Brother Glacius

Let us open our minds to a world where someone might be considering getting the 10th edition starter box. Then, let us conceive of the idea that this person would then want to get more Tyranids to round out what is within that set. We could also imagine that this person could have a carnifex and mawlock already from a previous ownership of said Tyranids. I think this person could really use some advice from Ordo on what might be good things to consider if they indeed decided to go this perilous route. To start the creative juices flowing, let us ponder some obvious choices: 1) the combat patrol box - A solid choice as it includes a hive tyrant, three warriors, and 36 termagants... all for the not too horrid price of $136. Two synapse units, and a decent amount of bugs to swarm objectives. 2) the boarding patrol box - another okay choice, 6 warriors, 8 genestealers, and a brood lord, and around $125 still. It could be said that this imaginary person might also already have genestealers and a broodlord for their GSC army....so a bit of duplication here, but also no duplicates from the starter set. 3) tyranid battleforces - there seem to be two, and the contents are not bad in either one, but seem to be very difficult to find and more expensive even if found My opinion, is that a hive tyrant is a must, either the ground or winged variety. More base infantry also seems like a good idea. And once you go that route, you need more synapse creatures too. I also don't think the intent here is to go for a tournament winning list, but something that is playable and well rounded.

Trying to find one of these. Looking to buy or trade.

I have to say, I'm very surprised at the sheer number of new models for the nids. Are those units plugging holes in their codex? They had a fairly substantial roster of units already. If I can't resist the box set, that means scouring mindtaker's nid inventory....gah.

Okay, so been on a big battletech kick lately....who can blame me. Mostly been playing MWO when I have some time. A buddy of mine on steam has been diving back into MW5. It was quite a while ago that I played it...and it was pretty cool...but I had always wanted to do a co-op campaign with friends...but the timing never seemed to fall into place and the game fell to the wayside. Well since my friend has been in it...I loaded it up last night. Also, to be clear, I've been buying the DLC for it even though I wasn't playing it....I'm dumb like that, I know. I had started a new campaign with the hopes of getting friends to play, so I had gotten up a full lance of mechs and then put it all on hold. Well with no co-op in sight, I just decided to continue. And wow, so glad I have. The game is a much slower pace than MWO, which is great in my opinion. Many of the stock mech designs in Battletech do not work in MWO due to the meta. But in MW5, having a variety of weapons plays really well. In MWO, you'd never have a single LRM 5 on a mech, but in MW5, it has many uses, making it a welcome addition to a mech's arsenal. The recent DLCs and patches have also opened up a lot into the game. Lots more weapons and equipment options, as well as mech designs and even general gameplay options. One major one is punching. You can now do physical attacks with mechs. No kicks or DFAs...but you can actually buy melee weapons for mechs that use tonnage but also increases melee attack damage. The game tops you off at running a lance, where you control one mech and AI pilots handle the other three. But its fairly easy to give them quick commands during the missions to get stuff done. The AI enemies also aren't the most ruthless (well at least what I have run into so far). But that doesn't mean I don't get hammered..or that my lancemates are living their best lives. I had a lance wipe in one game that had me wondering where it all went wrong. Thankfully, the game auto-saves at several key points so it was easy to reload and try again. Since launch, they have also added some really cool features. You can now find salvage in random places on maps. Just walk close enough to a building and you might get rewarded with a supply cache that you can grab. Also, they added two new mission sources. At some planets, you can get extra side jobs that you can complete in missions. Collecting the items, or performing the kills can earn you gear, cbills and special mech perks that you can then add to any mech you have. Pretty sweet. It also adds to your faction popularity too. The second source for missions is now bounty hunting. There is a chance that you can have a run in with other mercenary units while on a mission. Depending on who they are aligned with, they will either help you or hinder you. When they hinder you, if you fight them, you can then turn that into rewards from a bounty hunter. These are much more random in occurrence and only happen if you take a mission within a merc unit's zone (clearly marked on the star map). I had it happen one time so far and the mission was already tough and most of my mechs were severely damaged, so instead of fighting them, I took off for the drop ship. It was after that mission that I heard from the bounty hunter and got the option to gain rewards for taking on rival merc units. And all of the normal cool gameplay is there, flying around the universe, taking on jobs, salvaging mechs, building up my pool of pilots....etc. Having a blast. Oh, I will say that the mech customization is much more restricted in MW5 than like MWO. There is no loading up a mech with the best meta gear or whatever. They have very strict hard points. So an arm might have a small laser slot...that means only the lightest of laser weapons can go there. Or a medium missile slot...so the game really limits what you can put on a mech. I love it. I don't want to sit there and field a unit of best meta. But I'm a MW purist 🙂 Anyways, the game is great, you can find it on several platforms. And while I own all of the DLC, I haven't even experienced any of it other than the new mechs and equipment. None of the campaign stuff that they bring. Looking forward to putting lots more hours into this game.

And that new starter set looks good. When I first heard marines and bugs..I was like...meh...don't need either of those....but now seeing the actual contents... *sigh*

Actually, interested in all of the tallaran infantry.

I max out the armor, IS, and critical reduction on my mechs...makes them much more survivable. There are 6 slots for missile boosts, 4 for lasers, and a total of 8 for ballistics, but only one general boost, the others are LBX, Gauss, or RAC/Ultra specific. Heat reduction is probably next, then speed boost. Honestly, I could probably reduce the Crit reduction on mechs with no ammo, but any loss of crit is pretty good.

Maybe the web site has some tutorials on it now? not sure...never looked really...I just sort of dove into it. The thing I most needed to know was when going into the mechlab, Skills section, click on Add SP and see if you have any banked SP for that mech already. It was a bit confusing at first. I spent a lot of money converting XP into SP, and then discovered that I already had banked SP for that mech that didn't cost anything to use. I'll be on later today. I'll toss a friend request. We could find some time on the ordo discord chan to go over some stuff probably.

I second keeping your Homecoming army. I know I'd be interested in a storm trooper squad and some of your Tallarans.

Watching the money go up in real time. Almost to 7.5mil

No idea. But I haven't seen anything like that. Clan mechs are better, but no where near as customizable.

Tenth has me interested. Seems like it will be smoother to play and build lists. Those were both major stumbling blocks I had with 9th. This new format will also let them publish detachments in WD or online as well, so that lets them boost armies well before coming out with actual army books. Well at least that would be the hope. Flames of War lets you buy specific armies in their online builder for very reasonable prices (talking $1-3$). GW could easily do the same with detachments. Wouldn't that be nice....yeah I don't believe it myself. 🙂 Still though, it has me hopeful. Now to wait for the launch and see these free army rules and unit cards.

Long ago, I was a fairly big MWO player. I was part of a unit, we'd play regularly, and I had several mechs that I specialized in. Eventually life got in the way, play time died down, and it was something that I'd hop on every once in a blue moon just to keep the game updated. Then they went through several major changes and the game really fell to the wayside for me. I didn't want to learn a new skill system or how mechs and weapons had been rebalanced. Well thanks to the general Battletech resurgence, I've been playing MWO again. I can hop in and play a game within 10 minutes so its fairly easy to fit in. It took a little doing, but I learned the new skill tree system and have gotten enough games under my belt to understand most of the balance changes. It took me about a month of solid playing, but I finally crawled out of the Tier 5 pilot skill rating (PSR). The most important part of all of this, is that I'm having fun again with the game. It runs beautifully on my current system and I'm typically the first to load in a match. I have no trouble finding a game, typically waiting < 1min or maybe as much as 3min before getting one. I'm probably at about 60% chance to get a positive or at least neutral PSR xp at the end of a match. Sometimes I do something stupid, or just get in a bad situation and lose xp. Frustrating at times, I'm not a fan of how they determine PSR, but I know it well enough to adjust my play to try and improve it. I have sunk a pretty penny into the game. I was a founder way back when and from time to time I did purchase bundles, so I have a large selection of mechs to choose from which is really nice. The game is now Free to Play. I'm somewhat tempted to make a new account to see how hard it is to play for a new player. The lack of mech customizations and skills would make it pretty hard to be competitive I feel. But hopefully their matching would make sure you are playing mostly against others using stock mechs as well. Again, don't know...but it intrigues me enough to find out. (that being said, you can buy mechs or bundles with cash which isn't too bad and you can also earn in game currency to buy mechs so you can customize them...just takes a little grinding) Anyways, back to the point of all this, the game has players again. And they are releasing new stuff for it. They are putting out new mechs and maps and supporting the game. The pandemic gave the game a boost in players and now the rise in popularity of Battletech in general is aiding the resurgence of the game. If you like Battletech, it offers up a fairly unique way to experience it. If anyone would like to get into it and need some help or advice, please feel free to contact me. The one thing that is missing for me is playing with people I know and I'd really like to do that again. It adds a whole new level when you have a group.

For me, the hardest part of the new battletech is deciding how to paint the models. I have no intension of have armies for every faction. So deciding who the mech is sided with and how to paint it is currently giving me choice paralysis. 🙂 On the one hand, I'm a long time Davion supporter....but then during the college years, kinda switched over to Kurita. And then there are a few Merc companies that I have always liked. Argh! 🙂 #firstworldgamerproblems

Mindtaker has several options, from consignment to cash to in-store credit. So I'm sure they could find something that works for you. I also think auctioning armies off on Ordo would be nice too. There are several collectors here and a chance to get hands on older models is always nice. Plus it ends up supporting the club. I'm sure you could find help from ordo to make that happen so it isn't on your shoulders.

What really amazes me is that battletech just became this forgotten game for so long. It was my first wargame that I ever got into, well before GW games. The rules really haven't changed too much either. And now Catalyst is really bringing it back without honestly doing too much. The figures are great...so that appeals to model collectors. And the new packaging of starter sets and boxes is fairly reasonable price wise. Granted, they have also expanded the timeline ever further than before and also done work to try and "fix" other less popular additions. I'm just excited to get back into playing and really enjoying the game again.

6m now

So apparently where I saw the first info was on spikey bitz web site, not bell of lost souls. Not sure how I feel about it being a HH game only. I guess that is a safe way for GW to release the game, and judge its popularity. It lets them keep models to a reasonable limit. Ugh. I really like the Epic scale. But GW totally priced AT out of my "acceptable" range. 🙂 Nothing new of course...but still just sucks to see something that interests me but know that the pricing is going to be bonkers.

I think it was on bell. Not sure how I feel about it. I think they might up the scale to 8mm to match titanicus.

I've not dived deep into the rules of Destiney. Can't really speak to them. Traveler could probably be used quite easily as well.

Just read the latest from Warhammer Community. Looks like the following: Army Rule Detachment Selection -- Detachment Ability -- Detachment Stratagems (6) -- Detachment Enhancements - wargear/character abilities I like the limitation on stratagems....meaning you only ever have 18 total (12 basic ones, and 6 from detachment). That is helpful. I can see GW creating packs of detachment decks for each army to replace the huge stratagem decks they have now. It was also nice to see that they are limiting rerolls a lot more. I hated the reroll spam from 9th. No word yet on how many command points you'll get, so that is going to have a major impact. I hope they keep it limited. But if they are the key to actually removing models from the table, I don't see how they can be. 😕 I have to say, GW is doing a good job of keeping me guessing at this point. The stats they have released seem to be showing a less lethal game, ie models sticking around longer. But if that is true, then that seems to imply using less models on the table overall. But that is completely counter to what GW has shown in the past. Based on what they have shown with the Detachment abilities, those aren't major in removing models. And if stratagems are both offensive and defensive...then that seems like a wash. Still sort of pointing to big guns being a must in order to do real damage.

I'd love to play in a mechwarrior campaign that started like that....loyal soldiers turned into mercs due to circumstances and trying to keep their heads above water.... Mechwarrior meets Firefly 🙂

I have this fantastic battletech comic from ages ago (might even be a 3D comic) which is the story of a group of Kurita dispossessed formed into a suicide unit. They stumble on a enemy mech encampment, sneak in, kill some dudes, and then actually steal a few battlemechs. Upon return, the Kurita command thanks them for the mechs, but basically states that since they were going on a suicide mission, they have already been listed as dead, and are told to basically commit seppuke. Instead, they steal the mechs they stole and turn into mercs. Very cool comic.

Exactly! Expressing a concern based on released information is surely the clarion call of doom and gloom for now and all end times. Or, maybe take a more laid back response and simply say, we'll see. Unless of course you have some new math that proves me wrong? Or would like to deny the fact that marines or other MEQs are not the most popular armies....? But no, your clear and concise lack of argumentation and use of hyperbole is much more helpful.

based on the termy, I don't think it is hard to day that a typical marine is going to be T4, W2, and 3+ armor save. Combine that with a bolter stat which will probably be S4, 3+ to hit, AP 0, 24" rapid fire (thanks to storm bolter stats). If other armies infantry weapons aren't better than the bolter.... popping off a bunch of lasguns at marines is going to be really worthless. So that leaves doing real damage to special/heavy weapons. And of course good melee weapons as well. If strategems are going to fix that? then this game just went back to "special rules win the day" hammer. Ugh. Have fun waiting for those.