Hi, Alaric!  Welcome to the game.

You will have the option to pick up after market parts that you can use to upgrade your ride.  These parts won't make you invulnerable, but they could help keep you alive.

I like Jump Jets.  They give you a chance to get to places where you couldn't walk or run and land facing the direction you choose.

Welcome Alaric, a 20 ton mech seems iffy to me on a primary character. Certainly possible I guess, but one screw up, or a bad dice day could see things going south very quickly.

says the unit commander in the 25 ton mongoose...

Haha, yep. Those 5 tons help a lot though. Also the goose packs quite a lot of armor, almost as much as a 30 ton Valkyrie, of course the trade off is no jump jets.

All sorts of things to consider.

If youre giving up jump jets be wary of the entrapment ploy, where you're surrounded by op force units and cant move leading to a def mod of +0 and possible obliteration the following turn.

I'm in a Locust, Heavily modified 3V variant.  I wanted a Locust for sentimental reasons, and the selling point on this one was the two Medium Lasers in the CT, and the removable ammo in the RT for modification.  It's a pocket Jenner at the moment, quick, nimble, with four medium lasers, but it has no jump jets and Blake help me if i do something stupid, cause i wont have the armor to soak the damage from careless stupidity.

Luc is in a Wasp-1A.  Off the shelf it's a terrible mech, but the selling point on the mech is the placement of equipment that loans itself to some nifty modifications.


I want to endorse the Hornet, but i'm not sure i can.  The 5/8/5 movement is pretty good on any other mech, but for a mech this size, it just might not cut it.  That said, it's got some pretty nifty critical locations if you can leave with the 'average' speed.

Would not suggest the Flea or Thorn.  No jump jets and slower than a locust.  Very bad mix for a mech with a maximum armor factor around 69af.  If youre not going to take a jumper look at the Locust or Mercury.  The Mercury is almost... a baby Mongoose.  Same speed... same potential weapon profile.  Just 1.5 tons less armor, and .5 tons less internals.  The criticals are spaced okay, for some okay mods and it has all it's arm actuators which can be useful sometimes.

Those five tons can be a notable difference in mods.

It's the difference between need 1 tons Endo Steel and 1.25 tons of Endo Steel, which can be an aggrevating tease when modifications come around.

That said, theres no doubt 25 tons is better than 20 tons, but with the bug warrior incentive, an extra option and 50 extra xp, can go a long way to making that 20 ton's mechwarrior more competent

This is a light mech focused campaign.

Average movement speed out there is around 5/8/5

If youre moving 4/6/4 or 5/8/0 youre probably going to be looked at as 'slow'.

If you're only moving 4/6/0 you better be (by this campaigns standards) Huge.

Average mech size is probably around a 30~35 ton mech.

A lot of Valkyries, Jenners and Panthers.

There are a few Mongoose but they're balanced by the occasional whitworth, blackjack or even hatchetman.

We had a Hunchback in the campaign for a while, but ultimately it's slow speed made it vulnerable and it took an ammo explosion, survived with CASE, but it wasnt pretty.

I dont think it would be inaccurate to say that most of the unit commanders are looking for average speed or better, and prefer to stay in the light category of mechs.

While... 20 tons is never ever going to be considered huge, it's no longer at the bottom of the food chain.

Some tweaking and the inclusion of Ultra Light mechs that come in at 10 and 15 tons give the 20 tonners the hope of having someone to bully around.

These are all lovely points. I remember there being a downside to jump jets in that it was easier for people to hit you on the turn they were used. I may be remembering incorrectly however. I am really fond of utility, and trading some speed for a third mode of movement is a pretty fair deal, if using it doesn't make it easier to get killed.

Using makes it harder to hit things, but it can get you out of some bad spots and is pretty useful as a foil to prevent enveloping death.

Jump jets are really nice, especially when the last few missions have been endless concrete hell. :) E.G can't run and move without skid checks.

On the bright side this mission is an effort to leave the concrete hell.

In reply to Kitten (msg # 816):

^^ That it is.

Off for the day to the coast.

Alaric, will make you a member of all three missions so you can see how the missions are conducted and resolved.

If you have any questions please as them here.

Thank you! I will do so.

edit: I appreciate that the 3.2mm c-bills for new characters to purchase their mechs are just enough to buy a Jenner and leave about 1,625 c-bills left over for lunch.

The Jenner is a classy machine. Tempting, especially since 7/11/5 is great movement ability compared to 8/12/0 or 6/9/6 and you get 15 extra tons of mech with it. (over the 20-ton models).

That being said, I also like the Wasp-1D, if the Flamer can be swapped out for another medium laser.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:50, Mon 11 May 2015.

In the thread that details character creation (link to a message in another game) there are a number of options and it states that you can select up to two of them at character creation. In the PDf, there are a number of other things listed as Options which all cost exp and it says a character can have as many as three of these. Are these different things from one another?

Bug Warrior states that the character can pick an additional option, is that from the list in the RTJ thread, the PDF, both? Thanks folks!

If you like dual medium lasers on a 20 ton mech then your mech of choice is the Stinger.  It's alt the 3G strips off the MG's for a second medium laser and a ton of armour.

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Every primary character has the three main attributes: Accuracy, Physical, Mental as well as Edge and the choice of three options.

Of all of the options Energy Weapons requires you devoting two of them to take it thus it would limit you to Energy Weapons and only one other option.

If you take Bug Warrior it allows an 'extra option' thus a total of four for a primary character.

So, hypothetically, were I to go with the Stinger-3G, I could spend 500k for Bug Warrior, 300k for Walking on the Edge, and 1,662,240 for the mech, leaving me with 737,760c-bills and 400 exp to spend on attributes and up to 4 of the options listed in the PDF. Is that correct?

You start with 3.2 million

Less 500k for Bug warrior brings you to 2.7 Million.
Less 300k for walking the edge brings you to 2.4 million
less cost of the mech, you're stating which mech, so i cant confirm cost.

if it's what you say it is, the math looks sound.

that leaves you with 737,760cb for stuff....promotions... modifications... parts... whatever.

You have 400xp and 4 option slots... (Energy does take up two slots)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:51, Mon 11 May 2015.

Hypothetically speaking, yes.

Though if you went with the Jenner-F (The one with four medium lasers and more armour) you will have more c-bills left over than the standard Jenner with the four medium lasers and SRM4.

Of course you can't take bug warrior with a Jenner.

Yes... Jenners... are not bugs.

Why does it sound to me like your conveying what gritting your teeth together would be like in words?

all imagination.

Just confirming what's said.

Suggest starting to get me a character, towards the end of a mission i get thrown all sorts of bookkeeping, and you want my full attention when you submit a character for questions and what not.

Pussy Cats (CO) Lance should be don this time next week is my guess,and shortly after the Ironswords (XO) Lance.  Pussycats (XO) Lance got a late start though so they'll be done a little later is the expectation.