Battletech by Harebrained Schemes (Shadowrun Returns)

I enjoyed dlthe Grey Death Legion Series.

I also read the Jade Falcon Trilogy, and Wolf’s Dragoons, but since both are clan based, people might object.

More importantly, what’s the Battletech equivalent of having one’s choler raised?

But I’d love to hear of some well-written books too.

There is an important distinction:

Civ: This AI sucks, oh well back to painstakingly optimizing research schedules nd city layouts.
Stellaris: This AI sucks, oh well back to painstakingly optimizing citizen allocation and tile use.
Battletech: This AI sucks - EAT AC/20 HEADSHOT! BOOM. Haha little medium mech I have 80 LRM tubes in range of you! WOOSH WOOSH WOOSH BOOM!

I am not a sophisticated soul.

Your jib is f’n cut, bro.

My goal: make the AC/2 work… at something. Oh yes.

Yeah, totally agree, but I do know that they are using the 2-5 base scale on piloting/gunnery at least so understanding the basic board game math will at least help with realizing that you want the low numbers when you are hiring.

My possibly hazy recollection from 20 years ago is that the ones by Michael A. Stackpole were by far the best. Though I think they were all in the 3050 era, so not necessarily ideal for getting up to speed for this game.

Anyone read any of the new Stackpole books that were part of the Kickstarter? I grabbed my copies but have not yet actually read them.

Stackpole’s Warrior Trilogy was set in the 3020’s. I think all of his other work was clan era, though.

Discussions of the economics of a fictitious universe melt before an onslaught of PPC fire, of discussion of how to best use PPCs (all the time), and of how many PPCs is appropriate to bring to a party (just shy of an alpha strike shutting down your mech).

Priorities, people.

That sounds like you need one more PPC

PPCs are like the 90-foot-high duallie pickup truck with the Confederate Flag raised proudly from the back.

Now, medium lasers… the smart kids know that shit is where the money really is.

Look, if I actually had the game right now to play, I’d be doing that. But I’m stuck talking about the economics of a mercenary company in the Battletech universe. I’ll have forgotten all of this tomorrow.

This wasn’t on my radar because for some reason I thought it was a mech action game. I’m not into mechs really, but a mech tactical battle game… that sounds pretty good, especially if there are cool abilities involved.

How does this differentiate itself from the XCOM battle system? Is it a bit more crunchy?

I read the “Warrior: Fencing Related Subtitle” trilogy back when it was released and absolutely loved the books. Of course that endorsement needs some grains of salt. I was a teenager, loved Battletech, and was on my school’s fencing team so the subtitles of the series hit a note for me as well.

This thread is making me consider giving them another read. I still have them on the shelf. I can find out if teenage me actually had any taste. Unfortunately I can already tell from opening up one of them I do realize one major difference between now and then is tiny paperback print is a lot harder to read.

I mentioned above, but the ones that absolutely hooked me when I was a youngester was the stories around the Gray Death Legion, starting with their first trilogy by William H Keith. I like them because they start you off in the micro-universe, then each novel expands into the macro-universe more and more. They also go in-depth with combined arms - so you get detail on infantry actions, armor actions, dropships and jumpships, as well as aerospace fighters.

The trilogy is:

Decision at Thunder Rift - How the mercenary unit was formed on a backwater planet
Mercenary’s Star - How the mercenary unit scraps by on a backwater planet
The Price of Glory - How the established mercenary unit fits into the larger picture

This is mostly all pre-clan in the year 3024 (clan invasion is 3049)

The Michael Stackpole one’s are also great, but mostly focuses around the clan invasion.

Can’t overheat if the target is out of range.
LRMs are the only way to go!

It’s not really very like Xcom, outside of they both are turn based games where you shoot stuff. Battletech is modeling a lot more stuff. Mech weightt impacts speed, speed impacts how easy you are to hit (if you “sprint” versus just normal move, and of course sprint moves farther). Different parts of the mech have their own armor and can be targeted. You have to manage heat (all weapons generate some amount of heat when fired, and this moreso than “it’s my turn again” dictates when you can fire ahd what you can fire). Elevation and LOS are even bigger factors (LRMS can hit enemies with indirect fire in some circumstances).

And you have to be careful not to fall on your mech ass.

In my MekHQ mercenary campaign, I rolled a 0+ gunnery pilot as the commander, and found an Awesome on the unit market in the first few months. I haven’t kept track of numbers closely enough to say, but I’d be shocked if he averages less than 20 damage per round engaged.

I expect to be able to handle my mechs with all the agility of ED-209 going down a flight of stairs.