I have developed a great love-hate relationship with Battletech The Game of Armored Warefare. On the one hand its an amazing tactical simulation of giant robots fighting it out in a science-fiction future (what could possibly be more awesome than that). On the other hand it is miniatures board game franchise that can only be described as a complete cluster-fuck of jumbled information, literally stacks of books with little to guide you through the material you might want or need to play the games countless levels of complexity. Now blaming a game for having a lot of content is not something I want to do, I love content, but it’s quite tough to know how to navigate it all and its to this order of acquisition and absorption of material this guide is dedicated to. I want to help new players come to terms not just with what the material is, but what is a good order in which to acquire and read it.

In short, once you get your starter set or your box set, you will begin to explore the games option as all good gamers do and there is much to explore, 35 years of books, miniatures and content. You will get very little instruction or guidance from Catalyst Game Lab the current overseer of the franchise. There are some basic overviews, but very few quest arrows if you get my drift.

As I have recently gone through the very painful process of deciphering the games very cryptic codex of books and content, I thought I would use the white space on my blog to pass on that knowledge in hopes that the next person to come along trying to figure out how Battletech works beyond the basic sets might find the experience a little less painful.

The Starter and Box Sets

The first place any new gamer should start when it comes to entering the world of Battletech is the Starter and Box set for the game. There really is NO OTHER OPTION. If you can’t get the box set due to unavailability (a very likely scenario), do yourself a favor and wait for a reprint. Entering the world of Battletech in any other way will be an infuriating and very disappointing experience. In fact, one of the key issues with the franchise is that aside from the starter box and core set, everything else in the entire codex library is made for not expert players, but veteran masters. There is very little in the way of intermediate entry points between the box set and the remaining line of books. In essence you go from elementary school football on the playgrounds, to the NFL Superbowl.

That said, the Core Box sets of which there is currently two (Starter and Core), will teach you to play the game on the most basic level possible, which in the case of Battletech is the Mech vs. Mech or Lance vs. Lance (4 mechs vs. 4 mechs) game. This gives you the foundation you need to understand Battletech and by playing these sets of scenarios you will get a taste of what is possible as well as the general groove of the game. It should be enough to come to the conclusion as to whether or not Battletech is for you, but it should be noted that the core set is to Battletech, what finger painting is to art. A humble beginning, just the tip of the iceberg if you will. This rabbit hole goes very deep.

In Battletech the ERA in which you play (The time period in the game world) makes a huge difference to the game. The current core set is based in the year 3025, a period known as “The Succession Wars”, the Third Succession War to be exact. This is important if you care about cannon plot, but it’s also critical to the balance of the game.

One thing that is not really mentioned anywhere is that the Succession Wars in which the core box is set, is a time period when the technology level is relatively low which means the mechs have basic types of weapons. As the Era’s progress, so do the types of mechs and weapons available, which means that a Heavy Mech in the succession wars era is a very different beast than one in some future era.

When you are starting, that is just something you want to keep in the back of your mind and is also a consideration when choosing which expanded products you will purchase to support your game.

Its also important to note that the miniatures of the game are “rough estimations” and not exact units. Another words, they are playing pieces and while there are specific miniatures you can buy to represent specific battlemechs, generally this is a hobby preference and not a requirement. In reality in the game of Battletech there are literally hundreds if not thousands of unique units, Battletechs and much more and as you progress to higher tiers of play you will realize that unlike other miniatures, its not possible to collect “the set” or “be a completionist”. What mech you have is on your Battlesheet more than what miniature is on the table representing that mech. Think of it more like a role-playing game. If you have a mage elf, any mage elf miniature will do as a representation.

As such a Locust and a Jenner are similar enough that they are interchangeable mini’s and you will find that even if you collect miniatures you will very often resort to using proxies like this or more often cardboard stand ups or for convenience which notably come with your box set and you will likely find yourself printing out or acquiring more to facilitate your game. I guess the point here is that Battletech is a boardgame first and a miniature game second, the miniatures are fun 3d representation on the board but, this is a tactical game and you will spend far more time reviewing your battlesheet (your battlemechs character sheet).

Taking Your First Steps Beyond The Box Set

The Battletech universe is an extraordinary and rich setting with countless unique events, wars, people and places represented by 35 years of books that have been written for the game. Taking your first step outside of the core set can be daunting, but in effect you have two main paths. Rules or Story.

The Rules path which I will talk about a bit later is defiantly worth considering as the expanded rules for Battletech are exponentially expansive driving deeper and deeper, to a point of extreme excess, yet resulting in a very fulfilling enrichment of the game.

That said, I strongly advise you go the path of story first and the reason is simple. All of the rules material generally assumes that you have a strong working knowledge of the Battletech universe and I really wish someone had told me that when I started. You won’t find a word printed in any manual that doesn’t make a lot of assumptions about your understanding the setting, in fact, Battletech has a crap ton of terminology and concepts, without the background of the setting its increasingly difficult to decipher the material so as a first step I strongly recommend exploring and absorbing the Battletech universe first.

For that I recommend you start with the Battletech: Universe core book. This roughly 50 page book will take you through the history of humanity in the stars from their humble beginnings as explorers of space to the year 3067. It will explain core concepts, technology, the organizations and much of the terminology of the game. This is not a complete history of the Battletech universe (far from it) but it will catch you up and give you the necessary background to take the first steps into what is a much larger world. More importantly it will bring you to where you are with your box set history wise in great detail which I think will both enrich your experience for the games you are playing and make choosing where you go from here much easier.

If you want to go further down the story rabbit hole, I would recommend the individual house books though I would consider this a luxury and not really a necessity. The material in the core set and that of the Universe book give you a fairly good feel for the houses, these house books really are just icing on the cake. These books give additional details on the history of the Battletech universe, but they do so from the perspective of the different major factions of the game world which includes some of the key conflicts of the game involving the houses. Many of these conflicts are further detailed out in focused resources so if you find one you like, odds are you could play through that conflict in a campaign using one of these focused books (more on these focused resources later).

House books also bring in some rules, which if you have followed this guide so far should largely be ignored for now, but may become handy if you decide to for example represent one of the houses in a campaign. You will also find a lot of information about the preferences and structure of the different kind of units house uses, which plays more to the tone and cannon of armies you might be constructing later if and when you get into running campaigns.

Taking The Next Step

Once you have played a few matches with the core rulebook you may start to envision the creation of your own mechs, making alterations to weapons systems for your favorite or looking for some unique scenarios, perhaps even getting into running the game in campaign mode as the quick rulesbook from the core set talks about briefly. In Battletech there is a book for everything and the detail on any given subject is extensive and while you might see it as a fork in the road from this point, I don’t believe it really is.

The goal of your battletech experience should be that of a gradual layering of content, rules and expansion so that you can get your head around the games extended material, but if you take the wrong fork you will find yourself reading books that reference material from other books you haven’t read yet (a common practice in Battletech) and making the assumption that you have. This, in a way, is part of the problem with the Battletech franchise as a whole, it makes a lot of assumptions about what you may have read so far.

The next real step to take is to get the Battletech Manual. You might be tempted by other core rulebooks, most notably Battletech: Total Warefare but as you have just learned how to play Battletech with Battlemechs, dragging the rainbow of other units from Protomechs, to Aerospace units and all the rules weight that comes with these combined arms rulesets works under the assumption that you are already crystal clear on the advanced rules of the game. Total Warefare presents these rules to you, but in my opinion, it does so with equal measure, giving as much weight to less exciting units like ground forces and tanks as it does to the unit that made the game famous, Battemechs. To me, Total Warefare is something for consideration later down the line and may indeed never make it on your plate. The Battletech manual on the other hand, I would consider an essential book to playing the core game.

The Battletech Manual is really just an extension of and the complete rulebook for Battlemechs you have already learned and as such I think its the next logical step.

In the Battletech Manual you will find complete rules as they exist for running Battlemech scenarios & fights, including all of the expanded equipment from the large array of Eras as well as more thorough and exhaustive rules for the game as a whole. After familiarizing yourself with this book and playing it using the full rules a few times you will have leaped into the larger world that is Battletech from a logical point and much of what you might read after this book will make a lot more sense.

I don’t think its unfair to say however that once you have the Battletech manual and the Universe Book, you may already have everything you will ever need to enjoy the game. All books from this point are generally very advanced and work towards creating larger and more grandiose experiences, but simultaneously pulls away from the core of the game that you have learned to play with the core set and this book (Battletech Manual) as well as the star of the show, Battlemechs.

Its really a question of how much complexity and detail you really need to enjoy the game and how far you want to expand your experiance. For most people I would say the adventure from here isn’t one of exploring the rules, but rather exploring the setting which coincidentally would continue to add optional rules, but would not necessarily change the feel and track of the game as you have learned it to this point. I guess what I’m saying is that, for a couple of friends who want to get together and have robot fights and that is exciting, adding anymore of the core rulebooks is really not going to improve that type of experience any further. Enhancing that experience might come in the form of finding interesting scenarios and battle situations instead or perhaps more relevant would be to add more story and setting information to your table to give the fights some relevance and context in the scope of the worlds setting.

Expanding Your Horizons

After getting the Battletech Manual and getting even more intimate with the core rules of the game you will have probably generated a few questions. One I’m certain off is trying to come to grips with the difference between “The Boardgame” and “Alpha Strike”. After all you got those Alpha Strike cards in the core set and you don’t use them in the board game.

I don’t think it’s a decision point as you could very well play both, but there are two conceptual differences between the board game and the Alpha Strike way to play the game of Battletech and a plethora of rules differences.

The first is that Alpha Strike does not use a hex grid map and is instead played on custom terrain like a more traditional miniature game. Secondly Alpha Strike allows for larger forces to be used in a game of Battletech while not increasing the time needed to play. The Boardgame is typically a Lance vs. Lance (4 vs. 4) fight, while Alpha Strike can handle a lot more in the same time scope. The sacrifice here is some of the details of tactical combat, things are a bit more abstracted.

For the remainder of this article I will work under the assumption that you want to play the boardgame given that I have no experience with Alpha Strike, I can’t comment one way or the other on its qualty. What I do know is that I enjoy the detail and smaller focus of the boardgame and this is how I choose to play it and as such, its what I feel comfortable offering advice on.

None the less should you choose to play using Alpha Strike rules, I would imagine much of the advice up to this point would apply just the same and potentially moving forward it may very well continue to do so.

To me the next logical step for exploring Battletech is to create some context for the fights you are having. Scenarios and one shots are fun, but given enough of them you are eventually going to find that they feel a bit repetitive and in a way the entire Battletech franchise is built around the idea that players will be exploring new challenges on a regular basis. Many of the books created for Battletech make this assumption and as such offer unique challenges and experiences. The only real question is where to start.

Personally I think before seeking out scenarios and unique source books there is one additional stop that should not be missed. I strongly suggest picking up a Technical Readout Book, in this case The Succession Wars: Technical Readout which will introduce you to a whole bunch of new Battlemechs in the era your box set is based as well as giving you more narrative food for the mechs you have already been playing with. The Succession War Technical Readout book is a great resource that really does nothing to add rules weight, yet it offers many new options and lots of narrative flavor, aka context.

You will no doubt find new mechs you want to try as well as alternative versions of mechs you already have and so naturally the next thing you will be asking yourself is “hey, where do I get the record sheets for these mechs”.

The answer is simple. You can simply photocopy and print the blank mech sheet that comes with your box-set and copy the information from the Technical Readout or you can pick up a 3rd party tool designed to provide you with every record sheet for every mech ever released as well as the ability to create your own. Sounds good right. You can download the tool and I highly recommend it as a major time saver. What I don’t recommend is buying record sheets, this is just pointless, its like paying for someone else to fill in a character sheet for you, its madness! Save your money for something more useful.

That concludes the first part of this article. Look for part II coming to you soon where we will tackle some more advanced topics and resources available for Battletech the game of armored combat.