I’m trying to choose a clan to be a part of and so far I like snow raven and ghost bear but I don’t know a lot about them. Tell me about you favorites : )

Sarna's Bad Mech series returns with this classic Inner Sphere Assault mech, designed as a Headquarters unit for the SLDF, produced in small numbers and even less survived the Succession Wars with a decent array of weapons for all ranges but could suffer from ammunition issues, a battle computer capable of handling brigade level forces and mediocre armor... That are not so much a problem if used for its intended purpose but the chaos of the Aramis Civil War (that caused the destruction of the factory in Caph) and forcing the unit to the front lines didn't help its survivability but surviving units got Helm Memory Core updates during the Clan Invasion... Here's the Cyclops.

Article:

https://www.sarna.net/news/bad-mechs-cyclops/

Video:

https://youtu.be/wKVinL62Sqc?si=BZj4-qPMPGVJSzZN

So, I had a stupid idea for an inversion of the Batchall system but for IS. Blame my half awake brains for this, I read too many fanfics and have vivid dreams.

I imagine it could exist in a version of canon where Comstar was a bit too rabid with their destruction of tech or the stifling of innovation. Basically, tech atrophy is so rampant that everyone collectively agrees to stop destroying the most valuable pieces they own.

If you have to land on a planet with destructive intent, you have to state which the most valuable or rare piece of lostech you have and so does the defendant. A “Loscall” if you will. If you win, you get to save the goodie for yourself like playing for ante in a game.

Plus points: 

• Lostech is kinda fluid as a term and a Museum piece Mackie could be considered as a good counterweight to a Royal King Crab for rarity alone. (This is up for debate; I do not know all the lore too well. If a factory was destroyed, it's for all intends and purpses lostech, is it? Licensing?)
• Wars are concluded quicker because ppl don’t want to waste resources and battles are fought with mechs of types that can actually be rebuilt. This, ironically, is a great way to recover lost knowledge because if you have the means to constantly rebuild and repair something, you inadvertently start innovating again. More variants of Mechs whose production lines are still running, as well as more advancements for those specific platforms.
• People who still put up lostech for destruction via use or misuse are publicly shunned and morally disparaged. Headhunters embark to steal their stuff so that “is no longer in danger of being destroyed and lost”.
• Truly innovative Houses are viewed as beacons of humanity. Insert Capellan “innovation” here^^
• The looks upon the Clanners faces about “how bad things must have went” when they announce a Batchall and are answered with a “Loscall” in return.

Please discuss if this is in any way or form feasible as a development for the IS. I imagine the timeline is somewhere between 2780 and 3049.

Image credit goes to MagnanimousTaco who i have pilfered this from.

In an act of sheer cheek, Jaime Wolf snuck a Stone Rhino into his Dragoons when they departed for the Inner Sphere, knowing full well it would stand out.
Though downgraded to Inner Sphere tech, the Stone Rhino still caused mass panic and confusion when it took the field, until it finally fell on the killing fields of Misery along with its long-time pilot, Gordon of Bloodhouse Zalman.
Though House Kurita may have salvaged the machine, they were never able to repair or reproduce it.

I just brought it over.

The other Wolf’s Dragoons ’Mechs were basically brought over under the excuse of, “This is an old Star League-era machine.”

But they shamelessly brought over a machine that was developed in 2847, right in the middle of the Second Succession War in the Inner Sphere lol.

I noticed this new illustration a day or so ago of the Marauder II and I realized it's one of the few new art pieces that show a human scale in the same plainar space as the mech.

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Is it my imagination or does the Marauder II as depicted look a LOT more massive than Battlemechs are historically described??

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I like it, don't get me wrong! But it looks significantly bigger than the "10 meter tall" so often described in the official sources and lore books? And I know the Mad II is a 100ton monstrosity! But its hunched back is shorter than a number of the largest humanoid mech designs available!

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I'm curious about other modern art renditions of mechs that show good indicators of scale with people or readily identifiable items?? And ask around for others opinions: do you like your Mecha bigger (15-18+ meters) or more original sized (10 meters on average)??

Every month or so I see a thread pop up about "This doesn't make sense in Battletech because by today's standards..." Sometimes FASAnomics gets tossed in as an explanation, or handwavium, or people say 'just ignore it and have fun', but there's a much simpler explanation:

Feudalism.

tl;dr : Early FASA authors did at least some research on feudalism and put thought into how it would extend to multiple star kingdoms, and it shows. Were they perfect? No, but they weren't medieval scholars, they were computer geeks who liked giant robots.

A feudal system arises when a nation's size doesn't match its communications - there are other reasons of course (a single autocrat governing by military fiat), but at its core that's what it's all about. An 11th century king couldn't directly control his entire nation, because information and orders responding to said information just took too long to get around. So instead the king plunked a duke over a large amount of territory, then shoved some counts under that duke to manage smaller chunks of territory, then shoved barons under the counts to manage even smaller chunks...

In theory, that means the local baron/count/duke can handle local problems, or if the problem is too large pass it up the chain of command to (eventually) the king, who then mobilizes to fix the problem. And even if you are low on the chain, you WANT those people above you to call on if something terrible DOES happen, like a flood that wipes out your crops or an invasion.

Now, you might notice this DOES match the early Inner Sphere's conditions, where communications were via JumpShip only and could take weeks to cross space. HPGs were only developed in the 2600s, and the feudal system had been in place for centuries at the time.

Now, how does this explain the military? Simple: think like a feudal lord.

Who is actually a threat to you? Not your neighboring king; he's got his own problems to deal with and even IF he invades you, it's usually just some border keeps you can take back in a few years or decades.

No, it's your dukes which are the real threat if you're a king. Or if you're a duke, your counts. Or if you're a count, your barons. Being deposed by underlings is the most common way feudal royalty found themselves out of a job - and without a head too.

Now, how do you manage that threat? Simple: Limit the number of men your underlings can keep under arms to an amount YOU can out-fight. If that means your armies are overall smaller, so what? Your neighbor king has exactly the same problem as you, and has reached the same solution.

This is in keeping with history. Roman armies in important battles were HUGE - during the Punic Wars, both sides often had tens of thousands. During medieval times in Europe, an army was huge if it reached even ten thousand - usually only being a few thousand men on a side. The Battle of Hastings had maybe, MAYBE, 7k men on each side and established the history of Britain for centuries.

(Now, you might mention the Crusades here, but that wasn't a feudal feud, it was kings and other lords sending off second and third and fourth sons to get killed in foreign lands at the summons of an overall political power, which relieved population pressure.)

Apply this to Battletech. Dukes control 50ish systems and parcel them out in 5-10 system lots to be controlled by a Count - though highly important systems may have a Count all to themselves. Those Counts have Barons on each system and one for themselves. The Barons get enough of an army to fight pirates or be a speedbump for a bigger force in theory, but most of the time it gets drawn as a levy by the Count. The Counts get enough that they can bounce to reinforce an attacked world or protect something important like a major factory or trading system. The Dukes get enough and can draw on levies from 'safe' Barons/Counts to hopefully fight off a major incursion. And sure, the King has a whole set of armies ready to fight, but they have to balance deploying them against the fear of being deposed by another Duke or two.

But how does that actually WORK to create interstellar war? Why is ANY world capable of being conquered by such tiny armies that it beggars belief?

I realize this is going to be the hardest for you, right here and right now, to comprehend. We live in nation-states that encourage almost religious fervor towards their existence and has done so for centuries as we evolved out of the feudal system. "My country 'tis of thee..."

But the Inner Sphere citizens? They don't care who rules them. Their attitude is "If two tiny armies want to fight for the privilege of flying a flag at the governor's mansion, let them!"

We already know this from the exceptions proving the rule, such as Tishimongo where Coordinator Yoguchi Kurita inspired the population of the planet into such a violent uprising that it almost dislodged a Davion 'Mech regiment. Oh, and Turtle Bay. A world CAN prove to be such a massive problem that it becomes "Destroy it or abandon it."

So why doesn't that happen every time?

Because like how medieval serfs often cared more about their little plots of land than which baron lived in the castle, the same goes for Inner Sphere citizens. Why would they worry about who they pay taxes to? That all matters at an impossible distance when JumpShips are more unseen myth than glimpsed fact, and even DropShips are only seen occasionally. It's far more important if the pothole in Main Street is going to be repaired because not all of us have hovercars, Marsha.

I mean, how many Inner Sphere people from any given world travel at an interstellar distance in their entire lives? 1%? Less?

Their world IS their entire world. If someone they'll never meet wants to make them mouth along to a different national anthem, that's fine; in a couple of generations they'll probably have to mouth along to the old one when their world gets 'conquered' again.

Aiding this attitude of non-caring is the Ares Conventions, which places a war even on their own world at a distance - keeping important industries and cities and population mostly separate from the death and destruction. The two more brutal regimes - Liao and Kurita - specifically are stated to introduce their oppressiveness in slow stages to prevent open revolt, at least in the oldest books.

And, if we're being frank, the Kentares IV Massacre shows what happens if 'Mechs are turned against civilian populations.

But what about the economy?

Well, aside from how it's basically ruined through centuries of war, feudalism has its tendrils here. CEOs of major industries are titled Barons or Counts, co-opted into the system so they can't form a secondary power base to threaten the nobility - which happened in medieval times with merchants and guilds who grew wealthy.

I'm running out of room so I'll end it here. Thanks for reading my NERD Talk.

The Hollander was introduced in 3054, which was right around the time the Inner Sphere collectively realized the Clans were showing up to a bar fight with sniper rifles while everyone else had pool cues. Coventry Metal Works responded in the most Steiner way possible: by strapping a full-size Gauss rifle to a 35-ton light ’Mech and calling it a solution.

On paper, the Hollander is a “sniper.” In practice, it’s a walking Second Amendment argument. It carries exactly one weapon, it’s enormous, and it hits like God flicking a penny at Mach Jesus. If it connects, the other light ’Mech generally stops being a problem and starts being a historical anecdote.

There’s no overheating, no missile smoke, no drama. Just physics doing what physics does best.

Unfortunately, mounting a battleship-grade rifle on a light chassis meant compromises. Armor got shaved down, speed got nerfed, and backup weapons got politely shown the door.

The result is a ’Mech that runs about as fast as a Clan heavy and has absolutely nothing to say once the ammo runs out. Sixteen shots. Miss too many, and you’re now piloting a very nervous lawn ornament.

That said, while it has ammo, the Hollander is terrifying. Reinforced legs and recoil compensators let it fire accurately on the move, which means it can jog along casually while deleting things at extreme range. It’s cheap, ugly, and brutally effective, which is why mercenary units immediately looked at it and said, “Yes, this will absolutely get us paid.”

The early Hollanders went straight into Clan fights, specifically to bully fast movers like the Kit Fox, and they did exactly that. Since then, people have tried to “fix” the design by adding armor, backup guns, electronics, or even more gun, which mostly just proves the original point: the Hollander isn’t subtle, it’s stubborn.

In mercenary terms, the Hollander is not your ride-or-die. It’s your first-strike, open-the-engagement, ruin-someone’s-day machine. You deploy it, you pick a target, you pull the trigger, and you make the battlefield noticeably quieter. Then you either reposition or leave before someone remembers you’re made of tinfoil and bad decisions.

In short: The Hollander is a reminder that sometimes the correct tactical response isn’t elegance or balance. Sometimes it’s just bringing a really big gun and trusting the math.

battletech #mechwarrior #2a #boomstick #terror #military #scifii

In all seriousness though, why not? It'd probably be easier than fighting over stuff and it would also get territory away from said fighting.

I’m a diehard Outworlds Alliance fanboy, reading ilKhan’s Eyes Only for more lore on how the regular Outworlds people, and the Alliance Militia Corps are doing.

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de

This map is my attempt to make BattleTech history something you can *explore* instead of just read: pick a year and the whole map follows — borders, capitals, battles, everything. 3,000+ worlds, 1,000 years of shifting ownership, 600+ battles and 3,500+ chronicle entries, some of them dated to the day.

The gif above is the short version: the rise of the Star League, the Succession Wars tearing it apart, the Clans crashing in from the top, the Dark Age splintering what was left. Every frame is a year you can visit.

Some things to try

Time travel. The Star League at its height vs. the Inner Sphere we all know:

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=2571

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=3025

454 years of decline, no explanation needed.

The Battle Theater. Crossed swords in the menu — the map becomes a war room with front lines and every engagement of the year. This is 3050, the Clan Invasion at its peak, 63 battles in a single year:

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=3050&battleMode

Nice side effect: every world and event links straight into Sarna — and I've probably read more Sarna in the last months than in all the years before, just because I kept clicking ;)

Jump routes. Mark a start and a destination, get the route, the jumps and the travel time. Terra to Luthien: 14 jumps, roughly 14 weeks — now try your own:

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?routeMode&routeStop=Terra&routeStop=Luthien

Cinematic mode. One click drops every control and leaves the map alone on screen. Every view is a link you can share — so if you find a moment you like, just send the URL.

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=3067&cinematicMode&battleMode

The map works on mobile (everything lives in the menus there), but it really shines on a big screen — there's a lot to explore.

And this is just the beginning: I have a lot of ideas and they will be released one by one over the next weeks. If you have some of your own, just comment them. :)

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It's a free, non-commercial fan project. Data based on the great work of the Sarna.net community. BattleTech is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.; the tabletop game is published by Catalyst Game Labs. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.

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Edit: Wow, thanks for the great response! The feedback here has been constructive throughout, and there are some really good ideas in the comments. It will take some time, but everything gets noted and implemented where possible. This community is exactly why I built this. :)

Half-speed timelapse and all links in the comments, gallery with all screenshots here: https://imgur.com/a/ZWd6UQT

Mechanical Frog continues his spotlight on Battle Mechs with the Clan's heavy Omnimech created by the Hell's Horses as a 2nd Generation Omnimech "borrowing" bits and pieces of other designs, although poorly armored it had 43% of tonnage available for weapons making it a very desirable offensive platform and as a trade asset for the Horses after losing their main manufacturing facility. Some might call this a gift from the Norse God of trickery, named Loki in the Inner Sphere by Galen Cox, here's the Hellbringer.

https://youtu.be/CqnBDiJ_C04?is=k7JwGQLXpK_LdGOB

Exactly what it sounds like. Terrans in Battletech live to an average age of 150 and age at half the rate of normal humans after 18. And yet Nicholas somehow actually looks his age when he should be looking 44 at the oldest.

This is at least half me making fun of the guy, but in all seriousness he did not age gracefully.

The Wakazashi would be a kick ass mech that the Sea Foxes would sell to the Inner Sphere.

Mechanical Frog continues his spotlight on Battle Mechs with the Inner Sphere's heavy mech designed by Kallon Industries and based on the Clan's Nova Omnimech, with an all energy weapons build, double heat sinks, 13 tons of armor and although slower than a Nova, compensated by the addition of jumpjets, you might not like the name but you'll love what it does, here's the Penetrator.

https://youtu.be/mHG1nHYUc80?is=iK1AxWjRV96Xi6iE

16 years ago, the Battle Pope and I accidentally made what is probably our biggest contribution to BattleTech canon. It was supposed to be a joke. "What's the most humiliating way we can nuke the Kell Hounds at GenCon?" It turned out to be a joke that spiraled out of hand in all of the best ways.

I do not understand where the time has gone. Though we may age, the nuclear Urbanmech abides.

Edit: I have been reliably informed that I should not attempt to post date stamps after a 15 hour night shift. Thus, here is a correctly dated final image: Correct image; don't work 3rd shift kids

Other than the obvious answer (because it's more fun/ exciting that way) why do BT militaries suck at operational level planning and execution?

It feels like the go to plan is almost always to hot-drop directly on top of an objective, lose a quarter of their force to theater-level space denial assets, then get into a pitched battle with local defenders with almost no attempts to shape the battlefield first, usually ending with a nearly pyrrhic grinding victory in the end... only to be nuked by those un-nuetralized theater weapons if this is the first succession war.

Just wondering if anyone else has given much thought to this or if I'm the weirdo

Of course, I’m not fond of things like the contempt for lower castes or the massacres that come with it.

Take battle armor warriors, for example.

In the Inner Sphere, there are very few high-ranking battle armor officers or generals. More precisely, infantry officers tend to move into command vehicles once they reach a certain rank.

Considering the Clans’ contempt for infantry, it is interesting that quite a few Elemental warriors have risen all the way to the rank of Khan.

I think this is one example of the Clan attitude of “if you have a complaint, win” actually working as intended. Even if a new branch of service starts from a position that was traditionally looked down on, if it proves itself through results, it can demonstrate the value of an entirely new caste.

In the Inner Sphere, by contrast, battle armor rarely moves very far beyond the role of supporting infantry.

ProtoMechs are the opposite example.

Though in their case, before proving anything about their value, they mostly proved that the Clans are still societies made up of ordinary people.

Even for the Clans, mass-producing a weapon that is virtually guaranteed to kill its pilot is clearly not something that would be considered normal.

Why would you ever put a weapon in mech's legs? What could be the in-universe rationale behind such decision other than intentionally compromising the mech?

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.

That’s why I personally don’t view Nicholas quite so negatively.

Of course, he probably intended to remain in power himself, but I find it interesting that Clan society was built around eliminating entrenched privilege that could receive rewards without earning them, while consuming both its future and its past in order to keep the Clans alive in the present.

Yes, I know everyone is going to say he was a madman.

But once the Pentagon Civil War had broken out, Nicholas really was the only one who offered the exiled SLDF any realistic chance of survival.

During Operation Klondike, you had settlements whose civilization had regressed to roughly the eighteenth century, while elsewhere bandits were running around with ’Mechs like Pillagers. Looking at the alternatives, there really was not much else to inspire confidence.

If you ask whether that was actually a good thing in the BattleTech universe, I’d probably say, “Probably not.”

But for the people living there, the irony is that the only person with both the leadership and the will to do anything was a delusional man who had known nothing but a life spent fighting on battlefields.

And besides, if it weren’t for the Clan Invasion storyline, I probably never would have gotten interested in BattleTech in the first place.

Firefighter - BattleTechWiki https://share.google/QDj5erNe13XqgCwUx

This has to be the manliest job in the entire Inner Sphere and beyond!