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So the boxes are actually becoming a reality? I was hoping for an alpha strike starter too or that a starter would include unseens like a marauder and warhammer.

Guess I shouldn't have started selling my sealed unseens on ebay... if the boxed sets get released I'm back in

Whilst I really just play Megamek these days, I do use Infantry, although for Mercenaries they're a really inefficient unit type especially when you look at how much they cost to recruit and train and their ongoing wages. That said, I use them for fluff reasons as much as anything else, my infantry regiments are the guys and girls who will be manning check points and doing foot patrols or house-to-house searches which are not roles I'd typically want to risk my mechwarriors or tank crews doing (Not least of which because I'd lose nearly a battalion's worth of mechwarriors to cover the same ground as a single infantry platoon).

That said I have had some good results using Infantry, when given decent transports and properly supported with tanks/mechs, artillery or aerospace fighters and equipped with field guns they can be a fairly potent defensive unit and in a campaign as an air-mobile unit they can give you a very fast force to secure objectives ahead of your main force, although there you have to sacrifice most of your AT capability unless you heavily support them with massed artillery and VTOL gunships. Yellowjackets are great for this but are slow for VTOLs so will cost you a lot of your speed advantage, Warriors are faster but carry a much weaker punch. I've not used Anti-mech Infantry outside of Battlearmour units since they're just way too expensive to train and far too slow and fragile in combat.

Battletech also provides different types of infantry, from the PBI to Battle Armored troops. So when you say "infantry", it can get a little weird.

I use the term Infantry to mean the PBI (Foot, motorised & Jump platoons), I know there was a separate entry for mechanised infantry but personally I preferred to mechanise my units by allocating them APCs or AIFVs of some sort (Badgers worked well for me, allocate a platoon of Manticores or similar to support a mechanised Infantry Battalion and you get a reasonably effective fighting force) and I realise that there are specialised types like Combat Engineers, I've never used Engineers on the tabletop myself as they're way too expensive to recruit and actually risk in battle in all but the most desperate circumstances.

Battlearmour I'd usually refer to as such to clearly distinguish it from conventional Infantry. Generally speaking though as with the true footsloggers they're fairly fragile and for a mercenary force and they're expensive to maintain and keep paid, although admittedly to a lesser extent than their unarmoured counterparts.

I've not yet used Protomechs, but they seem very much like a half-way house between BA and Light mechs and I'd similarly expect them to have similar drawbacks on the tabletop. When my own mercenaries get to that point in game terms if I got any Protomechs I'd probably allocate them as an upgrade to a Battlearmour unit rather than issuing them to a Battlemech one.

Somewhat counter-intuitively though for a mercenary unit even though they're supposed to be the pinnacle of military technology, Battlemechs are by far the most cost effective units to field, assuming you don't get them repeatedly shot out from under you and need to completely replace them.

Well, I consider the Foot to be PBI, while the Jump, Motorized, and Mechanised to be their own things, though they are as resilient.

Battle Armor is even listed as their own thing within the game, but they are still Infantry, just Heavy.

Protomechs are definitely not Infantry. Ultra-light Mechs is more appropriate. Unfortunately, they are limited by fluff. The requirements to even pilot them involves either electronic tattoos which will drive you mad or require you having your limbs cut off to fit in to the cockpit. Only the most fanatic Clanner or Domini fit this definition. It would be hard for a Mercenary unit to be carrying them because of that, and that's not even considering the scarcity of the equipment.

The requirements to even pilot them involves either electronic tattoos

IIRC aren't these based on the "Enhanced Imaging" tattoos/rules initially in the 1st Somerset Strikers sourcebook?

 simonr1978 wrote:

The requirements to even pilot them involves either electronic tattoos

IIRC aren't these based on the "Enhanced Imaging" tattoos/rules initially in the 1st Somerset Strikers sourcebook?

Which was based off the TV show, yes, sort of. They aren't based off of them, they literally ARE them. Which is one reason why failed Clan Aerospace Pilots who wanted a path to glory as a warrior were convinced to go through the life-shortening procedure of installing them.

I got into Battletech thanks to purchasing the boxed set around the time the TV series was aired over here, I honestly can't remember now which came first for me but whilst my initial experience with the 3rd Edition game gave me my fondness for the Crusader in 3025 games, the TV show meant I almost fell in love with the Madcat. I think that I definitely experienced Clan-Shock first hand is some testament to playing pure Inner Sphere prior to any exposure to Clan Tech.

I'm glad the TV series was retconned as an in-universe Holovid show though, plotholes abounded...

 simonr1978 wrote:
I got into Battletech thanks to purchasing the boxed set around the time the TV series was aired over here, I honestly can't remember now which came first for me but whilst my initial experience with the 3rd Edition game gave me my fondness for the Crusader in 3025 games, the TV show meant I almost fell in love with the Madcat. I think that I definitely experienced Clan-Shock first hand is some testament to playing pure Inner Sphere prior to any exposure to Clan Tech.

I was first introduced via the Atlas model in high school, and it fired my imagination, but I never did much with it then. Later when I was looking for new books to read in the library I came across the Jade Phoenix trilogy, and I started getting stuck in getting the Compendium, TROs, and box sets . That series helped me fall in love with the Summoner/Thor and gave me a soft spot for the the Jade Falcon Clan.

Over all, though my favorite model is the Thunderbolt, and I find more kindred spirits with the Federated Suns. I can't say who my favorite Clan is, though, I find things I like with the Ghost Bears and Cloud Cobra. When I got my Directorate for Firestorm Armada, I considered who they were and thought that patterning them after a Clan would be fun and interesting. I started painting them up as Cloud Cobra, and was thinking about doing the Ground Forces as Hell's Horses (due to lack of Mechs), but LGS closed and I got laid off.

 simonr1978 wrote:
I'm glad the TV series was retconned as an in-universe Holovid show though, plotholes abounded...

They did include a character here and there as a side note in some of the books, but the storied universe was too bloody for a children's show like that one was.

 Elbows wrote:
I know it's in fitting with the Battletech scale/weight thing, but 400 tons is borderline laughable (this is not a harsh critique, but we have main battle tanks that roll around at 70 tons and are...1/200th the size of an Imperator if not smaller)

Correct, the only Imperial Titan that fits into Battletech would be the Warhound, and that pushes the design rules. At 400tons and the speed it goes at it would need large naval or dropship engine rules.

For larger Titans you would have to use large naval construction rules, then translate armour and hit locations back to mech size.

In either case you would need to amalgamate weaponry into single titan mounts, which is what happened for 1st edition epic anyway. Gatling cannon = 6+ Ac10's, plasma blastgun = 6+ PPC's plus bonus capacitors.

Drop a Titan Maniple in a Battletech warzone and you will have some very freaked out mechwarriors.

 Orlanth wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
I know it's in fitting with the Battletech scale/weight thing, but 400 tons is borderline laughable (this is not a harsh critique, but we have main battle tanks that roll around at 70 tons and are...1/200th the size of an Imperator if not smaller)

Correct, the only Imperial Titan that fits into Battletech would be the Warhound, and that pushes the design rules. At 400tons and the speed it goes at it would need large naval or dropship engine rules.

For larger Titans you would have to use large naval construction rules, then translate armour and hit locations back to mech size.

In either case you would need to amalgamate weaponry into single titan mounts, which is what happened for 1st edition epic anyway. Gatling cannon = 6+ Ac10's, plasma blastgun = 6+ PPC's plus bonus capacitors.

Drop a Titan Maniple in a Battletech warzone and you will have some very freaked out mechwarriors.

It would be a fun story

My idea is to use the rules as a base but ignore construction restrictions - so assign a move rate (biut don;t bother with engine rating), have locations as normal etc.

sooo.........

 Mr Morden wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:


Drop a Titan Maniple in a Battletech warzone and you will have some very freaked out mechwarriors.

It would be a fun story

Heretic knight stomping. Even better if you have a mechanics Knight household to support you.

 Mr Morden wrote:

My idea is to use the rules as a base but ignore construction restrictions - so assign a move rate (biut don;t bother with engine rating), have locations as normal etc.

Not needed, once you get away from mech vehicle and aerospace rules everything handles engines as a fixed % of mass per point of movement. So speed/mass curve is linear. normally its about 6% mass per point of movement. So a 5/8 Warhound titan needs an engine weighing 30% of the mass of the titan. Reaver 4/6 and Warlord 3/5 and Imperator 2/3. Titans are not slow you might add +1 to each category.

Knights are heavy-assault mechs. The weaponry might need a work around
What are good for conversion are things like Leman Russ. 55tons 4/6 move, AC10, 2 medium lasers and an MG fits right into Battletech. Baneblades make for good Battletech vehicles. AC20, UltraAC10 (main gun), AC2 (coax), 2 medium lasers and 4 MG, 3/5 move for 100 tons.

2 volcano cannons = 2 evaporated assault mechs per turn. I say go with an imperator down range.

I just saw someone selling a NIB Marauder IIC on Facebook for US$120.

I... don't think they are worth that much.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I just saw someone selling a NIB Marauder IIC on Facebook for US$120.

I... don't think they are worth that much.

I'm guessing it was the Unseen one? Because IWM still sells the current one, for $15.75... and even that is too much (fiddly mini is fiddly -_-).

I agree about the fiddly part. I stopped working on mine out of frustration.

I've only given up on one 'Mech and never went back to it: The second version of the Blood Asp.

At one point that thing went sailing across the room I was so pissed at it.

I'm mostly waiting for a base to come in for it. It doesn't seem to want to stand freely.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
I've only given up on one 'Mech and never went back to it: The second version of the Blood Asp.

At one point that thing went sailing across the room I was so pissed at it.

A whole lot of IWM's mechs are too fething fiddly, and really, really annoying to build. I might have said some harsh words about Infinity miniatures, but at least CB has improved...

I used to have two of the original Marauder IIC; I think they might have been a bit knock-kneed, but the main problem I had was that the limbs were really spindly and the PPC modules on the arms kept snapping off.

I have the same issue with the phoenix project Warhammer. PPC barrels won't stick to the arms, arms won't stick to the mech, and the elbows are separate pieces for some reason.

Not an official BTech release, but Death From Above Miniatures, who ran a Kickstarter campaign for MechCommander inspired buildings at BTech scale now have a webstore to sell the Kickstarter products to anyone.

They've done faction versions for various buildings, so if you want more Kurita or Marik-flavoured buildings, they're there as well, plus tons of stuff that's straight out of MechCommander.

Some examples...


And there's more stuff coming in the future.

[EDIT]: A new BTech map pack was previewed at MechCon. I've lost the pictures, but these are the first new hex maps in years.

For unseens, you could just pick up a Robotech Tactics set, and you'll get 2 Warhammers, 2 Riflemen, 5 Wasp/Stingers and 5 LAMs for ~$45. It has a Marauder too, but I think the scale is off on that one.

 semifraki wrote:
For unseens, you could just pick up a Robotech Tactics set, and you'll get 2 Warhammers, 2 Riflemen, 5 Wasp/Stingers and 5 LAMs for ~$45. It has a Marauder too, but I think the scale is off on that one.

The cosmic circuitousness of this idea makes me cackle uncontrollably.

Is that Robotech stuff even for sale? I thought the Kickstarter was a disaster and it never reached distribution.

It still pops up on Ebay and such.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
Is that Robotech stuff even for sale? I thought the Kickstarter was a disaster and it never reached distribution.

It did, in the states at least retailers can't even give them away:

https://www.miniaturemarket.com/searchresults?q=robotech+tactics

My mistake. I did not realise that. Thanks for the info.

Looks like the scale of the Warhammer (and therefore the Rifleman, I assume) are bang on for Battletech.

I take it this never came out though:


Shame, as a plastic Archer is one of the two 'Mechs I want most (and a plastic Rifleman).

Yeah, the Longbow and Archers happened.

If I remember correctly, the only things in the non-existant 2nd wave of interest to BT players were the Phoenix Hawk and the Crusader.

The Archer/Longbow box is rather rare though.