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Protip: when painting yellow try base-coating in pink first. It helps the yellow stay vibrant.

Battletech friends: If you're going to post an image of a mech could you please tag which mech it is?

My brain very smol and my knowledge of mechs is not great. Thank you.

been trying to come up with a BattleTech “pitch” for fans of The Expanse, but honestly?

this is probably enough, plus the official “primer” document if you want actual information rather than just a bunch of pretty images and a banging soundtrack by Jon Everist (who I’m fairly sure admitted he wanted this piece to sound kind of Expanse-y)

or if you don’t want to click links or watch videos:

politics-heavy hard-SF space opera, thrilling heroics, (almost) zero easy answers to the dilemma of the day, main themes are “people are always going to be people” and “the end justifies the means, but there is no end”. obviously this describes both settings nicely.

one just uses that to explain why people are hopping into big war robots and slapping the shit out of each other.

Played some battletech today!

First up was a game of classic. I flipped the script on my normal opponent and brought my Rasalhague coan forces while he traded his Jade Falcons in for Royal colors with his Black Watch vets. We used @blackboxfaxes Instant Action mission generation system and played Line in the Sand. I brought my Summoner and Horned Owl out to play along with a stand of elementals for the offense, while he brought a Rifleman II and a Royal variant Warhammer for the defense. In the grand tradition of wargamers everywhere, the Summoner got its last coat of paint less than 30 minutes before the game! All said it turned into a tactical slapfight- a warhammer that *almost* has enough cooling is pretty spooky and the rifleman ii is a monster at close fire support, but my mechs had the mobility to find a line around the outside of IS guns' short range while my Thor came kitted with enough inferno SRMs to lock down the Warhammer pretty effectively. We called it when I locked out the Warhammer's hip and the Black Watch had two really bad back to back turns of whiffed shots.

Game II was a three-way Alpha Strike match. We had one of the newer BT players swing by so we each grabbed 125 points of whatever and slugged it out. Jade Falcon made an appearance with the hated Warhawk C, so the other two of us did a fusion dance after a bit of scrapping and took it down with the power of power of friendship and incredible violence. The final blow was dealt by Knife Goose the Locust! Then the timberwolf turned and sent my last mech to the Shadow Realm. Such is life

Yesterday I taught Battletech: Alpha Strike at the Focht's Network event at Hobbiesville in Toronto.

300 PV of my Lyrans vs 310PV of what he had. It was a good time! He had the hang of it about half way through and we played until all his mechs were gone.

I learned that, as usual, my Hatchetman underperformed so I'm considering switching my list up a bit. Just have to decide how hard I want to commit to the bit of having 4 mechs with axes, or if I can give up the weak link.

There were multiple other games happening too! I think 4 Classic Battletech games happened, plus another Alpha Strike one.

We'll be doing these at least monthly, possibly twice a month, so if you're near Toronto

Quickdraw time.

Listbuilding Infodump

Hello! I'm a Battletech player lucky enough to have an active community at my FLGS but I am also a massive nerd who loves building lists that I may or may not use.

My group's standard format is 5000 BV for Classic and 250 PL for Alpha Strike. Because I'm super open to pickup games either in place of or after a scheduled game I make 2 lists. And now I'm going to infodump about what I'm bringing and why!

First up is my Classic list because it's smaller and (relatively) simpler. From left to right I am bringing a Warhawk (in Clan Sea Fox colors), a Vindicator (House Marik), a Hunchback (sporting my own Free Worlds Wolves urban scheme), and a Locust (again in FWW livery).

I own 2 Warhawks. Despite this, I've never actually run one because most models are like 3000 points and I don't feel comfortable sinking 60% of my roster's value in a single mech. Thankfully, the model A only costs 2,399 points and features one of my favorite weapons: the LB-X 10 (Mech-sized scattergun).

Due to the sheer cost of the Warhawk, my next choices needed to be more thrifty. I chose the Vindicator because I have a bit of a soft spot for it. It was the first mech I played with when I got the beginner's box and was one of the first mechs I painted. The PPC and LRMs didn't hurt either.

Next was the Hunchback. I love this thing. Just a big ol boi with an AC 20 or as I like to refer to it "the pilot check gun." Every time the 20 hits, there is a chance the target topples over and eats shit. That's too great to pass up.

Finally, there is the Locust. I'm running the 1-V for both sentimental and practical reasons. A) Locusts are dead cheap. B) because they're so cheap no one expects them to do something awesome!

All told I think this list is pretty well-rounded. The Warhawk and Vindicator bring the long-range pain while the Hunchback is a compelling reason to stay back and the Locust is an excellent, annoying linebreaker.

So that's Classic, but what about Alpha Strike I don't hear you mention? Well!

BEHOLD!

The entire conceit of this list is that I had vehicles and wanted to use them in an actual game. So I am running 1 Vehicle Lance and 2 Mech Lances.

The Vehicle Lance is a Recon formation consisting of 3 machine Gun Heavy APCs and a Rommel Tank. As a Recon Lance, they'll be forward observers. For what you may wonder? Well....

For my Fire Support Lance! This Lance features a Javelin (House Kurita), a Howler (Clan Ghost Bear), a Valkyrie (Highlander Camo), and a Horned Owl (Clan Snow Raven). The Fire Support Lance allows these mechs to fire indirectly at targets designated by the Recon Lance.

Finally, there is the Command Lance! The commander is in the All-Powerful Urbanmech (also Kurita), supported by an Enforcer (house Marik), a Trebuchet (tragically unpainted), and a Hunchback again (because I love them). The command is meant to provide frontline fighters as well as playing shenanigans with initiative and firing.

Overall this list is a bit more of a meme list and bringing a full company is probably ill-advised but I think it could be fun!

Assault on Santa's workshop at my friendly local gameing store.

The urbanmechs are piloted by elfs. On the small table and Santa has an Atlas and Rudolph here has his red nose to light up the targets.

BattleTech: The Succession Wars

🎲 Experience the epic conflicts of The Succession Wars board game, set in the BattleTech universe. Engage in strategic warfare reminiscent of Risk. Conquer, dominate, and seize your path to power! #BattleTech #MechWarrior #Gaming #SciFi #Mechs

Ah, The Succession Wars tabletop board game, a captivating embodiment of the tumultuous era that has shaped the very fabric of our noble houses of the Inner Sphere. As a House noble, I find myself drawn to the intricate tapestry of political intrigue and military strategy that unfolds upon the interstellar battlefield. It allows me to indulge in the art of grand manipulation, deftly navigating…

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Modern re-interpretation of Allen Gutierrez' cover artwork for classic Battletech box set by Florian Mellies aka Spooky777

To compare, here's the original Gutierrez artwork from 1984

The Long Bow sticker is now available at our store

Check out our other Battletech stickers!

The first of Alaric's SLDF forces report for duty!

I'm very proud of the base on this one. Whipping up a bunch more of them for the rest of the star.

An art reveal that flew under my radar. This was shown in a recent Sarna article. Here it is for your formal enjoyment.

Link to the article here:

Got Bobbie’s Marauder II painted to “would use it in a game” standard. Will almost certainly fuss with it further, and I may try to source a sheet of BattleTech-scaled Roci nose art decals somewhere. Possibly other insignias as well.

So now I’ve gotta paint her Urbie and get a Dougram printed to run as her SLDF Shadowhawk.

Play a big game of Classic Battletech today, brought a big list of random Marik nonsense. Purple bird strong

It's the Banshee's world, the rest of us are just living in it.

This fuckin thing drew a line across the field and just marched straight toward the enemy fire base, ripping of AC shots the entire way. Amazing investment of bv.

I also got to use the Anvil for the first time and that thing's another fuckin beat stick.