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That was a fun one. Much better than my last go in a Shadowhawk.
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Mar 21, 2018 05:06
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PoptartsNinja posted:Mostly like Isoroku except there would have been no peaceful "solution" to the Hell's Horses (a man cannot live under the same heavens that shelter his father's killers). The Hell's Horses keep one of the background factions relatively in check since they have an enemy to "monitor" which would've lead to a dramatically less stable Draconis Combine. So, we've ensured that the Kokuryu-Kai have their hands full and won't do stupid poo poo for the time being? Other than that, the only thing coming to my mind would be that the Sandovals are going to be pissy about not being allowed to go across the border and kill themselves some snakes.
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Mar 21, 2018 05:55
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Rorahusky posted:
All patched up!
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Mar 21, 2018 07:08
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Bit confused about what's going on in the Andurien (not the planet). Last we checked the McKenna BB died and a bunch of Republic CVLs jumped in to massacre Clan transports and were presumably successful. From the fact that the Clans were able to nuke Andurien (unless that was just an extra embaressment in an alternate present if we'd played and won the Republic line missions), it sounds like the Republic CVLs did not become the dominant void force in the system. Meaning the remaining warships the Snow Ravens (and any RA Rx fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 07:13
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Yeah, I was under the impression the NRWR could have gotten space superiority after taking out the McKenna.
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Mar 21, 2018 07:16
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Weissritter posted:Yeah, I was under the impression the NRWR could have gotten space superiority after taking out the McKenna. Taking out the McKenna was attempted solely to discourage the Clans from doing the orbital pew pew. Even without the James McKenna we're talking a Texas, two Camerons, two Sovetskii Soyuz, an Aegis, a Lola III, a Conquerer, and a Carrack. A single Amaris-class Battleship is about on par with a single unupgraded Sovetskii Soyuz (the Clan refit can take one most of the time). The Texas-class alone is still probably enough to walk all over the NRWA's entire battleship fleet, provided it has aerospace fighter support.
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Mar 21, 2018 07:29
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Ouch, that's problematic... Hopefully Marik doesn't want revenge and stays friendlier to the NRWR and buys his tech from them and not the clans. The NRWR could use whatever type of resources the League has to spare, and even moreso the League not supporting the Clans. It seems the prize for playing and winning the Line Missions were the NRWR withdrawing some of its army off-world. Did Andurien still get nuked to necessitate their having to retreat? How badly did it get nuked? Memory recalls the civilians were evacuated, but was it just to underground bunkers away from even the cities and military bases, or did the NRWR use its crazy orbital station gift economy to move most of them off-planet (with dropships)? (Remember, PTN had the Draconic Combine, and all other factions, have a crazy amount of dropships compared to the source material, for basic realism.) It seems the League might be disgusted about the Clans using nukes on a nearby planet, even if the civilians were evacuated, especially considering their history and ongoing connections with the people of Andurien, despite the peaceful separation. RA Rx fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 07:35
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Actually, weren't the citizens evacuated off-world? The bunkers were support personnel and ammo dumps, I thought. Amaris picked the location of the fight well in advance, and it would be well within his ego to think evacuating a whole worlds civilian population so he could use the planet as an arena was a sound plan.  The other thing the Clans have to consider is, if they massacre everybody on the world, sure, they get to take the planet. If they occupy it because they didn't nuke it "too badly", I'm sure the NRWR would have pre-targeted certain high probability locations for Jump Torpedo strikes. If they just nuked it into complete uselessness, then they've still gotta roll out somewhere else to have a real base to set up on to strike at the rest of the Republic. And they definitely lost a decent chunk of their own units in the meantime, so they might well be hurting for forces to keep them running roughshod over everybody. That really leaves their main power play to be something along the lines of joining forces with the FWL to arrange for factories and worlds they can use in exchange for future territory they take from the NRWR (because the Clans are unlikely to care about all the worlds, just massacring the people).
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Mar 21, 2018 07:43
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Yeah, I recall the NRWR used their impressive economy to move everyone off-world, it's just hard to believe my memory since the source materials are so unbelievably chintzy on dropships. Hmmm, the NRWR could just lie about not having gotten a few thousand people off in time and lie about that to the League, if the Clans hit a city... Anyway, Marik shouldn't trust the Clans too much, especially not with their running a genocide on his borders and deploying nuclear weapons. That kind of behavior can turn into a habit (and I like the Taurians). His best position is to trade favors for technology and play them both off against each other, but ultimately Amaris is the devil he knows leading a consumer culture, and at least he isn't (currently) a genocidal devil with an aggressively irrational, ascetic warrior culture that's fairly inhumane to the other castes. Hell, even if Amaris nukes and genocides the Clanner back at least he won't have drawn first blood, and the culture he leads would still be a lightyear more similar to the League than a bunch of warrior cultists. RA Rx fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 07:51
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RA Rx posted:Yeah, I recall the NRWR used their impressive economy to move everyone off-world, it's just hard to believe that since the source materials are so unbelievably chintzy on dropships. The hilarious dick move I could see Amaris doing in that situation is suddenly gifting some of the NRWR worlds to the FWL, giving the Clans the option to kill FWL citizens that were, until 10 seconds prior, NRWR citizens, or let them go despite a blatant dishonorable play to do so. If they just say gently caress it and attack anyway, that puts a bit of pressure on Marik to help to even a small extent because the Clans would be proving they don't respect diplomacy or borders, they're just going to kill whoever they think needs to die.
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Mar 21, 2018 07:59
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vorebane posted:All patched up! That had been one hell of a campaign. Those guys utterly destroyed the OpForce.
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Mar 21, 2018 08:25
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PoptartsNinja posted:A single Amaris-class Battleship is about on par with a single unupgraded Sovetskii Soyuz (the Clan refit can take one most of the time). Which is a sad, sad thing, since the Sovetskii Soyuz is a shitbox. RA Rx posted:Anyway, Marik shouldn't trust the Clans too much, especially not with their running a genocide on his borders and deploying nuclear weapons. That kind of behavior can turn into a habit (and I like the Taurians). Marik is also one of the founding members of the new Star League, which many Clans likely see as some form of provocation. OH poo poo. PTN will we see a new SLDF after the timeskip? Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 08:59 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 08:32
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It seems weird to me that the best way to glass a planet is still nuclear weapons when you have essentially limitless energy and giant laser cannons on an orbital platform.
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Mar 21, 2018 09:01
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Olothreutes posted:It seems weird to me that the best way to glass a planet is still nuclear weapons when you have essentially limitless energy and giant laser cannons on an orbital platform. Still gotta figure out how to deal with the amount of heat you'd generate doing it, whereas a nuclear weapon has no such problem.
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Mar 21, 2018 09:07
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Defiance Industries posted:Still gotta figure out how to deal with the amount of heat you'd generate doing it, whereas a nuclear weapon has no such problem. Nuclear weapons have plenty of their own issues, mostly "now we can't use the land for a while" and the like. Not nearly as long as people think, but it's still a problem. Heat dissipation in space is mostly "how much surface area do I have for radiating?" With a big ship, presumably you have big radiators.
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Mar 21, 2018 09:18
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PoptartsNinja posted:Taking out the McKenna was attempted solely to discourage the Clans from doing the orbital pew pew. Thanks for the information. I always liked the naval aspect of Battletech for some reason. With the technology they have though, I would have expected them to field stuff better than the Star League era (un-refitted) warships. Or did they have to design it from the ground up?
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Mar 21, 2018 09:20
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If you really want to kill. a planet's population though all you really need is some fuel, some basic orbital mechanics, and some patience. Find yourself a big rock to nudge towards your target and sooner or later, you can make the K/T extinction look like a fender bender. I assume someone has done this at some point in Battletech, but the clans seem to be more into instant gratification.
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Mar 21, 2018 09:27
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Olothreutes posted:Nuclear weapons have plenty of their own issues, mostly "now we can't use the land for a while" and the like. Not nearly as long as people think, but it's still a problem. Heat dissipation in space is mostly "how much surface area do I have for radiating?" With a big ship, presumably you have big radiators. Yes, that's the entire principal behind why the McKenna looks so goofy. But this isn't Star Wars so you can't just shoot a bigger laser; trying to figure out how to keep lasers from melting to slag when they fire is a continuing hurdle that they need to get over every time they make a new, larger type. Instead of trying to figure out how to do this and reinvent the wheel, why not just shoot nukes? We know how those work. Octatonic posted:If you really want to kill. a planet's population though all you really need is some fuel, some basic orbital mechanics, and some patience. Find yourself a big rock to nudge towards your target and sooner or later, you can make the K/T extinction look like a fender bender. Yyyyyyyup. Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 09:28
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Octatonic posted:If you really want to kill. a planet's population though all you really need is some fuel, some basic orbital mechanics, and some patience. Find yourself a big rock to nudge towards your target and sooner or later, you can make the K/T extinction look like a fender bender. Playing Kerbal Space Program has given me a great appreciation for such things. For best results swing that rock around some other planetary body for an extremely high velocity intercept.
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Mar 21, 2018 09:30
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Weissritter posted:Yeah, I was under the impression the NRWR could have gotten space superiority after taking out the McKenna. The jumppoint attack by the NRWR fleet wasn't really designed to destroy the blockade or the warships as much as it was meant to ravage the Clan's transport ships so they'd have no choice but to stay and get bogged down in a grueling meat grinder war. Without those transport Jumpships to carry all their poo poo, if they were to retreat, it would mean having to leave massive quantities of war materials behind and packing your personal into your Warships so they could leave, which for the Clans would have been a huge dishonor. The other Clans would have never let them live down the fact that not only did they tell their soldiers to abandon their 'Mechs and /flee/, but the ones they were fleeing from were from was the infernal spawn of the Usurper.
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Mar 21, 2018 10:32
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Weissritter posted:Thanks for the information. I always liked the naval aspect of Battletech for some reason. To make a historical analogy, the Clan's Star League-era warships are kinda like mid- to late-30's refits of WWI-era battleships. The Stefan Amaris-class (minus points for hubris there) are more akin to a theoretical late-WWII refit/design evolution of a german-style WWI-era battlecruiser. They have battleship-grade armor, are very speedy for their tonnage and carry a shitload of secondary anti-fighter weaponry. But that comes at the prize of them being somewhat undergunned in terms of primary weapons even compared to Star League era designs of the same tonnage, and they're smaller than most of the battleship designs out there. Magni fucked around with this message at 15:48 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 15:44
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Zaodai posted:The hilarious dick move I could see Amaris doing in that situation is suddenly gifting some of the NRWR worlds to the FWL, giving the Clans the option to kill FWL citizens that were, until 10 seconds prior, NRWR citizens, or let them go despite a blatant dishonorable play to do so. If they just say gently caress it and attack anyway, that puts a bit of pressure on Marik to help to even a small extent because the Clans would be proving they don't respect diplomacy or borders, they're just going to kill whoever they think needs to die. That wouldn't work unless the FWL actually accepted the bequeathal, which they aren't obligated to assuming that Uncle Stebe actually got an HPG pulse out about it. Exactly zero people would be fooled with this approach.
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Mar 21, 2018 15:45
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Volmarias posted:That wouldn't work unless the FWL actually accepted the bequeathal, which they aren't obligated to assuming that Uncle Stebe actually got an HPG pulse out about it. The FWL has no reason not to accept them. It's free advanced industry, and if the FWL could use anything, it's some industry. It's just a bribe of another sort. The Clans aren't the only ones with stuff to negotiate with.
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Mar 21, 2018 15:52
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So did Amaris retaliate on Andurien? Sacrificing the planet to neutralize the clan forces is essentialy his plan A, so mutually assured destruction kind of looks appealing to him. Plus, think of all the rage induced clanner tears as their forces die honorless deaths because they escalated to honorless weapons. Trolling like that seems a perfectly in character reason not to just nuke the clans as soon as they were unable to withdraw. Is that a thing? I think spacehips can stop ICBM's in Battletech, but are tactical weapons on artillery, aircraft, and cruise missiles lostech? Actually, I think massive waves of fusion doggies is the most fun idea.
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Mar 21, 2018 16:48
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I imagine we'll find out as part of the official time skip reveal. I'm sure there are some Good Doggies lurking in case the NRWR lost, and it's not like the planet can dodge if they decide to send some Jump Torpedoes that way. My bigger question is whether any of the space fleet made it out. Because if it didn't, there's not really a whole lot stopping the Clan fleet just jumping from world to world glassing them, except for however many nukes they brought with them. How many nukes does a regular Clan warship carry, anyway?
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Mar 21, 2018 16:56
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Zaodai posted:The FWL has no reason not to accept them. It's free advanced industry, and if the FWL could use anything, it's some industry. It's just a bribe of another sort. The Clans aren't the only ones with stuff to negotiate with. No reason other than it being a blatantly transparent ploy to drag them into a war with the Clans that they want no part of, you mean. Like, the the whole drat reason why Duncan Marik offered the Clanners a trial on their terms for the right to just pass through the FWL was that he absolutely does not want to have to fight a full-blown war against them. And he's sick and tired of assholes trying to manipulate him in this fashion after that whole shitshow, too. Magni fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Mar 21, 2018 |
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Mar 21, 2018 17:14
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Who is Duncan Marik? I havent seen much on whats up with the FWL in the PTN timeline.
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Mar 21, 2018 17:16
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Magni posted:No reason other than it being a blatantly transparent ploy to drag them into a war with the Clans that they want no part of, you mean. Like, the the whole drat reason why Duncan Marik offered the Clanners a trial on their terms for the right to jsut pass through the FWL was that he absolutely does not want to have to fight a full-blown war against them. On the other hand, if they were going to attack the worlds regardless of who owned them, he's not really safe from a full blown war as it is. He might logically conclude actually getting something in return to fight a war he can win is better than watching someone stand alone and die and then have psycho killers on his doorstep. I mean, he can shoot for Peace in Our Time, but I don't think it's a slam dunk that he actively rejects economic inducements to join a war in progress against a weakened, foreign enemy.
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Mar 21, 2018 17:18
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AAAAA! Real Muenster posted:Who is Duncan Marik? I havent seen much on whats up with the FWL in the PTN timeline. He's the leader of the FWL: all we've seen of him is the FWL getting played by Amaris, the FWL recovering a massive amount of LOS tech, and his son escaping the Capellan Power Rangers.
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Mar 21, 2018 17:23
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Aeaea Final A dozen metal eggshells slammed into the surface of Circe, their armored exteriors disintegrating on impact. Although not individually heavy, the Drop Pods had still been traveling at terminal velocity—each had enough kinetic energy to severely damage a BattleMech and left a crater nearly three meters deep in Circe’s rocky soil. Moments later, the BattleMechs of the Legion landed within seconds of one another, decelerating with their Jump Jets on full bore. They landed with enough force to snap the legs off lesser BattleMechs, but L3-RWA-X and L3-RWA-X2 Legion’s legs were specially designed and heavily reinforced for precisely this sort of deployment. Each flexed heavily on paired knee actuators, but only one needed to stretch out a three-clawed hand to steady itself against the ground. They rose in unison, as if directed by a single mind, and began sweeping for threats even as their command DropShip began its far slower descent.    [N/A]  [N/A] Map Link Player Status:   Ally Status:   OpForce Status:  Special Rules  – Aces Some enemy ‘Mech units may become aces if certain conditions are met – BattleArmor Aces All battle armor units are acesPrimary Objectives - Defeat or Drive Off the Society (Complete) RWA Secondary Objectives - Destroy the Septicemia Z to call in the Legion (Complete) Coyote Secondary Objectives - Secure hex 1909 or 1904 to warn the Clan (Complete) Society Primary Objective - ??? (2/3) Orders Due: Midnight Saturday! Orders Due: Midnight Tuesday! (Maybe) After-Action Report: You guys have heard most of my thoughts on this mission already. Y’all did good and I had fun. I really hope the players enjoyed it, and I’ve been wanting to use the Society for ages. So, here’s what I want for the MVP vote: 2 RWA 1 Coyote 1 Society Expect the next mission intro later today, I promise I haven't been loafing about not working on it (I've totally been loafing about not working on it, but giving myself a deadline means I will fulfill it).
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Mar 21, 2018 19:44
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Zaodai posted:On the other hand, if they were going to attack the worlds regardless of who owned them, he's not really safe from a full blown war as it is. He might logically conclude actually getting something in return to fight a war he can win is better than watching someone stand alone and die and then have psycho killers on his doorstep. He's already dealing with the Cappellans, it's not like he needs to deal with extra bullshit. Honestly, here's your argument: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZSoJDUD_bU
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Mar 21, 2018 19:53
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Volmarias posted:He's already dealing with the Cappellans, it's not like he needs to deal with extra bullshit. Also, 12 mechs drop-podding in? That's a hell of an Emergency Response Team. The only MVP vote I feel strongly enough about to actually cast a vote is Defiance Industries for his various shenanigans throughout. Good work by the players overall, though!
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Mar 21, 2018 19:59
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The Society managed to achieve two of their objectives? Considering that they got whomped, that's rather interesting; one objective was probably the death of the leader here (whoops?), and the second is probably the escape of Nadia, which I presume won the vote? The third is probably either "don't lose a heavy mech to a light" (MVP Defiance Industry) , or "don't let the Legion land, because they'll rat out the coup to the Inner Sphere", who will probably be happy to prove to the Crusader Clans that they need to send a bunch of mechs home.
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Mar 21, 2018 20:01
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thetruegentleman posted:The Society managed to achieve two of their objectives? Considering that they got whomped, that's rather interesting; one objective was probably the death of the leader here (whoops?), and the second is probably the escape of Nadia, which I presume won the vote? The objectives were to knock out the Coyote, Wolverine and NRWR leaders.
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Mar 21, 2018 20:07
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thetruegentleman posted:The Society managed to achieve two of their objectives? Considering that they got whomped, that's rather interesting; one objective was probably the death of the leader here (whoops?), and the second is probably the escape of Nadia, which I presume won the vote?
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Mar 21, 2018 20:07
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RWA MVPs for me: Defiance Industries for eliminating the most tonnage with the least, and AAAAA! Real Muenster for consistently mixing it up, putting effective shots out, and being lucky enough to remain standing (REAL PILOTS MAKE THEIR OWN LUCK OK). Coyote MVP: The Rabid Coyote did really well dishing consistent damage and lots of crits with it's ATM-12s, and took down one of the cephalus scouts early. Runner up to the Golems who got a shitload of damage from their SRMs on all kinds of society targets. Society: The Osteon put on a great show of just how bullshit the iATM is between actually putting down several players machines and forcing others in to perma-shutdowns. Honorable mention to the Septicemia C-Z which I think was the second most effective Society Mech.
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Mar 21, 2018 20:27
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My real disappointment is that I didn't get to make a throat-cutting motion with my sword after killing the Daishi.
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Mar 21, 2018 20:40
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RWA MVPs: Gurkha #1 for punching way above that 35 ton weight, and the Dragoon II for pumping out consistent damage and keeping a sandpapered command mech alive Coyote MVP: Golems did a lot of damage to the Society with those SRMs. Honorable mention to the Savage Wolf Prime, Paragon1 made a good run with his second chance mech. Society MVP: Osteon For slinging distillated bullshit in the form of those iATMs and actually managing to make it off the board to regroup with the rest of the Society.
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Mar 21, 2018 20:47
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LegendairyBovine posted:RWA MVPs: Gurkha #1 for punching way above that 35 ton weight, and the Dragoon II for pumping out consistent damage and keeping a sandpapered command mech alive This is my vote too. Also, what's the Legion?
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Mar 21, 2018 21:28
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LegendairyBovine posted:RWA MVPs: Gurkha #1 for punching way above that 35 ton weight, and the Dragoon II for pumping out consistent damage and keeping a sandpapered command mech alive Seconding this vote
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Mar 21, 2018 22:02
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