Greetings from Sigma Galaxy! I pilot a Warhammer IIC in honor of my father (I like to play the underdog which in clan space is being a freeborn lol) who used an SLDF Warhammer until Tukayyid.
people forget the lore! everything the clans currently have already exists in the innershere and periphery. look at TRO 2750. even Catalyst games has a book that lists when the tech first became available. just because it has a rarity due to the succession wars, doesn't mean it's not available. yes, the clans made improvements, but not entirely new tech. final thought - Kerenski took 75%-80% of the SLDF. the remaining SLDF became the military of Comstar. as an organization, Comstar had all the factories on Terra, and the knowledge to create these mechs and weapons. now spread this out to garrison and protect every HPG station. the Army of Comstar is massive! if you play according to lore instead of bv/bv2, players would have a much better experience with this game.
The initial release of Clan tech equipment has been and still remains overpowered. Back before BV system was released, there's always arguments on what is considered a fair fight, especially against IS opponents. None of the newer Clan Tech comes close to reaching this kind of OP (with a possible exemption of the now extinct iATMs and some crafty Protomech designs). It is like another decade further in the timeline before Inner Sphere comes up with their own unique toys later in the timeline to balance out some of these. Tactically for IS, you need to close the range quickly and you will usually have the numerical and tonnage advantage. A classic reverse slope defense and baiting the Clan player to come to you usually works best as most Clan 'Mechs are faster than IS designs and can keep kiting easily, or hugging close terrain to prevent the Clans from shooting you until you get into range. Also as an correction, there are variants of Clan 'Mechs, as not all Clan 'Mechs are the premier Omnimech designs. Typically these are older designs or second-line designs designated for garrison forces. Some of them are still really good balanced Clan 'Mech designs.
11:23 when engaged in a challenge you still by a clan pilot you still have to stay in arc and in sight for the challenge to stay in effect . You can't just disappear behind a hill . But yeh a spider is an ideal mech to tie up a few thousand BV of clan assault mech with just stay at long range and run or jump max distance from cover to cover even a gunnery skill 2 clan pilot is going to struggle to hit you . As a Capellan player with access to stealth armour I love doing this and if you dont challenge my pesky skirmisher that's fine say hello to my TAG and an ArrowIV missile ....... oh remember not to walk into that minefield all my mechs with LRMs just laid . Fun times fun times
The secret to operating as a Clan is mastering the Elemental Battle Armors, and their transport/deployment. They're practically free armor when being transported, and they can completely derail a Battlemech when they swarm it. Be patient. Snipe as much as possible. Do not over extend. Movement is really key for all Clan Mechs, which tend to be faster. They're BV is WAY higher, so you're practically outnumbered all the time. That's the advantage of the Inner Sphere. Stacking. If you're IS vs Clan, stack damage. Especially to the legs. Clan Mechs tend to have less leg armor. If you can get one to fall, it's all gravy.
I appreciate your perspective on this. I made the mistake of searching for info on “why the clan hate” on Reddit and, at least from my perspective as a a salty old gamer, it struck me as a lot of unnecessary whining. People seem to be under the mistaken impression that battlefields are “even”. Gaming out a first engagement between Clan and Inner Sphere forces would be interesting and I’d wager that a creative commander could find ways to cause more damage than “should happen” according to the strict guidelines. Part of war gaming includes being willing to take on the good fight, even if the odds are stacked against you. You just make the bastards party for every inch!
I do enjoy following Zellbrigen where relevant, although there are a few caveats to it that will eventually annoy even the most honorable clanner. 1.) Proportional retaliation; Normally an errant shot from someone not in a duel with you can be considered a mistake, but being hit by someone outside your duel permits you to fire back in kind, provided you use proportional force. If a guy shoots two medium lasers at me, I can shoot something similar back. *Once* . Being too technical about this is frowned upon, and a particularly rash pilot may not engage in it, but it's not 'illegal'. 2.) You *are* permitted to challenge multiple opponents, but that means you're going 2v1. No backup just because you picked two fights, that's on you. This is sometimes used in clan vs clan trials to deny friendly vehicles the chance to engage because freeborn vehicle crews don't deserve glory. 3.) You can refuse challenges out of weight class or depth if (and only if) there's an eligible substitute. A light doesn't have to accept a fight with an assault when there's an allied heavy free, or similar scenario. 4.) Breaking line of sight or not intending to fight is often considered dezgra if there's no clear tactical use to it. (or if it's clearly baiting you for malfeasance, which absolutely still happens even between clans.) So if you're doing this you'll want to occassionally peek in and plink them with an ERML or something just to remind them it's still goin' on. 5.) Melee is no. Punching people is savage and we don't do that.
Personally since BV is a thing I dont fear Clanners in any way shape or form . Just steer clear of the temptation to use your BV loading up on Assaults , good mediums and heavies will serve you better . Just remember any clan mech under 50 tons is a glass cannon and they exist at higher weights too , take out the glass cannons early to press your activation advantage . Mind you my group is playing ilKhan era and I play Capellans so I've got as nasty toys as the clanners
I found out about battletech just a couple of weeks ago when my uncel told me ,as response of me showing my cousin warhammer, that he also playd a tabletop game in his day's. He lended me his old rulebook and i started building an army with the help of my 3d printer(battletechis surprisinglyeasy to print on filament machines. Even elementels and gnomes came out acceptable)i startet building an army. As it is set in 3025 i read about the clan invasion and decided to build clans because i knew a bit about elite armys from my 40k custodians😅😅
When comparing Battletech and 40k, you mentioned role play aspect - if memory serves me right, 40k, as in main line 40k used to have some pretty heavy role play aspects back in 1st and 2nd edition, but it was eventually phased out, sadly. That said, Battletech's smaller unit count in average game lends itself to some very nice role playing and long campaign potential basically right from the get go. As for Clan honour - remind me if I'm wrong - but didn't Clans smetimes downsize their forces, just to have a better challenge? Even if that was denying them tactical advantage. Wasn't it one of the things that lead to their defeat in the end, along with generally quite small numbers to begin with?
havent finished the video yet but whats your opinion on using C variants or Royal SLDF variants of IS mechs in clan Stars/Binaries/Trinaries/Clusters/Galaxies/Toumans/Did-I-Really-Need-To-List-Every-Clan-Unit? asking cuz im going with a 8.6K BV (2.0) star of scorpion empire and a big appeal of them to me is their integration of Nueva Castile and the Umayyads into their clan, and i want to paint two of the mechs in the star as castilians and umayyads (a royal SLDF shadow hawk and a Battlemaster C 3), and like 2 of my elementals in the point thatll be riding on my Timber Wolf TC (my justification for them having a battle specific mech, a battle they didnt participate in, is Clan Sea Fox trading)
Clans acquire more honor by achieving victories with smaller forces. So between two lances that achieve the same, the one that is underpowered gets the higher honor among other clan members. So the overpowering and cost gets neutralized by their culture. Unlike a merc, if you play clans, you must maximize honor, and victory is secondary. You would think that victory over IS would be their priority, but no. After spending their entire lives fighting trials where honor is the main focus, and not dying is second, you cannot expect clans to try to outnumber or overpower their enemies. If you play like a merc when using clans, you are behaving like a freebirth. I can almost guarantee that your chances to earn a trial of annihilation (clan death penalty) is very high. If you had a bloodname, it is likely that your dishonorable behavior would have you removed from any bloodright. And you may get many trials of Greviance from fellow clanners. So intentionally choosing disadvantage with superior machines, is the clan way of honor. Your advice for players to behave like freebirth IS mercs is disgusting (LOL!). I have spoken.
@@dubuyajay9964 Nah they are more a merchant clan. The wolf's dragoons are the closest, being clanners that were to infiltrate the sphere as mercs, and dropped the infiltration part completely. as for behaving honorably around dirty spheroid freebirth.. but what if they dare to refuse your batchall?
Will I play against someone who plays to the spirit of the game as clans keeping to their ways and using a balanced weapon loadout + BV value? yes. The second you start power gaming as Clan though, you know where the door is, pick up your minis and leave. The only time i really find it fun to play against clan is when its done in a scenario way. Its not just a straight up battle where the clan player can steamroll because herp derp even at even BV the clan mechs can be incredibly overpowered due to weapon hoarding and using a standard clan pilot.
I started with the Clans because I love the lore of Clan Seafox/ Diamond Shark. I run an ACH-F/A hybrid as my personal mech.
Greetings from Sigma Galaxy! I pilot a Warhammer IIC in honor of my father (I like to play the underdog which in clan space is being a freeborn lol) who used an SLDF Warhammer until Tukayyid.
@@knate44 Greetings From Spina Khanate's Delta Aimag. If you are still alive that is, my character isn't born till 3117.
How to beat the clans: be Kurita and just have a million Urbanmechs each with an MRM 30.
Or be comstar and turn an entire planet into a death trap
I love playing in the mixed tech pool. Add just a touch of clan tech to some league tech and test it on the battlefield.
people forget the lore! everything the clans currently have already exists in the innershere and periphery. look at TRO 2750. even Catalyst games has a book that lists when the tech first became available. just because it has a rarity due to the succession wars, doesn't mean it's not available. yes, the clans made improvements, but not entirely new tech.
final thought - Kerenski took 75%-80% of the SLDF. the remaining SLDF became the military of Comstar. as an organization, Comstar had all the factories on Terra, and the knowledge to create these mechs and weapons. now spread this out to garrison and protect every HPG station. the Army of Comstar is massive!
if you play according to lore instead of bv/bv2, players would have a much better experience with this game.
Clans are massively overpowering, even Randall said so in a Battletech Game podcast.
The initial release of Clan tech equipment has been and still remains overpowered. Back before BV system was released, there's always arguments on what is considered a fair fight, especially against IS opponents. None of the newer Clan Tech comes close to reaching this kind of OP (with a possible exemption of the now extinct iATMs and some crafty Protomech designs). It is like another decade further in the timeline before Inner Sphere comes up with their own unique toys later in the timeline to balance out some of these.
Tactically for IS, you need to close the range quickly and you will usually have the numerical and tonnage advantage. A classic reverse slope defense and baiting the Clan player to come to you usually works best as most Clan 'Mechs are faster than IS designs and can keep kiting easily, or hugging close terrain to prevent the Clans from shooting you until you get into range.
Also as an correction, there are variants of Clan 'Mechs, as not all Clan 'Mechs are the premier Omnimech designs. Typically these are older designs or second-line designs designated for garrison forces. Some of them are still really good balanced Clan 'Mech designs.
Golden Century most underrated era
When starting out play 3025. In that era one mistake won’t kill you (mostly). In 3050 different story.
11:23 when engaged in a challenge you still by a clan pilot you still have to stay in arc and in sight for the challenge to stay in effect . You can't just disappear behind a hill . But yeh a spider is an ideal mech to tie up a few thousand BV of clan assault mech with just stay at long range and run or jump max distance from cover to cover even a gunnery skill 2 clan pilot is going to struggle to hit you . As a Capellan player with access to stealth armour I love doing this and if you dont challenge my pesky skirmisher that's fine say hello to my TAG and an ArrowIV missile ....... oh remember not to walk into that minefield all my mechs with LRMs just laid . Fun times fun times
The secret to operating as a Clan is mastering the Elemental Battle Armors, and their transport/deployment. They're practically free armor when being transported, and they can completely derail a Battlemech when they swarm it. Be patient. Snipe as much as possible. Do not over extend.
Movement is really key for all Clan Mechs, which tend to be faster. They're BV is WAY higher, so you're practically outnumbered all the time.
That's the advantage of the Inner Sphere. Stacking. If you're IS vs Clan, stack damage. Especially to the legs. Clan Mechs tend to have less leg armor. If you can get one to fall, it's all gravy.
I appreciate your perspective on this. I made the mistake of searching for info on “why the clan hate” on Reddit and, at least from my perspective as a a salty old gamer, it struck me as a lot of unnecessary whining. People seem to be under the mistaken impression that battlefields are “even”. Gaming out a first engagement between Clan and Inner Sphere forces would be interesting and I’d wager that a creative commander could find ways to cause more damage than “should happen” according to the strict guidelines. Part of war gaming includes being willing to take on the good fight, even if the odds are stacked against you. You just make the bastards party for every inch!
I do enjoy following Zellbrigen where relevant, although there are a few caveats to it that will eventually annoy even the most honorable clanner.
1.) Proportional retaliation; Normally an errant shot from someone not in a duel with you can be considered a mistake, but being hit by someone outside your duel permits you to fire back in kind, provided you use proportional force. If a guy shoots two medium lasers at me, I can shoot something similar back. *Once* . Being too technical about this is frowned upon, and a particularly rash pilot may not engage in it, but it's not 'illegal'.
2.) You *are* permitted to challenge multiple opponents, but that means you're going 2v1. No backup just because you picked two fights, that's on you. This is sometimes used in clan vs clan trials to deny friendly vehicles the chance to engage because freeborn vehicle crews don't deserve glory.
3.) You can refuse challenges out of weight class or depth if (and only if) there's an eligible substitute. A light doesn't have to accept a fight with an assault when there's an allied heavy free, or similar scenario.
4.) Breaking line of sight or not intending to fight is often considered dezgra if there's no clear tactical use to it. (or if it's clearly baiting you for malfeasance, which absolutely still happens even between clans.) So if you're doing this you'll want to occassionally peek in and plink them with an ERML or something just to remind them it's still goin' on.
5.) Melee is no. Punching people is savage and we don't do that.
Personally since BV is a thing I dont fear Clanners in any way shape or form . Just steer clear of the temptation to use your BV loading up on Assaults , good mediums and heavies will serve you better . Just remember any clan mech under 50 tons is a glass cannon and they exist at higher weights too , take out the glass cannons early to press your activation advantage . Mind you my group is playing ilKhan era and I play Capellans so I've got as nasty toys as the clanners
I'm pretty sure that Zellbrigen allows one mech to duel multiple simultaneous opponents. Your Thor didn't need to chase that spider around.
I found out about battletech just a couple of weeks ago when my uncel told me ,as response of me showing my cousin warhammer, that he also playd a tabletop game in his day's.
He lended me his old rulebook and i started building an army with the help of my 3d printer(battletechis surprisinglyeasy to print on filament machines. Even elementels and gnomes came out acceptable)i startet building an army. As it is set in 3025 i read about the clan invasion and decided to build clans because i knew a bit about elite armys from my 40k custodians😅😅
When comparing Battletech and 40k, you mentioned role play aspect - if memory serves me right, 40k, as in main line 40k used to have some pretty heavy role play aspects back in 1st and 2nd edition, but it was eventually phased out, sadly.
That said, Battletech's smaller unit count in average game lends itself to some very nice role playing and long campaign potential basically right from the get go.
As for Clan honour - remind me if I'm wrong - but didn't Clans smetimes downsize their forces, just to have a better challenge? Even if that was denying them tactical advantage.
Wasn't it one of the things that lead to their defeat in the end, along with generally quite small numbers to begin with?
havent finished the video yet but whats your opinion on using C variants or Royal SLDF variants of IS mechs in clan Stars/Binaries/Trinaries/Clusters/Galaxies/Toumans/Did-I-Really-Need-To-List-Every-Clan-Unit? asking cuz im going with a 8.6K BV (2.0) star of scorpion empire and a big appeal of them to me is their integration of Nueva Castile and the Umayyads into their clan, and i want to paint two of the mechs in the star as castilians and umayyads (a royal SLDF shadow hawk and a Battlemaster C 3), and like 2 of my elementals in the point thatll be riding on my Timber Wolf TC (my justification for them having a battle specific mech, a battle they didnt participate in, is Clan Sea Fox trading)
How do you best utilize clan mechs? I did a even bv game and got bodied by IS mechs with my 6 clan mecha
Clans acquire more honor by achieving victories with smaller forces. So between two lances that achieve the same, the one that is underpowered gets the higher honor among other clan members. So the overpowering and cost gets neutralized by their culture. Unlike a merc, if you play clans, you must maximize honor, and victory is secondary. You would think that victory over IS would be their priority, but no. After spending their entire lives fighting trials where honor is the main focus, and not dying is second, you cannot expect clans to try to outnumber or overpower their enemies.
If you play like a merc when using clans, you are behaving like a freebirth. I can almost guarantee that your chances to earn a trial of annihilation (clan death penalty) is very high.
If you had a bloodname, it is likely that your dishonorable behavior would have you removed from any bloodright. And you may get many trials of Greviance from fellow clanners.
So intentionally choosing disadvantage with superior machines, is the clan way of honor.
Your advice for players to behave like freebirth IS mercs is disgusting (LOL!). I have spoken.
Aren't Diamond Shark a bunch of mercs?
@@dubuyajay9964 Nah they are more a merchant clan. The wolf's dragoons are the closest, being clanners that were to infiltrate the sphere as mercs, and dropped the infiltration part completely.
as for behaving honorably around dirty spheroid freebirth.. but what if they dare to refuse your batchall?
I’m starting with Clans I’m not a fan of the Great Houses.
SMOKE JAGS WOOOOOOOOOO
Don't you mean "Smoked" Jaguars? Hehe...
Will I play against someone who plays to the spirit of the game as clans keeping to their ways and using a balanced weapon loadout + BV value? yes.
The second you start power gaming as Clan though, you know where the door is, pick up your minis and leave.
The only time i really find it fun to play against clan is when its done in a scenario way. Its not just a straight up battle where the clan player can steamroll because herp derp even at even BV the clan mechs can be incredibly overpowered due to weapon hoarding and using a standard clan pilot.
If another warrior engages you while in a duel then he has broken clan roe and time to crush some IS surats
What's with the oversized Elementals and Battle Armor? Aren't those for the battle troops rules?
dark age kinda sucks though