the shape of things to come

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BATTLEMECH TECH: A PRIMER —Transcript of a special tech services lecture, “The Basics of BattleMechs,” Stuttgart School of Defense, Kaumberg, 12 May 3070
Distinguished members of the media, my name is Professor Dietrich Mathers and I’ve been asked to provide you an overview of BattleMechs. As I understand, a number of your editors requested this lecture because Kaumberg’s ‘net has gotten rather toasty towards you. Apparently, legions of armchair MechWarriors are waging a holy crusade to correct technical inaccuracies in your reporting. …I suspect I could have chosen a better phrase than “holy crusade,” what with the Blakists’ current misbehavior…At any rate, the more organized ’Mech-nuts’ petitions must have hurt your ratings, else you wouldn’t be joining me here at the Stuttgart School of Defense. To the point, what I hope to achieve today is not to fully illuminate you regarding all the mysteries of BattleMech technology, but rather to explain enough so that when your future reports next involve BattleMechs, you know to ask the correct questions and get the facts. You should thus—theoretically—come away from here knowing how to avoid being fl amed by pimple-faced armchair MechWarriors. So, this is my lesson plan for the day. First, I’m going to tell you what a BattleMech is. Then I’m going to tell you about their guts, starting at the bones and then covering major components. Finally, I’m going to wrap it all up by explaining how the whole thing gets brought to life. Are we ready? Good. TERMINOLOGY Now, before I describe the basics, allow me to explain my terminology. First, when I say “BattleMech,” I’m referring to BattleMechs and OmniMechs. If I have something to say about Omnis alone, I will say “OmniMech.” But if I just say “’Mech,” I’m referring to any type of ’Mech, including IndustrialMechs. Also, I believe some of you got in trouble from the ’Mechheads for taking your biological analogies to ’Mechs too literally. Before I begin confusing you, I’m going to warn you right now that while I will be using terms like “bones” and “joints” and “muscles,” keep in mind I am talking about mechanical systems. For example, the “bones” of a BattleMech’s chassis are composite structural components that can endure meganewton loads while supporting an exterior armor shell, diffusing excess electrical currents from PPC strikes, carrying a dense web of data and power lines, and anchoring myomer bundles. As a result, they appear no more like human bones than the wings of a large aircraft resemble a bird’s wings. BATTLEMECHS: THE BASICS You would have to be a blind, deaf, and dumb inhabitant of a Deep Periphery lost colony to not know basically what a BattleMech is. But just in case, a BattleMech is a giant, armored robot toting huge guns, piloted by those modern knights called MechWarriors. That is a simplifi cation, of course. As many of you have learned, no doubt, there is a little more to these machines than that. Your recent problems originate not only from people shouting at you for technical errors, but also for violating cultural taboos about the BattleMech. For example, in some ‘net halls, I would be wise to wear asbestos undies if I dared to call those shining and magnifi cent titans of war something so crass as “giant, armored robots toting huge guns.” So, to strip away the cultural baggage that BattleMechs have acquired over the past half-millennium, let me give you this enhanced defi nition of the BattleMech: A BattleMech is an armored combat vehicle. That’s right. Don’t be fooled by the sculpted armor and lifelike motions of its limbs. A BattleMech is just a tank on legs. The arms are complicated turrets, but turrets nonetheless. The legs are a complicated all-terrain propulsion system. And a BattleMech’s guns and armor do not signifi cantly diff er from those found on any other armored combat vehicles in use today. There are, of course, several subtle diff erences. INTERNAL STRUCTURE First and foremost, it is the articulated structure of the legs that set ’Mechs (Battle- or otherwise) apart from other vehicles. No other vehicle has articulated legs as capable as those of a ’Mech. Making these legs possible is a chassis, an internal structure quite diff erent than those of other vehicles. There is an obvious degree of articulation—joints—not found in the rigid bodies of conventional vehicles. And when the fi rst ’Mech designers sought to harness myomers in the 24th century to better animate the limbs of their IndustrialMechs, they found the easiest approach was to mimic the layout of humans and other advanced animals: an endoskeleton. Having an endo-skeletal frame means that many of a ’Mech’s systems sit on the exterior of the frame rather than being caged within a frame, roughly similar to the way your skeleton serves as an internal support for muscles and organs. As rigid and unyielding as BattleMech armor might seem, few ’Mech designs use the armor to assist the internal structure’s load-bearing duty. BattleMech armor is too thin for its width and height to be anything but a wobbly sheet. Wait, “wobbly” was another bad word choice, wasn’t it? The Frame So, let’s start talking about internal structure components with the bones. A ’Mech typically only has about sixteen to twenty-fi ve “bones.” This is partly because some structures that might be assembled from a dozen or more bones in a human, like the ribcage, are a one-piece cage in ’Mechs. In other areas ’Mechs simply don’t need the complexity of the human model, like the foot, where shock pads are used. One end result of this structural streamlining compared to the human inspiration is that ’Mechs generally have less fl exibility and articulation than their organic creators. The ’Mech’s so-called bones diff er between ’Mech classes. The cheap, heavy bones of IndustrialMechs, for instance, are quite diff erent from BattleMech bones and are beyond the scope of this discussion. The bones of BattleMechs, meanwhile, fall into two major designs at the moment: standard structure and endo-steel structure. Standard BattleMech structure uses major components that are composites of foamed aluminum— Eh? Yes? Could you speak up a bit for the microph—? INTRODUCTION CONSTRUCTION BASICS BATTLEMECH CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIALMECH CONSTRUCTION PROTOMECH CONSTRUCTION COMBAT VEHICLE CONSTRUCTION SUPPORT VEHICLE CONSTRUCTION CONV. INFANTRY CONSTRUCTION BATTLE ARMOR CONSTRUCTION AEROSPACE UNIT CONSTRUCTION WEAPONS AND HEAVY EQUIPMENT INFANTRY WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT COSTS AND AVAILABILITY BATTLE VALUE INDEX RECORD SHEETS 31
Page 1 and 2: 35103
Page 3 and 4: CLASSIC BATTLETECH BATTLETECHTM TEC
Page 5 and 6: Choose Technology Base 46 Choose We
Page 7 and 8: Nail/Rivet Gun 246 Refueling Drogue
Page 9 and 10: To David Stansel-Garner for being t
Page 11 and 12: The one exception is the Equipment
Page 13 and 14: Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL)
Page 15 and 16: Battle Armor Aerospace Fighter Conv
Page 17 and 18: CLAN JADE FALCON OCCUPATION ZONE EC
Page 19 and 20: FREE RASALHAGUE REPUBLIC ECONOMY Ca
Page 21 and 22: BATTLE ARMOR Battle armor (battlesu
Page 23 and 24: each full four missiles (regardless
Page 25 and 26: ange brackets, and so instead of li
Page 27 and 28: on the ’Mech, including the rear
Page 29 and 30: BATTLE ARMOR RECORD SHEET Each Batt
Page 31: AIRSHIP DATA Type: Name: Tonnage: T
Page 35 and 36: sible. The relatively recent develo
Page 37 and 38: cancels the gyroscopic problems. On
Page 39 and 40: vert a standard into an XL—such a
Page 41 and 42: orbit. But even when working for sh
Page 43 and 44: neurohelmets typical of the Success
Page 45 and 46: on blind, crushing feet to create g
Page 47 and 48: WEIGHT BattleMechs use the tonnage
Page 49 and 50: Total ’Mech Tonnage BATTLEMECH IN
Page 51 and 52: Non-Fusion Engines Fusion Engines E
Page 53 and 54: Andrew has chosen a standard gyro f
Page 55 and 56: The placement of these critical slo
Page 57 and 58: the Base Armor Multipliers shown fo
Page 59 and 60: Chas distributes his armor points a
Page 61 and 62: ight side torso and the adjacent ce
Page 63 and 64: In light of these events, this grou
Page 65 and 66: preliminary phases, we will still n
Page 67 and 68: Light IndustrialMechs weigh 35 tons
Page 69 and 70: structure circles in that location,
Page 71 and 72: ADD GYROSCOPE Like BattleMechs, Ind
Page 73 and 74: STEP 3: ADD HEAT SINKS Though not a
Page 75 and 76: Edward sees no great need to spend
Page 77 and 78: power amplifi ers to supply the nee
Page 79 and 80: MEETING AGENDA Project Details Proj
Page 81 and 82: loads. The lower- to medium-size Pr
Page 83 and 84:
Light ProtoMechs weigh 3 tons (3,00
Page 85 and 86:
John’s Siren-4 weighs 3 tons (3,0
Page 87 and 88:
do not record internal space the sa
Page 89 and 90:
At 6 tons (6,000 kilograms), Kevin
Page 91 and 92:
With only 25 kilograms left (275 kg
Page 93 and 94:
derstand the technologies employed
Page 95 and 96:
able, accurate weapon. Given the Ch
Page 97 and 98:
terrain other than heavy woods and
Page 99 and 100:
Michael wants to design a fast and
Page 101 and 102:
Units built as Trailers do not requ
Page 103 and 104:
ing required, or consider the engin
Page 105 and 106:
DETERMINE JUMP CAPABILITY Combat Ve
Page 107 and 108:
STEP 4: ADD ARMOR Armor helps prote
Page 109 and 110:
STEP 5: ADD WEAPONS, AMMUNITION AND
Page 111 and 112:
the 23.5 tons he had after armoring
Page 113 and 114:
PTI’S HOT PRODUCTS: 3067 (SUPPORT
Page 115 and 116:
HOVERCRAFT Units in this category m
Page 117 and 118:
WHEELED VEHICLE The wheeled support
Page 119 and 120:
VTOL: VTOLs are one of the lightest
Page 121 and 122:
Motive Type design like Simon’s.
Page 123 and 124:
Base Chassis/Engine Values In addit
Page 125 and 126:
Choose Chassis Modifi cations For m
Page 127 and 128:
MD Sheet, Simon blacks out all of t
Page 129 and 130:
SUPPORT VEHICLE ENGINE TABLE SUPPOR
Page 131 and 132:
half-ton (32 tons [engine weight] x
Page 133 and 134:
Christine’s Dixon is a 300-ton Ai
Page 135 and 136:
total crew/passenger seat weight to
Page 137 and 138:
chassis modifi cation, which enable
Page 139 and 140:
tion is devoted to one or more of t
Page 141 and 142:
Because these minimum crew needs ar
Page 143 and 144:
13 August 3068 This is my diary. I
Page 145 and 146:
the forming clouds. The recruits on
Page 147 and 148:
Hovercraft-based mechanized infantr
Page 149 and 150:
CONVENTIONAL INFANTRY FORMATIONS (B
Page 151 and 152:
energy, “M” for Missile and “
Page 153 and 154:
Secondary Weapon Limits The use of
Page 155 and 156:
Oversized Platoons Even though over
Page 157 and 158:
Motive Type CONVENTIONAL INFANTRY W
Page 159 and 160:
ZM: Good morning, campers! They cal
Page 161 and 162:
Weapons break down into your usual
Page 163 and 164:
WEIGHT Battle armor, power armor an
Page 165 and 166:
BATTLE ARMOR STRUCTURE WEIGHTS TABL
Page 167 and 168:
BATTLE ARMOR NON-GROUND MOTIVE SYST
Page 169 and 170:
must adhere to their basic rules wh
Page 171 and 172:
Keith decides to provide his Tunnel
Page 173 and 174:
The weight for these extra magazine
Page 175 and 176:
MODULAR TECHNOLOGY When completing
Page 177 and 178:
a squad of meat bags in the back, a
Page 179 and 180:
laser-guided targeting system. All
Page 181 and 182:
secondary control stick instead. On
Page 183 and 184:
TECHNOLOGY BASE In Total Warfare st
Page 185 and 186:
Unit Types The following unit types
Page 187 and 188:
Base Engine Rating and Movement For
Page 189 and 190:
True to Clan style, Scott sees his
Page 191 and 192:
ays, ’Mech bays and so forth—ne
Page 193 and 194:
(see p. 192). To determine the armo
Page 195 and 196:
DropShip and not a fi ghter, it los
Page 197 and 198:
combat. Unlike fi ghters, however,
Page 199 and 200:
As neither quarters nor cargo bays
Page 201 and 202:
fi ghter, aerodyne Small Craft, sph
Page 203 and 204:
WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT The modern ba
Page 205 and 206:
• SMALL PULSE LASER • [PAGE 226
Page 207 and 208:
Clan Wolf-in-Exile finally succeede
Page 209 and 210:
Interestingly enough, the Clan vers
Page 211 and 212:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight Bay do
Page 213 and 214:
’MECH COCKPIT Introduced: circa 2
Page 215 and 216:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight While
Page 217 and 218:
AEROSPACE ENGINES (FUSION/TURBINE)
Page 219 and 220:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight Seen a
Page 221 and 222:
HYPER-ASSAULT GAUSS RIFLE [Introduc
Page 223 and 224:
DOUBLE HEAT SINKS Introduced: 2567
Page 225 and 226:
• AUTOCANNON • [PAGE 208] • U
Page 227 and 228:
PROTOMECH STRUCTURE Introduced: 306
Page 229 and 230:
STANDARD LASERS Introduced: circa 2
Page 231 and 232:
Today’s vehicular-scale missile l
Page 233 and 234:
Inferno SRMs: An enhancement of an
Page 235 and 236:
and communications. This impairs th
Page 237 and 238:
Capellan engineers soon realized, h
Page 239 and 240:
Tech Base: Inner Sphere and Clan Un
Page 241 and 242:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight Even b
Page 243 and 244:
during the mid-3040s. Even thicker
Page 245 and 246:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight Combin
Page 247 and 248:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight Extend
Page 249 and 250:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight Mid-ai
Page 251 and 252:
Tech Base: Inner Sphere and Clan Un
Page 253 and 254:
• MICRO GRENADE LAUNCHER • [PAG
Page 255 and 256:
FIRE RESISTANT Introduced: 3058 (Cl
Page 257 and 258:
Tech Base: Inner Sphere and Clan Ba
Page 259 and 260:
Introduced: Circa 2890 (Clans), 305
Page 261 and 262:
Introduced: 3062 (Capellan Confeder
Page 263 and 264:
The “big gun” of most battle ar
Page 265 and 266:
the standard modular weapon mount,
Page 267 and 268:
• SINGLE-SHOT SRM LAUNCHER • [P
Page 269 and 270:
Introduced: 2436 (Draconis Combine)
Page 271 and 272:
Introduced: Pre-spacefl ight Battle
Page 273 and 274:
Introduced: 3060 (Clan Cloud Cobra)
Page 275 and 276:
hunters, or as a desperate “backu
Page 277 and 278:
Conventional Infantry Conventional
Page 279 and 280:
Robert wants to fi nd the costs for
Page 281 and 282:
PROTOMECH STRUCTURAL COSTS AND AVAI
Page 283 and 284:
BATTLE ARMOR STRUCTURAL COSTS AND A
Page 285 and 286:
AEROSPACE UNIT STRUCTURAL COSTS AND
Page 287 and 288:
The combined structural and weapons
Page 289 and 290:
AVAILABILITY CODES TABLE Code Avail
Page 291 and 292:
Michael determines that his Hephaes
Page 293 and 294:
HEAVY WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT (CONT)
Page 295 and 296:
Weapon / Item Cost Availability IND
Page 297 and 298:
Weapon / Item Cost Availability HEA
Page 299 and 300:
ADDITIONAL BATTLE ARMOR WEAPONS AND
Page 301 and 302:
Weapon / Item Cost CONVENTIONAL INF
Page 303 and 304:
Weapon / Item Cost CONVENTIONAL INF
Page 305 and 306:
15 points per critical space of exp
Page 307 and 308:
CALCULATING THE BV OF: A TOYAMA TYM
Page 309 and 310:
Add 1 to the result if the ProtoMec
Page 311 and 312:
CALCULATING THE BV OF: A HEPHAESTUS
Page 313 and 314:
Squad Support Weapon: The BV of a S
Page 315 and 316:
CALCULATING THE BV OF: A MECHBUSTER
Page 317 and 318:
DEFENSIVE FACTORS TABLE Target Modi
Page 319 and 320:
WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT BATTLE VALUE
Page 321 and 322:
Weapon BV Archaic Weapons* Bow (Com
Page 323 and 324:
DropShips, 175-76 fi ghters, 178-79
Page 325 and 326:
Quarters, 236 • R • Range base,
Page 327 and 328:
CLASSiC FOUR-LEGGED ’MECH RECORD
Page 329 and 330:
CLASSiC VEHICLE DATA Type: Movement
Page 331 and 332:
CLASSiC VEHICLE DATA Type: Movement
Page 333 and 334:
LARGE GROUND SUPPORT VEHICLE RECORD
Page 335 and 336:
CLASSiC CONVENTIONAL INFANTRY: PLAT
Page 337 and 338:
CLASSiC FIGHTER DATA Type: Cost: NO
Page 339 and 340:
CLASSiC CRAFT DATA Type: Thrust: Sa
Page 341 and 342:
CLASSiC DROPSHIP DATA Type: NOTES A
Page 343 and 344:
Space Column Unit Type M BattleMech
Page 345 and 346:
clan HEaVY WEaPOnS anD EQUIPMEnT Ta
Page 347 and 348:
INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT TABLE (CONT) H
Page 349 and 350:
Weapon / Item Damage Range Min/sht/
Page 351 and 352:
CONVENTIONAL INFANTRY WEAPONS Weapo
Page 353 and 354:
CONVENTIONAL INFANTRY WEAPONS (CONT
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