BattleTech: Technical Readout: 3145 Capellan Confederation

[faraday77]

As a demonstration of how tastes differ: The Space Mine Dispenser is what SOLD me on the thing.

If it works for you, the that's fine by me. :) I've just spend too much time on Atomic Rockets to not do a facepalm when I see something like the SMD.

[Dragon Cat]

Of Liao it seems a bit hit or miss to me some of it is ooooooo I like, some is really you went there?

Overall Liao seems to be trying to take the Rim Worlds Republic crown on war crimes with the flamer emphasis...

Picks for me:
Nisos - nice Combat WiGE
Pixiu - awesome tank
Arrow IV Assault Vehicle - nice - like really nice
Behemoth II - the tank no-one wanted... I want it
Gun - beautiful art - strange idea
Calliope - from preview art nice design too wasn't a light gauss or a HVAC
Raven II - very sweet upgrade
Agrotera - one of the prettiest designs in the TRO by a margin
Mortis - finally one of the Undead Lance!!

Downers
Predator - looks like something that belongs in XTRO 1945 - sorry
Zhan - looks like something the A-Team would make out of a bus and some metal plate
Vandal - Omni let down by MWDA art
Lu Wei Bing - a Victor with updated art?  Nice design just looks too Victor-ish especially the head
All the aerospace stuff - nothing jumps out at all

[Feign]

As a lover of the Magistracy of Canopus, I have to say I really like this TRO.  I'm pretty sure there is close to being more expressively MoC produced stuff in this than there has been in all the other TROs up to now combined.  Granted, that's three mechs three vees and a BA. :P

Granted, all three of the MoC mechs in this are close to pure gold in my eyes, and the Amazon is enough to make anyone take a second look at the faction.  I could definitely see MIM agents using Amazon armor as a backup for when subtlety has left the building.

[gooseman]

Hmmm....

During the abortive invasion of the Capellan Confederation by the Duchy of Andurien and Oriente in 3104, a number of Magistracy regiments responded to their ally’s need and counterattacked."

Brushwars: The Sequel

[Feign]

Picks for me:
Nisos - nice Combat WiGE
Pixiu - awesome tank
Arrow IV Assault Vehicle - nice - like really nice
Behemoth II - the tank no-one wanted... I want it
Gun - beautiful art - strange idea
Calliope - from preview art nice design too wasn't a light gauss or a HVAC
Raven II - very sweet upgrade
Agrotera - one of the prettiest designs in the TRO by a margin
Mortis - finally one of the Undead Lance!!

I have to agree with most of these, though I can't quite get into the Mortis or the Raven II, I would trade the missile on the Pixiu for a SSRM-4 or heck, even an MRM10.  Likewise the Behemoth II, though the Support variant for that one covers the issue very nicely.
The Gun fills a role that just needed to be filled: Cheap, numerous BA taxi.
The Agrotera is an interesting scout/trooper without being over-optimized. 
The Calliope is a decent trooper with a very good chance of downright roasting mechs if it loads some Infernos for the MML (not to mention setting everything on the map on fire).
To this list I'd have to add the Tian-Zong.  Man oh man do I want some of these.  Really, between the Tian Zong and the Amazon, this has a corner on the no-nonsense market.

Downers
Predator - looks like something that belongs in XTRO 1945 - sorry
Zhan - looks like something the A-Team would make out of a bus and some metal plate
Vandal - Omni let down by MWDA art
Lu Wei Bing - a Victor with updated art?  Nice design just looks too Victor-ish especially the head
All the aerospace stuff - nothing jumps out at all

The Predator and the Zahn are both fine with me.  They have the no-nonsense thing pinned down, as befits their design.

[blackjack]

 O0 On the Anubis! I like the new art (mini???). It looked to bug like before. Solid load outs. Lu Wei Bing makes me think of the Victor with the arty arm. Like it. Very curious about the tsemp.  I'd really like to play some of these mechs but need the rules. Do they already exist???? In tac ops or something???

[Scotty]

The Zhan is hereby dubbed the BattleBus.  It's just too perfect a nickname. ;D

[Klat]

The Zhan is hereby dubbed the BattleBus.  It's just too perfect a nickname. ;D

I second this motion!

[Decoy]

The Zhan is hereby dubbed the BattleBus.  It's just too perfect a nickname. ;D

....only now? The Zhan has been the battlebus for nearly a decade, depending on when Liao Incursion was released. ;)

[RyuWanderfalke]

Many mech designs from this TRO look like they were directly taken out of MWO in terms of style, an intentional decision?

[YingJanshi]

Probably has to do with the fact that Alex I. is the artist for MWO.

[cavingjan]

Vandal - Omni let down by MWDA art

No previous art or mini from MWDA.

[Martius]

The Vandal reminds me of the Celestials. Perhaps it is a lost WoB design or something planned for the Thugees?

[RyuWanderfalke]

Shen Long: Fast, mimetic armour

Which in fact seems a bit odd...

[Decoy]

The Vandal reminds me of the Celestials. Perhaps it is a lost WoB design or something planned for the Thugees?

My guess is that the Vandal is an updated Koschei....a remnant of pre Xin Sheng CC that no longer fits as well as it should.

[Coldwyn]

Which in fact seems a bit odd...

Why? Wait for a good opportunity, than move fast.

[Klat]

I seem to be in the minority on liking the Vandal. I like the art well enough with its celestial queues and the configurations look serviceable; I'd happily use a lance of them. I'll admit that some of the design decisions seem odd but I'm happy to have a next generation IS omni that fills a heavy cavalry role.

[RyuWanderfalke]

@coldwyn: Mimetic seems a bit costly for that. Mimetic armor makes most sense on an suit that walks 10.8 kph, optimally because of DWPs.

[Wrangler]

I feel like this TRO should come with a pronunciation guide.

Your not only one...Yinghuochong needs a canon nickname or NATO like designation.  I can't imagine alot people will have easy time prouncing it.  Aside from it, its okay design but doesn't seem to me as a Firebee "successor".  Art of it isn't great too me.  It maybe i'm not fan of all Huda's work, no offense to Mr. Huda.

I think my favorite unit in the book is the Shen Long Battle Armor.  Its really cool design wise & stat wise.

I love the Deployment (once apond time was called Battle History in old TRO3025), it such rich history being put in there and giving unit some serious character with design quirks making them more unique.

The Capellan write ups in the book history is very startling if you tend to like FedSuns.  Some these guys were horrible people doing thing in name of the State.  Man.

I wonder if the Night Stalker Medium 'Mech will appear in another book, House Liao was suppose to be using this.  It appeared during the Liao invasion of Belleville in MWDA Novel To Ride The Chimera.

I wished one of the notable pilots of the Gùn was named Peter...then the old pop-culture pun circle would be completed...

[YingJanshi]

Your not only one...Yinghuochong needs a canon nickname or NATO like designation.  I can't imagine alot people will have easy time prouncing it.  Aside from it, its okay design but doesn't seem to me as a Firebee "successor".  Art of it isn't great too me.  It maybe i'm not fan of all Huda's work, no offense to Mr. Huda.

I think my favorite unit in the book is the Shen Long Battle Armor.  Its really cool design wise & stat wise.

I love the Deployment (once apond time was called Battle History in old TRO3025), it such rich history being put in there and giving unit some serious character with design quirks making them more unique.

The Capellan write ups in the book history is very startling if you tend to like FedSuns.  Some these guys were horrible people doing thing in name of the State.  Man.

I wonder if the Night Stalker Medium 'Mech will appear in another book, House Liao was suppose to be using this.  It appeared during the Liao invasion of Belleville in MWDA Novel To Ride The Chimera.

I wished one of the notable pilots of the Gùn was named Peter...then the old pop-culture pun circle would be completed...

Aha, I get that! Now I'll forever have this music stuck in my heard whenever I field the Gùn!

[The Wayfarer]

Wow.  The artwork in this TRO is fantastic!  Congrats to the Battletech crew and the artists on the selection.  IWM is gonna have a tough job making minis for this bunch but I hope they come, nonetheless.

I am NOT digging this sawtooth box pattern around the text and artwork.  Borderless would be more appealing.

Wasn't a Cappy fan until today.  Nice job!

Mike

[Suralin]

I seem to be in the minority on liking the Vandal. I like the art well enough with its celestial queues and the configurations look serviceable; I'd happily use a lance of them. I'll admit that some of the design decisions seem odd but I'm happy to have a next generation IS omni that fills a heavy cavalry role.

The Vandal visually reminds me of Celestials, a scaled-up Liberator, or maybe Mektek's Black Heart. Or all three rolled together somehow. In a good way.

I do wish the configs had more weaponry, but Boosted C3 is never to be underestimated.

The original arcade version of Street Fighter II. It was a mistranslation of Ryu's attack but people took it to be a characters name.

*hands Stormlion a cookie*

[Dragon Cat]

No previous art or mini from MWDA.

I thought I had one

[Wrangler]

I wonder if when the combined TRO: 3145 comes out that we'll get a list of Mech refit/variants like TRO:3085 had.  I just keep thinking Vandals are going have run in tandium with one another since there aren't many boosted c3 slaves/masters out there.  Specially for the Liaos i would think.

[Brigoon]

The Vandal visually reminds me of Celestials, a scaled-up Liberator, or maybe Mektek's Black Heart. Or all three rolled together somehow. In a good way.

I do wish the configs had more weaponry, but Boosted C3 is never to be underestimated.


*hands Stormlion a cookie*

I think the Vandal could be just a updated refaced  Thanatos Omnimech. I just plugged in the Thanto's fixed weapon config with the jets and came up to 24.5 tons. Witch easly fits into the Vandals pod weight and critical space. 

[Scotty]

Why? Wait for a good opportunity, than move fast.

This.  The Shen Long is begging to be used in a city, where 4 MP is blazing for a BA, and its firepower is excellent.  Reach a defended choke point in record time, and then sit still for maximum demonic spider potential.

[Deadborder]

I'm wondering now if the point to the Liberator's C3B is to allow it to use C3 with Stealth 'Mechs; that way they aren't being blocked from the network by their own one-hex ECM bubble.

[SCC]

BC3 shouldn't be affected by the ECM across the skin of 'Mechs under stealth (They don't generate a bubble, unless the rules have changed) but BC3 can only work with other BC3

[Stormlion1]

*hands Stormlion a cookie*

Yay! A Cookie!  :)

Actually the more I look at the Vandal, the more I see a Celestial influence then anything else. I want to say that at some point the CapCon either captured plans for a WoB design or have revamped a Celestial design. And it would make sense as well, the CapCon probably didn't melt down perfectly good mechs that had WoB origins, but probably stripped frames and mothballed parts and at some point someone designed a mech that would use those frames and parts, hence you get a Vandal and not a Celestial.

One thing I do want is a mini for this though. It would look good in Holdfast Guard colors I think.

[Klat]

Yay! A Cookie!  :)

Actually the more I look at the Vandal, the more I see a Celestial influence then anything else. I want to say that at some point the CapCon either captured plans for a WoB design or have revamped a Celestial design. And it would make sense as well, the CapCon probably didn't melt down perfectly good mechs that had WoB origins, but probably stripped frames and mothballed parts and at some point someone designed a mech that would use those frames and parts, hence you get a Vandal and not a Celestial.

One thing I do want is a mini for this though. It would look good in Holdfast Guard colors I think.

A Vandal mini would be wonderful, particularly if the three variants were made available so we could build boosted C3 lances.