Project I’m Excited About – Battletech: Mercenaries

Dear Readers, it should come as no surprise to you, especially since I’ve talked about it in the past, that I am a huge Battletech fan. Like, second only to D&D, I love Battletech.

For those who aren’t aware, Battletech is a tabletop war game of giant stompy robots. As the picture above shows, the giant robots, known as battlemechs, are kings of the future battlefield, bringing enough firepower to level cities, and is only opposed by others of their kind.

Here’s the primer for Battletech to give you an idea:

“BattleTech is a science-fiction “space opera” set in the factional, militarized universe of the thirty-first century. Humanity has spread to the stars and spawned titanic interstellar empires, each controlling hundreds of worlds across a combined region of space stretching more than a thousand light years.

Following the rise of six Great Noble Houses, a mighty Star League was forged, heralding a golden age of prosperity.

However, treachery undermined the Star League and led to the murder of the First Lord and the fall of House Cameron. The rulers of the remaining five Great Houses each proclaimed themselves the new First Lord of the crumbling Star League, and thus began the Succession Wars.

For twelve generations, armies of BattleMechs have clashed across more than 2,000 colonized planets of the Inner Sphere, visiting such destruction on humanity’s technological capabilities that old, scavenged ‘Mechs often outperform newly built models.

The year is 3025, and the scars of the Third Succession War remain a fresh memory across the entire Inner Sphere. All five Houses have paused their military campaigns in hopes of rebuilding their armies and rediscovering part of their lost technological base.

Whether wet-behind-the-ears recruits or grizzled veterans, mercenaries are the wild card that can tip the balance in combat. These MechWarriors run the razor’s edge between legend and destruction, and possess the necessary skills and the right amount of luck to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

THIS is BattleTech.”

Like I said, giant stompy robots!

In any case, the game is a tabletop miniatures wargame with the battelmechs, tanks, aircraft, and infantry (poor blokes!) fighting it out on a futuristic battlefield.

Now, on to what I’m excited about:

Catalyst Game Labs, the current holder (and a good holder they’ve been!) of the Battletech IP, has had a number of releases, all coming out of Kickstarter.

First was the basic set and the Game of Armored Combat.

This box set re-introduced the game to the world, this time with high-quality plastic miniatures instead of the more pricey metal/pewter miniatures used in the past. It gave us 8 plastic models and the rules for what is now called Battletech Classic. Don’t get me wrong, I have a special place in my heart for Classic. I cut my teeth on Classic. But it gets so in the weeds and so complicated with multiple tables just to fire off a single shot ! I loved Classic , but then I discovered Alpha Strike.

My, oh, my!

As I’ve discussed in the past, this version of Battletech is much more simply played, and one can more easily control larger number of ‘mechs.

In any case, they continued forward in the timeline, to the infamous Clan Invasion.

The invading clans came into the picture like a wreaking ball, stopped by one guy and the future equivalent of the phone company (read: Comstar).

Well, fast forward and we get to the ilClan era. Long story short, the goal of the clans was to re-take Terra. After the fight with Comstar, which resulted in a 15-year peace treaty. Once the treaty ended, Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon made a dash for Terra, with them having taken the planet. They fought it out and Clan Wolf won out.

And during this whole time, there is one “faction” that remained: the Mercenaries.

This leads us to the newest set coming out next year (although Kickstarter backers will get their stuff by end of this year!).

It is going to be amazing.

Personally, I’m backing at the Batallion Level, trying to get the most for my money. And since it opened (it was fully funded in less than 45 seconds, if you can believe), it has finally (today or yesterday) hit the $5.5 million mark, unlocking a bunch of stretch goals, including a few blind booster boxes and three additional forcepacks.

Good times.

Well, that’s all I had for today. Thanks for being here, and don’t forget to like and subscribe!

Until next time, Dear Readers…