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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →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 →Technical Readouts have defined BattleTech virtually as long as there has been a game. They help to shape the era, the conflicts, and the people. They give us units that we will use to face each other in battle. In particular, the BattleMech has defined the game, and that unit tends to really be a […]
Read More →The Technical Readout: 3060 shipped and like always I headed to my local gaming store to purchase my copy very soon after. I still remember looking over those units for the first time, and finding some that really stuck with me. Today I want to look at my four favorite BattleMechs from 3060, and then […]
Read More →Ah yes, the combat vehicle. It’s downright prolific in the Inner Sphere (and the Periphery even more so)! We have lots of things telling us that your basic combat vehicle has a lot of value on the battlefield. But let’s set aside the fluff for a moment and talk about what your experience has really […]
Read More →Whether its units on the battlefield, or what happens in the universe, most people have a favorite House. Mine has always been the Capellan Confederation, led by House Liao. Let me tell you why, and then you can share your stories about your favorite House.
Read More →Are there BattleMechs out there that are ugly as sin but you still get real joy from playing them? Is there a go-to ‘Mech for you that your friends taunt you about, but you just know how to get it to work? What BattleMechs out there play better than they look for you? Jenner – I […]
Read More →Ever since I looked at my first Technical Readout, I realized that BattleTech was a game about aesthetics, just as much as it was about blowing stuff up. There were always a variety of BattleMechs that just has a really effective design. Before I played my first game, before I even knew the rules, a […]
Read More →Have you ever run into BattleMechs that you just don’t get? Have you heard lots of accolades from other players, but then they never work for you? They are highly acclaimed in forums and have lots of defenders online, but you’ve always been disappointed from them. I just don’t understand them. I’ve tried them, I’ve […]
Read More →3058 is a bit of an odd duck when it comes to Technical Readouts (TRO), and that always made it harder for me to suss out. It introduces Inner Sphere omni technology in BattleMech form in the TRO series. It also features a large number of older designs, such as the Chameleon, Mackie, and Merlin […]
Read More →Scenario Packs and their ilk have been with us for almost as long as we’ve had the game. From the first campaigns to the latest Turning Point, we have seen a ton of scenario packs released down through the ages. Sure, a handful of scenarios like Unbound, Living Legends and Necromo Nightmare might strike some […]
Read More →When the Clans arrived, they brought some seriously dangerous heavy metal to the Inner Sphere. To this day, it’s arguably the most significant event in recent Inner Sphere history. They came to fight, with OmniMechs that had flexible designs the pod space to fix them to your taste, terrain, and mission profile. At first I thought it would be […]
Read More →I think the BattleTech cartoon was probably as close the franchise came to making the mainstream of popular culture. I could include the videogames (which I have discussed before) but the cartoon took place during a time where big fighting robots were generally in the mainstream anyway. MechWarrior 2, Robot Jox, and of course blockbusters like […]
Read More →Appended Minutes for the BMNS 1st Annual Meeting The BattleMech Naming Society calls its first official meeting in order to create a taxonomy of naming conventions for the powerful machines that captured the hearts and battlefields of people across known space. Let us begin. After discussing potential categorizations of ‘Mechs, and debating whether or not […]
Read More →I have a personal love affair with the 3055 Technical Readout. Sure, it may have been the 4th readout in my hands (3025, 3050 and 2750 beat it to my bookshelves) but it was always number one in my heart. Some of my favorite Inner Sphere BattleMech designs are inside these covers.
Read More →Even though it was decades ago, I’ll never forget the Saturday morning where I became forevermore helplessly, HOPELESSLY addicted to large military robots. I have since developed a bit of ‘flowery’ disdain for the bastard chimera that is the Robotech saga, but I am at least nostalgic that it was the vehicle with which I […]
Read More →It wasn’t long after the last expansion pack for MechWarrior 2 hit disc drives across the US when gamers-our teeth newly cut on 3D graphics, craved more. Even though I had no PC of my own yet at this time, I’d had dozens of hours of time running ‘Mechs. Then I ran into something called […]
Read More →MechAssault: Phantom War. This is a game I actually picked up and own to this day for my Nintendo DS. Instead of the masculine no-named Wolf’s Dragoon MechWarrior from the first two games, the player gets Vallen Brice, A multi-talented pilot from the Lyran Alliance. Her unique (from a video game perspective) blend of technical […]
Read More →Like the original MechAssault, the sequel MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf centers on a no-named Wolf’s Dragoons MechWarrior supported by Lieutenant Foster from the original. The graphics are a few years more advanced of course, as are the sound effects. But I feel that even more than the new BattleMechs, the dismounted gameplay in Lone Wolf is […]
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