Wehrkind wrote:What rules are used for Battletech these days? I just found a bunch of old Ral Partha ‘Mechs, tanks and elemental infantry in my folk's basement that I didn't know I had ever owned. I presume the old "Battle Tech Compendium" with the Clan ‘Mechand elemental infantry on the front is not still what's used, right?
The current ruleset, which I guess is either the 5th or 6th Ed, isn't actually much different to the other versions. There's been some streamlining of things where it made sense (the 'Reactions/Torso-Twist' phase is gone - you just torso-twist in the shooting phase) and there has been an overhaul of the way tanks work (they
work now), and the way infantry work (it doesn't take 3 months to work out how to do a Swarm Attack).
Their
website www.classicbattletech.com goes into detail about what's what, but the three main products are:
1. Classic BattleTech Introductory Boxed Set - Contains all the basic rules you'll need to play plus some 'beginner/starter' rules to get you used to the core concepts, a couple of (low quality) starter mapsheets, a good 'overview' of the current state of the BattleTech Universe (which is about 10 times more detailed than
40K's background) and, most importantly, 24 plastic 'Mech models. The plastic models are made cheaply, and do require a bit of touching up (flash here, mould lines there), but given the price of the box it is incredible what you get for that money. Well worth it and, in a lot of ways, unlike
40K, BattleTech is only as expensive as you want it to be, so you can just make do with this box.
2. Total Warfare: Classic BattleTech Rulebook - This is sort of the next step from the introductory box. It has the full rules for 'Mechs, tanks, infantry, battle armour, Proto-Mechs, conventional aircraft, aerospace fighters, terrain effects, buildings and so on. The only things its missing are WarShips, more detailed space combat and naval-class weapon rules, and artillery. This book is very well written; everything is made clear in some very detailed examples. Everything is in full colour with excellent production values, and, especially as its on the second printing, most of the bugs from the original release have been ironed out. Everything just works.
3. Tech-Manual - A book for both fluff junkies and those who like to make their own 'Mechs, this non-essential book contains the construction rules for making every type of vehicle in the game besides Artillery and WarShips. Want to make an IndustrialMech? A Drop Ship? Some Light Battle Armour? This book has everything in extraordinary detail, plus full fluff descriptions of virtually every weapon, system and item in the game, plus full game stats for everything (even, say, different manufactures of basic assault rifles and pistols, even if in-game there's no actual difference in their rules).
Soon these 3 books will have a new book added to them, Tactical Operations, which will contain full rules for space combat, artillery, plus numerous advanced rules for more detailed weather effects, damage effects, pilot abilities plus heaps of new stuff. Then, sometimes in a year or so, we'll get Strategic Operations, which is a book all about running campaigns, and as someone who loves campaigns over all else, that's the book I'm looking forward to.
So jump over to their website and take a look. Now is the best time to get back into the game, as the core rules have never been so well presented in a single book before, rather than all over the place (like it was in 3rd and 4th Ed).
BYE
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