"battletech tank question" Topic

I did battletech gaming back in the late 80's then stopped once kids came into my life. Now that kids are grown and out of the house, I figured I would dust off what is left and start up again. I went to my local hobby shop and watch a game there and saw tanks now being used more in the game that when I last played. Made me think, does the IS now have Mechs & tanks in a Lance? Does the Clan now use tanks? If so, do the have Mechs & tanks in a Star?

Last I saw, only the Capellan Confederation was doing mixed lances of mechs, tanks & infantry.

The clans indeed use tanks, but tanks are used in their own units and usually by lower-caste warriors at that. IIRC Hell's Horses are big Clan users of tanks, however.

Damon.

Basically to echo what Garand said;

1) Mixed tank-mech lances are unusual, though not unknown.
2) Clan do use vehicles (actually always did, though they weren't included in the front-line clusters the IS forces initially encountered), Hell's Horses in particular makes major use of them.

-Will

I should also point out that when you get to the late 3070s, IS tech has made a major jump up. It's still not the equal of the Clans, but it's not so far behind the clans that a Clanner could spot the Spheroid 40% of the Clan's tonnage while following all honor rules in a batchall like you could reasonably do back in 3050.

Late-era Inner Sphere hardware is getting with 10% of Clan tonnage, especially if you optimize properly. Last BT game I played in was a big field battle (as opposed to map battle) where I was running a Lance of Warhammer variants with a bigger engine, jump jets, and a targeting computer. I went from "he never plays BT, he cannot be that dangerous" to "oh, @$#%!!! He can hit us at that range?!?" with my first fire action.

So, that would mean that a IS heavy tank unit would have four (4) tanks like a Lance has four (4) Mechs? Same for a Clan Star, five heavy tanks?

Kind of funny to hear that non mech units are an "in" thing now in BT. I've always been a proponent of vehicles going back to the 80's. Ruined many a cheese mongering min/max clanners day with IS mech/vehicle team builds.

If I remember correctly IS armor was 4 vehicles to a lance regardless of class. All vehicle companies usually ran 5 or 6 lances total. For companies that were mixed it was commonly done with 2 lances on tanks replacing a mech lance or 2 to 4 tanks depending on class replacing individual mechs within a lance

Clan vehicles were 2 per point with 20 in a full tank star, or 2 vehicles being considered equal to a mech of the same class mixed.

One reason tanks are more frequently encountered is related to mate gaming: Depending on how initiative works, a force that consists of nothing but cheap vehicles can destroy any mech force because they just zip around the battlefield into the backs of their opponents. They get a high to-hit modifier, and since they are so many of them there will always be plents to get activated after all enemy mechs have been so they will always be able to find weak spots. They might get destroyed with one salvo but with 20-30 on the table it doesn't matter much. Savannah Masters are infamous for this tactic. I believe this mechanic was changed in the Total Warfare edition of the rules.

Wew once taught a lesso to a bunch of newby Mechwarriors. Loaded a bunch of hovertrucks with explosives and remote controls and drove them into the legs of the mechs. It was fun watching them topple over.

There is so much stuff out there now I don't know what half of it is. Plus they have had to resulpt so many Mechs they stole from robotech. I just keep with 3025 as I have lots and still buy some!!!

Teaching a 13 yr old from my church. He got his first two Mechs for Christmas and is BT Crazy now! We just had a big Battle last SAT and I brought out the Geohex. He went nuts to say the least and everyone who happened to stop in were impressed as well!

WALLY