Battledroids

Battledroids
Product information
Type	Board game
Development	Jordan Weisman
Primary writing	Patrick Larkin (background) Steve Peterson/Hero Games (technical background)
Pages	32 (rulebook)
Cover Artwork	Allen Gutierrez (front) Dana Knutson (back)
Illustrations	Jordan Weisman Todd Marsh Karen Vander Mey Dana Knutson Norman Miller
Publication information
Publisher	FASA
Product code	1604
First published	1984
ISBN-10	0931787645
MSRP	20,00 US $
Content
Content	(see text)
Era	Succession Wars era
Followed by	BattleTech, 2nd Edition

Published in 1984, the Battledroids board game was the very first incarnation of what was to become BattleTech. The successful game was soon renamed for BattleTech, 2nd Edition (Battledroids being considered the 1st Edition) because of George Lucas' trademark on the term "droid".

Unlike the spelling later established for BattleTech, Battledroids is consistently spelled with a downcase "d".

From the back cover

“

A Dark Age has befallen mankind. Where once reigned the United Star League, five successor states now battle for control. Wars' destruction ravaged the once-flourishing worlds and left them in ruins. The advancement of technology has not only ceased, but the machines and equipment of the past cannot be produced by present-day worlds. Now, the Succession Wars are fought over water, ancient machines and spare-parts factories, for control of these elements will lead to the final victory and domination of all known worlds. The battlefields of the Succession Wars are dominated by the most awesome war-machines in man's history, the BATTLEDROIDS. These huge man-shaped vehicles are faster, more mobile, better armored, and more destructive than a battalion of 20th Century tanks. Now, you can control the BATTLEDROIDS, infantry, and tanks in this exciting game of warfare in the 30th century Successor States.

”

Description

Often considered a percursor to or the "prototype" BattleTech game, the Battledroids rules feature some notable differences from the Second Edition boxed set which is usually considered the baseline BattleTech product. Most notably, the construction rules had no upper limit on the number of jump jets that could be installed, allowed jump jets to be installed in any location, and jump jets always weighted 0.5 tons irrespective of the weight of the Battledroid they were being installed on.

The ten Battledroid designs included in Battledroids were early versions of the standard BattleMechs, most of them with slightly different stats:

• STG-3R Stinger (1 ton overweight; 64 armor points distributed H:9, CT:10/4, LRT:7/2, LRA:6, LRL:8, for a total of 69 points)
• SHS-2H Shadow Hawk
• ARC-2R Archer (armor distribution: H:9, CT:35/10, LRT:30/7, LRA:15, LRL:25)
• GRF-1N Griffin (six jump jets, 144 armor points distributed H:8, CT:20/6, LRT:20/6, LRA:13, LRL:16)
• WHM-6R Warhammer
• PXH-1K Phoenix Hawk (armor distribution: H:6, CT:25/5, LRT:18/3, LRA:10, LRL:15; stats otherwise identical to later PXH-1)
• MAD-3R Marauder (armor distribution: H:9, CT:35/16, LRT:16/8, LRA:22, LRL:16)
• CRD-3R Crusader (0.5 tons underweight, 184 armor points distributed H:6, CT:30/8, LRT:24/6, LRA:20, LRL:20)
• WSP-1A Wasp (1 ton overweight; 64 armor points distributed H:6, CT:10/4, LRT:7/2, LRA:6, LRL:7)
• RFL-3N Rifleman (oversized VOX 260 fusion engine, no medium lasers)
• The Merlin was used as an example for the construction rules, but the lighter jump jets under Battledroids rules allowed for 12 tons of armor (192 points), distributed H:9, CT:26/13, LRT:19/9, LRA:20, LRL:24.

The game also contained simplified rules for tanks and generic armed jeeps. They could spend 4 MP each turn, or 3 if they intended to fire weapons on that turn (jeeps: 6/5). They could ram like a Battledroid charge for 3 points of damage per hex moved (jeeps: 1 point/hex), taking 1 point for every 10 tons of target mass in turn, and had similar movement restrictions (no water, heavy woods or fire hexes; only 1 level elevation change between two hexes). All tanks had a uniform armor distribution of F:20, LRS:10, B:8, T:5 (if applicable). Three tanks designs were provided:

• SCR-8N Scorpion - no turret, 3 SRM-6 with 15 shots per lancher installed in the front
• HNT-3R Hunter - no turret, one LRM-20 with 18 shots installed in the front
• VDE-3T Vedette - AC/5 with 40 shots and machine gun with 200 shots, both turret-mounted

Jeeps could mount either a SRM-2 (5 shots) or a machine gun (10 shots), and fire in all directions. They were at a +1 penalty to hit and had no hit locations; instead, they were destroyed by suffering more than 5 damage, with excess damage carrying over to another jeep in the same hex if applicable.
Infantry represent 9-man squads, and up to 10 squads could be stacked into a single hex. Each squad carried either an SRM-2 (12 shots) or a machine gun (25 shots). One point of damage was enough to destroy a squad, but they were at a +2 penalty to hit.

The brief description of the game setting left the impression that virtually no functional Battledroid factories remain. The Hesperus II factories are described as gutted, and valuable only for their spare parts depots. ComStar is not mentioned, nor are crests provided for the described Successor States, Bandit Kings or mercenaries (which are the same as in the second edition, although with much less text coverage).

Contents

• 32-page rulebook (+1 page of tables and 7 pages of blank stat sheets) with rules for Basic, Advanced and Expert BattleDroids, stats for 10 different BattleDroids, assembly instructions for the included miniatures and cutout tokens, and six flipsided pages in the back (titled "A Dark Age: The Succession Wars") briefly explaining the setting, technology and timetable of a typical planetary raid
• two 22"x17" full-color mapsheets, identical in terrain layout to the mapsheets used in later editions but with a slightly different artistic style
• two 3" tall plastic Battledroid models (SHD-2H Shadow Hawk & GRF-1N Griffin)
• four sheets of full-color cutout playing markers, including tokens for the various different Battledroids, tanks and jeeps, infantry, fire, extra markers for light woods, heavy woods, rough terrain and water
• two six-sided dice
• Errata leaflet with damage location tables

Gallery

• 

  Battledroids boxed set

• 

  Battledroids cover art

• 

  Battledroids back cover art

• 

  Battledroids hex map

• 

  Griffin model from Battledroids box

• 

  Shadow Hawk model from Battledroids box

• 

  Battledroids cutouts 1

• 

  Battledroids cutouts 2

• 

  Errata sheet included in Battledroids box