Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[East_Clintwood]

So I've been thinking of getting into the tabletop version since I've been enjoying the videogames recently, and I'm curious about what the quality of the books is like. I used to play Shadowrun, but ended up quitting because of how utterly dogshit the books ended up being, but I've also heard part of the problem there was CGL was more interested in/focused on BT, and that's where all their efforts and focus went. Also curious what people would recommend as the best buys in terms of books/boxsets etc for new players to get into it.

 

[White Devil]

Simtex Software did one called 'Mech Lords' back in the day.
They got sued for breach of copyright by FASA (oh the irony) then changed the title to 'Metal Lords'.
Apart from a really good looking print ad in 'Computer Gaming World' magazine I never saw anything come of it. It was never released.

Now, on to Battletech. First time I bought it it wouldn't boot up. I now have a new PC so I bought it in the Steam sale, have played 25 hours, and hoo boy, isn't it a doozy.

• Almost no 'white' character portraits.
• Pretty much every NPC of importance is a Strong Woman of Color (and the non-female ones are not white either).
• Every surname is something like Yang, Gutierrez, Chernovskaya, Murad- not a single Smith, Jones, Brown, Williams, O'Leary, or McDonald.
• Mission design is shit-tastic, expect to be some combo of outnumbered, outgunned and outweighed in pretty much every fight.
• Watch in amazement as a 20T Commando soaks up four or five rounds of focused firepower from your whole lance while his lancemates disassemble your team in return.
• You're pretty much guaranteed to miss 20-30% of your shots regardless of what the numbers say, while the enemy might miss maybe 1 in 10.
• 'Hard Point' system hamstringing 'Mech customization (why the fuck does the Shadow Hawk have a left arm if you can't mount any weapons on it?).
• Ridiculous loading times.
• Random events that pop up with idiocy like 'you have 1.2 mill c-bills and a 300k bill on the way. Would you like to piss off your techs, lose 500k or lose a million?'.
• 'Training' mission where you accompany three rookies in Urbies and other useless shitboxes as vastly superior forces intercept you.
• 'Destroy that convoy, they have a Shreck PPC carrier so be careful' (destroys convoy successfully, no Shreck to be found).
• Save scumming absolutely vital- bring a mech with the wrong weapon fit and you're fucked (no we won't tell you what might suit the mission).

Basically there is a laundry list of stuff missing from the game and some terrible design choices. But hey, it's worth it to make the straight white males who have supported the IP for decades stop and think about how BIPOCs, queers, faggots, troons and gendertrenders have been excluded.

I hate to be late, but welcome to 2018's talking points about this game. Almost all of it was under the direction of the troon lead dev, Kiva. (I can't remember his real name, but iirc he worked on Shadows of Mordor before trooning out and came up with the Nemesis system)

 

[Corn Flakes]

And one funny note about the Periphery: before the Reunification war the Taurian Concordat was the second mot developed space nation. Only the Hegemony was more sophisticated. The wars wrecked most nations (with the exception of the Magistracy)
And second note: it was the Periphery nations that wrecked the Star League in return centuries later due to their own stupidity. Heck when Kerensky left to wreck the Republic and the Hegemony they had to deal with the same terrorists they had raised. Now why does this sound so familiar? So if HBS is going with "brown people are poor" then we should add "Brown people are simply stupid and easy to manipulate" Heck the Magistracy allied with the Confederation because Sun Tzu pulled some manipulation tricks out of his sleeves. The Chinese take advantage of the "brown people" Also a nod to our times.

Can't believe I forgot the clobbering the Periphery took in the Reunification War. And Kerensky's campaign of pacification before Amaris took over. Sure, he tried to be civil about it, but it's hard to fight an insurgency without cracking a few vital infrastructure eggs.

And yes, don't underestimate Periphery-dwellers with portable nukes. Kerensky did that. He did not have a good time.

So I've been thinking of getting into the tabletop version since I've been enjoying the videogames recently, and I'm curious about what the quality of the books is like. I used to play Shadowrun, but ended up quitting because of how utterly dogshit the books ended up being, but I've also heard part of the problem there was CGL was more interested in/focused on BT, and that's where all their efforts and focus went. Also curious what people would recommend as the best buys in terms of books/boxsets etc for new players to get into it.

Before we begin, Sarna.net, the BattleTech wiki, is a fantastic source for all sorts of things. Seriously, a wiki-crawl there will enlighten you. Now...

If you just want to dip your toes in to the most basic version of the core rules, check out the free PDF. It's a good idea to at least read this one over before getting anything else, even if you don't intent to pay for any of it.

If you've done that and want to get started on the rules themselves, without diving into the rabbit hole that is custom 'Mechs right away, get Total Warfare. That's the core rulebook. It's got all the rules to play the game with 'Mechs, vehicles, infantry, etc.

If you've learned the game and now want to customize/build your own 'Mechs/vehicles, get TechManual.

For the units ('Mechs, vehicles, etc) themselves, you need the Technical Readouts (TROs). They're usually framed as a snapshot of the in-universe year on the cover. My recommendation for someone just starting out would be the Technical Readout 3039, which gives you plenty of 'Mechs and vehicles to play with, without any of the new equipment (and complexity) that was introduced in later Eras.

Spoiler: A note on BattleTech Eras

BattleTech has had a lot of new equipment and rules added to the core game over the years, to the point the game is divided into Eras.

BattleTech eras

BattleTech eras

www.sarna.net

The game originally started in 3025, in the Late Succession Wars, a time when many advanced technologies of the past had been ground down to nothing, and BattleMechs were rare and ancient machines, some of them having survived 200+ years of war. But as time went on and the game was expanded, technology was rediscovered or developed, and the game became more complex, with more weapons and equipment and associated rules. The 3025 era (including TRO 3039) is the simplest, purest, most uncomplicated version of the game to play. I recommend you get familiar with the rules playing with designs from that Era first, then dive into whatever Era tickles your fancy. I'm a fan of the Civil War era myself.

If you want something even faster, look up Alpha Strike. It's a very streamlined version of the game, meant for large-scale battles and/or quick games. The record sheets for Alpha Strike units are free on the Master Unit List.

The Catalyst books, IMO, have pretty good production value. Between the chapters they also often feature little short stories and fluff pieces to give you context for the game universe. TechManual's in particular are fantastic for an engineering nerd like me. The TROs have always come with a decently-sized blurb for each 'Mech, helping place them into the world.

 

[BlackDragoons]

So I've been thinking of getting into the tabletop version since I've been enjoying the videogames recently, and I'm curious about what the quality of the books is like. I used to play Shadowrun, but ended up quitting because of how utterly dogshit the books ended up being, but I've also heard part of the problem there was CGL was more interested in/focused on BT, and that's where all their efforts and focus went. Also curious what people would recommend as the best buys in terms of books/boxsets etc for new players to get into it.

favorite mech so far?

 

[East_Clintwood]

Before we begin, Sarna.net, the BattleTech wiki, is a fantastic source for all sorts of things. Seriously, a wiki-crawl there will enlighten you. Now...

If you just want to dip your toes in to the most basic version of the core rules, check out the free PDF. It's a good idea to at least read this one over before getting anything else, even if you don't intent to pay for any of it.

If you've done that and want to get started on the rules themselves, without diving into the rabbit hole that is custom 'Mechs right away, get Total Warfare. That's the core rulebook. It's got all the rules to play the game with 'Mechs, vehicles, infantry, etc.

If you've learned the game and now want to customize/build your own 'Mechs/vehicles, get TechManual.

For the units ('Mechs, vehicles, etc) themselves, you need the Technical Readouts (TROs). They're usually framed as a snapshot of the in-universe year on the cover. My recommendation for someone just starting out would be the Technical Readout 3039, which gives you plenty of 'Mechs and vehicles to play with, without any of the new equipment (and complexity) that was introduced in later Eras.

I've spent a ton of time on Sarna recently, started mostly just using it to learn about the different mech variants for the video games, and then been reading through the fluff randomly. I've always enjoyed the lore fot BT, my worry was around the rules (same with SR after it went to absolute shit). Thanks for the suggestions for books to start with, and especially on the eras thing. Didn't realise quite how much BT changes as the timeline advances. Makes a refreshing difference coming from 40k, where basically nothing changed in the 20 years I played it.

The Catalyst books, IMO, have pretty good production value. Between the chapters they also often feature little short stories and fluff pieces to give you context for the game universe.

They do the same thing in the Shadowrun books, and I always liked it. The problem is the rules around it were utter, utter shite, and by the end so was the fluff. SR fluff went full retard by the end of Fifth edition unfortunately

favorite mech so far?

Black Knight all day everyday. Just wish the Hero version in MW5 wasn't so shit, seriously who wants a SRM or AC on their laser mech? Also really like the Archer as well, I rock a pair of them in the BT game, one with LRMs, and one SRM brawler. Also just got the Agincourt version in MW5 and am trying to find enough decent quality SRM launchers to refit it

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

The "A Game of Armored Combat" starter box seems to be a rather good deal, too.
A brief introduction to the rules, 8 pretty good miniatures for 8 really amazing mechs... it's a good starting point, especially if you also want to get into the whole miniature shishkabibble.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

The "A Game of Armored Combat" starter box seems to be a rather good deal, too.
A brief introduction to the rules, 8 pretty good miniatures for 8 really amazing mechs... it's a good starting point, especially if you also want to get into the whole miniature shishkabibble.

>Really amazing
>Shadow Hawk

 

[BlackDragoons]

>Really amazing
>Shadow Hawk

I fielded a whole lance of Shadow Hawks and there variants.

 

[Corn Flakes]

I've spent a ton of time on Sarna recently, started mostly just using it to learn about the different mech variants for the video games, and then been reading through the fluff randomly. I've always enjoyed the lore fot BT, my worry was around the rules (same with SR after it went to absolute shit). Thanks for the suggestions for books to start with, and especially on the eras thing. Didn't realise quite how much BT changes as the timeline advances. Makes a refreshing difference coming from 40k, where basically nothing changed in the 20 years I played it.

Yes, and contrary to 40k the older eras are still supported and completely valid as far as rules are concerned. So they're less like different "editions" of the game, and more like levels of play you can agree on.

They do the same thing in the Shadowrun books, and I always liked it. The problem is the rules around it were utter, utter shite, and by the end so was the fluff. SR fluff went full retard by the end of Fifth edition unfortunately

Thankfully, the rules for BattleTech have been set in stone for pretty much three decades now. A handful of exceptions aside (mostly vehicles being tougher now than they were before, and very tiny construction rules tweaks), the core rules just don't change. And even if you don't like the new units and gear being released in the current post-Dark Age timeline, you can just not use them and play a previous era. Hell, if you're not interested in playing the full Combined Arms aspect of the game, with 'Mechs, ground vehicles, VTOLs, infantry, Aerospace fighters, off-map artillery and Dropships, if you find a player to play against who's fine with leaving any combination of those elements out, the game still works perfectly fine.

And I mean it when I say you can leave any element out. Ages ago, a 3025 campaign game I was playing with some friends resulted in so many casualties that another player and I flat-out ran out of 'Mechs. So while we were trying to acquire new ones through the campaign rules, we fought a couple small-scale vehicle-vs-vehicle battles against one other. It was dumb, but it was fun. And above all, it was cheap to replace the losses.

 

[not william stenchever]

I can lift an Urbanmech above my head and I can hold my breath for two days. To settle a wager I once inhaled 5 kilograms of reactor plasma and skydived from orbit in the nude. I cannot feel pain, and I can see for twenty miles unaided by a lens. No man can kill me. I have defeated a member of every clan in honorable batchall including a Jade Falcon, a pygmy Elemental woman, and a rare Deepspace Jew. A Khan and two science caste lab directors have signed a document confirming that I have no soul.

 

[TFT-A9]

Black Knight all day everyday. Just wish the Hero version in MW5 wasn't so shit, seriously who wants a SRM or AC on their laser mech? Also really like the Archer as well, I rock a pair of them in the BT game, one with LRMs, and one SRM brawler. Also just got the Agincourt version in MW5 and am trying to find enough decent quality SRM launchers to refit it

Biggest problem with Partisan (the Black Knight hero holdover from MWO) is that the missile hardpoint and ballistic hardpoint are in the same arm. Also in MW5M the hardpoints are size-locked - you're not fitting anything bigger than an LB10X and an SRM4/LRM5 in there. At least in MWO I could do an LB10X and an MRM20, but the Knights were still kind of shit for other reasons (insanely tall for their tonnage, hardpoint geometry is SHIT, and way too easy to isolate components)

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

You know, there's just something about this meme format that just works.

 

[Capsaicin Addict]

In tabletop, the Black Knight is a fairly serviceable energy platform. Although looking at it... instead of single or double heat sinks, this is one of those designs that would really benefit from four leg-mounted compact heat sinks. Stand it in water and giggle as you refuse to build up heat.

Spoiler: Heat sink sperging

Heat sink tech in the Inner Sphere:
One standard (single) heat sink = 1 ton, 1 critical slot, 1 heat dissipated
One double heat sink = 1 ton, 3 critical slots, 2 heat dissipated
One compact heat sink = 1.5 tons, 1 critical slot, 2 heat dissipated.

So a Mech with four CHS in his legs (8 heat dissipation normally) that stands in water has an additional +8 heat dissipation.

 

[A_Callow_Youth]

In tabletop, the Black Knight is a fairly serviceable energy platform. Although looking at it... instead of single or double heat sinks, this is one of those designs that would really benefit from four leg-mounted compact heat sinks. Stand it in water and giggle as you refuse to build up heat.

Spoiler: Heat sink sperging

Heat sink tech in the Inner Sphere:
One standard (single) heat sink = 1 ton, 1 critical slot, 1 heat dissipated
One double heat sink = 1 ton, 3 critical slots, 2 heat dissipated
One compact heat sink = 1.5 tons, 1 critical slot, 2 heat dissipated.

So a Mech with four CHS in his legs (8 heat dissipation normally) that stands in water has an additional +8 heat dissipation.

Is there even a canon mech that uses CHS?

 

[Corn Flakes]

Is there even a canon mech that uses CHS?

None as-designed. IIRC, the Wasp, the Hornet and the Bombard have them in later variants.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

>Really amazing
>Shadow Hawk

Fite me

Yes, and contrary to 40k the older eras are still supported and completely valid as far as rules are concerned. So they're less like different "editions" of the game, and more like levels of play you can agree on.

Which is one of the best aspects of the game.
I plan to use most of my CivilWar era lances with minor tweaks as 4th Succession War or War o '39 lances as well. At most, I might need to replace one later design with a classical one, but that's not a big deal.

And I mean it when I say you can leave any element out. Ages ago, a 3025 campaign game I was playing with some friends resulted in so many casualties that another player and I flat-out ran out of 'Mechs. So while we were trying to acquire new ones through the campaign rules, we fought a couple small-scale vehicle-vs-vehicle battles against one other. It was dumb, but it was fun. And above all, it was cheap to replace the losses.

I wonder how a game with nothing but infantry would pan out. Can't decide whether it would be a riot or a snorefest, but I guess it depends on the number of inferno-SRMs carried.
Now that I think about it, the only thing the game seems to lack are rules for infantry vs. infantry fights inside buildings, caverns, spaceships and so on.
Playing out a boarding action inside a Union DropShip or even a massive JumpShip does sound kind of cool, assuming the rules don't bog it down.

I can lift an Urbanmech above my head and I can hold my breath for two days. To settle a wager I once inhaled 5 kilograms of reactor plasma and skydived from orbit in the nude. I cannot feel pain, and I can see for twenty miles unaided by a lens. No man can kill me. I have defeated a member of every clan in honorable batchall including a Jade Falcon, a pygmy Elemental woman, and a rare Deepspace Jew. A Khan and two science caste lab directors have signed a document confirming that I have no soul.

Waited for the "rare Deepwater Jew". Was not disappointed.

 

[Considered HARMful]

Now that I think about it, the only thing the game seems to lack are rules for infantry vs. infantry fights inside buildings, caverns, spaceships and so on.

CityTech? Mechwarrior rulebook?

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

CityTech? Mechwarrior rulebook?

Afaik, these rules don't cover such combat in the same way, say, Spacehulk does.
I mean, with specific maps to move room to room and so on within a building or vehicle.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Which is one of the best aspects of the game.
I plan to use most of my CivilWar era lances with minor tweaks as 4th Succession War or War o '39 lances as well. At most, I might need to replace one later design with a classical one, but that's not a big deal.

The nice thing is that since there are so many variants of 'Mechs out there that even the most hardcore miniature players won't mind proxying different variants so long as the chassis is correct. So if you have an Awesome model, you can use it for games from 2750 all the way to the current 3150+ era and no one will rag on you for it.

I wonder how a game with nothing but infantry would pan out. Can't decide whether it would be a riot or a snorefest, but I guess it depends on the number of inferno-SRMs carried.
Now that I think about it, the only thing the game seems to lack are rules for infantry vs. infantry fights inside buildings, caverns, spaceships and so on.
Playing out a boarding action inside a Union DropShip or even a massive JumpShip does sound kind of cool, assuming the rules don't bog it down.

CityTech? Mechwarrior rulebook?

Afaik, these rules don't cover such combat in the same way, say, Spacehulk does.
I mean, with specific maps to move room to room and so on within a building or vehicle.

Ladies and (far more statistically likely) gentlemen, FASA proudly presents: BattleTroops.

(Click to zoom in, you may need to squint a little bit but it should still be readable.)

That is, no joke, one of the most obscure splats FASA released for the BattleTech universe. Only 45 pages. I never actually managed to play it, but the system feels surprisingly agile for a boardgame released in fucking 1989. The terrain system is pretty clever, too. It's functionally the same as BattleTech's hexes, but as you can see on the fourth image it allows for much more freeform terrain. I've always wanted to try to adapt it to D&D or some other TTRPG.

 

[BlackDragoons]

Litteraly i cannot wait to get my hands on this. https://twitter.com/CGL_BattleTech/status/1410818958740045838?s=19