Take a drink every time he says "on there." Does the TT have C4? Because I love the idea of an infantry platoon that specializes in crazy, trying to run right to a mech and slap some angry play-do on its foot.
Honestly if you took the AC20 Karnov, swapped the AC20 for 4 ML, you could add a 5t Troop compartment to drop a full strength anti-mech jump platoon, and upgrade to 7t of Armor and never need another transport ever again. You could change it to 4t Troop and 8t Armor if you don't like the thought of custom platoons, or 6t Troop and 6t Armor if you like the thought of matching the standard Karnov's troop transport. Though you would have to give up the big gun to have any room to modify.
There are tracked, wheeled, and hover APCs (that is their name), as well as heavy variants. The Maxim is a fantastic infantry transport system as well, my preferred infantry transport as a matter of fact.
@@Apollo-js8rn Haha, that's fantastic. I'm hoping to get my fiancée into Battletech; we played a modified variant of Alpha Strike and she seemed to enjoy that, so there is hope. There are so many excellent variants as well; one of them swaps out all the missiles for SRM launchers so it turns into an excellent infantry support platform.
@@elcamnino7 I wish ya luck with that, but I also think you may wanna stick with AS. If your girl's got the same Devil's luck mine does you may need the saved time for a rematch (lol). Maxim variants...aw man, I got one for ya about that. I got my blushing bride into Btech slowly but surely. I let her try out different units, see which ones she liked and didn't, then told her I was gonna build her her own company. She picked her auto-include mechs, we browsed the Camospec site to find a paint scheme she liked... ...she picked a Drac paint job (I play mostly Davion and Liao). I check to see what Sarna has to say about her chosen unit...this group often uses artillery. Okay, cool. I add a couple stands of A4 infantry to her TO&E and call it a day. A few weeks later I come into some dirt cheap Kanazuchi infantry. "Yyyyyeahs!!! Four hexes' worth of the most vulgar display of infantry power available in the clan invaso--aaaaand it's faction-limited to the Dracs. I only own one Drac company...hers. And since you can't exactly salvage body armor and I know I'm not getting another company of 'mechs anytime soon, I have to give my new 'Zuchs to the wife. But 'zuchs aren't exactly mobile. If I give her the 'zuchs, I also gotta give her something to carry them in. I own minis for a lance of choppers, hovers, tanks, and missile-throwers. "Well, I love me some choppers, and a stock goblin (my tank proxy) won't hold a 'Zuchi squad...screw it! She can have my Maxims and I'll horse trade her a 'mech upgrade for my Davions for it!" It was only after I had 'em all half painted that I realized that if 'Zuchi suits exist, then so do upgraded Maxims...the field upgrade of which carries TAG in the turret. Oh...shit. I had just handed my wife a combined-arms company that has access to 4 stands of evil infantry, 4 fast hover APCs to get 'em where it hurts, 4 potential TAGs, and at least two off-board A4 launchers. (Adding insult to injury: in AS points, her force costs almost 100 points less than my Davion company). Some days I wonder if she even needs 'mechs to kill me anymore.
Cavalry VTOLs if my (Davion) force can get 'em, Karnovs if they can't. Also had good luck with the Maxim hovertank. In a campaign setting you can do some truly sinister things to your Opfor if you can (like Fritz said) deploy a couple stands of your infantry near the opponent's deployment zone. Once the 'mechs get shot up and have to make forced withdrawal, your infantry are right where his damaged units need to move through. With any luck his crippled 'mechs will become your kills, maybe even your salvage. Either way you just saved yourself the headache of facing that enemy 'mech next time, and all it cost you was some grunts and a couple of fast transports.
@@cptncutleg Woah...Just checked out your Cobra, then crunched the numbers of pairing them with my airborne infantry. Let's just say that the song "It's raining men" immediately popped into my head. Good call on the Cobras!
Frtiz your talking good stuff. Had to work this myself from what I have played and what I have seen. Kranov and Maxim are key transports for infantry. I do agree with the Kranov taking priority. I have to add the Bandit Hover tank as its omni and could carry a extra squad as a ride. As the basics go for infantry its all about that MP. I get in trouble with infantry when I must brake up the platoon into smaller squads and your having to deliver them to the field. The lack of transports that are adequate for what must be done in the game. In 3025 mass transports for infantry as limited. A standard APC would bring in a squad of 7 troops. That is about enough for one or two squad support weapons like Man-Portable PPC, small lasers, Mortar or LRM. An old Goblin IFV or the standard APC work well. And one Maxim or Heavy APC may drop off a full platoon. Paratroopers work in this category and I like to drop them in with a Planet Lifter and the planet Lifter may move Mechanized Infantry. But Paratroopers have little over a rifle and scatter. Motorized infantry is badly covered in Sarna.net. In the books the confusion starts with the idea of Mechanized Infantry over the concept to mechanize infantry. Mechanized infantry is another category. Mechanized infantry means to give the troops IFV’s or APC’s. Motorized infantry is the best for mechanization, and your infantry is running around on, large wheeled, powered roller-skates. The Maxim would must be modified to carry a 6-ton troop compartment. The SRM is nice with motorized units. For a more anti-infantry unit consider the micro grenade launcher. Consider motorized for attacking as they have MP to move and fire. Jump infantry are easy to move around and their bonuses are on point to be deployed from VTOLs. The squads are small. So, tend to get wiped out by a flamer. Most players like me use the laser jump infantry or commandos. Commandos are good for blowing something up. But that may have been in-printed by my community. I like to use them with the Ferret VTOL or Standard Hover APC. Using the unit elevations and stack rules with the VTOLs with one landing. You could fit four VTOLs in a single, 30m, hex. Take 4 tons to move a platoon. Most transports have odd numbers of 3-tons. Mechanized infantry has their own transports like ATV’s. I think the hover squad is the best for its MP. They are ridicules to transport as a single squad could take 20 tons to move. A Planet Lifter or shuttlecraft is the best way to deliver them. Having a big target to land. Losing a shuttle could win a game in BV. Mechanized infantry may tow a field gun as wheeled or tracked.
@@certanmike Go to the battletech wiki and search infantry. Should start you on the path as at the bottom of the page there are references for the books for the info. Have a good game if you try them.
Strategicly speaking. Karnov , air transport in general. But not so much for front line. One off game who cares I guess but I like to preserve as much of my force as possible. Usually leaving groups of infantry to make no go zones near slow mechs. Have you used infantry gun emplacements. ? I imagine being on the run as the jobs gone sideways. Using borrowed commercial helicopters and shipping old school infantry operated cannons up and holding a ridge, then as the enemy pulls back from the ambush of AC fire on say there scouts. Redeploy further away and use defence in depth within guerilla friendly terrain as the gaming group figures out how to link up with anything friendly. Couldn't do that kinda stuff with goblins and Bulldogs well the can tow something I'm sure but we need speed. Speaking of what those tanks can't do. In the future where clan QuadVees are a thing. I have concluded that making QuadVees dedicated to infantry and battlearmour is a good choice. If your made of cbills, I designed a 50 or 55 ton one with advanced armours and a XXL engine. Since on a quad losing a side torso is meh anyways. Gave it a supercharger to go fast and dedicated 5 internal tons to infantry then made it omni to hold another group of Battle armour. Thing can climb and go underwater and still mounts a couple nice lasers and or srm's. This wouldn't be for front line deployment. Rather a special assignment unit for God know what kinda environment.
Field guns are not designed for rapid relocation because a full motor gun platoon can range from 32-36t, while the only gun a squad can use is an AC2 which comes out to 8.5t. Now while it's possible to alter something to transport a gun squad, you'd honestly be better off putting the gun on the transport at that point. While Gun trailers aren't much better, now they don't require an motorized platoon/squad, but they can't move on their own requiring to either be towed or lifted into place, the former of which tends to cut the towing vehicle's speed in half making it more beneficial to deploy a proper tank, while the latter requires lifting hoists which are 3t each with a max of four and can lift half the lifting vehicle's tonnage, and at most only cost you 2/4 MP, so with certain exceptions there is merit to this use strategy, namely airlifting. Regardless there is little reason to transport field guns or gun trailers on the tactical map as it kind of defeats the point of choosing them over more mobile alternatives let alone to attach a dedicated transport towing/lifting to throughout the battle. Or you can have a SH Vtol and not need to worry about going underwater or climbing cliffs. Also Vehicle JJs and Environmental Sealing allow normal tanks to do much the same as your ridiculously over priced quaadvee. Regardless, I have doubts that a quadvee would honestly be faster in heavy woods than a jump platoon, so it calls into question why design such a thing? Okay, using MekLab, I was able to construct a 50t Quadvee that would technically be faster than a jump platoon while using your suggestions, but only every other turn with SC, and even then I could only afford to put 3 ERML on it in addition to the 5t cargo space, which I'm not entirely certain can legally transport infantry given that Quadvees use Quadmech construction rules. Either case with Omnitech it came out to 58.375 mil c-bils... so again one must ask why when a SH VTOL is better and cheaper to boot? Honestly you might be better off dropping the SC putting 5 JJs on it and downgrading to an 6/9 XL engine instead, same weapons and cargo, but only 12.14 mil c-bills instead. Still pretty sure the cargo space would technically be illegal though. Still more expensive than a 55t Fusion SH Vtol even with a SC, 3 ERML, 6t troop, 11.5t of HFF, and Omni to boot, 10.495mil c-bills, basically half that if you drop the SC.
@@KageRyuu6 Agree on transporting guns. If you dedicate to setting up a gun emplacement, you can get a front mounted gun on a 2 or 3 mobility piece, that can fairly easily scuttle to new viewpoints as needed, with a disgusting amount of armor centralized on that front point, for a pretty steep bargain. You can even slap a flamer on it to discourage infantry from moving up on it for a few extra pennies, or, if you're feeling ritzy, a missile defense system to further guard against bored LRMs, to make the damn brick more trouble than it's worth to deal with. Frittering around with trailers and field guns can definitely be cool, but in terms of raw effectiveness, just putting the rig on wheels (or treads, or...) solves way more problems, and helps prevent minimally useful or redundant vehicles from eating away at your points, or keeping your other vehicles away from their real jobs.
I've been using Vargrs (theoretically) for my counts as Namer APCs. I might need to change them to Maxims... honestly as heavily armed as the new model Namers are, it might be more accurate. Honestly I can't find a perfect one for one, but the Vargr is close in weight at the very least. The Namer's allegedly the most heavily armored vehicle... period, for our time period. It also doesn't have a serious transport capacity, so swings and round abouts. I uh. Accidentally. Had a little incident with GHQ to get a nice big stack of grunts, four men to a stand to represent a squad, so I have approximately a modern infantry battalion with heavy weapons (man portable heavy weapons that is). Sure I could go jump infantry or whatever... but man there's something super appealing about a bunch of pissed off crunchies with shoulder launched SRMs and satchel charges hiding in bushes and shit just waiting for some mech jock who isn't paying terribly close attention to shiv'em in the actuators. Also on my accident list: Model - Counts As LAV-25 - Chevalier Light Tank? Puma - Demon (Combat Vehicle) x5 Merkava Mk 4 - Myrmidon x10 Magach 7C - Bulldog x5 Open to suggestions for the LAV-25s. Also got a bunch of missile carriers and the like, and some SP Long Tom counts as. Throw in some Demolishers I picked up on Etsy and Shrecks for flavor and I might not even need to bring mechs to my next game! Whole thing kinda makes me want to look into helos/tiltrotors* and aerospace assets. *One thing I really hope Catalyst does, much as I know everyone in their right mind hates retcons, is adding in tilt rotor aircraft like the Osprey, and maybe drones. Lots of cool stuff you could do with kit like that in table top.
There is only one way to deploy infantry: jump infantry delivery via karnov. The karnov does not have to stop or land. Just save one more for them to jump out.
Again, I really hate to be the killjoy of the otherwise really decent Goblin medium tank, but the standard Succession Wars Goblin tank CANNOT transport an Infantry platoon under Total Warfare (TW) rules. Only the much weaker MG variant with 5 tons cargo bay can. You must use the MG version or use the Tactical Ops rules to split that platoon into squads of 1 ton, of which you can only fit one (7 men) into the Goblin or you need 4 Goblins and a house rule that to carry 1 platoon. On TW (5th Ed) pg 213, Generic Foot Infantry is clearly listed as 3 tons and with no other type being lighter there. According to the Record Sheet 3039U and ever since the release of TRO:3026, the standard Goblin Medium Tank only has 1 ton infantry bay. TW Pg 223, under Infantry Carriers clearly state "The carrying unit’s capacity is limited to the tonnage of its cargo area." Due to this really huge oversight, there are a lot of 1-ton cargo capacity transports that are technically unusable. You really have to blame the early days of Battletech infantry/vehicle rules/design without proper playtesting. Go with Karnov, Maxim, Heavy APCs or even a Maultier for your infantry transport.
In 3025 infantry platoons where broken into squads with one or two support weapons. A 7 man squad. The basic APC does the same thing. A recon team cost 1 ton for transport. Considering spot from recon teams and maybe a support PPC team they do about 2-4 damage. That is a small lasers worth. Spread them out to make someone attack multiple targets.
@@Magermh While it makes the most sense tactically as a platoon of 28-men in a 30 radius is just a disaster in a modern era battlefield, as mentioned before, those 7-men squad team rules are covered under Tactical Ops Squad deployment rules and are not legit for standard level of play as it be a game breaking meta to just spam hordes of 18 BV, 5-men LRM Foot Infantry Squads to sink initiative for your big units. You need to discuss with your opponent to make it a lore friendly game then you have the opportunity to legally deploy like a proper infantry, split into 4 squads in standard APCs. This gives you 8 units worth of inititive sinking for about 650 BV. 4 Foot SRM Squads + 4 Tracked MG APCs, which is still a bargain in my opinion for the sinking role they can play. In fact this whole corundum eventually caused the mechanized infantry unit type to be brought into the game, those infantry units are assumed to have integrated with tiny APCs of the appropriate type to make it less of a hassle to run on the table top and it does make the old motorized (motorbikes) feel a little out of place.
@@TheDaNuker Hum I normally treat the entire lance or unit as one initiative peace. APCs are about the same in initiative So 28 men are broken into 4 squads but the squad must be treated as on peace as a platoon. The normal APC are treated as one peace for the lance. I developed this idea from having to move 12 Savana Masters around all the time. Its wicked for the player using them too.
@@Magermh That is a good house rule to go about it! I really do hope they integrate some of these house rules so that good squad action like this can proceed even while big 'Mechs are shooting around them without having to be constrained to battle armor squads of the later era.
Maxims and tons of SRM infantry sounds like a good threat against Clan battle armor. Use the infantry to take the brunt while the maxims move around behind.
IF you see this. Where do we find the rule that gives range penalty for vertical. I keep finding no range adjustment for vertical height and the GoAC saying elevation is only 6 meters and has no effect on range.
1 hex is supposed to be 30meters or about 100ft across. if each elevation level is 6 meters than that would be equal to 1/5 of a hex. So add 1 hex when calculating range to target for every 5 levels difference in elevation. round down.
Take a drink every time he says "on there."
Does the TT have C4? Because I love the idea of an infantry platoon that specializes in crazy, trying to run right to a mech and slap some angry play-do on its foot.
Basically yes. Satchel charges and that type of thing.
"Don't have the damage"
Tell that to my Mauser 960 Jump Troops
Honestly if you took the AC20 Karnov, swapped the AC20 for 4 ML, you could add a 5t Troop compartment to drop a full strength anti-mech jump platoon, and upgrade to 7t of Armor and never need another transport ever again. You could change it to 4t Troop and 8t Armor if you don't like the thought of custom platoons, or 6t Troop and 6t Armor if you like the thought of matching the standard Karnov's troop transport. Though you would have to give up the big gun to have any room to modify.
But...But...Spooky Karnov
There are tracked, wheeled, and hover APCs (that is their name), as well as heavy variants. The Maxim is a fantastic infantry transport system as well, my preferred infantry transport as a matter of fact.
Let's just say I really, REALLY regret assigning my Maxim mini's to my wife's Draconis company.
@@Apollo-js8rn Haha, that's fantastic. I'm hoping to get my fiancée into Battletech; we played a modified variant of Alpha Strike and she seemed to enjoy that, so there is hope. There are so many excellent variants as well; one of them swaps out all the missiles for SRM launchers so it turns into an excellent infantry support platform.
@@elcamnino7 I wish ya luck with that, but I also think you may wanna stick with AS. If your girl's got the same Devil's luck mine does you may need the saved time for a rematch (lol).
Maxim variants...aw man, I got one for ya about that. I got my blushing bride into Btech slowly but surely. I let her try out different units, see which ones she liked and didn't, then told her I was gonna build her her own company. She picked her auto-include mechs, we browsed the Camospec site to find a paint scheme she liked...
...she picked a Drac paint job (I play mostly Davion and Liao). I check to see what Sarna has to say about her chosen unit...this group often uses artillery. Okay, cool. I add a couple stands of A4 infantry to her TO&E and call it a day.
A few weeks later I come into some dirt cheap Kanazuchi infantry. "Yyyyyeahs!!! Four hexes' worth of the most vulgar display of infantry power available in the clan invaso--aaaaand it's faction-limited to the Dracs. I only own one Drac company...hers. And since you can't exactly salvage body armor and I know I'm not getting another company of 'mechs anytime soon, I have to give my new 'Zuchs to the wife. But 'zuchs aren't exactly mobile. If I give her the 'zuchs, I also gotta give her something to carry them in. I own minis for a lance of choppers, hovers, tanks, and missile-throwers. "Well, I love me some choppers, and a stock goblin (my tank proxy) won't hold a 'Zuchi squad...screw it! She can have my Maxims and I'll horse trade her a 'mech upgrade for my Davions for it!"
It was only after I had 'em all half painted that I realized that if 'Zuchi suits exist, then so do upgraded Maxims...the field upgrade of which carries TAG in the turret. Oh...shit.
I had just handed my wife a combined-arms company that has access to 4 stands of evil infantry, 4 fast hover APCs to get 'em where it hurts, 4 potential TAGs, and at least two off-board A4 launchers. (Adding insult to injury: in AS points, her force costs almost 100 points less than my Davion company). Some days I wonder if she even needs 'mechs to kill me anymore.
Only wish you could have used different slides when naming different vehicles.
Bandit H, 3 Elemental Headhunters, a Hachiman to get a full star, yup, lifes good
Where does one get tanks, aircraft and infantry?
Cavalry VTOLs if my (Davion) force can get 'em, Karnovs if they can't. Also had good luck with the Maxim hovertank.
In a campaign setting you can do some truly sinister things to your Opfor if you can (like Fritz said) deploy a couple stands of your infantry near the opponent's deployment zone. Once the 'mechs get shot up and have to make forced withdrawal, your infantry are right where his damaged units need to move through. With any luck his crippled 'mechs will become your kills, maybe even your salvage. Either way you just saved yourself the headache of facing that enemy 'mech next time, and all it cost you was some grunts and a couple of fast transports.
Try the Cobra if you get a chance
@@cptncutleg Woah...Just checked out your Cobra, then crunched the numbers of pairing them with my airborne infantry. Let's just say that the song "It's raining men" immediately popped into my head.
Good call on the Cobras!
Frtiz your talking good stuff. Had to work this myself from what I have played and what I have seen.
Kranov and Maxim are key transports for infantry. I do agree with the Kranov taking priority.
I have to add the Bandit Hover tank as its omni and could carry a extra squad as a ride.
As the basics go for infantry its all about that MP. I get in trouble with infantry when I must brake up the platoon into smaller squads and your having to deliver them to the field. The lack of transports that are adequate for what must be done in the game.
In 3025 mass transports for infantry as limited. A standard APC would bring in a squad of 7 troops. That is about enough for one or two
squad support weapons like Man-Portable PPC, small lasers, Mortar or LRM. An old Goblin IFV or the standard APC work well. And one Maxim or Heavy APC may drop off a full platoon. Paratroopers work in this category and I like to drop them in with a Planet Lifter and the planet Lifter may move Mechanized Infantry. But Paratroopers have little over a rifle and scatter.
Motorized infantry is badly covered in Sarna.net. In the books the confusion starts with the idea of Mechanized Infantry over the concept
to mechanize infantry. Mechanized infantry is another category. Mechanized infantry means to give the troops IFV’s or APC’s. Motorized infantry is the best for mechanization, and your infantry is running around on, large wheeled, powered roller-skates. The Maxim would must be modified to carry a 6-ton troop compartment. The SRM is nice with motorized units. For a more anti-infantry unit consider the micro grenade launcher. Consider motorized for attacking as they have MP to move and fire.
Jump infantry are easy to move around and their bonuses are on point to be deployed from VTOLs.
The squads are small. So, tend to get wiped out by a flamer. Most players like me use the laser jump infantry or commandos. Commandos are good for blowing something up. But that may have been in-printed by my community. I like to use them with the Ferret VTOL or Standard Hover APC. Using the unit elevations and stack rules with the VTOLs with one landing. You could fit four VTOLs in a single, 30m, hex. Take 4 tons to move a platoon. Most transports have odd numbers of 3-tons.
Mechanized infantry has their own transports like ATV’s.
I think the hover squad is the best for its MP. They are ridicules to transport as a single squad could take 20 tons to move. A Planet Lifter or shuttlecraft is the best way to deliver them. Having a big target to land. Losing a shuttle could win a game in BV. Mechanized infantry may tow a field gun as wheeled or tracked.
I wish i knew how they work i never used non BA infantry and i can't find how they work in the book
@@certanmike Go to the battletech wiki and search infantry. Should start you on the path as at the bottom of the page there are references for the books for the info. Have a good game if you try them.
Strategicly speaking.
Karnov , air transport in general.
But not so much for front line.
One off game who cares I guess but I like to preserve as much of my force as possible. Usually leaving groups of infantry to make no go zones near slow mechs.
Have you used infantry gun emplacements. ?
I imagine being on the run as the jobs gone sideways. Using borrowed commercial helicopters and shipping old school infantry operated cannons up and holding a ridge, then as the enemy pulls back from the ambush of AC fire on say there scouts. Redeploy further away and use defence in depth within guerilla friendly terrain as the gaming group figures out how to link up with anything friendly.
Couldn't do that kinda stuff with goblins and Bulldogs well the can tow something I'm sure but we need speed.
Speaking of what those tanks can't do.
In the future where clan QuadVees are a thing.
I have concluded that making QuadVees dedicated to infantry and battlearmour is a good choice.
If your made of cbills, I designed a 50 or 55 ton one with advanced armours and a XXL engine. Since on a quad losing a side torso is meh anyways.
Gave it a supercharger to go fast and dedicated 5 internal tons to infantry then made it omni to hold another group of Battle armour. Thing can climb and go underwater and still mounts a couple nice lasers and or srm's. This wouldn't be for front line deployment. Rather a special assignment unit for God know what kinda environment.
Field guns are not designed for rapid relocation because a full motor gun platoon can range from 32-36t, while the only gun a squad can use is an AC2 which comes out to 8.5t. Now while it's possible to alter something to transport a gun squad, you'd honestly be better off putting the gun on the transport at that point.
While Gun trailers aren't much better, now they don't require an motorized platoon/squad, but they can't move on their own requiring to either be towed or lifted into place, the former of which tends to cut the towing vehicle's speed in half making it more beneficial to deploy a proper tank, while the latter requires lifting hoists which are 3t each with a max of four and can lift half the lifting vehicle's tonnage, and at most only cost you 2/4 MP, so with certain exceptions there is merit to this use strategy, namely airlifting.
Regardless there is little reason to transport field guns or gun trailers on the tactical map as it kind of defeats the point of choosing them over more mobile alternatives let alone to attach a dedicated transport towing/lifting to throughout the battle.
Or you can have a SH Vtol and not need to worry about going underwater or climbing cliffs. Also Vehicle JJs and Environmental Sealing allow normal tanks to do much the same as your ridiculously over priced quaadvee. Regardless, I have doubts that a quadvee would honestly be faster in heavy woods than a jump platoon, so it calls into question why design such a thing?
Okay, using MekLab, I was able to construct a 50t Quadvee that would technically be faster than a jump platoon while using your suggestions, but only every other turn with SC, and even then I could only afford to put 3 ERML on it in addition to the 5t cargo space, which I'm not entirely certain can legally transport infantry given that Quadvees use Quadmech construction rules. Either case with Omnitech it came out to 58.375 mil c-bils... so again one must ask why when a SH VTOL is better and cheaper to boot?
Honestly you might be better off dropping the SC putting 5 JJs on it and downgrading to an 6/9 XL engine instead, same weapons and cargo, but only 12.14 mil c-bills instead. Still pretty sure the cargo space would technically be illegal though. Still more expensive than a 55t Fusion SH Vtol even with a SC, 3 ERML, 6t troop, 11.5t of HFF, and Omni to boot, 10.495mil c-bills, basically half that if you drop the SC.
That Quad would be great for an RP campaign
@@KageRyuu6
Agree on transporting guns.
If you dedicate to setting up a gun emplacement, you can get a front mounted gun on a 2 or 3 mobility piece, that can fairly easily scuttle to new viewpoints as needed, with a disgusting amount of armor centralized on that front point, for a pretty steep bargain. You can even slap a flamer on it to discourage infantry from moving up on it for a few extra pennies, or, if you're feeling ritzy, a missile defense system to further guard against bored LRMs, to make the damn brick more trouble than it's worth to deal with.
Frittering around with trailers and field guns can definitely be cool, but in terms of raw effectiveness, just putting the rig on wheels (or treads, or...) solves way more problems, and helps prevent minimally useful or redundant vehicles from eating away at your points, or keeping your other vehicles away from their real jobs.
Where can we get the vtols and carriers for our game?
I've been using Vargrs (theoretically) for my counts as Namer APCs. I might need to change them to Maxims... honestly as heavily armed as the new model Namers are, it might be more accurate. Honestly I can't find a perfect one for one, but the Vargr is close in weight at the very least. The Namer's allegedly the most heavily armored vehicle... period, for our time period. It also doesn't have a serious transport capacity, so swings and round abouts.
I uh. Accidentally. Had a little incident with GHQ to get a nice big stack of grunts, four men to a stand to represent a squad, so I have approximately a modern infantry battalion with heavy weapons (man portable heavy weapons that is). Sure I could go jump infantry or whatever... but man there's something super appealing about a bunch of pissed off crunchies with shoulder launched SRMs and satchel charges hiding in bushes and shit just waiting for some mech jock who isn't paying terribly close attention to shiv'em in the actuators.
Also on my accident list:
Model - Counts As
LAV-25 - Chevalier Light Tank?
Puma - Demon (Combat Vehicle) x5
Merkava Mk 4 - Myrmidon x10
Magach 7C - Bulldog x5
Open to suggestions for the LAV-25s.
Also got a bunch of missile carriers and the like, and some SP Long Tom counts as. Throw in some Demolishers I picked up on Etsy and Shrecks for flavor and I might not even need to bring mechs to my next game! Whole thing kinda makes me want to look into helos/tiltrotors* and aerospace assets.
*One thing I really hope Catalyst does, much as I know everyone in their right mind hates retcons, is adding in tilt rotor aircraft like the Osprey, and maybe drones. Lots of cool stuff you could do with kit like that in table top.
There is only one way to deploy infantry: jump infantry delivery via karnov. The karnov does not have to stop or land. Just save one more for them to jump out.
Again, I really hate to be the killjoy of the otherwise really decent Goblin medium tank, but the standard Succession Wars Goblin tank CANNOT transport an Infantry platoon under Total Warfare (TW) rules. Only the much weaker MG variant with 5 tons cargo bay can. You must use the MG version or use the Tactical Ops rules to split that platoon into squads of 1 ton, of which you can only fit one (7 men) into the Goblin or you need 4 Goblins and a house rule that to carry 1 platoon.
On TW (5th Ed) pg 213, Generic Foot Infantry is clearly listed as 3 tons and with no other type being lighter there. According to the Record Sheet 3039U and ever since the release of TRO:3026, the standard Goblin Medium Tank only has 1 ton infantry bay. TW Pg 223, under Infantry Carriers clearly state "The carrying unit’s capacity is limited to the tonnage of its cargo area." Due to this really huge oversight, there are a lot of 1-ton cargo capacity transports that are technically unusable. You really have to blame the early days of Battletech infantry/vehicle rules/design without proper playtesting.
Go with Karnov, Maxim, Heavy APCs or even a Maultier for your infantry transport.
In 3025 infantry platoons where broken into squads with one or two support weapons. A 7 man squad. The basic APC does the same thing. A recon team cost 1 ton for transport. Considering spot from recon teams and maybe a support PPC team they do about 2-4 damage. That is a small lasers worth. Spread them out to make someone attack multiple targets.
@@Magermh While it makes the most sense tactically as a platoon of 28-men in a 30 radius is just a disaster in a modern era battlefield, as mentioned before, those 7-men squad team rules are covered under Tactical Ops Squad deployment rules and are not legit for standard level of play as it be a game breaking meta to just spam hordes of 18 BV, 5-men LRM Foot Infantry Squads to sink initiative for your big units.
You need to discuss with your opponent to make it a lore friendly game then you have the opportunity to legally deploy like a proper infantry, split into 4 squads in standard APCs. This gives you 8 units worth of inititive sinking for about 650 BV. 4 Foot SRM Squads + 4 Tracked MG APCs, which is still a bargain in my opinion for the sinking role they can play.
In fact this whole corundum eventually caused the mechanized infantry unit type to be brought into the game, those infantry units are assumed to have integrated with tiny APCs of the appropriate type to make it less of a hassle to run on the table top and it does make the old motorized (motorbikes) feel a little out of place.
@@TheDaNuker Hum I normally treat the entire lance or unit as one initiative peace. APCs are about the same in initiative So 28 men are broken into 4 squads but the squad must be treated as on peace as a platoon. The normal APC are treated as one peace for the lance. I developed this idea from having to move 12 Savana Masters around all the time. Its wicked for the player using them too.
@@Magermh That is a good house rule to go about it!
I really do hope they integrate some of these house rules so that good squad action like this can proceed even while big 'Mechs are shooting around them without having to be constrained to battle armor squads of the later era.
Maxims and tons of SRM infantry sounds like a good threat against Clan battle armor. Use the infantry to take the brunt while the maxims move around behind.
IF you see this. Where do we find the rule that gives range penalty for vertical. I keep finding no range adjustment for vertical height and the GoAC saying elevation is only 6 meters and has no effect on range.
1 hex is supposed to be 30meters or about 100ft across. if each elevation level is 6 meters than that would be equal to 1/5 of a hex. So add 1 hex when calculating range to target for every 5 levels difference in elevation. round down.