Finally mech franchise that isn't biased to mechs

wouldn't mind a 4 hr video.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I love me some good big stompy robots and power suits, and this seems to fit the right level of engagement for me. I love it when warfare can be tactical and not "Let's throw the biggest baddest things out there everytime because the game doesn't support tactics."

Indeed, they are in fact a niche combat platform that works very well for environment. Pair that with solid mobility, modular arsenal, and easy logistics and you have solid infantry mech.

The Asp absolutely will not survive an encounter with Jager unless it is lucky, it's BELOW the minimum requirement.

Asps ain't really trooper Gears, they're mostly built for garrison duty and bullying infantry

True. But its also probably about the most basic trooper gear in the game. MILICIA for when your not cool enough for even stripped down jagers

Being assigned a Hunter or Jager means you’re new and unknown. Being assigned an Asp means your Commander knows you. And doesn’t like you.

Are the video game rights still being held hostage by some cryptobros?

Lancer has more online support tools as far as I know.

Why not all of the games?!

I'd say Lancer first for its online tools but I would 100% check out HG sometime.

Heavy Gear has years of books for setting. You can also watch Votoms for inspiration

In defense of BT, The utility of mechs has always been in their maneuverability. The videogames do a terrible job of showing off just what a skilled pilot can do in the cockpit. Mechs are big but they're anything but slow, most of them outpacing conventional war machines such as tanks and trucks (anything moving 4/6 or more is on par with tanks or just better). Tanks and other vehicles also just cheat in BT's ruleset as many. like the Shriek PPC or the Demolisher with 2 UAC/20s, just don't follow heat sinking rules. If you had an 80 ton tank firing off as many PPCs as an Awesome and half of its affective weight isn't in Heat Sinks, the crew would be struggling to prevent shutdown if they weren't already melting alive. If anything, the counterplay between mechs and other mechanized warfare is undersold. Aerospace operates about how you'd expect bombing aircraft to operate, while the mechs with AA specialties like the Jager and Rifleman barely get utilized for this purpose. Meanhile, mechs with weak/exposed actuators are rarely threatened by infantry and mine weaponry, while battlearmour either does nothing at all or shreds infantry the way it was meant to. BT doesn't really misrepresent the balance of warfare, it just doesn't flesh out the components that are already there.

@@FishySpiderGuy exactly the point battletech likes to skimp on details and ideas for stuff like this oh. and I'll be honest this vid is the first time I've ever heard E-war used in battletech being used seriously and not just a rare mech upgrade

Check out VOTOMs, this setting draws a lot of inspo from it

The metal ones are relatively pricey, but there's newer plastic models that are pretty cheap. You can buy entire force packs for around 60bux, or individual sprues for about 6.

This is just me tooting my horn, but look up 'heavy gear wiki gg'. I maintain it and there's a bunch of info there. There's also the mac's lore video about HG which covers a good portion. That said, more primer videos would always be cool!

Not that I know of. It can be difficult to simulate with only one roll, especially when models with different PI (or with Agile trait) are involved. On the flipside, they don't happen all that often. And I find that starting from clarifying how many dies each roll will have (before you start rolling) really helps to quicken things up.

It will get good VTT support once the modules start coming out. For both Roll20 and Foundry

@@Metoollhead Is anyone actively working on Foundry?

Honestly, I kind of have the opposite opinion. My love for mechs mostly comes from stuff like power armor. It's kind of the reason I generally prefer smaller mechs (even though I've come to appreciate larger ones too). I do really like the humanoid-ish silhouette, though I do also like when proportions are morphed a bit. It's kind of the reason I love stuff like the Landmate from Appleseed, basically these giant power suits that you control simply by moving like you would as a human but on larger scale. This also ties into the weaponry, enlargened infrantry weapons make sense with the way you control these machines. Plus smaller mechs usually make more sense since can they carve out a niche not filled by main battle tanks or other armored vehicles. Same reason I love Patlabor, where the mechs are basically just construction equipment, that basically evolved into versatile, generalist AFVs that may not be able to directly face off against a main battle tank, but can be more easily used in jungles or even airdropped because of relatively light weight and have a large area of operation once dropped because of high mobility compared to traditional vehicles

I want MORE, lol i really like mech stuff but never go into battletech. Got into lancer but it didnt have the crunch and realism i desired. Watched your vids for lancer though.

Yeah it is, there's a bunch of layout issues and I find myself having to skip forward and backwards a fair number of times. Not to mention the text is written in a very awkward manner, with rules hidden away and spread around in big paragraphs. Sometimes the rules are just simply not written very well. That said, the underlying system is great and there's lots of gameable content there. I understand there's a modules + DM screen coming that's supposed to help summarize things up a bit.

It’s definitely disorganized but it works well once you wrap your head around it, there’s reference stuff coming too

Mine is when mechanics support the themes of the system

Around 2:58.

@@DragonicDude VOTOMS, so much VOTOMS

​@@DragonicDude Votoms OVA, Roots of Ambition. Votoms was a direct inspiration for HG

The skill is added on top of a base dice, so 4d6, taking one action to shoot means you roll 3d6, usually against a 4d6 dodge roll (4d6 from 3 piloting (gear). That is low, but also you will probably be using an autocannon so burst 1 adds another dice, and precise is basically a strange +1 to dice result. There's more high damage weapon, but they usually lack burst or precise or range, they are good against tough target that can't dodge well though.

With Gunnery (Gear) 3 you'd roll: 1 base die + 3 skill die = 4d6. For each round you have an Action Point. These can be used to nullify one action when it comes to the penalties. So, you'd just roll 4d6 if that's your only action for the round. And that's without using the weapon's bonuses, reliable skills, etc. That stuff adds up. Although, I'd lower the Difficulty to 3 when it comes to hitting an immobile target.

@@11dragonkid11 Ok I think I get it. You really need to stack those bonuses up. With Gunnery 3, making it a reliable from Lifepath or Role or any similar feature for the Reliable dice you would roll 5d6 dropping the lowest if you spend the action point to negate the penalty. +1 to result if using the LAC Precise feature too. I really feel for anyone who doesn't take Gunnery 3 in heavy gear and a Pilot/Tactics skills 3 for evasion though. You were 100% right in putting those in the vid.

Armored Core 6 did great. People want fromsoft mechs. Please give us more chromehounds fromsoft. I miss it so.

I thought I posted this three days ago, but apparently it didn't go through. If you'd like a TTRPG that draws inspiration from Chromehounds, you might want to check out a game called METALLURGENT that recently went into public beta.

VOTOMS!

Votoms OVA, Roots of Ambition