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Classic Battletech?
- Mr. Bistro
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- Deciduous Shrub
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Firstly what Catalyst's goal is: Over the decades that rules and fluff was printed for BT, there was really no central controlling force taht made sure balance was maintained and continuity existed and rule contradictions were present. Catalyst is looking to collect everything to streamline the rules and connects everything together.
The intro set will give you enough to play and keep playing for a while. Usually you'll play with less than a half dozen mechs per side so 24 will give you a lot of variety and many, many games of enjoyment. Basic expansion from here would be duplicate mechs of the 24 if you want a larger selection for army construction. Additional maps if you want other battlefields to fight on. Now I'm not positive, but I think there are some additional TechReadouts for mechs which don't have models in the game. I also think there are basic construction rules to build your own mechs. I'm not positive on these two though but if that is the case it just adds more possibility to the base game.
The Total Warfare book is what includes rules for Aorotech, infantry, tanks, VTOLs...etc. Really not necessary unless you want to expand into those areas. I believe all the rules regarding Mech on Mech combat in the TW book are included in the Intro Box but I'm not 100% positive. The book is a $40 hardcover book.
The second book is the Tech Manual. This gives you the tools to create and build your own mech designs as well as the ground and air units. It may contain additional TechReadouts but I'm not positive. This as well is a $40 hardcover book.
But those two books should cover just about everything that you want to know and quite frankly will cover more than you'd care to know if you're like me and just interested in Mech on Mech combat then half of those books are a waste of pages. Basically these two books collect all the rules for different combat units (both BattleTech and AeroTech) and unit construction for those games.
There are a bunch of "Technical Readouts" and other "Faction" books. These go anywhere from $20-30. Unless you really, really get into the world you shouldn't need any of them to play. I'm sure you can find TechReadouts for other Mechs online. If you want basic Mech on Mech combat then all you should need is the Intro Set. Everything else is just there to answer the question: "How far do I want to expand and take this?"
Hopefully this helps.
LvT
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Battletech is the first real game I played when I was probably 14. I've been a fanatic since then, but never can get people to play it.
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- Mr. Bistro
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Absolutely! I'm only interested in 'mech fights, so the introductory box set will be all I need, and maybe the tech readouts. Knowing my love of miniatures I'll probably have to buy the tech readouts just so I can but a lot more miniatures.Hopefully this helps.
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Also check out the Catalyst website...There are a lot of downloads there. A lot look like preview articles, but it does look like you can download the QuickStart rules.
And damn you...The same day I was talking about trimming down my miniature collection, to just a handful whereas I now have close to a dozen, this one was going to get the axe since I haven't spent much time or money on it and thus don't have much to "cut my losses on" you bring this up...And now I'm having my doubts.
LvT
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LvT
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Interestingly, echoes of BattleTech became apparent after I got hooked on Heroscape a few years ago. I think it scratches many of the same itches.
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- Mr. Bistro
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I love Battletech but can never seem to get anyone interested in playing. I have the old core rules set, but haven't picked up the new rules. I am interested in someday trying to make a giant Battletech campaign with ground, air and space combat.
Battletech is the first real game I played when I was probably 14. I've been a fanatic since then, but never can get people to play it.
I am on the same boat
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Just a few years back they were about $6-8 a pop on average. Now it looks like they run in a range of $8.50-12 per model.
A place I've had some luck with ordering is:
www.thewarstore.com
It looks like they average about 20% off. You'll just have to find the model on Iron Wind Metals (producer of BT minis) to actually see what you're buying.
http://ironwindmetals.com/d/index.php
Then there is always eBay where you might be able to find some lots for a reasonable price.
LvT
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http://ironwindmetals.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=16
http://www.thewarstore.com/ironwindmetals.html
Also, don't be surprised if the models don't come with a hex base. If I recall correctly those have to be bought seperately.
LvT
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Back to the box: As others have noted, you can go a hella long way with it, especially if you don't care about adding in "advanced" tech (what used to be Level 2 or Level 3 stuff). One thing I *would* suggest picking up with the box, or soon after, is a map compliation--both for some more variety and, unless CGL has already changed the crap maps in the original run of the box, for sheer quality reasons.
As to the hardcovers: There are a series of "core" books, although some are more core than others. Total Warfare is the full tournament-level ruleset. Techmanual has the construction rules for the "standard" 'Mechs. Those two would be the next logical step up. After that, Tactical Ops covers advanced rules for combat. There are some more books coming out, like Strategic Ops, which offers a simplified Aerotech system and some other cool stuff. There are also all kinds of fluff books, including the aforementioned Technical Readouts, "starter" books, Field Manuals, House handbooks, etc., not to mention the novels that are restarting.
If people can't find players at all, there's always MegaMek. I've never played it despite downloading the client, but it's a free CBT service.
megamek.sourceforge.net/idx.php?pg=main
One way to try to hook people, even without the box set, is getting the free Quick-Start rules, downloadable from classicbattletech.com.
I've reviewed the Quick-Start rules and the Intro Box on BGG.
www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/165041
www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/241082
CBT is probably THE one game I wish I could play more. As it is, it's about once every three months or so FTF.
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- Mr. Bistro
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In some ways I wonder if the boxed set is a good business move for Catalyst. For people not looking to immerse themselves in Battletech it really is amazingly complete. You get a buttload of mechs, stats for all them including a few variants, very complete rules, including rules for designing your own units. I really dig this set, but it in no way makes me want to purchase more books.
I will definitely be picking up some more models from IW though.
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