What kind of Battletech player are you

[Gray_Noton_4lfe]

There are many many, many preferred ways people like to enjoy Battletech. How do you enjoy it?

[klarg1]

I’m not really a TacOps maximalist, but I like to include conventional forces and the occasional optional rule or environmental condition.

I could probable have picked another 2-3 boxes given the opportunity.  (I chose 3)

[thedancingjoker]

Only allowing 2 options seems to be pretty limiting, I was originally trying 6.  Also this really should have an option for novels / lore and video games, as for years those were the primary way I engaged with the hobby, and frankly by hours spent I spend far more time on reading fiction than I do playing.

[Gray_Noton_4lfe]

Only allowing 2 options seems to be pretty limiting, I was originally trying 6.  Also this really should have an option for novels / lore and video games, as for years those were the primary way I engaged with the hobby, and frankly by hours spent I spend far more time on reading fiction than I do playing.

Added!

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I like standard Battletech more than any of the spinoff games.  Usually, floating crits is the only optional rule my group plays with, but we also mix in a fair amount of Advanced tech in the games.

[Maingunnery]

What about designer? I make more fan designs than I actually have time to play with.

[SteelRaven]

Only allowed 3? Standard TW, AS, AToW, Destiny, MWO, frequently talk lore, was try my hand at art until I got burned out.

[tassa_kay]

Even though it's defunct now, I feel like the exclusion of MWDA is a glaring omission here. It carried the franchise for a while there.

[ActionButler]

I’m going to go Alpha Strike (the whole reason I came back to Battletech), mini painting (always my favorite part of the hobby), and other (which, for me, is a stand in for “BT-related board games both published by CGL and thrown together by myself for kicks and giggles”).

[Aotrs Commander]

Other:

I am a dirty house-ruler who predominatly uses mechs, and hacks out Bt's shooting and damage system (with mods to AC damage) and pastes it inelegantly on Maneouvre Group's round sequence, and butchers 2D6 for shooting and piloting checks in lieu of using a D20 without changing all but a couple of modifiers. (And further compounding the heresey with remorseless pictorial evidence and aggrevated verbostiy in the Fan Rules section)

Who plays mostly solo, but that's more because I only GET to play solo games infrequently at home (as - as of time of writing - Dad is playing moderns in the mancave with his mate); and at shows is pretty much liable to have to put on games with my own toys, not BattleTech's, since that is like my job and such.

A dirty house-ruler who WILL go to the extent of followig instructons on how to hack open MegaMek to implement said damage changes, and go through 2946 mech files (corresponding to all mechs owned) and check stuff and manually set pictures and so forth and painstakingly make subvariants with all guns forwards.

I am nothing if not thorough in being a dirty house-ruler.


(And if you think BT has it bad, it gets away LIGHTLY; consider poor D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1, which get uncerimoniously hacked up and pasted together (with the odd gibbet of 4E and 5E and even PF2) to the tune of about 2000-pages of house-rules...)



I also play HBS BT and MW 5 (solo). (I also have played MW3 a moderate amount, never managed to finish MechCommander 1, despite it having the best cut-scene intro of any game ever (fight me) but has given MechCommander 2 the gold seal of Have Played More Than Twice, which places it is such esteemed company as DungeonKeeper 1, PlaneScape Torment, TIE Fighter, Sword of the Stars and Command and Conquer (1, 2, RA 1,2 and Generals). And I played MW4 a bit when a mate lent me it fo playing co-op.)

[Sartris]

Classic with a dash of alpha strike. There are probably 10-15 advanced rules I play with

[Gray_Noton_4lfe]

Even though it's defunct now, I feel like the exclusion of MWDA is a glaring omission here. It carried the franchise for a while there.

It's been added! Sorry, totally forgot about that. I changed Mechwarrior and older editions to all Mechwarrior play

[House Davie Merc]

I hate to pick apart the poll but I think there's a HUGE gap between answers 2 and 3 where a lot of players sit.

We play TW but usually only ground units for combined arms. We don't add a lot of advanced rules.
Usually just artillery and occasionally we add other rules to match the scenario.

A surprising amount of players still treat Aerospace as a separate entity that's only
included if all players agree upon it.
Answer #2 is TW with as many advanced rules as possible.
Answer #3 is TW kept super simple.

We're more like-All TW ground units available,on-board artillery available, no Aerospace without prior knowledge,
and some advanced rules for the scenario.
That's how I've seen it played at most of  the FLGSs I've been to.

[GRUD]

Went with "Other", because I'm more of a Collector than Player these days.   

I also Love reading the fiction, whether the novels, anthologies, or short stories in Shrapnel.  Or the short stories in the Original Shrapnel.   


If you can, might want to add "Playing the various computer games", since some people got into BT from MC 1, MC 2, MW 1-5, MWO, or even the 2 Mech Assault games.

[thedancingjoker]

I still play MW 4 more often than 5 / MWO.

[DEZOAT]

Went with "Other", because I'm more of a Collector than Player these days.   

I also Love reading the fiction, whether the novels, anthologies, or short stories in Shrapnel.  Or the short stories in the Original Shrapnel.   


If you can, might want to add "Playing the various computer games", since some people got into BT from MC 1, MC 2, MW 1-5, MWO, or even the 2 Mech Assault games.

Well I voted. I would say that GRUD some me up as well in this.

[House Davie Merc]

Went with "Other", because I'm more of a Collector than Player these days.   

This is a very valid point. A lot of people are collectors.

I've started to turn into more of a collector recently.

At some point I looked at what I had and realized all of the things I wanted to get but didn't
because of IRL issues over the years.
At this point I'm not just buying pretty much any new official miniatures, but I've started to fill
in the gaps and missing items I didn't get from years past.
I pretty much use the new stuff for game play while I'm building my own museum at home.

There's only a few items left on my museum list-and their pretty rare these days.

[I am Belch II]

I can click on about 6 or 7 of those no problem.

[VanVelding]

Total Warfare with just a few additional/house rules to smooth things out.
I enjoy the lore to an extent.
But I really, really like the Battletech isometric game. It's a slick adaptation of the rules and every criticism I have of it boils down to it not having a budget of infinite money.

[spotH3D]

While I didn't pick other myself, I am a Megamek enjoyed as well.

[Daemion]

I probably should have gone with Other for the TW part because there were changes between Total Warfare and the BattleTech Master Rules that didn't fit a campaign which I'd started under BMR rules.  But, like someone else pointed out, I echo: I'm a house-ruler that likes the core game, but has tweaked things for fun.  A big for-instance is using the Maximum Tech Advanced Abilities for crews and pilots as a basis for even more abilities to test as one-off rule mods to see if I and my group like a tweak.  It also allows for customizing personal pilots and bosses without having to go to the RPG.

But, another thing I am, on top of that, is a story-based campaign player.  I've long since given up on simple throw-down games.  The draw of watching a pool of pilots/crews improve over a series of missions and series of battles/games in a single mission is what really keeps me coming back. This also stems from being a lore enthusiast.  The extravagant history of the BTU is a great backdrop and framework to build a campaign in. 

Of course, I'm also into the window dressing, so painting and modding minis, and the occasional terrain piece is also a big part of this hobby for me, too.

But, I also have a guilty little secret:  Having grown up watching Doctor Who and the D&D Cartoon and other like shows where people get transported to another world, I have a bit of a cross-over desire, and sometimes some of the minis I get will be from other settings that I try to rope into a BT encounter, or find a way to get a particular BT force into an encounter in that setting.  That means scale is kinda important to me when I look at buying things.  If I can't use it with either standard wargaming scale BT Figures, it at least needs to work with my Map Scale kit bashes or the 1/500 scale BattleForce minis. 

Edit: I often give lots of fun things a pass because of the scale and multi-purpose thing.  Like 3.5 inch G I Joe or similar action figures.  Until I have a Warhammer WHM-6R model at scale for that, I can't justify the space for more than what few I've picked out to keep.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I'm mostly here for the fiction.  I don't get a lot of chances to play the tabletop game; if I do, it's usually either straight-up TW or Alpha Strike with few extras.  But if I play MegaMek, I use a fair number of optional rules.

[SteelRaven]

I still play MW 4 more often than 5 / MWO.

MW 4 is arguably still the better game. I honestly hope Microsoft will unclench in the near future to allow someone like Night Dive give us another release of the game.

[Wrangler]

I'm a jack of all trades sort of player, I like dabling with different types of play.
I have the most enthusiastic appeal towards the lore, however I do like trying the new things and see how they work. Nowadays I usually play MegaMek since people who I play with are moved away.

I have an affinity for fanfiction since that seems to be more coming out on many levels. Makes it interesting twists.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

MW 4 is arguably still the better game. I honestly hope Microsoft will unclench in the near future to allow someone like Night Dive give us another release of the game.

MW 5 is honestly a bit on the boring side, sadly.

[SteelRaven]

MW 5 is honestly a bit on the boring side, sadly.

Fan mods help but the wave of attacks in MW5 is no where near the scripted encounters in MW4. I know PGI tried doing RNG missions but in the end, it just feels like the same 4 missions on repeat.

[Geg]

I feel like there is a lot of ground between super simple and very complex.

I hate to pick apart the poll but I think there's a HUGE gap between answers 2 and 3 where a lot of players sit.

We play TW but usually only ground units for combined arms. We don't add a lot of advanced rules.
Usually just artillery and occasionally we add other rules to match the scenario.

A surprising amount of players still treat Aerospace as a separate entity that's only
included if all players agree upon it.
Answer #2 is TW with as many advanced rules as possible.
Answer #3 is TW kept super simple.

We're more like-All TW ground units available,on-board artillery available, no Aerospace without prior knowledge,
and some advanced rules for the scenario.
That's how I've seen it played at most of  the FLGSs I've been to.

Agreed.   I think calling it simple and advanced also rather misses the point of a lot of these rules.

[beachhead1985]

The kind who always loses.

If I have a hunchback; I'll hit with one or both medium lasers every turn and sewer the AC/20 every. Single. Time.

If I get a back shot, I will exclusively miss or hit the best armoured arms and legs you have left.

If there is a PS roll, I'll fail it.

If I get a crit, fear for your MGs and small lasers; I'm coming for them.

[Prospernia]

Dunno; I like the House-Books and TRO: 3026 was my first Battletech book.  More of a Battletech RPG'er.

[JadeHellbringer]

I rarely get a chance to play anymore, but keep up on the fiction (not a big fan of the IlClan era, I tend to stay in my 3039-3080 timeframe), and regularly paint as a way to relax. (Current workbench consists of a Blue Star Irregulars Grasshopper, tundra-camo Kodiak, and a Griffin that was going to be bright green but may need a new plan)

[Pat Payne]

I play Alpha Strike almost exclusively these days (nothing against TW/Classic, but while I love the granularity of that system, it takes quite a bit of time and can be complex, especially for new or impatient players) both on hexes and hexless. But due to just finding time to play (real life, amirite?) and availability of other players, I spend more "Battletech time" painting minis and making up new homebrew merc units.

[Cannonshop]

'other' in my case means "a very bad player who has terrible ideas and worse dice luck."

[MarauderD]

I found it hard to choose only 3.  Currently, I play Alpha Strike like 3 or 4 times a year, and play Classic maybe once  or twice a year.  Keeping up with the lore has been something I've done on and off since the late 1987 or so when I was 12 years old.  The Lore definitely kept me around these long years.  So I picked those three.

But on a day to day basis, I paint the new CGL plastic minis on weekend mornings before my wife and kids wake up.  Probably an hour on Saturday and Sunday mornings.  So I spend more time doing that than anything else--and yet it isn't what 'kept me in the game' but it has become 'what keeps me sane' in my day to day life.

Life is weird that way, eh?

[Charistoph]

My favorite gameplay lately is our campaigns, most of which is prosecuted in Total Warfare's rules with a lot of Advanced Optional Rules.

Still, I have fun with one-offs and Alpha Strike gameplay, too.  We just did an Easter Egg Hunt with Alpha Strike rules.  A lot of fun, particularly for group brawls.

[Brym]

I'm a basic Total Warfare player because I've been able to find a buddy or two to regularly play that way in the last year or so.  Prior to that I was playing Destiny/Alpha Strike with my kids (we've since moved on to D&D) or Alpha Strike with my own solo rules (which I abandoned when Aces was announced / when I started getting regular games of TW).

I think my ideal way to play would be to have a regular game night where people would bring lists for Alpha Strike and play a few games, but that just doesn't exist near me.  My LGS only consistently runs Magic, with sporadic other card games and Warhammer when there is enough interest.  It doesn't carry Battletech.  Other nearby game stores are similarly Magic or Warhammer focused.  I've got one that's 45-60 minutes away that runs a weekly X-Wing night, and another 60-90 minutes away that does a monthly TW Battletech event.

Maybe at some point I'll convince the guy I've been playing TW with most recently to try Alpha Strike, and if he gets into it, I can talk to the LGS about stocking Battletech and running a monthly AS event.

[Gladius-XC]

I’ve been able to play Alpha Strike with my son at least a couple of times a month, which has been a lot of fun. I’m also a huge fan of the lore. More than any of that though, I’m a painter.  I love spending an hour or two just working on a miniature, seeing the vision in my head become real.

[butchbird]

Interesting, altough expected since this is the BT forum which's format probably suits a certain kind of BT enthusiast, that the lore option is leading the poll.

Didn't know which TW option to take. Playing a half dozen games a year and often having new players (heck, even my core has changed in the last year, although this time it should be locked for a fair deal of time, I hope) means you have to keep it super simple...but we always wish we could delve further. Also, to me, painting the miniatures is part of the experience of playing CBT, don't really count it as "another aspect", but then that's just my view on wargames using miniatures.

As an aside but connected, having at the same time one of my ex-regular players being too taken with other things to play and having two complete newbies (well, they're getting better) in my core all at the same time made me fully realize this: CBT is actually a skill. Its something you hone, its something that dulls whithout use, its something your oddly proud of as you master the basics and manage to delve further all the way to "intermediate" rules. Found it kind of neat when they made me light up on this.

Play video games in single player, guess that's "other"? I'd guess that's what others consider, hence why "other" is ahead of MWO.

[Nerroth]

My main interaction with this IP has been through sourcebooks and fiction, though I finally got around to playing HareBrainedSchemes' BattleTech once I got a device capable of actually running it properly.

(Since there is no separate option for the HBS BT game, I placed it under "Other".)

I do collect PDFs of the various rulebooks (for Alpha Strike, Total Warfare, etc.) and not too long ago got a copy of the AS Boxed Set - but I haven't had a chance to properly play any of the former, and still need to get around to actually painting the minis from the latter properly. So I don't feel like either would be enough to warrant any of the (non-Lore and non-Other) other options listed above.

[Cannon_Fodder]

It's hard for me to play standard BattleTech anymore. I think I will always be a 2D10 Heretic.

[Aotrs Commander]

It's hard for me to play standard BattleTech anymore. I think I will always be a 2D10 Heretic.

Pfft, I'm worse, I use a D20...

[S2pidiT]

I selected Other, History/Lore, and Alpha Strike.

I collect minis, but most of them are crying out for paint, or at least primer... But my primary interactions with BattleTech are playing the video games (HBS BT, MW5, and MegaMek), reading the fiction, and writing lyrics. The writing often means I'm going through books I've got, or reading on Sarna.

When I play BattleTech the tabletop game, I primarily play Alpha Strike. My oldest likes to play with me, which is nice because otherwise I wouldn't really be able to play right now. I'm sure we do some stuff wrong, but we still have a good time of it.

[GoGo Yubari]

In a way, I consider myself a full spectrum Battletech enthusiast, so I'm not limited by principle. Practically though, the focus tends to narrow as life also includes other stuff to pursue, so it's mainly about taking part as a lore enthusiast and computer gamer. My other = MegaMek btw, which should have deserved it's own tab!

[klarg1]

It's hard for me to play standard BattleTech anymore. I think I will always be a 2D10 Heretic.

Pfft, I'm worse, I use a D20...

I propose that we team up and construct a system based around 1d12+1d8 for maximum uniqueness.

[ActionButler]

It's hard for me to play standard BattleTech anymore. I think I will always be a 2D10 Heretic.

Pfft, I'm worse, I use a D20...

I propose that we team up and construct a system based around 1d12+1d8 for maximum uniqueness.

*laughs in using the Memoir 44 dice and board to play Alpha Strike*

[Wrangler]

I rarely get a chance to play anymore, but keep up on the fiction (not a big fan of the IlClan era, I tend to stay in my 3039-3080 timeframe), and regularly paint as a way to relax. (Current workbench consists of a Blue Star Irregulars Grasshopper, tundra-camo Kodiak, and a Griffin that was going to be bright green but may need a new plan)

I think you should try finding megamek group to join.

[I am Belch II]

Played a lot more AS lately but not in the competitive games. I do like all the new rules in TW, but also love a very easy basic rules game. I love the history and lore for the game. I love the collection of it too. I have lots of Battletech product and want more and cant wait for more to come out.

[Gray_Noton_4lfe]

I love adding advance rules to my games to give them depth

[Gray_Noton_4lfe]

BattleForce added

[Orion]

I will happily use vehicles.  Infantry is reluctantly used, and only put on the board to give the others something easy to kill when I run the OpFor.  I've never used aerospace or artillery.  I can be happy with the intro box set and nothing more.

[Gray_Noton_4lfe]

Is BattleForce still played?

[Wrangler]

Is BattleForce still played?

I think so, you could ask on sarna.net discord server or Catalyst one.  You may pickup attention of more people.

[willydstyle]

I like to play with Total Warfare, and have used all unit types other than aerospace, which I honestly don't have that much interest in.

I'm down with advanced rules/tech as long as they are discussed ahead of time so everyone has an even playing field. If my opponent is going to try to win by spamming off-board arty or field guns without giving me the appropriate opportunity to design counter-play into my list it just doesn't feel like a fun fight to me.

And that's mostly what I want to do with battletech: have a fun fight where victory is determined by the chaos of the dice rolls and the tactics of the players, not because one player decided to bring 30 savannah masters.

I prefer hex maps over 3d terrain, and I like the unambiguous nature of the line of sight rules on hex maps.

With that in mind, I like to agree on a BV limit, a rules level (most commonly "Total Warfare only" and a force size limit with my opponent before we set up a game.

I would *also* love to start picking mapsheets and scenario before forces are drawn up so both players can pick their forces based on the terrain and the objectives, but that's not very normalized yet amongst the people I tend to play with.

[Gray_Noton_4lfe]

I like to play with Total Warfare, and have used all unit types other than aerospace, which I honestly don't have that much interest in.

I'm down with advanced rules/tech as long as they are discussed ahead of time so everyone has an even playing field. If my opponent is going to try to win by spamming off-board arty or field guns without giving me the appropriate opportunity to design counter-play into my list it just doesn't feel like a fun fight to me.

And that's mostly what I want to do with battletech: have a fun fight where victory is determined by the chaos of the dice rolls and the tactics of the players, not because one player decided to bring 30 savannah masters.

I prefer hex maps over 3d terrain, and I like the unambiguous nature of the line of sight rules on hex maps.

With that in mind, I like to agree on a BV limit, a rules level (most commonly "Total Warfare only" and a force size limit with my opponent before we set up a game.

I would *also* love to start picking mapsheets and scenario before forces are drawn up so both players can pick their forces based on the terrain and the objectives, but that's not very normalized yet amongst the people I tend to play with.

Well put, I agree.