Battletech Lore - What is a BattleMech ?

[@jpotter2086]

That Warhammer cover art still brings me to attention. So perfect and timeless!

[@keianna5106]

woot! glad you continued. I am probably a minority, i enjoy 40k but battletech is my blood. Thanks for continuing this. There needs to be more battletech lore out in the open! The setting is very rich like has thousands of hours poured into it's creation like 40k.

[@donttreadonmemes]

Battletech is glorious retro badassery

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

True, I looked into some faction history and there's so much it makes your head spin.

[@jamesricker3997]

A battlemech is a big metal fusion-powered stompy thing

[@BatBreakr]

My 2 month old daughter falls asleep to your videos, so I am entertained and she is lulled to sleep. Well done! To clarify, I like the tech info, and I'm pretty sure it is the tone she finds soothing. Multi-generational appeal.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

That's very nice to hear. I don't know how anyone can find it soothing, but more the better I guess, lol. Good health to your daughter!

[@BatBreakr]

@@GrimDarkNarrator Thank you.

[@ianholmquist8492]

It's the dreamwave style synth music in the background

[@floridaman3823]

THIS HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED BY THE MAGOS DOMINUS, IT IS HERESY MOST FOUL, BUT I LIKE IT!!!!!

[@DED_MEEM]

*DESIRE TO KNOW MORE MAXIMUM*

[@jamesc.2054]

What has been seen cannot be Unseen.

[@craigerz2875]

Weekend off, weather outside is dreadful, time to load up Roguetech and listen to this whole playlist.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

You might fall asleep before you finish it all :D

[@craigerz2875]

@@GrimDarkNarrator Then I shall resume in the morning 😂 love this series you've done on my favourite fictional setting mate, top quality videos keep them going.

[@Smasherv15]

So happy you’re doing vids on battletech. There is a severe lack of good lore vids on this awesome universe.

[@DregdenY0r]

Yes!!! So stoked for more Battletech, thanks my dude!

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

You're welcome.

[@wuzpeace1]

Thank you for bringing Battletech Lore to the forefront. Besides 40k content it has a rich background and characters worth speaking about. Continue the great work

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Thanks.

[@isimiel3405]

Reactor Online. Sensors Online. Weapons Online. All Systems Nominal.

[@michaelparsonage5889]

Good Idea for a new series 😀

[@commissarstanley3055]

I always loved battle tech but never had the time to invest the time into learning like 40k, thanks a bunch

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

You're welcome :)

[@Cadimus6]

The video was very informative. A good over view in general; maybe getting into clan mechs, clan tech and factions bit by bit would be cool! Such as a over view of each faction. :)

[@DregdenY0r]

al adame I second this!

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

It's probably what I'll do next. I also want to make an overview of weapons and maybe some tech.

[@Griffmage-Eiphy]

Thank you for the Vid, I really enjoyed your Battletech novels in the past!

[@donttreadonmemes]

If you make a video on each of the factions I'd be a very happy man.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Oh boy, each faction has like 10-videos worth of lore, lol.

[@beanbagpilot922]

Not to mentions the individual clans.

[@mattk6719]

Yes, but maybe get a narrator who is a native speaker of English?

[@sid2112]

As a Clanner, I take umbrage at your freeborn term "Jock"!

[@MobiusPrime2028]

Annnddd, I am suddenly reminded of how much the designs of the battlemechs owe to Macross...

[@donttreadonmemes]

And I'm reminded that they had the same artist who sold the designs to both :p

[@gtmerchant1935]

Important to note that the BT battlemech weight class is kinda not realistic, so a bit of suspension of disbelief is required. For comparison a modern Merkava tank weighs roughly 65 tons. Most 30 ton battlemechs have twice the mass of a tank and the largest assault class (90-100 tons) have several times that tank's mass but only 40 more tons. Not that its incredibly important but I found it interesting.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I always thought these numbers were a bit off. A giant mech as tall as a 3 story building has to weigh more than that. I know its this way for the sake of the tabletop, though.

[@gtmerchant1935]

@@GrimDarkNarrator Yes, abstracting in order to make a game function is a legitimate reason in my view so it doesn't really bother me. Just wanted to share that fun fact though.

[@bruced648]

there is a term called "Innershere ton". it is considered to be twice the weight of a standard current ton. separately, a single elevation in battletech is 3 stories of a building (approx 25-30 feet). mechs stand between 40 and 60 feet tall. thus, 1 lvl of elevation provides partial cover and 2 lvls provides full coverage.

[@paulhuston9991]

Love to hear about tro info and famous pilots

[@wuzpeace1]

Can you a segment on the different prominent mercenary groups in battletech?

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Undoubtedly I'll get to covering mercenaries at some point :)

[@hansclaw]

#RememberSmokejaguars

[@unclesam1756]

Very informative

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Glad it was helpful!

[@54032Zepol]

Glad its just us humans that conquered the galaxy and not some xeno scum

[@craigerz2875]

Awesome series mate! One question I can't find an answer for, more just personal curiosity is how tall roughly each mech class is? I doubt a locust wouldn't stand as tall as a fafnir or atlas. Anyone know if this is mentioned anywhere?

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

They're definitely not as tall. Don't quote me on this, but I'd say the average height of a mech is somewhere between 8-14 meters.

[@Hierax415]

The heights are all over the place in all the sources, sarna.net will give you all the heights from all the sources. PGI the company that made MW5 and MWO made the mechs comically tall. The technical manuals from the 80's have the heights making a little more sense for the weights but in general, the mechs are way to light for their heights.

[@sid2112]

My arctic cheetah is gorgeous and eats assault mechs!

[@xironbeastx8677]

more battletech stuff plz

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Its coming every Tuesday :)

[@xironbeastx8677]

GrimDark Narrator Noone has covered any of the militia mechs, like ever, things like the quasit or the copper, there are whole mech categories like protomechs that get ignored by the youtube community, sooooo yea, just a suggestion btw, if you wanted to avoid videos on stuff like the atlas since it has been done to death.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

@@xironbeastx8677 I will inevitable do the Atlas too as its very popular. But I'll add your suggestions to the list of possible topics :)

[@benlaskowski357]

Dr.Atlas, huh? Wonder who the mech's named after. . .

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I'm sure its just a coincidence :P

[@channingdeadnight]

More mechs please

[@Youngimperialist]

Faction Vids would be good.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

True. However there's a lot of history and political drama to each of them. I worry it might sound too boring, so I'm still thinking on how to structure them.

[@scottbaase4042]

The best counter to a mech is an elemental.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

What if you're not a clanner :D

[@scottbaase4042]

@@GrimDarkNarrator the inner sphere standard of course, and if you are one of the space A,T&T laymen and women get yourself a nighthawk!

[@scottbaase4042]

@@GrimDarkNarrator you can get info for the inner sphere standard on sarna.net along with more referances to do a video on gen 0, I, and II battle armour.

[@jamesricker3997]

Don't forget the Aerospace fighter If the Mech can't get PlanetSide it is useless

[@doge4818]

YAAAAAAAS

[@gagaplex]

Shoot out the legs. It's the best way to disable and later loot the buggers.

[@jayive34]

I like shooting the head. Especially on Hunchbacks.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

15 meters of rule of cool powered by COOL FACTOR.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

And ridiculously short-ranged rocket weaponry :D

[@JeanLucCaptain]

GrimDark Narrator which for some reason use huge volleys of small missiles instead of a more realistic ATGM style launcher.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

@@JeanLucCaptain That's too high tech for the far future.

[@JeanLucCaptain]

@@GrimDarkNarrator even though Germany had Radio Controlled Missiles in ww2?

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I did not know that.

[@paulsimon007]

mechs then factions

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

But there's like 100 types of battlemechs :P

[@DaytonaRoadster]

#Amarisdidnothingwrong

[@JeanLucCaptain]

#BlameComstar

[@stevefelten1197]

My Mech of choice were, Vulture, Marauder, and Timber wolf..

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

The Marauder is one of my favourites as well.

[@scrooge-mcduck]

"In general, battlemechs are considered superior to conventional combat vehicles…" No, not in Battletech, they are not. Maybe in the lore world, but here in game the opposite is true, they are bonkers OP.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

That's probably the whole theme of the setting.

[@gagaplex]

Avian 'Mechs are way cooler than humanoid ones. Come at me!

[@channingdeadnight]

If you wanna watch a good series about Mechs it's a sister series to battle Tech. It called roboTech and there's 3 long wars to go through. It mainly uses transformable Mechs that go from regular battleTech Mechs

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

I think I might've watched that as a kid but I hardly remember it.

[@meatharbor]

Pretty much all of the "land-air mechs" were ripped directly from Macross/Robotech, as well as a wide variety of designs directly copied from Robotech's destroids. This video actually begins with a mech type called "Warhammer" in the Battletech universe which was originally an MBR-04-Mk VI Tomahawk destroid in Robotech. The Battletech artists even included the destroid insignia (crossed hammer and torch) on the groin and the Robotech Defense Force insignia on the right hip. The Marauder is another good example of a design lifted directly from Robotech, as it's identical to the Zentraedi Roiquonmi Glaug Command Pod. Needless to say, Harmony Gold, the company that owns the publishing rights to Robotech/Macross in the United States, was not entirely pleased with these designs and sued to have them removed from all Battletech-related materials. All the Battletech mech designs lifted directly from Robotech (as well as a few other Japanese IPs) are now referred to as "the unseen designs" by those involved with the Battletech IP.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

@@meatharbor Thanks for the info.

[@meatharbor]

​@@GrimDarkNarrator Robotech did premier in the U.S. in 1985, so it's not surprising a lot of folks don't remember a whole lot about it, especially since it's sequel, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, didn't do too horribly well. The direct sequel to the original Robotech storyline, The Sentinels, didn't even make it all the way through production. The Japanese version of the series, Macross, was far more successful and continued on for significantly longer. I think the last installation of the Macross series was Macross Delta in 2016, but I can't rightly recall since Delta and it's predecessor, Frontier, were sorta garbage. But I digress. The story of how the Robotech designs got tied up with FASA is actually pretty interesting. Apparently when FASA was making Battledroids (the board game precursor to Battletech) they licensed the designs for the Robotech mechs along with some designs from a few other mecha anime, Fang of the Sun Dougram and Crusher Joe, from a company called Twentieth Century Imports (TCI). Turns out TCI didn't actually own the rights to any of those IPs and essentially defrauded FASA by conning them into thinking they did. So, in 1996, FASA ended up settling out-of-court with Harmony Gold (the actual owner of the Robotech/Macross IP in the west) and agreeing to remove all Harmony Gold-owned assets from all FASA-published games and materials. FASA did later reintroduce many of the mechs they removed as a result of the lawsuit, though, after modifying the designs enough to no longer run afoul of copyright law. These new, re-introduced, designs are commonly referred to as "reseen" designs. Though that has led to *another* Harmony Gold lawsuit that's still ongoing since Piranha Games Inc. and Harebraned Schemes (developers of Mechwarrior Online and Battletech, respectively) released versions of the Marauder and Phoenix Hawk mechs whose half-assed redesigns still look practically identical to the Glaug officer's battle pod and VF-1S Super Valkyrie respectively. ESPECIALLY their "redesigned" Marauder.

[@channingdeadnight]

@@meatharbor I used to run home from school every day in junior high so I could catch the 330 showing of robotech. And I agree with you on all those points in veritechs are way better than destroids. I was wondering if you ever had a chance to play battle Tech in an old gaming company called virtual world. It was pretty major Internet so it was one of the only places you could pilot a Mac and fight 7 other people live on a battlefield in game. India advance mode you had foot pedals for 360° directional moment movement joystick for targeting and vision. Your weapons even provided heat issues That would shut you down or cause your ammunition do explode if you weren't careful and paying attention. It was awesome.

[@Daimon-X]

Combat Mechs are unrealistic and stupid, but totally AWESOME. Rule of cool ftw. "You dig giant robots! I dig giant robots! We dig giant robots! Chicks dig giant robots! Nice!"

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

The one thing that always bothered me with battlemechs is that they weigh only up to 100 tons. How can a machine the size of a 5 story building only weight that, lol.

[@Daimon-X]

@@GrimDarkNarrator Option 1.0: New materials? Nano-compounds, neo-steel, adamantium or some other brand new, miracle Sci-Fi bullsh*t McGuffin. Option 2.0: "F*ck you, that's how it works!"

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

:S

[@juancholo7502]

In the original version of the game, battlemechs were about 30 feet tall. Assaults tended to be bigger & lights smaller. They could generally hide behind a 2 story building. Over the years, various artists & writers have made them look bigger. I think they are still technically about 30 feet tall in the rules even now, but the various pictures make them look bigger because that is more impressive.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

@@juancholo7502 Great info.

[@creakychair9387]

Battletech? WHAT IS THIS HERESY!!!

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Giant battle robots which don't need their machine spirits placated :D

[@creakychair9387]

@@GrimDarkNarrator Are you insulting the machine spirits?

[@bruced648]

Heresey... well, if you a member of Comstar Word of Blake faction, then yes, Heresey.

[@barrybend7189]

0:26 that's a Tomohawk Destroid from SDF Macross not a Thor/Summoner medium Battlemech.

[@kennethcook9406]

Barry Bend, and the (at time of writing this) two people who up-voted you. You are wrong on all counts. First, the one in your timestamp is actually a Warhammer 70-ton Heavy Battlemech, and one of the most iconic 'mechs in existence. Second, no one said that the one in your, or any, timestamp was a Thor(IS-name)/Summoner(Clan-name) Third, the timestamp that you seem to be ACTUALLY referencing ( 14:35 to 14:45 ) is talking about heavy 'mechs, not mediums Fourth, the picture in the heavy-'mech timestamp is a Marauder 75-ton heavy 'mech, and part of the court action/legal battle mentioned below. Fifth, the Thor(Summoner) is a 70-ton heavy 'mech, NOT a medium 'mech (medium is between 40 -55 tons) Finally, the owners of Robotech/Macross (Harmony Gold) have LOST their court/legal battle for control of the mech designs in the U.S. Someone once said that it's better to keep your mouth shut, and be thought of as a fool, than to speak up and remove all doubt. Please don't comment on things when you don't know what you're talking about, it just makes you look like either a fool or a noob (or both)

[@bruced648]

@@kennethcook9406 while you are correct, just wanted to point out that the "Tomahawk" aka Warhammer, was originally owned by the Japanese company that produced Macross. later, when Harmony Gold acquired the Macross series for U.S. disbursement, they gained some legal control for the design. the lawsuit between Harmony Gold and Fasa Corp, lasted for years, but Fasa lost. that is why there is a list of "un-seen" mechs from the games early years, as Fasa had to re-design those mechs.

[@kennethcook9406]

@@bruced648 Wrong, FASA won the case. It's easy to look up.

[@scooter06rb]

You pronounced Yakima wrong. Yak-e-ma native American name. Big military training ground next to the city.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Thanks for the correction.

[@DMS_Knighted_Drifter]

Pardon the pun but I'm glad the LAMs didn't take off. This is battletech after all and not robotech lol

[@cephy8102]

I don't know why but somehow the way this guy talks makes me uncomfortable.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Sorry about that.

[@yankeeclipper4326]

Dude, cool vids but the silly voice has to go

[@mattk6719]

That was painful to listen through.

[@GrimDarkNarrator]

Sorry to hear that.

[@caderiddle5996]

Well I enjoyed it.