79 replies to this topic

[Vandul]

Got my set yesterday as a Fathers Day gift (perfect gift I might add).

As stated the premium mechs are very detailed and nice. The other 22 are pretty primitively cast, but can be cleaned up, detailed and finished nicely.

What really stands out here is the quality of the rulebooks, maps and other print materail. FASA could have taken a lesson from CGL on this. One of the more professionally produced games that I have seen.

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

Hey op.

As a former owner of the box set [unfortenately my mini's were stolen along with my warhammer 40K space marine army when my army case was stolen] I can tell you that yes... the standard mech's can feel a bit, cheap.

However honestly, what can you expect for a 50 dollar starter set?

The CBT plastic mechs have always suffered from quality issues [the exclusion being the 2 premium quality mechs... the Loki and Thor that come with the 25th anniversary box set] However, while they may not be the prettiest things around... they ARE a good ammount of mechs for a start.

check out www.ironwindmetals.com for the actual metal models. You'll notice even some of the metal models, like the Atlas, seems a bit, spindly. and really doesn't convey the mass of these mechs. but the quality of the casts have gotten better.

If you're interested in painting... you can actually make the starter mechs look decent. it just takes a bit of time and effort.

[Vandul]

Jade Kitsune, on 15 June 2012 - 05:47 AM, said:

Hey op.

As a former owner of the box set [unfortenately my mini's were stolen along with my warhammer 40K space marine army when my army case was stolen] I can tell you that yes... the standard mech's can feel a bit, cheap.

However honestly, what can you expect for a 50 dollar starter set?

The CBT plastic mechs have always suffered from quality issues [the exclusion being the 2 premium quality mechs... the Loki and Thor that come with the 25th anniversary box set] However, while they may not be the prettiest things around... they ARE a good ammount of mechs for a start.

check out www.ironwindmetals.com for the actual metal models. You'll notice even some of the metal models, like the Atlas, seems a bit, spindly. and really doesn't convey the mass of these mechs. but the quality of the casts have gotten better.

If you're interested in painting... you can actually make the starter mechs look decent. it just takes a bit of time and effort.

And they give a nice detailed painting/preparation guide with the set. Good stuff.

Anyone remember the plastic mechs that came out in the late eighties? Man those were some quality casts and they were hefty, even for plastic sets.

[Fynn]

ahh you mean the big chunky ones in a light grey plastic, and if i remeber rightly, it was called the re-inforcement set or something like that. got 2 boxes worth here, as well as the plastic mechs from the 2nd ed citytech box, and 3rd ed battle tech box set.

[Demoulius]

Oh im not denying that the sets are (probably, dont own the game yet ) well worth the money

Im just saying that I found many people saying online that they had broken models, models with holes in them or downright missing models in the kits.

For the mechs themselves (not models but lookswise) there are 11 in there that id want in my collection for looks or awesomeness alone (Atlas, Awesome, Cicada, Commando, Catapult, Dragon, Hunchback, Jenner (going to convert it though), Vindicator, Whitworth and Zeus )

What I liked as well is that theres a good balance between light, medium, heavy and assault mechs Alsmost as if they thought this through when they selected these mechs

I made 3 lances (scout, combat and command) out of mechs that I figured would work well. No idea if it works on the TT but the beginner set is helping me a great deal as I need to buy 3 more mechs total to get the lane in working order because im kinda curious if it will work can you guys if it will work gaming wise or would it just be a lance of good looking mechs?

Scout: 2 Commandos, Hollander and Bushwacker
Combat: Awesome, Bushwacker, Centurion and Hunchback
Command: Atlas, Catapult, Mauler and Zeus

[Captain Fabulous]

We used the plastics for a while until we decided what mechs we liked, then upgraded those to the more detailed models from Iron Wind. But the box set is definitely worth it, given how much comes in it.

[Demoulius]

What do you mean upgrade to more detailed models Captain Fabulous? Did you just add more models or did you replace them completly?

Hmmm just found out on the battletech wiki that 3 lances are a company makes sense I guess

So anyone have any comment on that company that I posted above? Is it versatile enough on the TT?

[Karyudo ds]

Personally I don't care for even some of the Iron Wind mini's. Old molds or new, Citadel has over the years gotten better and better with quality and detail (though Finecast is sometimes rather questionable). I wish they could get someone like that to produce decent quality, higher detail plastic ones. Not that they're all bad but in the time it took me to super glue their Marauder I finished a Marine Dreadnaught...which has a lot more parts and an Assault squad and something didn't seem right about that. Not that they're all bad by any means, some are just fine.

Or course yeah the starter ones just... well I was excited about the starter set until I turned it over and saw the pictures, they told me enough. While there never was a MW4 edition of the mini's I could agree a MWO set would still be good. Some of these have made mediocre mechs look decent.

[Captain Fabulous]

Demoulius, on 16 June 2012 - 04:15 PM, said:

What do you mean upgrade to more detailed models Captain Fabulous? Did you just add more models or did you replace them completly?

We bought new renditions of the models from Iron Wind and started using those as opposed to their plastic counterparts. We still have them, but they just sit all alone in the box unless we need multiples or feel bad for them (which, I admit, I do sometimes).

[Demoulius]

Those poor starter set minis was the quality so poor you guys would rather buy new metal ones? they must be off really poor quality then... I dont know, I kinda want to believe I can make them look properly and non crappy with a little love and elbow grease

Then again ive been wrong in the past

Citadel is also producing abit different minis. In ironwinds defense I think they tried to make some of these mechs look boxy and like the artworks I could be wrong offcourse but eh.... Dont have the box on hand yet so cant be quite sure yet

Speaking of easy conversion: Jagermech, cut the arms off and point them to the front. Done?

[CMDR Sunset Shimmer]

Karyudo ds, on 16 June 2012 - 04:35 PM, said:

Personally I don't care for even some of the Iron Wind mini's. Old molds or new, Citadel has over the years gotten better and better with quality and detail (though Finecast is sometimes rather questionable). I wish they could get someone like that to produce decent quality, higher detail plastic ones. Not that they're all bad but in the time it took me to super glue their Marauder I finished a Marine Dreadnaught...which has a lot more parts and an Assault squad and something didn't seem right about that. Not that they're all bad by any means, some are just fine.

Or course yeah the starter ones just... well I was excited about the starter set until I turned it over and saw the pictures, they told me enough. While there never was a MW4 edition of the mini's I could agree a MWO set would still be good. Some of these have made mediocre mechs look decent.

As a player of both 40K and Battletech, I want my battletech as is, [though HQ plastic casts of the metal models would be nice]

my main issue with Citadel is their pricing... because Games Workshop are a bunch of money grubbing aholes.

Despite that... I will agree some of the metal models even look... derptastic? still... Iron Wind is my favorite model maker... Citadel takes second there.

[Captain Fabulous]

Demoulius, on 17 June 2012 - 01:58 AM, said:

Citadel is also producing abit different minis. In ironwinds defense I think they tried to make some of these mechs look boxy and like the artworks I could be wrong offcourse but eh.... Dont have the box on hand yet so cant be quite sure yet

I haven't seen Citadel's stuff (I try to avoid Citadel completely because they're an evil regime of a company), but yeah Iron Wind tries to mirror the TRO images as best as possible.

I think the best area for comparison with the plastics as opposed to the Metals is definitely the Catapult. The plastic one looks terribly... malnourished.

[Demoulius]

I started with citadel so I know the quality (and price sadly)

The scales between the 2 gaming systems are completly off the scale however so imho you cant really compare the 2

That said from what ive seen the mechs are mostly suffering from skinny arms and legs, nothing that some bulking up with greenstuff or other putty cant solve

How easy are the mechs to convert to other variants though? Mind I dont know which variants excist but if one sports a PPC in its arm as opposed to a medium large previously adding a tube like arm doesent like such a hard conversion to make

[JackCrow]

Thought the starter set was great. They stuffed tons of good stuff in their. For 50 bucks, and 26 minis, I am not sure what people expect.

Also, my little group quickly grew tired of the 3039 era mechs provided. We toyed with the omnis and now we always play clan vs IS. Or Clan on Clan.

For one, clan mechs actually look cool, and their weapons are far more interesting. We also love using some of he cool battlemechs not in the box such as the Battlemaster, Griffin, Crab and Zeus-X.

[Captain Fabulous]

Demoulius, on 17 June 2012 - 10:14 AM, said:

How easy are the mechs to convert to other variants though? Mind I dont know which variants excist but if one sports a PPC in its arm as opposed to a medium large previously adding a tube like arm doesent like such a hard conversion to make

I have never once attempted to build a certain variant of a mech, so unfortunately I don't know. Somebody on here will though, I'm sure.

[Demoulius]

The mechs are from the 3039 era? The claninvasion was 3050 right? Seems abit more interesting setting to play in if you ask me

And yea the Crab is AWESOME! Was my fave mech from mechwarrior 2 mercs (my first ever mech game ) so im defenitly getting one of those iron wind lists it as a Age of War / Star League era mech though. Are they still around in the later eras?

[Kardos]

The plastic multi piece THOR and LOKI from the set are very nice. Wish they would make the rest of the Mechs available in the same format.

[RangerRob]

Demoulius, on 18 June 2012 - 01:05 AM, said:

The mechs are from the 3039 era? The claninvasion was 3050 right? Seems abit more interesting setting to play in if you ask me

And yea the Crab is AWESOME! Was my fave mech from mechwarrior 2 mercs (my first ever mech game ) so im defenitly getting one of those iron wind lists it as a Age of War / Star League era mech though. Are they still around in the later eras?

Crab was a Star League mech and is mostly used by Comstar...however they did lend/give/sell a batch of Crab's and other Star league era mechs (from the 2750 tech read out) to House Kurita for the War of 3039. Crab became a workhorse in the Draconis Combine even getting a variant with a c3slave system in it. So to answer your question...yeah still around even in the Jihad era.

[Demoulius]

Mechs also get "found" in captured mechbays or taken as salvage correct? So its not to far off to have a crab in say house Steiner or Davion?

Or a merc company?

Isent Comstar the dropship company though? Why do they have mechs of their own?

[Arctic Fox]

Demoulius, on 18 June 2012 - 09:48 AM, said:

Mechs also get "found" in captured mechbays or taken as salvage correct? So its not to far off to have a crab in say house Steiner or Davion?

Or a merc company?

Correct. Except in some extreme examples, any faction can find itself in posession of pretty much any unit due to various reasons.

Demoulius, on 18 June 2012 - 09:48 AM, said:

Isent Comstar the dropship company though? Why do they have mechs of their own?

Their business is the HPG network, not DropShips. As for 'Mechs, well, it's because they also happen to be a huge interstellar conspiracy in addition to being a phone company.

Edited by Arctic Fox, 18 June 2012 - 09:58 AM.