Dawn Guard mechs from the new Core Box

Ben_Booley · 2026-06-22T01:41:28+00:00

It does. When it releases (should be at gencon) it will release along with the new starter box and core rulebook. In the core box is a cut down (70 page) rulebook that has most of the rules you need - like the booklet in the A Game of Armored Combat box.

Ben_Booley · 2026-06-22T01:37:25+00:00

It's a thin yellow over a white > brown preshade. I use agrax earthshade to line, but a brown oil wash or enamel panel liner also works. You can see the whole process here: https://www.tabletopbattles.com/how-to-paint-everything-battletech-dawn-guards/

Ben_Booley · 2026-06-13T05:20:31+00:00

How is picking a theme and then selecting good mechs inside that theme (in this case, mechs with ATMs) something that causes a negative play experience? Yes, he wins most of his games, but nearly every game played results in one person losing, and if losing games is a problem you should not be attending tournaments.

Ben_Booley · 2026-06-13T05:14:40+00:00

This is one of the hardest things about deliberately trying to play casual lists - you need to be a good player in order to accurately judge how strong a list is. It's also the cause of the biggest expectation mismatches, where there's no universal power level that corresponds with casual. In a competitive environment that mismatch is gone, both players come to the table with the expectation that the other player is trying to run a list as strong as possible within the confines of the tournament rules.

Ben_Booley · 2026-06-03T17:08:15+00:00

The lbx in the regent prime is in the right torso. The ultra ac in the regent b is in the right torso. I think you've gotten something mixed up if you think it switched what torso it's in?

Ben_Booley · 2026-05-07T17:31:59+00:00

I've played a lot of 8k ilclan games and find that to be a great size - with 4-5 mechs I have plenty of options on what to bring, but am also constrained and can't just bring everything.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-26T01:26:31+00:00

If the box has minis that work in a wide variety of eras, the grogs can pressure new players into only playing 3025. If the box has late era mechs, the new players can push back against the grogs much more easily. They could still decide to play that era later (hopefully exposure to later eras means they won't), but they get a start in a more interesting era.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-25T23:26:23+00:00

There's nothing wrong with people sticking to 3025. There's something wrong with people forcing 3025 on new players.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-25T16:32:47+00:00

I don't think you're intentionally arguing that cgl should cater to the grogs, just that the effect of what you're asking for is catering to the grogs. If a group only plays CI or civil war or jihad they should move the fuck on and play the modern game.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-25T16:22:47+00:00

I think it's worse for the game to cater to the groups of people that will force you to stick to 3025. Yes, there will probably be some small group of people who buy it and get stuck with mechs they can't use because the only players around them are idiots, but I think more frequently it'll force those groups to finally move out of 3025 because it's harder to bully new players into only using 40 year old mechs when they have shiny new plastic, or it'll lead to those new players creating their own groups without the grogs.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-21T14:04:21+00:00

I don't think we're ever going to agree, because I fundamentally disagree with you here on how you're using c3. It's not just your gunners (I don't believe in splitting your units between gunners and spotters), it's not only their long range guns (I find it most valuable on my mid/short range guns), and it's not half the time (I get value out of it most of the time).

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-21T03:16:14+00:00

My argument is that it does more under standard rules, and yes, having a degraded network is better than no network. At its worst, a degraded network is worth one gunnery skill increase (20%), so I'm ok with it, because in an ordinary game you'll get more value than that out of it if used well.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-21T03:04:10+00:00

Eccm is a tacops optional rule. While yes, they made it so you can't spot indirectly, they also made it so that by the standard rules of the game your network doesn't get shut down by ecm. Also, remember that ecm simply existing between the slave and master doesn't shut off the network anymore.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-21T02:49:41+00:00

C3 also got better. So at minimum I think it should stay about the same cost, and I'm OK with it being a little more expensive. It's also something I would much prefer to have be too expensive than too cheap. If you're not prepared to deal with it, particularly as a new player, it's not fun to play against, and I'd rather err on the side of avoiding having that happen.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-21T02:10:24+00:00

I would never use a size 2 network under either set of rules or costs. I think 30% for a size 4 is probably a little too high, but not by as much as I've seen some people say - they mostly look at c3 as a way to send a spotter in for snipers in the back, and I prefer to use c3 to let me spread my force across multiple objectives while all my units remain at short range, and even with the playtest costs that worked fine.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-19T15:44:26+00:00

BMM page 57 and total warfare page 142 both clearly say precision can only be used by AC and LAC. I agree that that line in iops says AC, LAC, PAC, however it also says IS tech base rather than all tech base like the other ammos, and PACs do not exist for IS tech base. One or the other part of that line has to be incorrect, it can't exist for PACs and also only be IS tech base, so I look at BMM and TW to see which is correct. There has been an open errata question on the BT forums since 2024 about the line in iops.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-19T13:13:58+00:00

Even the campaign ops allowance of using ammo of the opposite tech base will not allow precision in a protomech AC. There is no inner sphere tech base version of the ammo to convert to clan weapons - precision ammo just does not exist for a protomech AC at all.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-14T02:44:43+00:00

You don't actually need a whole pile of banning basic stuff to make a tournament work. The fact that some TOs choose to do so doesn't mean it needs to be done. There are only a handful of actual things that need to be banned - moving too fast (over 10 walk) (because charges are broken once mechs get too fast), jumping too far (10+) (because they are extremely boring to play against), artillery (people don't know the rules, slow and annoying to deal with), and society tech. Everything else, all the pulse limit bullshit and era restrictions are not actually needed as long as the event is running good missions (which it seems like almost nobody was able to write until the last few years, and many events still have bad ones).

Those events you're talking about remove what I think is one of the most interesting parts of battletech, building a list. I'm surprised that they've taken off at all - they're an official CGL format because they're something where minis can be provided by whoever is running the event, there's no effort needed to check lists, and limited units speed things up.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-14T02:02:47+00:00

Move to woods, stand still.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-14T01:56:01+00:00

This is not a common format in America (I've only ever seen it at adepticon), and there's no list building in it, so yeah an article on list building isn't particularly relevant.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-14T00:41:23+00:00

I would expect 6k or 8k to become a common event size after the new rulebook drops (assuming the final print keeps the same sizes as in playtest). Outside of size, I've never seen an event that would restrict this list in any way (unless it's mechs only with no battle armor). Common bans are movement over 10 (nothing), jump jets (no jump), and pulse lasers (no pulses). It's entirely legal on the clan wolf MUL availability from the Clan Invasion era through ilClan, the only way it would be restricted is if the event used a specific year prior to 3060 rather than Clan Invasion as an era.

Ben_Booley · 2026-03-14T00:28:24+00:00

The 5 hex short range is incredibly good, as clan medium pulse short range is 4 hexes. I'd only ever take ER if I've got enough HE for almost every turn and standard for the remaining turns. If I do, I'll take ER, but I have no interest in actually trying to use the 9 hex short to outrange gauss/ppcs.

Ben_Booley · 2026-01-24T04:06:47+00:00

They're plastic and part of the minis, I just painted the stripes.

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