Battletech 3rd Edition
I recently scored a near mint copy of BTech 3rd edition from a game shop just like the one I purchased many moons ago from a model train hobby shop in North Carolina when I was 14.
Looking at the box then, nestled neatly between some obscure wargames in a corner, I thought "holy cow look at that mech, it's stepping out of fire being all bad as shit. It's friggin awesome". Followed shortly by, "Wait, this is battle tech... like the computer games (Crescent Hawks Inception/Revenge)? I wonder if it's like Advanced Squad Leader... but with mechs. I would so dominate ('pwn' not being part of my lexicon then) the Germans if I had a warhammer like that".
Now mind you, I had at one time created a pen and paper version of 'battletech' based entirely on what I understood from the video games. And my experience with wargames was principally of ASL against my father... and of losing.
After a few moments of befuddlement, excitement, and sheer curiosity, I tallied the cash in my wallet and asked my father to spot the difference from my allowance. Not long later I had the box in my possession and once home, I opened the seal to the box and peered within.
Inside was plastic miniatures of what previously was something held only in my imagination. After breaking him from the sprue I exclaimed over a paper chit medieval war game with my father, "Warhammer! Awesome!" I posed him a bit as much as 2 socketed arms can and made some wooshing sounds. He still doesn't look anything like the art work on the box... not that I cared.
And not just that, a simple rule system also laid within, nestled with imaginative art work, that created a running dialogue of broken machines and desperate gambits. I was captivated completely and wholly with just the miniatures alone. But an engaging game system that had no imaginable limit of capturing star systems and carving empires with carefully used elite pilots sold it far beyond that to me.
And it didn't have morale checks like ASL (stupid conscripts...)... or a rule book that makes dictionaries look tame.
Many games were played with my father, family, and friends. Campaigns were won and lost on a stray critical at a pivotal moment. I learned of the clans later on and became a bit munchkin-y, though I stuck with the Warhawk-Prime for the most part. Cheese was cried on the level 3 vehicle rules.
We stopped playing for a while and my father passed on. I miss him very much.
Upon reopening the 3rd edition Battletech box I just scored this weekend, and seeing all the miniatures I fell in love with so many years ago- just like how I had them originally, fresh in their gray plastic- I felt like I was 14 again with so much potential and wonder from such a small box.
I can't bare to paint them.
Looking at the box then, nestled neatly between some obscure wargames in a corner, I thought "holy cow look at that mech, it's stepping out of fire being all bad as shit. It's friggin awesome". Followed shortly by, "Wait, this is battle tech... like the computer games (Crescent Hawks Inception/Revenge)? I wonder if it's like Advanced Squad Leader... but with mechs. I would so dominate ('pwn' not being part of my lexicon then) the Germans if I had a warhammer like that".
Now mind you, I had at one time created a pen and paper version of 'battletech' based entirely on what I understood from the video games. And my experience with wargames was principally of ASL against my father... and of losing.
After a few moments of befuddlement, excitement, and sheer curiosity, I tallied the cash in my wallet and asked my father to spot the difference from my allowance. Not long later I had the box in my possession and once home, I opened the seal to the box and peered within.
Inside was plastic miniatures of what previously was something held only in my imagination. After breaking him from the sprue I exclaimed over a paper chit medieval war game with my father, "Warhammer! Awesome!" I posed him a bit as much as 2 socketed arms can and made some wooshing sounds. He still doesn't look anything like the art work on the box... not that I cared.
And not just that, a simple rule system also laid within, nestled with imaginative art work, that created a running dialogue of broken machines and desperate gambits. I was captivated completely and wholly with just the miniatures alone. But an engaging game system that had no imaginable limit of capturing star systems and carving empires with carefully used elite pilots sold it far beyond that to me.
And it didn't have morale checks like ASL (stupid conscripts...)... or a rule book that makes dictionaries look tame.
Many games were played with my father, family, and friends. Campaigns were won and lost on a stray critical at a pivotal moment. I learned of the clans later on and became a bit munchkin-y, though I stuck with the Warhawk-Prime for the most part. Cheese was cried on the level 3 vehicle rules.
We stopped playing for a while and my father passed on. I miss him very much.
Upon reopening the 3rd edition Battletech box I just scored this weekend, and seeing all the miniatures I fell in love with so many years ago- just like how I had them originally, fresh in their gray plastic- I felt like I was 14 again with so much potential and wonder from such a small box.
I can't bare to paint them.
Labels: Nostalgia
posted by Ouchies at
8:33 AM
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