Discovering the lore of The Awesome & The Atlas - BattleTech Reaction 

Apologies for the abrupt cuts. Had to retroactively cut out certain segments because of music claims.

'Mech armor in a nutshell: A given chassis can carry a set amount of weight. The Awesome's chassis can carry 80 tons of stuff. That includes the chassis itself, the engine, the heatsinks, the weapon systems, the cockpit, the sensors, etc... and the armor. You lower rear armor so you can pack more weapons, or more engine, or more heatsinks, or more armor in other places. The reason most 'mechs have little rear armor (and even the AWS-8Q has significantly less armor in the rear) is that they can then have more front armor. If you think about it, armor that isn't being shot at is wasted mass.

All the rest of Tex and his amazing teams work is worth it. And watch as the quality improves they are all worth watching. And as always Pay your bills fucko.

Welcome back! PPC stands for Particle Projector Cannon. It was the most advanced weapon to survive the technological regression of the Succession Wars, delivering solid range and damage at the cost of substantial heat. Being an energy weapon, ammo is not a concern, but overheating a mech will have adverse effectS on performance past certain thresholds. Base tech PPC's also have a minimum range they can't fire within, which is why a small laser and battlefist are mounted on the Awesome as backup weapons. The turn based HBS battletech game absolutely has melee combat, but it is a bit finnicky to trigger. An Awesome's rear armor certainly gives it better odds of surviving rear attacks than most, but it's still generally best to get your front facing the most severe threat. Rear armor is always going to be weaker than frontal armor, given that having a strong side means you must have a weak side. And even if you want maximum back armor, there's only so many critical locations in the rear to mount the armor on. TLDR: Yes, attacking a mech's back is a good plan to bring it down. In particular, this is how faster and more agile mechs can punch up beyond their weight bracket. XL engine: XL is both Xtra Light AND Xtra Large. Basically you gain volume to lose mass. This makes your engine a bigger target and consumes torso critical locations, but it can free up a lot of much needed tonnage. Notably, the Clan level XL engines add less volume while reducing mass by the same amount. Also, XL engines are much more expensive than regular engines, to the point of 4 times a comparable output standard engine. This is a major part of why clan mechs tend to be more expensive. The engine is already often the single most expensive part, and then you quadruple that cost to buy up tonnage to fit more equipment/weapons. Which the Clans usually go for in a quality over quantity approach. ERPPC: Advanced variant of PPC, reaching farther while also solving the minimum range issue. Unfortunately, this raises heat by 50%. Though if you have clan level ERPPC's, the damage is also raised by 50% to 15, which is the magic cockpit destroying number, meaning with good aim, you can one shot the meat and keep all the metal. Oh, and the clan ERPPC shaves off both a ton and a critical slot off of its inner sphere cousin. Double Heat Sink: twice the cooling for the same mass, however they are not the same volume as a single stack heat sink, with inner sphere grade double heat sinks taking up 3 critical slots and clan double heat sinks taking up two. The discussion about design/doctrine preferences of quality verses quantity can be a lengthy one, but suffice to say that the way the Clans emphasized quality to the expense of quantity on top of an honor bound dogma cost them a lot. The Atlas was the OG gold standard for versatile assault class brawlers. In time, platinum offerings have been made, and even the standard of gold has been raised, but it was the king measured against, and it has variants quite capable of holding their own even into the Ilclan era, along with 2 successor designs. Alexsander Kerensky. A man most important to the history of the Sphere... and beyond. Capable on the strategic level and astute in his mech commissions. The Skull head of the Atlas is for the same reason as the dragon head carved into Viking Longships. Psychological. To make the enemy look upon your vessel and see a monster. To tell your enemy who comes for them. Not only fear of the visage, but fear by association and identification. To tell the unruly of the sphere that they face not just a monster, but a monster of the SLDF. Also, when he said, "as impenetrable as possible" he wasn't kidding. The Atlas is only half a ton shy of the maximum armor possible with standard plating. The simple reliability of the Atlas would prove a fortuitous choice for its owners, operators, and manufacturers as tech regressed over the Succession Wars. Unlike its brothers also commissioned by Aleksander Kerensky, the King Crab and the Nightstar. The King Crab would be downgraded and see its numbers plummet, while the Nightstar became extinct. Even named characters are (usually) not immune to falling in battle. To be sure, there is plot armor to varying degrees that change with the eras, and it can be found from people to nations, but no legend lasts forever. Even if no foe may best you, no strike comes from the shadows or from on high, time claims all. New faces and flags then emerge as the wheel turns on. One thing that separates Battletech from 40k is a greater sense of finality as new eras arise. For good and for ill, there is a far greater sense of the setting's story moving forward. Though overall, if you want the main example of plot armor across the eras..... Look to the Clan Wolf. For a time, it manifested mainly as being smarter and more adaptable, but in the current era (Ilclan).... it is rather vexing from what I've heard, with Wolf triumphs defying the takeaways of previous eras and the prior nature of the Wolves. But I hold out hope that that plot armored pack shall find themselves as merely the next on the gilded chopping block. Beyond cost of buying a new mech, there are availability issues, and especially for mercenary commands, logistical issues that make getting new mechs from manufacturers difficult even in good times. AC: Autocannon.. There are 4 size classes of autocannon. 2, 5, 10, and 20. The smaller the number, the better the range and more shells per ton. The bigger the number, the harder the hit. SRM: Short Range Missile 2 points of damage per hit (with standard ammo) Comes in 2, 4, and 6 tube launchers. LRM: Long Range Missile 1 point of damage per hit Come in 5, 10, 15, and 20 tube launchers. There is a minimum range for LRM systems unless it's a clan tech launcher or you do a funny with shared targeting data via advanced systems. Lasers come in small, medium, and large sizes. Bigger the laser, the longer the range, the harder the hit, and the more heat. Technically any mech with hand actuators can throw a punch, but if the mech has battlefists, they get a bonus on the to hit roll. You can also kick and body slam, but punching is more reliable. 16:47 Pet. There are no intelligent aliens in the setting, save a one off attempt by writers that was met with such venom it was sent to the far side of the galaxy found via a fluke through the space Bermuda Triangle. This is not to say that alien animals aren't dangerous. Even mechs can be in danger from the nastiest or most devilish. To say nothing of when something nasty gets aboard your ship. There absolutely is lore on more minor things and smaller assets. Notably, part of this is for the TTRPG system, part is because Battletech isn't just a mech setting, but a combined arms setting with mechs. No really, while rules and lore are definitely slanted in favor of mechs, mechs are only one option in the tool box, and effectively using multiple tools in concert is going to maximize your odds. Also varying layers of lore for flavor. While Tex doesn't want to cover much of the setting past a certain point in the timeline, there is also the Atlas 3, which debuted in 3137, as a far more distinct successor than the 2, which wasn't all that distinct in its default loadout, just loading up on the new fancy gear that the original Atlas shrewdly eschewed. Also the art for the 3 is a lot less misleading than the 2. Sarna currently lists 23 official production variants of the Atlas, 6 notable personal variations, and 4 apocryphal versions. The Atlas 2 sports 2 production variants and 3 custom. The 3 only has one production variant to its name thus far, but it is the youngest, and it is hard to do something distinct that its father and brother haven't. I say brother since the 3 is still a spinoff of the Atas, not the Atlas 2. It's just the second direct spinoff that openly claims the lineage. There is a diagetic copycat and other mechs are considered to at least have been inspired by the Atlas. The final known Atlas 2 (before more were made) that was at Tukayyid? That was Focht's personal command mech in the event that he had to lead form the field. Almost had to be deployed, but ultimately didn't.

Hey, a new one from Tex and the crew came out too. LETS GO!!!

Battletech Terms - PPC - Particle Projector Cannon. Fires super agitated protons at the enemy using the energy of the fusion engine. Very nasty and economic. ER PPC - Extra Range Particle Projector Cannon - Uses more energy and generates more heat to shove the agitated beam further. Small Laser - Handheld Laser - Fires a low power laser at a target, usually used on powered armor or as infantry support. On Mechs, riot control. Heatsink - Heat Pump - System of pipes and fluid along with heat collectors that act to keep the Mech cool and it's weapons not melting. Double Heatsink - Advanced Heat Pump - The high-end version of a normal heatsink. Expensive, hard to replace, but compact. LRM Platform - Long Range Missile Vehicle - A Mech/Vehicle designed to carry and use long range missiles designed for bombardment. Lost Tech - Tech that has been lost - Inner Sphere use to have it, but blew up the factories that made it and it now exists in someone's garage. XL Engines - Extra Light Engines - Expensive, advanced engines that take up more space but weigh half the tons of comparable engines.

The reason to use a Mad Cat is it is capable of basically doing everything. The downside of a Mad Cat is you could field an entire squad for the price one that would be capable of doing specific roles with specific mechs. Mad Cats have more range. The Mad Cat has better weapons, mobility, and brawling potential than almost any single comparable mech. But as Tex showed, Mad Cats could and would routinely be fighting 4 Awesomes for 1 Mad Cat and the Awesomes can press the Cat hard enough, brutally enough, to break and damage and chip away at a very expensive, nigh irreplaceable machine. In a combat situation, what would you rather have? Back ups, or the best?

"Outlast" is an understatement. Some mechs have outlived multiple pilots through generations, and it's not uncommon to see components that are several centuries old on a mech.

The older videos are not as high quality as later ones. The Amaris Civil War two-parter is where the quality really picks up

5:00 No, if you surprise most mechs from behind, they tend to die really fast. Armor is focused on the front, like MBTs.

_Sven van der Plank_ has a great series of videos covering the _whole_ timeline of the Inner Sphere. Really good.

This entire series was Tex shitposting after getting into an argument with a Warhammer 40k fan about Battletech apparently having "almost no lore". Tex is so dedicated to this high-level shitposting that the rest of the Black Pants Legion had to bully him into even taking a paycheck for all the work he put in and the entire Battletech community said "HOLY FUCK TEX!!! GET SOME REST BEFORE YOU WORK YOURSELF TO DEATH!!!"

If you want to see a stellar example of a creator on RU-vid evolving, I'd strongly recommend watching Tex's UrbanMech- and UrbanMech (DIRECTORS CUT) videos back-to-back. The first being a video on the memetic franchise favorite, and the second being a more serious discussion of the same. And remember, it's a TrashCAN, not TrashCAN'T.

His videos have definitely improved since his earliest haha, still entertaining nonetheless but nothing compared to the documentry type spectacles that are his latest works. Honestly theres isnt much need to go through them in order, just a few in jokes here and there but no harm either. My personal recomendations would be the Charger video (because battletech has canonical shitboxes and the charger is definitely one of them), the hunchback (my personal favorite mech cuz its so fking stupid), and ofcourse... the starleague civil war video pair...that one is a masterpiece Clan tech, ton for ton is just better, while the innersphere spent 400 years nuking themselves, the clan were trying to perfect the art of battle (not war, just battle)so clan mech are better... but fk if theyre way more expensive.

PPC: Particle Projector Cannon, basically a Lightning Gun, imagine a bolt of plasma jolting out like the wrath of Zeus and that's the PPC. ER: Extended Range, so for instance an ER Large Laser has more range than the standard, ERPPC basically is a sniper weapon but often generates much more heat than the standard. LRM: Long Range Missile, often distributed in 5, 10, 15 and 20 packs. Sometimes mounted on carrier vehicles for the sake of everything must die with a trigger pull. Double Heatsink: Basically imagine a Heatsink that's twice as effective at about the same mass as a single Heatsink but bulkier in build. LosTech: Tech that is lost, ER weapons, Double Heatsinks, certain Mech designs were lost in the Succession Wars. Among many OTHER things.

ok, so i'll try to put most of the terms you might want to know here: -heat sink: system/component that lets a mech vent heat so it doent get too hot -PPC: particle projector cannon. basically a long range particle cannon that builds a shitton of heat -srm/lrm: short range missile/long range missile -XL engine: an engine that takes up more space in a mech but is m ore powerful then a normal one. a huge liability on the tabletop, as it is easier to hit and immobilize the mech -lostech: technology that the starleague had, but got lost during kerenskys exodus after the end of the starleague civil war and during the 4 succession wars. these components start to reappear around the clan invasion, as more and more old starleague bases were found -introtech: the tech the inner sphere had left after the fancy components got lost. its the easiest out of the 4 rules levels on the tabletop and really limits what kind of systems you can use -battlefists: you basically put a giant piece of steel behind the knuckles of your mech and then you punch your opponent in the face with mech-sized brass knuckles THE BIG ONE: Why would you play some mechs over others, and why comparing a timber wolf to an awesome doesnt do them justice: Mechs are meant for different roles and are built to reflect that. even within the same chassis there are variants for wildly different roles. These Mechs are built from the ground up (or are omnimechs, i'll get to that) and their components cost money and points. some components, like armor and some energy weapons, cost practically nothing, while speed/bigger engines, advanced weapon systems and other systems cost a small fortune. Case and point, the comparison between the awesome and the timber wolf: The awesome is a slow, near max armor assault mech, with long range weapons in the form of standard, inner sphere PPCs. Its main function is to be a durable wall that acts as a fire support mech in your backline or to be used in a pinch as part of your frontline. its systems are simple and effective, while being easily produced and replaced. this makes it affordable both in price and points. The timber wolf is one of the most recognizable clan mechs and an example of an omnimech. Omnimechs are mechs that are modular, so they have some components built in, and others you can swap out. this makes it easy to modify, but it is still stuck with some components in all configurations, causing some issues. one of these permanent parts is its XL-engine, which makes it very fast, but adds a weakpoint, while costing a lot. then most timberwolves are equipped with both a shitton of weapons, as well as clan versions of lostech weapons. These are extremely expensive, because they are hard to produce and extremely effective. The mech is also meant as a fast striker/duelist and fulfills a different role then the awesome. so youd pick based on which role you need. the poinst reflect the tech this mech has and the price of 24 million is one of the reasons most players dont balance on that anymore. balancing on tonnage is also not a good option, as the timberwolf would absolutely destroy anything with a similar tonnage from the inner sphere. so most players today balance on battle value

eventually you get used to the jargon, but if you ever need and explanation us Battletech nerds would love to explain

In the turn-based BattleTech game, the story mode that impressed me most was the level where the player escorted the employer to an ancient SLDF warehouse to dig for treasure and found several assault-class Mechs. One of them is Atlas, and the player needs to command these monsters to escape from the enemy's encirclement.

Yes, Battletech does have names characters with plot armor, but with the timeline spanning centuries many characters have their plot armor die out at some point. (There are quite a few characters who do get to die of old age tbogh.)

Yes there is melee in HBS battletech, and can be very effective.

"Unless you're some kind of character who has plot armor ... or group like that." Clan Wolf. Even when they lose, they win.

I feel like you could of tossed in the OG Urbanmech video in this but ohwell I guess the full video will do on its own time, and im glad your back on Mechwarrior, too. its what introduced me too your channel

In part of why the Awesome is so tanky and so hard to at least disable to the point where it's not a threat anymore is in part the armor but also the weapon loadout, lack of ammo and weapon locations. Really all the mech needs to work is the gyro, engine, cockpit, and legs everything else is flavor and the Awesome has weapons all over it's body so it's almost always a threat. The Clan thing is pretty much clan mechs are about 20% better in every category than IS mechs I would say. So like they will have better range, speed, armor, cooling, and firepower. In this example, assuming they fight on a flat plan, a Mad Cat can almost just run backwards and kill and Awesome just by out ranging it. In sort Clan mechs are great as that elite hit and run black out version of mechs. Jumping into combat, swiftly focusing down enemies then disengaging before the enemy can strike back. Just sucked for the Clans they didn't fight like that.

Woooooooo More Battletech gooooo

I believe tex stated that the series started as a bet and was intially mostly shitposting

6:30 LOSTECH or Lost Technologies are various weapons and equipment that became lost due to the Succession Wars. Factories, supply depots, and even shipyards were nuked a thousand times over. This happened on such a wide scale that even Battlemech Production was almost entirely wiped out. The most common Lostech items we hear about include weapons like the Extended Range Particle Projection Cannon (ER PPC, a mean ball of lightning), Gauss Rifles (Rail Guns), and Pulse Lasers that are more accurate than the standard lasers. It is important to know that Lostech isn't limited to Military things. Medical and quality of life technologies disappeared, and even entire planets and stellar systems were crossed out of Star charts as nuclear fallout made them death traps as a war almost constantly raged at a nuclear level until ALL the FTL capable Warships were destroyed, and the FTL Capable Jump Ships that didn't carry any weapons or defenses were almost eradicated as well. They became so rare that it was a "rule" that these Jump Ships were off limits. They lost the ability to build FTL ships because they warred so hard.

15:00 that becomes relevant after the fall of the star league. Once everyone starts nuking eachother, your fancy pants mech that needs its own special proprietary parts becomes useless because the planet that made the fancy custom-tooled doodads is now irradiated glass.

5:41 Yes, the Awesome is slower than many Battlemechs. It's also has a really lopsided list of weapons that make it somewhat limited. Three PPCs are great, but the lack of any meaningful weapons at short to medium range means it's not nearly as flexible as, say, a Warhammer which has 2 PPCs, 2 medium lasers, a SRM6, 2 machine guns, and 2 small lasers (for squirrels or someshit not gonna lie I usually rip the 2 small lasers out and add armor).

Woooo cant wait to see more of these.

There's lore on everything. Even fast food chains, pistols, the entertainment industry, and educational institutions.

Still holding out for Tex to cover the Victor, but he's also done extremely well done videos on my next two favorite mechs, the Warhammer and the Marauder both of which are long form historical deep dives of immense quality.

8:01 Versatility. A standard Awesome only has 3 PPCs and a battlefist as weapons. And while three PPCs are great for long-medium range engagements the lack of any significant secondary weapons for medium-short range means your kinda S.O.L. against anything that can survive your initial salvo and close the distance before your weapons can recharge.

Melee combat is a key mechanic in Battletech for the era the game is set.

You might enjoy lore videos about the Traveler TTRPG universe, or Seth Skorkowsky's TTRPG module review videos.

2:25 Nope, old Battletech designs are either based on Macross or really, really variable in their mech design. It has nothing to do with deflecting anything, they just sometimes look really dumb. Best suggestion: don't assume anything about the design based on how it looks. That's usually purely to make it look different from other Battletech mech designs and for no other purpose. Except for the trashcan (you'll know when you see it). It's exactly what it looks like and everyone loves it.

for the BV of a Timberwolf/Mad Cat + 4 other clan mechs could field an Awesome along with a Hunchback 4G as a bodyguard and a Wolverine & Griffin to harras the clanner mechs there's videos by BigRed40Tech that cover Infantry & Vehicles

Razorfist has a very old video that gives a very concise introduction to the setting. Tex and BPL have a couple of documentaries of the history of the setting not only the mechs. Another content creator Red has very good introduction videos to the mech classes, weapons, some vehicles and many, many of the mechs. The BT (from HBS) game is a good enough "introduction" to the setting but it really shines with any of the "big three" mods (BT Advanced, RogueTech or BT Commander). And the MW game is a decent enough "first person view" representation of the setting. Ah and Tex's videos are freely sprinkled with shit posting so be warned :)).

Really mech design as far as the old art goes almost makes 0 sense. Like some of those mechs don't even have visible weapons in locations where there should be guns. It's not always the case but when the art matches what's on the paper it's more of a nice bonus than anything.

*yesssss, more Battletech*

You want plot armor in Battletech? Clan Wolf.

lyran commonwealth tactics: outproduce the enemy with assault class mechs like the atlas and awesome until they drown in the tonnage! 🤣 steiner scout squad assembles

The reason Clanner mechs are so expensive is that each of them are basically a special little snowflake mech optimized to the extreme with maximum high tech options for every special little genebred snowflake pilot. A Clan Invasion force is basically what happens when your entire army is full of protagonist level pilots in protagonist level special snowflake mechs all thinking they are the protagonist of the battle. The Clan Invasion is why the previous sentence is a very stupid idea. Thanks for the video.

How much for you to cover the Amaris Civil War two parter?

BLACK PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANTS LEGION!

Just understand, the Battletech setting doesn't make much sense. In order to justify giant stompy robots the rules are very wonky... and do not make much sense. Also the Lore after 3061 is very badly written and most of us fans consider it bad fan-fic.