Ever since a first played Classic Battletech a year or two ago it's become my new standard I measure other miniature games against. It's cheaper, with less setup, more depth, and all of the appeal of the Mechwarrior games it inspired.
The historical turning point: Galtor campaign uses submarines in the very first mission, it's a neat scenario where a lance of mechs is trying to find an underwater base, and get intercepted by a submarine wolf pack
Been playing battletech since the 90s I had and played the same 12 mechs from 92 to 2018. I don't even know the number of games we have played over the years. The number of different mechs those 12 have been proxies for. Clan omni technology inspired us to house rule. Any mech could be treated like an omni mech for loadout rules. That evolved into any mech can be reconfigured from the ground up. And that does not even get into building our own mech load outs. Today. Thanks to 3d printing. I have six groups all with 32 plus mechs all painted up and ready to go. Gone are the days of my battlemaster being everything from a proxy thug to a proxy stone rhino. But you know what... those 12 mechs from the 90s still see table time. And in many respects are still my favorite mercenary company. With that horrid janky inexperienced 90a paint job looking like goop spattered on the mechs. It takes me back to simpler days when everyone was still here.
I haven't played a game of tabletop Battletech since the 90s (curse you real life!) but MegaMek has been an absolute boon. No cost, minimal set up time, the computer handles the maths so games take minutes instead of hours. It's a great way for anyone to test the water.
Also, on the cheaper end is the reinforcements clan invasion box. It’s all cardboard standees but there’s nearly 200 units in it and it’s $25 on the catalyst store
Great video! I think more should be made of the fact that it is a hex-based game. Whilst initially I hated the idea it very quickly became a massive plus for me, no fiddly measurements or arguments about ranges and if a model can go certain places
I started playing Battletech at 12 years old in 1992 after spotting the 3rd Edition boxed set in a comic shop. I had no idea what the game was, but big stompy robots looked cool. I painted those shiny, grey plastic minis with Testors enamel model paint, because I didn't know about acrylic hobby/mini paint, and because I was pretty into plastic modeling at the time. Those were my first ever painted miniatures, and that boxed set led to my abiding love of both the Warhammer and the BattleMaster, as well as my dedication to House Steiner. I picked up the CityTech 2nd Edition box in 1994 after watching the first episode of the BT animated series. Being a Lyran Commonwealth, then FedCom, player, I hated the Dirty Birds, so I decided to paint the Clan Mechs from CityTech as Ghost Bears. And, honestly, the Timber Wolf and Nova from that boxed set are two of my favorite mech sculpts to this day, even with the excellent redesigns CGL has been producing. By the time I was in college in the late '90s and early 2000s, no one was really playing BT in my area. I started playing the MechWarrior: Dark Age clix game, eventually becoming my FLGS official WizKids tournament / organized play rep. I had a huge collection of Limited Edition units, since the person running the events received a copy of all the prize support items. After college, the game died, and no one in the area I moved to played, so my stuff just sat around collecting dust. Through the years at GenCon, I'd find old books by FASA and Fanpro at discount book shops in the exhibit/dealer hall, and I'd usually pick up a couple of books I'd never been able to buy when I was a kid. Then with the Clan Invasion Kickstarter a few years ago, I went a little crazy getting back into the game. Now, with a couple of 3d printers, I modify .stls of a huge number of units so I can print any variant of any unit I want, as well as creating mountains of hex terrain. I've printed everything for all of the mapsheets I own, so I can play on 3d terrain instead of the flat maps. For the hex terrain, I print the hexes 2 inches across instead of the standard size, so it's easier to put miniatures in the hexes without them overlapping the hexes on the mapsheets. The point, I suppose, is that I've been a huge BT nerd for more than 30 years, and I'm extremely happy to see it's still popular with the 'old guard' as well as bringing in new players. It's a great game that can be as deep or as shallow as you want. Also, the Alpha Strike version, while not my favorite, is a great way to play much larger battles in a reasonable amount of time than it takes in Classic.
I have been having quite the successful time getting my friends who are massive mecha nerds into the tabletop game so far. It's one of the few only mecha games in existence, it's certainly fills the niche.
For people who aren't into the hex map play, try Battletech Alpha Strike instead - it basically ports over the rules from Classic into a quick playing, easy to learn but hard to master game designed for 3d terrain. Really fun and has good streamlined rules making even large games with combined arms a breeze to get through.
I would say the rules are more of a scaling difficulty. They can start out soft and smooth (BT quick start rules) and increase to Mega Ultra crunchy peanut butter
I will put out there that Battletech Classic is a very long game and Alpha Strike is a lot shorter, but not nearly as crunchy. If those aren't to your liking, look up Battletech Override. It's how I will be playing from now on. It's a middleground that is faster but not so simple as Alpha Strike.
I also began playing last year. Battletech as a miniatures game is ridiculously affordable. I have to hold back from over buying and not using mechs I already have. I have a gaming group nearby that have monthly tournaments. Some recommendations for making games shorter: 2-2.5 hour time cap. Play scenarios. Use a 3/4 gunnery and piloting skill. Use the Floating Critical optional rule.
The beginner box is great, but if you have a Target store close by, the Essentials Box is even better, because it comes with a $20 coupon to the CGL web store. As for the time, think of Classic as the squad based RPG version, while Alpha Strike is the larger & faster tactical army version. Glad you're enjoying Battletech and promoting it!
Don’t forget about Alpha Strike! It’s a great way to explore bigger games (12+ units per side) and expand on the roles of non-mech units, and it is arguably just as accessible as long as you can get your hands on the rules and some minis/proxies.
You don't need to play on hex. The old school rules says make agreed upon rules to fit your needs. An in book option in the old days was open maps with every move point/ hex equals 3 inches. So triple movement and range.
I've been wanting to play this for a while now, issue is due to where I love I can't get anything like this at standard price. No stores here have it in stock, and I'd have to ship it to me which, thanks to customs her, will definitely triple the price. Found this out the hard way when I tried to find a copy of GKR, only to be greeted with 4 digit pricing
Yeah, shipping from CGL can be a huge pain for locations outside the US. But one of the best things about BT is that players are actually _encouraged_ to use proxies for units they don't have. While a lot of minis have been made for the game over the 40 years it's existed, there are literally tens of thousands of different, official unit options, meaning the majority of them have never had an official miniature. CGL also offers basically every BattleTech book ever printed in .pdf format on their website, or you can pick them up from places like DriveThruRPG. Download the quick start rules, grab a couple of non-BT minis, throw down a hex map (also available as .pdfs that you can print), and start playing! Alternatively, if you have access to a 3d printer, there are quite a few places online where you can find .stls and other format files for a huge selection of BT minis...many of them completely free. Download a few files, print them off, boom, instant lance (or star, if you want to play as a clanner). I've been printing BT minis for the past couple of years, and I have way too many...but it's a lot of fun, and insanely cheap. Each mech uses a few cents worth of resin. I think my typical cost for a full lance (4 mechs) is generally under $4 USD.
Play Alpha strike instead. It doesn’t take 20 minutes to shoot one gun, it’s easier to learn, and because all the charts are just rng, it’s actually deeper than TW once you add in the option rules (especially since no attacker movement modifiers means less swingy.) You can use the same hex mats optionally as well,
@@watergaming7543 Roll for attack, roll for cluster, roll for first hit location, roll for # of critical hits, roll for location of critical hit location, roll for critical hit location, repeat for all other critical, roll for location of second hit, roll for # of criticals of second hit, roll for location of critical location, roll for location of critical, repeat again for critical hits, roll for pilot skill check… for ONE BANK OF LRMS! Nope. Never playing that again.
@@watergaming7543 The instructions to do as such are written right on the quick ref sheet and data sheets. By what might means might my group improve themselves with respect to those rules?
@@YahBoiCyril the big one is rolling your weapons together as much as possible, same with damage locations, save crits for the end instead of rolling for them each time you get a possible one, already knowing your to hit also speeds things up by a lot, just make sure you bring plenty of different color dice and make sure you tell your people which weapon is on which die. Lastly just playing more often and getting a good grip on the rules really speeds you up
Love mega mech. But I absolutely do not reccomend it as a starting point. The UI is unintuitive, so you'll have trouble doing things if you KNOW you can do them. I cant imagine trying to learn with it.
I mean there’s videos out there on how to set up a Megamek game. It’s not nearly as difficult as you’d think. MekHQ is not recommend due to it being a traditional serious campaign where you literally run a mercenary company. From the Astechs to the Mekteks to the medical personnel.
