This leads to a dynamic feeling as the world is always changing and shifting. Whole nations can appear, disappear, and have their fortunes and roles within the setting change depending on which point you are at in the timeline. This means that over time new technology was found, new threats appeared, and the feeling and tone of the setting shifted. Rather than simply picking a point in time and endlessly expanding on it to create their game, Battletech has a meta-plot that constantly progresses forward, even if at times it is agonizingly slow about it. The timeline is one of the most interesting aspects of Battletech.
#Classic 80s space warfare game full#
The fluff takes us through a long timeline of the Inner Sphere, a 500(ish) Light Year radius from Earth, a setting full of rival nation states, evil telephone companies, mercenaries, pirates, knights, nobles, gladiators, body doubles, weddings, shady corporations, corrupt military procurement, genetically engineered football enthusiasts, even eviler telephone fundamentalists, and lots of war.
The world and setting of Battletech is one of it’s greatest strengths. The Worldįifth Sword of Light Mech Lance Credit: Perigrin The video game serves as an excellent introduction to the setting, and can provide great fun, but isn’t a substitute for the range of gameplay and stories that you can have with the tabletop game. You can’t play as pirates, army soldiers, mech-gladiators fighting space blood sports, telecom extremists, or any of the huge range of space weirdos present in the setting. It is also focused on the Mercenary experience, which, while popular and very fun to play on the tabletop as well, is not the only way to play the game. It also limits you to exclusively mechs, rather than allowing you to use tanks, infantry, helicopters, planes, boats, hovercraft, drop ships, submarines, power armored troopers, field guns, artillery, and all of the rest of the huge range of available units that the tabletop game has. If you are interested in other periods or the fancier lightning guns, the video game can’t give you that experience. The video game takes place purely in the 3025/Succession Wars era of the setting, with limited access to advanced technology and no presence of the Clans, a popular faction. Well, aside from the lovely stompy plastic robot models, there are a few reasons. HBS Battletech is a fantastic introduction to the setting and well worth playing, which raises the question Why not just play the computer game? The Mechwarrior games, while fantastic, don’t enter the same space as the tabletop game. HBS Battletech, the strategy game that shares the same name as the tabletop game (sowing confusion, pain, consternation, and googling problems in its wake) is likely the most relevant. Yes! And no! Battletech has a long history in the video game space, and has just started to re-enter it after a long absence. Also, to get the elephant out of the room, Isn’t Battletech a computer game? You could also try Alpha Strike, the sleeker, faster playing, and more balanced spinoff/variant game. There is the original classic wargame, Battletech, which is simulationist and great for narrative play. In the modern day you have a few options when it comes to playing the game and exploring its world. Its a game that is pretty near to my heart, with me having been exposed to Mechwarrior 4 and Mech Commander at a very young age, forming a lifelong attachment that borders on obsession with Battlemechs and the world of Battletech. The game has barely changed rules wise since its genesis in the 80s, and rulebooks from decades ago are still mostly valid in the modern day. This first wave showed that wargaming wasn’t just for old men with mountains and mountains of lead Prussians, it could be for teenagers with mountains and mountains of lead robots. Hullo, my name is Peri and I am here to ramble incoherently about how awesome Battletech is! Battletech is a wargame that has been around since the 1980s, and was part of the initial wave of Sci Fi and Fantasy wargames, along with Warhammer.
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