I enjoy both games. Battletech Alpha Strike is my easy go to as it's easy to set up, spend 2 or 3 hours playing and complete a game with anywhere from 2 to 12 mechs/units on a side. It's also pretty simple to teach as the game actually has very modular rules, allowing you to layer in more complex items like weather, building destruction, advanced tech, etc. Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat (or classic Battletech) is a fantastic game if you have more time to dedicate to a play session, and generally want smaller scale games. 1 to 4 mechs per person max is about the sweet spot for a game in my opinion. One of the things that intimidates many new players with Classic BT is the record sheet for each mech, and while it looks like there is a lot going on, it's really not as scary as it seems once you realize you looking at layers of a mech. Armor/Structure/Critical Slots for each respective mech body location. That said Classic Battletech can also be played and more importantly taught in a modular fashion. In fact I think the new starter boxes have record sheets for a scaled down version where structure and critical slots are removed, and you basically start with an armor diagram. Once all the armor in a location is gone, so is the structure/equipment in that body location. It's very easy to then layer in structure in the next game and leave Critical Slots out, and then finally add in critical slots to the third game. This way new players can learn tactics and basic record keeping in stages instead of having to try and digest the whole elephant in one go. And I think that is one of Battletech's strengths overall. You can actually start this modular approach to teaching (and playing) from Alpha Strike all the way to full blown Classic as the rules between the two version have considerable overlap, and it's very easy to just add/subtract out complexity on an as needed basis for teaching or streamlining gameplay.
Battletech is weird from a wargaming perspective, because it's designed so you can have 1 mech per player and still have a fun game. The crunchiness of the system really works when you are focussed on running 1 mech. It translates very well to tabletop role-playing for that reason, and continuing campaigns tend to resemble roleplaying campaigns. You also get a lot of the best Battletech games when you ARE NOT using BV (or anything else) to balance the game, but instead setting up scenarios as they would fit as part of a story, generally with on side being the protagonists of the campaign, and the other mostly being "NPCs". So you have lance of heavy mechs fighting a light lance, but the heavies aren't going to have time to repair before the next fight, or you get ambushed by a vastly superior fight and your goal is to exit the map without too much damage. All the way back to the 1980s, Battletech has been a storytelling game that's played out with miniatures more than a miniature game. It works better when storytelling concerns impact how you play. It fits weirdly with the wargaming world because bigger battles weren't the original intent.
Catalyst Games Labs is too toxic for me to support with them being pro doxxing on the Star League discord. Recommend hitting up the online games and not the board game.
@@WargamerofalltradesSlide Scrollers did a good interview with Razorfist about what went down, bout a week or two ago this happened and I frankly never saw a thing on the roguetech or CGL discord about it so infosec was up there. ua-cam.com/video/6w33TZlBxYw/v-deo.htmlsi=8yZz2XHPVHXsX1ou
About a week or so ago and some change, Razorfist did an interview about it on Slide Scrollers bit they also went into the current 40k drama there too. Tryin to reply to this but YT keeps eating the comment. Sry in advance if like 3-4 pop up all at once. The interview itself is 5d previous of this comments timestamp.
2 questions
1. What is your favourite lance of mechs
2. Which books have you read
I enjoy both games. Battletech Alpha Strike is my easy go to as it's easy to set up, spend 2 or 3 hours playing and complete a game with anywhere from 2 to 12 mechs/units on a side. It's also pretty simple to teach as the game actually has very modular rules, allowing you to layer in more complex items like weather, building destruction, advanced tech, etc.
Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat (or classic Battletech) is a fantastic game if you have more time to dedicate to a play session, and generally want smaller scale games. 1 to 4 mechs per person max is about the sweet spot for a game in my opinion. One of the things that intimidates many new players with Classic BT is the record sheet for each mech, and while it looks like there is a lot going on, it's really not as scary as it seems once you realize you looking at layers of a mech. Armor/Structure/Critical Slots for each respective mech body location.
That said Classic Battletech can also be played and more importantly taught in a modular fashion. In fact I think the new starter boxes have record sheets for a scaled down version where structure and critical slots are removed, and you basically start with an armor diagram. Once all the armor in a location is gone, so is the structure/equipment in that body location. It's very easy to then layer in structure in the next game and leave Critical Slots out, and then finally add in critical slots to the third game. This way new players can learn tactics and basic record keeping in stages instead of having to try and digest the whole elephant in one go.
And I think that is one of Battletech's strengths overall. You can actually start this modular approach to teaching (and playing) from Alpha Strike all the way to full blown Classic as the rules between the two version have considerable overlap, and it's very easy to just add/subtract out complexity on an as needed basis for teaching or streamlining gameplay.
Yeah that is a definite plus, happy I'm not the only one who prefers alpha strike
Battletech is weird from a wargaming perspective, because it's designed so you can have 1 mech per player and still have a fun game. The crunchiness of the system really works when you are focussed on running 1 mech. It translates very well to tabletop role-playing for that reason, and continuing campaigns tend to resemble roleplaying campaigns.
You also get a lot of the best Battletech games when you ARE NOT using BV (or anything else) to balance the game, but instead setting up scenarios as they would fit as part of a story, generally with on side being the protagonists of the campaign, and the other mostly being "NPCs". So you have lance of heavy mechs fighting a light lance, but the heavies aren't going to have time to repair before the next fight, or you get ambushed by a vastly superior fight and your goal is to exit the map without too much damage.
All the way back to the 1980s, Battletech has been a storytelling game that's played out with miniatures more than a miniature game. It works better when storytelling concerns impact how you play.
It fits weirdly with the wargaming world because bigger battles weren't the original intent.
As someone who is a very recent battletech fan I very much appreciate this knowledge!
Catalyst Games Labs is too toxic for me to support with them being pro doxxing on the Star League discord. Recommend hitting up the online games and not the board game.
I did not know they where pro doxing, when did this happen?
@@Wargamerofalltrades I think it was a week or two ago, Slide Scrollers has a good interview with one of the ppl involved lemme grab it for you.
@@WargamerofalltradesSlide Scrollers did a good interview with Razorfist about what went down, bout a week or two ago this happened and I frankly never saw a thing on the roguetech or CGL discord about it so infosec was up there. ua-cam.com/video/6w33TZlBxYw/v-deo.htmlsi=8yZz2XHPVHXsX1ou
About a week or so ago and some change, Razorfist did an interview about it on Slide Scrollers bit they also went into the current 40k drama there too. Tryin to reply to this but YT keeps eating the comment. Sry in advance if like 3-4 pop up all at once.
The interview itself is 5d previous of this comments timestamp.
I just pirate everything