Battletech: an introduction
Published in 1984 by FASA, Battletech is a miniatures wargame that has expanded to include dozens of novels and videogames, with a dedicated community that has kept it afloat during times where it seemed like the franchise would never see another release. The setting of Battletech is vast, encompassing hundreds of star systems and covering hundreds of years of fictional history. Much of the Battletech fiction concerns military conflicts occurring between 5 great houses who hold dominion over the majority of human civilization. I won't go into any more detail here as the setting is extensive, so if you want to know more there are several Youtube channels that I can recommend.
These are :
The Black Pants Legion (Tex talks Battletech)
Sven Van Der Plank
Big Red-40Tech
Both the tabletop and videogames focus on creating a simulacra of mechanised combat. To this end, players can customise any given mech within the limitations of that mech’s maximum weight as well as the available hardpoints. Tactical play is encouraged through the use of a heat system as well as by a damage system that requires all of the armour to be removed from a section of the mech before damage can be dealt to the underlying structure. This forces players to balance the need to perform activities such as running an shooting- required to gain advantage in combat- with heat generation-which can inflict increasingly severe penalties depending on the degree of excess heat. It also reduces the chance of losing a unit before it has any chance to act. Of course, tactics and strategy can only take you so far in a game that uses dice. Games of classic Battletech typically take place with 2 players, each controlling 1 "lance"- a unit comprised of 4 mechs. One of the major criticisms of classic Battletech is that a 4v4 game like this can run for several hours due to the intense levels of bookkeeping required. Having never played classic Battletech myself I can't really comment, though I suppose it's one of those things that eventually becomes trivial with repetition. In any case, Battletech alpha strike was created as a streamlines ruleset to address this criticism and I hope to play a few games of this soon.
With this in mind, I have painted up several lances to make the task of indoctrinating an unsuspecting friend to battletech as easy as possible (pictured below).
A Catapult, Wolverine, Banshee and Spider.
Centurion, Dragon, Grasshopper and Awesome.
Urbanmech, Marauder, Vapor Eagle (Goshawk), Commando, Shadowhawk
I'd be interested to hear thoughts from those of you who have played both Classic and Alpha strike Battletech, which do you think is better and what is the transition like from one to the other?
Aside from 3025, which I have gathered is the best starting point given the lack of rules which are considered to be "advanced", which era's do people prefer to play?
That's all for today, but there will certainly be more Battletech in the future.
