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Yeah, I mean obviously value depends equally on price as it does content but that's not much in the grand scheme of things. Low model count starters can work spectacularly (X-wing by FFG) though but that seems like the exception rather than the rule.

 warboss wrote:
Yeah, I mean obviously value depends equally on price as it does content but that's not much in the grand scheme of things. Low model count starters can work spectacularly (X-wing by FFG) though but that seems like the exception rather than the rule.

To be fair, a X-Wing like Macross game would be pretty cool.

 Albertorius wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Yeah, I mean obviously value depends equally on price as it does content but that's not much in the grand scheme of things. Low model count starters can work spectacularly (X-wing by FFG) though but that seems like the exception rather than the rule.

To be fair, a X-Wing like Macross game would be pretty cool.

Agreed. But I don't think VF-1 vs Glaug (despite that happening in the cartoon) is the best way to go about that. Maybe a Glaug and two Regults? That way you have three models technically for both factions for set splitters or at least two Glaugs since they're both phsyically bigger and independently usable. Admittedly, I'm coming at this from a decidely consumer perspective.

 infinite_array wrote:
It looks like a pretty big box for just four miniatures. Maybe there are some battlepods in there too.

Nope, 4 miniatures confirmed by President of KidsLogic. But also: it has its own thread in N&R so best to discuss it there. Thanks!

LINK

So 2020 turned out to be a bit of a productive year in working off my pile of shame.

With the Battletech Clan Invasion Kickstarter, I decided to dust off some old Battletech miniatures I had lying around and added some new ones to round out my forces. These were all painted this past year during the great COVID lockdown of 2020.

2nd Sword of Light

I picked the 2nd Sword of Light because of their involvement in the Kentares massacre, particularly members of the 2nd Battalion who have the Kentares flag painted on their mechs as a reminder of there forebears' actions.

Warrior House Imarra

I ended up with several suits of Fa-Shih battlearmor when I picked up some Elementals off eBay. I didn't want to take the effort to sell or trade them so I used them to make some augmented lances. The white/green/gold being a welcome change from the red Sword of Light machines.

15th Lyran Guards

I then decided to do a desert camo scheme. Since there are several FedCom designs, this became a garrison unit on Hesperus II and historically, the 15th Lyran Guards have consistently been there.

Eridani Light Horse - 50th Heavy Cavalry Battalion

I've always liked the Eridani Light Horse, but I still have a few pieces to round this force out. I've got a Black Hawk, Orion and Victor in the queue. These are the fugly 2nd ed CityTech plastics so they need a little work to make them more presentable.

Team Banzai

What can I say, I got bored with painting the same colors over and over so I built up a unit with a wild variety of schemes. I still managed to get Macross, Dougram, Star Wars and Transformers inspired schemes into the mix.

Great stuff cannon, i love the optimus prime command vehicle.

I like the PXH painted up like Jetfire. I had plans to do the same thing with my new one as well. It's great when you paint mech unit where you can get away with things like that.

I think the 2 funniest ones were an urbie painted up like the love bug and a classic stalker painted as a large throbbing purple headed .....uh well i think you an figure it out.


I once painted a ryoken like a construction mech. some of the best cammo i ever did because it worked. it became a running joke in our group....oh that, don't worry about that it's just a construction mech with a rivet gun and some laser cutters.

Thanks for the comments. I feel like your opponents only have themselves to blame if they disregarded the Ryoken. The thing is a beast regardless of how it is painted and you need to treat it with respect.

Anyways, here is the rest of the mechs I completed in 2020.

Black Widow Company/Battalion

I started with the core from the original Tales of the Black Widow book and built up from there. The assaults are detached from Zeta Battalion.

Ghost Bears Omega Galaxy

Some frontline clan units

Ghost Bears Tau Galaxy

Some secondline clan units

Planetary Militia

Some leftovers and mostly crappy units that don't fit anywhere else.

As someone who's been interested in battletech as a setting and a game for a couple years now I've gotta say that reading up on the current storyline with ilclan coming up I'm thoroughly less interested.

you do realize you can play any era right?

it isn't like 40K where everybody is forced to play the new edition because the core rules set does not change and has not really changed in over 30 years aside from a few charts and a few fixes like making AMS systems go from using 1 ammo for every missile it shoots down (out of like 12 ammo)to 1 ammo for every time it engages a flight of missiles for a fixed -4 on the cluster table.

Our favorite era is towards the end of the fedcom civil war since the options for clan and IS units as well as theaters of combat are expansive.

 aphyon wrote:
you do realize you can play any era right?

it isn't like 40K where everybody is forced to play the new edition because the core rules set does not change and has not really changed in over 30 years aside from a few charts and a few fixes like making AMS systems go from using 1 ammo for every missile it shoots down (out of like 12 ammo)to 1 ammo for every time it engages a flight of missiles for a fixed -4 on the cluster table.

Our favorite era is towards the end of the fedcom civil war since the options for clan and IS units as well as theaters of combat are expansive.

Yes, and everything that you do now feels hollow and meaningless because you know the ultimate outcome. That's the inherant issue.

I want to like Battle Tech, but the narrative decisions that they have made really rub me the wrong way.

I understand that's somewhat petty, but it's the way I feel.

The trick with approaching BT is to act as if it's a historical game.

People play Bolt Action, Flames of War and Axis and Allies, even though we all know what the end result is. Hey, enough people turned out to watch Titanic, even though they knew how that was going to end. I'm not a meanie, so I'm not going to spoil it here...

Personally, I only care for the 3025-3060 ish period in BT. I have no interest in this Dark Age/ilclan stuff and that's fine. I'm not doing it "wrong", some people are even more restrictive on the time period that they're into - they're not wrong, either. This is why I love BT.

Plasma Cannons? Witchcraft, I tell you! Witchcraft!

 Sledgehammer wrote:

 aphyon wrote:
you do realize you can play any era right?

it isn't like 40K where everybody is forced to play the new edition because the core rules set does not change and has not really changed in over 30 years aside from a few charts and a few fixes like making AMS systems go from using 1 ammo for every missile it shoots down (out of like 12 ammo)to 1 ammo for every time it engages a flight of missiles for a fixed -4 on the cluster table.

Our favorite era is towards the end of the fedcom civil war since the options for clan and IS units as well as theaters of combat are expansive.

Yes, and everything that you do now feels hollow and meaningless because you know the ultimate outcome. That's the inherant issue.

I want to like Battle Tech, but the narrative decisions that they have made really rub me the wrong way.

I understand that's somewhat petty, but it's the way I feel.

It's all about perspective. I totally agree, playing through something that has already happened, and is fully known like Tukkayid is technically challenging because of the maps and special rules, but feels meaningless- it's not like they can win!

But then take a look at the HBS Battletech game. We take a tiny periphery nation, that we know won't be around in 3050, and will never matter on a galactic scale. Then we get caught up in the drama of the deposed dynasty attempting to seize their tiny little star nation back. There's room for everything out there in the edges of space, or on dozens of minor worlds that never saw a Davion or Kurita. Shrapnel is a really good read to get in that mindset- it's all canon, yes, but ultimately meaningless to the larger storyline. And it is still compelling and exciting!

First minis painted this year are two sets of the ten mechs available in AGoAC + Beginner Box. Some pals had been painting the old starter box mechs for fun and it motivated me. So we got together a played a bit last night, too.

@manchu Pics don't work for me.

Everyone else

What is this Fedcom civil war everyone keeps talking about, there is no lore after Tukayvid, everything else is an illusion.

Jerram wrote:
Everyone else

What is this Fedcom civil war everyone keeps talking about, there is no lore after Tukayvid, everything else is an illusion.

For those who don't know, happened after Victor Davion went off to war against the Clans and Refuse their Invasion.

One of the Steiner-Davion sisters thought she should be ruler, and took on the duties of Archon after Mommy died. Victor let her since he didn't want a scuffle while the Clans were eager to play patty-cake.

After Victor got back, their brother who was sitting on New Avalon's Princely throne apparently got dead through obviously nefarious means. Victor blamed sister. Sister blamed Victor. Many people who supported either decided that something needed to be done and so much shooting happened till Sister left Tharkad to run off and have fun times with a Wolf Khan.

Jerram wrote:
@manchu Pics don't work for me.

Sorry about that, here you go:

cannonfodr, those 'Mechs look great.

I really want to get to work on painting my 'Mechs. They seem, at least on the outside, to be something that should be relatively simple.

Plus it'll be fun getting them into the different factions I have. My plan is to take my IS 'Mechs, split them into 5 groups (so, if I have 5 of a specific 'Mech, I put one in each group).

Two groups get painted blue (Davion), two groups get painted red (Kurita) and the third (and smallest) group gets to be green (Liao).

Only exceptions would be faction-specific 'Mechs (ie. I'm not going to paint one of my two Sha Yu's in Davion or Kuritan colours).

Same applies to my Clan stuff, except there it's more a case of most of the Omni's get to be green (Falcons), and some of the Omni's and all of the 2nd Line get to be light blue (Bears).

HBMC, your plan is essentially what I did with my plastic mechs above.

I painted one set a bluish green and gave them some blue trim while the other set is a dusty desert color with some red trim. This means they are not necessarily locked into House colors (e.g., bright red Sword of Light) but they are pretty identifiably on different teams and could more or less represent a Davion or Lyran force on one hand and a Kurita force on the other.

From washing the minis to sealing them, I finished on Saturday afternoon after starting Friday night — and I am no speed painter. You can see the pic above in greater resolution from gallery page (as Dakka automatically resizes them in-thread).

Another Saturday night of BattleTech!



This was a variation on the third scenario in the AGoAC rulebook. In our version, the defenders had a Thunderbolt and Catapult at the far side of two map sheets laid end-to-end and two Commandos at the other. The attackers had an Awesome, Griffin, and Wolverine and got to choose which map sheet to start on, i.e., which group to fight first. The objective was to destroy or cripple all the mechs of the opposing force.

Attackers chose to take on the heavies, leaving the Commandos to barrel across the field for the first handful of turns. The Awesome tanked the lion’s share of the damage but the Thunderbolt and Catapult didn’t take any particularly big hits. The Commandos made it into action just in time for the Awesome to go down but not before the Awesome nearly melted half of one of the Commandos. Meanwhile, the Wolverine piled in on the Tbolt for a big right hook but got focused fired by nearly everything on the field.

We had to wrap up there as it was getting late.

I would really like to find some scenarios (note: NOT campaign tracks) that involve something other than destroying each other. Raiding a resource depot, holding an objective, escorting a convoy, whatever — anyone know specifically where I can find generic (i.e., not tied to a specific campaign, “historical” or otherwise) scenarios like these?

 Manchu wrote:
Another Saturday night of BattleTech!


I would really like to find some scenarios (note: NOT campaign tracks) that involve something other than destroying each other. Raiding a resource depot, holding an objective, escorting a convoy, whatever — anyone know specifically where I can find generic (i.e., not tied to a specific campaign, “historical” or otherwise) scenarios like these?

I miss any night of Battletech Blast you COVID!! Anyway, yeah so I have my sourcebooks at hand. Lots of tables, lots of charts, much player and GM involvement. The big book (Total Warfare) gives you a list of general encounter types (Standup Fight, Hide and Seek, Hold the Line, Extraction, Breakthrough, and Chase). You can narratively explain almost anything and have it fall into the above.

Field Manual: Mercenaries (Revised) lists contracts as: Covert; Special; Planetary Assault; Riot Duty; Extraction Raid; Pirate Hunting; Security Detail; Objective Raid; Garrison Duty; or Cadre Duty. It then goes on to tell you to just roll on the Total Warfare list for the actual scenario to be played.

The first edition Mechwarrior RPG book has some...narrative-like tables and charts that 'could' be used. Frequency of encounters: Garrison-every 2 weeks, Assault-every week, Raiding-every week, Relief-every week, Pacification-every 2 weeks. There's a Battlefield Encounter table that can generate a random narrative descriptions. It includes: Enemy patrol, Enemy assault force, ambush, water source, aerospace fighter attack, intelligence report, artillery attack, equipment malfunction, attack by natives, interesting NPC, Natural disaster, Bad weather, Assault mission, Recon mission, and Static Anti-Mech. Honestly the original Mechwarrior RPG book is great if you want to have a more narrative feel to your games/campaign. The book even has the tables and means for you to totally throw out the cannon universe and roll up a whole new timeline. I've run multiple campaigns like this and can attest that it's a lot of fun.

You can also just use the videogames as a point of inspiration. Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries, Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries, Mechwarrior 4: Black Knight, and the Hairbrained Schemes Battletech are great for anything inner sphere. MegaMek's MekHQ is a fabulous resource for running a merc campaign. It can randomly generate all sorts of scenarios and victory conditions. You just need to fudge the unit lists obviously for what units you actually own (or just proxy whatever you need).

Hope that gets some creative juices flowing. Shoot me a PM if you want more opinions or info.

(TLDR; Everything you need is in the Total Warfare book.)

I would really like to find some scenarios (note: NOT campaign tracks) that involve something other than destroying each other. Raiding a resource depot, holding an objective, escorting a convoy, whatever — anyone know specifically where I can find generic (i.e., not tied to a specific campaign, “historical” or otherwise) scenarios like these?

You can always make your own. i did a custom scenario where a light force had to raid a research facility. it required the attackers to get infantry via IFVs into the base complex and hold it for a specified number of turns to "recover" the intel. they only had a couple of medium mechs backing them up against a security force of perimeter walls, light vehicles and 3 or 4 urban mechs.

It was a blast.

if you want something with a bit more framework there are many books that have "historical" battles you can choose from.
with (historical turning point) books for places like galtor, glengarry and misery to name a few.

Like so

https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/products/battletech-historical-turning-points-misery-pdf

Played a big game of BattleTech over the weekend.

1 v 2 players. Clan Nova vs two ComStar Level II's, defending a supply base. Quite a close game, tipped in our favour by a lucky double PPC headshot to the Star Captain's Gladiator (and then again later on to their Thor).

Will post the full details (and a couple of quick photos) when I get home. All I'll say for now is that Elementals make approaching Clan 'Mechs really tough (Elementals are also very hard to kill).

So, as I said, it was a fairly sizeable game.

Clan Ghost Bear:
Gladiator F
Mad Cat Prime
Thor Prime
Loki B
Vulture Prime
5 Points of Small Laser Elementals

ComStar:

1st Level II
AWS-9M Awesome
MAD-5D Marauder
TDR-9SE Thunderbolt
GRF-3M Griffon
PHX-XXXX Phoenix Hawk
(MixTech with a Clan ER PPC and SSRM4)
COM-2D Commando

2nd Level II
BLR-3M Battlemaster
WHM-7CS Warhammer
ARC-4M Archer
WVR-7M Wolverine
VLK-QD Valkyrie
UM-R65X UrbanMech
(Custom design with DHS, ENO, LB-10X and 2 MLs - no faster than normal though!)

Scenario was pretty simple:

We are defending a munitions base, half our forces our out on patrol, arriving at the start of Turn 4.

We started with the Awesome, Marauder, Thunderbolt, Battlemaster, Warhammer and Urbie on the table. All the Elementals were using the Omnis as taxis.

The dice weren't with the Clan player for a lot of the game, and we had some good luck on our side (like double head-shotting the Gladiator with PPCs). We did eventually start to get whittled down, my Whammy going first, but by the time the Elementals got into range our reinforcements had arrived. I also couldn't pass a piloting check to save myself.

The Thor also good some good shots to the head and went down, and the Loki got cored by the reinforcements lining up behind it. Elementals managed to detonate the SRM ammo in the Awesome's legs, taking that out. Elementals are very dangerous. Amazingly, despite being targeted more than once, the Urbie survived. Missing a hip, and with armour only on its right arm, but still alive.

A couple of pics of late in the game (just before the Thor went down and the Awesome was turned into a mushroom cloud):


Things I learnt from the game:

1. Never count an Urbie out!
2. Elementals are the ultimate screen for stopping melee attacks on 'Mechs.
3. There are no good Valkyrie variants.
4. LRM20's are always dangerous.
5. Despite being a terrible 'Mech, the Loki stood up to way more than it was meant to.
6. The speed of those original 4 Clan heavies gives them such a major advantage over the IS, even with the updated technology.
7. I tend to favour PPCs over ER PPCs on IS units, but I'm beginning to think that the lack of minimum range on the ER version is worth the extra heat.
8. The WVR-7M Wolverine is a bloody weird thing. Two ERLLs in one arm?

I'm more of a fan of the kurita loadouts for the wolverine.

The 7K for in close brawling with jump jets and all those pulse lasers. my overall favorite the 8K has good heat management and a good mix of weapons. but then again i run them in my 2nd deiron regulars force so it lends itself to the mountain fighting style of the unit.

Also when you said valkyrie...i was thinking of the unseen full armored valkyrie AKA the crusader, specifically the 8s...65 tons with a heavy gauss rifle...so much love steiner style.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

3. There are no good Valkyrie variants.

Locust LCT-1M is a perfectly serviceable Valkyrie.

So far the suggestions for a better Valkyrie have been:

1. Crusader.
2. Locust.

... neither of which are a Valkyrie.

So that kinda proves my point, right?

QS5, QD4, and QD8 all look somewhat usable.

Granted, none of them are Clan Invasion era.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
So far the suggestions for a better Valkyrie have been:

1. Crusader.
2. Locust.

... neither of which are a Valkyrie.

So that kinda proves my point, right?

What's the problem with the Valkyrie, though? For a 30-tonner FS mech, it's not that bad... 5/8/5, nine points of armor short of full coverage, 12 shots for the LRM and a med laser just in case... I mean, yes, you could strip the eleventh HS, for example, and get more ammo and/or full armor, for example, but for what it is, the SucWars version doesn't really seem too bad. The Clan Invasion refit is basically exactly the same but with full armor and adding nonsense as na Artemis-IV for a LRM-10 and the MPL instead of two meds... but still, I wouldn't call it total garbage. The QD1 with a LRM-15 with Artemis and 16 shots should also work as a FS solution, even though it has a XL engine...

I mean, what are we expecting, here?