Designs of Old
I first started playing Battletech back in 1989, right before the Clan Invasion began in the Battletech storyline. At that point in time, the only mechs I was playing with were the Unseen, the first 25 or so Battlemechs published for the game. Seeing the woeful inadequacies in the designs, I decided to begin designing my own Mechs. Using just the weapons list that came with the 2nd Edition boxed set, I designed my first mech, the Devillin. At the time, I thought it was awesome, until I took it against my sister's Warhammer on our train trip to Colorado. As I watched the Devillin fall in flames on that rocking train, I realized that I would need to build better designs. The second Mech I made was called the Warlock. It too fell to my sister's Warhammer, after which, she vowed never to play me in that game again.
While the original design sheets for the Devillin and Warlock have since been lost, they have been redesigned many times since. When the Clan Invasion began in the Battletech storyline, I bought the first Compendium. Knowing nothing about the Clans, I proceeded to design Mechs that were a mixture of both Clan and Inner Sphere technology. The first of these designs was the Harbringer, the first of many quads I have designed over the years. This design was an overwhelming success. I was routinely battling 2 to 3 mechs at a time and coming out the victor. I decided to make an update that wasn't a quad. While the Harbringer II was a terror on the battlefield, it was unable to take down as many mechs as the Harbringer was. It eventually fell to wayside in favor of my followup to original Harbringer, a 100 ton jumping quad called the Harbringer III. Besides my 100 and 85 ton Assault Mechs, I have also designed mechs in the lower weight areas, including the 45 ton Bladerunner, 35 ton Bladerunner Light, and the 25 ton Sprite.
While I don't play Battletech as much as I used to, when I do, I usually field stars composed of my Bladerunners, BlasterMasters, and Harbringers Mechs. Many of the designs being posted here are updates of designs I originally published on the Mecha Newsgroup, Rec.Games.Mecha, back in 1993, 1994, and 1995. While I am a moderator of that newsgroup, I don't post to it as much as I did in days of old. While my designs are Clan, and my battle tactics are Clan Wolf, I claim allegiance with none.
For the purposes of including my designs in the main continuity, I decided to form a company that has ties with both the Clans and the Inner Sphere, and sells mechs and designs to both sides of the never-ending wars between the two. The company, Polytechnic Weapons and Armor Company, is based out of the Suyoi Conference; an alliance of ten solar systems, located beyond the Periphery. The Suyoi Conference has 13 member planets, and 4 colony worlds. The capital city of Chisai is located on the fourth planet of the Ichiban binary system.
In existance since at least year 2800, they've supplied Level 1 Mechs during the Succession Wars, Level 2 Clan and Inner Sphere Mechs during both the Interegnum (3030-3049) and the Clan Invasion (3049-3055), and Level 3 Clan and Inner Sphere Mechs during the current time period (3063). To keep themselves up to date on developments in the Inner Sphere, the Company has fielded several mercenary companies to fight for the various House armies. The first such unit, the Headhunters, was fielded around 2840. They remained active until around 2902, working for Houses Davion and Marik, following which they broke up into several smaller units and disappeared after raids on Periphery planets. Another unit, the Road Runners, began operations around 2952, and stayed employed with House Steiner until 3003. At which time, this company also faded into the Periphery after several raids. The latest mercenary unit, the Bounty Hunters, led by Captain Aramis, has worked for House Davion since 3022.
The Company has also on occasion fielded strike units to raid Clan planets and obtain samples of Clan military technology. Posing as members of the Bandit Caste, and lately as regular Clan units, the company has obtained samples of almost all current Clan technology. While the existance of the company is known to the Inner Sphere, the exact location of its home worlds has never been found. The Clans also have knowledge of the Company's existance, and some have actually begun buying supplies and mechs from its subsidiaries. While they are curious as to how the Company has come to manufacture such excellent examples of Clan technology, they haven't undertaken an expedition to find the Company's home worlds. The few pirates or mercenaries who have managed to find the home systems have never returned to report their findings.
Showcased below are the design specs for some of the company's most popular designs.
Inner Sphere (Level 1)
Inner Sphere (Level 2)
Inner Sphere (Level 3)
Clan (Level 2)
Clan (Level 3)