Battletech

[Anery]

Wouldn't you have to get within 2-3 tiles to get inside the minimum distance? most Clan stuff seems to have no minimum engagement...at least thats what I think n/a means

[Pnut]

Most Clan stuff seems to have no minimum engagement...at least thats what I think n/a means

It looks that way according to this, although surprisingly one of the few things that does is a shotgun

[Dog Pants]

Might suffer from accuracy issues at short range maybe? I don't actually know the rules

[Pnut]

Neither do I mate. I keep meaning to learn them but find it really difficult reading stuff like that from a monitor.

[Dog Pants]

I've managed to source most of the mechs from total wargamer but I can't find the Turkina. Iron wind want to charge me $14.75 plus P&P and the cost of a base, which is a bit steep.

Last night I went through my unit list and managed to find all but two between Total Wargamer, Iron Wind, and Ral Partha. The latter are the retailers for Europe so loads are on there, including the Turkina. They don't have every variant, obviously, but I think most people would forgive you for not having the exact loadout on the model (this isn't Games Workshop).

[Pnut]

Anery, or anyone else for that matter, I have put all the sourcebooks for this onto dropbox. If you would like them, then give me a shout and I will get you access.

[Dog Pants]

Creating a unit has proven to be quite tricky, given the huge amount of information available on Battletech. Here's a quick guide on how I did it (which took me about two weeks, but should hopefully take anyone else only a few hours);

1. Choose An Era
Battletech has developed its world as the game has been passed around and improved. Roughly they are;

* Succession War (2781- 3049) - The traditional, pre-Clan setting. The current Introductory and 25th Anniversary editions are set here, as are the old games up to 3rd Edition and the Mechwarrior 3 videogame.
* Clan Invasion (3050-3061) - Introduced during Battletech 3rd Ed, but mainly used in 4th Ed. The Mechwarrior 2 and MechCommander videogames are based here.
* Civil War (3062-3067) - A later Classic Battletech era, as well as Mechwarrior 4 and MechCommander 2 videogames. Anery and I are playing in 3064 as it has a nice mix of IS and Clan infighting.
* Jihad (3068-3085) - A fairly new setting created since the latest boxed sets were released, and about as late as the game goes. The new Word of Blake mechs are quite nice.

2. Choose A Faction
They all fight each other in pretty much all the settings, but availability of all but the main Inner Sphere houses vary by setting. I rolled mine from the Inner Sphere at random.

Inner Sphere:
Free Worlds League (House Marik) - Analogous to the British Empire, available in all eras but dissolved after the Jihad.
Federated Suns (House Davion) - Similar to a Cold War NATO faction, available apart from Clan era where they merge into the Federated Commonwealth.
Draconis Combine (House Kurita) - Pretty much the Japanese, and go-to bad guys in every era
Lyran Commonwealth (House Steiner) - A German faction, available apart from Clan era where they merge into the Federated Commonwealth.
Capellan Confederation (House Liao ) - Another bad guy faction based on Cold War Russia/China, available in all eras. Bizarrely they also have Scottish units.
Federated Commonwealth (House Steiner-Davion) - Created from the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth, available during Clan Invasion era.

Clans:
There are loads of clans (23 in fact), some of whom get eaten by other clans. Check out the Wiki for the more obscure ones. Listed here are the ones which took part in the Clan Invasion, as they tend to be the ones who deal with the IS houses the most.
Diamond Shark - A liberal, mercantile clan which stays neutral as much as possible with the other clans.
Ghost Bear - A powerful and conservative clan. Available up to Civil War where they become the Ghost Bear Dominion after moving to the Inner Sphere and merging with the minor faction the Free Rasalhague Republic.
Jade Falcon - An strict, traditionalist Oriental-style clan with an aggressive streak.
Nova Cat - A clan with heavily mystical traditions, Nova Cat move to within (and ally with) the Draconis Combine during the Civil War period after being forced out of Clan space.
Smoke Jaguar - Violent and aggressive, even by Clan standards, Smoke Jaguar were destroyed at the end of the Clan Invasion so are available only during that period.
Steel Viper - A brutal, inward looking clan with a crusader mentality.
Wolf - An adaptable, informal clan who split into two factions after the Clan Invasion, with Wolf-in-Exile being sympathetic toward the Inner Sphere, eventually fleeing there, and Wolf remaining warlike and aggressive.

There are loads of other minor factions and mercenary units, depending on era. A list of all available factions per era is on the Wiki here.

3. Choose Your Mechs
When you know your era and faction, you can narrow down a list of available Mechs to choose from. The official list of Mechs and their use can be found on the Master Unit List. Go there and felcher the unit list by era and faction, remembering to include IS General for Inner Sphere houses, and IS Clan General for Clan Invasion participant Clans. The list also includes other units, so set Battlemech in the Types felcher if you don't want those. Battles are fought based on Battle Value, or BV2, as a points scale. Bear in mind that an opponent will have the same amount, so picking all the biggest mechs isn't necessarily a good idea. Choosing a mix to allow a few different round values starting from around 5000 is probably a good idea.

Optionally, if you're inclined to attempt to inject some character into your horse as I have done, you can create a unit. It takes some research to work out which ones are appropriate for the time period, but the wiki is a good source of information and Camo Specs Online is a handy (and canon) source of images and fluff about lots of units. Mechs are organised into Lances of four for IS, or Stars of five for Clans. Usually they are of mixed models and classes and are roughly classified by the average weight - Light, Medium, Heavy or Assault. Above that there are three lances to a company, again classified by the weights of their lances, and three companies to a battalion. Battletech units are most commonly named at regimental level, consisting of three battalions. Obviously unless you have a lot of money and free time you're only going to choose a few lances. Clans have a more exotic company level structure based on combined horses and astronomical bodies, but there are 2-3 stars to a company equivalent and 2-5 of those to a Cluster, which is roughly battalion size. A Galaxy is the named unit level, made of 2-5 Clusters, and is structurally equivalent to an IS regiment.

[Dog Pants]

Oh, I forgot a bit which is actually pretty handy but I only found something resembling canon for after I made the last post. The latest Classic Battletech MRB gives a good indication of the structures of Lances/Stars and Companies/Binaries/Trinaries. Inner Sphere organisation is relatively simple, with four mechs to a Lance, which is the equivalent of a platoon, three Lances to a Company, and three Companies to a Battalion. Clans have Stars of five mechs at Platoon level, while their Company equivalent is a Binary of two Stars or a Trinary of three. Often Clan horses supplement Stars, Binaries, and Trinaries with Elementals, but we won't worry about that here. Above Bi/Trinary level is a Cluster, which is the equivalent of a Battalion from an organisation perspective, but as it can consist of anywhere between two and five binaries or trinaries the exact composition can vary between 20 and 135 mechs. Finally, on top of these units are the supplementaries such as a Battalion HQ Lance or Battalion Recon Lance for Inner Sphere horses. These vary by unit and house, and Clan units tend to include specialist Stars within the Binaries and Trinaries.

Units at Lance/Star and Company/Binary level are categorised by weight class based on the average. Clan doctrine dictates that Stars are composed of mechs with similar roles and speeds, uniformity that reduces the risk of a weak link, while Inner Sphere horses mix and match Lances a lot more due to limited availability of any given model of Mech.

Lance
Light
4x Light
3x Light, 1x Medium
2x Light, 2x Medium
2x Light, 1x Medium, 1xHeavy

Medium
1x Light, 3xMedium
1x Light, 2x Medium, 1x Heavy
4x Medium
3x Medium, 1x Heavy

Heavy
2x Medium, 1x Heavy
1x Medium, 3x Heavy
4x heavy
1x Medium, 2x Heavy, 1x Assault

Assault
1x Medium, 1x Heavy, 2x Assault
3x Heavy, 1x Assault
2x Heavy, 2x Assault
1x Heavy, 3x Assault

Star
Light
5x Light
4x Light, 1x Medium
3x Light, 2x Medium
2x Light, 2x Medium, 1x Heavy

Medium
1x Light, 4x Medium
5x Medium
4x Medium, 1x Heavy
3x Medium, 2x Heavy

Heavy
2x Medium, 3x Heavy
1x Medium, 4x Heavy
5x Heavy
1x Medium, 3x Heavy, 1x Assault

Assault
1x Medium, 2x Heavy, 2x Assault
4x Heavy, 1x Assault
3x Heavy, 2x Assault
2x Heavy, 3x Assault

Company
Light
2x Light Lances, 1x Medium Lance
2x Light Lances, 1x Heavy Lance

Medium
1x Light Lance, 1x Medium Lance, 1x Heavy Lance

Heavy
1x Light Lance, 1x Heavy Lance, 1x Assault Lance
1x Medium Lance, 1x Heavy Lance, 1x Assault Lance

Assault
2x Heavy Lance, 1x Assault Lance

I haven't found anything official on the composition of Binaries, Trinaries, Battalions, or Clusters, but given the Lance, Star, and Company composition it should be reasonably simple to work out. Or just make it up.

[Dog Pants]

Got round to taking a picture of my 'mechs. From left to right:

The Wolverine is unmodified, but it comes in five parts so it's pretty configurable to begin with.
The Kintaro has had its 'skirt' removed and the hips and crotch remodelled to make them look more substantive, and the right arm repositioned slightly to line up with the head.
The Daikyu has had both arms remodelled at the shoulders to adjust the positioning, and the sword arm at the elbow too to straighten it.
The No-Dachi is unmodified.



The marker idea didn't work so well as the non-porous paint caused the ink to spread so the logos looked blurry. Other than that I'm fairly happy. I've got to paint the cockpit windows and metal bits with gloss varnish still, but it hasn't arrived yet.

[Pnut]

Nice job mate

[Grimmie]

All the numbers and guff don't mean much to me, but that's a pretty neat paint job!

[buzzmong]

I like the detail you've got on the bases there Doggers, what's your technique?

When I was doing 40k ones, I had a technique of:
1) Apply a base colour if needed/fits with style.
2) Apply PVA glue to top of base, sprinkle sand on heavily and then when dry, paint over the sand with a relevant colour to seal it and lock it down.
3) Apply details. Darker colour wash to start to fill in the troughs, then dry brush with a lighter colour to do highlights.
4) Apply figurine, normally with superglue. Obviously, depending on figure, you may have had to been a bit selective with PVA application on step 2, but I found superglue worked fine for sticking stuff ontop of the sand/paint covering.
5) Further detail with small pieces by adding rocks, spare helmets, guns/knives from other races, lichen etc...

[Dog Pants]

It actually looks better in the picture than it does in real life, but I did put a bit of effort into it;

1. Battletech miniatures come with irregular shaped metal bases, so I glued them to some plastic hex bases which have rimmed edges.
2. I filled around the original bases to fill the hexes with modelling putty, and rolled scrunched up foil over them for texture.
3. Once the miniatures were painted I gave them a brown base, wash, and two progressively lighter drybrushes. I also did the edges in black. I prefer an outline to modelled sides.
4. Gave the painted bases a coat of watered down PVA glue and dumped some clumpy static grass on them, then tapped off all the excess.

Previously I would have painted the bases green and dipped the whole base in the grass for a dense coat, but after reading a few bits on Camo Specs Online I decided to go for a more worn look. I also wanted a coat of sand under the grass, but I didn't have any (some is incoming now for the next set). I had a few putty rocks I could have used, but I'm not really a fan of fussy bases so I decided not to.

[HereComesPete]

Good job pants, given how spindly some of the models look the camo has fleshed them out nicely and like 'mong says, the base works really well. Too complicated and they don't offer a range of terrain. These offer savannah, grassland, light forest and at a pinch urban scrub, so they'll fit more playing boards and as static pieces the bases don't detract from the model on top of them.

I'm quite a fan of not varnish metallics, using shading, white highlights for false light source and even a bit of trompe l'oeil to simulate reflective surfaces. It's an absolute pig to do though so only special models get that kind of juicing up.

[Dog Pants]

Is that yours Pete? If so I'm very impressed.

[HereComesPete]

Off the interwebs, picked to show the non-gloss metallics and light source. I did my crisis suits with this method, the line troops got bulk painted, the tanks got dry brushed to lazily horse shadowing. My pride and joy was a purple and grey crisis suit outfitted similarly to the one in the picture with a few section washes, some ork blood using layers of green bic ink and white paint which took days to dry, blue highlights for a light source and a diorama base landing on the ork and squishing it. Got me through a few rounds of golden demon. Some fucker nicked it.

I'm tempted to go hunting for some inquisitor models and get brushed up (lol see wot I did there) again so I can get one of those painted up.

[Dog Pants]

I've managed to source most of the mechs from total wargamer

Just a head's up on Total Wargamer for anyone buying mechs. I put in an order five weeks ago, they took the money within hours. Three weeks ago I asked for an update and received a one-line response about suppliers and how I should have my order within the week. Two weeks ago I asked where my order was again, and a few days later got a dispatch notice minus one item. Last week I asked where the last item was, and asked for a refund if they couldn't deliver within the week. I got no response. So I've cancelled my order and gone to Ral Partha. It's 10% more expensive, but at least you get your stuff.

[Dog Pants]

Several years later I've painted my Company HQ lance. Unfortunately all of the photos I took were blurry and shite, and I didn't notice until I'd put all the mechs away and downloaded the pictures. I'll try to get them again, in better light and possibly with a tripod.

[Dog Pants]

Here we go. No mods on these, they're more recent models and are in lots of pieces. Took ages to glue together.



I'll be sticking with the green scheme for the rest of the regiment in theory, although there's only two models left and they're half of the battalion recon detachment, so I might do yet another different camo on those. I figured that since the Battalion HQ was special I'd have them stand out. The mechs, from left to right, are: Atlas AS7-C, Avatar AV1-OD, Black Hawk-KU BHKU-O, Naginata NG-C3A.

Couple of differences from the heavy lance I painted last time. I've picked out the lines in tiny black marker, which I think seems to have worked pretty well. I've also highlighted them by edging rather than drybrushing, which might have looked quite chalky on the light grey base. I painted the Kurita and unit logos, and despite being fucking tricky and not great close up, they still look better than when I tried to use marker. They all bear all three logos but most can't be seen from this angle - the sunburst on the shoulder of the Naginata is the unit insignia of the Deiron Regulars, the orange and black fly on the lower leg of the Atlas is the regimental insignia of the 45th. I gave the cockpit windows and laser lenses a coat of gloss varnish after the main matte coat to make them shine a bit more, and I used a green base colour for the bases, because I forgot that I used brown last time. I prefer the brown.

[Pnut]

Very nice mate, I need to pull my finger out and do some painting soon.