FASA Battletech Second Edition.

us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=16e467557e0...e7d44f&id=a08610a3d7

Cheap: 30$ for the intro box set.

That's a sweet deal. I keep hearing two different messages about this game:

1) It's the best giant robot game ever, with tons of depth and supporting material

2) It's an endless exercise in accounting as you track damage and other statistics.

It doesn't really matter, but it's sort of interesting to see that divergence in opinion with some games.

I thought that was a great price until I was given a 50$ quote on shipping. What a shame.

craniac wrote: That's a sweet deal. I keep hearing two different messages about this game:

1) It's the best giant robot game ever, with tons of depth and supporting material

2) It's an endless exercise in accounting as you track damage and other statistics.

It doesn't really matter, but it's sort of interesting to see that divergence in opinion with some games.

As an outsider it seems to me both sides are right.

I mean, one must keep track of damage on several ports of the body on several units as well as the current level of heat. There's a hit table to see what you hit and rules to see what happens when you are hit. But they make sense, it's just that the simulation is very detailed.

By the way, I checked out the Alpha Strike rules and they seem really good too so perhaps they are a good middle point.

For an outsider I think Erik gets it right.

The closest equivalent to BattleTech I can think of is another ancient dinosaur, Star Fleet Battles. Armor vs. shields, energy management vs. heat management, but both track internal systems, critical hits, and a smorgasbord of different weapon systems. And both are seen by different audiences as best of breed and/or boring spreadsheet snooze fests.

From the perspective of a very new player (me), the Battletech combat certainly can be described as an exercise in accounting. You must keep track of a lot of minutia, but, this can be part of the fun depending upon what type of gamer you are. If you prefer less detail and quicker play, however, then there's the Alpha Strike system.

On the other hand, I think that one of the best feature of this game isn't its combat system of detailed accounting with the Mechs--this seems old and slow compared to the combat systems of more modern games. Rather, the beauty of Battletech is its RPG elements where you create Mech Warrior characters, form up a group of these Mechs into a "Lance," and then follow an RPG back story set in the Battletech Universe on any scale you want. There are so many scenarios from which to choose that have been previously created or you can create your own.

The beauty of this game isn't just the mech-on-mech-combat because that would soon get tedious, repetitive, and boring without the accompanying RPG scenarios or campaigns set in the Battletech Universe.

I beg to differ. I think the location-based damage tells quite a story, and encourages sound bot design to keep things functioning when you get hit. Granted I'm an old school game that likes a schematic with a grease pencil to mark off boxes. Feels and even smells like good gaming to me.

Mech design and then battle was always the sell for me.

SuperflyTNT wrote: us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=16e467557e0...e7d44f&id=a08610a3d7

Cheap: 30$ for the intro box set.

The odd thing is they show the 2014 intro set (which has better minis) but call it the 25th anniversary intro set, which was 2011. It's a fine price either way, both have mounted maps, just confusing.