New to this with some questions!

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Chrisu85
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Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 1:50 pm

New to this with some questions!

Postby Chrisu85 » Mon Feb 29, 2016 5:25 pm

Hey everyone!

I was looking over the board and have an interested in getting into Battletech tabletop. After looking up some starter packs and recalling the nightmare of a money sink my friends have had from other tabletop games *cough, cough*Warhammer*cough, cough* I was curious if anyone can tell me what the expense of keeping up with a Battletech hobby is like and if the game is played in the CSW events.

Also, I was curious about the events themselves, is it new player friendly, if its done in Chicago locations or near public transport.

Thanks for any help i can get for this and hope to enjoy some games with you guys soon!

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timlillig
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Re: New to this with some questions!

Postby timlillig » Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:45 pm

Hi and welcome,

We have not exactly played Battletech, the closest game we have played is the Battletech variant Alpha Strike a few times. We also play Mech Attack, a significantly simpler mech game. We play both of those with the plastic minis from Mechwarror. There are people in the area who play Battletech, the folks at Games Plus probably would know about it.

The games we play are open to new players. We have extra minis to share, especially if we know someone who would use them is coming.

We most often play at members' homes and some are more accessible to public transit than others. We have generally figured out a way to pick people up at the nearest station.
-Tim

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Jackswift
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Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:51 am

Re: New to this with some questions!

Postby Jackswift » Tue Mar 01, 2016 10:50 am

Welcome. Tim pretty well covered the gamut of your questions. We have plenty of terrain, and multiple extra Mech forces (probably 5-6 extra forces) for use in any of the games play, so if you are interested in Alpha Strike or Mech Attack we can certainly get you some practice games with no need to sink anything in. Both games work well with the mech models you know well from battletech, and Alpha Strike actually has stats configured for many variations of each Mech online. Frankly you are welcome to use one of our extra armies every-time you join us if you are so inclined.

Karl has also run some very dynamic full 28mm scale Mech Attack games at Little Wars and we usually do some demo games this time of year to test out his scenario and prep for the game. Not sure what scale we will do the test game in, but it should be coming up soon. Cheers, Jon

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Eilif
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Re: New to this with some questions!

Postby Eilif » Wed Mar 02, 2016 3:28 pm

Hello!
Welcome to Chicago Skirmish Wargames.

Looks like folks have covered our club's mecha games. Just to be clear, the Mechwarrior clix are 10mm or so in scale as compared to the aprox 6mm of Standared Battletech minis. We went with Mechwarrior clix because at the time they were cheap used.

We prefer the Alpha Strike game (published by the same folks as battletech and set in the same universe) because it is simpler, plays in about 1/3 the time and uses more units on the table. All the unit cards are also free online.

I don't think we have any active battletech players in the group, but if you're set on 6mm classic Battletech, the Battletech "Introductory starter box" is your best bet (around $40). It's got 24 mechs or so and the basic "introductory" level rules. Most battletech players will advance to the standard rules as contained in the "Total Warfare" rulebook (also around $40), but the introductory rules are far from simplistic and many folks can game with them for years. The most active battletech folks seem to operate out of Games Plus. After that, you can grow your collection in any way you choose. There are dozens of factions to choose from, each with their own background and force org or you can make your own. If you get deep into the game, each faction's sourcebooks are $20-30.

There are hundreds of metal minis produced for the game. Also, Battletech has begun to release "Lance" boxes. Each has 4 plastic mechs. Two from the box set and two new ones. It's a fast way to build your collection quickly and affordably as there are 4 plastic mechs for $20 instead of one metal mech for $12.

One last thing about the BT universe, all printed material is cross compatible between games (Alpha Strike, Battletech, Time of War RPG, etc) and the rules are stable enough that except for buying a new core rulebook (minor tweaks every few years), you can still use just about any sourcebook ever printed today.

Whichever way you decide to go, I hope we see you at a game sometime,
Karl
-Karl


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