Of late, I've been getting back into the BattleTech groove. It's a game a bunch of my friends played when I was back at Uni, but I never really had the chance to play it much myself.
Well, a couple of years ago, Catalyst Games released the BattleTech Introductory Boxed Set, and I bought it, hoping to get into the game. Then I got the Sword and Dragon Starterbook, which gives a campaign to use with the Intro set. I got a couple of friends interested and we started the campaign, and were having a great time... and then life intervened.
Fast forward to a little more than a year later (and about a month ago), and I dusted off the box and the book, and - with some regular gaming sessions cancelled - I interested a couple more people in BattleTech. So, for the last three weekends, we've played a scenario each weekend. And, I'm glad to say, my friends are loving it. This Friday, with a RPG session cancelled, I'm hoping to get in the region of 4-6 players together for a BattleTech session.
Meanwhile, I'm peering in interest at what is happening with the "full" game. The timeline has advanced to about 3075, with the "Jihad" plotline being the current story. (Original BattleTech was 3025, the Clans were 3049, followed by the Civil War storyline in 3062). In addition to that, there's a bunch of major rulebooks...
Total Warfare - the big book (literally - over 300 pages) of BattleTech rules. TechManual - which contains the construction rules.
Tactical Operations - advanced battlefield rules; weather, minefields, new terrain, etc. Strategic Operations - aerospace rules, but also the BattleForce rules where 1 mini is for an entire lance, star, or perhaps even more
Those last two are really expensive books.
I'm really not sure at this point how far I'm going to go into BattleTech, but I'm certainly having some fun at the moment. The boxed set was really nice - it also had 24 plastic minis in it.
I can't give any advice, MerricB, but recent posts regarding Battletech have me itching to start playing it. I loved the PC Games and I even played it once with two cousins of mine, probably decades ago.
Dang, I guess I need to find a group for that or something...
Thoughts of the Arch Chancellor - My weblog on EN World - containing game related material, like: house rules, design theories, reviews, play reports, adventure ideas
Secret Member of <Think we would just hide our secret with a spoiler tag, eh?>
I really loved BattleTech. And then they came out with the Dark Ages. Indeed. I haven't purchased anything since. Of course that might have something to do with not having friends wanting to play it anymore.
I would say you can skip anything "aerotech" since that never really added much to our games, except strafing or dive bombing for the best part of the game, mechs of course.
Big fan of Battletech. There's a reason my avatar's colored the way it is. (Go Clan Nova Cat!) Keep in mind that the Classic Battletech forums are a really nice resource for getting info on the game and to clear up those little points in history that get you confused. Just ask away, we're usually a friendly bunch over there.
Upcoming stuff includes:
Interstellar Ops, which contains rules to more or less make your own campaigns,
Clan Introductory Boxed set, which helps ease new players into higher levels of technology and includes 24 plastic Clan mechs and some Elementals (Battle Armor)
Also, there's a ton of Technical Readouts, which give you a bunch of fluff on the various mecha out there in the Battletech universe.
Big fan of Battletech. There's a reason my avatar's colored the way it is. (Go Clan Nova Cat!) Keep in mind that the Classic Battletech forums are a really nice resource for getting info on the game and to clear up those little points in history that get you confused. Just ask away, we're usually a friendly bunch over there.
Upcoming stuff includes:
Interstellar Ops, which contains rules to more or less make your own campaigns,
Clan Introductory Boxed set, which helps ease new players into higher levels of technology and includes 24 plastic Clan mechs and some Elementals (Battle Armor)
Also, there's a ton of Technical Readouts, which give you a bunch of fluff on the various mecha out there in the Battletech universe.
There's a Clan Introductory set coming out? Cool!
I've just picked up the two Map Set compliations and Total Warfare. It looks like we'll play a 14-mech game on Friday evening (Fox's Teeth pursuing a group of House Kurita mechs in the Sword & Dragon campaign).
Interstellar Operations looks really interesting. I've got a bunch of the record sheet PDFs, and I'm trying to find some Tech Readouts for light reading...
I'm a middling fan of the games, but my current group of fellow gamers includes some real BT/MW nuts! We're playing Star Fleet Battles tonight, but I'll put out the word about that intro set and so forth.
Battletech seems to be undergoing something of a revival and I couldn't be happier.
I myself just played my first Btech game in about 12 years this past Sunday. Right now the plan is to play a few more one off senarios next week just to finish polishing the rust off our memories of the rules, then start Sword and Dragon after that.
From what I've seen Catalyst has done a great job with the product, and I love the fact that unlike Warhammer, you can build a full 3 lance company for a short campaign for between 80 and a hundred bucks.
__________________ Originally Posted by diaglo
Olgar Shiverstone or other new edition DM: so i've gotta wrap up the campaign..
diaglo: we could play OD&D(1974) the only true game. All the other editions are..
other gamer: i could run a campaign set in space with ninja pirates.
other gamers: done. when do we start.
diaglo:
I was disappointed that the construction rules weren't in the Rules of Warfare until I saw the Techmanual which made me very happy. Then I saw Tac Ops and I fell further in love with the new version of the game. I can't wait until Strat Ops.
I played back in the ol' 3025 days. I always liked the idea of the Succession Wars... brutal slugfests of faltering states that can no longer produce what they are sending into battle. Sort of a grinding, hopeless Eastern Front kind of feeling over all of it.
I never took to all that Clan nonsense... I know some folks liked it but it wasn't my thing.
Looking over some of the more recent stuff... some Mechs seem like they vanished (like the Warhammer and the Marauder). Was there a reason or were they just not popular anymore?
I'm glad they're still making the game. I'm iffy about the components in the new starter (not that I need a starter, since I still have my old one) but it looks like they're doing some scenario/campaign stuff which is great.
What timeframe is Sword and Dragon set in? Like I said, I'm pretty much strictly a Succession Wars guy.
__________________ "I despise all weavers of the black arts. Speaking of which, can you pass the gravy?"
I played back in the ol' 3025 days. I always liked the idea of the Succession Wars... brutal slugfests of faltering states that can no longer produce what they are sending into battle. Sort of a grinding, hopeless Eastern Front kind of feeling over all of it.
I never took to all that Clan nonsense... I know some folks liked it but it wasn't my thing.
Looking over some of the more recent stuff... some Mechs seem like they vanished (like the Warhammer and the Marauder). Was there a reason or were they just not popular anymore?
I'm glad they're still making the game. I'm iffy about the components in the new starter (not that I need a starter, since I still have my old one) but it looks like they're doing some scenario/campaign stuff which is great.
What timeframe is Sword and Dragon set in? Like I said, I'm pretty much strictly a Succession Wars guy.
IIRC, a number of the old mech designs were canned because FASA didn't actually have the rights to those designs in the first place. The Marauder, Warhammer, Locust etc had their roots in some of Robotech stuff - but the rights weren't properly sorted out in the first place, so FASA couldn't actually get the rights from whoever they talked to. So those so called Unseen mechs had to go. I think some of them were reintroduced with new art though.
__________________ "I'd like to shake the hand of the genius who invented that - just the hand, after it's been cut off from the now screaming man."
I
Looking over some of the more recent stuff... some Mechs seem like they vanished (like the Warhammer and the Marauder). Was there a reason or were they just not popular anymore?
Locust and Marauder, two of my favorite mechs in Mechwarrior 1!
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I just ordered the starter set/box from Dragonworld. I have no idea if I can find someone to play with, but I just want it...
Thoughts of the Arch Chancellor - My weblog on EN World - containing game related material, like: house rules, design theories, reviews, play reports, adventure ideas
Secret Member of <Think we would just hide our secret with a spoiler tag, eh?>
Looking over some of the more recent stuff... some Mechs seem like they vanished (like the Warhammer and the Marauder). Was there a reason or were they just not popular anymore?
What timeframe is Sword and Dragon set in? Like I said, I'm pretty much strictly a Succession Wars guy.
They're still there, they just got a cosmetic redesign. Mostly involved legal issues and a long argument over who owns what. Eventually they decided it wasnt worth fighting anymore.
Sword and Dragon is an overview of two units through the age. I think the the scenarios take place during the 4th succession wars, however.
As the Clans more or less get curbstomped during the current era (granted, so did a lot of people), you might like to see how the timeline's progressed in any case.
Battletech was my gaming entry drug, you could say. When I was a kid, I had a couple of D&D books but nobody to play with. I also had some Battletech--the old, old stuff with cardboard pieces and little plastic stands.
I was able to play that with friends and then, eventually, got into D&D and Warhammer 40K. It snowballed from there. I still love Battletech though I have no doubt it has changed greatly since the days the Atlas was first introduced and there were no clans.
Good times.
--CT
__________________ You can't hit me! You can't...ow!
I love the concept. I love the idea of a game that's essentially dogfighting with mechs, maneuvering to get the shot into the vulnerable rear armor.
I hate the fact that it often takes literally dozens of die rolls to resolve one volley of fire from one mech. I hate that it takes as long to play as it does.
There are a lot of little gems of game design in battletech. There's also a huge morass of seven hour games that aren't even that big. I'm just not an "all day game" wargamer like the cardboard-counter guys and, apparently, people who play battletech.
Every so often I go on a battletech kick, and have a great time, until I actually play a game or two, and then I get turned off of it for a while again.
Sword and Dragon is an overview of two units through the age. I think the the scenarios take place during the 4th succession wars, however.
That's cool. I'll have to look into it... 4th Succession War is cool. I actually picked up the 4th Succession War "Battlepack" some years back... it was a number of representative scenarios and a special map, plus some historical overview.
Too bad about the copyright issues re: the iconic mechs, though. Warhammer, Locust and Marauder were some of the coolest ones. Did the Battlemaster go too? Well... at least the Atlas is evidently alive and well.
__________________ "I despise all weavers of the black arts. Speaking of which, can you pass the gravy?"
IIRC, a number of the old mech designs were canned because FASA didn't actually have the rights to those designs in the first place. The Marauder, Warhammer, Locust etc had their roots in some of Robotech stuff - but the rights weren't properly sorted out in the first place, so FASA couldn't actually get the rights from whoever they talked to. So those so called Unseen mechs had to go. I think some of them were reintroduced with new art though.
I had heard that they had informal permission from the Japanese companies (at the time both were fan driven enterprises), but Harmony Gold and Palladium had contracts, so they sued FASA for the rights to the Unseen and LAMs.
Heh. I think about half of the original mechs were based off Robotech alone. Well, maybe not half, but a lot. Even the Archer, one of my faves, was a destroid from Robotech. Poor, poor destroids...always getting blown up.
--CT
__________________ You can't hit me! You can't...ow!
(Go Clan Nova Cat!) Keep in mind that the Classic Battletech forums are a really nice resource for getting info on the game and to clear up those little points in history that get you confused. Just ask away, we're usually a friendly bunch over there.
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