BattleTech Movement Rate – To – Max Profitable BattleMech Tonnage Guide for Munchkins
A bit, after seeing Brian Sugrim in michigan 8/11-8/15 in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I got back into BattleTech a little bit, mostly on influence on his 5-year old son being big into transformers. The tangent is that BattleMechs are largely humanoid, and in the case of Land-Air ‘Mechs, they are transformers as well, but piloted war-machines rather than self-sentient robots. Imperial Walkers in Star Wars (AT-AT and AT-ST) could be technically BattleMechs also, but much heavier. I havn’t touched my BattleTech stuff much since I was 19 or 20 (1994-1996). I only have the boardgame, Compendium, and Mechwarrior RPG, but now, I have nearly every BattleTech book now (some hoarded back in 2004 but a lot of new ones recently), in PDF, thanks to eMule!
I made a max-tonnage for a desired movement rate munchkinning guide for you BattleMech designing munchkins like me. Pick the engine type (Normal, Light , eXtraLight, eXtra-eXtraLight), and a movement rate. Then get the max total ‘Mech tonnage that you can have with that movement rate before you actually start losing tonnage available to armor, weapons, electronic warfare, and other eqipment rather than gaining due to the tonnage increase from the engine (fusion reactor) + gyro + internal structure exceeds the tonnage increase of the overal unit. You can have a lower weight BattleMech for the given movenet rating, but not higher, else you will have LESS space for weapons and such rather than MORE.
**************************************** Compact Reactor Maximum Tech (Level 3) or Total Warfare (Tournament Legal) Inner Sphere Only; Only use 3 critical slots in CT instead of 6. +50% mass (3/2) MP Tonnage Engine Armor/Weap Notes 3 100 300 55.5-60.5 4 70 or 75 280 or 300 33-36.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 5 50 or 55 250 or 275 20.0-22.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 6 40 or 45 240 or 270 12.5-14.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 7 30 or 35 210 or 245 7.5-9.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 8 25 200 4.5-5.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5; No 30 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (200 vs 240). 9 20 180 2.5-3.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5; No 30 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (180 vs 225). 10 15 or 20 150 or 200 0.0-1.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: 20 tons if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 11 15 165 -0.5-0.0 Endo-Steel Required to fit cockpit and Gyro. No Armor, No Weapons. **************************************** Standard Reactor MP Tonnage Engine Armor/Weap Notes 3 100 300 65.0-70.0 4 75 or 80 300 or 320 42.5-46.5 3.5 Ton engine weight difference, but Gryo weight increase of +1: 80 tons if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 5NoJump 60 300 29.0-32.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5; No 65 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (300 vs 325) 5Jump 55 275 28.0-30.5 4.5 Ton Engine Diff + 0.5 Ton IS Diff + 2.5 Ton Jump Jet Diff = 2.5 Ton Profit (2.0 Ton with Endo-Steel) 6 50 300 20.0-22.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5; No 55 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (300 vs 330) 7 40 280 14.0-16.0 8 30 or 35 240 or 280 9.5-11.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 9 25 or 30 225 or 270 6.5-8.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: 30 tons if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 10 20 200 4.5-5.5 No 25 b/c of Gyroscope weight increse (200 vs 250) 11 15 165 2.5-3.0 No 20 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (165 vs 220) 12 15 180 1.5-2.0 No 20 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (180 vs 240) 13 15 195 0.5-1.0 **************************************** Light Reactor New - Total Warfare - Tournament Legal Inner Sphere only; 2 Critical Slots in Each Side Torse - Less Survivability, but not as bad as XL (makes it the same as clan-XL). -25% Mass (3/4) MP Tonnage Engine Armor/Weap Notes 3 100 300 69.5-74.5 4NoJump 85 or 90 340 or 360 49.0-53.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: 90 tons if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 4Jump 85 340 49.0-53.0 4.5 Ton Engine Diff + 0.5 Ton IS Diff + 4.0 Ton Jump Jet Diff = 4.0 Ton Profit (3.5 Ton with Endo-Steel) 5 65 or 70 325 or 350 33.5-37.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: 70 tons if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 6 50 300 24.5-27.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.0; No 55 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (300 vs 330); But only 0.5 Ton profit over 55 tons (Engine 4 Gyro 1 IS 0.5). 7 40 280 18.0-20.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5; No 45 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (280 vs 360). 8 35 280 13.5-15.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5; No 40 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (280 vs 320). 9 30 270 10.0-11.5 10 25 250 7.0-8.0 11 20 or 25 220 or 275 4.5-5.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 12 15 or 20 180 or 240 3.0-4.0 3.5 Ton engine weight difference, but Gryo weight increase of +1: 20 tons (0.5 ton profit) if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 13 15 195 2.5-3.0 14 15 210 0.5-1.0 15 15 225 0.0-0.5 Need Endo-Steel to mount very light armor or a small laser. 16 10 160 -0.5-0.0 Endo-Steel Required to fit cockpit and gyro. No Armor, No Weapons. **************************************** XL (eXtraLight) Reactor 2 (Clan) or 3 (Inner Sphere) Critical Slots in Each Side Torso - Less Survivability, Especially for Inner Sphere! -50% Mass (1/2) MP Tonnage Engine Armor/Weap Notes 3 100 300 74.5-79.5 4NoJump 95 380 58.0-62.5 4Jump 85 340 56.0-60.0 7.0 Ton Engine Diff + 1.0 Ton IS Diff + 4.0 Ton Jump Jet Diff = 2.0 ton profit (1.5 Tons with Endo-Steel) 5 70 or 75 350 or 375 41.0-44.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure 6NoJump 60 360 30.5-33.5 6Jump 55 330 30.0-32.5 4.0 Ton Engine Diff + 0.5 ton IS Diff + 3.0 Ton Jump Jet Diff = 2.5 Tons Profit (2.0 Tons with Endo-Steel) 7 50 350 23.0-25.5 8 35 or 40 280 or 320 17.5-19.5 3.5 Ton engine weight difference, but Gryo weight increase of +1: 40 tons (0.5 ton profit) if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 9 30 or 35 270 or 315 13.5-15.0 3.5 Ton engine weight difference, but Gryo weight increase of +1: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 10 30 300 11.5-13.0 11 25 275 8.5-9.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5; No 30 b/c of Gyroscope weight increase (275 vs 330) 12 25 300 7.0-8.0 13 20 260 5.0-6.0 14 20 280 4.0-5.0 15 15 or 20 225 or 300 2.5-3.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: 30 tons if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 16 15 240 1.5-2.0 17 15 255 1.0-1.5 18 10 180 0.5-1.0 19 10 190 0.0-0.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: No 15 b/c of Gyroscope weight increse (190 vs 285). Need Endo-Steel to mount very light armor or a small laser. 20 10 200 -0.5-0.0 Endo-Steel Required to fit cockpit and gyro. No Armor, No Weapons. ****************************************r XXL Reactor Level 3 Rules; Maximum Tech Book. Not in Total Warfare (Not tournament legal) 2 Heat Standing Still; 4 Heat Walk; 6 Heat Run; Double Heat Jumping! 4 (Clan) or 6 (Inner Sphere) Critical Slots in Each Side Torso - Much Less Survivability, Even for Clans! -67% Mass (1/3) MP Tonnage Engine Armor/Weap Notes 4 100 400 65.5-70.5 5 75 or 80 375 or 400 47.5-51.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: 80 tons if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 6NoJump 60 or 65 360 or 390 36.0-39.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 6Jump 55 330 34.0-36.5 2.5/7.0 Ton Engine Diff + 0.5/1.0 ton IS Diff + 3.0 Ton Jump Jet Diff = 1.0 Tons Profit (0.5 Tons with Endo-Steel) 7 50 or 55 350 or 385 28.0-30.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 8 45 360 22.5-24.5 9 40 360 18.0-20.0 10 30 or 35 300 or 350 14.5-16.5 3.5 Ton engine weight difference, but Gryo weight increase of +1: Tie with both endo-steel and normal Internal structure. 11 30 330 11.5-13.0 12 25 300 10.0-11.0 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: No 30 b/c of Gyroscope weight increse (300 vs 360) 13 20 260 7.5-8.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: No 25 b/c of Gyroscope weight increse (260 vs 325) 14 20 280 6.5-7.5 15 20 300 5.5-6.5 16 15 or 20 240 or 320 3.5-4.5 3.5 Ton engine weight difference, but Gryo weight increase of +1: 20 tons (0.5 ton profit) if Internal Structure is Endo-Steel, Tie Otherwise. 17 15 255 3.0-3.5 No 20 b/c of Gyroscope weight increse (255 vs 340) 18 15 270 2.5-3.0 19 15 285 2.0-2.5 20 15 300 1.0-1.5 21 10 210 0.0-0.5 Engine Weight Diff 4.5: No 15 b/c of Gyroscope weight increse (210 vs 315). Need Endo-Steel to mount very light armor or a small laser. 22 10 220 -0.5-0.0 Endo-Steel Required to fit cockpit and Gyro. No Armor, No Weapons. ****************************************
Update 2007-09-15: Added Compact Engines Table; Changed category (new); Other minor changes
