A Call to War: 21st Centauri Lancers

[nckestrel]

There are situations where Weapon Specialist is preferable. Unlike Sniper, it can be used at short range, so a player worried about his stuff getting ganked by fast backstabbers would use it to deter such close assaults.

NOTHING is purely suck. Some SPAs are just easier to use than others. Any doink can house down enemies from afar with Sniper, lemme see what you can do when faced with a challenge! >:D

Weapon Specialist also halves damage, rounded down.  No, Weapon Specialist is not worthless, but it is a bad choice comapred to the other choices.  I'm not fond of wasting options by making them so nobody wants them.  Or even worse, players being assigned something (say pregenerated forces), and finding they've been assigned something that is clearly subpar. Choices should be choices, not handicaps.

[Tai Dai Cultist]

There are situations where Weapon Specialist is preferable. Unlike Sniper, it can be used at short range, so a player worried about his stuff getting ganked by fast backstabbers would use it to deter such close assaults.

NOTHING is purely suck. Some SPAs are just easier to use than others. Any doink can house down enemies from afar with Sniper, lemme see what you can do when faced with a challenge! >:D

What nckestrel said.

Sure, I exaggerated.  Weapon Specialist has its advantages over Sniper, but those uses are pretty much exclusively limited to units that are only doing 1 damage anyway and at short range (medium range is a wash).  That's not the sort of situation you're deliberately trying to be in with a Fire Lance.  Considering the advantages at long range and for anything that does more than 1 damage at medium range, Weapon Specialist is indeed Teh Suck.   Anyway, nckestrel: sorry for threadjacking.  Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, both in tuning SPAs as well as the final form of your Lancers company :)

[Weirdo]

The day I see giving what is likely a bigass fire support mech a -1 to hit the scout mechs that are the bane of his existence as a handicap is the day I insist on playing only with Hellstars on single salt flat mapsheets. Hold me to that, please.

[nckestrel]

The day I see giving what is likely a bigass fire support mech a -1 to hit the scout mechs that are the bane of his existence as a handicap is the day I insist on playing only with Hellstars on single salt flat mapsheets. Hold me to that, please.

Why is the Scout 'mech in the front firing arc and short range of my bigass fire support mech?  Rather than behind me where I can't shoot at it, or at medium range where I can't hit it?  If he stands in front of me at short range, I'm not really needing a special ability to deal with him.

[Weirdo]

Fair point. I forgot that my comment was about mechs. Last time I looked seriously at Weapon Specialist, it was building my own ACtW unit, whose fire support consists of LRM-heavy turreted tanks. Backstabbers would be inclined to get under the missiles of such tanks, and their turrets would let them respond to attacks from any direction.

[nckestrel]

Fair point. I forgot that my comment was about mechs. Last time I looked seriously at Weapon Specialist, it was building my own ACtW unit, whose fire support consists of LRM-heavy turreted tanks. Backstabbers would be inclined to get under the missiles of such tanks, and their turrets would let them respond to attacks from any direction.

And I wasn't thinking about tanks :).

[Weirdo]

Also remember: Tanks are one of the few units you know can never engage something at base-to-base range, so it behooves tankers to be good at scraping close assaults off of their lancemates. :)

[nckestrel]

Also remember: Tanks are one of the few units you know can never engage something at base-to-base range, so it behooves tankers to be good at scraping close assaults off of their lancemates. :)

Skill 4 + Short Range 0 + TMM 3 = 7+ without an SPA.
If the Weapon Specialist reduces that to a 6+, I've increased my chance to hit from 58% to 72%, I'd hit 1.3x as often. In return, I've given up half my damage.  IE. I'd need to hit twice as often to make up for the damage reduction, but those odds are only getting me hits 1.3x as often.  I wouldn't use the SPA even if I had it.  My base to-hits would have to be 12 or 13 to make the halved damage worth it.  Or if my halved damage was enough to destroy or crit it.  But then I'd need Hellstar level damage values, just to be better than having no SPA at all, in a fairly limited situation.

[Weirdo]

Mathematical analysis means I stop reading a post, and my dice are often bad enough that I'll take every to-hit bonus I can get.

[nckestrel]

Mathematical analysis means I stop reading a post, and my dice are often bad enough that I'll take every to-hit bonus I can get.

What if it makes you explode when you use it? :)

[Weirdo]

Okay, I gotta ask: What on earth is going to give me a to-hit bonus, but is guaranteed to explode when I use it?

[nckestrel]

Okay, I gotta ask: What on earth is going to give me a to-hit bonus, but is guaranteed to explode when I use it?

Sorry, was joking, it was meant to be a ridiculous suggestion.

[Weirdo]

Just checking. I like to think off myself as pretty up on most of the rules out there, but things do skip past me sometimes. And while I frown strongly on intentionally suicidal tactics on principle(even when we're talking about drones), sometimes a situation or scenario calls for exactly that kind of stuff.

[nckestrel]

Support Lance

This was originally intended as a Pursuit Lance.  I wanted something faster than my Assault or Fire Lances, for dealing with objectives, chasing down enemies, or just overall threatening moves to my opponent that he has to deal with.  I didn’t want to go too light, considering the 21st Centauri Lancers’ overall heavy weight rating.

Blood Stalker (the Pursuit Lance bonus ability) wasn’t something I was happy with though.  For a Lance that I wanted to dictate to the opponent with, Blood Stalker turns that around and dictates to me how I need to act.  I have to go after the stalked unit(s).  So I looked at other formation types.

A Striker Lance is a fairly simple choice.  Take fast units and make them go faster. That could have worked, and remains a backup plan. A Recon Lance works well with indirect/artillery, but my Fire Lance was direct fire, so it’s not as useful in this force.  I decided what I really wanted was the Demoralizer from the Assault Lance, on faster (aka lighter) than allowed for Assault Lances.  A Support Lance lets me play with Demoralizer on such units, so I’m going to try it with this force.  Support Lances have no requirements, and they can benefit from the bonus abilities of another formation in the force. So I can support my Assault Lance and get one of their SPAs…



Unit Selection
I want primarily mediums for my Support Lance.  I want some armor and decent (10”+) speed.  I actually went a little heavier on my first choice, a Quickdraw.  A tough and fast heavy, its firepower is a little lacking compared to most heavies.  But it’s perfect for making a nuisance of itself. A +3 TMM (when jumping) with heavy armor is not anyone’s first choice of targets. It’s available to everyone that wants it, and it’s slightly more common in the Free Worlds League.  So good match there.

The Trebuchet provides a bit of firepower to the lance.  Another common ‘mech that is even more common in the FWL.  Normally used for fire support, I take the 5J variant that drops an LRM launcher for jump jets.  Another pesky ‘mech for my Support Lance, though not as tough as the Quickdraw.

The last two I’m running low on PV, so I go lower on the medium weight range.  The Hermes II and Vulcan are more common FWL ‘mechs.  Both are very fast, capable of a +3 TMM (Vulcan with jumping).  It’s hard to be called tough at that weight, but for their weight they are ok.  I switch both to variants that have more short/medium range firepower. 

Formation Requirements

Support Lances have no requirements, so this is an easy step!

Other Possible Formation Types

Pursuit and Striker are possible with this Lance.  If Demoralizer doesn’t work as well as I hope, Striker would be my next choice for more backstabbing.

Special Pilot Abilities

Technically I can pick any lance in my force, and receive half its bonus abilities.  So I could emulate the Fire Lance and get a Sniper SPA.  I considered having that option available and leaving the Support Lance Trebuchet as a standard 5N with the long range damage of 2, but I really don’t think I’ll ever use that option.

Supporting the Assault Lance gives me one Demoralizer (assuming the Assault Lance chooses that option).  That’s what I’ve intended this formation for from the start. The real drawback is only getting one SPA when the “real” formations would get two.  That’s my only hesitation with this Support Lance. 
 
Painting

After the priming, base coat and blacking out some areas, I then pulled out a dry brush for highlighting.  This was a step I was really worried about.  It’s pretty much where I find out if I just wasted my painting time or not.  My miniatures were pretty dark at this point, after the black wash.  I wanted to get to my lighter Royal Blue, but not contrast with the washed base coat to where the overall effect wasn’t shading/highlighting but two different colors.

I started with FolkArt Light Blue.  By itself, this is probably too much of a contrast.  It’s a Carolina Blue, Sky Blue color.  I mixed it with FolkArt Metallic Blue Sapphire.  This by itself probably wouldn’t have had a very noticeable effect.  But mixing the two, equal parts of each, I hoped would be a nice highlight and a bit of the metallic sparkle.
 


I was very happy with these results.  I don’t think my camera work does them justice, either coming out too light or too dark.  The metallic effect doesn’t stand out, but makes it I think it made a very nice blue with the Light Blue.  I also did a very cheap “jeweling” effect. I took a FolkArt Orange and put a single line across most cockpit windows.  From across the table it works very well.  It doesn’t stand up to closeups, but that’s beyond my goals anyway.

I was so happy with the resulting miniatures that I got brave and freehanded some 21st Centauri Lancer logos.  Most are on the right front torso, a few on the right side (shoulder panels), and one had to go on the left front.  The best I can say is that it didn’t ruin them.

I added some rocks with white glue to my bases.  I wanted to keep them simple.  And then I spray sealed them. 

We were supposed to take several months painting, but I don’t have the time (or maybe dedication) to keep at them for an extended time.  I primed them all at once.  Then did all the painting through basing in one sitting.  By the time I finished the last of the twelve, the first was dried and ready for the next step.  I did have to redo one of the ‘mechs (the Trebuchet) the next day.  My son saw me painting and requested one to paint himself. I knew I had a spare Trebuchet, so that one was sacrificed.  So I had to prime another day, then had a second painting day just for the Trebuchet. 

I then waiting a couple days for them all to dry out completely, and for some less humid (for the South) weather and sealed them.

[nckestrel]

Making Custom Unit Cards

Quick Way
Master Unit List has a Custom Alpha Strike Card Generator (under Tools).  You need a URL to your mini photo that you can input in to it (http://www.server.com/picture.jpg).  You can look up the unit stats on the MUL, then copy them in to the custom card generator and then put your image link to create a card with your painted mini.
Note the MUL AS card has a white background, a white background on your photos may work much better than other backgrounds. 

Long Way
I really wanted to control where my mini showed up on the card, including being able to overlap other elements of the card.  So I did it the long way.

Create a Transparent Image: I use paint.net. It's a free program and can do transparency.  I open my mini photo and crop it.  I then use the magic wand tool to select the background.  You can fiddle with the percentage slider to see how much of the background you can get without selecting any of the actual miniature.  Once you have an acceptable area selected, choose the eraser tool.  And make it giant (size 200+).  And drag it all over the photo. Only areas within the selected area will get erased, so have fun.  Repeat from magic wand tool on till you've gotten most of the background. Then zoom in and manually use the eraser to clear up any remaining areas.  Save it as a png (jpg can't have transparency, so it will save it as white and basically ruin it for this).
Save it as a PNG file.  JPG cant' do transparency, so saving it as a JPG will ruin all the work you've just done.



Get a Unit Card: You can use the custom card generator, copy in the stock stats and leave the image blank and create yourself a card without an image.  I download the stock MUL card (with stock image), use the square select tool in paint.net to select the image and then use the paintbrush (on giant size again) to wipe out the image.  Whichever way is better for you.



Put the image on the Card: With both the transparent image and unit card open in paint.net, have the unit card selected.  Create a new layer, which will be transparent by default.  Go to your transparent image, select it and copy it.  Switch back to the unit card and paste it.  If it asks, don't expand canvas.  Resize the image by dragging on the corner.  Watch distorting the image if you pull down/sideways rather than diagonally, ie. always watch for distortion.  Since you are putting a transparent image, you can see the card around your image.  After you've got it in position, you can clip any parts of the image off that are overlapping areas you need to see (critical hit box for example).  Use the square select tool and select the areas of the image that you don't want to overlap and then use the giant eraser to erase those. Since you've got the image layer selected, you won't affect the "card" on the other layer at all, you'll just erase from the image, revealing the card underneath as you do. 

[cavingjan]

An alternative that I have been using is to take your mini and crop it down to a square and resize it to 300X300. That can be pasted right over the image and should cover everything up. (I use GIMP).

BTW I really like this card with the mini image. It will help with things. I spent an hour photographing about half of my minis on a white background so I could start doing this.

[Blakarion]

Im doing a lot of Alpha Strike Demnoing at the moment around Vegas, and using the customised AS Cards with the approipiate painted Mech in the Pic has helped the newbies get over the initial confusion of "what the h*ll does this mech look like on the board?".

So thanks for this thread, its helping more than you know (well, until I tell you anyway)  :D