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Author Topic: Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)  (Read 43254 times)

Anvilfolk

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Battletech campaigns & multiplayer (newbies welcome)
« on: November 06, 2013, 05:41:57 pm »

Battletech

BattleTech is a tabletop wargame where you control giant mech robots with lots of guns and fight it out!

Spoiler: Tabletop mech combat! (click to show/hide)

There's some quick-start rules that explain the basics. Once you've got that, you can move on to other rules! The Battletech Introductory Rulebook has the complete mech rules, and the Battletech Total Warfare rulebook has everything.

You will calculate move points, ranges, manage (over)heating, run and jump, grab broken-off mek arms and use them as clubs!, fire countless weapons, etc! If you like details and technicalities (are you a DF player or what?), have a look at a record sheet!

Spoiler: Atlas record sheet (click to show/hide)


But Anvilfolk, that's too complicated!

I had someone explain the basic rules in 10m on a Friday night and we started playing! It's actually super easy, and as you play you'll get to know more about each system and how it affects the rules. With time, you'll start loving all the technical details the game has to offer. To show you how deep it is, here's an amazing document by people from MekWars Legends' Lyran Alliance, with lots of strategies! You can also start here for some basic strategies!

Plus, I'm here to talk to you about how we can play this together, or against each other, using a computer program that does all the calculations for you and tells you what happens, when, and why. It's a great platform for learning! So I present to you...


MegaMek

You can grab MegaMek here, and this is how it looks!

Spoiler: MegaMek attack phase (click to show/hide)

But Anvilfolk, that's too ugly!

Yeah, well, it's free and it works! Also, DF, so THERE.

MegaMek allows you to build armies and pit them against each other, and it supports lots of more advanced rules like vehicles, buildings, aircraft, infantry, etc. You can play multiplayer or singleplayer against semi-capable bots, and the game will show you to-hit, discriminating modifiers, and all the die-rolls involved. This allows you to figure the rules out slowly as you play.

Now, we can either start from here and fight each other or we could invade the...


MekWars 3025 Campaign

Mekwars 3025 is the most popular MekWars server, and it adds a campaign layer on top of regular MegaMek games. You will manage your units (mechs, vehicles, etc) in a massive intergalactic war for over 2000 planets. Your pilots can grow to become better and you can customise your mechs, but don't get too attached... I've been told they die/blow-up at a rate of around 2 per mission!

Spoiler: Lobby and HQ (click to show/hide)

But Anvilfolk, I don't know much about MegaMek, let alone big MekWars campaigns!

That's the wonderful thing about this: there's a community that wants you around! You will start with the Solaris Training Company. While you're there, people will volunteer to help you get started by fighting you and guiding you during your first battles. This way you learn the game, tactics and the interface. Here is a simple getting-started guide!

Once you've gotten a few missions under your belt, you'll be able to defect to any of the other factions. From there you'll perform different kinds of missions, pay for repairs, new replacement mechs, and just generally try to advance your faction's situation in the galaxy. As time passes, each faction's assets build new mechs, repair mechs and there generally appears to be an economy going.

I think it's an understatement that there's a lot to do:

Spoiler: Galaxy map (click to show/hide)


What about B12 then?

Join the Steam group!

I'd love to get B12 in on this sweetness. It does seem daunting at first, but with a helpful community and a little reading, you'll get the hang of it in no time. Grab MegaMek and we can start playing some very simple tutorial games between ourselves, and then graduate on to MekWars.

My experience in MekWars has been really good. I've only gotten two games under my belt, but in both occasions people have been insanely helpful and kind. I'm not going away from Solaris anytime soon, so if you join now we can do tutorial games against each other, and then all join some faction or divide & fight each other!


Bay 12 playing & streaming!
  • DEATH FROM ABOVE: Xeron's typical tactics at work - the problem being that they DO work, somehow! :o
  • Atlas vs Jenner and Javelin: this was a shorter video supposed to demonstrate that a bigger mek could be tackled by two smaller meks. Guess what? :D
  • Bay12 Battletech: two teams, each with a very large mek, and two lighter meks! We fight, we feint, we duck behind hills, hurt ourselves getting up and then alpha strike someone, overheat, etc (XEROOOOOOOON!!!! >:( >:( >:()


Currently playing MekWars 3025:
  • Anvilfolk: Capellan Confederation
  • Kanil: Lyran Commonwealth
  • ndkid: Lyran Commonwealth
  • EuchreJack: Periphery
  • RedKing: Free Worlds League

Currently playing MekWars Legends:
  • Erkki: 7th Free World Legionnaires
« Last Edit: November 13, 2014, 02:45:52 pm by Anvilfolk »
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ndkid

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #1 on: November 06, 2013, 05:47:43 pm »

I'm in for this.
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Kanil

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2013, 05:53:40 pm »

I've been playing MMN off and on (mostly off these days) since 2004. It's a great place, BattleTech's a great game, I really can't recommend this enough.

It has lasers and kicking people in the face, what more do you want?
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Yah, it sounds like minecraft with content, you have obviously missed the point, people dont like content, they like different coloured blocks.
Seems to work fine with my copy. As soon as I loaded the human caravan came by and the world burst into fire.

ndkid

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #3 on: November 06, 2013, 06:00:10 pm »

Anvilfolk, can you tell me some more about a few things?
1) What determines how large/advanced a force you start with? Is this all assumed to be in a static 3025 world, where nobody has Level 2 tech and never will? Does everyone start with a single pilot in a random mech? C-bills to burn? Something else entirely?
2) How detailed is the time between missions? Does repair get modeled, or are your mechs mint so long as they survive?
3) What determines how much you make on a mission? What determines what you can/can't buy between missions?
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Anvilfolk

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #4 on: November 06, 2013, 06:03:06 pm »

Unfortunately the documentation for MekWars is fairly lacking, and since I've only gotten two games into Solaris and none in a real faction, I don't know a lot about it. Perhaps Kanil can give us a bit more information, I'd also be happy to hear about it!

So far it seems like time passing might repair your mechs and produce mechs for your faction, which you can then buy with credits you make from doing missions and such. I'm not sure about the tech - I'm a newbie to Battletech, and the Lore is, for now, lost on me :)

Girlinhat

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #5 on: November 06, 2013, 06:11:51 pm »

I'm totally in for this.  May the Twelfth Bay swallow the armies of our enemies!

Anvilfolk

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2013, 06:17:00 pm »

I am hoping to get in one more mission tonight. If any of you are around we could get some voicecomms working and go through the basics, if you don't have them already?

werty892

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #7 on: November 06, 2013, 06:19:14 pm »

I'm interested.

Girlinhat

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #8 on: November 06, 2013, 06:41:11 pm »

I am hoping to get in one more mission tonight. If any of you are around we could get some voicecomms working and go through the basics, if you don't have them already?
Hopping in blind, but I know something about Mechwarrior/Mech Commander so I'm not TOTALLY blind.  Do instruct me where these basic voicecomm whatsits will be happening!

tryrar

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #9 on: November 06, 2013, 06:51:22 pm »

ehh, being at my grandma's I'm limited to keyboard only, but hey, I've played mechwarrior, so if I can get me an Atlas I'd love to play >:D
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This fort really does sit on the event horizon of madness and catastrophe
No. I suppose there are similarities, but I'm fairly certain angry birds doesn't let me charge into a battalion of knights with a car made of circular saws.

Anvilfolk

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #10 on: November 06, 2013, 07:14:09 pm »

I wonder what the best way to meet up is. Steam Groups seem to have mostly worked, but getting too many groups could become a thing.

Anyway, I'll be on Steam, so you can hit me up if you want to do something. I'll be playing some shorter Mechwarrior Online games in case someone shows up soonish :)

Do you guys feel like hopping right into MekWars, which offers some dedicated servers, or should we do MegaMek only and deal with port forwarding? :)

Girlinhat

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #11 on: November 06, 2013, 07:17:37 pm »

Right into the war.

Anvilfolk

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2013, 07:22:25 pm »

Sweet! Then all you need is the MekWars client!

Anyone else having trouble with Steam atm?

--- ---

Nvm, working now. I'm over there :)
« Last Edit: November 06, 2013, 07:24:49 pm by Anvilfolk »
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Girlinhat

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2013, 07:37:07 pm »

Where are you Steam?

Anvilfolk

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Re: B12 reinforces Battletech MekWars 3025 campaign!
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2013, 07:39:06 pm »

Are you asking Steam, or me? ;) I just found your contact through the Guns of Icarus group. Added you. Steam's working for me now. I'm also on Skype, just in case.
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