TRO 3145--Federated Suns

[Jal Phoenix]

Speaking of which, just when are we going to see the original Exterminator? >:(

I'm guessing 2011, when RS 3050U Clan/Star League gave us the EXT-4C.  Unless you're talking about something else I'm unaware of.   :)

[ColBosch]

I'm guessing 2011, when RS 3050U Clan/Star League gave us the EXT-4C.  Unless you're talking about something else I'm unaware of.   :)

What, it really is in there? With the CLPS and all?

[MadCapellan]

What, it really is in there? With the CLPS and all?

Of course!  You should know we wouldn't forget about that!  I mean, I know it's taken a while, but.... ;)

[ColBosch]

Of course!  You should know we wouldn't forget about that!  I mean, I know it taken a while, but.... ;)

That was shortly after my break with CGL, between when I had access to the archives and when I had to start buying products again, so no surprise I missed it. Thanks, guys.

[ArkRoyalRavager]

Late for the party, but still  [drool]


Wow, all the new TROs are impressive, but I really love what our boys got in the future(or now, since i'm kinda still in the 3090s). No complaints about all the designs, ten stars out of ten for the artwork. I just love it whenever David White does the unit illustrations. AWESOME. Now I can't help but think the AFFS new toys are some kind of super-combination of Apocalypse Tanks, Pac Rim Jaegers, GDI etc.

As others have pointed out earlier, the only two(but minor) complaints I have are lack of Clan XLE production and the Zibler lacking at least an LFE. I thought the innovative AFFS would improve on the only flaw of the Epona's design by using lighter engines. That said, I'm more than happy that of all the Clantech that sprinkled to the Great Houses, we got the freakin' Clan ERLL and general Clan energy weaponry. Words cannot describe my joy at seeing the crapload of these being employed in the TRO. Very useful for the current crisis indeed.

p.s. Thanks to the TPTB for doing such a good job at translating and elaborating on the DA clickytech units as well as the new stuff. Speaking as someone who is a real fan of the WK series, well done guys 8)

[MarauderD]

I agree on the artwork, especially the Vulpes and Black Knight. Good looking mechs and armor all around!

[ArkRoyalRavager]

I'm glad the orphaned Black Knight(since the SL's fall) is finally officially a Fed Suns 'Mech.

While the Vulpes is like "What Sandoval doesn't want to share Robinson's Ostsol output? No problem, we make our own with Stealth+Clantech!" I can't help but grin uncontrollably whenever I see such a thing canonized by TPTB

[martian]

I'm glad the orphaned Black Knight(since the SL's fall) is finally officially a Fed Suns 'Mech.

I am not sure I understand.

The Free Worlds League acquired the the Kong Interstellar's factory on Connaught after the fall of the Star League and continued in production of the Black Knight for the Free Worlds League Military until 2820. After that the factory continued to provide maintenance and refits for the FWLM's Black Knights from the 29^th to the 31^st century.
 
The Black Knight has been manufactured on Robinson (and Connaught) since mid-3060s.

[O5P_Ghost]

I'm glad the orphaned Black Knight(since the SL's fall) is finally officially a Fed Suns 'Mech.

Well since we own Robinson now, I guess its a Drac mech! or a 黒騎士 (please be valid google translate)

[MarauderD]

I am not sure I understand.

The Free Worlds League acquired the the Kong Interstellar's factory on Connaught after the fall of the Star League and continued in production of the Black Knight for the Free Worlds League Military until 2820. After that the factory continued to provide maintenance and refits for the FWLM's Black Knights from the 29^th to the 31^st century.
 
The Black Knight has been manufactured on Robinson (and Connaught) since mid-3060s.

I believe it is a FedSuns mech in the sense that it is produced on a (former? current?) FedSuns world and on the active rolls of the AFFS.

In this sense, it is also a FWLM mech. So now these two nations share more than just their love of the Centurion!

[SCC]

So, I was browsing TechManual the other day, and I noticed something: the Chameleon LPS is supposed to be extinct.  It has no reintroduction date.  But the Scarecrow carries it, and, while it is undoubtedly produced in small quantities, it's still a production design, not some experimental prototype.  Thoughts?

The Scarecrow is mixed tech and unless I'm missing something due to the way the rules work CLPS never went extinct for the Clans

That could be one hell of an advantage if the Suns starts to make a lot of it.  CLPS basically beats Stealth Armor at its own game.  Half the crits, 6/10ths the heat, no requirement to carry an onboard ECM suite, for the same game effects.  It'd be nice to serve the Capellans some of their own medicine.  But we get enough of the nice tech, if we did start using CLPS in any sort of widespread deployment, I'm sure the boards would see another uptick in "I hate Davion because they get the best of everything" threads, so we're probably better off without it.

Depends upon how you want to look at things, Stealth Armor has the advantage of rendering the user immune to being a secondary target and on certain designs the higher heat level may be useful, the Quickdraw QKD-8X comes to mind, switching to CLPS would not make that 'Mech better but rather the reverse.

[mbear]

So, after doing some fiddling, I must ask: why does the Vulpes use an XXL engine?  By simply dropping the MASC you save all the tonnage gained, and cut the cost by more than 2/3rds by using an XL engine instead.  If you add in TSM, you can even gain back half of the speed boost you lost to MASC.

sometimes you just need to go to Plaid..

and while MASC has some drawbacks, if you use it right you can rely on it to give you Ludicrous speed when you need it. TSM though you have to do tricky heat balancing, and when you really need high speed, you might not have the heat levels to gain the little bit extra.
and to be honest, MASC offers a bigger speed boost than TSM.

True, but by going to an XL engine and Small Cockpit, I can add in a Supercharger, which gives me the same speed boost. And then I can add TSM just because I can and I get a stealthy sniper that moves really fast and can beat your head in when you get too close.

[ArkRoyalRavager]

I am not sure I understand.

The Free Worlds League acquired the the Kong Interstellar's factory on Connaught after the fall of the Star League and continued in production of the Black Knight for the Free Worlds League Military until 2820. After that the factory continued to provide maintenance and refits for the FWLM's Black Knights from the 29^th to the 31^st century.
 
The Black Knight has been manufactured on Robinson (and Connaught) since mid-3060s.

Yes the FWLM has always owned KIC and produced the Black Knight, but perhaps for aesthetic reasons(Knights are a very FedSuns thing) the most iconic Black Knight of CBT is piloted by the leader of the Fox's Teeth, and all the variants are either ComGuard(the hatchet version, and due to them having leftover SLDF equipment) or Suns(the TarComp version and now this DA variant).

Even during the SWs, TRO3039's Black Knight entry says something like "this 'Mech is very popular/common in the Federated Suns" which I can understand but also felt weird given KIC was in the FWL. Unless the FWLM doesn't bother with most of this design and exported it to the Suns most of the time.

[nckestrel]

By 3039, there had not been any Black Knights made in the IS for (3039-2820=) 219 years.  "increasingly rare".

Then it points out "few" have survived in other Successor states from the Star League.  The majority of these are concentrated in the FS.

Ie.  Marik is the only one that has post Star League Black Knights (as of 3039), but those are becoming increasingly rare.
It's more rare in other Successor States, holdovers from the Star League. Of these, FS has the most.

Not that it's common in the FS or the FS has more than Marik.

[ArkRoyalRavager]

Right. KIC only managed to scrape together a Black Knight line shortly before 3067. So all the Successor States had Black Knights, but the majority was concentrated in the FS. But given the timeframe, it would seem the FWLM and AFFS has most of the new-build Black Knights during the FCCW era and beyond

[nckestrel]

Right. KIC only managed to scrape together a Black Knight line shortly before 3067. So all the Successor States had Black Knights, but the majority was concentrated in the FS.

I'm saying the FWLM had the most.  The FS had the most among those states that didn't produce any Black Knights.
But both were relatively small numbers.

[martian]

I believe it is a FedSuns mech in the sense that it is produced on a (former? current?) FedSuns world and on the active rolls of the AFFS.

In this sense, it is also a FWLM mech. So now these two nations share more than just their love of the Centurion!

Actually, I have never considered the FWL to be especially in love with the Centurion. One or two brief mentions that they have also used it, and that's all. No big love. 

As far as I know, the Centurion has never been manufactured in the Free Worlds League, only in the Federated Suns (three production sites or so).

[nckestrel]

"Produced initially from 2801 until the main plant on Ramen II was destroyed in 2845"

Ramen II was in the Free Worlds League.  It was built as a partner for its Trebuchets, also built in the Free Worlds League.
The Federated Suns didn't start making the Centurion until 3012.  It had just been producing spare parts before that.

[martian]

"Produced initially from 2801 until the main plant on Ramen II was destroyed in 2845"

Ramen II was in the Free Worlds League.  It was built as a partner for its Trebuchets, also built in the Free Worlds League.
The Federated Suns didn't start making the Centurion until 3012.  It had just been producing spare parts before that.

So if I count it correctly and everything went well for the FWL to conquer Ramen II before the end of the 28^th century, the Centurion might had been produced for 44 years for the FWLM?
(2801-start of production; 2845 - end of production; Ramen II conquered by the FWL between 2786-2821)

[nckestrel]

Looks right. 

[JadeHellbringer]

Not the worst thing in the world to be building, either, for the FWL- after all, if the Centurion is anything, it's a miniature Orion. Pairing those two up can't be a bad thing from a logistical and tactical standpoint, for sure.

[martian]

Looks right.

Honestly, once I took a BattleTech map and tried to find Ramen II on it - without success. And because of it and the constant mentions how typical for Davion the Centurion is, I mentally waved my hand with the conclusion that "Ramen" is probably typo for "Raman" in the Federated Suns.

[Alexander Knight]

Not the worst thing in the world to be building, either, for the FWL- after all, if the Centurion is anything, it's a miniature Orion. Pairing those two up can't be a bad thing from a logistical and tactical standpoint, for sure.

Well, or the Icarus II

[Decoy]

Not the worst thing in the world to be building, either, for the FWL- after all, if the Centurion is anything, it's a miniature Orion. Pairing those two up can't be a bad thing from a logistical and tactical standpoint, for sure.

....and all this time I thought it was an uparmored Valkyrie. Huh ><

[martian]

Those two CN9-D3D and CN9-D4D Centurions are probably imports to the Free Worlds League from the Federated Suns.
I guess they are a percentage from the production in exchange for supplying the Imperator Type II Light Gauss Rifle.

[MarauderD]

One of the things I love about the Battletech Universe is all the Houses making due with often sub optimal designs.

Sure I prefer an Enforcer or Shadow Hawk/Griffon/Wolverine to the Centurion. But no one has enough material to turn their noses up at a functional mech production line. So both the AFFS and FWLM have worked the Centurion into their TO&E because of necessity.

Besides, one who wins with a couple non-munchy mechs on his team like the Centurion gets more brownie points, right?

[Arkansas Warrior]

What's so suboptimal about the CNT?  It's hardly a Garm.

[Decoy]

Indeed, I think the Omni Centi is the Gem of the FedSuns TRO.

[nckestrel]

Centurion is one of my favorites for taking 3025 tech against Clans (if it's BV balanced).  It's a solid design.

[Jayof9s]

I've always liked them but mine always explode  :(