Sensors Online: A Quick Peek at the Battletech Beginner Game, and Inner Sphere Battle Lance!

The journey to have all the released Inner Sphere mechs is almost complete! While I missed the limited release Black Knight ‘Clanbuster’ they did recently (and with it selling out in 62 minutes, I imagine I’m not alone!) I now have all the newer plastic lance packs and boxed set mechs, for the time being.

I’ll admit, I’m not the target audience here. I’ve played a decent amount of Battletech by this point. But it is currently the only way to obtain a Griffin mech, so c’est la vie. I will be passing off the rest of the contents of the box to a friend, for him to teach other people the basics of Battletech!

That being said, lets have a look at what comes in the box!

It’s a good first impression. With a short-story about Colby’s Commandos as well, which rather nicely is part one of the story included in the bigger A Game of Armored Combat box. It does help to fill in some details, and is a bit of a good tease to buy the next box. Front and center are the two included mechs, a Griffin as previously mentioned, and a Wolverine, identical to the one included in the larger box.

Once you remove the plastic tray, you next see the included, high quality(if truncated…) record sheets for the two plastic mechs, and some other mechs.

These are really nice, and I would love to see these done as full record sheets, something that the Kickstarter apparently has, or had, but couldn’t do in the end.

Next up are some Pilot cards, to add some spice to your games. These are well done, and have some really interesting characters on them! While I can’t see myself using them, I’m really happy they are included.

After that is the Quick Start Rules, that will get you and a friend going pretty quickly. As a teaching tool to help new players, it tells you just enough to get a feel for the game, but lacks Heat Management, Internal Damage, and Critical Slots. I feel that while it is a good tool to teach beginners, including the rest would have been a good idea. That being said, the bigger A Game of Armored Combat box does include such aspects, and is marketed here as the next logical buy…which would be great if one could ever find it on shelves!

Another good addition is the brief primer on the universe. I love additions like this, that add context to your games, and help newbies learn the lore quickly.

You also get a fold-out paper mat to play on, and some punch out terrain and mechs. This is nice, to be able to play with mechs not in the box and get a feel for them before moving to the next box to get them in plastic.

The punch-out terrain is nice to add some variety, but I would have liked to see some buildings and bunkers included as well.

Finally, and this dates my box a little, is an advertisement for Iron Wind Metals, and some nice coupon deals that would have been great had they still been valid. That being said, the doofy looking older sculpts will turn off new players, so I’m glad this is no longer included. Anyone not new to my blog knows I love me some metal miniatures….but these ones are very dated looking, and while the newer Iron Wind Metals releases use the new plastics as a base, too many are stuck in the 80’s and 90’s and are expected to be used. I cannot wait for the plastic lance packs to become more common, as they are much more beginner friendly, and won’t turn off newer players by there sheer ugliness.

Notable by there absence is the lack of any Alpha Strike cards, which is curious as that seems like a much more beginner friendly alternative game. These cards are included in the A Game of Armored Combat box, but sadly are left out here.

Now, for the main show, the plastic mechs! The Wolverine is the same as the A Game of Armored Combat’s version, but the Griffin is all new. Both are great sculpts with lots of detail.

Now onto the other purchase that I got in today, the Inner Sphere Battle Lance. A companion to both the beginner boxes and the Command Lance, the Battle Lance features some great looking plastic mechs.

A great set, which has some real all-rounders. The only thing it lacks is an Assault Mech, with there being two Heavies, and a Light and a Medium. This will fill in the gaps in my ‘Official’ Lances.

Also included are some Pilot cards, which again add some great options for force building, and are full of flavour.

And also some Alpha Strike cards! While I don’t play Alpha Strike, I’m glad they are included here. I made the mistake of comparing Alpha Strike to Warhammer 40k last time. While they are both 3D games not played on a hex-map, Alpha Strike otherwise is an entirely different beast. My group doesn’t play Alpha Strike at all, as the complexity of the board game in all its hilarious ways is what drew us to play, so I doubt I’ll get a game of Alpha Strike in anytime soon, so I can’t tell you what it’s like.

A final note, and probably the best part, is just how cheap both of these sets are. I paid $21 Canadian for the Beginner Box, and $25.99 Canadian for the Battle Lance. The Beginner Box comes with a lot of good content for that price, and is great for impulse buys. Any game that can give you a lot of fun for little over 20 bucks is a great buy. And the Battle Lance is ready to go; since most games are Lance on Lance fights, one could grab a Lance pack and play almost right away after getting the Record Sheets from somewhere.

All the Inner Sphere goodness hasn’t cost me too dear, and compared to 40k is incredibly cheap(although that isn’t saying much). I have a Company’s worth and more of official mechs for my ‘Official Company’, and I doubt I’m going to use all of them at once. And it sets me up really well to teach the game to some new players, of which both Ty of Hussars & Handgrenades and my friend Chris have recently shown a great deal of interest.

Battletech can be an intimidating game to get into, but the Beginner Box and A Game of Armored Combat both show that it doesn’t have to be. Catalyst have done a good job here of making the game accessible to newcomers, and I’m keen to get more people playing! Once Catalyst can sort out their stock issues, I’ll be really happy.

But, that is all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed this look at the Beginner Box and Battle Lance, and I’ll have some more Battletech for you in the near future. For now, Happy War-gaming wherever you are, and keep your heat low and your damage high!