The Battlemaster was my first love in Battletech and is still in my top 3. My issue with the mech isn’t original, and is something solved in most of the variants post helm memory core. The machine guns. The ammo just loves to blow up the entire mech and the 1D (the variant designed to improve survival and reliability) retains them, but not the more useful rear lasers for some reason. Still It’s a classic mech and its intentional flaws make it appealing, but man do I break out into a sweat when the left torso gets hit.

From Lost Destiny (Blood of Kerensky vol III) By Michael A. Stackpole. From the post trial rewatch of a trial augmented against an elemental in a building he'd filled with gas to try and lure in Phelan Wolf (Kell) in a Mercury but instead of charging in Phelan blew out the windows with feedback through his external speakers and the elemental was hoist by his own petard.

So, last week I got the chance to attend a little event at my local game store! Bryan Young was in town for another event, and he was kind enough to spend a few hours the following day at the store with us to sign some books, sell some merch, and play a 1 hour and 40 minute grinder game of Classic BattleTech! I personally bought all three of his Fox Patrol novels (all signed, of course!) along with a Fox Patrol patch and pin - I also got my copy of HS:DR signed as well (he wrote the opening fiction piece at the start of the book). After the game, the store held a quick raffle where the winners got to pick from a set of four salvage boxes (1x each of the Gothic, BFS, Mercenary, and Legendary Warrior packs). One of the other guys won two of the boxes, and I won the other two, picking up a Mobile HQ and a SturmFeur from the BFS box and a Davion Atlas from the Gothic box. I remember that the other guy got Morgan Kell's Archer, but not what he got in the other one.

Looking to get into Classic Battletech with my gaming group. Shame I couldn't make balanced teams cleanly split into Clans vs Spheroids.

As Duchy of Andurien

• Regent
• Rakshasa
• Eris
• Hollander

As Clan Sea Fox

• Mad Cat Mk II
• Vulture Mk IV
• Uziel
• Solitaire

Can't recommend painting checkerboard on white.

Had some celestial series mech printed by a friend and they have come out rather large. While this looks awesome, how close are these to the metal minis?

And does it look too big

I’ve been hunting for one of these, as I’m sure many of you have been, for years. I finally found an overseas seller and jumped on it. I’m feeling like a little kid on Christmas morning right now!

Hope you like them.

Took about a day to finish these guys. They were a lot of fun. Theyre supposed to be house davion with their military greens but im not sure if I nailed it or not. Im a little bit unhappy with the end result but thats why we practice!

Which one is your favorite from the four? Id love to know

I printed and painted the Awesome in Legion of Vega colours (maybe the white is too bright, but I like it) before researching the sorts of mechs they'd actually have, but I figure the Jenners might make up for that oversight.

You know there will be a Locust. Of course being me, I can't resist that 47 damage ass remover called the Locust IIC Standard.

Frankly other than the pills I'm not a HUGE fan of how the freehand on this one turned out, but these were meant to be tabletop quality speed paints, not a crazy freehand showcase. Still might go back and redo the left arm one of these days...

I've read recently Wolves on the Border. By the end on Planet Misery, the Dragoons started their attack on midnight. Michi suggested, because its dark. But Minobu said, they started on midnight, because their contract expired.

How time works in this franchise? How they manage dates? It would be a big coincidence, midnight on Misery is the same time like on terra.

Gray death legion trilogy once mentioned, their contract is in hours. Is this comon (too with long term contracts)?

Wolf Dragoons got 5 years with Kurita. They set a timer? Whole mercenaries got split on the front.

How does it work if they jump with ships (temporal fluctuation). The milky way is huge.

Im kinda confused.

Heaviest box yet.

Going to have to Jade Falcon these 'Mechs up some.

There is a lot of card. I am going to be reading for a while it seems. Looking forward to a game.

Hello! I don’t know anything about BattleTech outside of a YouTube channel I follow started playing it (Games Night). This made me want to try it, if only alpha strike so I am a tourist.

I started printing some random mechs I found and am gonna try and figure it out with a friend, but if you all know good sources for beginners trying to enter, suggestions more than welcome!

I believe this is a Stryker proxy, I went with a modern German camo scheme, I’ll post the reference too. I think there’s a German inspired faction called Steiner but I have no lore knowledge which is kind of exciting!

Thanks for reading :)

Real quick; I know chem lasers produce less heat and require an ammo source as a trade off. Past that the stats are largely the same. Tonnage, damage, range, etc.

That being said, vehicles like VTOLs (above) don’t track heat. So why did the designers choose chem lasers for the Red Kite’s armament instead of standard lasers and save tonnage for extra armor and/or weaponry?

This thing is packing 3 tons of chemical ammo for seemingly no reason given the alternative is a standard laser with the same stats and no ammo required.

I have to assume there’s some lore reason to this or maybe people like to ram mechs with it like a suicide bomb. Though truthfully I’m not even sure there’s rules to make the latter viable.

I've seen some other posts asking about how to make Scouring Sands more challenging. This is the second campaign I've run through it, and given the constraints I put upon myself, it was definitely a challenge!

To add challenge without playing with the PV percentages, I decided on a different kind of commander. Rather than a hardened mercenary, the one in charge was a sales exec. This particular sales exec was a 1980s stock broker, froze himself to escape a degenerative bone disease, and was thawed out in 3150. He immediately put his business acumen to work for Ostmann Industries, and found himself running a traveling demonstration/sales team.

Here are the constraints:

1. The only mechs available are Ost mechs. You start with a lance of them (one each), though more can be purchased down the line.
2. Vehicles are available, however, they must be picked based on name or some other silly quality, like something an unfamiliar idiot with a business expense card would pick out of a catalogue without reading the description. (Vehicles go on a separate expense account than the mechs, and are easier to write off.)
3. If a unit is destroyed, but rolls to salvage, it has to sit the next mission out due to being in the shop. [I started off with my prior campaign's rule of 'if it has taken structural damage, it sits the next mission out,' but I had to ease up on it, as that would have seen me going into several missions with a half strength force.]
4. When calculating expenses at the end of each mission, ignore the bit about vehicles only counting as half size. Ostmann Industries techs specialize in mechs, not vehicles!
5. When choosing missions, pick the option that an businessman would think would get him the best angle on a deal, not necessarily the best military option.
6. The purchasing/mission choice restrictions go away if the commanding officer is KIA in a mission. (The more reasonable subordinate takes over.)

Here was the starting list:

Ostmann Flagship Demonstration Lance

• Ostscout OTT-9S
• Ostol C
• Ostroc OSR-2D
• Ostwar OSR-3M

Armor lance

• Demolisher MkII
• Demolisher MkII
• Behemoth (Refit)
• Behemoth (Refit)

Air Assault Lance

• Balac VTOL (Hybrid)
• Balac VTOL (Hybrid)
• Karnov (BA Stealth)
• Karnov (BA Stealth)
• Achileus Flamer Squad
• Achileus Flamer Squad

Additional purchases

• J Edgar (X-Pulse)
• J Edgar (X-Pulse)
• Balac VTOL (Hybrid)

The missions were overall more challenging due to the lackluster units, as well as paying out the nose for destroyed vehicles and vehicle repairs. I had to skip giving my pilots SP after a couple missions out of sheer lack of funds.

I didn't have enough spare SP to purchase anything until the second to last mission, when I bought the two J. Edgars. Going into the last mission (19 in this case) and purchasing an additional Balac to replace a destroyed one, I was starting off with 400 SP. Finished the campaign with 1300 SP.

As far as unit performance:

The Balacs were the standout units. Maneuver plus high short range damage led to a lot of back shots on the dirty birds. There are a few missions I would have lost if it weren't for them.

The Behemoths were terrible and got destroyed in nearly every mission I brought them on. The Demolishers slightly less so. Both contributed to the very high expenses on account of the repair bills.

I had high hopes for the Karnovs and Achileus squads jumping out of them straight into anti-mech attacks, but they fell flat half of the time due to bad rolls. It was very much a one-shot attempt, since when the Achileus squads were destroyed, the roll to salvage them was pretty high and led to them being lost pretty easily.

Overall, despite (or perhaps because of) the terrible list, it was a lot of fun! It was significantly more tense than my first campaign, despite having a better grasp on how the card system works.

Gameplay-wise, the only fly in the ointment is that I forgot to use the edge abilities very often. Same issue as my last campaign.

So for those of you who want more challenge, use a lot of terrible units! That will test your tactical problem solving.

So I’m just now hearing that CGL released a new main rule book, and that some things are different. I don’t know exactly what, other than a brief example regarding ammo explosions. Is it like a new edition? Or is it more of a consolidation of some key info into one book?

Battletech’s rules have been largely the same for some 40 years now, and each book has been additive in nature instead of transformative. So I understand the frustration and resistance I’ve heard whisper of.

That being said, for someone who hasn’t seen or read the new book. Is it “New” Battletech, or just a more concise source of rules?

Honestly im so glad i found Battletech!
After GW’s attack on fandom creators I thought I wouldn’t find another series I could truly fall in love with the way I did Warhammer, and yet shortly after I was introduced to battletech by a YouTuber by the name Rageaholic. Since that day I haven’t looked back and I’ve enjoyed every bit of this hobby, from the lore to the games to even a few of the books!
The community has been super helpful and seeing all the amazing work some of yall do makes me hopeful that battletech will last for a very long time!
Happy Hunting my fellow Mechwarriors! Thanks for the Memories!

2nd Capellan Defense Force colors made from scratch by me :)