Of red-shirt battle armours

[worktroll]

Okay, for the sake of this thread, let's keep things to canon designs only. Feel free to start new threads in the BA Design forum if you must.

So, the question to the floor is, what makes a red-shirt BA? Eg. one which isn't horribly expensive, which can be used to fill in the numbers, but has no real distinguishing features? The ones where you say, "Oh yes, them"?

And as a side question, is there a difference between a red-shirt suit of BA, and a mook suit of BA - eg. the BA you send up against the players so they can get experience without being seriously threatened?

When it comes to red-shirt BA, I'm thinking of the IS Standard, and the Gray Death standard. Yes, they're reasonably tough; yes, they carry standard weapons; one jumps, the other runs.  The Fa Shih is too special, with the mine dispensers.

Your thoughts?

[dgorsman]

Definitely the IS Standard.  And more specifically, the SRM version for 'mook' suit and the somewhat non-canon (not sure what the status of this is) version that puts a pair of infantry-grade weapons in the modular mount as the Red Shirts (maybe Green shirts a la GI Joe would be a better analogy?).  At least the GD Standard SRM suit has a four-shot SRM 1, while the IS Standard is a one-shot SRM 2.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Nothing screams "utterly generic" the way the IS Standard suit does.

[Minemech]

 I think that the ability to survive a Large Laser hit is a minimum threshold. It should also avoid advanced armor composites, even if they are somewhat common. So, you are looking for a medium BA that can take a decent hit. IS Standard would fit this profile.

[Weirdo]

Aside from the ISBA and its derivatives, I want to say the Simian and Surat qualify, with both being as simple as possible with only one piece of notable tech on each. In the case of the Simian, this is to minimize the logistical footprint and facilitate extended or independent deployments, but the Surat is very explicitly designed to be cheap and disposable, just like the people inside.

[Dapper Apples]

The Fa Shih is too special, with the mine dispensers.

The real selling point is the mag clamps they have; the funny mine fields are just gravy.

[Daryk]

For mooks, I'd think pretty much any PA(L) would qualify...

[Goose]

Soooo skimp on movement-points?

[Daryk]

It's the armor... Small Lasers are enough to erase PA(L)...

[Starfury]

They also don't deploy camo systems, C3/,C3i or stealth armor. , except perhaps the Mk 1 Infiltraitor.. Other ones include the Trinity series and the Cavalier.

[Daryk]

Bog standard Nighthawks have ECM, though... :)

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

PA(L)s aren't intended for combat, I don't think they belong on the list.  When you've reached the point where PA(L) squads are being deployed it's less "red shirts" and more "we're so desperate we're deploying the office temps."

[Daryk]

Nighthawks were for SOF.  Direct Action is absolutely a SOF mission (if only one of many).

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I'm pretty sure that SOF is the opposite of the red shirts.

[Charistoph]

Nighthawks were for SOF.  Direct Action is absolutely a SOF mission (if only one of many).

Yeah, but Nighthawks are usually meant to take out red shirts.

[Daryk]

And SOF gear can make its way into the hands of Red Shirts easy enough...

[DevianID]

So my redshirts are IS standard and headhunter/space elementals.  All of them pack an anti infantry flamer or machine gun, no missiles, and are bulk fodder for close in defense.  The AI weapon does let them trade very above average versus conventional infantry, whom I loathe in the tac ops rules with how hard they are to hit/dig out of cover without exactly flamers at point blank.  They are also great 'base personnel' for any objective games... Tough, hard to hit, great at keeping a facility under friendly control.  I really enjoy objective based matched play, which gives these battle armor a dedicated defense role.

[Trailblazer]

I wish there were good canon battle suits with light machine guns, those are great weapons for BA. Also armor value 10 for IS suits, it's easy to make them that way and that is way better than 9.

[AlphaMirage]

The modular equipment adaptors lets you canonically mount light machine guns if you want.

[Daryk]

Armored Gloves let you carry pretty much anything up to 1E crew required... ;)

[Col Toda]

For Battle Armor I use Kage , Void , and Kanazuchi . All of those do not count as cheap or ubiquitous  . I preffer to use the best tools in the box in specialist roles .

For my combat Engineer units the Gophar AEX is the red shirt utility  oh them unit . 2 pts of Armor and a move of 3 , optionally can lift a ton have a salvage arm or mine laying or clearing equipment.  They can also drill into cliff faces for cover from boomerang recon camera's  .  Build bridges and tunnels.  They are in the Vehicle annex TRO produced by blue shot I think . They too fall into the right tool in the box but engineering infantry cant be fielded in numbers of less than a platoon.  So 12 in AEX  or 28 in standard kit . Logistically the AEX is easier with pay roll.

[glitterboy2098]

the way i see it..
for the inner sphere, these tend to be the generalist medium BA designs. the IS standard and its derivatives the Raiden and Cavelier, as well as suits like the Grey Death Standard, the Amazon, and the Quirinus.

for the clans it is trickier, but the Elemental and the 'Clan battle armor' seem to fill that role with them. pretty much everything other BA the clans build are specialists of some kind.

[Colt Ward]

People seem to forget that originally the Cavalier w/ SRMs was the only IS BA that could jump with missiles . . . then they gave that special to the cousins.

For me, Redshirt is going to be 2 of the 3 Trinity Armors . . . the Theseus and Asterion are both decent enough but they get held back, as designed, the guns are OK but not the best . . . the armor has points but no specialty . . . and the movement is good, but it is run rather than jump . . . and the cost/BV makes them cheaper to field.

[Starfury]

Red shirt armors will also vary by era, but I'd say units like the Longinus, the IS standard, the Trinity series, and even the Tinstar fit. You could even make the same case for Elementals. Essentially any armor that's general purpose, doesn't have some form of stealth tech, and can be used in a number of roles.