Adepticus Titanicus vs Battletech

I'm in for BattleTech due to several reasons, but just curious how these two recent big robot battle systems fare head to head.

I think Barnes may be the only one here who's played both? Anyone else? Thoughts between the two?

I’m looking at both, but the cash sink is pushing me towards Battletech

Yes, the big question is, if Adepticus is the better game, is it better by enough to justify its cost?

The truth of it is that virtually everything about AT is superior from the lore to the rules to the strategies. It’s just as detailed and cinematic, but the rules are much more compact. The weapons are a lot cooler, but that is tied to lore. The models are incredible and fun to hobby up, the Battletech minis are...kind of a joke in comparison, but they are practical and totally fine. Having to choose one, it would be AT without question.

However, cost is the biggest problem. If you can get a Grandmaster set, that is $250 and it gets you 2 warlords and 2 banners of knights, along with some terrain (about half of what you really need for a 4’x4’) and all of the accessories you need to play. But you are at a minimum going to want a Reaver for each side ($51 each street) and two Warhound kits (2 per kit, $55 street). So the outlay is at almost $500 right there. Adding additional variant Titans (there are two kits for the Warlord and Reaver), extra Knight banners, Cerastus Knights, additional terminals/weapon cards, weapon sprues (and 5mm magnets) more terrain...you see where this is going. It is very much a Cadillac game. I am thinking about getting a set of the Forge World AT terrain boards. The full set is $400. But I do like this game that much.

Battletech, $20 and you can play today with no hobbying required and the smallest maps can almost fit on an airplane tray table. You just need dice, pencils (or dry erase markers) and photocopies. Go nuts and buy the big box for another $50 and you are still at a fraction of the cost of AT.

Fundamentally, the games describe very similar things and there are concepts that cross over. Another thing to consider though is that AT is a modern, James Hewitt design based on the older game. Battletech is a 35 year old game that hasn’t really changed all that much. Interpret that how you will, you are probably correct without ever touching either game.

Battletech plays more like a hex and counter wargame- it compares closely to Ogre. AT is 100 percent a miniatures game.

Another, more subtle point- Battletech is more of a realistic military setting. The mechs feel like tanks. The weapons are all grounded in realism. AT, you have skyscraper-scaled engines that have sometimes fussy machine spirits that shoot missles that are capable of traveling through the Warp and materializing inside shield barriers

Longview, Battletech offers more for right now. There are hundreds of mechs, rules for all kinds of additional elements such as infantry and conventional armor, role-playing Mechwarriors, and so forth. AT is, for right now, strictly Loyalist versus Traitor Horus Heresy (not 40k) with only Titans and Knights.

Finally, if you want mechs that can jump- Battletech. No jumping in AT.

Jump jets are pure joy, so that's a huge plus for Battletech. Not to mention not having to spend hundreds of dollars and then tons of hours assembling / painting.

hotseatgames wrote: Yes, the big question is, if Adepticus is the better game, is it better by enough to justify its cost?

I think the answer to that lies in how interested you are in the AT hobby. If you like the mechs and are excited to build them out and give them all unique paint jobs, name them, and get into the Horus Heresy setting through the game...then yes. If you are strictly interested in playing a mech game and don’t really care about all of the above, then no.

Michael Barnes wrote: Finally, if you want mechs that can jump- Battletech. No jumping in AT.

That Battletech has the rules to model one mech jumping on another mech, like some sort of colossal robot Mario, makes every other game that doesn't have this rule feel spiritually hollow. And I mean every other game, not just games ostensibly about mechs.

Death from Above, baby. It’s fun.

In AT though, you do NOT want to be standing on top of a mech when it pops off.

If I remember correctly from the half-dozen Battletech novels I read as a teenager, there was also a move where a mech could kick their opponent whilst simultaneously firing their jump jets. I don't know if this leaked into the game itself, but if it did, this is also a Very Important Rule.

Michael Barnes wrote: Death from Above, baby. It’s fun.

If AT was set in 40K, with miniatures I could throw into a Knight/IG/AdMech soup list, I would be far more inclined to bite. I’ve already invested in vanilla 40K with a backlog of stuff to paint, starting with Kill Team armies and with some plans to build out to a few 1000 point armies.

With the popularity of Knights, I’m surprised they didn’t go with a game centred around those models. Possibly for the best; Knights are an overwhelming battlefield presence and have turned 40K into an almost entirely mechanized meta. Offering a discount pack of the things would hasten the flood of the bastards and act as a barrier to casual entry.

A quick search shows the Rules Set on eBay for $51. Could one get that and just use proxy minis?

Ha ha, if AT were 40k scale, you’d need like a tennis court to play on.

Setting it in HH was really smart.
This means only one kit per Titan, apart from variant weapon sprues. Some minor livery options included, and you have one kit that services both sides. I think it is very unlikely we will see Xenos kits, but if the game performs well I could see some more Chaos-y models happening.

Knights are great, they are basically the infantry at this scale. They are super fragile, so they have to play a cover/positioning game to get into the rear/flanks. Once they get inside shields, they can be deadly AF with bonuses to strength and also the ability to target already damaged areas.

Little weird that they can chainsword a Warlord’s head, but hey. Maybe jump jets?

SebastianBludd wrote: A quick search shows the Rules Set on eBay for $51. Could one get that and just use proxy minis?

Yeah, you can. That box actually has the terminals and weapon cards in it. You would likely need to gin up something if you are using a different scale or base sizes though.

I meant with Knights in 40K not Titans lol. Goddamn, a Titan could stare down a 5000 point army and roast it in a turn.

As is, a few Knights can put a serious dent in a decent sized force.