Classic Battletech Is Awesome: the Thread!

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Formosa**

So ive been playing the crap out of this game, and.... love it, the levels of optional complexity is so refreshing, the fact I can play it as both a TT game and a hex game OR alpha strike, awesome, the models are meh but a few of you directed me to a good place of good models, anyway, I digress, get it ladies and gents, its awesome.

just thought id share

**megatrons2nd**

My favorite game, I wish more people played. It's hard to find players, most people want faster gameplay.

**Formosa**

megatrons2nd wrote:
My favorite game, I wish more people played. It's hard to find players, most people want faster gameplay.

Its gaining traction in Norfolk, overtaking 40k in a shocking amount of time actually, the cheap buy in, the cheap books, the models, ive always been a fan of MechWarrior and was lucky to find the intro box set for £35 in my local charity shop (sealed) and the ball well and truly started rolling.

**Mattlov**

I am hoping sometime soon that the Catalyst Demo Site gets running properly again. You could easily locate players.

As it is, go over here http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php and find the Challenges and Gatherings Forum. You'll hopefully find some people.

You can go here too http://www.lordsofthebattlefield.com/forum/index.php, especially if you are looking for second hand minis.

And I'm a Catalyst Demo Agent. You can ask me anything you'd like!

Keep on Battleteching!

**Charistoph**

My first tabletop game. My only regret was not keeping the dozens of books I collected before my mission. It colors my expectations of games, and aside from speed granted by abstractedness, I find many failing in comparison.

Just how it handles the turn sequence alone is superior and would correct many of 40K's problems if they went with something similar, imo. (not all, mind, just many).

**Stormonu**

Still have all my old Battletech (and Wizkids Mechwarrior Dark Age) stuff, and I love the Technical Readouts and the 4th succession era lore.

Always hated the random hit locations in the game, though, and how SRM missiles were handled. Clan stuff ... yeesh.

I have the Alpha Strike rules and need to coax my old buddies into giving them a whirl one day.

**megatrons2nd**

Mattlov wrote:
I am hoping sometime soon that the Catalyst Demo Site gets running properly again. You could easily locate players.

As it is, go over here http://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php and find the Challenges and Gatherings Forum. You'll hopefully find some people.

You can go here too http://www.lordsofthebattlefield.com/forum/index.php, especially if you are looking for second hand minis.

And I'm a Catalyst Demo Agent. You can ask me anything you'd like!

Keep on Battleteching!

It would help if every Battletech Player used it. As it is, I have a total of 6 players within an hours drive of me, most in different directions, and none, aside from me, in my home town.

**Siygess**

Stormonu wrote:
Still have all my old Battletech (and Wizkids Mechwarrior Dark Age) stuff, and I love the Technical Readouts and the 4th succession era lore.

Always hated the random hit locations in the game, though, and how SRM missiles were handled. Clan stuff ... yeesh.

I have the Alpha Strike rules and need to coax my old buddies into giving them a whirl one day.

Same here, the random hit locations made it hard to capitalise on high damage / high heat weapons such as the Blaser cannon unless you could create favourable 2vs1 shoot outs where a high damage weapon could be complimented by SRMs and / or multiple medium damage weapons on the second mech.. in the hope that you manage to get a strong hit and a medium hit on the same location. Still, I've been playing it with my kids quite a lot over the last year and I will be running a DM'ed campaign at my local club in the autumn. Alpha Strike might appeal to them more than classic BT, though..

**Mattlov**

The random it locations are what defines standard Battletech. It isn't supposed to be quick kills and smashing through 'Mechs left and right. Battletech combat is a GRIND, also to represent the toughness of the 'Mech. That's why even in the 4th Succession War you might find yourself piloting or fighting a completely functional 'Mech that is over 300 years old.

**Elbows**

Love the universe, dislike the game...so I made my own version of it, and I enjoy it immensely. I think the current state of Battletech is a comical mess and a half though (i.e. the hundreds of books, thousands of mechs, and the predominance of build-to-win, etc.).

But if I keep it at 3025 and 3050 I'm still a big fan.

**nobody**

Haven't played in around a decade, but it still holds a place in my heart.

I still have several of the old rulebooks (I collected up to the 3058 readout) and still have several of the old Ral Partha minis floating around.

Haven't run across anybody who plays in years.

**Vertrucio**

Nostalgia only goes so far, and people with nostalgia for btech are running out of time, money, and sometimes even life.

If you want battletech to make a come back, time to update every mech to use the new designes put forth by the PC games. Because a bunch of 80s reject robots, no matter how they might have looked to your teenage self, doesn't cut it these days.

**Chillreaper**

I love this game.

Got a chance to play it a few weeks ago (after years of absence) and it's still the same as ever.

The biggest mistake that people make is to scale up the size of the games - going beyond 4 'mechs a side is an exercise in mental torture, but below that it's fantastic.

I'm looking forward to the new rules manual, which seems to be looking as good as you'll ever be able to make it look, given the complexity of the rules. Battlemech Quirks! Finally!

All they need to do now is sort out a new introductory box.

**Stormonu**

Vertrucio wrote:
Nostalgia only goes so far, and people with nostalgia for btech are running out of time, money, and sometimes even life.

If you want battletech to make a come back, time to update every mech to use the new designes put forth by the PC games. Because a bunch of 80s reject robots, no matter how they might have looked to your teenage self, doesn't cut it these days.

Says you, the 80's designs are what defined the game.

I just don't understand the hate for the old designs; I can't stand the stuff from around 3058 and later.

**Siygess**

Chillreaper wrote:
I love this game.

Got a chance to play it a few weeks ago (after years of absence) and it's still the same as ever.

The biggest mistake that people make is to scale up the size of the games - going beyond 4 'mechs a side is an exercise in mental torture, but below that it's fantastic.

I'm looking forward to the new rules manual, which seems to be looking as good as you'll ever be able to make it look, given the complexity of the rules. Battlemech Quirks! Finally!

All they need to do now is sort out a new introductory box.

Agreed on the introductory box. The last one was pretty good in terms of quality (although while the basic mechs were a step up, the premium mechs were actually a step back.. a restic-like material vs the hard plastic of the previous set). I don't want to jinx things by using the P word but I think the unicast system would be perfect for the boxed mechs. The catch is that CGL already went to the expense of creating new molds (from the IWM metals, if I remember correctly) for the previous set and will probably try to make those last another 10 years!

So switching to a new process and material, as well as finally getting 3D models instead of recasts of hand sculpted ones, is probably a pipe dream at this point.

**Mattlov**

The new classics (old 3025 stuff) are being done with 3D modeling. I think some of the new Iron Wind Metals designs are as well, they just aren't mentioning it. The master for the molds is being 3D printed, and then being cast in metal.

I can't prove that, but I bought a few new 'Mechs and they had markings on them that I associate with 3D printing.

**Siygess**

Yeah, I think some of their newer models - perhaps as far back as 2015 - have been 3D printed because I have noticed the same. But I'm not sure about the 24 IS mechs in the latest box - there is still too much unevenness in the sculpts and not all of the shallow detail can be attributed to the plastic itself.

**Mattlov**

No, the box sets are injection molded. Made from the casts of the metal minis they look like.

**Siygess**

Mattlov wrote:
No, the box sets are injection molded. Made from the casts of the metal minis they look like.

Right, which is what I'm saying - I'm pretty sure the metal minis that were used to create the molds for the plastic set are "older" models that were hand sculpted. I don't think there are any nice, crisp 3D printed Withworth WTH-1 or Quickdraw QKD-4G mechs from which a higher quality set of plastic intro mechs could be made.

**Chillreaper**

I had a copy of the 25th Anniversary set and the minis in it were... well... not amazing.

But, yeah, looking at them compared to the original metal minis, there are a lot of similarities; it's just whatever process they used to reproduce them in PVC didn't really work too well.

I never managed to get my hands on the subsequent box (I'm such a moron!), but I'm guessing that they had another go using the metals as masters and they seemed to get a better result.

Personally, I think that the 3rd Edition box had the best plastics, but that might have been after I chopped and tweaked them, come to think of it.

I, for one, welcome our 12 meter tall, 3D printed overlords.

**judgedoug**

Chillreaper wrote:
I had a copy of the 25th Anniversary set and the minis in it were... well... not amazing.

The reissue of that set with the Atlas on the cover had re-engineered plastics, and they are orders of magnitude better than that set.
All the new plastic Alpha Strike lance packs are the same high quality plastics.

**Chillreaper**

judgedoug wrote:
Chillreaper wrote:
I had a copy of the 25th Anniversary set and the minis in it were... well... not amazing.

The reissue of that set with the Atlas on the cover had re-engineered plastics, and they are orders of magnitude better than that set.
All the new plastic Alpha Strike lance packs are the same high quality plastics.

I had dreams of getting hold of a copy of the Atlas edition 6 months ago - but not at the current asking price! Sheesh...

I've let that dream die.

**Mattlov**

A new box is in the works. But that is all we know.

Rumor wants to believe they want to put some of the "NewSeen" designs in it. This has not been confirmed or denied, and even the base rule set has not been confirmed as standard Battletech or Alpha Strike.

**simonr1978**

Battletech is a great game, unfortunately the nearest thing to Battletech that I get to play these days is Megamek which to be fair is a pretty faithful copy. I've found the background material to be very immersive, even if some of the books can vary in quality.

**AndrewGPaul**

Stormonu wrote:
Vertrucio wrote:
Nostalgia only goes so far, and people with nostalgia for btech are running out of time, money, and sometimes even life.

If you want battletech to make a come back, time to update every mech to use the new designes put forth by the PC games. Because a bunch of 80s reject robots, no matter how they might have looked to your teenage self, doesn't cut it these days.

Says you, the 80's designs are what defined the game.

I just don't understand the hate for the old designs; I can't stand the stuff from around 3058 and later.

It's a bit unfortunate that most of the iconic designs are lifted from elsewhere.

There's a few half-decent home grown designs (the Awesome, Catapult (albeit a bit of a Mad Cat knockoff, but still ...) and Atlas come to mind, but other than that, 3025 - 3058 is full of horrible designs. I really liked some of the 3060 and 3067 designs, but the miniatures really failed to live up to the promise.

I do like the initiative system, especially the way it works to ensure that no side ends up with a long tail of minis to activate at the end. I also remember reading about a suggested alternative turn sequence, that used sub-phases similar to Starfleet Battles (and Dark Future, among others). This dates from 2001 on the sf-consim_l Yahoo! Group:

Short form:

12 segment turn from champions.

If your mech moved faster than 12, you'd get to move one hex every segment, and 2 hexes on the segments that your leftover speeds went. Thus, speed 14 moves 1 hex every segment, with 2 hexes on segments 6 and 12.
Mechs moved in order from heaviest to smallest; ties in the move order were resolved by rolling piloting skills. All fire was simultaneous on a given segment. (In theory, all movement should've been simul, but we never found a solution we liked for it.)
Moving into terrain would cost you future movement points. We pretty much did away with the distinction between walking and running -- everyone got their run speed for determining movement points. You generated 1 heat for every 4 movement points spent during a turn, and 1 heat per hex covered via jump.
A jumping mech had to place a counter on the hex it would land in; it moved at 1 hex/segment while mid-air (and made SUCH a lovely target). It was possible to combine jumping and running in the same movement. We pretty much had you make piloting checks for entering terrain and for jumping. If you missed your jump piloting roll, you landed funny. If you botched your jump piloting roll (natural 12), we rolled two dice to determine which hex you actually landed in...
If you fired a weapon, you had to wait a number of segments equal to the heat generated to let the "barrel cool down" before firing it again. This did mean ballistic weapons gained a lot of RoF.
Heat sinks were done post-segment 12. (Exception: Ending a segment in level 1 water would dump 1 heat per segment, level 2 would dump 2 heat per segment. Infernos added 1 heat per segment, and fire added 1 heat per segment.)
We re-defined a hex as being 100 m to make the weapon ranges match what we wanted.
Mostly, we stuck with the 3025 book 'Mechs for this, because it made life MUCH simpler. We weren't entirely happy with the initiative system, but it seemed to work. The real problem we ran into was that rabid B-techers wouldn't play with us, so new blood was hard to come by. We did do demolition derbies for conventions (Everyone gets a book Locust, Stinger or Wasp; last man standing wins. The person with the funniest death got second place. The one I recall the most was the guy trying to do death from above with his Stinger, botching the piloting roll.

It required someone to bellow out the segment numbers, but it was fun.

**Charistoph**

AndrewGPaul wrote:
Catapult (albeit a bit of a Mad Cat knockoff, but still ...)

Very funny. Just like Star Trek is a Galaxy Quest knockoff...

**Chillreaper**

Charistoph wrote:
AndrewGPaul wrote:
Catapult (albeit a bit of a Mad Cat knockoff, but still ...)

Very funny. Just like Star Trek is a Galaxy Quest knockoff...

Nope.

The Marauder is a Mad Cat knockoff... erm... or was it the Catapult? No, no. Definitely the Marauder - I mean Catapult dammit!

I'm so confused...

**AndrewGPaul**

Didn't mean Mad Cat. Meant Marauder, my apologies. And I suppose I should say "a bit of a Glaug Officer's pod knockoff", really.

I really enjoy 3025 / Level 1 / whatever you call it now games; it's pretty straightforward at that level, with only four major weapon categories to remember. Once it started adding pulse, ER, heavy, light, etc lasers, rotary, LB-X and Ultra autocannon, XL engines, ferro-fibrous armour, etc, etc, I couldn't keep my head round what everything did any more.

I have always been a fan of the ability to beat a 'Mech do death with its own limb. Can't think of any other giant robot games that let you do that.

**Albertorius**

AndrewGPaul wrote:
Didn't mean Mad Cat. Meant Marauder, my apologies. And I suppose I should say "a bit of a Glaug Officer's pod knockoff", really.

Well, the catapult's original legs (except the feet) are the Marauder's, and its main body structure, particularly the back, is very similar, so it probably started as a traced and modified Marauder, yes.

As to the OP: yes, yes it is.

**Chillreaper**

There's a reference to the Mad Cat's appearance the first time it's seen in the novels.

The Inner Sphere pilot who sees it has a problem with his IFF systems that keep tagging it as both a Marauder and a Catapult at the same time - it couldn't settle on one chassis type. As a result, the Inner Sphere name for the Timber Wolf became the Mad Cat.