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.
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