It’s 3025 assault mech production levels aren’t great buuut you still have a lot of the 500 chargers you’ve bought from Hollis in desperation. So you’ve got plenty of 400ltv engines

So kurita techs bodge 2 extra tons of internal structure to some Chargers and give them 100t structural capacity as feasibility studies/ prototypes. Then give them readily available weapons made in combine factories.
what would that would look like ?

I give you…
‘Expensive Fat Dragon’
100t Move:4/6 Internal structure:10t
10 heat sinks AF176
RA: 1xAc5 + 1ton ammo
RTR 1x ML
LT: 1x Lrm10+ 2t Ammo
LA: 1x ML
H: 1x ML

AND

‘Temu Battle Master’
100t M:4/6 internal structure:10t
14 heat sinks AF200
RA: PPC
RT: 2xML
LT: 1xSrm4 +1t ammo
LA: 1xML
H: 1xML

They both still do 60pts of charge damage on the old rules

Would the controller have been happy with this ‘stop gap’?

I recently saw that a LGS had a hodgepodge of Clan and Battlefield support salvage boxes and decided that for fun I would buy 4x Clan and 2x Battlefield support to randomly drum up a Mercenary or specialized faction lance (depending on pull).

I haven’t been this excited to open stuff in a while and with a world as big as BT I could easily see this as being a phenomenal way to do intro events of Classic or AlphaStrike.

It feels like things are in transition right now but I would love to see more consistent and well supplied salvage boxes with a decent enough variety in them for stuff like this.

I will post my final pulls eventually but I am stretching it out to spread out the dopamine and give time to build story concepts in my head. The first pull is an EXT-4D, so we are off to an interesting start already.

Have you all done events like this officially or unofficially with friends?

Edit: Didn’t realize I would hit a nerve with the salvage boxes. I certainly was not trying to recommend that CGL move into a random-box primary model altogether, but as someone who enjoys the randomness and drafting styles of play to avoid getting too meta, it’s a fun method on the side. Glad to see some good conversations though!

Following on the heels of Wolves on the Border. At some point they gotta do the Stackpole trilogies, right?

Group has players interested in customs but reasonably shy of min-maxing.

My reflexive response [1] is on the crunchy end, and the solutions I'm familiar with [2] are too campaign-oriented. I'm also surprised I don't know more folk-formats given that the opportunity for abuse is long known.

So I'm looking for battle-tested alternatives for pickup play that are more interesting than hard limits, while also being slimish and ideally a bit self balancing.

[1] My boardgame brain cells immediately jump to storage-wars like bidding with players spending BV on collections of random bits, and/or a "I cut, you choose" twist where players sort pools of bits into allotments other players draft from -- all aimed at letting players self balance things like pulses and jump jets etc. while granting the fun of solving optimization problems, and maybe granting a novel/funky decision spaces for the old hats.

[2] Resource-tight campaign play offers the simple "can't afford all that you want" as an easy control. Another entertaining one I've played under was where omni-mech podding was allowed _but via request to the quarter master (GM)_ who'd give you back half of one thing you wanted and just Fing your shit up. "Yea so we got the large pulse and three of the five jumpjets you wanted -- had remove half the heat sinks and then someone ganked them off the tarmac so had to balance her out with a gaggle of flamers." Good times for another time.

[Edits for typos]

I've seen plenty of configurations that remove the hands on an omni, but so far I haven't seen them be added for a configuration. I'm mainly asking cause I'm wanting to do an elite Smoke Jaguar Star with a pair of Ebon-Jaguar, Raptor-II, a Shadow-Cat, and assorted elementals and logistics vehicles. The problem comes with only one mech having hands, so I was curious if I could make an Ebon-Jaguar variant that has a pair of hands, partly for more usefulness and for the funny.

So I was looking at clan coyote recently and decided to try to put together some of their units and stumbled across the Spirit Walker. And I was wondering if it was shaped different or can u just use a Black Knigh for the mini and just paint it in coyote colors?

Link for reference on the specific mech im talking about

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Spirit_Walker

Got inspired to do this when I realize I could paint the Grill on the Rifleman’s cockpit to look like teeth.

Morning y'all! I'm trying a funny event for my crew to shake things up. I'm going to host a Battletech themed Family Feud style game show at our LGS for my players and I have made a Google form with a few questions I will likely use for the game. I want real surveys from our community, so if y'all could take a couple of minutes to help answer these questions it'd be much appreciated!

Hellcat’s gotta be one of my favorite CW Era machines, and even though MUL says it’s a Jade Falcon exclusive, I’m integrating one into my Merc outfit. My logic is; if I can get it in game, my guys could get it too.

I’m wanting to make the datasheet reflect the classic MW4 model by removing the LA mounted ER Large Laser and replacing it with 2 ER Mediums and either stick an extra double heat sink in each side torso or add 2 more tons of armor.

Which would you choose with this slight reconfig? Extra cooling or extra armor?

Hellcat’s gotta be one of my favorite CW Era machines, and even though MUL says it’s a Jade Falcon exclusive, I’m integrating one into my Merc outfit. My logic is; if I can get it in game, my guys could get it too.

I’m wanting to make the datasheet reflect the classic MW4 model by removing the LA mounted ER Large Laser and replacing it with 2 ER Mediums and either stick an extra double heat sink in each side torso or add 2 more tons of armor.

Which would you choose with this slight reconfig? Extra cooling or extra armor?

I bought one of the new salvage boxes for the combat vehicles, and they have the changeable tops, very cool!

I'm trying to find out how to make another bottom so I can just 3 vehicles. Do you all have any ideas?

#mechtober 2026 is here! Sharing my freshly prepped Grey Death Legion collection with you all!

P.S. My son once broke my Wolverine's gun, so I had to 3D print a replacement :)

I am new to Battletech and have taken a liking to mechs with a flat top. I am hoping the community can help me come up with a list of flat heads to start collecting. Ideally they would be in catalyst plastic, but I am open to hearing about any horizontal henrys that exist.

So far I have the following:
Masakari (warhawk)
Hoplite
Dire Wolf (Daishi)
Pouncer
King Crab (gothic version)

I grabbed a random Win11 background image, since I like to rotate images quit a lot, because ADD & indecision rule my desktop…

But I don’t recall who, where, or when I grabbed this exquisitely detailed map, and it is WORTH IT. I cannot even read the Legend in 4K, it’s so razor-sharp, but I LOVE IT.

It’s my sole BT BG on my gaming PC, but…who drew it? Who made this amazing map? The effort had to be a labor of love, and deserves to be lauded.

Here’s a poor impart-captured screengrab of my Win Wallpaper.

Please help me find the Cartographer/Artist!

Painted up the OpFor for the Scouring Sands. Next up will be the Mercs.

Or as I like to call it, the "Murder Booper"

It runs up, pops you in the guts from range with that nasty ER Large Laser, and runs away before you can wipe the floor with its tissue-paper armor.

Did any survive into the 31st Century?

The Griffin IIC! The next in my line of IIC mechs from the Clan Cavalry box (and that means that theres 2 more punishing post titles coming) for my DCMS! This guy was surprisingly fussy to paint with the under torso LRM launchers and the slightly protruduing but also slightly recessed CT large laser not jiving with my usual painting techniques. That said I am pleased with the end result and will now happily include the Grifin IIC as my 48th mech for my DCMS! Here's hoping i can bang out a few more ahead of snowblind and I shift gears back to my CGB who have been on ice ever since I finished Project 3052 and swapped over to collecting my DCMS.

Haven’t painted in a while. Think he turned out pretty good. I also wish I was better at taking pictures of my minis.

After, then before - Wolverine and Griffin respectively of course

Another one for the 9th. "Do I hear boss music?" This 'mech is piloted by the yet to be named Star Captain in command of the recon binary. This mech is absolutely hilarious, being a very solidly armored 55 tonner that goes 6/9 and does Please God Stop levels of damage as long as you don't care about shutting down or exploding. It managed to crank out 126 damage last game in a 3 turn game. It ended said game at 49 heat after taking some unplanned engine hits.

I fucking love the Stormcrow B.

Are Elementals only able to be used as battlefield support now, or am I missing something?

Also, if this is the case, as far as I can tell Elementals no longer are attched to enemy mechs that they swarm, they just get extra damage groupings on their attacks and Elementals also no longer have a chance to take hits for Omnimechs they ae riding.

Is this all correct or am I missing something?