229 replies to this topic

[the bandit]

after years of D&D I got into Battletech in a big way, found a way to buy all the FASA games (including Shadowrun) through the technology workshop account of the private school my parents sent me to, damn they got a big shock when the bill arrived!

we played Battletech every day during summer vacations with my buddy Nick, his family had a large guest house, I would bring the Battletech maps, literature and models around and we would lay it all out on the floor, the games would run for literally days starting 10am and running till 11pm and then locking the doors and returning the next morning, until the battle was resolved.

what I loved about Battletech was the "universe", the sheer amount of background information and quality writing in all the technical manuals and history, my buddy Nick felt the same way too, we would eagerly hoover up any new Battletech information we could find

read some great Battletech novels, and even started writing one of my own before realising 1/2 way through it would not get published?

this was just before FASA started introducing "The Clans" which we also enjoyed reading about, but it changed the gameplay and we started getting distracted by the new Commodore Amiga, Atari ST computers and the Sky Movies channel here in the UK which seemed to give more entertainment than playing a board game like Battletech....


we always spoke about it being made into a film, it would have been epic but FASA did not have the money and the game did not have a wide enough fan-base for it to happen?

saw "similar" big robot films like Robot Jox which came close in terms of mech action, but was not the Battletech universe.


played a number of the PC and Console Battletech / Mechwarrior games and enjoyed them for what they where, but not the real deal, waiting for this new edition to launch on-line after years of PC FPS gaming on high end gaming machines (all self built)


but would still love to see a great Hollywood Battletech film with quality actors and effects budget

Edited by the bandit, 27 June 2012 - 01:46 PM.

[Maximillian Steel]

How did I come to mechwarrior? Easy. I watched Robotech on saturday morning cartoons. Fell in love with the series. I also loved to read and during that time I saw a book with a large mech on the cover. I looked through it and recognized some of the mechs of the series. It was one of the Technical readouts..think it was the original 3050. (still have it) I then read all the novels. I also started to roleplay during that time and found the 1st edition mechwarrior rpg. Loved it. Bought minitures, rpg, and then the first mechwarrior mechwarrior game. Loved in ever since.

I now feel old.....thanks.

[Min0taur]

Mostly Computer games:
- Battletech: Crescent Hawk Inception (missed the second one though)...
- MW to MW4 Mercenaries (minus a few expansions)...
- MechCommander 1 & 2...

Also sometimes watched the animated series on TV...

Red a few Battletech books, mostly about the Clans invasion era...

No tabletop though. I had enough on my plate with Warhammer 40K (stopped playing a few decades ago)...

[Pathalone]

Started playing when MW2 came out then its expansions. Ghost Bear, MW2: Mercs, MW:3, MW4 plusMW4: Mercs. Read a good number of the paperback novels. Don't much care for the anime robot stuff so much, not that I hate, just doesn't do much for or not as much as BattleTech.

[Tterrag]

Um giant freaking robots?

[Steelgrave]

FASA, 2nd Edition Battletech, and many products and games both tabletop and video brought me here.

[Sgt Bones]

Hmmm, 1975-6 the Macross series came out, and shortly thereafter came a "demo" TT game called Battledroids....George Lucas made them change the name, it became Battletech...and it had some of the Macross mechs in it, of which I have several models of in 1/72 scale, and several minis, and well, I was hooked.

BTW, anyone else notice in ET the kids were playing BT in the kitchen? I thought that was some nice sneak advertising!

Oh yeah, Max Steel, we ain't old, we are expierienced!

Edited by Sgt Bones, 27 June 2012 - 02:32 PM.

[DanielMeier]

My first entry into MechWarrior was with the release of MechWarrior 2, which would make me around 13-14 when i played it. I remember it as being a very hard game.

But i have never really been invested in the lore of Battletech. So i pretty much no nothing about factions and the timeline. The draw for me then and now is still the big Mechs. I have always had a thing for Mecha/Robots. Growing up with Transformers G1 and Robotech sparked that love, and movies like Terminator and T2 just enhanced it even more.

[Kalenn]

My sig contains my MW history, including starting with the original MW sim on the PC. It actually had one of the best mechanics for finding contracts, although the story was disjointed so you could lose track of it a bit if you didn't go to the right planet. I neglected to include the fact that I played the card game for a while as well. Lost touch with the friends that had it which is too bad - was a lot of fun.

[CombatTeddy]

Always been a big fan of mechs, when i say the Dev vid from machinima, i knew i just had to take part. The only mech warrior games ive played was Mechwarrior 2.

[Papertarget]

Got the very 1st edition of the Board Game, way back in 1984. Tried to get some people interested in it to play, but no go. (Was very sad, and I so wish I still had that 1st Edition now...) After that, I was consigned to avidly reading the rule books, and buying the books when they came out. Since then, I have tried every BT and MW game that came down. Some I loved, some were "meh", but it has never stopped my love for this universe. (Though the Dark Age books have ended my reading of the novels...)

[Flinch]

Started playing Battletech boxed sets on the Table Top in the late 80's.

Then came MW2 and GBL. Those were fun times. Null Modem for PVP battles, 1v1 and house rules "no custom mechs". Started in the campaign with custom loadouts of 6 x LRM 20's for shenanigans, then 2 x Arrow IV's in GBL for more shenanigans and finally 2 ultra AC/20's for even MORE shenanigans. Assault mechs all the way. The rest of the series were fun, but nothing beats nostalgia.

Now, currently playing WoT for my "rooty tooty point and shooty" fun, and will drop that as soon as MWO comes live... cause ROBOTS!

Going to see how/if the game will be fun with a PC that is just above minimum specs, and will dump more money than sense on a PC just to play this game when I can't stand the "everything turned down" settings any longer. Or until I get money back from tax time. Whatever.

[Droid on Roids]

Buddies in World of Tanks got me keen

[Lipot]

Started back in 1989 when I was in high school. A friend of mine wanted me to join a rpg group that was in the school as we played AD&D 2nd edition on weekends. These guys ran the set up 1 week AD&D and 1 week Battletech/Mechwarrior. Started in the classic Wasp then moved to the Rifleman as it was more my playing style. Started to mod the 'mechs using a rule of if it was not a standard variant that there would be a penalty for placing a weapon type that was not normal there. When someone finally got the TRO 3025 and the Jenner, I started to really get pulled in. Couple with the fact that during our school's Winterfest, we would hijack a computer lab for some Crescent Hawks and MechWarrior/Battletech PC games. Unfortunately Magic: the Gathering came out not too long after and most of the hardcore games stopped. Attempted to get some people into the table top back in my first time around at college but only got them into the pc games. I still read the books and play the odd game. (Mechwarrior 3 mainly). Not sure if I will be able to get my son into this game though. He is more hardcore Robotech/Gundam then anyone I know personally and he just turned 9. Thankfully the one girl who works at the EB Games closest to my house keeps distracting him from the Gundam Dynasty Warriors game and his lack of wanting to read while gaming has allowed me to quietly uninstall his Macross pc game.

[RotS Targe]

hmm... I probably have an odd path. So, I was... well, I'm not sure, really, early teens, maybe? Anyways, I got into the Pirates of the Spanish Main CCG. I was bored one day, so I was just exploring the company's site. The Company? WizKids. So I found MechWarrior Dark Age, and was looking at the units, only looking at the vehicles, because an early experience with GUNDAM turned me away from 'mechs altogether (I still don't like most humanoid 'mechs). I saw the random unit called Targe, clicked it,thinking it was a tank or something, and fell in love. I then took the risk of looking at other 'mechs, and the awesomeness (despite an Awesome nowhere to be found) just kept coming. I went to a Hobby Town USA, hoping to find a Liao Incursion, and settling for a pack of Wolf Strike. Then I went to visit my Grand Parents, and we randomly decided to go to a used book store. Wouldn't you know it, I found books with MechWarrior Dark Age written on the cover. I loved the lore, I loved that the characters were portrayed as professional soldiers, not moody teenagers, the tech made sense to my VERY mechanical mind, and the goodness just kept coming. I was hooked. I got more units, played in local games (still do(despite Topps killing it(those surats))) I later found that there were video games, but, being in a mac family, was unable to play them. I did find MechWarrior 2 for PS1, only to be completely confused by the controls, I found out about Mech Assault, convinced my parents to get me an X-Box for Xmas, only to be disappointed by it completely ignoring the lore. I convinced my dad to get me a PC for when I graduated, and that summer MWO was announced, hopefully my stream of bad luck is at an end.

[Blackjade]

Started with Mech 2. Played in the leaGUES TILL THEY WERE DONE (mwl) Was in the SHS (skagg head shooters) WL Wolf's Freelancers, and most recently the UD Undead clan. MW4 died. I long for the way it was when as a unit lead I would be shuffling 3 drops in one night. Ahhhhhhhhh.

And by the way, I'm 46. hi kids.

Edited by Blackjade, 27 June 2012 - 08:03 PM.

[Pilot Revant]

The first book I read as a kid was the thing that got me into Mechwarrior and reading for that matter. MechWarrior Ghost of Winter, loved the **** out of that book. The mech line art in the back the action sequences, I though this was the best book ever written, parents and teachers before that point tried to get me into reading with the usual books, Prince Caspian, all the other Lion Witch and the Wardrobe books. Didn't interest me a bit, then I came across a book with two giant robots duking it out on the cover. A few pages in, lasers burnan' an meltan', missiles explodan'.

As a ten year old, that was a kick *** reading.

And a few months later a friend told me that a MechWarrior game is coming out, the venerable MW4. Good times. Good childhood.

Edited by Pilot Revant, 27 June 2012 - 08:23 PM.

[SpL33n]

MW2 was the first game for our first PC (ahh, the P75...), was instantly hoked, then obviously played all the 'mech video-games that came out up till now. Well, apart from Ghost Bears Legacy, but it's not exactly easy to find these days.

[BigLuigi]

I have always been interested into RPG and tabletop. Im plaing Vampire:masquerade and D&D right now.

When being younger i extensively read fantasy and sci-fi (still do xD), and somewhen i stumbled over BT-Books.
Reading them awoke my appetite for the canon and the universe and i started the PC-Carreer with mech-Commander. Followed by MW3, MW4 and MERCENARIES (horrible i think..).
Now im very eager to try my luck with the big boys again

[CharliePapaLima]

I first saw MechWarrior 2 on a relatives PC back in 95, I was 8 years old and the game was amazing. I played Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt but MechWarrior really got me into video games and interest in computers. Been playing the franchise ever since. I also saw the tabletop BattleTech been played for many years as a kid at a few hobby shoppes. Wish I got into the tabletop game but there's always time to start.

Edited by Elio13, 02 August 2012 - 12:22 PM.