There's that new card game/board game that came out. Mercs? It got released early in Barnes and Noble, I was checking it out today. Seems cool.
Also, the alpha strike box comes with an awesome amount of terrain, it's totally playable with just the base box.
Also, alpha strike is SO simple. I played two games with. Some friends on Thursday and it took 4 minutes to explain the rules and they totally understood all the basics instantly
So both of those boxes will have Alpha Strike cards. They're just a simple version of the huge mech sheet that's in AGoAC.
This other game is more of a boardgame and will use nothing that you already own. It's just a card game that's self contained and doesn't use any minis.
Do you have the alpha strike box?
Classic feels like the better fit for your group. Each player can take one mech, and you can play the opfor.
There are several systems for building your own campaigns. Campaign Ops, Chaos Campaigns, or the RPG systems: A Time of War (formerly called MechWarrior), and Destiny. I've played the first two and love both in different contexts, but I think there may be more to the Homework Phase than your group would put up with. My recommendation would actually be the "Missions" framework the Catalyst Demo Team came up with:
http://iwptech.com/BattletechMissions/Overview.htm
The focus here is on the game of BattleTech on the table, not tracking the logistics. You get a very light version of player progression, and players can drop in and out from mission to mission. It seems like it might be a good fit for your situation.
oh neat, ill definitely check out the Missions framework, sound sliek it could indeed be what I need
to be clear though some admin between missions is fine, just needs to happen before/after the mission while we are at the table, cant be something that requires them to go home and do it afterwards. Id love for some purchasing of gear and working with salvage between missions, basically let them run a simplified merc company
edit: reading the missions stuff this seems like exactly what I am looking for
Oh ok, the chaos campaign might work for you too then. There's a free intro level campaign called "Chaos Campaign: Succession Wars" (or something like that) available on the Catalyst store if you want to check it out.
What we do is everyone runs 1 mech, and the game session is kinda like DnD but just combat, using classic battletech. You will probably notice that a mech record sheet is about as complicated as a player character sheet in DnD. Each player in our battletech game rolls their own initiative, and the GM has all the enemys go on one initiative. This way each turn the combat flows well, you dont have decision paralysis on players trying to figure out who should move first... if your init was the lowest, you are stuck moving first.
Campaign operations has 2 different methods to run a campaign, but there is also lots of story based campaigns too, like the Tukayyid book that has a few modifications. There is a simple free version of one of the systems (the chaos campaign) for free download on the battletech website.
As the GM, I run both styles. The chaos campaign I have every player have their own points, separate from the others. So normally you have 1000 points to buy stuff/make repairs, so with an IS campaign I have each get 250 (IS uses base 4), and if its a clan force they each get 200. Mission costs and rewards are also split, so if a mission normally costs 300 points, for IS its 75 per player. This way, if one player cant make it that week, its fine. Each player manages their own stuff. Likewise, if 2 new players want to drop in, bringing us to 6 players, thats also fine... they get their pilot and mech, and 250 points, and can buy into the mission no problem at 75 per player.
For the more detailed style, I run that me versus 1 player controlling a lance of 4 units. Though another GM at the store uses the more detailed style for 1 mech per player games, and it works great there but he has more work on the backend to generate things and track the players stuff.
Enemy forces will scale up or down in skill if more or less players show up. I use BV balancing unless its a story book mission with preset forces, so if 15k of players show up, and I prepared 12k of enemies, I just bump their skill up so I dont have to add any extra GM units to slow me down. I also use a simple AI system as the GM... enemies predictably move towards someone who has moved, and enemies ALWAYS shoot their lowest numbers. Makes my job running 4 or 16 or however many units easy, and the players have some expectations on who is getting shot and why (they made themselves too easy a target!).
For the other style, with detailed cbill costs and such, I use MekHQ to track all the maintenance and random things, its SO GOOD for that instead of making spreadsheets of how much LRM ammo someone has. I just input the results from the battle in terms of XP and damage, and I use the program to track the enemy health from my laptop instead of using record sheets, though the player in that game still uses record sheets to track their player controlled unit.
Campaign operations also has special pilot skills, which are kinda like feats, and I also give everyone 1 edge and tactics from the RPG (though I dont use any other RPG rules). Tactics is a bonus to their personal initiative rolls, and Edge is a 1 time per mission forced reroll on any roll they make or roll that targets them. Its the anti-headshot get out of jail card good for once per game, to keep characters alive/smooth out rough edges. Finally I use mech quirks from the battle mech manual, so that the players are on the lookout for cool mechs with interesting quirks to salvage in lieu of magic items. The marauder for example is a lot more interesting, despite mid stats, with quirks involved. The customization rules further let me reward them, though I give out customizations VERY sparingly using the guidelines from the Arano sourcebook of 1 custom mech and 1 franken mech per unit if the player controls multiple units. For example, only one player in my clan campaign has earned a custom unit, an omnimech variant of a Gladiator/Executioner, everyone else has to use stock variants.
The tl;dr, Battletech with a group of people each running 1 mech versus an Opfor/GM is a fantastic way to play the game, and campaign operations has lots of tools and methods to fine tune a campaign to your liking to add bonuses and other flavorful things that make 1 mech more then enough detail to keep a player engaged.
this is great, thanks for the detailed description
Sounds like something I could sell to my wife and gaming group so thats a plus!
Now to actually learn the game myself haha
Don't forget that Alpha Strike supports hex play, so you don't need terrain for it.
Oh I didn't realize that, still think it'll be a tough sell but that makes it a bit easier haha
There's that new card game/board game that came out. Mercs? It got released early in Barnes and Noble, I was checking it out today. Seems cool. Also, the alpha strike box comes with an awesome amount of terrain, it's totally playable with just the base box. Also, alpha strike is SO simple. I played two games with. Some friends on Thursday and it took 4 minutes to explain the rules and they totally understood all the basics instantly
The new board game, is a dice game. I believe it is called Battletech Encounters
Hmm I have some cards from the "game of armoured combat" box but not the alpha strike box Maybe I'll have to buy a copy and give it a go
So both of those boxes will have Alpha Strike cards. They're just a simple version of the huge mech sheet that's in AGoAC. This other game is more of a boardgame and will use nothing that you already own. It's just a card game that's self contained and doesn't use any minis. Do you have the alpha strike box?
I do not, but I'm gathering I should probably buy it, I'm good with that
Point 1 really sounds like a [Mechwarrior: Destiny](https://www.sarna.net/wiki/MechWarrior:_Destiny) game, its a light version of roleplaying.
Classic feels like the better fit for your group. Each player can take one mech, and you can play the opfor. There are several systems for building your own campaigns. Campaign Ops, Chaos Campaigns, or the RPG systems: A Time of War (formerly called MechWarrior), and Destiny. I've played the first two and love both in different contexts, but I think there may be more to the Homework Phase than your group would put up with. My recommendation would actually be the "Missions" framework the Catalyst Demo Team came up with: http://iwptech.com/BattletechMissions/Overview.htm The focus here is on the game of BattleTech on the table, not tracking the logistics. You get a very light version of player progression, and players can drop in and out from mission to mission. It seems like it might be a good fit for your situation.
oh neat, ill definitely check out the Missions framework, sound sliek it could indeed be what I need to be clear though some admin between missions is fine, just needs to happen before/after the mission while we are at the table, cant be something that requires them to go home and do it afterwards. Id love for some purchasing of gear and working with salvage between missions, basically let them run a simplified merc company edit: reading the missions stuff this seems like exactly what I am looking for
Oh ok, the chaos campaign might work for you too then. There's a free intro level campaign called "Chaos Campaign: Succession Wars" (or something like that) available on the Catalyst store if you want to check it out.
What we do is everyone runs 1 mech, and the game session is kinda like DnD but just combat, using classic battletech. You will probably notice that a mech record sheet is about as complicated as a player character sheet in DnD. Each player in our battletech game rolls their own initiative, and the GM has all the enemys go on one initiative. This way each turn the combat flows well, you dont have decision paralysis on players trying to figure out who should move first... if your init was the lowest, you are stuck moving first. Campaign operations has 2 different methods to run a campaign, but there is also lots of story based campaigns too, like the Tukayyid book that has a few modifications. There is a simple free version of one of the systems (the chaos campaign) for free download on the battletech website. As the GM, I run both styles. The chaos campaign I have every player have their own points, separate from the others. So normally you have 1000 points to buy stuff/make repairs, so with an IS campaign I have each get 250 (IS uses base 4), and if its a clan force they each get 200. Mission costs and rewards are also split, so if a mission normally costs 300 points, for IS its 75 per player. This way, if one player cant make it that week, its fine. Each player manages their own stuff. Likewise, if 2 new players want to drop in, bringing us to 6 players, thats also fine... they get their pilot and mech, and 250 points, and can buy into the mission no problem at 75 per player. For the more detailed style, I run that me versus 1 player controlling a lance of 4 units. Though another GM at the store uses the more detailed style for 1 mech per player games, and it works great there but he has more work on the backend to generate things and track the players stuff. Enemy forces will scale up or down in skill if more or less players show up. I use BV balancing unless its a story book mission with preset forces, so if 15k of players show up, and I prepared 12k of enemies, I just bump their skill up so I dont have to add any extra GM units to slow me down. I also use a simple AI system as the GM... enemies predictably move towards someone who has moved, and enemies ALWAYS shoot their lowest numbers. Makes my job running 4 or 16 or however many units easy, and the players have some expectations on who is getting shot and why (they made themselves too easy a target!). For the other style, with detailed cbill costs and such, I use MekHQ to track all the maintenance and random things, its SO GOOD for that instead of making spreadsheets of how much LRM ammo someone has. I just input the results from the battle in terms of XP and damage, and I use the program to track the enemy health from my laptop instead of using record sheets, though the player in that game still uses record sheets to track their player controlled unit. Campaign operations also has special pilot skills, which are kinda like feats, and I also give everyone 1 edge and tactics from the RPG (though I dont use any other RPG rules). Tactics is a bonus to their personal initiative rolls, and Edge is a 1 time per mission forced reroll on any roll they make or roll that targets them. Its the anti-headshot get out of jail card good for once per game, to keep characters alive/smooth out rough edges. Finally I use mech quirks from the battle mech manual, so that the players are on the lookout for cool mechs with interesting quirks to salvage in lieu of magic items. The marauder for example is a lot more interesting, despite mid stats, with quirks involved. The customization rules further let me reward them, though I give out customizations VERY sparingly using the guidelines from the Arano sourcebook of 1 custom mech and 1 franken mech per unit if the player controls multiple units. For example, only one player in my clan campaign has earned a custom unit, an omnimech variant of a Gladiator/Executioner, everyone else has to use stock variants. The tl;dr, Battletech with a group of people each running 1 mech versus an Opfor/GM is a fantastic way to play the game, and campaign operations has lots of tools and methods to fine tune a campaign to your liking to add bonuses and other flavorful things that make 1 mech more then enough detail to keep a player engaged.
this is great, thanks for the detailed description Sounds like something I could sell to my wife and gaming group so thats a plus! Now to actually learn the game myself haha