Payn;s Ponderings@ Battletech General Discussions

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have a weird relationship with the game. While I actually have a fair amount of the product- including the MechWarrior RPG*- I’m not the worlds biggest fan. I’m a casual player. I don’t have a preference on eras. I don’t have a preference on sides. I barely have preferences on mecha and their weapons. I always have to think very carefully about what I choose, often checking the rules to see if things work the way I (half) remember,

The reason I have a bunch of stuff is I bought it on sale, in order to have it on hand when my main group decided to have a Battletech night. My stockpile made it easier for games to get up & running because there were suddenly enough books for everyone to look at and choose their mechs, enough boards to make the playing area the size and shape we wanted, etc.






* the main reason I have THAT is because of a completely different game group from earlier in my life in a different city. One guy wanted to run a Mecha-centric RPG campaign, and we went through a host of games while he was searching for “The One”. MechWarrior was on we played the longest, so I picked up a copy.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Also, FWIW, if you like the mechanics of Battletech and/or Starfleet Battles, you might want to try finding a copy of Crimson Skies. Essentially, it’s an Alt-1930s air combat game, where players duel in the skies using planes that never were.

The few times we tried it, I like how it played, but I thought some of the plane designs were iffy. If your group liked customizing stuff, though…

Crimson Skies - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[MGibster]

I have a weird relationship with the game. While I actually have a fair amount of the product- including the MechWarrior RPG*- I’m not the worlds biggest fan. I’m a casual player. I don’t have a preference on eras. I don’t have a preference on sides. I barely have preferences on mecha and their weapons. I always have to think very carefully about what I choose, often checking the rules to see if things work the way I (half) remember,

Mine is fairly similar in that I never really cared abou the lore or the era. I just wanted my little metal mechs to battle it out against our little metal mechs. I've learned more about the lore of BT in the last two years than I remembered ever learning about in the 80s and 90s.

 

[MGibster]

Also, FWIW, if you like the mechanics of Battletech and/or Starfleet Battles, you might want to try finding a copy of Crimson Skies. Essentially, it’s an Alt-WW2 air combat game, where players duel in the skies using planes that never were.

I owned the original Crimson Skies. Loved the setting, but didn't have many opportunties to play the game.

 

[Jagga Spikes]

I've heard of MegaMek; is it more like Battletech by Haribrained Schemes, or more like Mechwarrior FPS? I'd love to get something going in Foundry, but I never see anything about systems or modules for BT .

It's turn-based and more true to original than HBS BT. Less "flashy", but with serviceable graphics.

 

[ephemeron]

I never answered @payn's question, did I?

I've only read a couple of Battletech novels -- Decision at Thunder Rift by William H. Keith and Double-Blind by Loren Coleman, the latter of which was recommended to me as having good examples of people fighting 'Mechs with lesser technology. There's a particularly vivid scene in which horse cavalry go up against a 'Mech!

I've been a fan of the Battletech universe for a long time and my engagement has mostly been with the tabletop RPGs and computer games. Especially the computer games, lately. I've put a lot of time into and gotten a lot of enjoyment out of HBS Battletech and Mechwarrior 5 (even with its faults).

For a long time I was a 3025-era purist but I've been warming up recently to where Catalyst is taking the universe. The 'IlClan" era seems to be turning the Inner Sphere into a bunch of sandboxes where regional factions are competing to fill power vacuums created when the big powers overextended themselves.

 

[Mezuka]

An Alpha Strike Battle Report for those who prefer watching over reading:

 

[aramis erak]

Greetings,

I don’t see a ton of Battletech/Mechwarrior postings going on around EN World. I wanted to kick start a general discussion thread to see if folks enjoy the genre as much as I do. I plan to keep this OP generic and just say everything goes and the conversation will follow. I cant wait to hear about your experiences and love for Battletech!

I played a bit back in the 80's. I also played a bit in 2006 or so.
I've played a couple dozen hours of Battletech+Citytech (Well before the release of Rules of War), about 8 hours each of Aerotech and it's later replacement. I've played a few games of Battleforce (but not BF2) and one of Battlespace.
I dislike the Clans....

on the RP side I ran a single session of MW1E, and 2 one shots of MW2E. But I also did a lot of solo using the Merc's Handbook. I loved that my senior year.

Recently, I got the Mechwarrior Destiny corebook... I am tempted, but the player base???

 

[aramis erak]

If you had asked me in 1998 which would be more popular today, Battletech or Warhammer 40k, I would have gone with Battletech. I played quite a lot of it starting in the late 80s through the late 1990s, but it seemed to have practically died off for a few years there. I know it never ceased to exist, but its only in recent years that I've started to see more BT stuff for sale and hear of people actually playing it.

I did play a game around Christmas in 2019, and while it brought back a lot of memories, I found the rules to be rather clunky and the game time consuming. A simply two mech duel went on for far longer than it should have in my opinion. The version of BT out today looks and feels remarkably similar to what I was playing almost 25 years ago.



In my heart of hearts, this will always be what Warhammer is supposed to look like.

View attachment 257078

To me, that's the Excalibur... Even still has the RDF rondel on the right leg.
It's one of the Robotech Battaloid Mecha. And Robotech gen 1 is a rework of Macross; I got into the show in '84, and the palladium RPG, as well... The RPG isn't very good, but the Art was great. (The Palladium Robotech wasn't horrible, either. It was playable...)

 

[payn]

Recently, I got the Mechwarrior Destiny corebook... I am tempted, but the player base???

I got the humble bundle too. I am looking to put together a group which might be possible at this point in the pandemmy.