Cult Of Games XLBS: Is Battletech Still Worth Playing in 2021? Let’s See What John Thinks!
August 29, 2021 by avernos
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It’s the XLBS Show…………Happy Sunday Fellow CoGs! That “Sunday Greetings” from the group was almost Choir like! From 1987 through 1990’s we played BattleTech every week. We blended the Mechwarrior RPG with the Battletech Tabletop game. We started at the beginning and played through everything in the timeline. Ours was a merc group that started as House Steiner regulars and we were abandoned on a lonely planet, so we struck out on our own. We had such a great time with the games. So many memories. MY mech of choice was the Maurader and my second choice was the Madcat.… Read more »
oh never worry about finishing a project, all projects are viable targets for the butt butt dings!
That gaming room reminds me of my friend’s gaming room, we referred to it as the room of black, we played our RPGs in there
first….sort of like number 1
happy sunday,
The Reaper miniatures “Cav” range should be easier to get in the UK and could be used as proxies.
Love BT, have been a fan since the mid 90s, but stayed away from the awful metal miniatures forever. Only got into it with the new plastic minis from the kickstarter and the alpha strike rules. Don’t want to spend a weekend or longer to play battle of 2-4 Mechs per side.
Happy weekend.
Happy Sunday Everyone hope this finds you all Grand. Great to see John and Lloyd. Battle tech isn’t for me but I know Brigade Models do some nice Mechs in both 15 and 6mm but I’m not sure as to Battle tech scale. Currently torn about what new project to invest in. I was thinking taking some bolt action Americans and creating a French indo china force with the new French sprus due to be released from Wargames Atlantic. However with the American Flames of War starter box on the horizon I was thinking of reducing the scale for my… Read more »
I’m unboxing French Foreign Legion from https://www.1898miniaturas.com/shop/en/52-french-foreign-legion-28-mm-miniatures They’re very nice. Just leaving this here, no reason
Thanks I saw these. Its a great range from 1898 and I have some Spanish American minis from them that are great quality. I had my eye on the mounted officer in pith helmet as if I go the Artizan path will likely go for the Pith Helmet range they do and aim for a 19th Century Tonkin….tanks or mules that’s the question ?
It is hard to find nice Battletech models most are not up to modern mini standards, the new plastic catalyst games models are great, but they are basically always sold out. I started to really get into battletech about 2 years ago playing alpha strike exclusively as it is quicker. But I discovered this treasure trove of stl files on myminifactory. https://www.myminifactory.com/users/Syllogy All the models are free on the site and they are based on the video game mechwarrior online, they print beautifully and are much more modern and “realistic” looking. I will try to post some pictures later when… Read more »
I do have a couple of these. They are great for sure. Probably go that way if I expand any of the forces I get my hands on 🙂
thankfully you have a tamed Justin on hand
Wish I had a Justin…
Happy Sunday!! From a strange house with dodgy internet… will catch up later.
Ok, so Battletech. There are 2 current intro boxes – a 2-player starter for £20 that gives each player a single Medium-mech to throw down with and a stripped down set of intro rules. Then there is the A Game of Armoured Combat that provides a broader selection for mechs in all classes and the core rulebook (the Primer Gerry mentions is included in the AGOAC set and Clan Invasion includes a Clan Primer). Personally I’ve come to the franchise by way first of Mechwarrior 3 & 4 and then – heretically – the Dark Age/Age of Destruction tie-in novels… Read more »
And yeah, there are some excellent 3d-designs if you look around – I backed a couple of Patreons for guys who had not just individual chassis, but multiple variants covering the majority of the loadouts, and if you look on Thingiverse & Cults3D there are a wealth of offerings for free. Now I just need a 3D Printer for them (did find an excellent Black Knight with sword & board on Ebay that I’m expecting soon…)
As this went live, I had just finished painting a copy of the clan invasion box I managed to get my hands on. Still in a bidding for a copy of agoac. If I manage to win it, I’ll be very content to see how catalyst manage to establish more distribution.
Even got myself one of the bt audiobooks and deeply enjoying it.
I’m just trying to decide on what I’m going to paint everything (I have a few older metal mechs, as well as some resins based on the MWO designs, but on top of all the mechs included in my KS rewards – I went for the Star Colonel level – I’ve an extra set each of the minis from the AGOAC & Clan Invasion boxes. So. Many. Mechs >_< . I think I may have to look at the Alpha Strike rules for larger games…) I have to say that I'm liking CGL's commitment to making their back catalogue of… Read more »
Just going to throw this out here from CGL’s latest update to the Clan Invasion Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cgl/battletech-clan-invasion/posts/3278934
Given the figures they quote for the sales of the prior 4 starter sets (2 of which I own myself) the numbers of copies printed, sold, and coming in the latest reprints for the Beginner Box, A Game of Armoured Combat and Clan Invasion are signs that Battletech would appear to be in rude health going forward and (hopefully) reprints will start to trickle out in the coming months. We’ll see if the team can maintain the momentum going forward…
Happy Sunday! Thank you guys for the golden button – that was a nice surprise! Next chapter is now up on the project, and waiting for a box of dire wolves to arrive for the subsequent chapter. The crew are off to a new planet next as well so I might treat myself to a new game mat! I also need to credit Gerry with the Westfalia model suggestion. I’m not crediting him for the PunkPocalyptic indie of the week making me buy a bunch of their stuff (he doesn’t need that kind of encouragement ?) but at least I… Read more »
my work here is done 🙂
Hi XLBS COGz
So Lloyd is a Hobbit then?
Another great show lads, I remember seeing Battletech at one of the large events held here in Queensland, back when events were a thing. Actually, I think one of my Club mates has some of it too. Anyway too lazy to do hobby for the show, I did go hunting through my photos to see if I could finish off the On Hold project from the Spring Cleaning Challenge. It’s all finished now, and I really like how the Repulsor came out. The other project, I’m still waiting for stats for it to be made.
If battletech is only available in the US @warzan could look into a US branch to the OTT STORE? perhaps guy’s.
Still watching this weeks episode, but just had to comment on the ‘sword straightening’ method using the long nose pliers with plain jaws. Why not use the pliers on a parallel axis to the sword, rather than at right angles? Then you get the whole sword length in one hit! If any ‘fine tuning’ required after, then use the pliers at right angles at those remaining ‘bendy bits’. If not too bent, then probably a redundant process?
; )
PS, enjoying this weeks show.
I shall give that a go! I have the pliers at the ready!
Because it will not close evenly along the length it will start nipping the front before it can close on the end.
This won’t happen using them sideways. As the width of a sword is allot less than it’s length.
@brennon
If you have a standard set of pliers cover the blades with tape to stop them marking the models @brennon
it depends, if it is one bend you can.
However, firstly I found with multiple bends in both directions that it is less stress on the metal to do one at a time, and secondly because the pliers are a hinged V shape you will crush and flatten the tip before you contact the blade close to the hilt.
Aagh wordy word’s Noooooooooo.
Battletech is sounding very fractured like the battletech universe.
Stop eating ?
Why ?
Currently, (from 7am outside in UK) painting my Easterlings for a battle next weekend (hopefully). Using mostly stripped metal figures from back in the day with a few plastic reinforcements. Can really see the superior detail on the metals. The army leader is Khamul the Easterling (one of the nine). Sadly, he is resin – his horse ‘wilts’ in the sunshine!!!
Interesting, https://www.beastsofwar.com/members/brennon/ Khamul comes from GW in the three-packs of the nine in more detailed form – Witch King, Dark Marshall, Undying, Bretrayer, etc – of which about 2/3 are still metal,
Yer I’ve seen they have been repackaging the named Wraiths! They do look tempting 😀
@brennon, I have a duplicate full set of nine Ringwraiths lying around, I believe.
I need to confirm that they are duplicates, but I’ll be happy to ship them your way if you want.
No snapped swords, so they’re in good condition. They’re from blisters and not from the boxed set I think, because there are two duplicate poses in there.
But if you’re interested, they’re yours.
I would be very much up for that if you could send me a pic when you’ve had a chance to sort them. Just fire me a PM here on OTT @harpoon71 and can sort something out 😀
Get John to come round with his tank and just drive through the campervan an they won’t block the drive way again @Lloyd ?
Huh, no one mentioned Iron Wind Miniatures.. metal, but what can you do
Will have to pass that on to John!
well I didn’t mention them because they’re just the Ral Partha models that we did talk about, but in the US
I think it might be Iron wind models sold by RPE or maybe vice versa. Don’t think anyone knows anymore
A fabulous show guy’s ?.
Happy Sunday! 00:35 Get well soon @avernos 02:35 Never get Robotech and Battletech mixed @lloyd 04:00 The Battletech homepage is horrible. There is still so much stuff from the old releases, you don’t want to go there. Basically you need to look at what logo they use. The new logo is on the Beginners Box, the “A Game of armoured Combat” box and the Clan Invasion box. The other, older logo is on stuff that’s now more ore less defunct. But yeah… it’s sold out a lot of times 😉 05:20 Yeah… it took me the better part of 3… Read more »
Happy Sunday.
Well done to the golden button winners some brilliant stuff there. I’ve only recently got into Five Parsecs myself and love it. I’m really looking forward to Five Leagues From The Boarderlands, the fantasy version by the same writer.
I remember playing Mechwarrior 2 & 3 on PC back in the day and loved it. I’ve never played the tabletop game but I was a player in a friend’s roleplay game.