First Impressions: BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat

Dammit. Colons always mess with my naming convention. OK, so, it seems I'm on a BattleTech thing now. Recently I picked up the Beginners Box, and liked it enough to move onto today's subject. While a couple of years old now, “A Game of Armored Combat” is the main entry point for the game. Here's my first impressions of it.

 

The Plastic

Pride of place in this set are 8 plastic miniature, fixed-posed examples similar to a nice board game, and about the size of your average 28mm bolter dude. These are mounted in hex bases, and made of a bendable plastic that you may need to correct. My Commando, for example demontrated the known issue with a bent left leg, prompting adjustment with a craft knife and some warm water. Putting aside that annoyance, each is a unique sculpt and unit, with no duplication. I don't know enough about the metagame to say if its optimal way of doing things, but there is nice variety, equating to two basic forces. Of those mechs you get two each of the common weight classes, light, medium, heavy, assault, making the set somewhat top-heavy. Veteran BattleTech players, I.e. people other than me, will probably be pleased that 5 of these models are part of the Unseen; designs previously subject to legal difficulty. The Wolverine returns along with the Dougram related Battlemaster, Shadow Hawk & Thunderbolt, while the Locust comes from Crusher Joe, something outside of my usual area of expertise. The remaining three are “homegrown” mechs, the Commando being the most conventionally humanoid of them, and puts me in mind of a chap in a tin helmet. Meanwhile, the Awesome, a name I thought was trying too hard until I saw it in action, and the Catapult present what I'd consider to be classical walking tank designs. As mentioned, there's much variety here, and this is what you want in a starter set. I don't foresee any great difficulty in painting any of these, although the Battlemaster's bubble canopy looks a pain.

The Rules

I'm not going to get too deeply into the rules mechanics here, as its an involved game, and I don't have much of a frame of reference. I've found the games I've managed to play to be quite fun, although also quite involved. BattleTech has a nerdish attention to detail, but the rulebook is sometimes obtuse in areas. These areas are, surprise-surprise, the bits they omit in the Beginner Box, critical hits, pilot injury and overheating. That last one is pretty fundamental to actual play, an implied risk/reward mechanic where you can push a machine to pilot-boiling levels of performance, but its not presented well at all. Ammunition explosions are a similar experience. As funny as that can be, that paragraph should probably just say “If you have ammunition in this location, the Battlemech immediately and fatally explodes”. The presentation put me in mind of a 3.5 edition D&D players handbook, its all there, but its needlessly spread-out or verbose. What isn't there, curiously, are rules for assembling a force and fielding units. You get this indirectly via the included roster sheets, and the implication that in a game where you get 8 models, you should probably split them into groups of 4. Scenarios are included, which are nice, but strangely there isn't the obvious battle royal where you field everything. Even more strangely, mech creation rules. OK, that's not unwelcome, but maybe that space could have been spent on cleaning up the layout? Overall, the rules aren't as bad as say, something by Fantasy Flight, but the presentation of rules is the main weakness of this set.

Paper goods and card-stock

As BattleTech uses hex maps for movement, this is an area which needs addressing. Yes, play-mats are a thing, as are printers, but its still nice to have one in the box. Its nicer when its double-sided, and has a friend, as we do here. Something also quite welcome is the sheet of robust looking cardboard standees. Its not something I feel inclined to use, but its there both players want to field the same machine. Or indeed, the Griffin from the Beginner Box. Meanwhile, pre-generated roster sheets offer variant units and an ease of photocopying. At worse, this stuff is functional, and generally feels like extra effort was made. Even the rulebook feels just right for what this is, and there's cards for the Alpha Strike ruleset. So, good paper to go with the good plastic.

The Basic Value Proposition

A question that appears immediately when discussing wargames is "does this cost less than GW? “. To which the smart answer is: "Yes, like many things". That's not a useful question to be asking, really. This boxset comes in at 60 quid, with 8 models, rules and assorted welcomed paper goods. This puts it in favourable position versus your 40k equivalent. Mechs sold separately come in packs of 4 for £25 or so, while full-scale rulebooks are around £30-40, so within the context of its own range its a good deal too. Alternatively, you can get official PDFs of the rules, which are easier to find and cheaper, although I'd be the first to say such things can be less convenient than a paper copy. If we must make the Games Workshop cost comparison, we shouldn't compare this with 40k, but we can with Adeptus Titanicus. In doing so we must acknowledge that GW is offering larger and nicer models, and with GW's market dominance, that game is easier to get into. We must also note the starter set for that is 90 quid. There is also the beginners box, which is possibly more compelling as taster given its 20 quid bracket, although that's purposefully cut-down, versus the more complete experience offered here. Actually acquiring the Armored Combat boxset was however something of a nuisance, as it keeps selling out, whereas the beginner box is much easier to find. Furthermore, BattleTech is one of those games were the models made by different companies, something which confused me at first. While Catalyst does the plastics, the venerable Ral Partha continues to produce metals from the 80's, something acknowledged but not really explained. The main benefit however is that there is choice, and 3d printing. So, if you already have suitable models on hand, it might well be simpler just to pick up a Battle Manual and go from there. I'd imagine beginners like myself doing that as a later purchase. Mind you, that's kinda the whole idea of a starter set; its an introduction, not an encyclopedia.

Wrapping Things Up

As starter sets go, this is pretty much what you want. Its got a nice spread of stuff, and seems fairly priced. Veteran players may however wish to skip this set if the models don't appeal.