Catalyst 35XT002 - Experimental Technical Readout - Primitives Vol 2 [2012].pdf - [2008-......] - Catalyst - trzeci

INTRODUCTION

With the discovery of the New Dallas memory core and the expanded opening of Clan historical archives, interest in the history of the so-called

Age of War and the early Star League era has exploded, especially among the “average” Inner Spheroid. Some are undoubtedly looking to ind solace

in tales of how their long-past forebears coped with the ongoing violence and devastation of the era while others are simply looking for answers on

how such terrible inhumanity could strike over and over again, how to stop the terrible cycle of violence once and for all. Many, of course, are simply

interested in the history of Mankind, taking advantage of the many new resources suddenly opened to them.

No matter your reasons, we hope that this treatise will help provide you some historical perspective upon the Age of War, that little-understood

era which led directly to Mankind’s greatest of achievements: the Star League. In some ways, this work could be considered a technical readouts

of irsts —the BattleAxe , Gladiator and Icarus were the very irst BattleMechs produced by the Federated Suns, Draconis Combine and Free Worlds

League, respectively, while the Wasp was the very irst ’Mech that could jump. The Banshee and the Crossbow , meanwhile, were the irst ’Mechs

produced by their manufacturers. And the LTV-4 Hovertank was, near as our research could determine, the one design that seemingly revolutionized

the state of the art and ushered in the “modern” technological era of the twenty-ifth century.

Meanwhile, this work continues to unravel the “truth” of the state of technology during the Age of War. While we have known for some time

now that many of the so-called “facts” presented by ComStar in their popular Technical Readouts were simply suppositions crossed with well-

regarded legends and at least a few manufactured “truths” about the almost-mythical Terran Hegemony. For example, many military historians have

long assumed that aerospace and naval construction technology had somehow advanced faster than land-based vehicles, a “fact” we now aim to

correct with the inclusion of the Black Eagle DropShip and the Ares Mk. I Landing Craft.

This Experimental Technical Readout: Primitives is certainly not the inal or most deinitive work on military technology of the era. No doubt, as

historians continue to delve into the new sources open to them, we will see more and more publications such as this. Taken as a whole, they will

give you a better, if not complete, picture of the advancing state of the art in the inal decades of the Age of War and leading into the formation of

the Star League.

—Dr. Saga Brest, 19 June 3079

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

The ’Mechs, combat vehicles, and ighters described in Experimental Technical Readout: Primitives, Volume 2 provide players with a sampling of

designs from the period of time covered by the Age of War and the rise of the First Star League. While the focus of the designs featured in this book

is historical, many of the designs have modern counterparts detailed in other Technical Readouts.

The rules for using ’Mechs, vehicles and ighters in BattleTech game play can be found in Total Warfare , while the rules for their construction

can be found in TechManual . However, the primitive nature of these designs also utilized the RetroTech construction rules found in Jihad Secrets: The

Blake Documents , supplemented by the Experimental-level rules presented in Tactical Operations.

Special additions to the Primitive construction rules have also been introduced in this book. For reference, a special Additional Game Rules

section follows the design specs provided in these pages.

Developer’s Addendum

Astute readers may notice that several of the designs that will appear in this and other volumes of the XTR: Primitives mini-series have appeared

in previous Record Sheets books such as Record Sheets: 3075 . This redundancy is intentional, both as a means of correcting minor errors in the original

Primitive units’ stats (where conlict arises, the Primitives XTR s supersede) and as a means of providing a clearer and more focused treatment of the

primitive machines that were contemporaries during the Age of War.

INTRODUCTION

CREDITS

Project Development

Herbert A. Beas II

Development Assistance

Randall N. Bills

Jason Schmetzer

BattleTech Line Developer

Herbert A. Beas II

Assistant Line Developer

Ben H. Rome

Primary Writing

Christofer “Bones” Trossen

Art Direction

Brent Evans

Production Staf

Record Sheets

Joel Bancroft-Connors

“BV Smasha!” Sebastian Brocks

Christopher “Chunga” Smith

“Techno Wizard” Jason Tighe

BattleTech Logo Design

Shane Hartley, Steve Walker

and Matt Heerdt

Factchecking/Playtesting: Joel Bancroft-Connors, Joshua

“NCKestrel” Franklin, William “Mad Capellan” Gauthier, Keith “Xotl”

Hann, Johannes “jymset” Heidler, Daniel “DarkISI” Isberner, Chris

“Alexander Knight” Marti, Luke “Jellico” Robertson, Chris “Chunga”

Smith, Peter Smith, Chris Wheeler, Patrick Wynne.

Dedicated to: My Historicals cohort Chris Hartford, along with

Herb and Randall—had we not written Historical: Reuniication War, I

probably wouldn’t have wrapped my head around the pre-history of

the BattleMech as much as I did, leading me directly into inishing of

this series of XTROs.

Cover Design and Layout

Ray Arrastia

Illustrations

Doug Chafee

Chris Lewis

Duane Loose

Slawomir Maniak

Justin Nelson

Reserved. Experimental Technical Readout:

Primitives Volume 2, Classic BattleTech,

BattleTech, BattleMech, ’Mech and the

Topps logo are registered trademarks and/or

trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the

United States and/or other countries. Catalyst

Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo

are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC.

CAT35XT002

STAR LEAGUE ERA

CLAN INVASION ERA

JIHAD ERA

Under License From

SUCCESSION WARS ERA

CIVIL WAR ERA

DARK AGE ERA

WSP-1 WaSP

Field Testing Summation: Original Wasp Primitive Chassis

Producer/Site: General Mechanics, Inc., Mars

Supervising Engineer: Soren Iishi

Prototype Introduction Date: 2464

Non-Production Equipment Analysis:

Type: Wasp

Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Primitive)

Tonnage: 20

Equipment

Mass

Primitive Armor

Internal Structure:

Primitive Cockpit

Engine:

120 Primitive

Primitive Engine

Walking MP:

Prototype Jump Jets

Running MP:

Jumping MP:

Overview

The mid-twenty-ifth century BattleMech was the undeniable

king of the battleield, but was a lumbering beast compared to the

tanks it had supplanted. Conventional vehicles were still needed

as scouts and lankers, a paradigm Terran Hegemony generals

were more than willing to accept, at least until they learned that

the Lyran Commonwealth was pursuing its own home-grown

BattleMech, one designed from the ground up as a scout.

When the Hegemony Armed Forces released its requirements

for a “highly mobile fast reconnaissance BattleMech”, General

Mechanics, Incorporated jumped at the opportunity. The company

was one of the primary subcontractors involved in the design and

production of both the Mackie and the Banshee and was looking

to expand its operations and proile. General Mechanics gave Dr.

Soren Iishi the mandate to win that contract.

The company spared no expense in supporting Soren, who

recruited an expansive talent pool and built an advanced research

department, known as “The Hive”, dedicated to the project. The

design of a fast BattleMech was no problem for Soren’s engineers,

who had baseline plans and models ready for approval within weeks.

Their challenge, however, was in realizing Dr. Soren’s vision—a ’Mech

that could ly, giving it truly unsurpassed mobility and survivability.

The Hive’s combined brainpower and resources were

ultimately unable to quite reach that lofty goal (indeed, the state

of the art would require more than two centuries of advancement

to replicate Dr. Soren’s vision in the form of the Land-Air ’Mech),

but they came close—in doing so also indelibly leaving their own

mark upon the very nature of the BattleMech. When WSP-1X-02

irst appeared during its preliminary trials, landing in front of the

HAF High Command after jetting over the top of its hangar, the

competition was over. General Mechanics’ Wasp had won.

Not, of course, that development of the Wasp was complete.

“Jumping” the twenty-ton machine was a dangerous prospect that

often left the Wasp a mangled wreck and its pilot traumatized.

The ’Mech’s gyroscope could not maintain stability through the

maneuver, requiring absolute concentration and deft relexes from

its pilot to land safely. It would be almost a decade—and hundreds

of damaged HAF Wasp s and injured MechWarriors—before The

Hive’s engineers solved the jump “problem”. The company went on

to construct countless thousands of Wasp s for the Hegemony and

Star League, making it one of the most iconic of ’Mechs in existence.

Heat Sinks:

Gyro:

Cockpit (Primitive):

Armor Factor (Primitive):

3.5

Internal

Armor

Structure

Value

Head

Center Torso

Center Torso (rear)

R/L Torso

R/L Torso (rear)

R/L Arm

R/L Leg

Weapons and Ammo

Location

Critical

Tonnage

Medium Laser

Jump Jet

Notes: Features the following Design Quirks: Weak Legs, Hard to Pilot

ICR-1X ICaRUS

Field Testing Summation: Original Icarus Primitive Chassis

Producer/Site: Corean Enterprises, Stewart

Supervising Engineer: Abrahim Chiu

Prototype Introduction Date: 2470

Non-Production Equipment Analysis:

Type: Icarus

Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Primitive)

Tonnage: 40

Equipment

Mass

Primitive Armor

Internal Structure

Primitive Cockpit

Engine:

195 Primitive

Primitive Engine

Walking MP:

Running MP:

Overview

The Free Worlds League’s “acquisition” of the BattleMech

in 2462 brought a tremendous technological leap to the

relative handful of premier military manufacturers the League

government entrusted with those secrets. The irst goal was, of

course, to replicate the Mackie and bring it into service within the

League’s military as quickly as possible. A close, but unspoken,

second was the debut of the League’s irst native ’Mech design.

Corean Enterprises was intent on winning that competition,

tasking two separate development teams with designing the new

“standard” for the FWLM. The Icarus , a mid-weight design meant to

support both heavy Mackie lances as well as conventional armor

and infantry formations alike, was the irst to reach prototype

status. The FWLM was impressed by Corean’s speed in delivering

an operational prototype, and likewise showed signiicant

enthusiasm at the design—especially as the Icarus mounted a

large laser on a frame less than half the Mackie ’s mass, allowing

more ’Mechs to be carried on military transports. Unfortunately,

the rushed nature of the project led to a long series of problems

and delays that ultimately doomed the design. While the Icarus

design team worked furiously to correct the ’Mech’s numerous

design laws, Corean’s other design team unveiled their own

’Mech prototype—the Hector —a year after the irst Icarus walked

out of the lab. Utilizing lessons learned from the Icarus ’ numerous

problems, the Hector team presented the FWLM an operational

BattleMech that was quickly accepted for production.

Corean Enterprises naturally shifted the bulk of its resources

towards the Hector , though a handful of the Icarus team members

remained on project, ixing the design laws and upgrading the six

prototype models with reinements made possible by the Hector ’s

development. Four of the six Icarus prototypes saw limited, but

favorable, service with the FWLM during the Age of War, which

provided Corean engineers enough data and support to keep

the Icarus project alive as a research and advanced technology

demonstration testbed. The Icarus prototypes served Corean

Enterprises well for years, ultimately prompting the company

to revisit the design in the twenty-sixth century as the much-

upgraded Icarus II .

Jumping MP:

Heat Sinks:

Gyro:

Cockpit (Primitive):

Armor Factor (Primitive):

112

10.5

Internal

Armor

Structure

Value

Head

Center Torso

Center Torso (rear)

R/L Torso

R/L Torso (rear)

R/L Arm

R/L Leg

Weapons and Ammo

Location

Critical

Tonnage

2 Machine Guns

Ammo (MG) 200

2 SRM 2

Ammo (SRM) 50

Large Laser

Small Laser

Notes: Features the following Design Quirks: Prototype, Poor

Performance, Diicult to Maintain, Obsolete/2470, Extended

Torso Twist

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