AU Battletech: Experimental 'Mechs

For the Let's All Play Battletech thread, a sizeable and ongoing play-by-post campaign run by a Goon who happens to freelance for Battlecorps as a writer now. Based on the premise of a few "What If" differences that snowballed into an avalanche of disarray.

For starters, the Clan Invasion happens in 3032. And you're probably wondering about that "Draconis Suns" business in the picture above.

Go ahead and give this a read.
[link]

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These 'Mechs were designed by other Goons and drawn by me on request some time ago.

I don't have the room to give complete breakdowns on all of them, but I can say that the Capellans have iMRMs, a non-canon version of the MRM that has lower range but no to-hit penalty. And none of the cluster hit penalties that the MRM Apollo system suffers from. To help clear up space and deal with extra heat, the CapCon developed new Improved Heatsinks. IHS sinks 3 heat for every 2 sinks, but takes up 2 critical slots. It doesn't quite break the game as much as canon DHS, but it does mean fractions get ignored for heat management purposes. Also, Gauss Rifles and NARCs, but those are canon weapons and require less explanation.

The Capellan 'Mechs are designed to demolish the FWL and the Duchy of New Syrtis. They'll do their job well enough, though the FWL has some new tricks up their sleeve, too. Which they'll need, because the New Rim Worlds Republic invaded and they have ComStar on their side.

The Draconis Suns 'Mechs are proposals for this universe's analog of the Ryuken ("Dragon Sword"), though they're named as such in this timeline due to the combination of two symbols: The Dragon and the Sword, representing two houses. Which, oddly, makes the name more appropriate in the campaign than in canon. The Ryuken 'Mechs showcase experimental Heavy PPCs, which are basically like the canon version with a misfire chance (it's 3034, they're still working on it, and Helm Memory Core was only recovered a short time ago) as well as the High-Velocity AC/10; unlike the canon version, the AU HVAC/10 runs a few heat points cooler and is designed with two kinds of special ammo in mind: Acid Rounds that deal extra damage to Ferro-Fibrous Armor and Guided Rounds that deal 10 pts of damage in 5pt clusters and can be fired indirectly like LRMs. No idea if it suffers from that weird "smokescreen" problem canon HVACs do, but honestly canon HVACs are silly and impractical so I can't see why the GM would import the canon flaws.

They're supposed to be Clanbusters, but frankly they were built to fight Clan Hell's Horses, who took Luthien and left the Combine a husk of its former glory. Against the new Clan leapfrogging into their invasion corridor, Clan Jade Falcon, these slow-and-heavy HPPC/HVAC platforms are going to have a lot of trouble, I'd imagine.

(If you go ahead and read that thread, prepare to curse Takashi Kurita's name. Again.)