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I run campaigns. I've a lot more fun being the Battle Sphere Coodinator.

I start before the War of 3039 and take it all the way to the Dark Ages.

I've my players create their Merc unit (who are quite new to BT they always go mech's) using the Mercenary Handbook. Medium to one Heavy mechs.
Since Mercenary Star was the go-to hire for merc units is where we start our career. Being it's a brand-new unit I involve an NPC fixer who create units for clients. The "Fixer" will create a combine arms Battalion so it's a mixture of tanks, mechs, infantry and air support. Plus hired technicians to maintain the equipment.

I'm slowly introducing the players the different aspect of combat and eventually the logistics of supporting their units. We go through a quick simple contract of three years on a planet that's quite close to another House and Periphery power. That way to ensure a mixture of combat with House, pirates, criminal organizations, natural disasters, and possibility of Lostech locations.

The client who contracts works with an organization that covers a wide variety of enterprises. Form mining, farming, ranching, productions, and distribution of the conglomerate. Who also seems to be exploring the option of adding military branch. They provide technicians, logistics support and a contact network (for future jobs and shenanigans). There be some dice rolls to see what happens over time to give the players an idea of the type of unit they want to run. There be an excellent rapport with a Special Forces unit who was also hired but not under the player's command.

Goal here to build up the unit in funds, equipment, mechs, vehicles, tech support, and personnel. So, looking at the end of contract a combine arms regiment is formed. I actually use military maps and show them the areas that requires combat units and areas of concern. From there they divide up the forces to meet the requirement of the mission/contract. So, if combat happens, they know beforehand what forces are there and an idea of reinforcement's able to get to location. Kill bounties by the ton and salvage also contribute to unit growth. Players will become familiar of tech support points, salvage equipment repairs, field expedient repairs, EPW's, medical support, logistic trains, stockpile of supplies and ammo. Big one is them using the "network" to start predicting ammo and supply purchases. Also, recruitment of personnel. Eventually a possibility for dropships

The War of 3039 will happen and the unit will participate directly or indirectly depending on the rolls for events. After 3039 be more contracts, investments, networking, and experience gain. Which when the Clans invade will hammer the unit badly. This is where my players get really creative to generate funds, recruit, maintain, and rebuild their organization. Bear in mind the players cannot maintain Clan tech and eventually how to deal with the Clans. Eventually they send their techs to Wolf Dragoons tech school to operate and maintain clan tech, how to handle Bondman/woman from the Clans, and able to start independent combat operations.

So pretty much a roller-coaster ride

As a noob and having had a few games now, it was time to start paint schemes.
I went for:

Draconis Combine - 1st Sword of Light
Federated Suns - 5th Crucis Lancers
Clan Wolf - Beta Galaxy

All different schemes so they're obvious who's on which side to my wife when we play.
Anyway, these were the first attempts. Bad on camera but okay with my aged old eyesight from a foot or more away.
For my collection, I'm going to keep Clan tech models in Clan Wolf, and split the rest into the other 2 factions.

Honestly, I think they look great. Your cockpit jeweling is 5 levels above mine where I rely on just gold metal paint.

Jumped into the game a few ago and painted up a Grey Watch lance for the Northwind Highlanders:

Those look nice !

Makes for a nice unit on any table I bet.

 Elmir wrote:
Jumped into the game a few ago and painted up a Grey Watch lance for the Northwind Highlanders:

Spoiler:

Pfft! Show off!

Ok… if you are painting flipping tartan on there, then I may as well give up

So nicely done!

 Flinty wrote:
Ok… if you are painting flipping tartan on there, then I may as well give up

So nicely done!

Just since you post, I am looking at your battletech gallery!

It’s good, I like yours as well!

 Elmir wrote:
Jumped into the game a few ago and painted up a Grey Watch lance for the Northwind Highlanders:

Now THAT'S impressive!

I'd never be able to pull that off. My hands are way too shaky XD

Looks sick though. Probably speaks to my lingering 40k brain that I think it would be a cool pattern on some space marines.

I'm still trying to get the contrasts right. There's a trick to getting it on right that's taking a few tries.

Am going to get a first game in soon I hope. There's a group at the lgs that meets on Fridays and plays Classic so I'm going to throw me together a lance and we'll see how it goes.

There's a cheat-y way to pull that kind of thing off using cheese-cloth and spray cans if you ever wanted to give it a shot, LordofHats.

 LordofHats wrote:
I'm still trying to get the contrasts right. There's a trick to getting it on right that's taking a few tries.

If you haven't seen it, Juan Hidalgo has a video showing the proper techniques to get the best results with Contrast paints.

The cheese-cloth thing sounds familiar (maybe I saw a tutorial video about it years ago).

 Ghaz wrote:

If you haven't seen it, Juan Hidalgo has a video showing the proper techniques to get the best results with Contrast paints.

I've not seen this video but yeah.

I noticed after my first try at it that you rushing it produces weird results after the paint dries. Gotta make sure the paint gets in the recesses, and I have to get the coat on evenly bit by bit.

It doesn't help that how it looks while the paint is wet can be way different from how it'll look after the paint dries, so I had one attempt that looked fine wet but became uneven dry and another that looked bad wet but dried fine.

Never occurred to me that some of the complaints against contrast and other "one thick coat" paints might be due to people not using it correctly... and yeah, that tracks now that I think about it.

Wish he'd called out the slapchop and zenithal basecoat adherents though.

I have been filling out some of my more obscure mechs and vehicles since i doubt catalyst will be getting to them in plastic any time soon. that like to use but never had the model of, this order added a talon, Heimdall and a trebaruna.

We had a planned game of light mech on light mech action.

i brought

.phoenix hawk
.night hawk
.razor back
.talon

i went with all energy builds

My opposite countered with
.phoenix hawk
.wasp
.spider
.wolfhound

one of his mechs had an ECM so we were using ghost imaging rules which saved his bacon over several turns, making his force just that much harder to hit.

Shenanigans abounded. the spider kept falling and damaging himself. takign out his own left torso and then breaking off his own leg.

My side wasn't much better with the talon falling down every time he tried to kick anything. doing most of his damage to himself.







The epic moment the razorback connected the enemy phoenix hawk with 2 medium lasers......and the locations-




and the end

Oooh! I like the Talon. Fun 'Mech.

One paired it with a Royal Mongoose. Worked well.

Hi all,

Just a few more questions.

Firstly…
I’ve got TRO 3028, TRO Succession Wars/Record Sheets, The Wave 1 and Wave 2 Record sheets and downloaded most of the other record sheets from the bg.battletech site. I still can’t find any record sheets for tanks and infantry (other than the Elementals in Wave 1).
Is there any particular Record Sheet pdf I need to buy to get some of the most popular tank/vehicle records?

Secondly…
Are these Forcepacks purposefully impossible to get in the UK?
•Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star
•Eridani Light Horse Hunter Lance
•Hansen's Roughriders Battle Lance
•Northwind Highlanders Command Lance
•Kell Hounds Striker Lance
•Gray Death Legion Heavy Battle Lance

Thanks again.

The force packs you listed are all based on distribution deals between CGL and individual US retailers. Some of them are coming to the end of the exclusivity deal, so should be available elsewhere over the next 12 months or so. All of them except the Grey Death Legion I think are available through the Merc Kickstarter, for example, because when the Kickstarter fulfils, they will be out of the exclusivity time period.

Its not so much that they were deliberately excluding the UK, more that they were purposefully giving individual retailers benefits, and they are all based in the US.

Sheets for the most common vehicles pre-Clan are in the RS3039 Upgrades Unabridged, Infantry is I believe in one ore more of the later (3075+) but I do not know for sure and I think it's not for every unit type. Post-Clan sheets for those vehicles are in 3058UU, Star League in 3050UU, Clan in 3060UU and likely more in the later ones.

I assume with Wave 1/Wave 2 RS you mean from the first KS, yes?
As they are specific to the KS, they only contain Sheets for those units.

The Succession Wars RS compilation specifically contains only Mech sheets, not the vehicle sheets that are contained in the original RS that make up the compilations base. Probably because they were focusing on Mechs before the Mercenaries KS.

New official sheets for vehicles will come with said KS and possbily later add-ons, but since then I suggest simply going for the older versions or making your own from the blank ones.

 Flinty wrote:
The force packs you listed are all based on distribution deals between CGL and individual US retailers. Some of them are coming to the end of the exclusivity deal, so should be available elsewhere over the next 12 months or so. All of them except the Grey Death Legion I think are available through the Merc Kickstarter, for example, because when the Kickstarter fulfils, they will be out of the exclusivity time period.

Its not so much that they were deliberately excluding the UK, more that they were purposefully giving individual retailers benefits, and they are all based in the US.

Thanks. Hopefully they'll make some more and release them elsewhere. They look like nice packs with a jetpack launching model in most.

 MarcusConstantin wrote:
Sheets for the most common vehicles pre-Clan are in the RS3039 Upgrades Unabridged, Infantry is I believe in one ore more of the later (3075+) but I do not know for sure and I think it's not for every unit type. Post-Clan sheets for those vehicles are in 3058UU, Star League in 3050UU, Clan in 3060UU and likely more in the later ones.

Thanks for the info. I just bought myself the 3039 Unabridged from drivethrurpg. 504 pages with a LOT of vehicle record sheets. Thanks.

 MarcusConstantin wrote:

I assume with Wave 1/Wave 2 RS you mean from the first KS, yes?
As they are specific to the KS, they only contain Sheets for those units.

Yes. Official downloads from the website, but so far they cover every plastic 'mech I've bought and all the Force packs, except those named mercenaries which have their own downloads.

 MarcusConstantin wrote:

The Succession Wars RS compilation specifically contains only Mech sheets, not the vehicle sheets that are contained in the original RS that make up the compilations base. Probably because they were focusing on Mechs before the Mercenaries KS.

New official sheets for vehicles will come with said KS and possbily later add-ons, but since then I suggest simply going for the older versions or making your own from the blank ones.

I couple of weeks ago I coughed up for the $150 late backer. I would have added more, but it was before payday, and I was also worried about the shipping costs and taxes yet to be added.

 Gimgamgoo wrote:
Is there any particular Record Sheet pdf I need to buy to get some of the most popular tank/vehicle records?

There is an alternative route. There are a few unit creation programs running around, and a few have the ability to provide the Record Sheets of Combat Vehicles, including having the files to print from.

Of these, MegaMekLab is my favorite. Not only do they have a huge selection of official Vehicle Record Sheets (depending on version downloaded), but it can also any other unit in Battletech you can think of from the PBI in Conventional Infantry, the more powerful Battle Armor Infantry, Fighters, Drop Ships, and even Warships.

One of the reasons I like MegaMekLab is that it provides the capacity to have Reference Charts on the side of the Record Sheet. It makes the pips smaller, but it is helpful for knowing where you can take a Combat Vehicle and reminds one of what one's Target Movement Modifier is for one's Movement.

Edit: I've attached the PDF I made for the Transports we use. I would have given our Combat group, but it's just barely too big.

I have a beginner question now that my favorite webshop has started to stock the starter boxes.

How do you all do the record sheet markings prosess? stickers, pencils, photocopy the hit boxes model? Cus there is no card sleeves that are that large right?

 FrozenDwarf wrote:
I have a beginner question now that my favorite webshop has started to stock the starter boxes.

How do you all do the record sheet markings prosess? stickers, pencils, photocopy the hit boxes model? Cus there is no card sleeves that are that large right?

Probably everyone has different ways, I have a laminator so it’s easy to use that and dry erase.
But I also use a iPad a lot.
I have also seen plastic folio used a lot, art stores should have them.
Probably even more ways to do it.

 FrozenDwarf wrote:
I have a beginner question now that my favorite webshop has started to stock the starter boxes.

How do you all do the record sheet markings prosess? stickers, pencils, photocopy the hit boxes model? Cus there is no card sleeves that are that large right?

I've just been printing the pages I need for a game from the pdf. A few pages per month or so isn't too bad.

 FrozenDwarf wrote:
How do you all do the record sheet markings prosess? stickers, pencils, photocopy the hit boxes model? Cus there is no card sleeves that are that large right?

You mean like clear sheet protectors?

I used them and dry erase markers for a time. The sheet shifts, though, so sometimes it doesn't keep up well.

Since I have a laser printer at home, and 9/10 don't take the same unit all the time, I've stopped bothering.

News from Pax West via the BattleTech Forums:

Lorcan Nagle wrote:So Catalyst are streaming all weekend again, and there doesn't seem to be much discussion of it on the boards. Or, to be fair much promotion of it on their social media as far as I can see. They went for about 8 hours yesterday and seem to be planning the same all weekend. And here's yesterday's streams timestamped. It's mostly Shadowrun Takedown because the Kickstarter is closing out in 7 hours as of the time I'm typing this.

Intro and quick chat with Randall
Takedown prototype unboxing
Takedown playthrough with Dylan, Devon and Tommy from Lynnvander
Discussion between Randall, Tommy from Lynnvander and Jerry and Eric from Penny Arcade
Takedown development chat with Tommy and Dylan
Second Takedown playthrough with Dylan, Devon and Tommy from Lynnvander
Wrapup and chat with Randall

BattleTech stuff from Randall's chats:

*There should be an Aces update in the next few weeks
*Hour of the Wolf Audiobook is almost complete
*No plans to move the GoAC mechs to Forcepacks at present. It'll only happen when and if new minis are swapped in for a new edition.
*Ongoing global shipping issues mean Randall doesn't want to commit to any solid dates for Kickstarter fulfilment, but things are still looking good.
*BattleTech COMMAND is still progressing through development. It's designed by FASA veteran Jim Long, of Black Thorns fame.
*Randall didn't want to say much about the 40th anniversary but he did reveal that they'll be issuing a reprint of The Succession Wars, like how they're reprinting Shadowrun 1st edition for the 35th anniversary.
*The new grand strategy game is "about 85% done", needs 2-3 playtest cycles.
*They're still working on getting con swag onto the store as a standard thing.
*Kickstarter stuff should start hitting stores 2-3 months after backer fulfillment.
*Force Manual: Draconis Combine is heading into layout, art review is just complete
*Universe is finished now, Randall is very proud of it.
*Discussions for Kickstarter 3 have begun, it'll probably be 2-3 years before we see it
*The PoD program is still getting back on its feet, the guy they hired to do this got dragged into working on Universe
*House Arano will probably get more products - an advantage of the Kickstarters is they can get a good look at what factions people love, and Arano are in the top 10.
*Samples of a lot of material including the first 7 forcepacks and the 2 mercs boxes are on their way to Randall at the moment, he'll be taking photos as soon as he can.
*John Helfers will hopefully be putting out a new fiction announcement in a few weeks, he's at Dragoncon this weekend.
*No plans to return to the Homeworld Clans at present. They're still waiting for the right story to come along.
*Den of Wolves has only a couple of chapters left to complete.
*There will hopefully be an update for the Clan Invasion Kickstarter digital products soon.
*The GenCon mugs will hopefully be on the store in a month or so
*They are continuing to have problems finding a partner for the EU store, they're in discussion with some new people now. But when Kickstarter fulfillment ramps up it's going to take up most of the company's bandwidth for a few months.
*Randall's been too busy to write recently but he's still working on his Nova Cat/Spirit Cat novel.

I've been reading through old Battletech books I had in a box.

I forgot how infuriating the end of the FedCom Civil War was XD

Personally, the START of the FCCW is more upsetting than the end.

I really am hoping to make BT my new game. Outside of AoS, and KT/BB I dunno if I wana keep going with GW. Blood Bowl and Battletech have been the most fun I've had on the tabletop with in ages.

However I def am not used to the scale. I bought the starter set, Clan Invasion and the Alpha strike box. Plus a handful of boxes. I'm def used to 40k and it's scale. I've way more then I need. So I'm trying to organize my mechs into various lances and the Clan equivalent.


I really like the Ghost Bears, Draconis Combine, Rasalouge and the Northwind Highlanders.