Pages in category 'BattleMechs' The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 644 total. (previous page). Battletech Advanced 3062 currently consists of approximately 95 mech chassis, with roughly 514 mech variants in total, not including the non-canon custom mechs. All of the mechs features in BTA are of Inner Sphere or Periphery origin, although there are a few Omni-Mechs such as the Blackjack Omni, and the Hauptmann.

I’m a big fan of Harebrained Schemes’ BattleTech – as you might gather from my review – but there are certainly a few things that could be clearer about its different systems. After playing for about 40 hours I’ve discovered a lot of things about the UI and play mechanics I wish I’d known when I started out.

I’ve picked out the seven most pressing for you below.

Turn off your weapons

This may seem obvious but it’s not something that BattleTech’s tutorials make abundantly clear: you don’t have to fire all your weapons at once. When you’re aiming at an enemy unit and ready to hit that fire button, you can deactivate individual weapons by clicking on them.

Firing a mech’s full suite of weapons, known as an alpha strike, is a great way of knocking the stuffing out of enemy mechs but it has its downsides. There are a number of times you’ll want to be more selective: when you’re trying to manage your heat generation – firing all your weapons at once is a good way to cause internal damage and force a shutdown; when you want to conserve ballistic ammo and missiles and you don’t want to waste them on a weak enemy; when your weapon systems are ill-suited to the situation – you don’t want to fire 30 long-range missiles at a mech stood ten metres away, most of them will miss.

Which side you’re shooting at is indicated by the UI

There are lots of nuances to BattleTech’s UI that you’ll pick up in play but the most useful of them is that your HUD indicates what side of a target you’re aiming at. It may seem obvious where your attacks will land but there are times where it’s hard to tell by eyeballing whether you’re shooting at an enemy’s front or side. Handily, when you’re in the fire preview, the throbbing red lines on the mech schematic indicate where your hits will land.

There’s actually a second indicator, too, hinting at the importance of focusing your fire on the same area of a mech over multiple attacks. When you’re moving your mech and rotating its firing arc, if you hover over any enemy mechs in range then you’ll see at their feet a circle broken into four pieces, the red segment is the side of the mech you’re shooting at.

EJECT

You may be dead-set against the idea of ejecting but it’s a near-essential tool in the later games of BattleTech. When a mech has been cornered and it’s being pounded by the enemy, losing limbs and taking internal damage, your pilot is at great risk of being killed. If there’s no escape for the mech then hit the eject button and the pilot will launch to safety, living to fight another day.

You even get to keep the mech, too. After the battle is done, your cleanup crew salvage the mech and you can repair it in the mechbay.

The eject button is found in the bottom left of the HUD, in the box showing your mech’s status.

Reserve

Harebrained Schemes have indicated the advantages of different weight classes by where they take their place in the turn order – lighter mechs get to act before heavier mechs. But it’s a little more complex than that, you can order a mech to reserve its turn, letting it act later in the turn order.

There are loads of advantages to doing this and it’s worth thinking through every move before acting. If, for instance, you have detected enemy mechs on sensors but you’ve not yet got line of sight on them, you could send your light mechs towards the enemy to reveal them, or reserve and let the enemy come to you instead. If you move to them you might catch them off guard, but when it gets to their turn they could move to a spot that takes most advantage of your new position. If you let them move first then you have the flexibility to position yourself to their disadvantage, moving behind them or to the side.

Also, if you have a light mech that gets to go first but you reserve it through to the last phase then it effectively gets to go twice in a row – moving in the last phase of one turn and the first phase of the second.

Only do rep jobs for repeat clients

When negotiating contracts you can sacrifice cash or salvage rights for a reputation boost with your client. Build your reputation high enough with a client and you’ll get bonuses to job payouts and discounts in any shops in systems they own. These discounts quickly make themselves worth it in the long run.

That said, there’s not much to gain by making those sacrifices for rep boosts with every client you work with. It takes a long time to build your rep up and if you’re only doing one job for a client before moving to a new system then you’re losing immediate loot for no short- or long-term gain.

The main campaign sees you working with a few clients repeatedly and in missions that have high payouts. They’re a good set of missions to build your reputation on.

Stamp on tanks

If your main experience of the BattleTech universe is the MechWarrior games then you may make the same mistake I did and see enemy vehicles as little more than gnats. In BattleTech, however, they’re utter swine and you have to stamp them out before they splinter your lance.

As you progress through the campaign you’ll come across tanks with much more armour than they do in the early game and packing racks of powerful weapons. The SRM Carrier, for instance, will launch a wave of missiles at your mechs that can be enough to take strip away all their armour, multiple limbs, and knock them to the floor in a single attack, if not outright kill them.

Weapons are one way to kill these vehicles but by far the most effective way is to get close enough for your mechs to stamp on them. It most instances it’s an instant kill.

Turn and face

In the same way you should try and hit your enemy in their weakened areas, they will try to respond in kind. The AI is particularly vicious when it comes to eviscerating your mechs so don’t give them the opportunity.

Your mech’s status HUB tells you which parts of your mech are most damaged. When it comes to moving your mechs, try and position yourself in a manner that keeps your weakest spots facing away from the enemy.

Your mechs have a surprisingly wide firing arc, so you can often be facing almost away from your target and still fire on them with little issue.

BattleMechs (often abbreviated 'Mechs) are large walking war machines that feature prominently in the fictional universe of BattleTech. 'Mechs, which are generally either bipedal or quadrupedal in configuration, are controlled by human pilots and can thus be classified as mecha.

Origins[edit]

BattleMechs debuted in FASA Corporation's BattleTech, a board game of futuristic armored combat played with dice, counters and paper record sheets on a map of hexagonal territories. The game's first edition in 1984 was titled BattleDroids and featured mecha based directly on those in the Japanese animated television series Macross and other Japanese animation from the late '70s and early '80s. Legal impediments with George Lucas over the use of the term 'droid' forced the name of the game to change in the second edition to BattleTech. This, combined with legal troubles with Playmates Toys, led FASA in the 1990s to remove all images of these early designs from subsequent published material. Since FASA retained the rights to all aspects of the 'Mechs except for their visual depictions, they continued to use the 'Mechs and their stats, but did not print images of them until Technical Readout: Project Phoenix canonized new artwork for the designs. This fact led fans to dub these early 'Mechs the 'Unseen,' while their new look is colloquially referred to as the 'Reseen.'^[1]

'Mechs in BattleTech vary from one another in many ways, including mass, speed, chassis configuration, armor and armament, resulting in a practically limitless array of legal 'Mech designs. FASA and its successors WizKids, FanPro, and Catalyst Game Labs created hundreds of official BattleMechs to complement the game, the majority published in a long-running series of 'technical readouts'. The game's detailed construction rules, which allow players to create legal custom units of their own, has also resulted in untold thousands of additional designs, some published in magazines, on websites, and in various other fan media.

As the BattleTech franchise has grown, BattleMechs have increasingly appeared beyond the confines of the board game. A line of figurines, a collectible card game, and numerous computer simulation titles feature the machines; 'Mechs also feature centrally in a prolific series of novels set in the fictional BattleTech universe, as well as an animated spin-off television series.

Backstory[edit]

In the BattleTech universe, the first BattleMech ever developed was the Mackie MSK-6S, described as a 100-ton box with legs. It was developed in 2439 by the Terran Hegemony, first deployed in 2443, and produced throughout the rest of the Inner Sphere after its construction plans were stolen in 2455. Significant development and refinement of the technology followed through subsequent centuries.'Mech advancement in the Inner Sphere crested during the reign of the Star League, but slowly degraded during the protracted conflicts of the Succession Wars. Much of the infrastructure and expertise necessary to produce the most advanced models was lost, with the result that, by the early 31st century, most Great Houses were fielding models that were centuries old.

Star League-era BattleMech technology was preserved during this period of decline by a military faction later known as the Clans. Absent from the Inner Sphere for centuries, they returned in 3049 fielding 'Mechs of considerable sophistication and power. The first confirmed sighting of a Clan 'Mech by an Inner Sphere observer was that of a Timber Wolf (called the Mad Cat by Inner Sphere observers) by the legendary Phelan Kell of the Kell Hounds mercenary unit.

The Clan invasion triggered a resurgence of BattleMech-related research and development, both in the Inner Sphere and among the Clans, leading to many new models being introduced during the 3050s and '60s.

After the collapse of the 2nd Star League in late 3067, most Battlemech manufactures were damaged or outright destroyed by the Word of Blake Jihad (Holy War). Smaller factories retooled and began manufacturing ancient designs dating back to the Age of War when Mackie was first introduced.The creation of hybrids from these ancient designs and new technologies again led to a slow progress in 'Mech development, despite the return to all-out war and the use of nuclear weaponry.^[2]

However, the collapse of the hyperpulse generator network in the early 32nd century disrupted 'Mech advancement.

Terminology and nomenclature[edit]

The term 'Mech' broadly applies to all mecha within the BattleTech universe. BattleMechs, those that are intended for combat or related operations, are the predominant variety, with the result that the term is frequently applied to all BattleTech mecha. Non-combat models do exist, however, and are generally referred to as WorkMechs or UtilityMechs. These models tend to be specialized to perform a particular task such as harvesting, lumbering, scavenging, repair, etc.

OmniMechs are a sub-class of BattleMech that mount weapons and equipment in modular 'pods'. The pods are easily swapped or changed, enabling engineers to customize an OmniMech's components for any given mission.

With few exceptions, every major model of BattleMech bears both a name and an identifying code. Codes generally use letters from the 'Mech's name, followed by an alphanumeric reference to the submodel or variant. For example, the base model of the 70-ton Warhammer is WHM-6R, with variants WHM-6X, WHM-7A, etc. A single letter is normally used to indicate common variants of an OmniMech.

Clan 'Mechs are sometimes known by two different names, one assigned by its Clan creators and one by Inner Sphere observers. An example is the 75-ton Clan Timber Wolf, known in the Inner Sphere as the Mad Cat. This practice generally ceased after the mid 3060s.

Configuration[edit]

BattleMechs range in height from 7 to 17 meters (23 to 56 feet) and mass from 20 to 100 tonnes (22 to 110 short tons) in five-ton intervals, with some capable of ground speeds in excess of 150 km/h (93 mph). Mechs have a torso that can rotate to either side independently from the legs, but few can do a complete 360 twist. Their power is drawn from fusion reactors and are best suited for ground combat, although they are also capable of limited performance underwater and in outer space.

Bipedal[edit]

The majority of BattleMechs are bipedal and can be classed as either humanoid or reverse-joint ('chicken walker'). Humanoid-type BattleMechs are the most common and include the iconic Atlas and Summoner (Thor). Reverse-joint 'Mechs are slightly less common on the field of battle, being quicker but less stable than the humanoid-type,^{[citation needed]} but include such famous models as the Supernova, Marauder, Catapult, Timber Wolf (Mad Cat) and the Dire Wolf (Daishi). There are a few, however, with digitigrade legs that have a raised ankle and stand on their toes, like the legs of a dog, cat, etc. Examples include the Thanatos and Nova Cat.

Quadrupedal[edit]

Four-legged 'quad' 'Mechs constitute a small segment of official designs, and while they lack the flexibility and speed of bipedal designs, they are considerably more stable and can mount heavier weaponry. Though often maligned, quads experienced a bit of a renaissance in the years after 3060 with several new models released. Notable quad designs include the 25-ton Tarantula, 55-ton Scorpion, and 70-ton Barghest.

Land-Air 'Mech (LAM)[edit]

LAMs are an extremely uncommon form of 'Mech capable of transforming between BattleMech and aircraft configurations, an ability that conveys great speed and flexibility at the cost of power and protection. The design of these LAMs, as well as several other 'Mechs, were leased from mecha designs used in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross and other anime series (see variable fighters); resulting real-world legal conflicts ended their official existence within the franchise. The Wasp, Stinger and Phoenix Hawk are the only published LAMs, found in the unrevised edition of Technical Readout: 3025, along with the other 'lost' or 'unseen' BattleMechs such as the Marauder, Crusader, Warhammer and the non-LAM versions of the Stinger, Wasp, and Phoenix Hawk.

BattleMech construction[edit]

BattleMechs are initially made up of a series of internal structure 'bones' which are connected together to form the skeleton of the 'Mech. An electroactive polymer called myomer, which contracts in the presence of an electric current, is then wrapped around these bones. This powerful myomer transmission system is what gives BattleMechs their speed and agility in even the roughest terrain.

The necessary electric current for the myomers is provided by a fusion reactor mounted in the torso. This artificial skeleton and musculature combined with a powerful gyroscope provide stability for the BattleMech. The entire system is controlled by a pilot wearing a neurohelmet that effectively links the 'Mech's central computer to the pilot's sense of balance and nervous system. The neurohelmet also gives feedback by providing a kinesthetic sense of the mech's position for better judgement of balance. The movement of a 'Mech is controlled by a combination of throttle, joysticks, and dual pedal system.

All 'Mechs include a cockpit, life support, sensors, engine, gyroscope, and actuator packages. Any space left over after accounting for these components, as well as upgrades to the structure (Endo-steel) and armor (Ferro-Fibrous), may be used for heat sinks, weapon systems, ammunition, or other legal equipment.

'Mechs can carry a variety of weapons, most of which generate heat upon firing. This can become a problem in intense or prolonged fighting, as an overheating 'Mech may shut down or, in extreme cases, explode. To mitigate this, the heat is transferred into massive heat sinks, which help facilitate cooling but do not eliminate the problem entirely. Water is an effective coolant, but impairs movement.^[3]

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Notes[edit]

1. ^Bills, Randall N. (2007), Record Sheets: Phoenix Upgrades, InMediaRes
2. ^http://www.classicbattletech.com/index.php?action=text&page=Master_Timeline
3. ^'BattleTech: The Board Game of Armored Combat'.