Battlebuses

o/

One thing I'm rather fond of in Battletech is the Poor Bloody Infantry. They tend to do not a whole lot in general, and were it not for their APC/IFV transports, they'd be purely filler as well. That said, I invariably have at least one platoon on the table just because. Every now and again, they even do damage to some of Hive Angel's units.

Of my currently fielded IFVs, the Maxim hover transport is the most versatile and most effective. It usually charges ahead and deploys some PBI in a forward position where they can start taking casualties almost immediately (which they usually do), and then wander off and make a general nuisance of itself. Indeed, in our last game (a battle report for which is being worked on I hear) you can see my maxim in it's old colors, doing just that. It didn't die (though it came damned close to it) and finished out the battle slinging SRMs at anything within range, while billowing smoke and floundering around on an almost completely shredded hover skirt.

I found a Fa Shih battle armor 'survivor' from past Capellan armies, and am using it to represent a squad of Gray Death battle armor. Only having 1 mini, and never being impressed with battle armor (nor the Fa Shih in particular), so i see no reason to buy the PDF for more BA types. Whereas the gray death standard is available free. As you can see, I've painted the BA and Maxim in the colors of the 3rd Royal Guards so that they can support my 'God Squad' assault lance. Of all of my IFVs, the Maxim is the only one that can transport battle armor, and my other 2 units don't have access to battle armor, hence the new paint jobs.

lol, the maxim's colors remind me of a tropical fish I had in my old saltwater aquarium.

The 3rd Royals (unlike its sister Regimental Combat Teams) is actually sent out to fight. Whereas the other royal RTCs hang out on the Lryan capital world, polishing boots, marching around in parade fashion, and looming over the royal throne in a most intimidating fashion. All under the pretense of guarding the capitol. It worked great till the Wobblies arrived out of nowhere and nuked the planet from orbit. Yeah, great way to advance a ground based mini game, but i digress...anyways, they have a fairly respectable history aside from one ugly 'friendly fire' incident. However all the killed were some Nova Cats, and nobody likes those, right Screech?

Camouflaged RVs, huzzah!

Going back to my beloved Capellans, I painted up a pair of Packrat Long Range Patrol Vehicles for them the other night. The Cappys' have access to the SRM2 variant, which is basically an APC with the capacity to hold a full platoon. They can use most of the other Packrat variants, but those are basically just fast moving SRM6 launchers, so the APC version will probably be the only version I ever use. As such, my OMG! and WTF? platoons have found permanent residence in the Capellan 3rd CRC.

Unfortunately, these paint jobs leave my largest unit, the Legion of the Rising Sun and their famed BBQ! platoon (the 2nd photo) without any IFV transport of their own. In our last game, we used some Manticore MBTs and found the vehicle crit chart isn't as harsh as expected when the armor is heavier and its not a hover tank. So I ordered a blister of Goblin IFVs which will go to the Legion.

As Mercs, they 'technically' only have access to the IFV version of the Goblin. That said, its good enough as an urban MBT to not really even need the capacity to carry an infantry platoon around. However the Legion originated in the Draconis Combine, and the Combine has access to the older Goblin versions as well. Those Goblins only carried a single squad (and that ability will thus be ignored) and acted as fairly effective, if a bit generic MBT/Fire Support units.

Aside from the goblins which are somewhere in the mail, all of my PBI and armor units are painted, so now I can go back to painting mechs (which is what I ought to have been painting in the first place).