Battletech - Learning Lessons from Battletech
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- Опубликовано: 25 ноя 2024
- In today’s video, I’m going to talk about Battletech and some of the lessons I think we can take from it, that includes some things I think it does well and some things I think are mistakes. So if you’re a fan of the game, take notes and feel free to roast me in the comments. If you’re new to Battletech, or it isn’t really your thing, the goal here isn’t to pitch the game to you. I want to talk about elements of the game that I find interesting and maybe that’s something you can apply to your own games.
Battletech Classic Quickstart - bg.battletech....
Battletech Alpha Strike Quickstart - bg.battletech....
Battletech Lore Primer - bg.battletech....
Master Unit List - masterunitlist.... contains all the Alpha Strike cards
@Ninjon miniature rankings - • Who Makes the BEST Min...
@DuncanRhodesDRPA Painting a Mech - • How to paint Clan Wolf...
DFA Gaming - dfawargaming.c...
@GuerrillaMiniatureGamesWhy I use D12s in Battletech - • Why I use D12s in Batt...
Random Mission Generator - iamgerardthoma...
Battletech nowadays can be better described as a toybox dumped out in front of you. Yes the "Classic" Total Warfare scale still exists and really didn't change too much in the 40 years it lives (compared to whatever edition number 40k is at now lol), but I'm glad to see them branching out a bit.
Alpha Strike, as you showed, scratches a bit of a wargaming itch and is also a great first step into Battleforce; the real strategic game. Anyone who has gotten enough Alpha Strike sessions under their belt that wants to expand a bit really should peek at that. It is where the real strategic play comes in and goes as far as you want in scale of units, albeit a bit abstracted.
Meanwhile on the other end of the scale, if you want a personal touch; such as being a contender in a gladiatorial fight or having a character survive a contract, they have the RPGs which connect to Total Warfare pretty well and I think Alpha Strike works decently with it too.
I can see why in your summary there's that sense of "What do I do?" CGL has always been big on the idea of "Whatever you like" as their answer. It leads to some analysis paralysis sure, but once you push past that you can engage in a honor duel via Mech Hockey rink on a planet where people cheering you on gives you bonuses. All of what I just mentioned has rules in the game, just gotta find the products that talk about them is all.
I knew about the rpg (both of them), I hadn't looked at battleforce yet. I'll check it out, thanks!
Enjoyed the video. I have been playing both Classic and Alpha Strike for a year or two and am enjoying it. I play more AlphaStrike and like the scale of engagement and speed of the game. But I do enjoy the detail of Classic every so often - it definitely is just a different style
Old school Classic player converted over to Alpha Strike (since I got kids and very little time to fill in 3825453 tiny armor pips). I'm a total convert to the Guerilla Miniatures Games method with the d12s. You do tend to wind up with more crits overall (it seems) but I'm kind of happy with that. You definitely see a lot more of the critical damage and far more upsets from an Ammo Explosion/Cockpit Kill. Highly recommend!
I've gotten into Battletech Classic earlier this year, but had no clue how Alpha Strike worked.
Thank you for clearing that up, I may give it a try.
Thank you, great video. 👍 It feels like we may have been on very similar recent research journeys! (DFaM / Ash@GMG etc). Your observations on the game are really relatable. I'm also really intrigued at the possibilities to tweak or introduce rules, particularly around Initiative and heat push your luck / risk and reward mechanics (I decided to opt for Alpha Strike over Classic in the hope of it being an easier sell to my gaming group!). Also agree with you regarding scenarios being a positive route to follow to steer the game away from being a too simplistic position/ shoot game. Anyways! Thanks again for a great video 😬
Only started playing 4 months myself. Immediately started a on going Chaos Campaign the second month playing.
Classic by the way. Not a fan of the rhetoric that Alpha Strike is 'streamline' system.
Btw, you don't need to work out your whole target number again for each weapon. If Mech A is shooting at Mech B, work out everything except the range modifier and call that X. Now for each weapon just add its range modifier to X.
Once you expand beyond the Game of Armoured Combat starter, there are weapons that have one extra modifier (like pulse lasers apply a -2 to the number you need), but that's still just X + Y + Z. Which is easier than doing the whole thing every time.
I fill in heat sinks with heat as I fire so I can tell pretty easily what has and has not fired. I also move the die to the rear of the torso twist direction. No idea for AS.
Since the movement dice are actually not part of the rules and just a community-tested notation system you can come up with whatever you want. Maybe place one of the remaining movement dice (since you need about 3 per mech) on top of your card when done?
Catalyst Game Labs is a license holder the owner is Tyco and Microsoft
Thanks for that! I saw it mentioned in some discussion around why we haven't seen tv shows / movies. Someone broke down the various ways the licence got split after fasa fell apart. I gather MS just owns the computer game rights, Topps has the board games and books (licensed to CGL), Iron Wind Metals have the metal mini rights. I hadnt seen Tyco before, they seem to have toys from the old cartoon which itself seems to be Saban and through that Disney! A bit of a mess then, hopefully someone pulls it all back together.
The IWM metal minis are quite a bit better in quality than the modern plastics - but yeah, a lot of the designs are a bit goofy.
Then there's me who got rid of cluster and crit chance rolls, moved through-crits to the attack instead of the location roll and halved range penalties to hit amongst other changes. I'm a bit of a heathen when it comes to the rules as written.
If you're waiting until the fight starts to begin employing strategy, you're doing it wrong. A good strategic build can win the game before the first dice roll.