GB Feature: BattleTech Review

As fans of the tabletop game and Westwood’s classic entries back in 1988 and 1990, and after following Harebrained’s BattleTech since before its crowd-funding campaign kickoff on Kickstarter back in September 2015, it was only right for us to finally take the strategy/RPG hybrid through the proper paces and issue a three-page critique. A bit of what Steven had to say about the game:

BattleTech also includes a “moving target” mechanic. The farther a mech moves (or jumps) during its turn, the more evasion points it generates, and the more difficult it is to hit. This is a rule to keep lighter mechs viable in the campaign, at least theoretically, than it is to be realistic (since all mechs are huge and tend to run hot, and should therefore be easy for targeting systems to hit). However, from my experience lighter mechs get destroyed too quickly, with evasion or not, and I ended up avoiding them in favor of the heaviest mechs possible.

When mechs attack, you can choose which of their weapons to fire. This can prevent you from wasting ammunition on a low-percentage shot, or reduce the amount of heat generated by the attack. All weapons generate heat, but lasers are especially bad in this regard (but make up for it by not requiring ammunition). If your heat starts getting too high, then instead of shooting, you can perform a melee attack, which is heat free. Or you can skip a round, or find some water to sit in. If your mech overheats, then it has to shut down for a round.