Let's Play! - Battletech: The Beginner's Box (2022) by Catalyst Games
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2024
- Got $25 and want to try a new miniature game? The Battletech Beginner's box is a fully playable dive into the original Mech Combat game (well not quite... Battledroids was a name that caused some contention in the eighties so it got the axe... it's still Battletech!). If you're looking for a robot fighting sim that plays on your kitchen table and has plenty of crunch; this is a great first look!
This box contains two models and enough standees to throw down with a pair of Lances of Mechs in a stripped down entry-level experience that highlights this game that is still on the shelves almost forty years after its creation.
Let's check it out!
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Looks exactly like the beginners box from a few years ago, but with a new mech instead of the phoenix hawk. I would also point out that the simplified rules make it easy to play solo. Just be cool with either mech winning and then play to win, this is how I started!
That was the idea: the vindicator replaces the wolverine so that if you get the A Game Of Armoured Combat you get 10 different mechs.
Plus Griffin and Vindicator both have PPCs so they're a lot closer in basic matches.
Man, I REALLY WISH they would sell the dry erase sheets for the full mech sheets. Those dry erase mech sheets are one of the things that I really love about this set. They are just so nice and convenient.
you could just laminate them yourself
walking backwards is only one movement point not two per hex great fight
I am irrationally excited about the Vindicator. It isn't great, it isn't terrible, but you have something for most any occasion.
I'm a Davion player and I'm excited about the Vindy making an appearance here. I love shooting at and playing the Vindy- it really is a fun mech to play, but like the Cappies, it always comes up short... almost... but short! :)
I bought three starters so that I can have the Vindys and so I can use the starters at school for my kids to play. BT is great for doing basic math, critical thinking, and I get to slip in odds/percentages/fractions for them to work on. It does make the math more REAL for them rather than being some abstract concept that has little meaning beyond worksheets and equations. A win-win to me :)
It's a shame that torso twisting isn't part of the beginner rules, helps to keep initiative from being so massicely decisive
In our group, especially when using lance sized or bigger fights, we used playing cards to determine initiative on a mech by mech basis.
AS doesn't use torso twist either and no it shouldn't be in the beginner box.
@@warlok363 AS also uses a much more generous methodology for determining if targets are in arc or not. It's not the end of the world, but without it it makes it so however wins initiative is basically guaranteed to get out of arc, and for a new player that might prove very frustrating. Because there's so many other game rules ommitted for the beginner game (understandably) I don't think leaving torso twisting would result in an overly confusing experience and help to prevent a negative "helpless" play experience.
Still I do think this boxset is a great product and introduction to Battletech, and I suppose leaving the player wanting more is a great feature for an introductory product.
Yeah but I think it's a bit like heat in that it's a cool system that should be shown off to new players and serves an important function mechanically, but in the context of a beginners game it's one of those little rules that contributes to making the full system overwhelming to learn. Plus anyone playing beginner games either doesn't have the meta knowledge required to take advantage of the imbalance or is teaching someone new and are enough of a veteran that if they want to stomp their newbie opponent no amount of balance will stop them.
If they're losing because of initiative I'll back off and go a little easier on them to compensate. If they're really having trouble getting shots lined up I might even house rule in torso twists just for their units. And if they're getting smug about winning because they got lucky with initiative I can always play the next match with full rules and smash them properly. =P
@@wttncfrep3628 Do what we do and back yourself in the sweetspot corner of the map when you lose initiative. Nobody can shoot your backside.
I love the choice of the Vindicator and Griffin for this box. Roughly equal in the stripped down version of the game, but also getting more interesting once you move to the full rules. The Griffin having better guns and physical attacks against an enemy determined get in and leverage those minimums without getting clocked by a heavier design. Good stuff!
Is this a better match up than the previous Griffin vs Wolverine from the previous beginner box?
@@bradleyjones1515 hard to say. The Wolverine has better close in power with the laser and SRM, but the autocannon is pretty anemic compared to the PPC and LRMs. The speed match up is even and armor is close, though I believe the Wolverine has a bit more than the Griffin. I like this duel better, but I don’t think the Wolverine is a bad alternative.
All three also have great sculpts, so I can’t even give it over to one having a better mini! I will say, on that front, that not getting a duplicate Wolverine (A Game of Armored Combat having them at same mini) is pretty damned nice.
@@Wildonion1 Thats very helpful, thank you!
Huh, the combination of no torso-twist and only 1 mech each makes the already-important movement phase roll off critical.
Yeah, although I suppose that helps teach players the importance of tactical thinking even if you lost initiative
Though I suppose most of the time it comes down to who could get behind the other first, from my experience at least lol
Sweet, sweet BattleTech gateway drug.
With no heat not much reason not to jump almost every turn. I made beginner box style sheets for the remainder of the armored combat box mechs. I think I posted it on bgg.
I played this with a BT vet player and he was surprised about the lack of crits, inner systems, and heat management. But acknowledged the simplified rules with this set. Great minis though!
Fun Fact: when I used to play and you didn't have movement modifier, we used a d4. Course if you had a die with a symbol on it (especially a skull) that'd probably work too.
Always great to see BT content from Ash! Thanks for previewing and demoing the new Starter Box. I was wondering how they would balance the Vindicator versus the Griffin. The Gunnery Skill of 3 for the Vindicator is a great way to balance it.
Great to see some classic Battletech. One v one is a bit initiative reliant though. Four by four is the way to go (although I will admit I am a sucker for 12 v 12 = but I am a glutton for punishment).
For the price I'm thinking about picking up the new beginner box just for the extra mechs and map sheets. Might be handy to keep around for introducing new people or playing with my kid when he's old enough.
Yep, that's my plan as well! Something to keep in mind is that Catalyst has these starter rules available free for download!
I watched this video to see how simplified the rules set is as I have a ten year old that likes MW & my old hero lix mechs as well as some older kids (even my daughters) that could enjoy playing this simplified version. I think it takes a special kind of gal to like the crunching OG version.
Moving backwards can't be done at Run speed @12:32
That tree provided some magical cover
Bring on the Mechs!
I just discovered megamek the java board game today but as someone who has never played the board game it seems like playing it would be diving into the deep end with the user interface learning curve but it does have single player ai and multiplayer and tons of depth. Thinking about just getting the game of armored combat version of the table top just for beginners sake.
Thanks for this. I;ve been looking at this game for a while now.
That was a great old school mech brawl
My opponents Griffon always backs into the corner of the map when he loses initiative.
I do want the new mech but i do not need another starter box... *looks in mirror* Do NOT need another starter box. I do need the alpha strike box....
I will surely get this box just for Vindicator and 2nd Griffin.
Was wondering if you could do battletech aerospace battle report or battle tactic aerospace. I’m interested to see that in action if you gots have time for that
This was pretty cool, but I had a question that's been bugging me a bit and I wanted some outside opinions on the matter. When you put down those 3D woods terrain bits, how would rule it if a unit wanted to stand in the woods for a cover bonus? The terrain piece itself is clearly not going to be able to fit the mech in or on it, so do you just move the piece and put the mech there but note that it's still standing in woods or just not move in the woods at all to avoid the problem?
We just move them around :)
I wouldn't overthink it and just have fun. This is a beer and peanuts relaxed game.
"these aren't Gundam mechs..."
Funny you should say that 👀
Really interested in to getting in to this. One question tho, how easy would it be to magnetise these mechs? That way I can accurately show when limbs get blown off.
They are pre-assembled, so you'd have to cut them to pieces to do that. It might be a fun project, but it would be fiddly.
question: is catalist games the one that fired that dude who wrote books and lore for battletech?
Very nice - thanks :) How did you make the tree terrain?
From what I've seen, you can't fire LRMs at close range can you?
Not in the full game there’s a penalty inside MIN
@@GuerrillaMiniatureGames ahhh I'm still learning :). Thanks for clarifying! Love the Battletech vids BTW! Looking forward to my Armoured Combat box!
@@GuerrillaMiniatureGames When we played with the Clan, we quickly learned Clan LRMs were vile because they didn't have a minimum range penalty, so a Ryoken running up on you and dumping an LRM 20 at you was pretty nasty.
@@cjanquart tis so in the Mechwarrior games too lol
How do I add more Mechs or Armor to this stage of the game?
Is this released yet in Europe? I've googled and the only smaller beginners box i can find seems to different....
Not until fall anywhere
@@GuerrillaMiniatureGames ah ok thanks
Where I can get Vindicator ?
In that beginner box!
🍷🤖🎩
I'm not buying from Catalyst until they fix the Pardoe situation. Get woke go broke.
More minis and books for me, I guess!
@@paulchaisson8301 guess that solves the scarcity lol
@@MKmaki6094 Until they go after something else that Catalyst is doing "wrong". And then the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing... They are never satisfied, and their "message" is the only thing that counts. Not the product, and certainly not the consumer. It's the MESSAGE.
They just had a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, so I doubt they’re too worried.
Battlewoke hate their fans
Battlewoke?
Until the wokeness infects the actual rules it's not that bad. For a TT wargame that would be a hard thing to even do, unlike say an RPG like D&D
@@warlok363 Ah, so a bunch of neckbeards with fragile egos are worried about things changing that they could easily ignore?
@@ApocryphalPress in the context of BT tabletop and the near term, more or less.
Pardoe getting the boot because of a few twatter morons is not a good thing though and doesn't speak very well of CGL
@@ApocryphalPress One of the long standing fiction authors did something that catalyst did not want associated with their brand so they stopped working with him. I am not sure exactly what he did but I did see him push a new alternative history novel that fell very squarely in the tropes of right wing persecution/victimhood in the battletech facebook group.