When in doubt, be a Mercenary. Each of the IS factions have their ups and downs and none of them are "perfect". But with mercs, you'll be fighting for and against just about every faction and it allows you to define your unit's personality with far more flexibility than being a member of a major or minor state.
@@CrankyOldGamer i dont know the old rule sets but when we made our pilots with roleplay rules we chose mechs by our birthfaction and all that dont know how the modern rules work (was like 20 years ago ) i was a pirate arrggggg
@@gehtdichnixan3200 oh god, the Time of War character creation >.< I still have nightmares lol, let’s not talk about roleplay rules on a beginner thread lol, that’s 2 days worth of work just to explain 😂
I agree with this, im just now really getting into Battletech and decided to go Mercenaries and with Mercenaries you can really get your creative juices flowing and create a lance custom to whatever you like , such as background, color scheme, and mechs that you want to use. It’s all original and it’s yours and there is no wrong way to create your own Mercenary lance.
"think modern China but even more totalitarian and with a national flavour" is the best description for any major faction (except Caps, they're that but even more lmao)
It might sure not surprise anybody, but such optional rules do exist. Even down to army/galaxy level. Also the Clans have some extra honor rules to prevent (excessive) powergaming.
So for the issue of "this mech isn't with this faction," salvage is a legitimate in-universe reason as to why a Kurita lance is using a Marik special mech.
Regarding timeline: 3025 isn't just the default because it's the first introduced and everyone plays it, it also has way less equipment with bonus rules. It's by far the easiest to understand for a new player and learning 3025 makes it way easier to learn later scenarios and timelines. When you already know how an autocannon works, learning about LB-Xs, Ultras, Rotaries, special ammo and so on isn't nearly as scary as it would be for a new player. On top of that, both HBS's Battletech and Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries are set in 3025 (although they do feature some lostech), so you'll feel completely at home coming from or branching out into those two games.
As another 40k refugee, I'm comforted by the low bar for entry. I literally can't do what I did when I got bored of my faction in 40k: pick up another faction. And another. And another. Just bins and bins of Tyranids, GSC, Guard, Tau, and Necrons in my storage room. It's like smoking all your life, you look back and realize you could have made a down payment on a house. Whereas everything you could possibly want to play Battletech _forever_ can be had for much less than the cost of getting ONE 40k faction. And the rules are always the same.
I started with Kurita, then switched to Comstar. later I was Clan Wolf - in exile. now I have a merc force based on the Northwind Highlanders. the force is an Army consisting of 5 Corp. a space Corp, a defense/training Corp and 3 Corp of front line combat forces. for those that don't know the scale: lance: 4 mechs company: 3 lances battalion: 3+ companies regiment: 3 - 5 battalions brigade: 3 -5 regiments Division: 3+ brigades Corp: 2+ divisions Army: 2+ corp
Thanks! Let me just screenshot that real quick! :D I'm still constantly scrolling through sarna when I wanna think about how to 'organise' my collection. This post is a major help!
@@ironelemental9367 the only thing that some people may use differently is regiment and brigade. I've seen them used as the same level between battalion and division. they describe the regiment as 3-5 battalions of the same unit type. each battalion is all mech or all armor or all infantry etc. the brigade consists of 3-5 battalions of combined arms. 1-2 battalions mech 1-2 battalions armor 1-2 battalions infantry etc. different militaries use thier own force organization tables. the one presented here is the basic organization within battletech. of course, clan and Comstar use a different method for organization. it's all done for the purpose of command and control.
Plus you have comstar divisions and clans. level 1 1 unit level 2 6 units level 3 36 units level 4 216 units level 5 1292 units point 1 mech or two vehicle/aircraft or 5 battle armor troopers star 5 point binary 2 stars trinary 3 stars cluster 3-5 binaries galaxy 3+ clusters
@xczechr I don't own that many (nearly 1000 though, if I add in the cardboard standups, I come close) our group recreated the history of select mercenary groups. my version of the Northwind Highlanders Army consists of the following: 5 Corp 14 Divisions 35 Regiments Regiment: command company 1st bn 2nd bn 3rd bn 4th bn the battalion size depends on its type. mech battalion - 5 companies armor battalion - 5 companies mech inf bn - 6 companies infantry bn - 8 companies artillery bn - 6 batteries aero has its own setup as does the space fleet. the Army regiments are based upon historical Scottish military units.
Last time I played Battletech, the Unseen were still seen. All of the Macross, Dougram, and Orguss models were still represented in game, which was the big draw for me as a fan of Macross. Aerotech had just come out and the clans weren't on the scene. Now, after decades, I find a box of the Inner Sphere Battle Lance models at my local gaming store. It has the Wasp, the Warhammer, the Phoenix Hawk, and the Rifleman, all Macross inspired 'mechs. So, I buy and paint it up. Then, I buy Alpha Strike, and the basic BT game. So, I'm enjoying getting back in after nearly forty years. Thanks for the video.
1. You can totally invent your own house unit. You can literally say “these are the personal troops of Duke/Duchess (insert made up name here) of the (insert chosen faction).” 2. You should TOTALLY do an overview of the periphery states because (in my opinion) they’re actually some of the most interesting factions in the game. The Taurian Concordate is one my absolute favorites because of how they completely murder the Capellans every time the Capellans try to conquer them.
100s of models?- an interesting take, almost all of my 40k games involve less than 50 models- and I've seen guys at apocalypse games with 40 or less models.
I’m a long time 40k player. My first experience with Battletech was the Crescent Hawks Inception back on Commadore 64 so Steiner has always had a place in my heart.
I think the part that always sold me on House Kurita? Is that they're honest. I mean people often talk about how Kurita is hyper aggressive and seeking to dominate the Inner Sphere militarily. But... that's the entire point of the Successor Wars. EVERYONE has that. They're just honest about what they want. Everyone else lies and gives the propaganda lines and such. While the Coordinator just basically shrugs and says "I wanna run this show and I'm the best so suck it." Davion, Capellans, Marik, Steiner? They'll all stab you in the back. Kurita will stab you in the face after calling you out. It's kind of highlighted in things like on the March on Terra during the Amaris Civil War. Kerensky asked for help from the Successor states. Marik said: "Suck it, I'm not picking a side" because of his personal grudge with the General. Fair enough. Kurita said: "Yes, we'll help... ourselves to the worlds of the Terran Hegemony that you just cleared of defenders." Davion said: "Oh yes, we'll help out of honor... by the way we'll just put these worlds you liberated under our care in perpetuity. For humanitarian reasons only, of course. We're not annexing thing... just ignore the permanent military presence of our neo-feudal boots we put on the ground." Capellans said: "We'd like to but we suck too hard and got gutted by wars against the Taurians, otherwise we'd totally help out... and help ourselves to free real estate." Lyrans went all: "Sure we'll help... we'll sell you supplies, in return for those worlds you just liberated. Which we're moving in on. A fair deal. What you're breaking up, something about go ahead we like that deal? Okay!" Honorable mention for me to ComStar however. I did love them at first glance, reading about them in the book. A group that invented mystical technobabble to hide the secrets of technology from outsiders... and then FORGOT it was all made up technobabble and started to think that the magic was real.
Something that I really like about battletech is how the game has a way of rewarding you for not being meta. By that it is so satisfying to play the game recognizing that you don’t need the “perfect force” to have a good time. It’s really rewarding to trust the Battle value system and pick whatever you want! I really like playing as Mercs, Steiner, Comstar, and Liao.
Totally agreed. I think BV2, while not perfect, is really close to help balance forces. And given that everyone has access to all the same stuff, and its reasonably balanced, the chances of feel bads due to faction selection is pretty much nullified.
One way I've broken the faction in the Inner Sphere down is by how they're forces are canonically made up. FedSuns:. Balanced with an eye towards Heavy/Medium. DracComs: Medium/Light mainly though posting the Heavy or Assault as well. Marik: Balanced with a shade towards Heavies and lots of Large Lasers thrown in. Liao: Medium and Assault strangely enough but it's combination that has worked. Enjoy using the fantastic Vindicator a lot. Lyrans: As the meme is: Assaults, Assaults, Assaults. Oh and the Heavies. What's a Medium or Light?
A slight tweak, canonically the Dracs preferred lights/heavies and assaults, seeing the medium class as being a poor compromise between lights and heavies. Not saying they don’t have them, merely that you’d see a couple of lights, heavies, and maybe an assault before you saw a medium. Otherwise you’re fairly spot on.
You could totally make a FedSuns aligned company that has bought a little too much into the idea of the Lorix Order and has the "partie per cross" and full heraldry treatment. Something Filtvelt Academy Training Btn but much more garish.
Hello COG I started playing Battletech at Capricon in Chicago in 1984. Butch Leaper, the primary play tester for FASA Corp was there, doing demo games using Gundam models and some basic terrain cut from 2-inch thick 'pink foam' insulation and set upon a hexagon grid spray painted onto a roughly 4x4 foot sheet of green felt fabric. I played several times. Each time using a different Mech type. And I was hooked. After the 'Con, I immediately went out buy a copy of the First Edition boxed set. That set had 'fold over' cardboard units with pictures of the Mechs printed upon them, which fit into little plastic 'pinch' style holders to stand upright on the folded paper maps. Within a month I owned three box sets of the earliest Ral Partha metal miniatures. Each box set came with four Mechs, and I got the Light, Medium, and Heavy lance boxed sets. This gave me my starting 12 Mechs. Enough to mix and match to play almost any sized battle on a tabletop. Also during this 6 month period, I found a place to play as well. Although it was somewhat outside the City of Chicago, and well over an hour's bus ride to reach, it was my primary place to play the game for over a decade. The place was called The Emperor's Headquarters (yes, they started out as a game shop mostly devoted to Games Workshop's 'Warhammer 40,000', but quickly branched out into other tabletop games). I started out with a Mercenary Company mostly affiliated with House Davion... But later, branched out to be a larger Merc Company that would fight for almost any House. The group I played with met every weekend at the EH shop, and from our frequent battles, each of us developed a 'back story' for our units. In my case, it got quite detailed, and mostly flowed from events that happened upon the tabletop. By 2005, The Emperor's Headquarters had self destructed, mostly due to bad investments by it's owners. And I suddenly had no place to play my usual, weekly games of Battletech. So, I moved on to Warhammer 40K, and in 2004 GW released the 4th edition rules set that allowed and encouraged players to create their own Space Marine Chapters... Which I did. I built up a massive 'army' of figures... Space Marines and their tanks and other equipment. Enough to play 'Apocalypse' sized battles. All painted to my own Chapter's color scheme. But, mostly due to GW's penchant for increasing the prices of their models, and replacing entire rules sets every other year or so, I gave up trying to keep up with that game, and by 2016, returned to Battletech. Then I retired from my job. Returned to my Home Town, settled down, and spent several years not doing much other than surviving and playing computer games. During this period I 'lost' most of my Battletech stuff, and the only remaining trace of my tabletop gaming is the several cases of miniatures for my Space Marine Chapter, sitting and gathering dust in my closet. I am now replacing my lost Battletech force a bit at a time, and hope to have the numbers I had once upon a time sometime in the not too distant future. As for playing? Not many here play Battletech, nor even know of it. So, I may have to build up several forces of Mechs and such, and then create my own group to play with. Yes, printing and distributing flyers and other methods to spread the word that there is a place where you can come to learn and play the game. This is my current goal. One I hope to achieve in the next few years.
That is quite a wargaming story! Im slow building my forces as well. Im lucky enough to have some local players to get games in. No local players near you?
@@CrankyOldGamer : Nope... the main gaming store in town does not carry Battletech, and has no interest in doing so. So, I guess I will have to 'drum up' interest in the game myself. As I said, I plan to buy up enough models to have enough to make several small forces to enable new players to 'get a feel' for the game. Once I have that, I can go about with drumming up interest... flyers, and perhaps attending gaming sessions in the store to talk to other gamers and see if I can interest them in playing Battletech. Baring all this, I just may have to settle for playing in other cities with fairly long driving times to reach.
WOW! Thanks for this video! I played BT back in the 80's and early 90's and left when I discovered 40K. I spent the late 90's till about 2012 collecting every army in the 40K Universe..... (and I have well over $8000 invested in it. Then.... i got tired of constantly having to change army's, repaint, cut weapons off because now they are illegal, and all of the other stuff GW does every few years for a money grab. That took me back into my early 80's roots and I got back Into role playing. Pathfinder and D&D..... but recently, I found all of my old pewter mechs in a box and decided to check it out again. That led me to my local game shop where I decided to go hog wild. I bought the beginner box, clan invasion, and another box that had like 20 mechs in it. Then got the new hard back books and bought all of the clan stars, and IS lance boxes. I didn't get the comstar, but I guess I'll go get it. Now, I have to relearn how to play the game. Searching for some game stuff led me to your site. I was not disappointed! I am definitely going to check out the rest of your content. Come on over to West Texas and give my group a weekend of tutorials, we will buy the steaks and beer!
I have an army of OG Tyranids (before they went Super Spikey) and call some of the Battletech mechs I see "Excalibur" and " Zentradi Officer Battle Pod" :-p
Since I'd thought about being a demo-agent before the plague I've organized my hoarde by faction flavor, using the equipment/tactics I think another player might wanna use that day as my guide. While all of my teams are relatively balanced, I did make some faction flavor tweaks... House Steiner (Gray Death Legion): "Big Guns and bigger (though not necessarily better) 'mechs."...to a point. Extra assault mechs mean extra lights to keep things balanced. That said it's Steiner we're talking here, and Steiner makes a badass heavy gauss rifle later on. it's also the GDL, a merc unit known for infantry and powered armor, so when it was time to pick my little guys I picked mechs that had omnimech variants that the troops could ride to battle on (Blackjack, Firestarter, Locust/Raptor, etc.). Draconis Combine (2nd sword of light): uuuugh...In theory this is my "I wanna teach C3 network shenanigans" army. In reality it's my "The new guy loves Anime, so I lent them a force that look like gundams" army. Also remember reading that Takashi hated mediums; my Drac force is short on mediums and long on low-end heavies...and a lot of PPCs. Rasalhague (3rd Drakons): A 50/50 split between Steiner and Draconis spares, but I snuck in some extra emphasis on Melee combat. If my new guy wants to turn the game into a mosh pit, or do angry viking battle-axe shit to Clanners, here ya go. (Unrelated note: this was my most fun paint job. Runes for everybody!) Davion (Eridani Light Horse): I'm re-making the video game "Mechwarrior 3" for a buddy who never got to play; mechs from that game are auto-includes. Everything else is either from ELH lore I found on Sarna, or a medium mech, 'cause Davion likes their cavalry stuff. Lots of jump jets, which is never a bad idea. Liao/MoC (15th Dracon/Ramillie's raiders, both brown): Anything with a Stealth Armor variant gets a showing here, (also an unintended abundance of heat-delivering weapons. Buy one dirty trick, get one free). I threw in a non-stealth command/arty lance (Catapult and Cyclops don't have Stealth variants, D'ow!) which I basically use as bait to spring stealth-mech ambushes with, and I'm done. Free World League/Comstar (Free Worlds Guards) This army had to pull double-duty 'cause I started running out of mechs; fortunately Comstar and the FWL share a lot of stuff, so it's no biggie. When playing the FWL, I'm running LRM shenanigans (TAG, NARC, Alternate ammo loads, etc), and I tell myself that only the Awesome gets to carry PPCs if a large laser variant is also available. If I'm pretending to be Comstar/WoB today...C3I variants all the way, baby! My OpFor (Wolf's Dragoons) This is where I put the more exotic mechs I've accumulated over the years, with a few extra little guys thrown in so that I can afford to field better pilots. And finally... My other OpFor (Hansen's Roughriders/Snord's Irregulars): I hand-picked an Archer (Cranston), Shad (Rhonda), Rifleman (Shorty), and a spare Shogun I didn't know what else to do with (taken from the Dragoons after Jamie and Cranston's "falling out"). Also yoinked a spare Catapult and Commando I had laying around in case I wanted to reenact MW2: Mercs on tabletop ("Dead Eye" and "Fresh Meat," respectively). Everything else is leftover parts and broken stuff I've kit-bashed back into an ugly state of service. This is my way of saying "I built this army out of garbage, and I can still wreck you with it." Most of my stuff is either mercenary or mobile house unit, and most have fought against clanners at one point, so I have a plausible excuse to set up a fight with any other army I own or expect to face. It took a shitload of planning and time spent on Sarna though (lol). Probably woulda been easier to just paint generic camo patterns, label em "generic merc units" and call it a day, but eh, it's a labor of love. Just some ideas. Hope it helps somebody.
I always say go with a culture that appeals to you. Lord knows there are enough of them in the game. Also say don't be afraid to create lances and companies for different nations. My Kurita company started as an aggressor company that I could hand off to some one to play against. I'll pull them out and play them my self.
During the Clan Invasion, Inner Sphere factions start salvaging Clan technology and even whole 'Mechs. Likewise, Clan Second Line forces do have older Star League era 'Mechs if I remember correctly.
This is where I am right now in Battletech, which faction do I want to be? I will probably pick one inner sphere factions and one clan to cover all the mechs.
I use to love Wolf's Dragoons because of massive variety of units it could field due to the fact that they had at some point they had fought for every House. After the Refusal war, I had a free hand as to what I could use because they had been reduced to single regiment and and the Black Widow battalion. By the 3050 era they were fielding IS mechs with Clan Tech weapons then afterwards a mix of Omni-mechs and IS mechs with upgrades, even elementals.
Your rough intro is wildly underrated. I’ve been on the cusp of diving into the BT universe since last year. I’m finally beginning to deep dive into the Jihad era with my friends!
This is great info! I am getting back into Battletech since I stopped in the 90s. There is so much more now. Thanks for those color coding links. That will certainly help make a decision for painting my mechs.
@@CrankyOldGamer For sure. Its funny, because Battletech was my first miniature game when I got it as Battledroids in 1984. And now it will most likely be my last and cheapest overall.
Gosh, what a beautiful video that is. I think this is the number one video one UA-cam with the phone ringing on the background. Tons of information and very passionate presentation! Thank you so much for putting this together.
This video is exactly me as per your intro. Came across from 40k as a main focus. Trying to find my bearings. So grateful for all your intro videos, you've become a great go-to. And you're right about the BT community being so much more welcoming!!
most important thing: when you chose a fraction: you are open to all sort of puns, jokes and bickering from everybody else that choosed a fraction. But this is one of the biggest funs for me in Battletech and i play now since over 20 years in total. For example: I had with my Kurita force a fun game with a good friend with his Liaos against a Steiner an Davion we didnt know. the Davion Player never got it but after the first two round the Steiner Player joined us at bickering and laughing at each other without ever get personal: Social General, narrow mindet would be warrior, in reality running from the statepolice etc etc. But at no point was there any bad blood And this kind of stuff you can take to new heights when playing clans
Thanks for the video, it is incredibly helpful. I am curious about Battletech and this seems like a great starting point. I have a bit more understanding now and I’d enjoy watching more videos like this!
Thanks for this vid. I've had a handful of Mechs just sitting unpainted and unplayed as a new system can be really intimidating to get into. This really broke it down to a much more digestible level, and honestly- Comstar looks awesome...
Hi crancky im a new games of this tabletop wargame, i start with the kickstarter stuff last year(i play the olds videogame and mechwarrior heroclix i know and love the plot and the background) i came from warhammer 40k and i play a lot of other wargame (i left 40k, but i still play legion, infinity and others) and i want tell you thanks for this video, and it is true the community is fantastic, give me very true welcoming.
This was excellent, thank you. As a seasoned Wargamer coming over from other games this was super helpful. Would love some buyer guides for people that are already Wargamer’s
i am a long time veteran of the franchise, but new to the Tabletop side of things, this video is not only a great guide on the basic factions, but a near perfect primer to the lore itself, and really great advice on what to go with; this game's factions are 90% personal preference and 10% reading that being said, I'm not sure about Warhammer 40K having this, i have heard rumors of it, but i know for a fact that BattleTech has this, but the Tabletop side of things has three flavors that are perfect for whatever your playstyle is: Classic is the most hardcore out of all of them, and the oldest, dating all the way back to 1984, Alpha Strike is better for those coming from Warhammer, as it takes a lot of rule ques from MechWarrior Dark Age (rip), but the best one of all in my opinion is A Time Of War, which has it's own rule set, but can be combined with the other two rule sets if desired, but A Time Of War is for those that cares more for the RolePlay potential than just gaming by the numbers, but as a veteran of this franchise, trust me when i say that there is TONS of roleplay potential, not quite like Warhammer, but i would say a bit closer to Cyberpunk RED but with giant robots, and massive armies that you can interact with, and the games can either be Monty Python goofy, or CDPR levels of heavy, this story universe has near endless story potential, and everyone is welcome to join! :D
Only just started and decided to paint before I knew exactly which factions did what and just painted grey with red bits. Then I found out more and wanted to be Taurian Concordat and it just so happened the 3rd Lancers were that exact scheme, spooky 👻
Been playing 40k, LotR etc and by pure accident found your channel - you are going to cost me more hard earned cash. Just watching this video has me hooked. No bi-annual re-purchase of entire Armies along with Rule Books, Codexs, etc etc - just a lot of fun. Ordered a Starter Box and now deciding (with your help) on a faction to expand my game. BTW - I 3D printed a number of 6mm soldiers for an 'Althoids Tin" OPR skirmish game I made up to keep me busy through Cancer Treatments - they will be my Ground Force in Battletech. Thanks for such an informative post. Cheers from "Down Under" 😁👍
Awesome! You're going to be so happy with battletech - its such a great game. And the endless replayabiliry factor without mandatory additional investment us just absolutely glorious.
That was very informative. I was invited to play a game of Battletech in a few weeks. This video really helped me out. I played one game back in 1989 and I remember it being a lot of fun. I am going to order a handful of mechs to paint before then. This helps me out what to buy/paint. Thanks!
Great video! It cleared some things up for me. I've been in and out of the different wargames for a little while now, trying to find one that sticks. The lack of All of this info is exactly what's been holding me back from painting my mechs. But now I think I'll try a couple of 4 mech squads to start with.
Great video! First off: Liao have Indian ifluences aswell, Kurita have Arabs, Steiner have Scotish and Marik have Spanish descendants, FRR is Nordics. So❗️Imho. A few ways to structure your choices into sections to make it more clear, at least I do ( my favorite factions in brackets ): ❗️IS: In-faction Loyalist/ Loyal faction mercenary company. (FRR/ GBDominion/ Rasalhague Dominion, Capellan Federation) ❗️Clan: Bloodied in-clan bred member/ Clan loyal merc company.( Clan Ghost Bear/ CGB Dominion turns/ Rasalhague Dominion, Clan Snow Raven/ Raven Alliance, Clan Wolf/ Wolf Empire, Clan Star Adder, Clan Coyote ) ❗️Periphery ( Aurigan Coalition )/ Deep periphery ( Jarnfolk )/ even Lawless ( pirates, bandits ) ❗️For all the above timeframe/ Era is important to keep authencity. Though of course you can homebrew your own Lance, Star, pilots etc if not using established. Also having color schemes of your own but use a streak of color/ symbol+own symbol for that IS/ Clan/ Periphery+Deep periphery faction you are in-faction ( born/ bred in that faction ) or as loyal merc company to. Faction Affectionate so to speak😁 Lastly... ❗️Having a merc company as a sub merc group of a larger existing mercenary faction or completely as your own independent one/ freelance. No loyality to any Clan, IS, Periphery faction. Just have at it with color schemes and a bunch of mechs with some from each Era/ faction making you flexible at any BT war gaming/ rpg table ☕️👏 This is all kinda Game of Thrones in spaaace 😁 And from me aswell, welcome all new Battletech fans!🥳🍻
Great video. Can't wait till you do a Periphery video. As for tips for folks that are new to the game: paint what ever your heart desires. One thing great about Battletech vs 40k is that color themes are not written in stone. Heck, you can have each mech painted with different colors and theme for your lance/company/battalion/regiment, they dont need to match.
Exactly - paint what ya want! Its funny I never really thought the Periphery was a loved topic, but Im sensing theres a hunger for some content on that topic!
Just got back into 40K and just rediscovered Battletech. Used to have a few metal mechs from iron wind 20 years ago but I can’t wait to check out the plastic ones by catalyst
Great video. I am retired and have got to a point where I have been able to really expand my wargaming (hex and counter/block/miniatures). I started back in to 40k in January, and have four armies underway. However, 40k being what it is, and the fact that a lot of my wargaming is solo, I was looking for a sci fi mini wargame that would be easier to acquire, set up and play in a more succinct fashion than 40k. I saw Battletech on Big Red Bear, and ordered the starter set, which I got two days ago. I'm in . The low cost, the ease of varied factions and the ease of set up and gameplay is awesome. I am starting with Kurita and Steiner to begin with and looking forward to getting this going.
Never really "had" a Battletech faction until MWO beta started and all my friends joined me in playing, so naturally we all had to choose different factions and my straw was Steiner!
The coolest thing my local group did was put a merc company together based on the justice league from DC comics. Each mech was based on a superhero and used tech to simulate their powers but also their weaknesses. Good times were had by all.
After using battletech mechs to play onepagerules, having been daunted by the complexity, I finally took the plunge and learned how to play bt properly It is way simpler than it looks, and so much god damn fun.
My first exposure to Battletech was the cartoon. It aired on a cable channel called The Children's Channel or TCC in the UK. You had the "good guys" an ad hoc unit from The Federated Commonwealth (That's a brief merger from the Stieners and the Davions for the people watching the vid) but I could not ignore the "bad guys" Clan Jade Falcon. Then I got a hold of Mechwarrior 2, in which Jade Falcon where playable. So I kinda got hooked that way
I've been playing Battletech since it came out. I wasn't aware until recently that people picked factions. We've always just played the game. Also, that paint job on the Marauder at about 4:00 is really sweet.
Really good stuff and lots of good advice here. As was said, there's nothing stopping you from painting your mech's poo brown and then adding lime green striping and pink highlights, or doing a Richtoftens flying circus and having each mech painted how you want. The factions are basically a colour scheme, and if you want to play it up a bit on the table, a way to act. This also carries over to the Clans, and although generally you won't mix Inner Sphere and Clan Mechs into a force, with the Clans, a faction is really, just a colour scheme. You can then choose to lean into how that Clan is yourself, you can, if you want, fight honourably, make yourself engage only one target, challenge other Mechs facing you to a duel and the like. The only difference being that the Clans tend to be more uniform so if you pick a Clan and a unit from them (and there's lots of examples if you look up the Unit Colour Compendium or CamoSpecs online) then they tend to stick to those colours.
Thats very well said. One of the many questions I get from new players is about mixing clan and IS tech. Certainly not as a general statement until well after Operation Revival.
Excellent points and well informed, good job sir. One thing I wish to add, if you the reader have gone through these options and thought none of them really fit your personal taste, try looking into the Clan factions. Some are more aggressive and dangerous, while others are very understanding and reasonable. The only thing to keep in mind with Clan is that they are seen as invaders by almost everyone playing Inner Sphere. Just want to close by saying welcome brothers and sisters to the BattleTech universe and have fun!
Gave up GW stuff because I got tired of things selling out and then not able to buy what I want (unless paying the scalper price). I loved the Mechwarrior games as a kid so thought I'd look into BT. Had a hard time wrapping my head around the lore. This helped! Thanks!
Honestly if someone wants an America faction in BattleTech I would suggest to look at the periphery Nation of the Fronic Reaches, because it's basically as far as I can tell very close to how the Americas were when we were having our war of independence and even depending on the timeline how far you're willing to go, up to the Louisiana purchase. Then again I could most likely be wrong and that's just personally how I see them
@@CrankyOldGamer fair warning, I may be very wrong and got that impression from sarna and the historical parallels to early US history. although if you want to field them they like tanks and hiring mercenary units for mechs by the look of it. Although I will recommend looking for a book that centers around them if possible because again I could be very, very wrong.
Canonically I think the Terran Hegemony was Anglo-American, but I know that the Belters and Columbians are explicitly American. That said both of those groups are asteroid dwelling libertarian weirdos who only talk to Comstar and each other, and since they don't really fight land wars I can only imagine them using Aerospace, Infantry, and maaaaybe LAM's.
I feel like I had an unconventional exposure to the Battletech universe. For me I got into the novels. I collected the whole series of books before I ever had my first mech! Later I played all the PC games (Mechwarrior 3 and 4, Mechcommander 2, etc). Eventually I got around to buying the starter set with the plastic minis back a number of years ago before the kickstarter. The mechs were really low quality. I painted some and had a blast with that. I just made up my own paint scheme. But I didn't get to play my first game until I bought the kickstarters for the Clan Invasion and finally played for the first time ever with my own kids. I'm now starting to paint my mechs. How am I painting them? Well the books were a big inspiration. And those early days of mechwarrior stuck with me. And so I decided, I'm making my own paint scheme, mercenaries dude. The Loud Fox Brigade hails from Canopus. Yeah, they're genetically modified with fox ears and fox tails. So yes they're basically space furries...y'know why? because I can, that's why. LOL. They have a stupidly bright screaming orange, black, and turquoise paint scheme. They're brash, they're arrogant, they're unapologetic, but they're also like one big family. I plan on doing a couple of groups of pirates, a few lances here and there of better known mercs. And because of my reading and because they seem universally disliked, I'll probably do a large contingent of Jade Falcons when I paint clan mechs. Gotta get my Aidan Pryde fix man! And I'll also be doing some Comstar, because we always need the super weirdo secret police to show up on the battlefield for God knows what reason to kill people...because....reasons.
Thank you very much! Your video helped a lot. The Battletech lore is overwhelming for beginners. I want to have mechs that were accurate to their era and faction but I didn't know where to start.
Thank amazon for giving me access to this game, I've been into it since mech warrior 2. I'm going to create a pirate outfit to pay homage to the pirate outfit I was a leader of back in mech warrior 4, mech pilots can be the old members that I can still remember, and work in their play styles to the mech choices. When I get to clan wars I'll do up clan fire mandrels for exactly the same reason, that clan in MW4 went hard into roleplay, and I was all about having to battle my superiors for a promotion lol
Step one, do you hate yourself? Yes, Capellans No, proceed to next question Step two, do you use C bills or tonnage? C bills, any successor or periphery state Tonnage, Clans Step three, is the concept of loyalty and state alien to you? No, pick a successor or periphery state Yes, go form a murder hoboing merc unit! Anything else is just for fun!
Currently working on my company of Battlemechs as a newcomer to the game, and really liked how diverse of a faction the Lyran Commonwealth seemed to be, so I'm painting all of mine in various unit colors, from the Donegal Jaegers, to the Skye Rangers, to the Lyran Guard, to represent an ad-hoc band pulled together to defend Tharkad.
I am much more of a painter than I am a TTGer, but I have recently become very enamoured of Battletech. I’m doing up my house after a relationship ended, and I’m thinking… what if I collect three lances of mechs, and even see if I can create a “Leopard” for them to sit on display in? Maybe they each have a little repairs rig where they sit, and I can get some little 5mm guys to be the mechtechs and whatnot? I reckon that’d be a really cool shelf to have. Already got a name for my merc group: The Devil Came Down. Insignia will be a little imp playing a fiddle (I nicked that idea for the insignia from the PC game). If I can find opponents in my town when the project is done, I will absolutely take them out for a ride! Heh. Love this video, mate. Great stuff for orientating myself in this world.
@@CrankyOldGamer when the project is done I’ll have to post pics somewhere and tag your channel in them so you can take a gander at my scrappy “follow the C-Bills” merc group! I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some video content for my UA-cam profile now that I suddenly have a bit more free time on my hands, so while it will take time, maybe I’ll post it on there! Wish me luck! 😄
I’ve got 3 camo-painted mechs so far, so I’ll do one more to round it out, then I have to pick a faction. I wound up with a Davion t-shirt from the Kickstarter, while the rest of my schwag was all FedCom. I guess I’ll start with blue! 😄
The way I picked, was kind of the same way I picked a 40k faction. I went and rear the lore. I really liked The Magistry and Snow Raven. So yeah. I'm making a Raven Alliance list and a Canopian Fusiliers list. Ofcourse with a variety of mec lists for shenanigan
I played back in the nineties. Thee was so much lore I didn't even try to learn it all. I learned how to play the Warhammer, and knew what it could do. That was my mech. Who needs a faction when you're a merc?
Mercenary, You don't need to worry about IS factions, you dont need to worry about adding a clan mech. JUST go ham on whatever you like, and can fit in via point requirements. :D
Brand new from 40k (though i bought BT 3rd ed as a little kid bc it looked cool). I love that all the modifiers and special abilities are tied to the build of the mech, and i dont have to worry about psykers and witchery, weird special rules and strategems. I only played alpha strike so far, and I know the full on BT is way more crunchy... But I had way more fun learning this than 40k.
This helped a lot, as I just picked up my first 3 kits this week. Your suggestion of working off colors nailed it for me, well mostly. HaHa As my favorite colors are green & purple I used the color compendium, so just have to decide if I'm going to use one of those factions to start with or make my own ... or both! haha
Hey Cranky Old Gamer! You have a lot of Gems on your channel making it a great resource for battletech. I'm going to link a few over to some friends that are thinking about the game. I see you stopped uploads about a year ago and hope your are well. If you ever get the interest to produce more content I believe the community would welcome it.
Love the channel so far! I jumped into battletech and this channel has been a huge help! I'm still torn on what inner sphere faction to go with, torn between Free worlds League or ComStar, but I know I'm going with a clan Blood Spirit force as well.
buy a resin printer, get your settings dialed in, and print a frickin army! thats what i did immediately after buying the beginners box. ive always loved minis and the technology is finally decent enough and cheap enough. ive had my printer a week and im already able to make mechs that are as detailed as the mass produced professional ones from 10 years ago. ive always been interested in battletech since i was a kid 30 years ago, but never really did a face-first dive into it until a few weeks ago. thanks for the great content!
I have many mechs. Up until now i had them unpainted because i wanted to try multiple mechs without having them with a certain faction color. Two days ago i started painting some of them but with different colors, based on the mech and not a certain faction. On the table they seem to be like power rangers 😊. A mercenary Army you can say. You can do whatever you want!
The way I've done it is 1 company for each house. 12 mechs chosen based on mech preference for the individual houses. Then I wanted merc units. So I chose 2 of the most well known, gray death legion and black widow company. Built their company's based on the books for both respective units. For clans I chose to have jade falcon and clan wolf be my go to. I went for a full company of each again based on lore. I have 2 lances of generic inner sphere mechs that are painted randomly and those get used during big alpha strike campaigns when we need to replace destroyed units etc..... Everybody gets represented and Everybody is balanced for the most part. Obviously this isn't always possible for every player to do, but it's at least an option. You can't go wrong with anybody. I do tend to play as Steiner if I'm playing as a house and the gray death legion if I'm gonna play mercs.
I think this makes a lot of sense. I too like a lot of variety and am a bit of a completionist, so Im working my way through all the main houses. Ill do another clan (prob Ghost Bear) and do a bunch of Periphery forces next, then Comstar. So many mechs to paint!
@@CrankyOldGamer It's more interesting and believable when the "good guys" have some people who abuse the good reputation and trust a group has for personal reasons or someone who twists the "good guys" values in some manner like Davion is likely to have some "Holyer than thou" minded people. Just as its realistic for the "bad guy" group has some family men just trying provide or Kurita member who is a true believer of the "Bushido" code and does act honourably. Is always better when it's not just blanket black and white as real people aren't so simple
Another point to note for picking color schemes is that for many mechs the "faction colors" were used as "parade" colors and would be repainted variations of camo for combat. So if you want your mechs to be a more natural or environment based scheme thats easily explainable while still using an established faction. Same goes for having other vibrant color alterations for sub groups within a faction for parade purposes, possibly for a particular location/audience. The hardest part for me is finding appropriate parts to work with kit bashing for custome builds or the ones based more on mercenary salvage, but thats a topic thats getting kinda out there into the....periphery. 🥁🤣 Sorry, couldn't help myself. Biggest thing is just have fun playing 👍
This does help because I really like the opportunity to make BT my more “real world” paint schemes. I have a bright flashy 40k army, and while I enjoy painting it and playing it, it’s nice to have variety in style of paint. I’m going with a military tan feel to my first mechs right now.
@@timunderbakke8756 nice. I did most of my 40k armies in a generic/non-canonnical scheme so I could swap between books (cause F codex creep). Sure I had a variety of dedicated stuff, wolf bits for some, death guard for another etc. But the vehicles were magnetized and painted an urban "fleck" grey with tiger stripes. Eldar stuff was similar but an almost black grey with blue lightning in the clevis areas. Nids were they're own hive color green with bone color carapace (kinda nurgle looking without the gore/puss stuff). I even did similar stuff with Battle Fleet Gothic. About the only army close to studio theme are High Elves (5/6/7the ed, don't know what colors they have now) and Deamon Hunters (cough) Grey Knights (3/4/5 ed). Back then it was anything to stretch a broke teens buck. Now its more utilitarian to pave my own backstories or fit my "commanders" style into an established story. The biggest thing is at the end of the day its a game and hobby, and if your not having fun doing it (at least within an agreed set of rules for the game part) than whats the point? Its not all competition, the best most enjoyable games I've had are with friends just having fun, and anything that adds the immersion just facilitates that further. Happy gaming 👍
Im coming from a long hiatus from playing and falling in love with the old mechwarrior tabletop game by wizkids. I collected house liao stuff and clan jade falcon. Ive made my order for some stuff yesterday. Im going jade falcon for sure for clan stuff ive bought, and might do steiner, or mercenary sounds fun too. The old wizkids mechwarrior game had that problem too where the houses and clancs had gimmicks going on with their units, which really had an impact on how the game itself played. I loke how the stats and gameplay are thebsame for this.
When in doubt, be a Mercenary. Each of the IS factions have their ups and downs and none of them are "perfect". But with mercs, you'll be fighting for and against just about every faction and it allows you to define your unit's personality with far more flexibility than being a member of a major or minor state.
Thats generally my suggestion as well. As long as one can understand that being a Merc is a totally normal thing in-universe, the sky's the limit!
@@CrankyOldGamer i dont know the old rule sets but when we made our pilots with roleplay rules we chose mechs by our birthfaction and all that dont know how the modern rules work
(was like 20 years ago ) i was a pirate arrggggg
@@gehtdichnixan3200 oh god, the Time of War character creation >.< I still have nightmares lol, let’s not talk about roleplay rules on a beginner thread lol, that’s 2 days worth of work just to explain 😂
@@rykercabler9756 ahhh its pretty easy i played rolemaster first hahaha ;) but i know what you mean
I agree with this, im just now really getting into Battletech and decided to go Mercenaries and with Mercenaries you can really get your creative juices flowing and create a lance custom to whatever you like , such as background, color scheme, and mechs that you want to use. It’s all original and it’s yours and there is no wrong way to create your own Mercenary lance.
Best description of Kurita I've heard: "sometimes space samurai, usually space imperial Japan"
Thats a very apt description!
"think modern China but even more totalitarian and with a national flavour" is the best description for any major faction (except Caps, they're that but even more lmao)
I love that there aren't really rules for individual factions, because the game already seems complex enough without them.
Oh yes. Great for balance and no "feel bads" that you picked the wrong faction!
It might sure not surprise anybody, but such optional rules do exist. Even down to army/galaxy level. Also the Clans have some extra honor rules to prevent (excessive) powergaming.
So for the issue of "this mech isn't with this faction," salvage is a legitimate in-universe reason as to why a Kurita lance is using a Marik special mech.
The Combine patriated it after executing a merc company that tried to shortcut through their territory.
100% salvage is utterly in-universe legitimate!
Through our Lord and Savior, Salvage, all mechs are possible.
KILL THE MEAT. SAVE THE MECH
Salvage.
Regarding timeline: 3025 isn't just the default because it's the first introduced and everyone plays it, it also has way less equipment with bonus rules. It's by far the easiest to understand for a new player and learning 3025 makes it way easier to learn later scenarios and timelines. When you already know how an autocannon works, learning about LB-Xs, Ultras, Rotaries, special ammo and so on isn't nearly as scary as it would be for a new player.
On top of that, both HBS's Battletech and Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries are set in 3025 (although they do feature some lostech), so you'll feel completely at home coming from or branching out into those two games.
Totally. Its very beginner-friendly.
As a 40k refugee, this really helped put things into perspective. Thanks for easing my mind about the risk of faction regret.
Im so glad! Thanks for watching!
Clan smoke jaguar. Then go from there.
I am getting into BT myself, where are you located?
As another 40k refugee, I'm comforted by the low bar for entry. I literally can't do what I did when I got bored of my faction in 40k: pick up another faction. And another. And another. Just bins and bins of Tyranids, GSC, Guard, Tau, and Necrons in my storage room. It's like smoking all your life, you look back and realize you could have made a down payment on a house.
Whereas everything you could possibly want to play Battletech _forever_ can be had for much less than the cost of getting ONE 40k faction. And the rules are always the same.
@@christopherhutchens8077you mean clan smoked jaguar right?
I started with Kurita, then switched to Comstar. later I was Clan Wolf - in exile.
now I have a merc force based on the Northwind Highlanders.
the force is an Army consisting of 5 Corp. a space Corp, a defense/training Corp and 3 Corp of front line combat forces.
for those that don't know the scale:
lance: 4 mechs
company: 3 lances
battalion: 3+ companies
regiment: 3 - 5 battalions
brigade: 3 -5 regiments
Division: 3+ brigades
Corp: 2+ divisions
Army: 2+ corp
Thanks! Let me just screenshot that real quick! :D
I'm still constantly scrolling through sarna when I wanna think about how to 'organise' my collection. This post is a major help!
@@ironelemental9367 the only thing that some people may use differently is regiment and brigade. I've seen them used as the same level between battalion and division. they describe the regiment as 3-5 battalions of the same unit type. each battalion is all mech or all armor or all infantry etc.
the brigade consists of 3-5 battalions of combined arms.
1-2 battalions mech
1-2 battalions armor
1-2 battalions infantry
etc.
different militaries use thier own force organization tables. the one presented here is the basic organization within battletech. of course, clan and Comstar use a different method for organization. it's all done for the purpose of command and control.
Plus you have comstar divisions and clans.
level 1 1 unit
level 2 6 units
level 3 36 units
level 4 216 units
level 5 1292 units
point 1 mech or two vehicle/aircraft or 5 battle armor troopers
star 5 point
binary 2 stars
trinary 3 stars
cluster 3-5 binaries
galaxy 3+ clusters
By your numbers a Corp. is a minimum of 1,944 mechs. So you're saying you have almost 10,000 mechs? Damn.
@xczechr I don't own that many (nearly 1000 though, if I add in the cardboard standups, I come close)
our group recreated the history of select mercenary groups. my version of the Northwind Highlanders Army consists of the following:
5 Corp
14 Divisions
35 Regiments
Regiment:
command company
1st bn
2nd bn
3rd bn
4th bn
the battalion size depends on its type.
mech battalion - 5 companies
armor battalion - 5 companies
mech inf bn - 6 companies
infantry bn - 8 companies
artillery bn - 6 batteries
aero has its own setup as does the space fleet.
the Army regiments are based upon historical Scottish military units.
Last time I played Battletech, the Unseen were still seen. All of the Macross, Dougram, and Orguss models were still represented in game, which was the big draw for me as a fan of Macross. Aerotech had just come out and the clans weren't on the scene. Now, after decades, I find a box of the Inner Sphere Battle Lance models at my local gaming store. It has the Wasp, the Warhammer, the Phoenix Hawk, and the Rifleman, all Macross inspired 'mechs. So, I buy and paint it up. Then, I buy Alpha Strike, and the basic BT game. So, I'm enjoying getting back in after nearly forty years. Thanks for the video.
Thank you so much for watching, and welcome back to Battletech!
1. You can totally invent your own house unit. You can literally say “these are the personal troops of Duke/Duchess (insert made up name here) of the (insert chosen faction).”
2. You should TOTALLY do an overview of the periphery states because (in my opinion) they’re actually some of the most interesting factions in the game. The Taurian Concordate is one my absolute favorites because of how they completely murder the Capellans every time the Capellans try to conquer them.
I will do periphery after I finish my clans video!
@@CrankyOldGamer hooray! I can’t wait! Thanks for all your hard work to create these videos. I love them!
"Come visit the Magistracy of Canopus, we have catgirls and mermaids!"
Taurine say "come to try your hand at free real-estate, stay because you're now radioactive debris".
100s of models?- an interesting take, almost all of my 40k games involve less than 50 models- and I've seen guys at apocalypse games with 40 or less models.
I’m a long time 40k player. My first experience with Battletech was the Crescent Hawks Inception back on Commadore 64 so Steiner has always had a place in my heart.
I loved those games. The nostalgia is strong!
I think the part that always sold me on House Kurita? Is that they're honest.
I mean people often talk about how Kurita is hyper aggressive and seeking to dominate the Inner Sphere militarily. But... that's the entire point of the Successor Wars. EVERYONE has that. They're just honest about what they want. Everyone else lies and gives the propaganda lines and such. While the Coordinator just basically shrugs and says "I wanna run this show and I'm the best so suck it." Davion, Capellans, Marik, Steiner? They'll all stab you in the back. Kurita will stab you in the face after calling you out.
It's kind of highlighted in things like on the March on Terra during the Amaris Civil War.
Kerensky asked for help from the Successor states.
Marik said: "Suck it, I'm not picking a side" because of his personal grudge with the General. Fair enough.
Kurita said: "Yes, we'll help... ourselves to the worlds of the Terran Hegemony that you just cleared of defenders."
Davion said: "Oh yes, we'll help out of honor... by the way we'll just put these worlds you liberated under our care in perpetuity. For humanitarian reasons only, of course. We're not annexing thing... just ignore the permanent military presence of our neo-feudal boots we put on the ground."
Capellans said: "We'd like to but we suck too hard and got gutted by wars against the Taurians, otherwise we'd totally help out... and help ourselves to free real estate."
Lyrans went all: "Sure we'll help... we'll sell you supplies, in return for those worlds you just liberated. Which we're moving in on. A fair deal. What you're breaking up, something about go ahead we like that deal? Okay!"
Honorable mention for me to ComStar however. I did love them at first glance, reading about them in the book. A group that invented mystical technobabble to hide the secrets of technology from outsiders... and then FORGOT it was all made up technobabble and started to think that the magic was real.
Totally. You know *exactly* what you're getting with Kurita!
Something that I really like about battletech is how the game has a way of rewarding you for not being meta. By that it is so satisfying to play the game recognizing that you don’t need the “perfect force” to have a good time. It’s really rewarding to trust the Battle value system and pick whatever you want! I really like playing as Mercs, Steiner, Comstar, and Liao.
Totally agreed. I think BV2, while not perfect, is really close to help balance forces. And given that everyone has access to all the same stuff, and its reasonably balanced, the chances of feel bads due to faction selection is pretty much nullified.
One way I've broken the faction in the Inner Sphere down is by how they're forces are canonically made up.
FedSuns:. Balanced with an eye towards Heavy/Medium.
DracComs: Medium/Light mainly though posting the Heavy or Assault as well.
Marik: Balanced with a shade towards Heavies and lots of Large Lasers thrown in.
Liao: Medium and Assault strangely enough but it's combination that has worked. Enjoy using the fantastic Vindicator a lot.
Lyrans: As the meme is: Assaults, Assaults, Assaults. Oh and the Heavies. What's a Medium or Light?
This comment is pure gold. Thank you!
and yet the Lyrans still designed and made some great mediums and lights.
A slight tweak, canonically the Dracs preferred lights/heavies and assaults, seeing the medium class as being a poor compromise between lights and heavies. Not saying they don’t have them, merely that you’d see a couple of lights, heavies, and maybe an assault before you saw a medium. Otherwise you’re fairly spot on.
@@scottyjoe6966 ya, but the dragon is really a medium in heavy clothes :p
@@The5thColumn 60 tons begs to differ 😂
A Federated Suns aligned custom knightly order would be badass. Mech Bretonnians!
That is a totally awesome idea!
Nice Idea, grab some old Mechs and green stuff. Make them look knightly, ove the idea played Bretonnians and Vampire counts looking like Bretonnians..
I mean I know it's marik but the knights of the innersphere.
Didn't the Free Worlds League beat them to the punch pre-jihad?
You could totally make a FedSuns aligned company that has bought a little too much into the idea of the Lorix Order and has the "partie per cross" and full heraldry treatment. Something Filtvelt Academy Training Btn but much more garish.
Hello COG
I started playing Battletech at Capricon in Chicago in 1984. Butch Leaper, the primary play tester for FASA Corp was there, doing demo games using Gundam models and some basic terrain cut from 2-inch thick 'pink foam' insulation and set upon a hexagon grid spray painted onto a roughly 4x4 foot sheet of green felt fabric.
I played several times. Each time using a different Mech type. And I was hooked. After the 'Con, I immediately went out buy a copy of the First Edition boxed set. That set had 'fold over' cardboard units with pictures of the Mechs printed upon them, which fit into little plastic 'pinch' style holders to stand upright on the folded paper maps.
Within a month I owned three box sets of the earliest Ral Partha metal miniatures. Each box set came with four Mechs, and I got the Light, Medium, and Heavy lance boxed sets.
This gave me my starting 12 Mechs. Enough to mix and match to play almost any sized battle on a tabletop.
Also during this 6 month period, I found a place to play as well. Although it was somewhat outside the City of Chicago, and well over an hour's bus ride to reach, it was my primary place to play the game for over a decade.
The place was called The Emperor's Headquarters (yes, they started out as a game shop mostly devoted to Games Workshop's 'Warhammer 40,000', but quickly branched out into other tabletop games).
I started out with a Mercenary Company mostly affiliated with House Davion... But later, branched out to be a larger Merc Company that would fight for almost any House.
The group I played with met every weekend at the EH shop, and from our frequent battles, each of us developed a 'back story' for our units. In my case, it got quite detailed, and mostly flowed from events that happened upon the tabletop.
By 2005, The Emperor's Headquarters had self destructed, mostly due to bad investments by it's owners. And I suddenly had no place to play my usual, weekly games of Battletech.
So, I moved on to Warhammer 40K, and in 2004 GW released the 4th edition rules set that allowed and encouraged players to create their own Space Marine Chapters... Which I did.
I built up a massive 'army' of figures... Space Marines and their tanks and other equipment. Enough to play 'Apocalypse' sized battles. All painted to my own Chapter's color scheme.
But, mostly due to GW's penchant for increasing the prices of their models, and replacing entire rules sets every other year or so, I gave up trying to keep up with that game, and by 2016, returned to Battletech.
Then I retired from my job. Returned to my Home Town, settled down, and spent several years not doing much other than surviving and playing computer games. During this period I 'lost' most of my Battletech stuff, and the only remaining trace of my tabletop gaming is the several cases of miniatures for my Space Marine Chapter, sitting and gathering dust in my closet.
I am now replacing my lost Battletech force a bit at a time, and hope to have the numbers I had once upon a time sometime in the not too distant future.
As for playing? Not many here play Battletech, nor even know of it. So, I may have to build up several forces of Mechs and such, and then create my own group to play with.
Yes, printing and distributing flyers and other methods to spread the word that there is a place where you can come to learn and play the game.
This is my current goal. One I hope to achieve in the next few years.
That is quite a wargaming story! Im slow building my forces as well. Im lucky enough to have some local players to get games in. No local players near you?
@@CrankyOldGamer : Nope... the main gaming store in town does not carry Battletech, and has no interest in doing so. So, I guess I will have to 'drum up' interest in the game myself. As I said, I plan to buy up enough models to have enough to make several small forces to enable new players to 'get a feel' for the game. Once I have that, I can go about with drumming up interest... flyers, and perhaps attending gaming sessions in the store to talk to other gamers and see if I can interest them in playing Battletech. Baring all this, I just may have to settle for playing in other cities with fairly long driving times to reach.
WOW! Thanks for this video! I played BT back in the 80's and early 90's and left when I discovered 40K. I spent the late 90's till about 2012 collecting every army in the 40K Universe..... (and I have well over $8000 invested in it. Then.... i got tired of constantly having to change army's, repaint, cut weapons off because now they are illegal, and all of the other stuff GW does every few years for a money grab. That took me back into my early 80's roots and I got back Into role playing. Pathfinder and D&D..... but recently, I found all of my old pewter mechs in a box and decided to check it out again. That led me to my local game shop where I decided to go hog wild. I bought the beginner box, clan invasion, and another box that had like 20 mechs in it. Then got the new hard back books and bought all of the clan stars, and IS lance boxes. I didn't get the comstar, but I guess I'll go get it. Now, I have to relearn how to play the game. Searching for some game stuff led me to your site. I was not disappointed! I am definitely going to check out the rest of your content. Come on over to West Texas and give my group a weekend of tutorials, we will buy the steaks and beer!
I have an army of OG Tyranids (before they went Super Spikey) and call some of the Battletech mechs I see "Excalibur" and " Zentradi Officer Battle Pod" :-p
@steve ford Wait weapons are illegal dafuq?!
define 'west Texas'. I'm in east Texas. not far from Tyler.
@@iso-didact789every few years GW makes players fork over ludicrous amounts of money due to rulebook changes
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it! If I get down to Texas lets do some steaks and robots!!!
Since I'd thought about being a demo-agent before the plague I've organized my hoarde by faction flavor, using the equipment/tactics I think another player might wanna use that day as my guide. While all of my teams are relatively balanced, I did make some faction flavor tweaks...
House Steiner (Gray Death Legion): "Big Guns and bigger (though not necessarily better) 'mechs."...to a point. Extra assault mechs mean extra lights to keep things balanced. That said it's Steiner we're talking here, and Steiner makes a badass heavy gauss rifle later on. it's also the GDL, a merc unit known for infantry and powered armor, so when it was time to pick my little guys I picked mechs that had omnimech variants that the troops could ride to battle on (Blackjack, Firestarter, Locust/Raptor, etc.).
Draconis Combine (2nd sword of light): uuuugh...In theory this is my "I wanna teach C3 network shenanigans" army. In reality it's my "The new guy loves Anime, so I lent them a force that look like gundams" army. Also remember reading that Takashi hated mediums; my Drac force is short on mediums and long on low-end heavies...and a lot of PPCs.
Rasalhague (3rd Drakons): A 50/50 split between Steiner and Draconis spares, but I snuck in some extra emphasis on Melee combat. If my new guy wants to turn the game into a mosh pit, or do angry viking battle-axe shit to Clanners, here ya go. (Unrelated note: this was my most fun paint job. Runes for everybody!)
Davion (Eridani Light Horse): I'm re-making the video game "Mechwarrior 3" for a buddy who never got to play; mechs from that game are auto-includes. Everything else is either from ELH lore I found on Sarna, or a medium mech, 'cause Davion likes their cavalry stuff. Lots of jump jets, which is never a bad idea.
Liao/MoC (15th Dracon/Ramillie's raiders, both brown): Anything with a Stealth Armor variant gets a showing here, (also an unintended abundance of heat-delivering weapons. Buy one dirty trick, get one free). I threw in a non-stealth command/arty lance (Catapult and Cyclops don't have Stealth variants, D'ow!) which I basically use as bait to spring stealth-mech ambushes with, and I'm done.
Free World League/Comstar (Free Worlds Guards) This army had to pull double-duty 'cause I started running out of mechs; fortunately Comstar and the FWL share a lot of stuff, so it's no biggie. When playing the FWL, I'm running LRM shenanigans (TAG, NARC, Alternate ammo loads, etc), and I tell myself that only the Awesome gets to carry PPCs if a large laser variant is also available. If I'm pretending to be Comstar/WoB today...C3I variants all the way, baby!
My OpFor (Wolf's Dragoons) This is where I put the more exotic mechs I've accumulated over the years, with a few extra little guys thrown in so that I can afford to field better pilots.
And finally...
My other OpFor (Hansen's Roughriders/Snord's Irregulars): I hand-picked an Archer (Cranston), Shad (Rhonda), Rifleman (Shorty), and a spare Shogun I didn't know what else to do with (taken from the Dragoons after Jamie and Cranston's "falling out"). Also yoinked a spare Catapult and Commando I had laying around in case I wanted to reenact MW2: Mercs on tabletop ("Dead Eye" and "Fresh Meat," respectively). Everything else is leftover parts and broken stuff I've kit-bashed back into an ugly state of service. This is my way of saying "I built this army out of garbage, and I can still wreck you with it."
Most of my stuff is either mercenary or mobile house unit, and most have fought against clanners at one point, so I have a plausible excuse to set up a fight with any other army I own or expect to face. It took a shitload of planning and time spent on Sarna though (lol). Probably woulda been easier to just paint generic camo patterns, label em "generic merc units" and call it a day, but eh, it's a labor of love.
Just some ideas. Hope it helps somebody.
Super fun read. Thanks for that.
I absolutely loved reading this comment!
Thanks, all!
We should do this more often
@@traviswolle3712 for sure! Can't decide if clans or periphery next
I found this very fun and passionate. Thanks for giving me some ideas for my campaign I wanted to try to run.
I always say go with a culture that appeals to you. Lord knows there are enough of them in the game. Also say don't be afraid to create lances and companies for different nations. My Kurita company started as an aggressor company that I could hand off to some one to play against. I'll pull them out and play them my self.
Totally. Im on a completionist spree, painting up as many factios as I can, so I can have variety and a hood OpFor for each faction
Wait I'm new, AND I love the big stompy robots... Gimmie the Clans video next!
During the Clan Invasion, Inner Sphere factions start salvaging Clan technology and even whole 'Mechs. Likewise, Clan Second Line forces do have older Star League era 'Mechs if I remember correctly.
Indeed! Salvage rights are totally a thing
This is where I am right now in Battletech, which faction do I want to be? I will probably pick one inner sphere factions and one clan to cover all the mechs.
Those are great places to start. If you want to branch out from there the possibilities are endless.
If you have two forces each of Clan and IS you can set up all the matchups.
I use to love Wolf's Dragoons because of massive variety of units it could field due to the fact that they had at some point they had fought for every House.
After the Refusal war, I had a free hand as to what I could use because they had been reduced to single regiment and and the Black Widow battalion.
By the 3050 era they were fielding IS mechs with Clan Tech weapons then afterwards a mix of Omni-mechs and IS mechs with upgrades, even elementals.
Your rough intro is wildly underrated. I’ve been on the cusp of diving into the BT universe since last year. I’m finally beginning to deep dive into the Jihad era with my friends!
Awesome! Its a great game, I know you'll love it!
This is great info! I am getting back into Battletech since I stopped in the 90s. There is so much more now. Thanks for those color coding links. That will certainly help make a decision for painting my mechs.
Awesome! I'm glad you're back into the game - me too after a long hiatus since the 90s - and lovin it!
@@CrankyOldGamer I am thinking this will be my retirement game. instead of a chess game I will have Battletech for casual play. lol.
@@warrenloewen4569 omg I was literally thinking the same for myself. I can see me in my 60s with a cracked beer, my best buds, and Battletech!
@@CrankyOldGamer For sure. Its funny, because Battletech was my first miniature game when I got it as Battledroids in 1984. And now it will most likely be my last and cheapest overall.
Gosh, what a beautiful video that is. I think this is the number one video one UA-cam with the phone ringing on the background. Tons of information and very passionate presentation! Thank you so much for putting this together.
Thank ya, much appreciated!
This video is exactly me as per your intro. Came across from 40k as a main focus. Trying to find my bearings. So grateful for all your intro videos, you've become a great go-to.
And you're right about the BT community being so much more welcoming!!
Im so glad, and thank you so much!
This is probably the best beginner video I've seen so far! Thanks!
Thank you so much, really appreciate it!
most important thing: when you chose a fraction: you are open to all sort of puns, jokes and bickering from everybody else that choosed a fraction. But this is one of the biggest funs for me in Battletech and i play now since over 20 years in total.
For example: I had with my Kurita force a fun game with a good friend with his Liaos against a Steiner an Davion we didnt know. the Davion Player never got it but after the first two round the Steiner Player joined us at bickering and laughing at each other without ever get personal: Social General, narrow mindet would be warrior, in reality running from the statepolice etc etc. But at no point was there any bad blood
And this kind of stuff you can take to new heights when playing clans
This!!! Faction rivalries are perfect fidder for smack talk!
For being absolutely new to this game this video was super informative. I really do appreciate you taking the time to make this vid.
Awesome, Im glad you liked it and that it was useful! More vids like this soon
Thanks for the video, it is incredibly helpful. I am curious about Battletech and this seems like a great starting point. I have a bit more understanding now and I’d enjoy watching more videos like this!
Thank you so much, Im glad you enjoyed it!
As someone coming into this game completely new, it's a lot to take in. Your video was extremely helpful, thanks!
I am so glad you found it helpful!
Just picked up the battletech starter set. This video has been a huge help! Now I can't decide what faction is cooler
Theyre all pretty fun. Try one then another!
@@CrankyOldGamer went with Comstar and Lio
@@WeOnlyEatSoup great choices!
Great advice! I appreciate the breakdown of the factions as well as the advice on the time period.
Thanks for this vid. I've had a handful of Mechs just sitting unpainted and unplayed as a new system can be really intimidating to get into.
This really broke it down to a much more digestible level, and honestly- Comstar looks awesome...
Thank you! I do love me some Comstar - check em out!
Hi crancky im a new games of this tabletop wargame, i start with the kickstarter stuff last year(i play the olds videogame and mechwarrior heroclix i know and love the plot and the background) i came from warhammer 40k and i play a lot of other wargame (i left 40k, but i still play legion, infinity and others) and i want tell you thanks for this video, and it is true the community is fantastic, give me very true welcoming.
Thank you! Appreciate you listening and for your comment, glad to have you here!
This was excellent, thank you. As a seasoned Wargamer coming over from other games this was super helpful.
Would love some buyer guides for people that are already Wargamer’s
Clan Ghost Bear all the way baby!
i am a long time veteran of the franchise, but new to the Tabletop side of things, this video is not only a great guide on the basic factions, but a near perfect primer to the lore itself, and really great advice on what to go with; this game's factions are 90% personal preference and 10% reading
that being said, I'm not sure about Warhammer 40K having this, i have heard rumors of it, but i know for a fact that BattleTech has this, but the Tabletop side of things has three flavors that are perfect for whatever your playstyle is: Classic is the most hardcore out of all of them, and the oldest, dating all the way back to 1984, Alpha Strike is better for those coming from Warhammer, as it takes a lot of rule ques from MechWarrior Dark Age (rip), but the best one of all in my opinion is A Time Of War, which has it's own rule set, but can be combined with the other two rule sets if desired, but A Time Of War is for those that cares more for the RolePlay potential than just gaming by the numbers, but as a veteran of this franchise, trust me when i say that there is TONS of roleplay potential, not quite like Warhammer, but i would say a bit closer to Cyberpunk RED but with giant robots, and massive armies that you can interact with, and the games can either be Monty Python goofy, or CDPR levels of heavy, this story universe has near endless story potential, and everyone is welcome to join! :D
Only just started and decided to paint before I knew exactly which factions did what and just painted grey with red bits. Then I found out more and wanted to be Taurian Concordat and it just so happened the 3rd Lancers were that exact scheme, spooky 👻
Fate. (thumbs up)
Space Texas yeeehaw!
*Loads LBX-10 cluster rounds with Taurian intent*
Great vid - just started Alpha Strike after 30 years Battletech absence and this helped me change my plans for the better re paint/faction approach
Alphastrike is a ton of fun - epic version of battletech with a dozen mechs a side!
Been playing 40k, LotR etc and by pure accident found your channel - you are going to cost me more hard earned cash. Just watching this video has me hooked. No bi-annual re-purchase of entire Armies along with Rule Books, Codexs, etc etc - just a lot of fun. Ordered a Starter Box and now deciding (with your help) on a faction to expand my game.
BTW - I 3D printed a number of 6mm soldiers for an 'Althoids Tin" OPR skirmish game I made up to keep me busy through Cancer Treatments - they will be my Ground Force in Battletech.
Thanks for such an informative post. Cheers from "Down Under"
😁👍
Awesome! You're going to be so happy with battletech - its such a great game. And the endless replayabiliry factor without mandatory additional investment us just absolutely glorious.
Hey, at least mechs are FAR cheaper than Marines! :D
That was very informative. I was invited to play a game of Battletech in a few weeks. This video really helped me out. I played one game back in 1989 and I remember it being a lot of fun. I am going to order a handful of mechs to paint before then. This helps me out what to buy/paint. Thanks!
Im so glad! Thank you for watching!
Great video! It cleared some things up for me. I've been in and out of the different wargames for a little while now, trying to find one that sticks. The lack of All of this info is exactly what's been holding me back from painting my mechs. But now I think I'll try a couple of 4 mech squads to start with.
Love it! Battletech is a great game - give it a shot!
Great video! First off: Liao have Indian ifluences aswell, Kurita have Arabs, Steiner have Scotish and Marik have Spanish descendants, FRR is Nordics. So❗️Imho. A few ways to structure your choices into sections to make it more clear, at least I do ( my favorite factions in brackets ):
❗️IS: In-faction Loyalist/ Loyal faction mercenary company. (FRR/ GBDominion/ Rasalhague Dominion, Capellan Federation)
❗️Clan: Bloodied in-clan bred member/ Clan loyal merc company.( Clan Ghost Bear/ CGB Dominion turns/ Rasalhague Dominion, Clan Snow Raven/ Raven Alliance, Clan Wolf/ Wolf Empire, Clan Star Adder, Clan Coyote )
❗️Periphery ( Aurigan Coalition )/ Deep periphery ( Jarnfolk )/ even Lawless ( pirates, bandits )
❗️For all the above timeframe/ Era is important to keep authencity. Though of course you can homebrew your own Lance, Star, pilots etc if not using established. Also having color schemes of your own but use a streak of color/ symbol+own symbol for that IS/ Clan/ Periphery+Deep periphery faction you are in-faction ( born/ bred in that faction ) or as loyal merc company to. Faction Affectionate so to speak😁
Lastly...
❗️Having a merc company as a sub merc group of a larger existing mercenary faction or completely as your own independent one/ freelance. No loyality to any Clan, IS, Periphery faction. Just have at it with color schemes and a bunch of mechs with some from each Era/ faction making you flexible at any BT war gaming/ rpg table ☕️👏
This is all kinda Game of Thrones in spaaace 😁
And from me aswell, welcome all new Battletech fans!🥳🍻
Thank you!
24:26 Typo - "Russion" :D
Love the video - can't wait for the Clan Summaries
Lol oops - fat fingered that one!
Great video. Can't wait till you do a Periphery video. As for tips for folks that are new to the game: paint what ever your heart desires. One thing great about Battletech vs 40k is that color themes are not written in stone. Heck, you can have each mech painted with different colors and theme for your lance/company/battalion/regiment, they dont need to match.
Exactly - paint what ya want! Its funny I never really thought the Periphery was a loved topic, but Im sensing theres a hunger for some content on that topic!
@@CrankyOldGamer I love the lore of the Periphery, even more than the Houses. Glad that im not the only one 😊
Just got back into 40K and just rediscovered Battletech. Used to have a few metal mechs from iron wind 20 years ago but I can’t wait to check out the plastic ones by catalyst
The new Catalyst sculpts are so so good. Great time to be into Battletech.
Great video. I am retired and have got to a point where I have been able to really expand my wargaming (hex and counter/block/miniatures). I started back in to 40k in January, and have four armies underway. However, 40k being what it is, and the fact that a lot of my wargaming is solo, I was looking for a sci fi mini wargame that would be easier to acquire, set up and play in a more succinct fashion than 40k. I saw Battletech on Big Red Bear, and ordered the starter set, which I got two days ago. I'm in . The low cost, the ease of varied factions and the ease of set up and gameplay is awesome. I am starting with Kurita and Steiner to begin with and looking forward to getting this going.
I know right? Such a great game! Thank you for watching!
Funnily enough, getting into 2nd ed 40k is what got me into Battletech.
I played both right around the same time!
Never really "had" a Battletech faction until MWO beta started and all my friends joined me in playing, so naturally we all had to choose different factions and my straw was Steiner!
Awesome! I think that must have been providence! 😀
Steiner is a good choice.
@@griffgoldstein6378 ista da besta.. ich bin ein Lyrander
The coolest thing my local group did was put a merc company together based on the justice league from DC comics. Each mech was based on a superhero and used tech to simulate their powers but also their weaknesses. Good times were had by all.
Ive thought of doing a Justice League paint job on a squad of mechs!
Looking forward to your video on the periphery.
After using battletech mechs to play onepagerules, having been daunted by the complexity, I finally took the plunge and learned how to play bt properly
It is way simpler than it looks, and so much god damn fun.
Its true - such a fun game!
This video was super helpful, helped me stop worrying about painting some mechs in a made up faction scheme I wanted to. Ty v much!
Hey thank you! Glad it was helpful!
My first exposure to Battletech was the cartoon. It aired on a cable channel called The Children's Channel or TCC in the UK. You had the "good guys" an ad hoc unit from The Federated Commonwealth (That's a brief merger from the Stieners and the Davions for the people watching the vid) but I could not ignore the "bad guys" Clan Jade Falcon. Then I got a hold of Mechwarrior 2, in which Jade Falcon where playable. So I kinda got hooked that way
I've been playing Battletech since it came out. I wasn't aware until recently that people picked factions. We've always just played the game. Also, that paint job on the Marauder at about 4:00 is really sweet.
Hey thank you!
Really good stuff and lots of good advice here. As was said, there's nothing stopping you from painting your mech's poo brown and then adding lime green striping and pink highlights, or doing a Richtoftens flying circus and having each mech painted how you want. The factions are basically a colour scheme, and if you want to play it up a bit on the table, a way to act. This also carries over to the Clans, and although generally you won't mix Inner Sphere and Clan Mechs into a force, with the Clans, a faction is really, just a colour scheme. You can then choose to lean into how that Clan is yourself, you can, if you want, fight honourably, make yourself engage only one target, challenge other Mechs facing you to a duel and the like. The only difference being that the Clans tend to be more uniform so if you pick a Clan and a unit from them (and there's lots of examples if you look up the Unit Colour Compendium or CamoSpecs online) then they tend to stick to those colours.
Thats very well said. One of the many questions I get from new players is about mixing clan and IS tech. Certainly not as a general statement until well after Operation Revival.
Excellent points and well informed, good job sir.
One thing I wish to add, if you the reader have gone through these options and thought none of them really fit your personal taste, try looking into the Clan factions. Some are more aggressive and dangerous, while others are very understanding and reasonable. The only thing to keep in mind with Clan is that they are seen as invaders by almost everyone playing Inner Sphere.
Just want to close by saying welcome brothers and sisters to the BattleTech universe and have fun!
Yes!!!! Ive had so much fun with Battletech over the years, can't recommend it enough!
Wonderful overview for a gamer new to the BT universe. Thanks for taking the time to put this together!
Thank you for listening, its great to have you here!
Gave up GW stuff because I got tired of things selling out and then not able to buy what I want (unless paying the scalper price). I loved the Mechwarrior games as a kid so thought I'd look into BT. Had a hard time wrapping my head around the lore. This helped! Thanks!
This was so helpful coming to this game from other skirmish games
Thank you, much appreciated!
Honestly if someone wants an America faction in BattleTech I would suggest to look at the periphery Nation of the Fronic Reaches, because it's basically as far as I can tell very close to how the Americas were when we were having our war of independence and even depending on the timeline how far you're willing to go, up to the Louisiana purchase. Then again I could most likely be wrong and that's just personally how I see them
You know I don't know too much about them, Ill have to check them out!
@@CrankyOldGamer fair warning, I may be very wrong and got that impression from sarna and the historical parallels to early US history. although if you want to field them they like tanks and hiring mercenary units for mechs by the look of it. Although I will recommend looking for a book that centers around them if possible because again I could be very, very wrong.
Canonically I think the Terran Hegemony was Anglo-American, but I know that the Belters and Columbians are explicitly American. That said both of those groups are asteroid dwelling libertarian weirdos who only talk to Comstar and each other, and since they don't really fight land wars I can only imagine them using Aerospace, Infantry, and maaaaybe LAM's.
Super helpful thanks. I used to play Mechwarrior (clicky battletech) back in the day but never really got in to the Lore, so this helped.
Im glad, thanks for watching!
I feel like I had an unconventional exposure to the Battletech universe. For me I got into the novels. I collected the whole series of books before I ever had my first mech! Later I played all the PC games (Mechwarrior 3 and 4, Mechcommander 2, etc). Eventually I got around to buying the starter set with the plastic minis back a number of years ago before the kickstarter. The mechs were really low quality. I painted some and had a blast with that. I just made up my own paint scheme. But I didn't get to play my first game until I bought the kickstarters for the Clan Invasion and finally played for the first time ever with my own kids.
I'm now starting to paint my mechs. How am I painting them? Well the books were a big inspiration. And those early days of mechwarrior stuck with me. And so I decided, I'm making my own paint scheme, mercenaries dude.
The Loud Fox Brigade hails from Canopus. Yeah, they're genetically modified with fox ears and fox tails. So yes they're basically space furries...y'know why? because I can, that's why. LOL. They have a stupidly bright screaming orange, black, and turquoise paint scheme. They're brash, they're arrogant, they're unapologetic, but they're also like one big family.
I plan on doing a couple of groups of pirates, a few lances here and there of better known mercs. And because of my reading and because they seem universally disliked, I'll probably do a large contingent of Jade Falcons when I paint clan mechs. Gotta get my Aidan Pryde fix man!
And I'll also be doing some Comstar, because we always need the super weirdo secret police to show up on the battlefield for God knows what reason to kill people...because....reasons.
Thank you very much! Your video helped a lot. The Battletech lore is overwhelming for beginners. I want to have mechs that were accurate to their era and faction but I didn't know where to start.
Im glad this helped! Thanks for watching!
Pretty sure that is the FedCom insignia, not the Lyran Commonwealth. ;)
Oops!
its fhe FedCom insigna. The Steiner fist with the Davion Sun
Amazing video, love that it just feels like your friend telling you about something there passionate about. Amazing video ❤❤
Thank you!!!!
Thank amazon for giving me access to this game, I've been into it since mech warrior 2. I'm going to create a pirate outfit to pay homage to the pirate outfit I was a leader of back in mech warrior 4, mech pilots can be the old members that I can still remember, and work in their play styles to the mech choices. When I get to clan wars I'll do up clan fire mandrels for exactly the same reason, that clan in MW4 went hard into roleplay, and I was all about having to battle my superiors for a promotion lol
Love your talks, while painting Mechs ;-)
Can't pick a bad faction... unless it is Cappellan. Yeah, no one wants to be a Cappellan. -Tex 2022
I mean, you're not wrong
Tex rocks!
Step one, do you hate yourself?
Yes, Capellans
No, proceed to next question
Step two, do you use C bills or tonnage?
C bills, any successor or periphery state
Tonnage, Clans
Step three, is the concept of loyalty and state alien to you?
No, pick a successor or periphery state
Yes, go form a murder hoboing merc unit!
Anything else is just for fun!
Lol yes!!!!
Currently working on my company of Battlemechs as a newcomer to the game, and really liked how diverse of a faction the Lyran Commonwealth seemed to be, so I'm painting all of mine in various unit colors, from the Donegal Jaegers, to the Skye Rangers, to the Lyran Guard, to represent an ad-hoc band pulled together to defend Tharkad.
Steiner has a lot of great subfactions and deep, interesting lore. Great choice!
Oooohhh now I’m going down the comstar rabbit hole!!!
Its a great rabbit hole to go down. Oh, and pay your phone bill.
I am much more of a painter than I am a TTGer, but I have recently become very enamoured of Battletech. I’m doing up my house after a relationship ended, and I’m thinking… what if I collect three lances of mechs, and even see if I can create a “Leopard” for them to sit on display in? Maybe they each have a little repairs rig where they sit, and I can get some little 5mm guys to be the mechtechs and whatnot?
I reckon that’d be a really cool shelf to have. Already got a name for my merc group: The Devil Came Down. Insignia will be a little imp playing a fiddle (I nicked that idea for the insignia from the PC game). If I can find opponents in my town when the project is done, I will absolutely take them out for a ride!
Heh. Love this video, mate. Great stuff for orientating myself in this world.
That is awesome! I really dig your merc unit name. Can't wait to see what you do with them!
@@CrankyOldGamer when the project is done I’ll have to post pics somewhere and tag your channel in them so you can take a gander at my scrappy “follow the C-Bills” merc group! I’ve been toying with the idea of doing some video content for my UA-cam profile now that I suddenly have a bit more free time on my hands, so while it will take time, maybe I’ll post it on there! Wish me luck! 😄
I’ve got 3 camo-painted mechs so far, so I’ll do one more to round it out, then I have to pick a faction. I wound up with a Davion t-shirt from the Kickstarter, while the rest of my schwag was all FedCom. I guess I’ll start with blue! 😄
Thats a good choice! Check out the track suit paint scheme!
The way I picked, was kind of the same way I picked a 40k faction. I went and rear the lore. I really liked The Magistry and Snow Raven. So yeah. I'm making a Raven Alliance list and a Canopian Fusiliers list. Ofcourse with a variety of mec lists for shenanigan
Awesome! Sounds like a great start!
Ooh, Canopians. Good taste.
There don't seem to be many if us, but always nice to see another Raven out there
Painting a Canopian company is on my next to-dos once I have my Black Widow company done
Tanks. You can have tanks and infantry too. And paint them as you like too. And Aircraft too.
All of the units!
I played back in the nineties. Thee was so much lore I didn't even try to learn it all. I learned how to play the Warhammer, and knew what it could do. That was my mech. Who needs a faction when you're a merc?
Mercs get to pick their faction every day!
My little pony colors? Sounds just right for Snord's Irregulars.
That would be perfect
Thanks for the info. I just got the 2 mech starter set.
Awesome, hope you have a blast with it!
Mercenary, You don't need to worry about IS factions, you dont need to worry about adding a clan mech. JUST go ham on whatever you like, and can fit in via point requirements. :D
I mean, right?
I personally would recommend the clan invasion Era. As it opens up almost all of the mechs
When in doubt, pick the war crimes factions! Cappelan & Draconis! It's a competition, and they're ahead in points!
^This. Or roll Marik and fight your cousin as much as you fight other houses.
Just starting to get into the game. This video was very informative. Thank for making it.
Glad I could help!
That was great - super helpful.
Thank you so much for watching!
Love how you described it,big stompy robots ❤
Its game for the robot lover in all of us!
Brand new from 40k (though i bought BT 3rd ed as a little kid bc it looked cool). I love that all the modifiers and special abilities are tied to the build of the mech, and i dont have to worry about psykers and witchery, weird special rules and strategems. I only played alpha strike so far, and I know the full on BT is way more crunchy... But I had way more fun learning this than 40k.
This helped a lot, as I just picked up my first 3 kits this week. Your suggestion of working off colors nailed it for me, well mostly. HaHa As my favorite colors are green & purple I used the color compendium, so just have to decide if I'm going to use one of those factions to start with or make my own ... or both! haha
Perfection! I love that!
Hey Cranky Old Gamer! You have a lot of Gems on your channel making it a great resource for battletech. I'm going to link a few over to some friends that are thinking about the game. I see you stopped uploads about a year ago and hope your are well. If you ever get the interest to produce more content I believe the community would welcome it.
Thank you! Took a little break for a while, I should be back soon! And thank you!
They were only in two books, and in one of those books they got annihilated, but I quite liked the Knights of the Inner Sphere.
Ooooh I'll have to check them out!
Would love to see more, especially on the periphery and clans
Thank you, Im seriously considering doing Periphery!
Started my write-up for a Clans video.... soon...
Love the channel so far! I jumped into battletech and this channel has been a huge help! I'm still torn on what inner sphere faction to go with, torn between Free worlds League or ComStar, but I know I'm going with a clan Blood Spirit force as well.
Thank you so much! I find the researching of the faction is just as enjoyable as the selection, collection, and the painting myself.
Join the Free Rasalhague Republic. We're space vikings who don't trust mercenaries, and we eventually merge with a clan to make a powerhouse.
buy a resin printer, get your settings dialed in, and print a frickin army! thats what i did immediately after buying the beginners box. ive always loved minis and the technology is finally decent enough and cheap enough. ive had my printer a week and im already able to make mechs that are as detailed as the mass produced professional ones from 10 years ago. ive always been interested in battletech since i was a kid 30 years ago, but never really did a face-first dive into it until a few weeks ago. thanks for the great content!
Hey thank you! I did the same thing, I can print more mechs than I know what to do with!!!
I have many mechs. Up until now i had them unpainted because i wanted to try multiple mechs without having them with a certain faction color. Two days ago i started painting some of them but with different colors, based on the mech and not a certain faction. On the table they seem to be like power rangers 😊. A mercenary Army you can say. You can do whatever you want!
Those are made with layers of pink foam insulation board covered with wall spackle and glue mixture then painted!
I’m new and I listened to the whole video. Great content.
Welcome! Thanks for listening!
The way I've done it is 1 company for each house. 12 mechs chosen based on mech preference for the individual houses. Then I wanted merc units. So I chose 2 of the most well known, gray death legion and black widow company. Built their company's based on the books for both respective units.
For clans I chose to have jade falcon and clan wolf be my go to. I went for a full company of each again based on lore.
I have 2 lances of generic inner sphere mechs that are painted randomly and those get used during big alpha strike campaigns when we need to replace destroyed units etc.....
Everybody gets represented and Everybody is balanced for the most part.
Obviously this isn't always possible for every player to do, but it's at least an option. You can't go wrong with anybody. I do tend to play as Steiner if I'm playing as a house and the gray death legion if I'm gonna play mercs.
I think this makes a lot of sense. I too like a lot of variety and am a bit of a completionist, so Im working my way through all the main houses. Ill do another clan (prob Ghost Bear) and do a bunch of Periphery forces next, then Comstar. So many mechs to paint!
@@CrankyOldGamer its never ending lol.
Davion seems like Space Knight's so chivalrous in belief but not quite in practice more like benevolent dictators.
Yeah they "seem" to be the good guys but are fallible just like everyone else
@@CrankyOldGamer It's more interesting and believable when the "good guys" have some people who abuse the good reputation and trust a group has for personal reasons or someone who twists the "good guys" values in some manner like Davion is likely to have some "Holyer than thou" minded people.
Just as its realistic for the "bad guy" group has some family men just trying provide or Kurita member who is a true believer of the "Bushido" code and does act honourably.
Is always better when it's not just blanket black and white as real people aren't so simple
The paint jobs at 7:10 amuse me. Looks like something I would do.
Lol right? Those are from a buddy of mine's - his son painted them!
Another point to note for picking color schemes is that for many mechs the "faction colors" were used as "parade" colors and would be repainted variations of camo for combat. So if you want your mechs to be a more natural or environment based scheme thats easily explainable while still using an established faction. Same goes for having other vibrant color alterations for sub groups within a faction for parade purposes, possibly for a particular location/audience.
The hardest part for me is finding appropriate parts to work with kit bashing for custome builds or the ones based more on mercenary salvage, but thats a topic thats getting kinda out there into the....periphery. 🥁🤣 Sorry, couldn't help myself.
Biggest thing is just have fun playing 👍
This does help because I really like the opportunity to make BT my more “real world” paint schemes. I have a bright flashy 40k army, and while I enjoy painting it and playing it, it’s nice to have variety in style of paint. I’m going with a military tan feel to my first mechs right now.
@@timunderbakke8756 nice. I did most of my 40k armies in a generic/non-canonnical scheme so I could swap between books (cause F codex creep). Sure I had a variety of dedicated stuff, wolf bits for some, death guard for another etc. But the vehicles were magnetized and painted an urban "fleck" grey with tiger stripes. Eldar stuff was similar but an almost black grey with blue lightning in the clevis areas. Nids were they're own hive color green with bone color carapace (kinda nurgle looking without the gore/puss stuff). I even did similar stuff with Battle Fleet Gothic. About the only army close to studio theme are High Elves (5/6/7the ed, don't know what colors they have now) and Deamon Hunters (cough) Grey Knights (3/4/5 ed).
Back then it was anything to stretch a broke teens buck. Now its more utilitarian to pave my own backstories or fit my "commanders" style into an established story. The biggest thing is at the end of the day its a game and hobby, and if your not having fun doing it (at least within an agreed set of rules for the game part) than whats the point? Its not all competition, the best most enjoyable games I've had are with friends just having fun, and anything that adds the immersion just facilitates that further.
Happy gaming 👍
Im coming from a long hiatus from playing and falling in love with the old mechwarrior tabletop game by wizkids.
I collected house liao stuff and clan jade falcon. Ive made my order for some stuff yesterday.
Im going jade falcon for sure for clan stuff ive bought, and might do steiner, or mercenary sounds fun too.
The old wizkids mechwarrior game had that problem too where the houses and clancs had gimmicks going on with their units, which really had an impact on how the game itself played. I loke how the stats and gameplay are thebsame for this.