Catalyst 35XT017 - Experimental Technical Readout - Boondoggles [2013].pdf

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INTRODUCTION
Welcome to another edition of
Tech Trends.
In some of our recent episodes, we’ve reviewed projects that the various powers of
the Inner Sphere and Clans have been working on. While some of these may result in new weapons of war that will improve their
forces (or their customers’ forces), today we’ll look at the flipside of the arms race. After all, while research and development of new
technologies are vital for staying ahead of the curve, even the most ambitious of military projects can find themselves prey to errors
in design or even a failure to define clear end goals.
Indeed, many projects have gone into the history books as less than a footnote, their development running too far over
budget, with little to nothing to show for their efforts. Even so, many such “failures”—like the
Banshee
BattleMech and the
Potemkin
WarShip—still managed to find a useful home in the modern military. But what about those that never even made it that far?
The units included in today’s edition of
Tech Trends
introduce us to military designs that never made it: Cancelled projects
whose results either served out their limited lives as training wrecks in some backwater militia outpost, or—more often than not—
were simply scrapped after their projects ended ingloriously.
–Reginald Dao,
Tech Trends
vid-zine, Galtean Publishing, 3087
How to Use tHis Book
The ’Mechs, combat vehicles, and aerospace craft described in
Experimental Technical Readout: Boondoggles
provide players
with a sampling of the biggest failures that have graced the research and development departments of military manufacturers
throughout BattleTech’s history. The rules for using ’Mechs, vehicles, fighters and DropShips in
BattleTech
game play can be found
in
Total Warfare,
while the rules for their construction can be found in
TechManual.
However, the nature of these designs also
draws upon the Experimental-level rules presented in
Tactical Operations
and a number of special rules presented at the end of
this book. As a result, none of the units featured in this volume are considered tournament legal, and their use in introductory
games is discouraged.
1
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
Ken’ Horner
Art Direction
Brent Evans
Production Staff
Cover Design and Layout
Ray Arrastia
Illustrations
Doug Chaffee
Stephen Huda
Duane Loose
Mike Nielsen
Allen Nunis
Record Sheets
Ray Arrastia
Johannes Heidler
BattleTech Logo Design
Shane Hartley, Steve Walker and Matt Heerdt
©2013 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. Experimental Technical Readout:
Boondoggles, 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.
Factchecking/Playtesting:
Are you serious? No,
really; wait till you see this stuff!
Special Thanks: To
Herb Beas, for not only letting
me put together something this zany, and going so
far as to edit and publish it as well, but also for taking
it upon himself to write this special thanks to himself
because I was too scatterbrained to. ;-)
Oh, and to Johannes Heidler, Luke Robertson, and Sebastian
Brocks. They checked some of this stuff out for me, too. I’d have
mentioned that under the factchecking and playtesting credits, but…
again, wait till you see this stuff!
STAR LEAGUE ERA
CLAN INVASION ERA
JIHAD ERA
Under License From
®
CAT35XT017
SUCCESSION WARS ERA
CIVIL WAR ERA
DARK AGE ERA
2
OsTsCOUT IIC
Outcome Summation:
Rejected Prototype
Producer/Site:
Olivetti Weaponry, Sudeten
Supervising Technician:
Senior Technician Hakeem
Project Start Date:
3063
Failure Analysis:
Poor Design
overview
Fighting in the Inner Sphere has introduced many challenges
for the Clans, with one of the most teling being the need for effective
electronic warfare and reconnaissance. Where in the Homeworlds
the Clans could expect an accurate list of the defenders from a
simple
batchall,
ferreting out this information against Inner Sphere
foes proved to be a hands-on challenge. In an effort to address this
issue, Clan Jade Falcon tasked its technicians with revamping the
venerable
Ostscout
to Clan standards.
While we are unable to determine how exactly the design
progressed, we do know that several different plans emerged over
the first decade of development, all coming from at least three
different teams. The technicians who finally “won” the project
consisted mostly of native Inner Sphere engineers, partnered with
captured Wolf scientists and Falcon techs. Together, they oversaw
the construction of four prototypes delivered for controlled testing
on the Hazen Proving Grounds on Sudeten.
While the designers clearly expected mixed feedback from
the testing, even they were shocked at how poorly their so-
called
Ostscout IIC
fared. Its speed was impressive, outpacing the
infamous
Dasher
despite weighing nearly twice as much, but even
more impressive was the nearly 400-meter jump capacity gained
when its jump jets were used in conjunction with the partial wing
assembly built into the ’Mech’s rear torso. Unfortunately for the
design team, that was where the good reviews ended.
The armor was expected to be thin, but protection even flimsier
than a Sphere-made
Stinger
was a disappointment to Jade Falcon
leadership. The cramped cockpit—even with the ejection systems
reportedly removed to save space—was particularly treacherous for
pilots attempting to push the physical limits of their ’Mech, while the
bulky construction materials used prevented optimal placement of
components, resulting in such oddities as the off-balance jump jets,
which the MechWarriors reported caused the ’Mech to spin counter-
clockwise in every leap. Finally—and perhaps most egregiously, from
the Falcon point of view—was the fact that, like its 3050 predecessor,
the
Ostscout IIC
lacked any offensive weaponry to speak of.
While this last deficiency would be objectionable to many in
the Inner Sphere, to the Clan warriors, it was especially offensive. The
Ostscout IIC’s
electronics were helpful at spotting hidden enemies
and nullifying advanced targeting systems and networks, but none
of that could deliver actual damage to the enemy. Only the TAG
system prevented the machine from reducing its pilot to a mere
spectator in the battlefield, but with artillery support still rare in
Falcon toumans, the odds of an
Ostscout
MechWarrior contributing
to his own codex in battle promised to be nearly nil. When a survey
tech ruefully suggested the MechWarrior could always ram his
opponent if he wished to boost his personal glory so badly, the test
pilot had to be restrained to keep from beating the man to death.
Compounding these issues was yet another poor choice. In
an effort to reduce the design’s outrageous resource costs, the
technicians used only standard heat sinks. While this was sufficient
for ground movement, the combination of the (highly expensive)
ultra-extralight engine and eleven jump jets quickly overwhelmed
the prototypes, forcing shut downs after three consecutive jumps.
While this oversight—and the lack of weapons—could have been
corrected, Khan Clees instead chose to have the project shut down
and transferred the staff to other assignments.
The surviving prototypes were reportedly sold to the
Diamond Sharks in an effort to salvage something from all the
resources poured into the project. Incredibly, even the Sharks have
been unable to sell these machines to date. In the end, much of
the blame for this failure can be pointed at inconsistency in the
development, with too many teams and leaders.
Type:
Ostscout IIC
Technology Base: Mixed Clan (Experimental)
Tonnage: 35
Equipment
Internal Structure:
Engine:
Walking MP:
Running MP:
Jumping MP:
Heat Sinks:
Gyro (XL – IS):
Cockpit (Small – IS):
Armor Factor (Ferro):
Mass
2
14.5
Endo Steel
385 XXL
11
17
11*
10*
Head
Center Torso
Center Torso (rear)
R/L Torso
R/L Torso (rear)
R/L Arm
R/L Leg
38
Internal
Structure
3
11
8
6
8
0
2
2
2
Armor
Value
5
6
1
5
1
2
5
Weapons and Ammo
Location
TAG
RA
Jump Jet
RT
Partial Wing
RT/LT
Bloodhound Active Probe (IS) LT
Jump Jets
LT
Jump Jets
RL
Jump Jets
LL
Angel ECM
H
Critical
1
5
3/3
3
2
2
2
2
Tonnage
1
2.5
2
2
1
1
1
2
Notes:
*Partial Wing adds +2 Jump MP, –3 heat in Standard
Atmosphere (see pp. 293 and 295,
TO,
for additional rules);
Features the following Design Quirks: Bad Reputation, No
Ejection System, Obsolete/3073, Prototype, Unbalanced.
3
LIB-4T LIBeRaTOR
Outcome Summation:
Failed Prototype
Producer/Site:
KaliYama Weapons Industries, Kalidasa
Supervising Technician:
Dr. Lucien Penobscot
Project Start Date:
3018
Failure Analysis:
Inoperable Equipment
overview
SAFE is not generally known for success, but in the waning
days of the Third Succession War, they were able to uncover
evidence that both of the Free Worlds’ long time enemies, the Lyran
Commonwealth and the Capellan Confederation, were developing
new BattleMechs. Not to be outdone, Captain-General Janos Marik
repurposed a large amount of League eagles to assist KaliYama
Weapons in the development of a new BattleMech design to
bolster the Free Worlds military. Eager to beat the sales record of
their rivals in Irian Technologies, KaliYama leapt at this opportunity.
Focused on outperforming IrTech’s mediocre
Hermes II,
KaliYama’s initial LIB-4T
Liberator
concept ’Mech concept was
sound. With a similar movement profile to the
Hermes,
at an
only slight reduction in armor protection, the
Liberator
offered a
much harder punch. Its pair of five-tube long-range missile racks,
backed up by a Magna large laser, easily outgunned the
Hermes’
Oriente autocannon at a respectable reach, while a pair of short-
range missile tubes rounded out the package for close-range
backup. On paper, the engineers demonstrated that the
Liberator’s
MechWarriors could easily manage their heat load by alternating
the laser with the missiles. How wrong they were.
A severe flaw in the
Liberator’s
revolutionary new torso
design (developed to reduce manufacturing costs and to make
maintenance easier) resulted in a complete failure in the ’Mech’s
core cooling system not functioning. This flaw was missed during
the early testing because the hand-built test models did not
employ the same manufacturing techniques. Curiously, some test
pilots did express concern about heat spikes the ’Mech generated
even before the addition of weapons, but the KaliYama techs
waved these complaints off as typical MechWarrior grousing over
creature comforts. With the design team silencing the grievances,
the
Liberator’s
marketing team moved ahead, pushing the new
’Mech as much as they could. Deals were made with the LCCC to
purchase the first hundred units off the production line and many
were earmarked for specific commands, with some even included
on advance TO&Es for billets yet to be filled.
All of this ended spectacularly at the
Liberator’s
first unveiling.
KaliYama had finally recognized the issue internally but did not
want to inform the League Military, so they scrambled to fix the
problem before the first open-field tests. The problem persisted as
the testing began, so KaliYama had carefully planned the routine to
allow plenty of time to cool down. When the testing was concluded,
one of the generals pointed to an abandoned Augustus tank and
asked the KaliYama representative to have the
Liberator
destroy
it. The representative tried to deflect the request, at which point
Captain-General Janos Marik, himself in attendance, spoke up and
demanded that they destroy it.
The order was relayed and tentative missile fire impacted the
armor. The Captain-General impatiently requested a full barrage
until the front of the tank was gone. The KaliYama team complied
and within half a minute, there was a tremendous explosion—but
rather than the Augustus, it was the
Liberator
that exploded as
its ammunition detonated under the crippling heat, sending the
ejected pilot rocketing back towards the spectators. Contracts were
immediately canceled and marketing pulled back, but all too late
to save the
Liberator’s
reputation. Further investigation discovered
the flaws in the cooling were so great that the chassis would have to
be rebuilt from scratch. The three surviving prototypes languished
for nearly half a century, with the last ironically destroyed in a live
fire exercise by the Augustus’ descendent, the Moltke.
Type:
Liberator
Technology Base: Inner Sphere
Tonnage: 40
Equipment
Internal Structure:
Engine:
Walking MP:
Running MP:
Jumping MP:
Heat Sinks:
Gyro:
Cockpit:
Armor Factor:
Mass
4
11.5
240
6
9
0
10
Head
Center Torso
Center Torso (rear)
R/L Torso
R/L Torso (rear)
R/L Arm
R/L Leg
Weapons and Ammo
LRM-5
Ammo (LRM) 24
Large Laser
SRM-2
Ammo (SRM) 50
LRM-5
104
Internal
Structure
3
13
10
6
10
Location
RA
RA
CT
LT
LT
LA
0
3
3
6.5
Armor
Value
9
15
4
13
4
8
13
Critical
1
1
2
1
1
1
Tonnage
2
1
5
1
1
2
Notes:
Features the following Design Quirks: Bad Reputation,
Nonfunctional (Heat Sinks), Poor Workmanship,
Obsolete/3025, Prototype
4

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