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Thread: Battletech (2018 turn-based combat game)

  1. #1
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Battletech (2018 turn-based combat game)

    Do you play Battletech, the 2018 turn-based tactics game developed by Harebrained Studios and published by Paradox?

    If so, do you prefer Campaign or Career? Do you have any favourite 'mechs or tactics? Were there any particular battles that you learned from or had unusual/funny experiences in?

    I enjoyed the drama of the campaign's story, particularly towards the end. After playing the campaign, I'm enjoying the career even more - the opportunity to explore, to try different 'mechs, lance compositions and tactics in different biomes and to experience Flashpoint missions.

    For tactics, I like using combinations of two 'mechs, such as using an LRM boat and an SRM carrier to target the same 'mechs, knocking them over.

    Recently, in a pirate store, I got a rare arm mod with an amazing +60 bonus to stability damage. In its first battle with the arm mod, my Grasshopper made an enemy 'mech unsteady with a single blow in his first hit, and my LRM boat knocked the 'mech down. I imagined a brilliant future for this pair of 'mech pilots, knocking down opponents across the Periphery and enabling me to capture 'mechs by incapacitating the enemy pilots. You can guess what happened next - in the next round, the enemy got a critical hit on my Grasshopper's arm and destroyed the arm mod (so I only got to use it once, for one hit). That's mercenary life!
    Last edited by Alwyn; June 06, 2021 at 07:40 AM.

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    Dismounted Feudal Knight's Avatar my horse for a unicode
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    Default Re: Battletech (2018 turn-based combat game)

    I'm an oldschool MechWarrior and MechCommander player, basically everything in those lines... except Battletech, beyond a brief while. Dammit. I guess the best I can do is contextualize the gameplay into how it would play out or be represented in the other games. Not so familiar with or interested in the Tabletop, where Battletech is mainly drawn from (as I'm sure you deduced) for mechanics and certainly in setting.

    I will say I prefer Campaign mainly because I'm tired of seeing Merc + freeform again and again in the related games, including MW5. I think the Campaign is reasonably well done and the portrayal is actually quite excellent. They chose an unusual style and did a very good job with it, I must give them credit. That is not to say Careers is bad, but in my mind memorability is built from Campaign, and it takes a special formula to actually random into memorable gameplay that I don't believe Careers is able to grasp. That's again a matter of perspective - clearly you have a solid line of content going, and I wish you and the two pilots well on their adventures. Knockdown is a classic, although the last time it's been really represented in a mech game is well back into the 90s... so you're playing the first (related) game since then where knockdown is a relevant mechanic, even compared to MWO/MW5 - where in fact the mech models for BT were licensed from.
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  3. #3
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: Battletech (2018 turn-based combat game)

    I agree, the Campaign is well done. As you said, the main story missions are memorable, they got me invested in the characters and the plot.

    For me, the Flashpoint missions provide a similar feeling in Career mode, with memorable situations varying from the intruguing (Of Unknown Origin) to the amusing (One Man's Trash and Bourbon & Battlemechs). I like the way that Flashpoint missions offer moral dilemmas - such as whether you're prepared to break your mercenary contract (or secretly work for someone else), if you're offered a good reason to do it.

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