Battletech: Inner Sphere Heavy Battle Lance

The Battletech Inner Sphere Heavy Battle lance has four plastic mechs: Nightstar, Cataphract, Axeman, Bushwacker. I have painted them with my Federated Suns regular paint scheme. 

Bushwacker; 55 tons and above average speed with autocannon-10, two LRM-5, ER Large laser, and two machine guns. 

Nightstar; 95 tons and slow with two gauss rifles, two medium pulse lasers, ER PPC, and small laser.

Cataphract; 70 ton fast mech with LB-X autocannon-10, ultra autocannon-5, and four medium lasers (two are rear firing).

Axeman; 65 ton fast mech with jump jets, autocannon-10, three medium lasers, large pulse laser, and hatchet.

Battletech: Inner Sphere Striker Lance

The Battletech Inner Sphere Striker lance has four plastic mechs: Blackjack, Jenner, Panther, and Wolfhound. I have painted them with my Federated Suns regular paint scheme.  

Blackjack; 45 tons and average speed with two Autocannon-2, four medium lasers, and jump jets.

Panther; 35 tons and average speed with Particle Projection cannon, SRM-4, and jump jets.

Jenner; 35 ton mech with very fast speed, SRM-4, four medium lasers, and jump jets.

Wolfhound; 35 ton mech that is fast, has a large laser, three medium lasers, and rear firing medium laser.

Battletech: Inner Sphere Heavy Lance

The Battletech Inner Sphere Heavy lance has four plastic mechs: Banshee, Grasshopper, Centurion, and Hatchetman. I have painted them with my Federated Suns regular paint scheme. The GW Technical Martian Iron Earth did much better with these mech's bases and it could be because I lathered it on in one coat with dabs of greater thickness here and there. It could also be because it is really hot in my area and it dried more quickly than my previous mechs.

The basic Centurion is 50 tons and is outfitted with an autocannon-10, LRM-10, and two medium lasers (one rear mounted).

The basic Banshee is 95 tons and has a PPC, Autocannon 5, and a small laser but this model looks more like the BNC-3S or 5S variant.

The basic Grasshopper is 70 tons and has a large laser, four medium lasers, and an LRM-5. For a big mech it moves fast and can jump.

The basic Hatchetman is 45 tons and has an autocannon-10, two medium lasers, and a melee weapon in the form of a hatchet. It can also jump.

Twice the Dice Board game cafe

Twice the Dice is a really nice board game cafe in the heart of downtown Kelowna. 

Not only do they have lots of board games to play, classic family ones and new, but they also sell new and slightly used board and role playing games. They sell coffee and drinks as well as alcoholic drink for those of age. The furniture inside is comfortable and décor is relaxing. A cool establishment.

Battlemechs from A Game of Armored Combat Miniatures

The eight miniatures that come in the Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat box are well detailed and one-piece, so no gluing required. You do have to shave off some excess material but this is minimal. I found that I missed some but unless you have a magnifying glass you cannot tell. For these mechs I decided to make them part of House Davion (Federated Suns) as regular forces and use an appropriate colour scheme found of the web (Battletech Camo Specs Online).

Primed black. GW Caliban Green Base was then applied to the entire model, drybrushed a mix of 2/3 Caliban Green Base and Cygnar Yellow, then a light drybrush of 2/3 Wurm Green and and Menoth White Highlight. Two coats of Army Painter Matt White (best white I have ever used) was applied over various panels, generally one or two each side of the arm, leg, and torso as well as the end of large direct fire weapons. Cold Steel on specific gun barrels and vents or joints. Arcane Blue with Matt White streak used on the cockpt windows. Khador Red Base used n the lasers, Sulfer Yellow for missile tips or ports, and Meridius Blue for PPC barrels with a little Matt White. The base had GW Technical Martian Iron Earth applied in layers until I figured out I had to apply it thickly. Then Cheap black was applied on the edges of the hex base with Matt White on the frount and rear sides. Greenstuff World Martian Tufts of Neon Stitch Blue was stuck onto the base. I then used a paint pen to mark the names of the mechs on the frount and back.

The green, red, and blue completed three legs on the colour wheel for maximum effect and I feel the pops of white armour gives a disruptive colouration camoflage look that breaks up its silhouette, similar to WW1 naval dazzle patterns.

Now I will go over the individual mechs with their common weapons, but all mechs have many variants.

Locust, 20 tons: Very fast with medium laser and two arm mounted machine guns.

Commando; 25 tons: Fast with SRM 6 and SRM 4 with medium laser.

Wolverine, 55 tons: Good speed with jump capability and large laser, SRM 6, and two medium lasers.

Shadow Hawk, 55 tons: Good speed and poor jump capability. AC/5, LRM-5, SRM-2, and medium laser.

Thunderbolt, 65 tons: Average speed. LRM-15, large laser, three medium lasers, SRM-2, and two machine guns.

Catapult, 65 tons: Average speed and jump. Two LRM-15, and four medium lasers.

Awesome, 85 tons: Poor speed. Three Particle Projection Cannons (PPCs) and small laser.

Battlemaster, 85 tons: Average speed. PPC, SRM-6, four medium lasers forward and two medium lasers rear, and two machine guns.

As the weeks move on, I will feature more painted Battlemechs sold by Catalyst Game Labs.

Battletech: Then and Now

I started playing the Battletech miniature game when it came out in 1985 and even played a few game of its predecessor, Battledroids, in 1984 (name changed due to Lucasfilms trademark on the word droid). I played fairly often until late 1989 when I had a major move. I was playing it less and less until around 1994 when I had another major move. After that point I sold off all my Battletech items and miniatures, except for the original rulebook, technical readout, and an Urbanmech miniature.

My next foray into Battletech was the Wizkids Mechwarrior: Dark Age prepainted miniature game. I bought the starter box and some boosters, but was disappointed in the randomness of what you get. It was not until the end of the run of this version that I bought discounted cases of sets and bulk models from online. After making several armies of forces I found that there was no longer any interest in the game. I have since used them for Horizon Wars and its successor Hard War, a great fast paced combined arms mini game and have looked at using many other small scale miniatures with these rule systems. This includes Planetfall, Dystopian Wars, the Wizkids Mechwarrior Dark Age figs (Mech/Air, Vehicles, Infantry), and Lego spaceships.

While I have been working on my models for Horizon Wars/Hard War, I played a few games of Alpha Strike at a friend's place with their models. In the Battletech rules, multiple mech vs mech battle were excruciatingly long with one or two mechs a side being the best way to play a game in a few hours. Alpha Strike is the superior way to have Battletech universe combined arms conflicts on the tabletop and finish in three hours or less. It may also be great for the various small scale models but I would have to come up with the stat cards for them. I could use my Wizkids Mechwarrior models to do the job but the scale is 10mm vice the 6mm Battletech scale. Therefore it would be best to have conflicts using only the Wizkids figs.

In conjunction with selling for credit many trading card games from the 90's to a local game store I am getting the new Battletech products from Catalyst Game Labs, including miniatures. I was impressed by the quality that I saw which my friend owns so it was easy to get them for Battletech universe games. Plus they are one of the hot miniature games in town at the moment so a lot of opportunity to play others. Below is what you get in the "Game of Armored Combat" box set. Its a lot and even includes cardstock standees. I will go into more detail on the mechs in this set on my next post.

Some links to cool Battletech items:

-The history of the Battletech universe in just under two hours. 

 -Downloads including free basic rules for Battletech and Alpha Strike. Catalyst has many other free items here.

-Sarna.net: Battletech wiki with paper building downloads as well.