73 replies to this topic

[Faceless Priest]

I am always willing to help teach people how to play battletech, either threw just vigorous explaining on helping them learn on megamek

If you are interested, or anyone, just send me a message.

I generally DM rpgs like D&D or Shadowrun, i also occasionally run battletech "campaigns" for people.

[Vandul]

Your local game store (hopefully you have one) is a place to watch for games, set up your own (if they have the tabletop space, thats bonus). Also, the infamous Craigslist has forums for gaming, set up by region. Something to consider. Just mind where you stray if you go there.

Game stores with tabletop areas are great because you can see other games getting played as well. Warhammer is popular, as is military minatures like Memoir 44 or World in Flames. You wont see too many Battletech games, but with the release of MWO and MWT, you may see this emerge as a popular system again. But it does expose you to the wonderful world of TT Gaming.

Before FB and MMO's, TT Gaming was a great social outlet.

Good luck and have fun!

If you want to play in the Battletech world, might I suggest some page protectors and a pack of Vis-A-Vis markers? When I used to tabletop game, these were a real god-send. (SFB and BT being two games that benefit from this).

[Captain Fabulous]

I learned about Battletech at GenCon last year. My friends and I bought the box set, and spent three weeks trying to understand what we were doing.

(And on that note, have a comic I drew while drunk explaining the whole four days)




ANYWAYS, I still don't know **** about the Battletech Universe. About 9 or so months ago we joined a group of guys who had a campaign sort of thing running at a game store, and everything I know (very little) came from either just playing with them and learning by association or from goofing off on these forums.

[Gazza]

I'm looking to start getting into it too. On the lookout for a starter set.

[Captain Fabulous]

Gazza, on 08 June 2012 - 07:55 AM, said:

I'm looking to start getting into it too. On the lookout for a starter set.

http://compare.ebay....mTypes&var=sbar

[Evoshen]

Bardow, on 08 June 2012 - 06:49 AM, said:

Hey Evoshen, in reply to your question about finding others to play with in San Antonio, you might check out this place :

http://dlair.net/sanantonio/

I'm in Austin, and Dragon's Lair is the best shop here for finding Battletech stuff. They can probably help you find other players in the area too.

wow thank you so much. this really helps alot! now I can actually go and see if they have some thing for BT set up!

Thanks again to everyone who has replied and given me websites and other product ideas!

[Gazza]

Captain Fabulous, on 08 June 2012 - 08:09 AM, said:

http://compare.ebay....mTypes&var=sbar

Ha, not so easy. $60 shipping I'll find one!

[Captain Fabulous]

Gazza, on 08 June 2012 - 09:33 AM, said:

Ha, not so easy. $60 shipping I'll find one!

Oh. Well bollocks.

You can pick one for the same price without the shipping at GenCon. Or also a game store somewhere.

[Promptus]

I too the Megamek. I also have an embarrassing amount of book-form Battletech materials. But no novels... don't want to come off as a fanboy or anything.

[Thorolf Kylesson]

http://bg.battletech.com/

You can get pdf,s here if you do not want the physical books.

http://ironwindmetals.com/store

This link is to Iron Wind Metals and they make pretty much every BT mini under the sun.
I learned best by playing with some veterans of the game. That way, I can ask questions. The best place to find them are gaming/comic shops. Good luck.

[Gazza]

Anyone know of any places that sell in Australia, or atleast ship there?

[Demoulius]

I figured id post this here instead of making a new topic about it

I too want to get started on the game but im unsure which models go with what game Fact that the company that has the rules doesent sell the models confuses the heck out of me! What if theyre all a different size?

Also ive seen pictures of mech running around on a board and the starter set mentions a gameboard with hexagons on it. Are these from a different game as well???

Would be helpfull if someone could clear that up

[village idiot]

Demoulius, on 08 June 2012 - 03:30 PM, said:

I too want to get started on the game but im unsure which models go with what game Fact that the company that has the rules doesent sell the models confuses the heck out of me! What if theyre all a different size?

I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to, but if it's the stuff Iron Wind Metals makes, that is all intended to work with the stuff Catalyst makes. Both those companies have licenses with Topps, and both those companies communicate frequently with each other.
BattleTech mini are intended to be about 1/285th scale, so anything made in that scale ought to be feasible. Additionally, most MechWarrior minis (from the Wizkids game) tend to do well enough on hexmaps, size wise.

As far as I know, there are no plans yet for getting minis of the MWO 'Mechs for the tabletop game.

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Also ive seen pictures of mech running around on a board and the starter set mentions a gameboard with hexagons on it. Are these from a different game as well???

Not necessarily.
The basic rules all presume that you'll be using hexmaps, but it's easy enough to convert all of it to miniature rules. Roughly speaking, 1 hex = 2 inches.

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Would be helpfull if someone could clear that up

I'm not sure I totally understood what you were asking, but maybe this'll help you see where I'm misunderstanding you. =)

[Demoulius]

Cheers! That did help

I also just read the introduction onhttp://bg.battletech.com/ and it seems very fun!

What I meant with different models is tat ive seen mechs about 10 mm's big and some bigger, more akin to 20-30 or so. (or even more then that, hard to see in a picture with no other point of reference :S ) so I gues an additional question would be, what size are the mech miniatures?

Another question I have is if its possible to customize your mech on the TT? Some mechs I love the look off but the normal arnament (at least in mechwarrior games) not so much

Oh, and can you have more mechs on a single hexagon?

[Pudge]

Maybe it was nostalgia, but I picked up the new introductory Battletech set. Sadly I think I made a big mistake.
My mind started racing on thoughts picking up tanks, infantry, and modelling 3D terrain. I think my other painting projects are going to take the back seat for a while.

The set is a fantastic way to get into the Battletech universe. There is a ton of material in the box with many good quality figs. I highly recommend anyone considering dipping a toe into the table top version of Battletech to buy this. It's literally all you would need for years of fun and a great way to step into the larger game universe.

[Pudge]

Demoulius, on 08 June 2012 - 04:45 PM, said:

so I guess an additional question would be, what size are the mech miniatures?

More learned folks will likely correct me on this. I'd say the models are about HO scale, maybe a bit bigger (I think N scale would be too large). In a pinch 15mm scale models would work. So there are a lot of sci-fi metal miniatures out there that would work with the game scale. However IronWind Metal minis likely would be the best choice.

Demoulius, on 08 June 2012 - 04:45 PM, said:

Another question I have is if its possible to customize your mech on the TT?

Yes, and there are rules for mech construction in the introductory box. However you will get more options and other techs with the different books.

Demoulius, on 08 June 2012 - 04:45 PM, said:

Oh, and can you have more mechs on a single hexagon?

Friendly mechs can move through an occupied hex, but there is no stacking of mechs.

[village idiot]

Demoulius, on 08 June 2012 - 04:45 PM, said:

Cheers! That did help

Cool, then I didnt waste your time. =)

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I also just read the introduction onhttp://bg.battletech.com/ and it seems very fun!

I definitely think so. I got in to it shortly after playing through MW2 and getting in to the online scene for that game (dailup/ISDN, getting a game going, and not having it lag out could be an epic battle all its own...) and haven't regretted it since.
Mind you, took me a bit to adjust mentally to no longer being able to rip a limb off an opposing 'Mech with weapons fire at will. Once you're used to that, having to surrender your manual skills to a pair of dice can be jarring.
But once you push through that to the fun underneath, you'll barely care. The trick is to look at both as 2 different experiences, rather than related ones. (That just happen to occur in the same universe)

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What I meant with different models is tat ive seen mechs about 10 mm's big and some bigger, more akin to 20-30 or so. (or even more then that, hard to see in a picture with no other point of reference :S ) so I gues an additional question would be, what size are the mech miniatures?

They're 1:285th scale, officially. So, at 1:300th scale, it's real close to the 6mm micro armor scale.
Most 'Mech minis should therefore be about 30-50mm tall. (Most are between 9 and 15 meters tall)
That goes for BattleMechs in the Light - Assault weight classes, so 20 - 100 tons. Some relatively rare 'Mechs exceed both that mass and height. There's also "ultralight" 'Mechs that weight between 10 and 15 tons.
If you're looking at what you might commonly find on a game table, a lot of players like to include ProtoMechs along with other units. ProtoMechs are miniaturized 'Mechs weighing between 2 and (these days) 15 tons. They're substantially smaller, so 10mm for those can make sense, though 20mm makes more sense.

The previously mentioned MW minis from Wizkids were N-Scale.

Finally, IWM recently released new scale miniatures called "BattleForce scale". They're pretty close to 20mm per 'Mech.

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Another question I have is if its possible to customize your mech on the TT? Some mechs I love the look off but the normal arnament (at least in mechwarrior games) not so much

For some people, customizing designs is a major part of the fun. Some people rarely play with 'canon' Mechs. I believe just about every player out there has made some custom designs at least a few times.
Most people I've gamed with myself tend to use exclusively canon 'Mechs. I prefer it as well, largely because most canon 'Mechs have some kind of weakness or quirk that you need to figure out in order to get the most of them (or just to make them suck less) which is a kind of problem I like to have to wrestle with in a game.

The book with most of the rules you'd need is Techmanual. Tactical Operations has some additional equipment that's mostly rated as "experimental" either because of its in-universe rarity, or because the game rules for the gear is too complex for a 'tournament' level game.

You can also consider getting a utility to help with Mech design. The official utility is Heavy Metal Pro.
http://www.heavymetalpro.com/

There's some unofficial 'Mech designer utilities out there as well.

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Oh, and can you have more mechs on a single hexagon?

Not easily. =)
Stacking rules dictate only 1 'Mech per hex, but there are some ways around that. The way a Death From Above attack is resolved can create the situation where 1 Mech is above the other until that attack is resolved. That's about the only way I can think of.
ProtoMechs count as vehicles for Stacking purpose, so as many as 4 can be in the same hex.
(2 per side)

[Demoulius]

Thanks again

Really sure I want to start this up now Il start looking for a local store tommorow but im not holding my breath... I live in Rotterdam so not a small city per se but for some reason things like battletech and D&D are very hard to come by

Oh and the surrendering to a D6 wont be a problem I play warhammer 40K, warhammer fantasy, Necromunda and battlefleet gothic already ^^ (incidentily all games from the same company but eh, same concept of using D6 for an outcome!)

-edit-

Oh forget to ask! What models are in the starter kit?

Edited by Demoulius, 09 June 2012 - 02:46 PM.

[village idiot]

Demoulius, on 09 June 2012 - 02:42 PM, said:

Really sure I want to start this up now Il start looking for a local store tommorow but im not holding my breath... I live in Rotterdam so not a small city per se but for some reason things like battletech and D&D are very hard to come by

Verrek, een Nederlander?
(Kwas vroeger in Duiven, bij Arnhem)

Anyway, yeah, finding games in the Netherlands always proved to be tricky back in the day, until I moved to the US.

You might want to check with the lads and lasses over on this site, see what they could tell you:
http://www.battletech.nl/

Their front page is a bit out of date, but there's recent activity on their forum.

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Oh and the surrendering to a D6 wont be a problem I play warhammer 40K, warhammer fantasy, Necromunda and battlefleet gothic already ^^ (incidentily all games from the same company but eh, same concept of using D6 for an outcome!)

WH40K? I think you've surrendered to more than just a D6...

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Oh forget to ask! What models are in the starter kit?

COM-2D Commando
SDR-5V Spider
JR7-D Jenner
PNT-9R Panther
ASN-21 Assassin
CDA-2A Cicada
CLNT-2-3T Clint
HER-2S Hermes II
WTH-1 Whitworth
VND-1R Vindicator
ENF-4R Enforcer
HBK-4G Hunchback
TBT-5N Trebuchet
DV-6M Dervish
DRG-1N Dragon
QKD-4G Quickdraw
CPLT-C1 Catapult
JM6-S JagerMech
GHR-5H Grasshopper
AWS-8Q Awesome
ZEU-6S Zeus
CP-10-Z Cyclops
BNC-3E Banshee
AS7-D Atlas

Note that many of those also appear in the MWO game.

Beyond that also 2 premium quality plastic minis of the Summoner/Thor and the Hellbringer/Loki.

This page lists some more info (and pics) of what it comes with:
http://bg.battletech.com/?page_id=175

[Demoulius]

*gaps* a fellow Dutchman? Who would have thought!

I did look at that page but it dident list which mechs were included, only the number of mechs

Thanks for the list! Delighted to see that some of my favorites are included in the box!