From: zst@ecl.psu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: BTECH - A nifty strategy and my first posting
Date: 6 Sep 92 17:31:30 EDT
Organization: Engineering Computer Lab, Pennsylvania State University

In article <Bu4n3E.Jyy@wpi.WPI.EDU>, avif@maxine.wpi.edu (Avram Finkel) writes:
> Hello.  This is my first posting here, so please excuse any mistakes.  I've 
> seen quite a few posting about Btech here, and I figured I'd post a nice 
> strategy a few of my freinds thought up.  All the tech is from the _Battletech 
> Compendium_, and it's not clantech.  The campaign we were running were based on
> money, not tonnage, so keep that in mind, and you'll understand this alot 
> better.

Okay, and welcome to the group

> 
> First of all, the beggineng of any great strategy are good 'mechs, so here are
> the mechs they used.  I don't have the exact sheets here, but I'll get the 

Not necessarily, as postings from this group about a month ago pointed out
(i.e. taking 12 Panthers or Urbanmechs against assault mechs of equal tonnage,
the light mechs would win easily most of the times.

> highlight down.
> 
> The Rainbow - Basically, they took a 100-ton mech and saw just how many ER-PPCs
> they could fit on it.  They managed to cram 7 of them onto the thing, they also
> doubled the default heat sinks, and added a Co3 slave computer.
> 
Wow!!

> The Running Man - Basiccaly, a 20-40 ton mech, that (with a MASC) could run up
> to 32 in a turn.  Had almost no weapons, and almost no armour, but it was 
> realatively cheap, and fast as hell.  Also has a Co3 slave computer.
>

There is a name for those buggers, they are universially known as target drones.
 
> The Machine Gun Nest - A medium to heavy mech with 40 machine guns.  I forget
> the exact tonnage, but you get the picture.  Nice mech, and extremely cheap.
> Also with a Co3 slave computer.

>
Not another Solaris VII style munchkin mech!  IMNHO no mech with more then 10
machine guns should even be allowed in the game.
 
> The Tu-Gen (like SFII) - A 20 ton mech with a PPC.  Very cheap, and pretty 
> fast.  Jumpes a bit too, I think.  Also with a Co3 slave computer.
> 
> The Big Jim - I forget the tonnage on this one too, but all it did was it had
> enough Co3 master computers to control all the slaves on the feild.

Remember, there can be at most 12 mechs connected to a C3 network; meches from 
different network cannot use each other's C3 devices.

> 
> There were quite a few of each of these on the feild at one time, except for 
> the Rainbow, there was only one due to the cost.  They also had artilery off
> board, also with Co3 slaves.
> 

Artillery with C3 system? Can someone post rules on this? 

> Now for the basic strategy.  It's pretty basic, but undenialbly effective. More
> or less, they had the Rainbow in the back, in heavy cover, but well within 
> range with its Er-PPCs(not too hard).  It was protected by a number of machine
> gun nests, and was always behind at least a few levels of woods or low hills.

Now that's a neat idea of deployment, machine gun nests, indeed.  Just watch
out for the 80 ton Clan tank with 200 machine guns (only take 50 tons) AND
jumpjets (legal under TR2750.)

> The Big Jim was on the dead farthest back hex on the board, as there isn't a 
> range for the Co3.  The Tu-Gens were scattered about, as were a few running men
> and a bunch of other average mechs(I think they had a few out of the book).  
> What they would do was have the running men run straight up to 1 enemy mech,
> usually in the rear, as to avoid shots.  They would usually have one or two go
> off the board  to search for artillery, and one to go infantry-squashing.  Then
> the Co3's would kick in.  Every one would fire everything.  First the Rainbow.
> 7 Er-PPCs will definately shutdown a mech, but any heat over 30 is counted as 
> 30, so they didn't worry about it.  The rainbow was an every-other-turn 'mech.
> If the Rainbow blasts didn't flatten the offending 'mech(as they often did), 
> the Tu-Gens and other 'mechs would come into play.  They could ususally smash
> one mech a turn, and injure a few others as well. That's it.  They could take
> out a good-sized mech force almost every time.
>
I cannot stress more about the importance of ECM suites, especially when
fighting the snakes.  Personally, at least every other mech I use will have ECM
gear (especially when playing Clan, as one can always remove a ER medium laser
for the ECM, the advantage of omnimechs!)  With lots of ECM on the field, each
cover a radius of 6 hexes, C3 systems will most likely be heavily disrupted.

Just a thought, how about include some mobile Arrow IV units on board. Just
stand back and nuke the daylight out of that cluster of PPC carrier and machine
gun nests. (A Liao lance of Catapult/Raven would do, ECM included, but there
are no doubt better combination of custom designed mechs.)

> 
> For a short desc. of a Co3 computer, for those of you who aren't familiar with
> it, here ya go:  The Co3 computer allows any of the linked 'mechs to fire with
> the modifiers of another linked mech.  So, in the above case, if The Running 
> Man were to run directly behind another mech who hasn't moved this turn, the
> Rainbow, who is 20hexes away, but with no level 2 mountains or other 'mechs in
> the way, could shoot with a +3 modifier as if it were close range, instead of a
> +whatever for cover woods, etc... at long range.  Very effective tool indeed.
> 
> Last I heard, they were working on a rainbow-type submarine.  300 tons, 100+ ER
> PPCs.  :->

Huh?! The last time I checked, a PPC was still 7 tons each.  A hundred of them
will give you 700 tons before you add the required heatsinks (single HS only), 
remember that a sub, or any vehicle, has to have enough heatsink equals to the
number of heat points that ALL of its energy weapons can generate in one turn.
That gives you another 1490 tons (15 heat/ER PPC * 100 - 10 free heatsinks)

The above calculations aside, a sub, being a vehicle, would have the fortune of
using the vehicle hit location table when hit. Watch out for the LB-X type
autocannons and SRMs.  They are extremely lethal to vehicles ( at least a sub
is a little bit safer from destruction by inferno rounds, the most deadly anti-
vehiclar weapon in the game.)

> Thank you for your time,
> Avi F.
> 
> -- 
> ==============================================================================
> How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
> Think about it.
> avif@maxine.wpi.edu


Zachary Tseng
Khan, Clan Ghost Bear
Commander, Sigma Galaxy, Clan Ghost Bear
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA