BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat

BattleTech Game Systems => General BattleTech Discussion => Topic started by: Darthvegeta800 on 17 September 2011, 13:15:52

Title: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 17 September 2011, 13:15:52
I wasn't sure where to put this, this 'seemed' the best section as it's 'general' but if not, please mods move this thread to something appropriate.
Anyway, not too long ago i picked up a huge box of battletech cards. It is quite a big collection. I was hoping to make some decks for me and some friends but given my lack of experience in this game, i'm hoping someone had some old decklists lying around or on the net for this wonderful game.

I'd like them to be roughly the same level in power and 'themed'.
I'm looking for a deck for each of the 'favourite' factions of us all:
- House Kurita
- Clan Jade Falcon
- House Steiner
- Clan Smoke Jaguar

Though others are fine too. Most if not all of my card seem to be of the original series before the reboot if that makes much difference.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Free Skye on 17 September 2011, 16:01:51
Half the fun is experimenting and trying out different cards.  Any power deck someone else may have built will shortcut that experience while making for a less enjoyable game for the opponent.  So I'd say just play with what you've got and focus on making evenly balanced decks rather than "good" ones.

That said, the general rule of thumb for deck construction is:
1) Use about 24 Mechs
2) Use about 24 Resources
3) Use about 12 Commands/Missions
4) Narrow your asset requirements to just 2 or 3 and not all 5.
5) Avoid the temptation to use big, expensive Mechs.  You can probably build one throughout the entire course of the game, but it's usually difficult as well as more trouble than it's worth.  When starting out, most of your Mechs in the deck should cost maybe 5 resources or less.  Preferably less.
6) If you have any vehicles/battlearmor from the Arsenal set or later, you might want to just not play with them at first as they are unbalancing and had substantial errata later on to limit their power.

Among friends, it's perfectly fine to break these rules.  But in competitive play, you will usually have your hat handed to you unless you strictly abide by them.  In fact, if most of your cards are from the premiere edition, then you should accept the fact that most of your Commands/Mission cards are horribly underpowered and useless, so you may want to play with even fewer of them and more Mechs.

I could talk about this game at great length.  As you can see, I finally recreated my account after the old boards were wiped just to make this post.  But this is a fun game to play, so as long as you're among friends, just throw together decks of equal numbers and sizes of Mechs and Resources and learn as you go.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 17 September 2011, 16:08:34
Well i'm not looking for competitive decks. I lack the huge amount of rares for that. It's more that i'm trying to have a few decks roughly equal in power.
Had a game already and I must say it is a good as I remember it was. It's not like most cardgames out there and has a slight 'wargame' feel which i like. :)
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: guardiandashi on 17 September 2011, 16:31:12
I could pull out a couple of my old decks to get a feel for what I had in them but I know I violated a few of the "rules"

my suggestion would be to only put in 1-2 expensive cards in the deck (expensive to use not expensive to buy) IE I had 1 deck that included saturation bombardment this was a direct damage attack card that does 1 damage for every 2 resources spent past its "activation cost" which was like 2 +5/munitions or something so if you did not have munitions in play it costs 7 to activate, if munitions is in play it costs 2 (in my example)

another deck had a direwolf in it .... that thing was a beast to get out but so fun if you managed it
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 17 September 2011, 16:47:14
Thanks would be most appreciated!

I tried not to put too many 'high end' mechs in our decks. But the Steiner deck my brother made did have 4 or so big ones. (flavorful though!)
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: scatcat on 17 September 2011, 17:13:00
There's a Yahoo group dedicated to Battletech CCG. Lot of good stuff including numerous deck lists.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Maniac Actual on 17 September 2011, 21:10:23
Of the factions you listed, I had decks made up of Kurita, Green Turkey,

The Kurita deck was primarily a "wall" deck with lots of cheap assaults.  It also had a few uniques (Hohrio, Shin Yodama, Uncle Chandy) as well as some good missile mechs (The Naginata friggin rocks!).  But, mainly, cheap low cost mechs - Daimyo's, daikyu's, spiders, venoms, etc.  Good general purpose deck, worked well in multiplayer games, not so well in duels (you want FAST mechs - both in build cost and speed - there)

The Green Turkey deck, much as I hate to say it, one of the strongest decks I ever saw, because it was built around MISSILES.  The Green Turkeys loves themselves the missile mechs - Ullers on the low cost end, then Thors, Vultures, and Lokis.  Throw in targeting aces, "Nice groping" mission cards, maybe some narc refits.... I really, really beat people down with that deck.  It did have one problem, though.  As other people have mentioned, it had lots of expensive mechs, so it built so.  It worked GREAT in a multiplayer game, because then you got the time you needed to build.  If not.... Well, it ususally died in a duel because of that.

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: jklantern on 17 September 2011, 21:16:36
I'm framing this by saying I was by no means good at the game, but I do remember that the Jaguar Deck you could buy had a tendency to come with a LOT of missile Mechs.  Mine had several Puma A and Ryoken D cards, along with the Mandrill (which wasn't Jaguar specific).  Also, the Jaguar had some slow, beefy, expensive assaults of death.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: glitterboy2098 on 17 September 2011, 23:03:12
when i played, i had two decks, a clan wolf and a steiner. i had lots of other factions, but not enough to make full decks.

the steiner deck sucked..decent deck but the mechs were all fairly expensive, and the cheap stuff was mainly vehicles that couldn't stop anything.  i didn't win much with that one.

the Wolf deck was tricky. it was almost all fast mechs, many of them with the "place into play immediately" trait which allowed them to be deployed even faster. (many many Phantoms in that deck..). the downside? not much heavier stuff, so unless you got alot of mechs out right away, you couldn't survive blocking the enemy. so you had to hope you got enough resource cards out to support rapid production.

i won a few times with this one...had trouble beating my Brother's Davion deck.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: bjorn on 17 September 2011, 23:07:41
I had a Drac and Steiner Deck back in the Day.

My Drac deck was build around a huge card combo that rarely worked, but when it did it was awesome. It required Berserk mechwarrior, a beefy mech, Takashi Kurita, Ambush, and Chaotic Battlefield Conditions. The idea was Takashi only allowed your opponent to attack once in a turn, coupled with a berserk mechwarrior in big mech, the ambush forced an attack on your stockpile with all available mechs and the chaotic battlefield conditions randomized all of the damage at the battlefield. This usually destroyed most of the enemies mechs for an easy clean up from your remaining forces.

My Steiner deck was a Bearer of Mackenzie hammer/inside job deck, that had command posts and Adam Steiner in it to help keep the bearer attacking. I won several tournaments with that deck. I may have to dig up my decks and see if I can find an opponent again.

Clan decks were very scary, as they had many light decks that could take advantage of Elite mechwarriors. I think they banned that card though.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: guardiandashi on 18 September 2011, 00:34:28
well there is my wolf deck I built pretty slow and would likely not do well in a duel but here it goes
resources
4 munitions
4 tactics
4 logistics
3 assembly
3 politics
1 repair facility (assembly)
1 blood of kerensky (politics)

mechs
2 vulture prime
2 dasher prime
1 phantom prime
1 puma B
1 puma D
1 uller B
1 fenris B
1 fenris D
1 linebacker B
1 linebacker C
1 pouncer A
1 pouncer C
1 madcat prime
1 madcat B
1 madcat S
1 masakari A
1 man o' war C
1 Dashi prime
1 Widowmaker dire wolf

MISC command and mission cards
1 communications failure
1 dropshipsite
1 extra armor plating
1 elite mechwarrior
1 feint
1 ferro-fibrous armor
1 field command post
1 head shot
1 heavy industry
1 maneuvering ace
1 mech hanger
1 mechwarrior peter
1 retreive lost mech
1 saturation bombardment
1 star diversion
1 star formation
1 studied move
1 superior navigation
1 targeting ace
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 18 September 2011, 03:54:41
Thanks for all the posts guys!

A few questions:

- Is it worthwhile to focus your deck on only 2 resource types? For instance M and A for my Kurita deck? It might lack flexibility but it seems to allow one to spam units fast.
- Is it worthwhile to buy Redline Pilot? He seems quite good in overheat heavy decks but the cost would prevent yet another mech to be fielded.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: StoneGiant on 18 September 2011, 03:58:54
How difficult would it be to acquire one of each card ever made? I want to put together a binder one day but I feel like I'm going to get a LOT of spare stuff in this quest.

Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 18 September 2011, 04:11:55
I could pull out a couple of my old decks to get a feel for what I had in them but I know I violated a few of the "rules"

my suggestion would be to only put in 1-2 expensive cards in the deck (expensive to use not expensive to buy) IE I had 1 deck that included saturation bombardment this was a direct damage attack card that does 1 damage for every 2 resources spent past its "activation cost" which was like 2 +5/munitions or something so if you did not have munitions in play it costs 7 to activate, if munitions is in play it costs 2 (in my example)

another deck had a direwolf in it .... that thing was a beast to get out but so fun if you managed it

What do you think would qualify as 'costly'?

And what is the cardnr limit per card? 3-4-6?
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Shin Yodama on 18 September 2011, 04:21:16
"Nice groping" mission cards

 ;D :D :o
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: guardiandashi on 18 September 2011, 08:52:55
to be honest a "costly" card kinda depends on the deck

I would tend to say any card that takes more than 2-3 turns of "building" is expensive

example
during any part of the game except possibly end game the dashi prime direwolf or widowmaker direwolf are expensive
dashi prime cost "19, 3A, 3M, 3L" so if you have assembly, munitions, and logistics in play it only costs 19, otherwise it can cost up to 28
widowmaker cost 20, 4a 4l, 4m

in the early game a vulture prime at 9 could be expensive
heck the 1st turn a dasher @ 2 is expensive
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: scatcat on 18 September 2011, 09:12:06
How difficult would it be to acquire one of each card ever made? I want to put together a binder one day but I feel like I'm going to get a LOT of spare stuff in this quest.

The first 5 sets aren't amazingly hard to find (I'm counting Limited/Unlimited as one set.) Commanders Edition and Crusade are EXTREMELY difficult to complete.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 18 September 2011, 09:12:12
well there is my wolf deck I built pretty slow and would likely not do well in a duel but here it goes
resources
4 munitions
4 tactics
4 logistics
3 assembly
3 politics
1 repair facility (assembly)
1 blood of kerensky (politics)

mechs
2 vulture prime
2 dasher prime
1 phantom prime
1 puma B
1 puma D
1 uller B
1 fenris B
1 fenris D
1 linebacker B
1 linebacker C
1 pouncer A
1 pouncer C
1 madcat prime
1 madcat B
1 madcat S
1 masakari A
1 man o' war C
1 Dashi prime
1 Widowmaker dire wolf

MISC command and mission cards
1 communications failure
1 dropshipsite
1 extra armor plating
1 elite mechwarrior
1 feint
1 ferro-fibrous armor
1 field command post
1 head shot
1 heavy industry
1 maneuvering ace
1 mech hanger
1 mechwarrior peter
1 retreive lost mech
1 saturation bombardment
1 star diversion
1 star formation
1 studied move
1 superior navigation
1 targeting ace

Interesting, is there a reason you went for a lot of singles?
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: bjorn on 18 September 2011, 09:15:37
Thanks for all the posts guys!

A few questions:

- Is it worthwhile to focus your deck on only 2 resource types? For instance M and A for my Kurita deck? It might lack flexibility but it seems to allow one to spam units fast.
- Is it worthwhile to buy Redline Pilot? He seems quite good in overheat heavy decks but the cost would prevent yet another mech to be fielded.

REally hard to try only two resources. think more like 3 or 4. Remember max of 6 of any one card and that includes basic resources.

I like the redline pilot. I have a Davion deck with 2 or three in it.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: guardiandashi on 18 September 2011, 09:21:25
partially what I had when building the deck, partially most/all are limited edition/1st run cards so they are black border

I honestly was also not sure exactly sure what I wanted the deck to do so a kinda ecclectic mix works..

and last it is a chance to kinda play with the variations

afterall I do have one of the 1ft magic style card boxes of btech cards not counting the binder I was using to build a collection (of singles) so I know I have duplicates so I could do things like pull the vulture primes and add more "wolf" mechs for instance
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: bjorn on 18 September 2011, 09:26:58
Here is my old Bearer Deck:

Steiner Deck:
Resources:

4 Support: Politics
6 Support: Assembly
4 Support: Tactics
2 Black Market Connections
4 Field Command Posts
1 Think Tank
1 Melissa Steiner-Davion
1 Outreach Mercenary Training
1 War Funds
1 Comstar support
Total: 28

Mechs:
6 Stealths
3 Zeus ZEU- 9S
2 Wolfhound WLF-2
3 Banshee BNC-5S
2 Hermes HER-1S
1 Assassin ASN-23
Total: 17

Command Other:
1 Adam Steiner
1 Morgan Kell
1 Steal Mech
5 Bearer of the McKennsy Hammer
5 Inside Jobs
Total: 13

Missions:
2 Unopposed.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Jal Phoenix on 18 September 2011, 09:36:50
How difficult would it be to acquire one of each card ever made? I want to put together a binder one day but I feel like I'm going to get a LOT of spare stuff in this quest.



It's hard.  I've got every set complete or nearly complete except for Commander's Edition, for which I have none because it seems Wizards only made fourteen sets.  My collection has some holes that absolutely refuse to be filled.  Every single time I've found the four or five missing cards, the seller has been a fraud.  And they're not even particularly rare cards.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: jklantern on 18 September 2011, 09:40:42
It's hard.  I've got every set complete or nearly complete except for Commander's Edition, for which I have none because it seems Wizards only made fourteen sets.  My collection has some holes that absolutely refuse to be filled.  Every single time I've found the four or five missing cards, the seller has been a fraud.  And they're not even particularly rare cards.

What cards are you missing?  I may or may not have 'em.  The bulk of mine are either Commander's Edition or Counterstrike.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: scatcat on 18 September 2011, 09:42:03
REally hard to try only two resources. think more like 3 or 4. Remember max of 6 of any one card and that includes basic resources.

I like the redline pilot. I have a Davion deck with 2 or three in it.

Actually it doesn't. You can make a deck with 60 Assemblies if you like. My early tournament decks tended towards 2 resources with a few think tanks thrown in. After War Funds was released 5 resource decks became viable. Since you'll have the whole gamut of cards, there's no reason you can't make an awesome deck using any combination of ALMPT.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: scatcat on 18 September 2011, 09:43:47
It's hard.  I've got every set complete or nearly complete except for Commander's Edition, for which I have none because it seems Wizards only made fourteen sets.  My collection has some holes that absolutely refuse to be filled.  Every single time I've found the four or five missing cards, the seller has been a fraud.  And they're not even particularly rare cards.

I'm missing a bunch of cards from CE (and a single from Crusade). Send me a list of your missing cards and I'll see if I can fill some holes.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: jklantern on 18 September 2011, 09:45:14
I'm missing a bunch of cards from CE (and a single from Crusade). Send me a list of your missing cards and I'll see if I can fill some holes.

Again, feel free to tell me what you're missing as well.  The cards are currently sitting in my closet doing nothing.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: bjorn on 18 September 2011, 09:50:03
Here is a davion deck I had that revolved around pilots:

Davion Deck
Resources
6 Munitions
6 Assembly
6 Tactics
1 Think Tank
1 Solaris Contacts
3 Comstar support
Total 23
Mechs
1 Yen-Lo-Wang
1 Berserker
2 Scarabus
5 Hermes- 1S
2 Banshee- 5S
3 Black Knight
2 Flashman
3 Stealth
2 Mongoose
Total 21

Other Command
1 Medevac Team
1 Training Facility
1 Mech Hanger
Total 3
Pilots
1 Prince Victor Steiner Davion
1 Kai, Champion of Solaris
3 Redline Pilots
3 Silver Sunburst Pilots
Total 8
Missions:
2 Overruns
3 Overwhelms
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: bjorn on 18 September 2011, 09:51:23
Actually it doesn't. You can make a deck with 60 Assemblies if you like. My early tournament decks tended towards 2 resources with a few think tanks thrown in. After War Funds was released 5 resource decks became viable. Since you'll have the whole gamut of cards, there's no reason you can't make an awesome deck using any combination of ALMPT.

Really? I thought it said in the rules no more than 6 of any card (including resources). Man my old gaming group screwed that up.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: scatcat on 18 September 2011, 10:19:42
Again, feel free to tell me what you're missing as well.  The cards are currently sitting in my closet doing nothing.

Thanks. I will. :)

Again I suggest checking out that Battletech CCG Group. Among other things they have a Lackey plugin for online play. Great way to tune your decks....
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Fear Factory on 18 September 2011, 15:43:40
Man I'll have to post my Ghost Bear deck...  Fire Moth/Viper GALORE!!!
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Free Skye on 18 September 2011, 21:49:52
Really? I thought it said in the rules no more than 6 of any card (including resources). Man my old gaming group screwed that up.

I don't recall if it was added to the Commander's Edition rulebook or not, but it was a tournament rule from early on that everyone plays by.  The game already rewards redundant deck design as it is.  And without such a rule decks would only have three or four different cards in them in vast quantities.
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 19 September 2011, 02:21:56
Kevin and I houseruled 4 copies max/card when we didn't find a card nr limit online or in the rulebook. For now I think we'll stick with that. :)
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: RJM on 19 September 2011, 03:07:41
Kevin and I houseruled 4 copies max/card when we didn't find a card nr limit online or in the rulebook. For now I think we'll stick with that. :)

For those of you who care what the official rules were/are.  It is and always was maximum of 6 of any card with the same name, except basic resources which don't have a set limit. 
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: StoneGiant on 19 September 2011, 03:40:55
thanks for the info!
Title: Re: The old battletech cardgame: deckbuilding
Post by: Darthvegeta800 on 19 September 2011, 06:23:19
For those of you who care what the official rules were/are.  It is and always was maximum of 6 of any card with the same name, except basic resources which don't have a set limit.

Thanks for the info! :)