So there I was, still recovering from my game of What a Nerf Herder against my Dastardly Regular Opponent on the bank holiday weekend when I received… a message. Turns out his Friday night had opened up and there was a new gaming slot. Of course, I was quick to jump in and say yes, lets roll some dice and play some games.
The question was, what to play. We could have jumped into the next game of the What a Nerf Herder campaign, but I’m wanting to get a few other figures set up and ready to go before it (after all, need more bits for a prison break). Meanwhile, the Dastardly Regular Opponent has been filling his timeline with lots of tiny robots (as an aside, the other Regular Opponent has also been dabbling in mechs and literally sent the group a picture of more mechs this morning but because he paints stupidly fast with even Napoleonics, we don’t talk about what he’s painting). As the counter to these rapid mech expansionists, I’m still using the original set I painted up, trying to learn how best to use the mechs I have, having only had a chance to play a single game with them so far. So why not get another game in, especially as it’s such an easy game to just get up and play.
This time, we actually jumped in with tonnage limits, going with 215 tons. My team comprised of a Victor, an Enforcer, a Hunchback and a Raven (the contents of the Inner Sphere Urban Lance box). Across the table from me, my Dastardly Regular Opponent had assembled a lance of actual killers from his collection. An Archer, a Marauder, a Rifleman and a Wasp for some scouting/shenanigans.
So how did it go? Well, seeing as my opponent was packed full of mechs with long range weapons and a ton of heat generation, I decided to rush him, trying to stop him from getting in the central water where he could easily handle the massive amounts of heat generation his weapon systems were kicking out. The setup I had chosen was actually a pretty good for this fast moving assault, with my heat being easily handled in most cases by the heat sinks. I’m also pretty happy with just how fast all the mechs were – even my Victor was still able to push forward with ease.
With the game being a simple “kill ’em all” I decided to focus on taking out the Marauder (or the crab as it was christened). It and the Victor definitely got into trading damage early on continued through most of the game. Similarly, the Enforcer found itself the centre of attention thanks to it’s weapon systems being pretty nasty at close range.
While the Big Boys had their fight, the Wasp and my Raven got into a little bit of a separate scrap. Due to the initiative consistently being with my opponent (and us not using the torso twist rules), my Raven ended being chased around and outflanked by the Wasp.
With the hours ticking on (slowed partially by our checking of rules), things eventually closed in to an Brawl. While the Archer and the Rifleman sat back and attempted to pummel (but mostly just caused my opponent nightmares about overheating), the Victor and the Marauder kept duelling. A jump jet to land behind the Victor left the Marauder open to a full on sprint attack from the Hunchback that managed to make it through the game unscathed. On the other hand, the Victor was pummelled by all the long range munitions, with one shot blowing the gauss rifle off it’s mount.
With the Raven getting bullied by the Wasp, I decided a quick backup from the Enforcer was needed. Jetpacking in to deliver a close range barrage that cracked armour and came very close to wiping the Wasp out. However, this did leave the Enforcer’s back open to the fire support mechs, and I paid for it with some severe damage (including some broken foot pieces that forced the Enforcer to use it’s heat to jetpack around.
The next turn was where things went very badly wrong for the Marauder. Deciding to stand and shoot meant the Hunchback was able to out flank it and unleash a hail of munitions. The Autocannon 20 sent rounds through the armour but it was the SRMs that delivered the killing blow.
Something I should probably mention is that Flechs Sheets is a lifesaver for this game. Rather than having to print off a load of sheets and either laminate them or start over each time, all it meant was that we had a PC in front of each of us and got to tick off damaged elements and broken armour hits. I definitely recommend it.
It also means that when the final engine hit comes in, you get a big old DESTROYED at the top of the screen.
And with that, and the hour getting late, we decided to all it at the end of that turn – our very first mech destroyed in a game!
The game ended with only one mech destroyed but with most of the combatants in a bad way. The Victor was one engine hit away from going critical, the Enforcer was missing most of it’s torso armour and the Raven would be needing some serious repairs. Only the Hunchback managed to get through it all without damage any damage. It was a similar story on the other side of the board, with the Wasp one good hit away from destruction, while the Rifleman and the Archer had all taken some armour and hull damage in the scrap. The repair shops will be making bank off this little scrap.
Overall, I can see myself playing some more BattleTech. It’s fun and satisfying to tick the armour down slowly before suddenly the game is going wrong and everything is on fire and exploding. The fact I’m able to use the same models and play around with the variants means I can get into the list building without needing to spend a huge amount extra and it’s incredible simple (once Flechs is set up) to simply grab my mechs and my laptop and go play. Plus, both of my opponents have piles of mechs – it’s the inverse of the Ultramodern Miniatures situation where I can provide all the figures we’d need
That said, I do need to pick up at Mad Cat/Timber Wolf. It’s a legal obligation to my 8 year old self who first experienced BattleTech with Sidewinder ForceFeedback Pro joystick vibrating to the steady beats of several tons stomping forward.