Starting Battletech

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BattleTech
Wargame published by Catalyst Game Labs
No. of Players	Billions
First Publication	1984
Essential Books	Total Warfare or The BattleMech Manual

BattleTech is a detailed, all-encompassing game (or family of games) focused on 31st-century warfare with massive machines known as BattleMechs. Check out the game's main article for more information on the game itself and the setting. However, since the game has been in production in one form or another since 1984 and has amassed a good 1200 years of fictional history in its timeline, it can be pretty daunting for a new prospective player. This page will be your humble guide on a journey, where the end point is giant robots tearing each others' limbs off and beating each other with them. Should be fun.

As a quick note, this guide is only concerned with the Classic BattleTech game system, and not the simplified spinoff Alpha Strike.

Basic Principles

If you're on this website, you're probably familiar with other wargames. BattleTech behaves pretty differently from most of them. It's not a stretch to say it's a board game instead of a miniatures wargame.

• The biggest difference is factions. Most wargames require the player to choose a faction, such as the Orks in Warhammer 40,000 or the Empire in Star Wars: Legion, and those factions determine special rules and your access to units. BattleTech doesn't do this - any player can use any unit and there are no faction rules. There are varying factions in the fluff and story, but these generally aren't reflected in gameplay. Some 'Mechs are most used by specific factions, such as the Draconis Combine preferring the Panther, but captured units and battlefield salvage can justify any faction using any 'Mech.

• The next major difference is the level of detail. BattleTech is light on abstraction. Rather than units having rough 'hit points', you track the individual subsystems of the 'Mechs, such as their gyros and limb actuators, and you track individual shots worth of ammo. This level of detail requires less models on the field; a normal game will have four 'Mechs per side, and a huge game will have twelve.

• No "What You See Is What You Get." You don't actually need to use the right miniature to represent a 'Mech. You could use a different miniature, a paper cutout, et cetera. All it really needs is to have a defined front and fit into one of the hexes on the board.

• BattleTech has an evolving timeline. Every unit in the game has a year it was introduced, and individual pieces of equipment are the same. As a general rule, 3015 is the least advanced time period, and more advanced technologies are introduced as the timeline progresses, with the "current" of the timeline being set in 3151. Players generally agree on a time period or specific year when setting up a game. Generally, the majority of groups either play in the 3020s or 3050s, the Succession Wars or Clan Invasion eras.

• Every 'Mech has multiple variants. To match with the advancing technology and fit them into the various factions' preferences, every 'Mech has multiple variants with different equipment and weapons. These can be simple changes, like swapping a targeting computer for a laser, or radical rebuilds that essentially make the 'Mech a different machine entirely. What this means is that a given miniature can be many different units for you, changing to fit your tastes, your faction, and the time period you're playing in. There are also "OmniMechs", which can hot-swap between various configurations instead of being built as one.

What To Buy

There's a few different ways to get into BattleTech. As of this writing, the best way is probably the A Game Of Armored Combat (AGoAC) box set. Retailing at $60 USD (and easily available at Barnes & Noble if you're in the States), the AGoAC box is a complete game experience for two people. The eight 'Mechs included easily split into two Lances of four 'Mechs each (and most of them are both iconic and reasonable for use by any faction). The box includes two full map sheets (the standard number for a 4v4 game) and the box includes rules, dice, background info, and everything else you need.

The second choice, if you prefer to dip your toes in for pocket change, is the Beginner Box. A miniature version of the above. Two 'Mechs, one map sheet, and the quick-start rules. It is mostly notable for currently being the only box where you can get the Vindicator 'Mech in plastic.

The third choice is the Clan Invasion box set. This one is theoretically considered an expansion to A Game of Armored Combat, but since it includes a pair of mapsheets and five 'Mechs with two points of Elemental power armor, it's a good expansion if you want to play the Clans, just be aware that its ruleset adds on to what AGoAC offers and does not stand alone. Clan Invasion naturally introduces the Clans and their more advanced technology, including mentioned power armor. It also includes the Mad Cat, one of the favorite designs of the franchise. Just a note, if the Clans sound appealing to you, understand that you'll pretty much always be outnumbered. Thanks to their skilled pilots and advanced technology, a "Star" of five Clan 'Mechs is often balanced against two lances of eight Inner Sphere 'Mechs.

It's highly recommended that you buy at least one of the above - you'll want the paper fold out mapsheets, unless you're playing hexless BattleTech, in which case you'll need a bunch of terrain, and AGoAC and Clan Invasion both give a lot of good iconic 'Mech designs.

Core Rules

After you've picked out your starter, you'll want to look into rules. A Game of Armored Combat contains a condensed version of the core rules, but the Beginner Box only has the simplified Quick-Start rules, and Clan Invasion doesn't have core rules at all. Whichever you get, the next recommended purchase is the BattleMech Manual. This is a complete rulebook with everything you need to do 'Mech versus 'Mech combat. It'll keep you going for a long time, until you decide to start adding other unit types. Unlike the other core rule option, the BattleMech Manual is concise and well laid out.

The alternate core rulebook is BattleTech: Total Warfare. Total Warfare is theoretically the real core rulebook of the game, but it runs into one of BattleTech's biggest pitfalls and virtues: its all-encompassing nature. Total Warfare has the full rules for combined arms units: 'Mechs, tanks, hovercraft, helicopters, infantry, and aerospace fighters, among others. Total Warfare is intended to work with the TechManual, and together they make a complete game experience, but the layout is pretty clunky. It's more of a reference work than a game manual, and reading it is not a good way to learn BattleTech. The BattleMech Manual actually teaches you the game as you play, so it's a better intro book.

Speaking of, the TechManual provides complete rules for constructing your own BattleMechs and other unit types. Whatever kind of 'Mech you could possibly want to assemble can very likely be done, as can combat and support vehicles, infantry and battle armor units, and aerospace fighters. The TechManual is a companion book to Total Warfare and should probably be the last rulebook you buy if you're just learning the game. There's plenty of options available just picking from standard units and their variants.

What Next?

Once you've got your hands on your first few 'Mechs, a map, and the core rules, you have to wonder, what next? Well, you COULD stop here. After all, you can use anything to represent a 'Mech. But if you want more 'Mechs, there's a few options

• The first: Iron Wind Metals produces models for nearly every canon design in BattleTech. These models are metal, and some of the designs look rather dated, but for a long time, this was all there was for BattleTech, and buying from IWM has the advantage of letting you pick out exactly the mini you're after from an enormous range. Generally, these models will average about $20 USD each, after the '22 price jump, making them the most expensive choice by far.

• The second: Catalyst Game Labs, who also publish the BattleTech books, produce a range of ForcePacks. These models are plastic, from the same design team that did the models in all the core sets described above, and generally very high quality. The designs have a modern aesthetic that matches current art, and their proportions tend to be good. The big downside of buying from the ForcePacks is that you can only buy from predetermined packs instead of picking and choosing. These packs contain four to six 'Mechs (or eight vehicles) and will run you around $6 per 'Mech.

• The third: Etsy is absolutely full of people selling 3D prints of miniatures for BattleTech. The vast majority of these designs are ripped straight from the video games, particularly MechWarrior Online and MechwWarrior 5: Mercenaries. Up until AGoAC released, this was the only way to get decent, modern looking models, but with Catalyst's plastic boxes existing, the main utility of the Etsy stores is getting designs that haven't been converted to plastic and don't look good in their metal designs.

Combined Arms

'Mechs may be the stars of the show, but BattleTech has more than just 'Mechs. Once you've got Total Warfare in your hands, BattleTech has rules for plenty of other unit types, including infantry, battle-armored infantry, tanks (combat vehicles), hovercraft, VTOLs (helicopters), aerospace fighters, conventional fighters, DropShips (trans-atmospheric spacecraft) and even aquatic naval vessels. As a general rule, aerospace fighters and naval vessels aren't worth the effort, but the others can be valuable additions to your games after you've gotten BattleMechs under your belt. The issue, of course, is getting models to represent them with.

• As of this writing (April '22), The new BattleTech: Mercenaries Kickstarter was recently announced, and it will be bringing plastic models of various vehicles to market. It's coming in March 2023.

• Iron Wind Metals produces models for most canon designs. In addition, plenty of vehicles have 3d prints or STLs available on Etsy and similar places, just like 'Mechs.

• The company GHQ Miniatures, which has been making wargame minis since 1967, has a huge line of models from the world wars through to today. They're the right scale for BattleTech (1/285th) and both cheap and high quality. GHQ actually supplies NATO's military wargamers. The only issue is that many designs, especially World War II and current ones, are immediately recognizable, and it might break immersion to put BattleMechs next to what's clearly a T-34, so try pulling obscure and lesser known models - the Cold War is a treasure trove of weird vehicles no one talks about today. That being said, kitbashing and molding with greenstuff works too if you have the time and imagination.

• DropShips take up a full seven hexes (a central hex and the six immediately surrounding it) and are ten levels tall (five times the height of a 'Mech), so they're really best represented with a paper cutout. IWM does sell resin ones, and printed ones are available, but game-scale DropShips are heavily out of scale with 'Mech miniatures, so having an actual model doesn't get you much.