Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/02/08/celebrating-my-birthday-in-the-battletech-universe.html
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Happy Birthday; and nice!
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Happy birthday! And thanks for the really delightful story.
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A birthday?
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Is this different from Alpha Strike, another “version” of battletech that eliminates many of the “crunchy” aspects of Classic Battletech, but in so doing makes it easier to field multiple mechs and their accompanying tanks, infantry, and air vehicles… That’s a very fun one! (and rather different from the classic version)
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Man, I kinda wanted to play BattleTech. I almost bought some of the source books back in the day just for the mech drawings (I ended up just buying a bunch of Robotech comics. Anyone wanna buy a bunch of Robotech comics?)
Back when I would go to my local gaming store before covid, I did get to see some people play the old school stuff complete with those charts with the 100 hit boxes for armor etc. It looks neat, but boy, something that would really benefit from software on a tablet to keep track of everything haha.
Now Mechwarrior, that is more my speed. Played the shit out of that in the mid-late 90s (and some of the Mechwarrior Online awhile ago - gee - 10 years ago?)
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I played the original FASA version in the early 90’s had a tone of Ral Partha Miniatures. For HS spring break my friends trekked to Chicago’s north pier mall to play on the simulators. Good times. I wish I still had that stuff. We’d cover the ping pong table in hex maps and listen to heavy metal and play for hours.
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I played original BattleTech back in the day but now don’t really have time. Sometimes it’s fun to watch people play MWO on Youtube just to get a taste of that old experience. If you’re interested, Baradul is my fave MWO streamer.
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Depending on which Robotech comics you have: maybe!
I have a nearly complete set of Comico comics from the 1980s. I am a huge Robotech fan and have been for years. If you’ve got the ones I’m missing, a deal isn’t out of the question.
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I played in the late 90s, into the 2000s, and I have a TON of mechs and maps just ready to go. Current gaming group isn’t much into tactical wargaming / boardgaming (more RPGs) and I haven’t found the time to hit up a good FLGS, but that’s my summer project for 2024.
I’ve actually re-done my BT collection twice. In the 90s I had tons of mismatched metal minis - painted every lance (and quite a few solos) all in different colors. Mostly I was just learning how to paint and trying all kinds of stuff to see what stuck. I sold all of those when I went to grad school
Then, in the late 2000s / early 2010s all the plastic box lances were going on crazy discount. I think Catalyst was having some financial trouble and so everyone was ringing their hands over the doom of battletech, so I bought dozens of those and split them half olive drab / half desert khaki. I figured that way I could host gaming and have some even forces. They were all speed painted to middling quality. I ultimately got rid of about half of those, but still had something like 50 mechs left over.
THEN, I started my current collection: a mix of the brand new CGL stuff, some 3D prints, and some MW Dark Age infantry. At present I have one clan Trinary (plus a few on my painting desk) and a grand total of about 70 or 80 decently painted IS mechs from multiple eras.
An Atlas from my IS force: Painted Minis & Other Nerdery – Vytautas Malesh
A Mad Cat / Timberwolf from my clan, “Seafoam Ocelot”: Painted Minis & Other Nerdery – Vytautas Malesh
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We are fortunate to have you in any universe. 
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very nice paint job
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I used to play old school FASA Battletech. I even built 3D terrain using expanded polystyrene cut into hexagonal hills. Such fun! I still have loads of the original “unseen” mech models, and the Classic Battletech rulebook, but I wonder if I’ll ever play it again. Your trees are great!
OGRE is such a good game to introduce newbies to hex based wargames. You give them the Class V OGRE and it’s a pretty good match-up. They only have to worry about controlling a single unit, and they have a lot of fun blowing up all your stuff even if they lose.
Congratulations on your birthday. Lovely to share it with your son.
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I’ve been playing BattleTech for many, many years, it’s one of my favourite games. I’ve even gotten to write for it recently which has been really cool.
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The Beginner’s Box (and BattleTech Essentials, a target-exclusive variation on the set) use a cut-down version of the full BattleTech rules that remove a lot of the extra factors, and replace the full-page record sheet with a half-page one that only covers movement, weapons and the ’Mech’s armour. Internal structure, critical hits and heat are all gone. It’s really meant to be an on-ramp to the full game while Alpha Strike is a separate game with ongoing support.
When describing the two games I’ve begun likening Alpha Strike to Warhammer 40,000 and BattleTech to Kill Team
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Now I’m interested in getting in Battletech… the smaller scale of the combat seems like it’d make it loads cheaper than getting into say… Warhammer 40k.
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Classic Battletech includes a design system which allows you to buy any bipedal robot/mech models and make them work in game.
It works at any scale, so you could actually build a load of Gundam kits and play huge games in your garden.
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I love Battletech. I still have a collection of old Ral Partha metal figures including a bunch of Unseen. The new plastic sculpts are pretty good too. I’m glad the game is going through a renaissance.
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