31
Fan Fiction / Re: Failure is mandatory...
« Last post by Daryk on Today at 04:41:01 »Alaric also seems to have missed that taking Terra makes him a Terran... 
Recent Posts
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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Dominions of a Divided Nature - Sourcebook Discussion Thread **SPOILERS**
« Last post by Orwell84 on Today at 04:23:34 »I did wonder about this myself while reading through the Rasalhague part of DD, but maybe reading the Blue Dawn novels (an alt-hist series about a Second US Civil War) over the past two weeks might have something to do with that. Then again, numerous other 20th century and current nations and times also came to mind. I'm sure a hypothetical reader from 1st century BC Rome or 2nd century BC Greece would find relatable parallels with their own times.
I believe you. As you say, history rhymes, humans don't change, all this has happened before and all of it will happen again (to quote a favourite sci-fi series). Unless there's some cultural subtext this foreigner is missing nothing in here seems unique to either country.
I can promise you the recent history of neither the UK or US had anything to do with Dominions Divided.
I believe you. As you say, history rhymes, humans don't change, all this has happened before and all of it will happen again (to quote a favourite sci-fi series). Unless there's some cultural subtext this foreigner is missing nothing in here seems unique to either country.
33
BattleTech Miniatures / Re: Just started another commision work(done)
« Last post by Daryk on Today at 04:23:13 »It's not food that's the issue, it's the argument with my wife...
34
Fan Fiction / Re: What Could Go Wrong
« Last post by Daryk on Today at 04:22:33 »Thazi will be no pushover with all those Von Luckners dug in... 
35
Combat Vehicles / Re: Chromian Hurnbucker Overbuilt Field Gun
« Last post by Daryk on Today at 04:18:03 »Good times sitting outside LRM range and plinking fortifications... 
36
BattleTech Miniatures / Combined Arms Battalion, 1st Marik Protectors, Late Republic Era
« Last post by worktroll on Today at 04:09:02 »
The Marik Protectors originated from the chaos of the Jihad and the resulting dissolution of the Free Worlds League in 3079. With the fragmentation of the Free Worlds League Military, numerous single worlds that did not belong to the now-independent League provinces were exposed to piracy and predatory neighbors such as the Marian Hegemony
The Marik forces that defended Kendall from II Legio weren't supposed to be on the planet; the Tenth Marik Militia had been ordered to deploy to the Rim Commonality to subdue the restless worlds there, but news of the Hegemony invasion of various Free Worlds League systems led to a coup within the Militia, as Force Commander Yoshio Kawamura deposed the Militia's Commanding Officer and brought them to Kendall. After the Hegemony forces withdrew, many of the survivors of the Tenth attempted to return to their homeworlds, but a solid core of people loyal to Kawamura's ideals remained, and the remnants of the Militia became the First Marik Protectors, a quasi-mercenary command dedicated to protecting independent former League worlds.
Throughout the Jihad and beyond, the Marik Protectors fought off several invasions from the Marian Hegemony, facing II Legio and IV Legio and repelling them. Post the fall of Circinus to nuclear-armed Regulans, the Protectors fought off numerous "successor" bandit gangs of different sizes, and encountered the Green Ghosts.
The Protectors split in 3098 into six seperate commands, with each battalion conducting operations as it saw fit, although provision was made for joint operations against any foe too powerful for a single Protectors battalion to handle. The 1st Marik Protectors remained based on Kendall, and while retaining the unit symbol of the 10th Marik Militia, moved to a new grey and steel paint scheme, Despite having a single 'Mech battalion, the unit maintains a brigade of armor and a brigade of infantry, amply supplied through good relations with both Kali Yama - Alphard Trading Corporation, and Brooks Inc. This allows the First to focus on the defensive tactics often needed by independent systems.
This sort of Action Group was typically deployed by the Protectors for offensive activities in defensive operations. Leaving the line holding to mainly infantry and mechanised forces supported by artillery, the Action Group would be used to probe the enemy, disrupt their plans, or attack their supplies.
The Group's Probe lance concentrates available Clantech equipment obtained by trade, and is made up of a Hellbringer J, Shadowcat T, Wolverine WLV-11M, and Hunstman T.
The Fire Lance consists of a Longbow LGB-13C, Catapult CPLT-C2, a bodygrard Warhammer WHM-8M with Light Gauss Rifle, and Trebuchet TBT-9N.
And the Command/Heavy Battle Lance has the Group CO in her Orion ON2-M, HPPC-armed Awesome AWS-11H, Archer ARC-8M, and Rifleman RFL-7N2.
Four Hawk Moth II VTOLS make up the Striker Platoon,
{There's meant to be an image here, will add in soon}
and with a Recon Platoon of Galleon GAL-102s,
provide spotting for a Fir Support platoon of JES IIIs.
Zahn transports provide mobility and support for two platoons of Battle Armour - Leonidas, and Achileus,
while Heavy Hover APCs transport two platoons of Battlefield Infiltrators, and a platoon of flamer-equipped infantry.
sorry, problem with the Galleon pics, will have to take some new ones!
So I happened to have unexpected free time on my hands, and this scheme came together quickly.
Paint scheme:
- Base dark grey
- Ghostbrush with light grey
- Black for metallic parts, then drybrush
- Paint on the steel panels
- (tidy up)
- Hit all over with Nuln Oil shade.
- Cockpits
- Base and seal.
That's it! The Nuln does all the heavy lifting, panels, and highlighting on the steel parts. Had good fun searching the MUL for Late Republic equipment and versions of 'Mechs I hadn't done before.
The cockpits - I put some white paint on the cockpit panels in the upper right corner, then hit the whole panel with orange contrast paint. Added some more contrast to darken things. It's not CSO level, but it is a way to get some 'glow' into the glass panels.
This is my 95th unit, and also means that the FWL joins my Mercs category with at least one unit for those factions in each period from Succession Wars to Dark Age. Next up on the brush - 15th Arcturan Guards, Succession Wars era.
Comments/critiques as always welcomed!
37
General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Black Knight Clanbuster Mini Restock
« Last post by Lorcan Nagle on Today at 04:08:33 »Just thought I'd reup this since it's been almost a year since the last reply to see if there's any news. Any chance the clanbuster Black Knights will ever be restocked again?
They're now produced in metal by Iron Wind.
https://ironwindmetals.com/index.php/categories/cat-battletech/cat-bt-ncm/product/battletech-20-5207/category_pathway-2
Anyone have a picture of it, and the Ryoken mentioned? I’d like to see what it/they looked like. I’ve only heard about them.
https://ironwindmetals.com/index.php/categories/cat-battletech/cat-bt-nr/product/battletech-20-5203/category_pathway-2
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General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Upcoming Releases XXVI: Unboxing Days
« Last post by DarkISI on Today at 03:54:37 »It's quite worth it, in my opinion. I find myself liking the "smaller" stories like this one more than the main plot fiction, at least for the recent (past 1-2 years) releases.
Thank you
39
General BattleTech Discussion / Re: WOB Celestials: how’d they actually fare
« Last post by pokefan548 on Today at 03:23:05 »From memorry, JS:TBD lists almost all shadow divisions as being Elite-rated.
Put it this way, though: when you need a lot of elite warriors in almost any campaign system, skill improvements often get quite expensive and time consuming after a point—especially when the only "real-world" combat most get is hunting down the local tribals. After a point, the C-Bill/Warchest Point/resource cost of slapping VDNI in for a quick -1/-1 becomes quite attractive. Add in the potential to unlock more improvements via its compatibility with Triple-Core Processor, Machima Domini, etc, and yeah, it makes sense.
So that's the kind of force we're talking about; a force that can not only have mass, but with a cheeky shortcut to allow warriors falling behind to have a quick shortcut to keep up with their bretheren, or to further improve troops nearing the limit of their potential with just a week or so of surgery and recovery. It was the "I can have my cake and eat it too" army.
As an example, let's say you're playing a Chaos Campaign, with one player playing Word of Blake and the other playing Clans—and you use the rules that MD get to roll for augmentations (per JHS:3072 from memory? Or maybe JS:TBD), or you're using the even scarrier IO rules where MD units can claim access to an impressive minimum set of augmentations. That means that while the Clans are paying every penny for their Veteran/Elite pilots, the Manei Domini get a bunch of those for free! That's not even considering other options, like Boosted Comms implants that can let pilots of Clan salvage hook into a C3i network with no need to worry about customizing 'Mechs. All this in a force that, cost-wise, only costs as much as a regular Inner Sphere force 'Mech-for-'Mech under most official rulesets. Using the C-Bill-to-SP conversion, VDNI installations cost 140 SP—depending on the Chaos Campaign system you're using, that's either dirt-cheap or ludicrously expensive, but the fact remains that this also bypasses the limit of one level of skill improvement per-track, meaning that once again, Manei Domini forces can improve radically faster than any of their counterparts. The one limit would be Campaign Operations, which expects a 100,000 SP cost to upgrade a warrior to be MD—a suggestion I can best describe as "suspect" given that it also stipulate that forces cannot have more than a whopping one Manei Domini active in the entire force at one time.
Long-winded way of saying, pretty much no matter what system you use other than BV, the Manei Domini will have an automatic edge in skill and, in many cases, survivability and utility without having to sacrifice their numbers. That is how the Manei Domini avoid "fighting fair", and it's in this reality that the Celestials were born. Where a MD force in Celestials may find themselves chafing under BV, in campaign play they come into their own as part of a larger force. Stick your TCP/VDNI/Pain Shunt/Dermal Armor-equipped commander in an Archange and watch him tank plenty of damage while constantly providing a +3 init bonus and making what few shots he has count with TCP aimed shots, and the whole time the enemy focuses on it that's fire not going into the Gurkha, Legacy, Flashman, and whatever else rounds out the Level II—including the salvaged Mad Cat that can still connect to the Level II's C3i network right out of the box thanks to its pilot.
Oh, and just as a cheeky tidbit: no reason in a BV-matched game to not take all the augmentations you want on a 0/0 pilot.
Tl;dr: the Celestials are good enough in a campaign setting where they provide decent combo utility with the augmented warriors that make Manei Domini forces in general so strong. Currently writing after waking up at 1 AM thanks to illness, so apologies if it's meandering.
Put it this way, though: when you need a lot of elite warriors in almost any campaign system, skill improvements often get quite expensive and time consuming after a point—especially when the only "real-world" combat most get is hunting down the local tribals. After a point, the C-Bill/Warchest Point/resource cost of slapping VDNI in for a quick -1/-1 becomes quite attractive. Add in the potential to unlock more improvements via its compatibility with Triple-Core Processor, Machima Domini, etc, and yeah, it makes sense.
So that's the kind of force we're talking about; a force that can not only have mass, but with a cheeky shortcut to allow warriors falling behind to have a quick shortcut to keep up with their bretheren, or to further improve troops nearing the limit of their potential with just a week or so of surgery and recovery. It was the "I can have my cake and eat it too" army.
As an example, let's say you're playing a Chaos Campaign, with one player playing Word of Blake and the other playing Clans—and you use the rules that MD get to roll for augmentations (per JHS:3072 from memory? Or maybe JS:TBD), or you're using the even scarrier IO rules where MD units can claim access to an impressive minimum set of augmentations. That means that while the Clans are paying every penny for their Veteran/Elite pilots, the Manei Domini get a bunch of those for free! That's not even considering other options, like Boosted Comms implants that can let pilots of Clan salvage hook into a C3i network with no need to worry about customizing 'Mechs. All this in a force that, cost-wise, only costs as much as a regular Inner Sphere force 'Mech-for-'Mech under most official rulesets. Using the C-Bill-to-SP conversion, VDNI installations cost 140 SP—depending on the Chaos Campaign system you're using, that's either dirt-cheap or ludicrously expensive, but the fact remains that this also bypasses the limit of one level of skill improvement per-track, meaning that once again, Manei Domini forces can improve radically faster than any of their counterparts. The one limit would be Campaign Operations, which expects a 100,000 SP cost to upgrade a warrior to be MD—a suggestion I can best describe as "suspect" given that it also stipulate that forces cannot have more than a whopping one Manei Domini active in the entire force at one time.
Long-winded way of saying, pretty much no matter what system you use other than BV, the Manei Domini will have an automatic edge in skill and, in many cases, survivability and utility without having to sacrifice their numbers. That is how the Manei Domini avoid "fighting fair", and it's in this reality that the Celestials were born. Where a MD force in Celestials may find themselves chafing under BV, in campaign play they come into their own as part of a larger force. Stick your TCP/VDNI/Pain Shunt/Dermal Armor-equipped commander in an Archange and watch him tank plenty of damage while constantly providing a +3 init bonus and making what few shots he has count with TCP aimed shots, and the whole time the enemy focuses on it that's fire not going into the Gurkha, Legacy, Flashman, and whatever else rounds out the Level II—including the salvaged Mad Cat that can still connect to the Level II's C3i network right out of the box thanks to its pilot.
Oh, and just as a cheeky tidbit: no reason in a BV-matched game to not take all the augmentations you want on a 0/0 pilot.
Tl;dr: the Celestials are good enough in a campaign setting where they provide decent combo utility with the augmented warriors that make Manei Domini forces in general so strong. Currently writing after waking up at 1 AM thanks to illness, so apologies if it's meandering.
40
General BattleTech Discussion / Re: Black Knight Clanbuster Mini Restock
« Last post by 17thRecon on Today at 03:22:24 »Anyone have a picture of it, and the Ryoken mentioned? I’d like to see what it/they looked like. I’ve only heard about them.
