Author Topic: Best NARC platforms  (Read 7231 times)

PuppyLikesLaserPointers

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Re: Best NARC platforms
« Reply #60 on: 16 December 2019, 05:19:36 »
A fast hovertank, VTOL, or WiGE is much cheaper to design, produce, and crew than a LAM.


But LAM is more durable and stable than them, for it is still a battlemech. WiGE can be an alternative but it is very expensive.

And the cost of LAM is very, very cheap if you can afford it and its pilot.

Just for a cheapshot VTOL is not a bad choice either, as I said above.

Cannonshop

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Re: Best NARC platforms
« Reply #61 on: 16 December 2019, 05:54:18 »
There is a Cavalry variant with NARC in my head since 3058 dropped & it really needs to be canon.

It would have made SO much more sense than that dumb "Extra SRM-2" variant that we got initially.

"makes sense" is probably why such a variant doesn't exist.  hear me out here, look at some of the canon designs that use Narc, or Beagle, TAG, etc. etc. etc.

There's an awful lot of units that just don't have the mobility to actually use these, and a few that have the mobility, but are hugely expensive in both c-bills and bv.  (looking at you, Tessen).

There's a basic game design principle that goes something like "if you have the ability to customize units, then canon units need to have obvious flaws."

a Cavalry that subs in a Narc system instead of yet-another-SRM winds up being pretty optimized for the typical table, this would lead to either needing to change the way NARC works to require line of sight, or adding Narc pods to the things AMS shoots down, or both, or some other nerfing effect to keep it centric to 'mechs and the preferred paradigm.  (a 10/15 scout unit that doesn't have to hang close tossing Narcpods that isn't a 'mech? heresy!)

This is a bit like the presence of Beagle-on assault 'mechs.  Or like the paired C3 Masters on a Daisho when you can't have more than one network-it's a try to balance things to keep the main focus of the game on the one-on-one duelling combat between battlemechs.  it might make more tactical and strategic sense to fit fast units that aren't stand-and-slug-it-out with gear like Narc, iNarc, Beagle, and TAG, but that making strategic sense is exactly why such units are rare.  while it's much more likely to see such equipment on 3/5 assault units that don't have the mobility to really use them effectively as more than fluff and weight-sinks.
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dgorsman

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Re: Best NARC platforms
« Reply #62 on: 16 December 2019, 11:30:25 »
Errrmmm... bad examples.  AMS can shoot down Narc pods.  There's a reason why there's rules to handle single incoming rounds.  And the Tai-sho Mech has two C3 masters to tie together the three lance command masters (including the other master for the third lance), so a conventional Mech company can be fully linked without extra units.
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