Well yesterday at the club we played Battletech. I have not played the rules for 20 + Years and the other guys had not played them at all. That being the case we kept it very simple with just a medium mech each. Relfie had a "Hunchback, I had a "Witworth", Ian an "Enforcer" and Kev a "Trebuchet|". For any one who knows Battletech well I had a 40 ton mech as I knew the rules and the others all had 50 ton mechs.SO Kev and Relfie were against Ian and myself. 2 mecha a side and no clever scenarios just a get in and kill the opponents. Ian and myself set up to ttarget Kevin and leave the Hunchback alown as it only had short range weapons. (9 Hexes max). And generally speaking the game went a little like this.
We try to shoot at Kevs trebuchet. But I miss with my LRMs but Ian makes a hit. This chips away some armour but nothing to worry about. Kev fires back at Ian and again scores hits but again just chipping away at armour.The next few turns sees me in the witworth running hot and firing all weapons and missing everything. Ian scores his with the LRM 10 rack but rolls very low for the number of missiles. In the game he manages to roll 2 2's and 4 3's on 2d6! I swear I did not touch his dice!Kev starts heating up and only launches missiles back, mostly at Ian's Enforcer! So I take very little damage and am able to steer clear of too many problems and manage to cool down. Kev finds the water and his heat sinks start to act more efficiently.
Relfie keeps closing the distance and finally lets rip with his AC20. This chews up Ians Mech quite badly, but he's still in the fight. The enforcer looses all the armour on one location and takes a hit to his autocannon 10. Ian gats a luck shot on the Trebuchet and causes a critical on the engine. This Gives Kev 5 extra heat each turn.Which in turn means that the "treb" starts running hot and from now on suffers 1 less movement point and a penalty on shooting. 
Ian and myself try to put distance between the Hunchback and use only LRMs. This does not work all that well for me and I get hit and it penertrates the armour and scores a critical on my gyros. So jumping and running become MUCH more likely to result in me falling down. Kev and Relfie team up on Ian and back him into some harsh terrain. Which makes it much harder to get away from the hunchback. Ian fights on. We both target Kevs Trebuchet as much as possible and Kev gets 2 more crits against him, a second engine hit (now +10 heat a turn) and I hit a gyro of his and he decides not to run or jump from now on.The game ends with Ian loosing an arm (with the autocannon) and having all his torso shot out be repeated attacks. I in return stay at long range and launch LRMs as much as possible. This finally has it's effect and I get another crit on Kevs engine and with 3 engine hits his mech is no longer functional.
Tis just leaves me an Relfie to fight it out. The bad news for me is that I am now low on missiles and can't run or jump without risking falling So the lumbering Hunchback will eventually "Muller" me! so I concede the game.
The good points: The game still plays well and has lots to recommend it. The new players picked the rules up quickly and understood the mechanics and hit numbers within 40 min for start of play and I am sure could very easily play again with little or no help. They said the rules were very instinctive.
The Bad points: Well for me it was all about the rose coloured glasses and while I did enjoy the game it was not the same as back in the day (25+ yrs ago!)
Thanks for reading today. The game was quite balanced and worked very well as a set of rules, it's just that you cannot beat nostalgia so after the game I was feeling a little underwhelmed!
All the best Clint
It is funny how we remember things more fondly than they were at the time. I watched the new Clangers the other day and thought afterwards that there was ten minutes of my life that I won't be getting back. That said I would suggest that giant missile wielding robots still has a lot going for it.
ReplyDeleteThank you Michael. A Clangers "Show Game" was suggested about 2 years ago. So glad not to have started that as well. Yes there is a jot to giant robots that the Japanese part of me really likes.
DeleteThanks for posting this Clint. First time I've ever really looked at what the game looks like when being played (makes me think that it could be played as a blog game - well, the map based aspect at least).
ReplyDeleteThank you Roy. Yes I believe it could be played as a Blog game. There would be things to work around but nothing too drastic.
DeleteA very tidy BatRep Clint, and I certainly enjoyed it. I've heard great things about BattleMech over the years and though simple, this made me fancy having a game or two (which is always the point of posting BatReps imho). I'll be hunting down some metal mechs at the next show I attend and certainly having a go with the rules in the future. Thanks for sharing :-)
ReplyDeleteNo thank you Simon. My advice is to just try it using paper models first before dishing out any hard earned. The Original box set had cardboard cut outs and I would not be too proud to use them.
DeleteI'm sure nostalgia was better when I was a lad !
ReplyDeleteGreat aar Clint and I was quite surprised that you were still standing when time was called, given your usual dice rolling and the start you team had.
'Old' rules aren't old to those that have never seen them and these seem to work just fine.
Thanks Joe. I was lucky and Ian was unlucky that one game. I was also pretty chewed up, but could still function (Just) but Relfie in the Hunchback was the winner.
DeleteDefinitely an interesting report. I think that some of your sense of "it's not as good as it was" might be down to the beginner's scenario. After all, a simple, evenly-balanced slugging match isn't always very exciting, I think.
ReplyDeleteThanks C6. I fear you may be right and it will take me a while to inwardly digest it all. But one thing for sure, the rules and the figures are not going on eBay.
DeleteI think Colgar6 made a valid point. I suspect if you'd played a different scenario you'd have enjoyed it more. Still, it was nice to see Battletech being played again and I hope you post more Battletech batreps.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bryan. I think C6 and you are right, but when teaching new players best not to make it too complex.
DeleteA very old game but still very good. Thanks Lee.
ReplyDeleteA Nice read. In a way it reminds me a little of the titan combats in Space marine and Adeptus Titanicus
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon. Having never played "Adeptus Titanicus" or Space Marine I really could not comment in any way.
Delete