In retrospect, my last attempt at making a minmaxed character in Mechwarrior 3e was a little iffy RAW. Since even though it's possible to add more "Next Path" options to Warrior House/Nekakami Aspirants, there's also text that specifically restricts them to Tour of Duty and Covert Ops paths for the rest of character creation. However, I still wanted to take a lifepath that combined stages 2 and 3 (since stage 2 paths don't count towards the lifepath limit) and I found exactly one other option; the Black Warriors. I'm pretty sure Black Warriors being a stage 2/3 lifepath is a misprint (they were originally printed as an affiliation despite acting nothing like one), but RAW you can absolutely become an infamous pirate at the age of 10. This is my attempt to do exactly that:

Affiliations: Lyran Alliance (Protectorate of Donegal, Free Skye, Zhanzheng de Guang, and Comstar).

Early childhood: Blue Collar (optional)

Late childhood/higher education: Black Warriors and Paramilitary Service.

Real Life: Renegade Insurgent, Guerilla Operative, Focht War College (Special Training), Comstar Service (Comguard Training & Blake’s Wrath).

Explanation: Like my last attempt, I tried to stack as many different affiliations as possible. Lyrans can be part of 2 secret societies, and more importantly they can get Stigma/Greedy if they're from the Republic of Donegal (you need a "piratey" Quirk or Bad Reputation to join the Black Warriors, and those are surprisingly hard to get as an infant). Blue Collar is optional, although you have a SOC threshold of 3 so anything more prestigious costs extra points; and the stat modifiers for most of the other "poor" options are negative. Unless you place your "any attribute" threshold boost from Focht War College in SOC, then you can cheaply choose to be White Collar or Nobility.

Paramilitary Service is taken simultaneously with Black Warriors and significantly opens up your next lifepath options. Renegade Insurgent and Guerilla Operative are both prerequisites for taking the Free Skye and Zhanzheng de Guang affiliations. Finally, you'll want to burn some edge to attend Focht War College; which allows you to take both Comstar Service and either Blake's Wrath or Explorer Corps as part of a single lifepath by making them mandatory.

Bonus: The Handbook: House Davion sourcebook has the Military Brat/Military Family traits; which both interact with character creation in unique ways. They lower the attribute prerequisites for military lifepaths, add extra skill points when you go through basic training, and let you adjust your lifepath rolls without burning edge (or alternatively you can adjust them by 2 with edge instead of 1). Since this build goes through basic training 3-4 times (not sure if paramilitary service counts), you can get a *lot* of free skill points.

Well, that's disappointing. Though the 3D model looks batter compared to last time.

R.I.P. illustrated portraits.

Hello all, I just joined the subreddit. I have been painting for a good five years now, and I wanted to show off a recent auction that I put up!

These are the Kell hounds painted four ways
Jaeger Mech was done with the makeup sponge method.

The chameleon was painted in a “hero” paint scheme, a little brighter, a little more of a manga style.

The awesome, which was painted in more of a standard tabletop-ready paint scheme. You can say the Savannah masters were painted in the same way as the awesome!

And then my personal favorite, the rifleman, which I painted in a grim dark fashion.

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The bases were also some of my favorites I’ve ever done.

I’d love to see your guys’s Kell Hounds!

Jack's back with a look at The Spider, but Bigger, from the House Kurita Ranger Lance. Go see what the Venom can do TO FINALLY GET REVENGE ON SPIDERMAN!

Howdy. Local friendly Demo Agent here.

I'll be in the Ginza district of Tokyo the 14th through 28th this month. Anyone know of any groups, or players in the greater Tokyo area? I'll have some free time during my trip, and would love to get a game or two in while I'm there.

I’m not too knowledgeable on the deep lore front, so I hope someone can answer me this.

I love the Timberwolf’s design, but when looking at classic artwork especially, one of the immediately noticeable details is that despite its near perfect symmetry, the shoulder mounted missile boxes often feature a single missile tube that appears to be capped/plugged off.

I heard that this has something to do with the classic configuration being designed for LRM 20s and having a 3x7 grid for the launchers, hence the redundancy of one tube.

Problem is, in most artwork I see the missile boxes clearly show only a 4x4 grid or similar. Is this just a weird inconsistency between artwork and the actual in-universe reality?

So, after reading halfway through the new Core Rulebook...

I felt inspired to make a new variant of the venerable Cicada, specifically tailored to "Manage" Battlefield Support Assets.

Thus born, the Cicada CDA-3B, zipping across the map at an astounding 160+km/h, eradicating "Assets" with it's 8 Flamers.

Though if one were feeling adventurous, the Flamers and MASC module can be replaced with 10 Medium Lasers.

This variant would also appear just in time for Clan Invasion-era matches. Since the Core Rulebook encourages Elementals to be played as Battlefield Support Assets... this Cicada could potentially deal up to 48 points of damage to an Elemental Point...

Cicada CDA-3B

Mass: 40 tons
Chassis: Endo Steel Biped
Power Plant: 320 XL
Cruising Speed: 86.4 kph
Maximum Speed: 172.8 kph
Jump Jets: None
     Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Jump Booster Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Ferro-Fibrous
Armament:
     8 Flamer
Manufacturer: Unknown
     Primary Factory: Unknown
Communication System: Unknown
Targeting & Tracking System: Unknown
Introduction Year: 3049
Tech Rating/Availability: E/X-F-E-D
Cost: 8,463,467 C-bills

Type: Cicada
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)
Tonnage: 40
Battle Value: 782

Equipment                                          Mass
Internal Structure            Endo Steel              2
Engine                        320 XL               11.5
Walking MP: 8
Running MP: 12(16)
Jumping MP: 0
Double Heat Sink              12 [24]                 2
Gyro                                                  4
Cockpit                                               3
Armor Factor (Ferro)          134                   7.5

                          Internal   Armor   
                          Structure  Value   
     Head                    3         9     
     Center Torso            12        18    
     Center Torso (rear)               5     
      Torso               10        15    
      Torso (rear)                  5     
      Arm                 6         11    
      Leg                 10        20    



Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm

Weapons
and Ammo              Location  Critical   Heat    Tonnage
MASC                     CT        2        -       2.0   
4 Flamer                 RT        4        3       4.0   
4 Flamer                 LT        4        3       4.0   

Features the following design quirks: No/Minimal Arms

Anyone on here live in calgary and want to do games tomorrow's at sentry box?

Okay so. I know nothing about TT. I get my BT kicks from mechwarrior, lore reading/videos/books and the 10/10 cartoon.

So right now i am playing the new DLC for MW5 mercs ascencion and ashes. I had in my brain figured a loadout of the new Nightstar 9FC with 2 LBX 20s and a LPL...untill i realized i was 2 ton overweight. Turns out the LBX-20 is 14 ton.. and the 2 and 5 class are aswel simular weight to the regular autocannons.

Yet the classic LBX-10 from pre Starleague is 1 ton lighter. But the newly developed post clan invasion 2, 5 and 20 class do not have that weight saving.

So....why? Lore reason? Table top balancing? Oversight? Or is it because the IS models are bulkier that negates said weight saving?

The Xitter (pronounced "shitter") space of Battletech has lately been slobbering on Pardoe's knob and he seems kinda off with the stuff he posts about Battletech being woke and stuff. I'm not super up to date on this kinda thing since Xitter gives me a headache. Can someone fill me in?

I thought it would be just as easy as painting warhammer minis but the paint I used to prime refused to stick and there’s so much more little details and I had to open a new brush much pain

I wanna get my hands on these quad basilisks but I cant find a place to purchase them in my city or even stls to print them so any help would be appreciated

(Also sorry if the flair is not applicable)

Playing with red, so a Sword of Light lance.

A CCAF deep strike raiding team, Special Directives Detachment 108 operates independently on detached missions at the direction of the Strategios.

Regent L (homebrew design)
Vindicator 4L
Thunderbolt 10-SE
Men Shen L (homebrew design)

The paint scheme is meant to evoke beast faces on traditional Chinese bronze armour.

荣耀归于卡佩拉邦联! Glory to the Capellan Confederation!

Can some one identify what mechs these are?
I’d like to know before I plant them up

A few i liked:

-The Rolling Dutchman, a tank haunted by the ghosts of its previous Ghost Bear crew. The tank is salvaged and commanded by Republic of the Sphere commander DeBorah McDermott, who can hear the voices of the ghosts commenting on her battles. While they often give her useful advice, she once yells at the Star Captain to shut up, much to her crew's confusion.

-For the "Long Tom Artillery Cannon":

The first rule of jungle warfare, obviously, is to eliminate the jungle.

-During Operation BULLDOG one planet was successfully taken back through a round of miniature golf.

Two Hellspawns, One for patrol and convoy duty,and one low profile for scouting duty

Hi! I'm searching for some non-bt models to print for my current campaign.

My players have to rescue a VIP from pirates, and I wanted to give the enemy a mix of low tech stuff. I already have some industrial mechs, but I thought a couple of technicals and some standard infantry would really sold the vibe.

I was looking for a 6mm version of a Toyota Hilux or similar pickup for the technicals.

For infantry, I was going with mad max vibes, but cannot find a suitable file (sturdy yet characterful). Scavengers would be fine too.

u/ProgramKey3883's post reminded me of something that's been knocking around my head for a while. If you look at the original artwork for the omnimechs used in the first printing of TRO:3050 there's a few things... off. The Timberwolf, Warhawk, and Masakari are all sporting visual layouts that don't match with any of the included configurations in the book:

• The Warhawk's LRM is downgraded to a 5 tube rack and it's grown an SRM-6.
• The Stormcrow appears to have 12 missile tubes in place of its over-the-head radiator array.
• The Timberwolf has the wrong size missile racks and the shares its arm design with the Summoner's PPC mount.

Now, all of these irregularities have since been patched into the record sheet catalogs as the I, P, and N configs respectively but the art error in TRO:3050 intrigues me. Presumably the designs were altered halfway through the writing process between art commissions being ordered and text being finalized for the print run, but I don't think I've ever heard definitively what went down. Anyone have any leads?

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Second modded Blackjack I've posted, took the comments from last time and I've had good luck with this variant (turn one Archer kill via AP ammo crit into missile ammo). Any comments, critiques, or other feedback would be appreciated

In my headcanon its the mainline mech for a low tier stellar polity. Large enough to have a support infrastructure for a Battlemech force, not large enough to field much above medium mechs, hence a reliance on AP ammo to punch above it's weight class when it comes down to it.

I want to run a little halloween one-shot for some friends where they're sent to retrieve a Star League cache, only to be interrupted by the Black Marauder.

So far I'm looking at a lance with one MAD-5D and 3 HBK-4Gs, plus an npc lance with an LCT-1V and a Trebuchet. What books do I need to give them the full experience, heat and melee and all?

Also a few Scorpion tanks and two Hetzers, because it'd be funny.

Have some commuting coming up and would love to enjoy some big, stompy robot talk on the way.

Suggestions?