We try not to get too political in the introduction, but the 25% tariff the United States plans to impose on Canada is quite likely to tank our dollar to the point where it’s going to be mighty difficult to continue purchasing those delightful BattleTech products. Us Canadians are going to have to make some sort of smuggling path—an underground railroad if you will—to clandestinely get those minis over the border where they’ll be safe from the tyranny of an oppressive regime. If anyone wants to get this train rolling, give me a shout.
Okay, that was jokes—for now. We’ll see how long things can be all fun and games, but for now, the BattleTech universe continues to evolve and expand, with plenty of stuff to talk about for this first month of the quarter-century. Let’s get to the news!
Sarna Is Moving To Bluesky!
After certain gestures made by the richest man in the world during the inauguration of a new president for the most powerful nation on Earth, Sarna is making a move away from the dark clouds of Twitter (currently known as X) and toward the bluer skies of… well, Bluesky. I finally understand why they called it that.
We’re not shutting Sarna’s Twitter account down (yet—as with everything, we’ll see what happens), so if you still prefer to receive your Sarna updates via Musk’s personal propaganda machine, there’s no need to change anything on your end. That said, Sarna will be focusing on Bluesky for our social media presence going forward. You can follow Sarna on Bluesky here.
Incidentally, I’ve also made a new Bluesky account. Follow me here!
VoidBreaker, ilKhan’s Eyes Only, and More January Arrivals
We’ve got a bunch of new releases for January. We’ll start with IlKhan’s Eyes Only, the new sourcebook that will set the stage for the ilClan era. I’m still working through it, so no spoilers from me, but I’m likin’ what I’m readin’ so far. You can grab IlKhan’s Eyes Only via Catalyst’s store here.
Next up, VoidBreaker has arrived! I’ve recently reviewed VoidBreaker, so you can head there for my thoughts on the new book, but I think this is the book that truly ends the Dark Age. And if you’re looking for a preview of VoidBreaker, you can read the first three chapters over on Bleeding Cool.
For those of us in North America, the Mercenaries Box Set is now available in stores alongside the various Mercenaries ForcePacks. There are also the Mercenaries and Battlefield Support Salvage Boxes, the Savannah Map Map, and City: HPG Heliport BattleMat. Check your local retailers.
In other news, Hour of the Wolf is now available in audiobook format for those who prefer to listen rather than read, and there’s a free Fox Patrol Christmas Story available on Catalyst’s store that didn’t make it into the December news blast (because I had it all written mostly before the holidays).
And finally, a brief Mercenaries Kickstarter update. North America and Rest of World hubs are basically done, although there are a few orders remaining. Anyone who paid after October 22, 2024 will be receiving their orders last as Catalyst gets those sent off. In the UK, Waves 1 and 2 are underway, and the EU has finally had their orders clear customs with fulfillment expected to begin February 10. Australia has confirmed shipment received and fulfilments should begin soon. Asia will have Wave 3 beginning after Chinese New Year.
Marco Mazzoni Takes Over As BattleTech Art Director As Brent Evans Gets Into Video Games
And in other Catalyst news, a big shakeup happened at CGL’s directorial level. Art Director Brent Evans is handing over his role to Marco Mazzoni, the former Co-Art Director at Harebrained Schemes on BATTLETECH and frequent cover artist for BattleTech‘s sourcebooks.
I have zero concerns with Marco continuing to provide us with the best-looking BattleTech products possible, but I will miss Brent’s infectious enthusiasm for all things BattleTech. And in case you were wondering, Brent is off to work for a video game startup, but can’t tell us which one just yet. Video games are tough gig these days, so everyone cross your fingers for Brent! We’ll miss you!
MegaMek Receives Huge Update To Start The New Year
Another thing I didn’t get to at the end of 2024, MegaMek has released its 0.50.02 update! You can read all about the highlights over on MegaMek‘s official site, but to grab a few, expect “new and improved game master tools,” “added heat indicators in weapon display to help with heat management,” and “Princess went back to Blackjack to run the obstacle course to better understand ways to kill without breaking herself.”
For those unaware of who Princess is, I direct you to my interview with Hammer from several months back. She’s absolutely ruthless. And for those looking to play digital tabletop BattleTech, head to MegaMek‘s site here.
This Is Technically Not A Furry Post
Loona X Battletech (by PsychicDiesel)
byu/Marwheel inHelluvaBossFanArt
I have a friend who absolutely loves Helluva Boss and keeps bugging me to watch it. I really should, especially when my streaming services are all down for some reason. This is for him. Thanks to PsychicDiesel for the art and Marwheel for the post.
Virtual World Posts Winter Free Pods Day Schedule
BattleTech Pods Free Play in Kalamazoo Jan 11, Feb 8 and Mar 8.
byu/VWE_PropWash inbattletech
The keepers of the LostTech BattleTech Pods hath spoken: Virtual World Entertainment‘s open doors nights will take place on February 8 and March 8 from 6 to 11 PM. There will also be tables playing tabletop games as well in case the pods make you motion sick.
For a good explanation on the pods and what they are, check out my interview with Nick “Propwash” Smith of Virtual World Entertainment. He’s the guy keeping the lights on in Kalamazoo so these incredible games can continue to operate, both offering free game nights and traveling to conventions around America. For more details on Open Pods Night, head to Virtual World’s Facebook page here.
Shoot Your PPCs In The Air Like You Just Don’t Care
Warhammer and Inner Sphere Standar Battle Armor (box art for our planned posable model kits)(my art)
byu/geergutz inmechwarrior
If I were a Warhammer pilot (which I am most definitely not), I’d certainly go to one knee, look down, aim up, and fire my big energy arm cannons like a mujahideen after the fall of the Soviet Union. Looks cool, but probably hard to aim, and wasted shots do absolutely nothing for your heat curve. Still, cool image from geergutz, who is apparently making some unofficial BattleTech-adjacent Gunpla.
Brawl In The Bluegrass Should Get You Out To Kentucky For Tabletop Tournament
Once again, I am being informed that some fine BattleTech fans are organizing a tournament to be held in Lexington, Kentucky on the weekend of March 14. Entry fee is $40, which will go towards the space and prize pool. Each player gets a goodie bag regardless of whether you win, but for those who secure victory, expect trophies and fabulous prizes. There’s even a trip planned to the foundries at Iron Wind Metals.
Expect a Trial of Birthright, Alpha Strike, and Classic BattleTech tournaments. There’s also going to be a speed paint competition and team BattleTech trivia. For the full schedule, sponsors, and details on nearby accommodation, check out this Google doc, and head here to sign up. Emailed lists will need to be sent in no later than March 8.
Layoffs Hit PGI As MechWarrior 5: Clans Performs “Below Expectations”
This one really sucks. At the direction of publisher and parent company EG7, PGI has had to lay off nearly a third of its total workforce after MechWarrior 5: Clans “performed below expectations.” My guess is those expectations were to sell a little better than MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, but that didn’t exactly happen. We don’t know what the total sales figures are for Clans just yet, but judging by the Steam Charts player counts, they’re a little under where Mercenaries was at launch.
“The team at Piranha truly delivered a high-quality game that exceeded both internal as well as external expectations in terms of quality, story, and gameplay,” wrote EG7 CEO Ji Ham in a prepared statement. “Despite the phenomenal work by the team at Piranha, the game failed to reach new audiences and expand its core audience as anticipated and therefore has not met the necessary sales targets, which has forced us to undertake necessary actions.”
Those actions were to terminate 38 of Piranha’s employees, some of them having been with the company for over a decade. PGI had over 100 employees in the lead-up to Clans, so that leaves them with around 60-70 to support Clans with DLC, but I wouldn’t expect anything huge. No Ghost Bear’s Legacy-style DLC adding a new campaign or new Clan. I’d expect smaller-scale, Mercenaries-style DLC with limited additional story missions and few if any expensive cut scenes.
I really liked MechWarrior 5: Clans. I played the campaign twice—once alone and once with a friend—and thought it was great. Certainly the best solo and best narrative experience I’ve ever had with a MechWarrior game. I haven’t played it since then, but that’s fine—it’s a linear, story-based game. The expectation is you come for the 25-30 hour story and then move on to the next game. And I’d definitely come back for round three just as soon as New Game Plus arrives so I can keep unlocking ‘Mech and pilot upgrades.
My take? MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries was around for the COVID era where we were all stuck at home with nothing to do, so it benefited from the industry-wide gaming bump. Clans came after COVID when everyone had to get back to work. The market is saturated—not just for BattleTech, but for gaming in general, and I think corporate overlords have started to realize that the days of infinite gaming growth are over. Capital is drying up, so to keep their margins, everyone is tightening their belts and telling their worker bees to make more with less. It’s the same with nearly every big gaming company in the world, save for Nintendo, but they’ve always been one to buck the trend.
What I really don’t want is for the message of “we want narrative games” to be lost. Mercenaries became great with its story-based DLC, but Clans was great straight out of the gate because it had a great story to go alongside great gameplay. It just got caught in economic headwinds.
Opinion: Here’s How To Make A Cheaper Story-Based Game

Courtesy of Eldoniousrex
If you’re following LinkedIn, a lot of the folks let go at PGI were related to the game’s cinematics. Full mocap work is expensive, and with Clans failing to meet sales, PGI is going to have to figure out how to make a cheaper game that still fulfills that desire for a good, solid narrative. So how do you tell a story without cool cinematics?
Simplest and likely cheapest way is to make all the cinematics happen in the game engine. That means we’d likely not see Jayden as he’s walking around in a Smoke Jaguar Broadsword, but more like MechWarrior 4 where the camera would show ‘Mechs stomping around as their pilots chatted about blowing up an objective or fighting off an ambush.
But sometimes you’ll need to tell important story beats when characters aren’t in their ‘Mechs. What do you do then? I direct you to the classic Harebrained Schemes’ BATTLETECH. Harebrained used beautiful handcrafted still images and then partially animated them alongside epic music, voice acting, and sound effects. You get all the dramatic storytelling at a fraction of the cost. It’s something I’ve seen done extremely well in so many games, from Everspace 2 to Last Epoch, and I’m sure it could work in MechWarrior as well.
Just whatever you do, don’t make a MechWarrior roguelike. I hate roguelikes.
What do you think? How do you make a great narrative MechWarrior game on a budget? Leave a comment with your ideas.
The Crunchback Isn’t Real And Can’t… Oh, Wait-
All things lead to crab, as they say. First came user XTYGKX with the Crunchback, an abomination that combined the Crab‘s arms with the Hunchback‘s everything else. Then came the King Cratlas, an equally abysmal creature with King Crab arms (which would mean three AC/20s and a significant reduction in speed).
Then XTYGKX ruined two perfectly good plastic minis to actually make the Crunchback, and all hell broke loose. Now everything’s a Crab or Crab-adjacent.
I for one welcome our new Crab overlords. Always been a great ‘Mech, the Crab. All hail the Crab! All things lead to Crab! Crab! Crab! Crab!
Fan Comic Anthology Announced, Coming Next Year
BATTLETECH: Comic Anthology 2026! >> Submissions now open! Rules and submission forms are in pinned comment! SUBMISSIONS CLOSE Nov 28th 2025!!!! <<
byu/agentlou44 inbattletech
Fan anthologies abound! Not only do we have the return of the Pride Anthology this summer, but next year will bring the Comic Anthology 2026 courtesy of WildCat144.
This will actually require some artistic talent on the part of the creator, so that means I’m out of the running. Submissions can be made up until November 28, 2025. Your submission should have at least three panels per page, be a minimum of one page and a maximum of 10 pages, be in the English language, and respect universal canonicity. No nudity or ideological soap-boxing, and the comic must adhere to CGL’s community guidelines.
There’s no limitation on the style of comic, color, inks, or anything else, but if you’d like to read the rules yourself, head to this Google Doc here. Submissions are done via this form, and if you have any questions, reach out to WildCat144 over on Discord.
This Is A Fully-Functional Lego Flea
Well, not entirely functional as it doesn’t move on its own, but this thing has a cockpit hatch that fits a standard Lego person, ejection seat, torso twist, and knee, shoulder, hip, and ankle actuators. Unlike previous Lego models, this one comes with instructions, so you can build this yourself! Kudos to RhoMoonCo for providing this one.
Brawndo Gets Solaris 7 Sponsorship
Solaris 7 gladiator ‘Mech sponsored by BRAWNDO the thirst mutilator!
byu/Heckin_Big_Sploot inbattletech
It makes sense to be that a stupid ‘Mech like the Hunchback IIC would be the design chosen by Brawndo, the Thirst Mutilator™. It also makes sense to me that the ‘Mech’s ass would be clearly labeled. Don’t wanna forget which end the lead comes out of on a Hunchback IIC. Heckin_Big_Sploot gets the nod for this one.
Duck In A Cooling Vest
My wife drew me a new profile picture!
byu/gendouk inbattletech
Gendouk got a new avatar. It’s a duck in a cooling vest and neurohelmet, which is pretty great. Then Atzkicica came along and suggested this be named “Kai Mallard Liao.” Just perfect. No notes.
The Most Savage Of Chargers
THE CREAM OF THE CROP WILL RISE TO THE TOP, oooh yeeeah…
byu/GillyMonster18 inbattletech
The BPL isn’t just Tex making great BattleTech videos. It’s also folks like GillyMonster18 creating the most savage Charger I’ve ever seen. An homage to the Macho Man Randy Savage, this Charger 1A5 is stepping into the WBPLW ring without any concern for property damage. Easily the best Charger I’ve ever seen. Thanks for sharing, GillyMonster18.
MechWarrior Online Will Continue To Receive Updates Throughout 2025
January is typically the month where MechWarrior Online sets expectations for the rest of the year, and with the recent downsizing, the expectation is for smaller patches and more of the same. Expect monthly challenges, events, and sales, the occasional new ‘Mech (starting with the Fire Moth in February), and updates to existing maps, but no brand-new maps. Still, it sounds like PGI isn’t giving up on their baby just yet, even as they reorganize internally.
As for January’s patch, we have the usual assortment of tweaks and balance changes that we’ve come to expect. This month’s big winners are the Trebuchet, Enforcer, and Champion, which have all received buffs. The Vindicator 5L has seen its heat quirk reduced, the Bane 4 has had its ballistic HSL increased to +2, and Executioner D has seen its set-of-eight bonuses increased.
There’s also a new ‘Mech Pack available. The Wolf Dragoons Booster Pack provides an Archer, Nightstar, Flea, and Stalker, but with Clan-tech instead of Inner Sphere. Expect double heat sinks, Clan-grade lasers, and Streak SRM-6s on that Stalker instead of regular SRMs. Each ‘Mech comes with a 30% C-Bill booster, and the whole pack comes with some interesting cosmetic items, including a warhorn, title, and hologram.
For more, check out the January patch notes here.
Jayden, What Are You Fighting?
Jaydens desperate struggle (the Lords of Ruin)
byu/Omega_Chris_8352 inbattletech
I need some help with this one. Matt Plog is obviously someone who can draw a ‘Mech, and that’s very clearly a Timber Wolf A painted up in the same colors as Jayden’s Star in MechWarrior 5: Clans. But what the hell is that ‘Mech he’s firing at? Four medium lasers, LRM-15, and a PPC? And what are those ‘Mechs in the distance? Are these reimaginings of existing ‘Mechs or totally new ones?! Anyway, I love it. Thanks to Omega_Chris_8352 for commissioning this one.
Inflation Is Indeed A B!tch
Backed by the full faith, and credit, of the Lyran Commonwealth
byu/Big_Red_40Tech inbattletech
I haven’t checked in with the Lyran Commonwealth in a minute. Has being ransacked by two Clans caused runaway inflation? Seems like, given this trillion Kroner note featuring everyone’s favorite Steiner-Davion. I imagine she’s doing her best, but having breakaway states and two Clans to deal with can’t be easy for any economy, least of all one that’s relied on its reputation since the very start of BattleTech. With thanks to Big Red for making this piece.
Thanatos Stalks Its Way Into MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries
My next mech mod for Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries is out: the classic Thanatos modelled by Pawel Czarnecki back in 2001/2002. Grab it on Nexus or Steam www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5… #battletech #mechwarrior
— Art of Battletech & Mechwarrior (@artofbattletech.bsky.social) January 23, 2025 at 7:14 PM
The Art of BattleTech continues in his quest to bring every past ‘Mech to MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries with the new Thanatos mod. This one features a model by Pawel Czarnecki, which looks a lot better than the Thanatos featured in MechWarrior 4. As always, you can grab this mod over on Nexus Mods or the Steam Workshop.
Lithuania Hosting Free BattleTech Event
Made this video as invitation to our Club Battletech Trial Games Event and soon to be starting Hinterlands campaign. Location: Lithuania, Vilnius
byu/Smooth-Win2070 inbattletech
More specifically, the Wargamer store in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. The event takes place on February 9 and invites newcomers and veterans alike to experience the joy of big stompy robots. The event is free and will have everything you need to play BattleTech. There’s also a drop-in, drop-out Hinterlands campaign beginning February 1, allowing you to bring any ‘Mech, force, or pilots whenever and wherever you want.
And if you want to get your event advertised in Sarna, just reach out and I’ll get it in the next news round-up.
Sugar Mama Needs A Cockpit Patch
This is another one that I couldn’t quite identify from this angle, so someone else can set me straight on what ‘Mech this is. I like it though, as well as all the other pieces from AsbestosFlamingo, such as this Meowkie and this very fast Locust.
Vote For Old MechWarrior And MechCommander Games On GOG Dreamlist!
ATTENTION all Battletech and Mechwarrior fans and creatives: please go in on GOG’s new wishlist feature and vote for all Mechwarrior and Mechcommander games. They used to be the 2nd most requested series of all time on the old wishlist, so let’s get them up there again! www.gog.com/dreamlist/?t…
— Art of Battletech & Mechwarrior (@artofbattletech.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 8:15 AM
If you don’t know GOG, it’s the best place to get completely DRM-free games. It’s also one of the few places that’s bringing back old games that can’t otherwise be played without some significant work on the part of the user. And even then, there’s no guarantee that your personal hardware will just make things impossible.
GOG used to have a “wishlist” where people could request old games for GOG to go work its technical magic to make it playable. They’ve since rebranded it as a GOG Dreamlist, a much more visible and user-friendly experience. Just search the game you want, and vote for it with a click!
I’ve voted for the old MechCommander and MechWarrior games, including MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries and MechCommander Gold (which for some reason lags behind the other two options despite being objectively the best one). I also voted for Freelancer since everyone wants them to bring back Freelancer.
And that’s it for January! Sorry if this one’s not quite as polished as other months! I caught pneumonia at the women’s hockey game. Doesn’t get more Canadian than that.
And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.
> the inauguration of a new president for the most powerful nation on Earth
AFAIK China doesn’t have a new president… Unless you’re talking about different country, one that isn’t the most powerful for decades
Har har! Fair point. I’m gonna let this one go for jokes, but I’m not babysitting a flame war, so let’s keep comments BattleTech related.
“Let’s keep comments BattleTech related” – this is a very fair and reasonable request. But respectfully, could you also apply the same reasoning to your articles please?
Exactly, if you want people to respectfully keep comments BattleTech related then you need to make sure that articles and postings are similarly ‘BattleTech Related’.
I mean to be fair should he have just said “we’re switching to bluesky” and not explained why?
This. People will find it much easier to stop putting political statements in the comments if the author stops putting them in the article.
Seconding what everybody below said. I don’t come to this site as often as I used to after articles started sneaking in more Battletech-unrelated commentary. Seeing it gone from here would be nice. It’s already everywhere else and it’s exhausting.
I also second what most people replied to this comment. I am happy someone stepped forward to say this and hope it won’t be removed. I’m uncomfortable with the Battletech-unrelated commentary (I won’t name examples, but everybody knows what is meant) snuck into the articles and am alienated towards the site as a result. For me this is true for most of Battletech by now since this happens in other spaces, e.g. forums, as well. It was not a good idea from the start and should never have been done. But on Sarna let’s focus on Sarna. Of course, to be fair and balanced, this is still by and large a great repository for information.
I just realized I never posted my Peter Griffin Griffin to Reddit…
Honestly, when I think of storytelling in HBS BattleTech, the thing that comes to mind is the Visual Novel style conversation scenes in the Argo control room. Those were just a bunch of 3D models posed in a room, with just enough camera angle variety as the conversation progressed to keep things visually interesting as you went through the dialogue. That was pretty much the core of the Flashpoint stories, which were easier to access through the career mode – I haven’t seen the digital art cutscenes in years at this point, since they’re campaign exclusive.
MW5: Clans could’ve used a similar technique to flesh out Cobalt Star in the barracks. They already had the character models in the barracks room, they just needed some dialogue and voice acting with minimal character animation, and they could’ve added a lot to those characters early in the story. Future MechWarrior games should definitely do that.
The most effective budget 3D cutscene technique I’ve seen is the Marlo Briggs “frozen action diorama”. It’s basically a freeze frame of a dynamic action rendered in engine, allowing the camera to move around as the characters give their dialogue, then cuts to the next action when it passes some object blocking the camera’s view. (See example here: https://youtu.be/tagkWV-Vboo?t=807) It also works pretty well with no dialogue.
That said, in the future, if there’s a Unity/Unreal/etc… engine plugin that does AI character/face animation and/or voices, we’ll probably see most developers move to that. As long as it’s 80+% effective, developers will probably use AI tools to make less important cutscenes and minimize the scheduling headaches of full mocap. (I don’t think we’re there yet, but maybe by 2030.)
Hey, so I can answer the question about what mech Jayden was fighting in that drawing above. That image was commissioned for the Lords Of Ruin, a “quest” style collaborative forum game that wrapped up about a month ago. The game’s premise is about taking an outside third party faction (in this instance the Helghan Republic from Killzone), plopping them into the Inner Sphere (specifically the Fronc Reaches in the year 3000) and letting things play out with the players making decisions for this new faction.
That mech in particular is a custom design the players created and included in an expeditionary force sent to fight the Clan Invasion. The lighting gun in particular is based off of tech from Killzone; I can’t say too much about it since I haven’t played a Killzone game and don’t know how it works.
Sugar Mama is a Cataphract modified with Command Console.
Except I was painting this using plastic mini as a reference because there’s no official art showing Cataphract at this angle. So details are very soft.
I was gonna say Cataphract! At first I thought Caesar, but no Caesar is to curvy. Then I remembered the Caesar is an sleek Cataphract, and low and behold, it’s a boxy Ms Sugar Momma herself.
Sounds like someone’s gone “crabby” about all the Crabs, King Crab, and Crab-adjacent models around in the franchise!
Who said Brent Evans was out? I can’t find any official announcements and his bio still says he’s Art Director.
Brent did in an email to Sarna staff. Not sure why CGL hasn’t made an announcement.
Freelancer was an interesting game but besides not allowing joystick control, combat was dull – just ships running at each other – and everything just ‘levels up’ with your ship anyhow as it’s your character in a space rpg.
Needs some re-working. Wouldn’t mind it if it were closer to the old “Privateer” but of course keeping that larger universe.
As to the pneumonia at the rink – sometimes it’s fumes from the ice processing or the zamboni, have to be careful.
Glad to see continuing interest in old things Battletech Gaming.
Someone needs to do a mod for the old original Mechwarrior! Add in ALL the 3025 mechs or a customization utility, and some more interesting scenarios of course.
The Shadow Hawk should really be easy to LEGO.
Freelancer was an interesting game but besides not allowing joystick control, combat was dull – just ships running at each other – and everything just ‘levels up’ with your ship anyhow as it’s your character in a space rpg.
Needs some re-working. Wouldn’t mind it if it were closer to the old “Privateer” but of course keeping that larger universe.
As to the pneumonia at the rink – sometimes it’s fumes from the ice processing or the zamboni, have to be careful.
Glad to see continuing interest in old things Battletech Gaming.
Someone needs to do a mod for the old original Mechwarrior! Add in ALL the 3025 mechs or a customization utility, and some more interesting scenarios of course.
Hi, Sarna,
This is a Battletech enthusiast from Lithuania, VIlnius city. Much appreciated that you have shared our event that we will host this week. Hope we will lure more players to our local Wargamer club and Battletech universe as well!
Best Regards,
Augustas
Does GOG has MechCommander 2 to vote on? If so, count me in, I want to see more of that Capellan that cosplayed a Davion and got curbstomped. Or of course everyone’s favorite pilot “Meat.” Just too bad Microsoft doesn’t want to finally give us MC3 based on the Blakists’ temper tantrum.
(didn’t read most of the article because the images were blocked, i’ll come back later with a real comment)
Hm… Y’know… maybe don’t be spouting politics when you yourself said you dislike politics being here?
I just want to use big stompy mechs to blow up other big stompy mechs, the politics of the real world should stay well and truly far from the politics of the 30th century and onwards.
(aka, please don’t put Politics in the article, it sours the whole mood)
Just a guess but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mechwarrior: Clans underperformed from a combination of not marketing much outside the Battletech fan bubble and those of us in the bubble have been dealing with PGI’s middling quality output for over a decade now. Most of us have yet to be impressed. PGI’s games are “fine” at best and “fine” doesn’t fuel the enthusiasm that leads to success. MW5 only ended up as decent as it did thanks to a passionate modding community. Clans looked like more of the same with an especially lean mech roster. Doesn’t exactly get the blood pumping.
For those who don’t know, MechCommander and MechCommander 2 were released as freeware by Microsoft a while back. You’ll need to run them in a VM or through emulation on modern systems, so there’s some legwork required, but I’ve been enjoying playing through MC2 for the first time in forever. I expect the GOG versions will be playable directly, if not modernized some.
MC2, at least, is available from the good ol’ Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/MechCommander2USA