the shape of things to come

Total ’Mech
Tonnage
BATTLEMECH INTERNAL STRUCTURE TABLE
Internal Structure Tonnage Internal Structure Circles Maximum Armor
Standard
Structure Endo Steel Head Torso (Center) Torso (Left/Right) Arms (Each) Legs (Each)
ence) is the maximum possible armor factor for BattleMechs
at each tonnage, for biped and four-legged designs.
Technology Base: Standard internal structure is equally
available to BattleMechs of Clan or Inner Sphere technology
bases. Inner Sphere endo-steel is available only to BattleMechs
with an Inner Sphere Tech Base. Clan endo-steel is available
only to BattleMechs with a Clan Tech Base.
Four-legged: BattleMechs built as quads have four legs,
rather than two arms and two legs. The number of internal
structure points for all four legs is thus determined by the Legs
(Each) column appropriate to the ’Mech’s tonnage. The Arms
(Each) column has no bearing on quads.
Space: If the design uses endo-steel internal structure,
Inner Sphere ‘Mech designs must assign 14 critical slots on
the BattleMech’s Critical Hit Table to endo-steel (Clan designs
assign only 7 slots). The location of these slots need not
be contiguous, nor do they need to be determined at this
stage. However, they must be assigned by the fi nal stages of
design, while allocating weapons, heat sinks and any other
equipment not otherwise preset (such as engines, gyros and
cockpit systems).
OmniMechs: The type of internal structure and placement
of any critical slots required must be determined upon
the design of the base confi guration. All complete primary
and alternate confi gurations thereafter must use the same
arrangement of internal structure critical slots.
For Andrew’s Mongoose, weight is
at a premium, so he chooses to install
endo-steel internal structure on his
BattleMech. At 25 tons in total weight,
the Mongoose’s endo-steel internal
structure weighs 1.5 tons, leaving
23.5 tons to play with [25 – 1.5 = 23.5].
This endo-steel construction will
require 14 slots on the Critical Hit
Table, but Andrew opts to wait until later to distribute
them. In the meantime, Andrew blacks out all extraneous
circles from the Internal Structure Diagram on his
Mongoose’s Record Sheet, leaving only 8 open circles
in the center torso, 6 circles each in the left and right
torsos, 6 circles in each leg and 4 in each arm. (As all
heads receive 3 points of structure automatically,
Andrew leaves the head’s internal structure alone.)
To devote as much internal space
as possible, Brent opts for standard
internal structure on his Gladiator,
confident that the more efficient
weight of Clan weaponry will allow
him to arm the OmniMech to the
teeth without undue expense. Standard
internal structure for a 95-ton
Factor (Biped/
Four-legged)
20 2.0 1.0 3 6 5 3 4 69/73
25 2.5 1.5 3 8 6 4 6 89/97
30 3.0 1.5 3 10 7 5 7 105/113
35 3.5 2.0 3 11 8 6 8 119/127
40 4.0 2.0 3 12 10 6 10 137/153
45 4.5 2.5 3 14 11 7 11 153/169
50 5.0 2.5 3 16 12 8 12 169/185
55 5.5 3.0 3 18 13 9 13 185/201
60 6.0 3.0 3 20 14 10 14 201/217
65 6.5 3.5 3 21 15 10 15 211/231
70 7.0 3.5 3 22 15 11 15 217/233
75 7.5 4.0 3 23 16 12 16 231/247
80 8.0 4.0 3 25 17 13 17 247/263
85 8.5 4.5 3 27 18 14 18 263/279
90 9.0 4.5 3 29 19 15 19 279/295
95 9.5 5.0 3 30 20 16 20 293/309
100 10.0 5.0 3 31 21 17 21 307/323
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
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