Battletech simply is the greatest tabletop miniature game in all of the world. I loves me 40K and 30K too but the ease and stability of the BT rules are what has kept my interest in this game for 30 years. And the lore is exquisite.
As someone who got started in wargames with 40k in 5th edition, the relatively "stable" ruleset for Battletech is a big part of what made me interested in the game last year. I love the fact that it's pretty much the same game as it was when I was 3 years old. Even though I didn't play Battletech back in the day, it hits some nostalgia buttons pretty hard for me.
Thanks for this video. I still have this box, with most of the components, and the 1994 " Compendium" and bought the latest GOAC box and love the fact Catalyst discovered colour! Thanks for comparing the rulebooks, something I had meant to get to, to see just how few changes have been made over the history of this game. I started with Battletech in 86' with the " Tech Readout: 3025" . The lifelong love for big stompy robots with tons of guns and missiles has continued to the present.....it's a sickness! Thanks again!
Almost nothing changed, amazing. What a solid system. Catalyst should sell more of those standees, would love to just have a box of everything for campaigns.
I haven't bought that Reinforcements Box because I'm already buying all the darn minis, but you get like over 200 standees in it. For around $45 you get all the mechs you could need to play the game forever.
A pdf of the standee sheets would be great. The second reinforcement box includes clan mechs, but the drawing quality on them is pretty awful and they often have really weird perspectives or poses.
@@johnmiddleton4291 the quick start rules have printable standees in it. bg.battletech.com/wp-content/uploads/Alpha%20Strike%20Quick%20Start%20Rules%202019-08.pdf
I still have my stand ups and maps from the original box and Reinforcements from when I started in 1987. I still have Citytech too. About 10 years ago I got an unpunched original box and it is the star of my collection!
I was actually punching out the remaining stand-ups last week, which years ago I'd been afraid to do because what if I ran out or those got destroyed ...
The stability of the ruleset and the encouragement for adding homebrew or including/removing aspects depending on what your group enjoys has really made me fall in love with BT over the last year
I'm always so conflicted on the core ruleset being almost exactly the same as it was. There are so many little things I would like to see changed (and a couple not-so-little things), but it is also pretty cool to not have to read the book and unlearn a couple decades of gameplay knowledge.
This is where I started in Battletech, bought the 2nd edition box. Then I got the 3rd edition with the 14 plastic mechs. Now I have so much stuff too much too count.
I remember buying the 1st edition Battletech box in 1986. I've been playing ever since. Excellent game! The Battletech Reinforcements standees came with names. Later they released Reinforcements 2, and the standees in that had no names on them.
This game and Advanced Squad Leader is are a couple of reasons I love counters so much - Avalon Hill had a lot to do with my cardboard crack addiction. Probably why I loved Epic Space Marine/Titan Legions so much. Great nostalgia here.
Excellent stuff - I have this 2nd edition boxed set, City Tech and a few other supplements up in the attic. Battletech and Star Frontiers Knight Hawks were our go-to hex-based cardboard counter games in the 80s. I've still got a bunch of old photocopied mech sheets in the boxes - some still showing the filled-in damage from their last battle, which was probably in 1989 now I come to think about it. Amazing to see how little it's changed since then, I really need to paint up the mechs and start playing the starter box I got last year.
The area of the Periphery where most of the Bandit Kings were is exactly where the Clans came through on their way to invade the Inner Sphere. I think most of the bandits were wiped out or scattered, IIRC.
I had that boxed set. The lack of changes just shows how well thought out and refined the rules were for the time. This is particularly of note when you consider the length of these, common regarded as, "complex" rules.
The biggest rules change was in 2006, when the partial cover rules were fixed. Originally they meant hits were rolled on the punch table (which made it a bad thing to be in cover). Now it's +1 to hit, roll location as normal but leg hits become misses.
My friends and I house ruled this one back in the day. We just rolled to hit as normal, and on the hit location table as normal, but if it came up a legs hit the shot missed. It worked for us.
personally, I preferred the original rules. they made more sense. only a mech could benefit from partial cover. the attacking mech has a +3 to-hit modifier. if the weapon hits, then roll on the punch location table. compared to the update: only a mechs can benefit from partial cover. the attacking mech adds +1 to the to-hit roll. if the weapon hits, roll on the full hit location table. any leg results hit the terrain and cause no damage to the mech. if I am targeting an opponent and successfully roll a hit, then damage should be applied. the original rule gave a reasonable penalty to be able to hit the target. upon scoring a hit - damage is applied. not the new version... you score a hit - oh, you got legs, so you didn't actually get a hit. original rules as written are better... nearly 40 years proven!
@@nathanhook8351 it was just my opinion. I think that the original rule encouraged better tactical decisions. the higher modifier made the target to-hit number either an 11 or 12 or higher (no shot allowed). the CGL modified rule reduces the modifier, which makes the to-hit more likely. then the full location table means 2 of the locations are not actually hits (3 for side hits). to newer players, this can be confusing. new player, determines the to-hit number is 9. the roll result is an 11... a hit! the location table roll is front 5 (right leg). you miss. new player looks confused... you said my 11 hit, but now it's a miss. original rules... you roll and result equals a hit. roll for damage location. apply damage. no confusion. the penalty for the shot is the additional +3 difficulty modifier. the benefit is the smaller window of possible hit locations.
I owned this, bought it back in 1986, loved it. Used modeling clay built up on the maps to create elevations. Amazing memories of playing it with my my friends that freshman year of high school. Now back after nearly 30 years of not playing it at all... Sadly I lost my set back in a storage unit incident around 2005... We went and had photo copies made at our local library, lol.... Though I did love the smell of mimeograph prints we would get in school, lol. I had totally forgotten about being able to create our own mechs... loved that!
The Stinger has 1 antennae and the Wasp has 4. And we would take tape stick it to the base and them write the mech and House on a scrap of card to stick to the tape! And making up the record sheets was part of the fun.
I love it when we're playing at our FLGS, and someone who played the game back in the late 90's to early Aughts, ask how much the game has changed. We explain, a few minor things, but if you knew how to play back then, and still had the older rulebooks, you can still play with a bare minimum of potential changes. Even better if they still had some of the classic sculpts.
Well, this Martin EVANS isn't too impressed with Martin Nevans for writing in and on all his BT stuff, and even less impressed with his letting it go! Still, it now has a happy home, where it is appreciated, and even has a moment of YT fame. :) Great to see the old rulebook! A 2nd hand copy of Citytech was my very first wargame, 30-odd years ago. I've been waiting for Kerensky to kick off the Succession Wars ever since.
That is in much better condition than my Second Edition Rulebook! It always amused me though that they reused the same cover for CityTech and AeroTech back in the day...
Nice job with the side-by-side comparison of the rulebooks; GW can take a lesson with the 3% rules shift in 40 years. Point of order: those maps were from an expansion pack as the maps in the '84 box were paper, not cardboard. First battle ran a Stinger and got taken out when my friend Scott cooked off the machine gun ammo.
You were really lucky if the copier was working when you went in too! And then you sometimes wasted 20 or 30 cents trying to get the copier reset from whatever random settings the guy before you used. I swear some people just messed with them for fun. The cost of copies and the hassle is exactly why all the companies made pre-printed record sheet booklets.
This is the rules edition I started with. There have been very minor changes to the overall rules since the beginning. We had copy machines in the 80s. At the library, 15 cents a copy. 😆 I remember fondly going through and filling out the mechsheets for all the 14 mechs that came with the game... now of course at that point your just photo copied your filled out sheets for multiple mechs.
Man....I remember going into a hobby shop and seeing Battledroids and Battletech boxsets next to each other, a couple of guys playing the Dougram game (with tiny periscopes) on a table nearby, and a small selections of the Battletech plastic dual model kits. They came with 2 mechs and a scenario for Battletech. 1/144 scale. Bought the Marauder/Ostroc kit back then (I was a giant Robotech fan), and the kit that had the Locust. 40 years later, I am about to get my 13 yr old into Battletech too =)
I've got several of those boxed dual model kits. The scenarios were big deal back then because the initial books needed lots of models, which the standees made workable. All of the Dougram kits were re-released several years ago in a big collectors box for Fang of the Sun. I've got one box all built up and the models mounted on hex bases for use in games. They are still pretty cool, but hard to game with. The Dougram model are all mostly in scale with each other while the Macross ones are pretty varied. The Locust is gigantic and mostly unusable. I also have both of those old Dougram battlegames for Stanrey and Kalnock. Those small die cast metal figures are excellent for Battletech if you can get them. All of my Stanrey set is fully painted.
What happened with the rights was that FASA was totally in the right. The anime studio sold the broadcast rights to Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada to Harmony Gold without clearing it with Big West (The actual rights holders and the folks that FASA licensed the designs from).
Nice page through. I love the early editions of Battletech. The mission campaign books are great, though the early ones like Tales of the Black Widow and Fox's Teeth, use just the two Battletech basic maps over and over again. You get to be really good at exploiting that map. Lots of the Mechs start with damage or expended ammo as a way of balancing out the scenario, though I have to question how much testing most of them ever got prior to publication regardless. The first edition Citytech rules is much better as a game reference because it doesn't do the progressive rule style of this book. And the first BT manual, obviously.
I always wondered why my Battletech box says second edition as I am pretty sure I got it when the game first came out. As a kid, I saw a box adorned with Robotech mechs in a book store so I talked my parents into getting it. I still have it and a slew of editions and purchases since. I recently catapulted (heh) my collection to current by picking up the Catalyst minis and some core boxes thanks to this channel bringing the newest product to my attention. I look forward to trying out Alpha Strike as a way to enjoy Btech in less than a full afternoon.
I haven’t played in ages, but I still have the book, and those for City- and Aero-tech. Still have the standees, maps and counters too, though I don’t have the boxes anymore. Oh, and some Ral Partha miniatures.
Oh my goodness, I played this when it came out..no idea I was that old. I even did a very shady mailorder to get a 6 inch warhammer mech model(maybe bigger). I also played Starship Battles.
I started in 5th ed of 40k back in highschool. I loved it so much. Games Workshop back then were very open and welcoming to new players, invested lots into player rentention, and tried to make the game as accessible as possible. Now the company has morphed into a very different buisness plan, enacted very anti consumer policies, and really making some very poor business decisions in my opinion. It really has rubbed me the wrong and I'm trading in most of my collection for Battletech stuff. I'm keeping enough to potentially play kill team but mostly just keeping pieces i really like as a model or pieces with sentimental value. Battletech is a godsend, and has been a blast to play and discover. I just hope that Games Workshop realizes the path they are heading down is towards ruination and turn back to what they used to be
I bought that box new, on release, back in my High School days. Still have it - was actually flipping through it last week, so timely review. Well probably too late for my purchase decision ... ;)
Battletech rules: Dont fix what is not broken. I stopped playing back in the 90's after I lost all my stuff in a move. It took a long time to get back my Battletech boxes and I still have not tries to get the minis, I do have a regiment of Battlforce scale minis, and those have amazing amount of detail. Any interest in doing a video or battle report on Battleforce?
the new book by CGL with Battleforce rules is a good value. all the newer players that keep trying to figure out how to build a force need to read it! the first part of the book covers unit size and typical composition of forces. nothing about BV or tonnage or c-bills, just unit structure. battletech originally designed units by lance, company, battalion etc. it had nothing to do with trying to make a fair or balanced game.
We had almost a whole collection of books and boxes only the plastech minis though. Standees were how we played when we were kids. I think my brother sold it all of in the early 00s because he did not have room for it at his apartment when our mom delivered like everything from his room at her house which she is still in like 20 years later.
@@GuerrillaMiniatureGames They sure were, but I always went out of my way to access a Xerox machine than put up with the smell of the alternatives. Besides, Xerox copies were much easier to write on.
You had to put your name on everything when playing with someone with their own books/mechs....things have a way of walking away if not branded live livestock
isn't it great!!! CGL took a 56pg complete game that originally retailed for $20 and turned it into 5 books. each with more than 200pgs and cost more than $40 per book. such an improvement... what a bargain...
Tbh i do think they were in the right, and harmony gold is in the wrong. Both company had licenses. And harmony's case against the recent battletech video game was thrown out by the courts as they have just been trying to abuse the court system.
I’m surprised that Catalyst didn’t take advantage of the 40th anniversary and release a remake of the original box with standees and all. Like what, Chaosium did with the Cthulhu box. But then again, they would probably have ruined it somehow with pride crap and “trans rights”
I like your channel. way better then that channel that plays crapstrike and awfuldestiney "death from above wargaming". They dont really know what battletech is. Unfortunately and sadly they were featured in a catalyst labs video , which means there are setting the expectation that those two crappy games are the way to go.
![SAFEPLANET - ดาวเคราะห์ [ THE PLANET ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4X1XL3I_k3c/mqdefault.jpg)
Battletech simply is the greatest tabletop miniature game in all of the world.
I loves me 40K and 30K too but the ease and stability of the BT rules are what has kept my interest in this game for 30 years.
And the lore is exquisite.
Back playing BT after 25+ years. Absolutely love it.
As someone who got started in wargames with 40k in 5th edition, the relatively "stable" ruleset for Battletech is a big part of what made me interested in the game last year. I love the fact that it's pretty much the same game as it was when I was 3 years old. Even though I didn't play Battletech back in the day, it hits some nostalgia buttons pretty hard for me.
Thanks for this video. I still have this box, with most of the components, and the 1994 " Compendium" and bought the latest GOAC box and love the fact Catalyst discovered colour!
Thanks for comparing the rulebooks, something I had meant to get to, to see just how few changes have been made over the history of this game. I started with Battletech in 86' with the " Tech Readout: 3025" . The lifelong love for big stompy robots with tons of guns and missiles has continued to the present.....it's a sickness!
Thanks again!
Almost nothing changed, amazing. What a solid system. Catalyst should sell more of those standees, would love to just have a box of everything for campaigns.
They did a reinforcements like box set during the kick starter, I'm not sure if it has become available since then.
@@ThePlebicide it has. I recently bought it from their store directly.
I haven't bought that Reinforcements Box because I'm already buying all the darn minis, but you get like over 200 standees in it. For around $45 you get all the mechs you could need to play the game forever.
A pdf of the standee sheets would be great. The second reinforcement box includes clan mechs, but the drawing quality on them is pretty awful and they often have really weird perspectives or poses.
@@johnmiddleton4291 the quick start rules have printable standees in it. bg.battletech.com/wp-content/uploads/Alpha%20Strike%20Quick%20Start%20Rules%202019-08.pdf
I still have my stand ups and maps from the original box and Reinforcements from when I started in 1987. I still have Citytech too. About 10 years ago I got an unpunched original box and it is the star of my collection!
I was actually punching out the remaining stand-ups last week, which years ago I'd been afraid to do because what if I ran out or those got destroyed ...
Same here.
It’s been a week of me watching your Battletech videos, now I want to play so I am watching everyone’s videos to get me pumped for payday shopping
Paved roads came in the “City Tech” box. Nothing like a locust running full speed on a paved a skidding into a building after a failed skid check. 😱
Even better/worse was skidding into a building and then falling in a basement :D
I have all the first edition BT stuff. Got it all at Walden books when I was a kid. I’m definitely close to getting back into it.
The stability of the ruleset and the encouragement for adding homebrew or including/removing aspects depending on what your group enjoys has really made me fall in love with BT over the last year
I'm always so conflicted on the core ruleset being almost exactly the same as it was. There are so many little things I would like to see changed (and a couple not-so-little things), but it is also pretty cool to not have to read the book and unlearn a couple decades of gameplay knowledge.
This is where I started in Battletech, bought the 2nd edition box. Then I got the 3rd edition with the 14 plastic mechs. Now I have so much stuff too much too count.
The harmony gold lawsuit was fi ally resolved for good - fasa was in the right all along
It's fine though. The new locust is so much sexier than the unseen variant.
I remember buying the 1st edition Battletech box in 1986. I've been playing ever since. Excellent game! The Battletech Reinforcements standees came with names. Later they released Reinforcements 2, and the standees in that had no names on them.
This game and Advanced Squad Leader is are a couple of reasons I love counters so much - Avalon Hill had a lot to do with my cardboard crack addiction. Probably why I loved Epic Space Marine/Titan Legions so much. Great nostalgia here.
Excellent stuff - I have this 2nd edition boxed set, City Tech and a few other supplements up in the attic. Battletech and Star Frontiers Knight Hawks were our go-to hex-based cardboard counter games in the 80s. I've still got a bunch of old photocopied mech sheets in the boxes - some still showing the filled-in damage from their last battle, which was probably in 1989 now I come to think about it. Amazing to see how little it's changed since then, I really need to paint up the mechs and start playing the starter box I got last year.
The area of the Periphery where most of the Bandit Kings were is exactly where the Clans came through on their way to invade the Inner Sphere. I think most of the bandits were wiped out or scattered, IIRC.
I had that boxed set. The lack of changes just shows how well thought out and refined the rules were for the time. This is particularly of note when you consider the length of these, common regarded as, "complex" rules.
This is the game that got me into Games Workshop. Battletech was my gateway "drug" to years of being broke and skipping meals to pay for miniatures...
The biggest rules change was in 2006, when the partial cover rules were fixed. Originally they meant hits were rolled on the punch table (which made it a bad thing to be in cover). Now it's +1 to hit, roll location as normal but leg hits become misses.
No kidding?! They finally fixed this? I stopped playing sometime in the mid 90s but this was the rule my gang of friends never understood.
My friends and I house ruled this one back in the day. We just rolled to hit as normal, and on the hit location table as normal, but if it came up a legs hit the shot missed. It worked for us.
personally, I preferred the original rules. they made more sense.
only a mech could benefit from partial cover. the attacking mech has a +3 to-hit modifier. if the weapon hits, then roll on the punch location table.
compared to the update:
only a mechs can benefit from partial cover. the attacking mech adds +1 to the to-hit roll. if the weapon hits, roll on the full hit location table. any leg results hit the terrain and cause no damage to the mech.
if I am targeting an opponent and successfully roll a hit, then damage should be applied. the original rule gave a reasonable penalty to be able to hit the target. upon scoring a hit - damage is applied.
not the new version... you score a hit - oh, you got legs, so you didn't actually get a hit.
original rules as written are better... nearly 40 years proven!
@@bruced648 the original rules make cover a bad thing - it gave a 1 in 6 chance of a headshot. Players use to avoid being in cover because of it.
@@nathanhook8351 it was just my opinion. I think that the original rule encouraged better tactical decisions. the higher modifier made the target to-hit number either an 11 or 12 or higher (no shot allowed). the CGL modified rule reduces the modifier, which makes the to-hit more likely. then the full location table means 2 of the locations are not actually hits (3 for side hits). to newer players, this can be confusing.
new player, determines the to-hit number is 9. the roll result is an 11... a hit! the location table roll is front 5 (right leg). you miss.
new player looks confused... you said my 11 hit, but now it's a miss.
original rules... you roll and result equals a hit. roll for damage location. apply damage. no confusion.
the penalty for the shot is the additional +3 difficulty modifier. the benefit is the smaller window of possible hit locations.
I owned this, bought it back in 1986, loved it. Used modeling clay built up on the maps to create elevations. Amazing memories of playing it with my my friends that freshman year of high school. Now back after nearly 30 years of not playing it at all... Sadly I lost my set back in a storage unit incident around 2005... We went and had photo copies made at our local library, lol.... Though I did love the smell of mimeograph prints we would get in school, lol.
I had totally forgotten about being able to create our own mechs... loved that!
I had this set as a kid. I got into 40k about 6 years ago and just got back into Battletech, it’s amazing how similar it is to what I remember.
The Stinger has 1 antennae and the Wasp has 4. And we would take tape stick it to the base and them write the mech and House on a scrap of card to stick to the tape! And making up the record sheets was part of the fun.
As an old fogey, I love this throwback Thursday’s
I love it when we're playing at our FLGS, and someone who played the game back in the late 90's to early Aughts, ask how much the game has changed. We explain, a few minor things, but if you knew how to play back then, and still had the older rulebooks, you can still play with a bare minimum of potential changes. Even better if they still had some of the classic sculpts.
This book was the hottest thing that happened in 1985. Daaaamn, giiiiirl!
That mimeograph smell, if you know you know. I had so much fun with that boxed set back and the day.
ditto
Well, this Martin EVANS isn't too impressed with Martin Nevans for writing in and on all his BT stuff, and even less impressed with his letting it go! Still, it now has a happy home, where it is appreciated, and even has a moment of YT fame. :) Great to see the old rulebook! A 2nd hand copy of Citytech was my very first wargame, 30-odd years ago. I've been waiting for Kerensky to kick off the Succession Wars ever since.
That’s so funny! Yeah he even initialed every single standee just in case someone mixed them up hahaha
I think lots of us wrote our names on things like crazy back them. I have whippy sticks and area templates with my initials on them from store gaming.
I'm relatively new to BT but this retro stuff is fantastic
The name change from Battledroids was a taste of things to come...
That is in much better condition than my Second Edition Rulebook! It always amused me though that they reused the same cover for CityTech and AeroTech back in the day...
Nice job with the side-by-side comparison of the rulebooks; GW can take a lesson with the 3% rules shift in 40 years.
Point of order: those maps were from an expansion pack as the maps in the '84 box were paper, not cardboard.
First battle ran a Stinger and got taken out when my friend Scott cooked off the machine gun ammo.
OLD. SCHOOL. I dig it!
G.A.T.O.R. calculator was added in the new addition. It helped crunching the math.
Man that brings back memories. Ahh the days of $0.10 per copy at the library of printing mech record sheets.
You were really lucky if the copier was working when you went in too! And then you sometimes wasted 20 or 30 cents trying to get the copier reset from whatever random settings the guy before you used. I swear some people just messed with them for fun.
The cost of copies and the hassle is exactly why all the companies made pre-printed record sheet booklets.
This is the rules edition I started with. There have been very minor changes to the overall rules since the beginning. We had copy machines in the 80s. At the library, 15 cents a copy. 😆 I remember fondly going through and filling out the mechsheets for all the 14 mechs that came with the game... now of course at that point your just photo copied your filled out sheets for multiple mechs.
Man....I remember going into a hobby shop and seeing Battledroids and Battletech boxsets next to each other, a couple of guys playing the Dougram game (with tiny periscopes) on a table nearby, and a small selections of the Battletech plastic dual model kits.
They came with 2 mechs and a scenario for Battletech. 1/144 scale. Bought the Marauder/Ostroc kit back then (I was a giant Robotech fan), and the kit that had the Locust.
40 years later, I am about to get my 13 yr old into Battletech too =)
I've got several of those boxed dual model kits. The scenarios were big deal back then because the initial books needed lots of models, which the standees made workable. All of the Dougram kits were re-released several years ago in a big collectors box for Fang of the Sun. I've got one box all built up and the models mounted on hex bases for use in games. They are still pretty cool, but hard to game with. The Dougram model are all mostly in scale with each other while the Macross ones are pretty varied. The Locust is gigantic and mostly unusable.
I also have both of those old Dougram battlegames for Stanrey and Kalnock. Those small die cast metal figures are excellent for Battletech if you can get them. All of my Stanrey set is fully painted.
What happened with the rights was that FASA was totally in the right. The anime studio sold the broadcast rights to Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeada to Harmony Gold without clearing it with Big West (The actual rights holders and the folks that FASA licensed the designs from).
Bloody interesting. Thanks Ash.
Nice page through. I love the early editions of Battletech. The mission campaign books are great, though the early ones like Tales of the Black Widow and Fox's Teeth, use just the two Battletech basic maps over and over again. You get to be really good at exploiting that map. Lots of the Mechs start with damage or expended ammo as a way of balancing out the scenario, though I have to question how much testing most of them ever got prior to publication regardless.
The first edition Citytech rules is much better as a game reference because it doesn't do the progressive rule style of this book. And the first BT manual, obviously.
I always wondered why my Battletech box says second edition as I am pretty sure I got it when the game first came out. As a kid, I saw a box adorned with Robotech mechs in a book store so I talked my parents into getting it. I still have it and a slew of editions and purchases since. I recently catapulted (heh) my collection to current by picking up the Catalyst minis and some core boxes thanks to this channel bringing the newest product to my attention. I look forward to trying out Alpha Strike as a way to enjoy Btech in less than a full afternoon.
Yes core rules have stayed same so most rules changes are advantaged rules so on side of Total Warfare book and other books that add to that book.
I haven’t played in ages, but I still have the book, and those for City- and Aero-tech.
Still have the standees, maps and counters too, though I don’t have the boxes anymore.
Oh, and some Ral Partha miniatures.
Absolutely love all your Battletech content! Keep it up
Chameleon only got a proper sheet in Technical Readout 3058
Oh my goodness, I played this when it came out..no idea I was that old. I even did a very shady mailorder to get a 6 inch warhammer mech model(maybe bigger).
I also played Starship Battles.
I started in 5th ed of 40k back in highschool. I loved it so much. Games Workshop back then were very open and welcoming to new players, invested lots into player rentention, and tried to make the game as accessible as possible. Now the company has morphed into a very different buisness plan, enacted very anti consumer policies, and really making some very poor business decisions in my opinion. It really has rubbed me the wrong and I'm trading in most of my collection for Battletech stuff. I'm keeping enough to potentially play kill team but mostly just keeping pieces i really like as a model or pieces with sentimental value.
Battletech is a godsend, and has been a blast to play and discover. I just hope that Games Workshop realizes the path they are heading down is towards ruination and turn back to what they used to be
Those battle mats were great. I still have a few that I got in the late 80's/early 90's. I wish the battle mats were still as robust.
I bought that box new, on release, back in my High School days. Still have it - was actually flipping through it last week, so timely review. Well probably too late for my purchase decision ... ;)
Battletech rules: Dont fix what is not broken.
I stopped playing back in the 90's after I lost all my stuff in a move. It took a long time to get back my Battletech boxes and I still have not tries to get the minis, I do have a regiment of Battlforce scale minis, and those have amazing amount of detail.
Any interest in doing a video or battle report on Battleforce?
the new book by CGL with Battleforce rules is a good value. all the newer players that keep trying to figure out how to build a force need to read it! the first part of the book covers unit size and typical composition of forces. nothing about BV or tonnage or c-bills, just unit structure.
battletech originally designed units by lance, company, battalion etc. it had nothing to do with trying to make a fair or balanced game.
@@bruced648 There's no such thing as a fair war. After all, "life is cheap, BattleMechs aren't." :)
fun to read along with mine :)
I remember having the box set, thinking it was some kind of Robotech game 😂
We had almost a whole collection of books and boxes only the plastech minis though. Standees were how we played when we were kids. I think my brother sold it all of in the early 00s because he did not have room for it at his apartment when our mom delivered like everything from his room at her house which she is still in like 20 years later.
I startet playing BT with this rules set in1987. My last order of new mechs came yesterday. Nuff said. 😄
Merlin also appeared in tro 3058 for the first time
Mine is next to my copy of Aerospace and the 3025 technical readout.
The trademark dispute with Lucas probably did the game a big favor; BattleDroids is a pants name.
We had access to Xerox machines back in 1984. Just saying.
I mean the fact I can still remember the smell of those mimeograph machines in primary school means they were likely still around then lol
@@GuerrillaMiniatureGames They sure were, but I always went out of my way to access a Xerox machine than put up with the smell of the alternatives. Besides, Xerox copies were much easier to write on.
The new "A game of Armored combat" is a combination of the old A game of armored combat and City tech from fasa.
You had to put your name on everything when playing with someone with their own books/mechs....things have a way of walking away if not branded live livestock
Advanced Squad Leader yo.
My birthyear. And i love the game. good thinks do not have to be new.
BATTLETECH !!!!
Star Fleet Battles I think is still around and making stuff but it was 1979... I don't play it so I don't know if the rules are the same.
Yes, but nobody plays SFB anymore. It's certainly not attracting new players. Battletech is thriving.
@@_phaz_ yeah I wasn’t suggesting it was worthy just it has a long history
Perfekt !!! Thx
Whoa
isn't it great!!!
CGL took a 56pg complete game that originally retailed for $20 and turned it into 5 books. each with more than 200pgs and cost more than $40 per book.
such an improvement... what a bargain...
Mimeograph! Lol
Tbh i do think they were in the right, and harmony gold is in the wrong. Both company had licenses. And harmony's case against the recent battletech video game was thrown out by the courts as they have just been trying to abuse the court system.
I’m surprised that Catalyst didn’t take advantage of the 40th anniversary and release a remake of the original box with standees and all. Like what, Chaosium did with the Cthulhu box.
But then again, they would probably have ruined it somehow with pride crap and “trans rights”
I like your channel. way better then that channel that plays crapstrike and awfuldestiney "death from above wargaming". They dont really know what battletech is. Unfortunately and sadly they were featured in a catalyst labs video , which means there are setting the expectation that those two crappy games are the way to go.
Crapstrike sounds pretty shitty.
lol, chill out grandpa.