[BT][Equip] Thermal Batteries

When you look at some of the stats of this equipment, you might note
that these 1-ton, 1-crit items can seem to function as triple
strength, or octuple strength heat sinks. You may, at first, fill your
britches and scream "Munchkin!" (Or scream "Munchkin!" so loud you
fill your britches, or whatever. But I suspect both might happen in
any case.)

I request you stay calm and note that, over time, this item is less
effective (by weight) than single strength heat sinks. These are "one
shot" items that take a long time to "recharge." They support
occassional alpha strikes on mechs, but do not enable sustained
munchkin mayhem.

In fact, these items are generally less effective than the canon L3
"coolant pods." So remember: if you don't like this item, well, nyah
nyah, there's already munchier gear in BT. :P

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"Thermal Batteries" are revolutionary pieces of technology: 1-ton
blocks of ice.

(Well, there's some refrigeration gear, water pumps, steam vents, and
heat sink connections, too, but a thermal battery is mostly a tank of
water. And, yes, it has room to allow for expansion between water and
ice.)

(And I'd call these "heat sinks," which is what they are, but the
name's taken by the normal heat pumps already in use in BT.)

Thermal batteries are kept in a mech (and mechs alone, for now) to
serve as coolant reserves. They give mechs with excess heat sink
capacity a chance to "store" cold. This stored heat capacity will
hereafter be referred to as "chill points."

After being chilled, a thermal battery can serve as emergency cooling
capacity for the mech, trading 1 chill point for 1 excess heat point
above the mech's heat sink capacity. A single thermal battery can
store up to 3 chill points, and all 3 can be used in 1 turn. It then
takes a while to rechill the thermal battery, assuming excess heat
sink capacity is available on the mech. In desperate situations, a
mech can boil off the water in the thermal battery. Boiling water
consumes much more heat than melting ice and heating water from 0C to
100C. In this truly one-shot mode, the thermal battery consumes up to
8 points of heat (5 + any chill points), but then cannot be reused
until refilled.

(Note that is still less effective than a coolant pod, which soaks up
1 extra point of heat per functional heat sink on a mech.)

RULES:
1) Each "thermal battery" (TB) is a 1-ton, 1-crit item. They cost
10,000 C-bills.
2) Each TB can store up to 3 chill points.
3) Each chill point may be used to cancel 1 generated heat point, just
like an SHS. Any or all chill points in a TB may be used in 1 turn.
4) A battlemech may use excess heat sink capacity to store a "chill
point." Doing so generates one heat point. Thus if a mech decides to
store 2 chill points in a turn (1 in each of 2 TBs), its heat sinks
have to deal with 2 extra heat points that turn.
5) A single TB can be chilled at the rate of 1 point per turn, no
matter how many unused heat sinks the mech has - it's a limitation of
the refrigeration equipment in the thermal battery. (Of course, if
there's multiple TBs, they can each be chilled at 1 point per turn.)
This means that over time a TB averages out to be a 3/4-strength heat
sink.
6) Chill points can only be stored on turns when the mech has excess
heat sink capacity. For example, a mech with 10 SHS that generated 10
or more points of heat that turn cannot store chill points. If the
same mech only generated 7 heat that turn, it could store 3 chill
points in that turn, assuming it had 3 TBs. If it only had 1 TB, it
could only store 1 chill point. (Note: this pretty much bans storing
chill points while a mech has activated TSM.)
7) Chill points may be stored indefinitely; the thermal batteries use
a complicated and advanced technology known as "fiberglass insulation"
to keep the chill points stored over battlefield time scales.
8) In a one-shot mode, a TB may boil off its water. This soaks up 5
points of heat per TB, plus 1 per chill point stored in that TB.
9) A TB used in one-shot mode may be refilled if the location the TB
is mounted in is submerged (L1 water for TBs in mech legs, L2 for
head, torso, or arm TBs). Refilling takes 3 turns, and the TB must be
submerged during that whole time (though the mech needn't be
stationary, and the turns of refilling don't need to be consecutive).
Note that TBs used repeatedly in one shot mode average out to be about
as effective as DHS, or less.
10) A partially filled TB has no effect, nor can it store chill
points.

In short, TBs are an alpha striker's dream. However, used in reusable
mode, they are equivalent to 3/4-strength heat sinks, and only
slightly better than SHS when used in one-shot/refill mode.

Mike Miller, Materials Engineer