Some overarching themes can be picked out in MechWarrior 5: Clans and each of its DLCs. The base campaign is a coming-of-age story about a group of youngsters who discover the true price of war and what blind doctrine can cost. Ghost Bear: Flash Storm is all about family, loyalty, and sacrificing for the greater […]
Read More →
I’ve been worried about Fox Patrol for a while now. This lovable band of misfits had been trouncing throughout the Hinterlands, blowing up Hell’s Horses and pirate forces without a care in the world. Even their unit commander, Katie Ferraro, seems to magically survive every combat action in a ’Mech with practically no armor to […]
Read More →
The Clans have arrived in Shadow of Kerensky, the new expansion for MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries. They came a full game later than I’d expected with the preceding MechWarrior 5: Clans arriving last year, but now we finally have the Mercenaries DLC to tie the timelines of both MechWarrior 5s together. The only question is, was it […]
Read More →
Everybody loves the Ghost Bears. Maybe it’s their focus on the family, or how they turned into one of the Inner Sphere’s few semi-functioning democracies in the ilClan Era (a minor disagreement about said ilClan notwithstanding). There’s just something about these big, cuddly protectors that draws in fans, so it makes sense for PGI to […]
Read More →
This review definitely has spoilers in it, especially with respect to its ending. If you want to fly blind, don’t read this. If you want my personal take but don’t want the ending spoiled, there’s a warning to skip the super spoiler-y bits. Also, my review copy was somewhat longer than the final product. Voidbreaker […]
Read More →
Do I need to describe the beauty, convenience, and value of HexTech to you at this point? Of course not. I think HexTech has long since conquered the hearts of BattleTech players with its fully painted and ready-to-play terrain that fits neatly onto your hex-based game boards or playmats. But the great minds at Gale […]
Read More →
Back when PGI first started marketing MechWarrior 5: Clans, the message was that they wanted to show the Clan Invasion from a different perspective. Previously, we’d only experienced the Invasion as the plucky underdogs fighting for freedom in MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, and then later as the avenging force in MechCommander. We’d never taken part in […]
Read More →
BattleTech‘s most recent novel is Without Question by Bryan Young, who was kind enough to send a copy to Sarna for review. I’ve tried to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but know there are a few plot hooks discussed below. Throughout my reading of Without Question, I kept running into the same problem: […]
Read More →
Gale Force 9 and Thunderhead Studios, makers of HEXTECH, have once again expanded their offerings with a third wave of products. This wave is yet more Trinity City buildings, including the Trinity City Megablock, the Trinity City Tri-Towers, and the Trinity City Binary Towers. For those who missed my last review, HEXTECH is a series […]
Read More →
A few weeks back, I spoke with Matthew “Stinger” Cross of Cross Electric Designs. While it was fun debating the merits of the Thor and Thor II, Matt was also looking to showcase his line of ready-to-paint BattleTech terrain pieces. We got to see a few of those in the interview, but Matt was kind […]
Read More →
Painting models is already a time-consuming process. You know what’s equally time-consuming? Making terrain. That’s why I’ve always preferred BattleTech’s hex maps so you don’t have to do anything: just buy the map and you’re ready to go. But dedicated tabletop wargamers just aren’t satisfied with hexagons on a piece of paper (or neoprene if […]
Read More →
Today we have a guest post from Sam van Ratt, who will be sharing a retrospective on two BattleTech video games from nearly 30 years ago, called MechForce and MechCombat! Take it away Sam! A hello to all BT fans out there! Today I would like to introduce you to my favourite BattleTech Game: MechCombat […]
Read More →
MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries has arrived! I’ve actually been playing it for a week now and I have some thoughts. It’s a solid return to classic MechWarrior gameplay and one that I think most of us here at Sarna will be happy with. I haven’t finished the campaign as I’m in no rush to run through […]
Read More →
Way back in August 2013 we featured an article on Scrapyard Armory’s Succession Wars online game. With the surge in popularity of BattleTech both in virtual and physical formats we thought now was a good time to revisit this great game. Based on the 1987 table top board game by FASA, Scrapyard Armory’s Succession Wars […]
Read More →
BattleTech is here, and it is much better than any of us could have hoped. It’s not perfect, mind you, but it is a fantastic success financially, so whatever is wrong we can expect to eventually be fixed. And since what is right is so very, very right, then any true BattleTech fan owes it […]
Read More →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 […]
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 →In my previous “vs.” article, I compared two second line BattleMechs, the Rabid Coyote and the Ursus. You can find that article here if you would like to read my analysis on the match-up. In this installment, we again take a look at a pair of second line Clan BattleMechs, but these two are very different from our previous […]
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 →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 →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 →While not as adaptable or flexible as OmniMechs, the Clans as a whole still see the indelible value of standard BattleMech technology. Even in their limited configuration state, when equipped with their venerable technology, Clan second line BattleMechs provide some of the most solid, dependable, and fun designs in the game. From the well-known Mad […]
Read More →I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus; Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; The sun, that sear’d the wings of my sweet boy, Thy brother Edward, and thyself the sea, Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. Ah! kill me with thy weapon, not with words. – William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act […]
Read More →