Catalyst 35XT015 - Experimental Technical Readout - Primitives Vol 5 [2016].pdf

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INTRODUCTION
As it seems our latest age of Sphere-wide conflict is drawing to a close, it is perhaps fitting that the following represents our
fifth—and final—volume of historical readouts covering the combat technology of the original Age of War. As is only natural for so
brief a series, it is impossible to detail all of the various ’Mechs, vehicles, and variants that emerged across human-occupied space
as the Terran Alliance fell and its far-flung colonies began to coalesce into the realms we know of today. Thus, this collection has
focused primarily on the machines that had the greatest significance to the military development of these nascent combatants, with
an emphasis on the years surrounding the dawn of the BattleMech age.
In this volume, we cover a final batch of the original prototype BattleMechs conceived by the major states of the Inner Sphere.
This list not only includes the geneses of the iconic
Archer, Orion,
and
Wolverine,
but also the
Ymir
and the
Phoenix—the
first “home-
grown” machines built respectively by the Lyran Commonwealth and the Rim Worlds Republic. Also featured is the
Trooper,
the
progenitor of the
Flea.
As in our past volumes, we have collected information on a wide variety of other battlefield units as well. This list includes the
Dunning, an early mobile headquarters vehicle designed to serve the then-newly formed Terran Hegemony, and the Asher hover
scout, an example of contemporary recon vehicles. Also covered are samples of the earliest BattleMech recovery vehicles, and typical
Age of War-era self-propelled artillery vehicles. Rounding out our list are the Lyran Commonwealth’s Colt medium fighter, which
played a key role in unifying the realm that would one day be ruled by House Steiner, as well as the pre-Hegemony
Saturn
patrol
ship and the
Leviathan-class
JumpShip.
While the ’Mechs, vehicles, and aerospace craft featured in these five volumes are referred to today as “Primitive”, they collectively
played key roles in forging the Inner Sphere that we recognize today. For some, the progress of technology sounded the knell of their
eventual abandonment, but for others, scientific advancement breathed into them a lifespan stretching centuries into the future.
—Dr. Saga Brest, 11 January 3081
The ’Mechs, combat vehicles, and fighters described in
Experimental Technical Readout: Primitives, Volume 5
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 fighters 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
Interstellar Operations,
supplemented by the Experimental-level rules presented in
Tactical Operations.
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 conflict arises, the
Primitives XTRs
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.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
1
INTRODUCTION
CREDITS
Project Development
Herbert A. Beas II
Development Assistance
Ray Arrastia
Johannes Heidler
BattleTech Line Developer
Randall Bills
Assistant Line Developer
Ben H. Rome
Products Developer
Ray Arrastia
Primary Writing
Christoffer “Bones” Trossen
Additional Writing
Herbert A. Beas II
Art Direction
Brent Evans
Assistant Art Director
Ray Arrastia
Production Staff
Cover Design and Layout
Ray Arrastia
Original Illustrations
Justin Nelson
Matthew Plog
Record Sheets
Matthew Wilsbacher
Factchecking/Playtesting:
Brent Ezell, William Gauthier, Keith Hann, Johannes Heidler,
Josh Perian, Luke Robertson, Chris Wheeler, Matthew Wilsbacher
Special Thanks from Chris:
…to Argon, the most noble of gasses (well, one of them).
Special Thanks from Herb:
To the fact-checkers, who really went the extra light-year on this one
STAR LEAGUE ERA
CLAN INVASION ERA
JIHAD ERA
Under License From
®
©2016 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights
Reserved. Experimental Technical Readout:
Primitives V, 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.
CAT35XT015
SUCCESSION WARS ERA
CIVIL WAR ERA
DARK AGE ERA
2
TP-1R TROOPeR
Field Testing Summation:
Original
Trooper
Primitive Chassis
Producer/Site:
Toddlette Industries, Ariel
Supervising Engineer:
Colonel J. Marcus Llewelyn-Jaymes
Prototype Introduction Date:
2475
Non-Production Equipment Analysis:
Primitive Armor
Primitive Cockpit
Primitive Engine
Overview
While the Free Worlds League government awarded Corean
Enterprises the contract to design and build the realm’s first home-
grown BattleMech (the
Icarus),
dozens of manufacturers throughout
the League fought bitterly for their own share of this bold new defense
market. Among these competitors was Toddlette Industries, a mid-sized
supplier of WorkMechs and industrial robots. Despite the company’s
relative obscurity, Toddlette jumped to the forefront of the new
BattleMech arms race when they recruited retired Colonel J. Marcus
Llewelyn-Jaymes as their Chief Engineer. Formerly the Associate Chief
Armorer for the FWLM, Llewelyn-Jaymes brought with him not only an
extensive background in BattleMech research and development, but
also countless professional and personal contacts within the League’s
military, government and private sector. By the end of 2469—just
one year after his retirement from the service—Llewelyn-Jaymes and
his hand-picked design team at Toddlette Industries began to work
on something they knew the FWLM would soon be clamoring for: a
dedicated reconnaissance BattleMech.
Toddlette’s first BattleMech, code-named
Trooper,
was a highly
maneuverable, lightweight biped capable of maintaining ground
speeds of nearly 100 kph. Utilizing the same basic chassis as many of
Toddlette’s larger WorkMechs, the machine’s structure looked rather
simplistic at a glance. Its power plant, gyroscope, cockpit and other
critical systems were all housed in a simple “armored box” structure,
mounted atop a reinforced and armored version of the same “bird-
walker” legs that had become an icon of Toddlette’s top-selling
LoaderMechs. Given its intended role as a dedicated scout (and
assumed secondary roles as a patrol unit or fast-reaction cavalry),
the
Trooper
eschewed fully articulated arms and instead carried its
limited armaments within simple, turret-style, side-mounted pods
that could be serviced or replaced far more easily. With so much of its
tonnage devoted to its engine, control systems, and vital structures,
its weaponry consisted of paired small lasers in its left arm pod, with
a machine gun in the right and a “chin-mounted” flamethrower in the
centerline. While all of these weapons could potentially devastate
smaller armored vehicles and infantry, their limited range and hitting
power against other BattleMechs served to discourage pilots from
directly engaging such opposition.
Thanks to Llewelyn-Jaymes’ contacts within the federal military
and government circles (and possibly some bribes to key politicians
and decision makers, if contemporary rumors are to be believed), the
FWLM accepted delivery of the first
Troopers
in 2475. Though lauded
by technicians and logisticians as incredibly easy to maintain, the
Trooper
quickly earned a poor reputation among its operators. Like
the WorkMechs it was based off of, the
Trooper
had no dedicated
ejection system; pilots had to manually climb out of a disabled
Trooper.
Furthermore, its legs proved ill-suited to the rigors of heavy combat, as
proven in numerous failed trials before the FWLM’s Minister of Defense.
Nevertheless, the League’s Chief Armorer and Quartermaster General
continued to purchase
Troopers
year after year, ultimately selecting
it to be the very first FWLM BattleMech upgraded with “modern”
technologies in 2501, rechristening the ’Mech in the process. The
upgraded machine—dubbed the FLE-4
Flea—remained
in production
throughout the Star League era, with factory lines established on
five worlds after Terran-based Earthwerks Incorporated purchased
Toddlette Industries in 2581.
Type:
Trooper
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Primitive)
Tonnage: 20
Equipment
Internal Structure:
Engine:
Walking MP:
Running MP:
Jumping MP:
Heat Sinks:
Gyro:
Cockpit (Primitive):
Armor Factor (Primitive):
Mass
2
5
145 Primitive
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
Machine Gun
Ammo (MG) 100
Flamer
2 Small Lasers
32
Internal
Structure
3
6
5
3
4
Location
RA
RT
CT
LA
0
2
5
3
Armor
Value
5
5
2
3
1
3
3
Critical
1
1
1
2
Tonnage
.5
.5
1
1
Notes:
Features the following Design Quirks: Bad Reputation, Easy to
Maintain, Exposed Actuators, Improved Life Support, Modular
Weapons, Obsolete (2405), No Arms, No Ejection System, Weak Legs.
3
PX-1R PhOeNIX
Field Testing Summation:
Original
Phoenix
Primitive Chassis
Producer/Site:
Krauss Heavy Industries, Wotan
Supervising Engineer:
Jack Krauss, Jr.
Prototype Introduction Date:
2474
Non-Production Equipment Analysis:
Primitive Armor
Primitive Cockpit
Primitive Engine
Prototype Jump Jets
Overview
In 2455, House Steiner’s Operation PROMETHEUS made it possible
for the Lyran Commonwealth to be the first realm outside of the Terran
Hegemony to possess BattleMech technology—but that distinction would
be short-lived. Before the Lyrans could capitalize on this advantage, the
Federated Suns and the Draconis Combine each managed to steal
the same technical capabilities from them by 2461. Realizing that the
proliferation of the BattleMech would soon spread all across the Inner
Sphere, Archon Alistair Marsden Steiner took the surprising step of
selling
this new technology to his Periphery neighbors in the Rim Worlds Republic.
Given the ties between the Terran Hegemony and Terens Amaris,
the Republic’s newest First Consul, the Archon knew it was only a matter
of time before BattleMechs turned up on the coreward borders anyway.
What he was less certain about was whether those troops would be
Republican or Hegemony. By effectively gifting the technology to the
Rim Worlds before the Hegemony did so, Steiner hoped to cement an
alliance—or at least a renewed non-aggression pact—with Amaris.
After a series of secret negotiations, the deal was struck, and by 2465,
the Republic had manufactured its first run of
Mackie
clones.
While the Republic perfected the
Mackie,
however, designing
and building wholly new BattleMechs proved a distinct challenge
to the Republic’s industries. Republic companies developed a few
experimental ’Mech designs in the late 2460s, but none of these proved
out until Krauss Heavy Industries of Wotan rolled out the
Phoenix.
The
Phoenix
was one of several designs nearing prototype stage in
2470 when AsRoc, the Republic’s intelligence agency, managed to secure
samples and specs of the jump jet technology the Terran Hegemony had
begun installing on their
Wasp
scout ’Mechs. Eager to capitalize on this
technological boon, Amaris directed Krauss Heavy Industries to integrate
it into their machine for immediate testing. The result was a mad scramble
to redesign a machine that was already functionally complete.
Originally intended to serve as a mobile front-line “trooper”
BattleMech capable of engaging enemy ’Mechs and armor at all ranges,
the
Phoenix
prototype carried a PPC and a pair of four-tube SRM launchers.
In the effort to reconfigure it as a jump-capable ’Mech, the launchers were
downgraded to paired twin-tube SRMs to free up the necessary mass
(though the ’Mech also received a slight bump in armor protection in the
process). But scraping up the necessary mass was only the beginning;
Krauss’ engineers experienced many of the same problems with the jump
jets themselves as their Hegemony counterparts had on the earlier
Wasp—
only moreso. As a result, it took the company nearly four years to get the
Republic’s first jump-capable prototype off the ground (and five more
before said prototype was declared ready for production).
Despite every assurance that this
Phoenix
was ready for service,
reports from the field told a very different story. Firing its particle
cannon evidently caused so much electronics interference that some
pilots came to refer to the machine as the “Sparkly Bird”. But even those
disruptions paled when compared to the problems caused by using its
jump jets. Even with extensive training, many pilots found it difficult to
keep the
Phoenix
stable through a jump, and the stresses of “properly”
landing a fifty-ton machine often resulted in fractured or shattered
leg and torso structural components. First Consul Amaris, pursuing a
policy of “quality over quantity” when it came to new defense projects,
insisted that Krauss focus its resources into perfecting the
Phoenix
at the
expense of nearly every other military contract on its list. After almost
a dozen refits, overhauls and upgrades, the
Phoenix’s
main problems
were eliminated by the final decade of the twenty-fifth century—
thirteen years before it would be “modernized” for the new century.
Type:
Phoenix
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Primitive)
Tonnage: 50
Equipment
Internal Structure:
Engine:
Walking MP:
Running MP:
Jumping MP:
Heat Sinks:
Gyro:
Cockpit (Primitive):
Armor Factor (Primitive):
Head
Center Torso
Center Torso (rear)
R/L Torso
R/L Torso (rear)
R/L Arm
R/L Leg
Weapons and Ammo
PPC
2 SRM 2
Ammo (SRM) 50
Prototype Jump Jet
Prototype Jump Jet
Prototype Jump Jet
Mass
5
11.5
240 Primitive
4
6
3
12
128
Internal
Structure
3
16
12
8
12
Location
RA
LT
LT
RT
CT
LT
Armor
Value
9
18
7
14
5
12
16
Critical
3
2
1
1
1
1
2
3
5
12
Tonnage
7
2
1
.5
.5
.5
Notes:
Features the following Design Quirks: EM Interference,
Obsolete (2525), Poor Workmanship, Weak Legs.
4

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