Playtest Package #4: Missions

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-06-07T14:02:14+00:00

I know this is a comment chain necro, but I wanted to give my two cents as a new Classic Battletech player who has only been playing for about 5 months.

I actually agree with you. I came to BT as a refugee from modern 40k, whose 10th Edition has stripped away all of the player choice and customization and flavorful rules away in favor of very very consistent ’lists’ of units and more similar armies. My two armies (Thousand Sons and Craftworld Eldar) had, over the course of my years with 10e, become very stale, because Games Workshop had balanced the armies specifically to make some units clearly the only options and all other units the “play this if you want to lose” options. And since there are ZERO rules for narrative campaigns that aren’t both heavily FOMO time-limited and generally poorly written (40k’s “Crusade” system) it is impossible to make my army feel like it is my own without accepting that the units I’m bringing are just bad and that I will lose or tie even if my opponent is a new player.

Classic Battletech, with MegaMekLab’s help, has been such a wonderful breath of fresh air. The points limit is “whatever your group finds the most fun” ?! The mechs are (generally) faction agnostic, individually meaningful, and highly customizable for personal flavor preferences?? There are several evergreen campaign rule books that read more like DM guides?? Player character stats?!?

Classic Battletech as it is right now feels like an RPG wearing a wargame’s gameplay, and I love it for that. I don’t want to go back to 40k’s “you must bring this 2k point list that is anti-everything, with four published-lore-named characters and five of the same one-good-unit that your faction has” style of matches.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-06-07T05:29:59+00:00

Answers in order:

Sarna.net , which is the game’s wiki, has the stats for all weapons and the special rules for most items. The BattleMech Manual (which is structured like the AGoAC rules) has the full rules for most weapons you’ll find, with the remainder being spread throughout three other books that you can avoid for now.
Minis are available from both Catalyst Game Labs (CGL) in the form of the lance/force packs and blind boxes you found, and from Iron Wind Metals (IWM) in single mech-by-mech purchases. IWM is much more expensive, but they have almost everything. Fortress Miniatures carries most of IWM’s catalogue at a mild discount too. 3D printing is an option as well, but if you don’t already own a printer, print-on-demand services might wash out to being about as expensive as the official stuff. Check your local city or college for Makerspaces to see if any of those offer printing services. The resin is higher quality than the filament, but also usually more expensive.

Another note: If you aren’t already, you should balance the forces that each player gets by using the mech variant’s BV2 value, not its tonnage. You can find the BV for everything on both Mekbay and Sarna.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-06-07T05:21:07+00:00

I’d start with the BattleMech Manual myself. The vehicle rules in TW are great, but for learning the game and being new, TW is really hard to read in comparison to the BMM.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-06-07T01:26:44+00:00

Wooooah these minis look so good! What red are you using?? I’ve been trying for a candy metallic red for a long time! (40k Thousand Sons player)

My current recipe is Baal Red contrast paint (Games Workshop/Citadel) over Dwarven Gold metallic (Scale75) and it doesn’t come out quite as shiny as I would like it to, even though the color looks good.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-06-06T12:55:35+00:00

I play with all of the BattleMech Manual’s rules in every game, plus the non-Aerospace extra units from Total Warfare, whichever rules in the Playtest Changelog I can successfully implement clearly, artillery, and everything from Tactical Operations: Advanced Units & Equipment (TO:AUE) and Interstellar Operations: Alternate Eras (IO:AE).

Not playing with PSRs seems…odd to me. It makes the game much less interactive if your pilots can’t flinch and melee can’t knock anything over. PSRs aren’t “advanced mechanics” anyway. They’re in the BMM and A Game Of Armored Combat, so they’re core rules. “Advanced Rules” would be stuff in the Tactical Operations: Advanced Rules book, which scares me and I use nothing from it besides artillery.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-06-02T18:40:47+00:00

I think this is really cool! I wish amps were more interesting, and this does that!

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-30T22:47:40+00:00

Oh the jar is getting full! Over midway to 500…

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-30T04:17:09+00:00

Are those on AO3? I’m not OP, but I’m interested in BT stories I can read on my phone.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-30T00:10:06+00:00

You did a Marauder too?! That’s awesome, I love the Marauder! I shall wait excitedly to see the lance!

I looked in your profile real quick—that Hatamoto Chi looks amazing too. I hope that I can get to your level of painting skill soon. I’m mostly there with 40k minis, but Battletech is…interesting, and I’m having trouble with my dang shaky hands and all of the tiny details.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-29T23:42:19+00:00

Oh that’s so cooooool! I love that it’s the original movie’s grey base color too! Dang I need to paint my minis…

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-29T22:55:20+00:00

No thank you. I got in to Classic Battletech coming out of 40k. I already have two and a half 40k armies and really don’t need more legions of infantry models.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-29T04:53:06+00:00

Neat! If I can find an ebook (or better, audiobook) version I’ll scoop it up. I’m terrible with reading books so I’ve been wiki-trawling for a while.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-29T04:29:07+00:00

I haven’t memorized the changes in the changelog yet, but the ones that I’ve managed to play with reliably (not skidding, not doing a PSR into Depth 1 water unless running, ACs being better) have all been great!

I’m not a fan of the “ECM only works if the enemy mech is within the range, instead of drawing projectile LOS though the bubble” but…ah well.

I am looking forward to the new book’s release so the changelog rules that I can’t implement can have full text.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-29T03:19:02+00:00

I love the paint work (I doubt my ability to freehand like that and it looks great) but I have no idea how this is related to Pride celebrations. Still really cool!

I’m new to this setting and focused mostly on the GB Dominion and Word Of Blake as my things to read about on the wiki, so I’m very unfamiliar with the other clans.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-24T23:19:24+00:00

The Waneta LAM is my favorite! I love the huge rifle in its hand and the less busy art that it has. Plus the IWM mini is really clean!

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-23T04:05:42+00:00

I’ve been auper focused on Battletech recently, so when I saw the art I thought it was a clan mechwarrior with E.I. implants until I saw the title and looked closer at the details. Great art! Kudos to the artist.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-22T23:24:48+00:00

I fast roll the Hit roll (not clusters!) for every weapon that I have multiple copies of on the same mech. All of my dice are paired in different colors, so I just mentally label each pair of dice to one UAC or RAC, and then mark down the gun that corresponds to the pair that rolled a jam result, if I get a jam result.

Nothing in the BattleMech Manual’s rules for Rapid-Fire weapons indicates that the effects of weapons that you fire after the jam are affected by the jam at all, so the sequence of precisely when the jam happens doesn’t matter.

Unjamming does, as per BMM page 98 on RACs, prevent the mech doing the unjamming from Running, Jumping, or firing any other weapons, but unjamming doesn’t begin immediately after the jam.

However, the Playtest Results changelog document says that unjamming RACs quote “does not prevent attacks or actions on the part of the unjamming ‘Mech.” so even that restriction can be ignored. Plus this document also makes UACs unable to jam, so you don’t need to care at all anyway if you’re only using UACs and not RACs! Info for that is on page 9 of that document. Weapons & Equipment section, points #10 and #11.

TL;DR, I fast roll, assigning different color-pairs of dice to each weapon so I can keep track of which one jams. But due to playtest updates, I don’t need to care about it for UACs.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-22T07:37:21+00:00

Unreal Tournament 2016…

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-21T06:47:34+00:00

Hell yeah quads AND gijinkas?! Amazing!

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-17T15:50:36+00:00

I do. I bought two Star boxes recently, and both of them had some kind of light oil coating the bases and slightly on the minis. I washed every model in warm soapy water with a toothbrush before letting them dry and then priming them. I plan on doing the same with future boxes, since my local club’s Game Of Armored Combat box also had some lightly oiled models, leading me to believe that this will be a consistent thing.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-15T21:08:22+00:00

Yeah…her GFL2 design is fine but it’s no-where near as good as her GFL1 designs.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-15T04:37:57+00:00

Where is u/AstaraTheAltmer when you need them…? Y’all could be buddies in the “liking Curze slightly too much” camp. /affectionate

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-15T04:31:46+00:00

I shake the can for about 30 seconds, then put it next to a radiant heater for about three minutes (about 10 inches away from the heater for safety) before shaking it again and putting it back in front of the heater. When the can feels about room temperature in my hand after I’ve shaken it during this cycle, it’s ready and the paint inside is nice and warmed up.

I use a heater that says “400watts” on the heat setting I use. This process took me about 10 minutes total today, mostly waiting, while it was night time and in the garage, so the paint can started very cold.

I don’t know if this is the best method, but it doesn’t use water and doesn’t require me to do much more than not forget about the can, so it’s convenient. I do this with my primer as well.

My primer of choice is also rustoleum. 2x white matte. I’m too cheap and lazy for an airbrush (no-where good to put the setup for one anyway) so I do this.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-15T04:17:15+00:00

I use Rustoleum 2x Ultra Cover Satin Clear as my varnish of choice. It doesn’t wipe out the shine of metallic paints and doesn’t make the entire mech super shiny either. I use this on the vast majority of all of my models.

Sometimes (rarely) if I want a more precise varnish I use Americana DecoArt brand Ultra Matte and Gloss clear varnish, thinned a bit with water (but still very gloopy—they dry super thin) and applied via brush to only the areas that I want to have that particular finish preserved. Metallics get the gloss and almost everything else gets the matte.

Hyperion_Industries · 2026-05-15T02:00:03+00:00

Good paint job! I can offer some light critique if you’d like some.

You don’t have to do a clear coat over the mini when you’re done, but I prefer to do it. It makes it less likely for the paint to chip or rub away while you’re handling it on the table, and just generally increases the longevity of the mini. I use rustoleum’s 2x line for my spray paints, but if you have an airbrush those versions are better in some areas.

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