BattleTech

Wargame published by Catalyst Game Labs
No. of Players	Trillions
First Publication	1984
Essential Books	Total Warfare

This page is in need of cleanup. Srsly. It's a fucking mess.

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"It is the 31st century, a time of endless wars that rage across human-occupied space. As star empires clash, these epic wars are won and lost by BattleMechs, 23-56 foot tall humanoid metal titans bristling with lasers, autocannons and dozens of other lethal weapons; enough firepower to level entire city blocks. Your elite force of MechWarriors drives these juggernauts into battle, proudly holding your faction s flag high, intent on expanding the power and glory of your realm. At their beck and call are the support units of armored vehicles, power armored infantry, aerospace fighters and more, wielded by a MechWarrior's skillful command to aid him in ultimate victory. Will they become legends, or forgotten casualties? Only your skill and luck will determine their fate!" - Product promotional tagline.

Battletech, or Mechwarrior as most of the non-neckbearded populace know it, is a tabletop wargame about armies of giant robots fighting one another for honor, money, and territory in a far-distant feudal future. Think Warhammer 40,000 but replace the Space Marines with scantily-clad Mechwarriors and their giant, iconic, Battlemechs.

Holy Crap, Robots are awesome

*Battledroids*, the first edition of the game, c. 1984

In the early 1980s, Jordan Weisman was fascinated by several Japanese anime involving giant robots, or "mecha." He was quoted as saying that he liked the designs and idea of giant robots fighting on the battlefield, but did not have a taste for the storylines that the Japanese wrote about them. In 1984, Weisman founded FASA and acquired the licenses to designs from several series, the most famous being Super Dimension Fortress Macross, though the largest portion came from Fang of the Sun Dougram and combined them to make Battletech.

The first edition of this game, called Battledroids, was a hex-based boardgame played on a battlefield illustrated with various types of terrain. It came with two large plastic minis of featured mechs, imported from Japan. Initially, sales were mediocre as the sheer size of the mechs made them awkward in gameplay. Soon after the launch of Battledroids Lucasfilm filed a lawsuit against FASA for using the name "droids," which they had trademarked in 1978. Discretion being the better part of valor, FASA changed the name of the game to Battlemech in time for the second edition printing in 1986. This time, cardboard stand-ins replaced the plastic miniatures, and a tradition was born. To this day, Battletech can be played without purchasing any physical models and with any proxy you please.

Following the release of the second edition, fans of the game clamored for new miniatures. FASA obliged, rescaling their mechs for more convenient play and designing a host of in-house mechs to broaden variety and bridge the gap between the sleek Macross and crude Dougram designs. New models notwithstanding, the third edition, dubbed Battletech, was shipped with solely Macross- and Dougram-based minis. However, in 1995 Harmony Gold, an American localization company which had licensed the international distribution and toy rights to SDF Macross, issued a C&D against FASA for the use of all mecha designs from the Macross franchise. FASA ceased production of these miniatures, which were among the most popular designs in the franchise, and published a fourth edition of the game in 1996 again featuring cardboard tokens, which were all based on their own original mechs.

Before Battletech, the mecha genre was seen as something that belonged mostly the Japanese. With few exceptions (Power Rangers and Star Wars), the genre was almost entirely made up of anime productions imported from Japan. Battletech pioneered a new approach to mecha within the Western fandom, featuring mostly stories of pseudo-realistic wars fought by real soldiers rather than teenagers taking on forces of evil or single-handedly winning interplanetary wars, plots that dominated the few mecha series that were subbed by the dedicated VHS fansubbers of the day. More importantly, the physical limitations of the Battlemech's, unlike the limitations of tanks in, say, Warhammer 40,000, are critical to the planning and strategy of outfitting mechs and using them on the tabletop.

The Mechs

BattleTech mechs function and are utilized more like tanks with legs than the super-agile flying mecha common in Japanese depictions. Mechs are deployed in formations of four or five, called lances in the Inner Sphere and stars in the Clans, respectively. They are able to operate in space, on planets with caustic atmospheres, underwater, and in a wide range of temperatures that would be lethal to humans, from instant-death cold to burn-me-up hot. One of the biggest upsides of mechs as combat vehicles is their extreme efficiency-of-arms, able to run an effectively limitless amount of time without requiring fuel, and thanks to their hyper-efficient myomer 'muscles', able to carry more weapons and armor per-ton than any other combat platform in existence. The only things stopping a mech from being able to fight forever are ammunition, repairs, and allowing the pilot to rest. Even when a mech is destroyed, losing the pilot is a relatively rare occurrence thanks to very effective ejection systems. A destroyed mech chassis can also be salvaged and rebuilt to fight another day, good as new.

As far as locomotion styles, bipedal mechs are the most common, with the weapon systems mounted either in the torso compartments or on the arms. Quadrepedal mechs do exist but are relatively rare, they are slower than bipedal mechs and don't offer the same amount of weapon space for a given weight class. Bipedal mechs can also grasp things in their hands (if they have them) like melee weapons or pesky tanks. A mech swinging a giant katana to chop off another mech's arm is about the most metal image possible. Early versions of BattleTech feature mechs that could transform into fighter planes, but these were dropped relatively quickly in its life cycle due to copyright problems.

The main downside of mechs is their inability to efficiently manage heat buildup. Heat is generated by the fusion reactor, the environment, movement, and mostly as a result of firing weapons. Mechs mount multiple gigantic one-ton heatsink units to deal with this buildup, but it is a constant problem for pilots to manage. Mechs that feature a lot of energy-based weapons will generate especially high levels of heat, and therefore manage very poorly in extremely hot environments. Firing all the weapons of certain mech variants at once (the Nova mech is most infamous) can cause it to overheat to such an extent that the reactor core melts down before the heatsinks can shunt the heat out of the chassis, which is bad. Safety measures that shut down the entire mech when it reaches a certain temperature threshold are always installed, but since this usually happens in a combat situation, and thus leaves the mech defenseless, some pilots will intentionally disable the safeguards to take their chances. Depending on the technology level of a given game, more efficient heatsinks can be assigned to mechs that remove heat more quickly and allow hotter builds. The fluff also mentions some experimental heatsinks that changed the heat energy to light (???) but had the downside of making the mech look like a walking rave, as well as heatsinks that utilized caustic liquids to move heat faster but with a limited lifespan.

Weapons consist of three general categories: ballistic, energy, and missile. Each has their own strengths and weakness: ballistic weapons weigh more, require ammo, but do not generate much heat, energy weapons are the opposite, and missiles can be indirectly fired with targeting data from scouts but can be jammed. Outfitting a mech for the proper engagement is key to obtaining victory: mechs outfitted for mech-to-mech combat will generally mount only high-damage weapons with lower ammo counts and slower rates of fire, while mechs set for vehicle and infantry combat will mount weapons that fire quickly but do lower damage per shot. Likewise, mechs that do not expect steady resupply will mount more energy weapons so they are not beholden to ammo counts.

Mechs range between 20 to 100 tons in four weight classes, though a few experimental units lie outside these ranges. The weight classes are light (20-35), medium (40-55), heavy (60-75), and assault (80-100). Considering their size (23-56 feet), that's pretty light; the Maus (33 feet long and 11 feet high) mega-tank that Adolf Hitler demanded weighed 188 tons. Most mechs are also only a little slower than the M1 Abrams, the fastest main battle tank today, with a top speed of about 68 kph, while some scout variants can reach speeds of 120 kph and faster. Mechs can also be mounted with jump jets that give them the ability to hop across the battlefield or up/down terrain. According to varying fluff depictions, mechs are even able to climb up/down cliff walls and perform flying dropkicks to enemy cockpits, which is awesome.

Depending on where in the timeline the specific game takes place (this is a player choice), there will be two possible classes of mechs: Battlemechs and Omnimechs. Battlemechs are the older style, with a set number of variants that cannot be changed in the field. This style was universal in the Inner Sphere before the arrival of the Clans. Omnimechs, a Clan invention, feature a modular construction style and are able to have their loadout quickly changed in the field as the situation demands. For example, a Dragon Battlemech comes in a default configuration consisting of one LRM-10, one Autocannon/5, and two medium lasers. The 1C variant replaces the Autocannon/5 with an Autocannon/2 and more armor, while the 5N upgrades the Autocannon/5 to an Ultra Autocannon/5. A pilot must use one of these variants, and is incapable of changing the loadout without serious reworking of the mech's internals. Conversely, a Mad Dog Omnimech comes with a default configuration of two LRM-20s, two medium pulse lasers, and two large pulse lasers. A pilot is freely able to modify this loadout as they see fit, say dropping the two medium pulse lasers for more missile ammo/armor or changing the LRMs to SRMs for short-range engagements.

Like most Western sci-fi series, Battlemechs are somewhat inspired by real theoretical technologies; their weapons range from machine guns (albeit very big ones) and missiles, to railguns and particle accelerators. The biggest leaps from reality (aside from FTL travel) are the fusion reactor, a technology still only theoretically possible and which is fueled solely by water, the neurohelmet, which interfaces with the pilot's brain and keeps the mech from falling over based on the pilot's own innate sense of balance, and the massive muscle-like myomer fibers that actually allow the mech to move.

While Battlemechs dominate the battlefields of Battletech, armored vehicles still have a place. Most of the time, tanks, hovercraft, and APCs are used where mechs would be too expensive (or too advanced) to maintain or in roles where a mech would be ineffective. This means that, in addition to Battlemechs, one can find infantry, vehicles, aerial vehicles, naval vehicles, and spaceships. It is worth noting that vehicles can be a real threat to Battlemechs in great enough numbers, since they mount weapons that can do real damage to mechs. Some tanks can also push the 100-ton limit and sport the gigantic weaponry usually mounted on a mech chassis. In other words, where mechs are Space Marines, the vehicles are more akin to Eldar Aspects.

Mechs in BattleTech also have a curious tendency to go up in a mini nuclear explosion when their reactor core is breached by weapon fire. We're talking mushroom cloud, explosion, heat, radiation, the whole bit. This has been nicknamed "stackpoling" after BattleTech novel author Michael Stackpole, who includes at least one of these events in each novel he writes. If the reactor was actually breached, what should happen is a meltdown of the reactor and probably some chunks of the surrounding mech that quickly burns out because the reactor can't maintain the fusion reaction without proper containment. Reactors are generally incapable of generating an actual nuclear explosion: real-world reactor "explosions" are usually a result of the coolant flash-overheating and generating a pressure-based steam explosion that destroys the reactor building. Lingering radiation would still be a problem of course, but that is usually handwaved away in BattleTech fluff or not mentioned at all.

Fluff

Much like Warhammer, the Battletech franchise has an extensive expanded universe. Dozens of books, numerous spinoff games, video games in multiple genres, and even an animated cartoon have delved into the setting and created an entertaining, if convoluted, history that has real influences on how the game is played. Unlike Warhammer, there are no Xenos, so humans get all the glory (and blame).

History of the Inner Sphere

After a period of typical Cold War-era speculative history, mankind was mostly united under the Terran Alliance and discovered how to travel faster-than-light by opening up artificial wormholes. By 2235, most of mankind's interstellar colonies threw off the yoke of the Alliance and formed their own stellar nation-states. What followed was a period of war and chaos which led to the rise of the "Great Houses," feudal dynasties of powerful families adhering to various pseudo-historical ideals (like Kurita's Japan fetishism) competing for total dominance of mankind. However Terra, as Earth became known, remained the most technologically-advanced star nation, and remained unconquered by the competing Great Houses who turned their focus on one another instead. This is one of the reasons for the severe technological stagnation that is a hallmark of the Battletech universe.

In 2349, the Terran Hegemony introduced the first Battlemech, the 100-ton Mackie, and the face of war changed forever.

Mechs Just got Real

The introduction of the Mackie shifted the focus of military development away from interstellar Warships back to ground forces. The Terran Hegemony was able to prove that the 100-ton Battlemech was far superior to conventional ground vehicles (interestingly, the Terran Hegemony's main battle tank was the Israeli Merkava), allowing a single man to destroy formations of opposing non-Mechs. Of course, the rest of the Inner Sphere wanted the same capability, and in 2355 the plans for the Battlemech were stolen. The Age of the Battlemech had begun.

During the next hundred years, as the Great Houses vied for supremacy and founded the nucleus of the future Successor States, the Terran Hegemony was able to exert great influence as the most technologically-advanced and neutral of the great powers. This would lead to the creation of the Star League in 2571, a grand union of all of humanity's interstellar nations. While ostensibly created for the purpose of uniting mankind and keeping the peace between the stars, it was also a massive powerplay by Terra to secure the raw materials it needed to maintain its technological edge and once more bring mankind under Terra's dominion. In keeping with the feudal society that now dominated mankind's worlds, the position of First Lord of the Star League was invested in Terra's ruling House, the Cameron dynasty.

While Hidden Wars would plague the Star League throughout it's reign, no conflicts were fought between it's members as long as the Star League Defense Force kept the peace between factions. Terra's hoard of advanced technologies were shared freely among the worlds of man, and a new Golden Age descended. It all came to an end in 2766. The last of the Camerons was assassinated by Stefan Amaris, a power-hungry politician from the Periphery, the ring of interstellar nations that had refused to join the Star League and been conquered for their trouble. Claiming the mantle of Emperor of the Star League and Director-General of the Terran Hegemony, Amaris was immediately denounced by the commander of the SLDF, Aleksandr Kerensky.

"Fuck you guys, I'm out." - Aleksandr Kerensky, Great Father of Clans

A New Dark Age

The Amaris Civil War destroyed the League, and led to a new Dark Age. The Great Houses, throwing off their loyalty to Terra, refused to aid either Amaris or Kerensky, and waited for the war to pass. Kerensky emerged the victor, but with the Cameron dynasty ended the other Great Houses began to vie for position of First Lord of the Star League. Disgusted by the politicking and betrayal, in 2784 Kerensky took the greater portion of the SLDF into exile beyond the Periphery. Those who remained pledged their loyalty to the Star League's last civil authority, the Ministry of Communication, which would later become Comstar, the sole provider of internet connections between worlds. Thus the Star League lost its last measure of power, and the Great Houses began the First Succession War.

Five Succession Wars, over the course of two centuries, would follow. Never would a Great House gain enough strength to declare itself master of mankind, especially since none would ever conquer Terra. Technology would stagnate and regress, creating the Lostech phenomenon, technology which mankind could no longer reproduce, maintain, or even understand. Where before feudalism had been a political phenomenon, hundreds of worlds across the Inner Sphere regressed to or below the technological level of the 20th Century, and hundreds more in the Periphery failed entirely. The sole bright spot was Comstar, the corporate religious entity which maintained the Hyper Pulse Generator network that enabled FTL communications between inhabited worlds. Comstar became the rulers of Terra in the wake of the Star League's collapse, and leveraged their control of the HPG network to ensure their inviolability in exchange for maintaining the incomprehensible HPG networks and neutral treatment of all communications between worlds. In order to maintain their power, they would actively sabotage, headhunt, or kill all promising technological advancements and promising scientists to maintain their monopoly and techno-religious authority.

Eventually the Inner Sphere would stabilize around the Great Houses and their associated stellar empires. However, technological progress remained stagnant, and the rare factories capable of producing such advanced technologies as Battlemechs became critical components in the shattered military-industrial complexes of the so-called Successor States. Millions would die so that an LED monitor factory could be taken by one side, or so that a hundred precision-machined laser lenses could be plundered from a forgotten SLDF armory. Real progress towards recovery could only be made after large caches of information which survived the fall of the Star League were recovered; the most significant were the recovery of a long-lost Star League university's library in 3013, and the recovery and free dissemination of the contents of the Helm Memory Core in 3028. In 3028, the two largest and most powerful Successor States, the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, were united by dynastic marriage, and it seemed that a new Golden Age might be only decades away.

But the Inner Sphere had forgotten all about Kerensky's exodus, and nobody wants Peace to break out in a wargame setting, soooo...

Suddenly Clannerscum

Kerensky and his followers first settled on the Pentagon Worlds, where they tried to start a new society and a new Star League. They failed though, and the wars erupted between the worlds, showing the bitter irony of life. Kerensky tried to move on, but suffered a heart attack, and the leadership was overtaken by his son, Nicholas Kerensky (who unlike his father had hair and was probably a closet furry). Nicholas took the remaining followers with him to a planet he called "Dream Land" and established the twenty original Clans.

The Clans are a tribal society that is divided into five castes - Warriors (Religious and Political Leaders and Soldiers), Scientists (Less respected but are considered highly important), Merchants (Detested and only kept as a necessity), Technicians (Engineers and Warrior's Servants), and Laborers (Serfs, repressed as needed). Although during the birth each child is tested for their relevance to a certain caste, but more often than not are the same as their parents. Speaking of which, Clanners strongly believe in eugenics, and most of the Warrior Caste members are genetically enhanced clones/mashups. Other castes are selectively bred by the instructions from Science Caste. On a positive side it would mean that even neckbeards would end up breeding. On the other hand, the society has only a few acceptable non-technical forms of information, meaning that there really is no reason for there to be neckbeards. Paradoxes aside, Clans were created towards efficiency, and even their language differs from the one used in the Inner Sphere. Clans constantly compete in everything, from combat to technological prowess, as they foresaw their return to the Inner Sphere and it's liberation in their hands.

And that day was not far off.

ilClan

A prophecy of days far off, the ilClan is a religious myth that states that someday a Clan will take control of Terra, the Cradle of Humanity. The Khan (leader) of the Clan of Clans which captures Terra will become the new, true ilKhan (Khan of Khans) and re-establish the Star League, over which their blood shall reign in perpetuity. All will be Clan, Clan will be all.

ilClan is also an abortive Battletech rulebook that has been in the works since 2002, ever since the Dark Age Era was published. Ostensibly intended to be the next historical Era, featuring all new rules to reflect the dominance of Clan society and technology, the bankruptcies and sales that Battletech went through stalled all development. In addition, most fans are vehemently opposed to the destruction of most of the factions in the game, and have spoken up at every opportunity to denounce the plans behind ilClan. A prank release of a provisional ilClan historical outline drew tremendous outcry and Catalyst Game Labs has subsequently decided to focus on rereleasing and updating older Era rulesets.

Factions

While each faction has a certain flavor and preferred equipment/tactics, factions do not limit your gameplay choices to particular sets of mechs/units/components, as in many other games (Warhammer 40,000 is a good example, amongst many other skirmish-level wargames). So if something you want to use is in specific era of Battletech History (FEDCOM Civil War, Clan Invasion, et cetera), anything goes. Although its common for players to roleplay as being employed by some major power, and limiting themselves to their styles. Either that, or they play as mercenaries and do as they please.

The Inner Sphere

While other time periods might have better or more interesting rules, the most popular ruleset remains the eras between the Foruth Succession War (3028) to just before the Word of Blake Jihad (3067). This list of Inner Sphere factions covers those periods.

Federated Suns

Ruled by House Davion, the Federated Suns is feudal Space America or nepotistic Space UK. Lawful Good, ruled by a Great House as inbred as any other is, and with all positions of power occupied by the same set of mostly blood-related elites. Without the blue blood, you're just a clever commoner. However, the Federated Suns isn't as stratified as the other Successor States, and it's easier for a common citizen to climb the ladders of wealth and power, which fuels an entrepreneurial society that is among the wealthiest in the Inner Sphere.

Thanks to their great wealth, the Federated Suns can afford to fund actual scientific research in the form of the New Avalon Institute of Technology, or Space MIT, and the Davions supported most of the tech development and recovery in the Inner Sphere prior to the Clan Invasion. They also got lucky when they found an ancient Star League library filled with various editions of tabletop wargame splatbooks.

The Federated Suns also kind of have a thing for autocannons. Think Space Wolves with wolves, or Orks with Dakka, and you have an idea. If it does not have an autocannon on it the Suns will find a way to give it one, and if it does have an autocannon they find a way to upgrade it to a Rotary Autocannon. So if you like autocannons this is the faction for you.

Prior to the Fourth Succession War, the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth were united through marriage, forming the Federated Commonwealth, the largest and most powerful empire in the galaxy since the Star League. In order to bridge the distance between the two nations, however, the Federated Commonwealth had to conquer large swathes of the Capellan Confederation, which they did easily. However, only a few decades later the Commonwealth was broken up by the FedCom Civil War, when Katrina Steiner schemed to either take over the Commonwealth or secede the Lyran half of it because she was a royal bitch. Is currently getting kicked around by pretty much everybody during the Dark Age.

Lyran Commonwealth

House Steiner: Germanic Norse-Scots, the Lyran Commonwealth are the biggest and the richest of all the houses. Except all their commanders are nigh-incompetent. Always, no matter what, their commanders are genocidal and idiotic. To make up for the incompetence of command, Steiner forces are armed with the best weapons money can buy, with a serious hard-on for Heavy and Assault-class mechs(and tanks). A standard Steiner scout lance features four 100-ton Atlas mechs. Steiner forces tend to be big and slow, barely able to outmaneuver enemy fortresses. Of course, once they(eventually) get into range, you can kiss that fortress goodbye.

Thinking they're all clever, the Steiners hook up with the Davions and form a super state called FedCom in an effort to kick everyone's ass (see above). Predictably, this romance starts out awesome then epic fails and it's back to single life for the Steiners.

Free Worlds League

House Marik: The Free Worlds League is the only democratic Major Power. Full of red tape, civil wars, and the color purple, they tend to rely on non-mech forces for majority of their army, actually having a balanced force that does not let the mech jocks overtake all the glory. Unless they voted otherwise. They started out completely divided in the Dark Age 'till a new Marik got shit done and reformed the League. They were the first house, actually, not that anyone cares anymore.

Draconis Combine

House Kurita: The Draconis Combine, IMPERIAL JAPAN IN SPACE! No, seriously, they follow Bushido and include more pseudo-Japanese in their speech than a participant of AnimeCon. Both from the age of Samurai and the Militaristic Imperial period of the 1920s to 40s. The 12 year old listed above, if he/she leaves Davion, will likely move to this weeaboo paradise with it's delusional "fierce solo samurai warrior takes on all opponents Kurosawa Style" appeal, not realizing that lone mechs get gang-banged by enemies who are teamed up like a pack of mechanical hyenas. Defended by weeaboos despite being responsible for the single most horrific massacre in human history during the First Succession War. For an alternate look into this supposed massacre, please read Did 52 million really die?

Similar to the Davions and their love of autoautocannons and Steiner and their love of assault mechs, Kuritans are really, really into PPCs (particle projector cannons). If there is a mech that can possibly mount a PPC, the Dracs will put one on it. For instance, see the Catapult: a 65-ton long-range fire support mech intended for indirect fire using the Long Range Missle (LRM) racks in its "ears". Almost every variant of the Catapult is centered around these LRM racks with a few minor backup weapons, and no commander in their right mind would fix what isn't broken...except for House Kurita. Once the Combine got their hands on it those ears were replaced with two PPCs for direct fire support and two machine guns for ~~civilian massacres~~ INFANTRY DETERRENTS.

Kuritans were also involved in the worst Battletech novel ever written, wherein a ship of theirs was lost in time and space, and found giant, alien, sentient chickens. Far Country is a Shamefur Dispray!

Capellan Commonwealth

House Liao: rulers of The Capellan Confederation. Autocratic Imperial Chinese/Russians (mostly Chinese) with a caste system based on personal achievement. Fond of insane rulers and weird pseudo-religious cults and secret societies. Frequent invasions makes them prone to guerrilla war and various underhanded and sneaky tactics. They go for stealth and electronic warfare the way the Davions go for autocannons, best exemplified by their iconic Raven electronic warfare 'mech. Got the absolute shit beat out of them by the Federated Commonwealth during the Fourth Succession War, got revenge when the Commonwealth tore itself apart a few decades later.

ComStar

ComStar: The result of what is essentially Comcast IN SPACE being appointed caretaker of human knowledge while the Great Houses were busy stomping each other back into the Stone Age during the Succession Wars. Their original purpose was to maintain politically neutral control over Terra (Earth) and the Hyperpulse Generator (HPG) arrays deployed across the galaxy. These HPG arrays allow faster than light communication and are considered "off limit targets" for warfare since they are Lostech and thus are not easily replaced, if they can be replaced at all. The permanent or temporary loss of a HPG array blacks out communication for an entire planet, which can be used for tactical purposes by someone insane enough to risk the wrath of ComStar and the rest of the Inner Sphere. Turned into a quasi-mystical/religious organization with a tendency to covertly influence things from the shadows to maintain the balance of power. Maintains a large (larger than any of the Great Houses can guess) standing army with a lot of lost technology at their disposal. Famed for their role in halting the Clan Invasion, but not for their role in triggering it.

ComStar is also famous for introducing the ComStar Bill (C-bill) as a standard galactic currency. Rather than being backed by material goods, each C-bill is backed by Comstar's faster than light message delivery service: a C-bill will guarantee a certain amount of time or message length on the ComStar FTL network. The value of the various Great House currencies can be weighed against their worth in C-bills which allows for currency exchange on a galactic scale. The C-bill is the primary way that mercenaries are paid and in turn pay for goods and services, and thus the most common currency encountered by players.

Minor Powers

Free Rasalhague Republic:Space Norse/Vikings. May have been awesome. For the reason for past tense refer to: Clan Invasion, Why Not Get in the Way of One (Third Publishing of Liao, COMSTAR ISBN 474-Alpha-467-Upsilon-345). They later join up with the Ghost Bears and become the Rasalhague Dominion. They are awesome because now we have Viking clanners.
Word of Blake: An ultra-reactionary splinter faction of ComStar that got butthurt after ComStar ditched all the pseudo-religious bullshit. Broke away and launched an all-out jihad on literally everyone shortly after the Federated Commonwealth Civil War came to an end. Made liberal use of weapons of mass destruction and rendered several entire planets uninhabitable. Fond of genocide, re-education camps, unstable technology, and mass murder. As a result, they were eventually crushed as a result of pissing off the entire fucking universe, but not before undoing a lot of the technological progress that had been made after the Clan Invasion. Basically used by the publishers to reset the average technology level of the game due to a lot of players feeling it was advancing too far and getting away from the quasi-feudal feel of earlier editions.
The Republic of The Sphere: Emerged in the aftermath of the Blakefag Jihad as a democratic nation composed of Terra and its surrounding areas. Ushered in a new era of peace before being plunged into chaos when the interstellar communication network was sabotaged. Was gangbanged by a combination of separatist factions, the Capellans, and Clan Jade Falcon before finally saying FUCK IT and retreating back to Terra.
Taurian Concordiat: A Periphery Nation bordering the Federated Suns and Cappellan Confederation. Didn't like either of them, especially the Suns due to the devastation of the Reunification War(Arguably the Suns started it, but was the SLDF that did most of the damage. But the Star League is no more, so the Davions get all the blame).
Marian Hegemony: A bandit Kingdom bordering the Confederation and Taurians that decided to become the Roman Empire IN SPACE.
Magistracy of Canopus: A hedonistic matriarchy bordering the Free Worlds League.
Outworlds Alliance: A backwater state near the Federated Suns and Draconis Combine. Was the Periphery-est of the Periphery states until Clan Snow Raven moved in.
Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission: An independent group that certifies and provides force rankings for various mercenary groups.
Kell Hounds: A merc company headed by Morgan Kell. His son Phelan was captured by Clan Wolf when the Clan Invasion first began, and by the end was running the Clan until it split. Took in Phelan and the Exiled Wolves afterwards.
Grey Death Legion:Mercenary group who were famous for finding and distributing the Helm Core, which allowed the Inner Sphere to regain technology formerly lost during the Succession Wars. Generally an author's favorite in the books.
Wolf's Dragoons: A bunch of Clan Wolf advance scouts disguised as a mercenary group. Came to the Inner Sphere with a ton of mechs that the Clans considered outdated but hadn't been seen in the Successor States in centuries and were considered Lostech... Which should have tipped the Great Houses off that these guys might be bad juju. Instead of providing intel to the Clans for their invasion, Wolf's Dragoons pulled a fast one and tried to prepare the Inner Sphere for war with the Clans. They get a ton of attention in the fluff due to the writers' obsession with anything related to Clan Wolf.

The Clans

Each clan is named after an animal, and yes those are the animal's full names.

Clan Blood Spirit: The smallest Clan. Noted for having the toughest training, favored Battle Armor, and had no official allies. :(
Clan Burrock: The only clan to support the Dark Caste. Liked picking on the Blood Spirits before they were absorbed by Clan Star Adder.
Clan Cloud Cobra: The Religious types. Loved aerospace fighters and jump jets. Obsessed with collecting genetic bloodlines other Clans don't want.
Clan Coyote: Native Americans in Space. Also like to scheme too much for their own good. Known for creating a shit ton of tech (unlike some people on Mars...)
Clan Diamond Shark: Used to be called Sea Fox until Snow Raven killed their namesake (with their current one) the only clan that views the merchant caste as equal to their warrior one. Later brought back the Sea Fox and changed their name back.
Clan Fire Mandrill: The Clan whose gimmick was to always have a few subfactions to foster internal competition. At first it was manageable and it improved the Clan, but then the factionalism snowballed into more than 10 mini-subfactions which made the whole Clan a laughing stock among the Clans.
Clan Ghost Bear: The only clan to be founded by a married couple, as a result they're the only clan to still have normal family units. Much more protective of its civilian caste than the others. Nearly devoured the Free Rashalague Republic in the Clan Invasion.
Clan Goliath Scorpion: Stoners with rose-colored nostalgia glasses. Also noted for elite marksmanship and ambush tactics.
Clan Hell's Horses: The only clan to think tanks are useful often uses mix arms tactics rather than use spamming mechs. Have hot rod flames color scheme.
Clan ~~Temper Tantrum~~ Ice Hellion: Speed freaks with a big ego. Their Khan seems to bitch every time their forces lose, which is often.
Clan Jade Falcon: The Spotlight stealing Clan second only to the Wolves, with whom they have a fierce rivalry. Slightly less evil than the Jaguars below.
Clan Mongoose: Basically a footnote in Clan backstory. Extremely aggressive, tend to attack everyone near them. Got their asses kicked by everyone else before being absorbed.
Clan Nova Cat: The Spiritual types, they decide their policy with visions, which 9 times out of 10 ends badly for them. Some of the best marksmen in the Clans, often competed with Clan Goliath Scorpion. Joined Smoke Jaguar in attacking the Draconis Combine, then sided with the Combine right after everyone decided the Jags had to go. Eventually got destroyed during the Dark Ages.
Clan Smoke Jaguar: Essentially super aggressive World Eaters trained to pilot mechs. Known to fuck shit up until their smaller numbers (due to infighting) fucked them over in long campaigns. Were eventually wiped out by the Inner Sphere counter-attack after they murdered an entire city from orbit. What goes around, comes around.
Clan Snow Raven: The space jockeys of the Clans. Became BBFs with the Outworlds Alliance.
Clan Spirit Cats: Offshoots of the Nova Cats after they were annihilated by the Combine.
Clan Star Adder: Boring, but very, very practical, which benefited them a lot. They like to upgrade their lasers to heavy lasers.
Clan Steel Viper: Self righteous xenophobes. Responsible for Clan genocide known as "The Wars of Reaving". Got genocided in return.
Clan Widowmaker: Got annihilated for accidentally killing Nicky. What was left of it, however, ~~gave birth~~ (lies Clanners aren't born) to the most dangerous MechWarrior ever, Natasha Kerensky.
Clan Wolf: The spotlight stealing Clan, courtesy of it being Kerensky's personal clan. Split up into two factions following the Refusal War.
- Crusader Wolves: The guys who want to continue the invasion of Inner Sphere.
- Warden Wolf-in-Exile: The guys who want to defend Inner Sphere against the rest of the Clans, who they think are a mockery of Kerensky's teachings.
~~Clan Wolverine~~ Not-Named Clan: These guys pissed off Nicky to such extent that they were annihilated. There are many theories about them returning to Inner Sphere and taking over it as shadow masterminds in order to destroy the clans.

Wars of Reaving

Fed up with having to write more stuff about Clans nobody cares about, a bunch of Clans were wiped out after the Jihad, or driven out of Clan territory. While the in-story explanation is that a butthurt ilKhan decided it was time to make a powerplay after not having won anything out of the Inner Sphere Invasion, everyone knows that there were several Clans that had no discernable effect on the game.

Annihilated or Absorbed:
- Blood Spirit: Got wiped out for using civilian militias which is unclan like and marked for annihilation.
- Burrock: Tried to re-establish themselves after being Absorbed, got defeated.
- Fire Mandrill: Too fractured to fight back effectively.
- Ice Hellion: Killed themselves trying to steal Jade Falcon and Hell's Horses territory. What few survivors remained joined Goliath Scorpion.
- Steel Viper: After killing or driving out almost every other Clan, they got purged for being too zealous, power-hungry, and dishonorable.
- Nova Cat: Destroyed by the Draconis Combine for being on the losing side of a Civil War.
Exiled or Abjured: These Clans were forced out of the Clan Homeworlds on the pretense of being "corrupted" by Inner Sphere influences. Some later formed the Council of Six Clans, representing the Clans that now exist in the Inner Sphere.
- Ghost Bears: Banished to the Inner Sphere and eventually founded the Rasalhague Dominion. Joined the Council.
- Goliath Scorpion: Ran away and conquered Nueva Castile(Spaniards vs. Arabs IN SPACE) in the Deep Periphery, forming Escorpion Imperio.
- Hell's Horses: Stole some of Clan Wolf's territory in the Inner Sphere, and end up getting banished from the Clan Homeworlds. Joined the Council.
- Jade Falcon: Banished to the Inner Sphere and tried to conquer Terra but failed. Still rules the parts of the Inner Sphere they conquered during the Clan Invasion. Joined the Council.
- Sea Fox/Diamond Shark: Ended up in what's left of the Free Worlds League. Split up into semi-independent merchant fleets and are now a collection of gypsy "Khanates" that sail the starlanes of the Inner Sphere. Joined the Council, but also joined the FWL as a member state. In the meantime, managed to bring the Sea Fox back from extinction, and changed back to their old name.
- Smoke Jaguar: Some of them showed up as super-secret Clanner loyalists to the Republic of the Sphere. Still in the Fortress Republic.
- Snow Raven: Ran away and conquered the Outworlds Alliance in the Periphery, forming the Raven Alliance. Joined the Council.
- Spirit Cat: What's left of Nova Cats, joined the Free Worlds League as a member state.
- Wolf: Splintered into several factions. Basically conquered the Lyran Alliance and Katrina Steiner's descendant claimed the mantle of Archon. Wolves-in-Exile refuse to join and are doing their own thing. Clan Wolf-Alliance joined the Council.
Home Clans: Theses Clans still hold territory in the Clan Homeworlds and consider themselves "True Clans."
- Cloud Cobra: Still around.
- Coyote: Sneaky bastards.
- Star Adder: TOP DOG
- Stone Lions: Made from the Hell's Horses who were left in the Clan Homeworlds and didn't get exiled.

So basically there are now ten Clans: The six Spheroid Clans, and the four Home Clans. The rest are either dead, formed hybrid societies, or are even more minor than before and thus save the writers from some hard work in upcoming TROs.

Mechanics

The standard use of hexmaps renders the purchase of miniatures optional, though miniatures rules for the game are available.

Record sheets are one of *BattleTechs'* greatest blessings and curses.

One of the biggest appeals of BattleTech is that all of its units are made with a predefined set of rules. Because of these construction rules for all in-house designs, custom designs are fully possible, as well, though they are not likely to be welcome in tournament matches.

BattleTech uses a build system based on 'Mech tonnage. You start with a Chassis limit, from 20-100 tons. You then determine engine size based on how fast you want your 'Mech to be (how many hexes you want it to be able to move per turn) you then allocate the remaining tonnage to control systems, weapons, ammo and armor. This method varies slightly depending on the technology of the chassis, but not overmuch. Though the system has recently been removed, there were previously three "Levels" of technology.

Level 1 referred to early-era gameplay. In this style of play, only the most rudimentary weapons and technologies were available, though the rules remain the same. This is the preferred level at which to learn, and is synonymous with the equipment available during the Succession Wars era. It is also the level of play made possible with starter boxes.

Level 2 referred to tournament-level gameplay. This introduced new equipment and electronics, as well as clan technology (A more technologically advanced, but militant people). Though the rules are generally the same as those in level 1 gameplay, extra equipment such as ECM, Anti-missile systems, Cluster munitions, etc were better suited to more experienced players. It is the level of play made possible with the separately purchased rulebooks.

Level 3 Referred to advanced gameplay and equipment. This also included all equipment that was not listed in the core rulebooks. More complex rules were inserted in order to increase the realism and flexibility of the game. These include new weapons, New terrain, new equipment, expanded heat gauges, alternate rules for Line-of-sight, etc. Though Level 3 rules included equipment not printed in the core rulebooks (Such as the Prototype weapons for the War of 3039, Solaris VII weapons, etc), the standard rulebook in regards to Level 3 play was called Maxtech. This has now been replaced by the Catalyst Games release of Tactical Operations, and some new rules for BattleTech play may also appear in Strategic Operations.

Play is simple. Two six-sided dice are used, on a to-hit (Equal or greater to) system. Roll initiative. Whoever loses moves first. However, although all weapons damage is technically done at the same time, and therefore "Who shoots first" is insignificant, considering which mech to shoot with first doesn't change the outcome. If you get hit, you mark off the weapons damage rating from your armor. If the shot penetrates your armor, you roll potential criticals. Firing weapons and moving about generates heat, which you must keep down to keep your 'Mech working properly.

Unlike games such as Warhammer, where many units are either killed on the first shot, or left unscathed, and little information is recorded, BattleTech uses record sheets to mark off cumulative damage, ammunition, pilot status, and heat. Also, there are hit locations, so limbs can be blown off. The record sheets allow for effects that are more detailed, but this also increases the overall playtime. Although expert players can get through matches just as fast as players of other games of more or less equal size, new players often find that the game plays slowly. This is usually due to the time spent referencing hit-location tables, critical effects, etc. For new players, 2V2 matches are best, with 4V4 matches being the "Cap", in order to have games that do not take excessively long. More experienced players will likely play matches as large as 12V12 or larger.

Expansions

The RPG companion-game, titled Mechwarrior, was created in the late 1980s, so that players could simulate the lifestyle of the Mechwarriors they played. A 2nd edition (1991) and 3rd edition (1999) were also released. 3rd edition became renamed Classic Battletech RPG, in order to avoid confusion with the clix games, and though it was available as a .PDF download, it was not reprinted until 2006. These were replaced by A Time of War in 2009, supplemented by A Time of War Companion in 2012.

Aerotech and Battlespace were two different games which simulated space combat in the BattleTech universe. Movement handled differently due to the zero-gravity nature of space, and was played on a different scale.

Spinoff Games

Due to it's popularity through the late 80s and early 90s, BattleTech spawned a multitude of spinoffs and expansion games.

Lost Worlds dueling books. NOVA adapted their melee dueling system to make four books for Battletech mecha. Each book has the opponent's view of the mech on each page, and a character sheet listing possible maneuvers. Since it used the same system as the rest of their books, you could have "20-ton Locust vs. skeleton with scimitar" duels.

AeroTech and BattleSpace were both games featuring Aerospace Fighters and DropShips/WarShips respectively, fighting in orbit before any of the action in the BattleTech game itself could begin. Both games eventually got absorbed into BattleTech's rules in the Total Warfare edition.

Battletroops was a game that was made to simulate the BattleTech universe, with infantry in mind as the main units. It later had an expansion pack to incorporate clan equipment, as well as Elementals, but the game did not sell as well and the rules have since been abandoned.

Battleforce was a revision of BattleTech, made in recognition of the fact that large-scale combat could not be effectively played out using the current system. Battleforce simplified each 'mech into a simple set of numbers, so that they could be clustered into units and fight over a much larger area. Battleforce 2, released about a decade later, also introduced planetary invasion maps and rules to go along with them. Although the maps are available in Map Compilation 2, the rules will be reprinted in the Strategic Operations and Interstellar Operations sourcebooks.

The Solaris VII Boxed set was made to simulate the fast-paced gladiatorial combat on the game's world of Solaris VII. It included new rules, new maps with special rules, new mechs, and supplements for roleplaying. Little known fact. Some of the designs used in the original Solaris VII set were redesigns of the BattleTech 'mechs... themselves copies of Japanese mechs! When the product tried to sell in Japan, half of the designs were already copyrighted by other well known anime companies, and the in-house designs were simply not "Japanese" enough for their tastes. Though the product itself flopped, it's maps were reprinted and re-released in 2004, as well as a complimentary up-to-date rulebook. Rules have since been standardized to match those of Classic Battletech, but "Special Map rules" have been included.

The BattleTech Collectible Cardgame was produced by Wizards of the Coast in 1996, and ran until 1998. Though it's popularity had begun to wane after the first core set, the release of the Pokemon card game was the nail in the coffin. The Battletech CCG hosted some very impressive artwork, though the game favored swarm-decks filled with plenty of weak, cheap 'mechs, and it's non-"Creature" cards were too weak to have an effective deck based around them. After five editions (Battletech Limited/Unlimited, Counterstrike, Mercenaries, Mechwarrior, Arsenal) Battletech CCG came out with Commander's Edition, which picked some of the best cards of the last few editions (though it abandoned or revised some cards for inaccuracies or "brokenness") It had one final expansion, Crusade, which introduced the Steel Viper clan, though there were some prior cards that did reference the clan.

In July, 2013, Catalyst Game Labs released Alpha Strike, a miniatures combat ruleset designed specifically to appeal to fans of Warhammer and Flames of War. It combined BattleForce statistics with improved miniatures rules. It's generally scoffed at by grognards but the only feasible way to play a regiment-sized battle in less than one lifetime.

Video Games

Official Games

Crescent Hawk's Inception (Infocom, 1988)
MechWarrior (Activision, 1989)
Crescent Hawks' Revenge (Infocom, 1990)
MechWarrior II (Activision, 1995)
MechWarrior II: Mercernaries (Activision 1995)
- MechCommander (FASA, 1998)
MechWarrior III (Microprose, 1999)
MechWarrior IV: Vengeance (FASA/Microsoft, 2000), Black Knight (Microsoft, 2001), Mercenaries (Microsoft, 2002)
- These games had two expansions that gave more mechs, the Inner Sphere Mech Pack and Clan Mech Pack.
- ~~MekTek released a legal port of Mercenaries, with both Mech Packs, new mechs, and battlesuits all inside, plus multiplayer support. Free to download.~~ MekTek's jumped ship from MechWarrior after losing the rights to freely distribute. Microsoft may still hold rights to distribution and will accordingly do fuck-all with it. RIP in pieces, Mercs. (modDB page for MW4 still has the files if you want 'em. Alternatively, piratebay offers both the game and the mech pack mod for torrent download.)
Mechassault 1 (Day 1/Microsoft, 2002 for Xbox)
Mechassault 2: Lone Wolf (Day 1/Microsoft, 2004 for Xbox)
MechCommander II (FASA/Microsoft, 2006. The full game is offered by Microsoft for free here.)
MechWarrior Online MMO (Smith & Tinker/Piranha Games, A F2P game first released on 2012 and currently out as a full product on steam service.)
MechWarrior Tactical Command (Personae Studios, 2012?, for iPhone/iPad. After some uncertainty, MTC was fully released in the itunes store. Its quality, however, is less-than-stellar, according to user reviews.)
BattleTech (Harebrained Schemes, 2017 (projected) - funded through Kickstarter and headed up by Jordan Weisman)

Unlicensed Games

Mechwarrior Living Legends (Wandering Samurai, 2011)

The following are free, homemade versions of Battletech:

MechWar v1.12 (MS-DOS)
MegaMek (Java)
BTMUX - ascii-only mmo (anyone old enough to remember what a MUD is?) (any OS)
You could play it in pure ascii, or get a graphical helper
Most of the existing ones are gone, but FrontierMUX seems to still be alive.
~~Neveron (web-based mmo)~~ [Taken offline on July 31st 2014]
Titans of Steel (MS-Windows)

Current State

In 1998, the U.S. release of Pokemon for the Gameboy, and the subsequent cartoon and cardgame, had a damaging effect on the tabletop games market. Comic book stores which had previously stocked tabletop RPGs, wargames, and collectible card games found that they could turn a better profit by stocking more Pokemon goods and cutting out the weaker-selling products. Only a handful of better-selling tabletop games, such as products by Games Workshop and the Dungeons & Dragons games, were able to remain. In 2001, FASA ceased operations, and many fans of the BattleTech series began to look for other games. BattleTech was purchased by FanPro and Wizkids, donning the name Classic Battletech in order to better separate it from the now-floundering Mechwarrior Clix-game license. Despite still having products released for it, Classic Battletech was often put on the back burner, as Wizkids showed preference to their clix-games. It was later licensed to Catalyst Game Labs, who have since released a new boxed set (6th edition) based on the newly revised core rules. This boxed set, once again, contains plastic miniatures. Though the plastic miniatures (When compared to plastic miniatures produced by other companies) are decidedly low-quality, they are more than sufficient as playing-pieces for new players who are experimenting with the product. In making low-grade miniatures for the box set, the overall price tag remained low, while giving players something more tangible than a cardboard cutout. The game is beginning to gain popularity once again, despite the dropping popularity of tabletop games in general. In 2014 Catalyst Games released an updated box set with higher quality miniatures for the same price.

Jordan Weissman's reacquired of the BattleTech games' license and the founding of his new company Smith & Tinker, which gave hope that there will be another BattleTech universe game sometime in the future, despite no announcements since its founding.

Mechwarrior Online has already been officially launched. Even though the launch itself was fairly lackluster, with no new features compared to the past few months of open beta, the game is in a somewhat average state of balance and gameplay, and the feel of piloting a BattleMech was translated faithfully. As of October 2014 PGI, after ousting their publisher and striking out on their on a few months back, has been making notable progress in advancing the game and interacting with the player base. Update: Despite garnering some good will from the community after ridding themselves of their publisher, PGI has been doing their best to waste the Mechwarrior license and drive off good chunks of their player base. Mostly through increasingly draconian punishments and obvious cash-grabbing with constant new 'Mechs for sale. This has been revealed as the standard MO of PGI's CEO, Russ Bullock.

Harebrained Schemes has announced their return to Kickstarter in fall 2015 in order to fund Battletech, a turn based tactics game featuring RPG mechanics for Mechs and MechWarriors. As of this writing the game has been fully funded and reached several stretch goals.

also a group of people are creating a mod for the vidya game from the depths that will add a battle tech campaign into the game

External links

Gallery

Glorious 3d terrain
More glorious 3d terrain
Infantry strike from behind as the Kuritian lance takes on 4 Steiner mechs And 6 tanks
Kuritians advancing
Kick party
Bad mofo

BattleTech

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