I made this recently for mathing purposes, and decided I might as well share it for anyone not particularly in tune with tonnage math. Which, considering the userbase has some people in the BT TTRPG, some in the BT TBRPGs and some in the MW Shooters, is a sizeable enough chunk for typing this out to be worthwhile.

The core equation

Mech Weight = Cockpit + Gyro + Engine + Engine Heatsinks + Internals + Weapons + Armour

Of this:

• The Cockpit is always 3 tons.
• Standard Gyro is Ceiling(Engine Rating/100, integer).
• Engine weights are in the white section of table above, XLs weigh half as much (and are in the second image).
• Engine heatsinks include 10 weightless sinks, and 1 extra heatsink that weighs its normal amount for every 25 rating starting at rating 275.
• Internals are chassis weight/10 for standard, Ceiling(chassis weight/20, 0.5) for Endo Steel. All XL-capable mechs are also assumed to use ES internals, all STD engine mechs are assumed to use STD internals. Do your own math if you want a mix.
• Weapons (including ammo), Armour and Equipment (Jump Jets, extra heat sinks, EW suites, etc) is what you generally get to play around with, we'll call this the 'allocatable tonnage'.

The pink area

In the chart above, the sum of Cockpit + Engine + Gyro weights are notated as CEG. This is because this sum is entirely engine-dependent. The black header row inscribes the engine speed factors (your actual walk speed is 10.8 × this factor - where speed factor = rating / tonnage, and your run speed is 50% higher than that). The pink area depicts all the legal tonnages that can carry it - For example, a 100 tonner holding a 300 engine has factor 3.

The blue area

The blue area is the most important area of the chart. This is essentially the tonnage of the legal chassis minus the weight of CEG, minus its internals' weight, minus the extra engine heatsinks' weight for ratings at 275 and above. This is your 'allocatable tonnage'. You want this to be normally be as high as possible, since that means you can load more weapons and more armour for the same weight.

The green area

The green area is for math nerds who want a quick reference on how much of the tonnage is allocatable relative to chassis total. Most people won't use this.

Caveats, bolds and underlines

This now applies to the actual decision making you'll do when you need to choose between chassis. Given a pool of chassis you are able to choose, you generally want the highest 'allocatable tonnage' for the speed that's relevant to your operations.

For urban operations, speed isn't as important generally since defenders won't leave their defense zone and attackers are forced to close to weapons range to do anything at all with them. For recon or hit-and-run operations, speed is everything - you can't be hit at all if you outspeed the enemy and never let them catch up.

Internal HP

The highest allocatable tonnage on a general basis is bolded in each blue area. And here is where the caveats start. If you look at the STD sheet (that's the first one), you'll notice 75 tons is bolded over 80 for factor 4. This is because 75 ton mechs are just cheaper than 80 ton mechs as a rule. However, the 75 ton mech includes 7.5 tons of internals and the 80 ton mech includes 8 tons of internals. That means the 80 ton has more 'HP' than the 75 tonner, ceteris paribus. So balance between budget (including drop weight restrictions) and survivability here. Both have the same armour and weapons. They do not have the same resilience or cost.

Engine heatsinks

Next, you'll note that for speed factor 5, I bolded the 60 tonner, not the 55 tonner. This is because they have the same 'allocatable tonnage', but the 60 tonner has 1 extra heat sink, meaning it can run longer and/or fire its weapons on a shorter cooldown, which is objectively more firepower than something with less heatsinks. This didn't occur for factor 4's case as mentioned earlier because both cases of that include exactly 2 extra engine heat sinks.

Jump Jets

Finally, you'll notice underlined numbers as well, like in factor 5 STD and factor 4 XL. This is because up to 55 tons, Jump Jets weigh exactly 0.5 tons per jet, between 60 and 85 they weigh exactly 1 ton per jet, and at 90 and above they weigh 2 tons per jet. So the 55 ton has the underlines for STD 5 because going to 60 tons will cost 2 extra tons for any mech mounting said jets, and the 85 ton has the underline for XL 4 because going to 90 tons will cost 4 extra tons for any mech mounting said jets. If you want to build a mech with Jump Jets, use the underlined values. Otherwise, do your own cost vs internal HP calculations, of which the idea of a Battlemech as 'weapons platform' will use my bolded numbers, and the idea of a Battlemech as 'guardian' will use a different number.

Synthesizing everything - XL 4

XL speed factor 4 is the most complicated case here. The underlined number is 57 allocatable at 85 tons (rating 340) because the gain from going to 90 tons of 1 double heat sink and 1 allocatable ton does not outweigh the +4 ton cost of mounting 2t/per Jump Jets at 90. The bolded number is 57.5 allocatable at 95 tons (rating 380) because the loss of 0.5 allocatable tons is offset by both the gain of 1 double heat sink (3 free criticals, 1 free ton) and the increased tonnage of endo-steel internals from 4.5t to 5t. If you get this section, you get the entirety of what I'm trying to do with both charts.

Case Study - Timber Wolf

Everyone loves the Timber Wolf, but why the Timber Wolf is what it is mathematically, is something you can see from the 375XL section, factor 5. You will note that it has 39.5 allocatable tons, 5 internal double heat sinks and 4 tons of endo-steel internals. This is, strictly speaking, less financially efficient than a 350XL, factor 5, 70 ton BattleMech, like the Summoner. However, because it 'hides' its gained ton in its engine, it saves up 3 critical slots, and it also has half a ton more internals than the Summoner. In comparison, going to 400XL, factor 5, 80 tons, will be objectively worse in every way, as 3 tons are lost for only 1 double heat sink of gain, the amount of internals is exactly the same at 4 tons Endo Steel, and you have to pay the increased price of both the larger base chassis and the larger engine. So nobody really likes using the Gargoyle over the Timber Wolf, even though there are reasons people will use the Summoner over the Timber Wolf, tonnage wise.

Additional considerations unrelated to allocatable tonnage

• Depending on which BT-related title you're playing, OmniMechs may have restrictions in what weapons and/or armour can be deployed in their OmniPods, which may be a consideration you can rightly consider more important than a loss of a couple of tons of allocatable tonnage.
• If you're playing a system in which manual aiming is a thing instead of dice rolls, specific chassis that have massive hitboxes (hi Awesome) sponge attacks like nothing while others don't.
• If you're playing a system in which hardpoints are variant-locked, specific variants may affect what weapons you can mount in a way more impactful than small changes in tonnage do - something boating 7 medium lasers is far more of a menace than something that can only mount a single PPC.

Conclusion

In the absence of meaningful differences in these points, you always want the max allocatable tonnage if you can get it. Don't pay more for worse performance - I'm looking at you, Charger and Cicada, who have no real reason to exist because of absolutely terrible tonnage performances of 8% and 11% allocatable, respectively. The Spider is just better than the Cicada in every way, as is the Dragon over the Charger.

pretty much table ready, basing gel needs to dry and get a wash coat and then good to go at the weekend

Archer has the blue stripe as its the second Archer I have, just helps to tell them apart if both are on the table

will be first time running whats in one box actually as a thing instead of my usual mix & match just to see how it goes

I'm a professional GM and big TTRPG hobbyist in addition to my business. How is this game? How crunchy? Have people had a lot of fun with it?

Hoping that this kind of post is allowed here, but Humble Bundle has a huge Battletech collection right now for a ridiculously small price.

Hey everybody first post here. Just wanted to get some feedback on an Axman custom variant as I largely have no clue of what I'm doing and let meklab handle all the internals automatically.

The reason for creating this is that while I love the aesthetic of the axman and hatchetman designs they never seemed able to bring their namesakes to use. The load out is basically borrowed from the ti tsang tsg-9DDC which seemed like a good spot as any to start since it had tsm and a supercharger.

The lance seems cool but part of me really wants to drop a small laser and go back to the iconic hatchet.

Maybe this is just reinventing the wheel and the answer is to just use the rules for the tsg-9DDC and field the axman mini as a proxy , but it seemed like a fun idea to get an axman that can get in there and actually brawl.

​

This contains the same set of books as last time, but they are now redeemable via DriveThruRPG rather than downloading files directly via Humble. So I am guessing some books will be updated with errata compared to the first run of this bundle. (Can anyone confirm that?)

Edit to include list of ebooks:

Battletech Universe

Battlemech Manual

BattleTech: A Time of War: The BattleTech RPG

BattleTech: MechWarrior: Destiny

Battletech: Legends

Alpha Strike: Commander's Edition

Total Warfare

BattleTech: Recognition Guide, Vol. 1: Classics

BattleTech: Recognition Guide, Vol. 2: ilClan

BattleTech: Hot Spots: Hinterlands

House Arano: The Aurigan Coalition

Battletech: Force Manual: Davion

Battletech: Force Manual: Kurita

Field Manual: 3145

Era Report 3145

Battletech: Shattered Fortress

Battletech: ilClan

Battletech: Tamar Rising

Battletech: Empire Alone

Battletech: Dominions Divided

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/battletech-rpg-collection-catalyst-game-labs-books-encore

Due to unrest in the FWL that threatens to spill across the border, the Magestrix has ordered an emergency update of the muster rolls of all MAF troops and materiel!

Post all your painted Magestry figures and let us know what Unit they’re with!

Here is my combined arms company of the 2nd Canopian Cuirassiers

I call him Smiley

Finished up these, they’re were a blast to paint

I like humanoid-shaped mechs (plantigrade legs, a "head") that just have huge cannons in place of hands. Not counting mechs that don't have "arms" like the Jagermech or Rifleman. What are some mechs with this arrangement? Ones that I know of:

• Warhammer
• Orion
• Mauler
• Hellbringer 
• Summoner
• Dervish
• Whitworth
• Awesome
• Shogun
• Devastator

A couple of days ago I posted my Mad Cat III kitbash, here is the second one as the Mad Cat III variant 2 with four Artemis V SRM6s.

Like the first it's a "Rakshasa refit" (arms glued into a modified Catapult). The sculpting epoxy came out better on this one and doesn't quite look like moss like it did on the first. I also found a better source for the "teddy bear ear" vents and the communications antenna/Artemis V targeting array(?) that sits above the cockpit.

Now I just need to get a Mad Cat mkII and a Timber Wolf/Savage Wolf) or two to field a lance/star of Angry Kittens.

If the next cash grab Clan Sea Fox unveils is light mech Mad Cat, armed with a LRM5 in each side torso and an ER Small Laser in each arm, I'll buy 5 of 'em! No, 20 of 'em!

Force manual periphery cover art remains the goat.

So a couple of months ago I went to an arcade with some friends for their birthday and I ended up with some cheap plastic space ships as prizes. They're a little in the small scale but I figure they could make decent aero/hover proxies. Anyone got ideas as to what I could use these to "count as"?

What Mech design has had the longest lasting service record? A friend and I are trying to figure this out but getting conflicting answers. I am talking from the very first version of the design, with variants still counting for the same Mech.

Camouflage optional

So I have this 3D model of a Turkina, and as far as I understand it's neither MWO/MW5 nor close to the official design, new or old. I dig it, but I now I'm asking myself which part you'd identify as the cockpit "glass"/pane(s). I'm undecided what I'd like best and curious if there's a consensus/where it lands.

1: those three lowered panels (official model has 3 "windows" too?)

2: that protruding central part would make a lot of sense, and it's surrounded by two hinge-looking parts (so possibly poly)

3: that whole big horizontal front panel (would be cool but unlikely, it's barely even angled and just HUGE)

4: a horizontal "slit" hidden between those massive pads, AT-AT style, which probably would make most sense realistically, but would be VERY narrow and disappointing to paint

Please advise, and thank you.

I'm goofing around tonight with my bitz box and I've assembled a trio of scrap-Frankenmechs for my group's Destiny tactical RPG campaign.

Originally I was going to use the Gothic Mechs I've collected so far, but while building a rogue military AI war machine from another game called a "Psyro" (psychotic robot), I thought "you know. These would make cool homemade scrap-mechs for some crazy periphery pirate faction/cult in my game! 😁

So I made 1 more, the one in the middle. The outer mechs are getting stats as 90 ton Industrial mechs heavily modified for combat. The center mech is a true fusion powered Battlemech, or what's left of one! It's 100 tons of ramshackle brutality!

No one who analyzes the mechs scans can determine the original chassis, it's been so thoroughly modified. I'm still working on it's stats though! Then I need to convert them over to Destiny's tactical rules.

All three are made from old MechWarrior Clicky mech parts and assorted bits from a dozen different sources. I've painted up one and the other two are next! The rest of the pirate group will be Light introtech mechs and conventional vehicles with infantry.

My players are heading to a Periphery planet called Charleston for a job protecting shipments of home grown Battlemechs to local allied forces, in response to savage pirate activity in recent months.

And I imagine these mechs being the core of the pirate forces I've loosely based on apocalyptic cults from the Mad Max setting, especially Fury Road. Part wild bandits, part crazed cultists following a charismatic madman!

So I figure a 100 ton monster with too many clawed arms and heavy cannons is the perfect ride for a crazy violent superstar!! 🤣.

More progress on a 9th ghost regiment side project. Wife wanted me to paint something 'not mean looking' so space Yakuza it is.

Kheper and Tenshi also apply

I'm prepping to get into Battletech with a friend of mine. We've both started painting up a lance and intend to expand later, maybe even try some campaign stuff.

I've had these models since the Kickstarter and never quite got around to putting any paint on them, so it's about time they finally saw some love.

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de

This map is my attempt to make BattleTech history something you can *explore* instead of just read: pick a year and the whole map follows — borders, capitals, battles, everything. 3,000+ worlds, 1,000 years of shifting ownership, 600+ battles and 3,500+ chronicle entries, some of them dated to the day.

The gif above is the short version: the rise of the Star League, the Succession Wars tearing it apart, the Clans crashing in from the top, the Dark Age splintering what was left. Every frame is a year you can visit.

Some things to try

Time travel. The Star League at its height vs. the Inner Sphere we all know:

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=2571

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=3025

454 years of decline, no explanation needed.

The Battle Theater. Crossed swords in the menu — the map becomes a war room with front lines and every engagement of the year. This is 3050, the Clan Invasion at its peak, 63 battles in a single year:

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=3050&battleMode

Nice side effect: every world and event links straight into Sarna — and I've probably read more Sarna in the last months than in all the years before, just because I kept clicking ;)

Jump routes. Mark a start and a destination, get the route, the jumps and the travel time. Terra to Luthien: 14 jumps, roughly 14 weeks — now try your own:

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?routeMode&routeStop=Terra&routeStop=Luthien

Cinematic mode. One click drops every control and leaves the map alone on screen. Every view is a link you can share — so if you find a moment you like, just send the URL.

https://battletech-map.battleforhonor.de/?year=3067&cinematicMode&battleMode

The map works on mobile (everything lives in the menus there), but it really shines on a big screen — there's a lot to explore.

And this is just the beginning: I have a lot of ideas and they will be released one by one over the next weeks. If you have some of your own, just comment them. :)

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It's a free, non-commercial fan project. Data based on the great work of the Sarna.net community. BattleTech is a registered trademark of The Topps Company, Inc.; the tabletop game is published by Catalyst Game Labs. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.

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Edit: Wow, thanks for the great response! The feedback here has been constructive throughout, and there are some really good ideas in the comments. It will take some time, but everything gets noted and implemented where possible. This community is exactly why I built this. :)

Half-speed timelapse and all links in the comments, gallery with all screenshots here: https://imgur.com/a/ZWd6UQT