| Background (back
to Battletech intro) |
| Battletech is a sci fi miniatures
game (as to what scale it is supposed to be, I have no idea). While
it isn't historical (3050 AD, anyone?) which would normally put it out
of my sights, I enjoy playing it, partly because it is the inspiration
for a rather fun computer game I played a number of years ago (Mech Warrior)
and largely because my prowess makes my son (who is a very involved player)
tremble in his space boots. |
| I have very few pictures and battle
reports on my site for these miniature games. Part of the reason
is because I don't attend a lot of games and also because a lot of the
games are played on paper hex maps. While I like this terrain map
approach in terms of reducing arguments over line of sight and other issues,
it doesn't lend itself to potential for pretty pictures of good model terrain
combined with the very nice miniatures a lot of the local
players have painted. |
| It's an enjoyable game system,
once you get used to the major amount of book keeping required to play.
To my mind, the game feels more like a naval game than the sort of historical
land batles I'm used to - keeping track of individual hits and effects
on armour, weapons on a single 'mech can be a bit daunting, but, like a
dreadnought or an ironclad, these things can take so much damage, record
keeping seems to be the most logical approach to resolving combat... |
| A pleasant result of the paper
intensive nature of this game is that it's not practical for an individual
player to field more than 6 mechs, maximum, in a game. That figure
6 is just my opinion - YMMV. In any event, the reason this is a nice
result is: 1) a player can develop an "army" (or should I say a lance
or two?) for a relatively reasonable amount of money; and 2) large amounts
of time can be invested in the painting and basing of each miniature and
you don't have to worry about time wasted on such energies because unless
your opponent has some kind of super-duper-mech-munching-machine, your
miniature is not going to walk onto the table and get blown off the face
of the planet in one turn. In other words you can enjoy the aesthetics
of your work! |
| Now there are some aspects of the
game I don't like. Ater years of playing Crossfire,
I have yet to come across a game mechanic anywhere near as good - and Battletech
is not it. BT uses a more traditional (as far as I'm concerned, traditional
as in a 1970's era game mechanic) "I Go U Go" system with simultaneous
fire. I'm waiting for our local BTech guru, Ron B (where's your
damn web site Ron? The link should go here!) to someday rewrite his
own house rules for BTech using the Crossfire initiative system.
Be that as it may, the BT game proceeds relatively smoothly as written,
though I'm sure even the most ardent players long for the opportunity to
unload against a mech running from cover to cover... |
| What else irritates me? I
can't escape the image presented in The Empire Srikes Back of mech
like creatures being so easily tripped up by stringing coils of steel cable
in their paths. Often when I play, a school kid's trick from many
years ago comes to mind - tying lengths of long grass together in a field,
gigglingly hoping that someone will catch his foot and go flying...
Also, the whole business of heat also gives me prickly heat. Why
would engineers, 2000 years from now, not have incredible heat sink
technology at their disposal? And why would they design a mech that
would have hot flashes when it fires all it's weapons? Perhaps it
would make sense to track heat if a heat sink is damaged, but throughout
the game? Gimme a break. |
| Finally, I have a beef with some
of the 'mech models themselves. Don't get me wrong, a lot of them
are really cool looking. The ones I absolutely detest, however, are
the ones that are humanoid. These often look like refugees from bad
1950s science fiction B movies... And these things with axes and
swords - someone please melt those down, and either play Battletech or
turn on Voltron (a really stupid kiddy cartoon from the mid 80s
that seems to have been resurrected by those silly anime people in Japan).
The humanoid robots (I am always tempted to yell "Danger, Will Robinson")
and especially the ones with such advanced weaponry (I mean, c'mon
this is 2000+ years in the future) always make me groan audibly with dread. |
| Well, the above is a historical
gamer's perspective on Battletech. Now for some pictures of the local
gaming scene... (back to Battletech intro) |
