Battletech Lore : Conventional infantry

[@matchesburn]

Do you know what one of the best parts of BattleTech is? That even when you have mechs and dropships and other pieces of mechanized murder machines that run on nightmare fuel and deal out enough firepower to level a city... it's still viable and dangerous for them when a small squad in the right place at the right time fires a missile into their backside. It's still a setting where despite such horrific war machines being available, some guy can still turn the tide of battle and level the playing field if they know what they're doing and do it properly. Even in Warhammer 40K, where infantry can turn the tide by becoming a tide of dead bodies to crush your enemy, you still aren't really going to win against a Titan with some guy on the ground (Sly Marbo doesn't count). BattleTech is one of the few settings where you can.

[@dark7element]

I GMed a long running Battletech 'A time of war' campaign (though mostly we were using the Total Warfare/TO rules since the players were in mechs, and only used the ToW rules for action on foot). At first they tended to ignore infantry squads and platoons shooting at them while they were fighting other stuff... Then you got to incidents like when a little 5-strong squad of jump SRM infantry that had been hopping from ruin to ruin taking potshots at them ended up putting an engine crit on a player's 70 ton Nova Cat that outclassed any enemy unit on the battlefield (boxcars on the hit location roll). And then the players realized that if you cut loose on an infantry platoon hiding in a typical urban building with an alpha strike that would melt a light mech in one turn, you end up taking out like, 4 dudes.

[@naomy1701]

thats mostly true, but not completely. there were incidents where infantry took out Titans, like in the book "Titanstorm" (i think thats the title atleast) where a Titan gets pushed by other maschines until its cornered, and then Infantry breaks into the Titan and murders the crew. thats why Titan Moderatii are always armed with handguns (well that aswell as to put down any attempted mutiny ofc lol) and why theres usualy a locker with shotguns and stuff for CQC, should the Titans Anti-Infantry defense fail (or get taken out) and they manage to get into the Titan, everyone but the Princeps (those that are hardwired into their Tanks) take up arms to defend their Titan to the last breath. i got to admit, i love it when a story is well thought out to a point where it makes use of weakpoints of otherwise near unstopable things ^^ keeps things way more interesting and fun to read, watch, and even play ^^

[@dark7element]

@@naomy1701 It's still a very rare thing in the 40k universe though. That's understandable, since titans are, at bare minimum, three times the size of the heaviest battlemech (and that's just by volume... even a 100 ton assault mech is mostly hollow on the inside and built with lightweight materials, more like a walking fighter jet than a 21st century tank... Titans are explicitly stated to use anti-grav and other arcane technologies so their mass is probably 20x or more than that of an assault mech). As I understand it the main reason titans need infantry support is not because infantry are a real threat to them in close quarters combat, but because infantry surrounding them can finish them off if they get sniped or ambushed by a titan-killing weapon.

[@Koshiro2k3]

Okay, who clicked this because of the House Steiner cutie (courtesy of MW 1st Edition) in the thumbnail?

[@collindee8370]

well i clicked it because its the best mech infantry vid i could find but ngl she was an added bonus

[@RepublicanGuardMan]

....battletech.. R34 when?

[@TrueMetalWarlord]

She certainly contributed to my click but I love eating up anything battletech

[@klinktastic]

Played in a massive multi-year table top campaign. My merc company was combined arms. Infantry with stealth suits and portable light TAG in urban situations was undoubtedly one of the best units. Artillery and Indirect LRM fire made helped soften up the opfor before the mechs or tanks got within engagement range.

[@GaldirEonai]

I was hoping for a mention of the GDL's combined arms antimech tactics. They got military leaders all over the sphere to rethink their approach to infantry usage and were one reason why the clans had a really bad time on several of their attacks.

[@tannerrennat7786]

I haven't seen the old FASA art for decades, thanks Logan.

[@TheMiteyPirate]

Art work like this is what made me want to be part of the battle tech universe!

[@lpseem3770]

I think the best ones are from Mechwarrior, 2nd edition.

[@johnconnor1343]

www.nogutsnogalaxy.net/forum/index.php?board=389.0 I can offer much more of it. When you never heard of MechCommander Gold - Darkest Hours... - you should give it a try. Regards RizZ

[@thosewhocando]

Back when I was playing the pen & paper game in the 80s, we loved infantry. We also played by advanced rules, so regular infantry were hidden until they moved or fired.... Ambush fun all around. Got so bad our players started putting MGs back on the mechs (these did 2d6 of damage vs infantry).

[@richardlayton7184]

I used AC/20s against infantry. I respected nay feared infantry that much.

[@jonskowitz]

Lol! Awesome. That's how i felt infantry should work, creating strongpoints that require effort to dig out. A buddy of mine used an airmobile infantry force with heavy artillery support to great effect. He'd use the helicopters to position the grunts and guns in difficult-to-reach positions and then proceed to embarrass the mech forces that tried to pry them out.

[@michaelkeha]

Anti personal gauss rifle, easy way to deter infantry from bothering your mad cat.

[@magni5648]

@@richardlayton7184 AC/20 under current rules is a real sledgehammer swatting mosquitoes thing. You hit a conventional platoon? You kill 4/28 guys. Unless they're out in the open, then it's 8/28. You really kinda need specialist munitions, dedicated anti-personnel weapons (MG, flamer, small pulse laser etc.) or area-effect weapons if you want to actually wipe out PBI in an efficient manner when TacOps rules are in effect.

[@magni5648]

@@jonskowitz Heh, I did similar stuff with my old merc group in our local club. The whole company was a combined-arms battalion loaded in a Fortress. 12 Mechs, 12 Goblin Medium Tanks, 3 infantry platoons and the DropShips' Long Tom sitting off-map. That tank/infantry battlegroup was a terror and a half on cluttered maps. A dozen large lasers ain't nothing to laugh at and trying to overrun the tanks means walking into the killbox of three SRM platoons. And then later on they allowed me a homebrew FCE Goblin variant because my Mech company went with mostly just field refits instead of new stuff in the 3050's. (Fuel cell engine instead of ICE, PPC instead of large laser, additional SRM 4 with one ton of ammo, CASE and the armor upped to 11 tons. Essentially a cheaper Manticore with somewhat less firepower, but it brings its own infantry squad along for the ride.) Also, I made it standing policy to have at least one Mech per lance bring anti-infantry weapons after people started realising how much of a pain the little guys could be.

[@joskarifinaukr6503]

Anybody who discounts the value of infantry in war is in for a bad time. As long as you need to secure physical sites, you need infantry.

[@badgerbrowncoat5433]

precisely what always irked me about mech-commander style " stand in this zone to capture it" ... hope u have some boots on ground, someones gotta go in there and dig it out

[@jonskowitz]

Infantry was done really badly in BT, even when i was a dumb-arsed kid back in the 80s it felt... off (talking TT of course)

[@michaelkeha]

Mechanised and power armord infantry are the only effective options in BT having grunts on the ground with boots like some houses use just throws lives away.

[@rc59191]

I'm with ya I'd take a platoon of infantry over mechs in most situations any day. I just recently got into Battletech are there any games that let you control infantry? So far the only ones I got are those ones from the clix tabletop game.

[@rc59191]

@Cegesh no someone with experience in guerilla warfare would say that. Infantry if trained right can takedown any mech in real life or in fiction. You can camouflage yourself from drones, dig traps for tanks and mechs, operate in areas without drawing attention, and remain self sufficient by living off the land. Infantry don't require mechanical maintenance, gas, supply lines.

[@Gauntlet1212]

"Despise infantry if you must. Crush them underfoot, by all means. But do not ignore them. Battlefields are littered with the wreckage of Titans whose crews ignored infantry." - Grand Master Ferromort, Ordo Sinister, Divisio Militaris. (Warhammer 40k)

[@frankg2790]

Advice a commander should live by.

[@rock3793]

40k "mechs"

[@Solon_The_Lich]

Holy intestinal waste, 40k Imperium Titan pilots must have fine eyesight to spot infantrymen amidst the total pandemonium their machines unleash on the battlefield.

[@WTFisTingispingis]

He's got a point.

[@aquarius5719]

KZbin hates small channels. We need to SWARM Battletech channels with views and likes. Spread the word.

[@TheMiteyPirate]

A pleasant comment goes a lot further to seeing more content from me then more subscribers. I am glad that you found this channel. o7 Hope to see yah on the battlefield!

[@gigaslave]

With enough SRM tubes even infantry can wreck a mech from ambush.

[@cromwell300]

Mobile, well equipped, and determined infantry are always a major threat.

[@juancholo7502]

In one game of city fighting I had members of 2 companies (6 platoons) of foot infantry chasing an Atlas that was trying to run away. Heh heh heh! Oh & I decapitated a Hunchback that walked into Lvl 1 water because the pilot thought no one was crazy enough to hide infantry in a lvl 1 light building right beside it. :) Good Times.

[@Ironhold_Watch]

Infantry loves anti personal gauss rifles, they practically explode in excitement

[@PerpetualGM]

The conventional infantry units in TRO 3085 can be utterly terrifying if used properly. As someone who uses infantry a fair amount (although I'll admit I have a preference for BA units), the TW rules updates and the further updates in TO make infantry a great choice in many situations.

[@basteagui]

that urbanmech comic at the end made me laugh so much. great stuff.

[@-Kidzin]

The only reason we don't use much of infrantry during games with friends is that you can get so much of it it's making turns last for twice as long.

[@THEGREENBANDIT88]

Mecha get all the glory but the ground troops hold the real estate.

[@chrisllewellyn5246]

Where did he find the g in mechanized infantry?

[@SonsOfLorgar]

Yeah, that irritated me to no end. No like from me bc of that.

[@signsofbias9640]

I thought it was just me...

[@MrDmitriRavenoff]

Infantry is very good at hiding.

[@thegreatbamboozler4837]

I know, right???

[@bjack1547]

I love the classic 1980s uniforms

[@ranekeisenkralle8265]

That picture in the end was hilarious. That aside, an informative video, containing even a few things i previously did not know. Well done.

[@alluringming]

Alright infantry video, have gander at this later. Thank you! I always wondered how infantry worked in battletech. Seeing you always see battle armies, mech, and aerospace fighter getting the attention

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

In GDL's first book, there's a fight between a foot soldier and a light mech. It lost.

[@thegreatbamboozler4837]

That's cause Grey was holding an SRM2 launcher with inferno missles. Lori Calmar knew that a locust wouldn't stand up to infernos..

[@DuneRunnerEnterprises]

@@thegreatbamboozler4837 Indeed. 8)

[@alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi3723]

For people who say infantry is useless, you forget that tactical nuke or HE hydrogen bomb, can be flung by one of them on the head of an Atlas from the roof of a building, alone and crazy infantrymen, can climb on your battlemech and blow its plasma reactor with a grenade, a simple sniper can kill you, commander! Here's saying I have No matter how many super soldiers are needed or made, it always ends up coming down to just us, its always us from start to finish, the grunts on the ground, the men and women with only the will to fight, we will always be the ones you will want when taking the fight headlong at the enemy, when either a world is taken or defended it's always on us!

[@dark7element]

Alas, once battle armor gets developed, conventional infantry loses most of its niches and only becomes useful for manning fixed fortifications. Post 3070s, the only reason you would deploy conventional infantry is if you don't have enough battle armor available.

[@alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi3723]

@@dark7element Mechs are useful tools, that is all they are tools, EMP weaponry can turn it into a stationary target for long-range artillery, orbital bombardment can turn cities to rubble, or flat as pancake,

[@dark7element]

@@alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi3723 Are you familiar with the battletech universe? 'Battle armors' are not mechs, they're powered armor weighing 1 ton or less. In the BT universe, mechs are shielded against EMPs. It will damage their sensors and impair their ability to shoot, but otherwise they can keep moving and fighting even if a nuke has gone off nearby. Indeed, mechs got 'nuked' and kept on fighting (as long as they weren't so close to the blast that they got melted or vaporized) many times in the backstory. Tactical nukes were used with frightening regularity during the Star League Civil War, the 1st Succession War, and the Word of Blake Jihad. When things escalate to orbital bombardment and nukes, pretty much nothing on the ground survives - infantry are even more screwed than mechs, although the difference is almost academic at that point, their only hope of survival is to run and hide. The only way to deal with a Warship is to nuke it into oblivion before it nukes/orbitally bombards you, which is why Warships went extinct for several hundred years. The only warships that survived were the ones held by the Clans, and that's only because they developed harsh restrictions against using them. Edit: There actually is an EMP weapon in Battletech that can disable a mech, the 'TSEMP', but it's a direct fire weapon. It's not reliable enough to crowd out other energy weapons (the mech struck will only shut down about 15% of the time).

[@alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi3723]

@@dark7element I know what power armor is and I am familiar with the lore But the basics are the same, human start wars and human fight them, as in soldiers, the Battletech universe is just our own time but bigger, I'm just saying that you need men to fight wars and thus wield weapons if you did not you would just use robots,...trouble is you either get Skynet or you own people murder because they think you way of waging war is genocidal ,

[@Nxtl68]

Infantry isn't going anywhere, no matter what new weapon gets created.

[@diegoreds]

Love playing Infanty with “Inferno “ rockets..... Ambush & add that Heat that get Intense per Turn.

[@lpseem3770]

I was playing with some infantry against light Mechs, full of machine guns and flamers. Oh, poor bastards. :)

[@akiraguy]

Especially if those MG is the light variant.

[@cjfdolgfer8649]

Thx for this Video! Also good to see you in 2019 X)

[@badsyntax9026]

There are 206 canon official infantry types in the game.

[@vagabund6778]

I randomly searched for "warasu abuka" and THIS is the only video I found. How's that?!?!

[@richardlayton7184]

Inferno rounds for missile launcher are great.

[@richardlayton7184]

Both for the Mech and Infantry!

[@McBearGrylls]

Man I love Spike Spigel talking about Battletech

[@bogartthestingy9212]

Nice handbook to play...Battletech.

[@eezaak21]

Good video. Loved the old style BT artwork. So 1980 lol.

[@chrisjones7594]

Im Grayson Death Carlyle, and I'm trying to find cassieopea.

[@demosearies7591]

Your title needed to have the (PBI) at the end.. as Mech warriors called infantry PBI's or Poor Bloody Infantry.

[@akiraguy]

Strana Mechty. Ebon keshik. But hey. You can't expect intelligence from Inner Sphere trashborns. Joking. Great research.

[@TheMiteyPirate]

This was very discouraging.

[@alluringming]

Any chance you going to talk about ftl and other means of travel the inner sphere use?

[@TheMiteyPirate]

how about the topic of "how to get your army across the inner sphere"?

[@alluringming]

@@TheMiteyPirate Sound good, im still surprised not many people have talked about the jump drives and various methods for them to travel in space

[@Geravind_Meowung]

Yay, cool arts there! =*_*=

[@jonskowitz]

Enjoyed the video, good information. Liked and subscribed. Take this as some constructive criticism; Your delivery is a little dry, just loosen up a little bit and put some emotion into it. It would be interesting to me anyway if you put some personal perspective into the subject; ways you've used it or seen it used. Maybe some notable historical accounts? Just so it doesn't sound like you're just reading straight from the Sarna wiki Cheerio, I'm off to binge-watch your channel.

[@lelouche25]

Man, so where does BA infantry belong?

[@TheMiteyPirate]

BA will get their own video. And yes i 100% agree BA is a support arm of any planetary invasion force. It just comes down to cost to profit yes we would like to have Battle armor for the guy that guards the soup line but if he is needed some where with more action well he gets moved there instead.

[@dparnass]

You forgot to mention Cassie Southern and how she took down her 1st mech

[@ramiroavila1869]

thanx again

[@I_am_Diogenes]

Two points : First , you can tell you have never played the earlier games since you keep mispronouncing Strana Mechne and Second , you left out the one infantry weapon other than a SRM that CAN do direct damage to a mech ... the Cone rifle . Pictured at 4:45 . No hate , just trying to provide helpful criticism . Good seeing interest is still around for a game I spent way too much time playing in my youth , only overshadowed by Advanced Dungeons and Dragons .

[@cjanquart]

Played an infantryman (ended up becoming a pretty bad ass anti Mech specialist) in the RPG game; since he didn't have a Mech, he had a ton of points to allocate to his attributes. His preferred weapon was a gyroslug carbine because of the insanely high ammo capacity (150 rounds) and was just fine for anti infantry work. Underslung grenade launcher was very useful against a certain Kurita squad that disembarked from an APC; crits included head wounds and severed fingers all around!

[@KerboDrive]

What the hell is mecheggnized infantry?

[@TheMiteyPirate]

who would think 1 mispronounced word would ruin the whole video for you sorry about that.

[@upandaljm]

Jump srm infantry #1 pre clan

[@lelouche25]

Ahhh, so BA is more like support units

[@khornetto]

What's with the odd pauses tho.

[@chrisjones7594]

PBI poor bloody infantry

[@StephenSmith-ec9fr]

It's mechanized not mekiknized. Sorry, just had to.

[@JCDadalus]

Mecheg-nized?

[@luked8873]

Do it the Amaris way and nuke

[@naomy1701]

while the overall info was interesting, but its way to unspecific, should have given (atleast to some degree) a few examples of units and what gear they use typicaly. then again, that had prob made the vid 10 times as long, which is most likely not what was intended lol

[@TheMiteyPirate]

wargear isnt what interests me, so i try to leave room for others to do their own research. At the time when i made this people only watch about 2 mins of my shows on average so it hard to know how much effort is correct. But looking back at this video i am sure some improvements could be done if i find time this year around other videos maybe a redo is order. we will see how the year shakes out.

[@nerowulfee9210]

Damn, some of those outfits look really stupid.

[@azuaraikrezeul1677]

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