Scratching Yet Another Old Itch: Battletech
Ever since the early days of Mecha-Godzilla, Micronauts, Robotech, Transformers TOS, etc., I've been a big fan of giant robots bashing each other to bits. I first discovered Battletech in the late 80's as a hex and cardboard stand-up robot wargame produced by FASA, complete with lots of dice, hit tables, damage tables, line of sight rules, etc. The game was detailed, but still played fast and fun. Blowing the arms and legs off the enemy; causing internal ammo explosions; and the dreaded death from above attack by jump-capable mechs was all part of the package.Over the years I lost interest in the game system, as it seemed to add more and more chrome but little additional fun. However, my interest in the world of Battletech continued through PC gaming all the various versions of the Mechwarrior computer game up through MW4.
A few years ago I noticed Wizkids had released a collectable miniatures game (CMG) set in a slighly altered version of the Battletech universe. For some reason the game used weird farm, forestry, and factory mechs rather than the battlefield-optimized killing machines we all know and love. Fighting with farming robots just didn't excite me. In addition, I am always fearful of getting addicted to any form of collectable gaming crack, so I shied away.
Recent developments with the Wizkids Battletech game have caused me to take a new look at the game. First, the game system is apparently falling on hard times, forcing Wizkids to rework their marketing strategy. In 2007 the game is moving away from the traditional blind booster pack type of product and moving to set-piece battlesets, analogous to Heroscape. You get to see what you're buying... what a concept! Also, since the back catalog of booster releases for the game now stretches over roughly 8-10 past booster sets, picking up big lots of used figures off E-Bay is quite inexpensive. Finally, even if I did decide to get some boosters, they're pricing out at around only $3 a piece if you buy them in case quantities.
Right now I'm just testing the waters a bit by picking up the starter set and a few additional figures so I can see if the game is actually fun. If you'd like to test this out with me, just let me know.
Labels: ramblings
posted by Ben @ 8:59 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Ben, I was interested when I first saw the Wizkids Battletech miniatures. I also played the MechWarrior PC games along with my son.
I don't know much about this system, but it looks like something that can be as simple or as grand as you want it to be. I think there are all kinds of accessories that go with it.
I would guess that it is not too different than most miniatures systems.
Ben, you know my thoughts by now. I don't think there are that many CMG's enthusiasts in the group, but I would be willing to give it a try. I've always been interested in the BT world (played some computer games, the xbox games, tabletop a couple of times millions of years ago, and bought 2 starters for MechWarrior CMG when it first came out in 2003 out of curiosity but never bought more thinking I'd never find opponents).
I have enough pieces now to have a pretty good sized 2-player battle. DL seems to have enough terrain, felt tables, etc. laying around that we could give it a shot. The rulebook (available on Wizkid's website) is about 48 pages long, but they're booster box sized pages and simple enough to understand.
Interestingly enough, I'm finding I think the infantry and tanks are almost as cool as the actual Mechs, though I do feel sorry for the guy stuck bringing a pistol to a Mech-fight.
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