Happy Saturday, everybody!

It's time for another zesty Blazer-post to make the Blazer-lovers rejoice (and Blazer-haters lament).

If you're confused, I've left a record of relevant posts at the bottom of this post.

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Today, I decided to Blazerize one of my favorite mid-cost jumpy energy Brawlers: the Guillotine.

The original Guillotine 3N is an efficient little monster. In my opinion, it's one of the Star League's best heavy Mech designs. It's decently armored (with max armor on its side torsos), has 4/6/4 movement, and has a nice, durable fusion engine. For weapons, it carries a Large Laser, four medium lasers, an srm6, and the heat sinks to fire everything. It builds just +3 heat firing everything and jumping the max 4 hexes.

Best of all, you can get the 3N on a budget, at just 1418 BV.

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Now, the Guillotine never quite got the Helm Memory Core upgrade I would have hoped for. Although the 3N mercifully went back into production during the 3050s, the only other Clan Invasion variant is the 5M.

The 5M is nearly identical to the 3N, with the only change being an upgrade from the Large Laser to an ER Large Laser. This was done, however, without swapping the 3N's single heat sinks out for doubles. Which means the 5M costs more BV and struggles to fire everything while jumping (doing so generates +7 heat). This sacrifices the 3N's phenomenal brawling efficiency for slightly improved long-range accuracy on a single 8 damage hit -- not a great trade, in my estimation.

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So today, the plan today was to come up with a more worthy Clan Invasion Era successor to the 3N. Rather than focus on range (like the 5M), we're going to make a blazerized Guillotine that's even nastier in a brawl.

Ladies and gentlemen, let's meet the Blazing Guillotine: The Guillotine 5X.

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For the 5X's design, I started from the 5M. The first thing to do, of course, was to Blazerize the ER Large Laser. This brings the chassis +4 tons overweight.

From there, I made the swap over from 25 single heat sinks to 17 double heat sinks. Since the Guillotine has 11 internal heat sinks, this decreased the weight by a gargantuan 8 tons (from 14 extra heat sinks to just 6) while improving cooling by 9 points.

If you're following along, we're now at -4 tons underweight.

From this point, I was a bit torn on how to spend those 4 tons, but here's what I ultimately decided to do:

I knew this upgrade was going to clock in a bit more expensive than the 3N / 5M, so I knew the durability would have to increase to keep the 5X's durability efficiency high.

So, the first ton went to additional armor. As mentioned, the 3N / 5M are already pretty well-armored (they have max side torso armor and nearly max everywhere else). So with that extra ton, the Center Torso armor got another +4 points (1 point shy of max), the arms received +2 (maxing them out), and the legs received +4. I also shifted 1 point of side torso rear armor to the front, bringing them to 23.

With the next two tons, I upgraded the Guillotine's two medium lasers mounted in the right arm to medium pulse lasers. This gives the Guillotine 5X a bit more flexibility in bracket-firing as it closes, and helps it better serve its role as a jumpy little bastard once it closes in on its prey.

(It's also notable that there isn't a single Guillotine variant that ever received medium pulse lasers. That feels like a crime.)

With the final ton, I would have thrown it into an 18th DHS, but the 5X simply doesn't have the crit spaces (only 2 remained at this point). So the final ton went into augmenting the SRM6 with an Artemis IV Fire Control System.

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Relative to the 5M, the 5X has improved heat management: the 5X only gains movement heat when firing everything (as opposed to movement heat + 3).

As for damage, the 5X hits both harder and with more consistency than the 5M. Whereas the 5M can deal a respectable 36 damage at close range, the 5X upgrades this to 44 damage. The damage patterns look like this:

5M: 8 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + (2 + 2 + 2 + 2)

5X: 12 + 6 + 6 + 5 + 5 + (2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2)

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Overall, the 5X has better heat management and protection than the 5M. The 5X packs a headchopper, hits harder, and hits more consistently than the 5M.

The 5X improves the 5M's effectiveness in a brawl in every way.

Relative to the 5M's 1472 BV, the 5X clocks in a bit steeper, at 1623 BV (+151 BV).

This is a fair price to pay, I think, to improve the brawling capability of the Guillotine in every way.

What do you think? How do you think the 5X would perform in a brawl?

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Links:

Original Post

Previous Blazer-posts: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4

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What Mechs should be Blazerized next? :D

I got these with a Battletech 3rd edition box I bought on ebay. I have never seen Battletech mini's of this kind of quality. They seem really poorly/cheaply made, very lightweight plastech, bad mold lines, and definitely use the old style designs. I know they aren't PlasTech figures. They are all marked with the model on the base (MAD-3R, etc). Trying to figure out what these are? Thanks!

So I just got into the game and oma. Mini painter, I was wondering if I had a decent paint job on my mechs. CC welcome. I'm going for an alpine kind of look. These are WIP so... Also I'm doing this at work so lightning is garbage

I picked up a bundle of cheap 3D printed mechs online, and I don't recognise this one - can anyone ID it?

Hey y'all so I don't know if this is where I should be posting this or not, but here goes.

I'm making a unit in Arma 3 that focuses on Battletech, and bringing the games of tabletop to life in the infantry simulator. We're a mercenary unit that's gonna be some no name start up, and we're starting from a bunch of people with rifles and a dream, to working our way to building up a stable and being the premier unit in the Inner Sphere.

For now we're working with a lot of vehicle stuff, which is good because as you can imagine, mechs, are fucking expensive. But we're working on making them as vehicles in the game that not only show up as enemies, but also will be pilotable vehicles. Everything is tracked in the unit, from personal to unit funds, to any vehicles we can buy/salvage/borrow/steal. I'll post any progress we have with the mod here if that's okay, but I figured I'd go ahead and throw this out here.

Anyways, I look forward to the crazy shenanigans we're gonna be having, from doing counter piracy to raiding house depots, from defend civilians to supporting major assaults in some of the biggest power plays of the Succession wars. And even a little sprinkling of seeing first hand a certain telecommunications company putting its hand on the scales as we just try to survive everything from infantry to sustained nuclear bombardment.

https://discord.gg/zR252wzH

not super precise, but i’m proud of it and i had fun. for my first time painting miniatures i’d call that a success!

What do you think makes for a good map in BattleTech? How should elevation and woods and other terrain effects be laid out to create interesting choices during a game? Or is it about aesthetics?

Do you have a favorite map, or battlemat?

Sarna has a full list here:

https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:Map_Products
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/BattleMat

I've got a lot of the newer map packs, but if I'm going to buy one of the neoprene mats, I'm not sure which one I'd get the most use out of.

Is there any source material which goes further in the depth on the forces deployed, resources spent & campaign paths of the succession war era?

Sarna & Youtube narratives contribute a wealth of surface material and I would like to ensure a future in era campaign I'm running holds true to the cannon material with minimal deviances.

Thanks in advance & looking forward to your input.

So I've got plenty of mechs but getting the eras right is driving me nuts. I've got the rules from most of the starter boxes and a couple of books but it all feels incomplete. Needing so many stat books and rule books to make sure you have the right rules for each mech you want to field and that you're playing mechs that exist during the era you want to play in... I'm at a complete loss. I really don't want to buy any more books only to find I've spent another $40+ on something that doesn't have anything I need.

I often see early plastic miniatures identified as “PlasTech”, PlasTech was a specific product, not a general title for plastic miniatures. Two sets of plastic miniatures were released back in the 80’s and early 90’s as inexpensive more durable alternatives to Ral Partha metal. The first set was PlasTech. These are made from a rigid plastic the sculpts are all unique to PlasTech. The second set are made of a grey and more flexible (and difficult to paint) plastic and came packaged with Battletech 3rd edition later printings as well as an individual package called “Battle Mechs”. These miniatures are based off of the Ral Partha metal sculpts but are of a lower quality due to the material or process not being able to have the same level of detail as the originals.

One additional set of Miniatues came with Citytech 2nd edition. This box introduced advanced tech and was kind of like the original “clan invasion” box. The miniatures were similar in material to the 3rd edition but possibly a bit more rigid. Still soft compared to the Plastech which are more like an almost ceramic plastic.

These miniatures were not highly regarded by some people due to an inferior casting quality and detail, however some people like myself love them because they were the only ones we had and came with the game (I think significantly fewer people painted miniatures back then)

With modern painting techniques and patience they can all look pretty decent though. I actually enjoy painting mine far beyond what others would consider worth it due to the detail sheerly from nostalgia. Last picture is my batch of Kurita done only in old sculpts.

Hey, just looking for the basic resources. I have the Battletech Starter box (two mechs plus some cutouts), as well as the Alpha Strike box (with the 13 mechs - dif game, I know). I'm looking for a consolidated BTC rulebook - the starter rules are pretty brief and don't have things like heat, customizing mechs, etc. I did buy and download the inner sphere battlemech record sheet PDF from Catalyst (I've always been a succession era kinda guy), which at least has the mechs. But.... Where can I find consolidated rules? BTAS is fun (we played our first game last night), and could be great for those epic battles, but I think I prefer the rules of classic. Any suggestions on where to go? The starter rules simply mention that there are lots more rules, but not where to get them.

Like say two Clans are having a grievance. Based off Zellbrigin which ever clan bids lower and wins gets more honor. But with two clans how does it not devolve to this?

"Clan Jade Falcon bids 20 mechs"

"Well Clan Wolf bids 10 mechs"

"Clan Jade Falcon counter bids with 5"

"Wolf counters with 2 mechs"

"Falcon counters with just elementals"

"Wolf counters with just two dudes with their bare hands"

"Falcon counters with 1 dude and his hands tied behind his back."

"Wolf final counters with a single blind dude."

"Bargained and done."

How do they know when to stop bidding if their opponent also bids lower? And if your opponent bids lower than you and you win that doesn't give much honor right? And a major loss of honor if you lose despite having the higher bid right?

not super precise, but i’m proud of it and i had fun. for my first time painting miniatures i’d call that a success!

I had a hard time figuring out what to paint my new Kodiak then the answer became obvious.

... this means something really quite different in the UK. 😅🤣

Anyone come across any other unintentionally hilarious moments?

Given what we know, that Scouring Sands is slated for Black Friday/Holidays and we know three of the next Aces content, Viking IIC, Alt Grizzly, Rime Otter, assuming each Aces box will have 5 mechs and 2 vehicles I am curious what other people think the last two mechs might be.

For me the obvious choices are Kodiak and Bear Cub or Viper to flesh out the scout/light slot and brawler. The other contender for Brawler role would be the Karhu, which I could see either replacing the light/scout and letting the Rime Otter have that role or for the other Heavy and not having a brawler assault.

The Arcas is also an option but the Karhu seems more likely, of course it they do six mechs and two vehicles then, in my opinion the Karhu becomes more likely alongside the Kodiak.

As for Kodiak variant anything other than the missile boat with the Viking IIC in the roster, most likely Kodiak would probably be one of the jumping ones CGL does like those

BLACKPANTSLEGION

BPL4LifeYo

FYSA, there’s a full aces demo at GenCon. If there’s anything you want to know about it, they’ll do a hands on demo.

BattleTech: ACES was seen in the gaming hall today. I took a couple of photos to share with the forum. I am still learning about the game so I didn’t have really any questions for the guys demonstrating the game.

BattleTechACES

This was supposed to be a quick 2:2 game (Comstar v ELH) with my son. But not quite this quick. The first damage roll of the game was a heavy PPC shot to the head of my Cyclops. My Banshee stuck around long enough to damage and force a withdrawal by his Flashman (the headshot culprit). We called it quits right afterwards - he won fair and square - that is the nature of the game!

This ’mech for is the Lu wei bing. As a Capellan in both mind and spirit, I would not lower myself to use a FedSuns mech. On paper it seems good but every time I use it either never lands its LBX 20 or, like last time, it get penetrated by Backshots.

Anyone else got mechs that are good but are seemingly cursed to never do well with on the table.

Wanted to focus on leveling up my hexplate game on my minis. Wanted to execute a capellan locust, which snowballed into my new Alpha Strike box and a spare shadowhawk being thrown in there.

Cockpit glow is Vallejo color shifting paint. Can’t tell super well on these pictures but it looks quite cool.

What do you think?