What are your favourite mech wargames? What are your favourite mech models?I really want to find a mech game that scratches the itch. Battletech is way too much squeeze for not nearly enough juice — it reads as a board game with the hex map and contrivances like going fast is better than finding cover, but plays like autistism incarnate with its endless fussy little tables and modifiers... for a game that boils down to 'whoever gets the wackiest crit first wins.'I actually really like Adeptus Titanicus, but that's very entrenched in 40k, which is a very specific flavour and not for everyone (and of course the models are ridiculously overpriced). Play almost has the feeling of naval combat game, with your big lumbering boys — something I find fun, but doesn't quite capture the vibe of mechs zipping about in a near-future environment.I've heard good things and/or read some rules for games like Steel Rift, Heavy Gear Blitz, and MAC Attack, but not played any games with them. But it does seem that mech rules and models are not exactly thin on the ground. What are your favourites and why?
>>93391352Fistful of Lead has the Battlesuit Alpha variant. Pretty simple ruleset, super easy to run. I like it. There's also Horizon Wars, or its offshoot Hardwar if you can get your hands on it. I haven't tried them out yet.
>>93391352Alpha Strike is my preferred way to play Battletech, enough autism to satisfy but not too much
>>93391352I've heard Gamma Wolves is good, but not actually played it myself: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/337296/Gamma-Wolves-A-Game-of-PostApocalyptic-Mecha-Warfare?term=Gamma%20wolv
Is Heavy Gear fun?
>>93391352Titanicus was phenomenal and actually GWs cheapest war game by quite a margin. It’s watered down to an alpha strike version now sadly and long past its population peak anyway. Battletech would be my favourite but its a nightmare to balance and most cool looking mechs are Assaults and ridiculously tough to take down within 4 hours.
>>93391352I'm partial to Battletech and Heavy Gear, myself. They sort of hit opposite ends of the spectrum for me. Battletech when I want giant stompy robots, zheavy Gear when I want small VOTOMs style robots.I want to try out the new edition of Horizon Wars, though.
>>93392227HG is the best oversized robot game if you enjoy versimilitude based on RL military stuff.BT is highly simulationist, but it's a clownish reality and mechs dominate everywhere that matters. The writers are - generally - trying to bring it closer to Dougram or Gundam, but on the board, it plays out like Xabungle.
>>93391352>>93391872If you like battletech don't bother with classic or alpha strike. Classic is a museum piece and alpha is rubish. Jump straight to Battletech Override, it's the most functional and enjoyable version of battletech by far. It's a fan made project free to download at the death from above web page.It's not the best game ever, but it works, and that can't be said for the rest of battletech iterations.
>>93391352The one I've been working on. 6-10mm model agnostic combined arms where you build 3-5 small battle groups, focused on zone control and overlapping countermeasures/seeking vectors of attacks through overlapping countermeasures.>>93391831>Horizon WarsExtremely barebone, but also very fun to play with younglings/people who have never played wargames, would like to try byut won't read a huge rulebook. You can explain the entire rules for the game within 5 minutes, and stat a whole force from nowhere within another 5. But, again, absolutely no complexity whatsoever.I have not tried Hardwar but I went over the rules and it really seems to me like they tried too hard to build complexity upon the original HW system, thus losing what was good in HW without really gaining that much. Strato miniatures mechs (and their tanks & infantry) were also very very good, if very expensive. I believe some US company picked them up recently.
There’s Mechastellar for SRW cheesiness.
>>93391352are there any games similar to gaslands where you convert/paint up a Gundam kit and fight mechs 1v1/2v2 and so on? feel like that would be sick as hell.
>>93391352Going fast is better than cover.
>>93393528Got a pdf of the game you're making? Sounds interesting
>>93392770All mechs exist in a clownish reality. Might as well lean into it with your Ming the Merciless faction.
>>93394883Not yet. I've been stuck on Agartha Descent for the last year and haven't worked on it, but it keeps popping back from times to times. I'll try to get something going soon.
>>93394202That's why they train for sprints in boot camp, rather than taking cover like some sissy
>>93391352>I like battletech but it's too autisticHave you checked out Alpha Strike?
>>93394074Check out bangarang in the gutterlands, it's an arena/duelling kitbash robot game.
>>93392830Not OP, though why is it good? Why is AS rubbish?This post tells me nothing of why your game is good and the others bad or a reason I'd bother to download it.
>>93400539Not my game, just an honest recomendation because people play classic with 2 mechs per side, sometimes 4 vs 4 and usually don't even dare to include helicopters, infantry, transpots, aerospace etc the game feels ancient, convoluted because they didn't know better back then. Don't get me wrong it has some charm, it can get fun, but that doesn't make it a good system.Alpha is rubish because it goes way too far with the simplification, it doesn't have enough meat on the bone to sustain the absurd amount of mechs and variants battletech has. They copied the worse parts of popular games at that time with hopes to not fall into irrelevance and it happened anyways. Override is a mix of destiny, alpha and classic, it has a simplified mech sheet that allows to loose parts of the mech, has less tables, has individual guns that can be grouped instead of the damage value of alpha, it makes it easier to field a mixed army with vehicles and infantry. As mentioned nothing spectacular, but at least it works, and thats not the case for alpha and classic.
I'm very partial to dropzone commander, especially the original version from before the company got bought out. but that's only one foot in the mech genre and the other in combined arms. only two and a half of the five factions are really mech-centric.
>>93392830does override play on Hex maps and have similar movement to classic?I didnt like the idea of AS going full tapemeasure.
>>93406298nta but AS can be easily played on hexmaps. There's even conversion rules in the main rulebook
>>93399456My impression was that alpha strike simplified the rules in order to do mass battles easier.
>>93392830>>93400539A shill post, and people responding to a shill post
...truth about Mecha Wargames:There is this wierd thing where Battletech has claimed the title of being THE mecha wargame, despite their being others.Most other mecha wargames have this odd thing where either their settingdoesn't quite do it for people, or the system they use just doesn't feel likemecha combat.You have old champs like Mekton that could be used for almost anything mecha...You have new blood like Lancer that is a wargame pretending to be an RPG......You have wierd old-ish games like Heavy Gear and Gear Krieg and CAV and Roninand Steel Rift that had something going but dropped the ball for some reason.sadly, Adeptus Titanicus is technically a mecha game....
>>93406298Override works with and without hex maps, you can choose.
>>93391352I'm a big fan of C.A.V. as a good middle ground between something like Alpha Strike where it's horribly overcomplicated but still so bog-simple in the combat loop that it's boring as fuck. Or Heavy Gear being completely autistic about a munch of things to the point of near-unplayability but still treating all the mechs as (effectively) infantry 99% of the time.https://www.talon-games.com/Free starter rules, has good construction and you can port a lot of random anime, Heavy Gear and BT stuff into it with minimal complications. It's still squad-based so it's not quite as friendly to large-scale models though. The minis Reaper sells are 1:144, which is in scale with Heavy Gear and the old Mechwarrior Clix game. Air support, EWAR, and arty are well-abstracted but still fun.
>>93391352This is just clearly trolling, as everyone knows the Alpha Strike version can be played in an hour.On top of that Mega Mek rolls all the dice for you AND you can just take cover behind trees by ducking / going prone.
>>93416960But by all accounts alpha strike isn't very good. Also megamek rolls the dice for you? Why the fuck do I want my nose stuck in an app while playing a tabletop game?>>93415044I checked out that website and got hit with nostalgia - I used to have a 28mm version of that mech up top! I converted it into a railgun-toting mech for my tau when I must have been 18 or so.
>>93391352We play Battletech with Flechs Sheets, terrain, and laser pointers. LOS is Mech to Mech, Flechs handles all the math, tracking, and BS. Literally tells you what you need to roll and can even do the roll for you if you want to run NPCs... it's quick, efficient, and a lot of fun.
>>93391352Pic related is a game that can run mechs, vehicles, and infantry in various scales if one wants to do a 'combined arms' style combat. It doesn't get mentioned a lot any more but it might be worth a look to some of you.
>>93416960>>93418028Alpha Strike is crap, if you want quick mecha play Heavy Gear or CAV and if you want Battletech just play Battletech
What is the best female pilot in your mecha game?
