Battletech. Show us your mechs!

[Tiny]

Yeah, I kinda regret going for Dragoons. They're a bit overdone, but now I have a whole company of them. Think I'll do my new Alpha Strike set as a different faction. Maybe house Davion or Steiner, perhaps some weird periphery faction like Taurian Concordat or maybe a different mercenary outfit.

 

[spafe]

I've got 3 painted over the weekend, and 4 more on the 'to do' list. Having only played the pc game so far, I have no idea how these perform on the table top. I've decided mine are a merc lance with each pilot allowed to customise their own mechs rather than a uniform scheme, mainly because its more fun to paint.

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[Tiny]

They look great. I like the idea of mixing colours but my OCD would kill me.

 

[Ardavion]

Alpha Strike rules are the way forward IMO. Much less confusing. Quick start rules are free.

All of the stats for every variant of every mech are on Master Unit List.

Unit Colour Compendium has tons of colour schemes for various units. As does Camo Specs.

As for which timeframe to play in, that’s up to you, much like playing Bolt Action in early or late war. Later mechs are more powerful. I’d start with Clan Invasion era though as that opens up Clans as an option.

So, unpainted minis are almost practically allowed?

Grey Watch | Unit Color Compendium

The Watch uses gray-primer on ’Mechs bearing tartan insignias.

unitcolorcompendium.com

 

[Tiny]

Pretty much. Just stick a couple of tartan decals on and you're pretty much done.

There's also Grey Death Legion for those who can't be bothered with tartan.

 

[Ardavion]

Lots of fiddly decals, there. Plus, in all seriousness I'd be putting some effort into a paint scheme, I just thought it funny that a grey base coat could actually suffice for "almost table ready".

 

[Greyhart]

@Ardavion Honestly I've rarely seen a fully painted force. "Field Gray" is pretty much standard. And the decals aren't so bad to use. You're pretty much putting them on flat surfaces not over-sized round shoulder pads.

@spafe True Inner Sphere merc there. "Take what you got and make it work." In my opinion there's no "bad mechs" or "must takes". You CANNOT look at a mech "in a vacuum" (by itself), each one has good and bad points. What you DO want to do is look at the group overall and see how they can best function together AS A UNIT. I don't know how many times some GW gaming munchkin came in with his Lance of Atlases (must be a Steiner player as that's a 'Recon Lance' for them) going, "I'm going to pwn you with my Atlases! Hee hee!"

Sure Skippy.. whatever.

Then I proceed to take his slow-ass walking buildings out using a fast spotter for indirect fire of LRMs (Long Range Missiles for the uninformed Periphery folk) using mechs that are half his total tonnage.

Half the fun of playing a merc unit is just picking what models you think are cool, then figuring out how to use them together. The other half is coming up with your own unit name, colors, background, etc.

I hope you have fun with it.

 

[Stoof]

Lots of fiddly decals, there. Plus, in all seriousness I'd be putting some effort into a paint scheme, I just thought it funny that a grey base coat could actually suffice for "almost table ready".

"The comeptiton rules have a three colour minimum"

"But that's one colour more than I need!"

I like the idea of batttletech and it is certainly economical, but personally I feel there are two categories - the mechs that look really cool, and the mechs that look really awkward, with little middle ground between the two. Something off about, say, the assault mech earlier with no visible weapons and teeny tiny little human hands. Does it just punch the other mechs repeatedly in the face?

 

[Tiny]

Some of the mech designs do look really janky. They all have guns built into their torsos or shoulders but the ones with little graspy hands often look odd. Especially ones with arms on upside down.

 

[Ardavion]

I like the idea of batttletech and it is certainly economical, but personally I feel there are two categories - the mechs that look really cool, and the mechs that look really awkward, with little middle ground between the two. Something off about, say, the assault mech earlier with no visible weapons and teeny tiny little human hands. Does it just punch the other mechs repeatedly in the face?

When a mech runs out of ammo for non-energy weapons or is close to overheating, yes; it can keep a 'mech doing damage while it cools off, or if it's got sufficient armour to get into and withstand a close combat engagement - sometimes a good punch can also topple over an enemy mech, which can be as valuable, if not more valuable, than trying to just shoot it.

There are in fact several 'mechs built to get into close combat; Firestarters are fun little light 'mechs brimming with flame throwers specifically to dance around and make enemy mech's overheat, rather than doing direct damage. Firestarters don't really have arms, though, as they're not expected to be doing stability damage - that is expected more for larger 'mechs.

Weapons aren't just arm-mounted; they can be built into (depending on the chassis) almost anywhere, typically the arms and left/right/centre torso, but you can even have weapons mounted in the head. If you look at that 'mech you're referring to (assuming I'm talking about the same 'mech), there are missile weapons on the left/right torsos (with there being so few holes in those missile weapons, I would assume SRMs, although they could be LRMs).

 

[trollmeat]

Never gotten into Battletech, but always loved the Marauder style, like the Mechwarrior Locust or the Robotech Veritrch fighters in guardian mode.

 

[MusingWarboss]

Some of the mech designs do look really janky. They all have guns built into their torsos or shoulders but the ones with little graspy hands often look odd. Especially ones with arms on upside down.

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Oh that’s hilarious!! It looks like a half assembled Transformer!!

 

[Punktaku]

Or it’s a gun-damned

 

[spike]

Great thread and great work everybody! Love Battltech, great to see the game has got some fans in the 'tribe.

Here's one of mine I did recently, a Vixen model taken from the click-tech MechWarrior: Dark Age and repainted/rebased for Battletech.

 

[Tiny]

Did a first test mini for the mechs from the new starter set. Going to do them as a generic mercenary force (possibly Northwind Highlanders once I get some transfers) so I can keep them as one set for teaching noobs but also swap them into other armies.

 

[Noshrok Grimskull]

So far, I have not painted my Mechs.
In "field gray", they can serve as any unit I need. But having painted minis hit the table would certainly look much better. It's just that I'm a very slow painter and I literally have hundreds of unpainted minis for various games on the shelf, so adding another hundred Mechs (2 IS boxes, 2 Clan boxes, 1 AS box and at least 1 box of every Lance or Star except for the ComStar stuff) is more than a little daunting.

 

[Punktaku]

You know, @Noshrok Grimskull , you don’t have to buy all the minis for a new game, right?

(can’t believe I managed to type that with a straight face! So proud of my self control!)

 

[Noshrok Grimskull]

You know, @Noshrok Grimskull , you don’t have to buy all the minis for a new game, right?

(can’t believe I managed to type that with a straight face! So proud of my self control!)

I don't?
But where's the fun in that?

But seriously: I love playing games first and assembling/customizing minis and terrain second. Painting stuff comes at a far-off third place.

However, I do have a painted Timber Wolf from back in the 90s. So at least one Mech is painted.

 

[Tiny]

Happily mechs are some of the easiest minis in the world to paint. Basecoat, wash and drybrush gets you a great result and makes them look much better on the tabletop. You can go back and add cool details like secondary colours, icons and cockpit glass later.

 

[Stoof]

Damn you all.

I did manage to resist the urge to add the Inner Sphere Urban Lance to my order. I liked the look of those mechs though, so I think that's a temporary reprieve.