From: avif@maxine.wpi.edu (Avram Finkel)
Subject: BTECH - A nifty strategy and my first post
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA USA
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 22:42:50 GMT

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.

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 
highlights 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
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.


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.  :->

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
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