Battletech - 35th Anniversary Beginner's Box and Intro Set Review

It _appears_ as if both of these are still available through the Catalyst store. Has anyone ordered through them before?

I would like to have some mounted maps at least. Didn't they sell some packs of 'em separately at one point?

Mr. White wrote: I would like to have some mounted maps at least. Didn't they sell some packs of 'em separately at one point?

There are piles of hex maps you can use for Battletech. They're a standard size. You can even print your own.

I was a down-deep Star Fleet Battles guy, so this game just clicked the first time we played it back then. Almost seemed easy in comparison. I enjoyed it back then and had a brief renaissance with the 25th edition back maybe four or five years back. One particular session was particularly memorable, where my son beat me only because he won initiative turn after turn after turn, as he only had weapons with range 1. He could stand beside me every time because he got last move. Had I won initiative even once, I could have taken two steps away from him and unloaded with all my weapons that had a minimum range of 2. Really odd turn of events. Took his six or seven turns to finish me off.

Naturally that would be declared a tragic flaw in a modern game, but hey -- them's the breaks. This kind of game has stuff happen in it that makes you roll with the punches. That's the game I remember, the rest are just a mash of positive impression.

Not a tragic flaw at all in my book.

I read a little on the GATOR system for combat resolution. Seems pretty straight forward to me.

If anyone lives in the Cincinnati area you can buy Mechs by the pound from Ral Partha/Iron Wind Metals. One of my buddies who has been to the shop says it works out to about 3.50 a mech. I think they also sell the Crimson Skies planes.

And if you don't have the maps you can always use Heroscape terrain.

MechWarrior prepainted CMG by Wizkids was really good. I spent hundreds on it.

Battletech on the other hand, not so much. Or at all.

Buy the old clix stuff if you want a decent MechWarrior experience. Most are pretty cheap nowadays and through secondary market you have the advantage of alacarte instead of blind buy.

Mr. White!
I just wrote this on BGG too.
I received my Introductory box from Catalyst this week. $27 shipped.
I bought the larger box via CSI a month ago.

I'll be painting 10 mechs over the next three weeks in preparation for an old high school reunion throw-down. Thankfully, we'll be rolling dice in Brooklyn instead of the backwater shit hole we grew up in.

I've always wanted to give Battletech a try and ended up trying it out this morning at a local convention.

I expected a very complex, heavily dated game but I think the actual structure of the game is very simple. The movement system is great, for example, and the way in which you add modifiers is old-fashioned but well-made. I expected the game to slow down on calculation but turns were actually swift. You can tell this was made in 1985 but it doesn't feel wrong, just different.

I do think some things could be simplified with a touch of design or modern components, though.

What makes the game unique is that there's a heavy efficiency factor to it. You can get small +1 bonuses to your rolls if you move well but you might want to sacrifice that bonus to get where you want. We didn't play with heat, but I can see having to balance your position, your little bonuses and heat leading to very interesting games. I also like that unit density is very low.

I think it would be fun to play this game casually. I wouldn't mind having a copy of either of these boxes to play from time to time at the club.

I have 2 of the 25th ann boxes. The first run and the second with the "improved" minis. My problem with the modern era is the mech design is dogshit. Sure, the classic "hidden" mechs were all stolen from other sources but at least they looked distinct and you could usually infer what the mech did from the way it looked. The FASA/Catalyst designs later on were just atrocious aside from a few Clan standouts.

The current PC game (MWO) did it a great service by "militarizing" the designs. Lasers have a consistent look across mechs and a uniform size. Same with ACs, LRMs and SRMs, etc. Granted, there is "canon" about different design firms, ancient tech being retro-fit, etc that could explain the hodgepodge nature of mech designs but I definitely prefer a more utilitarian industrial aesthetic.

Alpha Strike was an attempt to streamline BT but it really took a lot of the flavor out of it. But full rules BT is a damned nightmare. Full history BT is a nightmare as well of dense history, era specific tech lists, etc. I'm not really sure how to deconflict what the long time fans want and what a new player needs. Catalyst can't really dump everything (nor would I want them to) but how to reboot this clunky franchise?

drewcula wrote: Mr. White!
I just wrote this on BGG too.
I received my Introductory box from Catalyst this week. $27 shipped.
I bought the larger box via CSI a month ago.

I'll be painting 10 mechs over the next three weeks in preparation for an old high school reunion throw-down. Thankfully, we'll be rolling dice in Brooklyn instead of the backwater shit hole we grew up in.

Be sure to let us know your thoughts afterward. Are you an old school Battletecher or is this a new endeavor for you as well?

Resurrecting thread like they resurrected this entire franchise.

Got a beginner box to give this a spin for less than $20. I've never Battletech'd because I'm too young. Scanned over the rulebook and it seems functional, if not particularly well laid out. Anything I should know?

Vysetron wrote: Resurrecting thread like they resurrected this entire franchise.

Got a beginner box to give this a spin for less than $20. I've never Battletech'd because I'm too young. Scanned over the rulebook and it seems functional, if not particularly well laid out. Anything I should know?

Stay cool.

I'll be trying my set out soon as well. At least it is easy to set up.

Just run a test game with a mech on each side to see how to pilot them- it’s pretty easy. The hardest part is remembering to go through the mnemonic to get all of the modifiers sorted but after a game or two it’s transparent.

The basic rules are fun enough, but the extra complexity on the full rules make it come alive.

Make sure you have dry erase markers!

Good God. This whole thread makes me feel old. I was in high school when the game came out, and I had nearly all the sets (AEROTECH, CITYTECH, CORE SET). Had a bunch of the Mech Atlases and the RPG core book. It was one of the most played in my collection, even did a PbF on a BBS I ran. Wonderful times.

But, as I got older, I played it less and I ended up donating it to my friend's gamestore, as I had no further emotional attachment to it. I got my mileage out of it. Time for someone else to get theirs.

Probably not the best thread for this (can't recall how one searches just in forum topics), but the BT Clan Invasion minis KS is live. www.kickstarter.com/projects/450703636/b...gN2p5l56eqULDoDKKkek . Man, there are days I miss playing this.