#battletech lore

[ross-hollander]

Happy May 1st, everybody! Remember to hang up the scorpion-shaped pinata and enjoy the traditional king-size crab cakes.

[is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not]

The newest version of "what does a K-F jump look like?"

(from MechWarrior 5: Clans)

[swedebeast]

Okay this is a question for the Battletech players and lore masters.

I got players that are really into Combined Arms, talking about infantry (Foot, Mechanized, and Battle Armor) and transport vehicles. They have both focused on Clan factions (Raven Alliance and Clan Sea Fox, good fits as they are favoured enemies of each other), and OF COURSE they can play around with infantry for a myriad of reasons even if the lore states infantry isn't a primary military asset (Battle armor excluded).

But what factions do use Combined Arms-tactics using vehicles and infantry? My gut instinct tells me about Federated Commonwealth Regimental Combat Teams, but are there other options? Obvious an non-obvious.

Bonus points if it is "northward" of the Inner Sphere, in and bordering the Clan areas. Clan Invasion- to IlClan-era are the time periods in question. EDIT! I am aware of Hell's Horses, I just did not think to add them in this list as the obvious selection for the Clans.

[frogblast-the-ventcore]

[ross-hollander]

To be clear...

...as far as I know, the Bane 3 is still the 'mech that carries the most LRM shots, of any extant model. 120 LRMs total, and that plus the Streak side armaments.

However, in terms of overall propelled-exploding-ish-thingies, never mind the exact genus, the Archer ARC-6W, I have learned, actually has it beat, with one hundred and eighty rockets.

Another day in the Periphery, another brilliant idea both hatched and, unfortunately, actually manufactured. It's all fun and games until you have to reload the thing. The ammo explosion will register as volcanic activity. It's not even a very good Archer iteration, by Alpha Strike stat ratings. Nobody is doing it like -6W. Thankfully.

[ross-hollander]

You may not know...

...Hafnar Ghost Bear, but that is okay, Hafnar Ghost Bear is one of those men who it might be considered a benefit to not know. His reputation runs as such: "The large, bearded man carried a battleax inside his 'Mech cockpit, learned Norse specifically so he could scream curses at his enemies over open comm lines, and dedicated his kills in battle to the Norse gods."

But Hafnar is noted as being of the Invasion era, and thus we are left with two possibilities surrounding his religious beliefs:

The Neo-Nordic traditions which would eventually evolve in Rasalhague were, in fact, also preserved in the Clans, or-

-(the funnier option) Clan Warriors exposed to Rasalhagic Neo-Nordic beliefs took to them like ducks to water, because quite frankly a religion wherein death in battle is both sanctified and rewarded with (in the major tradition) an eternity in battle, against fellow greatest warriors across time, fits so well that if they hadn't heard about it they would have had to invent it themselves.

[ross-hollander]

While it might be...

...just a typical case of authors not writing anything smarter than the audience (or themselves), I like to think that there was an intentional parallel between the 4th Succession War and Operation GUERRERO in one particular aspect.

See, the reason the Davion onslaught met with such success was that the Capellans had their forces arrayed spiderweb style. Light outposts that would serve to hold against raids and skirmishes; a central well of force that could be dispatched to reinforce. This failed spectacularly when the AFFS attacked heavily across multiple fronts.

Now, you fast forward- a measly handful of decades -and look at how Sun Tzu plays it. He harries the Davion border marches by effectively reverting to the Third Succession War-style raiding and brushfire strikes that the CCAF had been geared for. Hit-and-run attacks fatigued FedCom forces, diffused their troops to manage trouble spots- such that when he launched his state troops' invasion, they met with much the same kind of blitz success that the Davion invasion did.

In summary, I feel the notion there is something like:

[ross-hollander]

Some 'mechs are...

...designed for scouting. Some 'mechs are designed for artillery support. Some 'mechs are designed like ancient Terran ships o' the line, built to stand there and trade blows until somebody strikes their colors and ejects. And the Corean Enterprises UCU-F4 Scarecrow is built to eat infantry. With a ravening appetite.

It's not enough to feature five lasers, ER or pulse, not for this machine. It needs eight machine guns. It needs two flamers. In fact, it needs ER flamers, just in case any of those bootborne troopers think they'll be safe anywhere within line of sight of this thing. It's not the fastest, but it's fast enough, and features jump-jets for extra mobility- although probably mostly to pulp infantry with DFA attacks. It needs B-pods to dispatch Battle Armor troopers, because they still count as infantry, and so the Scarecrow must eat them too.

They can't run, with a Bloodhound probe they can't hide, and with CASEII protection they're not getting any lucky ammo crits if they decide to fight. It's even got a polarization shield, just so that no footslogger who dares defile a battlefield by putting inf*ntry on it will ever be too at ease. This 'mech does just the one thing, and that thing is kill infantry. Its existence was denied for some forty years, presumably because such a viciously misanthropic machine was considered a bit embarrassing until people gained sufficient awe for its capabilities to ignore its ingrained hatred.