the1gofer
04/19/15 01:43 AM
68.104.165.10
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Back in the day (90s) I used to play I guess what I gather is now called Classic. Now that I am thinking about getting back into it, their are tons of different options. I've always been partial to the clans during the invasion. Where should I start? From what i gather of Alpha Strike it seems like a watered down version of what I played before, but I can't really get alot of details from the reviews on sites like Amazon.
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wolf_lord_30
04/19/15 08:28 AM
166.137.244.83
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I would start with getting the rules, which are in Total Warfare. You will be able to find more info at bg.battletech.com
Alot of good info on that site if you haven't been there before.
Or, just do what I do, and that is collect the old FASA sets. You can find those on eBay. There are differences between the old battletech game and the new classic battletech but they are similar. Don't get me wrong, the Catalyst stuff is nice and I'm glad they picked up Battletech, but I like to collect what was familiar to me. One day I will actually own Catalyst products.
Lastly you need to find people to play with. If you have a gaming group, great. If not check your local gaming store to see if anyone plays. If those don't work, find a community that plays MegaMek. It's very similar to battletech, uses Total Warfare rules, along with TacOps and StratOps, and is totally free to download.
Go to megamek.info to download MegaMek.
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Drasnighta
04/19/15 10:43 AM
198.53.98.65
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Total Warfare is the most "Up to Date" version of Classic Battle Tech as it was. Aerotech and Citytech are essentially integrated into that one book.
The cost for that integration is the removal of BattleMech construction rules, which are now in a separate Tome, the TechManual.
Record Sheets, Technical Readouts, 99% of them are still as useful and compatible as they were previously, as what rules did change in Total Warfare were minor (but powerful, such as Partial Cover).
The Total Warfare Introductory Box Set also has a swath of plastic miniatures to get you straight back into it - they're essentially plastic versions of the metal ones, and represent all of the Cardboard minis you might have gotten in the Classic 3rd Edition Box.
I personally havn't touched Alpha Strike yet, but Alpha Strike does report to be a quicker, more streamlined way to play the game on a regular board rather than a Hex-Map - but as I said, I havn't touched it or looked at it yet, so I'm going on my own subjective rumour there.
CEO Heretic BattleMechs.
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Cray
04/19/15 01:49 PM
67.8.171.23
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Quote:
the1gofer writes:
Back in the day (90s) I used to play I guess what I gather is now called Classic. Now that I am thinking about getting back into it, their are tons of different options. I've always been partial to the clans during the invasion. Where should I start? From what i gather of Alpha Strike it seems like a watered down version of what I played before, but I can't really get alot of details from the reviews on sites like Amazon.
Alpha Strike is a derivative of what used to be called "Battle Force" in the 1980s and 1990s. It is intended to allow much faster play with larger numbers of units than typical BT.
The BattleTech board game you're familiar with, the "classic" game is covered by two books, "Total Warfare" (game play) and "Tech Manual" (construction). Not much has changed - pretty much any 'Mech design you have from the 1980s or 1990s will work in the current rules. There's been tweaks to handling partial cover and "cluster" weapons (like LRMs and SRMs), but otherwise you won't find much changed.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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the1gofer
04/19/15 02:43 PM
68.104.165.10
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so is alpha strike the more popular way to go? Assuming I can find people to play with I guess it would be best to do whatever they do.
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Drasnighta
04/19/15 07:54 PM
198.53.98.65
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Quote:
Cray writes:
Alpha Strike is a derivative of what used to be called "Battle Force" in the 1980s and 1990s. It is intended to allow much faster play with larger numbers of units than typical BT.
The BattleTech board game you're familiar with, the "classic" game is covered by two books, "Total Warfare" (game play) and "Tech Manual" (construction). Not much has changed - pretty much any 'Mech design you have from the 1980s or 1990s will work in the current rules. There's been tweaks to handling partial cover and "cluster" weapons (like LRMs and SRMs), but otherwise you won't find much changed.
I read the back of the book at a Local today!
Quick-Strike rules exist in Tactical/Strategic Operations - that recreates the faster BattleForce game.
However, Alpha-Strike is Apparently Scaled back down to Individual Units, and make the game more accessable to fast-play-miniature gamers.
CEO Heretic BattleMechs.
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ghostrider
04/19/15 11:55 PM
76.89.120.217
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I thought alpha strike was just firing everything in range, not matter how fast you blow yourself up.
Where you can play the old units with the new rules, you will have to watch the new units. There is a whole lot of changes that could very well tip the balance of the game. One in particular is infantry. They do not take damage like they did in the original rules.
It is only a big deal if you try to run with just the new rules. If you play by the old rules, it isn't a big deal.
Some of the new weapons and other systems will get a little complex too. Just watch the time era you are playing in, if you want to keep it with the rules.
I would suggest once you find someone that is able to play, you find out what house rules they have, and if they will modify some. The game is supposed to be fun.
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Cray
04/20/15 06:06 PM
67.8.171.23
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Quote:
the1gofer writes:
so is alpha strike the more popular way to go? Assuming I can find people to play with I guess it would be best to do whatever they do.
I'm not aware of the relative popularity. Most internet forums seem dominated by discussion of the Classic BattleTech you're familiar with, but internet popularity doesn't always match real world popularity.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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TigerShark
04/20/15 06:54 PM
12.130.166.32
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It really seems like the wave of the future for table top play, while Classic BT will stay online, in MegaMek-related formats.
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