A few thoughts:
Same complaint someone else had, I fell prey to today despite my caution. I
bought myself some Battletech IS Powered Armor troops to use in DS II. Good
Lord! The things are almost as big as the stuff I'm using as Infantry Walkers.
They tower over most of my low slung MBT's. They're just way out of scale. Do
most people go ahead and use them, despite this? I admit, the vehicle figures
I use are on the small side compared to some lines. But still... yeesh!
Why are walkers relegated to size 1 or 4-7? Why no size 2 or 3 walkers?
If smaller walkers are possible, and so are bigger ones, why not the
middle-sized ones? I'm all for allowing class 2 Infantry Walkers, and
class 3 Combat Walkers.
Has anyone done any conversions from Heavy Gear into SG or DS? I've never
played the game, but it looks cool. Just from the perusals I've done, I'd
suggest you make the gears either class 1 or 2 Infantry Walkers. As for
those funky wheels on them, cost gears a little higher than regular walkers,
and allow them to use roads as Easy terrain like any other vehicle.
Any of the people out there ever deal with jump jets when doing Battletech
to DS conversions? The idea I came up with was: Make jump jets 1 item -
they take up 1 space per class of vehicle (ie a class 1 walker's jets would
take up 1 space, etc.) and they way they affect movement is such: They render
Mountains and Woods as Normal instead of poor, and urban as poor instead of
difficult (They have no effect on swamp terrain, using them where you can get
stuck when you land seems like a BAD idea). Second, they allow walkers
equipped with them to make pop-up attacks like VTOL's, provided the
cover is urban or wooded terrain or minor hills, NOT mountains.
I always read it that infantry walkers were size 1 and transport walkers could
be up to size 7. I used BT tons/20 to get size.
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
If you read the rules, on page 14 it states that Infantry Walkers are class
1, while Combat Walkers and Transport Walkers are class 4-5 (or, it
states,
class 4-7 if you're allowing oversized vehicles). I just wanted to know
what happened to class 2 & 3 in the rules, and propose that class 2 fit in the
Infantry Walker Category while Class 3 would be small Combat Walkers.
I tried the Battletech Tonnage/20 route. The problem is, this ends up
with 20 ton mechs being class 1. Even the smallest mecha are supposed to be
huge, while a class 1 equates in DS II rules to a 3-4 meter high walker.
I
think a better way of doing it is to generalize the Battletech Wieght
classes. Class 3 = Light, CLass 4 = Medium, Class 5=Heavy, Classes 6-7 =
Assault.
Brian Bilderback
----Original Message Follows----
From: Michael Brown <mwbrown@veriomail.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: "'gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU'" <gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: RE: DS II: Rambling as usual, this time about infantry and
walkers and stuff
Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2000 22:24:23 -0700
I always read it that infantry walkers were size 1 and transport walkers
could
be up to size 7. I used BT tons/20 to get size.
> A few thoughts:
> Good
I might have been the one complaining. Yes, they are big -- when based,
my infantrymen can easilt look over top of their APC. There's no way in hell
that they could actually fit inside of the darned thing. But I have no
regrets. They paint up beautifully, and they are large enough at you can look
at them and tell what they are from a good distance. The
PA...well,
okay. It's big. I'm mouting them one to a base, and they do look closer to
infantry walkers than to powered armor. But again, you can easily tell what
they are supposed to be. I'm going to use them, and mix them with my other
infantry, no matter how big they are. Because, again, they look fantastic when
they are painted up.
> Why are walkers relegated to size 1 or 4-7? Why no size 2 or 3 walkers?
If
> smaller walkers are possible, and so are bigger ones, why not the
I think that it's just because of the sizes of the most commonly available
figures. They tend to be either really big, or really small. If you've got
something in between, make it a size two or three -- I'm pretty sure
that this has been Officially Approved, too.
Yeah, they do look cool. I bought three packs - 1 each of Longinus,
Achileus, and generic IS Battlearmor. Since their armor styles don't look
similar enough to snip them off those long bases and mix and match, this is
what I've decided to do:
1: The Achileus are Rifle Elements - they don't have the big packs the
others have, and their weapons look like a mix of Assault Rifles, SAW's, and
Grenade Launchers.
2: The Longinus will be my GMS/L Troopers - their SRM packs will be the
GMS launchers, and their arm weapons will be light arms stuff (Even though it
looks identical to the weapons on every other trooper's arms)
3: The Generic IS Battlearmor will be APSW elements - Those boxes on
their backs don't have any apertures to be weapons of any sort, I'll say
they're ammo bins for the APSW's.
In terms of the size rules, it makes sense. Howver, for myself, Since I tend
to use miniatures that are scaled on the small end of the spectrum, what
might be class 1 for someone else is easily large enough, in comparison to my
other minis, to pass for class 2 (or even 3) I found one of those WH 40k epic
titans that someone mentioned once in the used bin at my local game
store, and it is easily class 2 for my troops. I'm thinking of picking up some
Kanazuchi Battlearmor and calling them class 1 walkers. Have you seen them?
They dwarf even the Clan Elemental figures.
----Original Message Follows----
From: "John C" <john1x@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: re: DS II: Rambling as usual, this time about infantry and
walkers and stuff
Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 17:20:12 GMT
I might have been the one complaining. Yes, they are big -- when based,
my infantrymen can easilt look over top of their APC. There's no way in hell
that they could actually fit inside of the darned thing. But I have no
regrets. They paint up beautifully, and they are large enough at you can look
at them and tell what they are from a good distance. The
PA...well,
okay. It's big. I'm mouting them one to a base, and they do look closer to
infantry walkers than to powered armor. But again, you can easily tell what
they are supposed to be. I'm going to use them, and mix them with my other
infantry, no matter how big they are. Because, again, they look fantastic when
they are painted up.
I think that it's just because of the sizes of the most commonly available
figures. They tend to be either really big, or really small. If you've got
something in between, make it a size two or three -- I'm pretty sure
that this has been Officially Approved, too.
John Crimmins john1x@hotmail.com
http://www.voicenet.com/~johncrim/index.html
"We're not at home to Mr.Reasonable, sergeant." "I do not hear him knockin',
sir."
--Terry Pratchett, _The Fifth Elephant_
3-4 meters is as tall a one story house. About the same size as the
walker in Aliens. Just how big do you want it?
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
I believe the smallest mech would probably be atleast 2 stories tall.
Average size 3-4, maybe 4-5 stories. Probably bigger on all counts.
Battlemechs are huge nuclear powered walking buildings with BIG guns. I'd
guess realistically that the smallest mech would be class 3 at the least,
probably closer to 4 for a light mech all the way up to class 7 being an
assault mech.
Jade Tseng
[quoted original message omitted]
My point was that even THAT is smaller than the description of mechs in
Battletech, so there's a problem with just dividing by twenty and saying a
Locust or a Wasp or such is a class 1 vehicle - sure, a class 1 walker's
big, but not big enough to be a mech in the classic sense.
Brian Bilderback
----Original Message Follows----
From: Michael Brown <mwbrown@veriomail.com>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: "'gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU'" <gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: RE: DS II: Rambling as usual, this time about infantry and
walkers and stuff
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2000 21:05:41 -0700
3-4 meters is as tall a one story house. About the same size as the
walker in Aliens. Just how big do you want it?
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
Now who gave you permission to go into my head and bring out what I wanted to
say even better than I could?
Brian Bilderback
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Conchart@geotec.net" <conchart@geotec.net>
Reply-To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
To: <gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU>
Subject: Re: DS II: Rambling as usual, this time about infantry and
walkers and stuff
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 01:50:50 -0500
I believe the smallest mech would probably be atleast 2 stories tall.
Average size 3-4, maybe 4-5 stories. Probably bigger on all counts.
Battlemechs are huge nuclear powered walking buildings with BIG guns. I'd
guess realistically that the smallest mech would be class 3 at the least,
probably closer to 4 for a light mech all the way up to class 7 being an
assault mech.
Jade Tseng
[quoted original message omitted]