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Battletech Boxed Game
Battletech Beginner Box
DEPLOYMENT IN THREE…TWO…ONE…
The commline abuzz with pre-battle orders.
The pounding rhythm of a metal titan on the prowl.
The shifting glow of your BattleMech’s controls spread before you.
Then the abrupt tone-lock of incoming fire wails in your cockpit as missiles, autocannon shells, and lasers fall like Thor’s hammer against your armor. Seize your ’Mech’s controls, draw its weapons into line, and unleash a hellish response!
BattleTechis the world’s greatest armored combat game, filled with a myriad of epic stories and gaming experiences to satiate any player: miniatures to RPG play, hobby painting to fiction, and beyond. The BattleTech Beginner Box is the first step on that fantastic journey and includes everything you need to get started: two high-quality miniatures, quick-start rules, a mapsheet, cards to represent your MechWarrior’s unique skills, dice, and more.
Do you have what it takes to plant the banner of victory and become a legend? Leap into the action and find out!
CONTENTS
2 high-quality, fully assembled (unpainted) miniatures
12-page Rulebook
8 wet-erase Record Sheets
24 page fiction novella
4-page Universe Primer
4 Pilot Cards
One 18” x 22” full-color paper maps (double-sided)
Punchboard of additional BattleMechs and terrain
2 dice
The commline abuzz with pre-battle orders.
The pounding rhythm of a metal titan on the prowl.
The shifting glow of your BattleMech’s controls spread before you.
Then the abrupt tone-lock of incoming fire wails in your cockpit as missiles, autocannon shells, and lasers fall like Thor’s hammer against your armor. Seize your ’Mech’s controls, draw its weapons into line, and unleash a hellish response!
BattleTechis the world’s greatest armored combat game, filled with a myriad of epic stories and gaming experiences to satiate any player: miniatures to RPG play, hobby painting to fiction, and beyond. The BattleTech Beginner Box is the first step on that fantastic journey and includes everything you need to get started: two high-quality miniatures, quick-start rules, a mapsheet, cards to represent your MechWarrior’s unique skills, dice, and more.
Do you have what it takes to plant the banner of victory and become a legend? Leap into the action and find out!
CONTENTS
2 high-quality, fully assembled (unpainted) miniatures
12-page Rulebook
8 wet-erase Record Sheets
24 page fiction novella
4-page Universe Primer
4 Pilot Cards
One 18” x 22” full-color paper maps (double-sided)
Punchboard of additional BattleMechs and terrain
2 dice
Published January 23, 2019
3 people want to read
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 1, 2020
This is something I think Battletech should have made a long time ago. I've always wanted to get into Battletech and purchased similar "Introductory" rule sets, but I always felt overwhelmed by the rules. With this Beginner Box they've done two really great things, first and foremost they made it very affordable. It only costs around twenty dollars. One of the ways they cut the price down is that this box only has two plastic miniatures and the rest of the game pieces are just cardboard.
The real selling point is the extremely streamlined rules system. They stripped out all the complexities of Battletech and boiled them down to a quick easy to run game. Seriously, the rules are so simplified you could probably play them with a child, turning this complex game into a more family friendly system even. Either way, if you've ever felt the original system was overwhelming then this box set is absolutely worth the extra money to get started in a more stream lined way. One of the more difficult things to do is to try and do this on your own from the full rules, so having the game developer do this is a real boon.
They include a lot of nice goodies in the box including a short story written by William Keith Jr. If you know Battletech history he's the author of the Gray Death Legion Saga and his was the first ever published trilogy of novels way back in the 80's. So it was nice to read another story by him titled "Colby's Commandos." This story actually involves Grayson's father, Durant Carlyle, and it covers a short battle before Durant was even in charge of his own Mech force. It was cool to delve into this quick history, knowing there were so many years between the tales actual writings.
In addition to this you get a full booklet outlining the entire history of the Battletech Universe, which really serves to bring new players up to speed on what has transpired since the 80's. However, I will say, I feel like this is sort of a relaunch because it seems to restart the whole universe. A lot of the Mech's used pre-date the Clan Invasion and I think the date is a little before the 2nd succession war, which makes sense for Keith's story. You also get some little sheets that help outline the Mech's featured in the box set instead of having page after page outlining the Mech's. You get a small amount of Pilot cards and you can choose to not play with these at first, but then add in the rules for pilots later. There is one folded map that is a forest terrain and a desert terrain on the flip side. My one and only complaint is that on the box cover it features a Mech fighting in the snow and the Colby's Commandos story also takes place on winter terrain, I wish they had had a winter terrain map in this box set to play on!
In the end, the Beginner Box is a brilliant starter set. I wish Fasa had thought of this decades ago and I'm surprised it's only now that Catalyst has taken this on, especially after they had figured out how to stream line things a bit with the MechWarrior Clix game. If you've ever been interested in Battletech, now's the time to jump on board. Sure it might cost you 20 dollars extra and you'll still need the next box set to finish off the rules set and learn more about the Colby's Commandos tale, but I don't mind supporting Catalyst games a little extra for making products like this. The box sets aren't the same, so you don't duplicate that much material, thankfully.
The real selling point is the extremely streamlined rules system. They stripped out all the complexities of Battletech and boiled them down to a quick easy to run game. Seriously, the rules are so simplified you could probably play them with a child, turning this complex game into a more family friendly system even. Either way, if you've ever felt the original system was overwhelming then this box set is absolutely worth the extra money to get started in a more stream lined way. One of the more difficult things to do is to try and do this on your own from the full rules, so having the game developer do this is a real boon.
They include a lot of nice goodies in the box including a short story written by William Keith Jr. If you know Battletech history he's the author of the Gray Death Legion Saga and his was the first ever published trilogy of novels way back in the 80's. So it was nice to read another story by him titled "Colby's Commandos." This story actually involves Grayson's father, Durant Carlyle, and it covers a short battle before Durant was even in charge of his own Mech force. It was cool to delve into this quick history, knowing there were so many years between the tales actual writings.
In addition to this you get a full booklet outlining the entire history of the Battletech Universe, which really serves to bring new players up to speed on what has transpired since the 80's. However, I will say, I feel like this is sort of a relaunch because it seems to restart the whole universe. A lot of the Mech's used pre-date the Clan Invasion and I think the date is a little before the 2nd succession war, which makes sense for Keith's story. You also get some little sheets that help outline the Mech's featured in the box set instead of having page after page outlining the Mech's. You get a small amount of Pilot cards and you can choose to not play with these at first, but then add in the rules for pilots later. There is one folded map that is a forest terrain and a desert terrain on the flip side. My one and only complaint is that on the box cover it features a Mech fighting in the snow and the Colby's Commandos story also takes place on winter terrain, I wish they had had a winter terrain map in this box set to play on!
In the end, the Beginner Box is a brilliant starter set. I wish Fasa had thought of this decades ago and I'm surprised it's only now that Catalyst has taken this on, especially after they had figured out how to stream line things a bit with the MechWarrior Clix game. If you've ever been interested in Battletech, now's the time to jump on board. Sure it might cost you 20 dollars extra and you'll still need the next box set to finish off the rules set and learn more about the Colby's Commandos tale, but I don't mind supporting Catalyst games a little extra for making products like this. The box sets aren't the same, so you don't duplicate that much material, thankfully.
Displaying 1 of 1 review