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.

I haven't played Battletech in a decade, at least, but cheap plastic minis and fast play rules would change that.

Is this new box set out yet, and what does it cost ?

Answered my own Question

$59.99 Not yet released

Adamsouza, the new box set and the fast play rules are different products (unfortunately).

The new box set contains the classic Battletech rules with a pile of miniatures, best for 4 mechs vs 4 mechs, or so.

Alpha Strike is a supplemental hardcover (or pdf) book with rules on how to play, best for 12-24 mechs vs 12-24 mechs per side.

On the plus side, Alpha Strike can be had for rather cheap via amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/BT-Alpha-Strike/dp/1936876760/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375977410&sr=8-1&keywords=alpha+strike

 Manchu wrote:
On the plus side, Alpha Strike can be had for rather cheap via amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/BT-Alpha-Strike/dp/1936876760/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375977410&sr=8-1&keywords=alpha+strike

Can't wait! We're playing the Saturday after it shows up in my grubby little hands.

Hopefully someone posts their thoughts on Alpha Strike. I was excited about the idea of a Battletech that went faster. Though I was hoping it they would have went a bit closer to Warmachine. Seems like the perfect game for that.

I 100% thoroughly enjoy Battleforce/Quickstrike, which is what Alpha Strike is based on.

KaryudoDS wrote:
Hopefully someone posts their thoughts on Alpha Strike. I was excited about the idea of a Battletech that went faster. Though I was hoping it they would have went a bit closer to Warmachine. Seems like the perfect game for that.

If you'd like a set of rules for sci-fi that accommodates mechs well and is similar to warmachine, you should check out Gruntz
http://www.gruntz.biz/
According to one review "The mechanic is 2d6 based and works the same way as Warmachine, roll 2d6+your models stat and compare the result with the opposing defensive stat Equal or higher gets you the hit/does some damage." Technically aimed at 15mm, but could be adapted to other scales.
Interesting note about Grunt and BT from the Gruntz author here:
http://gruntz15.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=disc&action=display&thread=485

The review of AS I linked to before is pretty thorough, but I also would like to see more.
http://www.playunplugged.com/2013/07/review-battletech-alpha-strike-pdf-version/
I'm eager to see some pictorial AAR's!

 judgedoug wrote:
Adamsouza, the new box set and the fast play rules are different products (unfortunately).

The new box set contains the classic Battletech rules with a pile of miniatures, best for 4 mechs vs 4 mechs, or so.

Alpha Strike is a supplemental hardcover (or pdf) book with rules on how to play, best for 12-24 mechs vs 12-24 mechs per side.

Thank you for pointing that out, but it's still fine by me.

I still get a pile of miniatures and rules for faster play. Just need to make 2 purchases to get it all.

I loved Battletech until I played the Mechwarrior Clix game. The Mechwarrior game was possibly too simplified, but I could get 4 games in a night, verses the 1 of CBT.

Just being able to play CBT in a faster manner, would be enough for me to be able to ressurrect a few old time players and convince them to fire up their mech hanger bays.

Alpha Strike retains most of the flavor of the Classic Battletech rules that Mechwarrior Clix lost. For example, comparing Alpha Strike to Battletech:

Mechs still have armor and internal structure points, but it's only one set for each armor and structure. Once armor is breached, damage is done to the structure.

When the structure takes damage, you can roll for criticals on a chart (which involve engine damage, ammo explosion, etc)

Mechs have a damage value at S, M, and L range. If they hit (based on their one skill value, 2d6 versus a to-hit#), they cause the damage to their target. The to-hit number starts at their skill value, plus 2 for medium, plus 4 for long, plus this and that for moving, etc. So a long range shot from a moving target to a moving target with cover is nigh impossible, but two assault mechs blasting each other at short range barely moving will be smashing each other to bits.

Some mechs have an overheat value (of 1, 2, or 3); this allows them to overheat their mech and icnrease their damage output by their overheat value, but it makes their mech hot - you mark their heat value on their card, and next turn they have another modifier to hit based on their overheat value. They spend a turn not shooting to cool off. If heat goes to more than 3, mech shuts down for a turn.

Some mechs have special stats, such that they might haveLRM's, so a portion of their damage at range can be shot at an enemy that is in LOS to a friendly but not to them. Or Autocannons, so a portion of their damage can be special autocannon munitions, etc. Some have CASE so an ammo explosioin critical won't auto destroy the mech, and so on.

Movement is all in inches and facings are based off the hex sides on the 'mech; you get bonuses for shooting a mech in the back.

Well, that's like half the rules right there. As you can see, more detailed than the Clix but wayyy easier and faster playing than normal Battletech.

All the thumbs up.

 judgedoug wrote:

Spoiler:

Alpha Strike retains most of the flavor of the Classic Battletech rules that Mechwarrior Clix lost. For example, comparing Alpha Strike to Battletech:

Mechs still have armor and internal structure points, but it's only one set for each armor and structure. Once armor is breached, damage is done to the structure.

When the structure takes damage, you can roll for criticals on a chart (which involve engine damage, ammo explosion, etc)

Mechs have a damage value at S, M, and L range. If they hit (based on their one skill value, 2d6 versus a to-hit#), they cause the damage to their target. The to-hit number starts at their skill value, plus 2 for medium, plus 4 for long, plus this and that for moving, etc. So a long range shot from a moving target to a moving target with cover is nigh impossible, but two assault mechs blasting each other at short range barely moving will be smashing each other to bits.

Some mechs have an overheat value (of 1, 2, or 3); this allows them to overheat their mech and icnrease their damage output by their overheat value, but it makes their mech hot - you mark their heat value on their card, and next turn they have another modifier to hit based on their overheat value. They spend a turn not shooting to cool off. If heat goes to more than 3, mech shuts down for a turn.

Some mechs have special stats, such that they might haveLRM's, so a portion of their damage at range can be shot at an enemy that is in LOS to a friendly but not to them. Or Autocannons, so a portion of their damage can be special autocannon munitions, etc. Some have CASE so an ammo explosioin critical won't auto destroy the mech, and so on.

Movement is all in inches and facings are based off the hex sides on the 'mech; you get bonuses for shooting a mech in the back.

I've got all my clix reabsed to 45mm hexes, so this makes me very happy.

Thanks for those rules explainations. Very helpfull.

Here's my initial review of Alpha Strike. Think I need to play it again to be sure, but it felt kinda bland to me.

http://minimodelgeek.blogspot.ca/2013/08/battletech-alpha-strike-review.html

Jbuckmaster wrote:
Here's my initial review of Alpha Strike. Think I need to play it again to be sure, but it felt kinda bland to me.

http://minimodelgeek.blogspot.ca/2013/08/battletech-alpha-strike-review.html

Great Review!
I hope I end up enjoying it more than you did, but it's great to see honest reviews from people with real experience with this genre of game.

I disagree heavily with the part about closing and forming a conga-line. If anything, all of my experience with the rules greatly reward mixed ranges (especially with spotting for LRM's, or Lights harassing Assaults). And our games have always had several nail-biting moments on whether a shot will finish off a mech or not. We also do alternating 'mechs for 12v12, and found it was pretty quick playing. Huge game in 2 hours.

We found the system really rewards tactically-minded players... our last game had 2 players on the Lyran side (very much acting like the Lyran Commonwealth), slowly marching their mechs in tight formations towards their opponents, who were playing FedSuns and moving through cover and spotting for LRM assists, and ambushing stragglers with light or jump capable mechs. The Lyrans were crushed.

We've also been playing scenario based missions. I want to next run a series of linked games for my group as a mercenary company versus me controlling the baddies in several scenarios.

I do hope you give the ruleset another try.

I have a feeling the conga-line would be related to our Forces and my limited models. I also prefer the battles in the main game where I'm forced to do crazy stuff because crits or similar have totally hosed my plans, so what I want from the game is likely not what other people want.

Hoping to give it another go sometime in the next Month. Still gotta play some DZC and get my Shadowrun game up and going.

Judgedoug and Jbuckmaster. I was curious to know how much terrain you used in your battles.

Even with small scale battles (we play Mech Attack and Panzer8 sci-fi in 10mm) we use alot of terrain, to the point where sometimes our boards can be a bit crowded. I've found that it really benefits both games.

With Mech Attack, which is a mech game that has alot of BT like elements in a very streamlined package (Jbuckmaster you might like it) I find that it can help cut down on the spirograph effect. With Panzer 8 sci-fi, a super-simple beer and pretzels game of massed combat, it really makes maneuvering a prime focus of the game rather than just shooting away at your opponent.

I try to cover the table in as much terrain as possible. I have several sets of the Epic 40k plastic buildings and I just bought about 50 1/300 resin buildings to add into the mix (for the undamaged look) and I'm probably going to pick up some more trees. I love lots of hills and cover since it's 1/300 ish; it doesn't make much sense to me if it's a barren playing field. We also pretty much play that if your mech is totally wide open is when there's no cover modifiers - so there were almost always be cover modifiers (one of Jbuckmaster's complaints about the scale differences). Only mechs hangin' out in the breeze will not get a cover bonus. I also like to vary up the skill a bit; making lance commanders have skill 3 and the company commander or an ace pilot with a skill 2.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But as an addendum, my plan for the campaign game will have the players starting as a merc unit with a pool of skill 4 people (perhaps a lance of 4 per player); as they suffer losses the mechs and pilots that survive get skill bumps and then by scenario 3 or so they'll have their actual pilot/mech that is the player's pilot/mech, hanging around skill 2 or 3. Then new npc's that they recruit will have varying skill levels, 3 to 5 - the better skilled, the more expensive to hire or retain. And then of course the contracts have to pay out to repair their mechs and such (good ol' Field Manual Mercenaries helps with that) I'm fairly excited to start running it as an every 3 weeks or so starting in about a month.

A campaign! I didn't even think about the fact that you could use some of the rules(not just the fluff) from CBT supplements for campaigning in Alpha Strike. What a great idea.

That's the kind of thing I'd love to get my group to do. I've got all the Mercenary handbooks and several dozen other sourcebooks so the material is there if I can wrangle up the interest.

Oh, I'm really excited but the prospect. It's something I've always wanted to do since I love the Battletech fiction but the CBT game rules proper have not lent themselves well to pick and and play games for a large gaming group that has varied interests. I've found the Alpha Strike rules are easy enough to learn that the players can be engaged in the roleplaying and campaign aspects without being bogged down in the minutiae.

Alpha Strike unit cards box set MSRP $15 at Gencon

The book that changes the rules from CBT doesn't have the cards for the changed models? I understand there are some cludgey work arounds posted last page but this seems to be a big oversight.

 warboss wrote:
The book that changes the rules from CBT doesn't have the cards for the changed models? I understand there are some cludgey work arounds posted last page but this seems to be a big oversight.

Big oversight? I think you mean $15 MSRP.

In all honestly though I'll probably pick a set of the cards up. $15 is pretty fair as long as they're nicely printed and either laminated or a standard size so I can slip 'em in sleeves.

 warboss wrote:
The book that changes the rules from CBT doesn't have the cards for the changed models? I understand there are some cludgey work arounds posted last page but this seems to be a big oversight.

Remember also that printable cards for most mechs are already free online in the Master Unit List.

From what I understand the printed rulebook has the stats in an appendix. The nice unit cards are all glossy laminated dry erase style cards for like 90 different mechs or something.

[sniffs out a Battletech thread and crawls out from the depths to post once again]

Another Introductory Box Set? I guess I might as well just hand Catalyst another $60 now, since I bought the other two. It's like Star Wars VHS/LD/DVD/BDs...I just can't resist each new edition of the same thing.

Anyways, I love CBT. Always have, always will.

As for the Alpha Strike rules "dumbing down" blah blah blah, the way I see it is this:
I will always have my old rules and my hex maps and my little cardboard cutouts with pictures of 'mechs that get slotted into those little black stand things. I can use the old rules where being in cover meant you got head-shotted 1 in 6 times or use the updated Total Warfare rules which fixed that. The Clix game, the Battleforce rules, and the Alpha Strike rules can never take those away from me. Lance on lance, 'mech on 'mech, Star League, Succession Wars, Clan Invasion, you name it, I can always play a good old game of CBT with my just as old gaming buddies.

So I'm hoping that these new rules will be good and will get more interest from the community, because the Battletech universe is awesome. Maybe I won't play the same rules as the new players do. But if the new rules increase the odds that I can discuss Free Worlds League politics or why Steiner scout 'mechs are so slow with new people, I'm all for it.

Regarding miniatures:
And while there have certainly been a lot of plastic/lead/pewter 'mechs painted to beautiful standards over the decades which I'm sure are awesome to play with, I don't really understand all the hate behind the cheap plastic ones from the previous two versions of the box set. Sure they were mostly crap, but you get two companies worth! And with very little effort, they became decent table top game pieces. They won't win any painting awards, but they do just fine, so I don't get the hate. It's not as if I cannot tell that one 'mech is a Trebuchet and the other is a Catapult here (nevermind that one 'mech is supposedly 10 tons heavier than the other, but hey, they were cheap!):


I will admit that the updated MWO design are very, very nice (gorgeous!), and it's a shame that new miniatures don't take advantage of them.

Nice use of Heroscape terrain

There are probably licensing issues between the videogame (which is licensed from Microsoft) and the tabletop game (licensed from Topps... I think). It would be lovely to get a 3039 or 3050 TRO update with MWO designs, but licensing that art is probably a headache unto itself.

I'm just happy Catalyst is doing some great design work on their new 'mechs (and a lot of their reseen and primitives look fan- -tastic. Hopefully as more modern sculpts for things like the primitive variants come out we will see the older sculpts phased out and the newer designs used as the base.

 adamsouza wrote:
Nice use of Heroscape terrain

Seconded. Kind of wishing I'd bought up some of the stuff before the LGS clearanced it off.

 Ronin_eX wrote:
There are probably licensing issues between the videogame (which is licensed from Microsoft) and the tabletop game (licensed from Topps... I think). It would be lovely to get a 3039 or 3050 TRO update with MWO designs, but licensing that art is probably a headache unto itself.

I'm just happy Catalyst is doing some great design work on their new 'mechs (and a lot of their reseen and primitives look fan- -tastic. Hopefully as more modern sculpts for things like the primitive variants come out we will see the older sculpts phased out and the newer designs used as the base.

It is new art commissioned for the videogame. It would be an odd license that eats up any new content that gets attached to it (Sort of like a MechWarrior GPL) So the license for the art, rests with the MWO devs and artist.

GBL wrote:

 Ronin_eX wrote:
There are probably licensing issues between the videogame (which is licensed from Microsoft) and the tabletop game (licensed from Topps... I think). It would be lovely to get a 3039 or 3050 TRO update with MWO designs, but licensing that art is probably a headache unto itself.

I'm just happy Catalyst is doing some great design work on their new 'mechs (and a lot of their reseen and primitives look fan- -tastic. Hopefully as more modern sculpts for things like the primitive variants come out we will see the older sculpts phased out and the newer designs used as the base.

It is new art commissioned for the videogame. It would be an odd license that eats up any new content that gets attached to it (Sort of like a MechWarrior GPL) So the license for the art, rests with the MWO devs and artist.

That was the same answer the CGL guys gave me on the Battletech forums when I asked about producing miniatures from the new MWO designs.

 Laughing Man wrote:

 adamsouza wrote:
Nice use of Heroscape terrain

Seconded. Kind of wishing I'd bought up some of the stuff before the LGS clearanced it off.

Years ago, when I first bought Heroscape I did so with Battletech in mind. Once I got it we drifted away from battletech and just played Heroscape instead.