Battletech: Battleforce Test Run Preparation

 

                                            

After playing or being interested in Battletech for over thirty years...yes bought my first book in 1990, I am going to try out Battleforce in its latest form (35006VB).  I have two of of these books because they changed the cover and I thought it was an update.  Stupid me.  Anyways, although I did bring the mini mechs with me, I decided to use the BF counters.  Note to others interested in getting in on BF counters, there are three good ways to get these, 1) From the Catalyst pack sold online, 2) Online there are some vendors who produce factional colored tokens and then last 3) on the Battletech bg.battletech.com site there are some homebrew factional and mercenary tokens you can print out. I used this last technique in 2011 while deployed and produced a crazy amount of tokens I have never used.  

I will say the counter pack by Catalyst is more than enough, maybe buy two for very large engagements.  I bought four...and that too much.  A lot of specialty units are not included, maybe they will produce one eventually.  Or produce a program to custom make your tokens and then order them as token punch out chits.

Current Projects by game system:
  
  Heavy Gear - 
1) Game schedule next weekend with some new friends at the local gaming store.  We are going to start squad on squad and then elevate to a full 1500 TV battle I think, time and wife dependent of course. 

2) Soon I should be getting some of my gears back from one my favorite scifi painting service, Lazuli Painting.  Great service and good quality.  The owner, Nam, is very focused on good communications and customer service.  I have never been disappointed.  
 






Renegade Legion -

1)  Sam the modeler is working on finishing up the first of what hopefully will be a line of RL: Leviathan miniatures.  I have been wanting these since I was a kid.  The plan is to put them out on Shapeways.  To the right we have a TOG Ultor Class Battleship.  There was some debate on the RL Yahoo group about engine size and placement.  I told the modeler to just make it look clean and realistic.  As long as it meets the size requirements for scale on the table and looks like it should according to the tech manual.



2) I have begun assembling the miniatures for some RL and TOG squadrons and companies.  Some painted and some not.  Long term I would like to have several squadrons and companies to play Interceptor and Centurion with.  I have made a good amount of progress with Centurion and have played the painted vehicles at least once.

3)  Converting RL stats to VBAM.  RL has always had the star system on down to the individual grunt inter-playability, but never the interstellar aspect or higher worked out.  The VBAM system provides a simple and playable framework to play multi system or even entire county (like Shannedam County) games.  These strategic level games can provide the background for scenario generation and completely interlocking campaigns.  The detail level is not as severe as you might think.  I have been working on converting the Leviathan numbers to VBAM and have two sets that allow play.  One is more focused on exact replication of RL values and the other on on VBAM playability.  I included both so far and will leave it up to users to pick which they prefer.
4) Playing some Leviathan has been a goal for a while and I need to dedicate some time to playing out a couple scenarios and linking them into a campaign.

Battletech -
1)  I have several companies out getting painted, but I hope to get everybody back together soon and have a real layout of inventory and units.  That way I can one, start a campaign and two convert the stats to Battleforce stats.
2) Get rid of the unpainted stuff.  This doesn't just pertain to BT, as it does to pretty much everything I don't use.  All of this will work i self out once we move into the new house soon.  As long as school doesn't interfere too much.

Well, thats enough for now.  Thanks for reading.  Feel free to comment or ask questions.  I would really prefer reader feedback and discussion as opposed to me on my soapbox.