Well, hello everyone, I'm a true newcomer so, please, don't bite and forgive the awkward syntax that might crop up here and there : I am not a native speaker and almost never get the occasion to write in English.
I found some reviews of the new box sets around the web, these were directed at fellow newcomers and, well, I figured it could be of interest to do the exact reverse : a review of BattleTech adressed to old-timers, from someone just joining. A sort of feedback from the new generation, if that makes any sense.
Before I wrote this I took time to familiarize myself with the game, as I wanted to present an informed opinion. This is what I did :
- Bought beginner box, armored combat box, total warfare, BattleMech Manual, TRO : succession wars plus some pdf files. Played some games (Lance vs Lance).
- Spent an inordinate amount of time on sarna and other places to get a sense the 'verse and the history of the game (unseens, complicated licence etc.).
- Read a few sourcebooks, old ones (such as ComStar, the Star League, House Liao and The Periphery) and newer ones (eg Handbook : Liao).
- Read a few novels (warrior trilogy, wolves on the border and lethal heritage).
- Played the new video game through.
So, here we go :
The game itself
Well, TL;DR it's brilliant.
This system is trying to simulate huge robots fighting each other... and that's what it does. Meaning :
- No ridiculous super-powered heroes capable of signe-handedly destroying half the opposing army.
- No unrealistic special capabilities that you should use in combos and that are actually more important than unit stats.
- No gamey card-based system effectively stealing your player agency.
- No cheesy "rule of fun" units (e.g. big swords on a modern battlefield "cos' swords are kind of cool").
I've played many miniature wargames, most seemed rather childish to me : they had a clear willingness to emphasize cool mechanics over verisimilitude.
This game is different : it is trying to simulate its subject without compromising itself on the altar of fun, it might be less immediate, but in the end it is intensely more rewarding.
I instantly loved the level of detail given to each 'Mech : they are not anonymous "units". When I blasted off the arm of my opponent's Shadow Hawk with one of the medium lasers of my Catapult, these minis felt much more real : they were not simply "dead" or "in play", nor had they just a main attack stat ; they had multiple locations detailing onboard equipment (each piece destructible) and were bristling with several weapons that we had to manage (with regards to min range, heat etc.). This granularity is so satisfying : damage feels more concrete (my leg is blasted off, or my gun is unusable not "this mini has one HP less").
After the first round, we gave our 'Mechs names.
There might be some amount of clutter in the rules. Physical attacks are kind of... discouraging for a first-timer to be honest, and PSR triggers are hard to remember (you need to know by heart each of them : we kept on unintentionally cheating by forgetting them). The BattleMech Manual has some moments too : several pages to describe falling, a long and lovingly convoluted way to have 'Mechs skid if they dare to run on a street (which seems to defy the reason for building roads in the first place : which, to my knowledge, was to allow vehicles to go faster than off-road) with adorable details on how you can interrupt a skid with an accidental fall, fantastic. Skidding and falling have, combined, the same amount of pages than the entire "damage" chapter. Someone had their priorities straight.
But apart from these, admittedly easily ignored, pearls of physical wisdom (and having a rule allowing you to club your opponent to death with its own arm you just teared from its torso is always a good thing in my opinion), the system is very solid and, while sometimes expansive, quite easily picked-up as most of its elements feel logical.
I've read a certain number of posts here and there saying that BattleTech is irrelevant to the "current generation" for a number of would-be reasons such as being "too complicated" or not "not having superfun features like powers and heroes". I feel that this kind of reasoning is a bit disparaging of the younger public : the fact that we weren't playing boardgames in the 80s does not mean we are incapable of appreciating good rules without resorting to funny, colorful, artificial mechanics or other bells and whistles.
On the other hand, I have seen many veterans being criticized as "stuck in the past" and refusing changes. I actually think they are right : the backward compatibility of BattleTech up to the original editions is a great thing. Old players can come back with little effort, new players can share a community with experienced ones and the commercial pressure of needless new editions with divisive changes is removed. This stability is a godsend in that regard, especially since the game is already good.
The universe
Let's not dwell on this too much : yes Game of Thrones in space is absolutely great. While the universe is sometimes a bit generic, this is more than compensated by its maturity : no fantasy, no aliens, just a hard, realistic, military mood.
Now, as to the choice of eras, I think it was a great move by Catalyst to set these new box sets during the succession wars. This era has several advantages :
- Tech is quite low, allowing introductory rules.
- There is a lot of high quality background material (novels, sourcebooks...) with great characters.
- The general "Game of Thrones meets Mad Max in space" mood is still very powerful.
- This allows similar 'verse state to the video game, simplifying transition.
But, more importantly, it severely limits the quantity of fluff a newcomer has to acquire. Beginning in the dark age and having to learn all about the pre-invasion situation, then how the Clans invaded, then the Jihad is... well kind of overwhelming.
Moving away from these practical considerations I must confess I find the original setting (succession wars, clan invasion then FedCom Civil War) to be simply more appealing. In comparison to the very rich backdrop of political intrigue, great stories and characters of the succession wars or the brutal game changer that is the Clan invasion (with this incredible and seemingly unstoppable enemy that is at the same time so alien... but so human and, more importantly, deeply rooted in the previous lore, with the Star League Defense Forces exile) I have difficulties getting interested by what happens next. While the FedCom civil war has some very good moments (political intrigues, the split of ComStar...), the next eras fail to capture my thrill :
Jihad : I just can't understand how a splinter group of cultists can, out of the blue, declare war to just about everyone (including the powerful Clans and the vast military of the major successor states) and last ten years. How could these guys become a threat to the major powers in the first place? This feels just like "Clan invasion, but with less interesting and credible enemies".
Dark Age : it just feels like "the same as succession wars but with a longer and more complicated backstory and without the great characters and intrigues".
So, while some might find that Catalyst should have set the boxes designed for newcomers in a new era, well, I can tell you that, not only don't I want to have to learn twice as much backstory ("now you have to know everything up til then or be clueless!"), but I feel that the old setting is actually the most engaging. It is a good thing that the lore is progressing though, it gives new elements to the old-guard who knows the old era through and through. But as for us newcomers, let us live the grandeur of the succession wars and the awesomeness that is the Clan invasion. I have known Hanse Davion and Ulric Kerensky for only a month and their story is as powerful now as it must have been back then. Choosing the early storyline was the right choice, Harebrained Schemes made the same and the result was, in my opinion, brilliant.
Speaking of this, I sincerely hope that Catalyst will make another box set for the Clan invasion with Clan Omnimechs minis as a complement to the "Armored Combat" box in the same way that CityTech gave new rules for urban combat and furthered the storyline to include the clans. That would be awesome.
The products so far
Well, the boxes are quite satisfying especially in one regard : the miniatures are a huge improvement upon what was available up til then. This was the main reason why no one in my entourage nor I would touch BattleTech : the minis were quite repulsive. Such was the dreadful reputation of BattleTech in that regard that I had difficulties convincing friends to play with the new sets, I had to show them the new pieces for them to accept that this game was not just "the game with ugly minis" anymore.
The new miniatures, while not very high quality (soft details etc.), are quite acceptable (provided a competent paint job is applied) and nonetheless immensely superior to the old ones.
What is hard to understand though is why so few are available (nine unique designs) at this average standard of quality for a game that old. I understand that Catalyst is now a small operation but I have seen kickstarters by much smaller entities with more diverse and beautiful assortments. Anyway, I feel the game is on a very positive path in this regard given the recent improvements.
Now, an issue lies in the way the range is presented, the shop is quite difficult to understand : you can still buy the old 80s houses sourcebooks and field manuals (not that they would tell you what the difference is) but there are also "handbooks" and "combat manuals" (so... four books a house? Hard to understand which one you need.) and dozens of "historical", "digests" and other "reports". Most of these books look like they are definitely out of print and should have been reedited/compiled or whatever. It took me days to understand the differences between all of them and I am quite surprised that no serious work was undertaken to present the lore in a coherent form. The ComStar and Star League sourcebooks have no true modern equivalent for instance and are sorely lacking to the newcomer willing to understand the universe. This confusing range is the second reason that kept my friends and I out of the game initially, it took the video game to make me dare take the jump.
In my humble opinion there should be big (and I mean BIG) "era books" : one for the "up to the succession wars" (compiling the house sourcebooks plus ComStar and the Star League, many of these books actually have a lot in common and could be compiled and/or streamlined), one for the clan invasion and the FedCom Civil War (combining the Clan sourcebooks, the relevant parts of the Handbooks and of ComStar and the FedCom Civil War sourcebook) and one for what comes after. I currently have to swim through dozens of old titles to get a coherent vision of the lore.
This, of course, does not forbid the continued publication of "select" sourcebooks such as "liberation of Terra" or "Golden Century" which are very interesting and well written books for the already-acquainted.
Then, I think something should be said about some inadequacies in the TRO : succession wars and the associated record sheets. These seems not to be truly directed at newcomers and were quite confusing to me :
- The TRO shows no indication of eras, giving the impression that all these 'Mechs are in current regular service during the succession wars while many of them actually disappeared during the first or second or were introduced during the fourth.
- The sheets give many variants with no background... and these variants are not discussed in the TRO either! So you have these 'Mechs and have strictly no information about them, I had to go to sarna for that even though I bought a companion book dedicated to this purpose.
- The eras indications on the sheets makes no sense, all the baseline variants (such as STK-3F) are indicated to be in "Star League" era even though they are in common usage during the succession wars. For my first unit roster, I only selected variants with the "succession wars" era indication (after all... that was the era I was playing in : so I only selected 'Mechs with this indicator) and was surprised that none of the iconic "standard" versions of the "Armored Combat" sheets were available in that regard (Catapult C1, Locust 1V... all of these are noted to be "Star League" era 'Mechs and the "succession wars" variants are often actually more powerful! To the beginner, who's not given any explanation, this is a severe challenge). It is effectively impossible to know, with these era indications, which 'Mechs variants are actually available during the succession wars (a bit unforeseen for a product called "the succession wars record sheets").
- After all the effort taken to present a new face to the world with new miniatures, most of the illustrations were quite jarring... there actually was quite some laughter among my friends when I presented them the product. The older art is not at current games' level.
But I see a great potential, while there may be some bumps on the road, it seems the game is at least trying to present a coherent front to newcomers. Let us hope future material will be better edited.
Spirit and community
Let's finish on an unambiguously positive note : while I saw a lot of warning about the so-called "horrible neckbeards" composing the BattleTech commnity who reportedly "hated change and newcomers" I found the exact reverse : many posts genuinely trying to help the beginners navigating a complicated brand, much patience in answering the same old questions ("what is that story about harmony gold?") and much dedication to the game. Where reluctance to progress was decried, I saw attachment to a solid, proven, game system and resistance to fashion dictatorship, where aggressive towards the young generation was called out, I just saw an unwillingness to suffer the fool.
Going further, I think the game itself has the right attitude. In other games' fora I saw things like "1000 pts is a hard limit, a 1001 pts army is illegal" or "only official minis, they must be strictly WYSIWYG and thoroughly painted", in comparison, this game has a refreshingly relaxed attitude "BVs are an indication, just play the way you like", "you can play with cardboard counters if you want".
All in all, I'm very happy to have started playing and only regretting not to have done so earlier and am curious to see what you, veteran players, think of my take on your hobby.