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Just got the BattleTech GoAC box set from Salute and one of the many questions I have is:

Are there defined paint schemes for the main houses or themes that one should follow? If so is there a painting guide?

Next!

I’ll be running games of BT with a mate and my son and it falls to me to get some starter teams together. What should I be looking for next. We’ll probably be Mech only for the foreseeable but what packs should I look to get some balanced forces together.

And question the last:
Sticking with the Succesion Wars era. Where to start with fiction? If the Humble RPG deal is still going will that be a good source of info?

That covers it….for now.

CamoSpecs Online is "the official online canon source for BattleTech paint schemes!".


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And Buyers Guide infographic:

When it comes to color schemes, it very much is 'anything goes'. Paint your minis however you want. Most units use camo when deployed, and the bright or fancy color schemes are usually parade colors.

Now yes, there are 'official' color schemes for many units in the BT universe. But just because there is an official color scheme for a unit, that does not mean every 'mech in the unit - or even a majority of them - will be in that color scheme.

My favorite example is Sorenson's Sabres, a company in the 5th Sword of Light regiment. The 5th is a bodyguard unit for the Kurita family of the Draconis combine, and as such you'd expect the unit to be in 'dress' colors at all times. For the Sword of Light regiments, that's a deep red. However, in 3025 Sorenson's Sabres consisted of the following 'mechs and paint schemes.

A Marauder in standard colors.
A Warhammer in vertical stripes of blue and gold.
A Samurai (aerospace fighter) painted white with red polka-dots and a crude shark's mouth on the nose.
A Phoenix Hawk described as 'in desperate need of a paint job'.
A Longbow in standard colors.
A Rifleman painted with black and blue blotches to reflect the battered condition of the 'mech.
A Trebuchet in camouflage.
A Stinger, freshly captured from the Federated Suns and still bearing that insignia.
An Archer painted dull silver.
A Phoenix Hawk LAM (Land-Air Mech, basically a Macross Valkrye) in white and greyish-blue.
A Hermes III in desert colors.
and a Wasp in solid dark brown.

Twelve vehicles in this company of an elite bodyguard regiment, and only TWO are in standard regimental colors, with three more not fully defined that might also partially be in regimental colors.

If the pilots of the 5th Sword of Light can get away with painting their 'mechs any way they want, so can you. And yes, that does include sticking strictly to a regimental paint scheme if you like.


For balancing forces, it's probably best to stick to Battle Values. Tonnage can be swingy, C-bill cost even more so. The current Battle Value (BV) ranking is version 2.0, but I hear 3.0 is in development. It's not perfect, but way better than the alternatives. You can get the BV values for most if not all standard 'mechs and variants at Sarna.Net, the BattleTech wiki. There are probably other sites with better organized lists, but Sarna is a good overall resource to start with.

Succession Wars fiction? You're going back to the early days of BattleTech. The Grey Death Legion trilogy was the first and is... okay. Probably the best of the early stuff is the Warrior trilogy. Wolves on the Border decent too.

The trick is, a lot of the early fiction was kinda rough. Not necessarily bad, but the fluff was just settling out and the writers getting started. It's not going to be Shakespear, or even Star Wars, for the most part.

PHFFT...the 5th....those losers have no honor. we in the second swords always show our proud kurita colors.

(don't mind those cheeky 2nd derions along for the ride in their preferred cammo mountain fighting scheme).




In all seriousness the BT universe is a big place you can go official, making your force easy to recognize, of make your own merc company or pirate band.

A lot of that comes down to how invested in the lore you become. As an old school player i am down to playing specific units in each faction because i love the background, and FASA even put out field manuals that give each unit a handful of optional special rules for table top play.

For succession wars battles the easy way to start is just put a lance (4 mechs) on the table with 1 of each weight class and standard pilots (4 gunner /5 piloting) just to get a feel for the core mechanics of the game. remember that there are tomes of optional official rules to pick from when you get to that point.

Thanks all for the input.

I want to try and stick with a cohesive paint scheme for three lances for three of us so will use House Colours and maybe add some extra hints of flair!

Me and my son will probably paint up the box set minis this Easter weekend and throw some dice then.

I also punted for the Humble Bundle…bundle…No need for extra fiction now when I have all this to go through.

 Mr. Burning wrote:
Thanks all for the input.

I want to try and stick with a cohesive paint scheme for three lances for three of us so will use House Colours and maybe add some extra hints of flair!

Me and my son will probably paint up the box set minis this Easter weekend and throw some dice then.

I also punted for the Humble Bundle…bundle…No need for extra fiction now when I have all this to go through.

Does punted mean you bought it? Over here it means you decided to decide later.

If you haven't, I'd definitely buy the Humble Bundle. It actually doesn't have much fiction and much of the background is well beyond the Succession wars. However the current bundle does have the full Battletech "Total War" Rules (more than the abbreviated version you have) and the full Alpha Strike rules. Alpha Strike is an excellent way to play larger, faster battles in the Battletech universe. It also has the force Manuals for Davion and Kurita which apply to the Succession Wars. All this for half the price of just one of those books.

For learning to play, I actually recommend going with 3 Gunnery and 4 Piloting.

The difference in 3 and 4 Gunnery is actually quite large, especially once you start Jumping.

 Charistoph wrote:
For learning to play, I actually recommend going with 3 Gunnery and 4 Piloting.

The difference in 3 and 4 Gunnery is actually quite large, especially once you start Jumping.

I think the standard "back in the day" Mechwarrior, i.e. a lifetime ago when I was playing, was 4/5 Gunnery/Piloting. 3/4 was for Lance Leaders and the like, and 2/3 was for Heroes, Company/Battalion/Regiment Commanders, and Clan Mechwarriors (when their rules showed up and ruined the game (damn, I'm old)).

Most of the game was balanced around 4/5, but hitting more often and not falling down as much certainly made it faster and more fun, so 3/4 (or even better to learn the game mechanics without taking all evening) is certainly a good option.

 Eilif wrote:

 Mr. Burning wrote:
Thanks all for the input.

I want to try and stick with a cohesive paint scheme for three lances for three of us so will use House Colours and maybe add some extra hints of flair!

Me and my son will probably paint up the box set minis this Easter weekend and throw some dice then.

I also punted for the Humble Bundle…bundle…No need for extra fiction now when I have all this to go through.

Does punted mean you bought it? Over here it means you decided to decide later.

If you haven't, I'd definitely buy the Humble Bundle. It actually doesn't have much fiction and much of the background is well beyond the Succession wars. However the current bundle does have the full Battletech "Total War" Rules (more than the abbreviated version you have) and the full Alpha Strike rules. Alpha Strike is an excellent way to play larger, faster battles in the Battletech universe. It also has the force Manuals for Davion and Kurita which apply to the Succession Wars. All this for half the price of just one of those books.

I brought it!

I am flicking through BT Universe. Happy to have Total War and Alpha Strike as options to play.

 Mr. Burning wrote:

 Eilif wrote:



If you haven't, I'd definitely buy the Humble Bundle.

I brought it!

I am flicking through BT Universe. Happy to have Total War and Alpha Strike as options to play.

Enjoy! Alpha Strike in particular is a ton of fun. The MUL provides free cards for virtually any version of any mech in the BT universe. It's quite a rabbit hole...
http://masterunitlist.info/Unit/Filter

 Kagetora wrote:

 Charistoph wrote:
For learning to play, I actually recommend going with 3 Gunnery and 4 Piloting.

The difference in 3 and 4 Gunnery is actually quite large, especially once you start Jumping.

I think the standard "back in the day" Mechwarrior, i.e. a lifetime ago when I was playing, was 4/5 Gunnery/Piloting. 3/4 was for Lance Leaders and the like, and 2/3 was for Heroes, Company/Battalion/Regiment Commanders, and Clan Mechwarriors (when their rules showed up and ruined the game (damn, I'm old)).

Most of the game was balanced around 4/5, but hitting more often and not falling down as much certainly made it faster and more fun, so 3/4 (or even better to learn the game mechanics without taking all evening) is certainly a good option.

True, 4/5 is a Regular pilot.

However, you tend to learn more when you actually interact with things. So, hitting once every 3 Turns won't help you learn what to do after Hitting. So, 3/4 is a good standard while learning the ropes. 4 Piloting is also high enough that you actually wonder if getting hit with Damage might cause you to fall, as opposed to 2/3.

Well,

My son and me played our first games of BT this weekend!

Playing the scenarios as given in the starter rules.

Having only skimmed the rules before we started, we both wondered why missiles were so weak. Until my son pointed out the section we missed!

Also, we realised that we were playing from two totally different roster sheet sets. I gave him the additional addendum sheets for Ilclan? mechs. That came in the box! I thought they were straight duplicates…lesson learned!

Apart from this we thought the game played well. What looks an intensive exercise in bookkeeping is fairly straightforwards to understand and thus keep track.

My son deliberately ran his catapult hard in Scenario 1 in order to see the effects of heat. We both assume that as lethality increases when closing on your opponent the trade off is melting your own mechs to slag by being too aggressive?

Also we were hugely surprised and entertained by the Locust and Commando. Clutch for my Son in Scenario 1 where both delivered killing blows with Criticals.

I will say that I will be printing out scenery at the first opportunity. And maybe a marauder or two..

 Mr. Burning wrote:
Well,

My son and me played our first games of BT this weekend!

Playing the scenarios as given in the starter rules.

Having only skimmed the rules before we started, we both wondered why missiles were so weak. Until my son pointed out the section we missed!

Also, we realised that we were playing from two totally different roster sheet sets. I gave him the additional addendum sheets for Ilclan? mechs. That came in the box! I thought they were straight duplicates…lesson learned!

Apart from this we thought the game played well. What looks an intensive exercise in bookkeeping is fairly straightforwards to understand and thus keep track.

My son deliberately ran his catapult hard in Scenario 1 in order to see the effects of heat. We both assume that as lethality increases when closing on your opponent the trade off is melting your own mechs to slag by being too aggressive?

Also we were hugely surprised and entertained by the Locust and Commando. Clutch for my Son in Scenario 1 where both delivered killing blows with Criticals.

I will say that I will be printing out scenery at the first opportunity. And maybe a marauder or two..

It sounds like you're playing with old-school, Inner Sphere mechs without Clan Tech (Catapult, Locust, Commando, Marauder)? That was always my favorite, and yes, you're correct about the effects of heat. When you play with just IS tech, you have to balance four things:
--Speed
--Armor
--Firepower/Damage Output
--Heat

You're going to be either mediocre at all four of them, pick one or two to be good at while being terrible at the others, or pick one to be great at while the rest suffer. Overheating your mech too badly can be crippling. IIRC (it's been a while) you ammo can even cook off. Pop. No more mech.

If Clan Tech has been introduced already, well, all that goes out the window. Weapons are lighter and more deadly, armor and internal structure are lighter leaving more room for weapons/armor, and the penalties for heat just vanish with double heat sinks. XL Engines give an enormous speed boost and also save weight for everything else.

I preferred the original over the later, but I've often been in the minority of that opinion. Such is life.

Once you get the rules down, and get good at play, you'll find you hardly need to slow down to look at anything in the books. Usually just the chart to see how many missiles hit. Glad you enjoyed it! I miss the weekends we used to play in college, with battalions (36+ mechs) on each side, usually taking both Saturday and Sunday, and a few people per side. And lots of beer.

Intro-tech teaches you all the basics of maneuver, combat, heat management, and tactics. And I always recommend new players start there and play until they become comfortable enough with the rules to not need to refer to the books very often.

Then you can start adding more technology to the game without it becoming a huge burden of stuff to learn all at once.

The big thing to remember about technology is that there is a limit on how much armor you can fit on a 'mech, and that limit does not increase as technology advances. Technology may make it easier to have the tonnage available to max out the armor on a 'mech, but (to use the most famous example) you're never going to make a 100-tonner noticeably more armored than the intro-tech Atlas. The rules just don't permit it.

What tends to happen is weapons just get more and more lethal and longer-ranged, meaning battles tend to end much faster, and mistakes cost more when you make them.

Which is a big reason why some players prefer to stick to lower technology levels.

Mr. Burning wrote:My son and me played our first games of BT this weekend!

Cool!

Mr. Burning wrote:Having only skimmed the rules before we started, we both wondered why missiles were so weak. Until my son pointed out the section we missed!

Yeah, those Cluster Rolls are easy to miss, and deceptively powerful in the right conditions.

Mr. Burning wrote:Also, we realised that we were playing from two totally different roster sheet sets. I gave him the additional addendum sheets for Ilclan? mechs. That came in the box! I thought they were straight duplicates…lesson learned!

"Hey Dad, why does my PPC hit farther than yours? And why did they put 'ER' on the front? Is it for the Emergency Room?"

Mr. Burning wrote:Apart from this we thought the game played well. What looks an intensive exercise in bookkeeping is fairly straightforwards to understand and thus keep track.

Once you understand it, it can move pretty quickly. I've been able to play pretty consistently for the last 4 years, and a good portion of my group can run a company v company in the same time it takes some people to run a Lance v Lance, and we're using all sorts of crazy Advanced rules, too!

Mr. Burning wrote:My son deliberately ran his catapult hard in Scenario 1 in order to see the effects of heat. We both assume that as lethality increases when closing on your opponent the trade off is melting your own mechs to slag by being too aggressive?

If they have Ammo, they can turn in to confetti pretty easily, yeah. Otherwise, they effectively get drunk: slow and inaccurate.

Mr. Burning wrote:Also we were hugely surprised and entertained by the Locust and Commando. Clutch for my Son in Scenario 1 where both delivered killing blows with Criticals.

Everyone laughs at the Lights until they do a Through-Armor-Critical (TAC) in to your Ammo Bay from the Rear.

Mr. Burning wrote:I will say that I will be printing out scenery at the first opportunity. And maybe a marauder or two..

Fun!

Vulcan wrote:The big thing to remember about technology is that there is a limit on how much armor you can fit on a 'mech, and that limit does not increase as technology advances. Technology may make it easier to have the tonnage available to max out the armor on a 'mech, but (to use the most famous example) you're never going to make a 100-tonner noticeably more armored than the intro-tech Atlas. The rules just don't permit it.

Great Turtle waves hi... very slowly. But that's a very special case. I think the Xanthos carries more Armor, too, I believe, but it has 4 Legs instead of 2, and Legs carry more Armor.