Bloodrider
12/06/02 10:32 PM
205.188.209.77
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but oh well, such is life. I just bought a copy of MWDA: Ghost War to try out the new storyline, and although I haven't read any of it yet, I did look at the color inset in the middle of the book, and these are my thoughts after that. Although I still do not like the premise of MWDA and the WoB Jihad that much, mainly because of the dissolution of the BT universe I have come to know and love, I must admit that two of the designs in the inset actually appeal to me, namely the M1 Marksman Tank and the Tundra Wolf 'Mech. And guess what? This surprises me. After seeing some of the pics over at Wizkids, I had pretty much come to the conclusion that I ABSOLUTELY would not like or appreciate ANY of the designs coming from Wizkids, and therefore would most definitely not be supporting the game itself, although I was willing to give the fiction itself a shot. Now I'm looking at these two designs and actually finding myself willing to buy them. Whoa.
That in itself is a revelation, at least to me. But, there is something else I realized while looking at the pictures of the Forestry and Agro 'Mechs. I realized that, at least to some degree, Warner and others are correct. Looking at these designs today, I was struck by a wave of nostalgia, and it took me a while to figure out why. Then I remembered a certain novel written years ago featuring a certain mercenary group, and I realized that converted Utility 'Mechs probably never faded away within the BT universe even after the decoding of the Gray Death Memory Core, even though their presence was largely ignored by the creative staff over at FASA as they mainly concentrated on the "big picture" of Operation: Revival's aftermath.
And there are two reasons I think this is so. First, the number of civilian "machines" should significantly outweigh the number of military "machines" of any sort, particularly in heavily industrialized societies, and particularly because civilian machines are typically more useful in everyday life, which most military hardware is not (Also, Utility 'Mechs are so useful that they would be produced and sought after quite highly. Look at the combines farmers use now, as an analog). And secondly, most of the local resistance movements to a conquering force (eg, guerrilas) will make use of anything and everything as a weapon (think the A-Team here). Granted, guerrila hardware is nowhere near the level of actual military hardware, but just about anyone could come up with some way of jury-rigging a shotgun onto a rail buggy, for instance. So, I must admit that, in some ways, MWDA is a return to the 3025 era. Granted, there are some major differences between the two, so much so that MWDA may actually be more of a return to the pre-1st Star League (eg, Republic of the Sphere= Terran Hegemony), but at least some of the premise behind MWDA has justification and years of BT history behind it.
In light of this, I have reached the following conclusion, that there is still hope for BattleTech, and that not all is lost. Sure, some of what we have known and loved is lost, just as some of what we knew and loved was lost with the introduction of the Clans. However, the intro of the Clans largely accomplished what it was meant to do imo, namely to tie up some loose threads in the BT universe and to bring more players to the game. Yes, some people did leave BattleTech forever because they objected to the coming of the Clans, but I think that more people were lost due to "real life" and a general sense of disinterest than because they were mad at FASA over this issue. I am now willing to give MWDA the same opportunity that I gave to the BT universe when the Clans were introduced, because at first, I was very much against the idea of the Clans, but I discovered that that incident, if you will excuse the term, caused my feelings for BattleTech to not only be refreshed but increased. Will I play MWDA? I don't know whether I will or not, but I do know that I will no longer be as diametrically opposed to it as I was before. And I also know that, as long as BattleTech remains in my heart and mind, it will never die.
Addendum: For those who haven't already guessed, the novel I mentioned above is Mercenary's Star, in which the Gray Death Legion was hired to assist the resistance movement on Verthandi in their bid to win freedom from the Draconis Combine. The Free Verthandi movement used some BattleMechs ( a Warhammer, a Dervish, and some Locusts, and maybe a Griffin or two, if I remember correctly) backed up by modified AgroMechs. Both vastly outnumbered and outclassed by the DCMS garrison (which answered to Duke Ricol), they still kept fighting as much as they could with whatever they could. I found it to be a good read, so to anyone who's interested and can find a copy, I recommend it. (Of course, some will not agree with me on this or on what I said above, but that's life, eh?)
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room..." -from Dr. Strangelove
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realworldviews
12/07/02 09:28 AM
24.98.65.31
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Well said. I've had pretty much the same revelations about MWDA. After actually getting some of the figures they aren't actually that bad. And some of the mechs are nice designs.
I've said it before that I really don't like this storyline of the Jihad, But now I am willing to at least give it a chance. And if I don't like it I can always play CBT to my hearts content. 
Colonel Brian Davis
Gamers United
"Dreams become reality, for all who start off with a dream"
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Toastrider
12/08/02 10:38 PM
172.175.24.240
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I'm not terribly fond of the Clix system, but I've said -that- before What annoys me was the whole transition -- I felt it was clumsy and not handled (or written) well. BT -did- need to be pushed back to basics. I'm just disappointed in how it was done.
--Toasty
"The survivors, not the victors, write the history books."
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Rotwang
12/09/02 09:06 AM
213.224.83.135
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I'm not that fond of the system either, but a few home rules should fix it up and improve things.
Now what bothers me most is that after having a lot of fun collecting Heroclix, I tried my hand at MWDA along with two friends and a dozen sets later we are stuck with plenty of industrial mechs of all shapes and sizes, which is nice except that Heroclix gave much better "draw" results and satisfaction that this game. Being an old mech-head I'm hard to excite when I pull a elite hovertank out of the box. At least I'd want a real mech, not even a special one, just a real bonafide combat mech, not just a combine harvester on legs with a gun silver taped to it. But so far nada ... I managed to get 4 uniques out of the same amount of Heroclix, so I'm starting to wonder ...
On the other hand, and I'm probably going to be branded a heretic here is that the models look great, better even than many of the old metal ones. Now if only there was a trader near me who could get me the models I want I might have a bash at playing real BT with the pretty MWDA models (except for the disappointing Atlas ...)
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