Michael Moorcock is one of my favorite writers of all time. I have a huge library of most of his work. I don’t think he ever wrote anything in the military science fiction genre, but he certainly appreciated it. I recently picked up a anthology he edited of short stories and novellas written prior to […]
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Last month, the official digitized version of OGRE was released on a few formats, including PC. What is OGRE, how does it relate to BattleTech, and what can it do? OGRE was a futuristic science-fiction tabletop wargame released in 1977. It was the first game made by famous game designer Steven Jackson, who would create […]
Read More →In a previous article, I discussed the portrayal of the Capellan Confederation early in the lore and fiction of the universe as evocative of the yellow peril anti-China trope common in Europe and American beliefs, fiction and culture. My supposition was only a quick paragraph, and then we moved on to other topics, and the […]
Read More →Interested in getting to play some more BattleTech? Inspired by the beta of the BattleTech video game? Do you have that itch and need to scratch it? Great!
Read More →It’s no surprise that BattleTech, which is a war game, has a lot of wars. A lot of strife and conflicts. That’s what we need to keep the property moving. Succession Wars? Wars of Reaving? Clan Invasion? The Jihad? We have wars in spades. So given that, I thought it would be an interesting thought […]
Read More →Most of the games we play in real life are big for a while on release, and then that’s it. They die down sooner or later. There are a lot of reason a game fails to make it long term. Maybe the people who played the games turn to others. Perhaps the game never sold […]
Read More →Recently I had decided to pick up and read David Drake’s collection of military science fiction short stories called “Hammer’s Slammers.” I was a bit surprised by just how evocative it was of many of the central concepts of BattleTech universe writ large. We aren’t any better in the future than we are now. We […]
Read More →On December 3rd, over in the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, Canada, Piranha Games is hosting a day long BattleTech and Mechwarrior themed convention. A variety of events and fun stuff is planned. Many guests from various community members and companies are planning on attending, such as Jordan Weisman and Randall Bills or online media personalities […]
Read More →Well I felt it was time. See, one of my passions in life is to read the books and works that helps to make something exist. Take Dungeons and Dragons as a good example. In his famous Appendix N at the end of the first Dungeon Master’s Guide, Gary Gygax listed a bunch of writers […]
Read More →Well, it arrived today! I was one of many Kickstarter backers of the various levels for Harebrained Schemes’ BattleTech Video game, slated for release next year. Like many folks I backed at a high enough pledge to get both some nice BattleTech swag, as well as some strong comfort in helping to bring back a […]
Read More →You wouldn’t think it by looking at me. I love BattleMechs and smashing with the big guys. I’m not a power armor or tank or anything else enthusiast. I adore the big heavy sluggers of the battlefield. That’s why I’m playing BattleTech and not something like Warhammer. So why? Why is my favorite Technical Readout […]
Read More →In my copy of the Jade Falcon Sourcebook, it talks about the various battles of the Falcon Corridor of the Clan Invasion. Many of these vignettes are just quick little paragraphs about the fall of an entire world. On Page 36 it discusses the fall of Alkalurops to the ongoing Clan Assault. And the results […]
Read More →Well that was fast! After Interstellar Operations was being written for years before release, the next Operations books came quickly after. Welcome, to Campaign Operations. I’ve always wondered if other players play Campaigns as much as I tend to. My playgroups, interests, games, and more are invariably part of an ongoing campaign. It’s important for […]
Read More →The Civil War between siblings is over. Much of the Inner Sphere rests in a very tentative, damaged, and brutally won peace. And it stands on the threshold of oblivion. War-torn and battle-weary. Hey look, we all care about tanks and aircraft, infantry both powered and conventional, and more. But at the end of the […]
Read More →Last week, Techwars Online, a Steam Greenlight success story, that made it through all of the hurdles, was released on Steam for ten dollars. Well that certainly seems like a price worth trying out. So I grabbed a copy of the game, and invested some time into figuring out this turn based tactical game featuring […]
Read More →Sometimes you are just looking for a little ‘Mech on ‘Mech action. Whatever the Intellectual Property, and whatever the style, a quick little online PC action happening can solve that desire. Load up the game, log on, and blast some folks. That’s why a lot of us are playing games like Mechwarrior: Online. This week, […]
Read More →I have a serious love/hate relationship with Wikipedia! When I read an article that intrigues me, and it links to something else I want to check out, I will start reading and I don’t realize that an hour and a half has just passed until I come up for air. I can start on something […]
Read More →On January 31st, the various electors that are running the current MegaMekNet Campaign announced that it will be concluding soon. The Free Worlds League has won, and a new cycle will begin on March 1st. In the wake of the victory, several major announcements were made to increase the value of the campaign in the […]
Read More →After a long-delayed schedule, and having been announced years ago, Interstellar Operations released January 28, 2016. The book contains almost 400 pages of rules from various angles, from generating a star system and planets to detailed information on playing in different eras of the BattleTech universe. Many of the rules systems were released some time […]
Read More →As I invested my 130th hour of play into the recently released Fallout 4, I turned off the game for a few days, vowing to rejoin society. I re-emerged into the light-scorched winter landscape of my New England residence. As I saw the trees outside, denuded by weather, and mirrored in them the signs of […]
Read More →The other day I was playing with a Lightning Attack Hovercraft on my side in a battle in MegaMekNET. Since that campaign is set in 3025, having a LosTech hovercraft with medium pulse lasers was something I wanted to protect if I could. Plus you have those two one-shot SRMs. I was rushing past a […]
Read More →The MekWars campaign set in the Star League began a new cycle, or campaign, on October 23, 2015.
Read More →As mentioned in a previous post, the online server for playing people online via MegaMek called MegaMekNet had instituted a new set of changes to shake things up. The longest running server online, MMNet has decided to place the decisions for the latest cycle into the hands of the players. Each faction elects a person […]
Read More →I have never been much of a fan of vehicles in BattleTech. I grew up in an era when a combat vehicle was considered way too fragile for serious battle. Maybe they had valuable tactical usages, keeping battles in certain places or whatnot, but they were not really something that made the cut anywhere.
Read More →Last week my order of Technical Readout: 315 arrived from BattleCorps. I’ve since gotten a chance to read through the book twice, and there are several designs that tweak my interest. What are the early impressions from the book?
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