His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
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Reged: 06/18/08
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conventional vehicle
#160809 - 02/28/11 08:28 PM (173.128.210.235)
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What is your favorite canon conventional vehicle and why?
For me, it's the Savanna Master. Its fast and has a good solid weapon. If you can keep to its back you can even bring down an assault mech.
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Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
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Cray
General
Reged: 07/27/01
Posts: 4131
Loc: North America
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Quote:
What is your favorite canon conventional vehicle and why?
Myrmidon. It's a great BT example of a main battle tank: durable, cheap, mobile, fuel-independent, well armed, and fits into a light vehicle bay.
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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
Edited by Cray (03/01/11 06:09 PM)
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His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
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Reged: 06/18/08
Posts: 915
Loc: Somewhere on the US highways
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Re: conventional vehicle
[Re: Cray]
#160818 - 03/01/11 08:19 AM (173.138.124.44)
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Quote:
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What is your favorite canon conventional vehicle and why?
Mymidon. It's a great BT example of a main battle tank: durable, cheap, mobile, fuel-independent, well armed, and fits into a light vehicle bay.
It took me a little time to find the tank do to you misspelled it. I agree it is a good design but it is a little costly at 1.4mil in my opinion. I like my tanks to be under .5mil. In Battletech conventional vehicles are cannon fodder to be thrown in mass at battlemechs so should be extremely cheap to replace.
It should do OK against mechs of its weight.
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Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
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rider
Newbie
Reged: 05/01/08
Posts: 18
Loc: Mid-west
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I agree cost should be one of the prime considerations when outfitting a vehicle force, but I really like the Demolisher.
Nothing gives the conventional force a better scary edge when a cocky group of 'Mechs strolls into a city expecting to stomp on the infantry and other rinky-dink tank support but instead find a dual-AC/20 armed 80 ton tank staring them down.
Admittedly its slow, can run out of ammo fairly quick, but it will make the most arrogant Mechwarrior take notice that 'here be dragons' isn't just a line for fairy tales.
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Cray
General
Reged: 07/27/01
Posts: 4131
Loc: North America
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Quote:
It took me a little time to find the tank do to you misspelled it.
Well, I pronounced it correctly (with the "r") in my head. What happened to your telepathy? 
Fixed spelling.
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I agree it is a good design but it is a little costly at 1.4mil in my opinion. I like my tanks to be under .5mil.
I'll pay for the fusion engine and PPC for the following reasons:
1) With essentially no fuel needs, the Myrmidons an awesome expeditionary vehicle. ICE vehicles of the same engine rating use about 2 tons of fuel every few 8-hour maintenance cycles and BT military DropShips have shit for cargo capacity. A battalion of ICE tanks can drain a Mule's worth of fuel in a week. You can refill the hydrogen needs of a battalion of Myrmidons with one crewman's full bladder.
2) With essentially no fuel needs, its an awesome defensive and guerrilla vehicle. Invaders seize all your cities and military bases? No problem, the Mymidon keeps trucking for years.
3) With essentially no fuel needs, its awesome for training purposes. Instead of burning thousands or tens of thousands of CB in fuel for a day's training of a company, you don't pay much more than keeping the crew in barracks or pushing paper.
4) With an energy-based main gun, even if it is 300,000CB, you can shoot all day long. Want to melt a giant bridge, rip up kilometers of road, destroy an artificial harbor, bust the Hoover Dam, level a forest, flatten an entire city, or shatter square kilometers of spaceport tarmac? You can't do that with any non-nuclear, non-capital ballistic weapon. But you can in a few hours with a patient gunner, a fusion engine, and a PPC.
5) With an energy-based main gun, its an awesome expeditionary vehicle. BT military DropShips are starved for cargo space, such as for ammunition (and fuel, and armor, and other spare parts...)
6) With an energy-based main gun, its an awesome defensive/guerrilla vehicle. It can run for years without reloading.
7) With an energy-based main gun, its an awesome training vehicle. A single ton of LRMs (30,000CB) or SRMs (27,000CB) is equal to four times the average person's annual income, to say nothing of an underpaid vehicle crewman. Autocannon ammo ain't cheap, either. You can empty a ton of ammo of anything but an MG or SRM2 in about 3 minutes or less. A PPC or other energy weapon? You fire that for hours on end.
8) Fusion power is awesome for supporting units. The Myrmidon can recharge laser infantry's weaponry. It can produce hydrogen for DropShips, aerospace fighters, and fuel cell-powered support vehicles. It can light up a field encampment, power communication tents, and provide hot food. This might sound trivial, but the 10 largest fuel users in the US Army in Desert Storm included 2 combat vehicles (Abrams at #5 and Apache at #10), 7 support vehicles, and field kitchen food heaters (#9). And even though the Abrams was at #5, cutting its fuel use by 50% would've shortened build-up time for Desert Storm by a month because all those support vehicles were there for the combatants.
Yeah, I'll pay extra for the fusion and energy main gun. The tank is more expensive, but I save buckets on the rest of the military (so many fewer support units!) and I get enormous gains strategically. Want to reinforce your 'Mechs on a raid? Fusion tanks mean you don't have to worry about fueling them, energy means you don't have to worry about keeping them armed. Worried about a serious invasion? Don't worry, your tanks can keep fighting long after their bases and cities are overrun. Crew skill? You can keep your tanks on the training fields all-year long, none of that namby-pamby simulator crap. Support vehicles? You get to cut out droves of them.
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In Battletech conventional vehicles are cannon fodder to be thrown in mass at battlemechs so should be extremely cheap to replace.
That was true until 3025. Attitudes were changing by 3050, and in any era a planetary noble or merc had to keep in mind that his military unit's cost didn't begin and end at the purchase of his tank. There's gas, ammo, and support that greatly outweigh the initial purchase costs of a combat vehicle.
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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
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Reged: 06/18/08
Posts: 915
Loc: Somewhere on the US highways
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Re: conventional vehicle
[Re: Cray]
#160827 - 03/01/11 07:49 PM (174.158.3.16)
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Cray I agree with the use of fusion engines and energy weapons. I just think that you can have a good tank at half the weight and one fourth of the cost of the Myrmidon. Like this, http://www.sarna.net/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/150962/an/0/page/6#150962
When I looked up the Myrmidon here in the wiki it did not say how much armor and ammo it carries. Would you happen to have that info?
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A planetary noble or merc had to keep in mind that his military unit's cost didn't begin and end at the purchase of his tank. There's gas, ammo, and support that greatly outweigh the initial purchase costs of a combat vehicle.
Don't I know it! Since my empire is defended by large quantities of light vehicles almost all of them use fusion engines and energy weapons to keep my costs down. Of coarse since I build all of my vehicles spare parts are not a problem. Something else that helps my costs is when one of my bandit king neighbors decide to raid my manufacturing plants and I can capture a couple of his mechs to be sold to cover my defense costs.
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Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
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Cray
General
Reged: 07/27/01
Posts: 4131
Loc: North America
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Myrmidon, TR:3060.
40 tons tracked
200 fusion, 5/8 movement
1-ton turret
9 tons armor (35 front, 25 sides, 24 butt, 35 turret)
PPC (turret)
SRM 6 (turret)
1 ton ammo
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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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Christopher_Perkins
Sergeant Major
Reged: 01/20/08
Posts: 361
Loc: Stafford Virginia, United Stat...
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Re: conventional vehicle
[Re: Cray]
#160850 - 03/02/11 04:53 PM (138.162.128.52)
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Maxim
I love infantry transports...
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Christopher Robin Perkins
It is my opinion that all statements should be questioned, digested, disected, tasted, and then either spit out or adopted... RHIP is not a god given shield
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LAMdriver
Corporal
Reged: 06/11/09
Posts: 80
Loc: Asheville, NC USA
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Personally, My favorite Vehicle is the Alcorn XI MBT. A 95 ton slinger of death. Works extermely well as a fixed gun emplacement and as a hunter-killer.
Team it up with some VTOLS like the Yellow Jacket and the Hawk Moth, or if you lack air support some Typhoon Tanks and you got a force to be feared.
I also really like the quad RAC-2 Partisan AA tanks.
I have also employed LRM and SRM carriers too. SRM carriers make great urban area head hunter units.
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" The object of war is not to die for your country. It's to make some other bastard die for his!"--Patton
""War is Hell. Combat is a motherfucker."---General Tommy Franks
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His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
Captain
Reged: 06/18/08
Posts: 915
Loc: Somewhere on the US highways
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Re: conventional vehicle
[Re: LAMdriver]
#160965 - 03/17/11 09:11 AM (107.25.197.4)
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Personally, My favorite Vehicle is the Alcorn XI MBT. A 95 ton slinger of death. Works extermely well as a fixed gun emplacement and as a hunter-killer.
Did you spell it correctly? I cant find any reference to it anywhere.
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Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
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LAMdriver
Corporal
Reged: 06/11/09
Posts: 80
Loc: Asheville, NC USA
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My bad! Its spelled Alacorn on the wiki here. Its the tank with 3 gauss rifles from the IS. Deployed mainly with the FedSuns.
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" The object of war is not to die for your country. It's to make some other bastard die for his!"--Patton
""War is Hell. Combat is a motherfucker."---General Tommy Franks
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His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey
Captain
Reged: 06/18/08
Posts: 915
Loc: Somewhere on the US highways
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Re: conventional vehicle
[Re: LAMdriver]
#160978 - 03/18/11 11:09 AM (184.194.32.152)
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Quote:
Personally, My favorite Vehicle is the Alacorn XI MBT. A 95 ton slinger of death. Works extermely well as a fixed gun emplacement and as a hunter-killer.
I think at 16.6mil C-Bills that its WAY to expensive for a conventional vehicle. I would rather use that money and buy a heavy battlemech.
And someone needs to edit the wiki. The speed should read as 32 km/h and not 54 km/h
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Why argue if the glass is half full or half empty, when you know someone is going to knock it over and spill it anyways.
I was a Major *pain* before
But I got a promotion.
I am now a General *pain*
Yay for promotions!!!
Edited by His_Most_Royal_Highass_Donkey (03/18/11 11:10 AM)
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Goundry
Private
Reged: 05/23/07
Posts: 47
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I like the alacorn too, it may be stupidly expensive but i have 2 alacorns teamed with 2 demolishers that I use for denying. Areas during campaigns. No body is ever stupid enough to go near them.
If I had to pick a more reasonable unit I would pick the goblin infantry support vehicle a lance of these each with a platoon of infantry and use the spare space for parts, that is once again looking at it from a campaign point of view
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