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The Inner Sphere / Re: Will the introduction of 'Clan Tech' change warfare in the Inner Sphere?

« Last post by VanVelding on Today at 21:45:03 »

Clantech is generally just Inner Sphere tech but better. With Clantech they can be faster and hit harder, but there's a limit on armor improvements. Lighter engines can make up for some of what hardened armor is doing, and Ferro-Lamellor is nice, but armor improvements seem more marginal than those of weapons and mobility.

Individual units are more powerful. Unless production of Clantech massively scales back army sizes, that's also an increase in collateral damage.

As someone mentioned above, Clantech would probably be used in elite units with less important units receiving more conventional tech.

For Clan combat technologies in general, it looks like a minor paradigm shift to benefit to offense instead of defense, with a combination of speed and Inner Sphere evasion technologies like Stealth Armor trying to--pun intended--outrun it.

In general, there's the possibility of Clan technologies--material, chemical, industrial, biological--being used to improve existing Inner Sphere systems which the Clans (mostly) never bothered with. Nova CEWS analogs and advanced stealth armors, RACs, Light Gauss Rifles, and Heavy PPCs.

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Fan Fiction / Re: What Could Go Wrong

« Last post by 2ndAcr on Today at 21:39:16 »

 Stupid emoticon......7 man squad is 1.5 tons per everything I found. So 3 squads takes two Vector. I toyed with making them 4 squad platoons to round it out better. Still might down the road some. Maybe even make them a square formation, 4 squad, 4 platoon, 4 company, 4 battalion. For a grand total of 1,792 man Jump Infantry Regiment.

 Even doing an XL refit only gets it to a 5 ton bay IIRC. Maybe they will find some Cobra's around out here. LOL

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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Dominions of a Divided Nature - Sourcebook Discussion Thread **SPOILERS**

« Last post by Dragon Cat on Today at 21:21:51 »

One thing I do take from this product other than Alaric Ward being magnificent at playing sides against each other (he learned very very well from Katherine/Katrina) is that the Clan Protectorate is up **** creek without a paddle.  After seeing how the ilKhan dealt with the Bears there's no way in hell he'll accept the Protectorate.

Also the independent states springing up in the Jade Falcon OZ and the other part of Clan Jade Falcon fighting to hold its position in the area should pack their bags and move to the Periphery or get in line as when the ilClan and Jade Falcon come back the OZ will be put back to the status quo.

If anything I'm disappointed by the book.  I enjoyed it don't get me wrong the writing is brilliant, I love the layout, the insights into the Dominion, and the Federated Suns, the knee jerk reactions from the Haseks (well one of them), the Taurian tidbits but seriously there was an opportunity in this book I feel for the Dominion to be accepted into the new Star League and for the Dominion to fall on the Combine, a wave of refugees to stream into the Suns as war is brought on the Combine even as the Federated Suns retake New Avalon.

Instead we're returned to the Status Quo, the Federated Suns Combine border looks the same shape as it did in the Succession Wars, the FedSuns is battered and can't push further, the Ravens are still sitting on the fence and the Combine is licking its wounds, while the Dominion is by the very title of the book Divided. This feels like a 3rd Succession War reset, the joke all of this has happened before rings in my head and back to low intensity border skirmishes for the next decade or so until a big event (maybe Alarics wedding he'll proclaim a new Unification War)

I'm not a fan of the reset it felt like the Republic's fall was going to bring about major change but now the ilClan holds Terra and will likely build a Hegemony around itself, the Sea Foxes are gaining more ComStar like power over the HPGs and Mercenary trade while the Clans for all their might are still hemmed into their Occupation Zones they've held since the 3050s.

This book almost shows the failure of the Clan model in its entirety even the strongest most "stable" Clan can't move because of one vote.

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Fan Fiction / Re: What Could Go Wrong

« Last post by Daryk on Today at 21:20:57 »

Six (non-Anti-'Mech) jump troopers fit in a one-ton compartment, but that's probably a bridge too far for regular troops to wrap their heads around.

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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Dominions of a Divided Nature - Sourcebook Discussion Thread **SPOILERS**

« Last post by ANS Kamas P81 on Today at 21:17:13 »

Now that way of looking at it makes a lot more sense, though I haven't read the book yet (not till next week)

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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Dominions of a Divided Nature - Sourcebook Discussion Thread **SPOILERS**

« Last post by Adrian Gideon on Today at 21:15:10 »

So…there was never any vote to join the ilClan. You can’t join the ilClan. It’s not simply a matter of semantics. The Ghost Bears, as a Clan, as a cultural entity, have already acknowledged Wolf as the ilClan and Alaric as the ilKhan. That has nothing to do with the RasDom. The Dominion, including the Bears, voted to become a member state of the Star League.

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The Inner Sphere / Re: Will the introduction of 'Clan Tech' change warfare in the Inner Sphere?

« Last post by Greatclub on Today at 21:04:14 »

I'll say yes; native clantech is likely to be in front-line, offensive units. Militia and other defensive units are likely to have older, purely 'sphere tech.

So not only does the attacker have the initiative, but likely a larger qualitative advantage than existed during the succession wars. 

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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Dominions of a Divided Nature - Sourcebook Discussion Thread **SPOILERS**

« Last post by ActionButler on Today at 20:56:33 »

Just because most Rasalhagians learn the term ilClan during a history lesson on Operation Revival doesn’t mean even a small fraction of Rasalhagians is going to think:  “Yeah, that’s the ticket!  Let’s subjugate our highly successful and powerful Rasalhague Dominion to an unknown and undefined foreign power called the ilClan because their predecessor just happened to land on Terra and survive.  Trading away successful sovereignty for unproven governance is always a good idea!”

I think it is an extremely precarious leap to assume that a bunch of people, having become more safe and secure than they’ve ever been thanks to a merger with one Clan wouldn’t at least be tempted by the prospect of being more safe and more secure by merging with yet another Clan. And not just any Clan, but the Clan that took Terra and is now draping itself in the robes of a third Star League.

What I’ve repeatedly written is that the Bears have been a consistently slow-deciding, insular, and family-focused faction for centuries.  DD and the novel that preceded it are either ignorant of, or ignored, this canon in favor of bizarro-universe Bears that react rashly to external actors with internal strife.

And, again, you are completely ignoring the fact that the Bears have had a century to dwell on what they would do if a Clan claimed Terra.

Now, should the Dominion have been better fleshed out at some point before the current setting so that some of the things going on don’t seem like they manifested out of nowhere? Absolutely, but the story and developments presented in DD aren’t as far-fetched as you’re trying to make them out to be.

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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Talk to me about X-pulse lasers

« Last post by MoneyLovinOgre4Hire on Today at 20:51:55 »

It's a weird grey area, given that multiple houses are producing Clan Omnimechs that use pulse lasers.  The idea that all of them are 100% dependent on trading with the Foxes for them seems unreasonable.

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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Talk to me about X-pulse lasers

« Last post by BrianDavion on Today at 20:48:55 »

I don't think ANY inner sphere house is producing clan pulse lasers yet