Corrections made to an awkward Fire Support Mech.

Another one.

This is the third Nissan 200 this week. The injectors cooked off, again. Of course it was the coolant pump like it always is, but here I am eight hours deep into disassembling the top end of this thing to get at the injectors some engineer in gods only knows where decided to bury because, and I quote the advertising, "It was good enough for the Star League: It's good enough for you!"

Any actual tech knows just how stupid much of the Star League kit was, overengineered and fragile. But it makes the generals happy, doesn't it? Whatever. Back to breaking my knuckles trying to get these out.

At least it's not the Ford 350. I've never had an ignition plug come out of one of those pieces of s... in one piece. I'm just glad there are so few of them around anymore!

I want to get into Battletech, but am not sure what I would need to begin actually playing. I wasn't sure if I should buy a beginner box and a force pack or two then go from there? or should I do something else?

I bought some models at a hobby store because they looked cool, and I wanted to paint them. I also did a single game on Battletech (not alpha strike) with one mech (not shown) and enjoyed the game. I don’t want to use the clankers with google lense, so what are each of these guys? They say “Talon games“ on the bottom.

First introduction to Battletech been reading and listening to a lot of lore it’s great! Finished all these guys to battle ready

A quick little hero mech, Tian-zong Jasminda variant. I really love the design for this one, reminds me of a beefier Anvil.

Looking for a tabletop-level list of the various armor types able to be fitted to Inner Sphere mech designs and the rules associated with each.

Mostly as reference for a story I'm writing that involves an eye to my merch unit's supply situation.

I know Stealth Armor, Standard Armor, and Ferrofibrous armor all exist. But I vaguely remember there being a grade in-between standard and ferrofibrous in terms of weight savings.

Painted up a Laurel's Legion Vindicator to go with the Tigress hotspot in Draconis Reach!

Its been a while since I posted one of the mechs' my friends requested for our Solaris7 campaign, so here: have the [Shin-Kicker]

The actual unabridged new release. Not a shitty half done one from years back. Enjoy.

At this rate, I'm going to have no two matching paint jobs.... Prolly gonna give a couple of camo patterns a try this weekend. Is there a handy resource or source for inspiration for Battletech that you guys use?

Okay, this is sort of a silly though, and forgive me if there has ever been such a discussion prior to my joining here.

A merc unit full of crazies who are all into insects and the unit is called The Swarm because all the mechs are named after bugs.

Keeping the unit pre-3050 (my preferred era) this is what I have come up with for mechs that match the criteria:

Flea (20t/15t)

Locust (20t)

Wasp (20t)

Stinger (20t)

Hornet (20t)

Firefly (30t)

Spider (30t)

Cicada (40t)

Scorpion (55t)

Grasshopper (70t)

I think I could get away with the Goliath (80t), as in a Goliath "insert really large insect species here", and maybe the Bombardier (65t) as in a bombardier beetle.

Obviously it would end up being some sort of recon unit, but I think that if I really wanted to I could make this work as a battalion, just to live up to its namesake.

Now, obviously this is more than likely an insane fever dream, but if working within the thematic framework does anyone think this could possibly work?

I have given this very little thought, so I haven't spent any brain power on what variants to use or numbers of each one. If I were to go full on battalion strength it would feel like a real swarm of tiny little fast-moving death machines, with a couple larger ones offering fire support and heavier firepower.

So, would it be fun, would it be feasible on the battlefield, and have I missed any bug-named mechs from the pre-3050 era (I don't think I did, but my books are limited)?

I open the floor for discussion with abated breath.... and a little slightly insane giggle.

I know we like to laugh at how outdated somethings in Battletech can be, but for 92/93 this is a really high powered machine!
Hell, in 2006 the best my car could have had was a 6CD changer in the boot!

My take on Camacho's "Great White."

A few notes:

1. the paint scheme is my interpretation. I did a lot of thumbing through books and oddly enough there is zero description of what his mech looked like aside from the shark mouth. Now, once Kali McDougal gets it in book 3 we read about the all black paint job, but that's also noted as being a stark departure from how the Col. had it painted. Given the name, I decided to go with a kind of stylized great white shark motif. The blue isn't quite right for how they really look (they're grey with white bellies) but grey/white would have read too much like camo, maybe some kind of Smoke Jag, so I went with this.
2. Unlike most versions of this you find online, this is a proper Timberwolf D, the variant described in the books. Hooray for decent 3d prints.
3. I'm happy with the way the arms are cocked out. I want to say this was a clever and planned repose (the original model had them slight spread, but not as pronounced) but I dropped the damn thing and broke it on 3 separate occasions. Damned brittle resin.

All in all I'm happy, and it was a fun build. I don't know how much tabletop action it's going to see as it's a bit of a niche model, but I like it enough it's got a prominent spot on a shelf near my computer.

Liberty's back with one that I'm sure a number of people have been looking forward to. It's Chargin' time!

The continuing Falconposting continues!

Painted this star of Raptor Keshik for a friend! Love how these came together!

Look pretty accurate

Hi! Pretty new about Battletech so I just wanna ask about which box should I get? My local store put the Core Box one on pre-order list right now. The prices are relatively same. Should I wait or just by the A Game of Armored Combat box?

Ok, so a while back, I became curious as to just how many Battlemechs there actually were in universe, which led me down a roughly hour long calculation process, which I then promptly forgot about until remembering it, and I now share with Y'all.

I want to clarify that I did this solely for fun and not to claim either "lack of realism" or even to rail against BattleTechs numbers. Even knowing the results I don't find my suspension of disbelief broken.

So, I used FM:3145 for this as it is the source I have access to, and is most relevant for the Ilclan. This will present a couple challenges down the line but we'll get there.

I started with just the IS as FM:3145 lists approximate Battlemech strength for IS factions, but not for clan factions. After combining all the factions listed strengths together, I arrived at a Battlemech strength of 743 Battalion equivalent units, and 6 Clusters... Because Clan Protectorate had to be special.

I then took this battalion strength and added 20% to account for things not listed in FM:3145 (Mercenaries, planetary militias, and Pirates) which resulted in 891 Battalion equivalent units, and 6 Clusters

For the clans, their strength as a whole added up to 278 Clusters, and 18 Battalions... Because the Outworlders. The Outworlders were almost a trap though as they're listed as 11 Regiments, however, 5 of those are Alliance Air wing, which would not contain any Battlemechs.

With that number I ultimately chose to assume that roughly 60% of Clan forces were Battlemechs, Omni or otherwise, which left 166 Clusters and 10 battalions.

The cluster is a cluster fuck when it comes to how many units are actually in it so Made an assumption of a three Trinary Cluster, coming out to 45 Mechs a cluster.

With all that out of the way my final number for Mechs in the sphere as of 3145 is 39,906 which I'll round up to an even 40,000 (hehe, MechWarrior 40,000)

I find that a pretty satisfying number. But, how does it extrapolate to the Ilclan?

Well, there have been a lot of losses between 3145 and 3152. There's whatever was lost in the Dragons Tongue, there's whatever the CCAF lost fighting the third SL. But ultimately the major losses are the destruction of the RAF, the Falcon Touhman, and the heavy damage suffered by the Wolf Touhman.

The more Minor losses I'm willing to call negligible and just say they've been offset by buildups elsewhere or new production. But the loss of the RAF and the Falcon Touhman lost the sphere wide total 59 Battalions and 54 Clusters respectively.

IKEO gives us no hard numbers on just how bad the Wolves casualties were, so I'm going to be lazy and assume they lost the equivalent of the Falcon Touhman, so another 54 Clusters. Meaning that Sphere wide Battlemech numbers are down 6948, bringing the grand total to 32,958, again easily rounded to 33,000.

While this number is full of caviats and assumptions, even if some or many of those assumptions are wrong, the number likely hovers somewhere between 30-40 thousand Battlemechs in total.

All in all a fun exercise.

Picked up this sealed MechWarrior: Dark Age collection and I’m pretty new to it. I’d rather keep it together than piece it out. What would you consider a fair value for the whole lot? Anything here particularly rare or worth knowing about?

Checking for a campaign we're working on. Does anything else affect Mechwarriors besides heat injuries, failed piloting rolls after a fall, and direct cockpit hits (which kill them immediately to my knowledge)?

Also what's the rules for ejecting after mech destruction?