Reply To: Battletech vs Heavy Gear Blitz vs Heavy Gear Silhouette

[shinygamesParticipant 951xp 3]

As a player of all 3 and a stockist of the 2 games that are current, I’d say it depends how you like your games.

First of all, I’d not recommend Silhouette where Heavy Gear Blitz is also an option. Silhouette was a really clever system that led to some real issues in practice that they never really ironed out within that system. The dice tests were a bit too random for a wargame (or for an RPG for many people I think) and hitting well was always more important than what you hit with.

Heavy Gear Blitz is a much more mature version of that system that is a lot more measured – there’s still the opportunity to roll really well and get a great success, but the weapon types play a much more important part and each has a different feel to it without being stuffed with special rules. In terms of it being a “streamlined” version then the basic version – the demo game shown in the rulebook – is. However, the more advanced rules are far more involved than Silhouette was, or BattleTech for that matter. If the current ruleset has a weakness it’s the way these more advanced rules are laid out, but for me the fact that the basics are so intuitive more than cancels this out. Both the Quick Start Rulebook and the full Living Rulebook are available to download for free from dp9.com, so I’d recommend checking it out (Quick Start first) and see what you think.

The strength of BattleTech for me is that it is a slower war of attrition, and favours sound tactics in general rather than clever moves. Because everyone has a lot of armour and internal structure to blast off, there is seldom a sudden death (save for the odd lucky headshot), so it’s more of a game to savour and progress through without worrying so much about individual moves. I can’t really comment on the Alpha Strike version which is much quicker to play; as a fan of BattleTech, I find it difficult to go for anything that cuts corners, but given real life considerations like limited time I should really give it a go.

In terms of cost, as has been said by @koraski, the Heavy Gear Blitz army boxes do contain all you need to build and play a good-sized force. You certainly don’t need more unless there are specific Gears you like or you want to try out the combined arms aspect of the game more (and one of the army boxes does contain tanks and armoured infantry in any case). The 2 player starter box also gives you two army boxes plus a hardcopy rulebook at a significant discount.

For BattleTech, you might want to check out the Lance Packs that Catalyst do. I’m just in the middle of adding these into our store the last couple of days, so you might not have seen them. They’re plastic miniatures, but they’re under £10 for 4 Mechs, so they’re worth looking at. There’s 6 or 7 in total I think including some Mech’s I’ve not seen in plastic before, so they’re definitely worth looking at where you’re not too worried what Mechs you use.

As you have said @phaidknott, the problem with both these games is a lack of findable players. We are beginning to distribute Heavy Gear in the UK and Europe, and are planning a fairly busy schedule of shows and events over the next year, so I’d expect that situation to improve before too long. I expect the popularity of the BattleTech computer game and the long-awaited release of new starter boxes should hopefully do the same thing for BattleTech.