Battletech: Hansen's Roughriders

 Earlier this year Catalyst Game Labs began releasing mercenary themed lance boxes for Battletech.  In addition to providing some cool new mechs they've themed the boxes around the play style of the factions represented.

The first of these boxes I was able to get my hands on was the Hansen's Roughriders battle lance.  The Roughriders are historically a fairly rough and tumble unit not given to the kind of finesse of say The Eridani Light Horse, or the trickery of the Snord's Irregulars.  As such their lance box may the most 'meat and potatoes' of all the Battletech lances, but to be honest I really liked the mix of battlemechs.

The lance's most recognizable mech is the Atlas.  The Atlas has long been the official (unofficial?) mascot of the Battletech line.  This brute is a 100 ton assault mech and in the earliest iterations of the game was the most powerful and heavily armoured mech available.

The new mech, and arguably the box set's best feature is the Penetrator.  The Penetrator is a newer 75 ton heavy mech that looks really fantastic and menacing, and also includes a pilot card for Archer Christifoli a significant and popular character in Battletech fiction.  On a person note I also decided to try out some blacklight neon paint I had for the searchlights and I'm REALLY happy with how the effect turned out!

Next up is the Enforcer, a highly flexible 50 ton medium mech that boasts a really balanced mix of mobility, armour, and firepower.  I'm hoping to add an Enforcer to my next force as well.

The final model is a new jumping variant of the 45 ton Hatchetman.  The Hatchetman was one of the first mechs introduced to the game to feature a dedicated melee weapon, so early in the game's history in fact that at the time of it's introduction there were no rules for such weapons and they were merely there for flavour.

That's it for now (after a lengthy absence) , but I've got a lot of stuff on the horizon so expect more regular blog posts from now until the end of the year!

Thanks for stopping by.

-Jay

And now it's time for some Kurita on Kurita violence!

 Our slow march through the 1st Sommerset Strikers campaign continues!

In preparation for the scenario based on Episode 11, Chaos In The Jungle, I needed to paint up 9 new mechs for Draconis Combine forces.  This scenario is a bit of an odd one as it involves 3 players and the forces of Clan Jade Falcon are completely absent.

Force 1 is the 1st Sommerset Strikers.  Which include Franklin Sakamoto in his Hatamoto-Chi.

Force 2 are the Kurita ISF forces commanded by Toshiro Okura.  This is an entire lance made up of Centurions.

Force 3 are the rebels attempting to install a new puppet government on the throne of the Draconis Combine and is an entire lance of Wolfhounds.

The one thing I will say I learned from playing with my Wotan Tamar March Militia force is that if I'm going to play entire lances made up of the same mechs not only do I need to number the fronts (which my opponent can see) but I need corresponding numbers on the backs so I don't have to constantly pick them up during play to figure out which model is which.

All of these models were 3D printed as the Hatamoto-Chi (at time of writing) is not yet available, and once again I need a larger quantity of single models (Centurions and Wolfhounds) than I can readily get through lance packs.

Thanks for checking in!

-Jay

Wotan Tamar March Militia

 Continuing through the 1st Sommerset Strikers campaign I'm getting ready for Episode 3: The Taking Of Wotan.

From the Inner Sphere side of the campaign there are two scenarios that use a substantial amount of non Sommerset Striker mechs, this is one of them.  One of the issues from a model collecting point of view is due to the repetition of the animation in the TV series the campaign is based on a player will need 9 Centurions and 8 Wolfhounds by the time the campaign is done.  The current (excellent) boxes of mech models from Catalyst are full lances or stars of mixed mechs, so I would have to buy 17 boxes of mechs (and end up with 51 EXTRA miniatures) to make the ancillary forces I need for the campaign.  To this end I have gotten some 3D prints of the Centurions and Wolfhounds to fill out my mooks.

In episode 3 of the Battletech Animated Series the opening sequence is Nicolai Malthus and his star wiping out the last remnants of the Wotan Tamar March Militia.  In the scenario the Militia is made up of two lances of mechs made up of some substandard quality mechwarriors.

Lt General Ansel Cabrillo's Command Lance

Lt Pam Genaro's Recon Lance

TMM Mauler

TMM Centurion

TMM Wolfhound

I might circle back to these figs later and add more red trim to accent the figures.  I also have to say one thing that confused me (not being familiar with the lore of the time period) is that when I looked up the Tamar March Militia online for colour-scheme their logo was a variation on the Federated Suns logo, but when I looked at their history they are listed as being a Lyran Commonwealth unit.  If anybody wants to fill me in please do.

Thanks

-Jay

1st Somerset Strikers - Aerospace Assets

 As of now I'm almost done the 1st Somerset Strikers (as far as the published scenarios go).  I still need to paint the Packrat command vehicle as well as one more mech.  That will do it for the unit itself, and then I'll be moving on to painting an additional Mauler, 4 Wolfhounds and 8 Centurions that make up 2 allied units the Strikers end up being supported by in some of the later scenarios.  So 14 more models and I'm done!

But today's project are the twin Banshee Aerospace fighters that provide the Striker's air support.  These models are 3D prints and I think they both turned out fairly well, although they do have the look of the Colonial Viper from Battlestar Gallactica about them.

I had a slight panic moment as I was prepping for my first 2 games when I realized the Banshee as an illegal design that was never really meant to make it into the game never got a card for Alpha Strike.  It turned out to be a non-issue as at least through the first 2 scenarios the Banshee is basically handled like an off-table asset and doesn't really need to be represented on the tabletop.  Having said that I had put out a call to the Battletech community on Twitter to see if anybody knew where I could find Alpha Strike rules for the Banshee.  It turned out that none existed at all but a really kind member of the community named Scott Boehmer took some time out of his day to produce a card for me.  So this is his work below, not mine.

If you're reading this, thanks again Scott!

I'll be taking a short break from Battletech this weekend to get my Lunar figures finished and then it's time to go nose to the grindstone on a fairly large fantasy scenery project.

Thanks for checking in!

-Jay

1st Somerset Strikers - upgraded with new clan technology

 Although during the Battletech animated series there was a TON of repetitive re-use of the same few mechs over an over again (I see you Centurion, Wolfhound, and Mauler) after a few successful raids and some intel gathering Major Steiner's 1st Somerset Strikers were rewarded for their efforts with some newer tech that was uniquely their own.

Ciro Ramirez had been captured by the clans and had his Wolfhound shot out from under him anyway.  Valten Ryder had lost his father's Centurion (it's okay, there's tons of those things laying around).  And even Major Steiner briefly lost his beloved Axman.  FedCom came through with some new mechs along with a two battle armour suits for their pilots to use while on the ground.  The only hold over from the original lance was Captain Hawkins who continues to perform his intel/recon functions from his 90 ton Mauler.

Major Steiner received an awesome new Awesome assault mech.  I had to re-watch a few episodes online to remind myself that the Awesome was in the patchy tan and brown camo used by FedCom forces and was not done in the colours of Steiner's previous Axman (not sure why I remembered it that way).

Valten Ryder got a Bushwacker a mech I have to confess I know next to nothing about.  I was basically getting out of Batteltech when the Bushwacker made it's first appearances back in the day so I'm really unfamiliar with it outside of the animated series.  The one thing that strikes me looking at the Bushwacker is given it's body shape and somewhat odd arm design and positioning I'm kind of curious if back in the day at the graphic design phase it was intended to be a new land-air-mech.  No idea, just speculating.

In addition to upgrading two of their mechs FedCom came up with two designs based on the Clan Elemental armour; the Sloth, and the Infiltrator.  The Sloth has always struck me as kind of a neat design.  Whereas the Infiltrator (and the Clan Elemental suits) always seemed like a fairly generic take on sci-fi power armour, the Sloth feels far more unique and distinctive and looks more like something that belongs firmly in the Battletech universe.

I've really enjoyed painting this small characterful force.  I still have four more models to finish for the Strikers themselves and then I'll be reviewing the scenarios before painting a bunch of Wolfhounds and Centurions to fill out their attached allies for some of the later scenarios.

On a personal note HUGE thanks to my friend Nick from Breaker Press Games for getting me the Sloth and the Infiltrator.  That stuff is hard to come by up here in Canada.  Nick has his own sci-fi miniature line and publishes a ton a great content for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  Please check out his work at: https://breakerpress.storenvy.com/   

And once again if you're looking for Battletech rules and models please support your friendly local game store!

Thanks for checking in.

-Jay

 

1st Somerset Strikers - original lance

 I'm getting ready to play some more Battletech, both Classic and Alpha Strike, using the sourcebook for the Battletech Animated series.  So allow me to introduce you to the original 1st Somerset Strikers.

The 1st Somerset Strikers are lead by Major Adam Steiner in his Axeman mech.  House Steiner pioneered the hatchet or ax armed battlemech.  The Axeman has a mixture of missiles, lasers, and a fearsome melee weapon.

Captain Miles Hawkins is a FedCom intelligence officer that pilots a 90 ton Mauler.  The Mauler is a cool looking mech but I've always found it a bit funny because in my head I think of FedCom Intelligence within the context of mech lance or company as being akin to a recon function and yet Hawkins drives one of the heaviest mechs in the Inner Sphere.

Captain Valten Ryder is a merc who joined the Strikers to escape some debts and obligations.  He's a hotshot maverick mech pilot but he starts the series off piloting a Centurion which in the animated series (and arguably in the game itself) is the most average mediocre mech going.  This is something that will improve later in in the series...we'll come back to the subject in a future.

Lieutenant Ciro Ramirez rounds out the original version of the Strikers in his Wolfhound.  Ramirez is a loyal FedCom warrior and a fierce believer in the old Star League but he's a bit of an uptight pain in the butt for his squad-mates.

This lance is a bit of a mix of models.  The Centurion is an old FASA plastic figure from their last CityTech box set.  The Wolfhound is a current Catalyst model available in the BattleTech Inner Sphere Striker Lance.  The Axeman and Mauler are 3D prints, those same 2 models are also available from Iron Wind Metals in metal, but personally I felt the 3D prints scaled and matched up better with the current Catalyst plastics.

Thanks for checking out the 1st Somerset Strikers, and please check out your friendly local game store for BattleTech rules and miniatures.

-Jay

Eridani Light Horse: Odds and ends

 Today will be my wrap up for the Eridani Light Horse (for now at least).  My original plan was a company, then it was a reinforced company, then I realized I had painted four extra mechs (for two different reasons) so I'm finishing up just four mechs away from two full companies.

Before I settled on the Marauder I was originally thinking of having my Captain mounted in a Battle Master.

Ever since the release of Sorenson's Sabres, and the mech bays portrayed on the cover the Battle Master has been one of my favourite mechs.  As great as this figure is, and I am super happy with it, this is one of the few mechs I really wish I had one of the original plastics or metals for as I really enjoy the slightly more squat design and I really dig the side-by-side PPC cannon.

At the same time while I was contemplating my force composition I was seriously considering having two Wolverines in my force.  To that end I had painted an additional Wolverine.

I touched on why I like the Wolverine in my previous post, but suffice to say the main reason I was considering multiple Wolverines was due to their low cost and flexibility.

My last additional mech may or may not (at the time of writing I honestly don't know) be added to my force at some point today; the Awesome.

In my current campaign my opponent's force of Taurian Concordats is led by an Awesome.  I'm hoping to kill his commander and capture his mech, in which case this fig will be joining my force.  On that note you might notice that the Awesome's armour is a slightly different green hue than the rest of my force.  That's because although I used the same colour scheme I used on the rest of my Light Horse I painted it over a reddish-brown base to simulate the Light Horse quickly painting over top of the existing Taurian paint job.

So between these three additions and my captured Thug I have a fifth lance worth of mechs to add to the Light Horse.  

If I circle back to the Light Horse at some point in the near future I'm going to go all light and medium mechs to offset all the heavies and assault mechs I added through these last two irregular lances.

I'll be taking a break from BattleTech for a little bit after this to move into a different genre for a bit but I've got a bunch more mechs for when we pick the game back up again.

I got most of my mechs (and all of what you'll start seeing later this week) from my FLGS.  You should check out your FLGS to see what cool games and figures they have for you.

-Jay

Eridani Light Horse: Reserves and first mech taken as a prize!

Yesterday I finished up my look at the 'regular' company of Crunch's Cavalry.  Having said that though in the campaign I'm currently playing in I actually have a reinforced company of four lances.

My final lance is not in fact organized as a lance of any particular type and instead I have been drawing mechs from it to supplement my force in other missions.

First up is the Archer.

The Archer is a really durable long range platform in Alpha Strike and in my last game really benefitted from using my Locust as a spotter.

Next is the Rifleman.

I have used the Rifleman in 1 Alpha Strike game so far and I have to say I found it a bit underwhelming.  It's not bad or an underperformer in any way but there's just nothing particularly exciting about it compared to some of the other mechs.

 Next comes the Wolverine.

My opinion of the Wolverine is shaped really heavily by my early BattleTech experiences.  Back in the day I played a lot of CityTech and in that environment decently armoured medium mechs that could jump were king.  In my Alpha Strike games so far the Wolverine has been well worth it's points and seems pretty flexible.

And finally the Blackjack.

This is a bit of a funny one for me as my history with it is the opposite of the Wolverine.  I was never a fan of the Blackjack when I first started playing.  It seemed like the low damage output, low armour, and risk of ammo explosion weren't worth the risk.  In Alpha Strike it's an inexpensive mech that is reasonably mobile, so although it hasn't done much for me yet I'm excited to see what it can contribute.

The unexpected bonus of the Thug.

During the campaign that I'm currently playing one of the post-game outcomes is finding a mech worth up to 40 points.  This basically allows you to bolster your force for free.  After picking through the options available I went with a Thug as it carried a lot more armour than most of my mechs and felt like it would give me a decent bodyguard option for Capt Crunch's Marauder.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing how it preforms in it's first game in a couple of days.

Originally this was my plan to conclude my Eridani Light Horse force, but two stragglers, and hopefully 1 more prize will make an appearance tomorrow.

I hope some of you have enjoyed checking out this reinforced company of mechs as much as I've enjoyed scratching a 30+ year old gaming itch by painting them.  And I hope you'll also support your friendly local game store!

-Jay