BATTLETECH: What is a Clan Omnimech?
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- Опубліковано 27 чер 2024
- The #ClanInvasion is one of the most devastating wars in the history of the war torn #InnerSphere, and would display some of the most destructive #Battlemech weaponry every deployed. Let’s talk about the pride of the #Clan military, namely, the technology that made them so dangerous and feared, namely the #Omnimech concept, as well #ClanWeapons and support systems. Start up your Clan XL engines and get those lasers warmed up, it’s going to be a fun ride.
*Note, there is one piece of art in here that may be fanart, I’m not sure of its origin, the rest of the assets have been used in official products or are based in the video games.
*One more note, the test gameplay footage was used just as a quick demonstration, better footage will come for Clan Mechs on MWO for more specific designs.
#Ilclan #DarkAge #Blake #ClanWolf #ClanJadeFalcon #ClanGhostBear #ClanSmokeJaguar #ClanNovaCat #ClanSteelViper #ClanDiamondShark #ClanSeaFox #Wolfsdragoons #ClanCoyote
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Note: I am not associated with the Battletech / Mechwarrior IP, and create this under fair-use. Ownership of the Battletech IP resides with several companies at this time. I support all official releases. - Ігри
I'll never forget in Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries when after ComStar rumours and hints of raiders from afar, your radar picks up an unidentifiable 'Mech in the distance marching towards you. You keep pressing "Q" trying to scan it, but it's unidentified, but totally menacing. Then you have a tough battle with a superior foe...Enter the Timberwolf.
So was the Clan tech part of the lore before MW2, or was this new at the time?
@@fosty. It was during MW2 where clan tech entered the video games officially. However, clan tech in general existed in the very early 90s or even into the 1980s. I had an old DOS shareware game that ripped off Battletech by copying Mad Cat and Vulture (Mad Dog) and having them face each other in a maze.
I remember that game... i was so unskilled as a player the first time around that just reloaded a previous save file because I couldn't handle the 'escape mission' where you were reduced to using a hover vehicle to outrun enemyfire
Growing up playing MW2 with a pivoting joystick and throttle while dominating opponets with the Timber Wolf will always be a core memory of mine. I contribute that mech design to my instant love for the BT universe.
I love that intro!! "Look at the brightside kid... you get to keep all the money..."
Chills
The Clans are also VERY protective of their tech. The very sight of a Spheroid using their tech is considered an insult to them because the idea of "freebirths" besting a "trueborn" in combat is shameful to them. Their superiority complex makes them quite arrogant, and their pride is one of their greatest weaknesses.
In 3150 they have to get use to it, although anything the dragon makes in clan tech is looted from clan nova cat so they can get piss off seeing dragon clan mechs.
@@Alex-pj8nz Yeah, even by the 3070s there's a lot of Warden Clan factions that have sided with the Inner Sphere, like Wolf-in-Exile, Ghost Bears, Nova Cats, etc.
They came over along with their equipment, and set up their manufacturing base inside the Inner Sphere too.
@@cykeok3525 But they still consider themselves Clan and so limit themselves giving Clan tech to the inner sphere factions.
@@Alex-pj8nz True.
Depends on the era though, as time goes on, the tech homogenizes more and more.
@Alex-pj8nz except for Sea Fox. Sea Fox is too busy gettin' rich to care.
Omnimech is the closest thing to the 'Mechwarrior mechlab' that every Min/max metaboys wetdream about...
But onmimech's armor cannot be changed like decreasing or increasing the armor value.
Omni-tech is like building your Mech out of Legos. I'm really disappointed that the new Omnimech minis weren't all designed to be modular. It would of course have made their minis more expensive but that would kind of make sense.
I think for artistic reasons they opted against it, which I can understand.
The metal minis in the past could do it since they are sold in pieces and a sprue of omni pods could be easily be sold as an add on, but it still takes killer technique to do it right.
Honestly it's something I'd bake into the base setting for an alternate universe; A BattleMech requiring days of specialized maintenance just to see battle again makes it not much better than a traditional tank while being significantly more expensive to procure.
@@DonaldWWitt you should see first edition rules for mechwarrior, armor takes an hour to replace by location, less if your technician rank is high. at 6 tech you can reliably replace a section in 15 minutes, I think preparation of materials is assumed done before hand. I think the pc games make repair times longer because most of the work is outsourced, parts need to be ordered, and techs might have their own union, wouldn't be surprised considering how valuable their work is.
@@eddapultstab2078 Well I know HBS BattleTech doesn't even bother with armor replacement, your head MechTech has a fresh coat slapped on by the time you're done with the debrief.
So nice to see something familiar.
My introduction to Battletech was through the Clans and the RP elements. Needless to say, the Inner Sphere was absolutely bonkers to me.
When I was younger the politics of the Sphere were baffling, why bother with all that?
The mechs? My Mad Dog was outshooting some IS assaults.
Espionage? A trial of possession was simpler.
Oh, blissful naivety. Though it is quite interesting to me coming to the rest of the Battletech universe from such a viewpoint, slowly learning that not everything is a crude bludgeon.
Omnipods probably did a good job offsetting at least some of the clans' MASSIVE logistics disadvantage at least at first. Till they needed to start rebuilding them entirely.
Yep. Once the heavy-wear-and-tear-started up, it was really a problem.
I think clan diamond shark had the right idea to trade with the innersphere, they not only get much needed resources from their dealings it allowed them to invest it in more production in their acquired territory shortening the supply lines, otherwise they would have been pushed back to the periphery edge eventually.
Which is why Clan Ghost Bear looked at the supply line and said "fuck that" and moved EVERYTHING to the Inner Sphere.
@@GhostBear3067 Welcome to Clan Bear, where any supply lines over 20 light years are unacceptable (as it should be)
Man, you hit the nail on the head, Bear! Clan omni mechs are a luxury battlefield tool, made into a frontline tool by a culture that was committed to short, fair, brutal engagements. Modern Inner Sphere forces use the clan omni mech as would be expected for such an expensive weapon, reserved for elite units or for distinguished officers. This is one of the reasons I think Alaric Ward is in so much trouble. Trying to convince his touman to embrace lower tech frontline units instead of a luxury unit they, by now, lack the factories to produce!
It’s even worst when you considered that they lost more than 80% of their forces at terra and let’s not about the dragon and Lao showing up.
@@Alex-pj8nz Right? The IlClan Era is gonna be about the long game, no way the clans can blitzkrieg the Inner Sphere like last time.
@@jasonames145 will be even funnier if terra fell to house Liao due to lack of defenders.
@@Alex-pj8nz Yeah, that wall cant last forever. It should actually be on its last legs come 3152. Alaric doesn't have the infrastructure to keep it going. Tick. Tock. Tick tock!
@@jasonames145 their honest best shot to secure their future is to take hesperus II and the defhes factory their, without a steady supply of mechs and war material they are way over extended for their own good. They need factories to replace their forces effectively or they won't hold Terra for long because when it comes to a war of attrition its whoever loses all their assets first and the innersphere still has plenty of assets.
Clan Coyote knows LEGO
honestly this really helps me appreciate mechwarrior 5 alot more. as an original mechwarrior 3 and 4 player, i was use to enjoying kitting out my mech EXACTLY the way i wanted it in any way, shape, or form. the amount of limitations i first experienced in mechwarrior 5 made me feel like they were being cheep on us and shoe-horning you and your favorite mechs into rolls now. but now i understand that its because thats how it actually was for inner sphere mechs. while in mechwarrior 3 and 4 i forgot i swapped to CLAN mechs very quickly for GOOD REASON. It really makes you appreciate and envy all that clan tech sooo much more now as i took it for granted in the previous games when it was a no-brainer to switch to clan tech every chance you had. i sure hope they make a mechwarrior 6 eventually or an expansion for mechwarrior 5 where they introduce the clans and all my favorite mechs of theres
Mechwarrior 6, if we get one, likely won't happen until 2030+ :(
We will be getting a MechWarrior 5 Clans October 3rd
@@drake6782 Awesome I cant wait to play my cougar supported by madcats again
This is really helpful to me, because while most Inner Sphere stuff becomes common knowledge and part of mech understanding, the Clan usage of Omnimechs and IICs and such can be mystifying. And it's great to put it in a scope outside of individual battles, the perks and drawbacks of a campaign!
Clan society is developed around this idea of using minimal resources and continuous small scale fighting. This allows Clan warriors to gain battle experience. That shaped Clan society, and it also shaped how they approached the Inner Sphere which baffles rational people. Especially anyone with any sense of tactics.
The Clans space forces are overwhelming. Each of the invasion fleets were large enough that the Houses couldn't really consider fighting the fleet. If an entire house could muster all of its ships and aerospace they might be able to successfully challenge a single clan invasion fleet. The Clans would cut off space assets in an invaded system, and then not press their advantage with bombardments from space. Or use Aerospace superiority to suppress ground forces.
Instead they would ask the defenders or use other methods to determine what assets were in an area of conflict they determined and let the various leaders within the invasion fleet bid to take the asset with the least amount of forces used. This often lead to the Clans attacking fortified positions with less attackers than the defenders. The clans always had a technological advantage, and often the Clan warriors were better trained or more experienced than the defenders. Where the defenders were willing to play along with the Clans demands, small gladiatorial style matches could determine the fate of an entire world. The problem with playing the Clan's game is they would keep playing until they won.
Once the Inner Sphere became aware of Clan technology, mechs and tactics they formulated ways to beat the Clans. It is always an uphill battle, but not unsurmountable. Use of cover and terrain became critical in evening the playing field with the Clans. If you can narrow the engagement distance to 9 hexes the Clan mech is only 50% better than yours instead of being twice as good.
Clan omni mechs" legos with guns"
The clans also put mechwarriors on a pedestal, production in their history is low due to resource constraints and the high tech know how and production methods, which help mitigate the low resources. This encourages constant trials between the established and newly minted warriors, as well as the occasional freebirth, which ensures that their corps is a small but deadly unit. Tukkiyid, May have misspelled, is a prime example of a warrior centric culture can break apart as clan diamond shark lost not only their Kahn but also most of their highly prized warriors which allowed the merchant cast to lead the clan. Smoke jaguar got exterminated in similar fashion. It was major turning point because not only their advance had to stop but also it drew a blank slate for the majority of the clans as they had to press fresh mechwarriors into Frontline service, although the average clan rookie is slightly better than their innersphere counter part but green is still green and it matters when using high technology.
As other people have mentioned, the Clan philosophy is based on "waste not, want not" and using the least amount of force necessary to win a battle. The "reuse every scrap" attitude the Clans have comes from the fact that the Pentagon Worlds were resource-poor, so Nicholas Kerensky and his loyalists had to use everything as efficiently as possible. Nicholas also realized that war and fighting is humanity's natural state, so he developed the Clans to minimize needless battle and eliminate collateral damage as much as possible. So, their finest mechs, the OmniMechs, are used in front-line battle by their best warriors, with the second-line mechs, such as the IIC models, are reserved for training, elder warriors past their prime forced into retirement, and for "bandit-hunting" expeditions where the enemy is expected to have junk mechs Frankensteined together from scraps and whatever they can steal. Their eugenics program means that there will always be more potential warriors than mechs for them to pilot, so each generation undergoes drastic training designed to weed out all but the top 10-20% of each group of warriors, with the ones washing out of training being shunted into whatever caste their talents qualify them for, whether Scientist, Technician, or Merchant (or, in the worst cases, either Laborer or Bandit), and much like Soviet Special Forces training, if recruits get killed, it just means they weren't good enough to become warriors. Given that a sibko of 100 potential warriors was produced every 20 years, and each sibko produced about 20 trueborn warriors in that time, each one selectively bred from the best genes in the warrior gene pool and engineered further by geneticists of the Scientist Caste, it meant that every two decades the Clans would have an all-new crop of warriors trained in small unit tactics that was superior to each generation. The downside meant that by 40, a warrior was either washed up and transferred to training the next generation, hunting bandits, or doing police duty if they didn't make the grade in the eugenics program, or was fighting against their own offspring to hold onto their position in the Warrior Caste, whereas 40-something Inner Sphere warriors were commanding units and making full use of their hard-earned battlefield experience.
Yeah, the reason behind the highly ritualized Trials was to allow an outlet for mankind's need for conflict, while avoiding the wanton bloodshed and resource waste that comes with full scale war.
However, immersed in this form of ritual combat, they allowed their understanding of actual war to languish, and after several centuries, they had little comprehension of concepts like deception, encirclement, and ambush, and were unable to even sustain proper wartime supply lines when a conflict became protracted.
Never thought about it before, but what @Kitirena Koneko ties into this. They completely failed to recognize the value of experience, regarding their veterans as shameful "solahma", as though they were failures because they had not honorably died in battle.
While their ritual Trials made combat so one-dimensional that battlefield experience may have had less value, it also meant that unexpected situations that an older Clan warrior might have recognized and adapted to would instead leave the relatively young Clan officers baffled, another weakness the Inner Sphere took full advantage of.
Dracula: What is an Omnimech? [flings his wine glass aside] A miserable little pile of secrets! But enough talk! Have at you!
If anything, Omnis have only gotten scarier by 3150 in terms of meta. When the Clans were first introduced, FASA was still experimenting with what worked and what didn’t. Nowadays, people are designing mechs with a few decades of knowledge on how to optimize them.
Sure, but I'd argue that a lot of set-designs tend to still overperform for the money, versus the Omni counterparts.
@@BigRed40TECH I can agree with this. Some of the static designs are just more reliable and even some Omnimech designs would, honestly, benefit from having a cheaper version without the same cost expenses. Heck take a Rakshasa, put clan weapon tech on it you have yourself a discount Mad Cat.
Always loved the clans, the mechs and their lore. My first taste of Battletech was Mechwarrior 2 on pc in the mid 90's. For those that don't know, you played the campaign story representing either Clan Wolf or Clan Jade Falcon warring against one another. Fell in love with it and its expansions, especially Ghost Bears Legacy. I also read Battletech novels only involving clan battles and politics. It wasn't until much later playing the Battletech card game I found out about the Inner Spere. Even with all the expanded lore and multitude of games featuring only IS, they always feel like the "outsiders" to me and it still feels weird even after all these years to call mechs by their "freebirth" names. Thanks for the content BR40K!
That's interesting because my intro to Battletech was MechWarrior 3 where you play as a detachment from the Second Star League and fight against Clan Smoke Jaguar as they try to revive themselves after already being annihilated during Operation Bulldog. Then, I played MechWarrior 4 which is all about the FedCom Civil War and later began reading the novels starting with the Gray Death Trilogy, so I've always been on the Inner Sphere side of things and saw the clans as the outsiders. I even used to call OmniMechs only by the Inner Sphere names, but now I gravitate towards using their clan names like using the original Japanese names for JDM sportscars instead of the rebranded names for the export market... which is kinda how Clan Sea Fox does their business, funny enough.
What is a Clan Omnimech?
With a competent pilot inside? Worth every god damn penny.... But f*** me you need a LOT of pennies!
I heard losing Clan Omnimechs can be costly.
I don't believe this, of course. :P
Clan LRMS are also better in that they don't have a minimum range, which is kinda disgusting
If i remember right, in one of the older tactical handbook it had some notes in it. One of the notes said that clan LRMS were supposed to have a minimum range, but something happened and the minimum range didn't make it into the rules.
@@boneshaman8912 If it wasn't errata'd in, then that's not really relevant. Later iterations of the rules maintained Clan LRMs having no minimum range.
Omnimech on paper: It's incredible! You can swap out between any weapons freely! No muss, no fuss, mission needs it, you mount it. Hell, do it in the field!
Omnimech in reality: Well AKCHUALLY, you can only swap between highly specific weapons made for this purpose and can't just use off the shelf components, both the mech and the weapons are much more expensive for it, cycling necessary ammo or heat sinks can still be a pain in the rear, you're definitely not swapping an 8 ton piece of machinery without an elaborate setup, and god help you if the pod hardpoints get destroyed.
9:00 Worth noting that if no preconfigured OmniPod is available containing desired equipment for an OmniMech, it takes just as long, or longer, to prepare an OmniPod as it takes to rebuild/customize a BattleMech, but the Techs can work on preparing the OmniPod separately in the shop while the 'Mech is still free to be fielded. When the new Pod is ready, it can then be installed with the usual quickness.
On large scale deployments and protracted campaigns, however, as mentioned, such requirements will still grind down supply lines and available resources in Tech manpower and equipment.
I still remember playing a campaign hunting pirates. But our GM had gotten an advanced copy of 3050. That was bad, the thing that still gets me it the tempo advantage that double heat sinks get.
I am really enjoying you content. Epically since you touch on the in-game (classic) effects/rules, not enough channels do this.
I have REPETEDLY seen clan mechs with XL engines survive damage that would destroy the an IS XL mech. That one slot is a bigger deal than it seems.
Huge deal. XL is dangerous.
I like to the thumbnail. It's always good to see a Mk II Catapult.
The omni mech is what you would get from peacetime weapons production. Yes the clans waged wars. But they really are something the luxury of a relative peace would produce. Where maybe logistics and wartime production and real battlefield maintenance are not a factor. Their clan trials system actually made them less prepared for how a real war would end if there was a stalemate or long drawn out conflict. Sure the Inner sphere mech might be less powerful, but they can make 30 of them for your one omni mech in terms of logistics. Same for weapons and ammo.
Its like WW2, sure the German tanks were more technically advanced, but that did not matter when you could make 1 tank for every 50 shermans the USA was making.
Tbf the Germans couldnt even make there tanks due to resource shortages and same with the clans I believe
The German tanks were not more technologically advanced though.
@@heirofaniu they were take the tiger it was tougher than anything the Allies had and the Allies could barely pierce it they just ran out of resources to build things
@@commanderstorm8874 Maybe in the beginning, sure. But after even one year the Tiger was starting to run into tanks that could take it out effectively from combat ranges. The Tiger benefited mainly from two things; firstly that it was one of if not the first combat effective heavy tanks, and secondly a number of very effective propaganda machines hyping it up. The Tiger is a good tank, but it wasn't so far above and beyond everything else technologically that it's comparable to an omnimech.
A better example would be something like Desert Storm with the advantages given by GPS navigation and night vision technologies. Or the sudden obsolescence of warships brought on by the launch of HMS Dreadnought.
@@heirofaniu the only thing that could kill the tiger was the air support more tigers ran out of ammunition than were killed because the allies couldn’t combat them until the Russians developed the kv series and by then it didn’t matter as the tigers couldn’t be made and were barely maintained due to lack of fuel and resources
Awesome video and I love that you used the MW2 OST. Wish they used these types of OST in the newer MW Games
Great job breaking Clans omni mech down. Easy to understand
If omni technology is so expensive, why not just not use it for every component (the 3 torso areas, arms, legs, head)?
Certain mechs have their main armament focused in 1 or 2 components like the hunchback, it's IIC version, the adder and the nova cat, so being able to replace the hunch of a hunchback dependent on the mission would already be good enough in my opinion.
Wow...
It's been years since I have heard the mw2 soundtrack. Good vid.
Another amazing video dude. Your battletech content brings me so much joy.
Thank you Joe! :D
In my humble opinion, nothing shows the gap of power of Clan tech vs IS tech is the lowly Clan ER Medium laser.
It deals 7 damage, 15 Hex range, 5 heat and weighs 1 ton.
The IS large laser does 8 damage, same 15 Hex Range, 8 heat and weighs 5 tons.
That is why Stormcrow despite being armed with 2 ERLL and 3 ERML is one of the most fear mechs ever in fluff and table top.
To the IS you are fighting a mech with 2 ERPPCs + 3 large lasers and it can actually alpha strike them while going at 97 kph.
Meaning even lights cannot escape, as it has speed to match, if you are faster the Stormcrow got the range.
What is a Clan Omimech? A really bad day for anyone else not in a Clan Omimech...
Regular mechs: Toyota Corolla
Omni mechs: Scion XB
But seriously I'm imagining some exodus engineer looking at his refit and repair itinerary and thinking, "there HAS to be a better way..."
He then proceeds to look at a mercury in his mech bay…he then looks back at the work he has to service…then he looks back at the Mercury’s blueprints…he then talks to a colleague.
It's funnier when you know the xB and the Corolla had the same guts under the hood.
You see Freiza you aren't dealing with the average mech warriors anymore. I have transcended into legend. The legend that you fear. I have become a true birth mech warrior
ua-cam.com/video/AxJ-AC0lel4/v-deo.html&ab_channel=DragonballTeamSSJ5
Great video and thanks man! I couldn't find a good description of what a Omnimech was anywhere. I'm loving the channel and content.👍🏻
Thank you Cameron Gunn! :D
IS wise, we’re seeing a lot of militaries like the AFFS and the LCAF adopting OmniMechs like the Inferno, Regent, and Gauntlet in the ilClan era simply because they’ve lost a lot of capacity to manufacture their traditional designs. They’re great if you need a small number of highly flexible units, less so if you have a large force to outfit.
It really started earlier than the ilClan era. The Draconis Combine, for example, introduced the Avatar and Blackjack OmniMechs as early as 3057.
@Diru Dozur Pretty much, we start to see a lot more Clan frontline regular BattleMechs in the Civil War/Jihad era for that reason
@Diru Dozur Yeah, basically the technology starts to homogenize... as does the culture.
It's to be expected once the division between "Inner Sphere" and "Clan" starts to blur a bit.
Playing BEX and dealing with the clan invasion right now. Holy shit even with a full lance of 5 assaults and a PHX-1S for scouting I'm still getting the shit kicked out of me from halfway across the map
I love how you talk in hexes, tabletop life!
Hexes are the only measurement that matters! :P
Great job Red!!
Thank you for another great video!
Thanks for watching!
@@BigRed40TECH thank you for the Battletech content!
Give me a Dire wolf, a Timber wolf, a Mad dog, a Nova and a Battle cobra with a star of elementals and I’ll deliver you victory no matter the battlefield.
Ok Invade Taurus
Btw the taurians know your coming
Yeah that didn't work so well in the Battle of Tukayyid.
@@theomnissiah-9120 The Taurians would probably nuke their own cities and move underground before letting Clanner Scum make claim to their world. Them Taurians are some hardcore periphery MFers...
I now have a better understanding of MW5's time system. I REALLY hope they're able to introduce clan 'mechs properly. Thanks and keep up the good work!
I don't think it's gonna happen, sadly :\
Well that explains what clan omnimechs are I had been wondering
this was excellent!!
Thank you.
This is the only video I could easily find that actually explains what an omnimech actually is. Every other lore video I've seen just mentions the as being some great tech advancement from the clans but don't give any basic explanation of what that means.
Due to the fact that most of my experience with Battletech is through the MechWarrior game I thought that customizable weapon slots were standard for all mechs.
Cheers!
You're welcome :D
Your channel is awesome man keep it up
Appreciate it!
Clan Coyote space magic
Clan Coyote space magic.
Sorry, force of habit.
Fun fact: Clan Coyote literally killed their entire Science Caste in the War of Reaving, and are now a finger-puppet of Clan Star Adder.
@@BigRed40TECH I mean their science cast had formed a thing call the society... so they LITERALLY were emulating Pluto's Republic at that point.
@@BigRed40TECH finger-puppet is the worst kind of puppet.
With a well designed config, a Clan Omnimech can be the most dangerous ground unit on the battlefield. However, they are also expensive, require a good logistics chain, and many of the early ones suffer from crappy FASA engineering. But used en masse with supporting forces, like Wolf's Dragoons in the 3050s and 60s, the Republic of the Sphere, and other Clan equipped forces not tied down by zellbrigen, they can be a very hard nut to break. My favorites are units like the Kingfisher, the Nova, the Stooping Hawk, the Battle Cobra, or especially the new Regent, which only use one or even none of Clan weight reduction materials to save on expense, and mount extremely BV efficient and effective configs free of idiocy like the Thor A's infamous 1 ton of Gauss ammo
1 ton of Gauss ammo is all you need, if you're going into a single battle. :)
@@BigRed40TECH not if you miss...
@@stormcrow28 What kind of clan warrior are you!? lol
One who has poor dice rolls when using Thor As...
@@BigRed40TECH probably one trying to shoot down a locust or hussar at full gallop using trees and partial cover....
The "be whatever you need" mech technology. Unfortunately it needs a disproportionate logistics chain to effectively support it. I think it is over-focused on due to being the only examples of clan mechs seen by the Inner Sphere until the mid-3050s because the Crusaders were all about bringing the fanciest bling to the invasion rather than fighting an actual war (part of why Operation Revival failed, ask the Nova Cats about style over substance and Tukayyid... oh wait).
Regular clan mechs are far more numerous, but you rarely see "second line" units committed to front line assaults unless something has gone very wrong. Something similar to early 20th century "Tiger panic" occurred during Operation Bulldog, every other clan mech encountered was a "Mad Cat", "Thor" or "Shadow Cat", when most of the Smoke Jaguars garrison forces contained very few of those prestigious mechs. A similar thing happens with Lyran propaganda and the Atlas. If you believe the holocasts then they had entire "scout" regiments full of the things. Even during the early stages of Katrina Steiner's Fedcom schism they were still a rarity, even amongst the elites.
Sorry I'm late to the party! OK, OmniMechs seem to be modular, at least with respect to weapons and armor components. The only problem I see with that is logistical . Having a standard load out plan for each type of unit simplifies things immensely, where having , say, four units of the same type all kitted out differently is going to put kinks in your supply chain. That said, I love my Stormcrow
Trades supply for personal mechwarrior comfort.
Rarely clanners standartizing things for better logisctics like Clan Wold did on Tukayyid with replacing all weapons to energy guns.
Nicely done presentation of omni mech technology and it's capabilities. I hope you'll add a video about clan tactics and maybe culture too, because all those are closely related IMHO.
One day. But this channel's got a LOT on its plate. lol
They are almost perfect machines for the clan warfare style. Sadly, they forgot that an incredibly large number of Zulus can wipe out a much better equipped, more modern and professional troop but lacking sufficient numbers.
Furthermore to make this worse, the clans did not use their true significant advantage, destroying or capturing the jump ships and the few warships of the inner sphere, preventing them from moving their forces from planet to planet especially reinforcements or supplies. If they had created squadrons of ships to hunt down enemy ships in the territory of the sphere one or two jumps from the front they would possibly have won the war.
Ironically, while successor states drew from the military lessons of the past, clans had forgotten thousands of years of lessons learned.
Agreed.
Without the willingness or the thoughtfulness of disrupting/destroying the Inner Sphere's communication (in a military sense), the Clans had lost from the get-go.
The Clan had a population of somewhat above 1 billion - let that sink in, the entirety of the Clans had a population, smaller than modern China.
And their industrial base was equally small.
Yes, superior equipment and superior training can give you stunning successes in the beginning, but when an industrial juggernaut begins to ramp up production (looking at the US in WW2), your "superior, expensive and few" equipment simply gets plowed under by the wave of "good enough" stuff.
yup, it could have even helped them capture more territory by making garrisons that are deep in their territory use captured mechs on dropships that they would have captured/had surrendered. Because after all, most people would try and wave the white flag to not be marooned on some rock without an atmosphere
@@EllenbergW Ahh, the good old demographics of Battle Tech. FASAnomics is truly the gift, that keeps on giving.....
Tbh, even with that it'd be sluggish, just how warfare has always been in Battletech, and worse yet, the Houses would just deploy swarms of Aerospace fighters and nuclear weapons if they started doing that. It'd be an ugly war, which the clans would lose on a material level. It'd just be bloodier than before.
@@BigRed40TECH That is why I have said to one or two jumps from the front, so that I can retreat. In any case, there are systems that are inhabited and others that are not but that are points of passage.
One can also devote oneself to hitting the less defended planets and leaving the enemy regiments stranded on the planets where they are without being able to be moved to other useful sites. And after all, the navy of the clans, is more prepared for their ships to endure hard confrontations than the few ships in the sphere (which most likely continue to guard the capitals) and undoubtedly much more than the jumping ships, which you can destroy and leave.
Simply, by remembering (studying) parts of the WWII, apart from surely many clashes in the Star League, or even going back to older history, in the era of sailing. It is evident that the clans are too honorable for an all-out war, but to their misfortune, being as they are many fewer, honor was perhaps a luxury that they could not afford.
Also another thing they could have done, is to allow all the clans to participate in the war, perhaps, the worse it was, forcing their starting positions to be more in the external radius (although if they were as honest as they believe, the stronger would have had to take that disadvantage, to prove themselves better than the rest).
The problem is that it is a bit sad to see those in the Inner Sphere dust off military textbooks and give them sages and that the real military, the "real warriors" (whose predecessors in EI if they operated in divisions and surely have documentation saved to fill a couple of heavy cruisers, are not able to learn from the mistakes and successes of their direct ancestors in the fight for the defense of the Star League, of which, supposedly, they were the culmination.
I hope in the next era we get an age of battlemech where the distinction between clan and inner sphere tech is blurred if not gone entirely. I’m fascinated with the idea of what that universe would look like.
That is mostly happening
The power of customizarion, for a considerable prize!
AHH clans the thing that dragged me into battletech. Customizing was so much fun.
Nice video. The clans have fewer min to deal with, then the inner sphere.
my favorite clan mech always is gonna be the mad cat such an icon
wow yhats a nice looking timberwolf
They use amazing Clown Technology!
They brought the whole circus!
And let us not forget Clan advancements or inventions like ATMs, which was something completely new on the 31st century battlefield.
Almost none of this matters in MWO. Which is really sad. At least to me.
I've been waiting for this one & it didn't disappoint. Very informative. No wonder the clowns had such a good start. Only all out war of attrition stopped them, thankfully.
They didn't bring enough makeup to keep the circus going unfortunately.
@@BigRed40TECH OMG dude you made ginger ale come out my nose with that one LMAO 🤣😂
Look out! The clans are on their way!
ua-cam.com/video/-iOzHoxsor4/v-deo.html&ab_channel=Idkclownstuff
You didn't mention the clan op weapon....the large pulse laser....-2 to hit and has a range of 20...just nasty.....gotta love and fear their tech but inner sphere for ever :-)
The video wasn't all-encompassing lol
The main advantage of omni-mechs is allowing you to customise your mechs before deployment to better suit the terrain. And allow the force commander or pilot to take there fave load out. This leaves your opposition guessing as to what they will be fighting, as the way you would handle one mech is very different from another.
Consider the diffrence between fighting in a city to an open desert, you would never get a home field advantage your more likely at a disadvantage as ALL your opponents mechs are tuned to the battle fields, where as a commander with a limited stock of mechs will usually end up deploying poor choices for this terrain ( hunchbacks in open desert or Awsomes in city fights)
In that scenario I would have a stable of different mechs to suit my mission needs in comparison, on the bright side I have backup mechs if the one I'm using is lost.
@@eddapultstab2078 ahh yes, your avg. Planetary defence is well stocked with a wide selection of appropriate mechs. All in good repair and suited to the planets strategic enviroments.
As an attacker is really where omni-mechs earn there keep. As its easier logistically and cost to transport 2-3 stars of omni-mechs that can be altered for maximum efficiency on any world or battlefield, rather than twice as many lances and dropships and ammo and jumpship docks. When you may only beable to apply a proportion of your force effectively. This is why things like the Orion and Crusader are so popular with there mixed weapons allowing them to be somewhat effective on a wide range of missions.
@@paulsim7589 and you have a good point there, especially when you have a shortage of transports, you need to make sure that the limited forces you send are top tier, atleast in theory. If you have a surplus of ships, you might as well strap in whatever you can omnimech or not.
Mechwarrior 2 was my first exposure to Battletech, at the time I was a huge fan of Macross so I was always using the Marauder or Warhammer.
When I got Mechwarrior 2 Mercs from Toys R Us, I got so confused wondering why so many of the mechs were different and then when I encountered clan mechs I was so confused at the names. I was like “what the fuck is a Mad Cat? That’s a Timber Wolf!”
Clan tech is so fun to use, but when a Summoner costs as much as two inner sphere assault mechs, it makes you wonder if it’s worth it at times.
So omni mechs are basically the philosophy that HERCs operate under in Starsiege/ earthsiege: modular weapon mounting systems.
Interesting
(More than likely starsiege got it from the omni mech idea but I don't know respective release dates of the concepts)
So OmniMechs started in May of 1986. The 13th or 14th I believe. FASA had put out the we need new Mech designs letter to all of us who played in 85 at a Con.
@@kennethelkins-wulff9644 earthsiege was 94, so there ya go
It was my understanding that Omnimechs didn't give a bonus to armor replacement speed...so if you lost a weapon yeah you could replace the weapon in a hurry and get back on the field, but you'd lose it just as quickly because more than likely your armor was still gone.
There's no reason to field a 'Mech without repairing its armor as well. Armor is replaced quickly. The OmniMechs would have their weapons replaced as well, as opposed to *just* the armor being repaired.
If you think you're in clan range, you're well within clan range.
"He's over 600 metres away. No way he can. I'm under fire."
@@BigRed40TECH
Always the case.
And yet they still lost to space AT&T.
@@wrongway1100 Sadly, Comstar is now dead, and the Clans own Terra. Tukkiyid saved the clans, sadly. :(
@@BigRed40TECH
Was that always in the lore?
Clan Coyote Space Magic
Make Battletech great again! Greatings from Russia. BTW very good quality video, with good vibe.
Thanks!
Hey Big Red is there any near plans to cover the awesomeness of ATMs? Or even better the iATMs developed by the society? All 3 types of ATM ammo plus Magnapulse and inferno rounds with the accuracy of Streaks but also indirect fire capabilities
Later in the video series, yes.
All hail Clan Jade Falcon!!
Get Forcht!
😂
Purple Bird >>>>>>>>>> Green Bird
The word of Blake had the right idea on clanners
The clans are still badass. Any era after the invasion of the innersphere you will still find mad cats and vultures they are just that good.
Also clan heat sinks are still the best as the styner strikers found out in one of the early battles.
Having to play with IS mechs it's really limited to specific roles and functions.cant wait a lance of full customize tuned Timberwolves
For me, personally, I would stick to the standard mechs, because when it comes to the battlepoint value, quantity is a quality all its own.
Early in my MWO career i bought nothing but IS mechs.
Then after two or three years i decided to cross the rubicon and bought my clan mech to change things up.
but was horrified by it's glas armor, but having weapon flexibility was interesting.
That's a MWO thing, OmniMech technology does not inherently mean less or more armor.
In MWO many IS mechs have armor and structure quirks to make them competitive while most clan mechs don't get those.
MWO heavily limits the capabilities of clan mechs and tech to balance the game but the advantages are still very potent, just take the ER medium laser or the anount of SRMs that can be mounted on light clan mechs.
I just wish MWO would allow an additional variant drop deck for omni mechs, like a selection of 4 preconfigured variants to choose from after you know the map and the objective.
Clan Coyote Space Magic!
It’s Lego with weapons
The Mad Cat (Or Timberwolf) was the poster boy for Mechwarrior franchise during its early gaming years. Almost as iconic as the Atlas.
I never really understood why it was so popular amongst the clanners. Even now I find that mech to be decent at best.
LRM from the catapult mounts on its shoulders, pulse lasers on the arms, machinegun on the torso. I'd say it's a staple with multiple possible builds.
Can't really say much on the armor though unless you were going for the S or N configurations.
Good speed, good punch, can perform multiple roles, but the appearance wasn't to my liking.
I'd rather have a good Vulture (AKA Mad Dog) than a Cat. Or a Warhammer for sure.
Love the Mad Dog and the Warhammer IIC. I still like the Timber Wolf though.
@@BigRed40TECH Timber Wolf S. That is all
My problem with the design is that it runs too hot. The weapons aren’t as impressive when you realize how hard it is to push the alpha button.
@@halosammy14 36 heat on alpha, out of a 32 capacity, you can easily pull it off. Mild overheats are not that problematic and the fact that you can crit fish with 24 SRM shots and 2 machine guns is just glorious. The large pulse laser is for breaching fire to open up for crits. I personaly get crazy milage on it, especially if I bring something like a lancelot or a rifleman 2c standard to poke holes in stuff to put SRM shots in. That combined with crazy armour, smoke or ECM. I love that mech
The reason it’s so known is mainly because of how much you can strap to the mech. It’s one of the few mechs that can be a missile boat and energy brawler at the same time while still able to give its opposition a good knife handed strike at inner sphere preferred ranges. It’s prime configuration probably was intended as a method to proof the auto darkening feature of the glass (this information is a joke). Personally I like a custom offshoot of the Delta configuration, specifically one that focuses all weapons forward.
Omni mechs fighting in a mass scale combat situation to me is like taking a jacked up Cadillac rock climbing. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Like anything Clan Omnimechs are only expensive due to the strict economics of scales that the clans adheared to in the 30th and 31st century. The tech itself had to be fought over, and it even lead to Clan Wolverine getting punished because their technicians were able to outfit not just their military but civilian sectors with better equipment. In the Betrayal of Ideals, Clan Windowmaker was jealous over the fact that Wolverine was scaling their food production and having good relations with Clan Snow Raven and Sea Fox. Then it came to the tech itself, before clan weaponry was a thing they were tuning SLDF weapons to their apex of performance. Even the creation of the first Clan mech the Pulverizer was seen as 'too much' by the other clans.
Hence why the tech became expensive, Nickolas was too busy getting his ego stroked by idiots instead of adopting some of Wolverine's changes. That is movement of the castes and better education for freebirths and moreso relying on freebirth breeding vs selective genetic breeding that can have outlasting consequences (Vlad Ward, Alaric, Anyone in Clan Smocked Jaguar, Clan Jade Pidgeon) to name a few.
This is why given time to both the Lyrans and Davions. Omnimech tech will be so cheap that manufacturing the old models will just be a waste of resources when you can adapt them to cheaper, efficient and scalable omni models.
lyrans have had omni-tech for 100 years at this point. It's still expensive.
@@BigRed40TECH they also came out of the 2nd Suceasion war with the largest army and still couldn't make any headway between the Combine and FWL.
The Lyrans history of good leaders could be counted on one hand. While the Davions have constantly came close during the succession wars era to rediscovering lostech. Only for Comstar to come in and either kill or instigate a war to sap resources away from NAIS.
The Lyrans may have had the largest and wealthiest economy after the Jihad and i'm parcing it as more of it was still somewhat intact. They did suffer economic issues in the Jihad but we're not talking near collapse like the FWL. They did lose a lot of economic ground due to internal infight that harmed them until Adam Steiner became archon. They just had incompetent leadership on top of those who were too incompetent in investing the cash. Probably as to why Andrew was by far the best Archon during that Era, mirroring his cousin Melissa in that account and Aunt Kathrine.
It would only be a matter of time and recovery on the Davion side to increase the economic of scale. However I'll still argue that time saved with omni tech is worth the upfront investment when you can refit a mech in a quarter of the time compared to a standard chassis. The standard chassis may be cheaper at the initial cost, but refits will cost you a mech and c-bills of time waiting for it to be done.
Good.
Very good
Omnimechs are what happens when somebody says "Modular" within 6 miles of a military procurement office
Something I wish Mechwarrior games would get right is omni pods... They get treated as a universal hardpoint but in lore are more than that.
You can remove an ac20 and replace an equal amount of slots with medium lasers lol... Actually MW3 came close, I remember the Madcat being able to stuff the LRM20 with 10 lasers.
That was possible but depend on omnipods supply. Small omnipods with single peice of equipment give more flexibility, big omnipods with entire configuration part for location is faster to replace. Its not revealed which variant was produced more.
Still fairly new to
BattleTech/MechWarrior.
I know most of the basics lore wise.
The exodus 1 and 2
ComStar
The Great Houses
The Clans and their invasion
The Inner Sphere
Most of the lore on Mechs, Tech, and Weaponry.
What I'm looking for is the new stuff.
2nd Clan invasion ?
Blakiest Rebellion (Word of Blake)
Ilkan era
Any chance on future lore videos?
Yes, but there is already a ton of stuff for me to cover. Dunno when that'll get expanded.
Oh so omnimechs are how you think mech works coming from the games. Also it sounds like the differnce between an F-35 and ever other production combat plane.
so an Omnimech is like in mechcommander 2 where you can put whatever you want on the mech as long it fits the payload space?
What is a clan omnimech? Clan Coyote space magic.
Recently, they killed all the magicians in Clan Coyote. Sad. lol
so omni pods are in mw5 just hardpoints? or do omnipods take all possible systems (within weightrange) while hardpoints are restricted to ac/laser/missile?
Not really. MW5 hard points limit the kinds of weapons you can install. Omni pods do not.
Is this Mechwarrior 2 music? I haven't heard that since the 90's.
You forget to mention how clan double heatsinks also only take up 2 slots while inner sphere ones take up 3.
Ironically, in Mechwarrior Online, because refit time and cost is a nonissue, clan omni mechs are all around inferior to clan battle mechs because you can't swap out engines or upgrades like endosteel or ferro fibrous armor. This only offset by having certain builds where you want to have specific hardpoints by being able to swap the omnipods.
Many omnimechs in the game have non optimal engines that are too big and heavy for you to mount the weapons you want on it or have ferro fibrous instead of endosteel which is inefficient in terms of crit slots taken up for weight saved or have them when they're not needed and take up too much critical space that you need for weapons. A clan battle mech has all the advantages of clan tech while still retaining the full customization options of being being able to swap and optimize engine size and endosteel/ferro upgrades.
It's not necessarily forgotten, so much as not being needed. I didn't cover every aspect of every system, as more in-depth videos may come later.
This video was to give an overview of generalities to help people along, as I am going to be covering Clan Mechs, very soon.
MWO gives BattleMechs relaxed, simplified customization rules while still holding the OmniMechs to the stricter canon rules.
Swapping the engine on a BattleMech is a massive undertaking that will require factory-level facilities (and reengineering of the design before doing it).
And in reality, swapping the engine on an OmniMech is about the same in complexity.
But MWO only places the realistic restriction on OmniMechs...
Tech caste reeses done some overtime.
The other limiting factor: no onboard toilet! That's why clanners are angry 🤣
game play video .. are you using a controller? @3:40
Nope, just looking around a bunch. I don't play MWO very often.
Back in the day it was cheap BS that made my group stop playing. We were playing huge campaigns and the clans came in an took a hot wet dump right in the middle of it. Good times😊
That's literally what the clans did to the IS. I love my Timberwolf. Those large pulse lasers have 18 hex range and -2 to hit. Hell yes I am going to stay in the enemy's long-range brackets until they have holes all over.
@@jonbezeau3124 So you see my point. It is a good mech though.
@@upandaljm yeah, it was a wierdly immersive move just flipping the established setting across the room like they did and everyone had big reactions to it. My brother and I started playing Ghost Bear all excited about wiping out the rube successor states, and then got mad when that didn't happen either. Seems like the inner sphere is just a landfill of grand dramas that get buried under newer ones instead of ever finishing.
@@jonbezeau3124 That was mainly why we stopped playing actually. We loved those grand campaigns. It was a great game, still can be.
I love the HBS PC game. Especially modded. Really feels like the old table top sometimes.
@@upandaljm I hadn't given Battletech a moment's thought in decades until I bought mw5 to play with my brother and my son.
Succession Wars is the only era that speaks to me in terms of setting, gameplay balance, and tone all lining up. The clan invasion is just so badly written, and after the Star League and even the Clans going for centuries with only modest innovations & improvements on weapons there's this sudden explosion of power creep.
Well, when you compare the costs of clan Omnimechs vs inner sphere normal battlemechs, you can see why some people prefer the old reliable
It’s actually worst in the long run as attrition kicks in where the Omni mech is faster to repair and change load out.
I’ve played Mech Assault on Xbox. What system is it on??
Heres a sub, I want to see a vid of Inner Sphere Omnimechs😁 We got Clan Omni/ Battlemechs and Is Battle/ * insert OMNI * Raptor, Templar, Tenchi, Sunder, Hauptman, Omni Firestarter/ Centurion/ Gauntlet/ Inferno/ Blackjack/ Arctix Fox/ Avatar, Blackhawk KU etc. Sarna lists 28, I bet theres more 🤔
Inner Sphere omni-mechs are likely to start getting covered in full in 2025/2026.
*unplugs laser*
*tries to plug in ppc, but it doesn't go in*
"ah, fucks sake"
*flips PPC on its axis, plugs it in, but it doesn't go in*
"oh reaaaly?!"
*flips PPC again, this time it slots in fine, cue windows new device noise*
Ah the Omnimechs ruined by the myth propagated by the fighter mafia.
I hate how the mad cat look. Just can't get over them tube looking arms. Which is hilirious cause one of my favorite mechs are the maraduer and the catapult.
Quite frankly, i feel like clan tech just isn’t suited to strategic warfare, every omnimech and omnifighter costs at least double a contemporary IS counterpart. For example, a Marauder MAD-5D has a BV of 1,787, while a Timber Wolf prime, a clan posterboy with a similar role costs 2,854, I could pop out almost a full IS lance with a Marauder as a command mech for that kind of BV. Then again the tabletop doesn’t really do strategic warfare that well
I agree. :)
How all that ammo can fit inside?
With the power of Clan Coyote :D
Lorewise i like the difference between the IS and Clan mechs.
Clan mechs cannot change out their core internals and engines but have weapon modularity while the IS can swap out internals but have more fixed hardpoints.
Remember, clans make a ton of non-omnimechs too.
@@BigRed40TECH true, but many players in the games tend to believe that they can do whatever they like with an omnimech and ignore the fact that their internals cannot be changed.