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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
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 Posted: 29-Jul-2010 16:31 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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Okay it is out, bought the PDF/Book combo. Wife might be killing me here soon. So first look through...something of the mechs look decent, some well, they are different.
Artwork is better then some of the past TROs. The mechs are looking like mechs for the most part, then again I did cut the old teeth on the original line drawings of TRO3025 (the original and what was found in the original box set rule book). Overall decent artwork for the book. Plog once again shows he is better at adjusting other folks art then coming up with original work, he should stick with that talent. Though I wish they would do away with Cobra Commander faceplate look for the P-Hawk and Shadow Hawk mechs.
I did like the old is new again section, it seemed to follow a lot of the common sense approaches we have come up with ourselves over the years.
The updated PP mechs were nice...then comes the LAMs, yeah not sure about these, they are cool, but limited. Guess I will have use them and see if I like the new rules. The Shadow Hawk LAM was interesting none the less. The art looks still way to close to the Robotech/Southern Cross stuff for my taste.
Now I guess we will have about six months to a year to get to know these mechs and vehicles before a new TRO rolls out...
Also the Infantry section I think, could have gone in a supplement for the RPG, the level of detail given is more fitting to that game then board game.
And the rules for the LAMs are found with the Record Sheets...guess those will be in the next version of the core rule books when ever we get those.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
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| Posted: 29-Jul-2010 23:54 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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My god I have been out of the loop for a long time. I think that last one I picked up was 3065? A little dissapointed to see that they have kept Plog on. I thought his artwork was terrible.
I'll have to take a look at it thought.
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If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Sleeping Dragon
Draconis Combine
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 03:18 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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Quickly flips through the PDF... What's that with Putting XL engines and Improved JJs into everything? Are they nuts?
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Karagin
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 07:20 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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They claim it is being done to improve designs and break out of the mold of 3 walk 5 run for a lot of the larger mechs...just like XXL engines are now popping up in many experimental designs as well.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Sleeping Dragon
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 08:37 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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Less experiments, more use I say.
Just take a look on the new SHY-3B Shen-Yi (p. 92-93). For nearly three yars I have a shelved 'Mech WTK-3K Watakushi (read needs propper fluff) that is roughly the same.
WTK-3K Watakushi
75t, IS heavy battlemech
ES chassis - 7 LT, 7 RT, 300 standard
4/6/4 JJ - 2 LT, 2 RT
12 DHS, standard gyro, standard cockpit.
13t standard armour
H 9, CT 30(13), L/RT 22(9), L/RA 23, L/RL 24
2 MRM 20 - LA, RA
MRM 20 @ (24) - LA, RA
4 ML - 2 LT, 2 CT
ERLL - RT
C3 slave - H
2 CASE - LT, RT
No hand actuators (for fluff reasons - the 'Mech was modelled after clan Scylla picture)
Sure It's heavier by ten tons, but how hard it'd be to configure to match the SHY-3B without any dangerous and fragile tech, eh? And am I the only one here who thinks that the SHY-3B is one of those that at least look normal and useful?
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Karagin
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 10:35 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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While I agree with you, Randal and company feel that without the use of the new tech you end up with clones of the Victor and other heavies and assaults since the engine weights are killing the mechs if you want more speed, now granted there are better ways to do things, but also the mechs in the TRO are suppose to be the average mechs, not the best of the best.
One of the Battleblogs about the whole making of TRO3085 covers why they went this direction. Given that they tried something similar in the first TRO3055, I am surprised they re-visited this idea.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Sleeping Dragon
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 12:13 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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Aye, but the point is in not using the new tech at all. It's in using it with some common sense. Regulator tank exuipped with a bit heavier armour and XL engine? And what about the Gallant? 3/5/5 70t machine with XL? Really? 
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Karagin
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 13:40 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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I am not disagreeing with you. So we do what we always do. We rebuild things to work better. A lot folks, including a few who are now working in one capicaty or another for TPTB, revamped the 3055 and 3060 etc...mechs, so the same can be and should be done with a lot of these uhmm attempts to build new mechs.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Sleeping Dragon
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 14:53 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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Definitely. I've just read through the new Panther entry and I almost printed the TRO and ate it. It's okay that they wanted an upgrade, but XL engine was horribly wasted here. 5/8/8 movement is fine, but why did that thing have to have a plasma rifle with one friggen ton of ammo? Now we have a speeded up alley cat with ten rounds durability. Congratz people, you botched something again. At least there is that 10K2.
For me the source of errors is horribly obvious. Attempts to use too much new and poorly understood technology at once. It's almost an universal recipe for disaster, as the 3050 TRO proved so many years ago and TRO 3075 quite recently IMHO. We're bound to repeat the errors from which we didn't learn in the past, no? 
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Karagin
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 15:17 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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I do love how one minute the fluff talks about former WoB mechs having a stigma attached to them and three mechs earlier you see that the Republic wants to keep certain from Blake mechs around for their own use. Last time I looked nations normally don't use enemy equipment once they are beat unless they have no choice, seems though that the Republic has choices though, then according to the fluff it seems like they don't. Frustrating at times it is reading the fluff.
I do agree that they did indeed jump on the new tech bandwagon with the last two big TROs and the PDF only TROs that have come out as well. Seems like they want to use all the new stuff and then figure out what works etc...like I said, I think we will have this current TRO for about 6 months to a year and then a new one will come up fully bring all of the rest of the Dark Age mechs into the game along with other oddities. The Osprey...nice to see an old Battletechnology mech come to life again...wondering how many more from that magazine will make the cross over?
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Sleeping Dragon
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 16:28 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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That remains to be seen. I wonder why they don't give each side to one person or a team of player/designers to develop a working suite of machines to cover certain roles with nation-specific equipment in mind and then fluff whole thing with someone to supervise the cohesion of the thing. Not only it'd produce distinctive factions with which it's easy to identify, rather than presenting this haphazard collection, but it'd even allow more opportunities for designs and minis (which is THE thing the designers probably would like to have). Don't you think that there are more than just a few people who fondly remember the times when Dragon, Jenner, Marauder and Shadowhawk walked by followed after a while by JagerMech, Enforcer, Valkyrie and Warhammer, then even a village simpleton could tell that the Snakes are retreating after the offensive the FedRats have mounted.
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Karagin
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| Posted: 31-Jul-2010 17:27 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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I agree, yet it seems that TPTB are afraid of another stagged time period, granted we had years to learn all of the mechs and yes I do agree that certain mechs should remain faction specific mechs. But they tossed that to the way side with line about how the Jihad and WoB's actions spread all of the one time faction only tech to every one making it so readily available to all.
The TRO while interesting, seems to lack a direction. Like it was done to fill a void and yet it really didn't give us anything super exciting, the hype they built up for it didn't seem to come through in the end. But everyone is going to see it differently.
And former WoB supporters, aka the weapons manufactures suing the new government, now that I find funny and pretty pointless from all levels. Funny also how nice Stone is and how there is no "hey let's return the favor" kind of thing that seems to be normal human behavior when they oppressors are defeated.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Sleeping Dragon
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| Posted: 01-Aug-2010 03:37 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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Whole "Republic of the Sphere!" has already been commented when the Dark Age was announced over and over. Demilitarization, dark and eeevil (in a stormtrooper way) WoB vs. the shining crusade of light with saintly Devlin Stone and other such things. The problem is that those of us who've never wanted whole situation around the Jihad to go this awry will have to see even worse things to happen, as the Dark Age universe is not yet fully formed (it should be around 3132, if I'm not mistaken), so we'll have quite a few TROs coming IMO.
If there is anything that could happen to save CBT universe for us after that, then it would be quick souring of the relations and crash re-militarization programs.
Or alternate universe...
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Sleeping Dragon
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| Posted: 04-Aug-2010 16:26 Post subject: Weird trends |
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Is it just me, or are these trends I see in 'Mech and vehicle design?
Jihad is supposed to be something like the Succession wars, right? Destructive and ultimately draining on resources.
Now for the ease of repairs the omni technology is generally considered to be positive, while advanced materials, XL engines and non-standard gyroscopes are harder to maintain and obtain spare parts.
Now during the Jihad, when factories are nuked, communications disrupted and supply lines severed, we have a boom of non-omni designs combining advanced composites, XL engines and advanced gyros.
3085 TRO has:
6 standard, 2 light engines among 19 IS vehicles.
6 standard and 4 light engines among 26 IS 'Mechs.
1 standard engine out of 5 clan vehicles.
2 standard engines out of 17 clan Battlemechs and 2 Omnis
Is that normal? Where the hell are all the additions going?
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Karagin
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| Posted: 04-Aug-2010 23:05 Post subject: TRO3085 |
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All good points and good questions. The whole of TRO3085 is a reverse of TRO3075 which was showing older mechs popping back up and that book made things sound like the whole of the Inner Sphere was a short breath from total collapse in technology to the point that mech would become the exception on the battlefield ala the beginning of the Age of War, then we have the new TRO that brings all of these "high tech" machines to life again and all is better, the Jihad is over (that is the only good thing out off all of this, but the new storyline is not any better IMVHO) and its' time to rebuild etc...
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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