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Planetfall looks cool (the new mech models are great), but it has been in the works for a very long time and never seems any closer to release. It also appears to have a very limited number of models to create an army out of and, as you have already stated, you only get one or two. If I had to pick out of the two games (and I am admittedly biased) I would say go with DZC. The PHR give you a faction filled with powerful mechs and the game is very well supported. In fact this week the newest faction (The Resistance) is going out on pre-order. It is a little on the expensive end, but the game is easy to pick up, extremely cinematic, and very tactical. It also, if you are interested in it, has a lot of tournament support.

Yeah, the game has been partly released for quite a while. Spartan did release the two kickstarter boxes for the Terran and Dindrenzi that they only sold through their spinoff webpage.

As they announced this last weekend, the game is being fully released this October, and actually Neil said that it will be the Aquan and Directorate Starter Box that will be released first.

While there will only be a maximum of two "Leviathans" (which are the giant mechs seen in the pictures from Claymore) per army, I expect the actual armies fielded to be sizable with more of the smaller tanks and walkers making up the main part of the forces.

If you still want walkers/mechs to be the predominant forces in an army then I think that Sorylians and Relthoza would be great choices.
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/products/firestorm-galaxy/planetfall/sorylian-collective

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/products/firestorm-galaxy/planetfall/the-relthoza

roadkizzle wrote:
Yeah, the game has been partly released for quite a while. Spartan did release the two kickstarter boxes for the Terran and Dindrenzi that they only sold through their spinoff webpage.

What webpage is this? Do you have a link?

It was Studio Sparta. They closed the website down when they announced that Planetfall was lined up for a full official release.

Right now I don't even see any of the older models on eBay.

They have the information about the factions in the pages I linked to, and on Facebook they have some more information about the games and how they combined the space combat game, the 10mm Planetfall game, and a 28mm skirmish "spec ops" version in their demo games at Claymore.

Well heavy gear is free now. I just downloaded the beta for the new rules so that's a plus.
I really like the heavy gear models so much more than battle tech. Also it has more of a combined arms feel. I enjoy a few tanks and infantry on the board. There fun to step on...
The Paulson games models look promising as well.

Too bad Heavy Gear never got much interest in my group. Many complains about the price and the quantity of minis you get in the starter boxes.

HG minis are beautiful, and the background is well developed, but as you say, they are extremely expensive. Also, there are some issues that some folks have with the development of rules and factions:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1020/570123.page#7098630

Worth at least considering before someone buys-into HG.

HG prices honestly make GW look bargain priced Sadly it seems that they've got stuck into the rut of a smaller and smaller market base resulting in them raising and raising prices to try and stay afloat - only in their case their market base really is tiny and they do little to help themselves grow it.


As for Spartan Games they've a fantastic design team and some of the best resin out there. But I Tend to see them as a small studio that tries to take on too much. Dystopain Wars went crazy popular and I think they are still digging themselves out of the pitfall that was major success because that impacted their other lines and killed off one (Uncharted Seas) whilst also hampered releases for the others.

They've got their feet back under them now so I just hope that the slower release of Planetfall means that they can actually support it long term without it impacting their other lines.

Studio Sparta I think was started mostly to try and let their creative team be creative (rather like how GW has Forgeworld). However I suspect that the costs of time, money and team members to take models from concept to full model meant that behind the scenes it wasn't taking any pressure off nor releasing creativity within the team because things still had to go through the regular channels - Planetfall being popular also likely boosted the need to pool the team back together fully. (it could also have been a purely marketing choice).


I'm hopeful for Planetfall - the real clincher is going to be army-sizes. If they can go medium to large scale then its a winner. Spartan does have a fairly free-form approach to rules in that they try to make a rules system that scales from skirmish up to huge engagements; although at a practical level it tends to end up skirmish size. (planetfall for new Epic!)

My first post (Hello Mum – wave).

I'm an old BattleTech grognard, even wrote some stuff for FASA back in the day, and while I love BattleTech it has some limitations, namely speed of play from paper overhead and number of dice rolls. The miniatures are at best a bit variable, and don't ask about scale, because they wouldn't know what scale was if it came and bit them on the ankle (supposedly 10 meter tall {av} would mean miniatures between 33 and 40mm or so, but the size of most miniatures is generally north of that). It's possible to find people to play, though not easy.

Heavy Gear has mecha to die for, but they don't come cheap, and I have found it hard to find someone interested enough to play, given that the rules book is abysmal to look at and read.

CAV have great miniatures, I have a few, but I've never played the game (for pretty much the same reason as Heavy Gear).

MechWarrior Clix are cheap, but some look rather funky (heh it's based on BattleTech, but with more spikey bits), and while easy to play I again have a hard time to find anyone to play with.

Dropzone Commander and Planetfall are both OK games, the former having more mecha than the latter (I'm thinking PHR here, which would make great Warstriders for a game based on William Keith's series of the same name), but DZC seems to me to be quite focused on tournament play, which is not my cup of tea, and again I have no one to play with. Planetfal is best played using a dice cup to roll your dice to avoid excess 6s being rolled, but YMMV and terms & conditions apply.

So mecha gaming seems to me to be very much a niche game; or I'm just a sad person with no mates. Take your pick.