The past year of painting miniatures
House Kurita Sword of Light
Comstar
Ghost Regiment
Snake Cult
Free Worlds League Covenant Guards
Concordat Cuirassiers
Clan Sea Fox Spina Khanate
Pleiades Lancers
Gothic Fungal Apocalypse
u/rzelln — 5 days ago
u/rzelln
Gothic mechs in a fungal apocalypse
I decided to play around with some basing bit mushrooms, glowing crystals, and 'moss' to represent a "Last of Us"-style fungal infestation in the BattleTech Gothic universe. The pilots are safe as long as they stay in their mechs and the Life Support systems don't fail.
u/rzelln — 9 days ago
▲ 113 r/BattletechPainting
Gothic minis amidst a fungal apocalypse
I decided to play around with some basing bit mushrooms, glowing crystals, and 'moss' to represent a "Last of Us"-style fungal infestation in the BattleTech Gothic universe. The pilots are safe as long as they stay in their mechs and the Life Support systems don't fail.
Tonight I'm going to try gluing more mushroom bits onto the top of the Gothic Scorpion.
u/rzelln — 10 days ago
▲ 56 r/battletech
Fungal bioweapon takes over Gothic Phoenix Hawk
In the interest of coming up with a novel thing to do with my Gothic miniatures, I looked up some plastic miniature terrain kits, and was enamored of the mushroom set.
So I went with a kind of eerie purple and fluorescent green scheme, and paired that with some mushroom caps and a moss basing element to make it look like Last of Us style fungus has overtaken the mech.
u/rzelln — 10 days ago
▲ 125 r/battletech
Copper tone Tian Zong
So, while trying to mix colors to get a particular shade of green, I ended up getting something that looks more like mint ice cream, which is all wrong for a scary space robot.
But then I painted over in copper to make it look like the Statue of Liberty mid-oxidization.
Then washes and highlights and an attempt to do cockpit jeweling, plus some mud and cacti with a lizard, I'm pretty happy with the result.
u/rzelln — 14 days ago
▲ 35 r/battletech
The Ganymede Incident
I ran a game for some folks at a local game store today.
At April’s meet-up, the newest player in the group showed off a bunch of Iron Wind battle armor models someone had given him, and he asked if I could plan a mission for this month to give him an excuse to bring a lot of battle armor.
The mission I came up with was inspired by book two of The Expanse. On Ganymede in the Sol system, there’s an agricultural complex that grows food for the Belters. Clan Wolf attacks, hoping to capture scientists working in the greenhouse domes (using the Lunar Base map). Republic and mercenary forces try to stop the abduction. Battle armor squads are able to enter the domes and grab scientists (who are in space suits).
It was me and three players – two playing as Clan Wolf, with 6000 BV to split between them, then me as the Republic and another player as a merc ally, also with 6000 BV. We defenders had four squads of Longinus and IS Standard suits, plus an Annihilator, and Osprey, and a Revenant. The Clanners had five squads of Rabids, Salamanders, and Gnomes, plus a Locust, Fire Moth, Mist Lynx, and some infantry transport tanks.
I used a strongly simplified set of rules for vacuum that only cared when armor was reduced to 0 in a location.
The Clanners initially feinted toward one side of the domes, and after the Anni committed, they swept most of their forces around to the other side, while relying on a fearless Locust pilot to duel the 100 tonner.
Then a massive battle-armor engagement erupted inside the large dome. It only lasted three turns as the Clan elementals rushed in, grabbed scientists, and fell back, while on the other side of the glass they could see the defending mechs try to cut off their escape routes.
The Revenant got a lucky hit that breached the Fire Moth’s head, but then the Mist Lynx repaid the favor, knocking out the drone. The Osprey inferno’d a few battle armor on their way in, but then was drawn off trying to knock out the motive systems of the tank transports, hoping that if the Clan battle armor was forced to escape on foot, the Annihilator would have clear shots on the open lunar terrain.
Then the Locust – after tanking 21 damage from LB 10s and medium pulse lasers, falling down, and getting back up – got a crit on the Anni’s rear torso and hit ammo. The interior of the agro dome was a horrible conflagration thanks to Salamander flamers, and the Osprey ordered the Republic forces to fall back and let the Clanners win (because he was outnumbered in unit activations at this point, something like 7 to 4, and Ospreys do not have enough back armor to risk being backstabbed by a pair of lights).
The Clans had won.
---
It was a fun game, but we came away wishing for one change: let battle armor make melee attacks against other battle armor.
u/rzelln — 14 days ago
▲ 184 r/battletech
Yes, that cow skull is like 3 meters long. What do you think we have the mechs for?
u/rzelln — 17 days ago
▲ 29 r/battletech
I invite you to share memorable mech kills you've had in games this week. If you like someone's kill story, upvote it.
Also, feel free to share an I Didn't Hear No Bell story, of a unit that survived far longer than you'd expect.
My entry:
He Really Mastered That Battle
During a Trial of Possession between forces of Clan Sea Fox and Federated Suns survivors of the Palmyra Disaster, mechwarrior Tiberius Engeco paired his BattleMaster BLR-6G against a Sea Fox warrior piloting a showroom floor model of a Jade Hawk JHK-03.
Because if you're gonna have a fight, you might as well also try to sell your opponent's a mech.
Considering the hilly terrain and how short-range the Jade Hawk's weapons load is, Tiberius's plan was simple: stand still in a woods hex on the far end of the map and fire a Heavy PPC and four Light PPCs every turn.
Turn 1 - The Jade Hawk runs in and just gets shot repeatedly.
(It triggers its supercharger and runs and gets to within 12 hexes, firing into empty space to build up heat for its TSM. Tiberius inflicts 25 damage to the Jade Hawk, triggering a PSR that the clanner fails.)
Turn 2 - The Jade Hawk runs in and just gets shot repeatedly.
(It stands up, lets its supercharger rest, and due to terrain only gets to within 8 hexes, firing some more to keep its heat up but hitting with nothing. Tiberius inflicts 20 damage this time, inflicting a crit on the left claw.)
Turn 3 - The Jade Hawk runs in and gets shot repeatedly.
(It triggers its supercharger and runs adjacent, firing a barrage of SRMs that just scrape the paint. Even point-blank, Tiberius hits with his heavy PPC and one light PPC and a pair of small x-pulse lasers and a pack of Streak SRM 6s. This breaches the Jade Hawk's left torso and crits SRM ammo, blowing off the whole left side.)
Tiberius's player is smug, like someone who has brought a gun to a knife fight ought to be. He thinks he has won, because he is used to Inner Sphere XL engines.
Then the Jade Hawk clamps a 22-damage TSM-empowered claw on his head and rips his cockpit out.
Come At Me
Meanwhile on the other side of the combat, mechwarrior Billie in her CN11-OD omni-Centurion with a hatchet and shield squares off against a Stormcrow H. Random chance has the Centurion's shots cluster on the Stormcrow's right torso, and by the end of turn 2, it has already breached the armor.
At the same time, though, the Stormcrow puts 32 damage of heavy laser on the Cent's left torso, which only survives because the shield soaks 10 of it.
Turn 3, the Stormcrow is at 13 heat, so it stands still the next turn to try to stabilize its shots. This lets the Centurion get into melee range.
The Stormcrow only fires the heavy lasers to try to cool down, but neither hits the Cent's weak right torso. The Cent, however, lasers and hacks its hatchet clear through the Crow's left torso, inflicting two engine hits and taking out 6 heat sinks. This pushes the Crow to 27 heat.
It falls, but by a miracle roll, it manages not to shut down.
Turn 4, its speed reduced to 1/2, it stands back up, gestures with its one remaining hand for the Cent to come at it, and then clenches its fist.
https://i.redd.it/6j42os7n2zyg1.gif
(At this point I look at the record sheet and realize it actually has no lower or hand actuators. So we retcon it, so instead it just made an awkward wave.)
The Centurion hits with a full 9 SRMs and both lasers, but the damage spreads all over the place, achieving nothing. The Crow holds its fire so it can cool off.
Then, simultaneously, the Cent's hatchet comes down as the Crow's stump arm lashes out. Sharpened metal crunches into the Crow's CT, scoring a gyro hit.
And the handless punch lands on the Cent's right torso! Which has a shield, which entirely soaks the damage.
The Crow folds like a book and the pilot is nearly knocked out by the fall. But he manages to cool down to 5 heat.
Turn 5, missing half its mech, gyro busted, the Stormcrow tries to stand, falters, crunches its knee, but tries again, and gets back on its feet.
It makes a defiant, nubby 'come at me' gesture.
---
What's your Battlemech Kill of the Week story?
u/rzelln — 19 days ago
▲ 145 r/battletech
u/rzelln — 20 days ago
▲ 189 r/battletech
The players in my Saturday game have begun getting better new mechs, but this was their starting force.
Rifleman 9T
Phoenix Hawk 3PL
Blackjack OB
Scorpion 12K (c3 master paired with the Blackjack)
Aeron Strike VTOL
And yes, there were other mechs as options, but one player chose the chopper.
u/rzelln — 22 days ago