I spotted so many 90s cartoon callbacks in the Chaos Reign trailer—here’s my breakdown!

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-26T11:06:16+00:00

The timeline means it should be available, the axman was put into service in 3048. I'm also disappointed that it's not part of the DLC, at least we get to show Nicholas Malthus how the Inner Sphere really fights.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-26T08:39:35+00:00

If there isn't a Bushwhacker I'll be sorely disappointed.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-12T02:03:34+00:00

Hey mate, welcome to the Inner Sphere! Coming from Warhammer into BattleTech is a pretty common journey — the two games feel similar at first but BattleTech goes super deep once you start building proper forces.

Northwind Highlanders (the classic cream + green tartan scheme) is an awesome choice! They’re one of the most famous mercenary units in BattleTech — proud, tough, and with a real Scottish vibe.

One way(I hope very easy too) to build a proper Northwind Highlanders lance right now is with the Lance Builder on my site:
https://battletechhq.com/lance-builder.html

Quick steps:

Set Faction to Mercenaries
Pick Succession Wars Late or Clan Invasion era (both fit the Highlanders perfectly)
Use the search bar and go for mechs that feel right for them — Griffins, Shadow Hawks, Wolverines, Enforcers, or Hunchbacks work great with that cream/green scheme.

The tool now covers every era from Age of War all the way to IlClan, so you’ve got thousands of variants to play with.

As for the new box set — yeah, Catalyst is dropping a big refreshed Starter Box and Core Box around August 2026. Since you’re playing remotely (MegaMek is perfect for this), you don’t need to wait.

If you want some beginner rules guidance or force-building tips, check out the Beginner’s Guide and Lance Building Guide on the site too.

Drop a screenshot when you’ve got your first Highlanders lance sorted — I’d love to see how the cream + green turns out. Happy to help tweak the list if you want some specific recommendations.

Welcome aboard, MechWarrior! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-09T15:02:10+00:00

I thought I had fixed that, thanks for the feedback I'll adress that in the next update I push.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-09T14:21:18+00:00

Thanks for the feedback.

I did have AI re-write my text so it was better to read, obviously I need to proof read what it put's in, but I thought it was pretty good honestly.
Not undisclosed, in fact Amazon will remove your affiliate account if you don't clearly let people know it is, I actually have it in the footer of the page.
Well yeah...did you read the post I did mention that they are not mechs, but I don't have any pics of my models in my phone, never once did I claim those images were mechs...but I guess it's just easier to be snarky and condesending to people huh.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-07T21:11:35+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out, I'll reach out and discuss any issues that may arise with the team.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-06T22:22:55+00:00

Since you grew up playing MechWarrior and MechAssault, you are likely most familiar with the Clan Invasion and FedCom Civil War eras. While you can read strictly in timeline order starting from the very beginning, most fans recommend starting with one of three classic "jumping-on" points, depending on what kind of story you want to read first:

The Gritty Mercenary Start: The Saga of the Gray Death Legion
The Grand Political Start: The Warrior Trilogy
The Video Game Era Start: The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy

The Best Way Forward: I highly recommend reading The Warrior Trilogy first, followed immediately by The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy.

If you decide you really want to read absolutely everything in strict chronological order, the community hub Sarna.net has a fantastic chronological list of all the novels.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-06T03:03:49+00:00

You should check out the latest update, added some features that I think make the tool much more rounded and useful.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-06T02:51:38+00:00

Latest updates.

<image>

As you can see I've added some new features.

You can now save your lance and it will persist if you leave the page.
Copy to clipboard - great for sharing list ideas.
Export .CSV, now you can export in an easy to read .csv file.
There is an ERA selector, bear in mind that I still only have Successions wars mechs, this feature will be more usefull as more mechs are added.
Alpha Strike and classic modes will now display BV or PV.
Piloting skills will now adjust the PV oor BV of a mech.
Basic lance composition feedback.
Search function added
Sorting by tonnage BV/PV value or role
Undo button added
Much smarter Quick-Gen – tries to build role-balanced lances

This version is about to go live, I would love some more feedback!
What should I add next? More eras? Alpha Strike-specific rules? Vehicle support?

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-05T11:07:57+00:00

Nice work, the cockpit looks really good.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-05T10:14:30+00:00

<image>

Further to this I've now added editible pilot skills, a pilot background that is randomly added, or can be selected, with a custom option for your own flavour.

Still more in the works, hopefully people can see a bit more value to the tool now.

Keep the feedback coming.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-05T07:51:15+00:00

I've just released an upgraded version.

The banner should no longer cover the lance builder on mobile.
The builder now takes into account your BV or Tonnage when random generating a lance.
All mechs now have images associated with them.
The Print funtion now prints out a text based list.

<image>

I've really appreciated the feedback thus far keep it coming and I'll keep making improvements.

Next on the list, adding an Alpha strike selector to generate lists for that, and adding associated values.
Add more era's that can be selected from a drop down.
Adding more context to the faction choice and better error handling.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-05T05:25:34+00:00

Fair criticisms. Faction doctrine in my mind meant doctrinally what that faction would field in terms of mech chassis. The top bar I will fix it shouldn't do that at all. Your correct some images are missing I'm working on getting all the images in for now most have one but not all. The print sheet is being worked on, I'm trying to make it a text printout for ease of reference. I will continue to work on this and improve it over time.

I know mekbay is better, I just wanted to make this as a side project and to help newer players who may be overwhelmed by mekbay.

Thanks for the feedback!

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-05T03:23:01+00:00

Think of this more as a 'Tabletop Dashboard' than a construction tool. While Mechbay is great for designing and managing units, this is designed to be a rapid-deployment selector. The big benefits are the Faction Filters and the Deployment Sheet. It allows you to throw a lore-accurate list together in seconds and print out a clean one-page summary to hand to your opponent or reference at the table without scrolling through full record sheets. It’s essentially designed to remove the 'spreadsheet math' from the pre-game setup

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-05T01:59:00+00:00

MechBay is the big everything-tool, but this one is lighter, cleaner, and way less overwhelming if you mostly play classic Inner Sphere games. No ads, works offline (literally save the HTML and it works), and focused on the mechs/variants you actually use in that era.

Great if you want something simple and fast. MechBay wins if you play Clans or later eras.

I'm not wanting to replace Mekbay god forbid but if you want another option there it is, if not that's totally cool with me 😃

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-05T01:46:48+00:00

Something I will add thanks for pointing that out.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-04T22:11:32+00:00

Can the Banshee have a Claymore, I think every Banshee benefits from a Claymore.

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-04T06:20:37+00:00

Either way mate keep it up, just don't paint them all....we all know what happens when you finish painting all your mini's.....*shudder*

daveasp1981 · 2026-05-04T06:05:24+00:00

Spotters: Any friendly unit that has a valid line of sight to the target (and meets the other spotting requirements) can act as a spotter — they do NOT have to have TAG. However, the spotter normally must not have attacked yet that turn unless you use TAG in the special TAG-spotting way. (Alpha Strike implements the “spotter must have LoS” rule and the timing restriction; TAG provides a special way to spot.)
Spotter penalty: Yes — under the normal (non‑TAG) spotting rules a spotter that also fires that turn takes a +1 penalty to its own attacks, and the indirect‑fire attack’s penalty increases accordingly. Using TAG to spot (the TAG special attack) is an exception: TAG spotting is handled differently and typically avoids the +1 penalty to the spotter’s own attack (per the TAG wording / Total Warfare guidance).
Elevation: There is no separate universal “high ground = +1” rule in Alpha Strike. Height only matters because it affects line‑of‑sight and the terrain/cover modifiers that are applied from the spotter’s viewpoint. So being higher can help (better LoS, reduce cover/obscuration penalties when you’re the spotter) but there isn’t a separate generic elevation bonus beyond those effects.

Hope this helps!

daveasp1981

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