Hello.

I am very interested in getting started in this game, but the store I buy from told me to hold out until next year. They said that there is a new version/expansion that will probably change the rules considerably and may make pieces I buy now either useless or much less useful.

Is this true?

If not, is it worth buying starters now?

That said, are all the starters the same? Or is there a prefered method of getting started (for casual play) and how many mechs, etc. are needed for a two-player game?

We used to play Battletech years ago and always played 4-on-4 mech games. Is this something one would do with this game, too?


Thanks,
Kent!

yeah, you could do that. In january, a starter pack comes out for the 2.0 version ov mechwarrior - which is looking like being a lot of fun to play. I'd wait around until then, where everyone will be selling thier retired units on Ebay as well, you should pick up a load for almost nothing.

Go ahead and buy boosters that are Liao and after, those have the most shelf life as of now. The new rules can be found on the wizkids mechwarrior page, these will be the same rules that you will be using come january.

But the safest and best thing you can do is go and talk with the local players in your area and get them to help you starting out, they might even have some units they can spare. Welcome and good luck. :)

Here are some things to keep in mind.
January 19th will see the release of the newest expansion Age of Destruction. The rules have changes and features added to enhance the game. That being said, the rules for the new expansion as well as the Dark Age rules and the Special Equipment cards are available on the Wizkids website. So save a few bucks and download them. This will get you familiar with the rules as they are now ( Dark Age) and where they are going (Age of Destruction).
Also on Jan 19th, some of the expansions will be retired, Dark Age, Fire for Effect and Death from Above. The pieces from these expansions will only be usable in unrestricted Wizkids sponsored events or your own home games. Liao Incusion, Counterassault, Falcon's Prey and Age of Destruction will become the active releases usable in any Wizkid supported event. If you're only planning on playing friendly games with your friends, pickup any of the pieces available. The pieces from every set will work with the new Age of Destruction rules, however, the Mechs will not be customizable unless they come from the new release. The upside is that the older releases are now really cheap to pick up and trade for as many are getting rid of pieces they either don't use or won't use or is not legal for officail tournaments.
If you're still interested in the game when January rolls around, pick up the starter for AoD, it has pieces and cards only available there and should be playable right out of the box.
For the Battletech players, its important to remember its a game based on Battletech but its not Battletech. Some of the mechanics and units are similar but they work differently when translated to a clicky base.
Other than that prowl the forums and you'll get an idea of some of the more popular tactics and strategies and once you have some rules in front of you check out the unit section to look at the figures.

nthcircle, hit on a bunch of good stuff. The free rules are great!

You might want to check out the link in my sig. There's a bunch of advice geared towards new players and a ton of good links to other MWRealms threads.

There's really a lot of good information on the board, it just can be hard to find, especially for newer players.

BTW check the glossery section of the New Player Guide and also here....

http://www.mwrealms.com/forum/showth...threadid=49121

That's Lt. Murgens MWRealms Dictionary.

Also the unit database section here on the board (UNITS, top button row), is fantastic. I love being able to look at a units stats and cost before I go looking to trade or buy it.

Any questions just holler, there are lots of friendly people around to give you some help.

OK, so I decided I wanted to try the game out with my buddy. So we bought two Dark Age starters and two Liao boosters. (We don't care about tourney rules, legality, etc., we just want to play.)

Now I think I understand all the rules, except, one of the infantry units I got is a Laser Battery with a movement of 0. So how do I ever move it out into the battlefield?

Thanks,
Kent!

To move him you have to put it in a transport.

Ah. Thanks.

Kent!

OK, now one or two more questions, then that came up as we tried things last night.

I have a 'mech (Clyde Joyce's Hellstar) that has 5 energy as its primary attack, and more importantly, 0 with a grey box around it melee for it's secondary attack.

Now, two things. First, as I turn its base the 0 with the grey box eventually loses the grey box and just becomes a simple 0. So my question is: when I do close combat attacks with this guy, I figured I had to use his primary attack since, even though his secondary is melee, it has a 0 (grey box or not). But why, then, is it grey boxed (brawling on the SEC) for the first few turns of the dial and not grey for the later ones, if the 0 means it doesn't count anyway!?

Second item:

Neither set of rules (Dark Age or AOD) are extremely clear on this: Does a shutdown 'mech remain shutdown until you've returned its heat dial back to the starting position? So as I vent, say for 3 turns, and remove heat on the heat dial it is still shutdown and can't take orders other than vent all the way until the heat dial is at the start?

And finally, if a unit (primarily a vehicle) has been damaged to a point where all its weapons are 0'd out (as far as I've seen every time this is the case, its Attack value is also now 0) it can't be used for charge/ram attacks can it (since the Attack value is now 0)? So except to get in the way of some of the other guy's attacks, is it much use anymore? Can it be used offensively in any way?

Thanks again. I'll get this. :)

Kent!

p.s. The AOD rules are infinately clearer than the ones that came in the Dark Age starter. I would suggest to any new players reading this, use the AOD rules for clarification or as your primary ruleset and just leave out aspects you're simply not ready for.

(one more quick thing...)

Is there any way to remove the heat dial from a 'mech so that I can fix the indicator tape? Two of my 'mech have heat dials that have tape that isn't sicky and I can't turn the dial backwards from the shutdown position. I just want to take it out and re-glue the tape down.

Thanks again. (and don't forget to read the last post)

Kent!

Okay,

#1 The 0 with brawling is there just to allow Clyde to deal an extra damage in close. If you have a melee symbol on your secondary and somehting else on your primary then you may choose to use either damage for a close combat. When Clyde loses the brawling and goes to a strait zero it zust signifies the mech has taken lost of damage and has slowed down/ lost weapons and things like that.

#2 A mech is shut down until one of two things are done. Either you vent to the green squares or if you pass a astart up role. A start up role is red or yellow on the heat dial. If you land on this by cooling or venting then role for these. For yellow on a 3, 4, 5, or 6 you start up and for red on a 4, 5, or 6 you start up. I you start up one a role then don't click back to the green squares, it starts up on that click of heat. So general tip is to know your mech's heat dial so you know whether to vent or cool to hit these roles.

#3 When a vehicle reaches that level of damage it is pretty much scrap. You could use it to base things to (under current rules) stop them from shooting, or (under new rules) preven them from performing an assault order (mech only). But most player would rather retreat it back to their DZ so they don't lose VC2 points.

#4 Yes there is a way to remove it. The box the heat dial is in is attacked to the main dial by four pegs. You should be able to just pull it strait of. But be carful not to break the pegs and when putting it back on if you use glue put a very little amount so you don't glue the actual dial down and prevent it from truning. (friend had this happen to his Sadia Wolf - Catapult)

Hope this helps and keep the questions coming if there's further things you don't understand.

Thanks!

But...

#1 So the Brawling box is there on the melee 0 so that I know I have Brawling at all? So is it fair to say that a 'mech with a primary energy and say a secondary ballistic can't have Brawling? (since a grey box on energy and ballistic mean something else) And just to clarify, even though the Brawling is on a 0 melee, it actually applies to any close combat attack this guy makes (which in this case must be made with the primary weapon's numbers since his actual secondary melee is a 0)?

#3 You say I can use it to base things to under current rules. Does this also work in the new rules? (nothing I've read says differently but I could have missed something)

#4 I can't get the box off the base. I pulled the actual dial off the bottom to look at the pegs. It looks like the 4 pegs have been factory glued already. I also tried to pull up the little tab that makes the dial click hoping it also held the dial in, but it doesn't. Are you sure you can remove the dial boxes? Did you have to pry it up with a knife, etc.?

Thanks,
Kent!

#1 Yes brawling applies to all close combat done by Clyde

#3 Well you can still base under the new rules but the enemy your basing can now fire out of base contact. I guess that if (under the new rules) you base him then it would be harder to hit his target since he has to add 2 to the defense if he wants to shoot out of base contact.

#3 I just used Pliers.

Thanks!!

#4 Say, once the box is off the base, can the dial come out of the box? Or do I have to try to work through the bottom of the box?


(great community!)

Kent!

(please read above post and this one)

One more question. In the DA (old) rules when the opponent had a unit that was in base contact with my unit, he could not have another of his units use ranged combat against me, right?

Is this not the case in the new rules? I can't find it in the AOD rulebook.

Thanks again.

Kent!

EDIT: NEVERMIND! I found it. It's called the friendly fire modifier and it is on page 24. But it is different now, right? It is now a +2 or +1 defense instead of a "can't do it". Right?