pennies for the critseeking and I think it could do some good work.  And well, there's also that one little sentence made in the book that makes the attached picture entirely canon.  "All Inner Sphere toumans" after all...

As for the Deep Lord, it doesn't need the heavy rifle against infantry - notice there's two tons of SRM ammo; anyone interested in infernos?  Use that extra ton for something cute!  And a 65 tonner with a mace is going to put some serious hurt down, even without TSM. 

[Moonsword]

Coined in a typo to Kamas, it's now the Depp Lord.  Pirate hats sold separately.

[ANS Kamas P81]

Coined in a typo to Kamas, it's now the Depp Lord.  Pirate hats sold separately.

Better that than Derp Lord.

[Medron Pryde]

That is a beautiful coloring job...do you have any more of those?  :)

[ANS Kamas P81]

That is a beautiful coloring job...do you have any more of those?  :)

I can color up others if you want, though it might take a bit.

[Stormcrow]

Now now, it's not quite so bad as it might seem.  We get Dola exports, and that will improve once the Capellans start filling out their units.  An 8/12/8 with good armor, two lasers, a big knife, and a really big ECM pack is not something to sneeze at.  Now, the real joy we get are those Thunders.  Half the production goes to the Canopians, and that gives us a mobile fast-cav 4/6/6 with an eighteen-hex twenty-point boomstick, great self-protection (max armor and CASE II!), and a decent laser battery backing it up.  Matched with Pennies for the critseeking and I think it could do some good work.  And well, there's also that one little sentence made in the book that makes the attached picture entirely canon.  "All Inner Sphere toumans" after all...

As for the Deep Lord, it doesn't need the heavy rifle against infantry - notice there's two tons of SRM ammo; anyone interested in infernos?  Use that extra ton for something cute!  And a 65 tonner with a mace is going to put some serious hurt down, even without TSM.

It needs to get rid of the mace/heavy rifle combo and mount a real autocannon, preferably of the LB 10-X variety or just a normal AC/10.

[ANS Kamas P81]

If you're going to use it as a frontline combat machine yes, if you're going to use it as a police unit that's supposed to blow up pickup trucks full of pirates and the occasional duct-taped STG then why not save your AC10s and LB10s for machines that could really use them?