Here at 12crit we enjoy, and will cover, mostly BattleTech content with an extra focus on being a newbie friendly location to learn to play and cover some lore.
Alright listen, im only a minute and a half into the video but heres what you do, its real easy. You agree a battle value then you look and see how many Hunchbacks you can buy for that battle value. Then you buy exactly that many Hunchbacks, run right up to the enemy let those AC20s fly! Honestly though this is a splendid video and really well done.
I was thinking on getting into Battletech's gaming side of the hobby. I hope that there are more videos like this for us greenhorns. Effective explanation of how we can start up our force.
Thank you! Glad it was helpful! This is just a place to start and these rules are just commonly agreed upon criteria for games. The beauty of BattleTech is you can honestly play however you want! Force building can be as advanced and complicated as you *want* it to be.
Another option, and I am not saying this to be rude or downplay what 12crit is doing, Is go Old School and throw some mechs on the table and fight it out. Players are smart. It won't take them ore than a few games to find mechs they like and start learning what works and what doesn't. Some of the crazy stuff that happens in these games is great! I've been playing as long as its been Battletech and you don't need BV, Faction tables or anything else. I think the only thing i would use from this as an almost required rule is sticking to the eras.....unless your just looking for pain. This is a unique game compared to other wargames out there and its the only one after 30+ years my players and I keep coming back to. No job to tough, No Fee to high! Have fun!!
100%! I think there's a reason there are no force rules in the main rulebooks. Just throwing together whatever feels fun is a completely legit way to go. Experience is the best way to go to find out what feels "right," and what feels right is always different from group to group. This freedom is one of the things that makes this game so great.
I've been playing since 1984 (40+ years). I absolutely agree that using anything as a 'game balance' mechanism, is a fallacy. I use 3 basic items to describe my force: 1 - innersphere, clan, periphery or mercenary/pirate 2 - force size - lance, company or battalion. or star, binary, trinary. 3 - weight class thus, my force description: Kurita heavy mech company or Davion medium combined arms battalion or Clan Nova Cat heavy nova binary at no point prior to game start, does my opponent know exactly what I am bringing. likewise, I don't know the specific forces of my opponent. there are certain aspects of military theory that were designed into the original game. it's too bad the current IP holder doesn't understand those principles.
Generally speaking, I'd say Star vs. Lance is a little in the Clan player's favor at reasonable point values. I might try to do Star vs. 2 Lances or a Level II. This is coming from a diehard Clan player as well. Obviously it will depend on the map, but the biggest advantage that IS players have is cheap mechs that they can deploy a lot of.
I believe going Binary vs. Company is usually a decent balance. You wouldn't assume that if you saw how badly I've been getting wrecked by Smoke Jaguar in our MegaMek tournament, but I've been taking a lot of unfortunate head hits. 😂
a typical match for us is set up as follows; 1 - pre-clan or post clan invasion 2 - type of force (mech only or combined arms 3 - force size (lance, company, battalion) with that info, my force is described as follows: 3rd succession war combined arms battalion 1 med mech company 1 hvy mech company 1 armor company 1 support company with that, I know the following: up to 24 mechs mostly med and heavy up to 12 tanks 1 lance mechanized infantry 1 lance vtol recon 1 lance artillery a simplified force: clan invasion 1 med star (2 light mechs + 3 med mechs) piloting and gunnery are determined from a 2D6 table bv is an unnecessary complication that new players don't need. if you are a competent tournament player, then bv is very useful. as for faction specific - from the original concept thru current era... everything is available to everyone! there are no exclusive units for any faction. the only limitations are based upon era of play.
Love seeing how people set their games up! Lots of variety. Our group does not usually stick to any faction rules either. Sometimes I will, just to challenge myself.
@12crit I'm starting to look at the pilot quirks and the pilot cards from Alpha Strike. I think the abilities can add new dimensions to the game. as far as faction specific rules, I think CGL should stay away from anything that is faction specific. the current idea that certain things are more likely to be found within a faction, works good. but, to limit an item to a specific faction is a bad direction for the game.
@@bruced648 Oh yeah, by faction rules I just meant unit availability limitations. And for me, that's just to make sure the force I'm bringing to the table will share the same camo specs. Like, I have a few Level IIs painted, some Gray Death Legion, DC, Sea Foxes, etc. I don't normally play terribly competitively. What sort of ideas do you have on how to implement the pilot cards? I haven't tried yet.
@12crit I generally play campaign style. I stopped playing competitive tournaments decades ago, just not for me. as far as the pilot cards, I recently organized mine into a binder. since I was looking at them, the individual abilities were very interesting. maybe for short games, each player randomly gets delt a pilot for each mech. with nearly 150+ individual cards, it could be interesting. also, if the mech gets destroyed, the pilot card gets removed and cannot be used again. maybe surviving pilots get an additional bonus, like a quirk or something.
I think one point of note that I did not hear you go over is that you do not have to adhere to a strict Lance/star/level II structure. The only reason you might have to stick with any specific amount of units is if the tournament/scenario you are playing has on in place.
This is a good overview of the proper scale for starting play but with the title of the video I expected to get an introduction to the concept of mech roles and what a well-rounded lance looks like.
That's a good idea for the next one! I get a lot of questions about the general BV new players should use for their first games and also how many Mechs they should bring. I didn't want to overwhelm beginners for their first games by adding too many rules. Because there's always more rules in BattleTech ;)
Great video, succinct and well-explained. It's a struggle to try and describe this process for new players, especially if they have ideas from other games and think BattleTech is the same. I'm currently running a Battle of Tukayyid scenario, circa 3052, with a single Star of Clan mechs on side against a ComStar Level II on the other side. Each side has a BV budget of 12500 because I want them to be using good pilots and whatever 'mechs they want. So far it's been working out well!
Thanks! Those are the biggest questions I get, since it's pretty different from most other wargames in that BattleTech is way more open. That's awesome with your Tukyyid game! Cranking up the BV for great pilots and better 'Mechs makes for a great experience!
Quick answer is that a good place to start is 4 'Mechs versus 4 'Mechs and choose a Battle Value (BV) limit to stick to with your opponent. Battle Values for each 'Mech are found on their record sheets or can be found at www.masterunitlist.info. My recommendation for your first full game, try out 4000 BV with 4 'Mechs.
@@joenicesmile the official list for faction availability for each unit is at www.masterunitlist.info as well, but faction limits are not really an official rule. In the fiction of BattleTech, it's not uncommon for forces to gather salvage after a battle so there's always an excuse to field units outside your faction list.
I was wondering what you mean with "possible 9 hit locations" when describing the weapon load-outs. Only when using partial cover, the punch or kick table, does the amount of possible locations to hit change. What am I missing?
The "# possible hit locations" is referring to the **potential** amount of times one might have to roll on any hit location table when firing every weapon that variant has. To put simply, it's the possible spread that group of weapons have. Of course standard rules apply, so if the target has partial cover, a rolled location might be a leg, but won't hit.
The original 3025 'standard' -2H model suffers from some less-than-optimal design flaws. For starters, it has MORE heat sinks than it needs to perform a full jump and fire every weapon it has. I have heard of mechs that come close to breaking even considered 'good' at heat management, but more than enough? It seems just a waste when an extra ton of armor (or full jump-5 ability) would serve it so much better. Regardless of this minor flaw, I have found Shadowhawks often being one of the last survivors in lance-on-lance battles precisely BECAUSE it is not considered much of a threat. By the time the more well armed mechs are done being prime targets, Shadowhawk is still up and running around, plinking away. It's armor is too thick and movement too quick to be considered an 'easy' target and its weapons too plinky to be considered a dangerous 'priority' target. This is not anything special about the mech, just a flaw in human psychology. (and it often occurs)
I do so love the Wolverine. It may he blasphemy, but the WVR-6K is my variant of choice. While it lacks jump jets, it's got maximum armor and only one weapon with ammo, the SRM-6. But it has two tons of ammo, so you can take one ton of standard and one of infernos. It's a hell of a brawler.
I just found this video series and, by extension, your channel, and these are really great breakdowns on the mechs with just the right balance of lore and gameplay info. These will probably be some of my go-to videos for new players I'm introducing to the game.
The WVR-6M is arguably the best introtech medium mech in the game. Fast, well-armed, well-armored ... its the whole package. I've used them in the Civil War era and still gotten loads of utility out of it in multiple roles. I like that you mentioned the roles, though you could have said something like 'all variants are skirmishers, with noted exceptions' to save yourself some time and make an aspect of the video less repetitive.
Thanks for the feedback! I think what I might do is begin placing the roles as text on the screen. It's pretty repetitive on one of the other videos as well. I appreciate it.
Dang it, you said constructive criticism. There goes all the mean things I had to say. I guess I will just leave this rude comment to help feed the algorithm.
For sure! Once I am done with the A Game of Armored Combat box BattleMechs, I am going to cover the two 'Mechs which came in the updated Beginner Box, which had a Griffin and Vindicator.
The only way to improve the Shadow Hawk is to remove its main feature...the ac/5. Choose the amount of long range fire you want and add LRM5s or a Tbolt-5s to taste. Spread the rest of the cheese to Short range fires (and 2 JJ probably ). A Less drastic option is to remove the 2 superfluous HS and install some extra firepower in it's place. Like an extra ML and changing the SRM2 to a SRM4. Or stick with the extra ML and add 2 JJ. Personally I think it's main selling point is it's flexibility.
It's a good video but the first 10 minutes is the same picture. Try grabbing some available mech and Battletech artwork to cycle through as you read of the history.
Thanks for the feedback! For the next one I am planning on using the primitive artwork as well, but maybe I'll dip into some older TROs for some classic art to cycle.
The SHD-2H makes more sense if you remember that it was designed at a time when nations were fielding large homogeneous units of a single mech type. It has serious flaws (9 tons on an inefficient gun, excessive cooling, and disappointing jump) but it can maneuver, hop cliffs and ravines (unlike, say, a Crab), has worthwhile armor, and has a weapon for every application. In the early succession wars when things are falling apart and you're struggling to maintain those homogeneous formations you can drop a Shadow Hawk into any medium/heavy cavalry formation or medium line formation and it'll do okay. It's never the best mech, but it's better than nothing.
