So after mt first failure I decided to do a more indepth review of a single faction because the game is simply too big to cover in a single article (as I found out).
House Stiener
Lets start with my favourite inner sphere faction.
House Stiener is the second largest of the "big" five and has the unfortunate distinction of being surrounded by the galactic equivilant of "Douche Bags". While space is 3D I'm going to reduce it to 2D because its simpler and the actual map provided in the Box set. The dirrect north and west are relitively barren with only the Rim collection and Circinus Federation to worry about, but those two powers are the Battletech equivilant of homeless people living behind your favourite store in a refrigerator box. To the south you have house Marik which is a loss conglomerate of warlords all attempting to be the "big cheese" and as a result is an extremely unstable and unpredictable. To the east is the Draconis Combine which also happens to be one of the favourites for writers to turn into the villians of whatever story you happen to be reading (Novels). They are probably the most powerful enemy (politically) that Stiener has to face. Escpecially after Clan Nova Cat joined with them. The Rasalhague Republic is also to the east... but they're more equivalant to an infant with a very big gun. To the Northeast is the Clan Jade Falcon Occupation Zone. Jade falcon is a group of Psycopaths with giant wandering warmachines and repressent the Ultimate in galactic douche baggery. While their honour system prevents them from commiting any real attrocities but they do worm their way around Zelbrigen just enough to make everybody hate them... including them selves.
The one most constant character in House Steiner in the labyrinthine plot line is Adam Stiener. His story starts with the initial clan invasion of 3050 when Jade Falcon invaded his home world of Summerset. Leading his own rag tag unit (the 1st Summerset Strikers) supported by both his own government and the Draconis Combines to gather as much information about the clans as possible (officially) while (unofficially) he was on a campaign of liberation with its ultimate goal of Summersets freedom. He did eventually make it and using Zelbrigen he challenges a particularly crazy Star Colonel by the name of Nicoli Malfus. While he did win the challenge Malfus demonstrated Jade Falcon dueche baggery in action by taking all of the people from the planet. The exact wording of the challenge was "All Clan forces will leave Summerset and never return" with no mention of the population itself. His time is then spent kicking Jade Falcon forces in the groin as often as possible climbing the ranks of the military to Marshal of the Armies (which essentially means all the guns belong to him) and then when the Blakest Jihad begins the Archon steps asside and makes him Archon of all House Stiener (which is actually called the Lyran Alliance).
For its military House Stiener likes its big guns. Really its that simple.
So it comes down to a decision between the Gause Rifle (or Heavy Gause rifle) and the AC 20 or Ultra AC 20.
The (Ultra(LB-X)) AC 20 is a short range "Punch you in the face" weapon. Its maximum range is 12 Hexs and is essentially useless until you close within 4 hexs. Once you are there you will cause him great pain. Its low ammo/tonnage is some what of an achilles heal. You have only 5 shots per ton of ammo and if you are using the Ultra version you can go through the ammo faster (because you get 2 shots if you so desire). Its essentially a trade off between the ability to cause harm up close and combat longevity. On the other hand only a few mechs can stand up to all but a few shots from this weapon. The LB-X AC 20 is best avoided because you have to roll for damage locations for each point of damage that hits (thats one big shotgun).
The Gause Rifle is probably the most reliable "big gun" you can get. Its huge so you're only likely to have 2 or 3 of these guns on a big mech and still have room for ammo. This weapon produces very little heat and has a good range advantage over other weapons. It deals 15 damage per hit no matter your range and a lucky shot will destroy the enemy mech in a single hit. The ammo for this weapon only gives you 8 shots per ton but if the game is never going to go past 16 turns and you will not always be able to fire the weapon (thank you very much Mr. Terrain). The draw back to this weapon is that it tends to explode when hit (by tend I of course mean always) but its going to be either in an arm or a torso so when it does there is nothing else left to blow up in that section (its a big BIG gun). The Heavy Gause Rifle has similar features to the gause rifle with 2 exceptions. Its damage is dependant on the range of the shot (15 at long range to 25 at short) and it forces an automatic Pilot Test so there is the possibility that the Mech will fall over (no biggy though, just stand up and shoot again).
Because of they favour large weapons you tend to have either lighter mechs with one gun (to speak of) such as the Hollander and the heavier Hunchback or you will have heavy and assault mechs with multiples of these weapons such as the Warhammer, Atlas, and the Awesome (which mounts 4 of the less effective and more heat intensive PPCs).
Battle armour tends to mount the biggest gun they can fit (Fenrir and its 3 pulse lasers) while the tanks will do the same... but their tanks so who cares. Using the old infantry rules you can also have mechanized infantry with a Gause Rifle... which is awesome.
Hope this was helpful, replies always welcome.
Happy Gaming
House Stiener
Lets start with my favourite inner sphere faction.
House Stiener is the second largest of the "big" five and has the unfortunate distinction of being surrounded by the galactic equivilant of "Douche Bags". While space is 3D I'm going to reduce it to 2D because its simpler and the actual map provided in the Box set. The dirrect north and west are relitively barren with only the Rim collection and Circinus Federation to worry about, but those two powers are the Battletech equivilant of homeless people living behind your favourite store in a refrigerator box. To the south you have house Marik which is a loss conglomerate of warlords all attempting to be the "big cheese" and as a result is an extremely unstable and unpredictable. To the east is the Draconis Combine which also happens to be one of the favourites for writers to turn into the villians of whatever story you happen to be reading (Novels). They are probably the most powerful enemy (politically) that Stiener has to face. Escpecially after Clan Nova Cat joined with them. The Rasalhague Republic is also to the east... but they're more equivalant to an infant with a very big gun. To the Northeast is the Clan Jade Falcon Occupation Zone. Jade falcon is a group of Psycopaths with giant wandering warmachines and repressent the Ultimate in galactic douche baggery. While their honour system prevents them from commiting any real attrocities but they do worm their way around Zelbrigen just enough to make everybody hate them... including them selves.
The one most constant character in House Steiner in the labyrinthine plot line is Adam Stiener. His story starts with the initial clan invasion of 3050 when Jade Falcon invaded his home world of Summerset. Leading his own rag tag unit (the 1st Summerset Strikers) supported by both his own government and the Draconis Combines to gather as much information about the clans as possible (officially) while (unofficially) he was on a campaign of liberation with its ultimate goal of Summersets freedom. He did eventually make it and using Zelbrigen he challenges a particularly crazy Star Colonel by the name of Nicoli Malfus. While he did win the challenge Malfus demonstrated Jade Falcon dueche baggery in action by taking all of the people from the planet. The exact wording of the challenge was "All Clan forces will leave Summerset and never return" with no mention of the population itself. His time is then spent kicking Jade Falcon forces in the groin as often as possible climbing the ranks of the military to Marshal of the Armies (which essentially means all the guns belong to him) and then when the Blakest Jihad begins the Archon steps asside and makes him Archon of all House Stiener (which is actually called the Lyran Alliance).
For its military House Stiener likes its big guns. Really its that simple.
So it comes down to a decision between the Gause Rifle (or Heavy Gause rifle) and the AC 20 or Ultra AC 20.
The (Ultra(LB-X)) AC 20 is a short range "Punch you in the face" weapon. Its maximum range is 12 Hexs and is essentially useless until you close within 4 hexs. Once you are there you will cause him great pain. Its low ammo/tonnage is some what of an achilles heal. You have only 5 shots per ton of ammo and if you are using the Ultra version you can go through the ammo faster (because you get 2 shots if you so desire). Its essentially a trade off between the ability to cause harm up close and combat longevity. On the other hand only a few mechs can stand up to all but a few shots from this weapon. The LB-X AC 20 is best avoided because you have to roll for damage locations for each point of damage that hits (thats one big shotgun).
The Gause Rifle is probably the most reliable "big gun" you can get. Its huge so you're only likely to have 2 or 3 of these guns on a big mech and still have room for ammo. This weapon produces very little heat and has a good range advantage over other weapons. It deals 15 damage per hit no matter your range and a lucky shot will destroy the enemy mech in a single hit. The ammo for this weapon only gives you 8 shots per ton but if the game is never going to go past 16 turns and you will not always be able to fire the weapon (thank you very much Mr. Terrain). The draw back to this weapon is that it tends to explode when hit (by tend I of course mean always) but its going to be either in an arm or a torso so when it does there is nothing else left to blow up in that section (its a big BIG gun). The Heavy Gause Rifle has similar features to the gause rifle with 2 exceptions. Its damage is dependant on the range of the shot (15 at long range to 25 at short) and it forces an automatic Pilot Test so there is the possibility that the Mech will fall over (no biggy though, just stand up and shoot again).
Because of they favour large weapons you tend to have either lighter mechs with one gun (to speak of) such as the Hollander and the heavier Hunchback or you will have heavy and assault mechs with multiples of these weapons such as the Warhammer, Atlas, and the Awesome (which mounts 4 of the less effective and more heat intensive PPCs).
Battle armour tends to mount the biggest gun they can fit (Fenrir and its 3 pulse lasers) while the tanks will do the same... but their tanks so who cares. Using the old infantry rules you can also have mechanized infantry with a Gause Rifle... which is awesome.
Hope this was helpful, replies always welcome.
Happy Gaming