Recently finished an audio story where the main character used a LAM. Cool to get more info on this rare class of Battlemech. The story is called Wild Rose for anyone interested.
There's a guy in the New England/Mid Atlantic area of the US who is super into history. Sometimes at a con he'll run workshops or lectures on historic martial arts, swords, etc. A while ago he did a talk on sword canes. You know.. top-hatted gentleman on a foggy London street gets jumped by thugs, and next thing you know he's whipped a blade out that was concealed in his walking stick and BLAMMO, the thugs are getting what for! Quite a romantic fantasy. I bring it up because the final assessment of this historian was "much better to have a cane that's a nice, solid stick that won't crack when it strikes something on account of being hollow. Or a sword that has enough mass to the blade that it won't fold when used to thrust. Worst choice is a combo "weapon" that has the appearance of stealthy arms but in a straight up bout of fisticuffs will leave its wielder lacking. I think LAMs basically fall into that category... although! In Alpha Strike you pay a pretty small penalty for all of the mobility and utility that you get. Not sure how it is in Classic, I am not familiar with the rules for them. I can't find a LAM that I like the looks on enough to actually get it and paint it up.. but I am intrigued by the idea. I think they would excel in scenario play where "can you just mow down enemies" isn't the main metric of "is this good."
The people go back and forth on the cane sword. Part of it is that you can't go by mall wall hangers but actual examples or what people could make that would hold up to combat. Skallagrim did a good video on the hidden katana a while back and I mostly agree with his opinion. As far as LAMs in classic... dude it's a mess. Growing up I just had the soft back box set rules (which I still have). Friends had the full rules... and today I mostly just use Total Warfare. I think the new LAM rules were in Interstellar Operations? Old rules I have no idea. I remember back in the day they could walk or run, or if they were in aeromech mode they got big bonuses to their jump number and could dissipate more heat. No idea if I am misremembering or those were house rules or something. I don't think the cane sword or hidden katana is a good comparison to the LAM. These weapons were stealthy in nature or to get around weapons regulations. The multitool is the best comparison I can think of you. You can use it for a lot of different tasks if you need too. It would not be your first choice in any of those tasks but the fact it can do all of them in one package makes it worth keeping around. An aspect of BattleTech I don't think gets enough focus is the logistics. Moving all that equipment around is expensive and time consuming. The LAM is a good attack weapon. For one space on your dropship you get a fighter-bomber, a scout, and ground unit. Saving space should be a big concern for moving troops and equipment from planet to planet that takes months at a time.
LAMs make sense as a thing to attempt, but it also makes sense that specialization inevitably wins out. I get the feeling that much of the strategic mobility advantage of LAMs is replicable with jump jets and a small dropship, while the aerospace role is pretty much restricted to poor worlds without real aerotech to oppose the LAMs.
LAMs in and of themselves will never beat a specialized unit but consider this. You are trying to hunt down a LAM. What are you going to need? You need something that is fast enough to keep up with it, can fly, yet has enough fire power to reasonably ensure victory if the thing turns to make its stand. In my estimation you are going to need at least 2 aircraft, 1 VTOL, and 2 or 3 fast moving, jumping, and reasonably heavily armed battlemechs... more of all of these would be better. One unit is either tying down almost a full company of units if you want to hunt it down, or slowly draining resources and morale in your back field if you ignore it. All this assumes you are only facing 1 LAM and know basically where it is. When used properly the LAM should be only really engaging targets that can't shoot back.... or stand no real threat even if they can. But LAM vs building or jeep with a machine gun on it makes for a very boring board game it's not explored much. Fiction would be a good place for LAMs. A military survival story where the LAM pilot is trying to evade and stay alive while the enemy commanders stress about stopping him before he causes any more damage all the while making hard decisions since they don't know exactly what they are up again.
Support likes yours have made the recent upgrades in camera, lighting, and other things possible. Thank you for your support and I hope I can continue to meet or exceed your expectations.
This is FANTASTIC! Very well done, long form is hard. I adore the LAMs. Yeah they are bad and stupid and I understand the hate for them. But I was a big anime nerd in the 80s, these and the "Unseen" mechs were my gateway into the universe. I still play BattleTech often, and LAMs got me here.
They are not a good tabletop unit but would be a very good asset to have in a real campaign. Something if used correctly is a major frustration tying a massive number of forces if they are in the field.
So, I am retarded. The credits at the end the game footage is from DCS not CDS. Thats what happens when your video editing hours are at 3am.
Recently finished an audio story where the main character used a LAM. Cool to get more info on this rare class of Battlemech. The story is called Wild Rose for anyone interested.
I will have to check that out. Is it on TH-cam?
There's a guy in the New England/Mid Atlantic area of the US who is super into history. Sometimes at a con he'll run workshops or lectures on historic martial arts, swords, etc. A while ago he did a talk on sword canes. You know.. top-hatted gentleman on a foggy London street gets jumped by thugs, and next thing you know he's whipped a blade out that was concealed in his walking stick and BLAMMO, the thugs are getting what for! Quite a romantic fantasy. I bring it up because the final assessment of this historian was "much better to have a cane that's a nice, solid stick that won't crack when it strikes something on account of being hollow. Or a sword that has enough mass to the blade that it won't fold when used to thrust. Worst choice is a combo "weapon" that has the appearance of stealthy arms but in a straight up bout of fisticuffs will leave its wielder lacking.
I think LAMs basically fall into that category...
although! In Alpha Strike you pay a pretty small penalty for all of the mobility and utility that you get. Not sure how it is in Classic, I am not familiar with the rules for them. I can't find a LAM that I like the looks on enough to actually get it and paint it up.. but I am intrigued by the idea. I think they would excel in scenario play where "can you just mow down enemies" isn't the main metric of "is this good."
The people go back and forth on the cane sword. Part of it is that you can't go by mall wall hangers but actual examples or what people could make that would hold up to combat. Skallagrim did a good video on the hidden katana a while back and I mostly agree with his opinion.
As far as LAMs in classic... dude it's a mess. Growing up I just had the soft back box set rules (which I still have). Friends had the full rules... and today I mostly just use Total Warfare. I think the new LAM rules were in Interstellar Operations? Old rules I have no idea. I remember back in the day they could walk or run, or if they were in aeromech mode they got big bonuses to their jump number and could dissipate more heat. No idea if I am misremembering or those were house rules or something.
I don't think the cane sword or hidden katana is a good comparison to the LAM. These weapons were stealthy in nature or to get around weapons regulations. The multitool is the best comparison I can think of you. You can use it for a lot of different tasks if you need too. It would not be your first choice in any of those tasks but the fact it can do all of them in one package makes it worth keeping around. An aspect of BattleTech I don't think gets enough focus is the logistics. Moving all that equipment around is expensive and time consuming. The LAM is a good attack weapon. For one space on your dropship you get a fighter-bomber, a scout, and ground unit. Saving space should be a big concern for moving troops and equipment from planet to planet that takes months at a time.
LAMs make sense as a thing to attempt, but it also makes sense that specialization inevitably wins out. I get the feeling that much of the strategic mobility advantage of LAMs is replicable with jump jets and a small dropship, while the aerospace role is pretty much restricted to poor worlds without real aerotech to oppose the LAMs.
LAMs in and of themselves will never beat a specialized unit but consider this. You are trying to hunt down a LAM. What are you going to need? You need something that is fast enough to keep up with it, can fly, yet has enough fire power to reasonably ensure victory if the thing turns to make its stand. In my estimation you are going to need at least 2 aircraft, 1 VTOL, and 2 or 3 fast moving, jumping, and reasonably heavily armed battlemechs... more of all of these would be better. One unit is either tying down almost a full company of units if you want to hunt it down, or slowly draining resources and morale in your back field if you ignore it. All this assumes you are only facing 1 LAM and know basically where it is. When used properly the LAM should be only really engaging targets that can't shoot back.... or stand no real threat even if they can. But LAM vs building or jeep with a machine gun on it makes for a very boring board game it's not explored much. Fiction would be a good place for LAMs. A military survival story where the LAM pilot is trying to evade and stay alive while the enemy commanders stress about stopping him before he causes any more damage all the while making hard decisions since they don't know exactly what they are up again.
Thanks Adam for this interesting Arsenal episod that makes me glad to be a member
Support likes yours have made the recent upgrades in camera, lighting, and other things possible. Thank you for your support and I hope I can continue to meet or exceed your expectations.
This is FANTASTIC!
Very well done, long form is hard.
I adore the LAMs.
Yeah they are bad and stupid and I understand the hate for them.
But I was a big anime nerd in the 80s, these and the "Unseen" mechs were my gateway into the universe.
I still play BattleTech often, and LAMs got me here.
They are not a good tabletop unit but would be a very good asset to have in a real campaign. Something if used correctly is a major frustration tying a massive number of forces if they are in the field.
Sounds like nostalgia talkin ;p But I get your point, these LAMs were a gatgeway into Battletech.
@@Overonator Oh it 100% is.
Dan Carlin was not harmed during the making of this motion picture.
The Hardcore History guy?
You have a similar oratory style @@DreamMadeProductions