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Yep, 4 minis, each with an Alpha Strike card. They're the same scale and everything as regular BT so you can use them for both games, but at 2.50-4$ a mini it's extremely affordable. I suggest getting them while you can, because they're widely available for cheap right now but also out of print, so once the stock is gone they're gone and Catalyst isn't reprinting them. I've run battalion on battalion battles (36 vs 36) with AS in a single evening and it's awesome. The flipside is that at very low scales it's a bit dull because it's designed for simplified play, so you lose that "blow off my opponent's own arm and beat him to death with it" granularity. Also, about four or five years ago I almost spoiled the Fall of New Avalon here because Shattered Fortress started so long ago that it was being worked on at the same time as Field Manual 3145, and when that book came out I got the two books confused. SirFozzie: You may want to check out for stealable material / link to the previous thread in your OP: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3293257
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Aug 8, 2018 20:14
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Nope, never. You're probably thinking of StratOps' Battleforce, which is built on the same base engine as Alpha Strike, but is a lance or star of mechs per "model". Those were smaller.
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Aug 9, 2018 06:10
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Rules for quad mechs are still in the Manual. They were not cut. From TO, the Manual gives the following options: Sprinting Backward Level Changes Careful Stand Partially-Occupied Hexes Extended Arm Flipping One-Arm Prone Fire Floating Criticals Ejection Engine Explosions Wreckage Rapid-Fire Machine Guns Plus simplified fire & smoke rules and simplified basic weather, both of which are new to the Manual but appear in TO in more complex forms. It also has pretty much every useful mech-relevant piece of equipment from TO. Only a handful of pieces were left out, like Handheld Weapons and Remote Sensors: things that took up entire pages by themselves and which very few mechs have. This post covers the basic ideas and philosophy behind the book: https://bg.battletech.com/news/news-and-announcements/what-is-the-battlemech-manual/ I wrote the book, so if you have any other questions on it feel free to ask. (P.S. It's BattleMech Manual, not Battletech Manual; the latter being a book from 1987 or so. Not trying to be pedantic; I just don't want someone buying some ancient useless book by mistake). Xotl fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Aug 12, 2018 |
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Aug 12, 2018 02:24
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long-rear end nips Diane posted:Good joke about Ilclan guys, I can't believe they're still saying that exists.
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Aug 21, 2018 03:44
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October is the assumed date for the new boxes. It's all down to shipping, customs, and distribution at this point.
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Aug 22, 2018 18:52
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Mode 7 posted:My understanding is that after I've gotten to grips with the QuickStart and then Introductory rules that come in the box, picking up BattleMech Manual and TRO: Succession Wars would set me up to play mechs vs mechs combat in 3025 - 3039. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. The Manual will actually give you the rules for gear that appears right through to 3145, but Succession Wars is pretty much a 3025ish book. quote:What would I need to pick up to then be able to run loose campaign/scenarios for friends to get them into the game? This is Battletech's great weakness, something I've been trying to encourage the devs to address but with little luck so far. Most scenario books for BT are historicals: you play out specific scenarios that went down at specific points in the universe. Campaign Ops and Strat Ops both have campaign info, though the latter also has a ton of other stuff that's much less useful; it's not concentrated. The best book that's generally available and along the lines of scenario info is probably Total Chaos, which gives a loose but thorough overview of a Jihad-era (3067-3081) campaign, using a heavily abstracted tracking system called Chaos Campaign.
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Oct 24, 2018 18:20
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Any of youse guys going to MechCon?
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Nov 20, 2018 06:06
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Unknown, because by then (assuming nothing goes weird with customs) it will be a distributor issue. If it happens, it will be quite close.
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Nov 21, 2018 03:58
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The Valkyrie is the metal version I'm told, released in limited quantities at GenCon. I assume it will reach general distribution soon. The Longbow is a standard sculpt, available now: it's not been reimagined yet. The mat is pretty awesome: it's a gift to demo agents from a few years back, so it's not for sale I'm afraid.
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Dec 6, 2018 17:33
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The main cause for the delays were the lawsuit, which forced a redo of much of the box's contents, and Christmas, which between the shipping madness and then the eventual shutdown for the break wound up delaying everything for a month, AFAIK. But it's all appearing now, thankfully. I have one of each of the new sets, as well as a pre-release hardcopy of the new Battlemech Manual reprint with the new cover. It's all real and appearing. The real question is what the print quantities are and how long they'll be available. I know for a fact they've planned to make it so that there won't be as long of a delay between printings, but there inevitably will be each time they sell out. The goal is to minimize the length of those gaps, but they won't be able to eliminate them altogether.
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Jan 17, 2019 06:46
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Atlas Hugged posted:Ah, I didn't realize there was another lawsuit and that caused issues. I'm referring to the last Harmony Gold one. We would have had the set a few months ago if they didn't need to scrap a bunch of their initial minis work and start creating replacements. They had to get new cover art (it was going to be the big Marauder that's now on the new BMM reprint) and other things as well. Xotl fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Jul 15, 2020 |
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Jan 17, 2019 17:44
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No idea about a new AS box: all I can say for sure is that the old one is dead. AS Commander's Edition is in a bit of limbo at the moment, I'm afraid.
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Jan 18, 2019 04:49
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Short answer is that everything is free and clear to use at last so long as you edit your art so that you've removed the most obvious resemblances. This is why the new CGL Marauder, Warhammer et all look very very similar to the classic anime sources, but have clear differences as well. These images are being treated as "the way they always looked" in the canon. You will not see 100% accurate depictions of the "Unseen", but overall they're not Unseen any longer.
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Jan 18, 2019 15:39
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Cool, welcome aboard. Just so you know, the rules in the Beginner Box are deliberately a super stripped-down and abstracted version of the actual rules. So, if you play it and say to yourself, "this seems cool, but is a bit simplistic", know that the next box set up has the full, much more detailed mech rules (and construction rules, so you can build your own twinked out / hyper-specialized munch machines). On the other hand, if you play it and say "my god, this is way too fiddly," then abandon ship right now.
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Jan 26, 2019 04:28
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Yes, it's the Quick Start Rules, as they were called, only with improved formatting / layout / clarity. And yeah, very good news. Selling out shows demand for the game at retailers, which means more BT in general on shelves, not to mention actually putting money in CGL's pocket to make more BT and to tell them that people still want BT.
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Jan 31, 2019 03:31
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Yeah, AS Commander's is back under active work, close to done even. Odd that AToW isn't listed, because it's definitely being worked on like the rest. But just finalized the TechManual reprint last night, TO and SO are still a work in progress, the new TW reprint has already sold out and another (identical except for the 35 year notation being added to the cover) reprint is coming right up.
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Feb 28, 2019 22:26
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Prefect Six posted:I came here to ask if anyone thinks there's a chance they'll reprint the second succession war historical, so this gives me some hope. Can't find it in stock on any of the online retailers and it's the one historical on their site that doesn't have a physical book order option. Maybe it was never printed? I swear I saw it for sale on retailers previously and just never pulled the trigger. It was printed, but modern sourcebook print runs are small so you need to move fast on them. I wouldn't count on a reprint; I'm not aware of any non-rules BT sourcebook that's been reprinted in the CGL era. Also, Alpha Strike Commander's Edition just went to press, so the rules for that game will be back at last in a (hopefully) improved form.
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Mar 20, 2019 23:15
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SSW hasn't had an update in years. The last guy who worked on it was poached to work on the Master Unit List, and doesn't have the energy / inclination to support SSW on top of that, so he abandoned it.
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May 3, 2019 19:28
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The extra mechs stagger things by a month per new pack, so you're not going to see the very last units until around Christmas 2020. They've also said they're looking into the Australia thing, though this early that could mean anything. But the issue has been raised.
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Jul 19, 2019 00:16
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Defiance is right: the Panther by 3025 is 100% Kurita (you never see them on non-Kurita RATs outside of SL-era games), the Wolfhound FC and loyal Mercs, and the Jenner is the Kuritaest Kurita mech imaginable outside of the Dragon. The Wolfhound has the best claim to wider distribution because of the FedCom technically being two states and Mercs being all over the place, but even then, no other state ever uses it. Only old Star League-era designs are seen in all the factions in anything besides "that one I salvaged that one battle" numbers, so it's a strange line for the management to take. Then again, I'd be very happy to see new sculpts of all of them, so argument inconsistencies aside they're all common machines (at least within one faction) that would be good to have.
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Jul 20, 2019 21:21
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It is, but that's because the MUL is not fine-grained at all. A lot of things are on the Inner Sphere General list that are only applicable in the most technical of senses: to it, a Hermes is just as available as a Wasp. In terms of actual force building, no one is going to add a machine only built in the Combine for three centuries to a basic non-Combine House (or Rasalhague) list, the universal merc/salvage/Periphery junker exceptions (which are just as applicable to the Enforcer, Dragon, Commando etc) noted.
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Jul 20, 2019 21:54
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Man that was a fun game. I played it on some ancient-rear end Tandy that was so slow that you had to initialize the mission then go and do something else for five minutes while plodding into combat range the moment you stopped using light mechs.
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Jul 20, 2019 22:09
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That's pretty interesting info: thanks.
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Jul 21, 2019 02:01
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That's a good question. The 4th ed rulebook doesn't specifically credit the token artist.
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Jul 23, 2019 05:51
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Pussy Cartel posted:Does anyone know if the old mech duel rules from the Solaris VII box set were ever reprinted or revised for the latest Battletech edition? They were not. After some support in a couple of supplements, they were abandoned.
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Jul 30, 2019 19:28
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Looking good. I've been very happy with the Classics reimaginings -- just light-years ahead of the Reseen takes. The Locust manages to get the general form down with being quite so comically spindly. I'm sad we're no longer getting a new Berserker, but I'm pretty excited to see things like the Cataphract, Longbow, Crusader. It's also great that they're designing them side-by-side to scale with one another, so you won't get crazy sizing deviations any longer.
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Jul 30, 2019 23:18
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I was chatting with Shimmy and he showed me that sort of thing, so yeah, it's all being calculated digitally as a whole instead of just eyeballed like the old days.
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Jul 30, 2019 23:32
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I GM for my RPG group, which means running the opposition, so I've gotten pretty good at handling lots of mechs. One thing I found handy was making little mini record sheets so I could handle a pile of mechs on one same page, and so reduce overall paper tracking.
Xotl fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Aug 2, 2019 |
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Jul 31, 2019 04:45
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Yeah, that's the point of the kickstarter. Those will be the first next-gen sculpts outside the two new intro boxes, aside from whatever IWM releases in metal (they have a very nice updated Shadow Hawk out now, for instance).
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Aug 1, 2019 09:06
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Conquest7706 posted:Now the Improved Communications design quirk.. allows a unit with the quirk to ignore the effects of enemy ECM, or the first level of ECM, with the caveat that it won't cut through Angel ECM. Improved Comms no longer has the effect you're listing, because it was broken as all hell as a freebie and somewhat anachronistic to boot, considering the mechs that had it. See the Battlemech Manual or the free quirk updated posted on the official forums for the current (and much less impressive) text.
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Nov 6, 2019 07:10
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food court bailiff posted:E: Is the rulebook in GOAC pretty much everything for mechs? What does the Battlemech Manual have that the GOAC rulebook is lacking? I have both, just haven't had a chance to dig through either too deeply yet and I want to know if there's points in a GOAC box game where I should make a mental note of "in a real game I'd have to check or do X, Y and Z here". In terms of the basic mech rules, the BMM only has three things that the intro box rules don't: breaches in water, ammunition dumping, and rules for four-legged ("quad") mechs. Otherwise it's the same. Of course, the BMM adds a ton of options, and more terrain and weather, and mountains of advanced gear. It also has notes in the base rules whenever they interact with that advanced gear. For example, both books have the Aimed Shot rules, but the BMM adds some extra notes to that regarding how it interacts with targeting computers.
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Dec 4, 2019 20:43
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If you're just playing with your own group, all using the same rules, then yeah, you won't notice any real gamebreakers other than probably thinking partial cover is kind of dangerous (under the old rules, it is) and swearing at anyone who fields pulse lasers and targeting computers together (broken, under the old rules). Playing with people who have newer books: depends on what you're fielding. Mechs pretty much stayed the same, but infantry and vehicles and aero all received major changes and there could be some serious incompatibilities. Here's a changelog from the Master Rules to the new generation of books, if you want to get into fine detail: https://www.dropbox.com/s/daxfvz5ukut4l2s/Total%20Warfare%20Changes.txt?dl=0
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Dec 6, 2019 08:07
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Yep, exactly.
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Dec 6, 2019 18:23
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The most recent version is just called Battleforce. It's in Strategic Operations, although the errata for it is pretty significant. It's always been the red-headed stepchild to Alpha Strike, built off the same engine mostly but receiving updates at a far slower rate. SO is out of print though (except for PDF); the next printing of SO will have that pile of errata integrated, but I have no idea when that will be.
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Dec 17, 2019 17:52
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BattleMaster posted:SO even contains the rules for the prototype of Alpha Strike that was built off of Battleforce. I wonder if those rules will be cut from the reprint since they're now obsolete? Yes, I requested that Quick-Strike be axed for that reason.
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Dec 17, 2019 23:18
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Azran posted:Quick question about Alpha Strike - is it possible to mix eras without breaking the game too badly or should we stick to stuff from the same era? Alpha Strike is better balanced than regular BT, as one of the big effects of simplification was the ability to really understand a unit in terms of its effectiveness in the game. Everything is costed based on its combat abilities regardless of timeline, so that in theory you should find that any era should be able to be mixed just fine. It's possible to break things down with asymmetries of course (number disparities could be bad, for instance). General Battuta posted:When does the timeline advance again, god drat Maybe GenCon.
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Jan 10, 2020 00:56
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Taintrunner posted:In 2 weeks from today I'm launching a narrative campaign with a bunch of cool hooks and some homebrew mechanics (faction rep, etc) and I'm so anxious because I've never done anything like this before fingers loving crossed it pays off Good luck, man. Those games are absolutely the most rewarding when you manage to pull them off. Endman posted:Cross-posting from the painting thread: Noice.
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Jan 10, 2020 21:19
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food court bailiff posted:Is any of the Kickstarter stuff going to make it to retail or anything? I missed this earlier. Pretty much everything is intended for future retail. The Clan Invasion box that's provided to Kickstarter backers has an exclusive cover, but the contents will be the same. The dice pouch and one other thing that I can't recall off the top of my head is listed as KS exclusive as well; Catalyst has stated that they plan to bring the rest to retail, eventually.
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Jan 13, 2020 20:02
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I said come in! posted:there's no exact date for when pre-orders ship right? Just sometime in March? March was the estimate for the contents of the first wave. But it was always stated to be a best-case scenario date, and the later stuff will all take more time beyond that.
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Jan 14, 2020 01:04
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A bunch of those were gone over this week. Yes, some of them were ... special. Fortunately, with only 80 words to work with for the pilot cards, a lot of the worst elements can be cut due to the perfectly legit issue of wordcount.
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Feb 21, 2020 01:29
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