BattleTech is a table-top strategy game (not a RPG; the complementing game MechWarrior makes it a RPG, though). It was made by FASA until they closed down in early 2001; Currently made by Whizkid Games. As it stands, BattleTech's last version is the 4th Edition.

The game is fairly simple to understand. The players control, on their turn, a number of units. First, everyone moves (player who lost initiative moves first), and then everyone's weapon fire is resolved at once.

On my opinion, the rules are basically very simple, but at the fullest possible set of rules considered, an enormous amount of time will go to playing each turn...

The core of the each unit is made of BattleMechs, bipedal anthropomorphic war machines with enough firepower to effortlessly blow up everything less powerful than another BattleMech of equal tonnage. Apart of these walking horrors, the Master Rules also include rules for power armor units (such as Clan Elementals), normal vehicles (tanks, boats, VTOLs, and such), normal infantry and, of course, artillery.

Some people criticize the armor rules are getting old, but at least they work: Each unit has armor and internal structure points; When armor gets pierced, internal structure gets damage and eventually leads to critical hits. But the coolest (no pun intended) part of the rules is the heat: Using weapons and running around understandably generates heat, giving another risk of damage. (BattleTech is one of the few games in which "go jump in lake" taunt actually might be construed as a good advice =)

The background world of the game, the conflict between worlds of Inner Sphere and The Clans, and even the internal schisms of the said factions, is something fairly epic. Not many science fiction settings can reach this level of detail. As one reviewer of Pelit computer game magazine said, "the larger-than-life machines need a larger-than-life story behind them".

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Some random opinions about Fondue's writeup: Personally, I think BattleMechs have much more "style" compared to Japanese creations. This is just a matter of taste, of course... however, I'm not saying that Japanese Mecha stuff would be inferior. BattleTech is simply something that I prefer to do more often in one form or another. =)

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2001-11-12: Some comments about Stride's writeup: Anger makes you leap forth, and you forgot to duck my LRM strike and now you are 1 XP poorer. =)

"Awwwww, our cool little game was a sport for priviledged excuse me - curious few, and now they are trying to popularize the game and when everyone is doing it it is not as cool as it used to be..." Damn that way of thinking!

Personally, if the newer offerings will turn out intolerable, I will stick with the old FASA stuff (undoubtedly excellent) and build new "house rules" on top of those if such is needed (though I may not need that - so far, with people I have played, we are not even using all the rules in 4th ed!); if the newer things are good, there is no reason not to try them out.

(And pre-painted miniatures sound good even when newer rules might not. Certainly, this thing sounds better than the cardboard counters we are using now =)

You know, I found BattleTech via "trivialization for masses" too. My first exposure to BattleTech was Mechcommander, a computer RTS! Some boardgame fanatics thought that the very idea of reducing an intricate turn-based strategy came to a point-and-click real-time strategy game was repulsive. I thought the game was damn cool and immediately wanted to know more of the game background and games with similiar themes.

After that followed MechWarrior 2 (still one of the greatest computer games in my opinion!), and I ended up buying the Battletech board game and tons of source books.

"Any exposure is good exposure."

Go with the flow and adapt.

- a Random Warrior with Timber Wolf from among the Wolves.

(Warning! The following writeup contains opinion. People who argue about what Wolverine eats for breakfast, actually play tabletop games, don't floss regularly, etc. should look away now.)

I had to chuckle slightly at Raistlin's writeup above, specifically the line "cheap ripoffs that steal the ideas of the original BattleTech." This is particularly ironic as FASA's entire giant robot operation came about in the late 1970's as a reaction to the popularity of Japanese mecha comics, animated shows and (most lucratively) model kits.

Collectors were keen to snap up anything Gundam-related, but there was little attention paid to the plots and back story surrounding these items (probably because there was a scarcity of translated material at the time). Seeing a niche, FASA created their own mechs (which, IMO don't hold a candle to the exceptionally stylish Japanese originals) and penned a fantasy backstory, putting it all together in a tabletop strategy game which became very popular.

Twenty years later, Battletech now seems like a legitimate 'universe' in its own right, even though the mechs still look like Volvos. Incidentally, the first edition of Battletech was first published with the name BattleDroids, but George Lucas (hey, another guy stealing stuff from the Japanese!) was not overly pleased. So now you know.

A lot of of the "classic" (3025) Battlemech designs were "borrowed" (stolen) from japanese anime.

The Shadow Hawk (=Dougram), Griffin (=Soltic Roundfacer), Wolverine (=Blockhead), Battlemaster (=Bigfoot), Thunderbolt (=Ironfoot) and Goliath (=Crabgunner) were all taken from the 1981 show "Fang of the sun Dougram".

The Marauder (=Glaug pod), Rifleman (=Defender), Warhammer (=Tomahawk), Archer (=Spartan), Wasp (=Valkyrie), Phoenix Hawk (=Super Valkyrie) and Crusader (=Armored Valkyrie), were taken from the 1982 show Super Dimension Fortress Macross, which made up a part of the US show Robotech.

FASA eventually decided to phase out these "borrowed" designs, and thus these mechs are absent from recent Battletech products. However, Fantasy Productions (FanPro), who have acquired the rights to continue the Classic battletech line, are trying to revive the classic mechs by giving them new designs. (See http://www.classicbattletech.com/Project_Phoenix.html for more information)

Press Release :
Friday, August 10, 2001
''Jordan Weisman, the original creator of BattleTech, has assembled an all-star team of writers and game developers (including authors Michael A. Stackpole and Loren L. Coleman, as well as game designer Randall N. Bills) to help him re-launch BattleTech for a new generation of players.

Evolved into a new experience while maintaining its unique setting and technologies, BattleTech is set to storm the market in the summer of 2002.

The new BattleTech will be a collectible, expandable miniatures game. Every plastic 'Mech, vehicle, infantry unit, and other figure comes fully assembled and painted. Like a card in a collectible card game (CCG), each model in BattleTech has a unique set of statistics and abilities that make it valuable in battle, so collecting and designing armies is a lot like building decks for a CCG. Unlike a CCG or any other miniatures game, these abilities and statistics change during combat, thus offering a greater depth of play and strategy but a simpler and faster system than other games.''

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Fuck WizKids LLC, fuck their followers, and prison fuck all this ''a new generation of players'' tripe.
I WAS the new generation once, and I played the same game the old generation played! THAT is what makes a hobby! It bonds people. It gets fresh blood. The new players strengthen the game and it lives on. ANYONE WITH A SOUL doesn't toss out 15 years of carefully crafted evolution to create the next collectable craze.

Do you hear me Jordan Weisman...? you fucking tool... I don't give a rat's ass what part you had in BattleTech's birth; it wasn't yours anymore. It belonged to the fans. And if you had any honor you would have gladly accepted that it is now your duty to protect the game's good name from commercial bullshit.

And you still could have started a revolution to roll around in! You could have made plenty of money by increasing support for BattleTech. You could have produced pre-painted plastic minis to make it easier to start armies. You could have re-created and re-instated the "lost 'mechs". You even could have used your clicky-bases to revive BattleForce. Remember BattleForce? Clicky-bases would be perfectly acceptable for large scale combat like that! THAT could have been your cool new thing to lure ''a new generation of players'' into the market. You could have made your money, you shortsighted whore. You could have made your money!

...but your after that Pokémon, gotta catch 'em all, 3-year quickie income.
You want the money that old folks give to the grandkids cuz they won't visit without a bribe. You want to start a trend that those bored 11year-olds will eat up! ...until it isn't cool anymore. Cuz now even their baby brother has a BattleTech backpack. How uncool is Pokémon when your mom changes diapers on a Pikachu blankie?

You could have been a Warden. Coulda joined the StarLeague.
You sold out to the Crusaders.
But you don't even play BattleTech anymore, do you Jordan?

The BattleTech universe has many games within it:

• BattleTech - The mainstay. Big Mecha with Big Guns, driven by MechWarriors. Mech's range from 20 to 100 tons and have a large variety of cannon, missile, particle and laser weapons.
• BattleSpace - BattleTech in space. Aerospace fighters launch from Jumpships, Warships and Dropships. BattleSpace is my favorite part of the BattleTech universe, at least for concept. The game has an alternate rule set that does decent space physics, with inertia and everything. Nothing is more fun, however, than Orbital Bombardment!
• BattleTroops - Squad combat. This was popular in the BattleTech universe before the Clans returned with Elementals and made mincemeat out of infantry.
• MechWarrior - The RPG that ties all these games together. Characters can be pilots, MechWarriors, Elementals, Techs.. The whole BattleTech universe is covered in the RPG.

My first board game, my first RPG, both were from BattleTech. Yay FASA!

I'm sorry to say that there seems to be a disturbing trend in the area of BattleTech and all of the spinoffs. It seems that instead of trying to reach a new audience with the video games and new miniatures game, that every different manifestation of BattleTech, or whatever you want to call it at this point, has driven the players farther apart. I was first exposed to this game back in either 1988 or 89 when I was only 5 through the box set CityTech, which was BattleTech urban combat, cool stuff. Granted, at that point it was huge freaken robots with rocket launchers blowing crap up, but it was probably the coolest thing I'd ever seen. As I grew up I started to play it more and really get into it, every new suppliment added a lot more depth, made the game a little bit better. I remember the superb graphics of the first MechWarrior game on the PC, and how that was the best thing I'd ever seen. I also remember the two Crescent Hawk games and how tough they were, again remember, I was really young. But every new game made the whole system that much better and got more people interested in BattleTech. Unfortunately, the person who had all the sourcebooks moved away and I stopped playing.

Then MechWarrior 2 hit. When I played that game it was one of the coolest, if not the coolest, thing I'd ever seen. I renewed my interest in BattleTech and caused me to search for the books with a completely renewed interest. Having played the game before, back in the 3025 era, I knew what to expect and The Clans added a whole new world to explore. The problem came when MW2 drew many other fans into the tabletop game and they all wanted to play with omni-mechs. I remember an intense argument between two gamers. One accused the other of cheating because a Large Laser cannot fire at that range, but the shot was from a Mad Cat, or Timber Wolf if you prefer, and thus was a ER Large Laser so, actually, it could. I'd never seen people so mad over a game, at least not when money was not at stake. So then there were the 3025ers, the 3055ers, and those who felt shut up and play the damn game!!

Without going into a detailed history, basically the same thing happened when the other BattleTech computer games came out. Each new one had a new hook to draw in new players. The newbies were interested in the tabletop game too, they just wanted the new toys. So more suppliments came out and new arguments started; the 3055ers needed some group to look down on. The whole time those of us who just want a good game are sitting there watching the other player's argue. The number 1 rule of wargames is that all rules must be agreed upon before the first move is made. The BattleTech System is even set up for this, Level 1 is the "old" tech from 3025, Level 2 is the standard tournament level and has all the goodies from the clans, and Level 3 had all the really new toys from the really new 3067 equipment. They also released new versions of Battleforce, BattleSpace, and AeroTech to make it easier to use this new stuff, but no where does it say that these rules must be used! There are even era-specific tournaments if you really care that much. So if you don't like the new equipment, don't play with it, but don't assault those of us who choose to. The point of the game is to have a good time and blast the hell out of your opponent's units. That is ALL that matters, nothing else.

The same can be said for Wizkids' new version, MechWarrior: Dark Age. A lot of people see the advantage for that new system and I myself will likely buy a set to see what it's like and if it sucks then I at least get some painted and assembled mechs from the deal. I have not yet played it, and I likely won't for a long time. However, I also won't take the attitude that those who do pick it up are inferior to me.

The point is, enjoy BattleTech in the form you enjoy it, if its CBT, or MechWarrior, or MechCommander, or any other of the many games that have been made from it. The flip side is also to respect that others likely enjoy it in a different form, and that's perfectly fine. I'm sorry if I've pissed some of you pureists off, downvote me all you bloody well like, but please let those of us who have grown up beyond caring what everyone else happens to be doing enjoy the game in our own damn way!

Some Thoughts on My Experience with Battletech,

I got into Battletech when my aircraft carrier was stuck over in the Persian Gulf for ten months. This game made the time pass quickly and enjoyably (well, as enjoyable as an extended tour in the Gulf gets). I came home and immediately began teaching my son to play the game. He's eight.

We had a blast. The background and rules of Battletech have been hammered out and worked on for the past twenty years, not just by FASA, but by the Battletech players themeselves. This give-and-take teamwork results in a very 'real'-feeling universe, one where quirky people - just like you and me - exist. The details and characters have the odd, unexpected taste of reality, and that adds so much to the gaming experience. It becomes easier to suspend disbelief, and that's vitally important in this game.

Unreal Reality?

After all, we're talking about giant robots which are, somehow, inherently superior to conventional tanks and aircraft. Even though all these weapons of war have access to the same futuristic technology, somehow the giant robots are way, way more powerful than conventional arms. I have a friend of many years who refuses to touch the game because of this. He played tabletop wargames back in the old days of sand tables and 1/76th scale models, and he just can't get his head around the concept of battlemechs. He won't even discuss Cav, a game which attempts to make the